215 Magazine reps their hometown all day, everyday. They are doing it big for the upcoming Roots Picnic @ Penn’s Landing by giving away several get-away packages to folks that put their names on their mailing list. Itsoweezee.
215 Magazine is about the culture that emanates from one of America’s oldest and greatest cities. The art, the music, the nightlife, the cuisine, and most importantly the people that come from there and spread their influence all around the globe. Occasionally the mag even features folks who aren’t from Philly but have madd love for the city of brotherly love. People like me.
My advice to you is to get in the cipher with 215 Mag and possibly win your weekend get-away tix.
I will mos def be in Philly that weekend also so maybe you won’t mind spending some QT with your homie DP.
Rub this stream of STEVIE WONDER all over your body and then tell me you don’t want to come out 2nite and celebrate life with dance?
Stevie Wonder (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950, name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris) aka Stevie Wonder
$tapleCrop$ curated this STEVIE WONDER music stream and they designed this tee featuring STEVIE’s signature and thumbprint as the graphic. I have a whole bunch to give away to the folks coming to the party tonight. Let me know your shirt size and I will have one waiting for you. Peep the designs below.
If you can’t make it to the party hit me on the e-mail with the titles of the songs in this stream and you get yourself a free shirt.
For several years this weblog has existed I have tried to explain that the essence of rap could be described by using a mathematical formula. Rap is a hyper-evolved level of communication using music, melody and mnemonic devices. This is why it is loved all across the globe. The greatest achievement of the human species is our ability to communicate on the highest level with speech. If we only had body movements and yelling we would have never have invented Twitter.
I think that the highest level of rap artistry is contained in the artists that frequently use polysyllabic words. The complex compound words can contain several meaning all at once based on the root of the word and the context it is delivered. The artist commonly considered to be the best rapper of all time was the master of injecting his rhyme speech with polysyllabic words. These phrases bent and stretched his rhymes well past the verse they were spoken in and put them into the stratosphere as some of the most used quotes spoken in the Hip-Hop culture.
The most important word to an emcee is polysyllabic – microphone.
‘Nuff said.
Eminem’s latest album ‘Relapse’ is fantastic for it’s graphic gory content. This album is part of the great history of epic entertaining horror-core productions. This album is rap’s ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’. It is horrific, disgusting, profane, satirical and brilliant all at the same time. Lyrically, I consider this to be on a classic level. If the beats by Dr. Dre were swapped out for some of the dark production of DOOM, or more appropriately RZA, this album would be a certified classic. This drop though is to discuss the lyrical eminence of Eminem. A reader stated that this album was garbage. I don’t believe that reader listened to this album or if he did his ability to judge art is negligible.
This album is the VAN GOGH of rap music. The fact that Eminem even referred to himself as VAN G adds to his lyrical prowess. The heartbroken madman who has gleefully crossed the line into insanity is vividly painted in story format as well as open form rap braggadocio. I asked the reader to offer an album that contained better lyrics than ‘Relapse’. His offering was Lil’ Wayne’s ‘The Carter II’. That should already tip you off to the fact that this reader is a da-dunn da-dunt. Lil’ Wayne’s ‘The Carter II’ is actually Wayne’s best album. As I scanned over the album looking for a track to do a cross-reference comparison to I looked for songs that had similar lengths to the unusually long tracks posted on ‘Relapse’. I decided to use the track ghost-written by Juelz Santana called Tha’ Mobb.
As a repayment for Santana’s skills on this song I believe Wayne introduced Juelz to syrup.
Wayne uses 853 words in this song. Thirty(30) are polysyllabic. The longest being promethezine clocking in a strong twelve(12) letters. The key number in all of these stats though is the percentage of polysyllabic words to the entire composition. Wayne’s final numbers were 3.5169/1000. That is the percantage of polysyllabic words his verses would contain per 1000 words. Big Daddy Kane averages about the same. Kane is loved and feared, but no one, not even Kane himself, calls him the greatest rapper alive. Hyperbole lives and his name is Lil’ Wayne.
The Eminem song I used is the comically violent 3am. This song had the same run time as Lil’ Wayne’s Tha’ Mobb (5mins 21sec). Eminem uses only 769 total words but forty-eight(48) of them are the 3+ syllable variety. The longest polysyllabic word in this murderous rap rampage was the thirteen(13) letter hallucinogens. Eminem was obviously on something extra to have the mind to craft this masterpiece. The average percentage of polysyllabic words per 1000 for Eminem is 6.2418 and approaching twice that of Lil’ Wayne. My point in all of this is to illustrate that the Relapse album is far from garbage no matter how you look at rap music. It merits your highest consideration for the lyrical content contained therein. And at the end of the day, instead of flow and swagger, shouldn’t lyrics matter most in RAP music?
BTW, Rakim Allah’s percentage on ‘Microphone Fiend’ was 7.272 and this is why we call him the G.O.A.T.
Additional background reading for those of you just tuning in to Dallas Penn…
OKayPlayer steady takes care of the kid for the HighLine Ballroom’s weekly party hosted by the Roots. I zipped in to the VIP section of the line and I got my medium access bracelet which means that I can go sit in the areas where the artists convene and politic. Truck North holler at me homey. I’m trying to get out to Philly next weekend.
Shouts to my homey CHRIS from Philly who held me down with that WBW. I seen my dude BRADEN up in that piece too and I know he be holding that stankness. There are some official bone gristle kids that make it to the show on the weekly coming from parts all over. I also need to big up your boy Notes From A Different Kitchen who was walking down the block holding his little lady’s hand talking mad loud about the music game.
The Jam Session was another high level exercise in musicality. JAMES POYSER has been particularly great for the last few weeks and I think that is also due to having worked so closely with the performers like JAGUAR WRIGHT, LADY ALMA and Floetry’s MARCIA AMBROSIUS. The keyboards have been religiously rigorous in keeping the atmosphere something like a church revival. Last night’s set was time for the lady’s to shine and they absolutely did. You never know what you are going to get at the Jam Sessions but it sure enough gots to be fonky.
Black Thought as usual pays an inordinate amount of homage to Kool G Rap. Not that G Rap isn’t a pioneer that deserves high acclaim (as is Thought). But at this point I wish that Kool G Rap would just show up for one of these Jam Sessions and return the love. Hopefully G Rap will make the trip from Phoenix one day soon and fall thru the Roots Jam Sessions @ Highline Ballroom.
