Saturday, January 17, 2004
Real Poetry in Motion, some new mixtapes and Superfly RIP
Iraqis agitate for quicker elections; U.S. stands firm. (Seattle Times)
Now they want to include the U.N. in Iraq? U.S. Wants U.N. to Send Team to Iraq to Determine if Elections Feasible. (Washington Post)
By the way, I can't even believe I missed posting about this when the story first broke a few days back: a scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an "unnecessary" war in Iraq and pursuing an "unrealistic" quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat. (Washington Post)
Also: the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says Bush "systematically misrepresent[ed]" the threat posed by "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction" in a comprehensive report on post-war findings. (Guardian UK)
And here's the Center for American Progress on Bush's recently-announced Mars exploration plans:
Related reading: Halliburton unit may be subject of criminal probe. (Toronto Star)
Images courtesy: Allmixtapes.com
Copped some new mixtapes this week. The best of the bunch was DJ Whoo Kid's SWAT: Global Mixtape Strike Team tape. Pimping his G-Unit/Aftermath affiliation for all it's worth, the tape is packed with exclusives and freestyles from hip hop's A-list (Hov, Snoop, 50 etc.) and the hottest newcomers like my new favorite MC The Game. This is pretty much a must-buy for fans of this style of hip hop.
DJ Clue's latest tape When Animals Attack is, with a few exceptions, pretty unmemorable stuff and kind of an unnecessary purchase if you're a regular listener of his "Monday Night Mixtape" show on Hot 97 where he's been playing many of the joints from this tape recently. The last track, a multi-artist freestyle session over Capone 'N Noreaga's "Banned from TV" beat, is some hot-ass thugged-out hip hop for those into that style though.
DJ Wat's Boss of the Bosses is recommended only for those Cam'ron fans who haven't bought any mixtapes in the past 6 months since it's basically a "Best of Cam" collection of his hottest unreleased tracks and freestyles. Kay Slay may have won the Best Commercial Mixtape DJ prize at this past week's Mixtape Awards, but he's gonna need to seriously step his game back up if he wants to maintain his rep on the streets. Like many of his recent tapes, The Drama Hour Part 9: Long Live the King is pretty lackluster sounding and real sloppy, even by street mixtape standards, production quality-wise with wildly varying sound levels throughout the tape and tracks inexplicably cutting off. Most of the unsigned artists cuts at the end are kind of wack too.
The one tape I need to check out that I keep hearing about though is the Kanye West promo mixtape Kon The Louis Vuitton Don.
Related reading: Lloyd Banks, Whoo Kid, Big Mike Win At Mixtape Awards. (MTV News)
Image courtesy: Just Bookz
BK/Queens MTA subway riders: look out for Blue "The A Train Poet" hawking his Corner Stores in the Middle of the Block collection of poems. You can also email him or click the Just Books link above to buy a copy.
Related reading: Why Wait for Def Poetry Jam? Spoken Word Artist, Blue, Makes Name For Himself on the NYC Transit System. (NY Poets)
Image courtesy: bn.com
Coming March 9th: Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G by my good friend and respected journalist Cheo Hodari Coker.
Just finished watching the gangster flicks Knockaround Guys and 1991's Billy Bathgate earlier this week. Briefly touching on the theme of the faded glory of the modern Mafia, Knockaround Guys seemed to be aspiring to a Sopranos/Goodfellas level of introspection about this well-documented world but it ended up basically being Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels with Brooklyn accents. That being said, John Malkovich was incredible as OG mafiosi Teddy. Billy Bathgate featured a star-packed cast headed by Dustin Hoffman, Bruce Willis and Nicole Kidman but the story wasn't quite epic enough to rank with the gangster greats and the film will probably end up being best-remembered for Kidman's full-on but pretty gratuitous two nude scenes.
Finally though, on the topic of movie gangsters, Ron "Superfly" O'Neal RIP. (BET.com)
Tweet
Now they want to include the U.N. in Iraq? U.S. Wants U.N. to Send Team to Iraq to Determine if Elections Feasible. (Washington Post)
By the way, I can't even believe I missed posting about this when the story first broke a few days back: a scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an "unnecessary" war in Iraq and pursuing an "unrealistic" quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat. (Washington Post)
Also: the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says Bush "systematically misrepresent[ed]" the threat posed by "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction" in a comprehensive report on post-war findings. (Guardian UK)
And here's the Center for American Progress on Bush's recently-announced Mars exploration plans:
New polls show that at a time of record deficits, the public is against spending billions on a Mars mission while cutting domestic priorities. Nonetheless, there is one company that has supported a Mars mission for years: Halliburton. The company, which was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney and is a major financial backer of the Administration, has long supported funding a Mars plan because it is good for its drilling technology business (it was also Cheney who spearheaded the Mars plan inside the White House).Read the full article here.
Related reading: Halliburton unit may be subject of criminal probe. (Toronto Star)
Images courtesy: Allmixtapes.com
Copped some new mixtapes this week. The best of the bunch was DJ Whoo Kid's SWAT: Global Mixtape Strike Team tape. Pimping his G-Unit/Aftermath affiliation for all it's worth, the tape is packed with exclusives and freestyles from hip hop's A-list (Hov, Snoop, 50 etc.) and the hottest newcomers like my new favorite MC The Game. This is pretty much a must-buy for fans of this style of hip hop.
DJ Clue's latest tape When Animals Attack is, with a few exceptions, pretty unmemorable stuff and kind of an unnecessary purchase if you're a regular listener of his "Monday Night Mixtape" show on Hot 97 where he's been playing many of the joints from this tape recently. The last track, a multi-artist freestyle session over Capone 'N Noreaga's "Banned from TV" beat, is some hot-ass thugged-out hip hop for those into that style though.
DJ Wat's Boss of the Bosses is recommended only for those Cam'ron fans who haven't bought any mixtapes in the past 6 months since it's basically a "Best of Cam" collection of his hottest unreleased tracks and freestyles. Kay Slay may have won the Best Commercial Mixtape DJ prize at this past week's Mixtape Awards, but he's gonna need to seriously step his game back up if he wants to maintain his rep on the streets. Like many of his recent tapes, The Drama Hour Part 9: Long Live the King is pretty lackluster sounding and real sloppy, even by street mixtape standards, production quality-wise with wildly varying sound levels throughout the tape and tracks inexplicably cutting off. Most of the unsigned artists cuts at the end are kind of wack too.
The one tape I need to check out that I keep hearing about though is the Kanye West promo mixtape Kon The Louis Vuitton Don.
Related reading: Lloyd Banks, Whoo Kid, Big Mike Win At Mixtape Awards. (MTV News)
Image courtesy: Just Bookz
BK/Queens MTA subway riders: look out for Blue "The A Train Poet" hawking his Corner Stores in the Middle of the Block collection of poems. You can also email him or click the Just Books link above to buy a copy.
Related reading: Why Wait for Def Poetry Jam? Spoken Word Artist, Blue, Makes Name For Himself on the NYC Transit System. (NY Poets)
Image courtesy: bn.com
Coming March 9th: Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G by my good friend and respected journalist Cheo Hodari Coker.
Just finished watching the gangster flicks Knockaround Guys and 1991's Billy Bathgate earlier this week. Briefly touching on the theme of the faded glory of the modern Mafia, Knockaround Guys seemed to be aspiring to a Sopranos/Goodfellas level of introspection about this well-documented world but it ended up basically being Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels with Brooklyn accents. That being said, John Malkovich was incredible as OG mafiosi Teddy. Billy Bathgate featured a star-packed cast headed by Dustin Hoffman, Bruce Willis and Nicole Kidman but the story wasn't quite epic enough to rank with the gangster greats and the film will probably end up being best-remembered for Kidman's full-on but pretty gratuitous two nude scenes.
Finally though, on the topic of movie gangsters, Ron "Superfly" O'Neal RIP. (BET.com)
