G-STOP

Put the G-Shocks down and back away slowly. OK? Did I hurt feelings? Ok I apologize I’ll tone it down, just stop flaunting the thing around. You’re wearing a 10 dollar piece of plastic (you paid $120?) that you and everyone else in the room has on so just at least for my sake don’t wave the thing around in my face. I’m happy you got the all-white version too brother, well done...

Wu Tang Clan ain't nuttin' to f with

The year is 2010. Auto-tune, the word “swag,” and Gucci Mane reign as the supreme dictators of Hip-Hop spins from the club to the radio. Jay-Z has dropped a memorable single after two mediocre albums and Kanye is off exploring the deepest reaches of pop music. Lil Wayne is playing a guitar and doing his best to scream like Axel Rose and a new comer from Canada has been making noise for some time now but the radio is quickly killing even his appeal. At the end of the day it leaves you more of less standing around wondering where the rap went.

Not good ol eductated conscious hip hop, and not vicious rape, killing, murder rap which btw, there is still plenty of that being spit on mixtape tracks over in Los Angeles. I’m talking about the sort of rap that makes you screw up your face like you just ate 14 Warhead Sour Candies and go “Euugh” in your best impersonation of Pusha T. When it comes to dusty, 90’s era Hip-Hop that hits like a middle linebacker and has lyrics hard enough to make you want to stand up and applause you don’t have to look any further than Wu-Tang. The Wu has never been the same Clan that they were in the early 90’s around the time 36 Chambers dropped, but my G-o-d, if anything in recent years has come close it is this track.

I like the song so much i wish there wasnt a 1:30 movie in the middle of the video. The beat crumbles to a start and you can hear the dust straight from 1995 begin to flow out of your speakers. Coated in a fine layer of soul the drums come tumbling over each other as Method Man launches into a verse only he could lace. I have never been to a Wu-Tang concert but hearing this almost gives me chills down my spine imagining a few thousand people throwing up W’s and chanting along to the beat.

The track is called New -Wu but in actuality it is anything but that. This is vintage Wu-Tang at its best. Dusty cellar music made for Timberland boots and Carhatt beanies. This is the sound that made the Clan famous and maybe, just maybe, this is the sound that will make the Clan relevant again in 2010. Here’s to hoping.

oh and btw. for those of you who think Redman is in Wu-Tang... HES NOT! go do your hip hop homework CRIPES.

STAAAAAAAR TREEEEEEEEK

At this point it is no secret that Hollywood is just about fresh out of ideas. I heard rumblings of a Rambo 14 and Alien 36 to be releasing next year in addition to six years of super hero movies from comic book titles even I haven’t heard of. Hollywood did have some gems however, The Hang Over was the funniest movie of the past years not named Old School. Transformers 2 had everyone in the theater despite bad reviews and District 9 managed to breathe some new life into an age old alien plot line. Let’s face it though, as far as movies go it was all about pointed ears and the man named Kirk. When I was a kid we used to make fun of people for liking Star Trek, I would be shooting hoops on the blacktop, talking about the latest episode of Fresh Prince and keeping my LA Gears clean, and I would see a group of kids playing and giving each other the Vulcan Death Grip, My friends and I would spend the rest of our recess talking trash and pretending to push our imaginary nerd glasses up on our noses...anyway! back to my point. At some point this summer all of that fell to the wayside as the remake had audiences across the country throwing up live long and prosper signs like N.E.R.D. was in town. If you missed the film, than you surely missed a block buster. I have three words for G.I. Joe. Massive let down.

The January Playlist

I’ve come to a conclusion that by far, the most annoying emails in the entire universe are party promotions for some event taking place next week featuring Club Massive and their cousins DJing at once with live rap performances from every unsigned MC in the Tri-State area. Now I’m surely exaggerating (Though my Facebook inbox is filled with about 200 of those messages so I can’t be that far off base), but it does say something about promoting music in today’s day and age. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, any kid with a microphone and a DSL modem can go from a complete nobody one moment to the next Tay Zonday or Jay Electronica with a few blog posts.

Despite how equal of a playing field the internet creates for those aspiring to be musicians, it just as much makes exposing “good” music incredibly difficult. When the life of a blog post on any popular blog is about a day at the very most, most artists get one chance to make jaws drop, if they miss that opportunity, with the pace of the web their shot for a little taste of internet glory is more or less lost. Anyway, enough about my opinion on the game online, there’s a reason I’m writing this post. Since I seem to have stumbled into a position where I can expose some of what I consider “good music” to the folks, I’ve got some NEW and OLD music to set off your stormy san diego days in a proper manner.

Erick Arc Elliott "NOIR." mixtape///download here!!!
I wont even bother giving you a track list because i want you to find out for yourself how good this mixtape is. TRUST ME.

Craig Mack- Flavor in ya ear
The year is 2010 and you have stepped freshly out of your front door laced in your favorite pair of J's, a sparkling clean white tee shirt and a brand new Hundreds snapback. You are as clean as the day your mother birthed you and your proverbial “steez” (I will never use the word again.) is at an all time high. Well Craig Mack is the soundtrack to that moment. When you hop step off of your front step and saunter down the block to buy a dollar arizona ice tea, this is the song playing in the background. This is the song you make a statement to, the song playing when people snap their necks and take notice of you. That 1-2 dropping beat will never fall out of favor.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock (them jeans remix) & Heads Will Roll (A Trak remix)
I am definitely not a big listener when it comes to the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs something about the name just always turned me away. I couldn’t imagining writing that every time I wanted to tell someone about them. It would be awkward like having a really long name that would never fit in the spaces given to you on standardized tests. Anyway, I diverge from my path. These are great original tracks and the remixs are even better. Really great breakdowns, I find myself getting a lot of work done to these tracks.

Passion Pit - Swimming in the Flood
What happens when one of these so called “hipster” bands comes along and produces something that is really actually quite good and easy on the ears? Do you back track on everything you said and admit that some of their music is actually pretty good? Or do you just sit by and continue to argue that only American Apparel/Fedora wearing kids listen to that band and that “they still suck dude.” Well luckily enough for me, I try to avoid calling any music “hipster” music. I am not a huge fan of Passion Pit’s other work, but this song right here is just about as good as it gets. Cool progression, what I consider some pretty cool vocals and all around very cool vibe surrounding the track. When it starts raining throw this on. Check out the rest of their music as well, craft your own opinion.

Raekwon - Heaven and Hell
Raekwon and the Wu-Tang clan are just too classic for words. When you hear those soft strings and some haunting vocals over top of a dusty basement set of snares than you immediately know what you are in for. The next thing you know The Chef is lacing cocaine lyrics over a beat that is just the definition of a slow Summer night. If I had this instrumental following me around playing softly all day I could probably sit on my porch and watch the sun go down and be completely satisfied. I guess this is still mood music to some extent, but at the same time, I feel like I could throw on Timbs and Wu-Wear like it was 1996 and walk out of my house with no problem when this is the soundtrack to the day.

Heartbreaker.

Its a sad day for charger fans...

Space Jam

I really enjoy quotes. To me a quote is as close to getting inside some peoples heads that i will get. I enjoy quotes from people that we consider leaders. Such as Michael Jordan, Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Here is a quote that always reminds me of what God given talent mixed with developed skill and a load of dedication can do for your career.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed” -Michael Jordan