Tuesday, March 09, 2004
NOTORIOUS B.I.G., 1972-1997
Image courtesy: Souljerz
Read:
- Cheo Hodari Coker's biography Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G. on the real King of New York
Buy:
- Ready to Die
- Life After Death
- Born Again
(if you don't own at least the first two of these albums, don't play yourself: run, don't walk, to the store today and cop those immediately)
Reminisce:
- The Lox "We'll Always Miss Big Poppa" (snippet courtesy: UBL/ArtistDirect)
- Puff Daddy & Faith Evans "I'll Be Missing You" (mp3 courtesy: mp3raid.com)
- Pete Rock & CL Smooth "They Reminisce Over You" (mp3 snippet courtesy: Sandbox Automatic)
Update:
That ni--a twice (aka "Young Jay-Rome, fresh from Italy") speculates on what the hip hop world would be like if Christopher Wallace was still alive today. (Fresh to Death)
R.I.P. to the Black Frank White: "Brooklyn, we did it!"
And now back to our regularly scheduled programing:
Blix: Bush, Blair Knew They Were Hyping Case for War (Reuters via Nadine S.)
American troops are killing and abusing Afghans, rights body says. (Guardian UK | Related: BBC News World Edition | Chrisitian Science Monitor)
And also related: Recent months have seen the re-emergence of the hardline Islamic Taleban [sic] movement as a fighting force in Afghanistan. (BBC News World Edition)
I know he (seems to be) their Africa correspondent, but why does Sunday's article on disgraced dictators living in exile by the New York Time's Michael Wines, "If You’re Thinking of Living in Exile," only reference (with the exception of a passing mention of Ferdinand Marcos) black or African figures? (New York Times)
GOP faces challenge in attracting black voters. (USA Today)
Come November, Florida is going to be so key, it's stupid: Florida voters leaning toward Kerry
A poll shows that a plurality of Florida voters disapprove of President Bush's performance on the economy and the war in Iraq, while his Democratic opponent is stronger with crucial swing voters. (Miami Herald)But nationwide, John Kerry and President Bush are starting the general election campaign tied, according to an Associated Press poll, while independent Ralph Nader is drawing enough support to make Democrats squirm. (USA Today)
The People's Candidate? From trendcentral's Youth Intelligence e-newsletter:
This summer Showtime will be airing American Candidate, a 10-episode reality series in which viewers will choose a “People’s Candidate” who they would (hypothetically) like to see run for president of the United States.And I don't even know what to say about this: A black BBC London radio presenter was sacked for being too "intellectual." (Guardian UK)
Unlike the real presidential election, the competition is open to those 18 and over, as well as foreign-born Americans. Other than that, however, the show intends to emulate the actual campaigning process. Commencing with a group of 12, contestants will engage in debates, meet with experienced political strategists, seek endorsements, deal with press scrutiny when their dirty laundry is aired, all while traveling across the country on the campaign trail. In the reality show tradition, a contestant will be eliminated weekly based on their performance in various tests, the skills they display at weekly press conferences, and the response of audience viewers via the internet; the winning “People’s Candidate” will receive $200,000. [The show hopes] to help bridge the divide between politics and entertainment and make voting cool again [and] prove Urban Outfitters wrong by showing that voting is indeed for young people.
Just watched The Secret Lives of Dentists DVD this weekend: WTF was that all about?
The worst of all worlds: Creed's Scott Stapp works with Ja Rule, Ashanti producer 7 Aurelius on his solo album (Billboard via Aaron Wherry's pop (all nipple))
Speaking of which, is this a promise?: P. Diddy Says Next Album Will Be His Last. (MTV News)
The Neptunes of the indie wold (DFA) remix the Neptunes of the urban world (The Neptunes in their alter ego N*E*R*D). Anyone heard this?
The new Streets album previewed, track-by track. (Playlouder via Global Pop Conspiracy)
Could be an interesting album (from XFM's "The Remix" e-newsletter):
WALL OF SOUND COMBINE ELECTRONICA AND DANCEHALLFinally, axe to grind, hateration or valid points being made? From my point of view, this might possibly be the most ill-informed, one-sided article on hip hop I've read in a while: Rap's last tape. Ironically, the author, Nick Crowe, was the drummer for Gay Dad, a UK rock band who were hyped as the Next Big Thing (in typical British music press fashion) a few years back, then subsequently completely disappeared after having just one (I believe) top-20 single. What, there wasn't one qualified urban music journalist in the UK who could've written this piece? C'mon. (Prospect)
Since helping us stage our A-Z of DJs just before Christmas, Wall of
Sound's Mark Jones has been keeping himself very very very busy ferrying
leading electronic producers to the Gee Jam studios in Jamaica's Blue Mountains
to work on a very exciting project aiming to demonstrate the close link
between dancehall and electronic music.
Each producer has been paired off with some of Jamaica's most talented
dancehall, ska & reggae vocalists and musicians to create unique new
material. The results of those sessions will be released by WoS later
this year under the banner of 'Two Culture Clash', as will a DVD of the
whole project.
Producers involved include: Jacques Lu Cont, City Hifi, Roni Size, Jon
Carter, Dj Gregory, Kid 606, Soulchild, Cassius, Mark Rae, Switch,
Mekon, Howie B and Justin Robertson.
From the dancehall/ reggae/ ska side there's Horace Andy, Earnest
Ranglin, Miss Thing, Patra, Buju Banton, Ward 21, Bling Dawg, General Degree,
Ce'cile, Junior Reid, Spragga Benz, Big Youth, Danny English, Tanya
Stevens, Junior Mervin, Determine, Nadine Sutherland, Innocent Kru, Patrick Anthony and Barrington Levy.
More on the album here once a release date is confirmed - meanwhile
more info at www.wallofsound.net and www.geejamstudios.com.
