Uptown Magazine - February 2nd

Mixmag’s Greatest Dance Act of All Time
 The web votes have been cast and counted, and Mixmag has recently crowned U.K. breakbeat ravers, The Prodigy, as the greatest dance act of all time, edging out robot house-loving Daft Punk in an apparently close race. Veterans The Chemical Brothers, Faithless and Canada’s Deadmau5 round out the top five. Other artists who made the list include former Windsor producer Richie Hawtin and his Plastikman alias (No. 6), Kraftwerk (No. 12), Justice (No. 15) and The KLF (No. 20).

Cook’s Thesaurus 
  If you’re trying to improvise that recipe you saw on the Food Network or read about in Uptown’s Allez Cuisine! column and aren’t sure what you can use to substitute for a certain ingredient, the Cook’s Thesaurus is the perfect resource to help you out. With handy descriptions, pictures, synonyms and substitutions, it’s an easy way to introduce new vegetables, meats, fruits and other ingredients into your diet, or figure out how to modify recipes on the fly with a bit of a safety net.

Witch House and Chill Wave Name Generator
 Depressed and thinking about becoming a witch house DJ? Starting a chill wave band with some people you met on some message board? Use this online generator to ensure you have the perfect name for your new project. What’s the point of your new SoundCloud account if you don’t have a memorable name?

MP3 of the Week: Pip Skid – This Year feat. Charlie Fettah
 Before heading out on a tour of Western Canada with DJ Co-op and The Greg MacPherson Band (MacPherson, Cole Woods and Rob Gardiner), Pip Skid and friends will perform tracks from his new release, People Are The Worst, and old favourites at the Lo Pub on Thursday, Feb. 2. Special guests for the evening are relative newcomer The Happy Unfortunate and the reclusive Nestor Wynrush. Tickets are $10 and available at Music Trader and The Urban Bakery. Download Pip’s new album from marathonofdope.com. Don’t forget to throw the label some cash for all the music you have been downloading from it over the past couple years.

Video of the Week: A$AP Rocky – Wassap
New York MC A$AP Rocky finally has a new video out, this time for the Clams Casio-produced Wassap. Directed by Vice’s Andy Capper and A$AP, the clip includes every rap video cliché from the last 20 years, but A$AP is still mesmerizing as he spits his stoner slow rhymes over Clams Casino’s hazy beats. The brash Harlem MC continues to be on a roll after the release of his debut mixtape, LIVELOVEA$AP. Just in case you were thinking of firing this up over your lunch hour in your cubicle, the video is NSFW. 

November 26th - Free Press

A$AP ROCKY

LIVELOVEA$AP (Independent)

Download/stream LIVELOVEA$AP

A$AP Rocky and his crew of Houston-worshipping buddies from Harlem have taken the web by storm this year, smashing the music industry to pieces along the way. Not only are some of them getting major-league money from labels who are desperate for any way out of the abyss, these artists are connected to their fans in ways we haven’t seen before.

They don’t really need the labels to get their music out, but they’ll take their cash anyway. It’s the new hustle. A$AP Rocky may be the $3-million man, but first he’s going to feed the Internet frenzy with a free mixtape before going on tour with Drake.

LIVELOVEA$AP brings you into his infectious world with a confident, stoner slow soundtrack to Swaggerville. Seen through Rocky’s hazy New York state of mind, his pitch-shifted hooks and syrupy, molasses-like flows ride beside boastful raps that are heavy indebted to the South’s love of slowly screwed vocals, elastic rhythms and synthetic drums. One of the best debuts of the year. 

4 stars

— Anthony Augustine

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 26, 2011 G4