¡Ya basta!

"And you know you cant change sh*t by ridin' the fence"

beef...

... and other red meats = okay when consumed seldomly

NY graff artists vs. Michael Bloomberg

But apparently the beef between Jay Z and Fiddy was never officially USDA certified.

Some more anti-beef business in Los Angeles.

Lupe begins to settle his beef with the leak.

Now, if any of the 2 readers I get on here are in the San Diego area Thursday night and have nothing to do, check out B+, aka Brian Cross at UCSD, VAF Performance Space, 7:00pm. Click here for more info.

I'm a day late on the release of the new album, but GO BUY THE COUP'S NEW ALBUM: "PICK A BIGGER WEAPON." Peep Noz's interview with Boots.

Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy" music video

This track has been blowing up big in the UK; I'm just waiting for it to do the same here in the US. Peep the remarkable video, directed by Robert Hale:

"the rap game without the Bay Area is like old folks without bingo"

Bay coverage from USA Today. This sensationlistic newspaper even offers an attempt to break down a few of the Bay's slang.

Hyphy restores the balance. A little negative on Ghetto Report Card, but it does touch on the celebratory and performance aspect of hyphy culture and the innocence behind it.

Guide to Bay Area mixtapes. Decent list; missing the Ignant Mix though.

All this, and Forty Water getting Punk'd Monday.

the innovator of nerd rap

I got this from the folks at somanyshrimp, but it just needs to be seen by as many people as possible. This archive footage of a suburban white guy, that goes by Average Homeboy, doing his best attempt at rapping like a suburban white guy prior to Anticon can only be described as pure genius. Apparently this dude also goes by the name of Blazin Hazen, and he even has some additional tracks that are available to download. Besides saying that he's trying to get equal rights as a white guy, dude is a phuckin' bad ass.

In other news, this beef shits gotta stop. Bow Wow and Lil Romeo are bout to get throw down. Okay, but real talk, why is Lil Romeo comparing himself to a kid growing up in the hood? This kid was given a Benz to him by his pops before he was even tall enough to see over the dashboard.

lupe = the backpack jay z

2006 appears to be a really good year for hip hop music. Thus far we've been blessed with new dopeness from Ghostface (Fishscale), E-40 (My Ghetto Report Card), J Dilla (Donuts), and Publick Enemy (Rebirth of a Nation). And the year appears to have even more audible candy for the 3/4 of the year that is left: Gnarls Barkley, The Coup, Mistah FAB, Brother Ali, another joint by J Dilla, the Federation, etc. And aside from that rap shit, I've been anticipating the release of the J*Davey album.

Though, as of right now, I'm eyeing June 27, which is the supposed release date for "Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor."

I was able to catch a brief performance by Lupe during the "Touch the Sky" tour with Kanye, Fantasia, and Keyshia Cole in September. He only did 2 or 3 tracks on his own and said he was going to be coming back out with Kanye (probably to do "Touch the Sky"), but for some reason dude never came back out. I was never really impressed with what Lupe had to offer on "Touch the Sky," but the tracks he performed on his own during the show were pretty nice. From what I heard, I thought that an album by him might be worth downloading when it came out.

Flash forward to today, and after just catching the video for "Kick, Push" on BET, hearing "Just Might Be Okay" (big ups to differentkitchen), and listening to a few other tracks that have been floating around the internet the past couple months, I must say that he's definitely deserving of all the praise that many in the hip hop community have been giving him. "Kick, Push" is an ode to skating, somewhat related to the previous posts on the skate shoe Vans. The beat is fiyah and destroys the only other skateboard hip hop track that I can think, Murs' "Transitions az a Ridah" (which I thought was a very creative track).

Word is that the album has been leaked though. Meaning it might get pushed back with a different track list. I'm still trying to get myself a copy, to listen to of course. But from what I've been hearing so far, this album is definitely worth picking up to support Lupe with that dollar he gets from cd sales.

Fuck Vans?

Drino Man - Fuck Vans

Here we go, a diss to the Pack's Vans advertisement jingle. I honestly don't really know why I am posting up this track by some guy from Alameda named Drino Man, called "Fuck Vans." I mean, the track is pretty garbage, it has a few parts worth chuckling for, and is there really a need to call out folks for sporting Vans? Drino Man even tries to bring up that rappers don't wear Vans (this cat must've not seen the footage of Mac Dre in Hawaii). But, just for this post, I will allow for an objective coverage of the Vans war. I don't care too much for Vans, nor do I despise them so much that I would create a diss track for it, thus I am able to maintain a bi-partisan stance on the issue and have a fair and balanced report.

Oh, and btw, this is the remix. I came upon this song first, and have yet to hear what the original sounds like.

And if you ain't really feelin the Vans posts, peep Too $hort's video for "Blow the Whistle"

"got my vans on, but they look like sneakers...

Wear coke whites, but my Vans look cleaner"

The Pack - Vans

Went up to the Bay this weekend, and I heard this track by a group that calls themselves The Pack, on the radio. I saw posts about a track about Vans on the Siccness forums, but I never bothered to read into them, cause it was just getting constant hate responses. But I have to admit, the beat and hook are heat. Too bad I can't give as much props to the verses.

But, the main reason I decided to post up this track was mainly due to a conversation that I had with a homie about the reason why a group might have decided to create a song about a Trevorish brand of kicks. I personally don't own a pair of Vans, but I will admit that lately the company has been putting out shoes I would rock. But, that's besides the point. I just found out that The Pack are or were skaters, which might explain the inclination to wear Vans and eventually write a song abou them. Though, even knowing this, it still can produce discussions regarding recent trends. When I first heard the song (meaning before I heard about the whole skater connection), my homie and I had a discussion whcih led to the assumption that the need to promote a track about Vans, and even mention Sperry Top Siders, had to do with the whole flippin of trends that tend to be associated as a more privileged/white look. The way that the hip hop generation took brands like Polo and Tommy Hilfigger and flipped them into a more "urban" look, had to be an explanation why this song was made. Its like the 8th element of hip hop. Just like the track "Grown Man" by Dem Hoodstarz, this obviously had to be less about assimilating into "white" trends, and more about synthesizing dominant hegemonic fashion trends for a subcultural style.

And just to put a point across, this trend of rappers or the "urban" youth rockin Vans isn't a new thing, Mac Dre (rip) had been rockin Vans for a minute. Real g'z rock Vans. Thus, skater shoes = the new Nike Cortez/Chuck Taylors (maybe not, but who knows).