GOAT internet song. Thank you Zia. Ye. That’s right. Check.
“dre, snoop, ________(insert hungarian fallen soldier here), pac… pac was the best” < might be the best 2 bars that don’t rhyme any hungarian rapper has ever written.
Archive for October, 2009
Oct
Oct
0
Black Dante and Black Thought
I love people that can get over their ego and give other artists respect. We’re all so worried about “jocking” or appearing “less than” that we don’t acknowledge those that inspire us. Refreshing to see Mos give it up to one of the illest. This is Hip-Hop.
Oct
1
Blakroc Project
Blakroc Project from Myrhax on Vimeo.
I got this over at budobeats.com. I’ve been seeing it on blogs for a minute but the spelling of the name led me to believe it was corny. Oh, how I was wrong. This makes me want to create. I love creating shit. It’s why I’m alive. Word. God.
I got this one over hellafilthy I’m sayin!
Oct
0
Grind Time Presents: Thesaurus VS. Illmaculate
Two homies. Arguably the two best battle rappers in the world. Head to head…If you like watching battles, I give you this.
Oct
Oct
1
Leroy Men’s Wear
El Mizell was clowning me for this video the other day and I promised him I’d blog about it. What to say. Ok. Yes, as some of you know my uncle is in this video. It’s Xperience’s dad, Bern (hence the title of our crew being “Step Cousins”). He’s the smooth looking brother that drapes the endangered animal over his shoulder. I almost forgot about this video (and would have liked to) but my friends, alcohol and secrets don’t go hand in hand.
Anyway, it’s crazy because I have so many childhood memories revolving around that jacket. Uncle Bern bought one for XP when we were like 11, and I traded him my Cowboys Starter jacket for the Cheetah. I remember coming home in that thing, and my mom was all kinds of disappointed in me. She’s always been on the more liberal side of big game hunting, particularly when the species wasn’t used for food. My dad however was super into skins, fur, beef jerky and this cheetah, so eventually I got my way and spent the majority of the summer in the jacket. While my friends were swimming and stuck in baseball camp, I was in cheetah. That’s when I started rapping.
Looking back, that skin had a big impact on the beginning of my identity. A lot of ignorant people associate Leroy’s Mens Wear with “Pimp/Player” clothes. Not at all. It was, is and always will be an establishment of Luxury for the men of downtown Seattle. But Leroy’s was more then just a clothing store to me and XP. It was a hang out. A place where we could go to learn about what it meant to be a man. It taught us how to manipulate women (in a good way) by using clothing to get what we wanted. It taught me that in order to be “man enough” you didn’t have to wear denim and plaid. I think there’s a big stigma, particularly hear in the Northwest about how you’re “suppose to dress”. So many men think you need to cut down a tree and piss on it before you grow a dick. Not true. You could wear a jacket made of cheetah, a silk shirt or a cape made out of a Cheetah and still be man enough. My uncle Bern was, and still is to this day.
Before GOODS there was Leroy’s. Now go buy something. I’ll probably see you down there.
204 Pike St. Seattle WA 98101.
Oct
4
"Something New" Remix
Something New REMIX! from Stephan Gray on Vimeo.
I had this beat to write to for a minute. Freestyled a crap verse a month or two ago. I didn’t like it, and I don’t think anyone else did either. P Smoov hit me up on Monday seeing if I could turn in the verse by Thursday, cause him and Stephan Gray were planning on doing a video for it. I wrote/recorded the verse Thursday morning/afternoon and turned it in at 3:30pm. We started shooting the video around 6:00pm. That’s Hip-Hop.
Stephan edited it beautifully, because I actually look like I know my verse. I didn’t. It was hard, particularly with the staccato’d out cadence the first 8 bars. Grynch had his done months ago (productive son of a bitch) and Larry recorded his on the spot before we shot it. I think everyone did a good job with the raps. Hard redoing a really dope song (Smoov murdered it originally). The video turned waaaay better then I expected (not because Stephan’s not incredible but because he had 24 hours to edit footage of me fumbling through lyrics). The night turned out to be pretty classic, and just reaffirmed how much fun I have with my people.
The whole experience was a good example for my perfectionist self, that sometimes you just gotta make art and put it out. That’s it. The moment is made and then the people get to experience it. It might not be perfect, but nothing ever is. I’ve spent so much of my life over analyzing my music, and the result is rarely better art. It creates more fear, more doubt and less music in the hands of the people. I applaud and learn from people like Grynch and P Smoov, who make a cut and put it out. That’s Hip-Hop. I’m working on it. Something New. Hope you enjoy.
Oct
1
Sitka Alaska
Music has taken me to some beautiful places. At times it’s driving across the country in a cramped van, pressed up against a window, trying to steal back the sleep life doesn’t want to give you. Watching the invisible lines that divide our country and define territory, come and go from behind the windshield. At times it’s airports, time zones and altitude that are the issue, observing our small world from the sky. All of it, although at moments grueling builds the precious gift of perspective while maneuvering through space and time to get to the destination.
I have made 2nd homes in small towns, suburbs, and city’s where I have come in contact with incredible community’s. Over time, many of these people have inspired my art and made me feel like family. They go above and beyond to make you feel comfortable, make sure you’re having fun and see to it that you have a chance to experience their food, stores, landscapes and culture.
Last summer, I was fortunate enough to go back one of these places, Sitka Alaska. This was my second summer back and I had new eyes the entire trip. The previous one it was raining all weekend, with the clouds encapsulating the mountains that were supposedly break taking. I didn’t get to see the mountains, or really take in the beauty that is Sitka. I spent the majority of the time in my hotel room chain smoking spliffs, taking naps and watching what seemed like Canadian TV. This time, there was none of that and the sky’s decided to part the clouds for the Festival. My pictures don’t do it justice, but the mountains, the town and the people make Sitka one my favorite places I’ve had the privilege to travel. Huge shout out to Homeskillet Records, my dudes Nicolas and Geo, all the local artists, Phonetic, Breathe Owl Breathe, Langhorne Slim and everyone else in Sitka that made the trip extra fresh.
(*the two show pictures are someone else’s)
Oct
0
Shabazz Palaces: Belhaven Meridian
Shabazz Palaces – “Belhaven Meridian” [OFFICIAL] from Kahlil Joseph on Vimeo.
Shabazz Palaces: Belhaven Meridian
I believe this is the first video from Shabazz Palaces (the homie Ish). It’s directed by my big brother Kahlil Joseph and it turned out beautifully. Last time I was in LA he showed it to me while still in the editing process. Dope to see it finished and get out to the people. Salud…
*taken from www.raindrophustla.com