Yeah, that’s right. I posted a song called “Super Boo.” I know I’m a couple of days late with this, but this track is too dope-flavored to pass over. See also: Jim Jones Goes Backpack.
via illRoots
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I just got this in the e-mail. I love Afro Samurai, and that first soundtrack was my shit. This looks to be just as good. If you haven’t seen the show its on Spike TV, it was a miniseries, so it only ran for 5 episodes but it was the best shit ever!!! The next season is called Afro Samurai: Resurrection and I am psyched as hell for it.
Trailer for Season 2 after the jump.
Sphere: Related ContentTracklist:
1. Combat (Afro Season II Open Theme) – RZA; P. Dot
2. You Already Know – Kool G Rap; Inspectah Deck; Suga Bang
3. Blood Thicker Than Mud “Family Affair” – Reverand William Burke; Sly Stone; Stone Mecca
4. Whar – Kool G Rap; Ghostface Killah; Tash Mahogany; RZA
5. Girl Samurai Lullaby – Rah Digga; Stone Mecca
6. Fight for You – Thea Van Seijen
7. Bitch Gonna Get Ya’ – Rah Digga
8. Bloody Days Bloody Nights – Prodgical Sunn; Thea Van Siejen
9. Kill Kill Kill – Rugged Monk
10. Nappy Afro – Boy Jones
11. Bloody Samurai – Black Knights; Dexter Wiggles; Thea Van Seijen
12. Dead Birds – Killah Priest; Prodgical Sunn; Shavo
13. Arch Nemesis – Ace; Moe Rock
14. Brother’s Keeper – Reverand William Burke; The RZA; Infinite
15. Yellow Jackets – Ace; Moe Rock
16. Take the Sword pt. III – 60 Second Assassin; Leggezin; Crisi; Christ Bearer; Rugged Monk; Tré Irie; Kinetic; Reverand William Burks; Bobby Digital
17. Number One Samurai (Afro Season II Outro) – The RZA ; 9th Prince
A rarity: a video submitted by an up-and-coming rapper that I actually dig. Check it out.
For more J. Nolan hit up his myspace.
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The streetwear brand that has brought you 2 of the best mixtapes of the year, wraps up the year with another solid mixtape featuring Wale, Kid Cudi, Santogold, Kidz In The Hall, Kid Sister, Joell Ortiz, Jackie Chain, Hollywood Holt, Donnis, Charles Hamilton, Blu, Blaqstarr, and some dude name Kanye, mixed by DJ Benzi.
Note: As of 2:30 AM EST, the link is missing from the 10Deep site, so.. I’m assuming it will be up by the morning, sorry goes out to the insomniac/west coast ML reading set.
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Yesterday on Twitter, Sportaphile mentioned an amazing blog entry by Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch, where he is holding some “I’m ya daddi boi toy give a way” which includes “lots and lots of toyzzzzzzzz”. Amazed by the content, I was browsing around the rest of the blog and noticed he had his own line of merchandise. Then I saw it, a Beast Mode t-shirt…but it was sold out everywhere on the internets. However, during my search for it I came across a tidbit that mentioned it was for sale at Tops Supermarkets in Western New York. In a matter of seconds I scrambled out of the house. Once I got to the local Tops, I saw it, a wire hanger was holding the medium sized holy grail amongst other Buffalo sports teams apparel on a really wobbly rack. As I paid at the self-checkout (I didn’t want people judging me for buying apparel at supermarket (who needs streetwear boutiques?), I contemplated acquiring a pair of Zubaz pants to match.. I quickly realized that would be going too far.
It should be noted: The Bills aren’t even my favorite team, but Marshawn has really impressed me this year (its hard to avoid Bills games around here).
Sphere: Related ContentFascinating story behind this beautiful animated interview with John Lennon, courtesy of Current.
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon’s “bed-in” phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries traditional pen sketches by James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.
It’s incredible to me that Lennon spoke to this 14-year old kid without an ounce of condescension. John treats him like an interviewer on network TV.
As of yesterday, Lennon’s been gone for 28 years.
Sphere: Related ContentThis is the trailer for the documentary on Lil Wayne coming out next year. There’s kind of a buzz about this because the director is Adam Bala Lough, who is apparently “a respected film maker in the world of music documentaries“. Also because it will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. The company making it is QD3, the people who put out all those Beef DVDs. I’m not one to hate, but why were the Beef DVDs never premiered at Sundance? Those films are documentaries about the real life struggles of rappers… against rappers.
But seriously though, this trailer gives off the eerie vibe that this film is supposed to be released post-mortem. In Lil Wayne’s memory and shit. That scene with him lying down at the end with those lyrics playing. Scary.
After the jump is the unrelated (I found it on Quincy Jones III’s blog) video for Two Words, one of my favorite songs from College Dropout. I didn’t even know this had a video until today. Not sure if I like the one on Chappelle show more.
Sphere: Related ContentCan you be classy with a giant LA tattoo on your face? Apparently you can. I’m going to get “Thug Life” all up on my left side and the “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” banana on the other to balance it out.
via Nah Right
Sphere: Related ContentOK, I know what you’re thinking. Videos like this are why my mom wishes I listened to Coldplay. But I’ve met Term, Statik and Fame and I know them to be cool guys. It’s just that when they get on some real grime-ball, smack-you-upside-your-shit music like this, they like to get a camera in the room and mean mug at it and ominously drink from a big bottle of rum, that’s all. 1982 is one of my most anticipated albums. This track is Statik at his grimiest.
via Xclusives Zone
And as Roosevelt Treasurechest at RubyHornet points out, Term appears to take a swig with the cap still on the bottle.
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I’ll be honest (probably more honest than most) — I didn’t know who UGK was before 1999. You could’ve handed me a copy of Vol. 3… Life And Times Of S. Carter, pointed to track 11 on the back cover, and said, “This kid right here is the next big thing out of Brooklyn. Jay just signed him. His name’s pronounced ug-kah.” Unless I just flat out didn’t trust you, I’d have no reason not to believe you (though that rap name sure would’ve sounded like a loser).
Radio in my hometown of Los Angeles, around that time, had plenty of local material flooding its airwaves — Dr. Dre (and his newly-discovered protégé Eminem), Snoop, and Kurupt all had hit records out, and a potential N.W.A. reunion was all the rave (yea, about that…). Sure, there were Southern rap records that would break through every now and again — some had undeniable cross-over appeal, some had outshining guest spots from West Coast legends, some were classic records that superseded regional boundaries. But, L.A. radio stations — and probably all major city radio stations outside of the South — weren’t putting aside time during long-drive-home-rush-hour for a duo out a Texas town not called Houston which couldn’t even get promotion from its bum-ass record label.
To be even more honest, it wasn’t until 2000 that I really got to know about UGK, when a visual was given to “Big Pimpin'”. There was Jay-Z, spitting rapid-fire on a cruise ship while Dame Dash poured liquor I couldn’t afford over women I couldn’t afford. Then there was Bun B, spitting even more rapid-fire than Jay, mispronouncing “scenario” just for the sake of not leaving out both sorry and scary hoes from consideration of whom he can’t fuck with. And lastly, there was Pimp C, delivering molasses-slow rhymes (at least in comparison to Jay and Bun) with an undoubtedly Southern accent that seemed to replace the last letter on every word with a “H” (as in “Smokin’ ouh, throwin’ uh…”). And that white fur coat… who would rock such clothing in the midst of a Florida summer? Probably the same type of dude who would brag about his hands-free phone while holding a phone to his ears.
When I think of how to describe Pimp C, his opening bars from “Murder”, off ’96’s Ridin’ Dirty, always come to mind: “It’s Pimp C, bitch, so what the fuck is up?/ Puttin’ powder on the street ’cause I got big fuckin’ nuts!” In the span of two bars, Pimp provided examples of five of the reasons why our elders (more than likely) collectively hate rap music. First, he introduced himself — on how many Beatles’ songs did John Lennon say his own name? Second, he insults his listener — likely a listener who just spent money to support Pimp’s cause (more so the case in ’96 than now). Third, he drops the F-bomb, with another one coming mere seconds later. Fourth, he glorifies drug dealing, by attributing the cause of his trade to the size of testicles… which leads perfectly into number five — he speaks candidly about his genitals. Most rappers not named Todd Shaw would need at least a full song to evoke all of these reactions out of their listeners.
But, if you could look past his outlandish boasts on the mic about partaking in illegal activities of all sorts, you’d find lush musical backdrops, driven by the funkiest of bass lines and the bluesiest of guitar licks, sometimes with vocals sung by the man himself. People that hate the type of music that Pimp C made would probably dismiss him as not being “musically talented” — little would they know just how wrong they were. Being on the late train in becoming familiar with Pimp’s discography made me that much bigger a fan of his — very few hip hop artists in ’96 were making music like him, and even fewer are nowadays.
Chad Butler took his craft way more seriously than he ever took himself. Bun B noted on “The Story” (off his solo debut Trill) how hesitant Pimp was to jump on “Big Pimpin'”, fearful of how UGK’s core audience would’ve taken to it. There’s no greater shame than the fact that Pimp’s death came just as UGK was starting to get recognized for their own achievements, with “International Players Anthem” (off their #1-charting self-titled double album) receiving a Grammy nomination. If there’s any positive spin that we can put on his untimely passing, it’s that, after a career spanning nearly two decades, Pimp C went out on top. To that I say, “Smoke something, bitch!”
Contributing to this Beat Drop (in addition to myself and AaronM) are Noz from Cocaine Blunts, Quan from Hater Player, Ivan from Hip Hop Is Read, Brandon Soderberg from No Trivia, and Jonathan from Screw Rock ‘n’ Roll. And, on the (very, very, VERY) special guest tip, ML is esteemed to have none other than Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, the yin to Pimp’s yang as one half of UGK, joining us. Bun chopped with up with Knobbz (credit due for providing transcribing, homie) to discuss his five favorite Pimp C productions, and provided some great insight and historical anecdotes about Pimp.
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