Peeps,

 I’m now OFF, on a two months break from touring. I’m going to spend this time taking care of my little one while The Fafster focuses on her comic. I also want (need) to write some new music, and I came up with two new series for CoolCats, the first being started right here before your eyes: the NOW WHAT stories about those promising young cats who kind of disappeared from the radar when we would’ve loved to see them triumph.

 I had this idea last night while watching the almost-classic adaptation of the GHOST WORLD comic by Terry Zwigoff, a movie that sparkled Scarlett Johansson’s career of course, as well as confirming all the good things we thought about THORA BIRCH after seeing her shine in AMERICAN BEAUTY.

 A quick google/wikipedia/IMDB check of her resumé won’t contradict the feeling that she kind of fell off unexpectedly after Ghost World, while Scarlett was being catapulted in stratosphere by, hold your breath, Robert Redford, The Coen Brothers, Brian de Palma, Sofia Coppola, and eventually Woody Freaking Allen. What the eff happened here?

 Here’s Thora now in 2008:

  Could it be that Hollywood peeps couldn’t see her doing something else than “serving the soup” to her blonder, prettier (if any), easier co-stars Mena Suvari or Johansson and that she got sick of it? Has she been mismanaged by what seem to be her, very, curious father?  Did she simply need a time-off?

   Thora, quoi d’neuf?

    M.

  Peeps,

 I should’ve said this from the beginning:

 Those CoolCats numbers, I hope you guys understand that they don’t mean anything!

 Like, #19 ain’t twice as cool as #38, and #51 could be flying much higher than #6, those ranks REALLY don’t mean anything AT ALL. They’re not even ranks. Consider them as those figures behind Panini image stickers or Baseball cards that you get for free in your favorite cereal box. Matter fact, COLLECT THEM ALL, and please arrange them your own way.

 This being said, let me introduce you to my personal top 4 coolest cats from Down Under:

GUS THE HOODRATT:

JAIME DOOM:

DANGEROUS DAN:

AND MONSIEUR AJAX:

 Together, they are known as the mighty BANG GANG DEEJAYS and they are no joke.

 I mean, I consider myself a pretty decent DJ and you guys know how hard I like to rock and party, ok, ok. Well, these blokes are on some whole other level. Heck, they’re on a planet of their own. They simply put out the craziest parties in the entire world, and they are dead f-ing serious about music choices and deejaying skills. They make me want to move to Australia. I want to thank them, as well as BENI, STEVE PAV, KIM PRESET, PIP&JUSTICE, GAUTIER, GAFFY, DAN STRICKER, BRETT, NINA, INTELLIGENT, NATALIA, the entire FUZZY CREW, and ALL YOU PEEPS who attended any of our shows there for making our autralian trip the peak time of 2008, and most definitely the peakest time of 2009 too.

 I miss you guys already,

    Mehdi.

 PS: Von Damage, Midnight Juggies, Neats and all my Melbourne friends: sorry I missed you this time but you know you make this list no matter what.

 PPS: I stole those pictures on thecobrasnake.com, ©Mark Hunter, hey Mark, what’s good, what’s really really good?

PPPS: I just found this, it’s from the first time I met these guys, good ol’times:

   This isn’t going to be an easy one for all you non french-speaking fellas, and as french Hip-hop may not travel far enough because of the language barrier, this one is VERY VERY verbal and lyrical.

 But Rocé is worth the barrier crossing, trust me guys. His style can’t be compared to any other. I met him in 1997 during the production of DIFFERENT TEEP’s album ‘La Rime Urbaine’ and I went on to release 2 of his EP on my old label ESPIONNAGE, as well as producing many of his beats, including this one.

  Alex Wise (CoolCat #44) directed this video with a 500 Euros budget and he did a great job. Alex also was responsible for my label’s artwork, more about him and his works very soon, no doubt.

    Mr Rocé, I salute you,

     Mehdi.

PS: I almost forgot about this interesting trivia fact: only few people know about Chromeo’s DAVE1 past as an accomplished Hip-Hop beatsmith. Mind you, he was executive producer to Rocé’s first album in 2000, and that is where and when I first met him, way before ‘Needy Girl’ and ‘I Am Somebody’!

  I’ve always been a big fan of the Buraka Som Sistema and this particular video is just amazing. The boys asked me to do a remix for it that I’ve just completed, I’ll post it here asap.

   M.

PS: it seems that the youtube links on this video have been disactivated or something, sorry about that. I’m gonna have to find another link for it, stay tuned.

  I know, this really isn’t a surprising one, and I must even confess: I was also late on other SANTI WHITE related things, her concerts for instance.

 See, I played in many festivals this year and half of the time Santogold was also on the bill. Everybody, and I mean everybody I actually trust judgement from, from A-Trak to Mapei, and from Fairtilizer’s Olivier Rosset to Romain Gavras told me: “You have to see her on stage man, she’s on some other level game”. And yet…

 My peoples, it is true: Santogold is the best thing you will see and hear on a stage right now. She is the future, only the future is NOW.

   Santi, nice to meet you, finally.

    Mehdi.