Some of you folks may have seen this already on the WaxPoetics site. It’s an old Toyota commercial from the mid 90’s and it features Lootpack. Usually these things don’t really stick with me, but I have been watching this video on loop since yesterday. It’s taken my life, and it might take yours…

Another year, another BET Hip Hop Awards.  I’m not sure who the genius  behind the idea of the Cypher portion of the show is, but that mofo has had me watching BET (albeit once a year) for the last 3 years. But enough about me, let’s break down the performances:

Nicki Minaj kicked things off with a pretty hot verse. Honestly, it seems almost sacrilegious to have someone like Minaj spit bars with Preemo spinning in the background, but she actually came ahead with one of the hottest verses in this portion. Buckshot’s verse was kinda low-par compared to his usual shit, and definitely didn’t seem noteworthy (even after 3 viewings!). Maybe I missed what he was going for. Who knows? The cypher contest winner, Crown Royyal, came pretty hard on his part and I really liked his verse, despite my hatred of the word swag. But the best verse of this portion, and one of the best of the night definitely goes to Joe Budden. Joe’s verse was ridiculous! That line about Serena Williams?! I practically fell out of my damn chair.

[Read more]

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.

Did you know that Dee Dee of the Ramones recorded a rap album as Dee Dee King in 1989? This single is not on the album but still terrible and entertaining in a kind of car-wreck way. Seek out the whole album if you hate your ears.

I like rap/I like hip-hop/I like hardcore and punk rock

To clean your ears out, here’s the video for “I Wanna Be Sedated” featuring Courtney Love in a cameo as a junkie (really!):

Shouts to Nate Patrin for reminding me about this.

Ever since Coolio stopped chopping it up in the kitchen, I haven’t really been following any show that airs exclusively online. That is until I came across Childrens’ Hospital this week. The show is a hilarious spoof of all the hospital dramas which I despise with a passion like Grey’s Anatomy & ER (be sure to sayanora this week!). The cast is made up of some of my favorite comedian/actors including Nick Kroll, Ed Helms (from the Office/Daily Show), Rob Huebel, and Rob Corddry. If you are hoping to wait out for this to hit the airwaves, I suggest you don’t, the humor would never fly with the FCC on broadcast TV.

Here are the first 2 episodes for you to sample:

Watch the rest at The WB per reader request, after the break. Hopefully there are more to come.

Discovered via Rob Corddry’s (the show’s writer) twitter.

[Read more]

A brilliant parody of “Ice Cream” by the Lonely Island. Andy Samberg’s Cappadonna imitation is on point.

And just ’cause, the video for “Ice Cream”:

Via Stones Throw

Here’s a great interview with the heads of two great record labels, Pedro Winter (aka Busy P) of Ed Banger and Chris Manak, aka Peanut Butter Wolf of Stones Throw. There’s some interesting back story behind both labels and Busy P’s answers are all in charmingly broken English  (the title of this post being the best example).

Particularly interesting: Pedro explains how Slum Village ended up remixing Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic”.

Pedro, how did the Daft Punk remix by Slum Village/Jay Dee occur?
Pedro: You all probably know the classic “Raise it up” from Slum Village. This beat was insane at the time. Jay Dee as usual came up with an avant-garde beat. I did not notice the sample at first sight, but a friend of us was there and say, “Hey hey hold on, isn’t it a Daft sound?” And fuck yes! It was in fact a sample from Thomas Bangalter’s solo project for his label Roulé.
Instead of loosing our time and react as ass holes and ask for money or shit, I propose to the Daft boys to take care of it and ask a remix in exchange of the use of that sample. I met Dilla in Miami and he was of course up for it and was really friendly. He is from Detroit and electronic music never scared him. We were so happy with the result and the shout out. It was a simple and nice adventure. I feel really lucky to have met Jay Dee it was 8 or 9 years ago.

Download: Daft Punk – Aerodynamic (Slum Village Remix)

Download: Slum Village – Raise It Up

And of course, the sample for “Raise It Up”, Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk’s “Extra Dry”:

Well, kinda. Let me explain.

Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian communications theorist and writer, who devised the expression, “the medium is the message”. What he means by this: the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship through which the medium influences how the message is perceived. (via Wikipedia) In 1967, he wrote The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, which explained how the effects of media massages the human sensorium. The same year, he released an audio recording of this work on Columbia Records.

The album consists of McLuhan reading statements from the book while repeatedly being interrupted by a variety of speakers: people criticizing his theories, other people reading the book in weird voices, sped-up recordings of McLuhan, odd random sounds and samples of incidental music encompassing different genres and moods. The idea was to create a media pastiche that would evoke TV’s connection of unrelated images in audio form. It foreshadowed many future sound experiments, especially those put together by Steinski and turntablists like DJ Shadow. It’s certainly not the earliest form of sound collage, but it’s striking how close it sounds to modern sound experimentation. It’s out of print now, but you can download it here, courtesy of the blog The Sphinx.

Here’s Side A of the record as a sample.

Marshall McLuhan – The Medium Is The Massage (Side A)

Ha, with Hulu offering movies- eff embedding a trailer or a video clip from youtube, you can throw up the entire movie, dope. I came across & watched this the other night after not being able to fall asleep. If you dig Airplane or Naked Gun type humor or want a parody of Kung Fu films (I liked it even tho I can’t really stand Kung Fu, sorry Bruce Lee) this is highly recommended.  Expect more random Hulu viewing selections in the future. I wonder what RZA thinks of this.

I have been sleeping on Best Week Ever this year (and a lot of TV in general), watching this the other night made me realize what a fool I am for not keeping up. I missed out on a lot of awesome pop culture stuff from kids eating 30 magnets to gropings on reality shows. Thankfully, the BWE crew did the legwork for me and wrapped up the whole year in a nice, like always-funny package. If you need the best recap of all things pop culture, have amnesia, or just have time to kill before the champagne is ready, watch this.

Also be sure to check out KNOWxONE’s year end wrapup featuring some serious Up & Comers.. and yours truly musing on the year that was.

Have a safe & happy New Year.

Parts 2-6 of Best Year Ever after the jump.

[Read more]