You’re probably familiar with Beth’s work, since we’ve used her photos for severalposts on this very site. She’s a Brooklyn, NY based photographer who’s had her work published in magazines including Scratch, URB, The FADER & Waxpoetics. She has a talent for really capturing the essence of her subject’s personality in a single photo; Madlib is surrounded by records, playing a one-stringed bass, Marley Marl is biting down on a record and Mark the 45 King is shot in closeup, wearing a shirt that simply reads “BEATS.”
Here’s a few of my favorite photos of hers. I recommend visiting her website to see her whole gallery.
Michael speaks the truth at some thing he was doing for kids. I am not a Lakers fan, so I love to see Kobe get hated on. Plus, we get to see a 45 year old Mike cram on some kid at the end.
Okay, so I f’ed up. I’ve been busy and I forgot to write my final entry in the D’Angelo Remix Tuesdays. But I wanted to do D justice by posting my final writeup of D’Angelo Remix Month today, even though today is the first day of August. Ah well.
If you missed the previous 3 instalments of the series:
“Cruisin'” was released as Brown Sugar‘s 2nd single in 1995. It’s a cover of Smokey Robinson’s 1979 single. D’Angelo produced the song himself, employing an impressive string section, including violin, viola and cello. Shakers and light drumming are used for the understated percussion, with sleigh bells entering on the chorus. D’Angelo’s version is fairly faithful to the original in terms of the basic chords and lyrics, but it’s a fair bit longer; at 6:26, the longest song on Brown Sugar. Gentle guitar figures and organ accompany D’Angelo’s graceful falsetto singing. “Cruisin'” is a great song for driving on a summer day.
On its 12′ release, “Cruisin'” was edited down to 5 minutes and 24 seconds and remixed by R&B production maven Dallas Austin. Austin strips the song of most of its instrumentation and replaces the live drums and shakers with programmed, 90s R&B style snares and hi-hats. He loops a short snippet of the guitar from the original into a catchy little riff and keeps the string arrangements from the original.
I was actually pleasantly surprised with the Dallas Austin remix. As much as I like the original, I can see Austin’s remix going over much better in the clubs or at parties, whereas the original would sound better in the car or at home. Let me know what you think of both versions in the comments!
And this marks the end of my month of covering D’Angelo songs exclusively for Remix Tuesdays. I’ve now covered every single released off Brown Sugar. Did you, the reader, enjoy the focus on one artist for a month? What did you think of D’Angelo Month (not the official title)?
As promised, Knobbz just let y’all know that Kid Capri > $4 & cap-less water bottles in Boston, we didn’t get a chance to experience the water situation (fortunately) or Kid Capri (unfortunately).
But read on to find out what the DMV arm of ML thought of the latest stop of Rock the Bells. Yesterday HM and I hit up the Rock The Bells stop in Columbia, MD (which most of the acts preferred to call Baltimore, DC, or even Virginia). In a nutshell the day was like many festivals, overwhelming at times yet highly memorable, esp. for a hip-hop head.
As I was getting my pass from Will Call, I heard some woman in a frantic asking to no one in particular at about 12:30 pm, “Is that Nas on?!”
When a security guard said it was “only” Jay Electronica, she was relieved, I fought back the urge to hiss/make verbal threats. Once I bypassed the crazy long line leading to the Pavilion to duck into the press entrance, I was at a loss at what to do first.. MURS was on the main stage, I stopped for a few moments to check him out, but with people just starting to trickle out it seemed like the perfect time to roam around, I stumbled across the smaller stage where a duo by the name of Ninjasonik, who were well into their set with a track about being on the internet called Internet Bitch, but once I heard Holla For a Dolla next which featured a sung part of the hook that went “HIV don’t be the death of me, I wanna fuck” over some clubby beat, I had to get them a mention and I didn’t really need to hear much more. I roamed some more to see the venue and try to find the elusive SanDisk VIP area, but in enough time to check out Wale on the main stage (home town advantage yo!), he only did a few songs including Nike Boots, but seeing a good majority of the people getting into his abbreviated set was a very welcome sight. Those that missed him this first time got lucky, he would come on later in the show to do even more songs during intermissions. After Wale wrapped up Supernatural or Supernatura if you will:
(we get it, Supernat never takes an L, right?)
went on to partake in his intermission/hosting duties that would carry on through out the day. He started freestyling about random objects throughout the concert, people (Highlight: Saying konichiwa to a girl that looked Japanese; ethnicity couldn’t be confirmed as of press time), stage props, etc. while Scratch (of The Roots fame) did a pretty impressive beatbox and spun. When Supernatural saw that there was a section of seats in the audience on the left for the hearing impaired with a full out sign language lady (what’s that occupation called?), he bugged out in his freestyle “I’ve never seen a white girl translate my rhymes!!”. He went on to spit some more stuff directed at her which resulted her in shaking what her mama gave her (throughout the night a lot of the MC’s like Redman gave a confused/smile/wtf look at what the epicness going in that section) . I’ve seen a few MCs do this schtick but Supernatural did it best. I stuck around to see Dead Prez come one for a handful of songs but for some reason I decided to check out Tyga on the small stage for curiosity sake (I had a lot of energy to walk around at this point, ok?). I can’t hate on dude, he showed a lot of energy and I only caught him doing his last songs including the single Coconut Juice. One of his entourage members had 2 (!!) GED chains, for some reason that amused me. Next I stuck around to see B.O.B. to see if he was living up to all the internets hype. The verdict is yes. He has the most care-free southern drawl this side of the Outkast. He did his track with Amy Winehouse, Grip Your Body, and I can’t say there is anything out that quite compares to him. Not only did rhyming seeming care-free his whole crew from the hypeman to the DJ were as well, I was impressed by the hypeman’s jumping jacks and told him later that he should make it into a trend. And get this B.O.B.-plays the guitar he played a track for the ladies (who were heavily outnumbered at something of like a 90:1 ratio by the other gender):
From left to right : My brother Adam, Termanology and me. Notice Term and I are the same height. Peep Statik Selektah in the background.
Last night I was invited by my cousin Dan to a listening party for Termanology’s debut, Politics As Usual, coming out September 30th on Nature Sounds.
It was a small, intimate affair. Everyone met on the 4th floor of the EMI office on 6th Avenue and hung out and ate pizza for a bit. Fellow Showoff Records artists Reks and Statik Selektah came through to support. After about a half hour, we went over to the conference room to listen to the record.
Burntpiano passed this on when I didn’t have sound, now with sound I realize its completely post worthy. Only the Japanese would come up with something so hypnotizing but that’s still a clock. For those of you not in the know, Uniqlo is a Japanese store with its US Flagship (and only) store in Manhattan. The best way to summarize the store is H&M on crack and steroids.
So… dude (Donny Goines) felt the need to respond to his first tirade. I honestly think that he’s right and it is wrong to glorify violence and ignorance, but its entertainment. So who cares?
I would like to clarify, my earlier comments aside, that I really think Donny Goines is a great rapper. He has consistently given us good music and I have always liked him, since I started getting e-mails from the guy.
It’s just my opinion that people shouldn’t take entertainers seriously. People don’t hold Robert Englund responsible because he plays Freddy Kreuger. They don’t burn photos of Al Pacino simply because he was Tony Montana. But every day it seems like people blame an act of violence or hatred on music, or a video game. I’m not saying movies never get flack for violence or sex. But the blame often seems disproportionately placed.
In a book we read a story. In a film we see a story. In a song we hear one.
None should be taken seriously.
Unless its Soulja Boy… cause that makes me want to do bad things…
Donny Goines offers his point of view on the Rick Rossfiasco… without mentioning Rick Ross. This has to be one of the most ignorant video’s I’ve ever seen. Dude takes out his extensive criminal history report and goes over it on camera. Then dude basically says that rappers who talk about crimes (like Ross) are fake, while rappers who do crimes (like Him) are cool and never talk about doing dirt .
I don’t know when people stopped thinking that this is an entertainment business. Do I care if Ross talks about being a drug dealer? No. Do I care if he was really a corrections officer? No. Do I care if his songs are good? Yes.
The real message we should get from this whole Ross thing is that kids shouldn’t look at these rappers and think that they can be sucessful from a life of crime. Selling drugs doesn’t make you cool. Going to jail doesn’t make you rich and powerful. Lying about going to jail and selling drugs makes you cool, rich, and powerful.
Who cares if some dudes in jail think you aren’t real? They’re in fucking prison!
Panama is a rapper in Baltimore. Aside from that he is also the head of a successful clothing line, and an actor. You might have seen him on Season 4 of The Wire. Dude also happens to be a friend of mine from UMBC. This is a video of him on BET’s Spit Ya Game.
I never got a chance to see this when it ran the first time so I’m glad it got uploaded. He recently released a great new song with Skyzoo called Play Your Position. Look out for this dude.
{Note: I just found this in my e-mail box. Apparently eskay has had it for a while, but Panama actually sent this to me way before that. My e-mail box has been too cluttered [See: Life The Great] to see the diamonds in the coal.}
After the jump is a video of Panama wrecking Bubbles in Season 4 of the Wire.
I got a press release from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the other day and they’ve apparently added some dope hip-hop artifacts to their collection. Personally I’d like to see Slick Rick’s eyepatch and the letter from the FBI to NWA.
Assorted Hip-Hop Flyers c.1977 – 1985
Includes flyers from Saul Abbatiello, Afrika Bambaataa, Phase Too, Grandmaster Flash, Lovebug Starski and DJ Kool Herc.
Slick Rick
Hat & Eye Patch c.1985
Slick Rick’s eye patch was not an affectation, as he was blinded in the right eye by broken glass as an infant.
Run D.M.C.
Tennis Shoes & Sunglass Frames c.1985
Grandmaster Flash
Mixer & Cap c.1988
**Flashformer Mixer by Gemini**
Cap by Kangol
Ice-T
Body Count T-Shirt c.1998
Release of Contract from Sire Records, November 12, 1992
After much public pressure, Sire Records asked Ice-T to pull the track “Cop Killer” from his 1992 Body Count album, claiming the track advocated violence against police. Ice-T refused, feeling the request compromised his artistic integrity. This letter released the artist from his recording contract.
“Radio Suckers” lyric manuscript 1988
Rolling Stone magazine August 20, 1992
Concert Poster August 28, 1991 (Emunclaw, Washington)
N.W.A.
Letter from the F.B.I. to Priority Records August 1, 1989
Baseball Cap c.1990
Dj01 Edit: Here are some pics of the artifacts on display (Thanks Dani!)
