Wednesday, June 30, 2004
The BET Awards examined | More M.I.A. | Lloyd Banks leaves a "Hunger for More" | Masta Killa: the sleeper CD of 2004?
Masta Killa's No Said Date: a slept-on Wu classic?
Not sure how others feel but what I saw of the BET Awards show, between frying up some chicken last night, actually seemed really good. My only issue was the questionable sequencing of how the acts were scheduled to perform. Hov, who killed "PSA" and "99 Problems" with Sheila E and ?uestlove on dual drum sets, Rick Rubin on keys and Dave Navarro & Kid Rock on guitars (Rock, learn your lines next time) as his backup band, should have been the show closer, period. And having Janet Jackson come on shortly after that and well before the halfway mark seemed like a bad call too. Even if her album has pretty much bricked so far and we are well beyond the period of post-Superbowl hype, her performing live, especially without a tape delay, is still an anticipated event that should have been scheduled near the end as well. (Royal Magazine)
Props for the "25 years of Hip hop on Wax" segment featuring The Furious 5, Sugarhill Gang, Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick, MC Lyte, Public Enemy etc. with Premo holding down the 1's and 2's. Seeing all of today's hip hop sueprstars singing along to "Rappers Delight" raised a smile while the Isleys lifetime achievement award performance was fire too. And on a Vibe-style useless 20 Questions steez: was the crowd booing Pharrell's name during the the announcement of the nominees for Best New Artist? And could Babyface pass for Kanye West's dad or am I just buggin'?
Related:
- Speaking of Kanye, I just can't figure out that dude. He comes off real humble and personal in his music and oftentimes in person, like while accepting his award last night, and then at other times his ego and arrogance are out of control. What's the deal with this cat?
- Do 50's new G-Unit GXT sneakers (dropping 7/2/04) look really wack or am I just out of it as far as the new flavors in sneakers for Summer 2004?
Fly music I've bought recently:
- Roscoe P. Coldchain "Delinquent" a track I heard a while back and never knew what it was other than it was (obviously) produed by The Neptunes. An underrated Chad 'n Pharrell banger. (Video links via altrap.com Realplayer 300 | 56 Windows Media Player 300 | 56 )
- Pete Rock & CL Smooth "Shine On Me" b/w "Climax" 12" I'm sure PR & CL purists probably hate the B-side of this joint that came out a while ago I believe but I'm diggin' both sides and decided to pick it up.
- Lloyd Banks The Hunger For More (Limited Edition CD + DVD). One day I'll fully learn my lesson and stop falling for the hype and buying all the increasingly generic-sounding albums from Shady/G-Unit/Aftermath Records that don't have Dr. Dre's name listed as the artist. Admittedly I've only given this a passing listen since yesterday but so far I'm like "how's this different from the last albums from this crew I brought?" which, mercifully, doesn't include the D12 album. Plus am I on crack or is the paper they used for the CD booklet just a regular paper stock or is it the official US currency paper stock like they claimed it would be. (SOHH.com)
More cool music (and other stuff) I heard/spotted online:
- M.I.A. "Fire, Fire" (via Telephone Thing). Why are more heads in the music press not raving about this artist like they do The Streets or Dizzee Rascal. In a just world, M.I.A. would be right up there with Beyonce and Missy Elliott as a global superstar. Seriously.
- De La Soul: De La Mixtape CD featuring non-album rarities, b-sides, remixes, slept-on album cuts and a couple excerpts from a Live At Tramps NYC '96 CD that's floating around too (!).
- Qualo: the midwest Goodie Mob? Check out their rap remake/mash-up of The White Stripes "7 Nation Army."
- Basement Jaxx: "Right Here's The Spot (Switch Mix)" nice techy/glitchy-house remix action from the "Good Luck / Cish Cash" Remix 12" (mp3 via Piccadilly Records)
- New mp3 blog: nevercamehome.
- And a fly KMD t-shirt.
Related:
- I can't front like I own it and gave it a thorough listen but I did finally skim through the whole Masta Killa album at Sound Library yesterday and it's f-ckin' ridiculous. Other bloggers have talked about how slept-on this album is and I have to agree. Vintage Wu and not in the boring "back-in-the-day hip hop was better than the sh!t today" way that old school heads go on about. This ish is heatrock status by 2004 standards. It might be better than Starks's joint but I'll reserve that call until I cop it and give it a proper listen because this is my next CD purchase, no doubt (and should have been my last one before that Banks' jumpoff).
- Good lookin' to my sister Nadine for coppin' the out of print Disco (Not Disco) Vol. 2 CD from the now defunct, but respected Strut Records for me while in the UK. I've been meaning to pick this and Vol. 1 up on wax forever and now might not be able to without paying premium eBay prices. Damn! (related to the related: read the jahsonic.com blog and website for excellent music, film and literary commentary and reviews)
I'm probably gonna miss it unfortunately, but Trevor Jackson of Playgroup and Output Recordings DJ-ing with Madlib and Peanut Butter Wolf at Warm Up at PS1 for $8 this Saturday sounds like a good look to me. (via Flavorpill)
XXL continues to prove why it's the best mainstream hip hop mag in the game right now with a great feature on the top summer jams of the past 15 years in their current (Lloyd Banks/Young Buck cover) issue.
Slightly UK-centric but check out The Independent's 100 most influential people in the music industry anyway.
Ball Park frank's vaguely-gay new TV ad ("no homo" does not seem to apply here). (Slate)
The New Yorker on "street bible" Don Diva magazine. Why?
And even though I get decent traffic on this site (enough to make me feel like I'm not wasting my time posting every day at least), seeing my trading value on Blogshares as compared to other blogsites on there is a humbling experience even if this is a completely artificial measure of a site's value (or is it?).
