January 28th, 2010
If you’ve ever stumbled into the Low End Theory, you know Nocando. Every Wednesday, the night’s lone rhyming resident incinerates beats that would leave lesser rappers like nudists searching for a spot to store their wallets: exposed and futilely searching for a pocket. The Project Blowed veteran raps over beats that should be un-rappable, freestyling with an obscene velocity and wit expected from a dude who won the 2007 Scribble Jam. Of course, the transition from battle rap champ to legit album artist is notoriously difficult. If you disagree, there are mountains of bargain bin Supernatural CD’s as countervailing evidence.
With production from Nosaj Thing, Daedelus and Nobody and guest spots from Busdriver and Nick Thorburn of Islands, Jimmy the Lock ranks among the most pure distillations of the Low End Theory aesthetic. Think Acelayone of the Balls Don’t Bounce-era crossed with an early Del, had his main influence been E-40. The story is at LA Weekly. I also discuss the second wave of Low End Theory talent. If I didn’t have ocular proof, I’d call myself a homer.
If you are still unsold, battle videos below the jump.
Download:
MP3: Nocando - “Hurry up and Wait”
MP3: Nocando ft. Busdriver - “Two Track Mind” (Left-Click)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Nocando, LA Weekly | 2 Comments »
January 15th, 2010
As promised in the previous post, the Dam-Funk video interview for those of you who dislike words and all the sundry baggage that accompanies them. No shots of wine coolers or clovers, but you’ll just have to take me at my word. Instead, we have footage of Dam rocking with Master Blazter at Cinespace. I believe this is a fair trade. Props due to Jessica Rew of Elefante Entertainment for filming, editing, and producing all seven minutes of funk. Take that Whodini.
Posted in Videos, LA Weekly | 7 Comments »
January 15th, 2010
I have done much hemming and a little bit of hawing about Damon Reddick in the last 365, so I’ll spare the True Leimert Park stories. Besides, a video of the interview should be dropping soon. In the latest LA Weekly, I take a trip to Dam-Funk’s home studio and receive a tutorial on the Funk, Modern Detroit Soul, and Strawberry Daiquiri wine coolers. Dam’s ascent over the last year has been heartening to watch, especially in light of his delayed start, his talent and passion for music, and his decency and sincerity. Plus, he’s right — someone must keep the funk alive. Read the article, purchase Toeachizown, scoop up the DF rarities below, and realize that when you have the funk you can do whatever you want to do.
Download:
MP3: Dam-Funk - “The Lone LA Funksta” (Left-Click)
MP3: Dam-Funk - “DX Heaven” (Left-Click)
MP3: Dam-Funk - “Speak the Truth” (Left-Click)
MP3: Dam-Funk - “In Deep Glide Mode” (Left-Click)
MP3: Dam-Funk - “I Don’t Just Do Beats, I Do Music”
Posted in Dam-Funk, LA Weekly | No Comments »
December 3rd, 2009
Only Internet rap critics complain about whether or not a rapper whom 99.9% of the world has never heard of is overrated. If there was a secret PR formula that Freddie Gibbs and his team possessed, he wouldn’t be living in the seediest part of Van Nuys, with overturned shopping carts littering the sidewalk and dudes mean-mugging you on the walk in. He wouldn’t have had to sleep on couches for the first six months of his return to Los Angeles. He would’ve dropped an album on Aftermath in 2006 and you would have heard him of him a long time ago, via the vast Interscope marketing machine.
Nor has any myopic or misguided nostalgia for UGK driven his rise in notoriety. If anything, 2Pac and Bone Thugs are more salient influences. Occasionally, good music can win critical plaudits off the merits of being good music (shocking, I know)–especially when many of his peers are shackled into making ill-fitting pop concessions or diluting their product with redundant mixtape after mixtape. Truthfully, I didn’t even realize how exceptional Gibbs’ music was until after I interviewed him for the LA Weekly, returned to the songs, and realized that everything that he’d told me was already there. He has a powerful story, he’s from a city whose story has rarely been told, he’s a skilled writer, and his flow is wicked. Find me another rapper with that same skill set and I’ll write about them. So will everyone else.
In the meantime.
LA Weekly: The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs
Download:
ZIP: Freddie Gibbs-The Labels Trying to Kill Me
ZIP: Freddie Gibbs-”Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik”
ZIP: Freddie Gibbs-”The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs”
Posted in Freddie Gibbs, LA Weekly | 22 Comments »
October 16th, 2009
Photo via Brand X
The extensive Frank Fairfield feature previously promised here. I’ll spare the redundancy– I am a fan of Frank’s music. Let’s keep it simple for once.
LA Weekly: Frank Fairfield–”The Man Who Wasn’t There”
Download:
MP3: Frank Fairfield-”9 Pound Hammer”
MP3: Frank Fairfield-”I’ve Always Been a Rambler”
Posted in LA Weekly | 1 Comment »
October 1st, 2009
Should you be too stoned to read or outright uninterested in clicking over to LA Weekly to read my diatribe against the Los Angeles City Council and their proposed ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries, the above clip neatly summarizes my sentiments. I can’t really add anything here, other than reiterating a phrase once employed by the Beasties: this is some ol’ bullshit.
Hits from the Blog: The Los Angeles City Council’s Half-Baked Plan to Shut Down Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Posted in Hits from the Blog, LA Weekly | No Comments »
September 24th, 2009
I have a new column at LA Weekly. It is called Hits from the Blog. It is about what you think it is about. The first installment is a woolly manifesto about what to expect in ensuing weeks, plus an interview with City Councilman, Ed Reyes, about the current state of medical marijuana in Los Angeles. Many thanks to Jeffrey Greenblatt, a.k.a. Some Dude, for giving his blessing to borrow the name from the now-defunct original, Hits from the Blog.
I promise this will only get weirder. Stay tuned while I re-load.
LA Weekly: Hits from the Blog
Download:
MP3: Cypress Hill-”Hits from the Bong”
Posted in Hits from the Blog, LA Weekly | 5 Comments »
September 8th, 2009
Since sequels seem to be the operative theme of the week, I present the latest Brilliant Comrades-produced video, featuring footage shot in the course of our months-long jerkin’ odyssey (there had to have been a better way I could’ve phrased that.)
In other jerkin’ news, The Pink Dollaz have released their first music video, further consolidating their stranglehold on the title of baddest bitches since Trina. According to my sources, a major-label deal is imminent and overdue.
Download:
MP3: Pink Dollaz-”Never Hungry”
MP3: Cold Flamez-”Killin’ Music”
MP3: JINC Ent-”Doy Doy”
MP3: New Boyz ft. Tyga-”Crickets” (Left-Click)
See also: Matthew Africa’s Jerk Songs Pt. 2
Posted in Jerkin, Videos, LA Weekly | 1 Comment »
September 3rd, 2009
Photo via Timothy Norris
I waited all week to link to my Franz Ferdinand review over at LA Weekly. The idea was to write something in response to Maura’s request that “someone write a really funny and scathing critique of [hipster] culture, so often either rooted in stereotypes that are years and years old, or so obviously written from a personal “everyone but me sucks” perspective that it becomes completely incoherent.”
Instead, a friend came in from out of town and we’re probably going to spend the next several hours smoking joints, listening to Boosie and hitting up In-N-Out Burger and Amoeba Records. You understand–when in Los Angeles, etc. The point was that Franz Ferdinand are a really good band essentially ignored by fickle bloggers and critics because they had the temerity to release an instant-classic debut and become really popular. To me, the definition of hipster has always been someone who treated life as a trend, eschewing the notion that certain art and ideas can be indelible, regardless of how contemporary morays shift. The people who can somehow say things like, “that’s so 2004.” Or as a friend so aptly put it, “the same kids who wore skateboard clothes but never skateboarded.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in LA Weekly | 3 Comments »
August 26th, 2009
While moronic major label meddling remains an inexorable part of blog culture, it’s comforting to know that my Feburary LA Weekly article about Blogger deleting posts made a minor impact. The details can be found here, but any way you look at it, it’s a small victory for the powers of complaint. Blogger, I was only joking when I said I wanted to smash every tooth in your head.
[Thanks to Rawking Refuses to Stop for the heads-up.]
Download:
MP3: The Smiths-”Bigmouth Strikes Again”
Posted in LA Weekly | No Comments »
