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| 01 | | Cinderella Theme (feat. Yazeed, Mike Ladd, & Golden Child) | | | | | | | 02 | | Hero Theme (feat. Infesticon .0) | | | | | | | 03 | | CaveTheme (feat. BMS & Dana) | | | | | | | 04 | | Precious Theme (feat. Creature, Canaan, Mike Ladd) | | | | | | | 05 | | Quarterback Theme (feat. Priest & Beans) | | | | | | | 06 | | Grinder Theme (feat. Mums) | | | | | | | 07 | | Tiger Theme (feat. Erik M.O. & Infesticon .0) | | | | | | | 08 | | Shampoo Theme (feat. Majesticon 69 & Dana) | | | | | | | 09 | | Chase Theme (feat. Rob Smith) | | | | | | | 10 | | Figurine Theme (feat. Liza Jessie Peterson) | | | | | | | 11 | | Church Theme (feat. Pastorcon) | | | | | | | 12 | | Monkey Theme (feat. Saul Williams) | | | | | | | 13 | | Night Night Theme (feat. Infesticon.01, Madashellicon & Infesticon.0) | | | | | |
(Clicking on 'Buy' will take you to the ninjatune.net shop where you can purchase the chosen item)
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"Gun Hill Road" tells the story of the epic battle in New York City between the Infesticons (the good-meaning-good guys, basically) and the Majesticons (jiggy automatons intent on robbing the world of reality). It’s a dirty, dangerous battle (as battle’s tend to be) and the troops have been rallied in the mind of one man.
Mike Ladd has been writing since he was four, hooked on Langston Hughes since eleven and performing in punk bands, funk bands, solo and with DJ or DAT since he was thirteen. Born in Cambridge, Massachussets, it’s in current home NY where he’s made his name, sharing stages with the likes of KRS-One, De La Soul and the Last Poets, winning the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Slam competition and having his words published in collections such as In Defense of Mumia and Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican.
1997 saw the release of his self-produced debut album, Easy Listening For Armageddon (Scratchie\Mercury) which picked up excellent reviews and interest all over the shop ("A rare album, free of commercial considerations, so alive with creativity it’s scary" - Straight No Chaser). Things didn’t pan out with Scratchie long-term, however, and Ladd began working with a number of people to get his music heard.
This included his Blah Blah single for Big Dada, critically acclaimed and described in the press as "paving new paths any cerebral b-boy will enjoy walking". He has recently released a second solo album, Welcome To The Afterfuture and a Live In Paris CD. Future projects include a 12" for Grand Royal, a guest appearance for Ken Ishii and a remix on the new album from Enrico Macias.
Right now, though, the focus is the Infesticons. Mike is Infesticon #0. The rest of the Infesticon army is made up by fellow stalwarts of the NY underground such as El-P of Company Flow (who also named the insurgents), the Anti-Pop Consortium, Saul Williams, the Sonic Sum crew and others who names must remain secret for now. Mike being a firm believer in the right to free speech, the Majesticons get their say, too.
It all adds up to one of the most intense, outrageous, off-centre, funny albums of the year. With music which veers through cheesy rave, Bollywood, punk, ecclesiastical and elastical, you never quite know what to expect. And that’s only what should be expected. This is guerilla war - surprise is everything...
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"A mind-blowing collision of progressive beat-box noise and freeform lyrical splatter... brilliantly deconstructed avant-rap. Exhilarating."
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"(Mike Ladd) has managed to perfectly refract the stoned radicalism, the tripped-out freakism, the politicised party jams of Clinton's funkadelia through a hip hop lens... a happy reminder of how sonically funked up and darkly humorous the underground can get."
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"Sorta like Rush's '2112' with better beats."
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"Of all the voices to emerge from the hip hop underground in the past couple of years, Mike Ladd possibly represents the scene's creative apex... Stunning."
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"A definitive who's who of the truly innovative... set to haunt your memory with the type of content that can stop you in your tracks three days after listening to it. Thinking man/woman's music. Superior."
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"The maddest, most genius hip hop story ever... some of the funniest rhymes in history... this is one road you need to travel."
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"One of the sharpest - and oddest - hip hop records of recent times. Imagine a more authentically-down Beck with an even stranger aberrant imagination."
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"Possibly the hip hop record of the year."
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"A dynamic soundclash of strident beats and pacified, post-Wu gung-ho rhetoric."
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"A must for fans of forward-thinking hip hop."
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"A hilarious satirical achievement interweaving vitriolic disses at the current American music establishment with some headspinning guest appearances and collaborations."
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"Although I'm loath to use the word, I'm going to anyway... 'Gun Hill Road' is a work of genius."
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