please settle down...

have a drink, and relax. I mean, you're at a bar. you should be havin' fun. there's no need to get in my face with your request. no need to get agro with me. yes. yes, i understand that you are very passionate about whatever it is you are trying to tell me when i have headphones blaring in one ear and a monitor blaring in the other. what? what??? sorry i didn't catch that. oh, now you're REALLY frustrated with me. seriously. look. i'm sorry. i'm sorry your mother didn't hug you enough. i'm sorry your girlfriend didn't love you enough. i'm sorry that you don't know how to have a good time in a bar, and i'm sorry i don't play requests. now please. please settle down, have a drink and relax...

ug. some of these dudes need to lay off the muscle milk and red bull.

anyway, on with the subterranean beats of the week. this week's blubeats come from a bus driver turned producer turned super hero with british accent. part hip-hop, part funk, part rock, part jazz, part soul, part james brown incarnate and all awesome, dj format makes some of the best beats this side of a fried egg, and collected here are his collaborations with some seriously sassy mc's.

we know something - dj format & jurassic 5

3 feet deep - dj format, abdominal & d-sisive

viciuos battle raps - dj format & abdominal

separated at birth - dj format, abdominal & d-sisive

the place - dj format, chali 2na & akil

the hit song - dj format & abdominal

beats from the underground part 2

dag. it's been a minute since i've been able to post something. actually it's prolly only been a few weeks, but it seems like months. been a busy couple weeks to say the least. anyway...

so let’s continue part 2 with another underground hip-hop artist that has way more to rap about than just goin from rags to money bags. This week’s featured underground artist is the lyrically venomous miss Jean Grae. Jean is the real deal ya’ll, and it’s been fun to watch her progress in popularity over the last decade or so.

this first track is the one that got me hooked on Jeanie many years ago (i think it was 1999). back then she rapped under the moniker “What? What?”, and this particular track was done with The Herbalizer.

bring it - the herbaliser (featuring What? What?)

continuing on with some more early jean and another colab with the herbaliser, this one has one of the sickest base drives. love it.

let it go – the herbaliser (featuring What? What?)

now on to some newer stuff. this one's prolly my fav jeanie track, but not a big fan of the original vid, so unfortunately you get more cool tracks with lame vids.

the jam - jean grae

this last track shows of JG's ability to rap about nearly everything, even some of the most difficult subjects to talk about. here's one of her more serious tracks...

taco day - jean grae

hot fun in the summer time...

well the first week of february is coming to a close and the snow is finally beginning to melt away. this has been one of the coldest winters i've ever experienced. after several weeks where the high temps didn't get over 10, and months where high temps don't get over 30, i think i'm over this one. this winter can go take a hike. i think there are parts of my lawn i haven't seen since november, which seems like decades ago. and this winter has been the polar opposite of last winter. pun intended. last winter i was riding 2 to 3 times a week. on the trail. with temps in the 60s. this winter, the last time i was able to ride was thanksday.

now i generally detest small talk about the weather, but damn, can i get a day over 50 sometime soon? i was looking out the windows at work today, at all the snow that has been there for months, and the only thing i could think of is that within a few short months it's going to be 90 degrees. and i'm going to be complaining about how hot it is. and i thought, "how is this possible?" how weird it is that i live in a place that can go from one extreme temp to another within weeks and months.

maybe i'm getting to old for this. maybe i should start plotting and planning for my florida retirement home/villa/grave site. or maybe i should win the lottery and buy a winter home in arizona. or maybe i should just shut the hell up as there are probably children in minnesota who's dinners are colder than mine.

or maybe my spirit is simply drained. maybe this winter has been especially taxing. maybe the temps this winter have simply amplified the already taxing times. maybe i just need a little sunshine in my life, because right now i feel like joe banks. right now i'm ready to buy some ridicules luggage, drink some orange soda and attempt to throw myself into a volcano.

or maybe right now i should just throw on a sweater, some warmer socks and shut up...

edited to add that within an hour or two of writing this, it snowed again. dag.