Hip-Hop for the Whole Family

Apparently, Kanye and HALO have become standard fare amongst the grammar school set.  For many parents, this forces a musical Sophie’s choice: either let your young kids loose into a lyrical free-for-all, or censor them into corner of musical lameness.

Fortunately, this choice is unnecessary.  Just in time for my sister-in-law’s long car trip with her family, here’s a mini-mix tape that proves that cultural currency needn’t come with an R rating.

Home (Party Supplies Remix), Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

The Jackson Pit (Jackson 5 vs. Passion Pit), Xaphoon Jones

The Very Best & Cee-Lo – What Part Of Forever

17-04 Will Do (XXXChange Dancehall Mix), TV on the Radio

Rebel, Chiddy Bang

Kick, Push, Lupe Fiasco

Be, Common

Love Me Or Not, Dub FX

Cee-Lo, via Africa

Though the notion of taking pop hits and re-doing them with new verses sung in Malawi sounds like a disaster dreamt up in a drum circle, The Very Best manage to turn this unlikely premise into great summer songs.

In the stand-out track on their Mother’s Day mixtape that dropped today, The Very Best takes Cee-Lo and brings back this happy track via Africa.  Highly recommended as we try to reel in these tantalizingly warm temps.

The Very Best & Cee-Lo – What Part Of Forever

Summer in Chicago Mix 2010

With back-to-back dinner parties this weekend, I of course had to spend a good chunk of time obsessing about the proper soundtrack for said soirees.  The answer I came up with is the collection presented here: 19 food and family friendly tracks you probably haven’t heard but will want to.

For loyal readers of this blog, this CD will serve as a nostalgic tour through the mellower tracks that have emerged as my favorites over the last year or so.  For the newbies out there, feel free to search the artists’ names on the blog so that you can learn more about them.  And do track down their commercial releases: there’s not a band on here that’s not worth the price of admission.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the track list and the link to the music.

Recommended if You Like: Summer

As we all seek to squeeze a few last drops of fun from the holiday weekend, here are three great new tracks guaranteed to shimmer in the summer sun.  Commentary on these will have to wait until I figure out how to blog with a busted wrist, but for now enjoy!

Cee-Lo, from Gnarls Barkley fame:

What Part of Forever, Cee-Lo Green

Shawn Anthony, featured on Entourage and soon to blow up methinks:

You’re So Cold, Shawn Anthony

And finally, Yeasayer with another great summer track that somehow has to do with 80′s inflected futuristic weirdness.

O.N.E., Yeasayer