Hallelujah Holla Back

I really wish I didn't like the white rapper show so much. Serch is a jackass.

There's been a lot of folks writing about Dilla lately, with it being a year since his death and all. Of all the stuff I've read, the one that stands out the most was posted by Talib Kweli almost a year ago (stumbled on by way of ninoy brown). Check it out here, it's definitely worth a read.

Spine Magazine had a video up the other day with a young lookin Nas on stage with Biggie, as introduced by Movin' on Yo Left, Mr. Mef. That video was cool and all, but it's still not my favorite Biggie Internet moment. That would be this one. It's crazy how he sounds exactly the same, but looks like such a kid.

And while we're talking about sidewalk freestyles,

et en français

Further proof that Jay Z won...

So after becoming Nas's boss, Jay decided that Nas could do his hooks for him. You won't see them onstage going into "The World Is Yours". Granted that wouldn't make sense, since just Nas is on that track and both Nas and Jay are on "Dead Presidents II", but come on let's not split hairs here. Nas is doing his bitch work. It's like the equivalent of getting Coffee. I'm sure Nas is handling Beyonce's dry-cleaning on the side.


DISCLAIMER: Illmatic is still better than Reasonable Doubt.

Nas, Nasty Nas

A while back I wrote a short piece on a couple of my favorite collaborations in recent history, the first one mentioned being Nas' appearance on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Recently, I've had my ears opened up to a Damian Marley song featuring Mr. Escobar and I have to say that it too rules. Personally, I prefer Damian Marley's voice when it's a bit more on the singing side than the rapping side (not to say I don't love the shit out of "jamrock"). The beat is smooth with a nice ambient feel, with some nice Ella crooning laced in there.

"Road to Zion" feat. Nas by Damian Marley

Just a reminder, time's running out to get your tickets for Wu Tang...

and i've returned

Well, it's been a little while, so I have quite a bit to catch up on.

Central Park Summerstage

starring:
DJ Rekha, Jean Grae, Pete Rock, and Lady Sovereign

First off, let's talk about DJ Rekha. Now, I don't know a whole lot about South Asian music, but apparently I was watching one of the pioneers of New York's South Asian music scene. She spun a lot of hip hop, while this guy played the drums over the beat.

They were joined onstage by this guy whose name I didn't catch, but according to DJ Rekha he went on tour with Punjabi MC, but "he's not Punjabi MC, he's better than Punjabi MC!" So yeah, then they proceeded to play Punjabi MC and have this guy sing/rap. I'm not sure why he wouldn't do his own music, but I guess the Jay-Z song has the recognition factor. Anyway, he was awesome. Rekha did two sets, both of which included her really cute stage dancers

and the second set had a breakdancer too.

So yeah, after DJ Rekha's first set, Jean Grae came out with DJ ID and did her thing. She mentioned at one point that ID had just won a DJ contest and one of the results was he got to DJ for her at this concert. For two people who had admittedly never performed together, they had really good stage chemistry.

Grae had the whole crowd banter thing down pretty well, my favorite gem being, "so there's a lot of people with their children here today, that's fucking cool.", and man that is one broad that can flow. She ended her set with a song that included some rapping and some singing, and to my surprise she had a decent set of pipes. The song was about screwing around with somebody and leading em on while they're falling in love with you, I mean who doesn't enjoy that? If people didn't enjoy it, the crowd wouldn't have been singing along and two-stepping in unison. So after Jean Grae stepped off the stage and after DJ Rekha's second set, out came Pete Rock, along with his hypeman / brother.

Pete Rock was all over the place, he was spinning stuff he produced, he was scratching, he was rapping, he was shouting out J Dilla, he was spinning random songs he didn't produce, he was just all over. He even brought up the split between him and CL Smooth, not going into details but just saying that he wished him the best of luck and that sometimes people need to grow the fuck up. He then remarked, "and we're still gonna perform this track, cuz I made the damn beat," then he tore it up. Basically what I'm saying is that Pete Rock should've been the headliner, he totally ran with the momentum that Jean Grae and DJ Rekha gave him and he had the crowd in the palm of his hand. He even got them dancing in unison again. Then came Lady Sov.

Now, the last time I saw Sov I had a blast, but this was another story completely. First off, her DJ seemed to be experiencing some kind of technical difficulty. At the knitting factory this spring, he was spinning grime records and his set was nasty. This time, he was mixing in Mike Jones and other American stuff, poorly, and with the technical difficulties, it just did not sound that great. So then, Sov came out and the crowd seemed to be into it, but I would be lying if I said I was feeling it. I mean, all day, people were on stage preaching positivity and such, then this brat gets on stage and asks, "hey so who likes alcohol???" I mean, it just didn't mesh. She did a terribly short set before dropping the mic and storming off stage, then came back for one quick encore song. She came off as a complete diva, which I kind of got a hint of last time I saw her, and her song selection didn't fit with the musical vibe of the day at all. She was still cute as hell though. So that, along with blunts and $6 cups of Stella, was Summerstage.

Then last night, I got to check out Ziggy Marley, but I forgot to bring my camera to that one. It's too bad too, since we were within arm's length of Ziggy at any given moment, and my camera's zoom isn't so great.

It was some kind of showcase for EMI records, but through some tomfoolery, 3 of my friends and I got onto the list and made our way into the private show to enjoy the music and the free open bar. I have to admit that I'm not really familiar with Ziggy Marley's music, beyond knowing that the name of his band is The Melody Makers. I really enjoyed his set though, even if it was a little on the shorter side. Now we went to the show it'd be okay to smoke at, since c'mon, he's Bob Marley's son. Then once we got there, we saw that the crowd was all industry folks and everyone was kinda having just one beer and being business like, as opposed to us, red stripe in one hand, mixed drink in the other. Somehow we got away with smoking a blunt next to the bar though, even though there weren't even any cigarette smokers there. Then we ended up going to an outdoor showing of Cruel Intentions, my friend made out with the EMI hostess who looked like M.I.A., we met Janene Garafolo, and everything else is a little blurry. Oh yeah, the music. Ziggy Marley is good, everyone should buy his new CD, but honestly I don't even know what it's called.

Oh and another thing

I've always maintained that I'm a bigger Nas fan than Jay-Z fan. Now that may no longer be true, but the reality remains that even when it was true, I always said "The Takeover" is a better song than "Ether". First of all, the beat for "Takeover" is immeasurably more hardcore than the beat for "Ether". Not that Jay made the beat, but still, Nas shouldn't have been satisfied with the "Ether" beat if he knew what he was shooting back at. But even if you don't consider the production, "The Takeover" is just a far more scathing song. Jay hints at screwing Nas's ex wife, Nas mentions that Jay uses a lot of Biggie lines in his songs. Ooooh, touche Nas. Anyway, when all was said and done and the buried the hatchet, they emerged as equal men.

Oh wait, no that's right, Hov is Nas's boss. If you're the one running to fetch the coffee every morning, my belief is that you got schooled.

Also, at work one day this week I found two big racks of cassette tapes in a back room somewhere. I ganked "DJ Joints Wu World:The Mix imperial" and a D.J. Kayslay mixtape that I don't even think has a title on it. I'll post up some tracks from them within the next week, right now I don't have a tape deck hooked into my computer. The Wu-Tang mix is pretty terrible, at least side A is. The Kayslay mix isn't as bad, but it's weird to hear him rap. He should not do that ever. That same day I picked up The Hard Way by Long Beach supergroup 213, for 2 dollars.

Such a good buy. There's a lot of cool production on the record, with a track by Kanye West, a DJ Hi-Tek track, Missy Elliot, and others that I've decided to leave out so I can type less. The Kanye track was up on Soul Sides just a little while ago, so it's the only one I have on my computer at the moment.

"Another Summer" by 213

I may talk a lot of smack on West Coast rap, but Snoop Doggy Dogg, Nate Dogg, and Warren G have the ability to make me forget all that.

And with that longwinded splooge of a post, I have returned.

you're so LAAAAAAME!!!!!!

Arguing between Nas's "Ether" and Jay-Z's "Takeover" is the most futile music discussion ever. Whatever side you are on (even if it is the wrong one) you will not change your opinion no matter how much convincing the other person tries. Let me say for the record that I am a "Takeover" guy and I am pretty sure that Green Hornet will back me. The reason I am thinking about this argument is that I was reading this list done by the blog Psychedelic Kimchi. I know it's just one guy's opinion, but check what song is at number 2 and guess what song isn't even there. It's a pretty good read all around though. Check it out:

Psychedelic Kimchi's Top Ten Hip-Hop Diss Tracks


Here are the songs

Takeover - Jay-z

Ether - Nas


It's not just the fantastic Kanye beat with the Bowie sample on "Takeover" that makes it better. It's not just the fact that the beat for "Ether" (a song that I actually don't hate as much as it might seem) really takes a good idea and beats it into the ground. It's more about the fact that on Takeover, Jay-z makes you feel like he owns Nas. He isn't just spitting insults: he is better, he knows it, and he wants you to know it. Got it? Good. Cuz after he gets rid of all foes worth getting rid of, he goes back to what he does best, which is 11 tracks of extreme narcissism (a.k.a. the rest of the fantastic The Blueprint).

Also

Lisa Bonet and Marisa Tomei together on the show Different World might be too hot for television. They are foxes.

Also

This guy recently started a blog where the whole point is for him to predict, based on hype and pure instinct, what pitchforkmedia.com will give an album. I love the idea as me and my friends play this game all the time. It's not as tough as it should be and so far this guy has been coming fairly close. Here's the link:

That's Mr. Tower (predictfork.blogspot.com)



The 9:00 show is completely different from the 7:00 show, enjoy the veal, goodnight everybody!!!

5 Great Guest Appearances

So like with the last list I posted, this songs are in no order of importance and I'm not even going to say that these are the best guest appearances ever, although they could be up there. These are just 5 great moments in recent musical history where a meeting of the minds occurred.

1. Nas Escobar joins the ranks of the Wu-Gambinos

It's generally agreed that Nas is at his best on Illmatic. Some may disagree, trust me friends, those folks have incorrect opinions. So we have Nas jumping in the ring on a personal favorite, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Honestly it's sort of ridiculous to think it wouldn't be awesome. Raekwon, Tony Starks, and freaking Nas. It's just great. The mostly incoherent speaking whispered over the track is so damn tension building.

"Verbal Intercourse" feat. Nas and Ghostface by Raekwon the Chef

2. some eerie foreshadowing of things to come

Before there was the Postal Service, there was Dntel and there was Death Cab. Now I'm not going to claim to like Death Cab for Cutie, because I don't, but when frontman Ben Gibbard decided to lend his voice to a track on Jimmy Tamborello's Dntel album, the result was aaaawesome. As much as I enjoy the Postal Service, this pre-postal service collaboration between the two men ranks far higher in my own personal favorites.

"(this is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" by Dntel

3. The title really says it all for me.

Brooklyn's finest indeed. Even if there weren't two rap giants on this track, that piano is so goddamn head-bop inducing. It's so refreshing to hear Biggie duet with someone while he's actually living.

"Brooklyn's Finest" feat. Biggie Smalls by Jay Z

4. It's kind of like Tiny Toon Adventures

I've always liked Rilo Kiley. So when I read that Jenny Lewis was covering the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle with Care" on her solo album, I thought that could be cool. I've always enjoyed the Traveling Wilburys, since I'm not a fool. I especially enjoy a good guest appearance, so when I heard that Conor Oberst-and some less important friends-were going to be joining Ms. Lewis on the track, I thought that'd be pretty cool. It's like their own little junior wilburys. And although I will sarcastically agree and sincerely disagree with folks who tout Oberst as the next Bob Dylan, it's fun to hear him foam out the dylan / tom petty vocals.

"Handle with Care" covered by Jenny Lewis with Conor Oberst, that guy in the postal service, and someone else.



5. Veronica Spector is so money and she doesn't even know it.

Apparently Madonna once said that, "Ronnie Spector sounds: sexy, hungry, totally trashy." So if you couldn't guess, I have one more reason to think Madonna sucks. She's lucky there'll always be "Like a Prayer." So sexy and hungry would both be completely accurate to describe Spector's vocals, but totally trashy is waaay outta line. I sort of have a tendency to always talk about how this is the greatest recorded pop song of all time, but just listen to "be my baby". Spector's voice is anything but trashy. Her voice drips longing and desire, but it's too pure to be trashy. Trashy doesn't do it justice. Anyways my point here is that she has one of the most stirring voices in the world of pop music and only a performer of her caliber could make a star out of one Edward Money.

Think about it this way, isn't it exciting that the angel from the Ronettes got to grace the charts one more time? Besides that, you show me a man who doesn't sing along to this song when he's in his car, and I'll show you either a liar or a person who doesn't happen to be in the car when "Take Me Home Tonight" comes on. That's right, the final song in this installment of Cigar-Box guitars is

"Take me Home Tonight" featuring Ronnie Spector by Eddie Money.

eddie freaking money.