I've added several updates to my classical-music-and-hip-hop post below, including a crucial link to Kool Keith's "Blue Flowers" (here's a live video of the same song, with hundreds of Philadelphians waving their arms to the mad beat of Bartók). Now Andrew Lindemann Malone, who's been contributing reviews to the Washington Post and whose blog I'm happy to discover, has written in to offer yet more classical samples from the musique de rap, including a nod to the Symphonie fantastique in Just Blaze and Juelz Santana's "The Second Coming" (widely heard in a Nike ad) and RZA's brilliant production for Charli Baltimore's not so brilliant "Stand Up," where James Brown meets the "Revolutionary" Etude (starts at 1:04). By the way, why are all these sneaker commercials so hot for the Requiem Mass? It's a little morbid. And this just in from Mark Bartelt: when the CBC ran a contest for "remixes of the Ring" last year, the clear winner was Baddd Spellah, whose initially skeptical but ultimately appreciative take on Walküre (f/ MC Frontalot) drops here. "Now here comes poppa, he’s the one-eyed jack. / Brünnhilde is the daughter with the armor on her rack." The spirit of Anna Russell lives....
Update: This is off topic, but I can't resist linking to a lively rendition of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by the Finnish death-metal cello trio Apocalyptica. (Tip: Gregg Gustafson.)
