Quick Note: For the three of you that are wondering, biweekly Tuesday programming returns on 7/22. I hope everyone is having a nice enough summer. As always, thank you for rocking with John’s Music Blog.
Benny The Butcher “SUMMER ‘25”
It takes a little something special for a Benny The Butcher track to make it onto The Report in the Year of Our Lord 2025, but the man went and rapped over a beat that opens with a sample of “That Summer Feeling” by Jonathan Richman. As for the rest of the song, try and forget everything you know about limited edition streetwear drops and just pretend it’s Uncle Murda’s cousin on the mic.
Here at John’s Music Blog, we will continue to keep you updated on new developments in contemporary juke rap whenever they come across our desk. “Throw Dat Mfa” has a herky jerky feel to it, footwork-like in its rhythmic twists, almost gabber-like in its clobber. Put it on and walk fast through the humidity until your panic attack subsides.
Premium pizza enthusiasts in NYC know Chris Hansell as the proprietor of Chrissy’s, one of the city's most in-demand new-school pizzerias. I’ve been there, and indeed it schmacks. Hansell is also the singer of contemporary hardcore punk legends Warthog, who recently dropped a Motörhead cover, which makes sense considering their rocking, metal-informed ways. I need a slice.
The new Litty Vuitton release is called ONLINE NOW! and it will be a hit with fans of Tisakorean or Lisha G or any of the great 2000s-glancing rap going around, really. This is unrelated, or I guess mildly related because it has to do with rap music in the most general sense possible, but I finally got around to checking out that new Slick Rick project. All things considered? Pretty good!
Time for some microgenre game theory: Does the Los Angeles band GUCK sound like the midpoint between spock rock and egg punk? These are the questions I mutter to myself as I lie in bed awake at night contemplating all of the time and energy I have wasted in my life thinking about music.
JOHN’S MUSIC BLOG PRESENTS… THE BONUS THREE
Eternity Chaos + Ghost Mountain “DIE4U”
John Says: “Not a bad witch house Prince cover!”
John Says: “Regular readers of the blog know Chase Ceglie as a close F.G.S. collaborator. His new single continues to explore a tweaked version of singer-songwriter music, Auto-Tuned at times, sprinting towards a fist-pumping ending.”
Hüsker Dü Jan. 30, First Ave Pt. 1
John Says: “Ten minutes of perfect rock and roll music, recently unearthed.”
MIX OF THE WEEK: Kid Millions “Cosmo Soul Mix 3”
I just want to say a big RIP to John Kuester, also known as Kid Millions, a Milwaukee rapper, DJ, record store proprietor, and co-founder of the great rap reissue label Dope Folks Records. I met John over 25 years ago at a record fair, which is crazy to say, but it’s true. I have a lot of good memories of the man—playing shows together, talking shit at his old store, hanging out at raves. He made Milwaukee better. John once laced me with some rare New Orleans bounce 12 inches, on the house, because he knew the music mattered to me. He was that kind of guy. This perfect soul mix was made with the record collection of another Milwaukee digger legend, Cosmo Cruz (RIP), and has accompanied me for over a decade, through good times and bad.
Having not set foot in NYC since 1996, I was unaware of the Warthog / Pizza connection, but that would make it the next best band / pizza combo since Turbonegro / Pamparius Pizza.
Warthog song is old-school as hell! Didn't know they're still working