Thumping Headphones and Humming Speakers, 4/29/2007

Things have been hectic lately; I've had a myriad of papers and other assignments to do. Such is the nature of academia.

Regardless, here's the top 5 albums I am jamming to at the moment:
5) 2Pac: All Eyes On Me
Faux thug posturing or no, there are plenty of classics to make this album worthwhile. Be it the high-paced chemistry of "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted," the funky groove of "California Love," or the touching shout-out, "I Ain't Mad At Ya," there's enough good to ignore some of the repetitive post-thug posturing. And that's just disc 1.


4) Mos Def: Black on Both Sides
I honestly haven't had as much chance to listen to this as I would like, but Mos is as clever on the mic as he is pointed.


3) Lupe Fiasco: Food & Liquor
As I said last time, Lupe has energy and lyrical prowess to spare. The replay value on this album is outstanding; I feel as though each time I listen to a track, it's a different experience.

2) Mos Def and Talib Kewli Are Black Star
Two outstanding emcees allied together in one of the greatest hip-hop collaborations of all time. Black Star provides insight, provocation, and lyrics that can be charming, soothing, or riling, depending on the situation.
1) Brother Ali: The Undisputed Truth
Arguably the single strongest album I've heard in a long time-- perhaps one of the best in my collection. Brother Ali's rhythmically melodic delivery is just the beginning of what sets him apart from the herd; an albino who feels race is an invention, Ali's message ranges from his Muslim faith, his political views, and his bouts with homelessness and family problems. Never preachy, Ali prefers to tell about his past rather than mope. Ant's production is slick, with thumping basses intermingling with soulful tunes in what is arguably the most impressively dynamic soundclash of the year so far.

Rap: All About Degredation

Serious hip-hop heads have probably seen all of these.

This is all proof that hip-hop is only about degradation, misogyny, and irresponsibility:











You know what? Let the haters do their thing. They'll never understand it anyway.

67 -year-old white man makes racial slur, Hip-Hop to Blame

(4/13/2007, MY COUCH) Don Imus, hip-hop enthusiast and known fan of the likes of Cam'ron, 50 Cent, Lil' Wayne, and of misogyny in general, made a recent remark on his radio show (which likely had hundreds of millions of listeners) that caused a minor controversy in the media. In case you hadn't heard, rap music directly took control of Imus's brain, retroactively causing every controversial statement the shock jock has ever made.

"It's not my fault," Imus was quoted saying to fake website KissMyAss.com. "Every time I hear Eminem spit that line where he kills his wife, I just can't keep the badness inside. I've got to let it out."

A movement has started to ban Imus from listening to hip-hop. "It's the right thing to do," rapper Aristo said in a press release sent via e-mail. "Hip-hop's an artform, not a message. If Imus can't invoke the name of rap music without bringing unjust criticism, he needs his collection taken from him. Those bootleg mixtapes, his Biggie Smalls poster, hell, even his Run-DMC and Rakim albums, just to be safe."

The above was a work of parody. Now can we please talk about something that matters?

Correction to the above information: Don Imus is only 66 years old. He is, however, still white.

Thumping Headphones and Humming Speakers, 4/13/2007

Here are the top five albums I'm currently jamming to:

#5 Lupe Fiasco, Food and Liquor
Arguably one of the best releases of 2006, Lupe presents a mixture of social commentary, personal conviction, and enthralling storytelling through his energetic and vibrant flow. Although a newcomer to the game, Lupe has the potential to be one of rap's best.

#4- Jay-Z, The Blueprint
With his rich flow and undeniably self-aggrandizing attitude, Jay brings a helplessly charismatic presence to this album. Released on September 11, 2001, Hov's self-indulgent lyrics are both a timeless masterpiece and a signal of a time now passed.

#3- Kanye West, Late Registration
Megaproducer Kanye West has been earning accolades since his debut, The College Dropout. An excellent album in its own right, Kanye's sophomore album shows a West who is more willing to experiment sonically, more able on the mic, and more charged in his message.

#2- Makaveli, The Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory
The last album recorded and produced by Tupac Shakur before his untimely death, The Don Killuminati is at times dark, paranoid, and disturbing. That Shakur was so filled with anger and fear towards former colleagues like Dr. Dre, as well as East Coast rivals Nas, B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and Jay-Z, perhaps magnifies the tragedy and mystery of his murder.

#1- Immortal Technique, Revolutionary vol. 1

Immortal Technique doesn't want your approval. He demands your attention. With vivid imagery, mad metaphor, on-point political messages, and an in-your-face persona on the mic, Technique is ahead of the game, and he knows it. In his own words: "I'm iller than any plague God gave Moses to send / You wanna make amends, 'cause I'm the reason that the earth shakes."

The Socio-Economic Question of Our Time

In every generation, there is a philosophical quandary that defines the struggles and travails of the youth. In the time of Moses, it was how the Hebrew people should conduct themselves. In the times of the Crusades, it was which religious group to slaughter under the banner of Christ. In the 60's, it probably had something to do with doing a lot of drugs and/or how often one should bathe (as the bathtub should, by all means, be used predominately for tie-dying).

We are today faced with one such question, one that will forever define us in the eyes of our children, grandchildren, and ultimately the annals of history; this debate will divide our people and decide the course of human events.

The question, of course, on the hearts and minds of all the youth today: Why is Mims hot?

Forgive my bandwagoning, there are people who have answered the question with much greater clarity than the following discussion. Permit me, for the moment, to discuss the finer point of Mims' currently-in-dispute hotness, namely the economic effects of someone so hot.

To quote the illustrious Mims:

I'm into shutting stores down so i can shop
If you need a bird I can get it chopped
Tell me what you need you know i get 'em by the flock
I call ma homie black meet on the ave
I hit Wash Heights with the money in the bag
We into big spinners
See my pimping never dragged

I agree, his pimping never dragged. Apparently, Mims is hot because he enjoys destabilizing local economies in order to pump large amounts of currency into the hands of the retail sector. However, one has to wonder if, when Mims shuts "stores down so i can shop [sic]", the store in fact recoups the loss of additional traffic it would have otherwise maintained. Does Mims shut down the local Wal-Mart in order to buy a new vacuum cleaner? Regardless of the effects such practices have on the community, surely Mims' "homies" appreciate his hotness and his general level of being fly.

If the community, and indeed the world at large, is going to survive this wave of hotness, they must realize that the very foundations of the capitalist system could be in jeopardy. I urge you to write your Congressman to support legislation that favors non-discriminatory service in relation to a patron's level of hotness; although the battle against being fly must wait until another day, perhaps artists like Mims will come to understand the impact of their actions.

Sonic Boom

As a white kid from the rural Midwest, my choice in music has been criticized on occasion by my family and peers. Unsure of what attracts me to the genre of hip-hop, I'm frequently asked why I-- someone who as a boy was a classically-trained pianist, and who is knee-deep in country and rock territory-- would be interested in rap. Although plenty of local white teenagers around this area bite into the MTV hype of rappers like Yung Joc, Young Jeezy, Young Buck, Lil' Wayne, and anyone sporting either a G-Unit tattoo or a blinged-out grill, few seem to be interested in the likes of Public Enemy, the Wu-Tang Clan, or Nas.

You know, actual hip-hop. Music.

The winter before last, I had never really listened to rap, primarily jamming to the stylings of "Weird" Al Yankovic and a few rock bands; Styx, Queen, and Aerosmith come to mind. When alone and surfing on the web, I came across a few music videos by Eminem, someone who I had obviously heard quite a bit about, but I had never actually heard. Since I was extraordinarily bored, I decided to watch a video (at the time, "When I'm Gone" was a huge hit, so I started with it). Although retrospectively speaking, "When I'm Gone" is one of Em's less impressive offerings, I was swept away by the vivid imagery, the interesting wordplay, the energy, and the intense emotions evocable by a genre that I had previously dismissed as misogynist, ultraviolent, and ultimately not meant for me.

I settled on buying a CD, and I selected Eminem's Encore. Yes, I know it is considered by most critics to be his worst studio album. Likewise, I know there are atrocious songs throughout the album that encourage judicious use of the skip button. But tracks like "Mosh," "Like Toy Soldiers," "Yellow Brick Road," and "Never Enough" cemented my growing interest in rap. Over the next year or so, I continued my casual interest in Eminem, buying The Eminem Show and The Marshall Mathers LP.

Eventually, I began to look to other artists on Eminem's label Shady Records, buying Obie Trice and D12 albums. It wasn't until December of '06 that I decided to branch out, anxious to explore hip-hop, wide-eyed with amazement at the untapped potential the genre had.

It's been about four months or so since I began to seriously expand my library, and I have a wide variety (both good and bad, mostly the former), ranging from the aforementioned politically conscious Public Enemy to the energetic poetry of 2Pac, Nas, and Jay-Z, from megaproducers like Dr. Dre and Kanye West to the likes of Mos Def, DANGERDOOM, and Rakim. Most of my recent purchases have been advised by Rizoh, and everything he's recommended I have thoroughly enjoyed. I can offer no higher praise than that.

In short, although I recognize hip-hop (like any brand of music) isn't for everyone, don't dismiss it simply because of what you hear on MTV or what you think it's about. There are as many different voices and outlooks out there as there are artists, and you might be pleasantly surprised by what you hear.