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ATG Presents: Beatles 101

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It's a massive week for our beloved genre and culture.

Two titans are kicking off the fall season of albums with enormous, solid releases. Business is booming for hip-hop and really, news has been relatively slow as our insulated universe digests Raekwon and Jay-Z.

But if you're searching for a pretentious smack down about either Cuban Linx II or Blueprint 3 on Pitchfork, keep waiting. The flagship music magazine is busy writing overwrought essays of Beatles LPs. Here's a pretty good breakdown as to why. Basically, these monster albums were hastily formatted for CD back in '87, and finally some capable mastering is restoring the mono masters for an all-out blitz of product. Also The Beatles: Rockband dropped.

For most of my hip-hop adoring friends, the Fab Four are an indifferent linchpin to their music. There's basically respect and no interest because many of you simply haven't grown up with parents who engraved these songs into your very being since infancy. Yeah, that was me.

This afterthought relationship with the most important band ever is something I've taken for granted: the catalog is a given and every year or so marketing or happenstance makes me go back to Abbey Road. Rinse, repeat.

For those who missed The Beatles, this swollen season of merchandise is a great excuse to immerse oneself in an immaculate catalog. To get this ball rolling, here are ten unrelated, perfect Beatles songs presented in true mixtape fashion. If these don't move you, I can't help you.


ATG Presents: Beatles 101
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Retrovirals: Jadakiss ft. Bubba Sparxxx - "They Ain't Ready"



This > Your favorite rap song/video.
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Retrovirals: iLL Cypher with Canibus, Big Pun, DMX, Mos Def, Mic Geronimo, & John Forte circa 97'


After the nostalgia set in from watching this video we here at ATG pose a question to you, what the hell happen to the Cypher battles? Once a staple of the of Hip Hop culture it has now faded away into the ether. It's been replaced with the likes of self-depreciating SMACK DVDs and a bunch of no-name pedestrians battling over who has the fattest mama (Thanks, but no thanks MTV). No longer are Hip Hop's top players testing each other skills head to head. Instead, their standing from the sidelines shouting from their camps.

Thankfully now, we have technology to preserve dope moments like these for anyone in the world who still gives a damn to see. Mos Def, who was arguably the winner of the cypher above, recently challenged some of today's top rappers to a Battle for New Orleans on Hot 97. Unfortunately it has seemed to fall on deaf ears but we can always hope.
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Retrovirals: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - "1st of The Month"



Here's to stacking that entry level paper.


"Oh God how I love when the 1st come around
Now I'm feelin' black and mild, headed cross town
'Cause niggas the 1st to get celebrated
Rushin' to the block cause I wanna get faded
Lookin' all wild cause I'm getting me hair braided
"
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Retrovirals: Outkast - "Player's Ball"



Dre and Big Boi @ 18.
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