Travis’ Two Cents (In Five Parts) #12

I’m DJ Travis Holcombe and you can catch me on the air on Tuesday nights at midnight~3AM (which is technically Wednesday morning). Here are my two cents:

1) When the Cults announced they were doing a hip hop mixtape with the likes of Lil B and Freddie Gibbs a few months ago, I was pretty skeptical about the whole endeavor. There isn’t much to point to on any of their previous releases that would indicate that (a) they had any interest in hip hop, (b) they could actually pull it off. After hearing the first track to be released from the mixtape, I have to admit, I’m pretty impressed. Check it out and decide for yourself:

Hypetrak Premiere: Cults featuring Freddie Gibbs – Bad Things (Remix) by Hypetrak

2) Freddie Gibbs has collaborated with several producers outside the realm of gangster rap in the last couple of year (aside from the Cults collab mentioned above, check out his collaboration with Joker and Mexicans With Guns). When he joined Young Jeezy‘s CTE camp, a lot of people thought these out of the box projects would grind to a halt and he’d go the Wale route and go straight gangsta. Well, those people were apparently wrong. By the time this post is published, the internet will be going bizzonkers over Freddie Gibbs’ most recent collaboration with the smoked out underground beat god, Madlib on a collaborative EP entitled Thuggin’ — or as some on the internet have dubbed it, MadGibbs. The EP will be/has been released on Monday, November 21st (and was on sale in limited quantities at Madlib‘s San Francisco show over the weekend).

3) Yo Hollywood film industry, listen up! Stop trying to convince us Taylor Lautner is a star and give us 90 minutes of action like this:

You’re welcome. You can send my consulting fee to KCRW c/o Travis Holcombe after you make $600 million at the box office.

4) According to a new study from Johns Hopkins University, 1 in 5 Americans has severe hearing loss. I think we have the first viable explanation for the success of groups like Creed and Nickelback (and the 16,470 people who bought Lulu). Yes, it’s all starting to make sense now…

5) This Ramones-esque slice of goodness from the Black Lips was already one of my favorite tracks from Arabia Mountain, but the fact that they included Bubs’ junkie friend from The Wire in the music video is the cherry on top.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31847710[/vimeo]