strong island

...now my battery’s bangin’...

If you are in Hawaii in a couple of weeks, check out my old boy Dave Goldberg at this University of Hawaii at Manoa presentation.

void *culture.dub(); A Post-Theory Response to Babylon
October 12th, 4:30
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA
DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART HISTORY
Art Building, Room 132
FALL COLLOQUIUM, 2006

This lecture surveys Goldberg's approach to taking relatively compact instances of American popular culture and through careful gestures and procedures of amplification and attenuation, decompressing larger structures of culture that reach backward into history and forward into speculative ethnography.

The overall approach is derived from attempting to teach the equivalent of high-level theory to middle and high school students through the signs and systems they are most familiar with. The instances sampled are chosen specifically for their ease of recognition and apprehension, but the processing of these samples (through multi-media presentations) attempts to assemble a trajectory leading toward a momentary "consumer enlightenment."

Much of his work to date has used contemporary African American culture as the point of departure, as it is found in Hip-hop, Hollywood visual effects (virtual blackness,) science fiction, computer-generated childrens' shows, advertising, and old- fashioned racism. He has presented various facets of this research at USC's Race and Digital Space 2.0 conference, UCSC's "Against The Wire" music and technology symposium, the California College of the Arts, and numerous lectures at Bay Area art
schools.

dat boy akala

close to the edge

Eventhough he is the winner in the 2006 MOBO Awards Best Hip-Hop category (beating out Busta, Kano, Kanye, and Sway), that boy Akala will still be referred to as ‘Akala The Brother of Ms. Dynamite’ for a little while longer. And I’m sure he’s cool with that. They seem to have a great brother-sister chemistry at least on their double-disc mixtape ‘A Little Darker’ that came out earlier this year. I haven’t heard the album ‘It’s Not A Rumour’ yet but you can watch videos for a bunch of songs here. The ‘A Little Darker’ mixtape is quite solid and diverse and it shows Ms. Dynamite in a context that was new to me but maybe not to the Brits. And she sounds really dope. There’s grime and/or garage, an Usher beat, a Dipset beats, a Michael Jackson beat... most didn't make the cut, eventhough I couldn’t narrow the selection down to less than six joints.

Akala, Sincere – London State of Mind
Hard street lyrics, catchy sing-song hooks, nice beat, effortless flows.

Ms. Dynamite – Way Back When
Interesting British version of ‘back in the day’ lyrics illuminating the importance of US pop culture. Sis reminisces with bro in mind. Appropriate old-school loop.

Ms. Dynamite, J2K, Nathan, Asher D, Bruza – Bounce
Great combination platter. Timbo-like sounds but steady. Akon-like hook but sped up. Vocal diversity.

Ms. Dynamite, Riko, Flowdan, Killa P – Murder
Out in the streets I would love to hear her flip that hook The stuttered beat with the skanking beat is simply working wonders.

Akala, Ms. Dynamite, Bruise Boy, Bashy, Corey Johnson - More Than Ever
The emotional take on gone-daddys over the ‘80s style production handles sentiment well but the harsh details cut through the soft focus. Akala’s verse is particularly sharp and Corey spits some tasty venom.

Akala - Billie Jean Freestyle
Sick when I’m spittin’ wit’ em
Like a clip, lyrics hit ‘em
So vivid wiv it a blind man can see their visions
So kids sit and listen
Shit, I’m a flippin’ villain
I belong in prison for killin’ rhythms in Great Britain

oxymoron?

“Lying snitch”
-J. Prince describing Michael "Harry-O" Harris

One can either be lying OR snitching, right?

one double O percent above the rest

I must admit, I’m intrigued… although it’s only about a sampling of British music fans.

Complete findings to be published by Psychology of Music but the Herald Sun reports the following:

- 37.5% of Hip-hop fans have had multiple sexual partners over the past five years which is more likely than fans of classical music, opera, country (1.5%), dance music or musicals. (I’m suspicious of the ‘dance music’ fans statistics…)

- 25% of classical and opera fans admitted to having tried cannabis (key word of course: ‘admitted.’ I wonder what percentage of hip-hop fans has smoked this ‘cannabis’?)

- 12.3% of opera lovers have tried magic mushrooms. (Well how else could you sit through that stuff?)

- Hip-hoppers were also the least likely to be religious (Thank God. So what is up with America? Of course I’m a big fan of the 5 Percenter era of joints.)

- Hip-hoppers were also the least likely to recycle. (Shame)

- At least 50% of hip-hop fans, 56.9% of dance music fans and 17.9%of people who like musicals admitted to having committed a criminal act. (Again ‘admitted’ is key. Do ‘fans of musicals’ have a good sense of what constitutes a crime?)

Nine Twelve

My go to 9/11 song was posted here previously so it’s just the words a day late.
The thoughts aren’t totally worked out but the power of the rap is in the linking of concepts that most hip-hop fans probably want to see linked more often.

There’s thousands of people worldwide dying in the ghetto everyday due to some type of police terrorism, knowhumtalmbout? But when the World Trade Center fall down then all of a sudden that’s when we gonna take everything to heart… all of a sudden the Star Spangled Banner everywhere all up in the ghetto, knowhumtalmbout? And these niggas ain’t never did shit for us. Probably runnin around with fuckin' American flag thongs on…

I come to you as the people representin' far and wide
Africans po' and oppressed on eachother’s side
Holdin' court and on trial is the government
Guilty is the verdict and death is the punishment
For slave ships and whips and mental anguish
Ripped of our culture from the land to the language
So 9-11, in the mornin', when them planes hit
It ain't make no difference to my crew and who I bang with
Or who I rep fo’
Its still police in the ghetto
Niggas be careful cause you can get blowed
These MCs with power playin' grab ass. Makin' soap operas… Who won Hova, Nas or Beans or Jada?
My nigga, later for that!
‘Who the hardest artist?’ bullcrap…
You want the haps, nigga? Cellphones is tapped
And two-way pagers is cheap
And e’rrybody got Direct TV, so don’t sleep.

The towers fell and now George Bush declared the war is on
Along with that came laws that state we cain’t say what we want
For some that shit ain’t matter cause they ain’t have jack to say
But for us that’s the battle that we face everyday
And we still gone fight and say what's right so, hey, fuck what they say

How about these crips and these bloods repping USA?
How about these pimps and these thugs yelling ‘Bombs away’?
All in the name of America like they patriots
Brake check, bitch, hope y’all niggas ain’t forget
Crackrock. Little white shits blew through the hood paintin' the town red
So many folk I knew are now dead
And that's includin’ Diallo and Malcolm and Pac
Now who deserve to get shot?
Now who the pimp and who the whore on the block?
Who runnin’ game and who the game getting ran on?
Pussy boys put your pants on
Fuckin'. Sleepin'. Eatin'. Mantan.
Rappers on the bandstand, coonin’ doing handstands
Actin’ like these crackers beef is your beef
You dumb fuck, you don’t own these streets. This ain’t your grief
Stupid, let me make your ass aware of this:
Young plus black plus gats equals terrorist

chorus

If you young and you black then you a terrorist
And you got you a gat then you a…
If you a boy in the traps then you a…
And you aware of the facts then you a…
Ain’t with them stripes and stars then you a…
Don’t fuck with cops at all then you a…
You say to hell with them laws then you a…
And want rebellions to start then you a…
If you stickin' to truth then you a…
And you reachin' the youth then you a…
If you back it with proof then you a…
And lay it down in the booth then you a…

Tahir - Hidden Track (Terrorist)

the L dot A dot

Tonight.

Defari - Lowlands Anthem Pt. 1