Archive for the ‘5000’ Category

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God Has Mercy…

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

dpxalb

^ Thinking of a master plan…

This week has been one of the craziest ever in my life. My day job is crazy enough as it is without having a project like the one I am trying to prep for a ribbon cutting in another four weeks. The Mayor’s podium will be at that joint too so that makes everyone extra anxious. I don’t really have the time to speak to y’all right now. Especially if I’m going to keep my afterwork schedule so brawlick. On Thursday I left the dayjob and was motivating to the PNC Radio studios to listen to Che Grand’s new album ‘Everything’s Good Ugly’. God was already speaking to me and I wasn’t even listening.

I exited the subway and as I was walking down Jay Street I heard someone call me by my family name. Dallas is my government name, my Hollywood name, but that isn’t the name that my family uses to address me so I was immediately disarmed and stopped in my tracks. Who the fuck knows me like that in the DumBo section of Brooklyn?!? Wherever you are God sees you and sure enough it was my man GARY from forever. What the fuck is G doing over here? Although if anyone could be anywhere it would be G.

GARY is fearless and knows how to walk the planet. I shouldn’t ever be surprised if I see a picture of GARY on the space shuttle. G has the fake credentials to get him access on the space station. I hugged my lord in the middle of Jay Street for forever. When I asked G what made him drive through DumBo he told me he was looking to see what the fuck these white were up to. Lol. G said that earlier that day he was wondering what was going on with me. I know who put that seed in his mind too. KENNY WASHINGTON. That dude loved Rakim to death and used to transcribe all of his verses into a notebook. There was a Rakim show later this night at the Highline Ballroom. KENNY wanted to go with his dudes GARY and me.

G and I went back around the way and politicked with the dreads. We twisted up in the park on Franklin and Montgomery just like it was 1989. G’s peoples came down from the building. GARY admonished dude for coming to the cipher without a flame. They playfully argued back and forth before G went to the whip and got his lighter. GARY told dude of the adventures that he, KENNY and I used to get ourselves in. NYC escapades all day every day. Car thefts, boosting missions, 40ozs and blunts on the back of subway trains. It was an everyday operation to survive and thrive in the city without getting familiar with the beast. It still is. The beast rolled down Franklin Avenue and slowed down in front of us. I was just finishing the dutch right then and I tossed it into the grass.

Then my Blaxberry rang out. It was my dude HowFresh at the Rakim show. How had two tickets left and he wanted to know if I could use them. I asked GARY if he and his dude were down to make the trip into the city for this Rakim show? You have to ask some Brooklyn cats that. I knew G was down for the crown and his homey said yeah too. KENNY was definitely in the building. He engineered this whole evening. We drove up to Highline and HowFresh met us outside the venue. Right then Combat Jack and his lovely wife walked up to the spot. We all walked up in that joint and enjoyed the show performed by one of the greatest emcees to ever hold a microphone.

Thank you KENNY.

Thank you GOD.


*A special thank you to DIEGO from Cornerstone Marketing for giving me a press pass.
**Thanks to HowFresh for giving away another set of tickets off the TWitter responses.

Posted in 5 Elements, 5000, Combat Jack, D-Cepz, Fanboy Ish, Ghetto Celebs, iNternets Celebrities, Ninjas, Sneaker Fiends United, T.O.N.Y., When I Reminisce... | 5 Comments »

R.I.P. JOHN HUGHES

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

16 candles

Like a candle in the wind. Or 16 of them.

Shouts to JB & LB

Posted in 5000, Fanboy Ish, Fashion Faux Pas, When I Reminisce..., white, Wig Owners | 3 Comments »

Blood Is Thicker Than Cristal…

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

damejay

Continuing with the ‘True Blood’ inspired drop titles is my meme all week. I’ve been meaning to have this discussion with you all ever since Jackpot put the idea in my head. Does Jay-Z need another Dame Dash? Maybe not the actual Dame Dash himself but someone like Dame Dash who is opinionated and outspoken and dedicated to his artists being the freshest.

Without Dame Dash we would never have been given the character of Jay-Z. Most OG New Yorkers that still fux with this rap shit know that AZ (not the Firm rapper – NaS weedcarrier) from Harlem was one of the original streetpusher rap stars. AZ didn’t have anywhere near the talent that Jay-Z had but he was living the lifestyle for real, for real. Word to Rich Porter and Alpo.

Dame also built that Roc-A-Fella brand by putting in a stable of hard spitters like Beans and Freeway. Dame brought in KanYe West and Just Blaze. Dame was smart enough to leave out Saigon. Jay-Z was certainly the engine that made the car go fast, but Dame was the engineer that masde sure the machine ran correct. Who was more important? It should be obvious that you need them both.

The debate surrounding Jay-Z’s latest single “We Run This Town’ is focused squarely on the fact that KanYe West with half the verses of Jay-Z put in twice the amount of work. He clearly pwned that track. KanYe deserves another verse on that song. Hopefully there is a Roc-A-Fella Def Jam remix (Jadakiss, Fab, KanYe and Jay-Z) and Jay-Z redeems himself for not blacking out the first time.

I believe that Dame Dash would not have allowed Jay-Z to leave the studio the first time with that song as it was. Dame, who is the master of motivational slick talk would have asked Jay-Z is that was all he had. Dame would have told him from the gate that KanYe just ethered him on his own shit. Dame would have asked Jay-Z if that was how he was going out from now on, as a second stringer? Whatever it would have taken to get the best out of Jay-Z is what Dame would have done.

This is why Jay-Z had to get away from Dame Dash, but he still needs someone like him in his life. The yes men will not push Jay-Z to find out if he has a next level. They are only concerned with making him feel relaxed and comfortable. Dame Dash does not relax. He doesn’t sit still. He doesn’t shut up. And Dame Dash would be the only one man enough to tell Jay-Z to his face that if he didn’t have any more good music in his mind then he should really retire.

The Jay-Z Dame Dash track record of music they created together is undeniable. The shit these dudes have done separately is wholly forgettable. Blood may be thicker than Cristal, but champagne tastes so much better.

Posted in 5000, Black Bullshit, Crappers, Ghetto Celebs, When I Reminisce..., Wig Owners | 10 Comments »

Blood In, Blood Out…

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

bloods

Remember when everyone in rap music was down with the ‘Bloods’ streetgang except Snoop. That shit drove me fucking bananas. I know all these dudes aren’t banging on other dudes [ll]. I mean, sure some of these rap dudes are banging other dudes but… I digress.

There was this little vignette in time when Lil’ Wayne, Juelz Santana, Game, Fat Joe and a few other rap stars were claiming the Blood set. Since I’m on this whole SlaughterHouse x rap vampire shit this week I thought I could keep shit popping with the ‘blood’ theme. Where has all the love in mainstream rap music gone for gang culture?

Someone in the recording industrial complex decided that rappers with a jail stint on their resume were more marketable than say, someone who managed to accomplish nothing while in his parent’s basement for the past 10 years. Even if the dude in jail ended up spending his time as a MayTag. This turned out to be a very poor marketing strategy as opposed to say, simply producing great music.

No one has more street cred than Detroit’s Trick Trick. No one will also have more unpurchased albums in the Auburn Hills BestBuy. The days of gimmicky artist programs has hopefully wound itself down in the label offices. Lyrics have returned to the top of the heap. KanYe is murdering every single feature he touches. Raekwon is going to punch everyone in the mouth and SlaughterHouse is, well, SlaughterHouse.

bloods

Just because rappers have stopped espousing the rotating prison door lifestyle doesn’t mean that we don’t have a generation of Black and Brown youth dealing with those realities on the daily because they thought that this would be the way they would a) become adults, b) develop courage and c) achieve their dream of being in the music business. Most of these kids will never know the doors that have been shut to them because they have been to jail.

Gang culture going out of style in rap music makes sense to me because rap is so much a part of American pop culture that all trends are recucled and re-sold constantly. There hasn’t been a decline in young people going to jail though. Poverty in America is still the first and foremost creator for crime and decay. The idea that kids will be joining the ranks of the Bloods and Crips less isn’t the answer.

Kids will just create a group that mirrors their values and matches whatever cartoon they are watching. Trust me on that one. The damage that was needed to be completed has been set up. See how many of your friends will come under the control of the government (state property) if they aren’t already. In the meanwhile, the youngest listeners and viewers are being visually programmed to wear their kid sister’s dungarees (no Kid Sister).

Wu-Tang NEVER told me to go to jail.

Wu-Tang is for the kids.

bloods

Posted in 5 Elements, 5000, Black Bullshit, Crappers, Fanboy Ish, Ninjas, Sneaker Fiends United, Social Upheaval, Talking Shit | 8 Comments »

Love & Loyalty…

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

bbill

The fabled stories of the Lo-Lives have been recounted in rap magazines already. Their place in rap music myth is clearly secured. When I had heard of the passing of Boostin’ Billy back in June I had to tip my cap. The Lo-Lives were one of many groups that I encountered with my youth collective back in my teenage years. Those were the days of living dangerously and Boostin’ Billy was one of the people that made the lifestyle work for him.

When I gained the contact of his surviving sister I asked her if she would talk for a few minutes on the impact that her brother made on her, his friends and his community. Aside from the urban legends and the street myths is the story of people trying to survive in the ghetto. The days weren’t promised to anyone and the youth in New York City could experience the world of abject poverty and despair in one minute and the aspirational wealth of Madison Avenue in the next instant.

I want to create a series of videos called Brother’Hood which describes the value of brotherhood and love from the people that knew these ghetto superheroes firsthand. There is a humanity that has been discounted from these brothers. They all believed in things much bigger than themselves. All of these brothers had family and community at the core of their sentiments. If their methods for displaying their community values are what you consider less than honorable then you aren’t considering what NYC was like when crack was king.

This episode is the third installment of the Brother ‘Hood series but the first one that I am broadcasting. MICHAEL CULLEY aka Boostin’ Billy deserves to be recognized as a friend, father, brother and son who put his family first and in the same breadth created an everlasting movement in the streets of New York City. Respect what it meant to be official in the 1980’s and definitely respect this man for all the people he influenced with his style and determination.

Posted in 5 Elements, 5000, D-Cepz, Fanboy Ish, Fashion Faux Pas, Ghetto Celebs, Sneaker Fiends United, T.O.N.Y., When I Reminisce..., Wig Owners | 32 Comments »

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