Is this the first great party record of 2012?

Chiddy Bang are best known around Discopop Towers because of their amazing remix of Ellie Goulding's Under The Sheets in 2010 and the MGMT-sampling Opposite Of Adults, which followed a few months later.

The Philadelphia duo have been in the studio "working hard" (eating a lot of KFC bargain buckets) ever since. Their debut album is called Breakfast and it is due out on the very last day of February. Promoting the release of the album is a single, named after rhythm-and-blue giant Ray Charles.

It's not exactly a sensitive tribute. In fact, Ray's name seems to have been harnessed as an excuse for a series of bizarre comments about the inability to see. "I'm a blind man, yeah, like Three Blind Mice," they boast illogically. "I don't need no walking stick."

If you can set the concerns about the lyrical content aside, this is a great party tune powered by a chunky piano stomp. It's an acceptable alternative to LMFAO, if you will.

The video contains a fantastic tribute to The Blue Brothers, too.

Chiddy Bang - Ray Charles

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What is this "rapping" music all about?

That's a question my uncle asked when I was about 14 years old. It was followed by his own impression of the genre which, if I'm being generous, could be described as hilariously racist.

My own father is a bit more open-minded... In fact, he once asked me to make him a beginner's guide to hip-hop, which I dutifully compiled onto CD with a short two-page essay (NERD!). I've pulled together a Spotify playlist of the album, in case you're interested. It sticks to the more accessible aspects of rap and, since dad's a fan of poetry, there's a bias towards clever wordplay instead of gangsta posturing.

He loved it.

The compilation ends with the Black Eyed Peas' Where Is The Love, which I guess makes it nine or ten years old. With that in mind, I started to wonder what songs I'd add if I was making the CD again today? There'd definitely be some Kanye West; dad would appreciate all the Seinfeld references on WALE's Mixtape About Nothing, and the original compilation definitely suffered from a lack of Jay-Z.

But I don't think 50 Cent would get a look in (too dumb), nor would Lil' Wayne (too crass). The CD could do with a few more female voices, though. Dad already likes Janelle Monae - but I'm not sure a 60-year-old professor of medicine would appreciate Azealia Banks and her potty mouth (is there any need, Azealia? Tsk).

So I set off this morning in search of some new dad-friendly hip-hop and - surprisingly quickly - stumbled across three tracks that might get the Discopop Snr seal of approval. These are they.

Common - The Believer ft. John Legend


Ray Charles by ChiddyBang


B.O.B. - Strange Clouds


Actually, that last one uses the n-word a bit too liberally... but B.O.B's previous single Nothin' On You would fit the bill. Anyone got further suggestions??

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Amazing Ellie Goulding remix is amazing

:: Ellie Goulding's Under The Sheets is amazing.

:: Chiddy Bang, of Opposite Of Adults chart "fame", are amazing.

:: Ellie Goulding's Under The Sheets remixed by Chiddy Bang, of Opposite Of Adults chart "fame" is, by no small coincidence, amazing.

Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets (Chiddy Bang Remix)


If you liked that, the wonderful folks at Neon Gold are offering a free and legal MP3 if you click on this link.

AMAZING.
AMAZING.
AMAZING.
AMAZING.
AMAZING.

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A fine four-fendered hip-hop band

Chiddy Bang - great name, great band. They're so street, they eat pavements for breakfast. They're so hip-hop, they only have one leg. They're so rap, they deliver rhythmic rhyming couplets over a mid-tempo drum beat.

The four-piece hail from Philadelphia. This time last year, they were in their first year of college (that's US slang for "university") - and then the music industry came a-knocking.

It's not hard to see why. Their catchy, indie-sampling hip-hop is an invigorating breath of fresh air at a time when the genre seems to have stagnated so much that Mr Hudson seemed like an appropriate and innovative collaborator to every A-list rap star who released an album last year. That's Mr Hudson, a man with so little personality they didn't give him a forename.

For their next single, they've pinched MGMT's Kids. I don't mean they've sampled a bit of it. They have literally taken a huge great chunk of the song and surrounded it with their "flow". You could compare it to a sausage roll, but that would be weird.

It also contains the worst hip-hop brag of all time: "When I park cars, I don't pay for the meter". Hark at Al Capone, there, readers.

Chiddy Bang - Opposite Of Adults


PS: As you may have guessed, Chiddy Bang are named in tribute to children's film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because one of the group wanted to be an inventor like Caractacus Potts when he was young.

Caractacus Potts would have been a better band name.

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