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Random Ish: Monday, July 9, 2007

Please give me a reason, as a grown man who is turning 27 next month, not to buy this.

And the Transformers movie is hands down the best movie I’ve seen all summer. If you’re an 80’s baby you owe it to yourself to go and see it.

Hope everybody had a good 4th of July cause I know I did, although it did involve biking back home at 1:00 AM tired and slightly intoxicated, but that’s a story for another day.

Wow. Pharoahe Monch only sold 12,000 copies of his album Desire. I shouldn’t be surprised I guess.

And more bad news for lovers of “real” music: Straight No Chaser is shutting its doors. The last issue will be printed in August.

But rap isn’t dead. Word is, T.I. sold 500,000 copies of T.I. vs. T.I.P. I heard the album was wack and the lead single wasn’t getting radio support, but I can’t really hate if the rumor is true.

DJ’s are you finding it harder and harder to break new tracks? Is the top 40 Force to strong to be rekon’d with??

After that Washington City Paper article, it seems everbody’s been talkin’ about the whole “cat call” phenomenon, but Jimi for his part has the best “male response” that you’re ever gonna read.

Did anyone see the Live Earth concerts this weekend? Seriously, is anybody going to start recycling just because the Black Eyed Peas told you to? And don’t look at me, I’ve been using mass transportation and those compact fluorescent light bulbs for 5 years now.

BYT has an interview with my homegirl, the Vagina Lady Alexyss Taylor.

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Bling Blung!

I actually don’t have anything to post about today, but I had to put this picture up! Anyway, DC people NEED to stop by Selam tonight. I’ll try and make it but man, I have a major hangover today. Anyway, I have to apologize for not posting on new artists like I used to. After I almost got psychically assaulted in Philly by some rapper who was mad that I didn’t profile his album (long story) I sort of got disillusioned with the whole thing. No worries though, because next week will be chopped full of new music for ya ears.

Until then, peace out and have a good weekend my nuccas.

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Hip-Hop, Negroclash!, Pop, R&B

Romance Advice: Would you dump someone cause they don’t like Dilla??

I usually don’t give romance advice, mainly because my friends would never retrun the favor, but I’m finding one of my friend’s situations a lil’ bit interesting:

I have a friend who’s having a relationship issue. According to him, he’s been going out with this girl for about 4 months or so, but the relationship is falling apart over music of all things. See, this dude thinks that Dilla is the next coming of Tupac, while his girlfriend thinks that Rhianna is the next coming of Beyonce. You see where I’m goin’ with this?

There is obviously an age and cultural difference here–she screams and cries when she has to go to his backpacker “hip-hop lives” events, and he pits a fit when she manages to drag him out to something that the kids call the “scream” tour (Is that with Ne-yo and Omarion? I’m too old to know and too lazy to Google it.) Not only that, but she thinks that A Tribe Called Quest is “corny,” that Dilla is “wack” and that Big Daddy Kane is “old folks music.” Add to that the fact that he caught her singing along to Lil’ Mama’s “Lip Gloss” a little too enthusiastically the other day.

It’s not easy being a backpacker these days. Just ask Lupe Fiasco. But seriously if you’re a Black dude who dosen’t listen to what’s ont the radio, you’re already a minority of a minority. As someone who has music tastes that range from Mystikal to MF Doom to KT Tunstall, I feel for the brother. Since I’m not the most attractive guy on the lot, I really don’t get to pick and choose which girls I get to go out with. So basically, 90% of the girls I end up going out with don’t particularly share my choice of Roy Ayers over Jim Jones, and let’s not get started on the last time I tried to explain Podcasting to girls I go out with.

However for this kid, my advice is to first check her iPod first. Women–especially women of color–are always frontin’ with their music choices. I once knew a girl who would swear up and down that she couldn’t stand “underground” music, but this girls iPod has the most extensive collection of Nina Simone albums that I’ve ever seen. So sometimes you can’t judge a book by its cover. There has got to be at least something y’all have in common, and if there is, you have to make plans around that.

And the most effective relationships are about compromise anyway (word to Dr. Phil!) so at the least you must understand where each other is coming from and get that off the bat first. Just because she dosen’t dig Mos Def shouldn’t be a deal breaker if you worked out your boundaries. And you gotta get this under control now, because little disagreements like this will most certainly blow up into full fledged Iraq war style arguments in the future.

And if all else fails, dump her and get yourself an Afropunk chick.

What do y’all think? Have you ever dumped somebody cause you didn’t like their choice in music? SOUND OFF!

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Hypocrite?

Beanie Sigel is…..gay?

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Random Ish: Friday May 25th, 2007

First off, I’m taking a real short hiatus from the site. Its Memorial Day weekend people and the last thing I wanna do is sit in front of the computer. Unlike most people I know, I’ll actually be in town this weekend, but I’m gonna be incognegro until Tuesday. And seriously why would you be in front a computer this weekend? Get a mojito and enjoy the beautiful weather people.

I’ll try to email Myspace y’all before the computer is turned off for good tonight. Anyway, for the random ish:

YOU’RE GONNA BE AT SELAM TONIGHT, RIGHT???

Oh, and DJ <strike>Underdog</strike> Dredd is having one of his overly popular Prince vs…… parties at Black Cat on Sunday. I’ll be high-tailing it back from Fredrick (MD) for this one.

If you didn’t know, your girl Lady Sov broke down in front of a NYC crowd last weekend and ran off the stage crying. Now, as a avid Sov hater this would be a perfect opportunity to rag on her, but honestly, I feel for ol’ girl. Promoting an album is no joke, and if you’re stressed out at your job, think of that stress multiplied by 50 and in front of a crowd of people. Still, it looks like homegirl needs some intensive group therapy soon.

White Stripes - Icky Thump Video

DJ Khaled Interview from JumpOff TV

I’m not so much into the whole funny T-Shirt thing, but this Wickedsweet Che Guevara Tee is classic to me.

Lady Glock chronicles another wild night in DC. This city is gonna get hella boring when she goes back to London next week.

R. Kelly - Real Talk. Wow. Wow. I’m speechless. Dave Chappelle doesn’t even have to parody this one cause Kells just made fun of himself.

Fishbone is a Black Band….

And yeah, I know that this video is old and I deserve a late pass, but hey clip has been getting me through the week:

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Random Ish - Friday May 18th, 2007

Culture jammin’ from Wooster Collective.

Good lawd, I haven’t done one of these in a long time. Time to get it started…

First up…GAS PRICES! WTF is up with this? Seriously, I filled my car up last week and it was $3.15 a gallon in Virgina. I guess i can’t complain too much cause I don’t drive every day, but still…we need to riot in the streets! (not really)

We do need a rally for ish like this though. Call Al Sharpton.

Honey Soul has new music from Lauryn Hill. The song is err..different and its from some movie soundtrack. Having that said, I’m glad that Lauyrn is coming out of the woodwork but is it too late?

Please give me a reason to care about two millionaires arguing. Cam’ron and 50 Cent are the Black Donald Trump and Rosie.

The latest Rhythm Lab Radio Show is straight fire. Tracks from Chuck Brown, Soulwax, M.I.A., J*Davey and more.

Also on that show is a track from the Soil and Pimp Sessions. Some crazy wacked out jazz from Japan. I’m about to cop their album.

New Amy Winehosue “remix” featuring Jay-Z. There were rumors that Mr. Carter would do this so her tracks will get play on urban radio, but his phoned in voice is just eh. It can’t even compare with the Ghostface/Amy collabo.

Homegirl Lady Glock has been tearing up the East Coast on her London hiatus. (more here)
And this week I became one of the 28 percent of Americans to own an HDTV. All I gotta say is…damn! Lost in HD is crazy amazing. I have no reason to leave the house now.

There is less Chocolate in the Chocolate city. DC is less Black. Is anyone surprised by this?

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Random Ish: Spank Rock on Jimmy Kimmel Live And Other Music Notes

Spank Rock. Could this not be one of the hottest late night rap performances ever? Damn, that was live! Were they this good when they played Black Cat? I’m slapping myself right now. Move coverage and interview at The Fader.

And for the record, when I went to see Jimmy Kimmel Live I saw a crappy performance by Tommy Lee. But I did get run over by Kimmel (long story), and I met Daniel Dae Kim from Lost so it’s all good.

The music charts were down yet again this week with the top seller, Dreamgirls, selling 60,000 copies. Remember that DJ Drama had 80,000 copies of his mixtape confiscated this week. So maybe the RIAA was jealous?

Not only that, but the same day they busted drama, the music labels came down hard on websites that post Soundscan (chart) Numbers. Let’s all go out and buy CD’s, cause now these dudes are pissed.

Speaking of labels, J*Davey quietly signs to Warner Brothers Records. This could be good or bad depending on how you feel about the majors and left-field artists. Hopefully they’ll get a proper album out soon, since their EP has almost melted from the number of plays it got last year.

According to the insiders, Amy Winehouse killed it in NYC this week. She had not one, but two sold out shows at Joe’s Pub backed up by The Couch Sessions’ favorite house band, The Dap Kings. Too bad it was her only show in North America. DC needs some love over here.

Ian links to a fly Wayne track (sampling Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock”) that still doesn’t convince me that he’s a worthy of all the “best MC ever” hype. Also, Wayne seems to be glad that DJ Drama got busted because the “authorities” are “gonna straighten the game out.”

And don’t forget Commonwealth opened in DC this week.

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Random Ish: Tuesday, October 24th

Damn, I’m not gonna be able to hit up CMJ this year and its a shame. The parties above look hot though. Let me know if you’re gonna attend any of them because I might want to do a writeup/interview for the site.

So a local rap group gets signed to a major label AND drops an album and no local media outlets cover it? This is why I’m starting the DC Music Summit people. Our local media doesn’t do s&#t to promote local artists.

Congrats to F Young of Cincinatti, OH for winning our J Dilla Competition. Frank gets limited edition Donuts vinyl and CD’s. I’m personally making a donation to the J Dilla Foundation in his name as well. I got another contest on deck coming up soon.

MediaFire is better than Rapdishare, YouSendIt and MegaUpload. It’s almost too good to be true.

Also, I’ve been getting a few emails about people not being able to listen to Podcasts. They seem to be working for me but I’ll be looking into it. I know that I had to Ghetto rig the iTunes link since those fools never officially approved me to be an official podcast, but whatever.

SOHH is reporting that Talib Kweli’s latest album, Eardrum is being pushed back from its November 7th Release date. Its most likely due to the fact that his first single, “Listen” has not gotten any airplay/traction on major radio and MTV.

The Clipse album is finally on track to drop this month though. Peep the video for Wamp Wamp.

Scottie Beats, a DC area music producer and production engineer was shot last week after he tried to chase down some people suspected of stealing his car. The worse part? When he tried to call 911 he got the shaft. Why in the hell are the 911 systems in this area so bad?

The priest who inspired Mark Foley to hit on young boys didn’t have sex with him when he was 12, BUT gave him buck nekkid massages and went skinny dipping with him? And the dudes says that since there was no sex involved that it was okay. Huh? Am I missing something.

More from Listen to Leon, which is becoming my favorite blog on the internets right now.

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????????

File this under: WTF? Photoshop it to your hearts delight.

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CEO of the ….

Now prior to being offered the opportunity to write for this here website, I was doing my thing with a blog of mine. For too long, and to much money, my people and I sat around waiting for site designers and graphic design people to email us back or do the job they were paid for. As ill as blogger is, it was holding our movement back.

However people as of late August 2006 BETTER THAN YOURS became official like a referee with a whistle. As far as it being the first jumpoff, its solid. Its amazing what myspace, craigslist, and a few forums can produce. Wordpress is the truth as well.

Anyhow people, we are in search of graphic designers to help with everything from mixtape covers, skateboard decks, sticker designs, and everything in between. At the same time, check the site daily. We kinda don’t give a f-ck, so you’ll find singles, albums (shout to ian @ diff kitchen), youtube vids, hella skateboarding stuff, and overall web goodness. Bookmark it people, we’re ready.

better than yours. daily (or at least when work doesn’t get in the way)

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