Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Amerikaz Nightmare is here
Other than DJ-ing, I haven't really gone out much in weeks then all of a sudden I'm doing two things a night for several nights in a row.
Last night was the Brand Nubian album release party at 17. Not much to say other than it was kind of surreal seeing infamous PR maven Lizzie Grubman hanging around outside. Her involement in the party probably explains why a party for these notorious 5 percenters was almost exclusively populated by white (Devil?) fashion victim types, most of whom probably didn't even recognize Puba (BTW the cat originally responsible for the striped "button up" [sic] craze for my old school heads) when he came in. DJ for the night Beverly Bonds is truly the hip hop embodiment of talent and beauty though.
After that, I zipped up to Spirit for the Mobb Deep album release party. This was more my speed (pun intended for those who know what I'm talking about). I immediately knew I was in the right place when I spotted the Shyne promo-wrapped Rolls Royce Phantom outside. Inside Hot 97's Mr Cee and Camillo tore it down with Cee ripping a whole set of early 90's hip hop that you never hear in clubs any more. I didn't stay for whole thing but was there long enough to see the ghetto lingerie fashion show and MOP wreck "Ante Up" three times in a row including the remix with Bussa-Bus which sent the crowd bananas. Look out for a new MOP/Mobb Deep full album collabo according to an announcement made by Fame from the stage mid-performance.
Mobb's album is in stores today as is Shyne's. Thanks to Michelle at Room Service for an advance on the Mobb. It's cool but it's also clear at this point that they'll never touch the perfection of The Infamous again, but there's enough heat on this album to warrant a few spins. Also: check the artwork in the booklet for some very cool custom Mobb Deep throwbacks and warm up suits sported by Havoc and Prodigy. They need to be selling those, fa' real.
So tonight there's a listening party for the debut release by spoken word artist Saul Williams on the Fader Label (the brand new record company from the people behind Fader magazine). Check out his first (?) album Amethyst Rock Star. Even if you hate spoken word and think it's pretentious, monotonous, boho BS (like I do), this album is really worth checking out because there are very few straight up hip hop albums coming out nowadays with this much passion or taking this many creative chances musically.
Also tonight is this:
I have a phone number you can call that might be able to still get you on the free guest list but I'm not posting it. Email me for it although I make no promises that it'll still work since the alleged cut off calling deadline was 8/9 (I called yesterday and got put on the list still though).
Watch MC Wordsworth slam Bush in a different kind of debate. (Related: Pre-order Wordsworth's new Mirror Music album via his WordWideCommunications.com website)
Chappelle sound board. (via Nadine S.)
And when I saw this in my email inbox I thought it was gonna be about the return of underrated, late 90's hip hop group from Uptown Cru responsible for "Bubblin", "Pronto", "Live at the Tunnel" and "Just Another Case" but sadly, no.
And for my Island peoples: controversy in the steel band world. (The New York Times, archive readers: this link may be broken by time you read this.)
Finally, there is hope again. (E! Online)
Tweet
Last night was the Brand Nubian album release party at 17. Not much to say other than it was kind of surreal seeing infamous PR maven Lizzie Grubman hanging around outside. Her involement in the party probably explains why a party for these notorious 5 percenters was almost exclusively populated by white (Devil?) fashion victim types, most of whom probably didn't even recognize Puba (BTW the cat originally responsible for the striped "button up" [sic] craze for my old school heads) when he came in. DJ for the night Beverly Bonds is truly the hip hop embodiment of talent and beauty though.
After that, I zipped up to Spirit for the Mobb Deep album release party. This was more my speed (pun intended for those who know what I'm talking about). I immediately knew I was in the right place when I spotted the Shyne promo-wrapped Rolls Royce Phantom outside. Inside Hot 97's Mr Cee and Camillo tore it down with Cee ripping a whole set of early 90's hip hop that you never hear in clubs any more. I didn't stay for whole thing but was there long enough to see the ghetto lingerie fashion show and MOP wreck "Ante Up" three times in a row including the remix with Bussa-Bus which sent the crowd bananas. Look out for a new MOP/Mobb Deep full album collabo according to an announcement made by Fame from the stage mid-performance.
Mobb's album is in stores today as is Shyne's. Thanks to Michelle at Room Service for an advance on the Mobb. It's cool but it's also clear at this point that they'll never touch the perfection of The Infamous again, but there's enough heat on this album to warrant a few spins. Also: check the artwork in the booklet for some very cool custom Mobb Deep throwbacks and warm up suits sported by Havoc and Prodigy. They need to be selling those, fa' real.
So tonight there's a listening party for the debut release by spoken word artist Saul Williams on the Fader Label (the brand new record company from the people behind Fader magazine). Check out his first (?) album Amethyst Rock Star. Even if you hate spoken word and think it's pretentious, monotonous, boho BS (like I do), this album is really worth checking out because there are very few straight up hip hop albums coming out nowadays with this much passion or taking this many creative chances musically.
Also tonight is this:
I have a phone number you can call that might be able to still get you on the free guest list but I'm not posting it. Email me for it although I make no promises that it'll still work since the alleged cut off calling deadline was 8/9 (I called yesterday and got put on the list still though).
Watch MC Wordsworth slam Bush in a different kind of debate. (Related: Pre-order Wordsworth's new Mirror Music album via his WordWideCommunications.com website)
Chappelle sound board. (via Nadine S.)
And when I saw this in my email inbox I thought it was gonna be about the return of underrated, late 90's hip hop group from Uptown Cru responsible for "Bubblin", "Pronto", "Live at the Tunnel" and "Just Another Case" but sadly, no.
And for my Island peoples: controversy in the steel band world. (The New York Times, archive readers: this link may be broken by time you read this.)
Finally, there is hope again. (E! Online)
