the streets is melting

Hot hot heat
(hipster hits, homey!)

We got that heat. No, not exclusives…
Actaully the heat and humidity has lifted… The N(ast)Y-factor was at 100 and the Baked Apple delirium had me compiling the ‘hot’ or ‘heat’-ed off the ipod. There are the songs that increase heat (“Hey, we’re sweaty anyway…!”)…

Da Roof Iz On Fire (Bizzy Bone)
The streets is melting (Jae Millz)
Tha Block Is Hot (Lil' Wayne from Tha Block Is Hot)
Drop It Like It's Hot Remix (Jay-Z, Pharell, Snoop Dogg)
Make it hot (Akon from Trouble)
Hot Rod (Peaches)
Hot Topic (Le Tigre)
Hot Thing (Prince from Sign of the Times)
Sticky, Hot & Wet (Prince)
It's Hot / Some Like It Hot (Jay-Z from Vol. 3... Life And Times Of S. Carter)
Hot (Missy Elliott from Under Construction)

... and the songs that sound like they were made in the heat

Backward Sucking / Heat Miser (Massive Attack & Mad Professor from No Protection)
Summertime (Louie Armstrong, Etta James)
Summertime (Nina Simone)
Long Hot Summer Night (Jimi Hendrix)
Water To Drink (Incognito, Omar, Anna Caram from Red Hot + Rio)
Master Blaster /Jammin' (Stevie Wonder from Hotter Than July)
Damn It's Hot Part 1(Sharon Jones)
Hot Heat (Youngbloodz from Against Da Grain)

… and the songs I don’t want to hear in the heat (better when things have cooled down).

The Heat Is On (Screwball, Prodigy, Godfather Don from Y2K)
Heat (Common from Like Water For Chocolate)
Tha Heat (Lil' Wayne from Tha Carter)

But what I needed in this weather are the songs that allow me to chill a bit…

Hot Boys Remix (Missy, Nas, Eve & Qtip)
Make It Hot (Nicole Wray, Missy, Mocha)
Summer Wit Miami (Jim Jones, Trey Songz)
Everyone Has A Summer (Lovage: Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By)
Summertime D.J. Jazzy Jeff's Mix (Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince)
Itsoweezee / Hot (De La Soul from Stakes Is High)
Dear Summer (Jay-Z)
Summer Days (Phoenix)
Summertime Remix (Beyonce, Ghostface Killah)

And against all odds the champ turns out to be the 2003 ever-so-easy-breezy throwback mash-up via DJ Crook Air (which should probably be called Summertime Frontin with Cream)…
Summertime Frontin (Beyonce, Pharell, Raekwon via DJ Crook Air)

But things have cooled down significantly... so there’s a more-than-slight chance of snow…

back in the building

like ya just don't care!

Re: L. Brown and Motown it’s been Game Over (that’s why the DP gangsta’s are chanting “Flip! Flip! Flip!...”) for a minute…
But it’s official now…It’s homecoming for the BK-to-Strong Island drama king, Larry Lar and it doesn’t promise anything but intrigue. It’s Brown’s ville ‘Bockers! The Times hoped Lil' Zay could up his Q-rating with a coach that plays the media “the right way!”
Meanwhile Former LB Fam claims his pimp hand ‘strong’ (and seemingly tells Billy D. to man up!).
My Brown-Sixers memory throws me back to 2001. Wifey and I catching the Finals re-runs in ‘the South’. Ninety percent of the Spanish announcer’s play-by-play for the Sixers went like this: (remember it’s long Spanish vowels like ‘Ivayrsohn’)

Iverson… Iverson… Iversoniversoniverson… MutOMbo, AFrican… MutOMbo … Iversooon…

And then, instead of the futbol ‘GOOOOOAAAAAL!!!’ it went…

Iversoooooooooon!

Unfortunately, dude was saying ‘Kooohhhbaaaay Brriiiiant!’ a bit more.

erra-erra?

There it go! That whistle…
But some one help me out on the Kanye verse on the remix… I’m not up on my Muscat selections, thun!

It’s Kanyeezy with Teairra-erra, erra-erra.
Gucci sweater, Louis leather. You was never
With groupies ever or _______ ever.
So, it’s only right you pull up in a two-seater better.
Uh! Tierra remix
And keep sip-sippin on somthin’ like Three-6
And keep-keep the conflicts out of the Jesus pieces.
There’s no wrong way to rock when you rollin with the Roc. Uh!
Let’s get it proper.
Oh we gonna shock 'em.
We back in the top ten.
We can afford things again.
See, they too much effort .
We too much better.
It takes ‘em two months to do what? We do whatever!
Hypno? Kristal?
I mean whatever…
_______ moscato… it do taste better.
I know what dem girls like. I know it ain’t easy
I know it ain't everyday you run into Yeezy

Make Her Feel Good Remix - Teairra Marie w/ Kanye West

used to dribble down in VA

will not lose

Investor in the BK soon-to-be-formerly-known-as-Nets and franchise like a Houston Rocket, baller President Carter joins the legendery list of Topps Basketball trading card celebs… Carmen Electra, Shannon Elizabeth and Christine Brinkley.

I'll trade you...

going going back back…

pop in a cassette and push play

When I’m not in NYC sweatin’ to the oldies or in the Yay duckin’ down alleys and scoring a stack of 50 cent twelves (not dude) of some of my favorite joints old and new (Ray Cash, Ebony Eyez, Petey Pablo, Jae Millz, Young Gunz, Cam’ron, Crime Mob, Youngbloodz, Rich Boy…like I’m a DJ or somethin’) or gettin’ at that Yucatan Pibil joint (on the hush)… I’m ballin’ like a high-roller… hangin’ with a rockstar in the quarter-to-8 bumpin’ dem classics … or sippin’ fine wines at my peeps vineyard… or getting the annual exclusive walk-through at the new DeYoung Museum… Ay, I might have even had me a cappuccino, fuck it…
Damn! I was so saddidy I didn’t even hit my joints for the carne asada super (don’t hate, Dun!) or the al pastor tacos!
Looks like I'ma have to go back to Cali in couple months though...

s’up in The Yay?

even Rocky's trainer and his wife said you can't win

OK, so I’m hitting the Bay Area this week. I need to know what’s going on in the realm of ‘things worth checking.’ Live shows, radio-mix-shows, art shows… ch'know?!? Please holler.

I’ll even trade you one…
That dude Josh Blank’s work will be up at The Luggage Store as part of the must-see ‘Short Cuts’ summer series. He’s half of the You Can’t Win Press duo and the other half, Silver Warner, is up in the jawn as well (pause). Check their stuff now so that when the indie-rockers tap them for an album cover y’all can be like, “Oh, I knew their work back when…!”

(photo via Norman Walsh collection)

the emancipation of meme?

off the chain letter

Is Santamanica saying I can join the reindeer games?
And since I recognize game, I used questions from various versions of the meme…

Total number of books I've owned: Some portion of the 500 or so books that I co-own with wifey
The last book I bought: The White Trilogy by Ken Bruen
The last book I read: Writing: Urban Calligraphy and Beyond, yeah, I know, mostly pictures (ironically) but I read all the fine type… and all the letters.
Five books that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):
1. Glengarry Glen Ross (play) by David Mamet - Act One’s near-monologue by Ricky Roma is the highlight from my favorite work of art and the delivery by Al Pacino or Liev Schreiber still doesn’t reveal how Mamet wrote it.
2. Flyboy in the Buttermilk (collection) by Greg Tate - Brought all the heat together and stayed cool.
3. My Dark Places by James Ellroy – He loves to tell the story again and again… but this is how it’s done.
4. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan – If the theories don’t hold up the density sure does.
5. Neuromancer by William Gibson – Even after it all becomes reality the flow is still ‘the truth.’

Total number of films I own on DVD and video: About 100
Last film I bought: Cidade de Deus, you know… ‘Rio’… ‘Rocket’…
Last film I watched: The last ‘movie’ was ‘War of the Worlds.’ The last ‘film’ was probably the ‘Zatoichi’ remake by Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano. The last piece of ‘cinema’ that got me raving was Deadwood Season Two. If you let me say oranges are better than apples, then the dramas on HBO are trumping most flicks.
Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):
1. Glengarry Glen Ross –The only performance available until the recent Broadway revival. One of the few movies I recommend to everyone.
2. La Haine – Beautifully shot meditation on hip-hop culture
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark – Best ride in the park.
4. Goodfellas – Flawless, bold and endlessly fascinating cinema. Period.
5. Pulp Fiction – Hilarious, visceral and filled with pages of great sounding sentences… and that’s just the parts you forgot about.

If I could be any character portrayed in a movie, I would be: Jules from Pulp Fiction… or James Bond?

Total volume of music on my computer: 54 GB
Last CD I bought: Boyz N Da Hood, easily the album of the half-year.
Song currently playing: The end of Magnificent Seven by The Clash and the beginning of Mayhem (Madden Mix) by The Federation.
Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me:
1. Rebel Without a Pause by Public Enemy – The revolution will rattle your trunk. It changed my brain.
2. Check the Rhime by A Tribe Called Quest – Almost the opposite of ‘Rebel’ with the laid-back playfulness… but perfectly crafted hip-hop nonetheless.
3. Players Ball by Outkast and Organized Noize – Sets off their catalogue and put the South on my musical map (with all due respect to the Geto Boys).
4. Eye for an Eye by Mobb Deep feat. Nas and Raekwon – Perfectly dark snap-shots by the best of the East Coast rebirth.
5. I Just Wanna Love You by Jay-Z and The Neptunes – Swagger, dance or sing-along… I’m covered.


And since all y’all have already done the meme… who got next?...

UPDATE: ‘Chain’ Links… You’re it…
Since Aurich and DJ Queazy don’t have their blog game on (feel free to comment or send me your answers, dudes) I’m gonna tap some folks that showed some ‘link love’ (pause)…
Robbie, M.A.T.T., 2 Words, Lil’ El, and No Frontin’

drunken 'munks

chip' foo' gets heavy lidded with the purple

DJ Queazy hepped me to this slowed-down work of genius from bomarr blog. I always knew Dave Seville was demonic. And check out the ar-tic-u-la-tion from the grown-ass chipmunks.
Slang along with the ‘Theodore unit’ (respect due to Alvin and Simon but…).

Hula-hooooooop…

Dave Seville, Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Chipmunk Christmas Song (slowed-down version)

you gon’ take your pants off…

I'ma play this Vandross...

Call it veni vidi hindsight veinte-veinte. Call it spooky coincidence. Call it zeitgeist. Yo, kicko, I can't call it… but this is how I sees it.
ONE: A week or so ago, out of the blue, wifey asked "Is Luther Vandross still alive?" and I couldn't answer definitively.
TWO: Last Tuesday old homey (denying any relation to Nathaniel Merriweather) shows up at my fiesta cumpleanos over at the DUMBO roof jump-off rocking the black tee with "Excuse me miss…" on the front and "What's your name?" on the back. Of course Big Hovie (no homey) was the repping reference for folk but I called him a 'Luther fan' for those that actually knew the OG (Oprah Guest) sample source. (And I can't let the clarifications go without a 'peace' to Young Chris on State Prop's 'Do You Want Me' for 'letting' pre-President Carter take that shiny hook off the meat-rack).
THREE: A couple days later, as the slowed-down virus seeps ever-so slizzardly into the NY hype, I pitched a pitch-shift to Benni Bujillions pka Ben Mellman: "Let's (meaning 'him') slow down those sped-up Kanye samples… so that the samples will sound NORMAL and the Kanye parts will be all chilled-the-fuck-out". And the double-joke of doing 'Slow Jamz' seemed extra sweet (one might say 'syrupy').
Yes… I know… genius.
But, of course, someone had already done it… (game recognized, KROM... but
(as mattsoreal would say) not slow enough, mane!)

(It didn't work as well with the Michael Bolton sample… because who knows what the original sounds like… and does anybody really care?)

It's lame that all my Luther references are via the Roc (not to mention Young Gunz' 'Better Love') but it's weird that they all resurfaced a few days before his passing. LV RIP.

Luther Vandross - Excuse Me Miss
State Property – Do You Want Me
Kanye West, Twista, Jamie Foxx – Slow Jamz (chopped & screwed by KROM)