[Album Review] El-P - Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx Vol. 3

Hip hop production has come a long way from obscure samples and drum breaks. Sure, nowadays there are a lot of minimal production that has replaced the samples for copyright purposed and the drum breaks with basic 808 drum kits and claps. But those that truly follow more than the mainstream club scene know there are tons of other talent out there in the genre and as soon as I come across the Indie hip hop genre, the first name that comes to mind is none other than Definitive Jux head honcho El-Producto.

El-P has come a long way from his days with legendary hip hop group Company Flow. However, his genius behind boards is what makes him one of hip hop's biggest legends along with his mic mastery. After listening to his latest release Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx vol. 3 I have to say, in my own opinion, this album is by far one of the best instrumental albums I ever heard.

To those unfamiliar with the megamix series, the original release of the Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamix series started off with as a compilation mixture which featured 1 or 2 unreleased El-P instrumentals and mainly contained unreleased collaborations and other tunes El-P thought you should hear. He later came back and revamped the series with Volume 2, mainly focused around his production and was a popular release among fans every. So of course it would make sense to release the next installment following Volume 2's successful formula.

From start to finish this record hits you in the face like a ton of bricks. The intro track "Take You Out at The Ball Game" starts as nice little orchestrated track and all of a sudden bangs in to this Sci-Fi ballet mindfuck filled with explosive kickdrums. There are a lot of other tracks on this album that would make great hip hop tracks to rap on but in all honesty, i'm happy to see them stand on their own as the giants they are, such as "Whores: The Movie", "DMSC", "Time Wont Tell" and "Jump Fence Run Live".

However, El also throws in a few instrumentals from other productions he worked such as the remixes for Kidz In The Hall ("Driving Down The Block") and Young Jeezy ("I Got This") and beats he provided to Rakaa of Dilated Peoples ("Meanstreak") and Bajah & The Dry Eye Crew ("Honda"). Another one of my stand out favorites is the collaborative track with Chin Chin's vocalist Wilder Zoby titled "Contagious". Once you listen to this track it leaves you wanting more of this sexy anthem that El-P and Wilder created. This track alone gave me hope that we may see a collaboration album from these two in the long run.

But if that wasn't enough, El-P throws in another brick throw your window with the bonus track containing the drum breaks of each song on the record. The production value on these breaks alone is worth the attention this album deserves as a whole. Therefore, with all that said, we highly suggest that you pick up this record as it does not disappoint. Even if you aren't a fan of hip hop, this album transcends more than just one genre of music and is a must have for any fan of good music. So give the album a listen and let us know what you think, but whatever you do, don't call El-P's music Post Apocalyptic.

Rating 5.0

[SKOA Presents] We're Drizzling A Little Awesome Sauce On Our Reviews!

So first of all, we kind of had record numbers for this humble little site. THANK YOU ALL FOR STOPPING BY AND LOVING ON JACK WHITE AS MUCH AS WE DO! We never realized that a couple little streams could be such a game changer. We hope you continue to stop by and leave comments so we can all geek out together about music we all love.

Due to the sudden surge of eyeballs on our part of the interwebz (HI NEW PEOPLE!!!), we figured we should start getting a little fancier than we've been in the past. BUT in true SKOA form we're trying to not take ourselves too seriously since we are music fans and not snobby critics (at best we try to make sure we don't come off like that anyways).

Having said that, I present to you the Official Some Kind Of Awesome Rating System:

That's right. Freaking Awesome Sauce. No 7.4s here (yes Pitchfork, we are looking at you) out of 10. Just a simple 5 "bottle" rating system. This will essentially be our gauge of how much we're into something, be it a show or a single/album.

Now let it be known: we do not intend to review things we're not in love with. That's a waste of time, especially when there is so much awesome in the world. The albums you see here will always start at three bottles at the very least. Unless something REALLY leaves a bad taste in our mouth, we hope to never unveil the one or two bottles.

We have a lot in the works to continue to share with out everything that we think is super awesome and would love your feedback every step of the way because as much as this is a creative outlet for us, we really just want to geek out with other people.