IIIIIIIIIIIIIII'mmmmmmm bbbbbaaaaaccckkkkkkkk
but you probably didn't miss me.
After a not so brief hiatus due to weed induced laziness and my depression about the wack state of mainstream hip hop, I have decided to begin posting again because the world needs me. Actually, I really have too much time on my hands right now and nothing better to do.
Right now I'm chilling in beantown patiently waiting to return to my college. My feelings can be described as a mix of fear and excitement. Fear, since I have to actually begin studying in order to raise my GPA to a respectable level. Excitement, since I can hardly wait to see all the friends that I missed over the summer and I know that this year should be a lot of fun.
I imagine that for most hip hop fans that like NY hip hop or just real hip hop in general feel the way that I feel about my return to school about the supposedly forthcoming release of albums by Papoose and Saigon.
Fear, since Papoose's skills in my opinion are questionable(in my opinion)
and could easily release a cd with 3 really good tracks and 13 meh ones and also since saigon also has the potential to put out wack songs. Excitement, since both papoose and saigon have put out their fair share of classic songs and mixtapes, which I hope reflects their potential ability to release a classic album.
However, there is the small issue that neither of the two have release dates yet even though their albums are supposedly complete. They've both put out singles which have unfortunately fizzled and died. I must ask what are their respective labels waiting for. Why are they keeping potential moneymakers sitting on the shelf, really all they need to do is put out good singles, shoot good videos, and put a good promotional team behind these guys and they could make a mint. I make it sound so simple because it is.
I really think that the labels might be afraid of causing a shift in the current state of hip hop. Labels might really be scared that if East coast rap becomes dominant again they will have a much harder time finding artists that will make money. The labels would no longer be able to just sign anyone who can put out a catchy single(case in point the fucktard collipark signing the even bigger fucktard soulja bitch), they might have to actually go out there and start looking for music that is actually good and that might stand the test of time. (Lets face it next year round this time soulja bitch will be an unpleasant but very very vague memory)
But, I could be wrong having a huge e buzz, a lot of talent(saigon mainly), and a completed album might not be reason enough for an artist to get a release date and some label backing. I will be waiting patiently on Saigon and Papoose's albums to drop but I will not hold my breath.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Real B Boys still exist
Last Thursday night was a reaffirmation that hip hop as a culture still lives, at least in the form of those who practice more than one part of hip hop culture (ie. do more than one of the following: mcing, graphing, breaking, or djing).
I had gone to the BX to smoke the finest sticky icky that I have ever smoked, haze if you wanted to know the name, and was carrying a backpack full of beer. When i got there I proceeded to do what I had waited 4 days to do... get fucked up. The people who I was chilling with were friends of a friend of mine, and as we watched LeBron's Jordan comparisons come to a sad end we were joined by two people I had not met before. They seemed as anxious as I was to be in an altered mind state so after drinking some beers they went off to the liquor store to get some E&J.
When they got back, they got fucked up and took it upon themselves to to school the non-New Yorkers on what we had missed out on by not having been lucky enough to have been born in the BX. They told us about trips to Manhattan where they racked everything from Cristal to a giant bottle of hennesy from liquor stores, they also told us about trips to local parks while using shrooms, and they told us about drunken tagging treks that they had taken.
The tales of drunken tagging trips turned into their tales of their regular tagging. They grew more and more enthusiastic about describing their various escapades and the damage that they sustained during those escapades. I heard a story about a guy who always took too long on his tags but never got caught, a story about one of them jumping off a 2 story roof to avoid getting busted(which ended with the jumper sustaining 2 shattered heels), and the stories of the clothes that they had shredded going through barbwire (whether climbing up or falling down).
Their stories revealed the passion that they had for graffiti, no matter what injuries they sustained or how many times they were nearly bagged they still kept doing it; they did not do it for the fame or for the money they did it because for what ever reason they loved it.
The passion that they showed in their graphing and also their rapping ( remember I said that they could be called B boys ), in my opinion, is what is missing from rap these days(by rap I mean the mainstream rap that helps shape the stereotype of any black person in America). There is no real passion for it, no one does it because they love it, they do it for the money. This is the main reason why I am looking foward to hearing the new kanye west cd it is because he is the only truely mainstream mc, except maybe nas, who really seems like he makes music out of a love for making music. I hope that soon we see more mainstream artists like kanye or the two graph artists/rappers, artists who rap because they love it.
I had gone to the BX to smoke the finest sticky icky that I have ever smoked, haze if you wanted to know the name, and was carrying a backpack full of beer. When i got there I proceeded to do what I had waited 4 days to do... get fucked up. The people who I was chilling with were friends of a friend of mine, and as we watched LeBron's Jordan comparisons come to a sad end we were joined by two people I had not met before. They seemed as anxious as I was to be in an altered mind state so after drinking some beers they went off to the liquor store to get some E&J.
When they got back, they got fucked up and took it upon themselves to to school the non-New Yorkers on what we had missed out on by not having been lucky enough to have been born in the BX. They told us about trips to Manhattan where they racked everything from Cristal to a giant bottle of hennesy from liquor stores, they also told us about trips to local parks while using shrooms, and they told us about drunken tagging treks that they had taken.
The tales of drunken tagging trips turned into their tales of their regular tagging. They grew more and more enthusiastic about describing their various escapades and the damage that they sustained during those escapades. I heard a story about a guy who always took too long on his tags but never got caught, a story about one of them jumping off a 2 story roof to avoid getting busted(which ended with the jumper sustaining 2 shattered heels), and the stories of the clothes that they had shredded going through barbwire (whether climbing up or falling down).
Their stories revealed the passion that they had for graffiti, no matter what injuries they sustained or how many times they were nearly bagged they still kept doing it; they did not do it for the fame or for the money they did it because for what ever reason they loved it.
The passion that they showed in their graphing and also their rapping ( remember I said that they could be called B boys ), in my opinion, is what is missing from rap these days(by rap I mean the mainstream rap that helps shape the stereotype of any black person in America). There is no real passion for it, no one does it because they love it, they do it for the money. This is the main reason why I am looking foward to hearing the new kanye west cd it is because he is the only truely mainstream mc, except maybe nas, who really seems like he makes music out of a love for making music. I hope that soon we see more mainstream artists like kanye or the two graph artists/rappers, artists who rap because they love it.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Blogspot messed up
The title that was here was for a possible post that I wrote a draft to and deleted.
peace
peace
RIP Stack Bundles
AHH.com announced today that Stack Bundles was murdered early this morning. I really do not want to believe that Hip Hop has lost another talented soldier, but I would like to send my condolences out to his family.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
New York, New York
I've been in New York for 5 days now
the things I've learned
1. If you think it's the right train don't get off especially if you're drunk and it's 3 am.
2. The signs on the columns at pacific-atlantic stop say pacific, which is retarded.
3.New York loves J's
4.New York is fly; so fly that I feel like a bum if I don't go out looking Doug E.
What I didn't need to learn about New York
1. It has the best rappers
2.It has the best rappers
3. It has the best rappers
When I say they have the best Rappers I am not referring to the Golden age of hip hop where almost everyone who was rapping was amazingly talented or had amazingly talented ghost writers; I am talking about today right now as I'm writing this. How many NY rappers, who are more talented than 90% of the rappers that have gone platinum in the past 3 years, have been relegated to being mixtape stars? Immediately graph, gravy, nucci reyo, red cafe(questionably), maino, saigon, papoose and jae mills (sai, pap and jae are signed but still haven't released albums which is why I have included them) come to mind. With such a wealth of talent waiting for their shot to become the next Jigga why the fuck did someone sign MIMS. Him getting signed is proof enough that there is a lottery for getting rap deals and i want to know where I can buy my ticket.
Really I want to but out a single which says nothing about me besides that I am a greedy arrogant fuck and have it get 10000000000000 spins then flop, really I do. How is it that even though the lottery system has proven that it will only result in big singles and small sales that it still persists. More importantly it needs to be stopped so that played out songs aren't used in every possible ad to squeeze every possible dollar out of the song, because it is fucking annoying for the listeners who heard the song the trillion times it played thanks to payola.
The real problem is even the Majors are just too stuck in their ways, they still make so much money off mediocre sales of mediocre albums that they do not have to change and so they will will continue to force feed us doo doo raps.
How can we fight the majors, the same way we fight should fight corporations; steal from em, fuck boycotting them that won't help. All those who want to save mainstream hip hop should dl what ever wack album is out, steal 100 cdrs from wal mart, burn the album onto those disks, and then go sell em for 5 dollars. I am not advocating bootlegging, just the bootlegging of wack albums. Hopefully enough wack albums will have such poor sales that they become extinct.
the things I've learned
1. If you think it's the right train don't get off especially if you're drunk and it's 3 am.
2. The signs on the columns at pacific-atlantic stop say pacific, which is retarded.
3.New York loves J's
4.New York is fly; so fly that I feel like a bum if I don't go out looking Doug E.
What I didn't need to learn about New York
1. It has the best rappers
2.It has the best rappers
3. It has the best rappers
When I say they have the best Rappers I am not referring to the Golden age of hip hop where almost everyone who was rapping was amazingly talented or had amazingly talented ghost writers; I am talking about today right now as I'm writing this. How many NY rappers, who are more talented than 90% of the rappers that have gone platinum in the past 3 years, have been relegated to being mixtape stars? Immediately graph, gravy, nucci reyo, red cafe(questionably), maino, saigon, papoose and jae mills (sai, pap and jae are signed but still haven't released albums which is why I have included them) come to mind. With such a wealth of talent waiting for their shot to become the next Jigga why the fuck did someone sign MIMS. Him getting signed is proof enough that there is a lottery for getting rap deals and i want to know where I can buy my ticket.
Really I want to but out a single which says nothing about me besides that I am a greedy arrogant fuck and have it get 10000000000000 spins then flop, really I do. How is it that even though the lottery system has proven that it will only result in big singles and small sales that it still persists. More importantly it needs to be stopped so that played out songs aren't used in every possible ad to squeeze every possible dollar out of the song, because it is fucking annoying for the listeners who heard the song the trillion times it played thanks to payola.
The real problem is even the Majors are just too stuck in their ways, they still make so much money off mediocre sales of mediocre albums that they do not have to change and so they will will continue to force feed us doo doo raps.
How can we fight the majors, the same way we fight should fight corporations; steal from em, fuck boycotting them that won't help. All those who want to save mainstream hip hop should dl what ever wack album is out, steal 100 cdrs from wal mart, burn the album onto those disks, and then go sell em for 5 dollars. I am not advocating bootlegging, just the bootlegging of wack albums. Hopefully enough wack albums will have such poor sales that they become extinct.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Ohhhhhhh shit my first post
Damn, my first post. When I decided i wanted to start a blog I had no idea what I would write about first. I want to do some album reviews, I want to talk about what I think about music, I want to talk about things I experience, and I want to talk about my opinion on the state of the world. Sounds a little pretentious don't it, whatever son.
Now to the actual first post
Over the two weeks I have been out of the bubble that is the small liberal arts college I attend, I was reminded that racism is still breathing even in the most metropolitan and liberal cities.
I spent the last week in Montreal enjoying the it's best aspects, a liberal attitude toward marijuana and a sane drinking age. It all lead up to me spending my final night in a strip club. At some point during that crazy night, like all people who are drinking a lot, I had to take a monster piss; on my way out of the bathroom I witnessed what I thought was going to be a polite gesture when i saw a white 20 something hold the bathroom door open for an asian 20 something. However, I was sadly mistaken, after the asian thanked the caucasian for holding the door open the white guy replies no problem yellow boy.
I was pissed, were I not a black Trinidadian in Canada I probably would have beaten the shit out of the dude. However, fear of both deportation and big ass bouncers caused a quick suppression of that impulse.
The next week i was in Boston chilling by my aunt and trying to find a sublet or room in New York city for the summer. Part of this involved posting my phone number and email address on craigslist and praying for responses. 2 of the responses disturbed me. A 718 number called I picked up and said hello, immediately there was silence then a beep beep beep letting me know I had been hung up on. So I called the number back thinking that the call had been dropped, the phone rang twice and went to the machine. A few hours later I called back again and the outcome was the same, a lil while later the 718 number rang me again and upon hearing my voice hung up. Later I sent a description of myself, specially tailored to appeal to landlords, to someone who had seen my craigslist post. After he received it he suddenly was leaving later on in June. In my description I mentioned that I was Trinidadian and that Trinidad was a Caribbean country, I think that this lead the landlord to jump to the correct conclusion that I was black. My belief that these 2 incidents were due to racism might just be the result of residual paranoia from a week of being stoned senseless combined with my renewed sensitivity to racism on a personal level, which is dulled at school, but in any case the fact that the incidences could be due to the fact that I'm black and the incident that I witnessed in Montreal saddened me.
In a book or academic essay i would have a nice intellectual conclusion at this point, something like race blah blah blah the greatest human tragedy blah blah blah we must change the way we view each other blah blah blah. Fuck that, it wouldn't help. Racism is a way of life in the world, it even exists within races, we aren't gonna defeat it soon so I'll just let you read what I've written thus far and be on your way.
no wait hold on
quick review of fabolous' new album from nothing to something
for a full review go to: http://playda.blogspot.com/
for a dl go to: http://bluntsmoke.blogspot.com/
It doesn't suck, it's full of good punchlines but fab sounds sleepy and it has balls chick songs.
But hey you might like that who knows.
sorry If there are grammatical or spelling errors
Now to the actual first post
Over the two weeks I have been out of the bubble that is the small liberal arts college I attend, I was reminded that racism is still breathing even in the most metropolitan and liberal cities.
I spent the last week in Montreal enjoying the it's best aspects, a liberal attitude toward marijuana and a sane drinking age. It all lead up to me spending my final night in a strip club. At some point during that crazy night, like all people who are drinking a lot, I had to take a monster piss; on my way out of the bathroom I witnessed what I thought was going to be a polite gesture when i saw a white 20 something hold the bathroom door open for an asian 20 something. However, I was sadly mistaken, after the asian thanked the caucasian for holding the door open the white guy replies no problem yellow boy.
I was pissed, were I not a black Trinidadian in Canada I probably would have beaten the shit out of the dude. However, fear of both deportation and big ass bouncers caused a quick suppression of that impulse.
The next week i was in Boston chilling by my aunt and trying to find a sublet or room in New York city for the summer. Part of this involved posting my phone number and email address on craigslist and praying for responses. 2 of the responses disturbed me. A 718 number called I picked up and said hello, immediately there was silence then a beep beep beep letting me know I had been hung up on. So I called the number back thinking that the call had been dropped, the phone rang twice and went to the machine. A few hours later I called back again and the outcome was the same, a lil while later the 718 number rang me again and upon hearing my voice hung up. Later I sent a description of myself, specially tailored to appeal to landlords, to someone who had seen my craigslist post. After he received it he suddenly was leaving later on in June. In my description I mentioned that I was Trinidadian and that Trinidad was a Caribbean country, I think that this lead the landlord to jump to the correct conclusion that I was black. My belief that these 2 incidents were due to racism might just be the result of residual paranoia from a week of being stoned senseless combined with my renewed sensitivity to racism on a personal level, which is dulled at school, but in any case the fact that the incidences could be due to the fact that I'm black and the incident that I witnessed in Montreal saddened me.
In a book or academic essay i would have a nice intellectual conclusion at this point, something like race blah blah blah the greatest human tragedy blah blah blah we must change the way we view each other blah blah blah. Fuck that, it wouldn't help. Racism is a way of life in the world, it even exists within races, we aren't gonna defeat it soon so I'll just let you read what I've written thus far and be on your way.
no wait hold on
quick review of fabolous' new album from nothing to something
for a full review go to: http://playda.blogspot.com/
for a dl go to: http://bluntsmoke.blogspot.com/
It doesn't suck, it's full of good punchlines but fab sounds sleepy and it has balls chick songs.
But hey you might like that who knows.
sorry If there are grammatical or spelling errors
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