(Why does Jay look like a black Will Ferrell to me? Gotta be the wrinkly forehead)
Ok, so I am slacking with any meaningful content recently, so anyone that keeps up with me trying to keep up with the world on this blog will just have to cope with this minimalist approach for now. Expect small update and wifey material posts in abundance. With various other work, assignments and business going on, there has been no time to ruminate over anything recently.
Back to the topic (by the way, J absolutely murders that 'back to the topic, actually forgot it..' line in the last verse), a track caught my attention yesterday for all the right reasons. The beat is nice, with a jazzy hook that's oh so familiar - I'll try and track down where the sample is from - word on the forums is it's a Pete Rock beat so it's bound to be some obscure 50s song.
I'm referring to Jay Electronica's 'Shiny Suite Theory' featuring a guest spot from that man Jigga. Jay Elec's voice and flow is buttery-smooth as always. I explained HERE how he's able to do this (10 paragraphs or so down).
Jigga takes it back with his flow on this one. Maybe it's the slight cassette-sounding quality to the mic he used, but it seems like '96 just rolled up in this song and overcame Jay's verse. The outcome is dope so lets not even dwell on what came over Jay and just enjoy this moment/track for what it is.
Jay Electronica - 'Shiny Suit Theory' Feat. Jay-z & The Dream
Oh I'm sorry, were you expecting some comment on Jay Elec's signing to Roc Nation? Well, ignoring the fact that if you are reading this, you're most likely a blog addict anyway so are already well informed. Phil already tied it up pretty nicely HERE.
I'm laughing as I type this one. Basically just had to get this out there, John Wall that cocky guy from N.C that was blowing up hoop mixtape and ballislife videos a few years back on the high school basketball scene.....Colin breaks down how he won't ever do anything serious in the NBA. If you haven't already done so, check out that dance Wall does and especially peep the comparisons between Iverson and Marbury in this vid below. Dead, at the end of the video when Cowherd pauses after saying: "It is a thinking mans' league.......John Wall" Brilliant.
(Mexico's biggest drugs bust in history. The police captured and set ablaze - no pun - 105 tons of marijuana)
It's songs like this that make me wish I had a driving licence and a car to drive. It's songs like this that also make me wish I smoked weed.
Yes you read the title of this post right, Cali could be on the verge of legalising that Buddha. Californians are set to vote tomorrow on Proposition 19 (the legalising of weed to you and me), a vote that coincides with the midterm elections vote.
This has been a long time coming for America. The U.S economy is still showing little sign of any serious recovery while tobacco and alcohol sales just won't cut it anymore. Legalising marijuana can kill a few birds with one stone. Marijuana sales could generate huge revenue for the economy, whilst simultaneously relieving the state of spending thousands on arresting and incarcerating inmates with distribution and possession charges. Though the thought of official stores stocking up on the green stuff might seem weird at first, I'm sure eventually Coca-cola or Starbucks will venture in to the weed market and package it up like all their other products. Before you know it Tiger Woods will be on T.V getting his career back on track, starting with a series of weed commercials. Can't you just picture it now? Tiger driving a golf ball in to the atmosphere with a blunt hanging precariously from his lip before turning to the camera to say: "Nike. Just do it."
If you bothered to pick up any newspapers this morning (even the free joints!) you would have noticed the onslaught of surveys proving that marijuana is less harmful to society than many of its legal counterparts. What does this tell us? That our news publications have become overrun with blunt smoking, high-as-hell journalists, who are intent only on writing about weed in a good light? Well as much as I'd like to think that is true, it's most likely not, and the facts they are spewing at us are in fact most likely valid.
Mos got the ball rolling a while back appearing on the Bill Maher show fighting his case: " What's wrong with a little weed!" Since then, many celebrities and intellectuals have come out of the heavily smoked-out closet to protest in support of their favourite plant.
On a more serious note, another bird America could potentially kill with that stone mentioned above, is the huge crisis taking place in Mexico right now. The country is ravaged by violence. Stuck in a vicious cycle of gang murders, witnesses fear for their lives and corrupt officials are on the side of the criminals. Even an illegal crossing to America - for many families, their only chance of escape, is something that often ends up with their murder out in the Mexican desert - is run through the very gangs controlling the drug smuggling to the States. All in the name of American suburban college kids getting a small kick out of smoking an illegal drug in college and at the weekends. However, despite all this, I doubt concerns over the safety of Innocent Mexicans is at the top of the U.S agenda when considering reasons for legalising marijuana. It is far more probable that continued Mexican immigration to the States could sway U.S politicians in favour, if violence in the land south of the border continues.
Pulling away from all this and back to the music, kick back and relax to this here joint. If you've got weed, roll it up good sir. If a Pete Rock beat fused perfectly with a classic soul sample can't soothe your soul, then lord help you. Even a Jay-z verse can't ruin this one!
Soul Samples in Hip Hip = possibly the greatest invention to date.
I feel for any intelligent and opinionated journalist that finds his/herself reduced to news writing. It's somewhere every young journo will undoubtably start out, writing small news stories for what ever publication it happens to be. However the mechanical and uniform structure of a news story allows no room for creativity, personal opinion or even intelligent input.
It could be argued that people want none of the above when being fed the news they read. That is most likely true to an extent, opinion and in-depth commentary is usually reserved for features. This is exaclty the reason I sympathise with news writers. They are virtually brainless writers who formulate words in to the 'correct' order, from a brief shoved under their nose. Though I don't for a second blame them, most are young and eager for experience, if not then it would only be right to assume the money is good. Hey, if the money's good then who's complaining? Possibly those with a little more integrity and pride in their writing, or is that just hubris?
The news writers' one chance for any type of self-expression comes with adjectives. Probably the only time at which a subtle word in a news story can reveal the writers true feelings towards what they are writing about. Since of course, any outright bias or opinion would immediately be edited out.
Another beef I have with this whole journalism game and more specifically news writing, is a news writers ability to sound like he/she knows exactly what they are talking about when they don't. A valuable skill to have in life. A skill that will come in use during interviews, business meetings and everyday life in general, when faking knowledge can get you a step-up. But pretending you know what you are talking about can come back to bite you in the ass, hard. Often news writers are given briefs on subjects they hold no previous knowledge of, be it economics, a specific sport, politics and whatever else. This is when adjectives can hurt you.
Overindulge in positive words when describing an event or performance, and you can be sure experts in such an area will gravitate to that comments box or email address and let you know what should have been written. Personal experience has told me journalists will be ruthless in defence of their uninformed opinions.
Think of a subject you feel most passionate about, one you know you hold a vast amount of knowledge on. Now imagine someone who you know can't possible - for whatever reason - be as well informed as you in such an area. Think how it would feel to have that person try and force their opinion on you and others. That would bug you right? Because you know they're wrong, and they are potentially changing the views of others to suit their own. They're spreading the misinformation. You may tell them, yet only after a lengthy defence of their claims will they back down, finally recognising your superior amount of knowledge on the subject. That is how confident, cheeky and ceaseless journalists can be when trying to defend a view they have, on a subject they know nothing about. And people wonder why things they read in the papers are ultimately found to be untrue or greatly exaggeratted. It's not always a journalist trying to create a more dramatic story, sometimes they just simply have no clue what they're on about. They are to write and express a specific opinion, not to question that opinion.
So be weiry of journalists and new writers in particular. Take note of the name at the bottom of that article and question it's integrity. There is this view that much of what is written in respected publications must be at least partially true. Though lets just say, not everything being written is done so by an expert in that specific field. Just because words are spoken or written with confidence, doesn't mean the person spewing them out has the faintest idea what they are banging on about.
In the usual laid-back, non-chalant manner, me, sag and a couple of guys rolled up to South Bank later than the allocated brick-giving-out time haha! This was much to my disgust when 'bitch-ass women' - who had no idea what the project was about but got caught up in the brick heaven hype - were seen walking the streets of south London with Project Morrinho bricks poking from their hand bags. To add to the disgust of casual passers-by making haste with all the fly, designed bricks, we also missed the free 'Brazil Festival' re-usable bag give away. To a group of young, ethnic London men, seeing snobbish yuppy types sipping on their lattes and over-priced orange juices whilst clutching on to their man-bags and now 'Brazil Festival' bags, was pretty annoying. We contemplated going on the rampage and snatching everything in sight with the 'Brazil Festival' emblem on it. This included, bags, deck chairs and a whole host of nailed-to-the-ground things. However after this quick rush of blood we simply picked up a couple bin bags, salvaged a few bricks from destruction and made our way downstairs to see what entertainment lay in wait on the bank of the Thames. With two of us having bin bags slung over our shoulders....yes we did looked like tramps.
I forgot my camera this day. One of my boys took a few snaps on his blackberry but until I can retrieve those you'll just have to put up with these below. I recently redecorated my room and while I was hoping to pile a mass of Favela bricks in one corner, the measly few we managed to take are currently taking up the corner of my desk instead. Still working on the positioning.
And yes we did swipe that piece of astro turf also.
Well as with the way most things are going on this blog, I was supposed to post about this ages ago. A friend and I visited South Bank to see what the haps was before I ventured to North Africa, therefore what has stopped me from uploading these pics over the past month is any body's guess. I missed most of the events included in the Brazil Festival due to being away for that month but fortunately I was still able to witness the progress of this little work of art. If coloured bricks mounted on sand seems a little confusing to you then allow me to explain. Well actually lets allow the good people at Project Morrinho, who run the making of these vibrant installations, to explain:
"Project Morrinho is a social and cultural project based out of the Pereirada Silva favela in the wealthy Southern Zone of Rio deJaneiro. Our aim is to bring positive change to our local community, as well as challenge the popular perception of Brazil’s favelas. The belief that favelas are merely dominated by drug trafficking and violence is not all encompassing. Through our work within Brazil and abroad, it is our hope to improved popular perception of all favelas."
For more info on the project be sure to hit up their site HERE.
The project it's self is usually encourages the involvement of local Favela residents. Therefore for this special London edition not only were kids from the Favelas of Rio DeJaneiro involved but also children from an estate in Lambeth South London. It may seem strange at first, the fact that third world bricks (haha sorry I call orange bricks with 4 or 6 square wholes in 'third world bricks,' they're stacked up everywhere in developing Tunisia and not to my surprise i saw them all over south America too) are crakced and coloured in order to create something that vaguely resembles a Favela. Though for anyone who's actually seen a Favela, these huge models do bear an uncanny resemblance to the real thing. Here's a couple of shots of past projects:
Me and Sag headed down to check out the action way before a certain magazine reported on this. Nah I'm playing, Jungle Drums is one of my favourite magazines, check it out for all-round dope info on all that's Brasilian in London. Here's a few flicks of our day checking out the progress...
Sag can read.
At the climax of all this brick-laying there was to be a brick-giving-away bonanza on September 5th. Peep what happened there in the next post.
My bad on the lack of posting of late. I've been fairly busy but if I'm being honest, not so busy that I couldn't have found time to drop some post material. Weird thing is, I've actually been sitting down and writing a lot of things to put up here, the time has just never emerged to actually put finger to keyboard.
For the few that actually check this blog every other day or so. My bad, descuple, desole, triste and any other language I missed out.
If not good, big, if not big, alot of things on the way tomorrow.
What I love so much about Blu on joints like this is, they just have so much soul and style. Even the way Blu is dressed in that pic featured in the vid, I'm really starting to dig that musician-type unique fashion. Same type of guys that walk around with an instrument and are found in backstreet jazz cafes can be seen wearing such hats and sporting such hair-styles and simple clothing. The style is of a similar mold to that carried by Akil and Adeline. If you're not too sure who either of them are, you're in for a treat pretty soon when I put you up on them.
This song in particular fills my mind with images of a 1920/30's-esque New York apartment window overlooking the city on a rainy day. I would most def be zoned out in my converted warehouse apartment, working to the sounds of Blu. Of course the scene is black and white and the silhouette of a grand piano can be seen blocking the light from the tall, grid leaded window, stained with rain drops. The people walk briskly down below with their black umbrellas or jumping inside their ford automobiles. Papers filled with writing are sprawled across a workspace that includes a smoldering cigar, the smoke just about still rising.
This is the type of joint I love to hear while working and a song that would instantly add a style and sophistication factor to any apartment if I heard it upon entering. The owner would gain automatic respect from me. It's also the sort of vibe I would hope could be found in a Jazz or Blues club. It's actually a slight goal of mine to visit a Blues/Jazz club and sit in a dark corner observing the dark smokey scene, absorbing the ambience. All whilst quietly and slowly puffing on my over-sized cigar, and I don't even smoke. I hear there's a dope club in Barcelona, if you've heard about that one, get at me!
'Below The Heavens' assured that Blu is virtually a legend in my eyes, nah F that he is a legend! Blu is too exclusive to be considered 'hot' or similar adjectives. He assumes legendary status simply because he goes about doing his thing quietly, rarely being seen and cooking up absolute crack that, for the first few years usually goes largely unnoticed. Blu actually has 1920's/30's inspired videos, but this is my 2p and Blu is someone that there need not be written a biography for, he's that legendary.
Blu and Billie, now that's swagger. All these fools out here talking about swagger but this is real swagger. These guys are the real cool cats. More laid back than the biggest weed head you know and runnin' with more style than than any of these fashion 'aficionados' out here today. Ride it out Blu...
