(Boogie Down Teenagers KRS-ONE, D-Nice, and Kenny Parker)

   Peeped this morning on COCAINE BLUNTS, these links to the XXL articles on the making of ILLMATIC, READY TO DIE, and CUBAN LINX. Recommended read for any rap fan or just anybody interested in great stories about great art, ie. how tiny, insignificant and random details can turn raw talent into classic material (and also, if time indeed tells, on how memory can be very selective sometimes).

    One of the greatest mysteries of this rap game is: what was it that made 1988/90 the golden age of Hip-Hop music? ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions’, ‘Critical Beatdown’, ‘Paul’s Boutique’, ‘3 Feet High And Rising’, ‘People’s Instinctive Travels’, ‘Straight Outta Compton’, ‘Long Live The Kane’, I just can’t stop that list. There were at least twenty absolute Hip-Hop classic albums produced in this two year span. At least.

    Now compare it to the number of great rap records released in the almost 20 year period from 1990 to now. Ten, give or take? Nas’s first joint, a couple of Wu-Tang records, couple of Jay-Z’s, Biggie and Outkast maybe. Dr Dre might’ve produced two or three, ok. After that, left to your own opinion, if you want to call ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying’, ‘Marshall Matters’, ‘Late Registration’ or ‘Tha Carter 3′ great Hip-Hop achievements, it is really one’s opinion.

   Anyway, you get me: there had to be something in the water of these NYC taps back then. Were the artists better? I doubt it, the later developments in LL-Cool-J, Rakim or Big Daddy Kane careers don’t really vouch for it. Was it the music production technique? Probably, as in any mostly youth artistic movement, the limitations of technical means tend to make people search more, if you may. But then again, what do you make of Pete Rock, Premier, or Just Blaze beats, they’re definitely as good as anything on ‘By Any Means Necessary’, maybe even better. No, it has to be something else.

   The usually agreed explanation is the hunger, the restrictions, the grinding, or if you want to summarize THE MONEY***, or the lack of it. Which makes our genre very material-oriented and give reason to the most common critic argued against Hip-Hop. Come to think of it, Graffiti art, Punk music, Skateboarding, anything that was defined against the well-established by kids who didn’t care, to finally end being a solid part of what it tried to destroy in the first place, faces the same issue ADDRESSED BY THE SAME PEOPLE WHO WANT TO AMEND IT SO THEY TOO CAN MAKE MONEY OUT OF IT, in some kind of absurd, adapt-or-die twist.

   It’s almost like Charles Darwin made me want to blast BRING THE NOISE super loud this morning,

      M.

***Nod to DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing track number 10.

   No kidding, this picture from the new DRAGON BALL movie…

   Now please, let me quote the honorable PAUL MOONEY here:

 ”Hollywood is going far man, Hollywood is going way too far.

  First they had ‘THE MEXICAN’, starring Brad Pitt.

  Then they made ‘THE LAST SAMURAI’, starring Tom Cruise.

  You know a movie I’d really want to see now?

   ‘THE LAST NIGGA ON EARTH’, starring: Tom Hanks!”

     Seriously peeps,

  How in the world could this 1974 Kung-fu number by Curtis Mayfield be any better?

   There’s nothing about this song that I don’t like. The falsetto singing, the lyrics, the acoustics, the bass player is amazing, the drummer is amazing, the string arrangement and the horn section are beyond compare. And that guitar playing, man, sounds like he’s caressing his Fender to maximum teasing with the back of his hand. When I try to imagine perfection in music, this is one of the songs that come to my mind, in a darker, sadder, somehow stranger kind of way than Stevie’s or Marvin’s. 

   Chicago, stand-up for Superfly in heaven,

      M.

(Anything on the SWEET EXORCIST album really is on this level, buy it, rip it, burn it, something, anything.)

   These briefs for the day:

   -How many band names can you spot in this picture? (ZOOM IT!) Examples: Queen, Prince, Guns&Roses, Matchbox 20, Smashing Pumpkins, Gorillaz, Blur, etc, etc… I just can’t stop watching it, I find a new one each time, it’s like Truth Hurts featuring Rakim. So addictive. (Peep The Rolling Stones in the back, I just found it…)

  -Aussi, I watched the Slumdog Millionaire movie the other day with Pedro and Faf. I was aware of the controversy it sparkled in India, some indians feeling their country badly depicted and that the film renders a wrong image of the city of Mumbai. I can understand that. But I just found out that the kids playing Salim and Latika were still living on the streets with no shelter while the movie made approximately 100 million dollars at the box-office and won 8 Oscars! Seriously, how could this be possible?!? I mean, even if you want to dismiss the decency aspect and look at it from a strictly communication/marketing point of view, how could Danny Boyle let something like this happen, wtf?? (Apparently, the city of Mumbai just provided those kids and their family with new apartments, blaming the producers for not having done so before and thus winning the media battle I guess.)

   -Enfin, I know I’m late on this, but I happen to like a lot of Stuff White People Like.

    Wednesday is for lovers,

         M.

   Jacqueline aka Jackie from Stockholm bka MAPEI pka my favourite rapper at this moment. We just finished her first EP called LEADER OF THE PACK, and it’ll be out very soon. We also did this Ghostface remix last year. And while you’re out in Sweden, look out for producer outfit STAYGOLD, you’ll thank me after.

  Jackie, Carli, Mans, how’s a scandinavian winter?

     M.