That Good Good

philly greez takes swizz wit

2007-08-14T17:33:00.000-04:00

you know the process

Tip tapped, Reese reps and I realize, minus owning old-school flips, Peedi’s path might be built on the rat-a-tat and stuttering sharpness of Swizzy sessions.

Peedi, Cassidy (prod. Swizz Beats) – My Hood Is Greezy (Clean Version)

make it reign

2007-08-07T00:42:00.000-04:00

it ain't a game, ya dig?

Any other rap album leading with recent Oscar winners on production and guest verses by Outkast, would come off as a sell-out or cash-in move but when UGK does it you know the honor is being bestowed on the guests. And in the presence of The Underground Kings it’s no wonder that Andre 3000 becomes the more pimpishly monikered ThreeStacks and 3-6-Mafia lays down a classic uplifting soul break rather than their dark gothic crunk. “Underground Kingz” is a monument of the UGK aesthetic and throughout the long-players slightly excessive length Bun B and Pimp C maintain their Underground Kingdom with dedication and help from their loyal subjects: “pimpin and pandering,” candy slabs and wood wheels, and the hard hustle by even hardier hustlers.

One might guess that the pressures of a comeback (of sorts) for the duo might allow them to call in favors from hip-hop’s other reigning royalty particularly with designs on the charts or playlists. But the guest list is very selective. Less confident MCs might rely heavily on T.I., Rick Ross or Slim Thug verses but those more-than-respectable reppers of the current generation are shown their proper place at the table as Too Short, Scarface and Willie D seem to shine as brightly at least in the eyes of the two hosts. In fact the hosts seem to be bestowing an honor to all their guests. I wouldn’t guess there is huge market for fans of such MC diversity. Are Z-Ro, Dizzee Rascal, Talib Kweli and Kool G Rap really defining any demographic? Obviously UGK believes in a very personal ‘real recognize real’ rule of guest verses. It is the only way to explain the presence of Pimpin Ken.
The diversity of producers doesn’t stray to far from the UGK mold of soulful, funky, slow beats from the template set by Pimp C and perfected by 808 Boyz, from the predictable but funky guitar flourishes from Jazze Pha to the contemporary and dramatic long synth lines anchored by a heavy knock from The Runners on “Take Tha Hood Back”. Scarface honors Too Short by producing “Life Is 2009” and a portion of Goodie Mob’s “Free” is brought back by N.O. Joe. Scarface provides a reprise of his own “The Fix” on “Still Riding Dirty” and the video break for “The Symphony” is brought back by it’s creator Marley Marl. The biggest musical misstep is Lil Jon’s grating track for “Like That” but even those verses are somehow salvaged on the laid back remix by Below of 808 Boyz (tellingly showing up earlier on the album than the original).
And oh those verses…
You already know that Big Dick Cheney and Tony Snow hustled longer, stayed triller and pimped harder than the rest and you must also know that these Kings are not really focused on the glory of those successes. Although you can’t fault them for wanting candy chariots in their kingdom, UGK consistently brings a grown man’s perspective to their deeds however dirty. UGK’s mission: to challenge the new jacks to do better, not only as a taunt but also as a wish!

On “How Long Can It Last” Pimp prays for forgiveness for his survival choices. Bun’s percussive phrases ride the soulful and simple refrain explaining “people think hustlin is cool” but every hustler “wish they lived in the burbs, wished they didn’t have to hang” and more than likely “live with all of this anger and frustration inside.” On “Gravy” Bun gives gruff advice to young Gs to “play the hand that your dealt, that’s until it’s your turn to deal, otherwise you get it how you live, I could give a fuck how you feel”. Pimp’s solo effort on “Shattered Dreams” addresses young parents not quite hitting hard with the street hustle and suggests it’s “time to change somethin’”.
This sober talk wouldn’t be much without MC style, so although “Heaven” presents Bun thinking about the innocent kids, when he trades bars with Pimp in the last verse we remember why they are greater than just great reporters. “Quit Hatin’ The South” is a perfect example of Pimp C’s pinched, then stretched, then agitated delivery playing against Bun B’s steady assuredness and smooth but percussive flow (“You do what you can, I do what I feel, that there in itself the definition of trill”). It is a dynamic of contrast that great duos always have (Q-Tip and Phife, Dre and Snoop, Andre and Big Boi). It is tough to decide what makes a track so great? For example, on the titular cut, is it the simple but always original phrasing of Bun B (“Cross the line, nigga, push my button, and you gonna die in the very spot that you thought you wasn’t”) or the signature syllable drag that Pimp C exaggerates when he declares himself “Kaaayyng”?
The Bun B buzz over the last couple of years maybe hasn’t prepared new fans for the surprising stylistic dominance of Pimp C heard on this album. The slide he brings to last words in a line cuts through all the impressive play with rhythm that most of the other MCs bring to the cuts, including, amazingly, “Next Up” featuring Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap. Pimp actually steals the show with the last verse behind three of the greatest MCs…. ever. Three masterful bass rumbles somehow get faded by a high-pitched drag and drawl and double-ups on key words (“James!”, “Jones!”). On “Trill Niggas Don’t Die” Pimp C gives the killer flourish to a typical MC boast: “Pack the iii’hhn (iron) everytiiime and ain’t tryyyin’ diiiein’”
Of course Bun is just as brilliant but because of his ubiquity in the last few years, his skillz are maybe more expected. Very few MCs can deliver such force in even the silliest throwaway punchlines such as when he declares his car has “REAL magic, not like that motherfucker David Blaine!”

However limited their content, they deliver with panache. Put simply: I could listen to UGK talk about wood wheels from ’92 ‘til infinity…
It is not the number of subjects a King has but how he rules them.

UGK continue to survey and lead their kingdom however small, familiar or underground it is. On “Int’l Players Anthem” Andre ThreeStacks once again demonstrates compact rhymes that are loaded with meaning as he imagines what a Pimp/King might advise a young player at a crossroads in the game: “Keep your heart” and “Play your part”.

UGK, luckily, recognized their ruler role early and have maintained royal blood coursing in their flow ever since. They know exactly who they are and present that character on the best rap album of the year so far. “Underground Kingz” is T-R-I-double L… that’s with capital letters, man.

UGK - How Long Can It Last featuring Charlie Wilson

linkin’ navigator

2007-05-24T12:59:00.000-04:00

BTBS has structured the ‘Six Degrees’ game for a nice little hip-hop-nerd bar game…

Unfortunately my brain is more free-associative… y’know like:

Jordin minus Blake
Blake plus Doug E. Fresh
Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick
Slick Ricky Bobby Mixtape

--> Yelawolf - ‘Boyz In The Woods’

Boyz n tha Hood, NWA

--> NWH: “D.O.U.G.I.E Fresh!”

--> MJ: “Cruisin down the street in my 64…”

MJ - ‘Y’all Stuntin’
MJ, y’all stuntin’!

--> Jordin

toto-lly, dude

2007-05-11T18:28:00.000-04:00

Party like A Rock and Roll Band...

Musab - Bang

'the world is (y)ours'

2007-05-10T00:11:00.000-04:00

gun control

Two Frenchmen, Mathieu Kassovitz and Nicolas Sarkozy, both sons to Hungarian immigrant fathers, recently reached milestones. Kassovitz' masterpiece 'La Haine' was re-released as part of The Criterion Collection, one of the highest ‘honors’ a re-released film can get. And it is one of the best ‘hip-hop’ movies ever made.

Kassovitz brilliantly reworks Scorsese’s ‘Mean Streets’ character-name-cards to present hip-hop’s essential flair with ‘the name’ (the jump cut to Said’s police-vehicle tag and the track into Vinz’ two finger ring…). Kassovitz channeled Spke Lee’s romantic vision of ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ into his feature debut ‘Café Au Lait / Metisse’ but ‘La Haine’ taps into the leisurely pace and brewing violence fueled by lingering injustice portrayed in ‘Do The Right Thing.’ The beautiful DJ and b-boy sequences of ‘La Haine’ provide the characters and audience moments to relax between tense encounters. The ethnic mix of the protagonist-trio is a matter-of-fact idealized, and specifically French, image of the hip-hop generation looking beyond the typical social divisions (Black Christian, White Jew, North-African Muslim) to unite in their own world (the Chanteloup banlieues / projects) and then brush up against the outside world (police, skinheads, gallery patrons!!!). [The use of a short camera lens and mono-sound recording in Paris contrasts to the long lens, stereo-sound, dollied, tracked and ‘helicoptered’ shots used in the banlieues.] [Kassovitz is particularly proud that Vinz was listed by The Source as one of the Top Ten “Goons” (his word) of all time.] Throughout the DVD extras, we learn about the class, racial and xenophobic tensions existing in France that ‘La Haine’ brought to light. Like Los Angeles in ‘Boyz N The Hood,’ this is a France that had not been seen in cinema before.

Kassovitz describes Nicolas Sarkozy's actions in 2005 (as the Minister Of the Interior) and how they related to the rioting of that year. Similar riots, that were a reaction to police brutality in 1993, are used as a prelude to the plot of 'La Haine.'

Kassovitz also mentions Sarkozy's desire to become the next president of France and, at the time of the DVD release a few weeks ago, the election had yet to take place. Kassovitz speaks to the viewer on the commentary track:

"You probably know if (Sarkozy) is the next president..."

Sarkozy’s main opponent Segolene Royal, in a moment of easy drama and probable desperation, accurately predicted results of a Sarkozy election:

"My responsibility today is to launch an alert about the risks of this candidacy and the violence and brutalities that will start in the country… everyone knows it but nobody says anything…''

Indeed, this past weekend, Sarkozy became the president of France… and, although he was favored to win, the protests have raged since election night. During these protests, Sarkozy has been celebrating his victory on a billionaire’s luxury yacht in the Mediterranean. There is nothing inherently wrong with his form of celebration but the contrast of images is telling.

The Criterion website describes an on-line exchange that Kassovitz and Sarkozy had on Kassovitz' blog in 2005:

"He used his first post to take right-wing minister of the interior Nicolas Sarkozy to task, specifically for his remark that the rioters were “scum” and that they should be blasted out of the banlieues “with a fire hose.”

The day after Sarkozy was elected Paris police used water cannon on protesters (mostly made up of ‘far-left activists’ and, it should be noted, not inhabitants of the banlieues).

The entire exchange can be read here but the following excerpt of Kasovitz’ post captures some of the anger that Sarkozy has contributed to.

"By acting like a warmonger, he has opened a breach that I hope will engulf him. Hate has kindled hate for centuries and yet Sarkozy still thinks that repression is the only way to prevent rebellion. History has proved to us that a lack of openness and philosophy between different communities engenders hate and confrontation. Sound and fury are the only means for many communities to make themselves heard. Sarkozy wants to become the president of our republic and nobody will get in his way, as he dramatically puts it. If this man does not fail at least once in his initiatives to win the presidency of this country, nothing indeed will get in his way, and his desire for absolute power will finally be fulfilled.

Does history repeat itself? Yes. It always has done. A desire for power and the egocentricity of those who think they hold the truth has always created dictators. Sarkozy is certainly a little Napoleon…”

To be fair, only a small portion of the 10,000 protesters committed destructive acts and that even in the banlieues there was immigrant support for Sarkozy, particularly relating to his support for affirmative action and his vision for a new French ‘work ethic.’

On the DVD commentary track Kassovitz says that some of the police he has spoken to, in the decade since the film was released, were actually inspired to become cops after seeing La Haine. He says they wanted to become GOOD COPS after seeing a film maligned as ‘anti-police.’

His reply to Sarkozy clarifies his view of law enforcement.

"I am not opposed to the police; on the contrary, I am in favor of a better-respected, better-educated, and more human police… A kind of police I can trust over my personal and my children’s security, regardless of social condition, skin color, age, or belief… When you mention a return to the Republican values, don’t forget that you have to command respect before you can expect it in return. Since the police has lost the respect it should command, then once again you should ask yourself what the real problems are. You claim to be turned towards the future, yet your methods are repressive and obsolete.”

Although ‘La Haine’ uses a found gun as an extraordinary catalyst for the ‘plot,’ Kassovitz explains that guns are, in general, unavailable to the frustrated youth of France. American youth, in similar situations, have demonstrated that guns provide an accessible direction for misguided frustrations.
Kassovitz notes that the French riots of 2005 occurred with no deaths.

'yay!' area

2007-05-04T09:39:00.000-04:00

more than a lil' fame...

Come out and play!
I'm callin' ya! Huh? What you say?
All o’ ya! Lead the way!
I'm warning ya! Fuck it, todays the day!

Fuck a diploma, GAME OVER!

M.O.P. - Warriorz

BONUS BEAT:
Ya Boy - Holla At Ya Boy (Golden State Warriors Remix)

american buffalo soldiers?

2007-05-01T19:11:00.000-04:00

more than three uses for a knife?

It's possible that the most bugged out martial-arts movie news you heard recently was NOT that Jackie Chan and Jet Li will be joining forces in 'Forbidden Kingdom,' a retelling of the Monkey King myth...

And you probably didn't even blink when you heard that Tarantino will be remaking 'Da Zui Xia' (because you're probably skeptical that he would direct a kung-fu re-do so soon after 'Kill Bill' and before his 'Spaghetti WWII' flick)

It's possible that you heard 'Redbelt' will be a contemporary take on samurai flicks starring "Chiwetel Ejiofor as a Jiu-Jitsu master who has eschewed prizefighting to operate a self-defense studio." And when you heard the plot ("he is conned by a cabal of movie stars and fight promoters... must enter the ring to fight in order to regain his honor") you probably thought it WAS the next Tarantino or Rodriguez project.

But your jaw hit the floor when you found out it will be penned by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet. (But the whole "conned by a cabal of movie stars does tie in with his 'Bambi vs Godzilla' meditation on Hollywood...)

Or maybe it was no surprise since you already read an interview in February on Suicide Girls:

DM: ...I’ve got this other project I may do about the martial arts community in LA.

What would that be about?

DM: There’s this subterranean community that’s cross-pollinated between cage fighters and cops and boxers and stuntmen and Navy Seals. It’s a really interesting community. It is sort of a samurai film. It is about a guy who’s the world’s greatest fighter but he doesn’t compete. He just trains people because he says, “I’ll train you to walk out of the alley alive but I won’t train you to get points from a referee.” The movie is about how he gets seduced away from his path and becomes commercialized.

Is that something you would write as well?

DM: I wrote it already...

But if you don't frequent the realm of Suicide Girls and cage-fighters you might have been sharp enough to piece the plot together by reading Mamet's answers in the 'far more respectable' world of Leonard Lopate's list of standard questions (dated 2/12/07):

LL: What's one thing you're a fan of that people might not expect?
Mamet: The Triangle, the Kimura, and the Oomaplata

You SHOULD look forward to Mamet revisiting samurai lore since he juiced up and stripped down the 'Ronin' screenplay as 'Richard Weisz' although you probably aren't convinced he can direct an action flick. (You're thinking he can't even direct a good car commercial... but those were based on someone else's 'fake-Mamet' dialogue... and didn't even have Kelis...)

But when you saw the trailer for Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano's new film (which looks like his homage to the history of Japanese cinema... from Kurosawa to Ozu to... Godzilla and anime!...) you remembered how impressed you were with Beat's personal take on samurai action and figured why not Mamet... even Jarmusch did one.
So Mamet doing a 'samurai fable' set in a mythical L.A. streetfighter world isn't as strange as a Japanese director doing the sequel to a super-powered soccer flick from Hong Kong and changing the sport to lacrosse... is it?

lo and behold

2007-04-30T20:19:00.000-04:00

the camp's founding fathers?

I wouldn't call my Camp collection complete but my appreciation is known and news of Ski conditions makes me think 'This is it y'all!'
Surfacing via Lifesavas is a good slow-bubble move and I hope Geechi and Cheeba gather 'round the fire of other camps in the ramp up to 'Another Heist.'...Ghostface, where you at?... Kanyeezy, gonna step up front?...

When I grilled 'em backintheday I asked them straight-faced: "Cosby or Poitier?"
They looked at me like I was loco.

De La Soul, Camp Lo - So Good
Camp Lo - Gotcha
Camp Lo - All The Same
Lifesavas, Camp Lo - Gutterfly

around ‘ere we say ‘birds’…

2007-04-24T14:14:00.000-04:00

Benni Bujillion and Ejike are kicking off their new jazz blog Mudslinging Birds with a crate-digging and spinning affair at Lolita. You know they got the jazz ‘cause you used to hear them on WKCR after the Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito show those early, early, early Friday mornings. In fact, Benni probably remembers you as one of the “jackass” callers who thought he was still supposed to be spinning the 89TechNine rap musics…

Or maybe you were one of the “angry commuters calling up like ‘What is this shit?!?’”…

Or maybe, just maybe, you were a guest of the Stretch and Bob show who saw Benni on the way out of the studio and said “Damn, you look like Stretch’s brother!!” …

If not, then join me and head on over to ‘Birds-land’ tomorrow to snap your fingers and do your step.

And since we’re on the subject of Stretch and birds…
(no, not stretchin’ birds… or, ahem, stretchin’ birds…)

mabuhay gardens?

2007-04-23T19:21:00.000-04:00

Hyphy Numpy
Treemix quite slumpy
How does your remix grow?
We got grapes and trees,
Beats, cuts, MCs,
All repping Filipino

Well, I got a bit closer than Fader folk in deciphering this cipher…
Pampanga born Apl De Ap gave the verbal clue with the ‘pumping pinoy bloodlines’ reference.
And we should all know how the Flips kinda took over the DJ scene for a minute; many inspired by Ilocono-American DJ Q-Bert.
All respect due to the beat by D1 the Knockaholik but if Nump, the gorillapino, gets a remix from Chad Hugo, the superstar pinoy b-boy cipher’s complete.

And then there’s the old M.I.A verse and ad-libs down there in her garden…
I guess maybe she could pass for Pinay…? Alright, still a mystery.

But Shannon Sossamon can be in the video if she wants to, right?
(thanks to DJ Queazy for hepping me to her roots)

Grape vines and sugar dimes… Can’t quit (What?)

Check The Fader for
I Got Grapes Treemix - Nump, M.I.A., Apl De Ap, Q-Bert

‘pause’ tape

2007-04-16T19:41:00.000-04:00

let's play ‘pause’

T-Pain’s inspired use of discontinuous vocals on the remix to Unk’s ‘Two Step’ has in turn inspired this post. It is the beginning of a collection of favorite moments of affected hesitation… or faux verbal flubs… or just beautiful uses of negative space ('nuff respect due to El-P) that imitates the ‘less assured’ speech patterns of regular talk, not often attributed to the kings and queens of confidence kicking.
We want affects!

10. T-Pain on ‘Two Step Remix’ (Unk, Jim Jones, E-40)
“Take yo’ left foot, put it out in the front and do it …….. uhhhhhlike this… Can’t nobody do it quiii…… iiiite like this”
He’s more of a ‘ternt sanga’ nowadays but he has ‘rappa’ swagger through and through and his syllable-stretch in the dance instruction is amazing in an otherwise hum-drum remix. When the DJs cut that part up the two-steppers should go nuts.

9. Q-tip on ‘Everything is Fair’ (A Tribe Called Quest)
“You don't have to say a word…………. That's all ya heard”
Gunshots are often employed to punctuate verses these days but Q-Tip used a particularly dramatic collection of rounds to take a breather in this urban reportage.

8. Doug E. Fresh on ‘Self Destruction’ (The Stop The Violence All-Stars)
“This is all about, no doubt, to stop violence But first let's have a moment of silence…………. Swing!”
Only Doug E. could get away with a silent ‘prayer’ filled with beatboxing.

7. Ad-Rock on ‘The New Style’ (Beastie Boys)
“Feel the beat...mmmmmmdrop!!!”
Technically not a verse but that weird drag into ‘drop’ has to be one of the oddest Ad-libs in a career of odd ads.

6. The Fresh Prince on ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’
“They left the keys to the brand new Porsche. Would they mind? Ummm, welllll, of course not!... I'll just cruise it around the neighborhood…Wellll, maybe I shouldn't…. Yeah, of course I should”
Maybe not as flavorful as Kangol Krew storytelling but Mr. Smith still had style in his conversational flow.

5. Big Daddy Kane in a live routine
“Bed-Stuy brother comin’ from the Brook hood…………. drop shit and still make it look good!”
BDK may have topped his “E-e-even if I stutter, I’ma still come off” line with this great (now classic?) routine. The first time I saw it I was fooled.

4. Biggie on ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ (Jay-Z)
“If Faith had twins she’d prob’ly have Tupac’s… Get it?... Two… Pacs…”
Explanation never makes a joke funnier particularly within a rap but once again Biggie shows his genius by taking an incomplete pun (What’s a ‘Pac,’ man?), his only contribution to the mythical coast-v-coast ‘war’, and flipping it into one of the most oddly memorable lines in rap history.

3. Special Ed on ‘I Got It Made’
“I make fresh rhymes… daily… You burn me…? Really?”
Ed’s distinctive, halting rap is made up of odd phrasing and pausing but none top the delay before the question “Really?” It’s brief but at the time his original style made it seem huuuge.

2. Das EFX on ‘They Want EFX’
“So one two…um, buckle my… um shoe …”
The jibbedy-jabber jaws were masters at making even nonsense syllables sound dope. The, um, hesitations were just as important as, um, the stiggedy-iggedy stuff. And anyone who says that rap needs, um, ‘content’ in order to have relevance is obviously sleeping on this classic.

1. Jay-Z on ‘Friend or Foe’
“Friend or foe, yo, state your biz… mmm you tend the dough? Ahh , there it is…me, i run the show, oh, and these kids… You can understand that, right?... ‘cause if this is not so, ehh, god bless…”
Maybe the greatest transformation of rap into screenplay monologue, Jay breaks his flow up into non-rhythmic talk with all sorts of fake verbal ticks and tricks yet still stays within the realm of rap. If you call this ‘spoken word poetry’ promise you never, no matter the weather, eva eva eva eva eva eva eva come around here no more.

chief rocker

2007-04-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

B.O.B. flips 'Party Like a Rockstar' into a video for 'Chiefn Like A Rasta'...
with truly bizarre results.
Go figure.
(Note: No trees were harmed in the blogging of this video.)

Party Like A Rock Star (B.O.B Chiefn Like A Rasta)

grinding (part 3): double bill

2007-04-05T19:45:00.000-04:00

chopping it up

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are fans of the ‘ballyhoo’ that was once associated with the movie-going experience. And they are showmen... and pretty savvy ‘salesmen.’
It helps explain why they can repeat answers for the same questions related to the release of ‘Grindhouse’ and, even though I’ve read these answers before, they are still pretty entertaining.
I got to hear a few of these ‘riffs’ last Friday when the New York Times TimesTalks series presented a ‘double bill’ with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez bringing the ‘ballyhoo’ for ‘Grindhouse.’ Here are a few things I had not heard or read before.

- It seems that Rodriguez, like most other human beings, was less familiar with the grindhouse genres than Tarantino was. Rodriguez describes his first viewing of ‘Sleepaway Camp’ that, I would confirm, is consistent with everyone’s first viewing. He said most of the movie was totally boring… until the last shot. That last frame is so insanely over-the-top and shocking that it makes the set-up (basically the entire movie) worthwhile. Note: If you jump ahead just for the last shot you will forever know that you didn’t earn the shock.

- In the formulation of ‘Grindhouse’ the duo decided Rodriguez would tackle the ‘horror flick’ and Tarantino would do the ‘terror flick.’ I never heard the term ‘terror flick.’ Horror means “That couldn’t really happen!” ‘Terror’ means “That could actually happen!”

- Quentin describes his directorial take on the necessary elements of genre films, such as ‘Reservoir Dogs’ (the heist flick) and ‘Death Proof’ (the slasher flick): “They may not be YOUR version of ‘The Goods’… but they WILL be delivered!!”

- The Weinstein’s want Rodriguez to do 'The Stevie Ray Vaughn Story,' an idea they discussed back in the days of ‘El Mariachi’

- In the recent Esquire Magazine interview Tarantino refers to his connection to the “Black-male thing“ (pause) and during this interview he refers to the ‘From Dusk ‘til Dawn’-inspired tattoos of “3-10 Mafia”

- Before ‘El Mariachi’ Rodriguez earned money as a subject for drug testing. Interviewer Lynn Hirschberg asked him which drugs he tested. The writer/director/camerman/editor/composer/… said there was one drug that was supposed to improve ‘multi-tasking.’ He was straight-faced… but kidding. The truth is almost as crazy. He recalled when he earned two-thousand bucks for a seven day test of a ‘healing serum.’ To test a ‘healing serum’ the scientists, of course, had to ‘wound’ the test subjects. This was accomplished by taking out two chunks of flesh, one from the back of each shoulder. Then they applied the serum to one wound and a placebo to the other. When a wound had healed, they then had to take out the healed chunks of flesh comprising the whole test area. It would be a shame if this doesn’t inspire some horrific scene in one of his future projects.

- ‘Inglorious Bastards,’ the film that Tarantino has discussed before as his ‘next movie,’ WILL actually be his new project. The description of the film seems to be an obvious homage to ‘Dirty Dozen’ / ‘Great Escape’ type films (I’m thinking ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and ‘Where Eagles Dare,’ as well…). In true Tarantino form, he says it will actually be his homage to Spaghetti Westerns… but will use World War II iconography. Recent buzz about a trilogy reinforces the Spaghetti Western idea. You can easily see QT injecting the ‘Django’ and ‘Hero Without a Name’ pacing and brutality onto GI grunts, officers and Nazis. He already envisions the tagline to be “Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France…”

grinding (part 2): this time… it’s personal…

2007-04-05T19:33:00.000-04:00

Market-ing

I actually used to go to the “grindhouses” on San Francisco’s Market Street. Or rather my dad, a big fan of the shoot-em-up, chop-socky, samurai, and blaxsploitation flicks that cut-rate theaters would run, took me to them. They provided as many movies as you wanted to sit through on a Saturday afternoon for like a buck-fifty. After a movie was done you just had to ask yourself, “Do I want to see another one?” The concession stand had Jujubees or Ice Cream Bon-bons or whatever and orange soda and no lines so you could quickly settle back in for another juvenile entertainment. There were plenty of vacant seats so the only thing that would shorten the stay would be the ‘itchiness’ of the whole scene… seriously, I know I got flea bites and my sneakers were stuck to the floor coated with soda and god knows what else. Luckily there was no encounter with roaches or rats.

I recall another shortened stay when the movie selection was ‘The Human Tornado,’ a Dolemite flick that, in classic exploitation-film style, had a poster that made Dolemite look like a super-hero. Of course the film was totally inappropriate for a child of my age and we decided to leave. As my dad argued to get a refund I remember staring up at 'The Human Tornado’ poster trying figure out how the swirl behind Dolemite (actually a blur of his arm) would actually make him fly…

Most of the films that I saw were revivals or on their last legs of their circuit to other grindhouses or drive-ins around the country. I never had any intention of seeing them again even with the recent appreciation for some of them.
Apparantly ‘Vanishing Point’ is one of the bigger cult films of our day. All I remember of ‘Vanishing Point’ was the sense of velocity and power that seems to go with movies starring muscle-cars. I also remember being totally confused by the plot, especially the parts that weren’t shots of our hero driving like a maniac across a desert.
I saw both ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and ‘Where Eagles Dare’ and have always confused them in my head. Until very recently I would have bet the house that Clint Eastwood was in ‘The Eagle Has Landed.’
‘Enter the Dragon’ was awesome but when Jim Kelly showed up again in ‘Three the Hard Way’… now that was cool. After that screening I tried to duplicate his kung-fu moves for the rest of the day.
I also saw age-appropriate stuff like ‘Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo.’ All of the current romance of the sleazy aspects of the grindhouse days ignores the fact that these theaters would run other things that aren’t considered exploitation films. These were second-run flicks that had run their course as the main feature. Although, I suppose, live-action Disney films could be considered an exploitation of a different sort.

‘Three The Hard Way,’ for example, may not be the best of it’s genre but the thrill of watching it on a big screen is forever tied to my experience of that movie and so it will remain one of my favorites. I have no desire to watch it again on DVD.

I might revisit ‘Vanishing Point’ though… just to keep track of the plot this time.

When I sit in the stadium seating of the multiplex I don’t miss the seediness of The Strand (part of the Grauman theater chain) or The St. Francis or The Embassy… but they hold some good memories just the same.

grinding (part 1): trailer ‘trash’

2007-04-05T19:27:00.000-04:00

heeere’s danny...

Today’s trailers are known as previews. They swing from telling you the whole damn plot, including the twist, to the teasers that have one iconic image or sequence that is supposed to generate buzz a year before the movie come out.
Great trailers give a sense of the film without giving away the plot.
The ‘fake trailers’ might be the most celebrated part of ‘Grindhouse.’
The line up of guest directors is amazing if you happen to like new twists on genre flicks.
Robert Rodriguez previews ‘Machete’ starring the incomparable Danny Trejo in a ‘Mexploitation’ flick that may actually get spun out into it’s own film.
Edgar Wright's (‘Shaun of the Dead,’ upcoming ‘Hot Fuzz’) contribution has been the most shrouded in mystery. And so I’ll even respect the effort to keep the title of the faux-film on the QT. (But in the meantime you can watch ‘Shaun’ stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost riff a bit more on zombie killing in ‘Danger 50,000 Volts: Zombies’.)

Rob Zombie (‘Devil’s Rejects’) presents ‘Werewolf Women of The SS.’ Zombie notes that his trailer was designed to show all sorts of incongruous elements (Werewolves, Nazis, T&A, Fu Manchu) inspired by low budget directors who would incorporate inexplicable elements into their films simply because they were using sets and props from other movies in production.
Eli Roth (‘Cabin Fever’ ‘Hostel’) presents ‘Thanksgiving.’ This was the portion of the film that had the ratings board most up-in-arms. You can watch it here (I assume this is the edited version…?) but since it is technically part of the ‘Grindhouse’ film consider it a ‘spoiler!’
There was also a competition of ‘fake trailers’ at SXSW in an effort to generate some ‘Grindhouse’ buzz. I can appreciate this one…
‘Hobo with a Shotgun’

battle weary

2007-04-03T23:40:00.000-04:00

meet me in a battle…?

Battles are crucial to hip-hop. One of the best was the MC battle between Craig G and Supernatural. It was live, improvised, and hilarious.
There was a good portion of the battle where the DJ dropped the beat and Craig and Supernat traded chunks of rhymes one after the other… Craig would start his rhyme right on top of the last syllables of Supernat often responding immediately to something that Nat had just said.
And vice versa…
What was great about this was THE BEAT KEPT GOING! There was no pause at the end of each thirty-second section killing the momentum and crowd energy.
There was no gimmick of a host calling out words or subjects to freestyle about. The subject was ‘the enemy’ and how best to dis him.
And there was no standing ice grilled pretending that the other dude wasn’t sayin’ nothin. Craig and Supernat stalked the stage with an almost light-footed boxers grace, staying on beat and lunging and retreating so that the battle of words manifest in a simple symbolic swagger-capoeira. Both MCs were fantastically good at the ‘dance’ and the freestyle dissing. Supernatural was the epitome of the freestyle renaissance at the time, mastering the off-the-dome multi-syllable rhyme scheme. But Craig G surprised a lot of people by reminding fans of the effectiveness of clarity and clever punchlines.

I received ‘Hip-Hop Life’ with high hopes. It’s a DVD documentary of a battle between MCs representing Detroit and Houston (with between-battle performances by Rick Ross and Triple Cs, Young Jeezy and Fat Joe).
I still love a good old-fashioned MC battle but this promised a new twist because it tapped two of the more interesting regions of contemporary MC styles.
Detroit has built its reputation as the most grueling test-ground for battle MCs. The D has a slew of underground heroes that new-jacks must be tested against or at least strive to battle.
Houston has produced a generation of MCs also fiercely proud of their local scene which has emboldened them with a swagger that allows them to step to the mic with no desire to imitate another regions 'lyrical' style.
This clash of styles had the potential to move battles into a new era.
Sadly it may have done just that... but in the wrong way.
A few of the contestants emphasized clever punchlines or wordplay in their disses but most confrontations degenerated into tough guys spitting boring homophobic remarks at each other.
At best, the attempts at emasculation rhymed.
At worst, and more frequently, lazy MCs started to end their segments by screaming ‘Faggot!’ in a last ditch effort to get the crowd hyped up.
Many of the MCs’ interactions with the crowd were reduced to threatening a rival’s crew or getting props from their own crew. And when I say props I mean, stacks of money to incorporate into a little show-and-tell about how much street money is being earned.
I would say it’s better to ‘tell’ in an MC battle, than to ‘show.’
And of course a few of the contestants utter the last words any fan of real MCing wants to hear: “You can cut the beat… we can do this acapella!”
The horror…
The energy level, unfortunately, never recovers.

The DVD itself doesn’t describe the battle in any clear way. What is this? How did it happen? Who is judging? Of all the DJs in the world how did you pick a blonde British woman to provide the beats? And, uh, you’re actually not going to tell me who won?!?! (You actually get to vote on the website http://www.hiphoplifedvd.com )

Luckily some of the bonus material gives background on the City vs City concept and shows some interesting and entertaining MCs.
I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that a couple of the best battlers are a couple of white kids undoubtedly inspired by Eminem’s path to glory. Both of them play their nerdiness to maximum effect; expectations are lowered so much that when they actually kick clever freestyles and bold disses the audience can’t help but be shocked… and entertained.
Another contestant in the Ohio State vs. Ohio University Battle is black, has dreads and has a funny simple structure and childish glee to his delivery that gets predictable but can still hit home a clever punchline. He stalks the stage in an odd back-and-forth lunge-and-point. I was happy to be reminded, even superficially, of Craig G and Supernatural.

BONUS: Special thanks to bgm722 for sending some youtube footage of the Craig / Supernat battle.

beatitude

2007-04-02T19:02:00.000-04:00

On the eve of Timbaland’s latest ‘solo’ effort we are indeed blessed to recognize the huge catalogue of existing compositions that may comfort us during the ensuing disappointment. The post-JT generation of Timbo fans will likely boost the sales of ‘Shock Value’ enormously and they probably know Timbo’s work even if they didn’t know his name via “Big Pimpin” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” or early Nelly Furtado or Aaliyah’s hits… Well, the dude has been everywhere lately and people still don’t get how important he is to the music dismissing him as Justin’s ‘lame rapper’ (also a slight misjudgment, in my book). A different demographic still enjoys ‘Pony’ and ‘One In A Million.’ And yet another group can pull odd album cuts for days to show off their liner-note skills.

I’m just gonna throw a dozen of tracks that may not be his best or most definitive but some of them are cuts I return to or admire. Maybe they were overlooked or underappreciated. Or maybe the pop R&B stuff needs to be revisited by the rap heads… or the rap stuff needs to be heard by the pop R&B fans. There’s no reason to touch his much heralded (but little bought) work for Bubba Sparxxx or his brilliant tracks for Jay-Z or his watershed classics with Missy and Aaliyah… Some of these tracks are favorites (‘Pony’ ‘Told Y’all’) but many of them are just a testament to Timbo’s skills… Even a throwaway pop cash-in or an odd ad-libbed interlude can hold some of the excitement that Tim can bring to rhythm and/or sound arrangement. And I have a particular fondness for his lower BPM stuff. I’m sure you could find a dozen more tracks that illustrate his talents as well, if not better than, say, a Mad Skillz mixtape joint or a Danity Kane 'classic'… but these tracks are still damn good... and that is the point of this post.

Note: There used to be a dismissal of Timbaland’s beats by folk that had grown tired of hip-hop. They wanted to credit drum&bass beats for Tim’s layering of up- and down-tempo percussion on one track. And to them I would say, “Have you ever heard Doug E. Fresh beatboxing?” As much as beatboxing can be dismissed in most cases as lame (even ‘American Idol’ has it now) Tim’s beats often begin with, or at least pass through, a beat-box phase that includes thump and counter rickytickytempo as complex as any short-lived ‘cutting edge’ derivation of hip-hop that you can play for me. And his beats still contain that elusive element that so much four-on-the-floor dance music lacks: Funk. Timbaland is the true avant-garde of pop rhythm makers. Still. I don’t doubt that Tim listened to and learned from drum&bass but he has also been influenced by Indian music and Trent Reznor and Celtic sounds and Bjork and video games and bluegrass and Elton John and flamenco … And, even when assisted by Missy or Danja or…, all of it comes out sounding like Timbaland gospel.

1. Brandy – Sadiddy : 'Afrodisiac' will be the album pondered over by historians as a missed opportunity. The vocals by Brandy aren’t as charming or lively as they could have been but the layering of vocals, particularly on this song, can send chills up my spine. The number of voices and notes and rhythms often gives the hypnotic feel of a round. The tracks don’t change as much as they should but there great loops all over the album.

2. Kiley Dean – No : A relatively simple light skipping beat gets hit by odd percussive elements here and there but the main feature is the minor key vocals that tumble like a calliope riff in parts and then unexpectedly switches to an odd ad-lib at the end that sounds like a Bollywood sample. The perfect ‘mmm-mmm-mm-mm’ hook is sing-along addictive.

3. Petey Pablo – Told Y’all : One of my go-to party tracks because it sounds like a Daniel Lanois drum circle with a James Brown fan riffing on top of it all. Petey was demonized for some reason after ‘Freak-a-leak’ but his rhythmic declarations fit with Tim’s concept of funk perfectly.

4. Ms. Jade – Interlude : Basically just letting a chilled-out loop run its course, Tim adds his weird Muppet-like falsetto to interact with the sampled voices.

5. Nicole Wray, Missy, Mocha – Make it Hot : Nicole Wray has seemingly been in the right place at the right time twice. Associated with Jay and Dame recently and Missy and Timmy for this track, she has yet to breakout as a soloist but she was lucky to be on this beautiful track. The changes in this song have always fascinated me and it’s kind of amazing how many shifts, additions and edits take up the four-and-a-half minutes.

6. Timbaland – Beep Beep : Just an intro track but the beat patterns are all over the place… and mesmerizing. When the sample of Missy comes in briefly it’s an epiphany and his little collection of ad-libs around 3:35 are better than anything Elton John could play over the same beat.

7. Mad Skillz – Jump Off : Frequent Superfriend collaborator and alledged ghostwriter, Skillz successfully works around an incomplete sounding loop, notable for its lack of a bass line, punctuated with odd techno sounds and keyboard noodling.

8. Ginuwine – Pony : The breakthrough that wasn’t the breakthrough of ‘One In A Million.’ A strange sounding track made of prominent high hat, video bleeps and the classic belching robot vocal. The sung vocals are straight R&B which makes it more, not less, avant-garde for its time. It is trumped by Aaliyah’s single only because the beat itself is relatively normal.

9. Danity Kane – Right Now : I’m not sure what inspired what but the acoustic drumming locked in with the minor-key cooing is a match made in… uh, Diddy’s head. Are the sounds Middle Eastern or Celtic… or just contemporary pop? The adlibbed “Right there..” vocals that end the song end up sounding like Timbo’s squealing sound effects.

10. Aaliyah - Ladies In Da House : Not the watershed ‘One In A Million’ track but on the same album. It is really just one of those filler tracks that usually annoys but in Tim’s hands the play between rhythms is hypnotizing and headnod inducing. That little skipped beat and the unexpected thump-thump-thump-thump are simply incredible. Missy, on point, hits the skips as only she can (“You damn-damn skip-skippy”).

11. Total – Trippin’ : Part of Tim’s first wave bringing futuristic bleepy sounds to black-radio-oriented R&B. The stuttery synths and classic soul harmonizing over the slow beat was a Timbo breakthrough.

12. Playa - Your Dress : One of the most straightforward tracks you are likely to hear... and it works. A nod towards doo-wop but you can almost hear the wheels spinning in Tim's brain that would lead to the hypnotizing flip of vocal sounds on Tweet's classic 'Oops.'

baby girl!... better known as, uh, maya

2007-03-28T10:29:00.000-04:00

I haven’t ‘party-listened’ to the album so I won’t judge all the leaked tracks yet but the extra cheese on ‘Shock Value’ so far is not sitting well with me. An easy judgement comes with this ‘bonus track’ featuring M.I.A. though… Tight.
More difficult question: Why is Ms. Arulpragasam M.I.A. from ‘Shock Value’?
I’m always ready to look past how annoying she comes off outside of her music, especially in those Timbaland studio clips (any wonder why they were pulled off the internets?) as long as her vocals are working over some dope track. And today’s our lucky day.
The weird cultural collage of Middle Eastern?, East Indian? and/or Native American? references (“Go to your tee-pee…”) that this track holds together is that simple Timbo (that’s with an ‘O’ not an ‘A’ newbies!) thingthing that he can do in his sleep. M.I.A.’s simple hook and rapping adds enough texture to the relatively un-layered Tim track to make me wonder if anyone else could have done as successful job. Her minor twist on the threepeat of her ‘Come down’ and ‘Run down’ hooks hit the off-chord just right. And her percussive scat is gonna be great for the hip crowd to botch at her concerts. Tim’s freestyle is typically useless other than adding sound and rhythm… duh! No surprise he does it brilliantly.
Damn the leaked tracks off ‘Shock Value’ for really lowering my expectations for a successful solo Mosely. This might make up for that Elton John crap.

Timbaland, M.I.A – Come Around (via 4shared)

Return of the Prodigal Dun

2007-03-27T10:13:00.000-04:00

P sees macs

‘Return of The Mac’ is not the return of Mobb Deep. And apparently it’s not even the return of the HNIC aka Prodigy. However, it IS a return to form for Prodigy, one of the most visionary vocalists of hip-hop. But it is still an odd title. The pimp pun of ‘mack’ doesn’t apply to P. And the Mac 10 reference begs the question: Has gun talk ever subsided in our favorite reality rap? Maybe there was the formality of a slight lull after Biggie’s violent murder. And that may be the reasoning, however twisted, behind Prodigy’s flip of Biggie’s (now ghostly) roll call of firearms for the titular ode to guns. P, like Big, will forever be remembered as bringing hip-hop’s epicenter back to NY. P didn’t have the approachability or variety of flows that Big had but he did achieve what could be the epitome of East Coast gangsta rap. The world P presented was endlessly detailed… or at least the details were endlessly described in new cold-blooded terms. Prodigy had a heavy-lidded myopic eye and he kept it focused looking down a tunnel. It wasn’t the transcendental third eye but for street tales it was capital-V ‘Vision.’ His delivery seemed brutally un-constructed and although the slang was far from beautiful, the 'dun' language (or ‘thun’ for us etymologists) became known for its unique blunt poetics. For whatever reason, the greatest hip-hop vocalists lose their way in a long career and Prodigy was no different. I wouldn’t discount his health or any of the comforts of success for letting him lapse in his lines. But it seems that the recent audience reaction to his G-Unit paychecks brought the fire (and ice) back to his to his bars. There should be guilt associated with ‘Blood Money’ and it’s as if Prodigy turned the interrogation lamps on his ‘Hollywood P’ self and said “OK... you know you done messed up right?” (What up, Duke?)
Alchemist has served in the Mobb Deep camp as something of a ‘fifth Beatle’. Al is most often brought up as one of the purist (and purest) disciples of the DJ Premier style which many would argue IS 'The New York Sound.’ His consistency for conjuring chopped sequences of head-nodding samples is impressive but can lapse into the bad version of repetition. Havoc, on the other hand, has repeated styles within an album but always seems to come up with a new sound for the lead into the next Mobb album. His diversity, nonetheless, adds up to the brilliant Mobb Deep catalogue: ‘Shook Ones Pt II’, ‘G.O.D. Pt III’, ‘Quiet Storm’, ‘Burn’, ‘Got it Twisted’.
Prodigy and Alchemist make it clear that ‘Return of The Mac’ is just a mixtape, the definition of which seems to be ever-changing. Although it is released on Koch it has only one sample credited which belies the abundance of recognizable music. These loops create the familiar and, dare I say, comforting vibe. I suppose there is a loose feel on this long-player with no commitment to crafting a ‘single.’ ‘Stuck On You’ may be the closest P comes to a love song but it is not radio ready (“Shots spread like flu through your lungs and your peoples”). The flip of the soulful vocal samples are exquisite examples of a style from the last decade that probably influenced Kanye’s work.
The tracks work well together maintaining familiarity with a few surprises much like uncovering one more dusty crate of records. The rhymed atmosphere is the smoky air of the world-weary but seemingly death-proof gangster.
The jump from the Scarface influenced imagery (and hook) of the ‘Mac 10 Handle’ video to this album cover is a bit jarring to those that hoped to see a more gutter level shot of the rapper. Instead P and Al survey their domain from a window seeming to enjoy their success… at least for the moment. Prodigy’s lyrics, however, contradict this satisfactory pose. His street knowledge and survival boasts always come tinged with regret or sadness. He creates classically weary and brilliantly ‘unlyrical’ bars for ‘Bang On Em’:

Don’t ask me why Queensbridge can’t stick together / If you don’t know the answer than you don’t know the ghetto / Everybody don’t get along and that’s what that is / We either shoot when we see them niggas or we gon’ get hit

But, as Mobb Deep’s catalogue has proven, sometimes it is the skit that portrays Prodigy in his truest form, at least for the duration of an album. If that is the case ‘Return of the Mac’ is a misnomer. Prodigy looks forward to the ‘real album’ he and Alchemist are plotting (‘H.N.I.C. 2’) but he also looks back to days before G-Unit or ‘The Takeover’ or resurfacing childhood slides… to the sentimental days of going to battle with ‘L.A, L.A.’ while rocking the biggest chain. This ‘mixtape’ has been blessed upon fans of the cold dark corners of Prodigy’s mind but when ‘P. Speaks’ he assures us “We just havin’ fun.” A lighthearted statement from a maestro known for conducting his paranoia and depression might inspire the knee-jerk rejoinder “Well we’d hate to see this guy when he’s NOT having fun…” But, recently, I think we have seen him at his lowest although his paycheck may have been the largest it’s ever been. The promise of a true ‘return’ via the next ‘H.N.I.C.’ installment and then a reunion with Havoc (also currently doing solo work) is greater than anyone could have expected a year ago. And if it’s “just havin’ fun” that lets Prodigy get back to his cold, dismal verses then keep the playground open. But don’t bother sweeping up the broken glass.

Prodigy – Return of the Mac
Bang On Em
Nickel and A Nail

gotta learn to live with regrets

2007-03-12T17:00:00.000-04:00

what a way to go out, out like a sucker

Man, I was wrong about that one!
It’s a dangerous thing to admit misjudgment in hip-hop circles. But since my track record is pretty solid I’m going out on a limb and listing my biggest missteps as a fan. This isn’t just unpopular opinion (“Tupac sucks!”) or not-yet-fulfilled predictions (“Peedi is the future!”). And although I thought Lord Shafiq would be the next Rakim there really wasn’t a body of work to support such a claim. And although Treach should have been the next LL it didn’t really matter to me personally. And just because Ski Beats or Camp Lo or Ebony Eyez didn’t blow-up as I expected, if I think about it, I can understand why they didn’t.
No… These are statements made with confidence and conviction, based on a certain amount of evidence (although sometimes misread) and proven to be egregiously off-base if not downright wrong. Some are just straight-up embarrassing. If someone actually believed in a ‘ghetto pass’ this is the kind of stuff that could get it revoked with a quickness. Good thing I’m down by law, right?

10. “Slick Rick is good but…” – This barely makes the list because I actually did respect and enjoy The Ruler’s style and records but I really didn’t think “The Adventures of Slick Rick” was the watershed album as many refer to it. The Bomb Squad was going in a direction that didn’t sit well with my PE infatuation and storytelling seemed too ‘soft’ with all of the radical militant / Five Percenter buzz floating around NYC at the time. Rick of course is one of the best MCs of all time and, some would argue, THE best. Since I embrace the intense raunch, casual flow and hilarious soft-spoken ego of Devin Tha Dude and Snoop I feel obliged to mention MC Ricky D as the template.

9. “Joe Budden is the next star after 50!” – When Curtis Jackson seemed to transform the arc of a rap career by flipping second-wind unofficial releases into a huge mainstream success, the parlor game of ‘Who’s next?’ became a fan pastime. I would have bet the house on Joe Budden who seemed to be the imminent mixtape king after ‘Focus.’ He even banged the radio with ‘Pump It Up.’ His ‘Regular Joe’ persona seemed like it wouldn’t have to compete with all of the post-50 gangstaism… especially with Def Jam behind him. Yeah… that last part was a bad assumption. Nothing bores me more than music industry bullshit and unfortunately Joe’s original perspective, flow and voice fell victim to it.

8. “’Chicken Noodle Soup’ is the beginning of a new New York sound!” – For all I know the movement IS thriving in the Harlem clubs and maybe kid friendly dance tracks not based on house music but on stripped down beats and buoyed by sing-song chants and simple raps ARE being prepped for a warm weather Rucker jam… but I thought a LOT more people would be digging it. It seemed like a perfect antidote to the self-serious street-tape mean-muggers. I don’t know why NY rappers can’t support a sound other than their own without feeling ‘soft.’ A lesson should be learned from Southern cats, particularly ATL MCs, who know that true gangsters can produce silly dance songs like ‘Laffy Taffy’ and that kids can ‘snap’ to a T.I. song… and it’s OK. Maybe Lil Mama is an indication that a change gon’ come but I’m not taking any bets with you closed-minded old folks.

7. “Cool Breeze is the next Outkast!” – He didn’t have the dexterity of Big Boi or the poetry of Andre but Cool Breeze seemed like the natural ‘next star’ from the Dungeon Family. His street cred was palpable in his delivery and his view seemed broad enough to escape cartoonish exploitation tough-guy raps. His album not only lived up to the promise he had in DF cameos but surpassed it and ‘East Points Greatest Hit’ had the benefit of hitting the sweet-spot of Organized Noize’ talent. Luckily ‘EPGH’ has enough cult status that it will probably make many ‘Most Underrated’ lists. Again, industry rule #4080 somehow screwed up Freddy Calhoun’s trajectory to stardom and, sadly, it doesn’t look like Purple Ribbon is going to do much better by him.

6. “Kid-N-Play will be the biggest rappers in the world!” – Younger heads may not believe it but the momentum Kid-N-Play had with lyrics, showmanship and understanding music-video power seemed to be an unstoppable force. They were poised to be the next Fresh Prince of hip-pop… but with more complex rhyme schemes! Of course, they DID go on to become HUGE stars but they are on this list because I didn’t see that they would do it without hit records. Obviously the Hudlins appreciated their skills to some degree but saw that the real appeal of the light-hearted duo would be shown through popular teen movies rather than hip-hop radio. They were more ‘Will Smith’ than ‘Fresh Prince.’

5. “Least likely to succeed from the Wu: Ghostface Killah!” – I’m not alone on this one… even U-God seemed to have more commercial potential. And although ‘Cuban Linx’ was a masterpiece I still credited Rae and RZA with the vision. Tony Starks ranks high on this list because his artistic greatness and continuing relevance surpassed all of the Wu MCs. Going from ‘Ghostwho?’ to one of the most creative MCs in hip-hop history was absolutely unpredictable.

4. “The ‘Criminal Minded’ album cover is a bite off of ‘Yo Bum Rush The Show’ and who are these ‘Boogie Down’ jokers?” – You would think this would rank higher on my ‘sin’ list but this was a judgment of the album cover only, not the music. I know now that BDP dropped before PE but Bay Area college radio (KUSF!) had only played PE and a couple of us were very, very hyped to buy their album. We weren’t getting the BDP street buzz in the Yay at that time (but I imagine KRS and Scott La Rock were rumbling in NYC). Dave Goldberg (a fellow PE early adapter) and I often checked the singular ‘Rap’ bin at a Market Street record shop (‘Rainbow Records’??). We ran across an album cover very reminiscent of the ‘Yo! Bum Rush The Show!’ cover. Harshly lit, dark backroom plotting by serious looking East Coast rap dudes in berets forced us to assume that ‘Boogie Down Productions’ was ripping off the PE cover imagery and we just straight up dissed the ‘copy cats.’ Of course, we had the sequence of album drops backwards and once I heard the record all proper respect and awe was directed to BDP. I am hip-hop…not!

3. “I’m not really into West Coast rap.” – I grew up in the Bay Area but couldn’t wait to move to the city that produced RunDMC and The Beasties and had Red Alert on the radio every week (I heard a tape recording of one of the KISS FM shows). I thought the East Coast sound WAS hip-hop with the ‘hard’ beats and varying rhyme schemes. I couldn’t appreciate the more laid back sound of Too Short or World Class Wrecking Cru. ‘Boyz-n-the-Hood’ sounded like something new and good but I was jetting off to NYC as it caught on. I was confused when, just as I had the chance to listen to Red Alert and Chuck Chillout break ‘local records,’ the BK locals were buzzing about NWA. And they were soon reciting every word from the dude that wrote that ‘Boyz-n-the Hood’ record and was now collaborating with the Bomb Squad. And I missed the hometown rise of the adventurous vocals by E-40 and Mac Dre. Although ‘Deep Cover’ was dark enough for my tastes I slept on the ‘sunnier’ sounds of ‘The Chronic,’ partly due to the story of Dre beating up Dee Barnes. I appreciated the freestyle moment via The Heiroglyphics crew but never got into the Project Blowed head (pause). None of my favorite MCs hail from the West but I’m ready to admit that I missed the boat on nearly EVERY important movement coming straight outta Cali (except Cypress Hill… who everyone initially thought was based in the East!).

2. “Craig Mack will be bigger than Biggie!” – I thought that the ‘BIG-Mack’ promotion that Bad Boy embarked on (right before ‘Project Funk Da World' and ‘Ready To Die’ came out) was kind of silly. It seemed obvious to me that the dude with ‘Flava in Ya Ear’ had a whole new vocal style with forward-looking if not futuristic beats. Biggie was the kid that lived next door to me. It made it more difficult to envision his success. MC EZ seemed like he was from another planet radio-ready with his futuristic flow. Both albums dropped within weeks of each other and it became clear that my neighbor, that dude on the ‘Flava In Ya Ear Remix,’ had a lot more to say and was still around the next year...

1. “Beanie Sigel is not a good MC!” – I just couldn’t hear it. I was judging Mac against Jay-Z but he was a totally different animal: perpetually stalking around the beat and always conveying ferocity. I was listening for dexterity instead of hearing directness. I needed some flash but Mac Mittens was showing all heart. I thought MCs had to deliver words assuredly so I didn’t recognize the wrenching emotion conveyed by Beans’ chewing and spitting. This oversight ranks as number one because Sigel went from being utterly dismissed by yours truly, to being one my favorite MCs. When I finally heard the truth and ‘The Truth’ it opened up my perception of what an MC could be. Rap complexity came in the vocal quality and the character it conveyed, not in how many syllables you could squeeze into a clever metaphor.

I know, I know... you NEVER made a bad call…

peedi, you ain’t write that!

2007-02-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

the look of young America...

When the host of ‘The Sound of Young America’, Jesse Thorn, refers to himself as “America’s Radio Sweetheart” immediately following satire-ready intro music (“Maximum fuuuun!!...”) and then describes his show as being “about things that are awesome,” it’s no wonder that a listener would be taken off guard by the following interview with none other than Peedi Crakk. Mr. Thorn says Peedi is one of his favorite rappers and proceeds to do one of the more interesting interviews with the not-yet-household-name rapper.

Peedi’s descriptions of his love for old school rap include memories of PE and LL at big all-ages arena shows which his mother brought him to because he was “not a big fan of after school programs.” And he emphasizes that these are not the “old school throwback shows… these are the original shows” placing him at a very young age to witness some classic performances. His description of their influence is classic understatement as he recalls being “real amused and intrigued” by the militant PE stage show. He says these days he’s been listening to BDP, Tuff Crew, and The Beastie Boys although he’s “not this old fart!”

The biggest laugh comes when Peedi describes the first time he met Freeway at a Halloween party (“a kiddie hop”) in Peedi’s cousin’s basement across from Freeway’s grandmother’s house. Both still early in elementary school at the time, Freeway came dressed as a ninja(!!!) and enjoyed doing “karate moves” instead of dancing. Peedi can’t quite recall his own costume but he assumes it was either a cheap-ass ‘Hulk’ or ‘Spiderman’ costume… or Dracula (he says he dressed as Dracula “for like 10 years straight.” Freeway reconnected with ‘Pedro Tequila’ in high-school. Jesse Thorn makes an astute observation when he notes that although they are very distinct, Free and Peedi have related vocal styles although neither seems to have “specific precedent.” Is America finally recognizing the genius of these two MCs?

Peedi comes off incredibly honest and thoughtful throughout the interview. He admits to being spoiled (“I wouldn’t say ‘blessed’…”) and declares “I can’t mope!” He clarifies all situations related to The Roots, incarceration and inspiration, State Property and Juelz Santana, who Peedi respects for not responding to his dis rhyme, not only for business strategy but because “it would be the end of (Juelz’) career”

The only thing I don’t believe is that Peedi can’t remember what Halloween costume he was wearing when he met Freeway. C’mon, Free… we all wanna know…

A slowed down old school style from Peedi on the Benja Styles JDS ‘What We Do: The Movie’ Mixtape (copped via The Fader)

Peedi Crakk – I’m Peedi Crakk

she used to strap me with the whip…

2007-02-13T12:52:00.000-05:00

Ghost riding responsibly

Slum Village continues their odd Detroit repping by getting strapped.
Their Chevy is heavy… with toddlers and there is something kinda working here beyond novelty-kids-safety-song money. I mean who wouldn’t sing along with the hook at a club? “Sit, pull, cross, click!” It’s better than every ‘don’t drive drunk’ song, isn’t it?
The ghostride mixtape-jack should have fun flipping lines like “Click clack, that’s the sound of the strap!”
C’mon yay area, let’s get crash test dummy and buckle up that yellow bus.

Slum Village - 4 Steps With Kids

timberrr?

2007-02-07T18:22:00.000-05:00

the buzz...

Timbaland still flips ‘em the best but… let me feed the ‘beat origin’ discussion.
Seen?
Heard.
Saw.

throw some swedes on that bitch

2007-02-07T17:50:00.000-05:00

Timbaland, The Hives - Throw It On Me
Via Analog Giant...

'bone,' 'thugs' and... harmony?

2007-02-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

one blood...

HBO debuts 'Bastards of the Party' by Cle 'Bone' Sloan and co-produced by Antoine Fuqua Tuesday night. I loved it. Interview with Sloan here.

she white, she bright, she shines like a pearl

2007-02-05T10:51:00.000-05:00

Prince Paul, DJ 3D and my old boy DJ Avee aka Shoe Heffner will be spinning for the 'accessorized' folk in a celebration of Black History Month as only Prince Paul could concoct.

still chillin' in my b-boy stance

2007-02-05T10:14:00.000-05:00

throw your hands in the air...
now keep 'em there.

Derrick honors the ultimate b-boy stance (seen via Line Out) and inspires a fond recollection of the most iconic stance striker of all, LL's anti-hypeman, E-Love.
Wait for the last line of this scene..."You was gonna shoot him, too..." and ponder: Did that lead Chuck D to cast E as 'The PE' in the logo?

that's that...

2007-01-26T11:17:00.000-05:00

you (will) just live in it

Our trips to the East, my brother, to the East (and London even) have been filled with kid-in-a-candy-store obsession with Muji. The SOHO MOMA-store stationery spin-off is sorely lacking the immersive Ikea + Gap + Japanese Grocery Store anti-logo aesthetics applied to bags, packaged food, a café, kids toys, furniture, house-wares, clothing and even housing that is Muji. The ‘what took them so long’ Manhattan locations should fulfill my only Muji-related wish: Please provide XXL options for some of the gear.
I don’t really wanna blow this one up, but my prediction for hottest item next Christmas…

'Aces' trumped up

2007-01-24T23:51:00.000-05:00

smoke ‘em if you got ‘em

I tend to like my action flicks lean and mean.
Unfortunately, ‘Smokin’ Aces’ is a turducken wrapped with bacon and attitude.

Opening this Friday at a rowdy multiplex near you the latest joint from Joe Carnahan deserves word-of-mouth…and that word should be ‘overload’… which can be a good thing for some but a disappointment for others. The rawness we appreciated in ‘Narc’ is given over to the overcooked and overstuffed parade of semi-star cameos, distracting artillery fireworks and ‘bad-ass’ moments that have become all-too-familiar in the Tarantino zeitgeist. But rather than embracing the nerdy joy and humor that people overlook in Tarantino’s violent ‘low-budget’ homage, Carnahan goes for the safe combo platter of shoot-em-up and sentiment. It has a Woo tang but is really just dollop after dollop of Hollywood empty calories. (Insert contrast to ‘Layer Cake’ here.)

To Carnahan’s credit all of the storylines and characters hint at great moments but because the path was chosen to overwhelm rather than drilldown, the audience is left with an inkling that more interesting stories are happening just off screen. The meeting between a ‘bodyguard’ (played by Common) and one of the assassins is really kind of beautiful in a B-movie way and holds so much potential… but it is not set up with the power of ‘inevitability’ or followed through with any earned satisfaction.

One plot thread is violently and effectively ended earlier than you expect it and the revenge subplot that spins off from there was an opportunity for great character development and the potential to hit solid genre marks/clichés (the ‘avenger’ is resuscitated by kindly stranger, the ‘avenger’ doesn’t take revenge quite the way you expect…) but instead it is filled with too many surreal quirks (a ‘karate kid’ doing the robot?) that make things bizarre and at times funny but, in the end, annoying because there is no more development of the recovering ‘avenger.’

It is clear that Carnahan can handle quiet moments, but he seems to have no faith that the audience might want more of them. The opening scene between Ray Liotta’s and Ryan Reynold’s characters is filled with so much of the promise set up by ‘Narc.’ The timing of the two actors is impeccable, the dialogue is naturalistic and for a moment you think this is going to be a great ‘buddy’ study. The final shot of one ‘buddy’ is also perfectly done with a swell of music, simple camera work and a believable performance in a classic genre scene. The problem is that the scenes that would have effectively connected these first and last shots have been chucked to make room for thirty or more other speaking parts.

The closest comparison I can make to another movie is to “True Romance” which also had a multi-character swirl of plotlines and ammunition and has the distinction of being a true combination of the Tarantino and Tony Scott precedents that “Smokin Aces” will inevitably and deservedly be compared to. The key difference being ‘TR’s ‘heroes,’ Clarence and Alabama, who are prominent even in the midst of the quirky and quite large cast. ‘Aces’ doesn’t give enough screen-time to ANY of its quirk-deliverers or characters for us to truly care who lives or dies. Even a solid-B-minus actioner like “The Transporter” builds the ridiculous action around a clear protagonist regardless of how wooden that character is portrayed and/or written. And even a “Wild Bunch” of anti-heroes display their humanity long enough to earn the audience sympathy. What’s sad is that “Aces” actors seemed amply prepared to deliver the charm if given the room.

“Aces” overwritten plot will be defended for ‘complexity,’ which supposedly ‘invites multiple views.’ “Ronin” is a brilliant example of purposely leaving a barebones ‘action’ plot and yet still inspiring a sense of complexity. The “Ronin” McGuffins are there to inspire dynamic action and tense character interaction. Who really cares what the fuss is about when the fuss is what it’s really all about? “Smokin’ Aces” commits two more sins with it’s McGuffin by putting waaay too much exposition in the dialogue AND not making that exposition very interesting. If a film is going to ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’ it better strive to sound as interesting as two hitmen talking about Le Big Mac or foot massages.

One of Carnahan’s successes in the film is his use of elevators to effectively build cinematic tension (even in the shadow of Woo’s “Hard Boiled”), particularly in the quiet moments. When one character looks at a fuzzy reflection in an elevator door or when one character in a group slowly backs away from an approaching elevator we see Carnahan’s sure hand at letting the images play out and speak for themselves; one shot implies ‘dread’ and the other gets one of the bigger laughs of the movie. One wishes there were more palette cleansing moments like these. Most of the time, however, “Aces” serves up bit after overstuffed bit. A turducken might be an entertaining goof but I was left hungry after this one.

Post Script 1: Jason Bateman kills as the quirky exception that proves the rule. His odd scene-stealing cameo is one of the best played, funny scenes you will see this season.

Post Script 2: Surprisingly, “Aces” doesn’t lessen my excitement about Carnahan’s adaptation of “White Jazz” (with George Clooney as James Ellroy’s Dave Klein!), which I imagine and hope will be closer to his impressive “Narc.”

'Sooo 2006' Long Players: I know all about that…

2007-01-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

10. E-40 - My Ghetto Report Card: A solid affair from the futuristic right-on-time funk beats (sparse enough, inventive, foreign AND familiar) to the density of slang to the variety of voices (and there’s a lot of them). The skits are not only forgiven but endorsed for their local detail and slapstick tone.

9. Young Jeezy - The Inspiration: Stays the course with content but the range of play seems greater with layering vocals and ad-lib counter rhythms which complicate the oft heavy-handed descriptions and simplistic dramas.

8. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not: Distinctly white-boy rock with some swing to the hooks and tight angles to the riffs lets the vocal rhythms bounce while bringing slangy reportage of the absolutely contemporary everyday bullshit which can sometimes seem like the most important thing in a young mans life.

7. Ghostface - Fishscale: The predictably freewheeling and heartfelt ‘educated clapper’ continues lessons on sentimentalizing hard-times (‘Whip You With a Strap’), rapping over old soul (‘Big Girl’), surrealism for the streets (‘Underwater’), how to crossover (‘Back Like That’), detailed seduction (‘Beauty Jackson’) and even just some old-school rap (‘Be Easy’). When an artist opens an album with something like ‘Shakey Dog,’ forgoing hook and inundating with integrated details and action, it begs the question: How have these albums of avant-garde poetry by this bizarre genius become so… I dunno…‘expected’?

6. Yo Gotti & DJ Drama - I Told You So: The direct talk to the Memphis hood beats out his legit album and those grizzled syllables with extra distortion from his distinctly delivered drag have made YG one of my favorite voices in hip-hop.

5. The Streets - The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living: I might be on opposite escalators of the fans of The Streets and of Ghostface respectively. How else to explain the least heralded of Mike Skinner’s albums getting heavier rotation on my ipod than ‘Fishscale’? Maybe it’s because every time I listened to ‘The Hardest Way…’ I couldn’t help thinking Ghostface should hear this album and do a mixtape over these tracks (especially ‘Hotel Expressionism’ or ‘Two Nations’) and redo the off-key sung-hooks in his own off-key way… The ‘simplicity’ of the tracks (‘Memento Mori’ rap shadowing the keyboard) was criticized by otherwise loyal fans but made the album perfectly great for me.

4. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury: It ain’t quite the gospel that was “We Got it For Cheap Vol.2” but their cold and slang-heavy environs allow for a weird mix of desperate actions sprinkled with new money flash (Hi Pharrell!). I can’t help but be struck by the near perfect craft of Clipse lyrics and matching Neptunes tracks and that glossy surface discourages me from reaching out for their shadowed perch. The crispy cadence, the mechanized beats, and the clear vocal tone, click together like a well-oiled machine… but I’m still just admiring clockwork a safe distance from the grinding gears. Clipse cleverness has no equal.

3. Raekwon - The DaVinci Code The Vatican Mixtape Vol. 2: Where Ghost wears his heart on his sleeve, Rae plays cagey, but both always lean towards an overwhelming barrage of imagery (“Broke down fuckin’ Mazda”), poetic slang phrases (“Stole niggas wizessess… izzizzizz”) and smashed together unexpected details (“Celine Dieon chickenheads straight outta Houston” “Kill industry niggas and build maps”). Puzzles of slang permeate the claustrophobic hood visions even while thinking globally (“Wide world of sniffers, spyroglyphics, Caesars and blue angels” or something like that).

2. Lil’ Wayne & DJ Drama - Dedication 2: ‘The greatest rapper alive’ debate is getting tired but there is no doubt that he (at least) sounds like the rapper who most enjoys rapping. Go figure. His disrespect towards hip-hops ‘icons’ is only a reminder of his “Fuck Hip-hop!” days when he was just a Hot Boy. And that’s a great thing!
This mixtape and others on this list are REAL hip-hop ALBUMS, not ‘in spite of’ but BECAUSE they are jacks or flips of the hottest beats and flows and often neglect crossover song structure for the pure pleasures of rep-building. Of course they qualify as albums.

1. T.I. - King : Clipse, Raekwon and Mike Skinner might be the poets and Wayne’s wordplay could arguably earn him best rapper status but the most integrated versatile personality is both the reporter and the showman, the vocal stylist and the style icon, the trap star and the movie star… He is the best MC... which, you may have forgotten, is a bit more than a rapper. This was the album that connected the dots to finally give the masses something to measure all other pretenders against. A ruler perhaps?

'Sooo 2006' Joints: Meet me in a club…

2007-01-11T20:28:00.000-05:00

14. Ghetto Story – Baby Cham: That flutter intro is followed by well-paced storytelling for those of us less familiar with the Jamdown lingo and the light as air vocals disguise the street tales as a lullaby. The slow ramp up at each verse earns a rah rrrah rrrrah rrrah!

13.Ridin’ – Chamillionaire, Krayzie Bone: Anyone complaining about the lack of political content in bangin’ joints that reach a popular audience by a great MC (even by ‘true school’ standards) should have their backpack smacked off with this surprise hit from Cham in their earbuds. A ‘comeback’ of sorts only because he was counted out of the previous Houston wave. Far from his best and yet huge!

12.Tell Me When To Go – E-40, Keak Da Sneak: Setting off the sprinkler of hyphy hype properly with the video handling definitive eye-wash duties, this 40-watershed joint fertilized ‘the soil’ sound. He caught some backlash… but still did it better than them. He’s a movement unto himself.

11. Cannon (AMG remix) - DJ Drama, Lil' Wayne, Freeway, Wille The Kid, Detroit Red, Juice: A straight-up mixtape structure loading up this shotta with 5 MCs and one ubiquitous hypeman and firing center mass at the titular sample. The firepower of an interstate cipher makes me celebrate with a 21 gun salute to this hookless banger. Lock, stock (“We can trade like the Dow Jones”) and barrel, the sure shot from the mixtape of the year.

10. Me & U – Cassie: Fans of proper singing get lost but fans of perfect pop found the simplest ‘notes’ delivered by a fembot and the minimal musical elements to be a lot sexier than a robot telling me the moving sidewalk is ending. And it’s the perfect backseat, high-school high-jinks, ‘promise-don’t-tell-anyone’ soundtrack. How can so little emotion get a listener all worked up? The video didn’t hurt. Not at all.

9. Mac 10 Handle - Prodigy: Ranking high on surprise tactics, P digs Deep and goes guerrilla dolo… forgets the Unit… and entrenches the song/video with cold-sweat imagery in a post-traumatic realm of hallucination and paranoia. If 50 calls in some pre-mixtape marching orders, the Prodigal thun should answer that call to duty, “Hollywood who?” The most exciting fourth quarter lead single by a ‘90’s artist on the comeback. No typo.

8. Grew Up a Screw Up– Ludacris, Jeezy: Luda was applauded for his more intricate rhymes but I always prefer his punches sharp and direct. His phrasing and delivery here sets it apart and reminds me of the joys of straight-up old-school bragging. Supplying unrelenting smacks of hubris, he sounds almost exhausted from delivering his own swagger. The other guy sits in as royalty but Cris holds court promising an impressively healthy, lengthy ATL reign. Hip-hop is dead. Long live hip-hop.

7. Chunk Up The Deuce / Break ‘Em Off – Lil Keke, Paul Wall: One popped a minute ago and one hasn’t had the time to bubble properly but the combo of Paul’s crafty flow with Keke’s pulse and drag over slow and spooky beats is just perfect in both cases. Keke should be a star by ’08 and Paul’s new vocal effect on ‘Break ‘Em Off’ should have you anticipating surprises on his next album instead of critiquing his content.

6. Bossy – Kelis, Too $hort: Swagger rap turned sing-song that Kelis “rides like a bicycle” (and “icy cold”) “while the 808 is jumpin.” It’s a successful pastiche of crossover Houston culture (that includes deep roots leading to the guest MC). The odd video swings from dog to Dog to that dance without getting in the way of the fact that “she’s fine AND she’s pretty.”

5. Do it Do It – Cherish / Chicken Noodle Soup – Webstar, Young B / Goin Down – Young Joc: Not obviously snap but “mixing Youngbloodz with the whisper song” and various other ATL signifiers, ‘Do It’ lets the sisters walk confidently down the A-pop path paved by Ciara. They include the lean, the rock, the poole palace, the shoulder lean… and just when you thought NY had carte blanche to break on the ‘lightweight’ Bankhead they add hot water to oodles and oodles of noodles we knows. The Chicken Noodle reign that was ready to clear it out provided (via Youtube) the thunderbolt that was Light Feet demos. And it had me cheesing just as much as the kids goofing off with it. Like any great dance it had people saying ‘That shit looks ridiculous!’ But the key is that both the participants and the haters are saying the same thing… but meaning something totally different by appropriating a notorious shuffle. The joy of it is of course a middle finger to those that don't get it. Fans of the cathartic and intense Krumping / Clowning documentary ‘Rize’ could not have been prepared for so many more lighthearted dances in 2006… hyphy, snap, chicken-noodle, footwork, buckwilin’… ‘It’s Goin Down’ could not be heard this year without the little bit of Young Joc’s ‘motorcycle rev’ creeping into a listeners wrists…Tom Cruise’s attempt at Jocin’ reinforced clichés about the way certain cultures dance and highlighted the tricky rhythm that all new street dances require (It’s interesting to note that Ving Rhames’ attempts in the background were slightly better but still off.) Many critics of the ‘silly dances’ often expose themselves as not being in on the joke as the wide smiles of most of the dancers reveal a joy, quite simply, in acting a bit foolish… but on beat… and better than you! The more aggressive A-Town Stomp perfected by Sean Paul of the Youngbloodz in the video ‘Damn’ led to the more casual ‘bounce-bounce-pause’ favored by many Atlanta youth which joined with the explosion of the ‘snap music’ sound to form the dance style. And the popularity of Cherish’s ‘Do It’ made the movement safe for suburbia. The cold reaction by many of New York’s hip-hop artists towards the ‘snap’ moment did not prepare them for the more exuberant and youth driven stylings around the new wave of Harlem club culture. Parallel to the snap movement, Harlem youth embraced the simple lyrics and dance oriented song structure and dismissed any alleged ‘rules’ about ‘authentic hip-hop.’ It can’t be a coincidence that the best cure for a cold New York was a healthy dose of ‘Chicken Noodle Soup.’ As a counterpoint to the success of trap/crack rap of 2005, the lighthearted (and it should be noted, non-sexualized) dances of 2006 reminded hip-hop fans of what else the culture can be… at least for a little while: pure, silly, innocent, fun. But “Don’t get it twisted, pimpin: This a HOOD dance!”

4. Grillz – Nelly, Paul Wall, Gipp, Ali: This seems to have been out forever but it still banged the airwaves this year and I enjoyed it every single time. From Destiny Child’s ‘Soldier’ to LL ‘s ‘Kanday,’ to Gipp claiming ‘First!,’ almost every line is a hook. The chorus is as infectious as any other Nelly records (“Let you see my what?”) but we should demand it from all great pop-hop. My smile ain’t on the rocks but long after their diamond dentures are pawned this joint will have folks leaning, rocking and rubbing their hands together with joy.

3. My Love – Justin Timberlake, T.I., Timbaland: Mini-trend for 2006? Roller disco epiphanies. Even with the internet buzz it took a sound-system in a roller rink to finally show me what the fuss was about on this reinvention of disco. ‘Sexyback’ had the rollers bouncing but the ‘My Love’ synthesizer smoothed out the rink. The boom-boom-tap of the beat box (‘Lake or ‘Land?) and the choice of tempo let the sophisticated dancers escape from the regimented four-on-the-floorish ‘Sexyback.’ Some took the half time beat to glide to and others took the double time to bounce their shoulders. The transformed synth stutter, odd vocal squeaks and techno machine sounds signified sci-fi like the best Timbo funk. One could ridicule the sap (“I wrote you a symphony” and “this ring represents my heart”), clumsy slang (“date me on the regular”) and incongruous TI lyrics (“cuz I handle my BI, call me candle guy (why?) simply cause I am on fi’ ha ha”) but sometimes pop music doesn’t have to make sense to be genius. Yes, we all sang the phrase “Toes in the sand” this year… at least those of us who can dance. The video showed a chilled out JT lead that bounce-bounce-slide variation of my middle-school dances but let him do his popping thing in a Charlie Chaplin outfit and walkaway. Was it just that camera trick that thrilled? Nah, the animated rubberbands, too.

2. Hustlin’ – Rick Ross: Coked up thump over a screwed down hook and over-the-top keyboard vamps, made this Jeezy-jack epic. This joint was driven by economics. Ross recounted his source of revenue and invested in stock simple stylings; a powermove not unlike Reasonable-Doubt-era Jay-Z (Oh, you forgot how much Jigga was dissed when he ‘simplified’ his ‘Can I Get Open’ flow???) But Ross makes you appreciate the word ‘economy’ as it relates to ‘movement’ as well… even if Jeezy showed us, and him, the way. Clichés, maybe now, but classic phrases are in abundance… “whip it whip it real hard” “22s!”… and look how he flips them plurals… bitches and biznizz and Benzizz and chickinzz. Every syllable was calculated and the investment paid off significantly. And I’m just talking artistically. Maybe short on clever metaphors but memorable lines still count towards a classic.

1. What You Know – T.I.: Is it the throwaway braggadocio (“sitting pretty with Latin broads and a china doll”) or the uplifting anthem? Is it the hypnotic drone of keyboards and vocals or the multilayered rhythms and complex rap phrasing? Is it a celebration or a threat? Is it the drawn-out synth-line pulse or the punchy catchphrase? Is it the exploitation of an ad-lib (“What?!?” “Okay?!?!”) or the sly slang poetry? Fired-up and cool as fuck, T.I. provides a kiss off to those that think like he does. When he says “all that attitude, unnecessary dude” he couldn’t be more wrong. Is it absolutely contemporary or a classic? You know.

taipei’d in full

2007-01-10T20:13:00.000-05:00

happy as a b-boy buddha...

These were a few of my favorite things… big bowls of nyo ro mien, paigu galore, the best xiau long bau at Din Tai Fung (twice), eel noodles on the street, Ay-chung Flour Rice Noodle in the green bowls, oyster pancake/omelette at the Shilin night market, two kinds of stinky tofu (fried and not), sao bing yo tiao style breakfast with do jiang in the Neihu district, do hwa with peanuts, yakiniku ‘burger’ (rice paddy ‘buns’!!) at Mos Burger (I know it’s Japanese but I didn’t get to it in Tokyo), a ‘ring’ from Mister Donut and countless ballin’ ass banquets (it was a fam-a-lam wedding thing… get familiar!) including teppenyaki at BEN (oxtail, abalone, escargot…)and szechwan at the Ambassador Hotel (best in Taipei?).

Didn’t try these but I gotta love ‘em: Fried Chicken Peanuts, Reggae Cheese Doritos, International Seaweed Lays, and Lonely God Potato Twists.

And maybe the greatest work of craft ever created: a mug with spiders on one side and a sculpted female figure on the other.

Oh and of course KTV with conviction!

We watched the tallest building in the world (for the moment), Taipei 101, burst into flames, explode, be obscured in hellfire and smoke and we all cheered ‘Happy New Year!’(FujiHD rule number ten-thousand and eightyyy…?) (The BIG New Year celebration for Asians comes next month like I ain’t told you before…)

that food food

2007-01-09T18:43:00.000-05:00

let's see what's next on the menu

Asian-Hipsters, Asian-fetishists, plain-old-Asians and even you exotic non-Asians should check out the new issue of Theme Magazine. It’s The Transplants Issue (or is it ‘Trans-Plants’?) and I’ve got an interview in there with old boy Dan ‘The Automator’ Nakamura about, of all things, food! I’ll leave the usual ‘drum-machine’ and ‘crate-digging’ questions to other folk.

Buy Theme off the stands ‘cause it’s another beautiful ish as usual.
Or you can catch it on their updated website.

They even included a photo of Dan and I having what looks like a ‘romantic dinner for two’ (No Bromo!). Ha!

The editors titled the piece The Good Food and I’m not sure if it was a botched pun on That Good Good but that’s the only thing that comes to my mind (as usual). It’s all Good though…

However, I must take issue with the last line in the intro… “Here’s a taste, no pun intended”… You know my puns are always intended and I rarely pass up a chance for one because (if I may remix Bill Macy’s character comment on flan in Wag The Dog) “There’s no difference between good pun and bad pun.”

Fellow foodies dig in.

perfect pitch

2006-12-07T10:34:00.000-05:00

props

You have to hand it to Ben Williams for his review of four of the most anticipated, or at least ‘buzzworthy,’ and, generally, solid rap albums of the season (although I haven’t given ‘More Fish’ a listen yet). In this weeks New York magazine Williams compares the ‘characters’ Ghostface, Jay-Z, Clipse and Young Jeezy portray on their latest albums to characters from the current season of ‘The Wire.’ It’s a damn good ‘high concept’ and he pretty much follows through.

I only question his Jeezy / Bodie link. Bodie, sadly, never has the sense of the ‘epic’ drama underlying his condition until it’s too late. I might see Jeezy’s deliberate and cagey movement more in the portrayal of the Prop Joe character… but it’s a quibble relative to the perfect pop mash-up that Williams achieves.

So let’s see… which rapper would Cheese be?

As an aside, it’s worth noting that rappers rarely convey the fascinating character arcs made by the middle-school protagonists on ‘The Wire.’ If I’ve missed these tales please point me in their direction…
Where are the sympathetic portrayals of the Hustler taken down by his own ambitions that lead him to be identified as Snitch?
Or the Soldier’s Son who finally admits he is not built for the streets ?
And with all of the survivor stories in rap where is the Survivor that needs protection via his friends, teachers and even the killers, because of obvious vulnerability?
Although it seems like the story of a 'strong child turned strong soldier' is a typical rapper narrative, ‘The Wire’ reveals the more nuanced spiral of a Leader who becomes a Follower.

already

2006-12-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

fly pelecanos. fly.

2006-11-30T16:29:00.000-05:00

george town

I suppose I’m in the ‘middle-class’ of “The Wire” audience, having not seen the whole season months ago but having already enjoyed next Sunday’s episode, “That’s Got His Own,” ‘on-demand.’ Since it is the second-to-last episode of the season and even more jam-packed with jaw-dropping moments than usual, I figured I’d add another drop in the ocean of deserved hype. Here is an interview with Ed Burns from Fresh Air (thanks, Warren!). When Terry Gross refers to Snoop’s nail-gun purchase as a ‘drill,’ please forgive her. Ed Burns seems to.
Burns description of the ‘hip-hop’ influence on young wannabe actors is a brilliant, and maybe unwitting, critique of hip-hop as a whole.

“That’s Got His Own” was written by George Pelecanos, one of the ‘staff novelists’ working with the show’s creators David Simon and Ed Burns.
You can listen to an old interview with Pelecanos by Terry Gross from 1988 and a more recent interview by Kacey Kowars.

Here is a good interview from July with Pelecanos by Peter S. Scholtes for City Pages, but I want to feature a few quotes from Scholtes’ blog that didn’t make the final version of the interview. The unofficial words on future projects are enough to increase the heart-rate of a fan of ‘The Wire’ and Derek Strange novels.

(on New Orleans…)

I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about this, but David Simon just sold a pilot to HBO, and it's going to be in New Orleans. It's going to be about all these musicians after Katrina. Like, "How did they rebuild their lives and still play music?" In other words, the hook is going to be centered around the music of New Orleans post-Katrina.

(on screenwriting..)

And what's the status Samuel L. Jackson starring in Right as Rain?
You never know what's going to happen, but it's all ready to go. It's not in pre-production yet, but the script's written.

(on Tarantino…)

I remember, when I saw Reservoir Dogs, I saw it in pretty much a white audience. And I saw these young guys in their 20s laughing at "Cut it out, you guys are acting like a bunch of niggers." And everybody's laughing and stuff. And then, I was looking around, and I saw a middle-aged black guy and his son, probably innocently going to check out that crime film. And everybody's laughing at that. I could just see the guy slinking down in his seat. Like, "What are they laughing at? What's so funny about that?"
But Jackie Brown, oddly enough, when he was criticized for that picture because of the use of that word, I felt like for the first time it was completely organic to the Sam Jackson character. That guy absolutely would have been saying that. The question is, Why is Steve Buscemi saying it? Why is Tarantino saying it in Pulp Fiction? Why would that guy be saying it to the Sam Jackson character? Sam Jackson would beat his ass, and instead he just lets it go. Quentin is saying it because it sounds cool, because he thinks it sounds cool.

(on parenting…)

I have two sons and a daughter, and I assume we're talking about my sons now. One of them's 15, the other's going to be a teenager soon. They're very street-smart young guys. They're tough. I don't have a problem with that. My youngest son is on the wrestling team. He's very tough. He can handle himself in the street. He wouldn't bully anybody, but there's people that don't even want their kids to know how to fight, and I don't think that's helping them any.
I'm a little different. I mean, for example, the word "fuck" to me is four letters randomly arranged. It doesn't bother me if I hear somebody say it. And I've told my kids that, too. People will look at you a certain way if you say it. They're going to judge you. But the fact is, just think about it, man. There's nothing wrong with it. They know everything that I've done, all the drugs I've used, and everything. I try to tell them, look, smoking pot, it's your choice, but personally, from my experience, as an older guy, I think it's a waste of time. It's not a moral thing. Just think about it. Why waste the time? I try to give them something from my experience. I've wasted a lot of time doing that kind of stuff.

like a thun scorned

2006-11-28T23:58:00.000-05:00

Not chiming in with ‘Album of the Year’ accolades is becoming as blasphemous as disagreeing with the designated ‘Best Show on Television.’ I worship ‘The Wire’ and the long-awaited Clipse album has me saying “Holy shit!” but, cotdamm, it ain’t quite the gospel that was “We Got it For Cheap Vol.2.”

Hearing “Hell Hath No Fury” a few times makes me realize, after all these years, that calling Mobb Deep ‘cold’ dismissed the warm blood coursing through every paranoid verse. It may seem unfair to compare groups that rely on opposite lyrical tactics but they both arrive at similarly cold and slang-heavy environs and the link between the relentlessly dark realms of Clipse and Mobb Deep seems unavoidable and appropriate.

As much as the Havoc and Prodigy recording-personas were consciously shaped and perfected for their second album, they were conveying a worldview (however insular) and, even in Prodigy’s brilliantly blunt (and coded) language, we believed in that world’s existence… even if it was a ‘Queensbridge’ filtered through the heads of the artists (and producers). The Clipsean world is harder to see. Part of that is due to the weird mix of desperate actions sprinkled with new money flash (Hi Pharrell!).

‘Hell Hath…’ often leaves me looking into a snow-globe of shaken storms and eerie smiles, whereas classic Mobb Deep style immerses me in cold sweat. I can’t help but be struck by the near perfect craft of Clipse lyrics and matching Neptunes tracks but that glossy surface discourages me from reaching out for their shadowed perch. The crispy cadence, the mechanized beats, and the clear vocal tone, click together like a well-oiled machine… but I’m still just admiring clockwork a safe distance from the grinding gears.

In the past Prodigy’s kluge of threats formed an imprecise structure that provided a space for this listener. Not a ‘comfort zone’ but something ‘recognizable’ and imperfect. Havoc’s sparse placement of dusty samples over the heavy bass did the same. It was not surface. It was surround sound.
Although Clipse cleverness has no equal, Mobb Deep’s relentless brutality, at it’s best, has an organic quality that never tries to impress with finesse. The lyrics often bowl the listener over with unadorned directness even when chopping the ‘thunny language’ in with English. Oddly, Hav and P seem to present a ‘secret language of siblings’ more organically than brothers Pusha and Malice. No wonder that I admire their beat selections for the Re-Up mixtapes because they helped round out and ground the sharp lyrics.

Clipse craft can generate envy of talent and inspire awe, amazement and appreciation of the song/object that has been made (which I also appreciate in the throwaway intricacies of Cam’ron and Peedi Peedi) but it rarely lets my mind transcend the object or it’s ‘making’. And, although I’d never attempt to define ‘art’ I know it when it changes how I see the world. The paranoia and pain that Mobb Deep pointed to will forever lurk in New York’s shadows. It seems apt to mention that East Coast rap was at a ‘low point’ before the mid-Nineties rebirth with Mobb, Nas, Biggie, and Wu, at least relative to the West Coast vitality. Recent years leave the East Coast in a similar position relative to the ‘Third Coast’ hip-hop. Is it any wonder that it has become an acceptable opinion that Clipse’ style fell from the Big Apple tree of MCs as opposed to it’s southern species?

As much as I can’t quite inhabit ‘Hell Hath…’ it is the first rap album that earns a fair comparison to Mobb Deep classics. There are few higher honors I could bestow on an album. And most of the other critics have already done that.
But before I verge into personal blasphemy by uttering “They don’t make ‘em like they used to!” let me declare the return of a savior that restored my faith in the ‘here and now’ of NYC hip-hop.

Prodigy’s solo video / song ‘Mac 10 Handle’ swooped down like a fever dream angel recently and plunged us back into P’s hellish visions that have been lacking in recent years. Without this heavenly hardcore hip-hop could I even discuss Mobb Deep’s relevance in the same breath as the au courant crafty Clipse? Hell no.

The anticipation for ‘Hell Hath...’ is done and, lord willing, the hunger for the Prodigy mixtape will replace it. Can I get a amen?

happy propsgiving day!

2006-11-22T17:38:00.000-05:00

the ree up

Back from Mexico in time to give muchas gracias…

Big shout to the editors, the guides, the young wisemen, Sean and Jon for not only saving me from embarrassment with my little album review at the back of this months Vibe, with Mathers and Jackson on the cover, but for letting my byline sit on the same page as one of my favorite writers of all time, Greg Tate.

Nuff respect to the Roc-a-fella Blogger contestants at Loosie, Dork and Palms Out and when ya step to Eskay, that’s when ya lost. Thanks for the knock-out, folk!
Pass the stuffing...

my favorite hue is Jay-Z blue-state

2006-11-15T13:45:00.000-05:00

The Bud sponsored Hov may be feeling even more like a Black Republican when he kicks it to the NASCAR dads with Junebug on XM. Jay’s strategic E-Dub and DP connects may offset the ‘Kingdom Come’ leakage (pause) helped by the mid-America big boxes. If he doesn’t work out a rhyme using ‘Esco USA’ or ‘nasty NASCAR’ well… I’m sure I’ll live.

what it is. what it was.

2006-11-14T11:18:00.000-05:00

more contemplative snow scenes

Expectations for an album can’t help but frame an artist for success or failure. Nas and Snoop seem to be succeeding and, as highly as I regard Raekwon, his ramp up to OB4CL2 is also surpassing my already high expectations. Young Jeezy plays on a different field than those three MCs but the bar he has to clear is, none-the-less, higher than most. His latest buzz tape with DJ Drama ‘I Am The Street Dream,’ provides just enough lift on this trial jump to increase expectations even more. There is great 'weighty' stuff here but even Jeezy’s throw away party joints live up to his subtle-with-a-sledgehammer brilliance. Paying homage to Three 6 Mafia (yeah we love to pop collars / you can catch me in the projects like Pat) Jeezy flips Project Pat’s immortal ‘Gel and Weave’ hook to honor his favorite party favors. His rhymes span the hip-hop map from the Bay Area (I got my Stunna shades on / tell me when to go) to Hollis (Adidas shoes / in my trap-star stance) but he holds them in his sphere of phrasing (witness his pronunciation of ‘Adidas’). Although one could easily read contradiction or sloppiness in these ad-lib-punctuated phrases (I came to get drunk, baby / I ain’t tryin’ to dance /… after 4 or 5 shots, 3 or 4 blunts / I just might do my dance…) never doubt that his simplicity embodies precision. It is no mistake that he only mentions coke when mixing it with henny.
On Drama’s latest mixtape the between-cut voice messages remind us how ferocious Jeezy’s personality and voice can sound. Does that frantic energy have a more pronounced contrast with his booth vocals in this sophomore round or is it just easy to forget compared to his mesmerizing and deliberate delivery? Like David Mamet, Jeezy can annoy audiences with affected construction of shoptalk chunks and repetition of phrases (for rhythm in Mamet’s case, for emphasis in Jeezy’s). Those audiences have made a bad assumption that ‘real’ depends on naturalism rather than the poetic. Although I have no doubt that both writers would distance themselves from the word ‘poetry.’
Who is going to make me a t-shirt with this zen nugget emblazoned on it?

All up in the spot and make it do what it do
and that’s exactly what it does.
What it is. What it was.

How real is that? It is what it is.

Jeezy voice mail to DJ Drama
Young Jeezy – All I Need

jaw jappin, bumpin gums, chasin crumbs

2006-11-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

“Paul Wall” suspected of killing 24 year old.

A cruel connect with the real Paul’s past.

“…‘bout to catch a case with peedi…”

2006-11-10T09:35:00.000-05:00

“…Juelz Santana, where the FUCK you at?...”
Peedi Crakk, Cam’ron, Juelz Santana, Beanie Sigel – Freestyle (‘One For Peedi Crakk’ Beat)

And for those still iffy on the props…
“…Somethin’ for haters…”

“…know what I know…”

“…Dame is alllright…”

“…chin up, chest out…”

sucker punch

2006-11-09T10:03:00.000-05:00

RA the rugged man

Winded and whupped…
“I’m feeling like a Republican!”
Sadly, wishful thinking but, happily, a simile with new meaning.

“I’m feeling like Ron Artest!”
Just sad.

Mobb Deep, Big Noyd – Man Down

(posted with no disrespect to KM)

out cast

2006-11-07T19:04:00.000-05:00

I’m the Ralph Nader of this vote tabulator…

But the more important voting today should be done AWAY from your computer particularly those looking for a change in them key spots like The State Penn, The ‘Oh’, The Mo, Tenn-a-key, Dub A, VA (where ain't shit to do but cook), New Jeruz, tony Montana and of course please rep Minnesota!

Get fired up, folk!

Kaze – Blood Thicker Than Blood

the other triple C

2006-11-06T00:13:00.000-05:00

I know Cool and Dre have been p-p-p-pushing C-Ride of Carol City but this DJ Rascal So Serious Vol. 5 mixtape joint sold it to me. Phrasing and pacing switch-ups from double to half and back again. Exaggeration of syllables and vowels (“Not a thing” rhymes with “collard greens”) over signature sunshine state stuttering snares and supersized synthesizers have me doin’ “that I-got-money walk.”

C-Ride – All Day

grease is the word

2006-11-06T00:08:00.000-05:00

Dame Grease does his version of a Miami version of a Houston-style hook and a track heavy with drama but replaces ATL based phrasing with a hyped up Drag-to-the-dash. This one has been sitting on my desktop for a while and the hook is still the highlight. Folk might be tired of this style but I ain’t the one.

Drag-On – Shoebox Unda Da Bed

crakk v human crack

2006-11-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

P-Crizzle makes it clear this isn’t some Hov / Cam avatar gauntlet-throw-down although it is not clear if the beef surfaced from some sartorial staredown at a soiree. Peedi’s talk of hitting “Juelz with a brick or aluminum bat” might be overshadowed by his threat of “next summer a little gun up in my swimtrunks” (no marco polo) but his spits on the mic with a cobra clutch: smooth movement with the music plus venom.
I find that many rap fans consider Juelz and Peedi to be truly annoying MCs for their vocal tics and so the potential for a battle is a non-issue except maybe in reference to their respective music / business advisors. Other fans will see this for what it could really be: a clash of two of the best and extremely unique vocal stylists from the current wave of MCs. Both of their reactions to a beat should serve as different phrasing inspiration to lesser MCs. They both have learned the power of rhythmic punctuation through punchy exclamations or straight up sound effects (“Ay!” “Rrring”) but also demonstrate complex rhyme schemes often in an avalanche of syllables. I like the scrappy street angle they both can bring and, so far, I’m impressed with the extra work on the backing track (“Oh Boy!” “ONE! ONE!…”).
Seeing them on the Apollo stage a couple years back made me think the Dipset / Peedi connection could generate some interesting collabos.
Not quite the same… but I’m the opposite of complaining.

Jon, are we wagering?

Peedi Peedi – Freestyle (Juelz Dis)

you ain’t cause you not

2006-11-06T00:02:00.000-05:00

If you think MIMS (Mims Is My Savior) re: NY hip-hop (which I might cosign) but still maintain disdain for ‘snap’ or straightforward southern styles… then you are a hypocrite. Regional respect links with apt samples but nothing gets in the way of the perfectly spaced bloops and highs. Get it and go DJ!

Mims – This Is Why I’m Hot

Lil’ Wayne – Go DJ

roc aware

2006-11-02T23:30:00.000-05:00

Yeah sure hella are hep that Hovi’s home isn’t of the ‘retirement’ variety. But most still front on the Roc roster.
Take a look out the bandwagon window and bear witness to ancient Roc formations…
Eff a dead link… you get the idear.

hovi movie

n-word Rican

no doubt

reloaded

'stache house

I like beans

well well well well

cris miss

freeway swings

props

nic and sig on the mix

gangster

joe joins?

s dot carder

feel good good

grey days

repping in 04

free love

(and his girl too)

roc the vote

2006-11-02T17:58:00.000-05:00

Time only allows a very quick mention for now…
In honor of the greatest unretired rapper dropping a new long player November 21 (Oh you haven’t heard? I’m gonna come out of “retirement” as well and throw a diamond or two or three up, for the re-up.
For now, please check out the the the Roc site and vote for your favorite blogger. Like a true democracy you only have choices that were arrived at through a complex series of blahblahblahs…
And remember: A vote for ‘That Good Good’ is a vote for the grassroots underdog (I’m a one-man shop here, people!) and general lackadaisical posting.
Don’t let the terrorists win!
More proper ganders coming…

JB's comin' through

2006-11-01T19:08:00.000-05:00

Prep yourself for one of the most amazing collections of personal history you are likely to see. Ever ever. Ever ever? Ever ever.
My old boy Julian Bevan is THAT dude and his website is THAT good.
Do you know anyone who can say that as a performer they opened up for the Dead Kennedys AND Biggie Smalls? JB is THAT dude.
You will read about his BK based gangsta rap group Trigga Happy that was part of a Palladium(!!!) show that had the following line up:

Run DMC
Whodini
Third Bass
Lord Finesse
Spiderman
The Secret Garden
Special guest Vice President Dan Quayle

(You will have to read that story to understand why Spiderman was on the list.)

He DJ’d regularly for VIBE and Don Hills and Frank’s Lounge in the BK and even for Iron Mike fucking Tyson… You will pour over the Hip-Hop Honors concept sketchbook pages. You will tell your friends about his collection of downloadable mixtapes… from hip-hop to reggae to house to disco to whatever.
You will read the entire series of comics for On The Go magazine about being a DJ.
And that dude can spin a yarn as well as two turntables. You will want to read every insightful and hilarious word.

So get to it.

port authority

2006-10-25T14:19:00.000-04:00

welcome to miami

It feels like Miami’s year with The Heat as champs and ‘Hustlin’ as the anthem. Many of us prepped for Michael Mann to bring us The Year’s Best Remake of a Tough Guy Classic. But just as Martin Scorsese scoops that title with his Southie rework of HK macho, the thrilling ride that was ‘Miami Vice’ resurfaces in the coda of the fascinating documentary, ‘Cocaine Cowboys.’

As a synthesized score (composed by none other than Jan Hammer!) brings us in to the rapid fire account of Miami’s redefinition from lazy vacation / retirement spot to cocaine capitol to murder central, fans of ‘Scarface’ and ‘Miami Vice’ get to see and hear the real deal from the real dealers; smugglers and distributors, cops and killers. The details documented in this movie should keep our favorite rappers ‘coke rhymes’ supplied with line after addictive line. A smuggler describes a floating bale of marijuana as ‘a square grouper’ before he moves into the ‘port of Miami’ coke trade for the ‘weekend warriors,’ the well-off clientele who could afford $800 oh-zees for their between-the-weekly-grind parties. We see how the Oakland raiders and the Grateful Dead were connected by more than just the San Francisco Bay. We learn that Pablo Escobar has a bigger rep than his actual contribution to the Medellin trade might account for (Old Man Ochoa was the real boss). Who will rap first about the noirishly named Micky Munday? He is described as the ‘redneck’ pilot who revolutionized drug smuggling (and thus its law enforcement techniques) with such leaps of imagination as cans with radio transmitters and product dropped off shore. He established a trade route to avoid existing patrols for contraband on the Bahamas route and then drove the product SOUTH to Miami FROM the north with a towed car serving as the ‘package’ for the product so that the truck driver was always ‘clean.’ Munday and his distribution partner Jon Roberts laundered their ever increasing amounts of money through Noriega (the REAL Noriega). The description of their financial success is staggering but they were far from the only ones tapping into the coke demand. Miami soon had a luxury car shortage as people would buy multiple BMWs and Benzes per year.

Believe it or not, but before these guys, there wasn’t a nightclub scene… there was no Miami skyline… there was no $6 Billion cash surplus in the Miami federal reserve… But even with all of that there was no way you could have predicted a drug ‘boss’ like ‘La Madrina’ Griselda Blanco aka the Black Widow. And any work of fiction would be lucky to have a villain as cool and collected as the assassin Jorge ‘Rivi’ Ayala. His account of the climactic hit with a bayonet is straight up Elmore Leonard who avoids “good vs bad” but loves “smart vs dumb.” And like any good pulp fiction, the surprise of who lives or who dies, who gets caught or who gets away is less important than how it all goes down. ‘Cocaine Cowboys’ deals the details in a well orchestrated coked-out rush and it is guaranteed to make you fiend for more.

When ‘Miami Vice’ and ‘Scarface’ get referred to after the coke-economy-crash, they seem like quaint tales compared to the real blood and big money that the ‘regular’ folks in ‘Cowboys’ got themselves into. Documentaries may not get the wide distribution they deserve but as far as the street market is concerned this one is gonna blow.

Oh and if you need more local encouragement…
Pitbull
Trick Daddy
Carol City Flea Market

And an earlier account of the trade...
BDP - Illegal Business

ree up in this

2006-10-19T15:19:00.000-04:00

hoes and mo shit, the family close KNIT

daydreaming I quietly observe standing in my space

2006-10-17T10:35:00.000-04:00

Crackspace?
No...Crackspace.
Any defense for an 'urban youth' angled site calling itself 'crackspace'?
I dunno... "sidewalk cracks," maybe?... You thirsty?

strong island

2006-09-28T17:58:00.000-04:00

...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

2006-09-22T19:39:00.000-04:00

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?

2006-09-20T18:18:00.000-04:00

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

One can either be lying OR snitching, right?

one double O percent above the rest

2006-09-13T13:59:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-12T11:48:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-09T12:14:00.000-04:00

Tonight.

Defari - Lowlands Anthem Pt. 1

your boy barkindji building

2006-08-30T15:05:00.000-04:00

we jump off the bridge
when we get home we play some didj

I’m guessing that the Wilcannia Mob is a group of kids from the Barkindji aborigine population northwest of Sydney. Chris Lemon-Red has been mad decent enough to let me hear a track called ‘Baakan DJi Boys’ credited to Aemon, Keith, Wally, Lendl & Collaroy. Wally, Keith, Collaroy and Lendl are definitely part of the Wilcannia Mob credited with the track ‘Down River’ (Sounds like Buddy on the last verse but I can’t be sure that it’s not Aemon).
I first heard ‘Down River’ at the very end of the uploaded Damage Control show around the end of July featuring Diplo in a cameo on the wheels (or files or whatevs) in Houston and you can hear it in the podcast called ‘Mad Decent Worldwide Radio # 6 - 4 Day Weekend Happiness Mix.’
‘Down River’ uses the didgeridoo as a kind of bassline with a beatboxed loop over it… all of it sounding very improvised on the spot and then chopped up and synced later in the studio. But the incredible Baakan Dji Boys vocals are what set the bar for the gulliest delivery of the year. Aussie kids Wally and Keith rock the field-recording mic with an accented growl of slang and ‘local talk’ that is new to my ears and instantly addictive. If you’re not a fan of the cathartic rawness that is ‘favela-funk-style-rapping’ you should probably turn away from ‘Aussie-aboriginal-child-rapping now. The raps are rough, simple and, sometimes, on-beat reworkings of rap phrases that have filtered into the Wilcannia area mixed with local slang and sing-songy chants and rhymes that, I imagine, could have been made up by the kids this summer… or possibly handed down by generations. Their references to fishing and ‘the bridge’ (possibly the Myers St. centre¬lift bridge of Wilcannia pictured above?) keeps the content local but when Wally says “Check my video clip on your TV screen!” on ‘Baakan Dji Boys’ you can hear that they’ve got ambition to get beyond ‘the bridge’… or at the very least he’s inherited the phrase meant to convey that type of ambition. Hopefully more information (and more rap-tunes from the Mob / Boys) will be surfacing soon via the Mad Decent camp. Get ready for more of that southern (hemisphere) rap.

Wilcannia Mob - Down River (Mad Decent Edit)

peedi files

2006-08-30T07:18:00.000-04:00

crakk with roots?

Roots tried Mac… and now PC...

Maybe Beanie and Jay weren’t shocked by the news of the Roots asking Peedi Peedi Crakk to be their ‘fifth Beatle’ (or ‘fourth’ depending on who you talk to). It was almost as odd as picturing Peedi as, well, a Beatle.

Nothing galvanizes splinter groups more than a common enemy as I figured the fans of The Roots and Peedi would be united against the idea. I assumed the boards would echo my initial outcry… only from the other side of that elusive line in the hip-hop sand. But I try not to blog while angry (or very often for that matter)… and as the success of ‘Long Time’ calmed my nerves the Philly crossover concept became more of a “Why not?” I am one for Peedi Crakk on just about any type of beat… that dude just ratatats his own riffs over the main beat so why not Roots music.

Debates of street cred and album sales motivations should take a backseat to the intentions (and execution) of the art and you have to give ?estlove credit for having love of all types of sounds and particularly for recognizing an MC that is often dismissed by fans of the ‘classics.’ The idea that Black Thought is ready to not only share the spotlight but, most likely, vibe off of the energy that the former ‘Pedro the Gigolo’ provides is actually pretty exciting. Hov seems willing to try just about anything to get the PC buzz going. As the mainstream Ne-Yo route gives way to the more collegiate Roots route, trap-&-B fans can only hope for a future with an odd duet of the Snowman and the Crakk-man... polar poetical pace be damned! I’m sure much of this has been discussed on the boards but you know there are lines in the sand that I don’t venture over much. Funny thing is it seems like all of this was news to the Prince of the Roc, too!

Apparantly Peedi’s future features Bun B, some dancefloor friendly stuff and “a whole different level of music” from his Intense Prince imprint. Here are a few snippets from the past that might evoke some of that.

Peedi Peedi and Bun B – Hound Dogs
Peedi Crakk – Shake
Peedi Crakk, Freeway and Oschino – Pocket Full of Bullets

run forest run

2006-08-17T13:30:00.000-04:00

bird flip and banner

The Urban Forest Project is up around the Times Square area as well as the internets area. Almost 200 visual artists and designers were invited to contribute a banner with the concept of ‘urban forest’ as inspiration. The banners will be up through Halloween and then they will be made into tote bags and auctioned off to raise money for visual arts students. And you can order a T-shirt of any banner!

Wifey’s Goodesign banner is shown above and on the site.

kelis wasn't there...

2006-08-11T13:24:00.000-04:00

(here she is)

…But I was. On first listen to ‘Kelis Was Here’ the reaction is ‘Damn, this is it!’ The desire for Kelis to hit the capital-S-followed-by-exclamation-point Superstar!-moment is very, very strong and it is almost satisfied here. Her unwillingness to take the easy route hasn’t prevented her from seizing the opportunity to have a quite-solid follow-up to ‘Bossy’, an unexpectedly funky about face to the genius new-wave silliness of ‘Milkshake.’ The album is sexy almost the whole way through whether it’s soul, hip-hop, rock or new wave. And Mr. and Mrs. Jones do their usual bizarre kinky joint… but it is a real banger this time. At times Kelis opts for straight up bizarre but always in a different way than you might expect. Witness the Latin ‘fiesta’-like instrumental break towards the end of the album. Unfortunately it’s oddness fits a bit too oddly with the rest of the tracks. Of course, she brings the quirky space-case vibe that Alt-and-B divas like Joi and Badu tap into but Kelis would never be mistaken for neo-soul (even with Saadiq on the boards) or a galactic soul-queen visiting Earth. She is urban through and through even in her most far-out journeys, spacey synthesizers are just ‘80’s versions of a futuresound. She will occasionally communicate with the mothership funk (this time quite literally on ‘Whats’ That Right There’) but she speaks via around-the-way chirps rather than psychic incense-itivities. Street smart in high heels, she can’t help but convey the ‘I ain’t takin shit but you can still tie me up’-type honey eye contact. I love the noise of the next single ‘Blindfold Me’ featuring hubby Nassir but my pick is the Shondrae backed ‘Ah Shit’ featuring Smoke in which Kelis exclaims, of course, “Ahhh shit!” but reminds us “I can make the whole song taaalllk shit!” The knocking drums and the odd muted squeak/bloop immediately hook. ‘Handful’ is a very simple track and vocal consisting mostly of Kelis closing a sing-songy rapped vocal with a soda-commercial sound of ‘buh-buh-b-buh-buh’ providing a bubbly throwback hook that you immediately want to sing along with. And she’s got lots of those moments on the album from the guilty pleasures of chanting “Fuck them bitches” to the back-and-forth with Will.I.Am (“Whats’ that right there?/ This right here?/Ain’t nothing but a little something that I got.”) to the rock-inflected vocals of “I Don’t Think So” that rhyme the words “chance” and “in my pants.” The easy listen of the Cee-lo helmed “Lil Star” works well but the standout on the chill side is the dreamy “Living Proof” with synthy high-notes over a club thump that bring up memories of Black Sheep’s ‘Strobelight Ho.’ Although “Weekend” is an annoying mis-step Will.I.Am proves again that his non-BEP tunes can be unqualified successes in respectable pop. And that pretty much describes the whole album. Unfortunately I have to wait until the official release for a second listen but it will be the second of many, many many. Bet.

Track and Producer list
1. Intro
2. Bossy / Shondrae
3. What’s That Right There / Will.I.Am
4. Till The Wheels Fall Off / Will.I.Am
5. Living Proof / Raphael Saadiq
6. Blindfold Me / Polow, Sean Garrett, Dr. Don
7. Goodbyes
8. Trilogy / Scott Storch
9. Circus / Raphael Saadiq
10. Weekend / Will.I.Am
11. Like You / Knobody
12. Ah Shit / Shondrae
13. Lil Star / Cee-Lo
14. I Don’t Think So / Dr. Luke
15. Handful / Sean Garrett
16. Appreciate Me / Damon Elliott
17. Have a Nice Day / Sean Garrett
18. (Hidden Track) Fuck Them Bitches / Will.I.Am

Good tunes that already leaked…

The banging second single…
Kelis, Nas (produced by Polow, Sean Garrett, Dr. Don) – Blindfold Me

The addictive hidden track…
Kelis (produced by Will.I.Am) – Fuck Them Bitches

The one with the opera sample…
Kelis (produced by Knobody) – Like You

poppa large...

2006-08-09T09:23:00.000-04:00

...big shot on the east coast

from a YG’s perspective

2006-07-24T19:58:00.000-04:00

Only enough time to say “Gott’ damn that bumps!” Old but newish to me and I don’t recognize the beat as being jacked which would be the only reason to keep it off of the album, right? Attempting to separate Gotti’s distinctive voice from his typically solid flow is a useless exercise... but still, I'm inclined to give that flow a special mention for this one.

Yo Gotti – Da Truth
(Apologies for this mixtape version cutting off so abrubtly)

'gang' re-up

2006-07-18T19:49:00.000-04:00

I don’t know why State Property never got the proper commercial push-package. Maybe because every hip-hop fan I knew at the time hated every MC in the group (except Beanie). I thought I was losing my mind thinking 'Freeway is the future' and telling folk “One of the Young Gunz is really dope... he freestyled on the radio the other night and Jay couldn’t even follow him” type ish. And then Peedi joined SP... but folk thought he was more annoying than Freeway.
Alright so the first album didn’t have hits other than ‘Mic Check’ and the second… well, what exactly happened with that one, Dame? There were at least a couple street joints on there.
With all the drama involved with the break-up of the Roc and Beanie’s post-bid issues with SP members, I don’t know where ‘The Gang Is All Here’ is coming from. I’ll assume these are a bunch of tracks from Dame’s vault that got thrown together for some pocket change… I honestly have no idea. A few tracks may have shown up on mixtapes but all in all, there is really no logical reason to expect this collection to be anything approaching 'good.' But it may, in fact, be the best of the bunch… with all due respect to an absent Omillio.

Young Chris - Around My Old Way
Young Gunz, Peedi Crakk. Pooda Brown - What Up
Beanie Sigel, Peedi Crakk, Young Chris - Killn That

escobar season

2006-07-18T09:36:00.000-04:00

Timbaland is rumored to be producing a movie about Pablo Escobar (and skipping the Missy movie). Huh? Maybe it will compete with the adaptation of Mark Bowden’s book ‘Killing Pablo.’ And maybe Benicio Del Toro… or Vince Chase in the lead?

molding Ca$his clay

2006-07-17T13:30:00.000-04:00

For now I’m typing ‘SHIFT 4’ but we’ll see if young Ca$his’ maintains enough respect to continue that practice. He won’t be the new kid on the Shady block forever. I’ve come to realize I like the oddly spelled MC names if only for researching on the web. Properly spelled research can take you to a French disco (respect to TTC) or Spiritual Jew MCs or maybe even to the proper MC…
I haven’t heard his Renegadez work but it’s almost like being reborn when hooking up with one of the Renegades.
It’s always interesting to hear mixtape styles (‘I’m Ca$his’) contrasted with carefully constructed pop shots. ‘Serenade My Life’ is an obvious mad doctor hybrid but it comes off less Dre and more Moreau (‘see, there’s the Fifty plus Em plus emo style production and hook!’). It’s the conflicted inner-monologue woe-is-me wallowing we often love from the Shady camp. Ca$his content is not yet as revealing as Marshall’s moods or as fascinatingly dead-eye as Fifty’s paranoia. But I’m sure the camp is working on it…
His freestyle lets in more casual hubris and pronunciation contortions than ‘Serenade’. It remind me of a good, if simplified, cross-breed of the clipped-and-clenched vocal mode of Kurupt and Jay-Z.
But it looks like Shady has tweaked their approach and instead they lead with ‘Talkin’ all that Shit’ and you can immediately hear why. That is, if you enjoy the dark, deliberate sound of a threat. Plies captured brilliant belligerence on his stylistic breakthrough ‘Freestyle (aka Takeoff)’ and ‘Talkin’ has a pace and bass that succeeds with similar sonics. Ca$his raises the bar however by embracing just enough lyricism and not just a bad attitude. In this case it’s a good thing. None of these tunes form a complete picture of the MC though. Barely a sketch, the Ca$his persona will most likely be as well crafted as one of his backing tracks.
The pressure is always on for Shady rookies to knock it out the box but especially since certain affiliates learned to play The Game so well.

Ca$his – Serenade My Life
Ca$his – I’m Ca$his
Ca$his – Talkin’ All That Shit

I love this game

2006-07-13T13:56:00.000-04:00

I got a preview of the ‘NBA 2K7’ album that, I guess, goes along with the upcoming video game (not really my area of expertise). The album’s producer, The Automator, likes to play ‘Name The Vocalist’ with all his new albums…

Before they rapped their names here’s who I could identify:

Slim Thug
E-40
Casual and Del (although both voices sounded a bit different... and we didn’t get to the A-Plus verse)
Chali Tuna
Ghostface
Fabolous
Mos Def
Tribe Called Quest (particularly easy since it was ‘only’ a remix of 'Lyrics To Go’)

And here’s who I couldn’t ID:

Rhymefest
San Quinn (on the track with E-40)
Evidence and Lupe Fiasco (on the same track)
Rakka and Aceyalone
AG (on the track with Ghostface)… my excuse is that his voice sounds much deeper now.
Anwar Superstar (on the track with Mos)
Zion I

We were later joined by Russell Simins, Automator’s co-hort in the embarrassing-to-Google project Men Without Pants. On a personal and sad note, they never went with my suggested band slogan: “We take no shorts!”

There was a rumor that we might stop by Just Blaze’s studio but he was, ahem, still working on someone’s comeback album. ‘Nuff said.

non-event

2006-07-12T09:33:00.000-04:00

Dude, not a problem.

(..although I'm more inclined to agree with Jay and embrace that old Lauryn Hill defensive declaration after winning a slew of R&B Grammy's and album of the year: "This is hip-hop music.")

America’s most wanted

2006-07-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

The internets thwarted my patriotic duty of posting some flag-waving joint yesterday. And y’know, typically on July Fourth my MP3 thoughts run towards the Dead Prez and Tahir side of things, or at least some version of Trick Daddy’s classic or maybe an El-P mustard gas reference and if I’m feeling oddly patriotic Prince might get a spin but let’s call this counter-counter-programming and I’ll hope the non-ironic fairly shallow embrace of the good ol’ US of A sentiment is excused since it IS a Timbaland track and the deepest thoughts are about the open road, sunscreen and a stack of CDs (how quaint!). C’mon you know you like a little American cheese every once in a while? Is Tim Mosely a national treasure yet?

Kiley Dean – America (produced by Timbaland)

easier to google

2006-07-03T18:05:00.000-04:00

Presenter of reality, Plies from Ft. Myers (aka the Slip-N-Slide dude Jay-Z may have overlooked because of co-hort Rick Ross' hugeness) was arrested because of involvement of his entourage in a shooting. But the real news is his government... ALGERNOD LANIER WASHINGTON.

reprise

2006-06-29T17:03:00.000-04:00

stifle em quick with the gift and the wit...

Pick up THEME Magazine No. 6 / ‘The Word’ Issue.
Profiles of Jeff Chang (by Linyee Yuan) and DJ Krush (by John Lee). Photos of t-shirts in Flushing (Queens represent!). Dope graphic/font work in an article about Ahn Sang-soo (by Maggie Kinsler Hohle with flicks by Yun Sukmu). And the cover story (by yours truly!) called ‘Flip The Script’ covering Eric Cruz’ (Weiden + Kennedy Tokyo) font designs and Aleks Figueroa’s tattoo work; both reviving a "dead" Filipino script called Alibata (or Baybayin).

i am the nicest

2006-06-26T11:58:00.000-04:00

Jay-Z performs 'Reasonable Doubt' at Radio City Music Hall
(photo jacked from The Rap Up)

- 3 level stage: Brass up top, ?uest and the Illadelphonics midlevel, full string section foreground with conductors holding baton or mic. All in black or black-tie except the one with the mic. Chandeliers. Lexus.
- I saw the heartbeat and slightly-modified intro being transported from the album to the stage but the Scarface theme-music interpolated into strings caught me out there.
- It was black scarf not a white one.
- The reverse sequencing of songs worked well and adds to Jay’s attempts at getting back to that ‘first song’ which ‘The Black Album’ was supposed to be about but this concert achieved more successfully… and I’m including the encore which had hits from every era. Starting the show in pristine white suit and ending it in T-shirt and jeans made sense. A costume change arc was a concert element not exploited by Hova, unfortunately.
- Damn, Sauce Money, your heft and black suit was working against Hova’s slim, ‘white’ gentleman outfit. This was your moment, duke! Why didn’t you hit CENTER stage!
- The Hustler Symphony Orchestra (including the Illadelphonics) had phenomenal, uh, orchestration. I was with it on the ‘Cashmere Thoughts’ string pluck through the transformation of vocal samples into smooth cello. The volume of sound contributed to the epic-making. It wasn’t about dance beats but the effect was still visceral. This live version of ‘Can I Live’ may have trumped the Isaac Hayes original in my mind. I think?
- The sound Just Blaze provided on ‘Friend or Foe’ was perfect use of a DJ with an orchestra.
- Foxxy’s appearance brought down the house as I expected but it was sad to hear her vocals so off. She looked great and the energy was there… I couldn’t tell if she was getting ahead of the beat because of nerves… or not…
- The faux-fumble feigned by Jay beginning the second verse of ’22 Twos’ may have been a lesson learned from Kane in concert, but waving off the musicians, accompanied only by a screen counting from 1 to 44, as Jay kicked ’44 Fours’ was pure MC originality. It was a moment of well-rehearsed, well-executed drama that Jay doesn’t do much of. He ended the song declaring ‘I am the NICEST!’ and the crowd had to agree. Thanks for reminding us, Jay!
- The added bonus of the musicians working ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ behind the ‘Can I kick it?’ portion of ’22 Twos’ was a multi-layered pleasure.
- Although not feeling the ‘Feelin’ It’ vocals, the extended ending verged into a jazzy big-band sequence that redeemed it.
- The piano introduction for ‘Dead Presidents’ was SOOO necessary.
- Jay handled Biggie’s verses on ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ as if thumbing his nose at anyone questioning his appropriation of BIG-penned verses in the past. One of the biggest audience rap-alongs came when Jay went into Biggie’s freestyle performed with Tupac immortalized by Mr. Cee. ?uest picking up on ODB yelling ‘Brooklyyyn…!’ and brought the Orchestra into the block chords that give ‘Brooklyn Zoo’ it’s off-kilter bass/base.
- By the way, although, ‘Brooknam’ will now be sipping on ‘Don P. forever’ can I knock Jay’s hustle mode as he is still, apparently, ordering ‘Cristal by the bottle’? Mami’s are still on E and he is still ‘drunk off Cris.’
- There was a split second when the audience cheered for who we thought was Mary J. Blige but turned out to be Beyonce. She was the only other performer allowed to dress in white that evening and it looked oddly like their wedding. I prefer the heart that Mary brings to the ‘Hustle’ chorus but I must admit Beyonce made it her own hitting her notes strong and phrasing the hook in a fresh way. The vocal echo effects were there but were less obvious layered with the string arrangements. Bey-Z looked glamorous as fuck. I don’t think they even touched hands.
- The show ended oddly with some weird anti-climax vibe even though ‘Can’t Knock the Hustle’ was huge. Maybe some of the audience was expecting a full Jay-Z show, y’know, with hits and all. Jay or ?uest must have picked up on that vibe as there was a hasty announcement to ‘not leave, Jay-Z will be back after a ten minute break.’
- The encore was a Flex-like run through hits sometimes not even getting to the vocals before flipping to the next joint. But the heavy and loud version of ‘U Don’t Know’ with Just Blaze and Nirvana video adding to the chaos, was phenomenal, huge, and enough of a reason to by the DVD.
- I had never seen Jay do his sign-language version of ‘Big Pimpin’ as the crowd struggled to complete the verse. But it was cool. Particularly after his most excellent accapella portion of ‘Nigga What.’
- Give Kanye the credit for creating the ultimate hip-hop showstopper ironically called ‘Encore’… Hova! Hova! Hell yeah.

unreasonable doubt

2006-06-23T11:37:00.000-04:00

I thought the buzz about Jay-Z forgetting his ‘Reasonable Doubt’ rhymes was some BS ploy to lower expectations for Sunday’s show. But the surprise ‘rehearsal, warm-up, sneak peek show on Saturday is a good indication that the pressure is mounting for NotSoYoung Hov.
A few more things to think about, Mr. President...

I know Mary and Nas will be there contribute their parts but how will you handle the ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ duet?
Will Clark Kent handle his own ad-libs and will ‘Cashmere Thoughts’ allow him to kick his little ‘drop it like it’s hot’ rhyme.
Will Snoop and Prodigy show up for ‘D’evils’?
Will the ?estlove assembled backing band actually do the pitch down of ‘The Look of Love’ at the intro of ‘Can I Live’? Is an appearance from Isaac out of the question?
Will Foxx Boogie brave the stage and, for that, bring the house down?
Will ‘Friend or Foe’ be the greatest two-minute ‘rap along’ that many of the audience members ever experience?
Will ‘Coming of Age’ be the greatest four-minute ‘rap along’ that Bleek ever experiences?
Sauce Money has to show but will Jaz-O be a hold out?
When the lights go down, the heartbeat comes on and you're up there with pinstripes and white scarf and a puff of cigar smoke chilling the fuck out under a spotlight on the Radio City stage, will I be in THAT moment to the fullest?
Even in the ‘cheap seats,’ son.
No doubt!

brooknam sippin on…

2006-06-21T11:13:00.000-04:00

…Heiney forever?

“Rap mogul Shawn ‘Jay-Z Carter has dropped all lyrics containing references to Cristal Champagne at a gig to mark the 10th anniversary of his hit album Reasonable Doubt….
Jay-Z's spokesman Ron Berkowitz confirms, "You can bet that Cristal will not be in Jay's lyrics on Sunday. What will replace it? Only he knows at the time, because he rhymes on the fly - so don't be surprised to hear something different."…”

My motto, stack rocks like Colorado
order up the Vitamin Water, ‘Revive’ by the bottle
- Dead Presidents

I was popping that Bartles and Jaymes
when all y'all niggas thought it was beer and shit,
- Imaginary Player

You know the shit don't stop 'til the Dos Equis don't pop
-Lucky Me

And sip PBR and get pissy-pissy
Flow infinitely like the memory of my nigga Biggie, baby!
- Hard Knock Life

Can I puff cigars & drink Teca-TEE?
If this is heaven to me is this considered heavenly?
- If I should die

Stella sipper, six dipper, wrist glitter nigga
- It's Hot (Some Like it Hot)

Get a grip bitch, this how I get through life
I buy out the bar, spit Chimay through the mic
- Watch Me

From cats who order Schlitz, play the floor with the Knicks
- Is That Yo Bitch?

Drunk off Bud Light, mami on E
Can't keep her little model hands off me…
Got six model chicks, six bottles Sam Smith’s
Zip, zero, stingy with dinero
Might buy you Aspen Edge, but that about it
- I Just Wanna Love U (Give it 2 Me)

You can't even drink ROLLING Rock on this one
You gotta drink Rolling ROC
- Excuse Me Miss

Private jets down to Turks and Caicos
Keystone Ice caseloads,
- What More Can I Say

Cock the hot pistol and pop the top o’ TequIZZa
And promise you only one thing, to not miss ya
- Murdergram

Cause like that, nigga, never twist the cap of malt liquor
Only pop and droppin Foster’s down my throat, take a swigga
- In My Lifetime (Ski Mix)

All my ladies (that's right)
You pop O’Douls (that's right)
- That's Right (Amil)

And toast Killian’s on behalf of y'all
Too bad for y'all, ain't too many as bad as yours
- I Love the Dough (Notorious B.I.G.)

Poppin' Guiness, shit hoppin' outta your wrist
- Face Off 2000 (Sauce Money)

I'm not a role model
A bad influence got the world drinkin Golden bottles
When Puff was in that tub spillin Mo'
I was at my video, Molson on the speedboat
- Go Crazy (Remix) (Young Jeezy)

B'day girl

2006-06-15T10:10:00.000-04:00

the B-girl stance

There was a Robin Hood Foundation Benefit dinner and concert last night. There were presentations by Jon Stewart and Jay-Z. There were some guests who were invited to the ‘concert only’ so the Daily Show host was not seen. But there was a Beyonce concert. There were three full costume changes and two half-changes where her dress becomes a miniskirt. There were covers of Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Luthor Vandross, and Rufus. There were strong indications of her future in Las Vegas. There was a big band that will soon be replaced. There was a voiceover running down sales figures and awards and career highlights in the middle of the show. There was a line where she mentioned “my ninth grammy!” There was no shame in her game.
There were sing-alongs and soul clap lessons for rich people.
There was interpretive dance, tap dance, ballet and that dance where Beyonce ‘forces’ everyone to check up on it. Sadly, there was no ‘Check Up On It.’
There was a parasol. There was a reminder of the stupidity of the line “Charlie, how your angels get down like that?” There was great appreciation of a fan (not fanatic) that blew Beyonce’s hair around when she stepped out on the runway part of the stage.
There were four back up singers on ‘Lady Marmalade’ who predictably showed folk what ‘soul’ singing sounds like.
There were a lot of vocal effects on B’s mic… particularly extremely delayed echoes.
There were burly gazzillionaires acting funky and drunk bujillionaires yelling “Do ‘Crazy In Love’… that’s what we came for!”
There was, surprisingly, no ‘Déjà Vu’ as in “Before I leave I’d like to debut for you my new single from my upcomingblahblahblah…”
There was no excuse for the lack of a cameo verse by her boyfriend on ‘Crazy In Love.’ (He was BACKSTAGE, for the love of Cristal!)
There was a little warmth but no overabundance of personality or improvisation. There was a lot of tight well rehearsed, expertly executed clockwork showmanship and glossy entertainment by a stunning looking young lady who can sing and dance for about an hour, no problem.
And for that, there was much rejoicing.

Since Jigga had stage fright here’s another take on his (and her) verses by the Snow Patrol... mistakes and all.

Snow Patrol – Crazy In Love

tokyo drift (part 2)

2006-06-14T19:04:00.000-04:00

- I guess shrines and sake go together like monks and beer (not churches and liquor stores).
- Couldn’t afford plastic bowl of ramen from restaurant row (damn… like 90 bucks for the floating chopstick arrangement) but dug the chop shop and container store. The faux crepes looked like pizza.
- Dope Prada store in Aoyama by Herzog & DeMeuron. Dig the parking lot, dressing room and bubble windows.
- Omotesando Hills Mall by Tadao Ando only makes his churches look better.
- Tod’s building by Toyo Ito wins because it sits next to old stuff and trees as well as telephone lines.
- Stealth Stussy on the edges of Sakuragaokacho
- Very cool Cowbooks in Aoyama and Naka-Meguro (dig the steps in the bench leg)
- Bridging Shibuya and Harajuku hoods was the Kyu-shibuyagawa promenade. Had a great mix of ultra-contemporary with this new wave of ‘homey’ Scandinavia with a few old remnants standing ground.

Two tracks from The Definition Vol.2 Mixed By DJ Agetetsu picked up at Homebass Records:
Simon (produced by A.I.P.) – Street Banger
Chris aka Lucifah feat MIKO 晋平太(produced by _ of Zipsies)- My Crew My Hood

sneaker heads

2006-06-13T18:03:00.000-04:00

it's gotta be the shoes

Damn.
I really played myself by not catching Brian Jungen’s show in New York.
He flips old Jordans into ‘cyberpunk’ (the streets have their own uses) versions of West Coast aboriginal masks… amongst other incredible transformations of ‘industrial’ to ‘indigenous.’
Perfect.
Montreal don’t play yourself.

tokyo drift (part 1)

2006-06-12T18:57:00.000-04:00

- ANA plane to Tokyo has a camera under the nose of the plane so that the slow runway taxi provides a wide-angle view of an unpopulated concrete and asphalt abstraction. Yellow and white guidelines arc past or direct the view. Add classical music or synthesizer tones and you’ve got an ominous Kubrickian cinematic title sequence. Cool and scary vibe before takeoff and I’m not even afraid of flying.
- Asian jet-lag is a muhfuckah
- The hotel has a Szechuan restaurant with food designed by Iron Chef Chen Kenichi. Perfect MaPo Dofu spiciness and jet lag unfortunately do not mix.
- 4 AM taxi ride from Shibuya to the legendary Tsujiki fish market cost about as much as all of my subway rides for the rest of my nearly-two-week visit.
- Lost in Tsukiji market amongst cigarette smoking fish handlers, Styrofoam boxes and , oh yeah, fish, big fish, little fish, red fish, … “There ain’t no way we’re gonna find Sushi Bun!” (the restaurant we are looking for.) We line up behind some hungry folk at a joint without any English signs. We are treated to incredibly fresh and fine fish. I’ve easily paid thrice the price in NYC for comparable quality. The owner stops me after I snap the chef. Smiling big on our way out, wifey asks the name of the joint. The owner says “Sushi Bun.” And now we’re even happier.
- MUJI is like a GAP (unfortunately, unless the gear came in XL, I was nowhere near fitting into the clothes unless I adopted the skintight steez.) plus IKEA (if I had a kid the trike would’ve been bought!) with an excellent café (nobody does French pastry like the Japanese!), great convenience store (bitter melon snack chips!) and the most modern stationery stuff you could ever want, all branded and packaged to perfection.
- Hard to tell if the Harajuku ‘dress-up’ phenomenon is ‘between’ movements but at this point the ‘bandaged’ look is more interesting than the Lolita look (popular amongst men, by the way). The abstracted Minnie Mouse might be a spin-off of the Lolitas but a couple folks really stood out.
- Often, impossible to tell the difference between school-girls, ‘sexy’ older school-girls and grown women dressed like school girls. I’m not being perverse here. Really.
- Kit Kat flavors: Green Tea, Red Bean, and Fruit Parfait. (And of course a little ume and apple gum and Crunky for the road).
- Beverage vending machines seem to outnumber the crows.

A couple tracks from the DJ Jack Herer Mixtape I picked up from the Mousouzoku Store
般若 - おはよう日本国際Ver.
Romero S.P. - ???

temporary relief

2006-06-11T06:23:00.000-04:00

Guess who’s not quite bizzack?
Still jet-lagging but in the Greenwich mean time and in between time some temporary relief is in order.
This never-before-seen-by-me State Prop vid has surfaced via our lord and savior, YouTube. It features Peedi Peedi Crakk on both the ‘Criminal Background’ and ‘Temporary Relief’ halves.
Odd, yes?
But I can only hope it’s some sort of buzz strategy for the upcoming album. Uh, OK, post-Neo-strategy, I suppose.
Video note: When Dame raises the bottle in the line-up is Peedi rolling is eyes?

Bonus: Here’s Boola (re)making the track. “Anybody can do it…” (Part 2 has the heart of it).
It goes a one, two, three and…

cannonical

2006-05-23T18:28:00.000-04:00

we can trade like the dow jones

As I prepare to step off on my mixtape search in the hood called Shibuya my ipod is last-minute-blessed with a potential mixtape of the year from Lil’ Wayne and DJ Drama, which gives ‘MC style’ lessons for seasons to come and, at the very least, heavy rotation on our 14-hour flight. Almost every joint deserves an essay but due to time constraints I can only say one word: Cannon!

DJ Drama, Lil' Wayne, Freeway, Wille The Kid, Detroit Red, Juice - Cannon (AMG remix)

murder he rote

2006-05-19T09:50:00.000-04:00

more hood shit?

The recent air of celebrity related murders hasn’t diminished my recognition of artistry... even when it’s still that pusher prose pushing death dealings. The Clipse kick despicable descriptions with delectable diction. Jeezy, not giving a cluck about classical Clipsean click-clack and crack clauses, cloaks his cleverness. Young Don Fresh doesn’t don that cloak with as much panache. And yet the dude has style. Or maybe a beautiful lack there of. Where Erick sermon and Mase (Omillio, even?) worked their slurs with charm Young Don sports a dead-eye, poker-face, and ice-grill (OG steez) even as his ad-libs punctuate perfectly. His delivery is almost a cartoonish casual combined with Jeezy-era cool/cold. The slang here is less about the words than the phrases (Chicago, please help a transcriber out!) and the content is not only predictable, it’s downright rote. And yet…

I realized ‘back in the day’ that the term ‘rap vocalist’ isn’t redundant and has nothing to do with singing. The term helps me explain some of the Jeezy and Peedi appeal that escapes fans of traditional ‘lyricists’. But it doesn’t quite explain the guilty pleasure of this unexpected Goon Squad soloist popping up in the middle of a DJ Drama / Bump J mixtape. It doesn’t explain the intrigue of his non-style trumping the complexity of local ‘peer’ Lupe… at least for this listener. I can overlook a few shaky line deliveries while distracted by the guise of effortlessness. Even if Young Don Fresh never kicks another bar outside of this cold-blooded poem his terse, internal two-syllable terms have endeared themselves. There is a method to the mundane. But not too much.

Young Don Fresh – Hood Shit

I flip Bose, ride slick and sip Mo. Get dough ‘cause my block jump like a Six-Fo’
I got the dice. What they here fo’? Shoot a stack. If I lose, let me get that back. (holler)
Most of my life I had to pitch some crack. If not that, lug mac and strip that cat. (yeah)
I go hard and Bogart. Any nigga in the way o’ the cake, he’ll lay in the lake. (what)
I roll up. Niggas fold up ‘cause I put a hole in they head like the one in a donut.
I make the Heights go nuts and you can’t move a nick. That’s really ‘cause your shit is blow-up
We got the city sewed up. It’s a done deal. I move around the town with just one steel, with enough shots to get one kill. Maybe even two or three. It’s better you than me.
This is that hood shit, Chico bullshit,
See a nigga. Heat a nigga down with a full clip (or He the nigga down with a full clip)

When it’s time to kill in the field, on the real, you boys lay low. Y’all ain’t goons. Y’all a act, like a stage show.
I get bricks of yayo from Pedro at twelve a piece. I’m small shop. I cop twelve at least, hit your block and let the K release, then be gone when the cops come and cage the beast (yeah)
It’s a must that I stay with heat. I stay over East where most niggas play for keeps. (yeah)
I roam streets with money on my mind and fire in my heart, thin tires on the car (check it) and big rims. It’s a mess when the tec hits skin. It burn like a fifth of gin. It’s my turn and I’m here to win. Yeah I’m here again. Goon Squad: you should feel them men.
I could make you disappear, my friend. So tuck your tail before I up and I buck a shell.

I sell crack, stay strapped and don’t snooze. I get clapped at, I clap back like Ja Rule.
No, I don’t sleep. You war with me, you won’t eat ‘cause my whole crew, they dump heat.
Cheef‘ll come through on them chrome feet. Heat up the block with my glock right on me.
I ain’t never did microphone beef. Just catch him at a club and knock out his front teeth. (yeah)
I play dirty and I live filthy. Got bitches and niggas both wantin’ to kill me. (both of ‘em)
And the police all want to conceal me but all that shit really does is thrill me. (ha ha)
I live for the streets. Remy Mart’ make my heart beat. You start beef you end up where the sharks be.
I spark three in the nigga frame. All it takes is an ‘Eight just to get you changed, mayn. (yeah)

‘rah rah-rah

2006-05-17T18:50:00.000-04:00

might go pop

What do you get when an extremely local Brazilian sound is adapted by a dude from Florida and an Anglo-Sri Lankan? You get a Japanese version, of course.
But the remix will have to be by an expat European producer/DJ set up in LA (but with some Brazilian connects?) and for fun let’s say the beat is a version of an extremely local Oakland / Bay Area sound.
Brooke Valentine it is not. But the crunk influence is, of course, in there too.

I have so many enemies, I can't even count them
I have so many feelings, I can't even tell
I'm already came to a place
Where nobody can stop me anymore

Word. Or something like that.

And just when you thought the chorus was going to drive you nuts she’s got the Ronin Remix out of Phoenix (AZ rising, son!) with dramatic keyboard notes giving her a dose of hefty Rick-Rossian-drama.
With respect to Gangsta Nip I’ll leave the bad puns in the trash.

You know if J-side remixes are this good maybe I’ll just run over to Tokyo next week to pick up some mixtapes… Anybody know the spots?

Tigarah – Girl Fight
Mr. D Hyphy Remix (yousendit)(zshare RE-UP)
Ronin Remix Phoenix (yousendit)

juganot, bitch

2006-05-03T18:48:00.000-04:00

different heavy-hitter

The papes have been all over the Jackson Heights immigrant massive these days, New Jacks’ City being THE most diverse hood in the universe and all. Regardless of what the debate is really about, a day without immigrants is a day without most of the folks in my hood. But on to the important issues…
Now the Bhanghra mixtapes rep the Jax hood well but I’ve been waiting for mainstream hip-hop to give it some love. DJ Camilo always shouts out the streets he hails from but has moved on to greener pastures somewhere in Brooklyn (I think). So I was pleased to hear Camilo dropping some freestyles from an artist in the Heavyhitter camp that could make the JaxHts streets boom proudly. Juganot (or The Juganot or Juggernaut or… etc) has brought some gruffness over the Rick Ross beat. The deep sing-song intro shifts into the percussive precise rap like an automatic. The dark-drama beats continue as Pcise helps Jug over the “Whip Ya Head” beat. I want to compare the Jugga Man Puerto-Rock syllables to a Jeezy-era Big Pun flow… but that might be jumping the gun a little bit. His brief bars and appropriate beat selection are enough to put JH on the “where ya at” map at least tentatively. We’re gonna have to see if he can throw the whole hood on his back. Hey, I’m not even mad at the Nina Sky cruzover attempt.

Juganot - Slow Your Roll (‘Hustling’ beat) (yousendit) (zshare)
Pcise and Juganot - Whip Ya head Freestyle (yousendit) (zshare)
Nina Sky, Juganot – Holla Back Remix (yousendit) (zshare)

queen b

2006-05-03T18:32:00.000-04:00

rapture

The first gangsta rapper (you try to run but he's got a gun and he shoots you dead and he eats your head), Blondie’s Debbie Harry, dropped her oddest concept-rap song since, I dunno, the one about eating bars, cars and guitars. Homage raps to other rappers are a mini-genre that never really works for me. “We’ll always love Big Poppa” is pure sap and "Unauthorized Biography of Rakim” is more spoken word than flow. But this one feels like a high-school notebook scrawl by the artsy white girl fascinated by the nutty little trouble-maker at the OTHER lunch table. Deb successfully uses the surreal (take off your glasses down to your skin), the silly (she got it under her wiggy) and the cheesy video-game funk-blips in this locker-sized altar. I can see Kim digging it AND that cool-white-girl because, you know, they can talk about fly boots or whatever. The killer couplet is of course “She wants love and affection / not the house of corrections.” The various vocal pitches and effortless flirts put Madonna’s return to disco to down and dirty (and deep) shame. Like Lil’ Kim, Blondie can do it. She can phone it in. Does she say “Flirty Socrateaser”?

Blondie – Dirty N Deep

nice rack

2006-04-26T18:57:00.000-04:00

the choice is yours

I’ve already got my braggadozidoh on with my pop’s paintings showing up in the April issue of Domino Magazine…
But then my step-dad gets HIS recent show at SFMOMA Artists Gallery reviewed by Peter Selz in the April Issue of Art In America (‘positively’ I mosdefmust add)!

And while I’m at it, pick up Theme Magazine: History Issue for MY first by-line since On The Go Magazine, uh, up and went. It’s a profile of a Malaysian film-maker named Yasmin Ahmad. And, I have to admit, after this free-for-all bloggadozidoh it’s tough seeing an editor get they filthy paws on my silky je ne se quois. But hey it’s nothing I’m not cool with… at least they spelled my name right, right?

"Text Rio Valedor"?!?!?

Ree to the Dizzoh!

knockin' boots?

2006-04-20T11:26:00.000-04:00

work boots

Noz proclaimed Boots Riley of the Coup one of the most underrated rappers of all time putting him appropriately enough next to Chuck D as rapper putting politics into of all of his rhymes. So I was amped and inevitably disappointed at The Coup show last Saturday at NYU’s Skirball Center that was an opportunity for Boots to rip the current administration a new one in the safety of an adoring college educated crowd. But maybe Boots didn’t see that as much of a challenge… preacher and choir and all. Instead the mood was mellow. The show lacked the precise funk of samples that a DJ (Pam the Funkstress was absent) can add to a live show and instead relied on the loose ‘live funk’ of a group of respectable players. Only the prerecorded-track dominated “My Favorite Mutiny” sounded like the booming system necessary to attack ‘a system’… but with the absence of guest mcs Black Thought and Kweli and certain portions of the recorded song, the track felt woefully incomplete. The live version of “I Just Wanna Lay Around All Day In Bed With You” was the best match for a live band and a laid back MC. A heavy dose of personal with a subversive pinch of political is maybe the perfect formula for Boots. And he might agree since he wound up the show with an encore rendition of the brilliant ‘Wear Clean Draws.’ This track has less to do with ‘Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos’ than with Sasha Frere-Jones description of country music in which artists more often than not “choose to tease out the political in everyday life, unpacking mundane acts, many of them compulsory, be it going to work or opening your eyes.”
Cue The Coup…mellow muffled bass with sunshine-through-the-blinds keyboards. Boots sets the scene…

“Monday rush. I’m supposed to skip, but I just found Sunday in your hips”

He dreamily continues into cosmic metaphors for his girls wonderland body and then kicks the years best series of sex rhymes not done by R. Kelly…

“Thoughts wrangled up, legs tangled up, baby do this feel good angled up? Can’t be expressed by a sangle fuck. Wanna gently caress it and bang it up”

But, as he tries to lose himself in the sunshine of his life, the nightstand clock intrudes. Torn between a morning quickie and his 9-to-5, he realizes most of his time belongs to his boss and so the desire to stay between the sheets becomes stronger. The hook introduces a comic falsetto like an exaggerated hip-hop era pimp but it’s really, of all things, just a playful falsetto… something embarrassingly intimate that can make a couple of lovers of soul music share a groggy morning laugh. And then perfectly on cue Morris Day, the perfect complex cliché of the player-fool, the throwback soul-clown for hip-hoppers of a certain age, comes screaming from the past (or is it the alarm clock?) repeating his signature question “What time is it?!” which echoes into Boots’ dream world of a “sick-day.”
Boots philosophizes on the only things he feels he actually controls: intimate moments of the life of Riley. He flips a paradoxical metaphor with a claustrophobic outside and a universe under the weight of his girl and then thoughts of “lost aerobics” are oddly accompanied by a double time handclap creating a mini flamenco-fire with a Wonder-esque harmonica meandering over it. Suddenly his sex / work debate spurs a thought of burning his workplace down if not allowed to head home by 5:02. He taps into a working-class disgust of not getting paid for every second he has to be in service to the boss. Strings come in as he struggles to make his decision. At least the cymbals of the trap set and symbols of the political set (a Jesse Jackson? speech reiterates Day’s query) combine to make beautiful music together…
Boots doesn’t necessarily ruin the mood when he tells his girl “We in bed together like George W. Bush and Sadaam Hussein.” It actually might remind her why she’s probably with him in the first place. “Aw, Boots, you silly…” But pretty serious about it at the same time...

The Coup - I Just Wanna Lay Around All Day In Bed With You

'violent' hip-hop

2006-04-18T10:22:00.000-04:00

I hope you know that this will go down on your permanent record

Who knew Mr. Len, Kimani, Cee-Lo and Dangermouse were Femmenists?
I guess it makes sense that ‘college radio’ kids of this era would be getting into ‘college radio’ hits of another era but I never thought it would be via hip-hop. The fact that the Barkley boys are ruling Britain like a couple of Arctic Monkeys from The Streets doesn’t necessarily mean they will break-out of US college backpacks but the sound is (and the band members are) recognizable enough to get past limey levels both Dizzee or Dynamitee. The Roosevelt Franklin take on ‘Blister In the Sun’ isn’t quite long enough to be addictive but it creates enough Violent Femmes coincidence to have me daydreaming… Will Def Jux latch onto ‘American Music’ (“I did too many drugs…”)? Can MF Doom chop up the groove for ‘Color Me Once’? Will Kool Keith rework ‘Gimme The Car’? He might just throw it down your throat like Barkley.

Gnarls Barkley – Gone Daddy Gone
Roosevelt Franklin – I Saw It On Oprah

free time

2006-04-13T20:19:00.000-04:00

who likes freeway jams?

If someone told me a year ago that the track that would get me back into listening to Lil Jon crunk hooks would be on a G-Unit-affiliated Freeway joint, I would have imitated Jon’s inquisitive “What?!?” but I currently find myself imitating Whoo-Kid’s drawn out “God… daammnn!”

Some tracks, on the other hand, provide a more predictable, but no-less-enjoyable, combination, like a bouquet of freshly cut perennial flowers in bloom.
Ahh, early Spring!
Even sloppy mixtape versions.

Freeway, Lil Jon – Rep Yo Click
Freeway, Peedi – Hood On Froze

knit wit' it

2006-04-13T14:54:00.000-04:00

common denominator?

On April 28th I plan to check out a hodge-podge of a show at the Knitting Factory. It seems to be loosely based around ‘peepworthy’ mixtapes..
One is a real surprise, finally revealing to me what the GLC persona can be: old soul flyness tapping into heartfelt detail with a recurrence of distance (should I just call it ‘cool’). Nice selection of jacks that match the MC well. Ron Isley vocals on ‘One Day’ always win!
One is just hinted at here and here but it seems that the Cuizinier goofy vibe of Vol. 1 carries through on 2 and the culture jacking is as on-point as before… Beyonce, Dem Franchise Boys, Maceo, Bun B, Ron Isley, Yummy, Berlin!?!
One is actually a DVD but A-Trak getting swivvy on the wheels (with or without sunglasses) is a must. I’ve only seen him outside of battle-mode on the Grammys where he was held somewhat in check (cashing) by the Kan-do attitude.
One isn’t ‘one’ at all and if anyone(s) could make the KF party continue (or start) after the performances I imagine it would be The Rubbers (coinage?).

Cuizinier – Only You
GLC (produced by Arrow Star) – Honor Me

queens reign supreme

2006-04-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

queen seated (she got a reason)

Although TI has brought this King shit back I don’t know if I can recognize royalty until I see an actual coronation… a fitted-cap works as a poetic ‘street crown’ but I’m talking about taking it to the real crown heights. Biggie was literally crowned at his platinum party. Slick Rick has worked his royal flyness with kingly robes, red carpets and thrones. So it was a nice surprise to see Remy Ma bring a throne to her stage show in which she declared herself Queen of NY. And she stated it quite convincingly. The Nokia Theatre was filled with her subjects as the around-the-way-girls from pre-teen to grandmother threw their left hand up and then threw their right hand up when Remy lead them in ‘Whuteva.’ Her acapella raps made her at least a couple of new fans since there was no denying the heart of her experiences translated so well into bad-ass bragging. There was complex ‘representing’ going on as she portrayed both the big sister for the girlz from the hood as well their biggest threat when it comes to ‘baddest bitch’ honors. I will be shocked if anyone rocks Rick Ross’ ‘Hustlin’ with as much originality as R-to-the-Eezy did. She flipped the hypnotic sample of “Everyday I’m hustling” to “Everyday I’m fuckin’ him” directed of course at an unfortunate ‘baby mama’ rival. Where Rick Ross falsely brags about “the real Noriega” Remy more believably claims connects to “the real Heather Hunter.” And when she switches “Whip it, whip it” to “Dick be, dick be” with a straight face… well it was clear that she was the fuckin’ boss if not the queen.

new queen Cole

Keyshia Cole, however, was the headliner and she pretty much proved, even without the throne, that she was running things. The obvious frontrunner to inherit Mary J.’s queendom, Keyshia put together an odd show but at no point did she let the crowd pull too far away from her... as if they didn’t want to get as close as they possibly could Her surefire cover of the Mary-blessed “I’m Goin’ Down” by Rose Royce had the audience at “Since you been away…” but her take on ‘Atlantis’ left everyone hungry for stronger vocals and a hook to sing along to. She quickly laughed it off and acknowledged that the audience wasn’t feeling it as much as she was... and the crowd laughed along. Although the show peaked with “I Should Have Cheated” too early in the set, she left the stage immediately after the song was done (much to the worry of the audience) but returned to let everyone know “I had to fix my bra. It’s a new one. I never wore it before.”
When she stepped into the audience, a security guard towered behind her onstage. She tried to wave him off and instead cut the song short. She complained “That nigga be popping in back of my head." Kelefa Sanneh, with a slightly different paraphrase, swears that she was referring to memories of a former beau which makes sense but, later in the show, when Keysh stepped into the audience again, she waved off the security more forcefully this time. And they had to oblige. She explained to them she was safe here, that the audience was there for her and loved her. And, if there was any doubt, she made the audience yell “We love you, Keyshia!” And when she did “I Just Want It To Be Over” twice at the end of the show, it was obvious that she didn’t want the moment to be over at all. When the crowd rocked just as much on the second take, I knew who ruled the evening.

catching some zees

2006-04-06T23:23:00.000-04:00

Zing-zingy-zong-z-zong-z-zong-ziggy-ziggy…
From the Kanye-like draaag of the non-rhyming words to the harmonized ‘Yeah’ to the Timbo-like beat to the ‘zingy’ hook… tag this one ‘Hit’.
Ak’sent featuring Beenie Man - Zingy

Zam, Zup, zig-zags...
Place to post Pop’s pieces.

Zig-zag-zee
Bobby digital video disc

Zee
Rammrammramm
Ellellell
Like a roller-coaster ride yeah…

Zeh-zeh-zeh-zeh-zeh...
The panel discussion of the making of ‘Planet Rock’ dropped some gems but turned into a sad (yet electrifying) train wreck!
The discussion was set up to be similar to the panel held last year discussing the making of a Public Enemy album. This panel was moderated by David Toop who called the ‘Planet Rock’ track “weird and empty” but it ended up being one of his favorite records of all time.
Session keyboardist John Robie explained that the track is monophonic with no chords, no samples and no sequences outside of the 808 track and that they found a Roland 808 machine by answering an ad in the Village Voice posted by “Man with 808” who they came to know as ‘Joe.’ To this day no one knows Joe’s last name or any way to contact him.
Tom ‘Tommy Boy’ Silverman recalled that Mr. Magic (also on the panel) broke the record on his show and it went on to sell 5000 copies in a week(!).
Producer Arthur Baker loved the sound of the bass simply mimicking the kick (“There’s no real bassline!”) and recalled how the Soul Sonic Force (not Bam) hated the beat (“They wanted to rap over ‘Jazzy Sensation’ type funk beats…”) and had difficulty rapping over it until MC GLOBE figured out the half-time/double-time technique he called ‘MC Poppin.’ Baker also mentioned that the ‘Zeh-zeh-zeh-zeh-zeh’ (resurfacing as the hook on Re-up Gangs ‘Zen’ last year) was an improvised scat by MC Pow Wow when he forgot the lyrics (ala Cab Calloways’ ‘Hidey-hidey-hidey-ho’). Baker opened a can of worms when he said that the other MCs added to the lyrics and concepts but GLOBE wrote most of it…
After GLOBES long-winded preaching to the audience meandered into him flirting with a “cutie in the third row” the discussion was further derailed by GLOBE and Pow-Wow arguing on stage about who wrote the lyrics to “Planet Rock.” The argument went something like this with Pow Wow stalking the front of the stage and GLOBE seated behind him with the panel…

GLOBE: Pow-Wow, who wrote most of the lyrics for ‘Planet Rock’?
Pow Wow: ‘Planet Rock' was written by Mr. Biggs, Pow Wow and GLOBE!
GLOBE: My man, who wrote most of the lyrics for ‘Planet Rock’?
Pow Wow: ‘Planet Rock' was written by Mr. Biggs, Pow Wow and GLOBE!
GLOBE: Yes but , brother, who wrote most of the lyrics for ‘Planet Rock’?
Pow Wow: ‘Planet Rock' was written by Mr. Biggs, Pow Wow and GLOBE!

And so on…
Sadly the ‘real’ story of ‘Planet rock’ will be muddled by Rashomon-like retellings.
I saw it with my own eyes.

Zzzzzzzzzzz…

well connected

2006-04-03T11:12:00.000-04:00

everything is everything

The sneak-peaks let us know that Treach would be passing through Tony environs this season and although the “Kevin Finnerty and beyond” eps have swung hard (or rather disposed of swing as Jimmy tried on a working stiff upper lip and accent) last nights meandering walk on the path(s) to enlightenment was pretty extraordinary even for The Sopranos. What could be trumping monks set to sue or watching Tony toy with a born-again? Why it could only be Hal Holbrook’s Schwinn using his larynx for one of the last times to school T and fellow fans of the sweet science of bruising on the connectedness of ALL things. And although I hearted the Huckabees Hoffman Ex-dick, I really relished Da Lux’s / Brand Nubian Lord Jamar’s matter-of-fact digestion of the “fact of matter” Holbrook enchilada. “Everything is everything…” Jamar summarized, being one of the best ‘for those that know’ plugs since LL said the Gap was “For Us, By Us, on the down low.” He must have politicked his album title into the script. That album was without a surefire hit (not even approaching the Puba-less “Punks…”) but it did have “Claimin I’m A Criminal.”

And I doubt that Five-percenter Jamar had nothing to do with the plot point that Da Lux was shot 7 times.

Brand Nubian - Claimin I’m A Criminal

socialize, get down

2006-03-29T14:59:00.000-05:00

let your soul lead the way

FEST FORWARD: HIP-HOP UNBOUND will be happening APRIL 3—15 at NYU’s Jack H. Skirball Center whose explicit mission is to actively engage audiences through live performance. Although their target audience is age 18—30 some of you old-timers might dig it as well. Here are a few events that stood out for me but you can find complete info here.

The Great Hip-Hop Swindle: Thursday, April 6 at 7:00 P.M.
A segment of a documentary-in-progress, Apache Line: From Gangs to Hip-Hop by Popmaster Fabel which documents the foundations of b-boying, popping and rocking as it emerged from the gang era of the mid-1970s. There will be a performance in which dance legends meet “new jacks,” and will close with a panel/Q & A.
The Coup: Saturday, April 15 at 10:00 P.M.
The Coup's new album, Pick A Bigger Weapon continues the exploration of the collisions between economics and everyday life, the political and the personal.
The Making of “Planet Rock”, Monday, April 3 at 7:00 P.M.
The original creative team behind the song reflect on the making of the record. Speakers include Afrika Bambaataa Arthur Baker, Fab Five Freddy, Monica Lynch, John Robie, Tom Silverman and special guests. Moderated by David Toop.
The Future of Hip-Hop, Saturday, April 8 at 7:00P.M.
Ta-Nehisi Coates (Time, Village Voice), Jaylah Burrell (Pop Matters), Richard Goldstein (former Voice editor), Margo Jefferson (Pulitzer Prize-winner, New York Times), Bakari Kitwana (Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop), Sacha Jenkins (Ego Trip co-founder), Cristina Veran (One World, Spin) and Oliver Wang (Classic Material, Vibe) will each have five minutes to offer three wishes for the next three years of hip-hop.

And, although I won’t be able to go to it, the premise for that last one is pretty enticing…

Three Wishes for the next three years of hip-hop?

3. More regular-folk rap… the promise that Joe Budden had/has and the world that Kanye left should allow for it… but the absence of backpack whine is a necessity.
2. More emotion in rap… I love the cold-hearted stuff but Ghostface, Scarface and Beanie (and maybe some others…?) show the possibilities for real emotions to coexist with ‘The Real’ and that the shedding of tears can happen for other things besides ‘dead homies.’
1. Another original local sound rises to global significance… pretty much inevitable but I’ll be happy none the less.

Anybody else?

long live...

2006-03-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

join the club

Let the bells ring out and the banners fly! The King is here…
Not quite.
The heralding of TI’s ‘King’ was more of a burning opening up of the sky provided by the leak (not ‘The Leak’) of ‘I’m Talkin’ To You’ earlier this week. That song served more as the galactic herald, The Silver Surfer. Less a roll-out of red carpet and more of a slash through a planet’s atmosphere announcing the arrival of Galactus. Not a King but a devourer of worlds. TI’s Galactus-like return to dominate the Earth is appropriately fueled by a thunderous Just Blaze track amping up the ferocious flurry of fury that is TI in dis mode… but, oh man, those 40 or so seconds in that last minute…

The album is amazing as well. Tip is a virtuoso throughout but his backing band shows diversity and a lack of pandering that is refreshing for an album with so much pressure for success. And, although it could have been edited down from the slightly heavy 18 songs, it is better than the album one fan had imagined. I knew Mannie and Swizz would avail their skills but the echoed claps on ‘Top Back’ and the extra hard bounce of ‘Get It’ were unexpected. TI toys with a heavy rock sound on Tony Galvin’s ‘You Know Who’ and plays with phrasing styles over the blippy ‘Stand Up Guy’ by Kevin "Khao" Cates. Cates also flirts with a retro pop-club track on ‘Why You Wanna’ tempting you to sing La-da-DI-la-da-DA. Hearing Drama on a legit release is not as unexpected as hearing Common and Jamie Foxx on an album without a Kanye-produced track. Also sorely MIA is Jazze Pha. I would gladly replace the Neptunes all-too-familiar keyboards with some hypnotic guitar on another collaborenzel. Even the interludes don’t embarrass... from ‘The Breakup’ (an extrapolated take on Oran ‘Juice’ Jones prelude on ‘The Rain’) to Pimp C’s well-timed breakdown of what ‘King’ should mean, riffing on diamonds and 'the rings' old-timers. Basically he gives contender TI the championship belt to match. But back to the first round…

The first four minutes of ‘I’m Talkin’ To You’ rely predominately on solid body blows and, although his masterful drag-n-drawl are sped up for the Blazing track, nothing prepares you for the barrage of punches coming in the last minute. When he shouts out Killer Mike, Youngbloodz, David Banner and Bonecrusher the rope-a-dope becomes apparent and any lull that his casual technique has generated is broken by a blur of lightning rabbit punches from a Kali rocking Everlast. TI is floating like a butterfly armed with a machine-gun. He hits a Zatoichi zone with a burst of speed and precision without ever losing calm. Like Neo shifting from ‘Matrix’ slomo to a multi-angled bullet-time attack. People might say they’ve heard speed rap before but we’ve all seen players put a ball in a hoop before too. TI doesn’t do a heavy-handed and obvious switch of flow (maybe you’ve heard it, touched it, watched it, left it…). Like a great athlete he’s employing timing and position as much as sheer strength and speed.

I know, enough already… OK, I’ll give it you straight, I don’t need a metaphor… T.I. King. Get it! I’m talkin’ to you!

T.I. (Produced by Swizz Beatz) - Get It
T.I. (Produced by Just Blaze) - I’m Talkin’ To You

apoohcalypse now

2006-03-23T09:03:00.000-05:00

the horror...

Love the smell of Pooh in the morning?

Boing Boing brought 'Apocalypse Pooh' to light... It's a primitive back-and-forth on the vid-edit ones-and-twos from 1987.

I'll agree with Lance: Disneyland. Fuck, man, this is better than Disneyland.

Yay! part 2: the flipside

2006-03-16T11:33:00.000-05:00

Just touched down in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of a show of my late father’s paintings. Please stop by tonight if you are in the hood (and I know some of you are!).

LEO VALLEDOR SELECTED WORKS
OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, MARCH 16TH, 6–8:30PM
GALLERY HOURS: TUESDAY–SATURDAY, 11AM–5:30PM
MARCH 14TH THROUGH APRIL 8TH, 2006

TOGONON GALLERY
77 GEARY STREET, 2ND FLOOR
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108

The new book ‘Leo Valledor Selected Works,’ features an essay by Lawrence Rinder, (recent recipient of the First Place award from the International Association of Art Critics for Best Monographic Museum Show in New York City). The book will be on sale at the gallery and is also available by contacting the estate…
‘valledor (dot) estate (at) gmail (dot) com’

Thanks to Angry Asian Man for spreading the word in the 03.14.06 entry!

And, in the ‘Timing Is Everything’ department, pick up the April Issue of Domino magazine to see Leo’s painting ‘For M’ featured on pages 14 and 78 in a story featuring, of all things, ‘Scandinavian style’ (???).

jumpin jack newsflash

2006-03-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

Jagga-man! Cool Keith! R-Dub! Boomin’ Watts!

Thanks to wifey’s work, I can now speak words I never thought I would say, never particularly wanted to say, but now am quite pleased to say:
I saw the Rolling Stones play Radio City Music Hall for the first time in their career… and it was great!

This Robin Hood Foundation concert was kicked off by Harv and the audience included The Mack and the former leader of The World’s Most Dangerous Band. Regarding ‘the world’s greatest rock-n-roll band’… I can see where the Stones get that title. The rhythm section held it cool and steady, Keith exuded cool whether leaning against the wall or sliding onto his knees and Mick did the same type of moves he’s been doing since the conception of the band proving that his energy and charisma is a force of nature… Mick eats whirlwinds for breakfast and chases it with a bottle of lightning. His phrasing and dance moves and tone are always just a little bit off kilter (at least!) but he utilizes this timing to make it all seem spontaneous. I never counted myself as a big fan of ‘classic rock,’ let alone the thunder-lizards still stomping around, but their charisma was undeniable and their every move was fascinating. I’m not TOO familiar with their catalogue but I found myself amazed at how many classics had seeped into my brain… and that was BEFORE the encore.

Unfortunately they didn’t play ‘Wild Horses’ or this one…

Rolling Stones – Miss You

And here are a few flicks from the “cheap seats”.