Metal Lungies

I’m big on cool stickers and it doesn’t get any more cooler than these:

You can buy em for cheap here. Be sure to check the some previous editions also on TTL. Don’t be surprised to these pop up in a future copped feature.

Its been a good day. The sun is shining, its warm-ish outside and my Amanaz record came in the mail. I got a tip a while back from gorillavsbear on the reissuing of Amanaz’s 1973 LP Africa. I knew I had to get on that when I heard Khala my Friend, especially cause I know have a deep fondness for that meandering kind of music that makes you feel warm and special. Anyway, this could be written off as just an old stoner record, but while it will help to be baked, its not necessary to become hypnotized by these fuzzy gems.

Amanaz: Khala My Friend

Amanaz formed in 1973 and recorded Africa in Kitwe, Zambia. All the members lend vocals at some point, which contirbutes sort of a different feeling to each song. Some are better vocalists than others; Isaac Mpofu has a great raspy voice thats like another Issac (Hayes) but a little more haunting. 3 of the songs are sung in Bemba and 9 in English. Bemba turns out to be a fitting language for gliding on the bitchin distorted blues riff in “Africa.” The guitar is subdued though, enough for Amanaz’s harmonious gospel to shine through.

Amanaz: Africa

I think its important that people find music like this every once and a while. Maybe not Amanaz, you might think Amanaz is hippy shit, but its just so good to find something that is unequivocally enjoyable. It washes the soul clean of people like Vanilla Ice and Flo Rida. I’m not sure I need to convince you people to listen to listen to good music but, fuck it, theres my lesson for the day.

Amanaz: Sunday Morning

So we just came across this amazing battle rap via Just Blaze, which we need a late pass for. Anyway, it is so amazing we felt obligated to drop our random musings for you.

• Dope intro font with a sick gradient, on that Sweden colorway! 
• Why does Marv-O only get the old english font treatment? 
• What the hell are those random dots behind him you ask?? A CITY MURAL DUH!
• White text over a white tee=high readability.
• Sucking up to the host with lines “I’m so nice I could be Marv-o’s brother” is pointless, Marv-o doesn’t vote! Unless Envy has other intentions for such flattering words.
• If anything, J-Dub would be a up for a brown-nosing bar like that.
• Envy might the first rapper that follows up a rap about pumps with a bright smile.
• You must pause the video at 2:03 to see the focus on J-Dubs face, he def. deserves all the chest rubs from Marv-o. The man is overly focused.
• The production is truly fly from picture in picture joint in the corner to
  a straight up heart cut out of Eli. Right in the middle of which the graphic pops up to reminded that the fellow we are watching is named Eli.
• Pause at 3:41 with Marv-O & J-Dub in the heart, clearly the video crew is throwing subliminals.
• Why is Johnathon the Godfather?
• A14, of course, is it possible to do both Good and Great?

I think I’m going to drop out of school and watch this clip all day, thanks Just Blaze.

Who do we think should’ve won? Neither, they both got more than 45 seconds thus being disqualified.

Hah this is ridiculous. Weezy, I dont care what that guy with the weird shaped head told you dont smoke crack then play guitar, thats a bad idea.

(copped via 92503)

Enjoy this one folks, season finale is next week.

It looks like T-pain enjoyed that video.

ML readers know I’m a big fan of Mr. Rabin’s work. He recently started a great monthly feature at the A.V. Club called The Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club. Here’s a little intro to the series:

Reading has taken on a lot of unfair, unfortunate associations through the years. Through no fault of its own, reading has become associated with intelligence, knowledge, book-learning, libraries, colleges, librarians, and education. I’m here to tell you, that’s all a bunch of horseshit. To me, reading isn’t a pathway to self-actualization, or a magic ticket to a land of wonder and imagination. On the contrary, it’s nothing more than a way to waste time in the least productive manner imaginable. When I want to turn off my brain, I pick up a quickie celebrity biography or half-assed show-biz memoir instead of watching television. That’s why I am officially starting a new monthly feature, The Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club. It’s a forum to discuss the junk food of the literary universe: stupid, superficial pop ephemera destined not to outlast its fleeting cultural moment. When Axl Rose’s maid writes a lurid tell-all, I’ll be there. Wherever a half-assed boy-band has-been feels the need to sing out about his life in the pages of a ghostwritten memoir, I’ll be there. I will read all these terrible books so you don’t have to. It’s my latest attempt to transform the stupid, pointless shit I do in my free time into the stupid, pointless shit I am obligated do for my job.

His latest entry in the series is his review of Karrine “Super-Head” Steffans’ Confessions Of A Video Vixen. Here’s a brief excerpt from a passage about Karrine’s encounter with Fred Durst, with Rabin’s commentary in italics:

“Fred ordered five different entrées, just for himself. I was confused but I didn’t want to seem young and inexperienced, so I just watched his movements… He was grand, taking tiny forkfuls from each dish and repeating that move a few times. Then, just that fast, he was done, leaving the majority of the food behind. I was in awe. I had never really wasted food before, and right then I knew that one day I would be able to eat whatever I wanted, however much I wanted, and summon someone to take the plates away…With all of his tattoos, body piercing and worn way of dress Fred had an air of prestige. I silently hoped for him to want me.”

Oh, Durst wants her all right. For he is that rarest breed of man: the kind that will gladly accept a no-strings-attached blowjob from an attractive stranger. I similarly love how impressed Steffans is by Durst’s flaming douchebaggery. I just hope there was a malnourished orphan staring wistfully at Durst as he sent away plate after plate of food, more or less uneaten. He could have followed this performance by wiping his ass with a towel full of highly concentrated AIDS vaccine, then topped it off by urinating lustily into the water supply of an impoverished Indian village.

You should read his first article in the series too, a review of Rollin’ With Dre by Bruce Williams, an unauthorized account of Williams’ experience with Dr. Dre. Really funny ish.

As long as we are catching up on videos…this one has had me laughing all day. This one, maybe even more so.

Andy Milonakis X Coolio, where a dime bag refers to a baggy of pepper.

Is it just me or has every picture of Obama recently been taken from this angle. Eyes reaching out to the future, full of hope, knowing how bad ass he really is. You should know, I am a fan of the guy. It seems like everyone is now a days. But my support is not just some ploy to be hip and edgy. I have substantive reasoning behind my political preferences. So here it is: My top ten reasons why Obama should be our president (Hip-Hop edition).

10. Because Vibe magazine nicknamed him B-Rock. Fuck, thats a cooler rap name than most of the ones real rappers have. Anyone deserving of such a title must have a little bit of charisma, a little bit of swagger. This might seem like a superficial reason to vote for someone, but, to be honest, any president that has been successful in diplomatic ventures has had a personality that people can connect with. We have seen over and over again that Obama has the ability to get people on to his team. At the very least he won’t come off like a total bitch (ahem, like Hillary).

9. Coincidence? I think not.

8. Because people like DMX should never be right. Not only is his comment appalling, but it reads like he was smoking crack while being interviewed.

7. Because any one of the following could easily be his campaign theme song: Jadakiss-We Gon’ Make it (fits his message of unity and comradery), Warren G-Regulate (see recent economic policies), and Ghostface Killah-The Champ (catchy new nickname?).

6. Because he has created a reason for even the hip-hop community to become political. If it takes the interest of Mos Def, Common, Jadakiss, Jay-Z, and Russel Simmons to make politics cool again, fuck it, ill take it.

5. I’m not gonna say that all the recent Hip-Hop related Obama music tributes prove anything about Obama as a candidate. But I will say this: nobody made shit for HIllary. Just a few highlights from recent projects:

eMC-Leak It Out (check the line: I’m a star risin like Barack Obama)

Coverage from Nah Right, here and here.

Still an impressive video from Will.I.am

4.

“I’m just basically spillin’ out my emotions to the world. ‘Cause rap [politics] is about emotion. And I want you to feel what I’m feelin’, ’cause that’s what it’s all about.”-Ludacris

Great minds think a like.

3. The dude has a fucken twitter. ML likes twitter. ML likes hip-hop. You can’t deny that logic.

2. Because he’s repped by Spank Rock. “Coke and wet bitch guns nigga, Obama!” from “Coke & Wet” off YoYoYoYoYo. You might hear “holla” not Obama, but I guess thats just an untrained ear for ya.

Spank Rock-Coke & Wet

1. The number one reason: this speech. Expounding on the realities of racial injustice and inequality in this country is historical for a politician, but its just another day in the life of an emcee.

Anyway, those are some thoughts, as well as some tunes. What do you guys think? Who should be the nominee?

See Also: The guy that should probably fill that OTHER Presidential spot (not DefJam)