Murs & 9th Wonder - Oh Lord Mixtape

My favorite LA rapper and NC producer team up again and release a free EP before MURS FOR PRESIDENT drops. Sponsored by hip hop's finest thread supplier: Hurley!

Check it here. I can't say I've actually bought a CD the day it came out in a while, but I respect the man that much. I think the last one was Ghostface's Big Doe Rehab.

Download it here... 'cause for some reason on the Hurley site you have to dl track by track.

I'm gonna wait till tommorow to bump the actual cd, but if you can't wait, dl the album here.

Art School - Update

So yes. I hardly update but that's cause I've been super busy with my first term at Art Center.

I'm pretty good now at waking up for 8am classes and showing up on time, with the exception of last Friday because some fucking ad major couldn't finish up our simple ass group project. Whatever, my 5 of 7 comps (vs his 1 of 15) all got approved so it's all gravey.

But like my teacher Chessley Nassaney was asking me if someone was dying (after I told him my reason for being late was 'it's been a rough week') "I felt like I was dying."

I really do. Not to feel emo or whatever the fuck but the lack of sleep and the constant all nighters and just me trying to catch up with the program has got my clock and my psoriasis out of wack.

With that said I still don't give a fuck. Dying to live is how I see it. I've never been to a place or an institution that inspires me as much as this place does. I'm getting close to finally being 100% caught up this week... it's gonna be a long day and I have a grueling 11 hour day tomorrow, but I honestly wouldn't want to be anywhere else. The people here make me want to push harder. I'm on campus on average of 10 hours a day.

I'm 25 years of age and going for a SECOND bachelors. Some would say that I'm a fucking moron, but being here has been my dream for the past 4 years. So while you're toiling away in an office working some meaningless job saving up for your new home, car, girlfriend, vacation, etc... I'm chasing my fantasy to accumulate even more debt and to live an even more tormented lifestyle lacking in all things financially secure.

In the words of Roland Young - "being a designer is hell."

Take me to the firey gates, I'm ready to burn.

CAGE - Depart From Me

ck on the bass? WHAT?!?!

I've been waiting for this album to drop since 2005, when i first heard Hell's Winter. I love the shit this white boy talks about. So gore filled and depressing... i love it. No other rapper seems to rub me the same way.

Weathermen x Cardboard City Forever

"...YOU LIVE ONE FUCKING LIFE and it will be taken from you when you least expect it so live it to the fullest.)"

for some reason i can't share this, so peep it. Cage, El-P and F.Sean Martin (of Hatebreed) chopping it up in the studio. On the myspace, you can see pics of Daryl Palumbo (glassjaw, head automatica, united nations) too... my other hero. i cant' fucking wait!

Cage got mad skinny...
http://www.youtube.com/CAGEWMTV
http://www.myspace.com/cagekennylz

NOTORIOUS TRAILER!!!!

One reason why Biggie just that much iller than Pac: they made a movie about him first.

I'm in class so i can't actually hear the audio, but I'm excited that unlike most 'great' hiphop projects, this one is actually gonna see the light of day.

Link from NahRight.

FAR getting back together?

man... my buddy collin or 'ash' as he prefers to be called, told me last monday that one of my favorite bands of all time is getting back together.

None other than FAR!!!!

Peep this video, found over at their website

#1 from the band far on Vimeo.

this video gives me the shivers! I never got to see the band preform live. They sorta pulled an operation ivy and broke up shortly after the release of their second record "Water and Solutions"

why does the band name sound familiar? well, Jonah Mantranga is the singer of the band. Since then he's had a few successful projects: onelinedrawing, gratitude, new end original and his solo act and even collaborating with Mike Shinoda(Linkin Park, Fort Minor) and Lupe Fiasco(the track "never lies" produced by Mike Shinoda contains a sample of the far song "Nestle").

Guitarist Shaun Lopez also started his own band under then name the Revolution Smile. He also produced a lot of Chino's vocals on their last full length album "Saturday Night Wrist.

Back in 1999 - when i bought "Water and Solutions" after reading about it in a Kerrang! magazine, little did I know that album would be the birth of emo/screamo. Jonah, according to Kerrang!(UK publication) is crowned as the emo king. I couldn't agree more. Listen to songs like "Bury White", "Water and Solutions", "Mother Mary"... and it's undeniable. Truely ahead of their time.

Since then, I've been a huge fan of anything Jonah's put his hands on. Although, I must say I don't agree with a lot of the nerdy/dorky preachy shit he says live... it does get annoying - the man knows how to put on a great show, often just onstage with a guitar.

Some of my favorite Far/Jonah tracks:
Deftones - Be Quiet and Drive (cover)


Far - bury white


far - mother mary


far - water and solutions


Onelinedrawing - yr letter


Lupe Fiasco* - Never lies


Posted on their myspace is an article in Alternative Press magazine claiming that "Water and Solutions" as the most influential record of 1998. Here.

i found a link to their first album 'tin cans with strings to you'... their second 'official' release thru immortal records (korn, incubus) in my opinion is a lot better, but i was just pretty amazed that someone decided to upload it. here.

* i will NEVER mention Lupe Fiasco on this blog ever again. if you know me, you know i am disgusted at how some hypebeast Urkel looking poster boy who can't skate can be respected as a decent rapper. Have you heard "Pop Pop"?

White Tee - Booty Meat

Look out Eminem, Vanilla Ice, MC Serch, Stagga Lee, Cage, Ill Bill, and every other white rapper who ever came thru, here's another one.

He goes by the name of... *drum roll please* ...White Tee!

I normally wouldn't care what was going on in the world of rapper Soulja Boy, but according to the good people over at Complex magazine, he's signed a new WHITE rapper.

So why would I care, you ask? This one hit a little close to home. He's actually Soulja Boy's web designer.

I mean, I'm honestly (and secretly) a bit conflicted. I mean, me and my boys who are design nerds like to make our own rap songs too. When I've had a bit too much sauce I also tend to think I'm fire on the mic... but this is just plain weird to see one of 'us' have the potential to make it.

Check the Complex article here and get the low down on WHITE TEE here.

DJ Derezon's 14 Deadly Secrets: The RZA

RZA tells the history of his most infamous beats with DJ Derezon.

There's also an awesome one with DJ Premier.

DL the RZA one here.

RIP Nagi Noda

A great loss to the art world. I discovered Nagi's work about 10 months ago before my trip to Asia. At the time, my buddy Carlos introduced me to a BBC show called Japanorama where host Jonathan Ross investigates various elements of Japanese youth subculture. One episode had a feature on pop art and that's where I saw Nagi's work for the first time.

One of my favorite pieces:


Rest in Peace. Check out her work here.

Murs Administration Video

I realy hope this is gonna be a hot one - check the topless korean chick in the clip
Mursforpresident.com

The Great Firewall of China

I am in Beijing yet again, and I've only been here for like 48 hours and it's been an absolutely amazing so far. I'm actually really surprised blogspot works right now. I will try to post once I upload some pics.

Facebook isn't working and that is very depressing :-( I've been trying to stay away from technology on this trip, but that doesn't work well unless you have friends to hang with. I'm trying to see if some of my peeps from last time are still here. Internet censorship sucks a big fat chinese cock.

Also I despise the ringtone of my parent's phone. It's "Fur Lise" in the most annoying tone ever. That shit goes off like 3 times at my house at every hour.

GZA - "Pencil" (ft. Masta Killa and RZA)

New GZA
Album drops Aug 19th. Track is actually pretty good. From what I've heard so far I'm expecting/hoping for "Grandmasters" or better. Here.

I hate watching the GZA live cause he likes to forget his words and just isn't that interesting live, but he's got one of my favorite catalogues from everyone in the Wu.

"All In Together Now"
One of my favorite tracks off Grandmasters


"4th Chamber"
My all time favorite GZA track


"B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)"
Another one... except this is all Killah Priest - no GZA, but off the legendary GZA album "Liquid Swords"

Rock the Bells 2008

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Originally I didn't plan on going, but then two nights before I met Julianne.

Overall
The show was pretty aite. Not the best line up by far, but to me and most other Southern California hip hop enthuseists it is the one jam to look forward to every summer - despite having become a million times more commercial w/ San Disk backing it and a proper ampatheater type venue.

Second Stage
As usual, we got there late so we missed anyone who was on the second stage: Cool Kids, Spank Rock, MFDOOM, Kids in the Hall... everyone. The one time we did check the stage, some wack DJ's were spinning some old school stuff. We just bounced. Seriously.... was afrika bambatta necessary on this tour? Esp 'cause he's just DJing. Who the fuck are delvin and darko? Tyga...hahahah 'put the lime in the coconut and twist it all up...' the Pack.... the onlytrack they even got was the vans one.

Second stage was not coming with it this year. Trying to go 'hipster' avoiding the predominately white backpacker Def Jux/Rhymesayers route this year. not a good look.

Main Stage
Got there and Rae and Ghost just ended. We heard "Ice Cream" in the parking lot.

Murs, Dead Prez, Rakim, De La, Jay Electronica... missed them all.

Lost some glassware on the way in and then compensated poorly by some stingy dirty looking Filipino dude. Not a great start of a day.

Method Man & Redman:
I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure they didn't do "How High" or "Broken Language". The didn't even mention Blackout Part 2. In true Wu fashion Meth was mad late coming out. I don't think Red did 'can't wait either'
- "da rotwiler"
- "i'll be dat"
- "bring the pain"
- "m.e.t.h.o.d. man"
- "you're all i need (original ver)"

Pharcyde:
Did all their hits. Nice to see the whole crew together. Last time I saw them it was only two preforming at UCI...sophmore year I believe. Ended it w/ "Passing me By". One of the dudes wore some crazy dayglow neon green pants. The Bobby Brown cover was prolly the biggest surprise of the evening.

Mos Def:
I mean... I honestly don't think dude is a good actor, and I think anything neo-soul related is weak and soft and all the OkayPlayer people are way over rated simply because they are not gangsta enough for my liking... also too many white people and girls love this guy. More importantly, his last two albums kinda on the shit side of the spectrum.

Either way, even with all that against him, he's still a great preformer and all round emcee. "Leaving on an Airplane" "Can't push me to the Edge" "Undeniable" "Umi Says" "Ms. Fat Booty"... he knew what he was doing and he rocked it.

Nas:
I don't like Esco as a preformer. His personality is pretty boring... I mean, even in interviews and such, he's such a laid back guy - very monotone, never really says anything too offensive, not that funny, etc. Don't get me wrong, he's still one of the best of all time - but on wax, the live part needs work. However, he did a really great job this year. I believe he didn't show up last year.

Played a majority of his joints off Illmatic: "Represent","One Love", "NY State of Mind", "Life's a Bitch", "The World is Yours" ... also and of course "Nas is Like", "One Mic", "Got Yourself a Gun", "Made You Look", "If I Ruled the World", "Hero", "Sly Fox"... maybe more, but again... even tho Rae and Ghost were in the house there was no "Verbal Intercourse".


Q-Tip and Tribe:
Tip came out alone and did some solo joints and Tribe songs by hisself... I think he threw in a new one off the upcoming album. Sounded pretty typical neo soul... nothing to write home about and I think he lost the crowd during it's performance. Then the rest of the crew came out, minus Consequence. Not my first time seeing these guys, so it wasn't really that big a deal - the last time i saw them was in 04 on the day of Ol' Dirty's death. They did a bunch of their hits including "Electric Relaxation", "Scenerio", "Check the Rhyme", "Lyrics to Go", "Can I Kick It"... I know it is a hip hop blastphemy, but I am not all that big into these guys. They shouted out Dilla... and had the best visuals - Actually they were the only group that even used the screen in the back. Unfortunately, they didn't play my favorite Tribe song "Stressed Out". No encore, ended exactly on time: 11pm. Had a good parking spot and no traffic on the way home.


Conclusion
I think i go to this every summer in hopes to relive the first one. Seeing ALL 10 members of the Clan on stage, the unruly crowd taking advantage of shitty security, people raiding the merch booths, the Wu being on stage doing ALLLL their hits for over 2 hrs... I know it is foolish to think something like that could happen again,but this is the one day of the year when everything is dedicated to golden age hip hop. Because of that, 50/50 chance I'll be there next year.

Surprise Guests?
No surprise guests this year. I guess that's one of the things I miss too. The casualty of being organized. Last year there was a little of that on the indie stage. A lot of the dudes got down on a huge freestyle session before DOOM came on (late). Rage Against the Machine rocked it in 2007.

Lauryn Hill came on before Wu in 2006. Talib came out during Mos' set.... I think there was more...oh yeah Steve-O almost got his ass beat by Raekwon during the Ol' Dirty tribute part of the set.

Krs-One, Immortal Technique and some others came on before Rae and Ghost in 2005. RZA was supposed to be the headliner, but did not preform... however he was present during Rae and Ghost's set.

Mos def and X clan made appearances during Tribe's set in fall of 2004.

Summer 2004.... the whole Wu actually showed up. A surprise in itself!

New Cure single

The Cure - "The Perfect Boy"

Third single in their "one single a month" series.

Found over at Pitchfork.

Weezy & Jay Electronica?!?!

Man, I just FLIPPED when I saw this.

Two of the illest and freshest emcees in the game right now from Louisiana over a Bayou classic?!?! Damn, I wish I caught Jay Electronica yesterday.

Found at Nahright.

RIP Issac Hayes

I was in a cafe today eating some wonton noodles w/ my roommate and bam... during an NBC Olympic news segment, they announced Ike was indeed gone forever. We couldn't really understand what the announcer was saying (the chinese waiters said they'd turn the hearing impaired subtitles on, but 30 minutes later still no dice), but just going thru the photo/video montage of Hayes from the 60's to the South Park era of his role as Chef it was pretty sad. Rest in peace. Check out that album art tho!

His hits included "Soul Man", "Shaft (Theme Song)", "Walk on By" and later "Chocolate Salty Balls".

Dude even had a track w/ the Wu Tang Clan - "I Can't Go to Sleep"


With most famous people, I don't really have a story to go along with their passing. About 5 years ago I had the oppertunity to see Mr. Hayes preform live at the Sunset Junction street festival in Silverlake. I posted the original 2003 story here, back when I still used my Xanga account.

Here's a more updated account of that same story:

In the summer of 2003, my dating career was pretty alright for someone living in an apartment living room for the summer with 5 other roommates in a two-bedroom. I mean, it sucked ass, but this was only to last until the school year started up again. The fragrence of marijuana was seeping in from everywhere at all hours of the day and the Playstation 2 was always on with somebody playing Marvel vs Capcom 2. Not being much of a gamer myself it was annoying - yes, but aside from the mass amounts of trash everywhere and cigarette smoke in the air; beer and our supply of herbals were always fully stocked.

So being in this kind of environment with zero privacy and being an incredibly horny 20 year old college student with his own car - you seem to try to find any oppertunity to go on dates or meet up with girls you sorta know/want to date and hopefully get laid.

Aside from the underage chubby high school emo girl I met ouside a Del Taco one Taco Tuesday of a night, I ended up meeting an Asian chick outside of a club party through a friend. In a drunken haze numbers were exchanged danced the night away together. She was super intelligent, loved the work Wes Anderson, the writings of Amy Tan, a funky/sceney style, glasses, petit, from a broken home and sorta into dudes like me... but I later began to understand she was pretty hung up on an ex boyfriend. An Asian musician type and I think he played in some ska band at Disneyland like every summer or something... but anyway back to the story.

So I call her up and she tells me about some music festival called Sunset Junction where Phantom Planet was playing and admission was a steep $7.00. Being the lagger that I still am, I didn't get there till about 30 minutes after the band had finished their set. I get the call at this point that she'd already left.

After making the trip all the way from Irvine to East LA, parking and picking up my boy A$ I wasn't gonna drive back. Like true middle school G's we just snuck into the festival under the guise of pretending to admire some crappy boho glass sculptures. While walking around for about 5 minutes into the place I had this moment of realization similar to the one in Chasing Amy: the scene where Banky's at a party and looks around at gay couples kissing and realizes he's actually at a gay bar.

My first tip was the unusal amount of topless and sculpted men walking around in large packs, talking in lispy voices and constantly giving each other group hugs. The second was the unusual amount of cardboard trashcans loacated all over sponsored by the Wet Lubrication company with the tagline "Supporting our Community". Thirdly, I noticed the abundance of rainbowed objects and men holding onto each other... but don't get me wrong. I have nothing against gay people - especially those buff guys who where there that day. In a brawl - sign me up on their squad.

Anyway, walking further through the street festival and coping with the mass influx of homosexuality, I finally found a schedule of preformances and up next: ISSAC HAYES and the SUPREMES!

I wasn't really jumping for joy when I saw this, but I figured it'd a good way to up my indie cred to say I've seen some soul legends in concert. Caught the end of the Supremes set and Issac Hayes was next. Ike came out with a 12 piece band and dressed in a daisheki (a colorful african robe with matching hat), sun glasses, beard and all. They started the set preforming hits such as "Soul Man" and "Walk on By". During the entire set I couldn't help from constantly yelling "play the South Park song!" - being "Chocolate Salty Balls"

Mp3: Chef - "Chocolate Salty Balls"(PS: I Love You) (download)

After the first three songs and an nice bass solo me and A$ decided to leave* 'cause we figured he wouldn't play the Shaft theme song till the end of the set. Suddenly on our way out I heard the bass go, the lyrics "...half a stick of butter melted/stick it all in a bowl baby..." and the crowd went nuts! If there's anything I can say from my personal encounter with Ike, the man had a sense of humor: playing a song about tea bagging in front of a crowd that consisted of of primarily gay men. Fabulous.

*On a side note: I remember clearly the main reason me and A$ wanted to bounce was because directly behind us in the crowd there were two chubby computer programmer-by-day/mega-perverts-by-night looking German dudes in glasses, combat boots, silver speedos, bondage gear and incredibly obvious hard-ons... one was even wearing a leash.

Mid Summer Night's Jam Setlist

Under the monkier of DJ THUG KILLAH C*, I will be putting together a mix for the upcoming end of term party.
Here is the playlist...

A MID SUMMER NIGHT'S JAM
1. Common - Be (intro)
2. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - Summertime
3. Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower
4. Santogold - Shove it
5. Biz Markie - Just a Friend
6. Outkast - Player's Ball
7. Jackson 5 - ABC
8. Coolio - Fantastic Voyage
9. Raekwon - Ice Cream
10.The Outfield - Your Love
11.Ice Cube - You Know How We Do It
12.J Dilla/JayDee - Time The Donut of the Heart
13.Eleven Five - Garcia Vegas
14.DJ Quik - Pitch in on a Party
15.The Dove Shack - Summertime in the LBC
16.Kermit the Frog - Rainbow Connection

Total Time: 1hr.
Download it here.

Enjoy!

I'm contemplating actually mixing this together in cool edit or something. Who knows.

The songs were chosen because I'm pretty sure all the other DJ's that night are house guys. I wanted to just put some summertime vibes that other DJ's wouldn't pick. Granted these songs are kinda old - but fuck it. TKC's iPod runs shit. Unfortunately I will be in China on the day of the event.

* THUG KILLAH C is my rockband drummer's name.

EER Max 90 INFA RED - REISSUE

So, I love these sneakers. Prolly my top 5 of all time. I got a pair and royally fucked them up. Prolly my first 'collectable' sneaker i bought back in 2006. I'm still rocking em, here's a pic.

so I need me a new pair, when I realized i shoulda just bought a few more pairs at the footlocker on credit, shits was sold out. I didn't even know a retro of these were coming out until a homie I met over at dodgeball mentioned it to me.

Check the hypebeast post.

To JonJon over at the Treeson, johnny at verum... I hate reading your blogs and/or hanging out with you assholes. I thought I could quit retail, but damn. I was good off these hypebeast blogs for like 8 months not spending shit... unemployment is a gift and mostly a curse.

GOLD and SILVER WALLYS?!?!

I am a huge fan of the Clark Wallabee... ever since my Senior Year of high school, back when I couldn't afford the real things and settled for the clones.

I thought the Ipath Cats were the dopest skate shoes ever. When I found out they were inspired from the Clarks, it was over. When I found out the Wu was all about them... it was really over.


Anyway, it's a shame these look kinda wack. I love the idea of an all silver or all gold shoe (i own a pair of New Balances that are all silver)... especially on a wally, but dude fucked these ones up. Shoulda added a black soul, and what's the deal w/ the black patent leather details? just make the top ALL gold or ALL silver.They'd be so much iller if they looked like this:


Original post here.

Upper Playground Stan Smiths

I fucking love Upper Playground. I've been a fan for years now, mainly because they've always supported my favorite artists and continue to rep SF pretty hard.

Unfortunately, most of their product (although sold at a very fair price) usually isn't that dope. They'll release like a collection of 100 tees, but only 3 dope designs. Too much Sam Flores shit... they're also starting to overkill on Jeremy Fish.

Anyway, once again they took a few of my favorite things and made a mediocre product outta it. I love the Stan Smith. I used to skate a pair of these in high school, and i think they're just really simple and clean looking. I have a friend who's dad only rocks these... his garage has like 20 pairs - all classic green and white.

David Choe x Upper Playground x Adidas Stan Smith
- it looks whatever... i mean, it woulda been cooler if there was some art on it.



Aesop Rock (weathermen) x Upper Playground x Adidas Stan Smith
- a very ordinary looking sneaker, but it's got the WEATHERMEN logo on it, so.... that almost makes me want to buy it. I'm not really a fan of Aesop Rock, but the Weathermen are my favorite indie rap crew (Cage, Aesop Rock, Yak Ballz, El-P, Camu Tao(RIP), Tame One).

TR2N, DEATHTRACK/DEATH RACE, and my childhood

Back in a time before windows there was something called dos... anyway. I was sent to computer camp as a kid and the only thing aside from the inside edge on living a more reclusive lifestyle in was a copy of this game by activision called "death track". Good ol 1989.

Anyway, the reason I am writing about this movie is that I saw a preview for a movie with a similar plot as the game. It's called Death Race and it stars jason Statham. I don't particularly care for the story itself, I'm just amazed they're making a movie out of such an old video game. They usually go with what's hot at the moment, not one that's almost 20 years old.

Speaking of 20 year olds, they're actually going to be doing another tron movie. always reminds me of the motorcycle part in the first movie.

It's like everthing i thought was cool during my childhood is being resold to me.

tr2n trailer here