The Best Of Quannum Projects

After hearing DJ Shadow's Endtroducing (released on Mo Wax, not Quannum Projects in 1996), I felt the need to look into all Shadow-related music. Quannum Projects had been Solesides Records previously. Solesides first release was DJ Shadow's "Entropy" with Asia Born's (Lyrics Born) "Send Them" on the b-side. This is a compilation of Solesides greatest hits.

This is some of my favorite Quannum-related fan stuff.

Quannum has released a ton of great music since it originated, here are ten of my favorites in no particular order.

Poets Of Rhythm - "Discern/Define" 2001 

Blackalicious - "Swan Lake" 1994

Latyrx - "Lady Don't Tek No" 1997

Lifesavas - "Skeletons" 2003

Blackalicious - "Alphabet Aerobics" 1999

General Elektriks - "Tu M'intrigues" 2003

Lyrics Born feat. Joyo Velarde - "Love Me So Bad" 2003

Blackalicious - "Rhymes For The Deaf, Dumb, And Blind"  1994

Latyrx - "Say That" 1997

Blackalicious feat. Floetry - "Automatique" 2005

You can check out the Quannum website here.

Ten Music Videos featuring Personal Grooming

1. Lighter Shade of Brown - "Hey DJ" 1994  *We get to see one of the Lighter Shade Of Brown guys shaving and getting ready to go walk around rapping with the other LSOB guy.

2. Quasimoto - "Shroomusic" 2005  *This is one of my favorite Quasimoto songs. "Trying to find a better way to cook Top Ramen, but there ain't one." -Lord Quas

3. J.Rocc - "Play This Also" 2011  *This song sounds like one long intro.

4. Jane's Addiction - "Been Caught Stealing" 1990  *This was the one Jane's Addiction video I remember seeing on MTV.

5. RZA - "Grits" 2003  *This was the song I overplayed off of RZA's The Birth Of A Prince album.

6. Joyo Velarde - "Take You Home" 2009  *The first lady of Quannum can bring so much to the songs she sings in. I feel like this song is almost where it could have been. She is rad.

*This is my favorite Joyo Velarde song. Lyrics Born feat. Joyo Velarde - "Love Me So Bad" 2003

 

 

7. Shannon - "Let The Music Play" 1983  *This song is a timeless classic, even though it sounds pretty eighties.

 

 

 

8. Illa J - "We Here" 2008  *Posthumously released J Dilla beats. This song is pretty good but it didn't make it on my Spotify list (combination truth and metaphor).

 

 

 

9. Grizzly Bear - "Gun Shy" 2013  *This video is pretty weird and great.

 

 

 

10. Sweet Tee - "On The Smooth Tip" 1988  *This video serves as a day in the life of an eighties rap lady.

 

 

 

Ten More Black and White Videos

1. Primal Scream - "Movin' On Up" 1991  *My mom had this cassette, she is cool.



2. Lady - "Get Ready" 2013  *Lady consists of Nicole Wray (worked with Missy Elliott's Supa Dupa Fly etc.) and Terri Walker (a British R and B singer). [Sidenote: Truly ridiculous that Blogger is unable to correctly incorporate the "and symbol" into blogs.] It is good solid music, I just don't hear myself listening to it that often.



3. MC Lyte - "Cha Cha Cha" 1989  *I didn't listen to MC Lyte in 1989 when I was eleven, but, I can now appreciate her for being a cool lady. My Lyte intro was "Ruffneck" in 1993.



4. Indiana - "Bound" 2013  *For me this song has three sections. The first lasts until 1:13 during which I wonder if this song will get a little better. The second part is from 1:13 to 2:16 in which I think maybe this song is pretty good. The third part from 2:16 to the end, I change the song because I don't like where the song goes. This can all be summed up by the YouTube comment for the video stating, "this song needs a good remix!"



5. Captain Murphy - "The Killing Joke" 2013  *Naturally Captain Murphy (aka Flying Lotus) would take lipstick to the next level.



6. L'Orange feat. Blu - "Alone" 2013  *I have no idea if there are actually any samples of vintage music, but, it sounds like it and that is cool. I briefly tried to research L'Orange and only found out that a French artist named Gilbert Bécaud had a song named "L'Orange" in 1964 which doesn't really sound like this.



7. Lyrics Born feat. Joyo Velarde - "Bad Dreams" 2003  *I don't love this song but I think Lyrics Born is great. My favorite part about him and the rest of Quannum in this era was that it was some of the only new music I was able to find when I was living in the mountains between 1997-2003. I was living in Lake Tahoe when this album came out so it wasn't unreasonable to find Bay Area music in the Tahoe City music stores. I know it sounds crazy but in 2003...I didn't even have a computer!



8. Amy Winehouse - "Just Friends" 2008  *Dear Amy, thank you for making great music.



9. Fugees - "Vocab" 1994  *I, like many others, didn't hear this album until I had already overplayed their 1996 album The Score. Wyclef's part starting at 2:19 is almost surprising because of his octave changes and bugged out eyes. The rest of the song is so relaxing and then he takes it somewhere kinda crazy.



10. The Beatles - "Day Tripper" 1965  *I love that these Beatles videos exist.