Surprise! The video for Fresh is as boring as the song. Props to the lighting crew I guess.

Hot Spitta's got some lines (Cut short like cesarean? Come on, that's great) but everybody else's mediocre rapping makes up for it. The first guy uses the word "block" three times in his verse (the most sterile sixteen I've heard in a while) and please, we all know "killers" rhymes with "drug dealers."

If my cat's not perturbed, you can bet it's a song that goes nowhere pretty much the whole time. Curren$y, if this is the direction in which you are heading, I will be way disgruntled.

Okay so my Google Reader tells me Nicki Minaj dropped this on MixtapeTorrent last July, but that's kinda when school starts so whatever. I'm actually kinda glad I didn't catch it until recently--I'm a courier and until recently the weather wouldn't have been warm enough. Windows down, gettin my hustle on, etc etc.

If you don't remember her on Can't Stop Won't Stop from Wayne's Drought 3 there might not be any help for your taste. Or alternately, possibly your memory. But she's on her own here with the same Brooklyn accent as Lil Kim and a clever, updated aerobic wit somewhere between Weezy, Missy Elliot and Lil Mama. She's smart and she's quick and it's not the universal thematic eruption of Diamond's Bitch Music, but it don't think it's supposed to be.* It's jokey and chatty and conversational, she's personal without telling you about herself--in the same way that Wayne is--instead she lets her talent, skill, and delivery as an artist and MC demonstrate. Nicki Minaj is doing something else, and I'm not sure what it is yet. Keep an eye on her.

JAMZ:

Diamond, La La La

Nicki Minaj, Whatchu Know Bout Me
Nicki Minaj, Dreams '07

_______________
*However, the tape dropped in part under Big Mike, one of the same DJs. I know nothing about him but evidently he reps for some cool broads.

Got issue 34 of Stop Smiling in the mail this weekend, a 3-cover Jazz edition. I read every issue these people put out cover to cover like a poetry journal so I assure you, it's always worth picking up.

From Alex Abramovich's interview with Nas's father, Olu Dara also a lifer for the music:

AA: The Civil War was happening in 1619 and it's never stopped happening.

OD: Yeah. It shows you what happens with a young country started by everybody being out of pocket--the Europeans and the Africans, the Native Americans, everybody was on a wheel, moving around to places not knowing where they were and not knowing who they are. The country's like that now. It's a new country, what, 500 years old? It's a new country started by people who had no education.

AA: By illiterates--everyone was illiterate, all the whites were illiterate too.

OD: You're right--everyone. But everybody is different. Look at the black community. There are all kinds of denominations of churches, religions, hues, economic status. It's the same for white folks and everybody else. But if you grow up in a world where people delineate, "We are this and they are that," you're overlooking the idea that we are all humans. That's the one thing. We're doing the same thing, we're looking for the same shit. Everybody is trying to get something to eat, a decent place to live, a good education--all human beings are basically the same. It's just that I think we are lesser species than all other living things.

Growing up in the woods in Mississippi you could see that. I loved to stay around the animals, insects, plants and all kinds of beautiful stuff. Inderstanding how fortunate human beings are. As a kid I used to think, "Wow, we're fortunate. Peach trees are growing, fruit treas, everything is growing. We could survive by not even planting if we don'ts want to." Everything is here but the human being has some type of inferiority about who he is, unlike other living things. He's combative because one person has a better pair of shoes. But we are not superior to anything. We're somewhere way down the line. We're afraid to make correct decisions. I think when the human beings ceased to grunt and make noises like animals and started speaking that's when the trouble started. When the first guy started speaking, he probably said to somebody else, "What did you call me? What did you say about me? What?" Language to me is the enemy.

If you know me, you know I couldn't agree more.

If that didn't sell you here's another gem--an excerpt from Arthur Taylor's Notes and Tones: Musician to Musician Interviews--from Miles Davis in 1968:

AT: What interests you besides music and boxing?

MD: Nothing other than music and girls. Let's see, what else? Drummers, bass players, money, slaves, white folks.

Jazz haters, if that ain't gangsta, I don't know what is.

Yesterday Evergreen College--hippy dippy West Coast liberal arts alma matter of Simpsons creator Matt Groening--held a forum to address a riot that broke out last week during a dead prez concert on campus. In this video it looks like the kids are saying it didn't get violent until the SWAT team busted out the pepper spray. To be fair, the kids also boogled a laptop and a radar gun from one of the cruisers they trashed (seriously guys, the radar gun? Nice touch).

On the one hand, I can't help but feel like everyone lost in this situation: dead prez probably won't be booked for another college show any time soon; the Evergreen prez pretty much grounded the students after giving them a stern talking to; and I think we can all agree the pigs suffered a blow to their collective ego. But on the other hand, I mean come on, fuck the police! Tell me you don't just a little get a kick out of these pictures (and check it, at least they recycle!):

I found out I didn't make it into this fancy-schmancy poetry seminar last week so I skipped class to eat ice cream and watch Rize (LaChapelle, 1995) on Google Video. Inform that information with the data that Singin in the Rain (Donen and Kelly, 1952) is my all-time favorite movie and you probably know what I'm excited for this weekend.

No? Still in the dark? Need a hint? Guh, fiiiiiiiine...

Psh, duh! Step Up 2: THE STREETS (Chu, 2008), ya dummy! It's not where you're from, it's where you're at!!!

Tell ya all about it tomorrow. Swearz.

I caught the Grammys and all but I didn't get a look at Nas's attire. Also, check out how totally over his last album he is.

On a related note: when this album drops, does that mean I'm gonna get to see everyone in the media grope around trying to decide whether or not they're allowed to say The N Word? Because oh man, feeding frenzy.

So I haven't been able to give Independence [the Mixtape] Day a full spin. But it ain't cause it sucks (at least not as far as I can tell so far yet); I can't stop listening to the first song:

MP3: Curren$y Sole Man

Currency's Sole Man is the freshest thing I've discovered this year since Animal Collective. It's retro thump with Pharrell-meets-young-Jay-Z flow with Weezy's vocabulary of absurdity and knack for fluidity in shifting gears between narrative and image.

It's one of those tracks that's got me excited about the state of hip hop and that's got me excited about this guy's career. And what's more is that I'm not even to the point where I'm ready to stop just enjoying the song and start figuring out why the hell it's so appealing. i don't even wanna pick it apart at this point.

I will later. And you can bet you'll hear about it. And the rest of the tape if I ever get past this gem. It's gonna be a tough act to follow, that's for sure.

Here's the link to the torrent one more time for those of you in the back via MixtapeTorrent.com.

CURREN$Y (via MixtapeTorrent.com): Independence Day

Haven't listened to this sucker yet--too much homework right now--but wanted to post a link because what! I kinda love the kid. He always sounds like the Cash Money fam's baby brother who fell asleep in his footie-pyjamas in the next room and had to be woken up for his verse.

...he's almost a felon.

Bummer dude.

Trial slated for early February, likewise The Carter III.

Evidently Wayne's got a new face tattoo to boot.

MTV's got the latest on the state of the Carter, but I'm pretty sure they meant to say Jonathan Mannion. Foolios. Interns're gettin' fired tomorrow!

P.S. So's not to inundate your subscriptions with Lil Wayne posts, just letting you know, there will be a WG field trip to see the man with the plan live this Saturday at Myth nightclub in Minnesota. I will be piloting one of two vehicles. Did I mention it's an all ages show? Oh yes. Ohhhh yes.

Interviews with David Banner always get me underlining, margin-responding, and ultimately doing my own writing. This one--about Banner's experiences testifying before congress--went up Monday on the Village Voice's Status Ain't Hood blog and is no exception.

I'm the type of person that if positive is there, I want to talk about positive too. The one positive thing I did see: Some of the congressmen were actually listening. Some of the congressmen were like, "Damn, I didn't even think about it that way. He has a point." Some of them didn't give a shit either way. But that was what surprised me the most. We have the power.

I think I like him so much because he manages to observe and comment on so many systematic failings without ever complaining or placing blame. He continues to seek and suggest solutions. I'm consistently impressed with his ability to broaden his perspective over time. Too often it seems people in positions of visibility, power, influence grow increasingly more closed-off and narrow-minded rather than more engaged and aware. Too often it seems that awareness and engagement lead to defeatist cynicism.

Without: JACKIE WILSON...

Doggin Around
Lonely Teardrops
A Woman, A Lover, A Friend
No Pity (In the Naked City)
Baby Workout
Am I the Man
Reet Petite
I'll Be Satisfied

...there would be no ELVIS...

Hound Dog
Suspicious Minds
Hard Headed Woman
Jailhouse Rock
Wooden Heart

...and without Elvis there would be no Johnny Cash, no Bob Dylan, no Micheal Jackson, no Prince, no LL Cool J, no Usher, no Chris Brown, no Kanye West.

If this is true it might just kill off, or at least severely cripple, the WG bloggers.

My money's on Wayne's never getting bored with the studio though. If only because I'd have to change my five-year plan if he punked out on me.

I love race-passing. And class-passing. And really any kind of passing. Because I think that whatever actions or choices "passing" entails by definition help nullify the divisive, ugly classifications of ethnicity, class, gender, etc., that pre-date the passing in question.

Race passing makes me especially happy because, as a one-time anthropology minor, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that race does not exist outside of abstract conception. There is no biological basis for race and our continued use of it as a species is not only ignorant, prejudiced, detrimental, and corrosive, it's just inaccurate, just wrong. And since all I want is for everyone I know to be right all the time, I thought you should know.

Obviously this isn't just a hip hop thing. Take Ernst Lubitsch films for class, take Sascha Baron Cohen for culture, race, ethnicity, and sexuality; take pretty much any celebrity with a reality show for class; take Cate Blanchet as Bob Dylan for gender. But okay, in hip hop take DJ Drama, Juelz Santana, DJ Kahled, Fat Joe, the list goes on.

So I'll be doing Without Wednesday (in keeping with the alliterative segment theme) to broaden your horizons. Because people think hip hop is a race thing, a social thing, a class thing and the current state of hip hop (hello congress!) leads me to believe that people are forgetting that art is always all of those things and a whole lot more. Whether or not the art is avant guarde, underground, commercially successful, high brow, low brow, or critically hailed.

Here's how it's gonna go down: 1) I start with someone you've maybe never heard of and show you a picture and give you some great mp3s. Then I'll 2) follow up with a person or people who I think was actually greatly influenced by the first person even though everyone on the planet's heard of the second person and not the first (and give you some mp3s to mount my argument). 3,4, 5 and beyond) and finish with a person or people relevant to a discussion of contemporary hip hop that should be obvious enough by the time I'm done that I don't even have to give you mp3s (but I prolly will because we're all about cooperation here at Whatever).

Hopefully the W/oWs will feed off of each other as I do more and more of them. My hope is that they'll build a larger, more expansive, bush-like web of musical evolution through history by intersecting the narrower linear progressions we continue to seek out. I just hope you're prepared to get your shit educated and your mind blown. I'll give you till Wednesday to ready yourselves. Get into some clean underwear while you're at it.

This might be something amazing or it might be really nerdy. Okay. Ready?

There's this Hot Boys song by the name of Blood Thicker (from the seminal 1997 Cash Money Get It How U Live!). The chorus is this darting, fraternal call-and-response chant between Juvenile and Lil Wayne and I listened to this song something like a BAZILLION times trying to figure out where I thought I'd heard this before. It goes like so:

JUVENILE
load it up slide it in cock it back pop it out load it up slide it in yall die

LIL WAYNE
load it up slide it in cock it back pop it out CMB 226 we all ride

And I couldn't place it until I gave up on the hunt and went back to working on final essays. I'd been writing a term paper for an Apache ethnicity/history class on John Ford's 1939 film Stagecoach (Ford's first film in Monument Valley and John Wayne's first time under Ford, it pretty much set the standard for the traditional American film western and made both men synonymous with the American West). Anyway, I was writing this paper while I was discovering/recovering the Hot Boys' discography so I was pretty much on lock-down in my apartment playing Get It How U Live! on my stereo and Stagecoach on my tv, on no sleep, no food and a belly fulla coffee. It was delirious.

And there's scenes with the cavalry because, hello, it's a western.

And if you're in the military, have ever seen a movie about the military, have been to horse races, have seen movies about horse races, or remember the television western Rawhide, or the animated feature film An American Tail Part II: Fievel Goes West, you're probably going to already be familiar with the First Call, used to "sound as a warning that personnel will prepare to assemble for a formation."

So I put this shit together and realized that this was maybe the most poignant example of intertextual incorporation of historical themes that I'd come across in hip hop--since Nas dropped Hip Hop Is Dead the same week I saw The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence for the first time and opened a file for the book I will probably never write because I'll be busy writing other books--because on the one hand the cavalry's all about ridin' out and killin' redskins, but on the other hand the cavalry's also totally The Man in every sense of the west--they had guns but they were by no means the cowboys and, in fact, allusions to generic western motifs and imagery in rap usually aligns the speaker with the Native Americans (even the slang appropriation follows--think cheifin' reefer). Additionally the first call in particular has become weirdly woven into the American consciousness--our advertising, athletics, and pop culture. I

I'm getting too sleepy to wrap up all of this or organize all the relevant information in any coherent way so I'm going to end my first post here at WG by sputtering out and leaving it to the readers to plumb the significance of Cash Money's thematic pathological self-identification with the post-modern anti-heroic figures of revisionist rather than classical westerns.