This isn’t the first or the last time we’ve posted about (a.k.a. Lin-Manuel Miranda). This guy is both a disgustingly talented freestyler and a . Hell, this guy was even on .
He was invited to perform at the first-ever and absolutely killed the spot. You can see President Obama loving every minute of the performance. And what was this performance? A rap about Alexander Hamilton.
Informed, talented, and dope. Lin-Manuel in a nutshell.
I had never noticed this before, but apparently Ol’ Dirty Bastard was almost as bad as Kanye in terms of storming the stage at the Grammys. And yet somehow ODB’s was more understandable because hew as at least pissed that he didn’t win. Kanye was mad on ‘behalf of Beyonce.
ODB:
Kanye:
Apparently, to find real video of the Kanye interruption. Just thousands of videos of people ranting and raving about it, or people trying to make their own mini news reports. Still, you know our take on it.
I guess rap divahood is no new phenomena, so at the least I should probably dial down my Kanye animosity. Still, it’s hard not to take the occasional pot shot. I feel like ODB could get away with this kind of nonsense because in his spare time , in Kanye’s he’s shopping.
is a Swiss Beatmaker who decided to put together an album of collabos with some pretty amazing hip hop artists. It was actually fairly hard to track down tons of information on this cat (probably because his name is fairly generic), but I’ll tell you what I know.
He has put together an amazing collection of jazzy hip hop beats, hooked up with some lesser-known but awesome emcees, and made one heck of a collabo album. If you sleep on this, you will regret it.
FeelinMusic (of which it seems Chief is a founder) says that
CHIEF was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he grew up and still lives today. After showing interest in music at an early age and specifically hip hop since his early teens, Chief began DJing at the age of 14, and by 21 had started to create his own beats.
The album is all over the place in terms of style, but the center is on decent, jazzy hip hop. Here’s a teaser of the album just to give you a sample.
And here’s one of the better tracks on the album, Love Lost by .
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As the decade comes to a close, videos.antville.org has of the 101 best music videos of the aughts (the zeros?) as voted by their readers. Although I won’t give away the #1 vid, I will say that the White Stripes (understandably) get mad love, and that there’s a nice mix between blockbuster hits and lesser-known tunes.
Anyways, head over to the site to check out the list for yourself. And, as an added bonus, here’s my favourite:
Sometimes, hip hop can be a powerful educational tool. And I’m not just talking about teaching some kids or with some kids hip hop. I mean actually directly incorporating hip hop into the educational curriculum.
That’s what Nikki Giovanni did. This isn’t the first time we’ve covered Giovaani’s work, either. We did one of our earliest posts about her, in fact, and we’re still proud of everything she’s accomplished.
Now, Giovanni’s using hip hop to teach kids about poetry. This is from the about her:
Giovanni’s new book, Hip Hop Speaks to Children, is a celebration of poetry that includes several examples of rhythm and rhyme by artists ranging from Langston Hughes to Queen Latifah.
"Hip-hop is a cultural expression — it’s embracing," Giovanni tells NPR’s Michele Norris. "And we wanted to cast as big a net as possible, so people can see in the house of hip-hip there are many rooms."
The book touches on love poems, blues tunes and jazz — even gospel, including a live session where actress Val Gray Ward reads from The Creation by James Weldon Johnson.
Personally, I like the incongruity of seeing Langston Hughes juxtaposed with Queen Latifah. Not exactly an everyday comparison. But I do see the value. It’s not uncommon in many cultures to use rhythm and cadence to pass down wisdom. Almost every culture’s folk music does this in some way. And if nothing else, it sounds like Giovanni’s using some decent artists (including A Tribe Called Quest) in her teachings so at least kids will grow up with some new artists to listen to.
Wale, the widely-acclaimed D.C. rapper, has finally dropped his debut album, . The darling of the indie hip-hop crowd (are they still called ?), Wale has spent the past two or three years meticulously engineering a reputation as a talented lyricist and astute pop culture scrutineer. From “,” to dropping a Mixtape About Nothing, to with The Roots, Wall to the A (whose real name is ) has mastered the art of raising expectations; to say that his first major label attempt was would be an understatement.
Clocking in at 14 songs, Attention Deficit has an expansiveness that belies its modest track list. Wale, trying to refute recent accusations that he , touches on a surprising range of topics, jumping almost at random from “persona to persona.” Meditations on “insecurity, bulimia, infidelity, intra-racial discrimination, self-loathing and coked out, aspirational celebrities” for an ambitious, almost experimental, record.
The results, I think, are mixed. On “Shades” and “Diary” (featuring doing her best Michael Jackson impersonation), Wale’s remarkably candid thoughts on race and relationships are sincere and profound. I was initially disappointed by “TV in the Radio,” on which K’Naan at first seems to absolutely steal the show, but after repeated listens, Wale’s clever punch-line laden verse (on whack emcees: “It’s utterly baloney / so I’m Muslim to these rappers”) is growing on me.
Less impressive are “Let it Loose” and “Chillin,” the Lady Gaga collaboration Wale made to appease his label:
Attention Deficit’s beats are similarly varied. Spanning saccharine commercialism (“90210″), grimy funk (the excellent “Mirrors” featuring Bun B) and an homage to go-go (the irresistible “Pretty Girls”), the album is nothing if not sonically diverse. The beats are also more complex and polished than most of the beats on Wale’s mixtapes – an obvious benefit, I suppose, of having money to spend on big-name producers like Mark Ronson, The Neptunes and Cool and Dre.
Reaction to Attention Deficit has been generally favourable so far. Metacritic, for example, at 77 based on 11 reviews. I tend to agree: the album is certainly no classic, but its successes outweigh its failures, and it boasts enough solid hip-hop tunes to ensure multiple listens. Wale’s creativity and willingness to branch out are a welcomed and refreshing break from the predictability of the hip-hop mainstream. Ultimately, Attention Deficit is a flawed but promising debut, its occasional poor decisions tempered by flashes of raw talent and potential, and it mostly lives up to Wale’s carefully-cultivated reputation.
Buy Attention Deficit on or .
Listen to: (courtesy of ), and (courtesy of ).
This is actually an entertaining rant from comedian . As someone who probably verges on music snobbery from time to time (I have been known to hate from time to time), I can definitely appreciate how annoying it can be to other people.
Check it out.
Yes, it is true. Lou Dobbs, CNN Anchor, hero of the birther movement and, generally speaking, an anti-immigrant toolbag, has quit CNN.
I can’t even begin to say how much of a relief it is to see him gone, and not because he’s conservative. I think a major news network on CNN deserves and requires a responsible conservative viewpoint. I think MSNBC sucks precisely because it’s so openly liberal, and Fox sucks for many other reasons.
I have my problems with CNN, sure, but many of them are being addressed precisely because of a step like this. I worry that CNN, a network that already has its own bias, was working on moving towards polemicism in an effort to combat Fox News’ growth. I worry, and I had a reason to.
Lou Dobbs, one of the original anchors from CNN, has moved steadily from being a voice of reason to one of unabashed conservative hype. He rails against illegal immigrants, hates taxpayer bailouts, but most importantly he was the godfather of the birther movement. According to the NYT:
Lately, though, he has saved most of his opinions for his afternoon radio show, which made its debut in March 2008. It is on the radio show that he about the conspiracy-theory claims that President Obama is not a United States citizen. When he mentioned the citizenship issue on CNN over the summer, to call it a “dead issue.”
Dobbs refused to let the issue die, despite how patently absurd it is. It was the most disappointing step from a once venerable newsman.
If this is a step by CNN to move towards the middle and find a proper, responsible voice, then I applaud it. If it is simply getting rid of an annoying figure, then that’s another thing.
It does make for some interesting reading. Particularly this:
Over the past six months it’s become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us, and some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day. And to continue to do so in the most honest and direct language possible.
I assume many will be speculating that Dobbs will be moving over to a place like Fox. I would like to float the idea that Dobbs is considering a run for Senate. I think he would be well placed to win a conservative riding, and would continue a long line of blowhard hosts with political aspirations (both liberals and conservatives, of course).
If nothing else, this sort of gives the game away:
But each of those issues is, in my opinion, informed by our capacity to demonstrate strong resilience of our now weakened capitalist economy and demonstrate the political will to overcome the lack of true representation in Washington, D.C.
There are 36 or 37 Senate seats coming up for election in November 2010, depending on who you talk to. While there is an special by-election coming up in January to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat, I don’t think Dobbs stands a chance of winning in Massachusetts. Of the most likely seats, I think Dobbs will consider running in Missouri (where Kit Bond is retiring) or Kansas (where Sam Brownback is leaving). The only alternate would be to try to take the New Hampshire seat from Judd Gregg as he retires.
We shall see how it pans out, but I wouldn’t put it past old Lou to try and ride the press over his rapid CNN departure all the way to the capitol.
[Update: It appears that many are speculating that Dobbs will in 2012. I still believe my guess is the correct one, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. ]
I promise I’ll get back to posting real music soon enough (I know the Shaq thing probably caught you off guard), and I really didn’t think I would be quoting , but apparently I am. They have reported that Vanilla Ice is back. Literally.
He is rapping again.
Okay, that sentence gave me shivers. But it’s true. Apparently Ice (or should I call him Vanilla?) has released an album called Vanilla Ice is Back: Hip Hop Classics. It’s an album of hip hop covers. A lot of good tracks on there too. Fight the Power, I got it Made, even Jump Around. But the results are, well, exactly what you expected they would be.
I mean, I love a good Ice Ice Baby as much as the next man, but I can’t wrap my ahead around Vanilla Ice doing a Public Enemy track. I think Flava Flav’s clock just started going backwards after I said that. Still, check out a couple of the tracks below.
Here’s Baby Got Back
and here’s You Gots to Chill (Originally by EPMD)
