Intergalactic Transfer Students
Check out this new show from Fameless’ group Ambivillains. Anyone in Boston in the first week of February should go see it. It’s essentially a space concept album performed live and accompanied by ill dancers, strobe, fog, talking-goats, blacklight bubbles, and dope art by the guy who did this picture.
Make sure you lick the postage stamps at the back of the room before you go. Hit up www.IntergalacticTransferStudents.com for more information.
Jessica Yu’s Kinda Sutra
One of my favorite offerings from this summer’s 36th Annual Telluride Film Festival. Directed by Academy Award winner Jessica Yu, Kinda Sutra charmingly relates early impressions of the eternal question: where do babies come from? A big crowd pleaser that played before Lone Scherfig’s brutally overrated An Education (just one man’s lonely counterpoint in a see of praise). Yu’s use of vibrant animations to illustrate the awkward tales of the misguided youths of a variety of adults is highly entertaining and certainly a welcome and refreshing take on the presentation of documentary content. The version screened at Telluride was about 8 minutes long, but the above abridged version is the only one currently available online (or at least the only one I could find).
Blaps, Rhymes & Life 4
Here’s the latest in the Blaps, Rhymes & Life series from indie super producer Illmind. The last two have been very dope (never heard the first one), so I’m looking forward to bumping this one as I descend into a dark night of writing accompanied by generous sprinklings of procrastination. And it’s a double album! 30 free songs! Life is good!
This edition is also of special note because the big homie Thoth has the very first track on the whole damn thing. We go back a few years and I know he’s really been on his grind over the past two, so it’s very nice to see things starting to fall into place. Well done, my man.
Tracklist and download after the break.
On Empire State of Mind…Again…
I’ve wanted to put this up for a while, but I’ve been too lazy to actually finish it. I’m not sure there’s much more that needs to be said. Is this song still alive? I don’t know. It won’t die as long as the Knicks, Giants, Jets, Yankees, and Mets reside in New York. And 2Pac help us all if the Nets ever make it to Brooklyn. So here are some thoughts that actually date back about a month, when I was visiting North Carolina and saw people–non-New Yorkers–reacting to Jay-Z’s monster track.
Here it is: “Empire State of Mind” has become something larger than itself. It has stepped beyond Jay-Z and far beyond the confines of Blueprint 3. It is an autonomous entity, a symbol of a rarified, dream New York that now exists in the minds of listeners.
Jay-Z did a brilliant thing.
The Decade According to 9 Year Olds
How dare they not know what dial up sounds like! I had to wait 3 sometimes 5 whole minutes to get onto AOL. Those little ingrates!!!!!
Also I find it particularly amusing that the Jersey Devil has supplanted the Chupacabra as the blood-sucking dog demon of choice. Me, I’m still scared of Chupacabra.
Dude will definitely whoop the Jersey Devil's ass. Buhleeeeedat.
Spotted at Yahoo! News.
Clipse’s Casket: Is This the Funeral?
Every now and then, friend, film buff, and general music enthusiast Brandon Colvin will drop by to share his musings and opinions. Enjoy his thoughts on the Clipse’s new album Til the Casket Drops.
For diehard Clipse fans (myself included), the disappointment of Til the Casket Drops was always inevitable. After their snarling, elegant 2006 masterpiece, Hell Hath No Fury, announced their creative resurrection with its ice-cold-yet-burning beats and aggressive verbal gymnastics worthy of only the wittiest coke poets, brothers Pusha T and Malice had nowhere to go but down. And, with the new album, they’ve confirmed many of their fans’ worst fears, diluting the purity of their product by cutting with fashionable aesthetics and slick production. Just as Pusha T referred to crack as “diet coke” in HHNF’s “Hello New World,” one might refer to the Til the Casket Drops as “diet Clipse.” Which is not to say it’s a horrible record by any means; it is certainly passable pop-hop (and more satisfying than the similarly plagued and disappointing The Blueprint 3). The album simply has no edge, lyrically or musically. It’s weak – which is quite a problem for rap duo famed for its gut-checking, acidic braggadocio and brutally austere, Pharrell-produced tracks.
It is within the context of this last area – production – that TtCD’s problems truly originate.
Bulldoggin Hoes Like Them Georgetown Hoyas
This is a prelude to a piece I may one day write on Bubba Sparxxx. There’s a lot on the slate before that becomes a reality (including a continuation of last week’s “On Limitations, Yelawolf, and Idiosyncrasies”, thoughts on BlakRoc, and more RUNE), but it’s something to look forward to. Or maybe not. Maybe you never got down with that Bubba talk. All good in the end.
Even if you never liked Bubba, you surely like Killer Mike, don’t you? No? Oh, well in that case, you’re wrong. Most lessons are debatable. Mike is just dope. Enjoy your trip to “Claremont Lounge.”
Paint the Town RUNE
It’s fun to have talented friends.
I met my boy RUNE almost 3 years ago and his beats have been gracing my iPod ever since. Think Flying Lotus minus the Parisian Goldfish plus a healthy helping of New York claustrophobia and murky jazz loops.
Nascence, a collection of RUNE’s beats and remixes that covers 2007-2008, has been sitting on my hard drive for about a year and a half, criminally collecting digital dust and not being heard.
It is time for liberation.
Here’s a teaser, in the event that my words don’t convince you, in which case: what’s your deal? Just trust me.
And if more convincing is necessary…
Download: Nascence by RUNE
Nicolas Heller
gregston
Jonathan Tanners
Gaia
brandoncolvin
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