Thursday, October 21, 2004
Political hip hop | M.I.A. vs. M.I.A.M.I. | Some DVD's and CD's examined
What.the.f-ck.happened?!! (Daily News)
Political hip hop is alive and well, at least on the underground. Dead Prez's entire (?) RBG crew, along with Immortal Technique, were in the house at M1-5 last night to celebrate the release of the A-Alikes Live or Die album. I picked up the CD which, while not on the level of Dead Prez's releases, is worth checking out and supporting. They also, like DPz with "RBG," do a good take on creating-multiple-meanings-for-a-promo-acronym for their album track "F.T.P." - free the people/for the projects/fix the problem/fire the president/f-ck the police? I think they had others but I couldn't catch them all though I'm you can easily come up with your own.
7L & Esoteric's - DC2: Bars of Death has been out for a minute now but the copy I was sent got lost and forgotten in my piles of CD's. After finally unearthing and playing it a couple weeks back I got flashes of the Beatnuts, Inspector Deck, Fat Joe and Skillz from their meat 'n' potatoes take on 90's era East Coast underground hip hop. Great 60's spy movie-inspired album artwork too.
Verbal Kent - the Chi-town Slim Shady? Tracks on his new What Box album like the Dr. Dre-esque "The Remix" and "Spit to Hill 1" only reinforced that impression but "Big Buildings" wasn't bad though. (related: listen to the album for yourself)
I've been hearing about this Miami (or is that M.I.A.M.I.?) dude Pitbull for a minute. But I only just got up on the fact that he's the one responsible for "Dammit Man", a joint that's been starting to heat up (at least in NYC) over the past few weeks alongside "Nolia Clap." With Slim Thug blowing up (seemingly out of nowhere) fast and the return of Lil Jon and T.I., it looks like the haters hoping the South would die are gonna be disappointed. (mp3 link courtesy: Sandbox)
Diplo's M.I.A. mixtape (via TTLab.com - scroll down)
Honey Flava Soul - this new(ish) urban entertainment blog is better desgined and has better content than some "official" sites.
Just watched the DVD Tupac Resurrection a few days back - it started off kind of slow and was coming off like a hip hop version of The Kid Stays in the Picture but got better as it went along. As I recall it though, Thug Angel might still have been a better documentary overall but Pac fanatics probably have a more informed take on that than me.
Beef II was a surprisingly good DVD though featuring pieces on the Roxanne battles, ICP vs. Eminem, EPMD's Parrish Smith vs.E-Double, Grandmaster Caz vs. Sugarhill's Big Bank Hank and Royce Da 5'9" vs. D12 (and more). The best part was right at the end when Roxanne Shante talked about how she had negotiated a clause in her contract with Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. stipulating that they pay for her education and then pimped them for all her tutition from completing her high school diploma (as a single, unwed teen mother) through to doing a Phd. Now that's gangsta (Kanye, are you paying attention?).
Coming soon - the Hook DVD contest. More details in an upcoming post.
