Monday, August 20, 2007

Hip-Hop Is Annoying



Ahhh shit, Ras Kass brings some fire after hiding for a cool minute.

Ras Kass - Hip-Hop Is Annoying

Unrelated:


Wow, they took us back 20 years and have an instructional video to help you do it too!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Bill O'Reilly is stupid



Really, so dude gets a gun conviction and that means he's unfit to understand what gun violence can do and help the victims heal? Last time I checked, his boy Ill Will got shot and killed before he got his deal and he's been dealing with that for a while and even named his record label after him. Yeah, some of his songs are about violence, but it's for an audience that has to deal with it, do you think dudes going to come out on stage and perform Got Yourself A Gun and flash heaters to the audience and shit? Jeez, just admit you're in the KKK already so we don't have to act surprised every time you pull some shit like this. (see: Ludacris and Pepsi)

Sunday, August 12, 2007

2007 Rock The Bells Review



This was the first year I was able to attend Rock The Bells since I've wanted to go starting in about 2004. RTB is a festival hailed as the premiere hip-hop event of the year, but I think this year you wouldn't have been able to tell that by looking at the crowd. I'll go ahead and make the assumption that at previous installments of this concert you would have seen cyphers, b-boy circles, and everyone in the crowd would be mesmerized almost all day. This however, was not the case at the 2007 RTB.

See, this year Rage Against The Machine (a popular uber-liberal rock band) headlined the festival along with the Wu-Tang Clan, and it was sort of a big deal to fans of RATM considering they seem to be just getting back together for performances. That having been said, most of the crowd (I'll say at least 65%) came to see RATM and seemed impartial, if not entirely uninterested, in all the hip-hop that was playing for the rest of the day. Yes, they got hype when Cypress Hill, Wu-Tang and I daresay even a little so when Public Enemy hit the stage; but it just doesn't feel like a hip-hop festival when Nas gets on stage with The Roots and nobody really seems to notice.

Now, I don't have a problem with rock or it's fans, but when most of the crowd of the consists of such, it takes away the essence of the festival that made it the "genuine rite of passage for thousands of core, social, conscious, and independent Hip Hop enthusiasts, backpackers, and heads." Therein lies my problem with RTB, it was a damn good festival, but it wasn't really a hip-hop festival, more like "Rage Against The Machine and hip-hop friends".

That being said, most of the sets were dope anyways. I managed to be within 100 feet of the stage during Immortal Tech (pretty good), Pharoahe Monch (live and soulful) and half of EPMD (just boring) and relatively close during the rest. Public Enemy rocked the house and showed up with more energy than almost all the other emcees that were way younger than themselves. Talib Kweli and Mos Def held it down but didn't really have too much enthusiasm. Murs got a slot on the main stage when Mos Def came late as fuck, and did his thing considering how impromptu it really was.

However, it brings to mind another slight downfall of RTB, and that is how unorganized and crowded it was, or seemed at least. Lines were long as FUCK (an HOUR to get food? Come on.) and sets weren't on time or were pretty much skipped entirely (like Nas, of all people -_-) and for the life of me I only saw ONE Paid Dues stage, not two.

In the end, it was a great festival, I just wish that next year it sticks to it's roots as a Hip-Hop festival, no matter how much more money a set by RATM might bring the promoters. With better organization, this festival would have been everything my high-as-fuck expectations imagined.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Kanye is shook



Kanye responded to Beanie Sigel implying he's gay and damn, Ye look's scared. I respect the fact that everything he said is real, but dude's saying it looking scared that Beans is going to kick down the door and smack him as soon as he gets the words out of his mouth.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Charon Don is getting slept on

Check out this video: The Art of Life Promo 3



Add to My Profile | More Videos

I dare someone to tell me this dude ain't nice. Here is a link to his Myspace page, the track "Just Wanna Know" on there is also absolute fire. Look out for his album "Art of Life" in September.


Monday, August 6, 2007

LOL



Don't be all sensitive about him "mocking" the culture, just enjoy what it is.

A little new Lupe




This track was online for a minute, but went down at all the sources I saw it, so consider this an exclusive.

Lupe Fiasco - Wake Up In Tokyo (live)

Apparently he performed this at Lollapalooza.

Probably a track off The Cool , and if so, I'm liking the way it's headed thus far.