Thursday, June 17, 2004
The new Beastie Boys album examined | More Movie Math | Diverse's One A.M. | Pulp hip hop fiction
Beastie Boys back in the day. Ask your Dad....
Seems like there's mixed response so far from many heads (including some of their normally diehard fans that I know personally) on the Beastie Boys new To the 5 Boroughs album. I checked it out last night: first off, it's a hip hop album top to bottom which is a welcome thing. It's bit same-y overall (especially rhyme-wise but that's nothing new for these cats), but I was diggin' the beats which are classic, tradtional hip hop (and by that I don't just mean drab retreads of the Extra P/Pete Rock/Ummah-style jazz-rap sound that has started to make a resurgence in the underground). There's also a cool Just Blaze remix of the "Ch-Check It Out" single going around but I don't think it's on the album. Also ch-check out "Triple Trouble" which samples "Rapper's Delight." (mp3 link courtesy hiphopsite.com)
Diverse's new album One A.M. on Chocolate Inudstries (great label name) is recommended if you're into artists like Talib Kweli, J-Live, Unspoken Heard, Jigmastas and the Juggaknots. I'm diggin "Just Biz" (produced by Prefuse-73) and "747 (flyin')" off the album but it's a pretty solid listen top to bottom. Also features production by RJD2 and Madlib.
DJ Shadow's current playlist. (New York Times)
Seems like Josh likes The Roots album. The first single "Don't Say Nothin'" got pretty mixed reviews (I liked it) but the video, directed by The Saline Project, is crazy hot though.
"I read this article about Condoleezza Rice, and I said: `This is exactly who I'm talking about. A person who has such a single-minded pursuit of success that they are willing to give up anything.'" Playwright Lynn Nottage on the inspiration for her new play "Fabulation" about upper-middle class African-Americans who ignore their roots in "Lynn Nottage Enters Her Flippant Period." (New York Times)
Heathers + Clueless = Mean Girls? Even if the math doesn't add up this movie, which I caught last weekend, is as funny and witty as the buzz suggests.
Is Will Ferrell gonna kill 'em with Anchorman?
And, for those who've seen it, is Napoleon Dynamite as good as the buzz around it I've been hearing?
Bling: former Vibe writer Erica Kennedy turns into the hip hop Jackie Collins with her pulp fictional (or not) look at the rap music industry. (Newsweek)
Ed Welburn, GM's new black design studio boss. (Newsweek)
And finally, it's probably gonna come out real soon that Olympic track & field star Marion Jones is a cheater. (Reuters UK)
