RIP Guru...

well shit. i think there are many ways to approach an autobieulogy, but i've personally noticed two dominant approaches. one is to talk about the life of the recently departed. the positive impact the person had on life in general. the good things the person did. basically, the happy times.

the other approach is to recognize and verbalize that the fact that the recently departed has in fact recently departed, in fact sucks. no nostalgia. no reflection on the happy times. just a simple recognition that it simply sucks to lose someone who was good people.

i guess i gravitate towards the later approach. i think it's a family trait. at my uncle's funeral (who also succumbed to cancer early in life) , one of his (5) brothers got up to the podium and the only thing he could say was, "well (long pause) this sucks".

well, this sucks.

if you know me well, you know I gravitate towards the jazzy side of hip-hop, to which Gang Starr pioneered. R.I.P. Guru.

I know Gang Starr has been defunct for a while now, but dag, these are a few of my favorite tracks...

gang starr - mass appeal

gang starr - full clip

gang starr - jazz thing

spirit of apollo yo...

what do over 40 different artists ranging from Tom Waits to Ol' Dirty Bastard have in common? specifically what do Kanye West, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), David Byrne (Talking Heads), RZA, Lykke Li, George Clinton, Method Man, Tom Waits, M.I.A., Chuck D, E-40, KRS-One, Sizzla, Lovefoxxx (CSS), Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Fatlip (Pharcyde), Slim Kid Tre (Pharcyde), Chali 2na (Jurassic 5), John Frusciante, Nina Persson (Cardigans), Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), Spank Rock, DJ AM, The Cool Kids, Seu Jorge, Kool Keith, Ghostface Killah, Scarface, Z-Trip, DJ Swamp, Barbie Hatch, Amanda Blank, Santogold, Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Kool Kojak, DJ Babão, DJ Qbert, Ras Congo among a few others have in common?

A crazy musical collaboration project called N.A.S.A. that's what.

N.A.S.A.'s spirit of apollo album released a little over a year ago, so it's nothing super new. however, it's definitely worth bumping to the top of your playlist if you haven't listened to it recently, or acquiring it if you're a slacker.

I play at least one track off of it on any given friday night FUNK'd and happened to give the whole album another play through today while working away. dag. nearly every track is crazy good. i think spacious thoughts (with Tom Waits and Kook Keith) is the only track i don't like. i'm not a big Tom Waits fan, but it is interesting to hear him growl over Kool Keith.

in case you are in fact a slacker, N.A.S.A. stands for North America South America and is the creation of Sam "Squeak E. Clean" Spiegel of North America and Ze "DJ Zegon" Gonzales' of South America. as Sam Spiegel is the brother of this movie maker guy named Spike Jonze (born Adam Spiegel), you can imagine the videos were pretty creative. here's a few of my favs...

gifted - N.A.S.A. (featuring Kanye West, Santogold, & Lykke Li)

money - N.A.S.A. (featuring. David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip)

hip-hop - N.A.S.A. (featuring KRS-One, Fatlip, & Slim Kid Tre)

way down - N.A.S.A. (featuring RZA, Barbie Hatch, & John Frusciante)

what's new yo?

so it's not really new news that most artists do their best work early in their careers. why? success is a huge game changer. i guess in short, that's my theory and I'm not going to expand on it much tonight as i'm freakin fried. a 2 hour final exam and 7 hours spent on a final paper today leave me with little left in the left lobe.

anyway, i've heard a lot of new music lately by artists who've been around the block (a few times) and overall i'm pretty disappointed. the new rjd2 is pretty lame compared to his older stuff; the new gorillaz is just ok even though it has a really diverse mixture of artists guesting it; and even the new pretty lights is rather boring.

finally this week I heard something interesting. It's not mind blowing, but definitely worth the purchase. James Mercer and Danger Mouse have decided to combine their powers for awesome into a new band called Broken Bells. James Mercer is the lead singer of a pretty rad band called The Shins. and Danger Mouse is probably most well known for being one half of the duo Gnarles Barkley, but is also worth checking out in his collaboration with MF Doom (Danger Doom), and on his solo act perversion of Jay-Z's black album and the Beatles white album (the grey album). I think he even produced the Gorillaz demon days album (which didn't suck).

anyway, Broken Bells is pretty catchy. if you like the shins you'll probably think it's a rather experimental version of the shins. though nothing too crazy. it's not like going from rattle and hum to achtung baby. cause yea, that was crazy.

here's a taste...

the high road - broken bells

the ghost inside - broken bells

maybe the hokey pokey isn't what it's all about...

but popin and lockin is. maybe? i think so.

ahhh. what is it about a deliciously funky hip-hop beat that gets a b-boy to bop and wiggle as he crosses his feet? or her feet? with fuzzy white boots on. gettin her groove on. movin to a beat cuz i got the roots on.

dag. what a night.

big ups, palm slaps and nuckle bumps to all the b-boys and b-girls that came out last night. sometimes I get burnt out, fried out, and forget what it's all about, but watchin you all movin on the floor reminds me what i do this for. thanks. really. thanks yall.

here's a jam by one of the most real skool rap acts around that sums friday night up better than I can.

b-boy - crown city rockers

and as an encore, here's raashan battling max, words vs. drums.

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.