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Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome a person from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: Giles Li

Giles Li is the baddest motherfucker of all time.

In 2007, Giles joined forces with fellow nationally-renowned performing artists Bao Phi and Kiwi (formerly of Native Guns) to form Beats Rhymes & Rice, a national tour of college campuses to challenge assumptions of Asian manhood and to address community issues.

Curricula and programs he has led or worked on have helped to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for community groups across the country. His work has been included in courses at various colleges and universities nationwide, including New York University, Pomona College, and Wellesley College. Giles has also been quoted as an expert on Asian American community issues in many publications, including the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, and Oakland Tribune.

Peep the website at gilesli.com. Oh and he also blogs at BPRLive.org. Sorry, no link for that.

Get the shuffle up…

When we started doing this Shuffled! feature back in December, I knew that the BPRLive staff might one day start doing our own. And I vowed that I would not replace songs in my shuffle to make myself look cooler or anything. Well that day has arrived and the list I totally imagined I would have looks nothing like what the iTunes actually shuffled. Oh well.

“Luchini”
Camp Lo
When I first heard Camp Lo back in high school, I think I got them confused with Outkast, and consequently I went like 10 years thinking they were from the South. You know, they’re like cool and laid back and use their voices creatively. But I guess they’re from Brooklyn. Another fail for me. Anyway, I remember reading that Jay-Z was planning to gank this beat and one other from Camp Lo to put it on his Reasonable Doubt album before Camp Lo had a chance to release them. But I think he felt bad, so he only took the beat which ended up being “Feelin’ It.” I’m a Jay fan, but I’m glad he left this one alone.

“Interlude”
DJ Honda featuring Fat Lip
OK. This was unexpected. I’m not mad tho, the shuffle shuffles for a reason. I guess DJ Honda was the first Asian presence I ever really really knew of in hip hop? Not only that, but an Asian figure in hip hop who was close to universally respected and loved by all the famous heads: Redman, Beatnuts, KRS, De La, and this man here Fat Lip, who was the star of one of my first favorite hip hop groups the Pharcyde. On this track you can hear that Lip is on the way to getting completely cracked out, which occured in later years. Still I love the line, “a flight to France/get faded in first class…”

“Sexy MF”
Prince and the New Power Generation
Damn really? Of all the Prince songs I have in my collection, this is the first one to shuffle up? No worries, another one might come up later. So I guess it’s fairly obvious this is far from my favorite Prince song. First the good (there’s always good with Prince): the groove is filthy as hell, the horns are reminiscent of James Brown, but the keys are like Booker T & the MGs, and the drums are like this guy. The bad: Prince never really understood hip hop, and I think this was one of the experiences that turned him off it. He doesn’t really sing on this track, it’s all rapping, and Prince - as amazing as he is at everything - is not a good emcee. I guess the lesson to learn is that Prince is still human like us.

I wish I didn’t know that.

“Dispatch”
m-flo featuring Dev Large, NIPPS, Vincent Gallou
Huh? This is one of the drawbacks of being an Internets hip hop nerd. You download all these tracks that you never listen to. I swear I’ve probably had this song for 5 years and listened to it once before. But there is meaning in the shuffle. This is apparently a Japanese posse cut, which brings together two disparate elements. What are they? Japanese hip hop, which is generally cutting edge and experimental, and the posse cut, which is about as traditional a tool to generate buzz as rap music has ever had. Actually as I listen to this, I have to admit this shit is fresh as hell. I can’t understand them, but they got this space-age beat with these old school flows. I must, however, mention that Verbal from m-flo is an exceptionally ill emcee. I might not really know this song, but I’ve heard a bunch of tracks he’s been on and he never disappoints.

“Airworks”
Dilla
We love Dilla. This track is a pretty good example of what was so amazing about him. All the great producers in hip hop history have generally been “anthem makers,” like Primo or Pete Rock or Dre, like the songs feel and sound grand, like you’re supposed remember them. Whereas Dilla’s tracks are almost apologetic. Like he’s saying, excuse me, I’d like to stick this in your ear. This beat is ill because it’s some chopped up samples of LV Johnson that don’t seem to contain any real words, yet there they are living together to build a dope aural environment.

“Beloved One”
Ben Harper
I coulda lived without having Ben Harper on my shuffle. But now that I’m listening to this joint, it reminds me why I used to listen to his stuff so much. He doesn’t have that strong a singing voice, nor are his song structures complex, but he rarely writes a bad song. He’s like the Tim Duncan of singer/songwriters. This is one of my favorite songs by him, because it is so absolutely pure. There’s almost no way to craft a proper reflection of this song in words without using teardrops instead of letters. Man, how many times did I just use the word song?

Man I could do this every week.

Last 5 posts by shuffled

• Shuffled! Eugenius - August 21st, 2008
• Shuffled! Delia - August 14th, 2008
• Shuffled! Alexander Chee - July 31st, 2008
• Shuffled! Terry Park - July 24th, 2008
• Shuffled! Theresa Vu of Magnetic North - July 17th, 2008

Tags: Shuffled!.