Music Monday: Emerging Hip-Hop Artists

IT'S MUSIC MONDAY!

What does that mean? Central Mississippi Regional Library System has a ridiculous amount of FREE to you resources available for patrons. One of those resources is Freegal, a free and legal service that allows patrons to download five songs each week for FREE (notice the emphasis on free). Using your CMRLS library card, you can access over 7 million songs from over 28,000 labels including the Sony Music Catalog of your country. So, every Monday on the blog we'll be picking five songs that we love that are available on Freegal for you as a patron to download. 

In case you missed my announcement last week, here's the best new addition to Freegal: STREAMING! 

Yep, it's true. Beginning Sunday, October 25 patrons that log-in with their library card and pin number may stream up to three hours of music per day for free (via desktop or mobile)! You can also create and save numerous playlists for streaming, and this will not count against your usual 5 downloads! How awesome is that? 

So, in my opinion, it's been a pretty great year for hip-hop and R&B. With successful full-length releases from well-known artists like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Rae Sremmurd and A$AP Rocky;  honestly it'd be hard to claim otherwise. But what about the little guys in this industry? Lately I've been on a kick to hunt down the emerging artists trying to break into the game, and I've compiled a short list of some of my favorite songs (and videos) by some of these artists so far:


1] Your Love - Mick Jenkins

2] Antidote - Travis Scott

3] Are You... Can You... Were You? by Shabazz Palaces

4] I Shot You Down by Isaiah Rashad

5] Agoraphobia by Ethereal ft. Alexandria and Archibald Slim

Unsurprisingly, there are many up-and-coming artists' music out there that I've been listening to recently that Freegal unfortunately does not provide (like Namebrand, Kehlani, Appleby and Lyrica Anderson), but these select artists are indeed available! So if any of the aforementioned sounds like something you might like, head on over to Freegal to check them out! 

And that's all I've got for today kids. 
Happy Mondaze.

Cheers,
Anna

Read More

Book Review by Anna: Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

Author:  Kurt Vonnegut
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Satire
Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons
Publication Date: 1952
Pages: 352, hardcover

I first read Player Piano a couple of years ago immediately after I first read Slaughterhouse-Five, and from what I remember at the time I was just like.. meh. But I picked it back up a few days ago and breezed through it. And I was reminded again of how it's pretty much a 1984 comedy. The short version? A man vs. machine sketch. And while that's been done time and time again in science fiction, I don't care. It's still relevant. It's this futuristic story about engineering manager, Paul, who is trapped in a world in which the average joe basically lives by the question, "Why the hell do I have to work?" Although he lives the good life of the high society, he starts to feel guilt for the others and decides to quit and help the masses fight against them. However, in the end he discovers that even when they destroy what they hate the most - the machines - the human spirit of innovation just begins all over again until it inevitably evolves into chaos. It's a hard pill to swallow because it reminds us that humanitarian efforts eventually all return to dust, but it's the fleeting moments of courage and rebellion and morality and liberty that make it worth all the while even still. It's hard, but it's truthful. And ultimately that's what I crave.

Rereading it, I noticed elements I didn't necessarily catch the first time - yes it's old as balls and yes it feels a little unfamiliar in some parts because it's obviously catered to America moving towards a more automated society after WWII, but now I see a new relevance: we are experiencing another movement led by the Internet of All Things and all the pricey wearables. And if you can believe the words of Ray Kurzweil, eventually we will become the machines - a hybrid comprised of flesh and titanium.

I did some research after reading it this time, and I found out it was actually written after Vonnegut spent about three years working for General Electric in Public Relations. I can't help but wonder if it was there that he observed how managers and engineers were held in such high regard, influencing the world through machine. Which at this point in time was still a fairly new idea  - especially in postwar America. 

I recommend this book because I think there are elements that are timeless in it. Even though it was mainly progressive during the time it was written, again it's still relevant and brilliant. You'll (hopefully) laugh through his incessant dark humor like I did, but watch out. The next time you are chatting it up with Siri about reminding you to drop a deuce, you'll shudder. Long live the Ghost Shirt Society!  

Rating: 7 - Not his best and because Slaughterhouse-Five has to be superior.

Cheers,
Anna

Read More