Metal Lungies

One of the most underrated rappers from the 90s, AZ, has a new album on the way. AZ, who many forget is actually one-half Dominican, can defiantly be filed under the hip-hop veteran category. There is a good reason for his long standing in the hip-hop game. From running side-by-side with Nas to The Firm, clearly he has already left his imprint in hip hop history. Although he has not been able to reach “mainstream” popularity levels of that of his old buddy Nas, he has one strong cult following, especially in New York. AZ drops his new album ‘The Format’ on November 7th (with a bonus DVD w/ videos & live footage). Here is the full track listing;

1). I Am The Truth (Produced by Lil Fame)
2). Sit ‘Em Back Slow f/M.O.P. (Produced by Face Defeat and Lil
Fame)
3.) Get High (Produced by Emile)
4.) Make Me! (Produced by Emile)
5). Rise & Fall f/Little Brother (Produced by J.Cardim and Phonte Coleman)
6.) Animal (Produced by Statik Selektah)
7.) Doing That (Produced by Lil Fame)
8.) This What I Do (Produced by J.Cardim)
9.) The Format (Produced by DJ Premier)
10.) Vendetta (Produced by J.Cardim)
11.) Game Of Life (Produced by Emile)                                                                             12.) Royal Salute (Produced by Emile)—Bonus Track

Opting to stay true to his hip-hop style by not getting the hot producer of the month, rather instead hooking up with DJ Premier for the title track single.

Check out the video:

Get the Mp3 for your collection here.

By the Way AZ has one of the cleanest MySpace designs of any musicans I’ve seen, check it out.

BREAKING NEWS! From the playbook pages of Diddy’s Vote or Die Campaign, former MLB Pitcher/ star of the cinematic masterpiece ‘The Greenskeeper’, John Rocker, comes with ‘SPEAK ENGLISH’. Accompanied on this “campaign” is Ms. Bikini Universe 2004, Alicia Marie, who for the most part is a vital piece in the movement, utilizing the Belly Shirt version of the SPEAK ENGLISH apparel/propaganda line. John Rocker would like to know from his life-changing MSNBC interview from Rita Crosby that:

“It’s not a business, it’s a campaign”

Near the end he mentions that it’s hard to get a white collar job with out speaking english. It really is so thoughtful that John Rocker is concerned about people getting white collar jobs, because clearly he has one.

Also, John, can we at least get a PLEASE on the shirt? AMERCIAN MANNERS DAMMIT!

Lastly, check out the banner from his official site, (where you can conveniently stock up on your ‘SPEAK ENGLISH’ merchandise, no word on where the proceeds go? I wonder??)

The 2nd to last picture looks like its CNN’s lead reporter interviewing John, oh, and I hope John’s cat can SPEAK ENGLISH.

On the site he has posted the longest piece of writing he has probably ever written.

In his letter he mentions;

I went to numerous local holiday celebrations such as parties that centered on the Puerto Rican holiday “Three Kings Day”, as well as numerous other festivals and gatherings. 

So using this idea, if I were to go to a “Three Kings Day” and muster out a few lines like maybe, “Mami Es Muy Caliente”, I could be seen as someone who is conforming to the Puerto Rican culture. Honestly after I got one good quote out of this one and a half page turd, I stopped reading, I’m sure it sings of beauty and intelligence afterwards but sadly I’m no where near John Rocker’s comprehension level to compute any more of this totally awesome campaign. In conclusion it must be said…

JOHN ROCKER FOR THE PRESIDENITAL CABINET !! VIVA (SORRY JOHN!) SALUTE ‘SPEAK ENGLISH’!!

out.

Let’s take a trip down the history of Pusha T & Malice, the brother duo that make up The Clipse. Being down with The Neptunes since 93′, they recorded their first album around 1998, which would finally see the light of the day as an internet leak dubbed ‘Exclusive Audio Footage‘ around 99’/00’. Their label at the time, Elektra, never released this as a retail album. Even though I was fan of their single ‘The Funeral’, it didn’t catch on, even though in retrospect the song hasn’t dated itself, and sounds superb to this today. But this didn’t strain their relationship with The Neptunes who brought them along on to their Star Trak imprint through Arista (Jive). They kept themselves busy, inclduing appearances on the ‘Training Day‘ soundtrack, and they enjoyed a guest spot on my personal favorite pop remix of Backstreet Boys’ ‘The Call’. Even at Arista/Star Trak things didn’t start to go smoothly for the most part. After a bunch of times being pushed back, only after the mega-monster track ‘Grindin‘ caught on with the mainstream did the album ‘Lord Willin‘ finally get a concrete date to come out, August 22, 2002. It was a success that would go on to get certified platinum. I can’t pick a track on that album that I would skip over, they all range from very solid to classic. By 2003 the brothers were back in the studio working on their follow-up ‘Hell Hath No Fury‘, it was penned to come out December 16, 2003. Shortly after this, Arista dissolved into Jive, and Star Trak went over to Geffen/Interscope sans The Clipse. Jive refused to release The Clipse and kept them on the roster, they continued working with The Neptunes, but the split from Star Trak put the album in limbo. Fast forward to late 2005, the Clipse were given the green light to finally drop their album, but worried that their songs from 2003 weren’t relevant they starting putting together the album from scratch. In early summer of this year the 1st single ‘Mr. Me Too‘ with some direct jabs at their record label came out. Even though the single caught on and was featured as the jam of the week on MTV Jams, I felt that it was getting a one and done type push from the label for them to make some money by quietly releasing the album and ridding themselves of the Clipse afterwards. When I saw them opening up for Ice Cube in mid-May (when they had the energy & material to headline but got dealt about 20 minutes of stage time) the duo announced that the album was scheduled for a late August release. As July was creeping up into August, the album was re-scheduled for a October 31st release. With the 2nd single featuring Slim Thug, ‘Wamp Wamp‘ out, I could finally start to taste the album coming very soon. That taste turned sour as the album has been pushed back intro December, making it, 3 years overdue, what a fucking shame. But there might be a light at the end of the tunnel, as it recently got a perfect XXL rating from..XXL. Hopefully this will force Jive to put out the album, right? right?? Shelving a alleged-classic will make a lot of people pissed (no one more then the brothers themselves). Recently Rolling Stone had a piece on The Clipse, and I truly feel their pain they are suffering through with their label. Read..

Lots of artists hate their record label, but the Clipse really, really, really hate their label. In a recent interview at the Manhattan offices of their, um, label, Jive Records, rappers Malice and Pusha-T did some extreme venting. As our interview with them began, Pusha snatched the recorder, looked around conspiratorially and let it out: “I hate Jive. I hate them motherfuckers. With all my heart and all the passion and my soul I hate these bitches. It’s about the lynching of every staff member up in this motherfucker.”

One sticking point? The release date of the Virginia hip-hop duo’s second album, Hell Hath No Fury, has been pushed back three times (most recently to November 28th of this year). Malice and Pusha-T also complained that Jive doesn’t know how to handle rap records, forcing the duo to hire it’s own publicity and marketing teams. “You could ask anyone in here to give you a marketing plan on Clipse and they could never do it,” says Pusha. “It’s like damn, What do you understand about hip-hop? You ain’t had nobody since Spice 1! You don’t know the fucking formula. Everybody in here’s like 50 years old!
“Just drop us,” continued Pusha, “Leave us the fuck alone so we can go where there’s plenty of people like Clipse.” “Have you ever heard anyone say that they’d be happy to get dropped” said Malice.
Pusha: “Besides fucking Prince?”

Malice: “Besides Prince.”
“And he carved his own face,” said Push, “which I won’t do. I won’t paint on my face. They ain’t going to drive me fucking loony.”

I’ve never wanted rappers to come out on top more than this. And how could you hate on rappers that send out cook aprons out as a promotional item?

out.

as a bonus check out a redonk freestyle, the video for ‘The Funeral’, and the most random Clipse clip you’ll ever see from this years VMA (probably my only highlight of that event):

This is probably the funniest video of the day for me, I guess even puppets on Sesame Street get hasseled by those boys in blue.

[wmv width=”320″ height=”240″]http://gorillamask.net/Media/muppets-nwa.wmv[/wmv]

Credit: Gorilla Mask

YN Puts on his Happy Face.

 I got this in the e-mail the other day and thought it was relevant to share on hurr. YN Talks about 2pac & him still being on XXL’s covers more than 10 years after his death, and his dealings with Interscope. Enjoy..

[youtube]oN6EJNWoyEQ[/youtube]

Part 2:

[youtube]uYqOeaAf8hk[/youtube] Sphere: Related Content

This isn’t a street performer, this is a soccer player.

I heard about this story a bit ago, and you might’ve too,  but in case you haven’t… on the Sunday the 24th (=Today!), In South Africa the Homeless World Cup of Soccer is kicking off! Sadly there will be no TV coverage as far as I can see, I would actually pay for this on pay per view, thankfully there is a webcam on the offical site!. I kind of find it ironic that these people are homeless, yet the sponsors can throw an event which costs at least a few millions, the eligibility requirements are very interesting as well;

Players must:

• Be male or female and at least 16 years of age at the time of the tournament
• Have been homeless at some point after the previous year’s World Cup OR
• Make their main living income as a streetpaper vendor OR
• Be asylum seekers (who have neither positive asylum status nor working permit)          

Needless to say I will be cheering on our best US Homeless soccer players.

Offical Site   Washington Post Article

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are back for their first album in 4 years (minus Flesh-N-Bone (Locked Up till 11′) and Bizzy Bone (Gone Crazy?)), but this album has a lot of potential as a preview of whats to come since Swizz Beatz signed them to his Full Surface imprint. To get a taste of whats to come, check out the e-card for the album right here. The album drops next Tuesday.

Another E-Card is for Defari, who is down with Dilated Peoples and the Likwit Crew, has an album on the way which should be a solid indie west coast effort, I’ve heard some of the tracks he has, including the Alchemist produced “Don’t be Mad at Me” which also features Evidence, keep an eye out for it.

Del the Funky Homosapian is hitting the road at the end of this month, the dates are below, and from what I’ve seen his live shows are definitely something I would attend. Also keep an eye out of a review of his recently released DVD on here soon.

Penelope Jones is a female rapper, she has quiet the story for the background, she did 4 years in Jail for conspiracy to commit drug trafficking for an incarcerated family member, she has appeared on America’s Most Wanted to help solve the murder of her brother. Now she is rapping about her hardships through her debut album which is due in early November, so far the two songs I’ve Heard I think she can hang with some of the top female MCs. Check her out..

***No Matter What They Say Ft. Mya (Real Player/ Media Player)
***Miss Me With That Foolishness Ft. Lil’ Wayne (Prod. by Jazze Pha) (Real Player / Media Player)

out.

In celebration of the first sunday in this NFL season, I’m posting a song that pays homage to one of my favorite NFL players behind Marcus Washington, Santana Moss of the Washington Redskins.
My favorite line in the song is:

And now he’s in the NFL str-8 punishing dudes / And when they in that cover 2, watch him give them all a “sue-flae”

Credit goes to D.C. Sports Bog, which by the way is a must-read for any DC area sports fan.

***I’m Black (Real Player / Media Player)
***Who Wanna Problem (Real Player / Media Player)
***Favorite One (Real Player / Media Player)

I think I missed some classic TV by not watching DMX’s Soul of a Man on BET, thankfully Youtube comes through and provides a nice fix of some cracked out Dark Man X. Enjoy.

DMX Enjoys fresh convenience store donuts, and fields telephone calls from Swizz Beatz using the store’s phone.

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DMX is not a friend of little people.

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DMX likes to dance to Omarion, but REALLY dosne’t like K-Solo.