Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Shoot At You Actors Like Movie Directors

Last week, I saw that Sickamore posted evidence from TSG confirming that rapper Rick Ross (born William Roberts) worked as a Correctional Officer at age 19. I didn't really care about it, but the news quickly sprouted shock and pubic outrage across the Urban world... apparently, an artist lying about details of their past is a new concept. Then, I saw that J.D. had posted an AllHipHop interview with the former drug kingpin whose name was assumed by Roberts as his rap alias. While the still-incarcerated criminal "Ricky Ross" now regrets "the actions that helped destroy his community," rapper Rick Ross has capitalized on glorifying similar illegal activities. Since I found that hypocrisy to be strange, I started to look at the CO controversy more closely. Although the naysayers appear united within their overwhelmingly negative reactions to the incident, my research showed me that their opinions on the issue are actually very widespread...

BELIEVERS VS. NON-BELIEVERS
If the allegations are true and Ross is denying being a CO, most people think it makes him look really silly. Just admit you were a CO ten years ago, and keep it moving! The evidence appears to be pretty strong against him, so his denial is only digging a hole and alienating fans who may not have cared in the first place, and as Caniba said: "When you try hard, you die hard © Kanye West." Other folks -perhaps die-hard Rawse fans- refuse to believe that their hustling inspiration could be a phony. I feel bad for those people.

LETTING THE GOONS DOWN
Some guys I know (who regard themselves as being "official," AKA knowledgeable of the drug game) are upset that Ross' lyrical claims may not be legit. They now consider him a "lame" for over-exagerating (and possibly faking) his reputation in the game. According to Shamz from OKP, "it just really shows you where we are as a society and (as) hip hop fans when we shun rappers for being upstanding members of their communities and not being real criminals." A few people mentioned that having associations with law enforcement and the DOC strips Ross of his thug image, while others asserted that it's the perfect cover to play both sides of the field.

ENTERTAINMENT VS. REALITY
A lot of people (like me) were completely unphased by this news. In the entertainment industry, most of this shit is in an artist's marketing plan anyway, so of course there's always room for lyrical fabrication. Ross, however, is way past his young and impressionable years, so he should probably know better than to filter negative content onto the masses. Someone I spoke to even went as far as to compare him to a politician getting indicted... you shake your head at it, but ultimately, you're not surprised.

DID HE EVEN SELL DRUGS AT ALL?
The big kahuna issue: This little CO stint on his resume raises the question of whether or not Ross ever dealt drugs at all. If not, then his lyrics and "boss" image are obviously null and void for his listeners. But if, hypothetically, he did sell drugs, people are then wondering when he started. Was it prior to working in the prison? Did he stop and try to become legit, only to have the game calling him back? Did he witness something while working in that industry that turned him off and made him look to crime? Do you care?!

IF HE DID SELL DRUGS, DID HE NEED TO?
Byron Crawford said "Rick Ross didn't deal drugs to escape the ghetto. He was escaping the middle class." Out of all the reasons that make people upset about this CO outing, this one is the most interesting to me. Because it's been proven that Ross had the CO day job, a few folks I asked were annoyed that he may have turned to drugs. While many agrued that hustling is free to all classes of society, others frowned upon doing so unless it's for survival- especially if the substance is more severe in it's societal destruction (marijuana vs. crack, for example). So I ask you, if overcoming poverty is no longer the main motivation of a drug dealer, does that reckless, Billy The Kid street cred disappear from his image?

Since the opinions are all over the place, I wanted to make sure my perspective was on point, so I polled 10 hip hop-heads before I wrote this post. Their contributions were very helpful, so thanks to Caniba, Blount, Kels, Verse, Mega, Henroc, AC, Couture, TwinAlpha, and Shamz.

I wish more people would realize that this whole incident has touched upon a bigger issue in Hip Hop than "street cred." Rick Ross didn't betray me because I never took him seriously as an "artist" in the first place. As fans, we need to start looking closer at our favorite MCs, and ask ourselves (1) why we like them and (2) if we believe their content. Maybe it's a RAP VS. HIP HOP issue, or an ENTERTAINMENT VS. ART issue, but as long as the music's hot, I don't care what these dudes rap about. It's a business- they're here to make music that makes them money, so they can assume whatever identity they choose. I don't agree with it, but if their life and personality aren't prolific enough to keep us engaged in their art, then of course they'll go the contrived route (and I'm not even addressing all the ghostwriting that doesn't make it to the liner notes.) BUT, if a whistle gets blown in their REAL LIFE (ahem, William Roberts, aka Rick Ross!), I think the only option is to fess up and admit the truth, however contradictory it may seem.

SHAMZ: it's real interesting as well when you listen to some of the responses other rappers have been giving when they're asked about this whole thing, they're VERY careful with how they answer, knowing damn well they might have some skeletons in their closet
ZILLA: i hope its dominoes

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

If You Look At The Streets, It Wasn't About Rodney King...

You may have heard/seen this already, but if not, please watch this video of a PIG throwing an innocent cyclist off his bike the other night during a Critical Mass ride...

Caught on tape, MF. And the dude wasn't wearing a helmet!

NY Post article HERE.

Sublime's "April 29, 1992" comes to mind...
"...It's this f*cked-up situation and these f*cked-up police."

Monday, July 28, 2008

I Call a Spade a Spade, It Just Is What It Is...

I went to the Yankee game last Tuesday night with one of my favorite people.

Sick seats, as demonstrated by this blackberry photo :)

After the game, I hopped on the train to head home. As the doors behind me closed, an African American man standing next to me made a quick remark about the 4 Asian kids stranded on the platform, saying SARCASTICALLY "
it's so easy to tell them apart from each other." His words caused me to glance back at the kids for fresher a frame of reference, and it wasn't until then that I even noticed they were Asian. His remark isn't even important right now; but him then uncomfortably announcing "I'm allowed to make jokes like that" immediately after is.

Now... there's a 90% chance I would have done what I did next regardless, but I think it's important to note that I've been listening to way too much Nas. That, and I had also just caught the video below within a day or so, so I was extra inspired...

Jay Smooth:
How To Tell People They Sound Racist

I took a minute to gather my thoughts before I politely said excuse me to the gentleman in question (who, FYI, was very clean-cut, early-40s, wearing khakis and a pink polo). I asked him if he would mind explaining what he meant in saying he was allowed to make those kind of jokes. He greeted my question openly, and with a pleasant tone... It was then that I noticed he was not traveling alone; his son (maybe 12-13) was standing beside him. Since we've all heard the ignorant, Western generalization that all Asians look the same, I'm sure you already know what this guy really meant. And although he's not the worst kind of biggot, saying what he said in a public setting (and in front of his kid!) isn't really acceptable.

Without hesitation, he asserted the rule that minorities are allowed to make fun of each other, and asked me to understand the humor in the Asian kids all having a similar look (Funny, I thought that rule only applied when you're in the same racial "category").
In his defense, 3 out of 4 of them were wearing glasses with extremely similar frames, but the "they" in his initial remark wasn't directed at "people with glasses," it was directed at Asians, and the excuse he made post-joke proved that. But no one would have known the difference if he didn't guiltily follow-up, flashing his minority hall pass, claiming he was allowed to do it. It's like a game of Texas Hold'em: Instead of bluffing, the dude teared up and showed everyone on the train how bad his hand was. He left me with no choice... I'm going all in, and I'm gonna win.

"I don't care WHAT HE IS,
but I need to hold him accountable for WHAT HE DID."

Jay Smooth would probably want me to be direct and tell the guy that what he SAID was somewhat racist... but in the end, I wound up taking it easy on him. Instead, I demonstrated to him the difference between racist people and racist remarks, indirectly alerting him of his blunder. I think he got the message, especially since he lost his composure and got less and less articulate as the conversation progressed, possibly because I'd glance over at his son periodically for more effect:) And I assure you: this is only the first installment of Lacezilla's racism project. Stay tuned!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Wrote My Initials With The Crobar



Jazmine Sullivan's performance in the office 2 weeks ago knocked my socks off. She really feels the lyrics as she belts them out. And besides, when I told her "Your voice is beautful," she told me, "Your hair is beautiful." I may have blushed :) Pause.
Teema and I were addicted to the snippet for a while, but WOW... enjoy all of it.





I first discovered Lloyd in 2004 while I was interning at Atlantic. Something about his voice (maybe because he can sound like Michael?) really captured me, so I took the time to live with Southside, and wound-up loving it. So when Street Love dropped last year, I spent time with that record as well. Naturally, I had to carry on tradition with Lessons in Love, and it didn't disappoint me. I like a lot of the tracks, but this might be my favorite:

LISTEN: "I'm Wit It"


This is old news, 
but I can't get Radiohead's "House Of Cards" out of my brain:

On top of that, the video was made in such an unconventional fashion, I'm forced to post it. They apparently used lasers, and Pitchfork did a great job explaining how it all worked.



Kenna added a picture to his MySpace page. I know, it's not really news, but..... oww. I guess I'll give you a song of his to go with the rest of today's layout. This is a great track off Make Sure They See My Face...







Before I even read Luis's explanation for it, I played Britney's new song that he posted on PMA. Even though it was "strikingly similar" in content to Madonna's "She's Not Me," I thought it was actually better than Madge's and said to myself:  "this is how Britney should sound." After I heard it, I realized that Luis had made the same comments in the caption. Love that.





Wednesday, July 23, 2008

What About What I Need?

It's almost absurd how much I love them...
Gnarls Barkley "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"
Blown away. But I have to ask... 
How come I have to see Gnarls videos on MTV before I get them from Boz? :(

I can't wait to see these guys at Lollapalooza.

Yup. In 2 weeks, I'll get to...
√ Meet Chi City for the first time
√ Catch up with great friends
√ Watch my favorite artists perform for 3 days.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

When I Arrive, I Bring The Fire


Gabriella Cilmi has a big voice for a 16-year-old Australian.
Her song "Sweet About Me" is already sassy, but the video makes it even better...
Apparently she's doing really well overseas... we'll see how it goes over here.


I caught Matt Pinfield's show this morning on 101.9 RXP. He was interviewing Chris Cornell (formerly of Soundgarden and Audioslave - remember "Black Hole Sun" back when MTV was great?)
You've probably heard that Chris is now making music with Timbaland. If you want to wrap your mind around it, the tracks are up on RXP's website. I think I'm going to like the album, but I can't decide if the dude is selling out on his roots, or just pulling a Madonna to keep up with the kids...




is a new artist off Cash Money/Universal Republic.

His record with Lil' Wayne is called "Let It Rock" - you can listen to it HERE. It's pretty wavy for pure pop, and since his resume is solid, I think he might hit us with some fire.




I was sick all weekend, so I missed Santogold and Kid Cudi at Summerstage :( Since I couldn't produce on my own, here's someone else's footage that I scraped off Youtube:



In more recent news, The Sun (UK) reported on Blake's sentence:

Everyone wonders why Amy Winehouse is destroying herself... but it's pretty clear to me. Look what LOVE does to people!!!
And now that she doesn't have him, she's even more of a mess... SMH.


I couldn't have dreamt this one up...
My live show wet dream of 2008 arrives on Sunday:
MGMT and The Ting Tings at McCarren Park Pool!

This sweet BK venue is where I first saw Bloc Party a few years ago :)


But on a more serious note...
Tomorrow at 2pm, NaS is joining MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org
in submitting a petition to FOX, asking them to STOP their racist propaganda.
I hope it goes well. I'm sure the counter-attack will be interesting...

Monday, July 21, 2008

If Your Mother Only Knew...

Alison, my best friend since birth, introduced me to Rahzel in 9th grade...

LISTEN TO: "If Your Mother Only Knew"

That shit blew me away as a youngster!

So when I went to see Thriving Ivory at Mercury tonight, you can only imagine my utter astonishment when the lead singer of this ROCK BAND decided to showcase his BEAT-BOXING abilities...
He starts off singing...
Then beat-boxes...
Sings more...
Then there's a craaaazy guitar solo...
Transitioning into "Stairway to Heaven."

WATCH THIS ENTIRE CLIP...

My jaw was on the fucking floor.
He beat-boxes AND sounds like Robert Plant?!? STFU.
In case I didn't make it clear last time, I still LOVE him.


Ali's currently in Mozambique with the Peace Corps.
I miss her a lot.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

I'd Rather Laugh With The Sinners Than Cry With The Saints

I went to Billy Joel's last concert at Shea on Friday night.
My footage kind of sucks, but I try!

"Only The Good Die Young" was a really amazing song to me when I younger... my aunt Virgina passed away before I was born, so the fact that he's singing to a "Virginia" always made it crazy and personal for me...


For "New York State of Mind," he brought out Tony Bennett:

Steven Tyler made an appearance:


Roger Daltrey of The Who (will post footage later)

And although Billy always closes with "Piano Man":


This time, he let Sir Paul McCartney close the show...


I wasn't really raised on The Beatles (or The Who for that matter)... I was more of an Eric Clapton/Zeppelin/Crosby, Stills & Nash/Janis Joplin girl. That said, I don't think I ever expected to see Paul McCartney live... But I'm not mad that it happened. And I also got "The Entertainer" footage... HERE.

Read the AP article on the show HERE.

Friday, July 18, 2008

What Will You Get It Up For?

If you like M.I.A.
and you also like Santogold
...then you'll enjoy their NEW track, "Get It Up" (courtesy of PMA)
Gorilla Zoe over some Native American-sounding chants?!? I love these girls!


And I've been patiently waiting for this since May... 
Robin Thicke's video for "Magic":


Love; but I definitely saw a lot of Michael Jackson's video visuals in this...

The glowing, green light from "Rock With You"
The dancing suits from "Smooth Criminal"
The glitter from "Can You Feel It"
Maybe I just saw Moonwalker too many times???
Either way, all hail the King of Pop for still being the illest.


Thursday, July 17, 2008

Open Up Your Heart And You Will Understand Me


I first heard about the term
Blog House on Hipster Runoff. Please watch the Current TV video below (or go HERE if you can't view Flash!)... they use it to explain how the (for lack of a better word) "genre" came about:
In addition to listing artists and weighing-in on whether or not they qualify as Blog House, Carles from Hipster Runoff also asked the "burning question:" JUST BC U PARTICIPATE IN THE REMIX ECONOMY, ARE YOU BLOG HOUSE? He then ended his rant with a poignant paragraph:
Anyways, BLOGS are great for finding new music, and reading the opinions of people who don't even matter (just like U!). Love all yall blogs, whether or not yall are creating blog house bands or not. Just as long as the music is free, and the content stream is consistent, that's all any1 rlly wants. Whether it is on the radio or on some sillie internet site or even inside of your local RCRD Store, we are all just trying to meet the needs of consumers. Good thing blogs don't write 2 much and appeal to the attention span of Generation Y. Love yall for buying so much stuff and being a demographic that advertisers want 2 reach.
His post (and Stereogum's, and Smoking Section's) sent my mind tumbling down a rabbit hole of music evolution. If Blog House can exist, then other hybrid genres of music must also be growing in the blogosphere's Garden of Eden. For example...

If there is Blog House,
isn't there also Blog Hip Hop?

I think so. And because these genres have already started merging, the post-structuralist nerd in me can't wait to see what happens to "formats" in the music industry. Let's hope for category Armageddon, shall we?



He's indie with mainstream support, but his music is shared and remixed on blogs, so Kid Cudi might be an example of Blog Hip Hop.

I just checked out his mixtape release party for A Kid Named Cudi tonight, and had a blast with Jen and Alex :) It's really dark, but here's Cudi performing "Day N Nite"


Photos from the event:





Blog Hip Hop aside, one of my favorite finds (admittedly, more mainstream than not) out of what I would consider the Blog House era is Hercules and Love Affair.

Their video for "Blind" has been around for awhile:


Also fiery is their song and video for "You Belong":

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I Just Burnt My American Flag...

Last week, I came across the August issue of Paste.


Since I've been thinking about getting into international music lately, I was amped to read all the juicy articles inside. Cover to cover, this wonderful publication served it's purpose, and enlightened me on all the global heat out there. Like Carrie said in Sex and The City about Vogue, I literally spent my time reading it instead of eating... "it fed me more." I love you, Paste. Truly, I do.


Interestingly enough, one of the articles was on Emmanuel Jal, the Sudanese child soldier who I blogged about in May after I saw his film "War Child" at the Tribeca Film Festival. In true organic, coincidental, Labyrinth form, I received a related article this week from a new friend:

Sudan's president was charged for genocide in Darfur.
Read the article HERE. Thanks to Derrick, who spells his name in a really cool way.

Beyond Africa...
L-Boogie came back from 2 weeks in China recently, so I wanted to discuss some of her cultural observations and post her photos (I mean, I've never been to China). And then, magically, I stumbled upon an article on Chinese text messaging. I happen to be in an interesting text message squabble myself, so clearly, this is all meant to be... 
"Graylin says the Chinese have a hard time expressing deeply personal emotions. A text message allows them to do it without bumping up against old cultural norms."

"So far, text messaging is beyond the reach of China's infamous government censors. Internet dissident Yu Jie says activists use text messages to organize protests."

Read the article HERE, and take a look at Boogie's photos: