Combat Jack with his Daily Mathematics
Archive for the ‘Combat Jack’ Category
DP versus COMBAT JACK: De La Soul
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
What started off as a casual end of summer Sunday afternoon of imported beers enjoyed on the steps of a Brooklyn townhouse became a heated discussion with more platitudes and invectives than you would find in a presidential debate. If opinions are similar to assholes in that they are possessed buy one and all then I would have to rate my opinion to be greater than Combat Jack’s for virtue that my ass is more substantial [ll]. Nonetheless, the argument raged on…
“Which is De La Soul’s greatest album?”
‘3 Ft. High And Rising’
I choose this album because it had a profound effect on Hip-Hop and rap music. This album shatters the myth that only someone in a B-boy stance can produce rap music. The soundscape that Prince Paul crafts in 3ft was as futuristic and otherworldly as what the Bomb Squad was doing for Public Enemy.
Rap music is about lyrics too and De La Soul were unlike any rap group you have heard since them. Simile meets metaphor which is followed by obscure or arcane reference. De La Soul’s first album showed them to be pop culture deconstructionists on the level of rap music’s Jacques Derrida. Excuse my hyperbole, but that is how fucking good 3ft is to listen to. Plus philosophy might have been the only college class that I passed.
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‘Buhloone Mindstate’
Combat Jack submits B.M. as De La’s best album because of Prince Paul’s maturity on this disk. We don’t find nearly as many skits or interludes on this CD. This, says Combat Jack, is a complete album.
The quirkiness in De La Soul’s lyrics is removed for a more serious tone which decries the music industry’s modus operandi as well as the the fickle tastes of our consumer culture. De La Soul has never been afraid to speak to us as adults when the situation calls for such, ugh, real talk. Is this why they are still playing in college gymnasiums? Maybe. It’s also why they are being given their due for Vh-1’s Hip-Hop Honors this year.
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Like fellow Native Tonguer DRES would say, “The choice is yours.”
Back Pack Rap Attack…
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
It’s never a good time to leave NYC. There is a party tonight for the launch of NBA 2K9. Open bar and free food. There is some other industry shit on Wednesday night with more free drinks and Thursday night in NYC is the new Saturday night with free drinks and free food in several spots.
NYC is straight banana bread during the week, but on the weekend it becomes the city that never sleeps. This Friday there is some historic shit popping off at the Knitting Factory. Boot Camp Clik will be riding in hard with live performance by the Cocoa B’z and Black Moon. A live band will be backing them up as they perform the classic Hip-Hop albums ‘Da Shinin’ and ‘Enter Da’ Stage’.
‘Enter Da’ Stage’ is such an important record in Hip-Hop history and the Duck Down BCC movement is finally being recognized as one of rap music’s greatest collectives, if not the greatest. Look at their consistent track record and their longevity. BCC just keeps grinding through the underground. Heltah Skeltah’s Sean Price has become the most prominent face of the movement in the last few years but who can deny Smif and Wessun and their impact on rap culture. Boot Camp is Brooklyn to the bone and they represent for the neighborhoods that gentrification still won’t fucks with. Brownsville, Ocean Hill, East New York, Pitkin, Sutter, DuMont, Saratoga, Rockaway, Ralph Ave. Hail Meg!
It sucks that I am going to Barbados for a week today. It doesn’t suck like that, but damn, this will be such a legendary performance that I hate the idea of missing it just because me and my chick caught this sick deal in February. The end of the hurricane season and right before the prime season jumps off is when you can got to the Caribbean for next to nothing. So while I’m chilling on a white sand beach Buckshot Shorty will be ripping down ‘Buck ‘Em Down’ with a live bass player on his side.
I hope some of you hermits come up from your mom’s basements. Don’t be scared. There will be hell’a white hanging out with you. This won’t be like a show at the old NYC nightclub called the Muse back in 1992. You won’t have to tuck in your jewelry or keep a razor blade inside of your cheek. If you are fresh like me you will make sure you represent like it was 1992 though. Put some of your ‘Lo lifestyle wears on and even rock a Jansport of a NorthFace backpack. The underground Hip-Hop will never die. Beats and rhymes never get old.
Someone drop me a line and tell me how ill the show was.
BTW, are y’all hype for Da Incredible Rap Team?
Everything is still Heltah Skeltah.
JOHN BYRNE: The G.O.A.T. Comic Cover Artist
Monday, September 15th, 2008
I have much love and respect for JACK KIRBY, NEAL ADAMS, BILL SIENKIEWICZ, WALT SIMONSON, GEORGE PEREZ, DAVE COCKRUM, TODD MacFARLANE and FRANK MILLER because these men have inspired my love of art and my futurist persepctive. At the top of the pantheon though is JOHN BYRNE.
*Big up to Combat Jack for giving me a mint condition copy of The Art of John Byrne*
BYRNE’s art was definitely from outer space. Her perfected NEAL ADAMS hyper-realism so well I used to look inside the characters mouths to see the lines of their dentals. BYRNE’s details were no fucking joke. That’s why he is the greatest comic book artist of all time. His run on the X-Men title is legendary and there isn’t a character in the Marvel or DC universe that BYRNE hasn’t interpreted with his pencil.
I’m posting a few of my favorite covers in this drop and in the Blu Cheez image gallery, but if you have the time today please visit the Byrne Robotics image gallery and see fisrthand why I stan out for this artist.
MARVEL COMICS STAYS WINNING…
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
At the height of my comic collection era I had four(4) copies of Hulk #181. This is the first issue that Wolverine appears in a comic storyline. I bought this comic at every turn of my economic fortune. From my first paper route up until the point I was traveling O.T. to Virginia and North Carolina with them “things”. I had the comic in several different grades. My mint condition copy was bomb-proofed in a mylar plastic bag with an acid-free backing board in a stiff vinyl sleeve.
When I had to sell off my collection my heart was broken in half to lose the copies of the JOHN BYRNE X-Men run, the FRANK MILLER Daredevil run, the NEAL ADAMS X-Men, the NEAL ADAMS Batman run, the one-offs and cameos of my favorite characters and artists in different titles. I was given several hundred bucks for well over a thousand issues with books like X-Men #94, Daredevil #158, Hulk #181 the individual Dark Knight Returns series and several more issues with multiple copies.
Marvel Comics is returning the love back to me and all of their classic storyline fans by creating direct to DVD animated origins episodes. COMBAT JACK sent me this link from a preview at ComicCon 2008…
Old fanboys like myself and young new stans can rejoice together as our favorite characters are pulled off the pages and given new life on the screens. And I don’t feel too bad about selling off all of my books now.
