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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Rapper Big Pooh Brings 'Delight' To The Masses

While Phonte readies himself for the release of the 2nd Foreign Exchange album on 10/7, Rapper Big Pooh has been cooking up some treats of his own:


You can cop it @ URB Magazine's blog for the super-low price of Free-99 so you really don't have an excuse NOT to. So yeah, if you could get on that soon, that would be greeeeeeat © Lumbergh from 'Office Space'. The track "Plastic Cups" is getting a lot of attention - probably because the beat is better known as "Gobstopper" on J Dilla's Donuts. Here's the video featuring fellow Hall of Justus'ers Chaundon and Joe Scudda:



Other pleasant surprises include 9th Wonder's magical goodness on the track "With You" and the magnificent West Coast-ish swag of "Regular Nigga" with Ab-Soul and "Reality Check" with Big Dho, Mykestro and D. Black. "Nobody Like Me" has a crazy loop of some classic Lauryn Hill vocals - see if you can guess where they copped it ;) Even though it's a mixtape, there's only one recycled beat and it's Lupe Fiasco's "Dumb It Down":

If you're still reading this, you probably haven't started to download it yet. C'mon, Free-99, remember? Chop chop! I SAID CHOP CHOP! HAHA...no, for real. Go 'head and get on that plz, thx.


Monday, September 15, 2008

Jean Grae + Blue Sky Black Death = Dark. Angry. BRILLIANT

Despite an emotional departure from hip hop earlier this year, Jean Greezy seems to have pulled a Hov-esque pump-fake and is back on the scene (for now anyway). This time, she teamed up with the production duo Blue Sky Black Death to collaborate on an aptly named release The Evil Jeanius, due on 9/30:


http://www.ihiphop.com/jeangrae

The heavy, brooding sound of BSBD seems like an odd choice for a hip hop record, but when you couple it with Jean Grae when she's in "go hoard" (not "hard" - "hoard") mode, it's a natural fit. BSBD sounds like... music that would be playing in some kind of alternate reality in which Queen of the Damned meets Mark Ecko's Getting Up video game, if that makes ANY sense at all. It's kind of hard to describe, so just listen to this:

Blue Sky Black Death - The Era When We Sang.mp3

Yeah. Hopefully you get the gist of what I was saying - in any event, I'm looking forward to hearing more from this collabo. Hopefully it's not the last we hear from Jean Grae - I have a feeling that it isn't.


Tim Wise on White Privilege

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”


White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.


White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.


White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.


White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.


White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”


White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.


White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.


White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.


White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.


And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…


White privilege is, in short, the problem.


Friday, September 12, 2008

Hindsight is 20/20...



Thursday, September 11, 2008

Palin Rocks McCain's Mic

Yanked from 8thlight's posted link on facebook via BuzzFeed:

Palin on offense, making steady headway...

GOAL! FTW!

Why yes, I *AM* easily amused. And no, I'm not above making fellatio references if the occasion calls for it. That is all...

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Sex On Fire

Last summer an acquaintance that I fancied quite a bit gave me a pile of homemade CDs with songs by his favorite rock artists. As much as I like to think that I have the most immaculate musical taste in the world *cough* I love to check out what other people are into musically. It can tell you a lot about a person - music speaks volumes when words and actions fail. One of the bands I fell in love with on one of the CDs was Kings of Leon, with the song was "Molly's Chambers" from the 2003 EP Holy Roller Novocaine:


Kings of Leon - Molly's Chambers.mp3

Fast forward to now - they've got a new album dropping on the 23rd and a new song called "Sex On Fire" which coincidentally is an accurately descriptive phrase to describe how it sounds - except less painful:

Sex On Fire


Peep how the lead singer looks like he's all of 13 years old - with a full grown 8 o'clock shadow (cuz it's too heavy to be a 5 o'clock shadow but it still isn't quite a full grown beard) a la Rick Fox. He doesn't look like he should have a voice like that either - but his voice is one of the things I dig the most about their sound. He could sing names from the White Pages to me and I'd be enthralled :)

They're coming to the Aragon on Halloween - I'm thinking I might go, especially if I dig their new album when it comes out. I have more than a month to make up my mind - I'll figure it out, HAHA...

Someone You Should Know: Oona Garthwaite

Those of you who watch So You Think You Can Dance? may remember a particularly nimble entrant named "Twitch" who performed a mind-blowingly face-melting dance sequence for what turned out to be his 2nd time auditioning for the show:



This isn't about him though. Sorry Twitch, maybe some other time. I'll stalk, er, blog about you at a later date :)

This is about the haunting voice lilting behind the rapid tempo of the drums that fueled his flawless movement. Meet Oona Garthwaite:

Her voice is refreshing for its pure sweetness with just the right amount of tart flavor, like the perfect glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. Her presence is worldly - her aura, mysterious and beckoning...you catch my drift. But don't just take my word for it, get the story straight from the source...

Oona: In Her Own Words

Name: oona garthwaite

But People Call Me: #1 ;)

Age: 24

Location: Oakland, ca

Originally From: born in Oakland, CA / grew up in the woods: lagunitas, ca

Occupation: musician with a day job…… (video encoding operator)

Loves: music & thinking

Hates: bigotry

Is Indifferent About: religion

Is Puzzled By: childish tempers on grown folks

You in 3 - 5 Words. Go: nothing quite like it ;)

Inspiration: people & concrete

Motivation: family

Idols: beth ditto. zora neale hurston. frances doherty.

Why People Should F*ck With You: because I’m asking for it………… and I give as good as I get

MySpace: www.myspace.com/oonamusic

Contact: oona.garthwaite@gmail.com

Feel Like Sharing Anything Else?

History, that beast, never diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies!! so we must be good to each other………


There you go people - don't ever say I haven't tried to put you on to someone/thing ill. You're welcome ;)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Foreign Exchange - Daykeeper

Okay, I take back what I said about The Foreign Exchange being stingy - their first single "Daykeeper" featuring Muhsinah has finally dropped, and it gives a new meaning to the saying "Good things come to those who wait"...

The Foreign Exchange - Daykeeper ft. Muhsinah.mp3


Isht is not a game anymore. It's goin' down October 7th...

Monday, September 8, 2008

Manic Music Monday @ GangstarrGirl.com

It's no secret that Mondays are no fun. Unfortunately there's nothing you can do to stop them, but Starr and I wholeheartedly endeavor to bring you at least one bright spot every week with Manic Music Monday. Check out the latest at GangstarrGirl.com and be sure to check back at the end of the week for Blaxploitation Friday - ya jive turkey!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Whoop Rico

I really wish this were a long-lost skit from the Chappelle's Show vaults, but alas...no such luck. This whole song + matching dance phenomenon is out of hand and this is further proof:



The premise of it is actually pretty funny and they look like they're having fun but...yeah. It's just a little special, that's all. Not to mention, the actual "Whoop Rico" song sounds a LOT like this:


Crime Mob - Knuck If You Buck.mp3

Yeeeeeeah. That gets the side eye - just a lil bit. Moving along...

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Sampletastic: Brand Nubian & Jean Carne

Brand Nubian was slated to appear in Chicago last weekend for the 2008 African Festival of the Arts in Washington Park. I ended up missing the performance, but in the time leading up to the day of the show I had hopes that they would do this song:


Don't Let It Go To Your Head - Brand Nubian


The undeniable groove that underlay Grand Puba, Sadat X and Lord Jamar's verses can be attributed to one Jean Carne who sang "Don't Let It Go To Your Head" in 1979. Talk about winners - this is a major one:



Getcha 2-step on to this why don'tcha...

Friday, September 5, 2008

J*Davey on Ellen

Backed by a full band that really enhanced their sound, J*Davey brings their act to the national forefront performing their latest single "Dollar or More" on Ellen:



I'm loving their latest joint - the strings remind me of "Raspberry Beret" by Prince:

which is highly appropriate since they've opened for him. Now that I think about it, I pretty sure Prince and Jack Davey are the same height too. When I saw them live last February, I was struck by how effin' teeny she was. I knew she was skinny from the photos I'd seen, but she was also very petite. She couldn't have broken 5'4" and she was wearing 3" heels. That was a great show. I wish I'd taken pictures...

Leave It All Behind, Pt. 3

The third (and hopefully final) teaser trailer for the upcoming Foreign Exchange release "Leave It All Behind":

FE-LIAB-3


They've done a really good job of keeping the crucial aspects of the release under Sooper Top Sekrit wraps, but they've FINALLY given us a release date and some CD artwork:

October 7, 2008


This is one of those albums that I wouldn't listen to if it leaked. I'd wait for it to come out and cop it in hand. It just be like that sometimes...

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven't caught them yet. They give nothing away (unless I'm just really dense and completely missing something bigger and more concrete) but they definitely help to build intrigue - more intrigue on top of a 4 year wait for the 2nd album to drop I mean. Yeah...

James Franco: Geek to Chic

I'm really digging the September '08 cover of GQ Magazine:



For whatever reason, I never gave much attention to James Franco in terms of appearance until recently - but after seeing that magazine cover, and these shots from the GQ photo spread...

...he's got my full attention now ;) He was the only reason I didn't get up and walk out of Pineapple Express - not only did his spot-on performance and relentless delivery make up for what a massive tool Seth Rogan is, he was STILL hot as a greasy, dirty, stringy haired pot dealer. That's pretty impressive in my book, HAHA. Yeah, I know I'm weird. He's come quite a long way from Freaks and Geeks:


Beyond oogle-worthy cover and photo spread, the actual article on James Franco in GQ is really good - you get a sense for his intense work ethic and exactly what he goes through to be so damn good. Definitely check it out on the GQ website. They're not stingy - they actually post articles in their entirety online, unlike the tabloid magazines. HOLLER.

I Think He Can Dance

I've watched this several times since I first saw it, and I still can't find the words to describe it. "Amazing" just doesn't do this cat any justice:

Robert Muraine:
I Think He Can Dance - Watch more free videos


I think I'm in love *heart flutters* That made my Spidey senses tingle :)

Art Is Everywhere

Art Nouveau Magazine believes that art is everywhere, which is why they offer everything that's edgy, goes against the grain, or just plain cool and different in a stylish manner that's unpretentious. It also helps that they offer free mixtapes and go out of their way to seek independent/unsigned artists that run the gamut from hip hop to electronica to feature on the lineup. Check them out in their cool news widget below and on their website:


Thursday, September 4, 2008

Republican Hater's Ball

The Truth hurts so good:


Monday, September 1, 2008

Dave Matthews Band saxophonist dies at 46

I know this gets an Extra-Late Pass, but I just found out on Saturday. No clue how I missed this story - finding out late doesn't make it any less sad:

(CNN) -- LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of the Dave Matthews Band, died Tuesday from complications stemming from injuries he sustained in an ATV accident, the band's publicist said.

Moore, 46, died "unexpectedly" at a hospital, publicist Ambrosia Healy said in a statement.

Moore was taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, and had been rehabilitating at his L.A. home after the June 30 accident at his farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Dave Matthews Band was formed in Charlottesville in 1991 by Matthews, Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard, Boyd Tinsley and Moore, an established saxophonist in the local music scene.

Their first album, "Remember Two Things," was released in 1993 and featured what would become the band's trademark mixture of jazz, rock and world-music stylings.

"Jazz is probably my main influence, but at this stage I don't really consider myself a jazz musician," Moore is quoted as saying on the band's Web site. "I have plenty of space to improvise, to try new ideas."

The band's follow-up record, "Under the Table and Dreaming," has been certified quadruple-platinum, selling over 4 million copies.

The group went ahead with a scheduled show Tuesday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Jeff Coffin, saxophonist for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, has been sitting in for Moore since Moore's accident.

Matthews announced the death of the band's "dear friend" to the crowd.

Concertgoer Christian Tomas of Anaheim, California, said by telephone from the Staples Center that word of the death had spread through the crowd before the show.

"All of us are just really sad and down about it," said Tomas, a longtime fan. "But if Dave and the band decided to go on with the show, that means they know it was the right thing to do and Leroi would have wanted it."

Green Light + Announcement = FRESH ALERT

I have been waiting all summer for this video. I'm just glad they didn't eff it up:



Andre 3000 and John Legend make a great duo. They could be like a hip, modern, Black version of The Odd Couple. Or maybe that's just my overactive imagination hard at work again.

I'm really digging the artistic representation here:



Good times. And very refreshing departures from the usual :)