Archive for December, 2008

SO LEGENDARY…

Friday, December 19th, 2008

black thought

I have seen the Roots perform one million times now. From Tramps, to Wetlands, to S.O.B.’s, to the Apollo Theater, to the top of the fucking world in musical entertainment, Radio City Music Hall and never have I been disappointed. If anything they never play long enough. I could swear they did a six hour set for the Spitkicker concert series at Roseland Ballroom. About ten thousand rappers came onstage that night and spit they shit. Black Thought held all them dudes down too.

How can you fuck with a man who has every single rapper’s catalog in his head? There is some obscure underground emcee from Seattle, Washington who put out a white label joint in 1996 during the backpack rap heyday and the only other person who knows that LP line for line is Black Thought. Plus, just take a second and step back and ask yourself who has the most hardbody emcee name. Seriously think about that. If you had a super-power would you want to be the Hulk, or Professor X? That is who Black Thought is in this rap shit. He is the Charles Xavier to all these other Toad ass ninjas.

black thought

Alright so here’s how it went down. I came home from Wednesday night’s activities and uploaded the video footage from Niketown as well as Pete from Premium Laces birthday party. I got an e-mail from the homey at Okayplayer asking me if I had RSVP’d already to the holiday party. I hadn’t because I didn’t think I was going to go. The Okayplayer holiday party was sandwiched in between two nights of NYC madness. Later tonight is the Block Royal holiday party at their studios and then the Knitting Factory will host their final Hip-Hop show before shuttering their doors for good. This will be a classic evening.

I knew that if I fucked with this Okayplayer joint then I had to holler at my man fifty grand RUFFIAN. Ever since homey and I politicked a few years ago I have been fuxing with dude. Homey is from Chi-Town and he is a real nigga out in these entertainment industry streets. I made a 2009 resolution tonight to get more h8ters with RUFFIAN. Fam is that real (no Rosenthal). RUFFIAN hit me on the hip that he had the Brook’nam obama for us to get our weight up pre-game style before going in to see the Roots tear shit up.

black thought

MISSBEHAVE mag had a hipster bar onsmash in Williamsburg with the crazy special rum and Coke (no Dwight Gooden’s white pudding). As is my custom I was using both my hands to ferry drinks from the bar to where we were posted up. Another part of the ‘Go In’ Brothers crew was up in that piece. CHAD MILLER is the man and he only knows ladies in between the ages of 22 and 24 yrs old. As soon as you turn 25 he deletes your telephone number from his Blackberry. Did I tell you that JEN HODO was rolling with us too? Yeah, we were getting twisted up lovely on MISSBEHAVE’s dime. Pre-gaming is essential if your main party is having a cash bar. BTW, I also hit up the liquor store beforehand for two(2) 50ml bottles of Hennessy to smuggle into the club.

But this drop is not about me smuggling liquor into the club or getting my mind rizzight on some of that W.B. Last night was about enjoying the legendary Roots crew featuring Black Thought, single-handedly the number one emcee on the planet. There is no one out there putting in as much work as Black Thought night in night out for over the last decade. No one. I have to say that some rappers are lucky they are deceased because they would get murdered on the microphone by Black Thought. Bilal also murdered the microphone. If you put Bilal and Black Thought on a track with auto-tune the game would be over. After watching Bilal and Black Thought tonight I hate every fucking song on my 500GB external hard drive.

So classic, so timeless, so legendary.

black thought

Get Out Of My Dreams Burger King!

Friday, December 19th, 2008

the king

Burger King has developed a meat scented cologne [ll].

This is way better than KKKramer’s ‘The beach’ perfume.

The Revolution Will Be Advertised…

Friday, December 19th, 2008

just do it

(c) Rafi Kam

The image is of a young man during the recent uprising in Athens.

NIKE could not have photoshopped this picture any better.

Revolution? Just do it.

The Rise Of The Red-Shirted Freshmen…

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

donny goines

The X-spot is going hard with their story about the Freshmen 10 of 2008. I ain’t even gonna lie when I tell you that 10 motherfuckers trying to come up at once is too much. Some of the dudes that read this might feel some kind of way like Tupac stans always catch feelings but the truth is that the music industry in regards to rap dudes just can’t support 10 new stars. The machinery, and more importantly the fanbase needs to allow some of these acts some more time to get their artistic weight up.

To use a sports metaphor, some of these rappers need to be red-shirted. I say this because there are some artists whose gifts are wasted in this climate of now-now-yesterday. It forces artists to churn out work to fast and it also makes their work less valuable in the eyes of consumers. Why should I listen to some rapper’s latest track if he is gonna do another one next week, or even tomorrow? I’m not tryinf to be the dude that holds people back from their dreams in as much as I want dudes to realize their potential.

It’s hard to tell people to let their shit marinate because tomorrow is granted to none of us. At the same time if we don’t plan for tomorrow we won’t be prepared when that new day comes, and trust me, the new day is coming. I created this drop with a few particular artists in mind. These dudes are on the cusp of something special for themselves and I think they all will present something unique to rap and hip-hop culture. They aren’t part of the XXL 2008 freshmen 10 but I think you will hear from them hardbody in 2009.

Donny Goines – Right now, Donny Goines might be the hardest working dude in rap music. He has leveraged his persistence on the internets with a debut album. This is no small achievement since the majority of the freshmen 10 are loaded with mixtape credibility but without completed albums. The CD is called ‘Minute After Midnight‘ and it features production from some reliable beatmakers as well as up and coming producers (who hopefully won’t become rappers). My favorite track on the album is called ‘I Am Moving’ and it was produced by Dame Grease.

Another cat I fuck with who is connected with Donny Goines is Panama a.k.a. The Spanish Kid. He was formerly on ‘The Wire’ as the dude who used to wear Bubbles ass out [ll]. In a few years Panama will be one of the “Raptors” that we all talk about. The good thing is that he respects the craft of rhyming and he wants to be viewed as an official MC. He also has the work ethic that will take him far. These dudes didn’t make the cover of XXL’s 2008 freshmen 10, but just like a blue chip prospect in college football they are getting red-shirted so that their career will be even longer.

PARTY MONSTER!

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

niketown

Here’s all you need to know about me… I would rather nerd out than freak out. I have done both. Nerding out is more rewarding for me and less embarrassing, which is a reward in itself. Nerding out is comfortable and calm, even when the scene appears chaotic.

I left my day job too late to do everything on my “Wednesday is the new Fr’aturday” list. No Vibe Mag JAMIE FOXX party and no beer pong with B Real from Cypress Hills. I need to apologize to NoHa from DuckDown for holding me down on that joint. Yo Noha, the next event you have (preferably with Sean P or Kidz-N-The Hall) is all me fam.

I did make it to Niketown for their Playmakers holiday event. The party was hosted by Miss Info who is always on some fresh to def shit. I peeped the 18k gold cap she had on her pre-molar tooth. That shit is so classic ‘hood that 99% of the people don’t even know what they are looking at. I know though, because I am an old motherfucker. I’m just thankful that these young kids on the scene fucks with me.

niketown

The kids still fucks with Clark Kent too and that is because he has more kicks than they will ever own. Clark gives away more sneakers than they will ever own. I fucks with Clark too even though he can be a little like Ernie P sometimes when he is discussing some shit he doesn’t fucks with too tough. Clark don’t like these blogs too much and I can’t blame him since most bloggers never come up from their parent’s basements.

I came up from my parent’s basement though and I hung the fuck out. Peace to 40 Diesel from Mighty Healthy. Peace to Joey2fresh who was taking pictures all over the place. Shout to the homey J-Rod as well as DJ Ko who goes in to all the fly shit. Do y’all want some more? Okayplayer holiday party 2nite featuring the Roots and friends.

Challah for Chanukah and the Challadays bitches.