That Ol' New York RAP

Second Place

2008-09-19T14:37:00.003-05:00

They're called Supreeme. They're from Altanta. They're giving this album away for free. Their new one, Gold Medallion, is gonna come out on Warner Brothers.

http://supreeme.com/silver/silvermedallion.zip

NaS Vs. NYOIL

2008-06-11T13:20:00.001-05:00

Time Machine

2008-06-07T19:19:00.000-05:00

Nas

2008-05-30T17:40:00.002-05:00

I could care less what he calls his album.
I'm still going to listen to it.
It's still gonna be at least half-dope
it's still NOT gonna be Illmatic so everyone's going to grumble about it
and he's still going to be thought-provoking and brooding and contradictory and weird
and then, every now and then, drop little glimmers of brilliance.

NaS - N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave and The Master)

Fresh Daily - Colors

2008-05-30T17:30:00.003-05:00

Fresh Daily - Colors

Camu Tao R.I.P

2008-05-27T09:52:00.002-05:00

Camo Tao a/K/a Tero Smith, June 6, 1977 – May 25, 2008
died Sunday after a two-year battle with lung cancer

EL-P's Blog

Central Services - I Work For The Government Now

It's the 'I don't give a fuck' in me: it's stuck in me

2008-05-21T09:27:00.005-05:00

Tone Tank, half of rap duo Iller Than Theirs has released a dope free EP (a freEP?) with this awesome Knucklehead guy on the cover.

The concept is hardcore and punk breaks made into beats and rapped over. Production by Doc Strange, J. Howells Werthman, and Scott Thorough. Although I don't know who did what beats. The whole thing is a banger though.

Download: Tone Tank: The Black Six Sessions (EP)(.ZIP file)

Workin' It

2008-04-25T11:41:00.001-05:00

New Del

Tonight

2008-04-15T08:33:00.005-05:00

Catch Old Money at R Bar on Bowery.

If you like songs about hair cuts then this one is for you. These kids have both good style and a good sense of humor.

here's the z-share:
Old Money - Steve Harvey

Hey ! (The sequel)

2008-04-15T07:45:00.003-05:00

Junk Science has teamed up with The Boys and Girls Club to release this sequal to "Hey!" off their recent disc "Gran'dad's Nerve Tonic". The two groups styles combine to form this catchy pop space rap song.

In my mind this song reminds me of the eighties in some imagined abandoned russian space capsule inside of which are posters for Duran Duran and RUN DMC, empty cans of tab, a rubix cube, back issues of MAD Magazine, and Max Headroom delivering the "Hal" monologue from "2001: A Space Oddesy" to a group of test monkeys.

Too vivid?

Here's the Z-Share:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/104976186118eadc/

The Petting Zoo

2008-04-04T12:23:00.002-05:00

So this producer from the UK named Bullion mashed up Beach Boys songs with J. Dilla shit and made a dope beat tape.

I'm sure a lot of you internet people saw in it on the internet.

So then StarPower from The Dugout raps over the whole thing and turns it into this dope rap tape.

And I've been listening to it alot.

Here's the Z-Share:

http://www.zshare.net/download/755142891f6b3e

Enjoy

I'm sorry

2007-12-12T16:53:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry.
I know the song is catchy.
But Donny Hathaway is not going to help anybody with their drug and alcohol problem.
No amount of soul music is going to get that monkey off your back.
Everyone's all dancing around going "No, No, No" like it's all good. I mean: this woman obviously has a problem. And staying at home with Ray Charles doesn't seem to be helping the situation.
I know her willful defiance sung in that other-worldly soul-filled voice of hers really gets you in the mood to party - but as you're getting your swerve on - This poor woman is running around the streets with her shirt off all drug-addled and crazy-eyed.
Getting her picture all in the Daily News.
We all need to stop encouraging her destructive behavior.

So maybe the next time "They" try and make her go to rehab she will be like: "yes, I think maybe I have a problem. I want to get better."

Amy Winehouse: Love is a losing Game (Truth and Soul Remix)

Zombie Rap

2007-12-04T12:12:00.000-05:00

This video is dope.
You should check it out.
Even those of you who don't like Aesop Rock - you should give him another chance.
He's actually a really dope rapper even when you don't know what he's talking about.
Plus old Lo-Fi Zombie movies have an aesthetic that will never get old for me.

-Grunt

Give Me Back My Month Long unlimited Metro-card I get from my job!

2007-11-30T15:06:00.000-05:00

The best Hip Hop break-up song since Looking at the front door (honorable mention to "The F-word" by Cannibal Ox and mad Atmosphere songs).

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings w/ Cool Calm Pete: Stranded In Your Love (Cool Calm Pete Sweet Nothing Mix)

Everytime I think I'm out they pull me back in in

2007-11-28T18:28:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time I shouldn'ta left ya yada yada yada Rakim Something something hip hop journalism blah blah blah.

Bottom line I don't really care about the Internet - it is not real life and I am going to treat it accordingly.

That being said....

Let me send a super fat shout out to all the people who sent me an email or a myspace urging me to continue posting songs up here.

I think it's fresh that anybody even cares to listen
Blogs are the new Pirate Radio

Here's a grip of Mp3's I had in My Inbox:

Cool Calm Pete: Fight Song (Remix)

Mercury: Gap Toof Smile

Lu...Rreals feat. Cool Calm Pete: Utmost (J. Howells Remix)

Iller Than Theirs: Girl Song (Scott Thorough Remix)

-GRUNT

Coffee & Cigarettes...

2007-10-18T12:29:00.000-05:00

Iller Than Theirs - Razor Bumps

2007-10-04T23:51:00.000-05:00

This is pretty dope

Old People & Rap Music

2007-08-17T09:08:00.000-05:00

Old Hip Hoppers love to name drop Public Enemy.
They go: "When we were coming up we had groups like....PUBLIC ENEMY"
and they put all this emphasis on the shit when they say it like: "PUBLIC ENEMY"

But a lot of these old hip hoppers now hold high paying jobs in television, radio, magazines, etc. and I call bullshit on all of them.
They are complicit in creating an environment where ignorance is chic and intelligence is old hat. They are like most old people they get old and they get cynical and selfish and they're like: "I gotta pay bills. I gotta live in the real world. I gotta do what I gotta go to get paid."

Then they sit around and talk about the "good ole days" an how these kids today don't understand.
I'm like: "motherfucker, you killed the good old days. Straight murdered the good old days. You help sell little kids snowman tee-shirts and franchise boys ringtones"

Well P.E. is still around. and this new shit they got is undeniably hot. and Chuck is going hard on it. and fuck all you VH-1 working ex-hip hop generation aging cynics.

Their new album is out now and is called: "HOW YOU SELL SOUL TO A SOULLESS PEOPLE WHO SOLD THEIR SOUL???"

good question
I don't know

Public Enemy: Harder Than You Think

Film Class

2007-08-16T10:58:00.000-05:00

Today's artist is Jay Electronica. He's from New Orleans. He's the first artist signed to Erykah Badu's new label. And he's got a really healthy Buzz floating around.

And while I don't know how I feel about starting off a piece of music with celebrity endorsements, (he's got Just Blaze & Erykah on the intro talking him up for like 10 minutes at the beginning), I got to say: When he finally starts rapping - he caught my attention immediately. and the verses keep getting more and more interesting.

It leaves you with a sense that this is a person who could really make something really new and dope.

Peep it for yourself and let me know what ya'll think:

Jay Electronica: Act one: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

it's 15 minutes long. But it's worth it

HEY!

2007-08-12T23:09:00.000-05:00

Good Morning ya'll.
I got some new Junk Science.

From their new album "Gran'dad's Nerve Tonic" due out in October on Embedded/Def Jux.

At first, this song is seemingly a dance song about sitting around your crib in your underwear. But then the second verse is about some kind of weird scientist pushing buttons on a unidentified machine.

All this has me extremely amped for the full new full length.
According to their press release they will also be producing a beer with Six Point Craft Ales in conjunction with the albums release. Which is a very dope little marketing thing.

Please send me free beer.

Check it out

Junk Science: Hey! (feat. Scott Thorough)

Get The Light Feet Going

2007-07-25T12:05:00.000-05:00

The Project get the light feet going. Their album "The Truth Today" is set to drop at the end of September on Glow in the Dark Records.

This is the first single "The Light Feet"
This proves what New York has always known. You can make the people dance and be a real MC at the same time.
and It's dope.
enjoy.

Uptown baby!

-Grunt

Big hand, little man

2007-07-16T11:14:00.000-05:00

Today's act is a young man from queens by the name of Despot
He recently signed to alt-rap powerhouse Definitive Jux
His tumbling fluid poetics remind me slightly of a young Breeze Bruin
His bio lists him as "a loyal and upstanding member of the infamous Lo-Lifes crew" and explains that he was raised in a kitchen.
"Crap Artists" has a big stomp like Godzilla Feet. "Substance D" is more subtle and beautiful.
Blockhead is handling most of his production but I can't be sure he did both of these and I'm too lazy to check.
Both is dope.
Check it.

"Exclusive !!!"

"Clue, Clue, Clue"

Despot: Crap Artists
Despot: Substance D

Tough Week

2007-07-12T06:04:00.000-05:00

I've been having a tough week.

This Saturday @ Southpaw blow off some steam with some of TONYR's favorites.

Word of The Day

2007-07-04T20:52:00.000-05:00

...Gentrification.

That's the word of the day.

It also happens to be the word of the last decade and a half of New York City history.

On the one hand you have displacement, rising rents, and loss of flavor. On the other hand you have less crime, more money floating around, and lots of single white women.

But one thing I know for sure is that true New Yorkers will find a way. I'm still here doing my thing. I am an adaptable urban animal and the city is a living ever-changing jungle.

This foliage can be a sunumabitch sometimes. I just break out the machete and chop my way through.

Andrew Ricketts from The Smoking Section wrote me an email about todays group The Super Chron Flight Brothers

Apparently the group is two guys from that Reavers record I never got around to listening to.

Turns out they've been making this really interesting, eccentric rap music (the kind I have a soft spot for).

Their album, Emergency Powers, is dope and should be checked out. It is dense and unpredictable, beautiful and sloppy.

This song just happens to be about today's word of the day.

quite apt.

check it.

Super Chron Flight Brothers: Rent Control

Party Joint Of The Week

2007-06-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

Scott Thorough from Nuk Fam sent me this party joint of the week.

I am a Junkie.

I'm still strung out on this Hip Hop shit. Even after it died (R.I.P).
I'm still fiending.

P.S. I went to school with a girl named Anazette. And she was totally a teacher's pet. She didn't know Smooth B or Greg Nice though.

Also I'm not at Begonia.

Nice & Smooth & Scott Thorough: Hip Hop Junkies (Scott Thorough Remix)

When the Getting Gets Good

2007-06-20T14:10:00.001-05:00

The name of the group is Lu...Rreals

That's with three periods and two, count em, TWO R's one of which is capitalised (of course).

Besides having an absurdly odd name this quick-tounged duo also possesses an equally eccentric pair of flows.

"GotGetGood" has a beautiful beat and it swirls and dances like a ballroom full of twirling formal-wear. It has a jazzy, well-dressed smoothness that is completely infectious.
I haven't been able to stop listening to it since I received it last week.

My music-journalist type reference: It sounds like if Camp-Lo was played by Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. in a Hollywood remake of Uptown Saturday Night.

Check it out:

Lu...Rreals: GotGetGood

:also one of the MC's is an albino which I wasn't even gonna mention cause I feel it's like, a non-issue now, since cats like Brother Ali and Krondon already paved the way for pigmentless rappers.

But then I mentioned it anyway.

I got your whole weekend planned

2007-06-15T11:51:00.000-05:00

Tonight you can go and see Clarence Reid do his first show in 35 years.

The reason for Clarence's absence from the performance circuit is he's been busy performing as his more successful x-rated alter ego Blowfly

Blowfly's been making dirty rap records since the early 70's - before there were rap records at all. When Luke was in short pants and Too Short was tiny.

Clarence Reid found that he couldn't make as good a living singing sweet soul as he could making dirty raps so he threw on the mask like some superfly-era MF Doom and got busy.

But thanks to crate diggers, vinyl revivalists, and cats like Wax Poetics Clarence Reid's old forgotten records have been enjoying a resurgence of late.

Here's how he described the gig on his myspace page:

"It's my first clean gig in 35 years! And it's your fault! All these samples, reissues,
so-called "edits" and compilations have brought the maestro of Miami soul out of retirement!"

Then on Sunday you can go and see Blowfly himself, in all his sparkling bawdiness, at Club Europa in Greenpoint.
With Blueprint & the newest Def Jukie Despot

Blowfly: Rapp Dirty

The Human Element

2007-06-14T11:27:00.000-05:00

"The other day I was walking past NYU on the way to meet my pops.
And this white boy stops me talking 'bout he in the national socialist something or other
trying to sell me a paper and give me some free Mumia pamphlets.
So, you know, I'm in a hurry right and I told him.
And he tried to check me.
Like: "have you ever even heard of the black panthers?" and "Mumia was fighting so you could go to college" and all this.
I'm Like: "Dude, you don't even know me man. I don't even fucking go here man."
I know who the fuck Mumia is. Innocent niggas get locked up every day.
That ain't nothing new.

But yo,
on the other hand

You tell some brothers Mumia's on death row and they think he's making records with Suge Knight.
I don't know man. I guess it's really where you're at.

Bust it:"

Talib Kweli: The Human Element

...

Album Not In Stores

2007-06-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

More from Cavalier today.

If you are unfamiliar you can check my post on the gorgeous "Ink" right here

This shit is not in stores. It's just sitting up on Mp3.com to be downloaded for free. It's manna from heaven.

His freestyles on the radio are more full and rewarding than whole 6-disc cd changers full of todays Hip-Hop-Pop-music garbage-doo-doo-stink.

and if you don't know now you know, Nuh.....(ahem) Brother.

Cavalier: CaViat
Cavalier: Get It In
Cavalier: WBAR Freestyle 4/07

To Be or Not To Be

2007-06-07T12:09:00.000-05:00

I'm not saying I'm a better blogger than most of these Blog cats.
I'm not better than anybody.
I'm just iller.

Some post more often.
Some got flashy sites.
some got advertisements and sponsorship.
But me. Every time out the gate. You know I'm gonna be ill with it.

The debut album from Iller Than Theirs is due in September. Iller than Theirs is another mutant limb on the Nuclear Family Tree along with Junk Science.

This music is so unpretentiously smart and understatedly dope that it wafts in like a breath of fresh air in the middle of a hot stinky day.

Life sucks sometimes? yeah, tell me about it. It is what it is.
This one features Embedded label mate Cool Calm Pete

Iller Than Theirs: It Is What It Is (feat. Cool Calm Pete)

Nina Simone Sundays

2007-06-03T09:52:00.000-05:00

It's weird, even with all this gentrification there are still drug dealers on my corner. And now some of these new white people wave hello to them in the morning walking their tiny little weird inbred dogs on their way to the new Internet cafe they opened up.

Good Morning Local neighborhood Crack Man!

It's old New York meets new New York and it's a beautiful thing to behold

Nina Simone: The Pusher

I got your whole day planned

2007-06-02T11:20:00.000-05:00

Don't worry your pretty little heads my sons and daughters.
I got you.

There is an episode of "the Family Guy" where Peter asks a genie to grant his wish of having his own theme music.

It is very funny.

Today I am granting all of you a similar wish.
This is your own personal saturday soundtrack.

In the morning:

The Specials: Friday Night, Saturday Morning

In the Afternoon:

The Roots: Lazy Afternoon
Chicago: Saturday In The Park
The Juggaknots: A Rainy Saturday
Mercury: Saturday
The Grouch: Every Day Is Saturday

In the evening. Getting ready for a night on the town:

De La Soul: A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays
Lordz Of Brooklyn: Saturday Night Fever
Schooly D: Saturday Night
Ghostface: Saturday Nite
Masta Ace Incorporated: Saturday Night Live (LA Jay Remix)
The Mighty Sparrow: Saturday Night
Camp Lo: Luchini (a.k.a This Is It)

The Late Great

2007-06-01T10:19:00.001-05:00

Late for work again.
They are going to fire me.
I can see them in Stephen's office.
I can see them through the venetian blinds.
They're talking about me.
I know it.
Using words like: "Lazy" & "unmotivated" & "attitude"
They don't give a fuck about me.

My whole life I've been late for everything.
I was late for my own wedding (for real. I actually was.)

I've tried the whole set my watch ahead business but it doesn't work.
It doesn't work because then I know my watch is an hour fast and I say things to myself like "ah, I've got plenty of time. My watch is an hour fast" and then I'm late.
I'd have to set my watch fast without my knowing. Like If I were also Tyler Durden but didn't know it.
I could trick myself.

I also thought of tattooing the words "You're Late" on my arm where my wrist watch should be.
That way every time I look to see what time it is - I'll know.
But then I remember I haven't worn a wrist watch since 1994.
After that I kept time strictly by Beepers and now Cell Phones.

Please God If you let me keep my Job today I swear I will start going to church again and I will give up masturbating to asian fetish porn for one week.

The Cenobites: You're Late (feat. Percee P)

The Uninterviewable Pete

2007-05-30T14:24:00.000-05:00

Cool Calm Pete - Interview (Live At A3C - Atlanta, GA - 4/12/07) (Video)

Two interviews and all I learned is that Pete's new album is going to be called "Leonard Z"
And for the record it's cooler to be calm and soft-spoken than loud and obnoxious.

Here are two Babbletron tracks. "Space Tech Banana Clip" is Produced by MF Doom and is commendably thorough in it's encyclopedic referencing of sci-fi movies.

Babbletron: Birds

Babbletron: Space Tech Banana Clip

More From The Dugout

2007-05-23T11:27:00.000-05:00

If you've been visiting the site for a while now, you know I write a lot about The Dugout
That's because they're good and I like their music.
You may have seen my posts on Dugout members Cavalier and Starpower but today we're going to focus on Mercury

Here's what I'm going to ask of my Hip Hop from now on: Truth.

The role of the artist in society is to be a truth-teller. To speak truth to power. To say things other members of society cannot. Even if it means, at times, to approach taboo. Even, no, ESPECIALLY, if that truth is dangerous to speak.

But no matter what, truth. At all times, truth. Even the simple humble truth of being a regular human being.

check it:

Mercury: Draft Day
from HIGHER LEARNING LP

Mercury: Natural Black

Mercury: 3 O'clock High

Mercury: Genius Minds

you can Purchase Mercury's Higher Learning LP on iTunes Here

Bushwhacked

2007-05-23T10:43:00.000-05:00

Bushwhackas: Caught Up In The Game

Back on the Road again

2007-05-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

"She always cry when I tell her that I'll be going back on the road again"

That's the song I sing to wifey when It's time to lace up my (perforated) Rod Levers and hit the highway.
She is inevitably going to miss my tonnage.
But I assure her that I will eventually return to her with my Jimmy intact.
Sorry baby, but sometimes a man must venture out into the great wide open.

But there's something in the nature of men that makes us need to journey.
Yes, I am leaving town to make money.
That's part of it.
I have a instinctual need to provide for my family.
But also I must satisfy my wanderlust and put some space between me and my nest.
To feel a little freedom.

To swing my balls around in the open air.

Jungle Brothers: My Jimmy Weighs A Ton

Jungle Brothers: Back On The Road

Old School Wednesday

2007-05-09T03:46:00.000-05:00

I'm the motherfucker that rode zig zag lightning down the middle of the panama canal.

1. Baptised in a barrel of knives

2. Might as well get shitty right on down to the bone

3. Been known to eat a wild gorilla from asshole to appetite?

4. A bitch with a head shaped like a four-way cold tablet liable to say anything

5. Cobra snake for a necktie

6. Favorite drink: hydrochloric acid

and some other things I'll let you discover on your own

Snatch & The Poontangs: Two Time Slim

Nina Simone Sundays

2007-05-06T11:46:00.000-05:00

Nina Simone covering Hall & Oats

Nina Simone: Rich Girl

A snitch in time

2007-05-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

1. Ok. For the record: In my opinion, "snitching" is if you do something wrong, get caught, and then rat your friend out in order to save your own ass.

Call me a square.

That's how I always understood it.

If you live next door to the Son of Sam. You really need to be calling somebody, I don't care if it's the cops or Morgan Freeman or motherfucking Anderson Cooper.

2. Larry Wilmore is killing it as "senior black correspondent" on the usually pale-faced daily show (shouts to Aasif Mandiv!)

3. I hate how the mainstream media is all poised to jump all over this as another example of how the problem with poor inner city kids is they listen to too much Rap Music (and not that they're poor). Cam'ron is probably the worst spokesperson for Hip-Hop I could think of. I used to love watching KRS, The RZA, or Chuck D show CNN motherfuckas what's up.

4. Cam is like a 6 year old with the whole Stop Telling, No-Homo, School yard philosophies. You almost feel like he's gonna start yapping about girls having Cooties and Jay-Z picking his nose (and eating it).

5. Why is Tyson Beckford telling me to stop snitching?

Is he worried I'm gonna call the cops and tell them what a huge cornball he is?

6. After much deliberation, I have decided this is my favorite Hip-Hop song about Rat Bastards & Snitches, of all time.

It's Funky, Funny, & Fresh all at once.

MF Grimm: Watch Out
from his magnum opus, the first triple album in Hip-Hop history, AMERICAN HUNGER (Day by Day Ent. 2006)

Birds of a Feather

2007-05-03T22:49:00.000-05:00

I'm not even gonna talk shit about chickenhead girls in this post.
Everything that needs to be said about no good, money grubbing, shameful ass females has already been said more eloquently than I'll ever be able to.

I don't even use words like Bitch or Ho or whatever.
There's no need.

I feel like it's even played out to talk shit about women. I hear that shit every five fucking minutes nowadays.

misogyny is officially played out.

Sally and Jackie were homegirls. They grew up together. Played hop-scotch and jump-rope.
They was thick as thieves until they started getting older and began to attract the gaze of the neighborhood boys.
They ended up competing for the same neighborhood derelicts. Their friendship couldn't survive in that heavy atmosphere of loneliness and desperation.

I just feel sorry for them both.

AZ: Ho Happy Jackie

Diamond D & the Psychotic Neurotics:
Sally Got A One Track Mind (Showbiz Remix)

All I ever wanted was a real nice lady, a clean pair of socks, and some fish for my gravy

2007-04-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

I do not need more money.
I don't want more money, usually.
The only time I feel that I need more money is when I see some asshole rapper on T.V. waving the shit in my fucking face.
Then I'm like: "why does that ugly-ass no talent philistine have all that shit and I don't"
But in reality I have everything I need.
I should be at peace.
But this fucking guy is showing me the inside of his fridge and the shit is like a whole shelf of champagne and then another whole shelf of Heinekens, and then like a big fucking turkey on the top. and I'm looking at my wife like "when you go to key food you never come back with no champagne, no giant turkeys....what the fuck"

I don't even like champagne. But I'm sayin.....

And I know. He knew the camera crew was coming that day. And he cleaned the crib. He stocked the fridge with Heineken and then the Heineken people will send him mad cases of the shit now cause he hooked them up with the Ill product placement on TV.

I know how it works.

But still. It starts me salivating.
It inspires envy and self loathing.

Art, in my humble opinion, should be an answer to those base human tendencies. It should be the savior of our low morals. It should protect us from the constant corporate onslaught.

That's why I love music and art and shit like that. Because it reminds me that life is in fact beautiful. That my wife, as annoying as she is, is also kind of hot and I'm a lucky slob to have her. And she cook good.

Just listen. This song always made me happy. The little scat solo Mos Def does at the end.
"pap pap pap" that's the sound when I smack the drum skin.

Bush Babies (feat. Mos Def): S.O.S.

Imagine Houdini fucking two Genies puffing two beedis watching the same thing on different T.V's

2007-04-23T01:59:00.000-05:00

Beedi smoke brings me back.
Before I ever smoked cigarettes I smoked Beedis.
They were 25 for $1.
They came in those little pink paper packs.
I was a kid.
$5 bucks for a pack of Newports seemed like too much.

Beedi's smell like shit but you don't notice when you're smoking them.
Only when other people are.

They are made by mad eight year-old girls in India who are sold into slavery by their starving families.
Shit is fucked up.
They have to tie on those little red strings individually.

The tobacco is wrapped in a tendu leaf (Coromandel Ebony {Diospyros melanoxylon}, also known as East Indian Ebony)
One beedi produces three times more carbon monoxide and nicotine, and five times more tar than a regular cigarette.

I caught the whiff of a passing beedi this afternoon and it instantly conjured memories of mid nineties New York Indie-Rap.
Go Figure.

Siah & Yeshua DapoED : Gravity
From my favorite Indie-Rap Record of all time.

2 Face: Hey, Hey, Hey
L swift and A-Butter. WNYU (89.1) Freestyle Fanatics.

Reflection Eternal: 2000 Seasons
I can't remeber if this was Talib's first record or if "Manifesto" came out on a B-side first.

Company Flow: Juvenile Techniques
El-P's first Record

Natural Resource: Bum Deal
Jean Grae's First Record

This looks like a good show

2007-04-17T12:30:00.000-05:00

Looky Look

I was a huge Heiro fan growing up. I've never seen Souls perform live.

I wonder if they will perform Cab Fare. I think it's a lot of people's favorite Souls song (after '93 'til infinity) even though it never came out (Bob James was straight haighting on the bay area hip hop)

I remember that song being traded on bootleg tapes for years.

Plus Embedded Music represents my great hope for a fresh new wave of New York City Hip Hop with brains and soul.

I am eagerly awaiting new albums from Cool Calm Pete, Junk Science, and the new Nuclear Family Spin-off group: Iller Than Theirs

Souls Of Mischief: Cab Fare

Junk Science: Do It Easy

Iller Than Theirs: To Be Ill

Cool Calm Pete: Lost (Blockhead Remix)

See you there.
Except you won't know what I look like.

We're Back

2007-04-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

The reason why I disappeared?

I've just been listening to this song over and over and over .....

The Dugout: Shows Over

Actually I was battling one of my severe bouts of depression. My wife hates me. My job sucks. etc etc.....
To be honest I was thinking about throwing in the proverbial towel with this blog shit while it was still in it's infancy.

Then I got a couple of emails from people saying they liked the site and the music I was posting.
and that's all it took
I figured.....well. at least someone's listening.
So I'm Back

Fuck all of you. I love you very much.

-GRUNT

Fronting Like They Hard

2007-03-08T10:28:00.000-05:00

What! I'm the last real Blogger alive! That's Offical.
I'm the Hardest Blogger on the Net.
I don't type, I mash Keyboards, Son!

Like: ksacdhfjcvbyk! WHAT!

Hold This!: lsdghkafhvbibvs WHAT!

One mo time: mdirslngknhlghhbfdgvns uggggggghhh! Yeah!

As, Stephen Colbert can tell you, the best way to make a fool of a foolish person is to hold a mirror to them.

In this case, Imitation, is the greatest form of showing them how dumb they really are.

Black Sheep: U Mean I'm Not
I always think of this song when I'm watching well-paid video thugs pretend to be killers. Like are they thuggin at their grandma's house, calling her a Bitch? Are they thuggin over their waffles in the morning; just grilling the waffle maker with a skrewface?

Masta Ace Incorporated: Ya Hardcore
"It's kind of like that movie Falling Down with Michael doug-uh-luss". From the B-Side of a Sittin On Chrome 12"

Masta Ace Incorporated: SlaughterHouse
MC Negro & The Ignorant MC. SlaughterHouse is quite possibly the most unappreciated Hip Hop album of all time

Jeru Tha Damaja: The Bullshit
THE BULLSHIT, yes this is THE BULLSHIT, the extreme BULLSHIT, the absolute BULLSHIT, this is THE BULLSHIT of BULLSHIT. This BULLSHIT is so BULLSHIT, I never wanna hear this BULLSHIT on the radios or in my children's ears 'cause it's BULLSHIT

"Children, time to run along to bed now"

"awww! Can't we just have one more song?"

"Well, maybe there's time for just one....."

***Bonus Track***
Masta Ace Incorporated: Slaughtahouse (MurderMix)
More fun with MC Negro & The Ignorant MC
"Brain's on the sidewalk, Brain's on the sidewalk"

Nina Simone Sundays

2007-03-04T12:12:00.000-05:00

Isn't it a pity?
You don't know what I'm talking 'bout yet but I'm gonna tell you soon- Isn't it a pity?

Nina Simone: Isn't It a Pity

Go ahead and marinate on that.

You are what you eat

2007-03-02T12:58:00.000-05:00

Yo, How come they name ghetto fried chicken spots after assassinated presidents?

In other death-oriented food news:

Prince Charles wants them to Ban McDonald's in England

Too bad he doesn't have any legislative power and they only keep him around for tabloid fodder and horse back ridding.

I'd be all for banning food flavored compost in general.

It tastes like food because they scientifically developed the most delicious "burger taste" in a lab.

You can smell McDonald's fries from a block away and it automatically triggers a Pavlovian salivation.

That's why you can't get a slice of pizza outside of the five Boroughs worth its weight in Mozzarella, but no matter where you go, McDonald's tastes exactly the same.

They could squirt that "burger taste serum" onto a hot pile of cow-shit and you'd be like "mmm hot pile of Big Mac"

Here's a handful of nutritious Rap Songs for your ass.

Enjoy.

Donnan Linkz (feat. Loer Velocity & Remo Conscious): The Hood Diet

Boogie Down Productions: Beef

A Tribe Called Quest: Ham'n'Eggs

Dead Prez: Be Healthy

Common & Kanye West: The Food (Live on Chapelle's Show)

"Lentil Soup Is Mental Fruit"

Old School Wednesday

2007-02-28T23:55:00.000-05:00

She's too young for you dude.

Andre Williams: Jail Bait

.

Everybody Loves Ghost

2007-02-27T12:54:00.000-05:00

you wanna know why?

Cause he's got all the bases covered.

He's more thuged out than your favorite thug rapper.

He's more abstract than the most obscure underground Nerd-Rap weirdo. (See: that song about walking through the forest saying hello to different cartoon characters.)

He's old-school enough for the bitter old-school heads plus he's current enough for the kids.

He's great at picking beats that even the illest beat snob can't front on.

He's the only rapper that can consistently make songs about girls with dudes singing on some slo-jam shit and never come off corny.

I love when Ghost just raps over a whole song like this:

Ghostface:No No No

Also Check my post on Ghost's cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps over at Metal Lungies

Nina Simone Sundays

2007-02-25T12:07:00.000-05:00

I knew all week this was going to be the joint for today's Nina Simone Sunday.

I've been reflecting on how delicious forbidden fruit can taste. Go on and eat it's mighty sweet.

The song reminds me of this little Dujeous diddy; the way the drummer is clickity clacking on the rim.

Dujeous is New York City's resident live hip hop band. They've been rocking for quite awhile and toured the globe. "Cinematics" is off their very first 12" back in the day.

Nina Simone: Forbidden Fruit

Dujeous: Cinematics

"Y'all went and did it and now yer gonna get it"

You ain't artsier than me

2007-02-23T14:09:00.000-05:00

This one goes out to the new residents of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Long Island City, et. all. This goes out to people who call Bushwick "East Williamsburg" because that's what the realtor called it when they signed the lease.

Chill. You are all my sons and daughters.
New York is the cultural Mecca of the universe.
We were born and raised in this city soaking up culture since birth. The Bohemian traditions of the city run through our veins.

How you gonna move here from Des Moines, then suddenly turn around and act like some high-brow culture snob? I can still smell the farm on you! Chill. You are not fly.

You can't look down on a New York Accent. That's a badge of honor right there. Respect it.

One

The Grouch: Artsy

"'cause you pluck a guitar. That ain't fucking bizarre"

Spring Training

2007-02-21T13:33:00.000-05:00

I'm the Lastings Milledge of this Blog Shit. I'm that cocky rookie. I'm ruffling some feathers with the older cats but they all know I'm nice with it.

Lastings walked back to the clubhouse after one of his last games last year to find a note taped to his locker that read "Know Your Place Rook!"

Willie Randolph started his first press conference with something like "OK lets get the Lastings Milledge shit-talk session out the way first."

In honor of Spring Training I offer these tidings:

Natural Resource: Negro League
This is Jean Grae's first group (They used to call her "What? What?"). To me she never really lived up to the potential heard in these early recordings. This three song 12" is one of the true gems of that mid-90's new york indie-wave.

Main Source: Just A Friendly Game of Baseball
Fuck The Police (RIP Sean Bell)

De La Soul (feat. Dres): Fanatic of The B Word
Come on everybody do the Baseball.

Ahmad, Ras Kass, & Safir: Come Widdit (The Fredwreck Remix)
They went all around the planet pitching and no-one hit it. The original joint was off the Streetfigher movie soundtrack. This version is off the 12" (they also had a video that was hype)

check out my post on Junk Science over at Metal Lungies

Old School Wednesday

2007-02-21T12:25:00.000-05:00

This is a song about fronting. Fronting is still a very prevalent disease in our culture today.

I mean:

It's always been around. People been fronting since they came down from the trees it seems.

Jay-Z can't see a tear coming down his eye so instead he turns around and makes the song cry.

I was watching a documentary on PBS last night about manhood and Masculinity in Hip Hop called: Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (It was actually pretty dope)

At one point, the director is interviewing Busta Rhymes, Talib Kweli, De La, And Mos Def and he asks Busta about homophobia and gays in Hip Hop. Busta told him he wasn't even gonna go there and left the room! Mos Def left the room too! Too Taboo to even be discussed!

Oscar Brown Jr.: But I Was Cool
from sin & soul (1960)

In New york the Documentary will be replayed next Sunday night (technically Monday since its after 12 numsain):

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
Monday, February 26, 12:30am
CHANNEL 13 (Thirteen/WNET New York)

Everyone else gots to check they local listings!

Live From The Clubhouse (post game wrap up) Pt. II

2007-02-20T02:54:00.000-05:00

This post is the 2nd installment of my special reportage on NYC HIP HOP outfit, The Dugout.

As you'll recall last week's episode focused on Dugout member Cavalier (Here)

Today we're getting post-game, post hip-hop-being-dead analysis from Dugout Power Hitter StarPower

When contacting StarPower for this post he included in his response, this explanation of the reason why he makes songs like "ClockWork.":

"I purposely sample white artists who I feel have gained great privilege on the backs of minority artists. I'll jack white artists of any era - I've jacked Bob Dylan, Coldplay, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Elton John, The Raconteurs, The Beatles, etc. Mad legends. I'll jack 'em for a freestyle or a whole song. For me, it's a new way of making conscious music. Instead of the consciousness being in the words, I'm always making a statement with the tracks I choose to sample, and usually they're very noticeable samples. So the consciousness is in the method of making the songs. It's my own little movement called "Taking It Back." Meaning taking it back to the past, and taking back what's ours. It's why I rarely sample soul records. I'm feelin' your posts b/c it's a way of just tellin' muthafuckas that you're someone who feels a certain way about hip-hop, and they can like it or not. I fux with that.

Excuse the length of this,

I just wanted to let you know that. Peace.

btw, I know the sample for Bachelor's Party is by a black act, but I did it for the sheer spectacle of it, lol."

StarPower: The Batchelor's Party
StarPower: Clockwork
StarPower: The Way I Die

and you should all watch This Video for ClockWork to get the full effect

Nina Simone Sundays

2007-02-18T11:46:00.000-05:00

Quote of the night (from last night 2/17/07):

"B-More is so hot right now"
-Some random weirdo hipster DJ dude

You should have heard the way way he said "Beee-More".

Like......We live busy lives. Who has time to pronounce all those syllables? That's why I stay slanging it up and getting my coffee to go.

Peace to all the non-cornballs out there, still repping. Keep your heads up!

Happy Nina Simone Day!

Nina Simone: Baltimore
from Baltimore (CTI 1978)

The Grass On The Other Side Is Such A Better Shade Of Green

2007-02-17T14:44:00.000-05:00

We live in a culture obsessed with exteriors. A culture that takes appearances as truth and hides interior lives with guilt and shame. The frivolous surface is taken with such seriousness that it then manifests itself into real-life consequences. Our shallow first impressions can turn around and impress themselves into the depths of our inner lives.

This is why Race is at once completely irrelevant and, at the same time, the most important thing in the world.

Skin color is as meaningless a trait as hair color or height but Racism is as real as oxygen and can cause bodily harm, emotional and psychological distress, and at times death.

You may want to ignore Race because you know it doesn't matter. You know that assholes come in every shade, gender, and sexual orientation, and when you meet somebody you can actually stand, you better not let something as stupid as race come between you.

But you can't.

Because to ignore it is to ignore the very fabric of America. To ignore it is to ignore truth.

Then there are cultural differences that form in segregated groups. When a group of people who look the same, all act the same as well, it fosters the impression that they share some genetic pre-disposition to act that way.

This is a comforting idea to Americans it seems. People become walking color-coded name tags. It keeps things organised and helps to maintain the status quo. And those who step outside of the normal operating parameters assigned to their race run the risk of ridicule, humiliation, and possible punishment.

In this song MURS writes a love song to race-traitors. Telling these women that it's OK to be whom-ever they want to be. It is a beautiful sentiment and a touching song.

Peace to MURS and all the human race.

MURS: D.S.W.G. (Dark Skinned White Girls)
from Murray's Revenge (Record Collection 2006)

OOOOh SNAP! That's Foul Son.

2007-02-16T13:54:00.000-05:00

This is the illustration that graced the cover of the Village Voice last week. It was intended to "celebrate?" the 34th annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll in which Bob Dylan apparently got more votes than TV On The Radio.

First of all I hate these polls. 98% of working music critics are white people from Ohio ("originally, but I consider myself a New Yorker now"). All their year end polls are a bunch of white-people indie rock with a Clipse and a Coup record thrown in for balance.

I'm just trying to imagine how they came up with the idea for this cover. Like how did the discussion in their office go? It's such a dumb idea for a cartoon in the first place. And then you'd think, among the office-full of hands it had to pass through, somebody would have been like: "Um.."

I can't front, I glanced at the cover last week and didn't think nothing of it. But home-boy makes nothing but excellent, valid points and now I'm like "yeah, fuck them".

Also: They made Bob Dylan look mad "Jewy" on some Gargamel shit. Don't you think?

Here's the Letter to the editor written by friend and contributor to TV on the Radio, Martin Perna:

RACE TRACKS
Looking at this week's cover of the Voice, I see a caricature of Bob Dylan in an electric mobility scooter, running over Kyp Malone, guitarist/vocalist of the band TV on the Radio. The drawing, I imagine, was supposed to comically illustrate Dylan's new record edging out TVOTR's "Return to Cookie Mountain," in the paper's 34th Annual Pazz & Jop poll [February 7–13]. This drawing is racist, unfunny, mean-spirited, and inaccurate.

Even in the post-Chappelle era of it being hip and edgy to discuss and portray ideas about race, there are still wrong, tasteless ways and this was one of them. Nowhere in the consciousness of Voice editors or illustrator David O'Keefe can we find memories of James Byrd, a black man who was dragged behind a truck to his death by white racists in Jasper, Texas, in 1998, or Arthur "J.R." Warren, who was run over four times and killed for being black and gay in West Virginia in 2000, and all the other lynchings that happened in the U.S. before and since. These events are still fresh in the minds of black people, as well as in the hearts and minds of the rest of us who may not be directly victimized by these particular lynchings but who are nonetheless endangered by racism and committed to social justice and healing America of its sick racist condition.

O'Keefe and his colleagues may not have meant to intentionally be racist. They probably meant to be funny, like the University of Texas law students, Clemson University undergrads, or white college students nationwide who plan and publicize their blackface or "ghetto parties," then act surprised that people find their actions offensive and unacceptable. That this picture could be drawn and not questioned or vetoed by any of the people who saw it prior to publication shows the level of ignorance and racism that persists in leftist institutions like the Voice that continue to posture as hip and progressive. It reveals that among decision-makers at the paper there is not one single person with any sort of racial consciousness or sensitivity who had the power or courage to send that picture back to the drawing board.

Racism aside, the drawing is snarky and simpleminded. Where is the love? Why such a nasty way to portray two fantastic musical entities who made award-winning records last year? Why only portray Kyp, when TV on the Radio is composed of four other equally talented core members plus a small army of extended family (including myself) who have contributed to the indescribably ecstatic sound of TVOTR onstage and on record. We struggle defiantly to collaborate and work in non-hierarchical, positive environments and this portrayal of one of our people strikes a blow against our collective dignity.

Every time our likenesses are used outside of our control—especially in stupid ways like this—it fosters false perceptions of who we are. We struggle on a daily basis (those of us with high media exposure much more than others) to be our true selves and not what the media creates of us. Inevitably, Kyp will have to respond to an endless stream of questions about this cover from scores of journalists over the next week when he'd probably rather be doing something else.

Intentionally or not, this cover sends the all-too-familiar message to people of color: Make something too unique, make something outside of your assigned place-role, and get run over by a white man. I could go on about it, about how wrong it is to create false competition between musicians; the headline "Blood on the Tracks!" gives the very false impression that there is serious beef with Dylan and TVOTR. I could complain about how you drew Kyp outfitted like the Nutty Professor rather than his true fly stylish self. All other criticism, however, would draw attention away from the more serious and sinister latent racism present that makes this cover possible to begin with. I pray that you will wise up and check yourself and get some people with some sense and sensitivity among your editorial staff.
Martín Perna
Baritone saxophone, flutes
Antibalas/TV on the Radio
Austin, Texas, and Brooklyn

Old School Wednesday

2007-02-15T16:27:00.000-05:00

Old School Wednesday comes a little late this week because yesterday was Valentines day and I was busy wining and dining a fine dime. I'm sure you all understand.

After MC Search got gassed (GassFaced?) and left 3rd Bass for his huge solo career the other 2 basses were a little upset. In the video for Prime Minister Pete Nice & Daddy Rich's "Rat Bastard", Pete Nice, playing Robert Deniro's Role in The Untouchables, bashes a Search look-alike in the skull with a baseball bat. Gangster.

That album Flopped. And Search's next Def Jam project got shelved

As Nasty Nas would say: Where are they Now?

Pete Nice is now a baseball historian, author, and runs a memorialbilia store in Cooperstown, NY. And MC Search is a Judge on America's next top model or something I think.

1. Kickin' the BoBo is something I still do on the regular.

2. I was gonna post the video for "Here it Comes" after I seen it on YouTube a couple of weeks ago. But when I went there today it said it had been removed "due to terms of use violation". Which is really too bad because the video is on some "Honey, I Blew Up A Bespecticled Jewish Rapper" shit. What I mean is he's all godzilla-sized, stepping over buildings and doing ILL dance moves.

3. Search Is re-releasing his shelved Def Jam Project from 1994 under the name "M.any Y.oung L.ives A.go" This track has made its rounds on the intraweb already but, whatever, it's dope. Check it:

Prime Minister Pete Nice & Daddy Rich: Kick The Bobo
from Dust to Dust (Def Jam 1993)

MC Search: Here It Comes
from Return Of The product (Def Jam 1992)

MC Search: Handle it
from M.any Y.oung L.ives A.go (Shelved by Def Jam 1994 - Released 2007)

Stretching You Out

2007-02-14T01:06:00.000-05:00

It's two thousand and seven, we're not only supposed to have electric cars, we're supposed have electric FLYING CARS. I've seen "Back to the Future II". Hoverboards too! I mean, that was set in 2015. But I'm sayin' though....

This is a movie poster from a documentary about how all Dick Cheney had to do was make one phone call and they came in the middle of the night and repo'd all your electric cars.

They BEEN having electric cars for years. And they worked too! (not even hybrid jump-offs but true-blue plug-that-shit-in-overnight-like-a-cell-phone type Electric Cars)

The reason why OIL is so Cot-Damnned profitable is 'cause it can be controlled. Any fuck-toy of a country can build a dam or a couple of windmills but OIL can only be found in a handful of places. To control those places is to have influence over the entire world economy (hence The War in IRAQ).

The topic today is "ENERGY".
Our guest speaker is Mr. Biz Markie

Biz does a cover of one of those School-House Rock Cartoons. It's the most informative song "That Ol' New York Rap" has posted so far. Check it.

Biz Markie: Energy

Peace!

The Kind of Heat That Irons Out the Wrinkles

2007-02-11T21:46:00.000-05:00

The way people talk about HIP HOP nowadays weirds me out.
People recite statistics of albums-sold like they discuss runs batted in or points per game.
They talk about record label deals and mergers like they read it out of The Wall Street Journal.

You will never hear a so-called "music journalist" discussing Beck's "numbers". Or comparing the new RadioHead album to the first-week sales of Coldplay's last one.

It doesn't apply to other genres. But the same "journalist" will write a review of Bob Dylan's new album and speak purely about the CONTENT of the record, the ARTISTRY of the MUSIC, and then turn around and include sales figures when discussing The Roots or Lupe Fiasco. Is this because they believe this is the way one is supposed to speak about HIP HOP?
Why is this?

The language of HIP HOP has become the language of business. This has become an accepted part of "the Game." The game has rules. Who created these rules is not exactly clear. The journalists will turn to the artists and say they set the tone of the conversation and they (the critics) are just doing their Journalistic best to report the world as it is.

What I think is this:

When HIP HOP became the dominant form of popular music it adopted the language of the dominant culture. It now speaks from the throne of power and is encouraged to espouse the glorious benefits of American Capitalism.

Maybe it's because as HIP HOP grew into middle age it became corny and boring the way most people in their thirties do. It started worrying about paying taxes and mutual funds and shit. It sold out the struggle for imagined middle class security. It forgot what it was like to be young. It celebrated as it conquered the mainstream only to find that it had, in fact, simply been absorbed by it. Becoming part of a far lager whole. Like the BLOB.

so, uh, anyway. HIP HOP is DEAD. (R.I.P.)

Donnan Linkz is an Emcee/Producer. He did some beats on Loer Veocity's record.
I've been listening a lot to this dope little mixtape "Hood Times". Its a collection of his songs and songs he produced for other artists and strung together with interludes of him rocking over Dilla Beats.

I really like him as a Rapper. He's got a real compelling presence on the mic. His beats are hot too. The first song "GhettoBlaster" is his production and is Fresh to Death. The second two tracks are him over Dilla beats and, they too, are Fresh to Death. Check it.

Donnan Linkz: GhettoBlaster

Donnan Linkz: 1984

Donnan Linkz: DayzLike This
all selections from "Hood Times"

Nina Simone Sundays

2007-02-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

I'm establishing yet another tradition today. From now on Sundays will be "Nina Simone Sundays"

I've heard it said that Sunday is the Lord's day.

Well He's gonna have to share it with Nina from now on.

This little clip is just gorgeous.

Nina Simone was Gangsta. Talking about getting guns and shit. Oh you didn't know? check it.

My favorite part of this is when she says "my boobies". Does that make me juvenile?

Two For One

2007-02-09T14:57:00.000-05:00

Jemini The Gifted One had two videos that used to rock on video music box. The record label released a bunch of 12"s and Promo wax of his EP Scars & Pain But for some reason the album never dropped. He recorded a nice little record with DangerMouse a couple of years ago before Gnarls Barkley blew the fuck up called Ghetto Pop Life (Lex. 2004) He's also in a new movie called Memoirs of an MC.

For those who don't know: He had this style where he had a high voice and a low voice and would go back and forth with himself on some multiple personality disorder meets Run DMC type shit. It sounds really gimmicky but, believe it or not, it wasn't.

First of all, he didn't use it all the time. Most of his songs were solo songs with one of his personalities (see: "Brooklyn Kids"). And when he did it - it sounded Fresh to Death as you can hear for yourself in "Funk Soul Sensation" and it's rare 12" sequal "The Return of the Funk Soul Sensation"

Jemini and DangerMouse are currently (supposedly) readying their followup LP "Kill Your Heroes"

The Songs:

Jemini The Gifted One: Brooklyn Kids
from Scars & Pain EP
(talking about the days when BK was ILL and "the restrooms were off limits to the herbs")

Jemini The Gifted One: Funk Soul Sensation
from Scars & Pain EP

Jemini The Gifted One:The Return of the Funk Soul Sensation
from 12"

DM & Jemini: Knuckle Sandwich
from Ghetto Pop Life (Lex 2004)

DangerMouse & Jemini:Knuckle Sandwich 2
from Kill Your Heroes (Lex 2007?maybe)

If you can't beat 'em, BEAT HIM

2007-02-08T16:18:00.000-05:00

These rappers today really have to stop punching each other in the face. First the "oh you mad cause I'm stylin' on you" guy and now this!

This kind of reminded me of when I was little and I'd go to kiss a girl and have my cap on and the brim would hit her forehead. Not smooth. Did that ever happen to you?

Thugs don't make good rappers. But good rappers can invent great thugs. Think about that one.

Old School Wednesday

2007-02-07T12:54:00.000-05:00

This is a song about a bunch of downtown junkies waiting for some dope from uptown. In that way, this song is still relevant today, because right now somewhere lower than ludlow there's a bunch of downtown kids with the shakes waiting on the great-grandson of the Man from Harlem.

Cab Calloway: The Man From Harlem

Two Scoops

2007-02-07T02:04:00.000-05:00

I always remember C-Rayz Walz back in the day was at every hip hop event in New York City. And he would always be wearing some crazy hat/head wear.

So It made sense to me when he turned up on MTV's "Made" last year wearing a decapitated teddy bear on his head.

He's a true blue New York Character.

This is a good morning post.

Take a breath of the cold air. Everything is going to be alright.

C-Rayz Walz: The Rising
from "The Dropping" (2006)

Nina Simone: Here Comes the Sun
from "Here Comes The Sun" (1971)

Post Script:
How come nobody told me about this video? Every single one of you, who didn't put me on to this, should be ashamed. This video is GREAT:

Channel Seven Getting Snow

2007-02-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

Back when Hip Hop was first diagnosed with the disease that would eventually take her life, it was easy, if you listened to the right records, went to the right shows, ran in the right circles, avoided the television, to forget she was sick at all.

If I wanted to forget about her ailments I could escape with my discman and ride the subways dreaming of undiscovered drum breaks and poetry.

I'd wake up, having missed my stop, with my face pressed up against the hard plastic window and that little spot of cold drool on the side of my mouth.

The first time I heard the song "Ink" it instantly brought me back to those groggy, late-night, blunted, train rides of my youth. I woke up three days later in my arm chair in my small ass apartment with the TV on static and that familiar drool on my collar.

This kid Cavalier spits a torrent stream of the illest poem-speak I've heard in a long time. I've seen him perform a couple of times with his crew The Dugout and they smash.

It's beautiful poetry. And it's not the type of poetry that makes you "hush, hush", sit up straight, and not cough. It's the type of poetry that makes you wanna punch a cop in the face or travel to a foreign country and fall in love without the use of the English language.

I also included this Freestyle cause I think it's ill and it sounds like if his boys wouldn't have stopped him he could of kept rhyming all night.

Cavalier: Ink
Cavalier: Cavalier Freestyle
both selections from "The Death-Circus EP"

Also: Here's a video for his song DIONNE:

Breath Control to Major Tom

2007-02-05T18:29:00.000-05:00

I only been on the interweb for two weeks and I'm already making friends.

I have been invited to contribute to METAL LUNGIES.

Check it: http://metallungies.com

Bookmark that and Bookmark this and let's all get rich.

Peace!

The world of middle class poverty

2007-02-01T15:44:00.000-05:00

A tiny group of really rich people are getting even richer while the vast majority of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages. And everyone thinks they are part of the middle class. But the "middle class" is shrinking to extinction. Most people work hard their whole lives and leave nothing to their young but credit card debt.

I like the french revolution. That bitch was like; "They don't have bread? Why don't they just have some cake?" and her loyal subject had to be like: "ah-hem, your majesty, I don't think you understand. They are STARVING". She was like: "whatever".

Then one day they showed up at her gates. An Army of peasants. They had come for her head.

Like Guru said: It's mostly the voice. Loer Velocity has a GREAT voice. He sounds like he smokes gravel blunts. Mad laid-back. This is what I call Cool-Out music. He sounds like he's sitting on the couch next to you watching the knicks trying to pass you the gravel blunt. And you gotta be like: "Nah, I'm good homie."

Check it.

Loer Velocity: World of Poverty
from "Ready for a Renaissance" (Embedded 2006)

The Big American Rap Star

2007-02-01T01:49:00.000-05:00

Artist on Aritst: Al Gore and Mos Def

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The first thing that struck me when I watched this video was pride. I was proud of Hip Hop for becoming the HUGE global force that it did. I had to reflect on how amazing it really is that a true MC, a real Brooklyn boy, is holding his own next to the man who was elected president. It shows, in a way, how legitimately Hip Hop is respected in American Culture. What was dismissed as a fad that would fizzle out, later a scourge to be banned and censored, would persevere and end up changing the world (and then die. Hip Hop Is Dead.) A culture invented by children raised in poverty grows up to stand toe to toe with great power. It almost made me proud of America.
Almost.

Then I had a second thought and wanted to contrast it with this video:

For those who don't know
Mos Def, on the night of the VMA's, pulls up outside Radio City Music Hall with a giant rented truck and starts performing for the crowds of star-gazers, autograph hounds and weirdos waiting outside of the venue.

He performs his song about Hurricane Katrina for about 12 bars before the cops bum rush the stage and rip the mic out of his hand.

First of all - can we give it up for Mos Def. He is a fucking Movie Star. He's INVITED to stuff like the VMA's. He could be inside with a tux on sipping cognac with David Bowie. Instead he's outside, bandito style handkerchief on, singing protest songs. Coming out of his pocket to rent this huge mobile stage and knowing he might spend the night in jail (or get manhandled and hassled until he can post bail). He doesn't HAVE to do stuff like that. In fact it would be EASY not to. That's why I love Mos Def.

My thoughts:

1. Would they treat Beck or Timberlake the same way if they pulled a stunt like that? No. Of course not.

2. The disconnect between what Mos was doing (singing a song) and the reaction of the cops (violently pushing him and ripping the mic out of his hand) is crazy! Watching him being hand-cuffed all up against the car like a fucking drug dealer or something - It made me think of that song "Mr. n***a" where he says: "no evidence, no apology, and no regard, even for the big American Rap Star"....and he wasn't even that famous when he wrote that.

3. That's the contradiction of America. It's virtues and it's festering rotten underbelly all at the same time. In one situation a man can be honored as a great artist known the world over and in another instance he can be just another N***er.

Mos Def: Dollar Day For New Orleans

Mos Def: Crime & Medicine
Mos Def:Sun, Moon, Stars
From: True Magic (Geffen: 2007)

Mos Def:Umi Says (Zero 7 Mix)

Old School Wednesday

2007-01-31T04:50:00.000-05:00

As any self-respecting New York Rap fiend should know (unless you're a youngin') this is Uncle Ralph McDaniels from Video Music Box. And when I was in high school every wednesday was "Old School Wednesdays" on Video Music Box. I have many fond memories of cutting out of school to smoke L's and watch (and tape) Video Music Box. So in tribute to "Old School Wednesdays" we're gonna post some old shit every wednesday.

Side Note: Uncle Ralph still does Video Music Box on WNYC (check your local listings) but nowadays I think he's having trouble finding enough decent new hip hop videos to fill the time slot. The last episode I seen started with "Hip Hop Is Dead" and then played a bunch of R&B videos after that. Fitting. Ralph also has this other show on WNYC called "The Bridge" which is all old-school videos and is a GREAT show. And you should all watch it and support your local PBS stations. Word.

OLD SCHOOL WEDNESDAY

The Art of The Remix-
I know Puffy thinks he invented that shit. But he didn't (although that Flava in Ya Ear Remix is a classic. I just remember how skinny Busta Rhymes was before he started taking steroids and how he used to rock those ILL doctor Seuss hats)

Today's post is about how I always liked the remixes that went the extra mile. This is especially relevant today as "Mash-Ups", as they are now trendily called, are so common place. It's easy for anyone with access to a computer to make a "remix".

The Pharcyde had a series of remixes on b-sides using the same lyrics but kicking them all differently over a different beat. They're pretty much singing the lyrics actually. If you're reading this and you are unfamilliar with The Pharcyde's seminal work "Bizzare ride II the Pharcyde" then I can't help you. They should teach that record in school.

The Pharcyde: Otha Fish (L.A. Jay Remix)

The Pharcyde: Ya Mama (Remix)

The Pharcyde: Passin Me By (fly as pie Remix)

On this one The Gravediggaz do a remix where they spit completely new lyrics over the same beat. Kind of the invert of your average remix. This is my all-time favorite Gravediggaz track. I especially like the second verse when Poetic (R.I.P) tells that crazy story about the A-Team bumrushing the Jonestown masacre. "No tambourine-beating Deacon, is freaking my seed, every weekend, as long as I'm breathing"

Gravediggaz: 1-800 SUICIDE (New Vocal Version)

The Fugees' first album was kinda "ehhh". The reason they're famous now is cause of Salaam Remi's "Nappy Heads Remix" New Beat/New lyrics - It blew up. Boom. I bought the cassingle and kept flipping the side all day. I'm not gonna post that song. It's famous. I'm going to post their second Remix single. This was the first Fugees video I remember seeing back when Wycleff was a Crazy Baldhead. When I pulled this record out today and slipped it on I was surprised how good it sounded. Lauren KILLS it. And Praz is like "when I rest my head it's on a PEEE-LOW" and it made me smile. SIDE NOTE: Black Moon also used the so-so album/Amazing Remixes stratagy to blowing up (remember).

The Fugees: Vocab (Refugees Hip Hop Remix)

Del kicks different lyrics over a different beat. The only thing that's the same is the hook (kinda). Dope.

Del tha Funky Homosapien: Catch a Bad One (Remix)

This one was always weird to me. On the B-Side of Award Tour there was a version of The Chase part II where they let a mad young Consequence freestyle over the beat. Now the original song was called "The Chase part II" (what happened to part 1?) so you'd think this one would be part 3. But no. It's still part II.

A Tribe Called Quest: The Chase, Part II (*Rap by Consequence)

...And that's how we geek out on Old School Wednesdays. Until next time:

PEACE!

Colder Than Crisp Weather

2007-01-30T12:43:00.000-05:00

The problem with Hip Hop purists is they end up with boring music. If anything that strays too far from the ridgid confines of "true" hip hop is criticised then nothing will ever evolve and you'll all end up like Hip Hop Amish. Living as if its 100 years ago - Making your own clothes, churning your own butter and ridding to the "vinyl record" store on your horse and buggy.

Also Jurrasic 5 sometimes ends up feeling like the Rap version of SHA-NA-NA.

To stay true to the SPIRIT of the early rap pioneers you gotta be original and do something new. That was what was important about what they did. Not only new but different from everyone else. Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, Rakim, All had wildly different characters, different flows and different styles of dress. Nowadays, almost all mainstream rappers wear the same costume: coke dealer. All underground rappers have a closet full of oversized T-Shirts with graff designs on them. Its like the most boring holloween ever.

Ever seen when Bart Simpson opens his closet and its all red t-shirts and blue shorts? That's all that little motherfucker wears!

K-Swift is a true New York character. You can catch him running around the L.E.S rocking a flat-top on some New Old School shit. It's Cold Chillin' meets 2007 and is as current as the morning edition. Part of the New Rap Order I've seen him rock this song with his whole clique on stage and he tore the roof off. check it.

K-Swift: Nu Ol' School

Lost In The City

2007-01-29T02:56:00.000-05:00

Cool Calm Pete is the perfect artist to jump-off this blog. Born in South Korea, raised in Queens, Pete is a true New Yorker and a product of New York City Hip-Hop. Ever since Hip-Hop died (That shit is dead motherfuckers!) the pop music that devoured and digested it hasn't left room for artists like Cool Calm Pete. But "Modern Rhymes" sounds better to me than any hip hop I've heard on the radio all year. Also: People don't write rap music about dental hygene anymore. And thirdly: Embedded is my new favorite label.

Cool Calm Pete: Modern Rhymes
Cool Calm Pete: Brush P.S.A.
Junk Science (feat Cool Calm Pete): The Blaze-O (Scott Thorough Computer Rock Remix)

Bringing Back That Ol' New York Rap

2007-01-26T17:12:00.001-05:00

This is not a new BLOG. This is a BLOG that has been going on in my head for the last fifteen years and only now is technology catching up with me.

Hip Hop is dead. And I don't want to hear anyone saying it's still alive like ya'll ain't in agreement with Nas (He said It's dead mothefucker!) That being said:

1.This is not retro. I reserve the right to post old music, new music, or any music I may have glimpsed in my dreamlike travels to the future.

2. "New York Rap" represents to me Hip Hop as I fell in love with it. To "bring it back" evokes the spirit of an earlier time - but is not defined by geography. I reserve the right to post music from any place in the world.

3. I don't even have to post hip hop songs if I don't feel like it. This is my BLOG. Not yours. Chill.

4. There are still people making dope music. Right Now. I will try to find them and post their music.

My Name is Blind Boy Grunt

Peace!

Da Gif (feat. Mercury): The Truth Hurts
Nuclear Family: New York
Mercury: BooM
Babbletron: The Clock Song
Ghostface: Charlie Brown