the underground post...

2005-09-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

due to fatigue, living in a new city, starting a new job, being inundated with more and more music I care about less and less, feeling more of a need to hit up livejournal than blogger...these are all reasons that bear is waving goodbye. this is probably my last post here. I'm giving like a 90% guarantee that I will resurface on the blog scene (I already got a name picked out), but right now I don't have the energy to do it or enough interesting shit to say.

you can still read my writing in the riverfront times, and in urb magazine. I'm not gonna link it, but if you really want to read my livejournal (this is where alan says, probably out loud, that I'm gay), you can probably figure out the spot.

all I need to say about katrina is please donate or volunteer, or take advantage of soulstrut.com's LET A HEATROCK LOOSE sale, where all procedes are tripled and donated to hurricane relief.

pz

2005-08-23T20:02:00.000-05:00

The Mossie f/ E-40 and the Federation - "Go Ignant"

Pz to Sco Dylan for the hook-up (check the video he did for Krookit Kings), because when I can't sleep dude's always online and always ends up sending me a grip of bay shit.

2005-08-15T23:47:00.000-05:00

Jawns updated and name changed. (who says jawn anymore?)

current southern rap surges forward, I'm hustlin to catch up the goodness I missed growing up not listening to rap and being a backpacker until about 2002. scarface's the diary is gettin spins, as is most of the rnds compilation, but most played these days are ugk's "ridin dirty" and t.i.'s "trap muzik." the two tracks ("one day" and "kingofdasouth") are both slow, thick and soulful, sounding like humid air or some shit. connects the dots between leadbelly and rap very well. "this is your life" has some of the same crawl to it and it's the best song on already platinum.

I can't really add anything to what's already been said about "stay fly". more evidence that paul and j are the most focused producers workin right now. "draped up" is a good reminder that bun b doesn't need to be featured on a track to kill it (unlike so many other emcees who escape my mind right now). "the mask" sounds a little forced but I still like it. the max minelli joint is courtesy of a to the l.

"teary eyed" is the last thing I ever expected to love from the cookbook. even though there were plenty of complaints about the ballads, I didn't mind. but that didn't meant I expected those horns to blam around in my dome all fucking day and find myself singing "yooouu bring the wooorst outta mee" to myself on the train. I didn't even know what it was from the first time I did it. no fucking clue.

2005-08-13T20:22:00.000-05:00

some wtf shit.

-ravers will never get parkinsons

-cross-burning back in vogue

-still segregating in bama

-super mullah bros

-walken 2008

so I mean it's clear the world is fucked up.

but at least sarah silver made a movie.

2005-08-09T09:51:00.000-05:00

real quick like, because I'm stuck in the crib until the gas people*** arrive.

lemon-red breaks the Paul-Wall-screws'n'chops-rock'n'roll project. on the real, it's not that bad. actually, it's pretty good. mostly because The Transplants sound more like Rancid than Limp Bizkit...garbage in, garbage out still truth. sayin, it aint surprising that anything that sounds good could sound good screwed up by the right people. old news.

hit up their website for "not today" s&c if you want another taste.

***"the gas people" would make a great b-movie title. or anticon side-project.

2005-08-01T00:52:00.000-05:00

Mobb Deep's indie era was serious. I heard alot of "dudes fell off nobody says dun anymore you aint even on a major haha jay-z dissed your ballerina ass," but Free Agents was a pretty good album. and the enclosed mixtape was even better. highlights included Alchemist out-rhyming Evidence on "Fourth of July," an unexpected 50 Cent cameo on "Bump That" and, of course, "Bang Bang. Serg pretty much says it all here, but I was just bumpin this this week so I had to speak on it. I was liquidating all my underground rap that I don't listen to or spin anymore (in prep for driving acrosss the country), and this was one of like 10 joints that I just couldn't bring myself to sell. it's too ill, he's too real. peep the mp3 over at the shrimp.

(brilliant line: "they tell me put my gun away, I tell em yeah right")

another joint that was too good to leave behind was Mobb Deep's "It's Over." chilled out guitar loop w/ accidental horn stabs at the end, cowbell buried but still keepin the beat. Mobb still sounding younger than everyone else in the game, but seriously focused on proclaiming their realness.

(brilliant line: "see P fixin his pants cuz of his gun")

2005-07-28T11:11:00.000-05:00

(the move continues...)

in between packing binges the kid's been writing...my takes on Missy's The Cookbook (it's dope), Boom Bap Project's Reprogram (it's pretty good) and Cook Coke Crack's All Or Nothing (it's god awful).

my Slim Thugga review goes up this week...David over at the shrimp pretty much sums it up. "diamonds"..."already platinum"...and the highlight of the fucking album, "this is my life."

I realized what I like so much about Slim Thug...dude's the least threatening rapper out there. but in a good way. not non-threatening like Will Smith or Bow Wow (non-threatning because they're just soft) or like MOP or Beanie*** (non-threatening because they're too bent on violence to be believed). Slim is non-threatening because that's his personality. he's not a scary dude. he's slick but not cocky. he's strapped but not irrational. he's not contradictory, with 12 tracks about coke and 1 about how he really wishes his neighborhood was a nicer place. he's just a dude who got his on the mic. unlike most rappers, he's not larger than life. he's just that dude.

--

anyways, rap and politics:

-nobody puts Paul Wall in the trash

-big shout to better than yours, who's providing that low-effort two-liner blog shit plus entire albums. keep it coming homey.

-they made a shirt from that terrifying ski-mask-and-fronts Young Buck promo poster.

-was Judith Miller her own damn source? salty over NYT printing an op-ed that contradicted her pro-war journalism, so she snitches?

-bush flips off the press

-jessica simpsons says wtf where's the war coverage in our iraq special

***not that I'm questioning the realness of a dude whose last album dropped during his pending murder trial, I'm just sayin...he spends half of "Don't Stop," ostensibly a club jam, talking about guns.

2005-07-24T12:42:00.000-05:00

The grayest area ever b/w the terrorists win.

I'm not entirely disagreeing with Oliver about this, but let's chill on the Diallo comparisons. in the nypd case, if the cops were right (and a gun was being pulled) the worst case scenario was one; still a tragedy, but no suicide bomb. if the cops were right about Jean Charles de Menezes, the damage is much bigger. it's still wrong and still very very sad, but the stakes were much higher.

I'm still wrapping my mind around the whole situation. this shooting is making me think 7/7 could be more harmful to western society than 9/11. 9/11 was too big, too strong, too uniting. all it did was unleash stupid american wrath--first on the mildly deserving afghanistan, but then on the generally innocent iraq. our response to blowing up manhattan was blowing up the middle east. eye for an eye and everyone gets yellow ribbons and bumper stickers that say "these colors don't run." americans are already suspicious and paranoid of anyone that doesn't look like them; the jingoism got turned up to 11, but it was already quietly around 6.

meanwhile there's no reason to believe 7/7 is not the beginning of a long campaign. granted the "terrorists" could strike america again, but doing so takes planning and time. detonating another set of bombs in london (or any other western european city?) seems exponentially easier. if a copycat can strike two weeks later in almost the exact same way, that does not say great things about Scotland Yard's ability to contain a terrorist threat. is it really unexpected that some dude would get capped on the way to the train?

but the bigger question may be what if Jean Charles de Menezes really had a bomb? in a strange way, it's almost lucky he didn't. stopping a bombing via the shoot-to-kill policy pushes society down a very slippery slope. with every following success story, an accidental shooting would seem less consequential--you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. that's a scary thought.

but a scarier thought: what if this happened in america? can our civil liberties survive another terrorist attack on american soil?

RIP Jean Charles de Menezes...

2005-07-17T10:45:00.000-05:00

For the love of god, buy some shit from me.

More will be up this week.

2005-07-10T22:54:00.000-05:00

I signed a lease on an apartment in nyc today. it's official, I live in brooklyn, baby.

moving is a bitch.

2005-07-01T15:18:00.000-05:00

new mix available here:

OWL ROOM 3: THIS OWL HAS FLOWN

2005-06-27T11:13:00.000-05:00

NEW MIXTAPE: FRIDAY

LONG POST ON THOUGHTS ABOUT HIP-HOP CULTURE: LATER THIS WEEK.

EXPLANATION FOR DICK CHENEY'S LOVE OF GITMO: RIGHT HERRE

POINTLESS CHURCHLADY-ESQUE SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST HILLARY: HILARIOUS

SILLINESS FROM COMEL OF TIME MACHINE: AQUI (video for "Back Seat Driver")

SEARCH FOR THE NEXT DJ SHADOW: ONGOING
(thanks chris)

BLOGGER JEOPARDIZING HIS "CAREER" BY ADMITTING HE DOESN'T LIKE B-MORE HOUSE: THE VERY SAME CHRIS

NUMBER OF TIMES I'VE TYPED "B-MORE" IN THE LAST WEEK AFTER VISTING THERE: MANY

BEANIE AND JADA COLLAB: OFF THE METER

SONG OF THE MOMENT: STAY FLY-I-I-I I-I I-I OOWWWWW

2005-06-10T20:19:00.000-05:00

(church sign generator courtesy of poplicks.com.)

here's a little bit of perspective, as I watch the Cardinals wipe their ass with pinstripes:

-the Yankees are 29-30 as I write this, and will probably be 29-31 by the end of the night.
-my beloved Pirates are 28-30.
-the Brewers are 28-31.
-the Cleveland Indians are 28-30 (and not improving until this goes down)

yet nobody talks about the playoff hopes of the Pirates, Brewers and Indians.

there's an article on Baseball Prospectus that I conveniently can't find. its topic is Defensive Effeciency; percentage of balls in play that become outs. as indicated on this handy chart (login required), the Yankees' 66.43% DE is the lowest in the major leagues. the article in question digs up the notable info that the Yanks are on their way to the lowest DE of all time.

--

-My Girl Drops it Like It's Hot...mash-up courtesy of the blogless Raj Stewart

-SAS, the british wing of Dipset, portray themselves as the anti-grime on their website.

"People have been calling that garage stuff ‘UK Rap’ over here in the States, but they can’t carry our weight on their shoulders...that other stuff is not UK hip-hop.”

anyways "Bad Boys" has a hot beat.

-The Humanity Critic's Complete Idiot's Guide to Having Black Friends".

-Slate's Guide to American Torture. a pretty interesting read.

aight I'm gonna go work on my screwed and chopped voicemail message.

2005-05-31T01:48:00.000-05:00

Owl Room 2: The Potion

there's much more to it than these tracks but this is the bare bones.

tina turner - what's love got to do with it
bubba sparxxx v. choppa - jimmy mathis does it choppa style
ludacris - the potion
ying yang twinz - wait
young gunz - sick of waiting
beanie sigel and snoop - don't stop
memphis bleek - like that
mashonda v. beatnuts - find us at the back of the club
missy elliot v. rhianna v. missy - work it on and on the replay
joe budden v. sean paul - the top shotter is focused
rjd2 - de l'alouette
kanye west - diamonds

feedback appreciated.

2005-05-25T14:41:00.000-05:00

for anyone who checked that lt dan mix...

is it just me or does that "heal the world" v. "quick to back down" shit sound like Tool?

2005-05-25T10:33:00.000-05:00

Crush...kill...destroy...

job stays more hectic than usual, women are a curse and now I'm moving to the blogging homeland, new york city. so the blogging's been slowed up. I promise when I move I'll stay grounded and try to refrain from blogging about the same shit everyone else in new york hollers about.

just to show you how grounded I still am, I recently dug up this three song promo cd by Ali (of the St. Lunatics) and Gipp (possible of Goodie Mob, but I'm not sure). and it's off the chain. here's a little taste:

-The Club Is Too Hot

anyways last weekend's show (lcd/mia/diplo) was hot to def, the kind of show that never comes thru stl and thus I'm leaving this two-horse town. lcd had nine cowbells on stage. the girl I was with freaked out on some claustraphobia shit about 2/3 of the way thru the show but I still had a good time. then diplo did the damn thing in smart bar (conveniently located downstairs) and we danced until the girl I was with couldn't stand up anymore. really a great time had by all.

I think every single male at the show was wearing this American Apparel jacket. I thought I was all cool when I bought mine (because there's no American Apparel in stl), but I'm apparently the wrongest.

here's some links:

-Paul Wall debunks white boy stereotypes

-Goldie Hawn now looks like a female Kurt Russell wandering drunk through a Bed Bath and Beyond in Santa Fe. sometimes people get caught in really bad pictures, but damn, this is ridiculous.

-Yes Sweetie, Mommy's Heard of Gil-Scott Heron...prep for when your little liberal arts student comes home from freshman year.

-Duck breaks into man's house.

-the British fuck themselves up trying to make lightsabers.

-and it's gettin all kinds of run, but DJ Lt. Dan has a screwed and chopped Michael Jackson mix up at his website. absolutely freakin binoculars.

2005-05-19T14:40:00.000-05:00

that last post was stupid. I don't know what happened to my ability to write well.

anyways I'm mobbin thru chicago to go see the hipster wet dream situation.

here's the mix for the drive up:

54-46 was my number - toots and the maytals
hard eight - dap kings
i got cha open - black moon
breakdown - handsome boy modeling school
been such a long time - hugh masekela
green chimneys - thelonious monk
big spender - j gram
too hot in the club - ali and gipp
don't stop - beanie sigel
dredio - mac dre and e-40
i just want to satisfy you - the o'jays
pin - yeah yeah yeahs
it goes - atmosphere
i am trying to break your heart - wilco
will it ever - part 2 f/ sandra melody

2005-05-18T00:51:00.000-05:00

Prefuse73 sucks live.

Dude doesn't suck on record. I really like some of his shit. that jam with MF Doom and Aesop Rock is genius. he did some great work with Diverse. dude's prolific, works real hard, has a huge audience and the world loves him. more power to him. but his live show is straight poop.

I don't know how much was actually pre-programmed and how much was live, but the show didn't feel like a performance. it had that awkward feeling of when someone goes "hey listen to this song," then watches you for some kind of reaction. the drummer added very little to the show, off beat about half the time. the basslines were lost somewhere. since Prefuse has a lot of shit that dissolves into nothing at the end of the song, and they did that live. which meant every song was about two minutes long, and then they'd break it down on some noise shit for a few bars like the end of some jam. this is cool at the end of eight minute jazz songs, it's tedious when it happens so frequently.

in order for a performance to actually work and be entertaining, there has to be something to watch. when you're watching two dudes rock out, pleased with themselves and their own music, that's not a performance.

for some reason it reminded me of the scenes in The Net, a movie which dropped about the time the internet was becoming a cultural phenomenon. they tried to create tension while showing people typing. some race against time as Sandra Bullock pittered furiously at the keyboard under drama strings. but the heart of the action is non-existent.

2005-05-08T09:24:00.000-05:00

"Late passes" are out, now all the kids are sayin "TSE," which stands for "titanic sinks, etc."

so I know this is gonna get some TSE-ish responses from the blog-readin public, but Dan Charnas is killin it.

The series of "Minding My Business" posts are incredible, not only because of Dan's framing of "Baby Got Back" as a political statement, but because of how well he contextualizes all things wrong ("wrong") with hip-hop in Part 3.

The money quotes are as follows:

"Last year I drove across the country alone, and if there’s one thing I got from that trip through middle America, it’s that we are a nation asleep at the wheel. We are disconnected from everything. We don’t care where the meat comes from, where the oil comes from, where the paper and plastic comes from, where the land comes from, where the entertainment comes from… just keep it coming."

and

"“Black Owned” conjures up this romantic notion of “community ownership.” And it is not. More often, the reality of “Black Owned” simply means that the capitalist who owns the business happens to be Black."

sorry to be blogging about another blog, but this was too crucial to pass up.

2005-05-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

MOVIES!

Kung Fu Hustle was fucking dope. much less Warner Bros-ish than I expected. all the reviews I read were like "slapstick kung fu is hilarious!" so I was ready for lots of dumb jokes, pratfalls and crotch shots. actually it was very well done and lowbrow without being too lowbrow.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as I've now said like 50 times, is kind of like if you and your friends made a movie about all your running jokes from summer camp or high school. there is no way this movie makes any sense unless you've read the book. actually I'd think it would be fucking annoying if you hadn't read the book. every other scene is a nod to something that is explained much better on paper. that being said, I read the books and I wasn't too mad at the movie. it was ok. Zooey Deschenal is smokin. also, she can't act.

I saw The Goonies for the first time this weekend. (which everybody responds to with "you've never seen the goonies?" fuck off! now I have).

MUSIC!

Juelz Santana - "Mic Check" video

(thanks shrimp--there's your permanent re-up)

calling this a "drop it like it's hot" bite is oversimplification. they're both black and white with minimal color on a white background. but they're entirely different tracks with an entirely different energy. and "mic check" has a theme, rather than just some lazy "we're at a party on a white soundstage" shit.

on the Rakim appearance/supposed collaboration, New York has really claimed rhyming off-beat as its calling card lately. Fat Joe barely knows where the snares are, Jay-Z accapellas make no sense and, on top of it all, Juelz is pretty much the only emcee that makes it sound really really good. (I mention jigga's accapellas because he actually sounds on beat until you try to match them up--dude's totally off). but Juelz at least sounds like he knows where the boundaries are. he's never on top of the beat, but he finishes his phrases at reasonable times in the bars and has the impecible sense of timing one needs to pull off ignoring the beat you're rapping on. Rakim, on the other hand, is from the old school of rhyming on beat. so I'm skeptical. but whatever.

why are there chinese (?) letters on the board? next level!

3rd Bass audio!

who is Mike Jones really?

and...

All is full of complete breakfast!

Zombies!

goddammit Rincon!

2005-04-26T15:40:00.000-05:00

saw Atmosphere this weekend. Grayskul opened up. I interviewed Grayskul a couple weeks ago, but the article got cut to make room for this RIP Johnnie Johnson ish (rock'n'roll pioneer obviously trumps up and comin rap group, I aint mad). I was gonna post it, but it's just a little preview that I can sum up in an easy concept:

Grayskul : Oldominion as Cannibal Ox : Atoms Fam

(two members of a large abstract rap collective that had chemistry on the mic)

unfortunately rap shows in St. Louis sometimes start on time, so I missed Grayskul by showing up the conventional two hours after doors. this is a damn shame because I really wanted to see the homies. I really didn't like their album when I first obtained it, but it sat in my iTunes and kept making me go "who's this?" when their shit would come on. Onry and JFK do have that chemistry and I'm upping "Hatred Displayed" because the noisy beat and the quick traded lines really remind me of Company Flow. pleasantly surprised.

anyways, Blueprint was opening up when I got there. homey is still one of the best performers I've ever seen. I thought he was hella boring until I saw him live a couple years ago. dude puts seriously intensity into his live show. I'm a sucker for rappers that do it w/o a hype man. his new record, 1988, is pretty good, and available here with a "best of 1988" mixtape.

I've seen Slug like four times now, this time he did it with a live band. the first third of the show was really dope, with the band leading in with the bassline from "Free Or Dead" and Slug doin the first verse of that jam, goin into a string of more upbeat party shit. he bantered with the audience, jumped around alot and went on a rant about fake liberalism when they held up the collection bucket for Dax Pierson. the Dax situation isn't funny, but Slug losing his train of thought and ending it with "fucking leave me alone!" was. anyways I don't know if Slug ran out of party shit, but the set got really heavy really fast, prompting somebody to yell out "no emo" like he was one of one of Bol's weed carriers. for a while it was cool, but cheer up Slug, gettin dome in the Creepy Crawl green room in that bad.

the band was sick. the cat playin keys stole the show, providing all the blips and sound effects that live hip-hop needs to really sound like it should. to anybody starting or currently in a live hip-hop group, keep this in mind: hip-hop was built on soul, soul relied on piano and organ. your little two guitar/bass/drums group isn't gonna sound all that good, even with your friend who learned to scratch last year. I mean, Atmosphere's band was off the wall, and even they sounded like Phish by the end of the show.

anyways back to the show: the best thing about it was the division of the fans. there were clearly older school hip-hoppers there who screamed along to that jam about heroin that was on Se7en and that compilation that was supposed to kill the beef between Project Blowed and Anticon, and "Scapegoat," etc. and then there were the kids who went nuts for the shit on the last two albums that I don't know all that well. either way, even if I'm not into Slug as much as I used to be, dude's still got it, he can still rock a crowd like nobody and I'm glad he came through.

oh yeah, here's that Grayskul track.

--

-in entirely unrelated news, I can't get enough of "Hennessy" by Potna Deuce, recently uploaded at Cocaine Blunts.

-Lemon-Red is gettin much viewage lately, as is Laundromat United.

-the new Skittles commercials are great. grown indian man being fed skittles by a giant eagle = marketing genius.

-I'm probably less interested in basketball than every single other hip-hop blogger, so I aint gonna weigh in on the playoffs. but my brother will, repeatedly, at great length.

-and christ, this is important: the sit-in is over!

happy tuesday kids. tonight I will see Kung Fu Hustle.

2005-04-20T14:35:00.000-05:00

AWW YEAH AWW YEAH
SO SERIOUS
SO SERIOUS
SO SERIOUS

by request (because I forgot to up it about a month ago)...

The All-Stars f/ Styles P - "So Serious" rmx

stl stand up!

2005-04-20T02:13:00.000-05:00

blogging and insomnia go hand in hand, like cookies and cream.

a quick story: back in college me and some people ate a bunch of mushrooms and we were trippin pretty hard. we left my apartment and went out to go wandering, and one of my peeps picks up an errant bottle and chucks it into a wall, or something. I don't remember, but I do remember saying how weird it was that he was gettin all violent on shrooms because they're such a hippie drug. and dude goes "whatever man...violence and shrooms...it's like cookies and cream."

anyways David over at the shrimp just brought up Skinnyman. if you're gonna judge Skinnyman, don't do it on anything off his album, because his album fucking sucks. it's boring underground rap with a british accent and lots of political overtones.

but before he did that crap album, I was seriously BOUT some Skinnyman. about three years ago I was on a never-ending quest to find more Skinnyman because I played the fuck out of "Live from the Itchy Side" from DJ Vadim's album. that shit was serious. but Napster couldn't help me out though, neither could any of the other mp3 sharing shit. after bothering all the uk heads I knew, finally BSE broke me off with some old Skinnyman mp3's he ripped from singles from his crew, Mud Family, but it was only like four tracks and I played the fuck out of them too. but, as it became clear dude really hadn't recorded a whole lot, I let my search fall by the wayside. I sort of forgot about dude until I interviewd Chali 2na, who randomly mentioned Skinnyman while on the subject of touring Europe, and informed me dude was locked up for pushin herb or something.

usually when people go to jail, they find religion or go crazy. Skinnyman just fell off.

DJ Vadim f/ Skinnyman - "live from the itchy side"

--

in that same post, C-Rayz Walz comes up too. first off, congrats C-Rayz on gettin his own show. I can't think of a better person to teach someone how to be good battle emcee, because C-Rayz has clearly mastered the three elements of battling:

1) freestyling

2) dropping sick guest verses

3) dropping seriously flawed albums

actually Ravipops was better than it had to be. "Buck 80" and "3 Card Molly" still get spins. but there were also some really questionable tracks. to say the least, having an r&b chick on the hook for a song called "Battle Me" is surreal at best.

but anyways I really just want to talk about C-Rayz on the guest spots, because he consistantly killed em all. "challenge me" (from that Molemen album) has my favorite punchline of all time (I'm one of the illest things you can think of/like Sisqo slappin Mike Tyson with a pink glove). dude went line for weird line with Aesop Rock on "bent life" ("inhale problems, exhale solutions!"). I thought c-rayz was on that "fondle em fossils" collab, but I guess he was never really on fondle em.

c-rayz walz - "buck 80"

2005-04-18T13:52:00.000-05:00

new york was dope.

I drank a lot of stella and saw a lot of people I went to school with. saw catchdubs on friday night and bought that "oh snap!" shit. made the requesite visit to turntable lab, where I bought that "favela on blast" shit that's kind of hard to find, and the new ciara record which is nowhere to be seen in stl. (among other shit)

read about a third of blink while eating dinner on friday night (cuz I didn't get tickets to that beck jumpoff), and that book is crap. anything that cites that many psych studies gets the gas face. don't waste yer time.

I'm not huge into art, but I enjoy art now and then and anyone in new york who doesn't hit up PS1 on the soonish tip is seriously missing out. so much good shit there, most notably some wedding cake made out of paper with giant crystals coming out of it ("sweet nothing" by Kirsten Hassenfeld) and this crazy fake nature video about ostriches ("elia" by Guy Ben-Ner, starring his adorable kids). I could easily put in another two days of art time there.

didn't make it to see the Basquiat exhibit, unfortunately.

also did the required shopping at the required stores. my friend Steph was dismayed to find out that the Stacks "big in japan" shirt was a Tom Waits reference, not a joke about how whoever might be wearing that shirt is probably bigger than the average Japanese citizen.

didn't take nearly enough (ok, *any*) flicks, so I guess I'm not that great at this bloggin shit yet. so to make up for that, here's the new RJD2 video for "1972". thanks to Grand Good for the link.

thanks for yet another great weekend, new york city. if you weren't so damn expensive and oversaturated with aspiring dj's and music journalists, I might be living there right now.

2005-04-14T11:56:00.000-05:00

new shit dropped:

DJ Trackstar's $1 Mix Vol. 4
that shit I've been throwing down tracks from on and off. 50 emcees, $1. doin it real big here in stl. check his website.

run the road
as a blogger, I finally weigh in on grime. I like alot of it, but Earz's "happy days" is straight butt.

and some mp3's for no apparent reason:
j-grand - big spender
j-grand - big spender rmx
tony touch - dimelo

"big spender" was some shit that my boy yoni from the nati put me on to. local hit in the late 90's, some silly obvious sample with down-south hats and claps and a strange reggae-tinged remix. cincinatti is more gritty than you think.

"dimelo" is from tony touch's underrated "piecemaker 2." certain people were all bout this shit when it dropped. I slept and now I can't find this damn single. anyways, enjoy.

2005-04-13T11:46:00.000-05:00

my well-paying, low-effort job suddenly got real intense this week, and last week, and the week before, so bloggin's been a low priority. also finishing up the mixtape (no seriously, it's done, I'm waiting on the art now) and getting knee deep in civil disobedience.

on the real, let's talk about this sit-in going on at my alma mater. the long and the short of it is a call for a living wage for the workers at wash u. living wage is already enacted in the city of st. louis, and it's very financially viable, costing my papered up uni about $2.4 mil to enact. serious number crunching can be found at SWA's website.

shit's still goin on (day 10?) and a hunger strike's been added to the fire. if you're an alum of WU, please to sign the petition.

aight then.

--

my boy Nick moved to new york because his band got a deal (thanks to co-membership with Glassjaw). now I am living in his house.

his band was called Easy Tiger, then it was called Torpedo, then I really wanted them to change the name to The Internet, but they finally settled on Men Women and Children.

check out the demos on the website. all the electronic bleeps and bloops? that's all Nick.

--

-man apologizes after trying to contact Bob Marley for interview

-world's oldest material (a tiny sliver of crystal) on display

-Terry Schiavo's blog

-I can't decide if these are so bad they're good, or just really bad. there's something quaint about them.

...and the rap links:

-my take on the new beanie joint (I like it alot)

-CNN's ridiculous take on rappers in jail. (didn't we get over this in the mid-90's?)

-Robbie's take on Weed Carriers in blog form. dude is killin it in a multiple blog way that Hashim aint really seein.

-BSE's MF Doom action figure, unfortunately will never get mass-produced. but good lookin homey.

-I can't stop listening to Brazilian Girls.

and I end on a very interesting thought by my girl Audrey (no Awwdamn on how she, as a not-very-serious hip-hop fan evaluates hip-hop.

"so i guess technically the overall aesthetic is more important to me than the lyrics since thats what's gonna determine whether or not i listen enough times to hear the lyrics."

I'll be in new york this weekend, yall can probably catch me here.

2005-03-31T12:21:00.001-06:00

RIP Mitch Hedberg.

only defamer and howard stern are reporting it right now, but....shit. RIP.

a big list of Mitch quotes for the uninitiated.

2005-03-31T10:08:00.000-06:00

me: I tried to type "jesus" and accidentally typed "juelz."

bro: I tried to type "santana" and accidentally typed "satan."

2005-03-25T14:14:00.000-06:00

jawns updated.

(apparently jawn is played out but I'm in stl and it aint big enough to be played out yet here, so I'ma keep sayin it.)

-paul wall and big pokey - "sittin sideways"
...is up on that list, from dj smallz' "southern smoke 17." some serious riyl "still tippin" shit. some real texas head can probably tell me why that aint really true, but fuck it, I like that shit alot.

-young thunder freestyle
here's another track from DJ Trackstar's $1 Mixtape Vol. 4, with thunder tearin up the "go dj" beat. stl stands up...

-the All-Stars
I can't even find a link for these dudes, but their album just dropped and it's got guest spots from Bun B, so bloggers should pay attention. they have a shinier take on the country sound, but still spit that grimey shit. I'll up the "so serious" remix w/ Styles P. sometime this week.

-hombre blanco
...is one of my favorite blogs right now. he's best known for givin the world the Dip School but he's got that good bloggin-about-public-school-teachin crack on the real.

-"you rich? just for you, we got a lavish casket"

-harmonica beatbox jumpoff!
this is what happens when hip-hop reaches MIT. fuckin nerds.

-lions lay down with lambs
lioness adopts baby oryx like 5 times. (baby oryx promptly devoured by other lions, but it's the thought that counts, right?)

2005-03-21T13:45:00.000-06:00

WAX PART 1...slew of promo wax fell into my hands this week, later than it should have, but whatevs. before the reviews, I'd like to give a shout to DJ Trackstar, who just finished his $1 Mixtape Vol. 4, getting a verse from 50 of the secretly dope StL emcees. check the bars from Meta over NORE's "Get Down" beat. I can't stop listening to that shit. fucking ill.

Z-Trip f/ Soup - "Listen to the DJ"
This sounds like car commercial music. That stupid rave bitch in that Chapelle car commercial loves this song. oh the cover looks like the Run-DMC logo. yeah that's never been done before.

Sir Menelink aka Cyclops 4000 - "Let's Build for a Sec" b/w "At You"
"At You" has to be at least 8 years old. it sounds like it could have been on Soundbombing I. it wouldn't have been a stand-out track. Spinna and Menelink always link up nicely though, as they do on "Build." Cyclops still spits that five percent science rap that Kool Keith left behind so long ago. not Spinna's best beat, but overall I like this track.

Purple City - "Purple City Byrd Gang" b/w "It Ain't Easy"
Speaking of Soundbombing I, it's really weird to see 8-Off Agallah runnin with Dipset. I don't like this that much. Jim Jones shows up on the a-side but his lyrics sound like Baby--"that big body, you know the top come off." Eh.

Scram Jones - "Speed Demons" b/w "12 years ago" and "64 Bit"
This NYC mixtape fodder ish is really hit or miss. "Speed Demons" is boring all around, except for the fresh high-speed cuts at the end. "12 Years Ago" is an average track with Scram talkin about his youth. but "64 Bit" is lyrically waay above average, one of those long ass verses that you know went for another two or three minutes after the tape ended. Plenty of fresh lines ("I got an ace up my sleeve, I'm dealin out fifty-one").

Songodsuns - "Once Again" b/w "Big Beat Walkthrough"
SGS is better known as 2Mex from OMD and Visionaries. I'm really never gonna like this guy. But he's got plenty of fans and love all over, so that shouldn't bother him. anyways my tastes aside, I like Jean Grae's verse on the b-side and I like the post-Jay-Dee beat. Jean's ny street style doesn't mesh too well with 2Mex, but she still tears it down.

Memph Bleek - "Like That"
extremely club ready. I'm likin it, even though Bleek still sounds like TI w/o charisma. dude can hardly rap for real.

ODB, Raekwon, Method Man and Macy Gray - (I can't remember what it's called)
This track is hot poop. Take out Rae's phone-in verse and Macy's stupid hook, put the ODB and surprisingly dope Meth verse on something mo bangin and I'd buy like four copies. but with no accapella, this just blows.

Beanie Sigel - "Don't Stop"
It's always suspect when a big name stops in to do a hook and you know they aren't doing a verse because the little dudes can't afford it. But Snoop's hook and minor additions in the bridge are really all he needs to do. his rhyming's gotten so lazy, he should just keep Lil Jon/DJ Jimi status on the chanting simple shit tip. the hook is some smooth pimp shit which works perfectly with the Phil Collinsy Neptunes beat. Beanie sounds kind of strange talkin about robbery over this shit, but for the most part he doesn't talk about robbery and this jam is only makin me more excited for The B. Coming..

Young Gunz - "Set It Off" b/w "Tonight"
Swizz does his best Lil Jon/Trackboyz impression on the beat. lots of chanting. the style is bit, but I'm still kind of lovin it. Young Chris can still rap his ass off, Neef still struggles (or is it the other way around? I can't remember). Still bangin though. b-side is with Daz Dillinger, doesn't work as well as "My Life" on the TI album did, which is the last thing I heard Daz on. pretty sleepy.

Time Machine - "Mind in a Spin," "Caught on Tape" and "Matter Transporter"
These dudes are still one of my favorite underground groups (and one of the few I still check for). "Caught on Tape" is really just a jam about gettin shit caught on tape, including a bridge that namechecks all the taped scandals from the last decade. "Matter Transporter" is the greatest take on the "touring is a bitch" theme, talkin about how much easier touring would be if they could teleport. "Mind in a Spin" is ok, probably the weakest track on here and with a forgettable verse from the resurrected Edo G. Not bad, but paling in comparison. Anyways this single is fresh and everyone should check these dudes out at their website.

Copywrite - "Beautiful Trainwreck" b/w "Happy Hour"
Copy's really smoothed out his flow, away from the bumpiness of alot of east-coast sounding cats and into a more on-beat cadence. he rides a fake Dre beat from Jake One on "Trainwreck" on some serious shit that I wasn't paying close enough attention to really catch. "Happy Hour" is more of Copy's element, on the party tip over a predictable J-Zone beat. His flow in the second verse conjures Luda's most lyrically acrobatic shit. this could go far. I wonder if dude's still fuckin with Dame Dash.

more later this week.

2005-03-16T16:43:00.000-06:00

um real quick like:

my takes on The Massacre by 50 Cent and LCD Soundsystem's self-titled joint in this week's Riverfront Times.

coke's new "put the lime in the coke you nut" campaign isn't as unintentionally funny as "I'd hit it" but it's just as head-scratchingly funny trying to figure out how that ever was a good idea.

this article on wick-wick-wack twist endings in Slate is great because they mention The Passion of the Christ. ("he's not really dead!"--heathen humor jump-off!)

props to Emil for the love for stl's own Eboni Eyez over at The Shrimp.

and nobody loves an underdog more than me, but I still can't root for the underdog to end all underdogs as long as they're playing my boys in chapel hill. (turkey farm road, holla back!)

2005-03-03T12:16:00.000-06:00

Tef Poe - "Let's Go"
local st. louis cat. on the serious come up. this track borrowed from Trackstar's latest tape, Discipline.

"I Gotcha Open" screwed.
courtesy of A to the L.

Optimus Prime dies of prostate cancer.

MIA signs with Interscope. (no word yet on whether she's beefin with 50.)

Sony Walkman museum.

2005-03-02T11:01:00.000-06:00

Apologies upfront for piling another post onto the fire. Sean already said anything the creative side of this blogosphere really needs to say, and it aint hard to find information if you want it. But I gotta address one thing.

Whether or not this beef is a publicity stunt, speculating on that fact isn't ignorant at all, and I got a lot of problems with Exo's assertion that rap is still a folk art before a money maker. This has nothing to do with "the tendency of media to discourage discourse." This has nothing to do with a lack of exposure to "the mindset that arbitrates in bullets." It has more to do with a healthy skeptical attitude towards all things corporate.

The way the cards seem to be falling right now, Dre and Game will stay on Interscope on some Compton renaissance shit. 50 and G-Unit will probably end up on some other label. All kinds of lines get drawn up. Terror Squad faces off against G-Unit. Compton lines up against New York. Yukmouth will try (in vain) to bring the Bay into it. Jadakiss gets Rough Ryders involved. But no matter what happens, America will watch. Our eyes and ears will be glued to the radio stations, websites and blogs that follow this shit. No matter how ugly it gets, we will keep watching, keep listening and, most importantly, keep buying what comes out. And everybody still gets paid.

Rap is not a folk art anymore, and that assertion is as quaint as all those who swear by the four elements. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, one whose content has gotten either more ignorant or more real with time, depending on who you ask. Even with the eternal "CNN of the streets" status, we're still all watching cable news. The majority of rap fans aren't on the frontlines. The majority of rap fans are living vicariously. We are sitting in the stands cheering bloodsport. The "lack of proximity" is what is moving units.

Shots were fired last week. It's not cool. It's not funny anymore. Violence elevated the beef from mildly amusing blog fodder to disgusting, straight up and down. But that still doesn't make the situation any less suspect.

As I write this, the world prepares the gallows for Jeff Gannon. The man is trying as hard as he can to defend himself against charges that he was a White House plant at press conferences, as well as trying to justify his homophobic columns, written while still working as a gay prostitute. I'm sure in between furious blog updates and interviews, he's calling Scott McClelland and Karl Rove several times a day, trying to get them to bail him out. Scott and Karl are not answering their phones. They have cut off ties, left Gannon to the media wolves. He made the ultimate sacrifice for the cause.

The moral of the story is sometimes you gotta break a few eggs to make a financially viable, extremely powerful omelet. If this whole beef is a marketing ploy, how many people are actually in on it? If 50 started runnin off at the mouth to move more Massacres, is it unreasonable to think he'd keep his motives to himself? Would he tell his entourage? Would Game? Milli Vanilli and, more importantly, Prodigy's ballet flicks say the illusion only works if its seamless. To call the whole thing off now could cost all parties involved millions.

How much is double platinum really worth?

2005-02-22T11:39:00.000-06:00

I was driving to work a couple days ago, listening to Colin Cowherd because when there's nothing interesting on NPR, I listen to sports talk radio. Colin always sounds like he's about to say something ignorant, but never does. he keeps me listening and he's usually on point. also, he has no co-host, or at least not one that ever says anything, so there are large portions of his show where he's just yelling into space.

clicking on that link above can give you a run-down of the discussion I caught, but the gist of it was that Nascar fans are convinced that the NBA is no longer popular, and that Nascar is set to take over. the brilliance of this argument is that it is entirely based on what us smart people call anecdotal evidence. that show consisted of caller after caller after caller phoning in and saying "well me and my boys all go and watch Nascar on the weekends" or "we don't watch the NBA around here, we watch Nascar" or "basketball is for pussies, everyone I know thinks driving is so much more exciting!" when I tuned in, I had just missed a black caller who pointed out that he doesn't watch Nascar because everybody's white and he feels the black community as a whole can't identify with a largely white sport. the response was a discussion over whether or not this comment was racist. whatever.

Colin kept bringing up how the Daytona 500, Nascar's world series (so I'm told) pulls about a 10 on the Nielsen ratings, where as the NBA Finals regularly pull 14 and up. And that's several games in a row pulling those numbers, as opposed to the singular Daytona. notably, this was just about the only hard evidence evidence brought up during this entire show. the rest of it was "well, my friends" etc.

the bottom line is that Nascar fans just aren't very smart. I don't know if the image above has anything to do with Nascar technically, but it came up when I searched for "nascar fans" on google images, and that pretty much sums up what I think of when I think of Nascar fandom: the kind of people who are attracted by bright colors and computer breasts in unitards. the kind of people who can't understand that the world is bigger than what they and their friends do on the weekend. I grew up in North Carolina, and we elected Richard Petty into office. that's the kind of dumb shit Nascar fans do.

just look at that picture. I don't think I need to say anything else.

-I guess it makes sense to just follow up that rant with "I Hate the Right", J-Garaffalo's mo brilliant rant in Vice from a couple months ago.

-and, if it's serious, which it might be, given the level of detail in the song, "Baby Got Bible", is just as obnoxious. Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is. She gotta pack much book.

-other shit that makes me angry: the untimely (?) passing of Hunter S. Thompson. Liz, #1 HST fan (who played phone tag with him for a few days!) has much more heartfelt memories than I can muster. (I, on the other hand, still have her copy of Hell's Angels.)

-I haven't seen Breakfast With Hunter, but I'm intrigued.

-Teddy P's "Love TKO" screwed and chopped

-Rakim f/ Dr. Dre - After You Die

-Slang City translates American pop music for foreigners. Game's "How We Do" is the big find there. Wow.

-The Warriors action figures! Come out and plaaaaaaaay...

-Upper Playground Superstars. Special BBQ edition.

2005-02-09T13:26:00.000-06:00

GOOD GRIEF!

THIS FRIDAY, 2/11
9 PM til late

NIK'S WINE BAR

Skinny Friedman and SPF 4000 on the wheels.

(reading new york dj blogs is like looking into the future. case in point: I first heard about MIA via catchdubs, like four months ago. so I started spinning "galang" entirely too much. now she's finally reaching the midwest. shit gets tested out there; yall do the hard work. I'm gonna keep reading your blogs and cherry picking the recommendations for my own crates here in the cuts.)

--

-GOP lackey Jeff Gannon calls it quits.

...and accidentally outs himself in the process?

the man is a tool. our country is better off without him in white house press conferences, asking how Bush plans to deal with Democrats who are "divorced from reality".

-meanwhile, we're totally going to war in Iran.

this needs no comment.

-the lego church

...doesn't really need a comment either.

-Jay-Z's half-assed swats at Game

...don't really merit comment, but rumors that Memphis Bleek's new joint will be the first release under Shawn Carter's Def Jam do. and that comment is a resounding "WTF?"

(which isn't to say Is That Yo Chick int classic, but that was all jay-z and timbo anyways.)

-anyways we all know Kobe Soz should be the next Def Jam signee.

just peep his incredible video! this kid makes A-Trak look like Bonecrusher.

(er, Bonecrusher?)

(note to the entire Bay Area rap scene: congratulations on having your own running joke!)

-and finally, speaking of the Yay, a big up and a mazel tov go out to O-Dub on the birth of his child.

2005-02-03T19:46:00.000-06:00

Let me tell you a story about the Pope.

I happened to be in Pittsburgh the weekend Steelers accidentally beat the Jets. I watched the game with my friend James, his dad and some of his dad's friends. So before the game, we're discussing how and why the Steelers would win. James's dad stands up and gives the best explanation ever.

So it seems our owner, Dan Rooney, took a football during the season, signed it and mailed it to the Vatican. The Pope received the ball, looked at the signature and said "ah yes, Rooney," had one of his lackeys hike him the ball and then blessed it. With that blessing, as it is told, the Steelers cannot lose until the Pope dies.

Steelers lose. A few days later, Pope enters the hospital. Coincidence? I don't think so.

--

-"Double Cheeseburger? I'd hit it.

-Modern Living is a weird series of short interactive animations.

-It's fun to shoot people.

-Golden age hip-hop photos.

-I know everyone saw this on The Daily Show like me, but I still just have to mention North Korea's new personal grooming show, Let Us Trim Our Hair In Accordance With Socialist Lifestyle.

-DJ Quik at Gat courtesy of BSE.

-I bet Milo's new blog won't make it past 5 entries.

2005-02-01T11:59:00.000-06:00

I fucking hate the Patriots. some chump tried to front. I thought yall might want to read my response as to why the Patriots are boring.

and in case you don't want to read that shit, I upped a practice set I breezed through last night after finally weeding a bunch of crap out of my crates. it's 45 minutes long and I give it a 7 out of 10. my mixer wasn't behaving, but I also fucked up a few mixes and, though I understand I can't scratch, I never bring that knowledge to the decks.

Monday Night Workout

and on to the show.

--

> "interesting characters" has nothing to do with a football team's
> success. if you were truly interested in football and not its trappings
> (in other words, substance over style) you wouldn't care about that one
> way or the other.
>
> as for "finesse" players - who were you rooting for last weekend,
> pittsburgh or new england? pittsburgh has an even more workmanlike,
> smashmouth approach to the game than new england. so no, that isn't the
> issue either (and it had nothing to do with your previous post, where
> you complained only about the trappings). the issue is jealousy and a
> superficial liking for trappings and style.
>

look, "finesse" doesn't really have that much to do with my enjoyment of football, but I like some style to my game. I like good football, I like some antics on top of it. I'd love the Steelers no matter what (I'm from pittsburgh), but I loved them even more when crazy ass Joey Porter spit in Willie Green's face this season. Terrell Owens cracks me up. I didn't really see that many Atlanta games this season, but Michael Vick is a lot of fun to watch. Kurt Warner three years ago? quality entertainment. I also like a good story, which is why I'm a big Tommy Maddox fan.

the only thing I can give the Patriots props for is their names. I like a good ridiculous name. I like RW McQuarters, I like Chris Fumatumaafala, I liked Tim Biakabatuka, I like Troy Polumalu, and I can give credit where credit is due. So, Tedy Bruschi (one "d," extra points!), Randall Gay (hahahaahah "gay") and Earthwind Moreland, stand up, if you can do so without Belichick telling you so. ok thank you.

see, I never played football. my understanding of the game is limiting to beating on my friends in Madden games. I play touch occasionally and I'm not very good. I openly acknowledge that I don't understand the nuances and "trappings" of the game. but like it or not, football is American entertainment. it's up there with the shows I go to and the movies I see. movies that are technically amazing but have boring plots and stupid dialogue don't move me. musicians that are technically proficient but don't make engaging songs don't move me. and well-played, winning football is not enough to make me like The Patriots.

so maybe i do like the "trapppings" of football more than the actual game. you know what? I don't care, and I have a strange feeling that most football fans are just as concerned with style and "trappings" as they are with a good game.

as for the jealousy, I'm gonna go ahead and admit that I have a vendetta against the Pats, and I have ever since that 2001 playoff game. being a pittsburgher living in st. louis, I've got a little beef with the Patriots. but that has nothing to do with not finding them entertaining. if my teams were routinely stomped by a more interesting team, you wouldn't see me posting here. at least they'd be good games. but nope. the patriots are boring. deal with it. qed.

2005-01-31T11:41:00.000-06:00

-Old KDAY mixes

-"Cam'Ron Dozes Off During Freestyle"

-Dangermouse, Cee-Lo and the Alkaholiks - "26 Inches" video (oldie but goodie)

-St. Louis's own Sylvester Brown makes Bill O'Reilly eat his words and lives to tell about it.

-Bush breaks the bank for PR spending.

-A senator in Oklahoma wants tiny boxing gloves for fighting chickens. Good news for Cleto.

-Jack Shafer on blogs.

-The coming US collapse which is making me consider shifting my savings to the Euro.

-Get Your War On is on point, as usual.

Finally, I still aint heard the fucking Tsunami song. GET AT ME SOMEBODY.

2005-01-26T15:00:00.000-06:00

The real news right now, other than the Canadian ninja, is Jin's response to the infamous Hot 97 Tsunami Song. Jin asks "since when was hip-hop about bein racist and bein ignorant?"

I would say about 1975. Maybe earlier.

Meanwhile, we got our own controversy here in stl, when my (white) boy (with braids) Kermit called himself the n-word at an open mic on MLK day. The whole story can be found on the F5 message board, mostly in the form of Kerm's long response. it's a few pages back (I think 5), but it's an interesting read, and a much more reasonable scandal than this Tsunami song bullshit.

btw, I don't live in New York, I've never heard Hot 97 and my computer's been broke the last week and a half, so I wasn't really checkin for this whole story. But can someone lace me with a copy of this Tsunami bullshit? All the links I see are dead now. Thanks.

--

On to sports.

-for a smooth transition, Sean's QB MC comparisons.
Mostly on point (esp the Vick/Twista call!), but...McNair/Ras Kass gives Ras too much credit...Brees/Lil Scrappy doesn't give either one of em enough credit...The Game is legit while Eli Manning will show that being the stupid son/brother of a football great does not make you a football great yourself...Boller will step up next year (unfortunately), while Guerilla Black will join the ranks of Paperboy and Special Ed (who both have new albums out, apparently).

-fellow Bringer of Gats Todd Ito has teamed up with my brother for Free Darko. it's ostensibly about basketball, but my bro makes Kris Ex look straightforward.

-they did have the good sense to link the most brilliant nike ad ever, which made me realize I had no idea what Ladanian Tomlinson looked like.

-the patriots get the bozack.

2005-01-21T11:06:00.000-06:00

There was this ill flic of a baby orangutan wrapped in/chewing on a Terrible Towel on the cover of Pittsburgh's lesser paper, The Tribune Review some time last week. In lieu of that pic, which I couldn't find (and in lieu of the monkey on a stick, monkey on a stick pic which was too big), you get a small flic of an orangutan.

And, um, GO STEELERS. Peep Dave Fleming's breakdown of our unflappable QB. Big Ben lost some points when I found out he was all Jesus'd up, but he's still cool. As long as he keeps winning.

--

Can somebody explain why The OC is playing the lesbo card this early in its sure-to-be long run? I mean, I like the realistic approach to it: sober, and with hints of a relationship instead of some Girls Gone Wild shit. It's a notable step in the right direction for society, no doubt. But on the other hand, I want them to have some cards left to play two or three seasons down the road, when they've already killed off a few main characters and are struggling for viewers.

--

House of Flying Daggers was fucking boring.

--

Lazarus is wrong on so many levels, the biggest one being his assertion that there is some relationship between the success of black women (in fewer teen pregnancies and more black women in college) and misogyny in hip-hop.

And, shit, it just rubs me the wrong way when one group tells another group they don't have a right to be offended.

--

New jawns.

-you will regret sleeping on the Rich Harrison digfest that is Amerie's "One Thing." this is the cat that did "Crazy In Love," btw, and he's got a grip of other shit coming out, including some bananas J-Lo track. cop it if you can, it's a necessity for spring dj's.

-Turntable Lab reports Def Jam changed their mind about releasing the Luda/Timbo banger "The Potion" as the second single. Fucking idiots. Luckily I got the wax (b/w the rowdiness known as "Pass Out") before they pulled it.

-I forgot I even had "Where Dem Dollas At," and I never even noticed the slightly sped-up minimalist Bounce rmx on the flip. simple 808 loop with some good work on the vocals so the clean version doesn't sound stupid.

-BLT's "Casual Friday" gets kind of indulgent and stupid for my tastes towards the end, and even the DFA's handclap and cowbell magic can't save it. but the first chunk is tight, and I can see myself falling in love with the girl who says, for the first two and a half minutes of the song (maybe more) "bonjour, bonjour, bonjour..."

2005-01-18T13:11:00.000-06:00

So on Thursday, my ibook starts making these grinding sounds and movin all slow. Then it straight up won't start. I'm not one of these "computers are from space" clowns, but even with what I could do, I couldn't save Zebulon Smathers (my hard drive). So I roll through the Apple Store and they're like "your hard drive is dead." Weaksauce. I lose three years of pictures and a year of beats I never got around to backing up. And so much fucking e-mail.

But then I casually mention that my monitor has been acting up, where it does this really cool thing where if you pull the monitor too far forward it dies. My monitor has died before, and my ibook is under some recall where they know this is going to happen because I have a fucked up logic board, so they replaced it for free. So she's looking at my whole shit, and she's like "well, it's your lucky day." Turns out my logic board was about to shit the bed a third time. So they're giving me a brand new fucking ibook.

I still lost all my shit, but at least I don't have to place my hard drive anymore, nor do I have to replace my dead ass battery that only was holding a charge for 15 minutes. And that's my story.

-super get well soon vibes to Jay Dilla. Jay will probably be updating his post on the topic with real quotes from okayplayer. In the mean time, the Jay Dee mp3's over at Gat are still up and running, so check that shit out.

-speaking of okaplayer, shout out to my boy Kuahmel for hookin up this OKP thread with ungodly amounts of 80's funk on mp3.

-Doug Brien is a dead man. GO STILLERS.

-in other football news, everyone outside of New England was disappointed about the outcome of the Colts/Pats battle this weekend, including Liz.

2005-01-11T13:05:00.000-06:00

-DROP BO'S ON EM DROP BO'S ON EM

-"2000 years ago, someone died on a cross. Won't anybody stand up for him today?"
Anti-evolution activists have absolutely no fucking idea what they're talking about.

-"I Ain't Got Nothin" - David Banner, Mr. Magic and Lil Boosie (courtesy Gov't Names), featuring the line "I'm a miser, that mean I'm tight like a jew." Word, that's why I'm not payin for your track.

-My ex-girlfriend enters the blogosphere with a bang, dropping knowledge on the meeting points of fashion and activism. Watch out boy, she'll chew you up.

-T.I.'s Urban Legend is seriously good, but I also like how they brought back their classic vinyl sticker, red and green split. I don't know if they did it on purpose, but my copy of the joint has a very faded sticker, giving it an aged look. An appeal to crate-diggers? What's next, frayed record sleeves?

2005-01-10T14:36:00.000-06:00

Today on Slate, there is an article on Hardees' latest ad-campaign. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out, and links are available within that article. The long and the short of it is that Hardees' is pushing the fucking huge Monster Thickburger. Seriously, the damn thing is s so big it's actually larger than many peoples' stomachs. When one thinks of something too big for a hole, one thinks first of anal sex, then, probably of fisting. Then, adjusting for the sanitization needs of advertising, settles on the old nasty as it wants to be party trick of stuffing your fist in your mouth. So you get the picture above, an actress who looks like a pimped-out (that is, pimped-out not pimped-out) Tracy Ulmann shoving her entire balled-up hand into her maw, all in the name of moving The Monster Thickburger.

Those of you who are lucky enough to have Hardees' (aka Carls' Jr.) in your area have been seeing Thickburger ads for a while. Simple white billboards with a picture of the burger (large and delcious) and a slogan along the lines of "The Thickburger: So big, your girl will feel it." The ads introducing the Western Thickburger (with, like, bbq sauce and tumbleweeds) brilliantly and unapoligetically put a dime piece on a mechanical bull. The demographic is clear, and the mildly offensive sexual undertones are even clearer. The article draws the obvious comparison between the Fist Girl ad (that's officially it's name, by the way) and a similar flavor of pornography. To emphasize this point, the author ads the Center for Science and Public Interest's labeling of the Thickburger as food porn.

There was originally going to be a point of discussion here, but I don't know if I have one. So enjoy the article and the videos.

--

This is my first post using Mozilla. I recommend all Mac Users go pick it up (for free), because it kicks Safari in the grill.

2005-01-02T13:05:00.000-06:00

-Indian Ocean tsunami death tolls in 9/11 units
(Indonesia lost 53 "towers" of people--NEVAR FORGET)

-the numbers from Thailand might be a bit old because Sweden's taking a big hit too

-...so if you aint done it yet, South Knox Bubba has a short list of places to donate.

-meanwhile thank god there's Jeb Bush leading the american aid effort. can you say 2008?

-and RIP Jerry Orbach...salt in the societal wound.

so anyways here are some links to cheer you and me up.

-the bizarre history of the Mexican obsession in 1950's Yugoslavia

-skeletons of your favorite cartoon characters
(the vestigial arms on Shmoo are a nice touch.)

-thank god roller disco is back

-this video shows you once and for all that all breakdancers are biters.

-Martha Stewart loses design contest in jail.

-and finally, congratulations to O-Dub on getting a review on NPR.

2004-12-23T13:53:00.000-06:00

THE UNDERGROUND POST YEAR END AWARDS...

this originally started in rec.music.hip-hop as a response to a really stupid argument about LL Cool J's status as the G.O.A.T., which in turn led to an on-going stupid argument about whether or not pop rap exists.

but somehow I ended up coming up with this list of categories. I know there are a lot of polls out there (exhibit a exhibit b), but I went out of my way to break the mold of "TOP 10 BEST EMCEES UV 2K4." so please respond to skinny at realnicerecords dot com. I'll get the results up when I think everyone who's gonna vote has voted.

MOST BACKPACKIN EMCEE:

BEST EMO RAPPER:

BEST POP RAPPER:

NERD RAP:

CHEA ITS YA BOI LONG WHITE T NYC MIXTAPE EMCEE OF THE YEAR:

BEST SLANG:

UGLIEST RAPPER:

PRETTIEST RAPPER (MALE):

'HOW THE FUCK YOU GET A DEAL' EMCEE:

BEST DEAD EMCEE:

BEST EMCEE IN TEXAS:

WORST EMCEE IN TEXAS:

BEST SOUTHERN STATE (rapwise):

BEST SOUTHERN STATE (just in general):

BEST WHITE EMCEE:

WHITE EMCEE WHO SOUNDS MOST LIKE HE'S BLACK:

RAPPER MOST LIKELY TO ROB YOU AFTER THE SHOW:

RAPPER MOST LIKELY TO GET ROBBED AFTER THE SHOW:

COLLABORATOR OF THE YEAR:

TOKEN R&B HOOKSTER OF THE YEAR:

LAZIEST EMCEE (juelz santana's been retired from this one):

NAME AN EMCEE WHO COULD TAKE BONECRUSHER IN A FIGHT:

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR:

GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THE BOARDS (worst producer of the year):

BEST PRODUCER OF NEXT YEAR:

BEST EMCEE OF NEXT YEAR:

MOST IGNORANT SONG OF THE YEAR:

BEST SONG OF THE YEAR:

BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

2004-12-22T15:30:00.000-06:00

It's nearing 4 above here in stl, the wind chill's gettin negative. we're supposed to get snow tonight, which sucks because stl drivers are on some 35 mph on the highway shit when the snow hits. but last week, I was steppin out in the morning w/o a jacket. when I was a snot-nose in North Carolina (Dean Smith whatup), it used to get below freezing around october. now it's damn near temperate until christmas. I'm not complaining, but holler at yer greenhouse effect.

anyways I don't know if everyone's having this problem, but blogger is frontin on my layout for some reason. I changed my sidebar last week and its been fucked up ever since. meanwhile, Awwww Damn has the same layout as me and it looks ok. so if you're a nerd who understands these things, hit me up.

and now, links:

-Ron Artest? meet Picasso.

-Sheep of the Week

-Scarlett Johansson now dating Derek Jeter.
Scarlett, you've officially run out of the hipster cred you earned in Ghost World. do you really wanna go where Mariah Carey's been? eww. give me a call when your six months with homeboy is up. you got my number.

-Hollertronix racism jumpoff!
An interesting (and inevitable) article from some ex-Murder Dog writer's blog, and the ensuing discussion on the Hollertronix message board. Critiques of white people co-opting black music are played out, and should probably start here, but 'tronix and their peoples do the defense thing pretty well. Diplo weighs in on page 3.

-speaking of Hollertronix and all things slightly related, does anyone else notice how Cam'ron says "vagina" like a 12-year-old? like he's stifling giggles while he says it? check the first bar of the second verse on "Down and Out."

-also speaking of Hollertronix is a page of assorted mixes that Babydaddy posted up there.

-Mos Def on Fresh Air
For the uninitiated, Fresh Air is one of the snottier, more public-radio-ish programs NPR runs, very likely to waste my time with pretentious discussion about various artforms I don't give a shit about. Mos Def, of course, does not dissappoint on the pretention tip (waxing inane about his butt ass The New Danger), but he brings the heat on the second half of the program. Hip-hop comes up. Mos runs with it. In the best part, he discusses the myth of sampling (and, thus, plagiarism) being inherant to hip-hop, bringing up the Sugar Hill house band and Kurtis Blow. Mos also comes through with the straight-forward money quote: "sampling is much harder than you'd think it is." He works in a Castro quote.

-and, finally, big up Matt Jost for blessing Gat with a Cold Chillin Christmas. More end up year niceness in the works over there.

2004-12-14T11:12:00.000-06:00

Likkle bit of house cleaning...

-Jawns have been updated.

-DubDotDash added to my links. not linking someone that links me is pure hate. I can't deny it. and homeboy reps New Zealand, and that's real.

-Other links have been cleaned up and deleted and shit. Despite past beef, the Many Shrimp kids are unfadable and they now get begrudging respect. Of the copy and paste flavor.

Some linkage...

-Tucker and Ann on some "Blame Canada" shit

-You Are Beautiful

-all abord the Ed Harris Stankonia express

-I Peed on BART
-adventures at Red Lobster
(both borrowed from SergDun)

-more Outkast product in 2005

-nature is cruel. (at least she has a future as Dumb Donald's white cousin.)

2004-12-08T11:14:00.000-06:00

Been a busy last few weeks, so some of these are kind of old.

-Ray is bullshit in so many words, by David Ritz

-Humane Trophies

-every few months these MS Paint versions of classic rap album covers make the rounds

-1115.org drops the most infuriating news I can think of.

-Madame Tussaud gets sacrilicious! in London. Obviously jokes about having Dubya and Blair as wise men go here.

-Top 10 Fondle Em 12's, because, when I put on some indie single from NYC these days and think to myself "how was this ever a good idea?" I can always harken back to Fondle Em for good underground rap memories.

-(which reminds me, the Fondle Em Fossils single still has the best cover art ever)

-some Sacred Hoop mp3's

-the next Bruce Lee? The clips are little short, but this is fuckin redonk.

-The saddest caption ever: "A duckling looks around before being killed by Chinese health workers at a farm in Tianjin after the northern port city reported a suspected bird flu case"

-And don't forget to check out the latest goodies over at Can I Bring My Gat? We got DJ Kno remixes, Prince Paul rarities and forgotten shit from Extra P.

Happy Hannukah! Drop a train on em!

2004-12-03T20:18:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a meme (as some bloggas have called it), but Julianne Shepard dropped serious knowledge on Snoop's new heights of musical mysogyny here, and it set off a chain of blog posts on the topic. Normally I'd link a few, but everyone's said something and I'm on a shitty computer at the radio station, so just click somewhere on the left and you should be able to find one.

Anyways, I posted my thoughts in rec.music.hip-hop cuz I didn't really have a point to make. Good for discussion, not good for the blog. (You can judge for yourself.) But my girl, who is much smarter than me but aint got a blog, had some good shit to say. So check it.

"Huey P. Newton addressed the Black Panther community and black community in general in his 1970 essay "The Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements: August 15, 1970," advising them to welcome women and gays as partners in the revolution, despite whatever prejudices and hesitation blacks (black men specifically) might feel in doing so. Huey points out that most men secretly (or not so secretly) hate both women and gays, an emotion actually rooted in fear; fear that acceptance of gays would reveal that they (the straight male) is actually less than totally, completely 100% masculine (as our society defines masculine), and the fear the women will literally or symbolically castrate the male.

"In contemporary society we like to think that we have somehow evolved past these perceptions, but we have no more evolved past these perceptions than we have evolved past racism. Thus it is no surprise that in the supposedly fictional world of rap (and music in general for that matter) which is dominated by male artists, executives and fans, violence against women has always been given a pass. I don't accuse my boyfriend or bse of being women-haters; however, the lack of interest in this topic is testimony to the underlying truth that Huey spoke. This is obviously not to say that ALL rap fans are male; I don't deal in absoulutes. I'm a rap fan, even as noixe points out a Too $hort fan. But anyone who's been to ScribbleJam in Cincinatti or even a Kanye West show (both of which I've been to, among others) cannot deny that rap is dominated by men and always has been, period.

"Women will dance to anything, but it doesn't mean we don't secretly hurt inside every time it's "fuck em in the eye" type lyricals. And frankly there's a reason I'd rather dance to old school soul or L'Trimm than most Top 40 rap; just because I'll dance to either doesn't mean I don't have a preference.

"By the way, I say "the supposedly fictional world of rap," because as Foucault said, the continuation of oppression is accomplished not through political or lthrough the invisible channels of language and culture, which rap music, as an artistic form, certainly is... but that's another discussion."

2004-12-03T13:00:00.000-06:00

2004-11-30T11:54:00.000-06:00

Superlangalang! is the only mashup I've ever listened to more than once. It's as good an idea as this is bad. (And I'm not just hatin, I peeped some of the nonsense and it's fucking terrible.)

--

With that out of the way, on to the serious shit.

So I had some extra money and some time to kill in Princeton, NJ over the turkey break, so I threw down entirely too much cash at Princeton Record Exchange. One of the fine albums I bought was A Long Hot Summer by Masta "Juice Crew? Naw, but we still hit up the early bird special at Shoney's together" Ace. (Seriously, how old is duke now?) This album's gotten so much critical nob shining and "Good Ol Love" was so fresh that this was a sure thing. I also was borrowing my mom's Rendezvous ("the Escalade of Buicks") to escape family time in suburban Jersey and hit up some peoples in New York that evening. So I popped in the jernt on the drive.

As with much good rap, A Long Hot Summer pays constant respect to the city from whence it came. While trudging along the New Jersey turnpike, staring out the window at downtown New York, it felt right to be bumpin "Beautiful." Even while barely resisting the urge to make a left turn through fifty pedestrians crossing 44th, "Travelocity" (big up RMHH's own MistaJam for getting that shout-out!) was still keepin a smile on my face. Summer stayed on my iPod thru the entire 18 hours of fun and accompanied me back down to Jersey the next day.

This morning, I'm late for work because the alternator in my car is dying and the repair won't be cheap. But I got "Good Ol Love" in my ears while I trudge through the rain from the parking garage, so I'm in a better mood than I should be. This is called positive association. Thanks Masta Ace!

--

And finally, my review for Snoop's ironically titled R&G: The Masterpiece is here. Originally I was gonna tie those last few paragraphs with this by bringing up my occasional doubt in my ability to separate outside influences from my own opinions about an album, but it didn't work. Fuck it.

2004-11-24T17:50:00.000-06:00

National Get Savage On A Game Bird Day will be spent this year, as most other years, in New York City's underachieving older brother, Philadelphia.

Havin Thangsgivin tonight, and shit does it make me feel like a blogger to be goin to a Hollertronix show. It's a damn shame the girls at their shows don't look/act like the breezies on their flyers.

But you didn't come here for all that personal crap. You came for yet another promise that Can I Bring My Gat? is on its way to blessing you cheap bastards with quality, production-based hip-hop mp3 bloggin. We're rollin four deep now. RMHH represent!

2004-11-15T13:31:00.000-06:00

RIP ODB.

Since rap started, lots of emcees have passed on. But ODB has the notable distinction of being the only emcee who died while I actually listened to him. Biggie and Pac were before my time. I knew about Mac Dre, but didn't really check for him until this week (when I've been bangin "Too Hard for the Radio" non-stop). Soulja Slim? Not until "Slow Motion." but I aint spun out in a minute w/o playing "Got Your Money" or "Shimmy Shimmy" or, most recently, "When U Hear That." Where all those other emcees had an entire discography I could delve into in respect for the dead, I can't do anything else for ODB that I didn't already do. Except maybe drink a 40 and find a bitch to put a baby up in.

We all knew he was livin on the edge, but nobody expects crazy celebrities to actually die. Especially not as prematurely as Dirt Dog. For a man who picked up a welfare check in a limo, peed on LL's platinum plaque, and got arrested because he stopped to sign autographs while running from 5-0, nothing should come as a surprise. Except death.

Dirt McGirt, we hardly knew ye.

2004-11-12T13:50:00.000-06:00

Real Nice Radio in full effect tonite, Skinny Friedman with my road dog SPF 4000. Live stream here, 90.3 FM in the St. Louis area, yodel at "KwurRadio" on IM or 935-KWUR for the request hook up. We kept it pretty backy packy last week, who knows what this week has in store.

--

One thing I will definately play is the new GM Grimm track on F5 Records, a little slice of the underground right hurr in the STL. Also goodies from Juice, Seel and Serengeti on the same tip.

Serengeti also has a new album out, Noodle-Arm Whimsey. It's a co-release between F5, strange sibling label the Frozen Food Section (aka the Cold School), and, for name dropping purposes, Day By Day.

--

My girl's in Boston and I've been driving her car. Her car has a CD player. Which means I finally got to check a few albums.

Wordsworth - Mirror Music

Last time he dropped anything resembling an album, it was a sloppy EP with Punchline. Now he's grown up some and dropped this very introspective, sensitive joint. More than a few battle tracks, but the stand-outs are all about his daughter and his life. There's an incredibly depressing track towards the end about that lull between being a household name and getting respect at the open mics without fail, but never moving units or getting signed. My favorite is still "Trust," where he warns his daughter against horny teenage men, speaking from his own experience. He says it's "ironic and weird." The other ill shit is "12 Months," and mostly cuz of the beat. It could have been a hyped up story of coming up, going from rags to riches on the crime tip, with a big string-driven street banger, on some 1998 Nas shit. Instead, Words rocks an understated piano loop and tells the tale (with, notably, no tragic downfall at the end) completely low key. He's not on stage at that point, it's like you and your boy talkin shit over a beer. It's a "yo, check this out" vibe.

Overall he can get a little bland, but for the most part it's good to see someone from the shit-talkin Lyricist Lounge days grow up and drop something we can all get with.

...and more later. I gotta do some real work.

2004-11-11T11:13:00.000-06:00

Herb Dun and We Eat So Many Dicks want beef?

Give me a fuckin break. I'm not gonna waste my time with some chump whose blog game is so weak that his entire blog is a link to itself. On the real. Homeboy, it don't make you cool when Slug tells you to chill on the sauce. That's like David Drake telling you to do something about your man titties. Plus you got some balls dissing Government Cheese when you bit your whole "nerd ridin the southern thug rap dick" steelo line for line. Young Jeezy? Neva that! Yall didn't even have no readers til you hit up Byron, whose entire audience is angry 14 year old girls.

Yall done fucked up goin after B-Unit.. We blowin up monitors like Strong Bad.

2004-11-07T18:23:00.000-06:00

HERE WE GO STEELERS

HERE WE GO

PITTSBURGH'S GOIN TO THE SUPER BOWL

I told you chumps. the steelers are the truth.

2004-11-05T15:19:00.000-06:00

The self promotion hour...

-REAL NICE RADIO with Skinny Friedman and SPF 4000 tonite from 8 PM - 10 PM CST on KWUR 90.3 FM. Hollerate at KwurRadio on the IM tip, or 314-935-KWUR for the request line. It'll be our first good show in a freakin minute, minus election-work-organization stress. (memo to Dubya--if you think being president is such hard work, you can take solace that trying to keep you from being president is no fucking cake walk either.)

-Speaking of the election, myself, along with the St. Louis League of Pissed Off Voters, blew up the Rocket Bar Tuesday night. Pictures coming soon. CD of Mike the 2600 King and Espi rockin the 2x4 for sale soon as well.

-My Tribe Called Quest write-up pre-last week's show. I had a few more things to say on the Tribe break-up/relationship break-up parallels, but I ran out of room. I wouldn't link it otherwise. The show, btw, was pretty ill--VIP status came with a personal electric fan!--but the gap between Tribe's high points ("Scenario," "Award Tour," etc) and the solo jams by all three members did not reflect well on their current status. Last year I caught De La Soul and Common on yet another cigarette-sponsored rap tour, and De La definately brought more chemistry than Tribe. Quest sounded a little methodical, like they were not having that much fun. Going through the motions. Everyone in the crowd was gettin buck, but it wasn't clear Tip, Phife and Shaheed were.

-Mos Def's The New Danger is poop. It's not like I needed to tell you that, when it's been made pretty fucking clear. I want a plate that is "Sunshine" on the a-side and that Barry White freestyle w/ Medina Green on the b-side. Also, I want an accapella of "Close Edge" so I can remix that shit. Who got the hook up?

-Quit sleepin on my MP3 Blog, Can I Bring My Gat? Little known fact: the runner up names were "Keith, put the bat away" and "L.-W.A.P. D.A.I.S.I.."

--

In other news...

-Skeet On Mischa. I don't even care if the blog's any good. Best. Name. Ever.

2004-11-03T22:05:00.001-06:00

November 2nd 2004 was absolutely perfect until about 10:00 PM.

22 of the greatest, more productive hours of my life. All for naught.

Waking up this morning, it felt like a break-up. A bad date two or three months into the relationship. You wake up in the morning and think to yourself, "this is the first time I've done this in a while without her." You eat breakfast and you think, "usually she's here for breakfast." You get in the car and you think, "this is my first car trip without her." It's a big empty feeling. Some real Stone Temple Pilots shit.

Even the party went well. Shit, Bol was even there.

2004-10-27T21:47:00.000-05:00

What's that sound?

It's the sound of someone else jumping on the Mp3 blog bandwagon.

I teamed up with rec.music.hip-hop regular, discogs.com contributor, Daniel Dumile enthusiast, and fuckin limey BSE.

All we wanna know is where the party at? And Can I Bring My Gat?

The Cardinals are pathetic.

Enjoy.

2004-10-27T17:13:00.000-05:00

"With Election Day almost upon us, it's not clear whether President Bush is running a campaign or plotting a coup d'etat."

"Election night is over as central time zone states finish reporting. Why? Because of blacks and young'ns. Bush's people know this, as their strategy is to turn out their base while suppressing our base ... fuckers." (Salon subscription unforunately required.)

"WHERE ARE THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?"

"No blood for oil/we got our own wars to fight on our own soil..."

2004-10-24T01:40:00.000-05:00

We Came From Beyond is a fresh little compilation that I sometimes forget I have. I never got into bizarre west coast rap, so some of the tracks on there don't really hold my attention. But the heads up on Mighty Casey (of "White Girls" fame, on "Liquorland," and some above average tracks from Dilated Peoples and Pep Love ("Weed Vs. Beer" and "Relief," respectively), who I'm not usually feelin, make this shit a pick up. On top of all that, you get Jurassic 5's hard-to-find-on-wax "Unified Rebellion," and Blacklicious's contemplative banger, "40 Oz for Breakfast" (from the fucking impossible to get "Melodica" EP) on the vinyl make this shit a keeper. But the entire fucking reason I'm writing about this is because Jeff Chang wrote the liner notes, and these bloggers are fucking everywhere. I picked up a Newsweek last weekend, and there's an article mentioning O-Dub.

Speaking of moderately famous bloggers, this bol has unearthed right now's hot slang, at least until "focused" gets to middle america:

-Binoculars: the meeting of "bazonkers" and "ridonculous."

and

-Federlining: to COME THE FUCK UP in some kind of deal that benefits you far and away more than anybody else. Other than the obvious, old-ass Jon Olerud's trade to the Yankees is the only instance of Federlining we could think of. Thus begins the Federline-watch. Holla.

As far as I can tell, bloggers had nothing to do with this Def Jam Fight for NY Fashion Shoot, but it combines two of my favorite things: fighting games and rap.

Speaking of rap and bringing blogs back into the situation, unrepentant hater D-Drake reminded me of the ongoing enigma of Chicago rap. Underground rap's pretty boring right now, with not much ish that captures the dirty aesthetic that made the best of the mid to late 90's what it was. When Rawkus got looted and started going all "Oh No" in about 2001, Chicago workhorse producers The Molemen (PNS, Panik and Memo) quietly carried on with understated boom bap like nothin ever happened. Entirely by coincidence, I been bumpin "Ritual Of..." lately. Thanks Dave.

2004-10-20T13:36:00.000-05:00

For you non-political heads, go play some game that involves sushi coming out a dog's head or Chingy pinball.

for the rest of you, why is nobody talking about Sinclair backing down? Salon's reporting it, but they give no source and no links. None of the major news outlets, or liberal blogs have the info either. Plus the article is really vague. But can we chalk this up as a victory yet? It says they're not showing "Stolen Honor" anymore...

2004-10-15T14:04:00.000-05:00

Why have I not been posting?

I'm sick of talking about this guy.

This is bullshit.

This was boring anyways.

I'm also working on this and this.

I'm listening to this for an upcoming review (for this). Also, I got a few good one-liners in here.

So basically, I'm busy.

But tonight, I ask everyone to hit up this tonite from 8-10 PM central because myself and my boy SPF4000 will be throwin down that underground shit.

one

2004-10-13T21:17:00.000-05:00

yo blogosphere:

I really need an mp3 of Slim Thug's "3 Kings." I'm puttin a mix together as part of our Get Out The Vote effort, and I realized the copy I have is screwed. it sounds dumb as hell because the rest of the tape is regular.

somebody hit me on IM: big up 412

(gov't names kids, I'm lookin at yall)

2004-10-06T11:08:00.000-05:00

That debate wasn't nearly as much fun as the first one. No gotchas. No obvious winner. Just more "he said, she said" and lies lies lies lies lies. But maybe Edwards will get some votes from the same people who are voting for Bush because they think he'd be fun to get a beer with.

Anyways, links.

-Michael Moore shows some letters he's gotten from troops.
So if Michael Moore hates our troops, and there are troops writing to Michael Moore...do our troops hate the troops? Why are we sending these commies out to fight our wars?

-Bathroom wall graffiti for Kerry.

-Robert Novak breaks his hip.
Even God thinks you're an asshole, Bob.

-"it might be the symbol of a korean car company or a martini bar. it looks like it's supposed to have some deeper meaning or use, like it's based on some kind of long debunked medieval navigation tool. "

-HipHopImages.com
They're selling some ill Chi Modu prints. Truth be told, the cat who runs this site e-mailed me about a link--a fact I only mention because that's a million times better than spamming comments sections to get blog promotion.

-LEBOWSKI V. HE-MAN JUMP OFF!

-Snoop f/ Pharell - Drop It Like It's Hot video
(link from Royal Magazine)

also, welcome Aww Damn to the non-haters club. and be sure to check out the slide lamp that she hooked up with help from Ready Made Magazine. it's ill, and my girl said that if she had any slides, she would make one too.

2004-10-04T13:18:00.001-05:00

byron's beefin cuz o-dub took him off the blogroll. yeah chump, I was never on o-dub's blogroll. from now on I'm only linking cats on some "you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours" shit.

a few of yall are gettin passes cuz of sheer dopeness. but the rest of yall: gone.

meanwhile, lookin over my links...why the fuck was I linking Okayplayer? I don't read that shit.

(nuff respect to Dub Dot Dash, who links me, but I don't really read his blog. nothin personal.)

2004-09-30T23:56:00.000-05:00

The underground post's debate summary:

Kerry

Bush

Bush got served. On the real, you don't even see beatdowns like that in the early rounds at Scribble Jam.

2004-09-30T15:27:00.000-05:00

(google search: fresh gold links)

-Kalashnikoff brand vodka.
Yeah, that's the cat who invented the AK-47.

-Adhesive speakers.
This is just dope.

-Videos from ResFest.
Humongous ones that won't fit under your car seat. Includes Madvillian's cartoony "All Caps" and Chemical Bros' Kung Fu'd-out "Get Yourself High," as well as the wtf-worthy "Equus" by Blonde Redhead.

-The dissapointing truth about the hurricanes and voting Republican.
Snopes takes all the fun out of life once again. Haters. (But this is awesome.)

2004-09-27T11:31:00.000-05:00

Last week, someone posted this piece of conservative propaganda in my workplace. Usually I would just sort of ignore this stuff--freedom of speech and all, plus Onion articles and anti-Bush cartoons are common bulletin board fodder around my mostly liberal office. But I really feel like if you're going to ask questions like these, someone should answer them. It's not like they're hard to answer, if you've been paying attention and have half an analytical brain. So I responded to Peter Kirsanow's questions that the "liberal media" won't touch.

A few quick notes--I didn't answer every question, as some of them were reasonably valid (questions about his senate record--oft-asked and easily answered, but still reasonable questions to have), and some were just ridiculous (Dukakis connections? wtf?). Also, Kirsanow's article had a Part I, but the questions aren't really the kind that I can answer. Finally, there is a disclaimer in Kirsanow's article that there are no "gotcha questions." I'm assuming he means weighted questions with no right answer (ie does mother know you're gay?). On the contrary, he's included several, and I've called him out accordingly.

1. You've repeatedly demanded Donald Rumsfeld's resignation over Abu Ghraib prison abuse. In light of such demand, please respond to the following:

a. Given your confession that you committed atrocities in Vietnam, including burning villages and using 50-caliber machine guns on people, shouldn't you, then, withdraw from presidential consideration?

The question here is accountability. Where Kerry openly saw a problem and blew a whistle on the atrocities he saw, the current administration has repeatedly refused to take any responsibility, repeating the oft-disproven mantra of "a few bad apples."

b. If your answer is "no," please explain why a secretary of Defense should be held to a higher standard than an aspiring president who personally committed atrocities objectively more horrific than the abuses for which you hold Rumsfeld accountable.

Kerry turned against the war because of these atrocities: he saw something going horribly wrong and did what he could to prevent further harm. Rumsfeld is held to the exact same standard.

Also, if we cannot forgive the complexities of these accusations against Kerry and cannot fathom that a man can change, how can we re-elect a former drug addict and alcoholic?

2. You now state that Iraq was "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time," yet just a few weeks ago you stated that knowing what you know now you'd still authorize the war. Why would you still vote for a war that is wrong?

What Kerry authorized was the use of force if necessary. He did not say "go ahead, bomb 'em." Kerry stands by his vote because a responsible administration would have pursued diplomatic resolutions to the Iraq situation, instead of rebuking the advice entire international community. If nothing else, a responsible administration would have put off a war in Iraq until it had secured Afghanistan.

a. If the war was wrong, do you maintain Saddam should still be in power? If not, how would you remove him?

It has been proven repeatedly that Sadaam was not a direct threat to America, as he had no links to Al-Qaeda (unless one is to believe the word of Dick Cheney over the word of the entire American intelligence community). Ideally speaking, there would be no brutal dictators and those that existed would be easy to overthrow. In the real world, a country must pick its battles.

b. Which of the following is your primary objection to the Iraq war:

(1) that it shouldn't have been fought?
(2) that it was in the wrong location?
(3) that the timing was bad?

This is a "gotcha" question.

c. If your answer's either (2) or (3) above, where should the war have been fought and when?

Obviously the correct effort was the mildly successful war in Afghanistan, which actually effectively toppled a regime with ties to Al-Qaeda and terrorism. Kerry's comments that the Iraq war was bad timing refer to the boneheaded decision to start a second war in Iraq when the war in Afghanistan was ongoing and still required the full attention of the American military.

3. During your eight-year tenure on the Senate Intelligence Committee, you missed more than three-fourths of its public meetings. You refuse to release your attendance reports for the committee's closed classified briefings. Why shouldn't voters infer that disclosure of these attendance reports would reveal that you neglected to attend numerous classified briefings?

a. If you did miss any classified briefings, what duties were you tending to that were more important than attending the briefings?

This is a blatant lie; Kerry actually has the 4th highest attendance rate. If he was so irresponsible, why would he continue to be chosen to sit on that committee?

Also, given the controversy about Bush's National Guard records, it probably does not serve the Republican cause to start pissing contests about releasing records.

4. Let's assume for the sake of argument that the president lied about the reasons for going into Iraq. Presumably, this means that the intelligence data didn't support the reasons given by the president. You had the same intelligence data on Iraq as the president, yet you voted to authorize the war. Why, then, did you knowingly vote for a lie?

No, as it has been revealed, the intelligence given to Congress was selective and biased. The executive branch of government is responsible for intelligence, not the legislative

a. By doing so, didn't you also lie to the American people?

See above.

b. If so, will you, therefore, urge your supporters to stop running ads declaring that "Bush Lied"?

"Gotcha" question.

c. If you maintain that you didn't lie, is it because you neglected to read the intelligence reports prior to the vote?

"Gotcha" question.

5. Assuming your definition of a lie is the same as Webster's, i.e., a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive, please specifically identify which of the following statements in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address are lies:

a. Saddam aids and protects terrorists;

Once again, there is no link between terrorist networks and the Iraqi government. On the contrary, Al Qaeda saw Sadaam as too self-serving and untrustworthy to actually collaborate.

b. Saddam has used weapons of mass destruction;

This is an issue for UN Weapons Inspectors.

c. Saddam deceived weapons inspectors;

This is an issue for UN Weapons Inspectors

d. Saddam sought uranium from Africa;

The "yellowcake from Nigeria" statement was proven false.

e. Saddam has pursued chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.

This is using the term "pursued" loosely.

7. You've criticized the president for acting "unilaterally." As president, would you have gone into Afghanistan without France's approval?

France approved our invasion of Afghanistan, this is a moot point.

a. Would you have gone into Afghanistan without the approval of France, Germany, and Russia?

"Gotcha" question.

The premise of not acting unilaterally means respecting the opinion of the international community. Had numerous countries rejected the invasion of Afghanistan (which they did not), this would necessitate a discussion of the reasons for their feelings.

8. You've stated you would appoint only pro-choice judges to the federal bench. Would you agree that, even if it's not your intent, such a litmus test could disproportionately disqualify Catholic nominees?

There are many pro-choice Catholics.

a. What would you do to ensure that your abortion litmus test wouldn't have a disparate impact against Catholics?

Church and state are separate; judicial appointments should be based on merit and ability to judge, not religion.

11. You once entertained supporting charter schools but backed off after teachers' unions objected. You were once critical of affirmative action but backed off after some civil-rights organizations protested. In June you stated you might appoint some pro-life judges but backed off the next day after abortion-rights groups expressed alarm. Could you please take this opportunity to assure voters that you'll be able to handle North Korea, al Qaeda, and Iran more successfully than you're able to handle the NEA, NARAL, and other interest groups?

Changing your mind is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of intelligence and the ability to evaluate new information and make an informed decision.

12. Newsweek Editor Evan Thomas has stated that the media wants you to win and that the media's help is worth 15 points in the polls. Do you agree or disagree with Thomas's statement?

The "liberal media" myth is idiotic and unfounded. All the major networks are large Bush campaign donors, while only Air America has donated to Kerry's campaign.

a. If you disagree, is it because you maintain that the media doesn't want you to win or because the advantage is other than 15 points?

"Gotcha" question.

13. During a Labor Day rally in West Virginia one of the principal speakers, in your presence, called President Bush and Vice President Cheney draft dodgers. Do you agree that Bush and Cheney are draft dodgers? If not, why didn't you correct your supporter?

Bush and Cheney both used their influence and family names to avoid the draft. Is that draft dodging?

14. You maintain that public schools aren't adequately funded. The D.C. public schools spend approximately $13,000 per pupil--one of the highest levels in the nation--yet its students' academic performance is among the worst in the nation. Could you please explain why you oppose parental choice in education?

This is a non sequitor.

a. Given that pursuant to court order the Kansas City public schools spent one billion dollars with no discernable improvement in academic performance, what is your definition of "adequately funded"?

How is throwing one billion dollars towards public schooling any worse than throwing 200 billion dollars towards the war in Iraq? Surely our money is better spent on the American people.

15. In your convention speech, you stated that every terrorist attack would be met with an immediate response and you've also stated that you would emphasize a law-enforcement approach to the fight against terrorism. This is identical to the pre-9/11 U.S. approach to terrorism. Could you please explain how a pre-9/11 approach to terrorism will prevent another 9/11?

The pre-9/11 approach to terrorism failed due to inadequacies in the intelligence community, not terrorist response. Bush actually cut FBI anti-terror funding and port authority funding before 9/11. And his is to say nothing about Bush's haphazard and poorly funded Homeland Security initiatives.

16. You've repeatedly criticized President Bush for "rushing to war." Since you've conceded that knowing what you know now you'd still authorize the war, precisely when would you have begun the Iraq war?

Once again, Kerry's vote authorized force if necessary, not immediately. The vote assumed the pursuit of further diplomatic solutions to Hussein's rebuke of UN inspectors, and the involvement of the international community in these solutions. Given all that (and credible evidence for an Iraqi threat to America), then a war could begin.

17. You also criticize the president for going to war "without having a plan to win the peace." You've stated that "winning the peace" would require more troops, but you voted against the $87 Billion bill to fund the troops who are already there. Could you please explain how you would've deployed more troops had your vote against funding prevailed?

Kerry's vote against the $87 billion for the war is entirely unconnected to Bush's lack of a plan for Iraq. Kerry's vote does not cancel out Bush's blown Iraqi reconstruction.

a. "Knowing what you know now," would you have voted in favor of the $87 billion in funding?

b. In other words, do you now regret voting against the funding bill after voting for it?

Gotcha question.

18. During the Democratic primary debate in Greenville, South Carolina, in January, you claimed that the administration had exaggerated the terror threat.

a. Who exaggerated the threat? When? Please supply specific examples of the exaggerations.

Please refer to the chart linking elevated threat levels with Bush's approval rating.

Also, refer to Cheney's comment that a vote for Kerry ensures another domestic terrorist attack. Surely this is exaggeration, as he rescinded that statement and apologized.

b. If the threat has been exaggerated, does this mean that as president you'd reduce intelligence funding and defense spending in proportion to the "actual" threat? If not, why would you overspend?

Kerry would not have to cut intelligence funding in proportion to the Bush administration's abuse of terrorism fear in America to boost their support.

19. The guards at Abu Ghraib prison forced prisoners to, among other things, disrobe and wear women's underwear in order to humiliate and demoralize them. Former American POWs claim that their North Vietnamese captors forced them to listen to your 1971 Senate testimony recounting alleged U.S. war crimes in order to humiliate and demoralize them. Could you please distinguish your actions from those of the Abu Ghraib guards?

See above answers to Abu Ghraib questions.

2004-09-23T13:59:00.000-05:00

Now we're all posting pictures of ourselves on the decks.

Here is some shit I've notced in the last week:

-first of all, check it. Yeah, that's a chromed-out dump truck.

-Catchdubs gets dap for his overanalysis of The Alchemist's publicity photos. this one hits home, having had more than one girl say "you and those beats."

-there was a conversation about the best hair in baseball, which led to the googling of "best hair in baseball," which revealed that, apparently Chipper Jones has the best hair in baseball.

-Royal Magazine tipped the collective blogosphere off to a snippet of the upcoming Typical Cats single "Easy Cause It Is". I was a big fan of their first album, and this sounds like a return to the ridiculous punchlines era. Dig it.

and some "RIYL the underground post" blogs:

Grand Good
On and On
Pickin Boogers
Jackson G. Tickle
We Eat So Many Shrimp

2004-09-22T16:49:00.000-05:00

big up 412: I only surf w/ tims on
Look Its Milo: my computer has a stash box.
big up 412: you're the lloyd banks of the internet
big up 412: maybe you can get shot over blog beef
Look Its Milo: take 9 in the keyboard
big up 412: then you'd be the 50 of the internet
Look Its Milo (4:40:47 PM): b-b-b-b-b-b-b-blog unit
big up 412: oh shit it's on

2004-09-16T11:05:00.000-05:00

This is the E train. It goes from midtown to Queens. When flying into John F Kennedy Int'l airport in New York City, I highly recommend taking this train instead of the A train, which goes BX-downtown-Queens. I arrived in nyc at about 10:30 PM. When the local A finally mozied through downtown Manhattan all the way up to 96th St., where I was staying, it was 1 AM. Half of it was tourist syndrome, but half of it was that last time I came to New York (last summer), there was no AirTrain, and you could only take the A train from the airport. This is no more. I could have saved two hours of travel--the E train took about 20 minutes.

But aside from that unpleasantness, NYC was dope. Shouts out to Dan (alt view), who so kindly let me crash on his floor.

It was mostly a visiting trip. I mean, I harbor a sort of quiet resentment of "the city," as I have a theory that if everyone who left assorted mid-sized cities for New York because they had nothing going on had stayed in said assorted mid-sized cities, there would be something going on. So when I go to New York, I go for the people and for Fat Beats. But mostly my peoples. St. Louis is far from immune to hipster flight, so now I got a lot of people in New York.

This means I didn't do too many things like museums or Ground Zero, but I did do some "this shit will never come to St. Louis" arty stuff--the "videos that rock" segment of ResFest, notably. Bad name, good videos. Inexplicably, lots of large-scale destruction across the fest--lots of videos with buildings exploding and wars and shit. Not the kind of thing you'd expect when the music is largely brit-pop or equally cheerful, definately brought out the underlying dark tones beneath the bouncy exterior of so much of today's good indie rock (The Shins, I'm looking at you).

Three of the best:

Steriogram: "Walkie Talkie Man"
(yeah this is the latest iPod commercial track...I hate it too, but you can't front on Michel Gondry on the visuals!)

Badly Drawn Boy: "Year of the Rat"

Muse: "Sing for Absolution"
(this was the last video in the show and it was kind of striking)

Also included was a less than impressive RJD2 video for "Exotic Talk" (probably available at the Def Jux site) and a Hieronymous Bosch-inspried Buckethead video for "Spokes on the Wheel of Torment." It was a world premiere, it's not on the web yet, but it's as ridiculous as it sounds.

In case you were wondering, I didn't go to NYC on the weekend of 9/11 on purpose. As I was on the plane there, I realized that shit might be closed. Then I realized that shit is more likely to be closed in St. Louis to honor 9/11 than it is in New York. I was drunk in Brooklyn when they turned on the lights, and had no idea what was going on. Something that is ironic that shouldn't be: I ate at a very good French restaurant on the eve of 9/11.

Special bonus feature: records I bought at Fat Beats.

Despot: "Life With Snarky Parker"
Jim Jones: "Certified Gangstas"
Mobb Deep: "Shook Ones Pt. II"
The Faculty: "That Pay"
Theodore Unit: "Paychecks"
Snoop Dogg: "Gin and Juice"
MF Doom: "Doomsday"
OC: "Time Up" (good lookin on the reissue!)
Masta Ace: "Good Ol Love"

2004-09-09T21:35:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK, TOMORROW.

I'm already going to Res Fest and Turntables on the Hudson. So what's really...

2004-09-06T13:33:00.000-05:00

I still got one of them jawns up there. Except mine's green. Lime green. More like-a this.

Anyways...bloggin from the Apple store, on computers I can't afford with screens the size of my ego. (Apparently my ego is like 17" wide). Ideally I'd like another monitor. ProTools has two main screens and seeing them both at the same time would be money. On the really really, I'd just like a dedicated jernt for studio work, but, y'know. In the mean time, my iPod refuses to get software updates. I figure maybe they can hook me up.

My girl is watching the preview for The Life Aquatic, and says it could be very bad.

2004-09-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

Hero: RIYL Andy Goldsworthy.

--

DIP SET and Tim Westwood cruise the UK: RIYL faded Jim Jones and discussions of strippers with scars.

50 Cent gets pelted with bottles: RIYL 50 Cent gettin clocked with bottles (and, at some point, a chair)

--

Enough of that motif, apparently Handsome Boy Modeling School's next album will be called White People. Wow.

First a bear drinks beer, now we find basketball full of doj.

Lyricist Lounge: Dirty States of America comes highly recommended, and will be ordered as soon as my next paycheck hits. Apparently features a nerdy white "rap expert" demonstrating the crip walk.

In case you were wondering, there is $1.38 of gold leaf in a bottle of Goldschlager. Money quote: "By the same token, almost any food could be improved with gold flakes. Gold could add a glittering gleam to soup, chili or ice cream. How about 'gold on the bottom' yogurt?"

And, finally, I professional dislike Shyne's godfather buried alive.

2004-08-25T15:53:00.000-05:00

VISUAL JUMP OFF:

Art on trucks.
Credit Catchdubs

While Qdoba is a huge improvement over Tomatillo, ya boy's stomach is eagerly hoping that Chipotle lands in the STL. My girl says it's the king of giant burrito chains, and they got a buckwild website.

I used to date this girl who was really into Bjork. We had a short lived end-of-summer romance, but she got me to watch an entire tape of the Icelandic's crazy ass videos. Most of them (all of them?) are available here.
Credit Royal Magazine

Something Awful is always on point with the nerdy photoshop madness (check it Tues and Thurs, thun), but The Flash Tub brings the animation. This is the first edition, and it's all based on sounds from your favorite early 90's cheat machine, the Game Genie.

Not safe for work: HELICOPTER FUCK MAN.

AUDIO JUMP OFF:

First up, check my debut in the Riverfront Times, our local alt weekly. I examine Terror Squad's True Story, and lean back, lean back, lean back, lean back. Also, in the same issue, my peoples Jess hooks up a preview of St. Louis's upcoming Slam Bush.

And, one some three hit combo shit, in the same issue, we get a wrap up of Ol Dirty Exploits. Fresh!

An ill Dancehall survival guide, at Stylus Mag, my new favorite website.

Finally, Disturbing Tha Peace's Lean Back freestyle from their upcoming mix tape. Shawnna, Cap.One and Titty Boi on this one.

also--

Pittsburgh, always on top of beer technology.
Credit Catchdubs

2004-08-22T12:16:00.000-05:00

wax!

Fat Hed - "What Do We Need Today?" b/w "Need Some More"
RIYL Motion Man, who convenient turns up (along with Kutmasta Murt production) on the a-side. He kind of raps like Fat Albert and invents the word "un-karate-choppable," in the hook no less. This is a great record.

Masta Killa - "Old Man" b/w "Silverback Gorillas"
These have both been on the mp3 market forever, right? It's a shame ODB's been relegated to crazy hype-man duties--all he does here is yell about a hamburger. I thought most of this ish was recorded in the 90's, before Dirty got locked up. Anyways, other than that, Masta Killa, RZA and GZA (?) all come correct.

Leak Bros (Cage and Tame1) - "Got Wet?" b/w "G.O.D."
Look, as far as I'm concerned, Cage and Tame can do whatever the fuck they want. I have an attention span of about 1 album for the best artists, and about 4 songs for two or three trick ponies like Tame. Luckily, the mix of Tame and Cage can probably hold my attention for four or five years. This shit is very weird and very good. New word I learned for PCP: Jesus piss.

Rob Sonic - "Dylsexia" b/w "Death Vendor"
Try as I may, this record won't hold my attention. I remember listening to it, but I don't remember a thing about it. Rob generally sounds like a bootleg El-P, so I wouldn't expect anything else.

KRS One - "Illegal Business rmx 2004" b/w "My Mind Is Racing"
The hook for the b-side goes "VVROOOM VROOOOOOM MY MIND IS RACING VROOOM VROOOOOM MY MIND IS RACING." That's almost as funny as this. The rhymes aren't even that bad, but, damn...

Saukrates - "Comin Up" b/w "Sumthin for the Da Streetz"
Secretly owned Canada for years now. This is a pretty good record, but I only listened to it like twice.

Libretto - "Volume" b/w "Slumfunk"
I didn't like this the first time I heard it--dude's just not all that interesting as an emcee, even with Lifesavas on the a-side--but I can't get "Slumfunk" out of my head. THE L, I, B R E T T O, WHAT YOU DINN KNOW? Shit doesn't have to be horrifyingly retarded to be catchy. And this kid really grew on me.

Wordsworth - "Gotta Pay" b/w "Trust"
The beat for "Gotta Pay" is the very same one heard behind Wordsworth's slaying of our dumb ass president. Swap punchlines for politcal, you have the a-side. I've heard things about his upcoming joint, Mirror Music, good things. That nasal delivery never gets old. And good look on ditching Punchline--what kind of a rap name is Punchline?

Wiley - "Wot Do U Call It?"
I already spoke on this, but, for the record, I'm not sick of it yet, and it's on a tape I been bumpin in my car for about two weeks now. That's a good sign.

F.I.L.T.H.E.E. Immmigrants - "Find Us" b/w "Liberta"
Out of nowhere comes this south Cali crew. They got the simple style of the Beatnuts, with a little less bitches and little more battle. The beats are nice and layered. Good use of cellos on the flip. Look out for these kids, they're doing boom-bap better than most others.

Medaphoar - "Special" f/ Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu is sampled on the hook, methinks. Madlib on the track. Medaphoar rhymes quickly and slightly offbeat--you know what to expect. All these Oxnard cats sound the same, and this smooth lil record will give you your Wildchild fix. (Speaking of Madlib, this review is a riot. Check here for the explanation.)

Kardinal Offishal - "We Good"
There are some other tracks on this record, but I been bumpin the shit out of this and its Pete Rock beat. I'm a lil biased, but The Black Jayz Album was poop, so I go for the good stuff right up front. Kardi's got that crazy West Indie tinge that almost makes him sound British sometmes. Pete Rock recycles his formula from Prozack Turner's "Wonderful Life." All in all very enjoyable.

The Marxmen (aka MOP) - "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" b/w "Slade"
Upfront, "Slade" is the funniest shit ever heard, as it's MOP rhyming over Sade. If you aint know, that's like a Celine Dion/Korn collab. Uh, anyways, on "Here Today," Billy and Fame rhyme about gettin shot and possibly shootin at you over a kind of eerie DR Period beat. DR Period is underrated and consistant, MOP really don't mess up often. Check it.

DJ Zeph - "Shake It On Down" f/ Boots b/w "Hands Up" f/ Lyrics Born
Both these beats are better fit to the Quanuum sector than Boots. He sounds a little uncomfortable riding a quick drum loop with some really happy sounding keys in the back. He still kills it. Lyrics Born continues to have the style that many of my rapping friends wish they had. I actually like the Boots track better, but that's because I like The Coup better than most things. Overall this shit's tight--who's this DJ Zeph cat?

Sharkey - "Summer In The City" f/ Jean Grae
This is RAW. Sharkey's instrumental nonsense isn't worth effin with on the other side, but "Summer" is killin it. Jean Grae rhymes about NYC destruction and Sharkey samples offkey warbling.

In other news:
-Lil Flip gets the gas face for his "Sunshine" rmx, which is basically "Hypnotized." But good choice using "The Ghetto" as the b-side.
-I'm definately not in the target demographic for Jill Scott's "Golden," which inexplicably has no b-side, only an instrumental version at about 5 BPM faster.

2004-08-22T10:53:00.000-05:00

I had the priviledge of spinning down at Breakin at The Commonspace yesterday afternoon. I hate spinning for breakers; even they complain much less than pretty much every other type of crowd, I don't have the best sense for what's break-worthy and what isn't. Why is Bob James's "Nautilus" ok when half the other songs on the same album sound just the same? Whatever though, I think I did ok. Here's the set-list.

(set 1)
Jurassic 5 - "Acetate Prophets"
Grandmaster Theodore and the Fantastic Five - "Can I Get A Soul Clap?"
Outlaw Posse - "Stop the Negativity"
RJD2 - "Let the Good Times Roll"
Kurtis Blow - "The Breaks"
Public Enemy - "Bring the Noise"
Gangstarr - "As I Read My S-A"
Main Source - "Live from the BBQ"
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious FIve - "Superrappin"
DJ Spinna - "Groovamungus"
Jurassic 5 - "Day at the Races"

(Trackstar spins some old school)

(set 2)
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - "Scorpio"
Bob James - "Nautilus"
Run DMC - "Sucker MC's"
George McCrae - "I Get Lifted"
R. Bell and the KG's - "Who's the Man?"
Donald Byrd - "Love's So Far Away"
Brian Auger's Oblivion Express - "Light on the Path"
Schoolhouse Funk -"Sudsy (Soul Pride)"
Avant Records presents - "Scorpio"
Incredible Bongo Band - "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida"
Bob James - "Take Me to the Mardi Gras"
Double X Posse- "Not Gonna Be Able to Do It"
Showbiz and AG - "He Said, She Said"
Run DMC - "Beats to the Rhyme"

2004-08-15T12:33:00.000-05:00

(one day somebody's gonna smack me for jacking their pics)

Joey Crack's unexpected takeover is pretty amazing, as he's basically been a footnote his entire career. Let's do a quick run down of Fat Joe's career. (please correct me if I get something twisted)

early 90's: down with DITC. becomes one of the first Puerto Ricans to sign to a major, then releases an ok album that doesn't really go anywhere.
status: "one of the first Puerto Ricans to sign to a major"

mid 90's: Pun comes up.
status: "Pun's boy"

1997-ish: "Still not a Playa."
status: "also does not want to be a playa no more."

2001: Pun dies. (RIP)
status: "the remaining fat Puerto Rican emcee."

2002-May 2004: collabs with Ashanti and R. Kelly.
status: "look honey, another Fat Joe album. isn't that just adorable?"

Summer '04: "Lean Back."
status: you are leaning back right now.

Not bad for someone whose shadow quit.

2004-08-12T16:55:00.001-05:00

NELLY IS A FUCKIN CHUMP.

Dude's really flippin the PIMP SCHOLARSHIP.

And workin with TIM MCGRAW.

I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKIN CRAZY PILLS.

2004-08-12T11:56:00.000-05:00

Salon says...

A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department said it has received "no specific information'' of such a threat.

But CNN says...

"Cues from chatter" gathered around the world are raising concerns that terrorists might try to attack the domestic food and drug supply, particularly illegally imported prescription drugs, acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester M. Crawford

I don't think I need to elaborate.

2004-08-10T14:56:00.000-05:00

(Durkee, proud sponsor of Luther Campbell's spice rack.)

JAWNS has been updated. Ready on your left.

Some ish I noticed lately:

-The Yes Men
Activists pretend to be part of the WTO, then somehow actually get involved with the WTO. Hilarity ensues. Corporate types get flustered. Michael Moore cameos.

-Krispy Krack?
Jackson Tickle breaks down the connection.

-Wearing things on your belt is fucking stupid...
Serg One has surpassed BC dot C in the great blog hate competition. Serg takes down belts, KRS-One and TV in general. And the man has a point--anybody with apparati on his or her belt lives in a constant state of playing himself.

-SF/J spends the afternoon with Russell Simmons
My feelings about the summit are pretty much in line with those of Lester Spence, but this is a good read anyways.

-Young Buck says something that'll piss off Oliver Wang
A discussion of rap lyrics that are offensive to Asians ensues.

-Some dumbass is running for congress on a pro-Eugenics ticket
And he unfortunately shares his name with my main man in Pittsburgh.

-Slam Bush
Emcees battle our dumb ass president in your home town!

Don't forget to check the site.

2004-08-06T12:39:00.000-05:00

Record reviews forthcoming, but real quick-like...

-Wiley is more pleasing to my ears than Dizzee Rascal. I'm still not on this garage (2-step? wot do I call it?) bandwagon, but I respect the scene and, y'know, it's good for England. anyways this new joint I got makes more sense to me than anything Dizzee did. Big up big up.

-We all Guerilla Black has got big chunks of Biggie Biggie Biggie in his teeth, but complaining about that is about as passe as complaining about Gore not really losing the 2000 election. If you're gonna bite, do it well, as GB does. So well, in fact, that "Trixx" sounds like something BIG mighta done if he were still around today, and had squashed the east/west beef. Plus it's a much better bite of "Grindin" than "Tipsy" was. And good for blends.

-I knew what The Beasties' "Triple Trouble" sounded like before I heard it. Why is Adrock rappin with a British accent? Mix Master Mike still kills it on the wheels, but the Beasties doin an old school throwback is kind of redundant, innit?

And finally, I'm really diggin the new Roots jernt. After two albums of high-concept, they finally do an easy album. The G Rap and Kane impressions are on point. "Web" might be the best track they've done in a few years.

2004-07-30T11:55:00.000-05:00

(Stock Kerry/Edwards image stolen from CNN)

Homeboy did good with the speech. I don't need to tell yall that. A not-so-thinly veiled call for universal health care? Blowin up the global jail economy's spot? Can we dead a little of that "centrist" talk now? I'm just sayin...

Meanwhile, Will Ferrel hooks up the Bush impression for ACT. Dope!

But really, fuck politics...the Real Nice Records website is finally up and running. One of our first events will be sponsoring SLAM BUSH here in St. Louis.

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Yahoo isn't helping the Mike Piazza no homo controversy with this quote:

"Piazza sprayed balls all over the field..."

Pause.

Also, Kris Benson chooses the Mets and makes my Twins-lovin roommate cry.

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The AA Team win in the witty comment about Kimora Lee Simmons' arrest contest.

Beat Assailant doin it real big on the Ecko site. You saw it here first...

I really don't like Project Blowed at all, but Cocaine Blunts is lacing up some mp3's from Acey and company all week. So checkacheck it out.

Jay Smooth gives The Alchemist the gas face.

--

And, finally, poor white trash.

2004-07-27T13:30:00.000-05:00

"He pants hard, emitting low "hrrr, hrrr, hrrr" grunts with each stroke of the pedals, his shoulders bobbing up and down."

This is, apparently, newsworthy.

this bullshit makes me glad that since the movie Cocoon, I had an uzi platoon.

--

Last night was a good-ass time at the Hi Pointe, with a brand new and well attended Monday Night Hip Hop Jumpoff blowin up. I was there reppin The League of Pissed Off Voters, and explaining that registering to vote will not get you on the list for jury duty or selective service, nor will it tell 5-0 where you are. Free mixtapes were given out, courtesy of Real Nice Records. That website will be there, like tomorrow. So serious.

This is a good sign for the constantly strugglin St. Louis rap scene, whose previous annual highlight, the much maligned Kool Mixx, was soaked in tobacco money and has been canceled. And that's word to Afrika Bambatta.

On the votin tip, go Jeff Smith, fuck a Russ Carnahan.

In blogospheric news, Sally the Q-Dub and Milo have gone through some kind of weird blog merger and come up with The AA Team. Blogs are kind of irrelevant right now, because I'm spending the next four days playing this flash version of everyone's favorite bar game, Photo Hunt. Fuck you, work!

And that's all. Make sure you cop that Ready to Die reissue yall.
Credit Government Names

2004-07-24T13:47:00.000-05:00

And there's more where that came from. I had the good fortune to hit up the Sneaker Pimp Exhibition, for which I can't find a website. Loads of customized shoes. Generally dope shit. The kids over at 5th Dimension had the good sense to bring a camera to the SPE in Hong Kong, and many better pics can be seen there. All I had my was my camera phone, but here are the few shots I grabbed.

-Cereal
-The Limited Edition JMJ Memorial Shelltoe
-Probably by KAWS
-8-Bit Kicks

A good time was had by all. Free beer, Smitty on the wheels and Toyy Davis on the em eye see.

I'm going to go back today, just so I can snap the incredibly dope embossed KAWS DC's that I would give a limb for. If anybody knows where I can cop them bad boys, hollerate...

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Speaking of holleration, making fun of Catchdubs has become a national passtime.

On the really, I'm only even bringing it up because I thought it was funny but who the hell do you tell about one cat making fun of another cat's blog?

--

RMHH mulls over the future of "black music." and are in the process of scientifically determinine why white kids generally can't rap. (A fact that will be discussed here.)

--

And, finally, this:

2004-07-20T10:33:00.000-05:00

The silence is intentional. I attended the League of Independant Voters conference in Columbus, OH this weekend and came out feeling both extremely energized and a bit skewed. For example, spending an entire weekend surrounded by extremely organized, progressive-minded people meant I had to go the entire weekend without making an ironically offensive comment (ie: no no homo). It also meant I came home kind of put off by the number of Lil Jon records I have.

Activism is supposed to be hard. But I've been mostly failing at moving hand-to-hand product for a minute now, and that's fucking hard too. I been flyering at shows, I been asking people for money in exchange for some shit they'll probably check once and then forget about. I been running through the bullshit and learning about starting a record label (whose website will launch soon, word bond), and I been through the depression of throwing events where nobody shows up. None of this shit is as hard as straight up asking people for scratch in exchange for a promise we'll change the country, but what I been doing for the last year+ is closer than many people get without doin the real thing.

My point is not that this activism shit should be/is easy for me, because I got no illusions about that. But it does make me wondering why I been wasting my time for the last year+ not even breaking even, when I could have been putting that same effort into politics and bullshit.

Regardless, I learned a grip and met a grip of really dope people who are fighting the same uphill battle across the country, many of whom are doin it in more challenging (ie rural) areas. And that's word to my homeboy Jaepheth (sp?), who is trying to be a leftist activist in Springfield, MO (that's Ashcroft country, ya heard?). Plus I met people who are fighting the same uphill battle on a much bigger scale, and that's word to my man Gavin, who built a community center from scratch. And I met people who been fighting for so long they get paid to do it--word to Upski, Joshua and Malia, among others.

The weekend was fly, and I feel much better about myself when I put my energy into doing something, rather than complaining about the government on a blog.

Oh yeah, check the book.

2004-07-14T01:39:00.000-05:00

(I axed this pic because it was throwin salt in my web design game.)
This came on on a Google search for "new rap."

This is some ish that's made it to my decks in the last few weeks.

If you aint checked out Friedmatic yet, (my remixed version of Nas's Stillmatic), go get it. And leave comments.

Kool Keith f/ Kutmasta Kurt - "Break You Off" b/w "Takin It Back"

For those of us that love the stupid flow on Black Elvis, but wanted better beats, this may be salvation. This upcoming Diesel Truckers project debuts here, the DT's being the collab of Kurt and Keith. "Takin It Back" flips the old school credibility rhymes, as Keith starts off singin "way before down south..." and talks about going to high school. "Break You Off" pits Keith against some girl. She's gonna break him off. And she's also gonna do it over two weird, guitar-driven remixes, including the completely fuckin metal "Devil rmx."

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Q-Unique - "One Shot" b/w "Me, That's Who"

He always makes me remember why I liked The Arsonists, and ask what happened to them. Even their follow up joint was dope. And his verse on the Fondle Em Fossils track is classic. This Uncle Howie 12" is no exception. "One Shot" follows him on some frustrated autobiographical shit, which I feel like he does pretty often. I mean, haven't we heard Q rap about how much it sucks to rap before? Someone named Context hooks up the beat...it's kind of synthy, but it works. "Me, That's Who" is talkin shit over JuJu, and you can't go wrong with that. I can't recall any choice lines, but you know he's got some.

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Dre Robinson - "Get Right" f/ Mobb Deep b/w "Streets Aint For You"

Boston spits out a grimey emcee with QB's finest on the a-side. Spot on Dr. Dre impression on both the beats, hittin that shiny bell synth sound perfectly on the b-side. Not a whole lot more to say about it than that it should be on your next mixtape, and the next mixtape you buy. This record wins, track it down if you can.

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Beat Assailant - "Hard Twelve (The Ante)" b/w "Chronic Break" f/ Tash

Jazzy, on some Jazzmatazz shit, but not organic. Horn-driven a-side is very nice, with a good line about how nobody makes completely good albums anymore. The flip is uptempo, much more jazzed out and ride-driven. Tash (of the Liks) shows up and rips it to pieces. BA's rhymes aren't always the on-pointest, but he gets the job done and I'm feelin this single.

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Dujeous? - "Good Green" b/w "City Limits"

I know Roots comparisons are really really obvious and easy for live hip-hop bands, but I really truly do get (and always have gotten) the same vibe from these cats as Do You Want-era Roots. "Good Green" talks about smokin, more or less, and breaks into a strange dancehall thing in the middle. "City Limits" is much hotter, as the beat is built around humming. Even though I'm only feeling one of the songs on here, their album (also called City Limits) gets regular spins in my box these days, and is highly recommended...if you like Do You Want-era Roots.

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The Faculty - "That Pay" b/w "You Know Who"

VITAMIN D ON THE TRACK.

I already touched on "That Pay," but it sounds *exactly* like Luda's "Area Codes." Except it's just different enough to come off really dope. It's like hearing the same sample flipped two different ways. They rap about money, how they don't have it and how sometimes they have to commit crimes to get it, which sucks because then they get caught, go to jail, get out and can't get jobs. You know the usual. "You Know Who" has a confusing string-driven beat by Oh No, who is Madlib's little brother. It's ok, the lyrics are more on point. But the a-side is really the winner here.

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Triple Seis - "Krazy" b/w "Drinks Up" f/ Cuban Link

I don't love TS on the rhymes, and I don't love the spastic synthy beat on "Krazy," but the tablas on "Drinks Up" and the buffering of Cuban Link's pimp talk make the b-side the winner. It might work in a club, but the beat doesn't really go anywhere. Check it out first. Then report back.

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Jeru tha Damaja - "Won't Stop" b/w rmx

Jeru's flow and rhyme scheme aint changed in however long, but he still got it enough to drop one long verse and let the cuts handle the rest of the track. And Jeru, um, comes clean. The original is some horn-driven boom bap, the rmx is understaded Neptunes-biting, and is my personal pick. JS-1 and Rahzel trade off cuts for the second half of the track and it's a jolly good time trying to figure out which are real and which are Rah.

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Immortal Technique - "Point of No Return" b/w "Internally Bleeding" and "Caught In A Hustle"

IT's song names are really long, right?

Anyways, today's darling of activism rap doesn't dissapoint here. I haven't listened to this slab too carefully, but it'll suffice to say that if you're on the internet, reading a hip-hop blog, you probably already have Revolutionary Vol. 2, so I will say no more.

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Aesop Rock - "All In All" b/w Karniege - "Make News" and "Bazooka, Chameleon, Robot" f/ Aesop Rock, Access Immortal and El-P

I think these are all available on Definitive Jux Presents Vol. 3. Aes Rock gets back on the mysterious sounding shit he started with, and I really like it (more than I've liked anything I've heard from ol boy in a few years.) Karniege has some flow and some good rhymes, but NASA's beats kind of rub me the wrong way. I think I know what it feels like to not like El-P and listen to his beats now. The posse cut would be much better w/o awkward thugged-out in-studio banter from someone, who suggests that, after he spits, Aes Rock should change his name to "Aesop lava rocks." Access Immortal is a horrible emcee name.

2004-07-11T23:56:00.000-05:00

As I write this, I download Devin's To The X-Treme. I'll keep yall posted.

Government Names comes through with two crazy tidbits:
-Chamillionaire and Mike Jones (who? Mike Jones) are beefing
-BG f/ Howard Zinn? WTF?!

The video for Skillz's "Take It Back" is here.

I been playing a bunch of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance for PS2. The game is the perfect blend of Tekken-style 3D realistic game play, and traditional Street Fighter 2D...fuck it, the real highlight of the game is Jax's giant MK chain.. FRESH.

2004-07-08T14:53:00.000-05:00

Let's get the important stuff out the way. According to Tom Tomorrow, there were probably children in prison at Abu Ghraib. This is a blog link because apparently nobody who speaks English is covering the story, and Bob Harris breaks down the information he gleaned and the sites he investigated pretty well. I think the graphic above pretty much sums it up (and is available on a shirt). If you needed any more reasons to be horrified, there you go.

Deep breath.

Back here in sunny America, we're coming up on the all-star break, and I have cable now, so I can start following without having to dredge the internet to stay up on the national passtime. The Black Table's Will Leitch has an amusing breakdown of the wacky season thus far., although he gets the gas face for dissing the Twins.

Anyways, for all the haters who say baseball isn't gully, it don't get more gully than intestinal parasites or slamming your wife's grill in the car hood. Shit, Juelz Santana is leading the league in K's. DIP SET DIP SET DIP SET. They're keepin it street, like smokin spinach (and I really do mean spinach).

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In the rap world, Hot 97 has links to the two most blogged-about rap videos of the moment: Mase's "Welcome Back" and Kanye's "Jesus Walks."

Mase pays homage to the 412's own Mr. Rogers, gets love from old people and little girls (no R. Kelly), and does it all in nikes dipped in Miami Dolphin colors. The video is the happiest thing I seen in a minute, some "feel good video of the summer" shit. the song is still only luke warm to me, but it's good to have the original mumbler back.

In sharp contrast to Mase's low key, low concept shit, Kanye goes buckwild with the cheap-looking fire special fx, and has who might be Bubba Sparxxx chop down a tree. There's a lot to see in the video, but really, the only thing that matters is the doves flying out of the yay-filled trunk. Best use of doves in a rap video since Baby blindly swatted at them in "What Happened to Dat Boy."

I really just wanted to talk about the doves, though. DOVES FLYING OUT OF BAGS OF COKE. genius.

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Both videos come up in this article at Sleep Not Work, about hip-hop growing up.

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I finally got around to listening to a pile of mp3's I'd downloaded and never checked. I've still got a fat pile of vinyl to review too. anyways, here's my thoughts on those empeethreez.

Lyrics Born - "Calling Out rmx" (f/ Casual and E-40)
Good to see the Yay comin together. You've probably heard this in a Coke commercial or something, so you know the heat is already on. 40 rhymes in a high voice, I'm not lovin it, but Casual tears the shit to pieces. yeah Casual. between this, "Rap Game," and that Fat Jack track, Casual's next one could be a banger.

Jay-Z - Mark Ronson's "99 Problems" rmx and some random "Moment of Clarity" rmx
Ronson's beat is aight, but why the fuck did you put your little sister on the hook? I'm not even sure that's Lil Sammy Sam singing about pullin her hair out, but given than it's Ronson's work and Samanthan Ronson is a Roc Soldier, I'm pretty fuckin sure it's her ruining what would otherwise be a damn good reworking of what was already a damn good song. Boooooo nepotism.

Meanwhile, if anybody knows who laced up the 1994-sounding boom-bap horn driven "Moment of Clarity" jawn with the Jimmy Cliff scratch samples in the hook, get at me. This shit is blazey von blazinberg the third.

Cam'ron - "To The Top"
This shit sucks, and it steals the beat from "Platinum Starz" w/ Lil Flip, Bun B and Mike Jones (?). I don't care how many purple miniskirts homeboy raps in, I still can't feel Killa Kam (no homo).

Terror Squad - "Lean Back"
Pure heat. I gotta cop this on wax.

ok that's about it.

2004-07-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

Which Alias character are you?

One of my favorite things about "Alias" is the way in which characters you should hate (in a cultural way, not in a plot-driven way) still manage to be generally chill people. Vaughn is dope because, while he has all the badass characteristics of your average spy, they still make him down to earth and generally human. He's not an incredibly slick guy. He actually looks Woody Allen-level conflicted most of the time, with an intensely furrowed brow and a 'what the fuck do I do now?' aura about him. His interactions with Sidney aren't smooth and perfectly scripted; the writers run with the awkwardness of dating a coworker, especially when you're not even supposed to be seen in public with your coworker. The "we should spend more time together" scenes are really almost painful. Vaughn has no game. He's James Bond minus everything pimp. (Plus he real raw on Lauren.)

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I'm sure yall heard the vice-presidential jump-off. I like Edwards, he was the obvious choice and he doesn't come off like your high school friend's dad. Plus I feel like he'll eat Cheney alive in a VP debate, whether or not f-bombs are thrown. The New York Times reports that the eminent smears say "Edwards is too inexperienced to lead the country in a time of crisis." A time of crisis? Yo, 9/11 was almost THREE YEARS AGO. We're not in a time of crisis anymore.

I can't find a link, but I caught a spot on CNN stating that a "magazine" reported that a "Clinton staffer" said that the Clinton/Gore administration "also used the f-word." Heavens no!

Also on the political tip, I caught Dirty Bill Clinton on the Diane Rehm Show this morning. He mentioned that he and Bob Dole run a foundation together to support widows and others affected by 9/11. What are the chances Kerry and Bush would ever do that? (Then again, what are the chances Bush would ever start a charity?) It's a cheap shot, but it's amazing how bitchy and partisan everyone's gotten in the last few years. Bush's dividing power in action.

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StL radio can't get enough of the new J-Kwon track, "Hood Hop." The beat is nuts and he lost that retarded flow he had on "Tipsy." How much you wanna bet nobody in NYC is givin "Hood Hop" any love. Can I get some feedback on this?

Meanwhile, I heard "Lean Back" for THE FIRST TIME ON THE RADIO this weekend. How long's it been out?

QED: STL is NOT NYC.

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Music Plasma is fuckin crazy.

So is Anna Benson's website. Homegirl, your charity benefits "the tireless efforts of raising money for anti-terrorism equipment and technology." Check yoself.

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I give this entry a 3 out of 10. not my best work. sorry.

2004-06-29T13:34:00.000-05:00

Instead of seeing Emcee Ricky D last night, (for six dolla!), I ferried shit from my apartment to my new house. Truth be told, I'm pretty low key and sleepy with all the moving and shit, so I wasn't that heartbroken. I like Slick Rick, but apparently The Pageant was a madhouse, and I wasn't really feelin like throwin bows through the crowd to check the scene. Homeboy was part of a triple bill with Biz Markie and Doug E Fresh. Apparently the highlight of the night was when Dougie was doing some call and response old school shit and he went into a "pork" rhyme scheme (things that rhyme with pork), and said "when you eat your Corn Flakes, you use a..." and the whole dumb ass crowd yells out "FORK." Hotness.

I, on the other hand, borrowed my friend's pimp Volvo station wagon and took several more crates of records and books down to Dogtown. I met my neighbors after I ran up on the curb trying to back into my driveway, and the redneck across the street came out with no shirt on screaming about "what the fuck is wrong with you" and "if you hit that car, there's gonna be trouble." Then my elderly next door neighbors spent the whole time watching me carry shit, saying to themselves "there goes the neighborhood," I'm sure. I can't wait until assorted black people come through and they call 5-0 on me.

Moving makes you realize that you have more records that you need. I'm coming up on crate #25. I aint got much to show for it, but yall (the ten of you who read this shit) can check out my piece d'resistance (sp?): Friedmatic, my remixes of Nas's Stillmatic. I should note that it came out waaaay before all this Black Album remix bullshit.

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That link comes courtesy of my girlfriend's WU webspace. My girl also made the most astute comment ever the other day: she compared excessive percussion to fashion accessories.

I believe her exact words compared cowbells and tambourines to ridiculous earrings and unneccessary platforms. And it makes a lot of sense, if you consider the correlation. I don't know about you, but when I think percussion, I think Brazil, then I think Carnival, then I think shemales wearing all kinds of crazy getups. And then I think about disco and it was kind of the same.

I didn't do the comment justice here. But hopefully you get the idea.

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unlike Milo, I'm actually posting answers to the quiz.

1) Lord Finesse and Big L - "Yes You May (rmx)" (big ups to David who nailed it)
2) Showbiz and AG - "Silence of the Lambs"
3) Biggie - "Warning"
4) Despot - "Life With Snarky Parker"
5) C-Rayz Walz, Wordsworth, MF Doom, Breezely Brewin - "The Line Up"
6) Cage - "Among the Sleep"
7) OC - "My World"
8) E-40 and Clipse - "Quarterbackin"
9) Devin the Dude - "Who is the Man"
10) Soul Position - "fuckajob!"

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(Low on funny links because I'm low on energy. Dealwidit.)

2004-06-25T12:38:00.000-05:00

I got a gigantic pile of singles that will be reviewed this weekend. if I had a turntable at work, I could get that shit done here. instead, my five loyal readers get some links and a meme.

This shit is from Mo Ca$h.

On your current playlist, hit shuffle and pick the first twenty songs on the list (no matter how cheesy or embarrassing), and write down your favourite line of the song. Try to avoid putting the song title in the line. Then have your friends comment and see if they know the songs...

1) "I'm so def I need a hearing aide with an equalizer..."
2) "and like Heatwave, I'm slayin niggas always and forever..."
3) "I fuck around and get hardcooooooore..."
4) "it's the city that never sleeps, except on the train..."
5) "they learnin more from me than they learnin in class..."
6) "back to my brain like my brain is a home..."
7) "me and the mic double trouble/chicks look at us like twins, all lovable and huggable..."
8) "but I used to have a lord Jesus perm..."
9) "ohio, it's kinda nice/I been there once, got my dick sucked twice..."
10) "I seen women stand still that work twice as hard, I seen men work half as hard and get twice as far..."

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You know all that obnoxious Von Dutch shit? Now you can hate it even more.

And, you don't really need to read this article on the "rise of the south in hip-hop," but suffice to say, it's about four years late. And the headline pic is the fuckin Neptunes, who are probably the least southern of the recent southern additions to pop rap. Gas face. At least we got NPR, who've covered MF Doom, and now Timbaland, and who are allowed their late pass because their target demographic is in their late 30's.

2004-06-23T11:33:00.000-05:00

"Nice to meet you. I'm boring and entirely unimportant to the film."
"Krakhozia!"

Tom Hanks was good, the movie had no plot and would have been better as a half hour Seinfeld episode. Catherine Zeta-Jones is wasting her time here, don't waste yours and sleep on "Intolerable Cruelty" if you really want some quality CZ/J in your cinema.

So the bad news is that I made the mistake of seeing "The Terminal" last night, and the new Beasties jawn installs anti-pirate software on your whole shit. The good news is that, according to this quiz, I am Beanie Siegel.

And, unless you happen to be one Shaquille O'Neal, the hilarious good news is the link directly below:

Skillz f/ Ben Wallace-"Champ Is Here" freestyle

The bad news for me is that frontin ass iTunes won't play the clip for me. so anybody that has this shit in a different format, get at me in a comment styleeee.

2004-06-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

For me, of course, the big news is that the 1904 Flight Cage has opened at the St. Louis Zoo. And, in that cage are a whole bunch of Roseate Spoonbills (aka Ajaja ajaja), wandering around and looking generally silly. More info on my favorite bird available here. (This, of course, is nothing compared to Awwwwdamn's most recent ridiculous animal post, but I take what I can get.)

I saw "Mean Girls" and "Dodgeball" this week. "Mean Girls" was really good, if nothing else because there wasn't a single moment where I was embarassed that I was seeing a movie whose target demographic rocks baby tees that say "90% Angel." Even if the BC dot C aint feelin her, Tina Fey gets a pound and a half for her script, which included Tim Meadows going 20% gangsta. But, all that aside, every single member of a hip-hop community on earth should see this movie, because we're all gossping, no game-havin, behind the back talkin, haterade drinkin bitches who can't stand to see anybody else succeed.

And, for the record, the lovely Ms. Lohan looks mad young. So, at the risk of looking like a pederast, this is hot, the 13-year-old lookin gal in the movie is not. Noixe is not R. Kelly.

"Dodgeball" was stupid as hell, in the best possible way. People get hit with shit (wrenches, cars, and, of course, balls) (no homo), Vince Vaughn gets his smarm on and Ben Stiller gets his...well...Ben Stiller on. And one of the last lines in the movie is "fuckin Chuck Norris!" It's exactly what you expect. Don't sleep.

I'm also amped to see "The Terminal," "Anchorman" and "Spiderman 2." Summer movies are raw.

Also, the new RJD2 is really really good, it's everything that the first one wasn't (focused) and my review for Playback StL is currently about 12 hours late. This promo wax bills him amusingly.
Credit Catchdubs

Howard Dean came by St. Louis yesterday morning (happy pop day?) to stump for, among others, Jeff Smith. Howard Dean is smooth, his people love him and I am absolutely convinced he's a robot. You can see his pauses when his hard drive is accessing anti-Bush soundbyte #618a.39. He's a very good, very effective robot, but a robot nonetheless. Jeff, on the other hand, stood in sharp contrast as the most human-seeming person on the mic all afternoon. Our district (er, what will be my district when I move) is strongly democratic (Gephardt's old one), so the winner of the race will be there for a good 20 years. And Jeff Smith is good.

And now, on to the links.

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Nuclear Bob got shirts for days, just try not to look at his face.

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As a professional biologist, I find these giant plush microbes to be freakin adorable. One of the supply companies is giving Shigella away with bigger purchases and trying to pass it off as E. Coli, which is commonly used to grow large piles of DNA around hurr. Anyways, these prove that you can put eyes on anything and make it cute.

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Bikes Against Bush turns a bike into a white-paint-fueled dot matrix printer.
Credit Come Correct

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I'm a baller's baller... (The Sabbatini family keeps it super-pimp on the PGA Tour.)

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Rummy claims that Rush is balanced on Armed Forces Radio by the theoretically middle of the road NPR. So let's correct that.

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Allhiphop's been funny lately, but this link says Star Trak has signed Snoop and Slim Thug. Snoop, whatever, we all loved "Beautiful," I'm more focused on Slim Thug. Slim Thug? Over Neptunes? Shit...this could be interesting.

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And, according the NYT, Jigga and Phish hit up the ill collabo the other night. I aint checkd it yet, but you can apparently check it out at Livephish.com.

2004-06-16T16:39:00.000-05:00

Links have been updated. Real Nice actually works now. Stay tuned for updates. Word to Hardly Art's Laura Prepon appreciation.

And now, because it's easier to write when you're making a list...

Jawns.

1) Mobb Deep - "Got It Twisted"
(bonus points for sonning peeps who don't recognize the sample)

2) Despot - "Life With Snarky Parker"
Content ala Aesop Rock, with Blockhead on the beat. "Snarky Parker" is apparently a horse puppet from an old 50's wild west show. Google it if you got more questions.

3) Gift of Gab - "Ride of Your Life"
Black Thought isn't an emcee, as much as he is an instrument in The Roots. And Gift of Gab isn't an emcee here, as much as he is yet another layer in Vitamin D's sick sick sick beat. (It might be Jake One. I can't remember.)

5) Ghostface and Jacki O - "Tooken Back"
It's like American Beauty in the world of Tony Starks. Or maybe Eyes Wide Shut.

6) Jim Jones, Game and Lil Flip - "Certified Gangstas"
Beware the shitty remix where Cam replaces Flip, and its really uninteresting video.

7) Steak'n'shake is putting hot fudge in their milkshakes. Nuff said?

8) Ben Wallace got every single rebound in the championship. Plus he looks like David Banner.

2004-06-14T17:32:00.000-05:00

Spent the weekend in the woods. OK, spent about 24 hours in the woods. I aint been camping since my cub scout days and I was woefully unprepared. I'm now covered in bites of various kinds--fuck Deep Woods Off!...what they don't tell you is that its whole steez is to attract bugs to the poison in the stuff. So if you're in the woods already, there's no point in trying to keep the bugs away, you're better off killin off the ones that will land on you. But if you use it as traditional bug spray, you get eaten the fuck up. Regardless, stars are really dope. I'd never seen the Milky Way before.

I also saw what I think was some kind of grebe.

This weekend also saw substantial behind the scenes work at my very own Real Nice Records. That link doesn't work yet, but the website should be launching on July 1, the same day I set up the new studio in Dogtown (which is an unfortunately named part of StL, it's actually really nice). this kid is abling handling the web design. He also handled the logo design, which can been seen on the promo poster that will soon be pasted all over StL. Look for it...

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Heads are constantly posting Google searches that led to their sites (South Knox Bubba wins)...is that a feature of the more expensive blogging apps or is that easy to do? Holla back.

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Hopefully the Reagan "mourning" is over (btw, Ted Rall weighed in thusly), now we can start the Ray Charles mourning. RIP.

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Diff Kitch spots the age old urban development controversy creeping up on S. Carter's much celebrated plan to bring the Nets to Brooknam. Develop Don't Destroy has a very good point. Not one I agree with, but a good one nonetheless. This is yet another situation where if we could trust corporations not to be complete exploitative assholes, we would have fewer protests about things like this.

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Pizon laces RMHH with a crazy recap of Summer Jam 2004. Alicia Keyes hosting an all-star golden age jam? 50 gettin no love in NYC? What the fuck?

But also amazing is that Lil Jon knew "Lean Back" was the biggest club jawn in NYC and I NEVER HEARD IT ON THE RADIO IN STL. I peeped it at Vibe (link courtesy of Diff Kitch), finally. The track's dope--I can see why it slams in the club--but damn, TS got some fine ass video hoes. Girl in the see-thru black ish...wow. And big up Remy Ma for thuggin it out like errybody else in the crew, not gettin on some "fuck me" shit like Lil Kim, then gettin road head on the NORE tip! Gangsta.

(btw, Domingo has hooked up Pi with one of the hotter beats I heard in a minute...it's track #1 on his site.

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And, finally, if yall aint peeped Back to Iraq yet, quit sleepin. Completely unique view of the Iraq situation from an independant American journalist. This article is especially crazy, as he discusses the gestalht (sp?) effect of all the types of opposing forces living there, and the atmosphere all the tension creates. Much more detailed that just an Iraqi saying "we want them out," another saying "we like them" and two Americans saying "we're helping" and "I hate it here," as one tends to get in the news these days.

I'ma go play softball.

2004-06-07T12:57:00.000-05:00

Has nobody made this comparison yet? Anyways last night's game 1 was off the wall, and I only saw the last quarter. the last quarter was raw. this might be a series after all.

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I don't need to say anything about Ronald Reagan's death, really. I feel like most others on the left do: we need to stop frontin like Reagan was an incredible leader, but we're not going to get rid of the presidential lustre. I'm expressing my sentiments with my silence. I'm not going to mourn him. I'm not going to say "he deserved it."

I'm interested to see what Ted Rall, ever willing to offend the right and the sensitive, will say about it.

Oh, but check this:

"I was sitting in a bar in Chapel Hill last night and every time they said
something about it on tv people cheered. Just like when Strom Thurman died."

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Speaking of Ted Rall, much was said about his retarded Pat Tillman comic. But nobody has said anything about this retarded strip or this one.

The first expresses a sentiment that one cannot be against the war and for the troops, and uses the entirely rational analogies of thinking a building is ugly, but supporting the architecture, or getting food poisoning from sushi, but supporting the chef. (Bol C had similar ideas too.) Ted, we don't live in a country with a draft, but we do live in a country with large wealth disparities and a big shortage of money for education. And a continual struggle for jobs, or at least better jobs. The military makes a lot of sense for some people, especially for people who can't afford college. I'm fully aware of the large number of options for college funding besides the military, but the armed forces is in your face with their marketing, and they make it easy. And, if nothing else, don't make the American mistake of the large-scale stereotype: not everybody in Iraq wants to be there, not everybody in Iraq wants the US to be there, and we should all be glad that we're not there. I don't like the war, I don't like the assholes that got us there, but I especially don't like the fact that soldiers are caught in the middle, regardless of politics. There is one solitary member of congress with a son serving in the Middle East, Ted. Make a cartoon about that.

As for the second, I'm not adverse to criticism of Kerry, as he's definately worthy of scrutiny to some level. But if you're going to do it, don't play off the moronic right-wing caricature of a waffling politician. That's not constructive, or funny. You come off like Sean Hannity.

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Playback STL has two new articles by me.

Murs and 9th Wonder-"Murs 3:16, the 9th Edition"
An interview with DJ Babu of Dilated Peoples

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Juice v. Dos Noun from Scribble Jam 2004

Juice took the round, but this is an ill battle no matter how you slice it.

2004-06-06T15:03:00.000-05:00

Real Nice Radio tonight from 8 PM-10 PM central standard time.

In St. Louis, check 90.3 FM. on the interweb, check KWUR's website for the stream.

All kinds of underground rap. Check it out.

Requests: 314-935-KWUR or KWURRadio on IM.

2004-06-04T12:56:00.000-05:00

METALFACE weighs in on the "No Homo" situation, and hooks up an interview with Cam where he utterly fails at clearing up why he gotta say "no homo" after everything.

So when you get insomniatic, you get ideas like this:

No oso.
"No oso, but I caught this salmon with my bare hands last week."

(it's not about being a spanish-speaking bear, it's about having spanish-speaking bear thoughts.)

No hobo.
"No hobo, but I'm bout to hop a box car to Detroit."

(it's not about being a hobo, it's that hobo mentality.)

No zoso.
"No Zoso, but there's a lady who's sure all that glitters isn't gold."

No Bozo.
"No Bozo, but peep these giant shoes I just copped."

No dojo.
Maybe after you karate chop someone in the windpipe?

*thwap*
"no dojo."

No Flow Joe.
"No Flow Joe, but my $600,000 TS piece is really chafin me."

(No homo.)

Anyways, here's the first "no homo" ever.

At last a brother gettin all the cash/This ain't no homo shit, but I'ma get up in that ass.

Red Hot Lover Tone, on "Damain's Hook." The album was "#1 Player" and it dropped in 1995.