May 25, 2004
Spot Rushed
After all that ballyhooing at the Detroit Hip-Hop Summit, saying his right to vote was revoked after his felony conviction, it turns out Eminem ain't registered to vote.. Busted. He wasn't even registered to vote BEFORE his conviction in 2001. Buster.
May 24, 2004
Ain't No Black Album Like The One I Got...
About the aforementioned Black Album acapella CD that has found its way as a proper release courtesy of Def Jam. Six months late but I've created my own remix album, thanks to this new release that puts Hova's vocals in my hands. It takes the vocals from Jay-Z's The Black Album and puts it over the instrumentals from Jay-Z's The Black Album. It's quite revolutionary.
And no, EMI isn't serving me with a cease and desist. Kevin Liles might be.
May 20, 2004
May 18, 2004
If you can't respect that your whole perspective is wack
Just Blaze has produced a new mixtape for Jay "When I Come Back Wearing the 4-5" Z, called "S. Carter The Remix." Jordan retired three times so Jay's got a gameplan to follow. Jordan shows up on the mixtape, giving Jay a shout-out for being successful in his career (which is like Jim Brown taking Barry Bonds out for surf 'n turf). Diddy's on there, too, but at this point, I'd rather get a phone call from Jermaine Dupri. I mean, yeah, the man spins gold records out of his ass but everything else he touches breaks up (Da Band), does 5-10 upstate (Loon, Shyne, et al), or, well, dies (Biggie, charity basketball patrons, circa 1991). And how's this for guilt-symetrics: Heavy D, the other defendant in that layup-for-death b-ball game has now signed a production deal with Diddy.
Wait, is that Man-On-Fire Denzel giving a shout out to Jay on the mix-CD, too? Goddamn. Name-dropping Lenny Kravitz, like a motherfucker. (Speaking of Lenny, he's baptizing people in the back of limousine hot tub outside the Times Square Virgin Megastore Wednesday at 5pm. What kind of gimmick is that? Can't he just drop his drawls and use his dick as a record-buying magnet for white college girls everywhere? Doesn't that work anymore? Ben Harper?).
Nah, let's get this out of the way for the backpackers in the house. The Jigga mixtape includes remixes of each of The Black Album tracks from Just Blaze, 9th Wonder, Charlamagn and a couple of other cats. No Kanye (except for obligatory Talib Kweli cumshot, "Get By" remix) but THERE IS A REMIX BY MADLIB. Yeah, let your Jansport marinate in that for a little bit.
Otis did 2 tracks, only one of which shows up here, a remix of "Threat" that is more interlude than anything...
It's discordant to hear Just Blaze shout out "YNQ" and "Quas" in this context. And the track is kinda strange...very mixtape...but with a little applied thought, i think Madlib could do a Roc-A-Fella track or two in coming years. I can see it happen.
Best remix on here: PSA from Jus Blazey himself. Plus Jay's freestyle over "Warm It Up Kane" which kinda screams for BDK himself but to no avail.
More remixes on the way courtesy the official release of the Black Album acapella CD, but they'll all be from busters.
And it's all for a sneaker, bitches.
May 11, 2004
Keep Computers 'Putin
*The Snoop/Nate Dogg/Warren G press conference today was high comedy. A squeaky-clean journo from some celebrity orgy viewcam - Access Hollywood? - asked about the trio's first single, "Groupy Luv."
A couple of questions later: "Are you planning on touring with this record?"
Nate Dogg, deadpan: "How else are we gonna get 'groupy luv' if we don't go on tour? Shiiittt..."
*Once aimed at representing for their industrial, hood-rich, Long Beach surroundings, the 213 project has taken so long for Dogg, Dogg and G to put together, Long Beach has actually changed its area code
to 310 and 562.
*Nevermind that Snoop was wearing a diamond encrusted chain that featured a man taking a woman from behind.
*The NBA playoffs are unwatchable. Better you read Cam'ron's redheaded record-slangin', t-shirt-makin', Spin-rockin' cousin instead.
*The Army Times makes a salient point in their rebuke of Rumsfled: by denying the Iraqi prisoners due process or any basic rights afforded prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention, they cultivated an atmosphere for the foot-soldiers that basically said, "yep, anything goes." Thus, the failure is from the top-down.
Meanwhile, the six soldiers, as despicable as their actions were, become the punchline of the hawks, probably blamed for undermining the war effort. At work, we were going to do a piece on "What Is A Court Martial?" for all the TRL kiddies (NOT hosted by Britney Spears or Ursher, unfortunately). Can we do "What is a Scapegoat?" instead?
*Does someone know - who produced Cam's "Get Em Girls," Kanye West? He's in the video but did he do the beat? Or was he making a set-cameo like he did with Young Gunz' "Friday Night"?
May 06, 2004
short shorts
We spent the entire last month being an April Fool. But we have returned with these bits of information:
*Jon Caramanica does not have a pair of shorts. But he does have a blog .
*Coachella is sometimes not about the concert at all. But about the heat. And doing nothing in the heat. And doing nothing in the heat while white people (the same one ringing the register on Kanye's verse) play golf and lunch and buy canary-yellow blazers and shoulder-wrap red cardigans.
*If it were any other team, we'd give a fuck about the NHL Playoffs, even though they are quite riveting. It's hard to center yourself around the ice rink fulcrum when your body aches for sunshine and heat and girls in pink skirts. But it is the San Jose Sharks and my sister and I have been waiting twelve years for this team to get over the hump. We are excited by this team and wish that all the sports teams we root for were comprised of similar elements: speedy, young stars and cagey veterans and hungry role players.
*This will not turn into a sports blog unless it really has to. I mean, the fuck else you gonna do in June? I mean, Rasheed left Portland so shouldn't Hot Pants leave, too?