There has been a lot of internets press around the closure of Vibe magazine. It’s as though we are seeing some institution shutter their doors. This was far from Lehman Bros. but people are talking so I thought I should add my thoughts to the discussion. Vibe magazine was pretty though. I remember when this young chick in the neighborhood had Lupus and she punched out. Vibe wasn’t like that. Vibe was more like the pretty chick who gave head to everyone and then got hit by the Q66 on Northern Blvd. chasing down a trick. That is more like Vibe’s epitaph.
I wonder why other publications don’t throw themselves out the window like Vibe did, but then I realize that other mags have a totally different direction. They recognize trands but don’t try to court them irresponsibly. When I look at a magazine like Jet I see that it is 180 degrees from the direction that Vibe was pointing. If there was ever a magazine that could kill themselves because the business model was no longer viable it would be Jet. I used to love the Jet centerfold but those features are corny and dated by today’s standards that describe women with only a string of material running up their behinds.
Jet photoshoots mean that even the sultry celebrity chanteuse will have some underwear on. Jet has never tried to appeal to the popular shock market shlock. And why not? Publisher’s dignity I suppose. I can’t really call it. All I know is that I promised myself to never again pick up a Vibe to read when they published that cover of a naked KEYSHIA COLE. It wasn’t shocking to me. It was wrong and gratuitous. It was like watching B.E.T. in 2009 and all the performers were Black people wearing Blackface. I saw KEYSHIA in a studio surrounded and naked. I could hear the publisher of Vibe laughing at me.
So maybe the Vibe cover doesn’t say those things to you. Maybe I’m a bit sensitive too. A lot of folks have defended the Vibe covers of COLE and CIARA as simply being artistic and provocative. I wonder why Jet didn’t take the provocative artistic role with KEYSHIA COLE when they had their cover story with her. They managed to still find a vintage look for her without disrobing her and frying her hair blonde. Maybe this why Vibe had to die? When you make a mockery of the artists that you are entrusted to be the caretaker for then you aren’t needed in this industry any longer.
Two days after Rock The Bells and my homegirl from Complex is STILL talking about Tahiry’s ass.
Yes, Tahiry is fine. But Ice-T was also there with his model wife and she was dressed borderline inappropriate as she always is whenever she goes out in public.
CoCo is still the G.O.A.T. rapper wife in my opinion. Until rappers start stripping their wives nekkid onstage in front of a bunch of men that last smelled pussy at childbirth CoCo holds down the slot. At a Body Count show I watched Ice-T rip CoCo’s top off, throw her to the ground and simulate oral sex and anal rape with her. How fucking awesome is that? So much so that I paid to go to the show the following day.
Tahiry is definitely in the number two slot even though she doesn’t have the years on the strip that some of these other ladies have. Remember when Buffie the Body was able to charge people a premium just for her to walk through a party? Those were good times. I remember the days when the chicks that gave the super head were all writers for Black Beat.
Nowadays the asses are more manageable. Maybe this is another effect of the recession. Damn you Bernard Madoff! Since y’all dudes don’t give an eff about these Rock The Bells photos how about some exclusive shit from SlaughterHouse that premiered at the 1st Annual Bring Your Own Blogger BBQ?
SlaughterHouse calls this joint ‘Cuckoo’ and after you hear their verses you’ll know why.
Here’s a random DP thought otherwise known as a TWit. Maybe Rock The Bells should go to Palestine and help those people work out their issues.
I’ve been on a mean grind lately internets. I’m getting too old to still be doing this shit. I’ve got to decide if I quit this shit and go back to managing construction projects as a religion instead of only as vocation. The Rock The Bells concert is as good as anyplace you might want to start.
The Rock The Bells concert is rap music’s Woodstock. The rappers here are working their asses off. All those long hours in the studio are for this afternoon event. Everyone shows out too. I see rappers jumping around on stage and even doing backspins. Is there still a space in rap music for the dancers? I meant breakers? Answer that later.
There are so many people to cut a check for at this event. The talent (natch) but there are tons of folk that put this whole shit together who need, ne, deserve some extra payment. How about the police? They were called in to make sure that Black males kept their hands off one another. I’m starting to think that one of you rap phags might be the ghey rapper. Not you Pierzy. All these OTHER niggas. Memo to rap phags: Keep your hands off one another.
Anyhoo…
So I got to go to the Rock The Bells concert for their New York City leg. I wish XXL had sent me in with some press credentials (no shots). Instead it was my homegirl from Complex mag hooking me up with her extra swag. No press credentials meant that I got my dSLR camera with the monster zoom confiscated by the undercover cops, er, event security personnel. *FUGAZI!!!* Where were these cops when planes in Boston were being hijacked with plastic cutlery?
Now that I have been stripped of my hi-def dSLR camera I switched up to me low-def snapshot digital joint (as Popeye might say). Boo-Yah! The pics aren’t the greatest but they never are with me. Study the movement of the subjects. Don’t forget that the second half of the word Hip-Hop is for you to move your body to. Don’t just hop though. Because that would be corny. Eli Porter does that.
Here’s what I think would be fun. Let’s take a lot at some of my pics from the day…
High heels were definitely in the building. That’s actually some pics of rappers feet though.
My favorite throwback jersey is the white wearing the 40 Acres and A Mule joint. You know shit is in a recession when white starts taking back our 40 Acres and A Mule. LOL!
More LULz went out to this, er, “wardrobe malfunction”.
Here are some random crowd shots. White Boy Weed was definitely in the building as it should be. That’s the homey from Complex mag Young Sue. Asian folks get it in for Hip-Hop culture worldwide. Sue is from Paris. By way of San Francisco. Yeah, I know the cliche.
There was a good number of Black people at the event which is strange for outdoor shows. I’m sure half of them were comped. Snowflake swirl was also in the building heavy. Rock The Bells concerts might be the only place that no one looks twice at inter-racial couples. FTW.
The Buckshot KRS-1 Duck Down (Ruck Down) set was dope. Buckshot had the flow and the energy while up on stage. Masta Ace came through and so did the Kidz In The Hall band.
Sometimes I forget that Double-O is an entertainer because I see him out and about so much. One day he will be too huge to connect with the folks on my side of the gate, but until then I fux with dude [ll].
KRS-1 remains possibly the single greatest influential icon still performing to this day. So many emcees should say that they are from his DNA. Rappers? Not so much. KRS-1 is quick to point out the truism that emcee >>> rapper, and Hip-Hop isn’t just rap. Peep how shorty standing behind the promo poster gets scared when KRS-1 speaks. She might need to duck down.
The Paid Dues stage was where they had sequestered the Brooklyn boom bap contingent. The god Primo was on stage with the Mash Out Posse and finally we see people outside of the rap nerd fanbase giving Premier his justified legendary props. Shouts to whoever it was from M.O.P.’s entourage that brought his pitbull to the show. You can take these fools out the ‘hood but you can’t take the ‘hood out these fools.
You know the moment we are all waiting for was the entrance of SlaughterHouse. This is the buzz in rap right now. Everyone has heard the tracks but how they perform as a group is the one thing I thought that needed to improve upon since I first saw them together in February for Joe Budden’s release party.
SlaughterHouse was exciting and they were nimble on stage. They weren’t stepping on each other’s toes this time. Each member let their brother get time to shine.
SlaughterHouse is biggtime now. They even have the requisite rap music rockerchick to sing the hook for their smash single ‘The One’.
There was a minor scuffle during the SlaughterHouse Wu-Tang reconciliation moment. I didn’t get to catch any of that since I didn’t have any access to the backstage areas. I’m sure those pics and video will be somewhere on the internets. The bonus for me was seeing the famous Tahiry in person. She is a beautiful chick, but as rap wives go CoCo > Tahiry for the simple fact that Ice-T strips her naked at Body Count shows. If Budden starts doing that to Tahiry I may have to change my opinion.
“You mad that your ass ain’t famous? Too bad that your ass ain’t famous” – Nickel Nine
All in all the Rock The Bells concert was the best show you will see this summer. The NaS Damien Marley set was where the final exclamation point was delivered to the crowd. ‘One Love’ is the flag that Hip-Hop needs to fly.
Shouts to Dre from Nah’Right, MikeWaxx from illRoots, Homeboy Sandman, Joe Scudda, Statik Selektah, Double-O, DJ Premier, Billy Danze, Lil’ Fame, Joe Budden, Royce da 5’9″, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz and my homegirl @sooeypooey.
Hit her up on the Twitter if you ain’t an asshole.
You might have heard about the little party that Combat Jack and I threw for the internets. We gave the party for Nah’Right. Not JUST eskay, but for the community that he has created. The same goes for OKayPlayer.com and everything that site has done for Hip-Hop and the culture since it came online over 10 years ago. On terrestrial radio MINYA OH gives information on real world celebrities and their trials and tribulations, but to the online community Miss Info is an internets celebrity.
These were some of the folks that we wanted to salute for the 1st Annual Bring Your Own Blogger BBQ, but mostly we wanted to big up you, the internets. The people that use inter-connected networks to exchange news, views and information. Y’all are the internets. If you have a Facebook, a MySpace page, a Twitter account, an AIM screenname or anything that floats on the worldwide you have an inter-connected network. And if you have access to two or more inter-connected networks you are now an INTERNETS.
The BBQ was for the people who weren’t scared of the ‘S’ on the end. They aren’t scared to use it. They embrace it. The are the folks from the future that we are talking too. And they all brought us the most valuable thing they had to give. Their time. Folks could have been ANYWHERE else in Brooklyn, fuck it, the world for that matter. But the internets came through a little radio station in Brooklyn and spent time with us for a few hours. That was big. In my mind time is money. So because I consider myself to be very valuable so is my time. And since I fux with you internets you should feel the same way about yourself.
With that premise we jumped out the window with the BBQ plan. We knew who we were, the internets, but we didn’t know where we would get down with it. Combat Jack went into his Blackberry rolodex and started hollering at fellow online personalities who talk about the importance of inter-connected networks. At each turn we were stymied and stifled by sponsors. Mountain Dew DID NOT EVEN have a 6-pack of cans for this event. I would have turned them down tho’ since the event was called BYO-B, not C.
I thought I might have some free bottle of liquor to help the spaceship take off properly since my dad’s old company is based here in NYC and I have seen them giving free shit to Jeff Staple and LRG. Those folks aren’t internets like we are so my sponsor request was denied on Friday at midnight.
to: dallas.penn@gmail.com
date: Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 11:35 PM
subject: Re: BYOBlogger BBQ
Dallas, I was unable to provide a sponsorship or donation through my suppliers. It has to fall under a charity with a 501 3C.
————————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
This meant that I had to go to the ATM and withdraw $500 to get people nice and smoothed out. If my phone is shut off this week don’t sweat it because I will back on by Friday the 31st (payday). I opted not to buy the cheapest shit I could find because that would surely not look good on our record in the future. I went in with Bacardi Gold, Limon and this new Dragonberry shit. Dragonberry for the motherfucking win. I pulled in Svedka vodka on the co-sign of RYAN HOBBS. He is one of the Go-In Brothers who threw a rooftop party last year on Bedford Avenue that popped hardbody.
I mixed up two separate punches and created back up bottles so that the juice containers could simply be refilled when they were tapped. My punch mixes are not for the amatuers in the game. You need to drive slow when I am in the building or else ypu might find your car swerved on the side of the road. More on that later. If you are doing a bar-b-cue and you don’t invite me that is fine, but if you don’t use my punch recipes you are losing. Don’t be a loser…
DP Rum Punch
Arizona Fruit Punch and Mucho Mango. Apple & Eve organic peach mango juice. Bacardi. And more Bacardi. The Dragonberry Bacardi is dangerous. You will never see it coming, but it will get you. And then you will be caught out there.
Arnold Palmer On Acid
Apple & Eve organic lemonade (What’s with the organic beverages?!? I see you Combat Jack.), Snapple lemon iced tea. Schweppes ginger ale. Svedka vodka. This was the HGH punch for the day. I’m doing this one again with a premium vodka and ginger beer.
Now the party wasn’t ready to fly off yet because the grill wasn’t fired up, but that was in the capable and sturdy hands of 40 Diesel who did some hood star Emeril shit and was giving people meat like it wasn’t nothing. Fools were eating and drinking and talking mad shit. It was going down party people, but I was missing the most important element. I needed some music to give the crowd the vibe that would take us all the way to 1am. That was supplied by my G from forever and the most flamboyant producer, GudTyme. Guds has been on tour with groups like the X-Ecutioners and the homey Rob Swift. Without Guds jumping in the projet from the very beginning we would not have had the momentum we needed to get to the finish line. No Guds = no J.Period. Guds made the music happen. We had liquor, food and music. Now all we needed was the internets. And then just like that here they came…
I can’t remember in my mind’s eye everyone who came through the BBQ. There were sooo many talented people inside of that piece. Creators, and consequently consumers. We all buy each other’s shit, good and bad. We are each other’s customers. I was hell’a philosophical that night. Maybe it was the sunset over Manhattan’s tremendous skyline. Maybe it was realizing that all the sleepless nights I spend in the lab putting posts on DP.com and other sites has allowed me the access to speak with people who are literally my heroes. We are all creating the life we imagine for ourselves by sharing our talents AND our information. Can you imagine how powerful the internets could be if everyone lived like this?
A special shout goes out to the internets that swerved off the road. This dude enjoyed the party like none of the rest of us did. Combat Jack said that is was the rum punch. I think that 40 Diesel maybe put something extra on the grill. Whatever it was cousin was done in lovely. I admired dude for enjoying himself that much. If I can make some call Earl at the end of the night and not during the party then I have done my job. For your information, this brother was taken home but not just one, but TWO pretty young ladies. Earl FTW.
I need some time to soak up this entire weekend, from losing my bank card and liquor sponsors on Friday to the epic BBQ, to a historic day at Jones Beach for Rock The Bells, to now walking out the door to my day job @ 730am this morning. I’ll get back on the internets with you some time later. In the meantime and in between time enjoy some of these links that are featuring the 1st Annual BYOB BBQ…
Rule 4,080’s Joey2Fresh hung out all day and caught the day and night scenes of the BBQ
