So it's 12:30. I just got home. I have to leave again in six hours. So there will be no long rants from me tonight.
In cases like these, I am thinking I will snatch videos that Walta's posted on her facebook page and throw them up for your amusement. She has a rich, albeit eccentric sense of humor. I love it.
This one's getting a lot of spins on youtube, your guide to how to dance at a rave.
Have fun!
I promise I will get back to normal length posts soon.
I discovered this site about a year ago as I was strolling around some message board or other. Anytime I'm in need of instant grounding and amusement, this is one of the places I visit.
For quick reference, Questlove is the drummer and mouthpiece of the Philadelphia hip hop band The Roots. He's been affiliated with a boatload of top-tier hip hop artists (Jay-Z, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Slum Village, Dilated Peoples) over an stellar 20+ year career. For more info on the The Roots, there's no better place online than okayplayer. Go have a look.
A few months ago my homie Marcel sends me a copy of a mixtape from these new southern California rap cats named Pac Div (short for Pacific Division). He says, "You need to check these cats. They for real." I'm like, "That's what's up. I'll get to it."
However, it's no secret to Marcel that I'm notorious for sleeping on new music. If I'm listening to music, I'm usually playing stuff from three or four years ago, if not longer. I think I might have played the Trinity album by Slum Village for an entire year and half. There's something comforting to me about listening to familiar lyrics and instrumentation. I like to rap along with the track, move to musical elements I can anticipate, and search for hidden nuances in established material.
I'm also pretty lazy about putting new stuff on my iPod.
So as I was trying to figure out which emcee(s) I'd like to highlight this month I thought back to that Pac Div mixtape sitting on my desktop. So I unzipped the file, threw it on my Pod, and had a listen on my way to work Tuesday.
Man, am I glad I did. 'Cause these cats are solid.
Pac Div is a hip hop group from Palmdale, California consisting of a pair of brothers, Like and Mibbs, along with their longtime friend BeYoung. Hip hop duos or trios are becoming a rarity in hip hop these days, so it's refreshing to see new groups emerging with a emphasis on collaborative longevity. Usually when I listen to emcees from the west coast, I'm hindered by the difficulty of adjusting to the west coast dialect, which isn't frequently heard in my music catalog. It's a challenge I need to address. I grew up listening to east coast and southern hip hop, so the west coast dialect almost sounds foreign, demanding me to give particular attention to the textual elements of the rhyme.
However, with Pac Div I found it much easier to listen to them without my habitual response to California rappers. Their dialects aren't any less pronounced than most of their west coast counterparts, but the arrangement of their instrumentals coupled with their exceptional lyrical ability allowed me to fall into the pocket of their music in very natural, organic way. I'm sure people in traffic were wondering what had me bobbing my head so hard!
Check out this freestyle session with Pac Div on The World Famous Wake-Up Show with Sway and King Tech. Yea, these cats are ill.
When it's all said and done, Mos Def will be mentioned among figures such as Rakim, Q-Tip, KRS-One, and Kurtis Blow as one of the greatest hip hop artist in the history of the culture.
I can't tell you anything about Mos that you can't already find here. I've never met him so I don't know any inside "scoopage". Even if I did, I wouldn't put it on the internet!
However, what I can say is that I've been listening to this cat since I heard him on the Soundbombing II compilation album in 1999. He did two tracks on that album, "B-Boy Document 1999" with High and Mighty and Skillz, and "Next Universe" produced by Hi-Tek. I was particularly drawn to the former. I've always been a fan of posse cuts (hip hop tracks with more than two emcees). I imagine it's because I love debating about whose verse was the most inventive or impactful. Well on "B-Boy", Mos has the first verse after all the vamp-in material. He comes in:
Mos writes verses that aren't simply a collage of punchlines for superficial effect. He builds them in layers, allowing each image to be propelled by the ones that came before, then landing with both feet on an unexpected epiphany of dopeness. And he does this with such ease and comfort that one could almost miss it. He's never overt, and he doesn't need to be.
Especially when he's doing stuff as fresh as this:
CAIRO — Heavy gunfire resounded around Cairo's Tahrir Square early Thursday as the battle between allies and foes of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak entered a second day.
At least three people were killed when supporters of the beleaguered leader opened fire, witnesses said, but reports varied and could not be confirmed.
Late Wednesday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement telling any Americans remaining in Egypt who wish to leave on a government flight to "report to airport immediately" and that "further delay is not advisable." It said government flights after Thursday "are unlikely."
I only have one thing to say about all this stuff going on in Egypt.
All you political extremists out there in America-land pay attention.
If you check the facts (have a look at this), this guy deserves to be compared to this guy much more than this guy does, or even this one. Which is why this is going on.
And that's what the real blood of tyrants looks like.
I'm heading to bed in 20 minutes. So this will be quick.
On my way home, I'm listening to my local NPR station WHYY 91FM and on comes this show called Studio360. They were promoting a new book based on the show called Spark, which tells the stories of artists from various disciplines and what inspires their work and process. The conversation shifted to an interesting question; is there a formula to someone becoming an artist?
How does one know s/he wants to be an artist? Are there common events in the early stages of artists' lives that may be the catalyst to create? If so, what are they? Are they traumatic events? Are they uplifting ones? A little of both?
