Adrien Brody was at the Academy of American Poets at the Lincoln Center in New York last month.  The actor must be diligently at work towards achieving a coveted Hood Pass because he decided to recite The Ten Crack Commandments. I tried really hard to listen but his flaring nostrils were a huge distraction. Anyway, it’s not like I need a reminder on what the commandments are, as I have them tat’d on the belly. On a fun personal note: I am currently messing up like 4 of the commandments in my daily life. #losing.

WOWOW, Duck Sauce (A-Trak + Armand Van Helden) just dropped the video for their 2nd single Barbra Streisand, which was stuck in my head for weeks when I first heard it on Annie Mac’s BBC show months ago. Now, this isn’t some boring New York set video, the video goes all out cramming so many cameos, that my fingers cramped typing everyone I caught. But it’s not pointless cameos either, pretty much all of them are neatly worked into the fun party video concept that goes hand-in-hand with the song. I was able to spot: Yelawolf, DJ Premier, Kanye West, Chromeo, Pharrell, Santigold, Questlove, Just Blaze, DJ Mehdi, Buckshot, Fat Jew, Dust La Rock, Ryan Leslie, Diplo. Who did I miss/wasn’t cool enough to recognize?

Powerful workout visuals + dangerous quotables + Ron Artest’s unique cadence = domination. Watch this video, go do a hundred crunches, and then watch it again. Get inspired, people.

Watch Ron sing Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” after the jump.

Complex talked to Rush Hour/X-Men 3 director Brett Ratner about his history directing hip-hop videos. Notably, Ratner directed the million dollar video for the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Triumph” and it sounds like it was a life-changing experience.

So three days into the edit, I get a call that Ghost had had been kicked out of like eleven hotels, and I’m like, ‘Why were you kicked out?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know man, I got fucked up, and I just start breaking shit. Can you come get me? I got no place to stay.’ So I let him stay at my house. Suddenly my phone rings, and it’s Steve Rifkind, ‘Whats going on?’ I go, ‘Nothing, I’m just bringing Ghost over my house ’cause he got kicked out of the hotel.’ Then there’s silence on the other end of the phone. I say, ‘Whats wrong?’ He goes, ‘I gotta call you back.’ Five days later, he calls me up and goes, ‘Are you okay? Oh my God, you scared the shit outta me, man. How can you let this guy stay at your house? I don’t even let these guys know where I live!’ I go, ‘What do you mean? He’s the nicest guy in the world.’ He goes, ‘You don’t know what Ghostface has? He hallucinates, he hears voices like kill your mom, kill your mom. He has to be medicated because he has homicidal thoughts.’ So a month goes by, and I would edit all day, and Ghost would just chill at my house until we finished. A month later, I’m with my girlfriend in the backyard, and the cat starts going fucking crazy and starts digging into the dirt. We dig up a bucket of fried chicken. Ghost buried a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in the backyard. How fuckin’ freaky is that?

Ratner also talks about the guys doing mushrooms and stealing clothes from the shoot.

I’m waiting for the documentary/biopic that can do Wu-Tang justice. Brett Ratner need not apply.

via Complex

(image source) 

My sources tell me this is off DJ Vlad’s Beef VII mixtape. Obama stepped up for T-Swift and threw a couple darts at Kanye. SHOTS FIRED.

Download: Barack Obama – He’s a Jackass (Dissing Kanye)

via TMZ

Sidebar: ML will start posting real music again soon, we promise.

I think Yeezy just made up for 808s.

Update: MTV offers more details. The way they cut it, it looked like people were clapping in support of Kanye, but they were actually clapping for Taylor Swift.

According to reports from inside the house, once cameras cut away from the action, West flipped off the crowd and returned to his seat. Wale then said to the crowd, “You can’t blame a man for speaking his mind.” His words were met with boos, and Wale then said, “Kanye, I tried.” During the next commercial break, Pink walked by the rapper and appeared to shake her head in disgust before security escorted her away. West remained steadfast amidst the commotion as he kissed his girlfriend Amber Rose.

Update: New video

You’ve already learnt about cooking from Jazze Pha and Coolio. What’s the next logical step? Cooking with Christopher Walken, ‘natch. Here Frank White shows you how to make a baked whole chicken with caramelized pears.

So many quotables here ,and like Guru said, it’s most his voice and delivery that makes them creepy:

“It’s kinda like the Eiffel Tower”

“I love this chicken neck, it’s great.”

“These pears…they look very nice”

“They get like little cookies…very tasty. I save them.”

Via Lifehacker.

RIP to the originator and owner of one of the greatest beards.

Since I did this piece on rappers’ Twitter accounts last August, everyone’s joined the damn site and rappers being on Twitter is no longer something too unusual. No, the new thing is starting accounts for your beard. Case in point, the accounts that have been started for the following rappers’ beards:

• Diddy’s Beard
• Kanye’s Beard
• Alchemist’s Beard

Al Maman‘s facial growth wins this one by being attached to the best producer of the three, and for the following tweet:

Like, even tho im a beard, i shouldnt be put in the beard hop category with the other beards. I transcend that.

Speaking as someone who cannot muster more than a wispy mustache and some stubble, I feel the need to remind you that a beard will not make you a rapper. Sorry Joe.

More comedic video visuals from The Lonely Island. Is it wrong I like this video a lot more than the og Slim Thug version?

(image source)

I was utterly out of place last night. Having just gotten out of class, I was rocking a giant black winter jacket and a backpack — and I don’t mean a custom Louis Vuitton type joint; I was rocking a JanSport. Everyone else at the Diesel Fifth Avenue Store opening was all hipster-ed up with their tight jeans and there I was dressed like a third grader waiting for the school bus.

For the opening of the new Diesel Planet on Fifth Avenue and 54th Street, Diesel had five dinners this week, the theme of last night’s being music. Sure enough, when I showed up there were at least twenty people crowded outside the display window because two members of Cobra Starship were inside.

The store is itself is a behemoth. It’s three stories high and has a giant Diesel logo on the outside. Inside it’s all wood and steel. It felt like a trendy log cabin full of jeans. (Bear with me folks, fashion is not my thing.)

The dinner was only for the “celebrities” in the building, namely, Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship), Ryland Blackinton (Cobra Starship / Ivy League), Louis Epstein (Jump into the Gospel), Dan Keys (Young Love), Theophilus London and Prince Terrence (Spank Rock / Santogold drummer). No food whatsoever. Fashion events don’t really cater to starving college students.

I got to mingling and had some very random encounters. I met Donnie Scantz, a producer who has worked with Ludacris, Usher, Aaliyah, Chris Brown, Danity Kane and Rich Boy. He was taking full advantage of the open bar. I also talked to a jazz singer named Candace Jones right quick. Before I left, I said what’s up Theophilus London, whose name has been burning up my RSS reader as of late.

It was a fun, but very random night. I would have appreciated a few hundred dollars worth of free stuff, but what are you gonna do.