Living in New York City you have to be rich as hell just to be poor. Anywhere else people would feed you handpicked grapes and cool your brow with giant feather fans. Not in this glam capital. What was once the grittiest city is on the level of Tokyo or Paris when you consider how far your dollar goes.
Unlike Tokyo or even Paris tho’ is the fact that NYC has culture oozing from the cracks in the sidewalks. No time is this more evident than during the summer. This is when the museums and parks will be packed to the racks. Of all the events that go down in the city’s summer season nothing is better than the Central Park Summerstage.
Celebrating it’s 25th year in operation, the Central Park Summerstage is a concert series that features major artists along with up and coming talent. Best of all… It’s free. Yes, FREE.99! This year boast one of their most impressive Hip-Hop lineups evar. Jay Electronica, Public Enemy, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, Pharoahe Monch, Doug E. Fresh, Brand Nubian and so many more artists are on the schedule.
The Central Park Summerstage will also host the reunion of Living Colour. If you are real then you will recognize real and acknowledge the greatness of this rock band. Gil Scott-Heron is on the schedule with two(2) dates as well. My advice to you is pretty simple… Go to the City Parks Foundation Central Park Summstage website to check the full season schedule and plan your summer around these free shows.
I chopped it up with this brother Lex at the Roc Marci instore yesterday. He was a cool brother and he fux with DP.com in a major way [ll]. He told me he was an artist so I asked him to send me a couple of joints that he wanted to let people hear.
Good follow thru from the dude Lex. Tracks are by a cat named Polarity. The music comes from Australia by way of Melbourne. Unkut stand the fux up! From Queens to Oz and back again.
Editor’s note: We are lucky to have readers who are proactive in their love for art. A reader hit me up and asked why I didn’t have a drop on this or that. I told the reader that it wasn’t because I didn’t fux with this or that, but because I didn’t have time to fux with this or that, but if he would take a minute to draft a drop I would certainly put it on the table for discussion. This is T-412 giving us a drop on Lupe Fiasco (I’ve been holding this image for a couple of years). Enjoy…
They say my future was dark…
So they say, but I say Lupe Fiasco just made one of my favorite new jams. A week ago he dropped his new single I’m Beaming. This record is representing Lupe’s third album Lasers. This is one of those jams that can get instant replay value for a few reasons. The one most important thing is the single was made for everyone to enjoy. Lupe shows he can spit three verses with nice content. The Neptunes come in with a monster beat and definitely raise the bar to higher standards. Not to mention, this is my wake n bake ishh right here ladies (start your mornings right people.). Watch the video, it was made by Illusive Media. It features help from a bunch of little kids running around all crazy/acting. Besides that, Shouts to DP for letting me share this with you, Lupe’s making hit records and someone had to show love.
Do you remember me the guy from verse one?
This video is pushing positive out energy and it reflects. Try playing it and not start dancing or start singing along to the hook. To say the least its refreshing to have lyrical content match the production, and to be released as a single? This what most artists cant do yet strive to with great pressure from recording companies, rushing your favorite artists with deadlines, dates, forced R n’ B collabos and the results ending not up to par(no names). 1st and 15th is an independent label and you can taste the organic roots.
Yeah its me again the guy from verse two.
Doesn’t it feel great to have refreshing music? With actual content with lyrical wordplay to boot. I had to pull a few lines out. Back to the lyrics, you gotta really listen to the content within, shit is real. One of the many examples of Lupe going in on I’m Beaming.
“Now those the type of eyes, I not cry from
You see the tears of fire run out my cryin’ songs.”
Example of Lupe going in from the heart. ^ These two quotes, (above and below) they reminded me of similar songs by two great artists can you guess who??
“And baby girl, what does it matter where your purse from?
Your hurr done, your nails did, your ass fat, but you’re dumb.”
Does going against the grain work on this one?? What about that Gucci, Louie, Fendi?? Addressing the ladies in an uplifting attempt to see past material items… Nice!
I hope I’m not getting to deep into this, but at times its hard not to just let the imagination run wild. This is what separates the good from great. See with the help from The Neptunes, Lupe was able to paint those vivid pictures that we all hope to get from inspiring artists. Not only pictures but real pictures with emotion/feeling behind it. You can tell Lupe uses his music as way to vent somewhat therapeutically. AKA Getting some things off his chest. Ill let your imagination take you to where you want to go. So take it at face value or dig deep its still sweet.
See me now, I’m beaming…
Still, with all that being said. Lupe hasn’t released an album since ‘The Cool’ in 2007. There is no question Lupe’s wordplay continues to get better with every release. In time I believe he will still be doing his craft with great passion and will no doubt be a huge part of Hip-Hop’s future. This will show greatly in the next few years. Shit, he’s even your favorite rappers’, favorite rapper. Check the first LP. There are all green lights in Lupe’s lane. With our attention now, three years later and timing might be everything.
I popped a tag on a pair of Air max hybrids I had been keeping in the deadstock archive. Nothing too crazy, but oh so crispy.
The Air Max 90×360 ‘Skulls’ pack is a dope shoe. The green joints I had in effect from the gate. I copped them at CitySports on some buy one at full price and get the second half off type arrangement. They had been reduced to $120 also so I wasn’t jumping out a window either with both pairs coming to me under 2 yards.
The 3M panel is unquestionably the rub for these joints. At night it just pops off like it’s nobody’s business. During the daytime it’s the premium suede that gives these shoes their grown man swagger. Rock these joints with khakis or jeans and you are winning.
The Roots annual picnic is going down in Phillytown again during the first weekend in June. Along with the hardest working band of all time and the Money Makin’ Jamboyz on stage this year’s event will also host rap retro-futurists Das Racist.
Along with those acts the lineup for the show is stacked: performances from Mayer Hawthorne, The Clipse, The Very Best, Tune-Yards, Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew, Pattern is Movement, a special set with DJ Jazzy Jeff and Vampire Weekend headlining.
Last year’s picnic brought in Public Enemy to perform their greatest hits while the Roots crew held them down. The chatter is that this year’s picnic will look to be just as epic with some surprise guests on tap. You need to run, walk, drive, hop a bus or take a plane to Philly for this event.
The best part is that you could end up going to Philadelphia for free courtesy of the Philly 360° Roots Picnic Getaway Contest. Here’s what you get str8 laced with…
Two night stay at the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing for the nights of June 4-6, 2010
Two roundtrip tickets on Amtrak Northeast Regional
Two tickets to The Roots Picnic + entry to VIP media area
$100 Garces Restaurant Group gift certificate
Philly 360° gift basket featuring items from local boutiques
Just click on the tab in the sidebar to enter yourself in the contest.
All of you winners need to holler at the kid so we can hang out at the show.
