I found this article on the net… it was posted on a few hip-hop forums recently. Googling “Adam Bissen” doesn’t get you very far so I couldn’t tell you if this guy is a professional journalist or just felt like writing this, but either way it’s a good read. Lord knows I’ve found myself having trouble explaining why I like rap to dirty hippies at folk fest. Reminds me of the futura shirt.
“…I can handle my knocks from society, but what I loathe are narrow-minded responses like “Oh, I hate rap music, but I love hip-hop” and the outright rejection of any song about making money, doing drugs, having sex or creating violence. I hate to break it to all you defenders of cultural integrity, but almost every interesting work of art over the past 1,000 years has involved some aspect of those four subjects. I can account for differences of taste, but saying there’s no good hood rap is just plain ign’ant…”
So the Adbusters “hipster” article that caused so much controversy (written by: Doug Haddow, read it here) has now also inspired a party. I guess they’re trying to show that they’re unfazed by the article by embracing its title and using it as their own. Or maybe the organizers aren’t like the thousands of hipsters that got all mad about it, and just think it’s a funny name for a party.
Aren’t there like two or three different types of people that get called hipsters right now though? Check out the current issue of XXL or one of those other mags. They have Wale, Kidz In The Hall, Mickey Factz and the Cool Kids in there featured in some article about the “hip(ster) hop” new school or something. (Who stole the term I made up last November, by the way? Everyone, I guess.) I don’t know if those dudes signed up for that (probably not!) but I’m glad I don’t fall into the category based on any of the hipster criteria of either article.
More info about all the “controversy” after the jump…
A lot has been written about Daim’s3-D Graffiti, now some Media Arts and Design students are teaming together to transform a Nintendo Wii console into a spraycan. Wiispray, a prototype which remains under heavy development, is part of a final thesis design project by Martin Lihns at Bauhaus-University in Weimar, Germany.
Wiispray aims to bring its gamers all the thrills of a real-life spraycan without the limitations. It simulates real-life spraycan characteristics and comes with a range of different caps and colours. No word yet on who the sponsor is, but I bet Montana wants the entire pie.
So you think break dancing was an art form that died in the ‘80s. And so you think you’ve seen it all and the dance isn’t worth five minutes of your time when you are passing through Time Square subway station. You haven’t seen the last of b-boying if you watch this dance documentary as it mines b-boying from underground and proves it is still as alive as any other dance that has ever existed.
Check this time-lapse video of someone stuck in an elevator for literally 40 hours straight. No cell phone, no watch, … no one watching on the security cameras apparently - it’s enough to drive a dude insane. Among other things, it made me wonder where he… relieved himself. Probably down into the elevator shaft (after using his super-human strength to pry open the doors) because otherwise, it would be like being stuck in some kind of gross odor torture chamber. Not too awesome. I would hate elevators too after this.
And we know this is a pretty random thing to post, but there is an up-side to having a blog about nothing in particular. Plus we can post anything we want as long as we accompany it with an ill song that somehow relates, right? … Indeed.
OUTKAST F. DEBRA KILLINGS & SLEEPY BROWN: ELEVATORS
- Jesse
[EDIT:]
The video accompanied this article in The New Yorker, most of it is about elevator history, but it also speaks on what happened to the guy. It mentions he started having “auditory hallucinations” from the alarm bell which he was trying to keep on for as long as possible in hopes someone would hear it. As Jesse said he was in there without a cell or a watch, he had only 3 cigarettes and his wallet. After security finally noticed and got him out he never returned to work. He sued the elevator maintenance company for 6 figures, spent all the money and is still unemployed (according to the article). The situation is fucked to say the least. I’m not claustrophobic, but I’m sure I’d go batshit in the same situation.
“Watching ceiling fans go round tryna catch that feeling…” - Outkast - Elevators
The first time I heard Jay E was sometime last year, he was on Just Blaze’s top 8 and his myspace picture was Lando Calrissian. He had a dope cover of The World Is Yours on his page which I played for about a week. Now he’s on the cover of URB with Badu and I’m realizing I put off writing about him for too long…
I’ve seen this guy get snuffed just on his name, and it’s too bad really because he’s got next, or next next or maybe he’ll never blow up, but he at least he deserves to be pirated a little more. This guy is literally rapping over movie scores, and incorporating sound bytes from shit like Charlie and the Chocolate the Factory (the OG one… no Johnny Depp) and the Prestige on his songs.
But he’s not for everyone. For beat heads, who have trouble liking songs with weak or minimal production be warned; Jay’s strength is his writing. One thing to mention about him is that he seems to approach all of his work with crazy calculation. Just Blaze calls him a “tactician”… he gives his releases schedules… and themes, and as opposed to dropping mixtapes he’s taken to calling them “Acts”. Act I he released on his myspace late last year in the form of one .rar file, Act II was supposed to drop on Christmas but has been delayed, and Act III, supposedly his debut album, has yet to be given a date.
He’s been confirmed as a guest on Nas’ ‘Nigger‘ album slated to drop April 22, which will most likely be pushed back. His homie runs a dope blog (Classic Drug References) where you can find most of his tracks that leak and some old interviews. Okayplayer usually has the scoop on him as well if you want to follow what he’s doing.
The Roots have a new record coming out April 29th, “Rising Down”, and naturally it continues The Roots’ custom of having an ill ass album cover. Three songs have been released so far by them through Okayplayer, as well as one abomination featuring one of the fall out boys that’s being labeled a single. The speculation is that a post-Jay-Z Def Jam is freaking out over how to market the album, so they forced The Roots to churn out something which would be more likely to get some airtime. Say what you want about Jay as a label head and his publicly criticized choices regarding artist promotion, but one point to make in his favor is that he let Game Theory drop with no bullshit.
edit: Okayplayer recently announced Birthday Girl was officially dropped from the North American release (probably due to everyone acknowledging it was a piece of shit), although the song will still be sold on iTunes. Apparently a video is scheduled to be shot, rumored to be starring Sasha Gray, so at least some good will come of that. We’ll be sure to post the resulting hot mess when it leaks.
?uestlove has said that the album will be much darker and more electro than their previous discs, and that he considers Rising Down his “baby”. I’m a big Roots head… so naturally I’m biased when saying this album sounds incredible… and better than anything else that has come out in 2008. Of the Rising Down tour dates announced Toronto was the only Canadian city to get a show from the Legendary… which blows because their show here in February was ridiculous.
Here are the songs which have leaked so far. Mos is back on his respiration shit….
edit: Here’s the original version of Rising Down, which wasn’t released until now due to a sample clearance issue. I think the album version is better to be honest, but it’s cool to hear this too.
“Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. “She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn’t understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else,” the blogger wrote.
After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian’ was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using…”
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