Morning Music Notes – Happy Labour!

It’s Labour (or Labor, for you Americans) Day long weekend in North America, which means NO ONE IS READING THIS. And if you’re in the UK, you can’t read this because the site is inaccessible for some unknown reason. In light of that, we’re going to keep it short, and we’ll be a little light on the posts for a few days. Don’t cry (or celebrate) – enjoy your weekend.

Hip Hop Manager Chris Lighty Has Died from Apparent Suicide

While he might not be a household name to a lot of people, Chris Lighty was important to many people in the hip hop community. The 44 year old was found with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head (via Consequence in Sound).

Lighty was the founder of management/media company Violator, and his past clients include Nas, 50 Cent, Puff Daddy/Diddy, Busta Rhymes, and many others. Lighty was recently divorced and rumoured to owe the dreaded IRS over $5 million.
The hip hop community have taken to Twitter to pay their respects, with Soulja Boy noting they just spoken a couple of days ago, and Fat Joe saying that Lighty saved his life.

Spotify Announces The Most Streamed Tracks of Summer

Online music streaming service, Spotify, has announced the tracks that were the most streamed in June, July, and August. Despite me streaming the Spice Girls non-stop, they didn’t crack the list – just my list. We are Young by Fun. was number 1, with Whistle by Flo Rida at number 2, the dreaded Call Me Maybe landed in third place, Drive By by Train was fourth, and Somebody That I Used to Know (the original, not one of the billion parodies) by Gotye was numero five (via NME). And people wonder if music is in a state of decline….

Watch! Simian Mobile Disco – A Species Out of Control

We get our FIFTH video from the excellent Simian Mobile Disco album, Unpatterns. The video starts off as the tried and tested ‘artistic’ night driving shot, but quickly transforms into something uniquely cool. That sort of describes the song – actually, it doesn’t at all.

The song, A Species Out of Control, kicks off with an uptempo, almost marching beat against some high pitched beeping, and slowly adds the kitchen sink, into a song that is as hypnotic as the video. See – I CAN do a song comparison to the video successfully! Check it out below (via XLR8R).

Watch! Simian Mobile Disco – A Species Out of Control