Metal Lungies

The hierarchy of the online rap community goes like this:

1. Photoshoppers

2. Rap bloggers

3. People who leave comments on old school rap videos on YouTube

Props to Kuci06, HHReloaded, Talyban, and wilde who have been trading Young Jeezy-themed movie posters in a legendary thread on the ProjectCOVO.com forums. Many more after the break.

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So, this is kind of a random/last minute thing, but ML is teaming up with Phil Dzikiy (who our hardcore readers may recall from his chilling thoughts on our ‘Trapped in the Closet’ reviews) to live blog The Amazing Race 18 ALL SEASON LONG (unless we get our TVs stolen repossessed). You might find yourself asking, “what the hell is this about?”. Well, let me explain, as I descend into old man age demographics, I have become fond of CBS’ programming including the globe trotting The Amazing Race. This past fall, The Amazing Race 17 was my first season, and I was hooked… like Biggie’s first album hooked.

If you join us tonight, at 8pm EST (All Star? Heritage Classic? That’s why you have DVR). You can also use the twitter hashtag #mlamazingrace to get your comments added to our coverage. Note: this is the first season in HD.. word on the street is it’s pretty hard to film people running around all over the country with HD cameras (I’m not talking your flip cams), so you don’t have to suffer with Standard Def footage, like I did last year. Lastly, don’t be intimidated if you haven’t seen any prior seasons, The Amazing Race is a show you can pick up with any season, without knowing anything at all.

So join the conversation..or just read the gems that we drop on y’all, below.

The Love Song Machine is a web app that lets you compose a song using eight notes. Then it plays your song. IN THE REAL WORLD. After you make your song, you can watch a live stream of it playing on a set of bells in their Rhode Island office.  Technical explanation:

The bells are played by a series of solenoids, which are controlled by an Arduino micro-controller. The notes that you submit are processed on our web servers and then sent to the Arduino, while we load up live video and audio so that you can watch your song play. If there are users ahead of you in line, the queuing system will let you know how long you’ve got before you can watch your song.

I got them to wave at me by naming my song “ACKNOWLEDGE ME.” I put together a quick rendition of the James Bond theme and now I’m trying to do “Mass Appeal.” Now I know how my high school English teacher felt when he found out he could use the projector to show us his PowerPoint presentations. Read an interview with the creators at the interactive design firm Tellart here.

Go play with it before everyone hears about it and you have to wait an hour to listen to your song. Or they turn it off.

Train! Fight! Die?!

DJA and Dirty South Joe have distilled the essence of motivation and physical and mental exertion into musical form. The product of their labor is Heaven 2 Hell, their second 80s action soundtrack mix. As with any action sequel, the stakes are higher and the danger level has doubled (maybe even tripled). Put this on and get inspired.

Find the track list after the break and don’t forget about part one. Keep it locked for Blood Bros 3!

via Mad Decent

I never asked for anything except a purple light saber. George said, “Well, light sabers are either red or green.” I said, “Yeah, but I would like a purple one.”

–Samuel L. Jackson

Note: This guide not comprehensive. Far from it, in fact. Rather, this is a guide based on my experiences living and working in New York City. I’m sure you can find much more scientific studies of New York’s falafel scene, but I hope that my insight can be of some value to falafel lovers in my city.

Why now?

In both of my most recent interviews, I somehow came across the topic of falafel and elicited very strong responses. When I brought up falafel with Daedelus, he said, “DUDE!” and he made me promise to send him my NYC falafel picks (the genesis of this post). When I suggested falafel to Yelawolf as an alternative to the No. 5 at McDonald’s that made him sick, his face lit up. “Hell yeah,” he said. “I love falafels.”

Despite its ubiquity, falafel gets people excited. A co-worker once told me after a long hectic morning, “Dude, I can’t wait to get my falafel for lunch. It’s going to taste SO good.” No one says that about their turkey sandwich.

The O.G.

The go-to NY falafel joint is Mamoun’s. It’s a tiny place where you can get a falafel in under five minutes even when there are ten people in line. There are two locations, one on MacDougal Street (119 MacDougal St.) and one on St. Marks (22 St. Marks Pl) and they’re always open. If you go to either location on Friday night, you’re almost guaranteed to witness a drunken fight or maybe even Spider-Man. Both locations also neighbor great pizza places, so technically you can get a falafel and a slice of pizza at the same time for less than five dollars.

Mamoun’s is an institution, straight up. Unfortunately, its quality has wavered in my time. The lettuce isn’t so fresh and the pita is thin and sad. Go to Mamoun’s for the color and the nostalgia, but after you’ve paid your dues, it’s time to look at some more advanced falafel options.

Green

Maoz is a trendy vegetarian chain that popped up a few years ago that has a decent falafel. The main draw here is the unlimited salad bar. It’s great because you can heap broccoli and coleslaw on your sandwich, eat it, and then come back for more. But this causes some problems. After my second or third go at the salad bar, my pita is cold and soggy from all the coleslaw and I haven’t even eaten the falafel. Also, you get a bunch of people crowding the salad bar trying to throw more cucumber on their sandwich.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking you’re eating healthy because it’s a veggie place. Remember, this is falafel. Maoz is hardly the streamlined experience of Mamoun’s, but if you have some time, grab a falafel, some Belgian fries and eat coleslaw until you can’t move.

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Action has a new hero.

Blood Bros (DJA and Dirty South Joe) have created the soundtrack to your next arduous challenge. They compiled the greatest moments in 80s action movie soundtrack history for a mix that will get you pumped in times of adversity. Now go chop some firewood!

via Mad Decent

Want to celebrate John Daly’s triumphant return to Golf relevancy (something I know nothing about) rocking zubaz-looking pants at the British Open this week? More importantly enjoy a nice summer beverage? Well let me introduce an original drink creation from the ML bar.

Take some…

and mix it with..

You can call that joint ‘The John Daly’.

You’re welcome. and drink responsibly.

Diddy/Ciroc, cut the check or send a case!

The other night, Ron Artest took an unnecessary three when it would have made much more sense to wait down the shot clock. Fans booed, but a moment later, an unfazed Artest charged to the basket and hit a game winning shot at the buzzer. In the post game interview (below), Craig Sager asks as nicely as he can why Artest took the three when the Lakers had a three point lead. During his largely incoherent response, Ron responds with what I hope will become a maxim for our generation: “You gotta play basketball.” Yes Ron, you do play basketball.

Queensbridge in the building.

An interview with Just Blaze and a response from eskay of Nah Right have prompted a discussion about hip-hop blogs and unauthorized leaks. Rather than reiterating what’s already been said, I’d like to put one point under the magnifying glass.

Toward the end of the clip, Just Blaze says that bloggers are largely concerned with making a name for themselves by getting a song out first and that Nah Right is the only blog that has successfully monetized its success and created a brand. I can’t speak to how much money anyone is making, but there are many hip-hop blogs with very strong brands. Nah Right and Rap Radar function as news wires that do a great job of telling you what’s going on in hip-hop at this very second, but sites like Fake Shore Drive, Dirty Glove Bastard, BLVD ST, SpineMagazine, Unkut, The Smoking Section, and T.R.O.Y. have defined themselves with distinct writing styles and tastes or by specializing in specific regions and subgenres. Sites like these have stronger identities than blogs that drop an exclusive every few weeks.

Unless you can do it consistently, dropping an exclusive is an overrated experience. Once, when we had an exclusive Wale track, we got linked everywhere, but it didn’t turn into a massive spike in traffic and I didn’t get a sandwich named after me or anything. One of the so-called “major” blogs didn’t even link to us. Just this week we had an exclusive Mark Ronson x Ghostface track, which is crack btw, but few sites picked it up, probably because they were all watching the new Drake video. But a lot of people did tell me how much like liked the song. The point I’m trying to make is that you shouldn’t be after recognition for posting a song first, you should be after recognition for your taste in music. The best dap I ever got was when someone commented on the Kanye Beat Drop that they liked my taste in beats. If there’s one thing missing from hip-hop blogs, it’s taste.

Remember, we write about this ignorant ass music because we love it and it keeps us from going postal when that girl we’ve been obsessing over doesn’t return our Facebook messages. (you better poke me back, bitch)