Trailer: "Time Is Illmatic"

We live in the 30 for 30 era; and, as a result, any singular event given weight in my generation's mind will surely spawn a documentary exploring the depths of the story. Depths that are commonplace in today's news, but unknown 20 years ago, when the calmer news cycle of the day never bothered to drill that far.

My excitement for this doc is a cautious one; there are just too many ways in which it could go wrong. To be effective, it has to draw you into the belief that the release of a hip-hop album brought about a momentous change to the world we know. And while hyperbole is the law of the land in the artful realms of hip-hop and cinema, here in the real world I'm struggling to draw a connection between Illmatic and any historic upheavals of political or sociological significance in 1994. I am, to the core, an unabashed Nas fan. But I'm also an out-and-out realist.

Hip to the Game

Mirror mirror, on the wall,
who is the dopest sportscaster of them all?

"Adam Lefkoe...bitch."

From Deadspin:

Remember Adam Lefkoe, the guy who ingeniously slipped a bunch of wrestling references into his sportscast earlier this month? He topped himself this past Sunday by squeezing 46(!) classic hip hop references into his five-minute segment. Be sure to stick around for the well-earned mic drop at the end.

The "22 2's" line was easily my favorite.


TJ with the assist.

Lyrical Exercise

This is brilliant.

From Gothamist:

Previously, street artist Jay Shells has taken on etiquette of all kinds, from human behavior to animal behavior to subway behavior. But now he's back with something totally different, albeit still in his signature sign form: Rap Quotes. The idea is simple, and the result is sort of amazing: he has taken rap lyrics that mention specific locations around New York City, created signs with those lyrics, and has installed them at their appropriate locations. Animal has video of the installation process of the signs, which feature lyrics from Kanye, Jay-Z, GZA, Mos Def, Nas, and more.

Speaking as someone who hasn't spent much of any time in New York, there have been many occasions when I've tried to visualize the settings of the stories my favorite lyricists were telling through my speakers. Shells' art project satisfies that craving in a beautiful way. I've included a few pictures here, and Gothamist has another four on their page. You can also go to The Rap Quotes Twitter feed for even more.

His Story

Here's a great interview given by God's Son on his career and music.


My boy Profound with the assist.

Fanute the Coup

French Montana gave Life + Times a look inside the lyrics to his verse on Rick Ross' "Stay Schemin'".

Behind the Lyrics

Life + Times' "Decoded" series recently took a look at Common's "The Believer", as well as his verse from Blackstarr's "Respiration"—which I've embedded below. It's always interesting to hear firsthand what the thought process was behind an artist's rhymes. Definitely worth the watch.

DECODED: Common "The Believer" & "Respiration"

Taking It Higher

Here's an interesting piece by Life + Times about up-and-coming artist Najee the 1 and producer DB2.

Inspired by the shift in hip-hop to explore production beyond just beats, Uptown rapper Najee the 1 and Queens producer Daniel Bazan Jr., a.k.a DB2 have endeavored to imbue their debut album, Settle For Greatness, with progressive sounds and classical instrumentation. Here, Life + Times documents the process of recontextualizing a genre, as DB2 leads a four-piece orchestra at New York University, producing a fitting soundscape for Najee the 1’s streetwise raps.

You can go here to listen to the duo's first release, "Elevated".

Video: Trae Tha Truth ft. MDMA, Lupe Fiasco, Big Boi, Wale, & Wiz Khalifa -- "I'm On"

This shit's fresher than a newborn. TJ with the assist.

Lotus Partners with Swizz Beats

Following on the heels of Lotus' recent announcement that they are focused on reinvigorating the brand's name, the British automaker has now hired Swizz Beats as a "cool consultant" (so to speak).

From Inside Line:

Taking a page from the Victoria Beckham and Land Rover playbook, Lotus announced on Monday that it has hired Grammy-winning rapper and producer Swizz Beatz to serve as a high-profile consultant.

"The key is to infiltrate the market in a cool way," said Beatz, whose real name is Kasseem Daoud Dean, in a Lotus video showing the rapper's first day at work.

The video follows Beatz as he arrives at Lotus in a helicopter, is driven in a Lotus on a racetrack and later advises teams of Lotus employees, including CEO Dany Bahar.

The best is for "things to happen organically," Beatz expounds.

"They want flash," Beatz says in describing prospective Lotus buyers.

"Like Group Lotus, he means business: He's a risk taker with considerable credentials, including music producer, rapper, designer and painter," said Lotus in a statement announcing the appointment. "(He's) the perfect man to add to the Lotus lineup."

We've recently seen images of the Espirit, due to hit the market late next year. I wouldn't be too surprised if you see a prototype pop up in a few videos next year. It's an interesting marketing tool, and quite possibly an effective one as well.

It's also a complete 180 to how hip-hop has been viewed by companies selling high-end products. From the flap over the comments of Tommy Hilfiger (which were eventually found to be completely falsified), to the Jay-Z vs. Cristal beef (which, ironically, was mentioned in the Jay-and-Swizz collaboration “On to the Next One”), hip-hop artists have long struggled with being perceived as second-class citizens by companies that traditionally catered to society’s upper crust. Because being in a position to afford luxury products made by Rolex, Bentley, Cartier, etc. represents the upper echelon of success, these names have peppered songs, videos, and reality programming like MTV Cribs for decades. This, in turn, has provided these companies with an immeasurable amount of free marketing as generations raised on hip-hop have grown into adulthood.

But, to the stuffy-aired world of old-money that owns and operates these purveyors of fine goods, rappers and hip-hop have long represented a class of people “beneath them”. Whether due to racism or simply to elitism, the people profiting from hip-hop’s love affair with their products often balked at the very association.

The deal between Swizz and Lotus highlights just how much times have changed, and how some of the business world's backwards thinking has been turned around. Now if I could just get BMW to hire Crooked Straight as special social media consultants…

"The greatest emcee of all-time died on March 9th..."

March 9, 1997 was a gutshot to the world of hip-hop. Less than six months removed from the slaying of our patron saint, Tupac Shakur, and still trying to extract some kind of lesson from that tragedy, we were leveled by the senseless murder of our Big Poppa. Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace was gunned down by an unknown assailant in Los Angeles, amid rumors and reckless speculation that he had been behind Tupac’s homicide. The realization that Big—a good guy who “went from negative to positive,” and from “ashy to classy”—had been killed paralyzed us with shock and grief.

Biggie lit the way for a generation of emcees on the East Coast, while bringing a charismatic and authentic charm to hip-hop music nationwide; Pac infused raw emotion—be it anger, pain, joy, remorse, or even love—into songs that captivated the minds and hearts of fans. There was a sad poetry to the idea of two artists, who lived and breathed the frustration and danger of street life into every bar of their music, coming to such tragic ends. With their lyrics, Pac and Biggie each painted graphic murals of a world fraught with hardships, shortsighted reactions, and death. And in the end, they fell victim to the very same suffocating reality that they had tried to both illuminate and ultimately escape through hip-hop.

The clouds of anger and resentment that had lingered in the air after Pac’s death, and that had hindered our ability to see the foolishness of resolving petty beefs with violent acts, quickly lifted following Biggie’s shooting. Fourteen years later, we continue to mourn both men and search for answers. Police have made no arrests in connection with either case, and hardly seem interested in changing that. The media has moved onto other individuals in the entertainment world to overexpose and under-appreciate. Hip-hop’s fans have grown fractured and disillusioned; for the younger members of the community, too far removed from the East Coast vs. West Coast “feud” that erased our sense of invincibility, Pac and Biggie are more historical figures than lost idols. They know each artist’s music and story, but they simply can’t grasp the magnitude of the impact that their deaths had on older fans like me, who remember exactly where we were when the news broke the morning of March 9th.

R.I.P. Biggie. And R.I.P. Tupac. We miss you now, and will continue to until the day we join you.

Video: Childish Gambino -- "Freaks and Geeks"

Here's the latest from Gambino (AKA Donald Glover), whose star is on the rise, big time. Sick track, simplistic and creative video.

Flowin for the Title

Lupe and Nick Javas represent in a Pepsi Max Audible for Sunday's Bears/Packers matchup.

Welcome to the Family

Yeah, I'm a little late on this one.

It was announced yesterday that Eminem's Shady Records has made two major signings: Yelawolf and Slaughterhouse.

From MTV News:

"Yelawolf and Slaughterhouse, it's kinda phase two of Shady," Eminem explained in a statement. "It's the new generation of Shady Records, and as we're trying to rebuild our label, it's exciting for hip-hop, and with all of these forces coming together and with what everybody's capable of on the mic, it's gonna be fun."

The four-man Slaughterhouse collective — Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Royce Da 5'9" — was in talks with Shady Records for longer than a year working on the deal.

"I been answering that question for a year and change, ever since that Drake 'Forever' music video," Budden told MTV News during an appearance on "RapFix Live," citing a scene where the group stands behind Em during his verse. "It's like, Eminem is a whole nother entity. The guy is nominated for 10 Grammys."

Hopefully this move will result in some mainstream success for the Slaughterhouse boys, as each (especially Royce and Crooked I) has been criminally underrated by mainstream audiences for years.

The In Crowd

My friend Steph is a little excitable. Give her an idea and inch, and she'll turn it into a citywide parade. She's always been like that, though the trait has ratcheted up a notch or two now that she's a newly-minted New Yorker. She and the Big Apple are currently in a honeymoon phase that may never end.

Not that this is any kind of character defect. If anything, it's just another thing that we all love about her. But being presented with this kind of raw enthusiasm does lead one to be skeptical in the face of it. You have to temper your own reaction to it, or you'll drown in the tide. And so when she blew up my Facebook page and Twitter feed with info on The Crowd, I calmly decided to check them out for myself. I wanted to make sure this underground hip-hop act that was subject to her sudden volunteer marketing campaign was properly vetted before adding them to my personal library.

After listening to a few of their tracks, and watching the interview below with group member Randy Mason, though, I can tell you that Steph's on point with this one. The Crowd's sound is polished, their chemistry fluent, their words full of heart and meaning. They breathe passion and energy into their songs, running stride-for-stride with each beat in a relentless race between two forces that refuse to succumb to each other. As Justin Thomas says in his summary on the interview:

Randy Mason epitomizes the passion, soul, and indomitable spirit of New York hip hop. Originally from the Bronx, Mason is an MC, songwriter, author, & freelance journalist who has played all throughout New York City opening for legendary hip-hop artists such as the Boot Camp Click, Cl Smooth and many, many others. A brilliant wordsmith who is capable of painting vivid cinema with his lyrical prose, rapid fire delivery, and clever use of metaphor, he draws his influence from a myriad of musical icons such as Nas, Mos Def, Tupac, & Common, and mixes them to potent perfection with his own unique and powerful voice. In addition to his endeavors as a solo artist, Randy is also a member of the accomplished and multi-talented trio The Crowd, consisting of guitarist, beatbox, and MC Akil Dason and singer/songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Adeline. This eclectic group effortlessly combines the elements of hip hop, R&B, and pop into an arresting brand of neo-hip hop soul, and have been featured on BET, among other media outlets. Justin was able to catch up with Randy and his partner-in-rhyme Akil Dason on the New York City subway as the two musicians performed for onlookers to promote The Crowd’s latest CD release.

Randy Mason Trailer from Justin Thomas on Vimeo.

The Crowd now has a permanent place in my playlists. Good work, Steph.

The Evolution of Hip Hop

This is really impressive by both Fallon and Timberlake. If (for some unknown reason) you're not convinced yet that hip-hop has become interwoven with mainstream pop culture, pause this video at about the 3:50 mark and just let the picture in front of you soak into your mind.

Tyler Hansbrough a.k.a. B. Rabbit?

Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson, Ron Artest...these days, it's somewhat commonplace for basketball stars to try their hand at hip-hop stardom. The worry of team owners, coaches, teammates, and fans, however, is often that a successful music career will distract the wannabe entertainer from his duties and responsibilities on the court.

Somehow, I don't think Tyler Hansbrough elicits much of that fear from those who have an invested interest in the North Carolina Tarheels.

From Rick Reilly at ESPN The Magazine (.com):

At the end of my interview with North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough in Chapel Hill recently, I threw out: "Is it true you freestyle?" And he said, "Yeah, you wanna hear one?" And then he delivered this, without a milliliter of gangster:

Give the ball to
The tower of power
Pass it back out
Watch my main man Bobby
Drain threes like
He's in the shower

(Unsolicited rapper name suggestion: T-Painful.)

Video of the Day: Joaquin Phoenix Losing Himself

When the story of Joaquin's first foray as an M.C. broke earlier this week, I knew there eventually would be video of it floating around the net. Thank you, YouTube.

M.C. Joaquin?

Watch out Jay, there’s a new star in hip-hop. While it’s somewhat common these days to hear of popular rappers who quit or postpone their music careers to pursue dreams of acting, Joaquin Phoenix has taken the opposite track. Phoenix, best known for playing Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line,” recently retired from movies and is now focusing his time and energy on hip-hop.

Yes, hip-hop. No, not as an exec/label owner; no, not even as a producer. Phoenix is following his dream of clutching the mic and rocking crowds.

Personally, I support him; but, that's not to say that I don't find the whole thing rather amusing. A 34 year old white Hollywood actor, who has never been known for his charisma, decides to “spit hot fiyah”? It almost sounds like a publicity stunt for a new movie.

Fluttering around the club's catwalk, Phoenix, 34, rapped to the sounds of a drum beat and encouraged the crowd to dance. Though dancing was at a minimum, the crowd watched intently as a scraggly Phoenix – who donned a scraggly beard, long, unkempt hair and a ripped gray hat – hopped up and down and pumped his fist in the air during certain lyrics.

The full article can be found at People.com.