My swag was on a trillYONNNN this weekend thanks to my coordination skills and a key accessory gifted to me from that boy NUJEROOZ. Way before DipSet had dudes flagging their swag with scarves all the ‘Lo heads had that shit incorporated into their own lifestyles.
I was on my way into the city to peep SlaughterHouse rock this event called the ‘Brisk Bodega’. It’s a launch for the Shady Records branding of their most marketable rap act which incidentally isn’t SlaughterHouse but that kid Yelawolf.
My reception at the Brisk Bodega event was a bit chilly so I decided to link up with the homey Meyhem Lauren who was handling some Flight Club business and just happened to be in the city. Meyhem Lauren and I met up on Prince Street and Broadway which should be called Swag Central Station. This is the hypebeast natural environment and they were in full effect.
Meyhem and I spun thru the feast of San Genarro whom I believe was the Italian patron saint of sausage and peppers. This festival is fat boy heaven and we only needed Meyhem’s Albanian brother Action Bronson to complete the trio of fat dudes. The raw clams from Umberto’s were the shit.
I motivated back to the Brisk Bodega event just in time to catch Yelawolf and SlaughterHouse perform their hits. The crowd was into it and the Brisk people gave us retarded vodka or whiskey obama (open bar). People were in that piece getting throwed. Sadly, there weren’t any pork rinds or Chic-O-Stix, but the bodega design of the performance space was masterful.
After the Brisk Bodega I had a few options to access in the Village and downtown areas. There was a Nina Simone tribute and DJ Spinna was at Tammany Hall. I eschewed Manhattan for Brooklyn and a penthouse party for my man Gaberockka’s birthday.
Gaberockka is a great friend to the site and one of my earliest internets buddies from me dealing him vintage gear on the eBay system back in 2000. Gabe is big sneaker forum head and he had a gang of friends from the DMV forums drive up to NYC just to party with the kid. Gabe is quality peoples as are all of the DP.com family members.
For the afterhours closeout I kept my undefeated streak of eating alive by stopping by Shabazz Palace on Flatbush Ave for a cheddar cheesesteak. #winning
I don’t want to start a scene where none existed but let’s just say one SET from DJ Spinna >>>> ** careers ** of fucking LAUGHTERHOUSE, let alone runway white boy with bad tattoos.
I say that with slight regret, having supported Joell early (bought “Who The F#$#$” at Beat Street) and I know the dude has to eat and this is a lousy era for non-dumb rappers to do so but he’s pretty much out of chances…
… Tho’ a SERIOUS, well-conveived solo with no lousy features (like Maino on “The Brick,” his best achievement to date) wouldn’t be unwelcome, if only to prove dude really did have a spark before bad timing snuffed it.
Eff your Shady, eff your Adidas store Philly, eff your Dr Jay’s!!
I know there’s always room for reasonable heads to disagree, but simply on the basis of priorities, I don’t know why so many legit hip hop fans are so eager to take shots at Joell Ortiz. I understand those who think he’s overrated; that’s fine. But, look at the fucking contemporary hip hop scene…. how you gonna survey the landscape of hip hop in 2011 and be like, yup, Joell Ortiz is the problem here?
To me, Ortiz seems like a regular, humble dude who has paid his dues and is getting an opportunity to shine a bit (relatively speaking) and make a viable living doing something he clearly loves and respects. Is he the second coming of Pun? No, but what does that matter. There are lots of legendary hip hop artists who probably aren’t any more or less talented than Joell Ortiz. So, let the man live.
My two cents.
ortiz is dope dude can spit the only thing i didnt like or find suspect is him doing the pun is back song n claiming hes only doing it to give props to pun,, ezzz we know your interest was to get rotation on the radio while cats had done tupacs back song,, like seriously u gave pun mad props in the past we get it,, if u really wanna helps puns name live on why dont u do a few songs with his son, get his name out there if u really trying to give props u say puns name soo much its only right u try to help his sons career,,
Thanks for the love Dallas, it was great seeing you again! I hope you had fun at the party. Joell Ortiz is not the problem in hip hop today, although the forces that prevent real hip hop artists from putting out the music they want to put out, with the promotion and backing it needs, are all part of the problem, and I think Joell fell victim to that.
So Joell Ortiz was doing Pun’s Back to get spins? FOH. Then, he should do songs with his son? That’s wack, b.
I thought about going to that Brisk Bodega event but the amount of people showing up for a free event (and most of them thinking Eminem was going to be there) made me backpedal on that idea…Looks like i didn’t miss much…
btw that Cheddar cheesesteak looks serious…
i respect the bringing back of “obama”