Pieces of August

Three Mondays ago, the good folks at rapmullet.com finally caught up with Opium's early spring mixtape for one of their never-ending mixtape reviews. An early Monday blessing for me, with the honorable mention. I was able to sneak 5 beats this go-around and at least one stuck on the reviewer. Good fuel for the grind. New Opium music arrives in a few weeks.

August has bottomed out weatherwise. It's usually unbearably balmy for some, but not for me. So seeing the hoodies and longsleeved outerwear come out this early is not cool. Maybe it's fitting. I'm still black inside after I lost someone I loved to cancer earlier this year. Plus it isn't always glory in the summer: two block wheelies on the Hayabusas, mamis in impossible shorts, performances, cookouts and slow sliding down streets blasting Gyptian in the city. Stand up people get sent up no bail, ones who don't know how to man up suffer man-downs and the determined will forcibly yank your cake.Then again, there're moments when you see up-and-up situations and through the grind and the pitfalls you still feel the blessings.

Common debuted on top with 155K. A good number in these shrunk market days. Talib Kweli, who's enjoying a good look with his album, is feeding the streets along with Clinton Sparks. Check out the brand new mixtape.

I don't know about your hood, but around here Max B is riding that Dipset crest well. His second show in as many weeks at the same venue goes down this weekend. It's a spectacle how these more hardcore street-oriented rappers get celebrity status in these grimy northeastern cities with or without an album. Mobb Deep, D-Block, Red Cafe, Cassidy and others receive a lot of adulation. Being in a position to be behind the scenes and seeing the digi-cam flashbulbs going off at paparazzi rates when Max B pulled up to the venue by a mob of mostly women caught me off guard. And some of these ladies can be of an exquisite rare breed... can quote Styles P better than me!

Speaking of behind the scenes, reggae's premier recording band Morgan Heritage were in town recently, which is sort of a homecoming for them, and I got the opportunity to kick with them on the tour bus as well as take in an hour-long set from an offstage vantage point. World class professionals, easy going, deeply Rasta and the cali bud smouldering in the back of the bus was making the window panes gooey. And their music: it really does sound much better than the record. Outstanding musicianship.

Morale.

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Do You Know What Today Is......

If Klara didn't blurt, I would have forgotten that my first year anniversary recently came and went.

Hold on while I find that Tony Toni Tone cut....

It's been a year y'all, although the latter part of it has been largely silent (Coming soon: Top 10 Reasons I Dissed The Blog this Summer). But for utilizing your eyeballs on this space, you, whoever you may be, whatever flavor of ice cream you like, no matter who you have gagged and tied up back at home, I feel enormous gratitude.

It's the Bombay talking...
next up: Tanq

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I'm really tired of the Michael Vick backlash, all these folks who give dogs kisses and hugs, let them ride passenger in their cars, and buy them birthday cakes, crying about dog fighting. While Dick Cheney couldn't even get a Police Report done when he mistook a hunting partner for a bird. If recreational hunting and fishing are okay, as in hunting or fishing for which the primary goal isn't to provide sustenance, then dog fighting should be palatable too.

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I didn't believe it when I heard Ginuwine on the Walt Baby Love R&B countdown in 1998 talking about how he was unable to keep up with what music was on the radio or out on the market while he worked with Timbaland on 100% Ginuwine. This summer has been a revalation in that lesson, especially since I really haven't been doing the clubs or mixtapes, and hence without reason to keep up, while I stay in the lab cooking.

But I couldn't stay away for good. Chrisete Michele's Def Jam album I Am is a wonderful excursion in Jazz tinged soul with some hiphop thrown in to keep the likes of me stuck. Pharaohe Monch did pretty good with his album after a 8 year break, but SRC don't understand the kind of gem he brought to them. "When the Gun Draws" needs a video badly. Talib Kweli's new joint Ear Drum knocks. He gave Pete Rock a good look with all them beats. There is definitely some beautiful work in there as he expands and becomes more worldly, I dare say? T.I.'s joint was little worn for me. Nothing extraordinary.

Also trying to get with:

Mavado - enough already with that gangsta chant, riddim after riddim and no album. Finally!

Common - The hood talks, and he was recently around on tour with Lupe and Kanye. Word is he stole that show. I last saw him doing duty with his band Black Girl Named Becky a few years back and he was righteous. Definitely worth the effort to check him out, as should banging the new LP, Finding Forever.

Keith Murray - Def Squad cool. Worth the price of the Sermon beats alone.

Elephant Man - Five O is sickly to me.

Munga Honarable - a reggae revalation from Capleton's camp

Ransom - Best In The City Part 2. New Jersey dude is hardbody.


Somebody might pepeta me after this.
Opium Black - Black Plague. The mixtape. Take it.


A goodly weekend to you.

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Top Eight @ 8

1)WE HAVE TO POST THESE RULES BEFORE WE GIVE YOU THE FACTS.
2)PLAYERS START WITH 8 RANDOM FACTS/HABITS ABOUT THEMSELVES.
3)PEOPLE WHO ARE TAGGED NEED TO WRITE THEIR OWN BLOG AND THEIR 8 THINGS AND POST THESE.
4) AT THE END OF YOUR BLOG POST, YOU NEED TO CHOOSE 8 PEOPLE TO GET TAGGED AND LIST THEIR NAMES (Scared yet…..you better be!)
5)DON’T FORGET TO LEAVE THEM A COMMENT TELLING THEM THEY ARE TAGGED, AND TO READ YOUR BLOG

Waay past Fashionably late, more like tragically.

Imwi,
Short is sweet. Eloquence in the minimum is one of my current muses.

Deuce
Smoky voiced chicks have a headstart with me.

Trez
Eternally I shall fiend for raw funk.

Arba
In my musical dabbling I haven't been really starstruck by anyone, but I was deeply humbled when I met reggae impresario Calvin "Cocoa Tea" George Scott.
Sultan,
it's majorly owed.

Cinq
I love horror flicks, macab in becoup, but I shouldn't say that. It's been a black summer.

Sita
I can't gain a damn kilo. Ever since young boy high school rudgescapades, it's been mbweha season without a muscle to show for it.

Lucky
To Bang out Tunes. Wished on being a fly on the wall, now maybe I can chisel the walls in. I'm Grateful for that shot.

Four plus four
I believe in guardian angels. Listen.

Now all that other mess about Picking 'Em and Bait. Bilaz. You Lost.



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