Okay, I’m going to come out and admit this right away. I am a HUGE music nerd. So much so, I often get called a “music snob” by some of my friends. Hell, I take that as a fucking compliment. Yes, I AM a music snob. Deal with it. What’s wrong with knowing what’s good for my ears? I am very protective about what bounces off my ear drums. Okay, that’s a lie. A big lie. I pretty much listen to everything known to man. Let’s just say I have more than one Color Me Badd and more than three Paula Abdul songs on my iPod. What? Don’t look at me that way. Let’s just keep this between you and me. And who are you to judge?! Remember the “Macarena”? Yeah, motherfuckers. I saw you jamming out to that last week. Don’t think I didn’t see you resisting the urge to actually do the dance while sitting at your office cubicle. So, when I stumbled upon a mashup of epic proportions, I just have to tell the internets all about it, right? You bet your ass I do.
As usual, I am always way late to the party. I always find out about things months after the fact. I totally blame my kids for that. Finding this mashup was no exception that rule. Apparently it was released in March of this year. March people. It’s December and I am just NOW finding this. What mashup am I talking about? “The Notorious XX” by Wait What. During my daily browsing of the internets, I found a link via the king of all internet information, Wikipedia. I am a curious fellow, so of course I clicked on the link. And man, I am so glad I did.
“The Notorious XX” features two of my most favorite things in the world. No, not bacon and sex. That’s a completely different post all in its own. I’m talking about hip hop and indie rock. But it gets even better. Not only does it combine my two favorite musical genres, it features two of my favorite artists. Representing the old school, you get The Notorious B.I.G. And from the new school, you get The xx. When mixed, mashed, and delivered to your ears, you get pure heaven. Really. It’s that good.
Now, unless you have been living under a rock since the early 1990s, I am pretty fucking sure you know who The Notorious B.I.G. is. Mr. Biggie Smalls has graced many a track with his effortless flow and brilliant syntax. The first time I heard Ready To Die, I was hooked. There was no going back for me. If you aren’t familiar with his work, I suggest you get yourself a DeLorean, fill up the flux capacitor, and get yourself back to 1994 because you have missed out on an essential piece of music history. Or you could just download a few albums. Really, it’s your choice. The other piece of this brilliant mashup features the indie rock band The xx. Once again, I was late to the party with my discovery of this band. Thanks to a fellow MamaPop writer, my ears were introduced to their smooth and ultimately sexy sound and lyrics just a few months ago. Just one track from their debut album xx and I was hooked like a meth head in a Missouri trailer park. For the last two months, I’ve listened to the whole album front to back at least five times a week. Their sound is unique, sensual, and haunting at the same time. They call themselves indie rock, but there is a hint of soul and electronica with a dash of pop thrown in for good measure. After just a few months of listening to this album, it now has a firm place in my top ten albums of all time list. And I laminate that fucker, so you know it’s good.
The mix itself is absolutely excellent. DJ Wait What, does a phenomenal job of mashing various Biggie vocals over the chill beats from The xx. Normally, I would have a couple of standout or key tracks to list for you. But this mashup is so good, I can’t pick just one or even two. I was absolutely shocked to find out that this was his debut album/mashup mix. Unfortunately for him, the rat bastards of the music industry got involved not too shortly after he released this masterpiece. They played hardball and made him stop making the album available to download from his website. But this is the internet people. I can find midgets dressed up as dinosaurs having sex with a man dressed up a James Bond. Wait. Forget I said that. What I mean is you can find anything you want on the internet. All I had to do was type in “The Notorious XX” in the Google machine and found the mix in seconds. So, what are you waiting for? This mashup is definitely worth a few seconds of searching on the internets. Go. Download. Bless your ears with excellence. I promise you’ll thank me later.
About TJ Johnson
