Metal Lungies

You might be quick to write this off as just another example of how comparatively awesome Barack’s supporters are, but that doesn’t do justice to this tape.  Inventive in its sampling, and commendable in its goal, this is the perfect soundtrack for the last ten days of the election.  If you head over to Logarhythmik’s blog you’ll find that all donations to the site will go directly to the Obama campaign.  Take a look, and cop the mixtape here for free.

(image source)

Is the Wu out of weed money again?  They’ve just announced a national tour starting November 29th in Portland. Historically, Wu-Tang tours have always been very iffy, with dissent among the group being a constant issue. Still, seeing the entire Clan live (minus the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard) sounds like a life changing experience. Dates:

November 2008
29 – Portland, OR – Roseland Ballroom
30 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
December 2008
1 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
3 – San Francisco, CA – The Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center
4 – West Hollywood, CA – House of Blues
5 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
6 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
7 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee
8 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
10 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
14 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
15 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
17 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
18 – Rochester, NY – Main Street Armory
19 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
20 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
21 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
23 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
January 2009
1 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
2 – Providence, RI – Lupo’s
4 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
7 – Norfolk, VA – The Norva
8 – Richmond, VA – Toad’s Place
9 – Greensboro, NC – N Club
10 – Charleston, SC – Music Farm
11 – Charlotte, NC – Amos’ Southend
12 – Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theatre
13 – Columbia, SC – LEVEL
14 – Atlanta, GA – venue to be announced

The groundbreaking rap group continues to support last year’s “8 Diagrams.”

I don’t think they’ve ever performed any songs off 8 Diagrams and only RZA and GZA showed up for the video.

via LiveDaily

Dj01, as a part of his plea agreement, is going to be live blogging a marathon of MTV’s reality show Busted from the studios starting at 2 till about 3. Hit up the site then for his wild commentary and inside info from Busted subjects. Check back tomorrow at 2 to watch it go down.

Busted airs live Saturday October 25th  2pmET/PT – 7pm ET/PT

Good  news via AllHipHop

Phife Dawg’s long fight with diabetes recently took a new turn for the better, as the Queens native finally received a kidney transplant.

The new kidney comes after a waiting period of over two years, which saw Phife endure problems performing live and a dramatic weight loss through his dialysis treatment.

Originally diagnosed with diabetes in May of 1990, Phife admitted to not taking care of himself by eating the worst types of food for someone with his condition: fats, sweets, and alcohol.

By 1992 the Tribe member started to be debilitated by the illness, with his blood sugar level reaching fatal levels of near 1000 mg/dl, well over the normal 80-120 mg/dl.

The fight finally came to a head with Phife being put on dialysis in 2000.

In 2002, he was hospitalized after the condition continued to worsen.

Now with a new kidney, Phife’s illness with hopefully improve dramatically, giving the legendary Tribe member renewed physical energy.

Glad to see Malik’s health is improving. Hope “A Milli” paid for some of this. Below: A pretty dope Phife solo shot -too bad it’s a Tip diss. One of my favorite Hi-Tek beats.

Before I say anything else, I couldn’t think of a better word than “delights.”

Today, my plan was to hit up a Meet n’ Greet at Santo’s and hopefully talk to Large Professor and DJ Babu and then stop by Fat Beats and holler at Blu and Mainframe (Johnson & Jonson) who were making an appearance. Here’s what actually happened.

My first stop was the DJ Meet n’ Greet at Santo’s Party House. I showed up at 5 to a mostly empty room.  Nothing was going on and nobody knew when anyone was going to show up. Someone who worked there informed me that Large Professor wasn’t coming; apparently he was in Portland. How can you be scheduled to be in New York one day and end up all the way in Portland instead? My friend showed up shortly thereafter and we mingled a little bit. Meeting people in town for CMJ, booty grabbing, etc.

Jake One was in the building and I chopped it up with him right quick, cool dude. He told me the MOP track on White Van Music is from 2006 which is why they shout out G-Unit and he was telling me about how he linked up with Bishop Lamont, but I couldn’t really hear him. I quickly realized that I was in a predicament: I was out of cards with which to spread the gospel of Metal Lungies. DJ Babu was nowhere to be found, so I made my way out thinking I would go back to my place and grab some more cards before I hit up Fat Beats. I was about to get on the subway when I got a call from my friend saying Statik Selektah had just shown up. Statik has been fam since I met him at Termanology’s listening party, so I went back and said what’s up to him. He passed me a copy of his new album Stick 2 the Script, which you should be listening to right now instead of reading this. He shouts us out in the liner notes! Good looks, Statik!

I got a pile of free stuff from the event too.

I restocked on cards and headed over to Fat Beats at 7. Fate has thwarted me from seeing Blu about three times and I’m a major Blu stan, so I was excited. When I got there, Blu and Mainframe were conspicuously absent. I stood around awkwardly and stared at records for about half an hour until… New Jack Hustle (Newman from Giant Panda and Shawn Jackson) did a set. These dudes weren’t on my radar at all but held it down pretty well.  They did about four songs. After that, I waited a little more until a couple of dudes who worked there (from Brown Bag AllStars, I believe) announced that Blu wasn’t coming. Dude is officially on my shitlist until he personally makes it up to me with an interview and a private concert. I’m spelling his name “Blue” until he explains himself.

I can’t complain that much though. Not everybody gets to meet Black Milk, Jake One and Statik Selektah over the course of two days. Expect ML to hit CMJ even harder next year.

Off Tronic. Black Milk and Royce always fuck shit up. You’d best be boning up on his work before the album drops.

I met Black Milk at Fat Beats today. It always bugs me out when master producers are just chill ass dudes.

Download: Black Milk – Losing Out featuring Royce Da 5’9"

Rappers I Know via 2dopeboyz

I missed Johnson & Jonson’s CMJ show tonight because of my bullshit school obligations, but I’m definitely going to make my presence felt tomorrow at Fat Beats.  Technically not a CMJ show, but a byproduct of the avalanche of awesome shit going down this week. Check out all the events going on this week at Fat Beats here.

Some striking similarities between game characters and rappers. Charles Hamilton is going to be pissed they didn’t put him with Sonic (you’re going to be pissed when you see who they did put).

The -Minus World via GoNintendo

(amazing T La Rock photo via earfuzz)

G at GRANDGOOD unearthed a 1996 article in the New York Times about T La Rock’s time spent in a Jewish nursing home. After receiving brain damage while trying to break up a fight in the Bronx, he moved to the Haym Salomon Home for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. The article covers his time there, and it’s fascinating:

The home observes kosher dietary rules, so T misses his southern-style breakfasts with sausage, bacon, cheese and eggs. Sometimes he goes out to eat with a staff member or on community walks. He is not allowed to go out unsupervised; his short-term memory is too unreliable.

Visible from his window is the parachute jump in Coney Island. Two tables are covered with dozens of cassettes including ones by the Wu Tang Clan and King Just. An envelope on the wall next to his bed holds instructions for eight exercises. He has a couple of stuffed animals.

MORE than 30 photos of staff members and residents, family and friends — many of them rappers and deejays — are taped to the peach-colored wall. ”After looking at them every day, every day I started remembering who they were,” T said. ”It took months.” Some of them included members of the Zulu Nation, Grand Puba and Greg Nice and Smooth B of Nice ‘N Smooth.

Read the full article here.

Oh, also: If you haven’t read Robbie’s interview with T, you’re slipping.

Download: T La Rock – Breaking Bells (12′ Version)

CMJ (College Music Journal) puts on an annual festival in New York that consists of a ton of concerts at a bunch of different venues over the course of about a week . The list of artists performing is a tad overwhelming, so I sorted through the madness and picked out some of the shows that I would (and might) attend. There are some pretty incredible looking shows. Check it out and buy me tickets after the jump.

Update: More going on than I thought.

Read the rest of this entry »