I used to do an international hip-hop radio show, which has given me a somewhat eclectic collection of rap music, not all of it good. My standards for the show, largely due to my monolingualism, sort of became "what's an awesome beat" rather than any sort of lyrical content. Which is why Robby Bee sticks out in my mind--the dude is fantastically early 90's, as you'll see in the videos, and part of that meant political lyrics. And after hours of playing songs that were incomprehensible to me it was nice to take a break and support radical pro-Native American hip-hop, regardless of it's datedness. So here you go, proof that Natives were rapping before Litefoot and that some parts of 90s metal can be enjoyable:

And as a bonus, here's my favorite track off the album that, unfrtounately, has no video: zShare - We're the Boyz

It looks like the New York Times also cares about Lil Mama. There's not too much hilarity to be had there, except for an attempt to coin "hip-pop" as a phrase. Because, apparently, the New York Times lives in a world where hip-hop and pop music haven't been in conversation with each other for, oh, the last two decades.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is--maybe just an attempt at solidarity with Ian--but, dudes, Lil Mama's debut album dropped today. I bet none of you knew and I bet none of you cared, but seriously, check this out. And maybe it's just my biases towards good pop, good lady rappers, and colorful clothes, but I'll be damned if this lady doesn't go places. She's talented as hell and if her songs, deliciously pop, pro-woman, and hip-hop as anything else you'll hear this year, can't convince you of than that then maybe her ripping up a cipher will convince you:

I mean, come on! She's barely 18 and she's ripping it up like this? I can't wait to see where she ends up. And while I would prefer that you went out and bought her album, I'll note that it may be possibly to grab it for free.

Although I'm often disparaging of aging old school fans, I have to admit that it holds an appeal for me. Maybe all my anger over their nostalgia is simply me being bitter that I never got to live in a time (or neighborhood) where I could regularly walk by cipher's, breaking circles, and the like.

While it seems like we might still live in that time, if I would just boogie over to another country. Last night a friend and I checked out Planet B-Boy, a movie I enjoyed the hell out of. It follows five teams--two from South Korea, one from the States, one from France, and one from Japan, as they prepared for the Battle of the Year competition in Germany. There's a lot of good dancing and reflections on the international appeal of hip-hop and then there is more awesome dancing. Plus good characterization, long-standing country rivalries, and even more awesome dancing. If it happens to be playing anywhere you are go see it.

In slanguage news, Maureen Dowd writes a column about this and mostly manages to convey why no one who listens to hip-hop should ever try and use it's language, ever. Just give it up, old people. It's just really sad at this point.

I'm not going to pretend to be the most racially savvy person on the planet, and even though it's been within my sphere of academic study, I'm not going to pretend that a white person can ever "get" racism the way someone who experiences it daily can. But I am racially-aware and, as such, I can sometimes feel troubled by the music I listen to.

Now, I know that hip-hop is not all one thing. But I also know that most of what I bump is gangster rap/crack rap/whatever. I know it didn't used to be this way--that I came to more commercial stuff through the underground. And I know that some of what I listen to is made especially for kids like me--white kids from smallish cities who want a taste of the cool. I can accept that, even as I dislike it. I know what I listen to traverses a variety of social conditions and that I need to be conscious, even as I just enjoy the metaphor that hustling brings to my life.

Now ignore that masturbation above, as I am going to talk about this: I love it when people defend rap. I really do. Rap is so often a scape-goat that it's great top see voices from all sides. But too often I feel we see defenses like the Angry Black Woman's.

I'm not arguing that Angry Black Woman is wrong. But it does what so many people do which is classify "real" rap as whatever the problem is not. That is, if the problem is gangster rap, have no fear--"true" rap is nothing like it! On the one hand, there's the great point that no genre of music can truly be as bad as the institutionalized racism within this country. No music causes that problem. On the other hand, there's a line drawn between the good and the bad. And that what is bad is simply not true.

This is a arguement you find everywhere. Art is really not divided into categories of bad and good, but art and non-art. Patriotism is not a complex thing, but patriotic and non-patriotic. Hip-hop is apparently this way too. Something is either truly hip-hop or it's not hip-hop at all. (Gangster fans do this too--claiming that anything not hard enough is "gay" and "not music"--they just happen to be in the majority, in terms of numbers).

Why is it always an all-or-nothing proposition. Yes, the underground is hip-hop. It's a huge part of hip-hop. But that doesn't mean the commercial stuff isn't.

Additionally, I think more than any other genre, in hip-hop the realm between underground and commercial is blurred, thanks in large part to mixtapes. Is Lil' Wayne underground? All his success comes from underground releases (free releases at that)--his commercial stuff doesn't do nearly as well. Is UGK underground, even with commercial success? Even though they're gangster rappers? Can such clear-cut distinctions be drawn these days?

I respect what Angry Black Woman and others like her say. I respect that they try to expand the notions of hip-hop for those who are unfamiliar, for those who really do believe that Fiddy or Jay-Z or 2Pac are the be all and end all of hip-hop. But I also caution them to not do the same thing--to say that true rap, real rap, good rap, entirely about the underground scene. That nothing good can be gangster or commercial.

Rap is both commercial and independent. It's gangster and inspiring. It's misogynistic and pro-female. It's messy. It blurs lines. And hell, that's half the reason it's wonderful.

Does it sort of weird anyone else out how fast all the old people got this reference?:

Jigga, this is exactly why no one gives a toss about your albums anymore.

That's IT. If Panda ToesPhilebrity can call for a moratorium on banger, I can call for an end to videos that begin with me being told that I am "about to see something I have never seen before." Really? REALLY? You think I've never seen moving images, hoodies, diamonds, and cars before? You don't think much of my life, do you?

Learn a new trick.

Ok, it's not technically Thursday, but I have a flight in an hour and it is snowing (yes, in April, for the second time) so I am going to demand some slack be cut.

Once again, this is more of a personal throwback, going in the wayback machine to a time when I was an innocent ten year old watching a ton of MTV. And this video flipped my shit. It terrified me really--I didn't understand it, but there was a lot of weird dancing and camera angles and it totally freaked me out. As did Missy Elliot's "The Rain". And so in honor of Busta's new mixtape as well what is the last time a rap video ever elicited terror, here is the 90s at some of their best:

(This one is sorta old because I have been finishing school.)

I choose Mz Unique's Show Me My Opponent for my mixtape this time around because, well, it was hosted by someone called DJ Black Jesus. But also because I love my Lady Rappers. And that may be entirely unjustified--a lot of Lady Rappers just aren't that good. But these are dames in an industry that is sort of against them and I feel a need to support that (via free downloads).

Mz Unique is, like all rappers these days, young. At 18 her career is either just starting or never going to take off. Her age shows a bit--the tape is decent, but it's a been unpolished, a bit simplistic. But man, do I love "Mah Hustle On". I mean, check the chorus:

I don't need a plan/I don't need a man/we could be friends baby/we could be cool/but I get mah hustle/I'm on the move

There's so much out there that says girls need a man or girls want a man or if not, then they are sort of bitter about it. And this song perfectly captures how me and most of the women I actually know are. It says, dude, a man can get in the way of me. We can be friends. We can kiss. But if you're not going to be cool about it, them whatever. I'm just here to be awesome.

That's a message I support and I think it's a pretty awesome conclusion for such a young lady to make, especially because when I was 18 I was doing god knows what. Mz Unique may not be the Next Big Thing and she hasn't earned my heart like Lil' Mama, but I feel confident dropping her in the category of Lady Rappers worth paying attention to.

Mz Unique - Mah Hustle On (zShare)

Show Me My Opponent torrent

I don't know The Rub. I have never heard of The Rub. And this is a damn shame, because it turns out that they have mp3's of "The History of Hip-Hop" which means lots and lots of classic songs from as far back as '79, all free. That is amazing. I love the internet.

So head over and educate the hell out of yourselves this evening. It won't disappoint.

Ok, it might disappoint a little, because it's a continuous tracks which means no fast forwarding, and because the downloads are slow. But, still, well, well worth your time.

To the people who read us: sorry it's been so long since a Throwback Thursday. And sorry it's restarting with Usher. But, man, remember Usher? And what happened to hiphop-r&b fusion? Kanye and T-Pain--or even, say, Pharrell and Snoop Dogg on Drop It Like It's Hot--just don't hit me like Usher and Lil Jon. There's something too fused in the former, something too cool. And it's not that those aren't great tracks, it's just that It's a fine line--one Timberlake and Timbaland finessed perfectly with Future Sex/Love Sounds--but that kind of awareness in collaboration is rare.

Usher was collaboration for the sake of entertainment. He was the all singing all dancing all acting triple threat. And now we've got Chris Brown? That's great, but it doesn't change the fact that he's younger than me and I'm probably just never going to think he's cooler than me. And I'm so young Usher's a throwback. But really: What happened to wool caps? What happened to dance routines? Choreography? Videos like movie musicals? Say what you will about his music: Usher could dance your socks off and still play the lead in a romantic comedy. Chris Brown is our Fred Astaire and Fred Astaire's cool too. But Usher's like Gene Kelly and I totally miss that.

I bet you had forgotten about the lamppost humping too. SHAME.

When does the album come out?
Double-O: It comes out May 13th. The In Crowd: The Greatest Story Ever Told On Earth, In Life, and In Space. The short title is The In Crowd.

Why should geniuses get love?
Double-O: Hmmm, Naledge should answer that.

Naledge: Why do geniuses get love? I suppose because they are able to outsmart everybody. That's attractive. Power is attractive. Knowledge is attractive. And it just so happens to be my moniker so it's fitting, it's very fitting. Geniuses normally have great sex drives, so that's another reason I suppose. Actually I admit it, I'm a genius and I have a pretty great sex drive. You know, all that pent-up intelligence has to come out, you know. I'm creative, creativity is important if you want to keep it interesting.

So what's your relationship status?
Naledge: I mean, I don't have a ring on my finger but, you know, I do what I do when I can do it.

Double-O: I am an international man of leisure! That's really all. I mean, that's all I got right now. I mean, definitely, you know. Single.

I think I speak for the rest of my bloggers when I say: fuckin' midterms.

But in real news it seems like Tha Charter III may not be rap's Chinese Democracy after all! See, there's a video that's going to premiere and everything! I am totally not holding my breath, but hey, Lil Wayne:

I love Rhymefest. He's not someone I can listen to every week or anything, but going back to CD every now and then is like remembering a favorite book. Despite his Kanye ties, I think the dude is clever, smart and not overly preachy while still political.

He is also ridiculous. I mean, the dude did a cover of "Build Me Up Buttercup" with ODB that is one of the most amazing things ever. And it seems like he is letting the ridiculous take over as I just found out he has a new mixtape out that is based around, of all things, Michael Jackson.

Needless to say, it is insane. It is also infinity listenable. I dig Mark Ronson, and he produced it, so the beats are enjoyable, the spits good and the concept...something. It does expose a major flaw of Rhymefest, which is that despite his large personality, his flow is a little flat and his beats tend to run together, but the fact that this sort of madness is the mixtape makes me excited for his sophomore release.

Does anyone else feel like we're just twiddling out thumbs until spring comes and every album anticipated album comes out? April is gonna be off the chain.

Man in the Mirror (Thanks to Wale)

I hate nerdcore.

Now, I'm going to be honest upfront before I go into what may become a diatribe--I haven't heard that much nerdcore. I've checked out a few of the major player's tracks, I've watched the trailer for that documentary, I've read the articles, and I've observed the culture (via blog posts and the like). I'm not an expert, so understand that what follows is not an attack on one person or a set of people or whatever. It's an attack on over-arcing themes.

Let me start by getting my biggest pet peeve out in the open: I hate that nerdcore is even considered a sub-genre of rap. The people who decided rap wasn't nerdy clearly hadn't listened to much rap. Besides the U-N-I track with a chorus about Nintendo controllers, the rap I listen to involves people who rhyme about their shoe obsessions, a group that names themselves after kung-fu B-movies, a guy who has multiple personalities based off comic book characters, Kool Keith, and, hell, even Lil' Wayne referencing The Gremlins. Sure, they may be gangster overall, but since when is that incompatible with a little geekery?

That pet peeve opens up perhaps my biggest disagreement with the nerdcore movement, which is that it's exclusive as hell. I know that a lot of things are, and a lot of things I am involved in are, but the revelry that nerdcore fans take in being fans of an exclusive moment is legendary. I know nerds get off on being better than everyone, and that shit pisses me off generally, but never more so than when it turns what I feel is an inclusive genre into something about making privileged people feel better about themselves.

I know people may not agree that rap is inclusive as, in particular, so-called mainstream rap tends to talk about the very specific experiences of people engaging in criminal behavior from very specific types of neighborhoods. I'm aware. But the difference lies entirely in the ways in which these situations are presented, the ways in which language is used.

Nerdcore songs, as far as I can tell, go like this: "Reference, reference, reference, reference/reference, reference." It's the musical equivalent of Meet the Spartans. Now, rap references a lot of shit too, and tends to get meta at times, but it doesn't referencethings so that you feel good about understanding said reference ("Holy shit, I program with ruby too! I AM amazing!" versus "Oh cool, I know who the ice creamers are"), it does so because it makes sense at the time. Additionally, as I have argued before, rap teaches you and draws you into its world. The first time you hear something about birds you may be totally confused, but after a track or two (or another listen) you'll have figured that shit out, no problem.

No one exemplifies this better than Disszee Rascal. Most rappers use regional slang, but Dizzee comes from the region of London's East End, making his slang have a whole mess of back-story most U.S. listeners know little about. Yet, look at his track "Jezebel":

"Constant boasting bragging to her friends/Juiced every boy in the ends"

It doesn't matter if you've never heard the word juiced used in that way before--if you don't figure out it's meaning the first time around, you'll have gotten it by the second. It invites you in, as opposed to songs about Star Wars, which invite you in...if you happen to already have a fair bit of knowledge about Star Wars.

The exclusion of nerdcore largely gets my goat because it's just so damn white. Now, I'm white. I come from a white state. I live in a white place. But, despite it's diversity, I'd be a fool not to recognize rap's black roots. And while I know that not every black person is from the hood, nor is hip-hop entirely made by people from the hood, the fact of the matter is that some rappers are and, being from that situation, they hardly had time to sit around and play lots of D&D and use IRC. And to call your genre of music after that specific type of rap (geeksta, anyone?) smacks of an inability to get just what white privilege is and why it's a bad thing. It's basically: "Sorry about all that, poor people of color, but is it cool if we semi-mock music you use to express yourself in order to talk about things that we exclude you from? Also, we will use this music to talk about how we are oppressed. Because, dude, we sooo are."

I don't want to end there, on a note that makes me sound like the white guiltiest Liberal Arts student ever, so have this less intelligent thought--I also hate nerdocre because a lot of it seems to be in the rap-paraody arena, wherein rhyming words=rap! It's like, have you bitches ever heard of flow!?

Also when is someone going to make a DJ Khaled alarm clock? Just think about--what would wake up in the morning better than heading this: I MAKE HIT RECORDS! DIS FOR THE HOOD! WE RICH! WE NEVER GONNA STOP! WE GOT MONEY! WE THE BEST!!!!!

I was feeling a little left out of the theme post game around here, so I took the iniative and came up with Mixtape Madness.

The concept breaks down like this--there's a whole lotta music out there and absolutely no real way to be on top of the "Next Big Thing" and obviously that is the most important part of being a music fan. So every week I am going to download a random mixtape (preferably from an artist completely unknown to me), give it a few spins, and write about it here.

Now, I went into this project expecting that most of what I'd be doing would be making fun of a whole lot of truly terrible mixtapes and while I still believe this, the first one I picked actually turned out to be...sorta decent.

The following tracks are the one that caught my attention the most. Despite what I said above, the first has a dope beat and a clever rap game/video game analogy going on. The second is a nice little Wu sample and is for my sneaker loving frenz:

zShare - Castalvania
zShare - K.R.E.A.M.

Torrent

We all thought the most insane thing we had ever seen was Rick Ross jumping of a bridge, but allow me to submit Rick Ross...shirtless:

And if that is't enough note that Rick Ross' piece is his own face. In gold. Amazing!

Didja guys know that Wiz Khalifa has a new video? Didja? Didja, didja, didja!? Well if you someone managed to miss it, here it is:

This may just seem like some blog sheepery, because damned if everyone isn't posting this bitch, but I'm choosing to turn it into an educational opportunity instead, which is to say that based on my limited ability to speak Arabic, that shit definitely looks accurate. Sure, it's hella formal, but none the less, I commend you Wiz. Most people can't transliterate Arabic, let alone use it correct, so well done. Though, I would note you'd be hard pressed to find an actual belly dancer who looked like that. Sorry man.