Fishscale

Lupe Fiasco - I'm Beamin' (video)

2010-05-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

This is just one of those tracks that makes you think back to a better time, as if the first time you heard it was when some really memorable shit went down. The thoughts running through my mind? Lasers, golden era hip-hop, The Thames and making something out of my life.

Whatchu thinkin' bout?

R.I.P Guru

2010-04-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Damn man. One of the greatest. For the sake of hip-hop, I hope the next Guru is out there.

I got the right mind to drop my feelings over the instrumental but I'll just let the GangStarr men handle it. Rest In Peace.

Questions surround "The Answer"

2010-03-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

The 2009-2010 season has turned into a complete trainwreck for Allen Iverson. Injuries and age seem to have eroded his skills to the point where he is a shell of his former greatness. Recently leaving the 76ers to be with his ailing daughter, other news contributing to the decision to call it a season and, possibly, career, has surfaced.

If this is how it's gonna go down for A.I., then sadness doesn't even begin to explain what I feel. This is pretty much the pre-eminent basketball idol of my teenage years. Each day, I feel disproportionately further from the peak of my love affair with Iverson: proudly wearing his jersey in the hostile environment of the Staples Center during Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals, where he dropped 48 on the home team for a stunning overtime win.

RIP B.I.G.

2010-03-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

The senseless killing of Christopher Wallace remains a permanent locus point in the still incomplete circle of life of Hip-Hop. Let's remember the good times. I got Juicy, Big Poppa, One More Chance (remix), Hypnotize and a bonus for the streets: his Fulton Avenue freestyle battle that became Guaranteed Raw.

R.I.P. Biggie Smalls

(Red Band) Trailer - Hot Tub Time Machine

2010-03-08T17:20:00.000-08:00

By now, I should know better. John Cusack movies always end up involving him pining for some ex-wife/ex-girlfriend/ex-lax/whatever. I think back to when I paid 12 bucks to watch 1408 in the theatre because I was excited by the prospect of seeing a movie where John Cusack didn't play Lloyd Dobbler or a bitchmade facsimile. I got burned in that one, too. What the fuck, Stephen King?! What. The. Fuck.

That said, there is too much good going on around John Cusack for me to not wanna watch Hot Tub Time Machine. Cue the red band trailer.

Tone-Lōc - Lōc-ed After Dark

2010-03-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

Being such a young artform, Hip-Hop has a tendency to forget those who paved the road. Slowly we are coming back to commemorate the first and second waves of Hip-Hop's pioneers but it seems like the mid-to-late 80s artists from the Golden Era are largely forgotten.

Tone-Lōc is one of those guys. A lot of folks don't remember Tone and many of those who do conveniently choose to forget about him. Hindsight should eventually reveal this album to be one of the classics of it's era. Tone had the voice and a smooth delivery but it doesn't stop there.

Lōc-ed After Dark (1988) featured the first hip-hop productions of the legendary Dust Brothers. Though still a far shout from the masterful sound collage they would accomplish on The Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique" tracks like "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina" show the seeds being planted. "Cheeba Cheeba" (which uses the now oft-used sample of Edwin Starr's great "Easin' In") was one of the first rap songs advocating marijuana use. And while I can't be sure how far the history of ghostwriting goes, this was one of the first instances in my history with Hip-Hop where I found the use of ghostwriters; in this case, Young MC (another talented westcoast MC forgotten by time).

A quick peek at Wikipedia revealed that Lōc-ed After Dark's great album cover is a remake of Donald Byrd's album cover for A New Perspective. Another fancy tidbit for the 80s babies who've been trying to forget the decade through wanton alcohol and drug experimentation: the first video below this diatribe, the clip for "Wild Thing", is a take on Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love". I also added the video for "Funky Cold Medina"

Russian National Anthem

2010-02-28T23:35:00.000-08:00

I don't know the words to this, nor am I Russian, but after hearing this again in the closing ceremonies, I am convinced that Russia's national anthem is the best in the world. No, I haven't heard every anthem. Nor do I have to. I know that this one makes me wanna be the best I can be for my country and damn if that doesn't make it best.

To help the skeptical enjoy it more, I found this video montage of Ivan Drago scenes from Rocky IV to make the three minutes and change float like a flying hammer and sting like a sickle to the face. Blaaaoooowwww!!!

Broken Bells - The High Road (video)

2010-02-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

When it comes to updates on bands via email, most of us just signed on because it was the hoop we needed to jump through to get an mp3 of a new single.

And so was the case for me with Broken Bells. Now I'm thinking I need to pay more attention to these emails because this video has been out for a month and from the first time I heard "The High Road", it was an automatic favorite.

So yeah, here's the sick, (sort of) new video from the Danger Mouse + James Mercer supergroup, via their myspace page. Enjoy!

The High Road

Broken Bells | MySpace Music Videos

Ndamukong Suh

2010-02-26T14:04:00.000-08:00

In the Ngema tribe in Cameroon, Ndamukong means "House of Spears."

You know you're destined for badassness when your name translates into HOUSE OF SPEARS!

I currently have Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh going to the Bucs at 3rd overall in my mock drafts. So what does this mean? Bad news for Michael Turner and my Falcons at least twice a year. Find out more fun facts about the 2010 NFL Draft's most exciting prospect on his Wikipedia page.

Jamere Holland Is Gonna Be A Star!

2010-02-21T22:38:00.000-08:00

A star on facebookfails.com, that is.

After wrongly assuming that a fellow teammate on the Oregon Ducks football team got kicked off for a DUI charge, he posted a profanity-laced status update on Facebook. Whatever, no big deal there. He's just sticking up for a friend, someone he goes to war with on saturdays. I can respect that. Shit...I DO respect that.

However, he then inexplicably posts another status update about wanting to block out all his white friends on Facebook and only have black friends. You could argue either side on whether that is racist or not. If you don't wanna be friends with a group of people, even if it's just because of their race, that's ultimately up to you. But, obviously, saying something like that will have consequences. Especially when you're a representative of a highly scrutinized college athletic program like the University of Oregon football team.

Not surprisingly, the team's coaching staff had enough of his transgressions (apparently, there were past ones at Oregon and he was already kicked off USC's football team prior to joining the Ducks) and have kicked him off the team.

But back to his racial comments, I have some news for you, Jamere. You CAN exclude white people and only have black friends on Facebook. It's called saying no to the friend requests. So unless you're a compulsive facebook friend whore, you can totally do that without having to put people on blast. In fact, doing that probably would've bought you some time to grow up and possibly not sabotage your football career. Oh well.

His privacy settings are open to public so feel free to check out the status updates in question (as well as future ones) at Jamere Holland's Facebook page.

But only if you're black.

Fuck you, Martin Brodeur.

2010-02-21T18:54:00.001-08:00

I said it after the 2006 Games, I said it after the Switzerland game and I'm saying it again now. Martin Brodeur is old and busted when it comes to international stage. Coming into the Olympics cold (in Luongo's backyard no less), it's baffling that Canada still chose to ride with him. Enter the Luongo era for Canada.

I dedicate this next song to Martin Brodeur and Brian Rafalski, whose clandestine trysts I am exposing. That's right, bitches...the jig's up!

Dr. Seuss (Wikipedia)

2010-02-21T12:40:00.001-08:00

No joke, any modern poet or rapper needs to stop for a minute and thank this man. What an amazing dude. From his Wiki entry:

"While at Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room, violating national Prohibition laws of the time.^[4] As a result, the school insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities. In order to continue his work on the Jack-O-Lantern without the administration's knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss"; his first work signed as "Dr. Seuss" appeared after he graduated, six months into his work for humor magazine The Judge where his weekly feature Birdsies and Beasties appeared.^[5] Geisel was encouraged in his writing by professor of Rhetoric W. Benfield Pressey, whom he described as his "big inspiration for writing" at Dartmouth.^[6]"

READ THE FULL WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON DR. SEUSS HERE...

Jay Electronica - "Exhibit C" in Amsterdam

2010-02-21T12:28:00.001-08:00

This kind of thing could never happen in the Wild West because cats just don't know how to act. Would've loved to be a part of this. Great energy and crowd interaction. And a dope song, too? Sheeesh...No mas, no mas!

Credits to TheOuxo on the camera skills and 2dopeboyz for the link hookup

Jay Electronica - "Exhibit C" is available for purchase on iTunes for a mere $0.99. Support the art of hip-hop.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Trailer)

2010-02-21T12:21:00.000-08:00

Michael Douglas is back and even his infamous "Greed Is Good" line makes an appearance in the upcoming sequel to Wall Street. Also featuring Shia LaBoeuf doing the Shia LaBoeuf thing, Josh Brolin being bad and a girl whose probably pretty but insists upon an androgynous hairstyle, anyways.

"I told you she's a..."

2010-02-21T00:20:00.000-08:00

I can't really explain why, but after watching the first video, I immediately thought of the second one.

Tiger Woods apologizes...

2010-02-20T18:58:00.001-08:00

But I say "Fuck you!" Tiger Woods doesn't OWE. YOU. SHIT.

Or maybe he does? I dunno. To help solve this dilemma, Brokey McPoverty came up with this pretty sweet flow chart. Thanks to E. at The Truth for putting me onto this.

Jay-Z on BBC One

2010-02-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

Jay-Z is a funny dude. I always knew he had it in him ever since that outro to "Imaginary Player" on In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. Jigga was at it again as a guest on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross last...ummm...friday night. Personally, I wish I could've:

1. Seen this whole segment, and
2. Seen it in real-time (TV-wise),

but alas, I was part of a 30 man band of merry wo/men who were bidding our adieus to each other after two weeks of awesome. That said, here's a YouTube clip so you can get that "I'm catching on late because I wasn't there" feeling that I got after watching this.

TRON Legacy (Trailer)

2010-02-20T17:53:00.000-08:00

With the way movies get hyped up sometimes a year and a half in advance, I'm curious as to why Tron Legacy, the sequel to the extremely-awesome Tron. Oh yeah...~~Michael Eisner~~ Rich Ross (lol...Rowwsss!) is a tool who doesn't know how to runs a business like Jabba The Hut would run the marathon.

Which means legions of angry Tron geeks, like myself, have to take matters into our own hands. Let the magic begin...

PS. Gentlemen...if you think watching this could damage your rep in the striped-shirt, frosted-tip, Jagerbomb circle, you should know that the incomparable Olivia Wilde stars in this, too.

Lose weight...the Visa way!

2010-02-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

Cabbie's Twitter put me on to this awesome commercial. Me? I have the body of ~~Gandhi~~ Adonis, but to those who stay puft (see what I did there?), here is your inspiration to be ~~like me~~ a better you.

WATCH: Visa "Football Evolution" Commercial (via fubiz.com)

Jay Electronica @ Jazz Café (London)

2010-02-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

Londonnnnnnn...stood up! Jay Electronica came through The Jazz Café to rock a set real proper like. As I eloquently put it in my facebook photo album of my London adventures (big ups to me),

"Dapper threads was donned, games was changed, magic was did and tears was shed. Glad I got in close."

Check out the footage, caught by someone (it's tagged in the vid...props to you, prodigal Zapruder).

Bonus awesomeness: You can totally hear me at the 3:12 mark, the most prominent voice yelling "Dilla!". Gonna file that one under F for "famous on the in-tar-webs"

Cop Out (Red Band Trailer)

2010-02-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

In recent trips to the movies, I've managed to laugh at some stock Tracy Morgan schtick during the previews (blame it on the haaaaze...yeah-eeee-yeahhhh*) but to be honest, it never looked like anything I'd pay 11 dollars to see.

But after seeing the red band trailer...well, I still probably won't pay 11 dollars but I have a free movie pass that I'm tentatively earmarking for this movie. Embed code swacked from foundrymusic.com so if my embed is on the fritz (which it has been recently), JUST CLICK HERE INSTEAD.

EMBED FAIL UPDATE: Embed is definitely not working for this video. Boo-urns to Trojan Horse embed codes.

Flying Lotus - Computer Face/Pure Being

2010-02-19T20:11:00.000-08:00

In a cruel twist of fate, my two weeks in London coincided with a Flying Lotus show back home in Vancouver. Even crueler? My return will come shortly before Flying Lotus comes to the London's magnificent Fabric nightclub to perform with a swack of other electro-aural wizards. Who the hell was in charge of this terrible travel schedule? Oh right...me.

For now, I am taking solace in the first track released from FlyLo's upcoming Cosmogramma album (out May 4th in the wild west and May 3rd if you live across the pond), "Computer Face/Pure Being".

My initial feelings? Quite similar to the "Ooooh, that's a Bingo" excitement of Christophe Waltz in Inglorious Basterds. I didn't even notice the puke in my mouth from having to go to Pitchfork to stream it. At this point, it was just another cruel twist of fate.

STREAM: Flying Lotus - Computer Face/Pure Being (via Pitchfork)

Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun (video)

2010-02-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

I'm not into snorting coke in size 22 jeans but that doesn't mean the soundtrack isn't awesome. Case in point, Vampire Weekend. They just released the video to the crown (pop?) jewel off their Contra album, "Giving Up The Gun". The video is a classic "we listen to everything, star-studded" affair involving one of mankind's favorite gathering points: tennis.

The funniest part is that the girl beating Joe Jonas in tennis as part of her heroic display of against-all-odds'dom. After seeing this picture, though, I'm pretty sure my 6 year old cousin Nadia, who doesn't know what tennis is (she's more into figure skating), could beat him senseless on the courts. And with RZA watching on as the ref, I wouldn't let it end any other way.

Celeb co-star creds also include to Jake Gyllenhaal and Lil' Jon.

B.o.B. Concert Stream

2010-02-18T02:25:00.000-08:00

B.o.B. aka Bobby Ray is holding a pro bono concert tonight. If you ain't in the A-T-L to watch it, you aren't completely out of luck. He is streaming the concert on his website bobatl.com and hooking up codes for everyone to stream it, too. So yeah, I got you. 5 pm PST, 8 pm EST and 1:30 am for you London cats. Enjoy and remember...The Adventures of Bobby Ray album out on April 27th. Chea!

Also, B.o.B's mixtape May 25th is available as a FREE download from the good folks at The Aphiliates, Rebel Rock, Grand Hustle and LRG. I would link to it here but Google and Blogger are on some retarded musicblogicide so fuck that noise. Maybe if you visit 2dopeboyz.com, they might have something of interest on the sidebar or maybe you could type "B.o.B May 25th" in the site's search engine and come up with a lead but this is all just hypothetical think-out-loud stuff on my part. Really.

SEXY UPDATE: If you missed the show, you can still watch the replay through this video (starting point tagged by B.o.B. around the 37 minute mark) or at ustream.com/bobatl

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