Elmatic (review)

"The other day I was in one of my infamous hip hop debates in the barber shop (I get a shape up every three days so I’m in there a lot) and today’s discussion was about was Snoop’s “Doggystyle" album a 5 mic classic. Most people didn’t t think it was, but I gave it a 4.5… a GREAT album but not a classic and one of the reasons is because of Snoop remaking Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh’s hip hop classic “La Di Da Di.” When I heard that song for the first time in my man Bill’s whip I was in hip hop disgust! Who remakes a hip hop song? ESPECIALLY a classic! Who does that? That’s sacrilegious! Which turned into another debate about why is that frowned upon in hip hop? With any other genre of music, there are remakes, some are good (see Luther’s version of “A House Is Not A Home”) and some are bad (see Omarion remaking Aaliyah’s “One in A Million”) but nobody stones you for doing that. And my response was and will always be that hip hop is more than just a genre of music, it’s a culture with music being just one of the four components. No one cares if Beyonce does her own choreography or if Taylor Swift writes her own songs but what if we found out Rakim or Nas NEVER wrote any of their verses or if the Rock Steady Crew never came up with any of their own moves?!?! The hip hop world would be in disarray! Like Kris said 'rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live.'

So when my man Allen told me his favorite mc Elzhi was going to remake Nas’ hip hop classic “Illmatic” and call it “Elmatic” I was like why? I mean seriously….why? What’s the point? To pay homage to Nas? Than do a song with him. To put the younger generation onto it? To be honest, I would assume Nas and Elzhi kinda have the same audience for the most part. In fact I would think Nas’ audience may be just a little bigger than Elzhi’s and Nas wouldn’t need his help schooling the youth on “Illmatic.” But it is what it is and “Elmatic” is dropping and truth be told, I didn’t wanna have anything to do with it." Read More

better yet...
remember how u felt when u 1st heard this?!



omg! *nostalgia"

remember how u felt the first time u heard this?

Song of the Day

Song of the Day - Into the Groove

Blue Train

ugh. words cant descibe. Me.

i need More...

More About Nothing is the best hip hop album out and it's just a fucking mixtape! Quit!!! lilduval voice* u other rappers should b sick[.]

Click Here to listen and download.


***theres so much quotsble shit its ridiculous. ugh.

Song of the Day: Three Little Birds

Movie Review: Cadillac Records

sooooo...this was my first time actually watching this whole movie to the end. It's not that i wasnt excited about it but...i was too broke to watch it @ the movies...and my Internet kept fucking up when i tried to...well...nvm lol.



let me be the first to say that this movie was AWESOME! thank G'd for On Demand, but now i wish i had paid for it. its totally worth. maybe im bias becuz im passionate about music, but i just feel like the movie well done. Much respect to Beyonce for this one...not on some Beyonce dick-riding shit, but becuz reading is fundamental. Beyonce was the Executive Producer (google it).not only that but she gave a WONDERFUL performance ALL AROUND. But its not just about her, EVERYONE did an excellent job. its very rare that a movie makes me emotional but i aint gone lie...i cried...TWICE. fuck it. imma G...Gs cry. *sniffle sniffle*

but the history that was given about their impact just on the music community was amazing, and necessary. its so sad that alot of this information was unknown to the new generation while most of these ppl were alive, but but @ least their legend will live on forever and w/ respect. on a personal level, i felt like i connected w/ the characters. their struggle...the pain...there art. and that's the thing that all these ppl had in common, they were not carbon copy products mass produce based off of some magic formula. they were artist [.] they were doing this w/ no real understanding of how monetarily valuable it was. they were doing it cuz it was in there souls...@ least initially. the best part was that i watched it w/ my daughter, and when "At Last" came on she came and laid on me and watched silently. I felt like that was special, and that she could feel the talent and power of the music.

welp, thats all that comes to mind about the movie becuz my mind is now dissecting "Don't Be A Menace...", which i am now finding after watching it for a million times that this is also and very deep and genuinely funny movie. maybe a review on that coming soon, yes?



pssst i have the BIGGEST crush on Adrian Brody...dont tell nobody, k?



EXTRAS



EXTRA-extra

Im home sick...

Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad
Uploaded by hushhush112. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

title explains it.

GEORGE LOIS - THE ESQUIRE COVERS COMPILATION AT MOMA

"In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art acquired a wide range of George Lois’s groundbreaking Esquire magazine covers and put them on display for a full year. The Esquire Covers at MoMA collects the entirety of that exhibit, many more covers, and unseen images from Lois’s private collec tion, including personal photographs of the designer at work and outtakes of a shoot with Andy Warhol. George Lois, who led advertising’s creative revolution in the 1960s, was hand-picked by the legendary editor Harold Hayes to convey visually that Esquire—a leading proponent of another creative revolution of the time, New Journalism—was on the cutting edge of profound changes in American culture. With images of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr. watching over Arlington National Cemetery; of Richard Nixon under the makeup-artist’s powder-puff; and of Muhammad Ali as the martyred Saint Sebastian, he did just that." - More

Song/Quote of the Day: Forgive The Father

Why every Indian wanna be the chief?/ Feed a man 'til he full and he still want beef/ Give me grief, try to tief off my piece/ Why for you to increase, I must decrease?/ If I treat you kindly, does it mean that I'm weak?/ You hear me speak and think I won't take it to the streets/ I know enough cats that don't turn the other cheek/ But I try to keep it civilized like Menelik/ and other African czars, observing stars with war scars/ Get yours in this capitalistic system/ So many caught or got bought you can't list them/ How you gonna idolize the missing?/ To survive is to stay alive in the face of opposition/ even when they comin, gunnin I stand position/ L's known the mission since conception/ Let's free the people from deception/ If you looking for the answers then you gotta ask the questions/ And when I let go, my voice echoes through the ghetto/ Sick of men trying to pull strings like Geppetto/ Why black people always be the ones to settle?/ March through these streets like Soweto, uhh//

Distant Relatives [Trailer]

im EXCITED!

"Yo. u got the Juice now, man."

Juice is one of the most nostalgic movies of my childhood. I remember my mom used to have a crush on Q, and i was in luuuuuuuuuuuuuuv w/ Raheem. mmmm hmmm :) i still love him til this day...




Juice (Theatrical Trailer)
Uploaded by NakedBrotha2007. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

"Juice is a 1992 crime horror drama film that stars rapper Tupac Shakur and Omar Epps. Additional cast members include Jermaine "Huggy" Hopkins, Khalil Kain, Samuel L. Jackson, and features cameo appearances by Queen Latifah, EPMD, Special Ed, Ed Lover, Doctor Dré, Flex Alexander, Fab Five Freddy, and Treach. The film was directed by cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson who has directed and written other Hollywood films such as Surviving the Game and Bulletproof as well as some television series such as ER and The Wire.

The film touches on the lives of four black youths growing up in Harlem. It follows the day to day activities in the young men's lives starting out as innocent mischief but growing more serious as time passes by. It also focuses on the struggles that these young men must go through everyday as well such as police, harassment, and their families."

besides the foreshadowing of the hip hop head that i am, the character dynamic and representation of the hip hop/urban/Up North culture back then could probably easily serve as film noir.






PATNA!


......

Q: did brenda shine ur silver?
Guy @ the arcade: yo my muthah shines my silver...

beginning of the movie. for more...well u should know how to use youtube by now...

signing off...
booga-bear: hi, can i help u?
Q: let me get ur...EPMD's new album...and ur name and ur phone number?
booga-bear: O! ok. ummm u want my name and my number? ok...here's my name. its Raniquah. Ra!



Extras

made my heart race since i was 7


IM ON TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!

"some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice/ i say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots"

one of my most fav. songs of ALLTIME[.]

Apple cares, if dont nobody else cares...


One of the songs that will be apart of Marlee2Fresh's life's score.

"im tryna make a dollar outta 15cents/ its hard to be legit, and still pay the rent//"

"You know it's funny when it rains it pours/They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor/Say there ain't no hope for the youth and the truth is/it ain't no hope for the future/and then they wonder why we crazy..." <3

Extras

...and for the ignorant nigga in me...my 2nd fav. Pac song ;)

"the underground just dont stop for hoes!"

Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus)

Black Orpheus (Portuguese: Orfeu Negro) is a 1959 film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, which is an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, setting it in the modern context of a favela in Rio de Janeiro during the Carnaval. The film was an international co-production between production companies in Brazil, France and Italy.

The film is particularly renowned for its soundtrack by bossa nova legend Antônio Carlos Jobim, featuring songs such as "Manhã de Carnaval" (written by Luiz Bonfá) and "A felicidade" that were to become bossa nova classics.

Black Orpheus won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival[1] as well as the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the 1960 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film (in those awards the film was credited as a French production; only in the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film was Brazil credited together with France and Italy).


One of the most beautiful movies ive ever seen <- thats how it made me feel. very dope and worth seeing...even owning.

80 Blocks from Tiffany's

80 Blocks From Tiffany's is a 1979 documentary directed by Gary Weiss. It depicted the daily life of gangs within the context of the South Bronx. It dealt primary with two African American and Puerto Rican gangs known as the "Savage Skulls" and the "Savage Nomads".

The South Bronx was known for its severe social decay during the 1970s and this idea was emphasised throughout the documentary. The documentary also illustrated many social issues such as high unemployment, prostitution and drug and alcohol abuse.

Beautiful.

William De Vaughn - Be Thankful for What You Got (Diamond in the Back)

"diggin' the scene wit a gangster lean. wooo wooooooo"

Woman of the Ghetto

i heard this song night riding down Memorial Dr. and it stole my heart...but i had no idea who made it. that was years ago. and now ive randomly come across it on youtube. i guess the internetz is good for something...

UPDATE:
not sure which version i heard...

"It's Gotta Be The Shoes!"

the funny thing is the 1st name brand shoe that i remember is DEF Jordans.

gotta luv the 90s. [classic]