If you're looking for that perfect Christmas gift for the J Dilla fan, you can actually purchase a c opy of the poster for the above image at JDilla.org.
Out of all the artists associated with Thizz, Mob Figaz' own, Husalah is one of the few that really seem to hold on to the true "dont give a fuck" spirit" of the Furl and still possess the lyrical ability and charismatic delivery to keep listeners tuned. Unlike this guy, who only possesses the former. Of course there is also Fab, but he's already been given his fair share of shine within the confines of this blog.
Just pop in Treal TV 2, skip over the reused and scrapped together parts, and you'll catch Young Hus as one of the most entertaining artists to appear in the cult series (next of course to M.D.). Giggin and actin a fool. His unrelentless energy was one of the few reasons Treal TV 2 was even worth watching over again.
Unfortunately, for Hus, summer 2006 came with a conviction that would see him locked up for several years for... what else? intent to hustle a couple kilos of 'caine [1].
Husalah, drenched in dookie chains with flat top that would make Kid jealous:
Luckily, we live in an era where making a rap album in prison aint no thang. And we likely wont be prevented from hearing more hedonistic Bay rap from a Muslim-convert drug dealer, like Hus.
A couple joints that (correct me if I'm wrong) were completed prior to being locked up:
Husalah - Zestways (A Lotta Fun): This track is from the summer released, Demolition Men mixtape "Animal Planet" which showcased the skills of Husalah and Jacka. I was lucky enough to pick this up at Tower Records clearance sale in La Jolla a couple weeks ago.
But I'll give them a pass. Though they would fall into Game's "Bathing Ape shoe rapper" category, he still let them on the "One Blood" remix. Idiot. He probably figured he wouldnt be able to name drop as much with too many enemies.
So, Clipse done defeated the sophmore slump and made an album that easily makes it into my short list for the year. Hell Hath No Fury was well executed, arranged, and produced. In an era of oversaturation with crack-rap, Clipse, along with Ghostface, have demonstrated themselves to be the paragons in the field. Good thing the crackas at Jive finally let them put this out.
I hear folks complain about the length of the album, with only twelve tracks. Personally, I'd rather get twelve solid tracks than twenty with eight that are skippable. For the most part, brevity has proven to be a more of a good thing within hip-hop.
Since if you really wanted the album before this Tuesday (or wanted it for cheaper than cheap) you'd be able to find it elsewhere, here's two standout cuts for me.
"William Upski Wimsatt: Youth Vote Did it for Dems"
The secret weapon in last Tuesday's historic election was a constituency Democrats barely bothered to recognize: young people.
Continuing a trend begun in 2004, this year's election may have produced the highest youth mid-term turnout ever. Early estimates suggest that 10 million voters under the age of 30 made up 13% of the electorate. They helped Democrats in close elections sweep into office in 25 states.
We know because our organization, the League of Young Voters, turned out 150,000 young voters who made the difference in races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Florida. We were just one of dozens of independent, under-the-radar, youth-led efforts to inspire and turn out young voters.
Young people are progressive on issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and immigration. Most think the country is on the wrong track, and oppose the war. They vote Democratic by a 2 to 1 margin. So why are young people overlooked by political campaigners and pundits? The answer is what we call the myth of youth apathy.
This Saturday will mark the third installment of the battle between Manny Pacquiao and Eric Morales, two heroes within in their own communities. Thus this Saturday will also mark another installment of the perpetuation of racial tension between the Mexican-American community and the Filipino-American community. Nationalistic pride will reign heavily during the bout as flag wielding fans from both sides will be cheering on their respective boxing hero.
I can't speak for Morales, but Pacquiao has become such an iconic figures in the Philippines (as I have spoken about numeroustimes) that calling him a "national hero" wouldn't even describe his stature in the Philippines and his effect on the Filipino people. Dude has real clout in the P.I.'s. He's respected and revered. And I have even heard of many stories about how much he has inspired and sparked the interest of many in the Philippines to seek their own boxing careers. He is undeniably a huge influence in the islands, as well as within the diasporic Filipino community throughout the world.
The atmosphere of the arena during a Pacquiao fight has been described to me as "overwhelming" and "adreneline pumping," especially for those within the two representative communities. Luckily, I will be able to get first hand experience of the emotions that will overtake the fighters, but most importantly, the spectators.
While I am all for more unity among communities and the need for cross cultural coaltion building, this Saturday I will be on the side of those who hope more moments like this:
More power to Manny this Saturday, cause his victory isn't as much for him as it is for us. Lets watch and listen to Manny try his best at singing to his people (Though I don't know if I would consider him making this song more of a form of giving back more than as a form of added torture by the establishment of the Philippines).
I was originally going to do a follow up post on the eventful occassion that was Pacquiao's annihilation of Morales on November 18, but I got sidetracked. But, the atmosphere of the event was so overwhelming and such a cultural experience, I could not leave it left alone.
As arrived at the Thomas and Mack Arena at UNLV, I was greeted with news crews from The Filipino Channel getting pre-fight reactions from a crowd of mostly Filipinos, upon which a lone bald headed cat with white stunnas began chanting "Yeee!!" and proceeded to start giggin' and getting hyphy. And what follows one youngster getting hyphy, but his entourage and others joining in on the celebratory ceremony. This would just be a precursor as to what would occur after the fight. (Though it wasn't as hyphy as what one in the Bay might be used to, or even what the Modesto PD had rallied against.)
Upon entering the arena, tension, thick enough to be cut with a knife, filled the arena as Mexicans clashed with Filipinos and vice versa. I had to maneuver my way through the swarms of spectators carrying their national flags in support of their respective fighter.
Chants of "Manny! Manny! Manny!" were met with "Fuck Manny!" Tattooed Cholos confronted tattooed Pinoys, though no physical contact would ensue at this time, as each showed their own "mark-ass buster" card by yelling at one another, "Come here so I can beat your ass!"
While the racial tension created an unsettling feeling for a person always eager to build cross-culturally, the unity among the Filipinos was inspirational. (I'm sure Mexicans felt the same way, atleast before Morales got mollywhopped.) Filipinos greeted each other as relatives. Social bonds appeared to have existed for an eternity, even though most in the arena were strangers to one another.
Within the viewing arena Filipino and Mexican flags were ubiquitous. The occassional lucha libre mask would also be seen. Chants of "Mexico" and "Manny" came in waves. And we even started up our own satirical "USA" chant that eventually caught on throughout our section of the arena.
A middle aged Mexican man behind me shouted, "I love the Filipinos, they're good people, but Manny will still get killed."
In front of me was a young Filipino guy, early twenties, that likely had recently immigrated to the United States. With his thick accent he shouted out some of the more entertaining lines I would hear throughout the night.
"They dont know, in the Philippines, Manny is a gangsta... Homebooooooyyyy!!!"
"Morales bakla, bading, bading, bading." (Showcasing the homophobic and masculine defining characteristics that exist within the Filipino community)
When Morales appeared on the screen, I responded with my WWE inspired chant of "You suck, you suck, you suck."
Upon which the same guy in front of me looked back and said, "What you dont know I know bout that, homeboy? Thats WWE, homeboy. Kurt Angle. John Cena, you cant see me (this was followed by the shaking of his open palm in front of his face)."
Keep in mind, dude had one of the thickest accents I haver ever heard, this side of the Pacific.
This all occurred before the fight. During the fight, the aura of the place was insane. Filipinos were shouting as if it were another People Power movement protest at EDSA. As Manny finally gave Morales the blow that would knock him down the final time, causing Morales to shake his head in defeat, all the Filipinos became exstatic. Hi fives and embraces among the Filipinos filled the arena along with the deafening cheers. Strangers became brothers and sisters as we all became unified under this single battle.
And while our community celebrated, the Morales fans, most of the Mexicans, exited the arena quietly, heads sunked with their Mexican flags tucked under their arms. I felt for them, especially as I saw a lone kid with his Mexican flag in the hallways being harrassed by the angry bragging of a group of Filipinos celebrating the victory.
As a whole, it was a beautiful time and place to be a Filipino. Only if we could get the same number of people in our community to be just as eager and riled up to scream and protest when the President of the Philippines proclaims a state of emergency in the country.
I support anti-global warming measures and everything, but "carbon neutral"? Call me ignant with my vocab and my knowledge of harmful green-house emmitting gases, but out here in Cali "ghostriding" is the word of the year.
Big ups to Anonymous, whoever you are, who left a comment on the last post for notifying me about the near mainstreamization of the word "ghostriding" into the New Oxford American Dictionary. Among the list of runners up for the 2006 word of the year included words such as CSA (community-supported agriculture), dwarf plane, funner, Islamofascism, most important:
Ghostriding: the practice of exiting a moving vehicle and dancing either beside it, or on the hood or roof, while the vehicle is in motion.
Hands down, the hottest thing on the internet isnt the Jay Z leak or "Black Republicans," but is the addictive as crack, Flash "toy", called Line Rider. I spent a good portion of this morning at work trying to recollect everything I learned from my senior year in physics to create my most elaborate designs, which ended up being nothing more than creating a loop. YouTube has thousands of clips of skillfully crafted courses (This one and this one have to be the illest). These dudes should either pop their collar for creating such masterpieces or step outside their mom's basement.
To appease some of you that might come here to get your Bay rap fix: Mistah FAB - Hyphy 101 (produced by Sean T): Fabby Davis continues to deliver goofy lyrics to show these hard headed thugs how to have fun. But f'real though, FAB needs to stop leaking songs and release an album already because by the time he does release an album, I'm sure I'd have already heard all the tracks.
Lyrics Born & Mistah FAB (produced by Trackademics): The Cool Collar Scholar laces up a track for another amalgamation of hyphy/thizz and "backpack rap." (Spotted at the Fader blog)
Keak da Sneak - Stunna Shades On: Yet another song about the stunna shades. Off the latest Keak release, "Thizz Is Allindadoe," an album that follows the formula of many other Thizz releases, using recycled (or months old) songs. This is one of the few unheard tracks, and its actually decent considering the oversaturation of stunna shade themes.
Clipse feat. E-40 - D Boy (produced by Clinton Sparks): Standard crack rap track, in which Clinton Sparks loops a Forty Water verse from "White Girl" for the hook.
Tuesday's election marked a watershed moment for the community, with more than two dozen Asian Americans running for state office. Nineteen candidates won, giving Asian Americans a record representation in Californian public office with a total of 20 elected officials. (Before the election, there were 17.)
According to the article, in Los Angeles, my Filipino brothers and sisters did their thing being the largest Asian-Am ethnic group in the city to weild their political power.
So, now that the country has begun to get a clue about Bush's Iraq foreign policy, lets hope Congress steps it up and begins its investigation into Bush's abuse of power, rather than being the same weak-hearted, Democratic Congressional majority that voted to give the Son of a Bush absolute power to begin a pre-emptive strike and a three year long imperialistic occupation.
I normally don't have a currently have an on-going "douche of the week" post, but this week has brought two notable figures to everyone's attention as being the biggest jackasses/assholes/douchebags, for the week atleast. Kanye West and Ted Haggard.
Kanye has already had his fair share of backlash from the blogesphere, so I'm sure if you're reading this right now, you've likely already heard of the dick move he made at some unimportant award show in Europe. Unfortunately because of YouTube's tighter constraints, the video his since been pulled, but thankfully these guys had an IFilm upload of it:
Get over yourself, fool!
I remember watching Jesus Camp thinking this evangelical dude looks like a fuckin mark ass prick. Personally, I could care less about what Ted Haggard does in the privacy of his own room and what his sexual orientation may be. But, when you openly decry and condemn a sexual orientation as a nationally known preacher and is then revealed as having sought the solicitation of a male prostitution and being a consumer of methamphetamines, thats when the word "hypocrisy" becomes too small of an adjective to use. This is the guy who gives Dubya spiritual advice each week. Though I guess that with this whole incident, looking at Mark Foley's thing and all the millions of other controversial dilemmas ailing the poor right wing, it shouldn't be any surprise that they would all put themselves in these types of situations, especially with such wacked out guidance from this character. When Rush Limbaugh is mocking Michael J. Fox's symptoms from parkinsons desease, its a shock to me how people still want to associate themselves with a political side that is filled with a bunch of punkasses.
I know I talked shit about her song, but having this picture even taking place almost makes up for how wack Brooke's song was.
And to see the Hulkster showing his love for the Yay, peep this (to make it easier on y'all, after watching the clip from the 00:56 mark and go ahead fast forward it to 04:19):
Freshman year of high school, I was an impressionable young Filipino kid trapped in a city and school where I was on a mission to attack the wack. Turlock, CA. Not a city conducive for igniting growth and subversive ideals. But I had my own Book of Gospel to teach me the truth, it was actually two books, with a couple chapters composed by some of the disciples. The first was Enter the 36 Chambers, and the second was Wu Tang Forever. And for this young follower, those compositions forever altered my perception of what music could be.
The Wu was like a new aged group of prophets who sought to make noise, not knowing that the noise they would make would generate a breed of followers who would emulate their independent ethos. The Wu was what made Def Jux, Rhymesayers, Rawkus, and a slew of independent labels and gropus what they would eventually become. Thier sound was identifiable, and it would also be mirrored and reprocessed by countless others. The Wu also embarked on a global domination that would have the dorkiest of white and Asian kids rockin their brand of street wear and leaving carvings of the infamous "W" logo wherever they could.
I felt special in Turlock, and it was in part due to these nine emcees. I represented to the fullest, being the first kid in my school to be rockin' my Wu Wear shirt with my Wu Wear skully. They were the reason I saved up money from my paper route to cop a pair of Air Force Ones from Eastbay (stores in the region wouldnt even come close to selling AF1's until Nelly came out with his dumb ass song)and Timberlands from the Gilroy outlets (and you know I had to rock the Tims with the laces only in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th shoe lace holes). And if this seemed natural for you, picture yourself in the Bible belt region of California where kids only listened to gangsta vato-lowrider music or country.
These five YouTube clips are from a MTV Ultrasound documentary that came out around '98/'98, (I forgot what year), about the Clan. This made its debut during the pinnacle of Wu Tangs existence, proceeding the success of Wu Tang Forever and other solo releases (not to mention the neverending list of their affiliates). It was a period where I really didn't care about anything else if it wasn't Wu related. The Ultrasound documentary was the shit to me during that time, and I had been searching for it for the longest time on YouTube, but luckily some good soul was able to actually get it up for the rest of us to be able to reflect to a back when it was all about the Killah Bees.
(Just to let you know: There are a couple times where the videos overlap, and I believe that it is missing one part where Ghostface talks about how important "All That I Got Is You" was for other people and how it made big dudes in prison cry.)
After taking a second look at the Paris Hilton picture above, the slogan should be changed to "Educated Vote Or Die!". So if you haven't already done so, make sure to read up on all the ballot measures before you rock your vote.
This is one of the most crucial midterm elections, and after taking a damned four years for the rest of the country to wake up and realize that the invasion of Iraq was brought under false pretenses, it actually looks like things might be going towards the side the progressives in America. It doesn't appear that both houses of Congress will end up with a blue majority, it does appear as if atleast the House of Representatives will. Its been a rough four years of having a GOP run government, but we might start end up seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. More and more people seem to be opening up to the idea that Barack should paint the White House black. And Vermont is even on the verge to elect the first socialist senator. So I'll cross my fingers for a chance to see a Congress exist that will impeach the current president under REAL issues.
^^^Didn't get the memo about all-over prints
Brown and Brown Unity
Let me see you show your grill, brother!
