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What does it mean when young white people want to do this to themselves?

(please note, to the best of my knowledge this is a totally serious, non-ironic “look how good my spray on fake tan I look like a carrot” scenario)

Further complicating the picture is the distinct influence of the far-east. Someone has obviously been travelling around the suburbs of New Jersey promoting the idea that it is cool to style your hair like a space mutant from Dragon Ball Z.

Finally:

Why are they doing this with their lips?

I will leave interpretation to you. Note that the guy on the left looks like an androgynous clown who is melting. These men must spend a fortune on beauty and hair products. Obviously, identity politics is very complicated in America.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZHou18Cdk[/youtube]

Apparently I’m not the only musician who likes Barack Obama. Will.I.Am from Hip-Pop supergroup Blackeyed Peas does too, so he took Obama’s victory speech from New Hampshire (see below) and recorded this song with a bunch of his famous friends. People are calling it “The Obama Song” but I think it’s actually called Yes I Can. Good for you Will I Am, fucked up as this world is people are more likely to listen to a pop musician for musical advice than many others (politicians, parents, the media). Don’t know what that reflects on worse but hey… I’m officially throwing my hat in with an endorsement of Obama for president as well (Hilary, don’t get mad).

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS_EoBjdlj8[/youtube]

Man, I am constantly amazed by the staying power of fucking Brooklyn Anthem. It STILL gets a big forward whenever Klash does it live. He told me last night that through the Madden 08 placement it broke through into the BK teen party underground and they’ve renamed it ‘Crazy Riddim’ among some other names and are all brucking out to it at their underage dances. The video above is of him doing it at this jam at Hiro Ballroom.

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I’ve been loving this tune since I heard Sinden play it a while ago on his show. It’s weird when I hear about more hot American music from English people than I do from my homies, but whatever.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPtC7HbtD9U[/youtube]

Jackie Chain is an Asian dude with long hair who raps about taking ecstasy, smoking weed, and chilling with girls and sounds sorta like Paul Wall. The track has a nice hype but mellow vibe, a good combination.

I wonder what Simon Reynolds and the blogerati will have to say about this. Does it fit into their whole MDMA-as-transformative-cultural-force industry that they’ve created? I don’t really think so, but then, I didn’t write books and a million articles about it. I’m not really a drug romanticist, I don’t actually think that drugs have that kind of big picture transformative impact that a lot of people seem to want to believe in. I think people take drugs to get fucked up, in a variety of different ways and while some insight can be gained I think the main thing people are thinking on any of these drugs is “Holy shit, I’m really fucked up man.” Also, just on a public service announcement vibe, I’d like to point out that if you ACTUALLY were rolling for weeks and didn’t sleep, you’d die.

The video is wicked though. Some really bad camerawork of them performing in some place with no stage in the middle of a crowd of people with a lot of superimposed random footage and occasional crazy video effects. This is what budget rap videos are all about. My only criticism is that it could have had more girls in it. I love the phone number of the radio station at the end telling you to call in and request the song. Grass roots marketing pressure.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyQe-hdFUD4[/youtube]

With a more quiet, acoustic, sensitive bang, DATV#002 lands.

Dutty Artz family member Jahdan Blakkamoore and Fuego Campo are 2/3 of Noble Society along with Delie. Catch them here doing a special live acoustic set at Salon Lucero at the Bowery Poetry Club. Salon Lucero is a poetry and music event put on by Funkworthy crew member and DA family friend Elliel Lucero.

Jahdan and Fuego performed some new and old Noble Society material including tracks from their mixtape with DJ Child of Project Groundation Massive “Live From The Front Line” and tracks from “Take Charge” the debut Noble Society album which is in its final stages and soon to be unleashed on the world. I opened the video with a clip of one of my favorite tracks of theirs “She Told Me” a heartfelt and emotional song about Jahdan’s divorce from his wife of seven years over Fuego’s excellent not quite grime or dubstep riddim. They performed the song acoustic, which is in the video, along with their beautiful “Mama So Divine” a track which actually is acoustic on the record, inspired by Jahdan’s trip to Africa last year.

We’re speeding up, so watch out for our coverage of Trouble and Bass at love with Dexplicit and an exclusive interview we did the day after with Rupture asking the questions.

And yes, I know we promised cooking and street fashion, trust me, they’re coming.

Somehow despite our “organic” (chaotic) promotional style, people are buzzing about Dutty Artz and the pre-orders for the Dutty Remix Zero 12″ are coming in hot and heavy. It’s getting fattened up and groomed for cutting at Transition in London right now, so I swear it will actually come out, very very soon.

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They say that drugs make you dumb, but if that’s the case then what the fuck are these police taking? They must be in and out of the evidence room all day. I just saw this piece by ABC News and actually laughed out loud.

“Savvy criminals are using some of the country’s most credible logos, including FedEx, Wal-Mart, DirecTV and the U.S. Border Patrol, to create fake trucks to smuggle drugs, money and illegal aliens across the border, according to a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.”

In my mind this just goes to show that when people are hungry and committed enough, they can do almost anything. US Drug Warriors: you’re losing, you losers, think up another plan. I recommend some kind of controlled legalization. At least then we could have quality controls, cheap clean needles and people would not be killing each other over this stuff quite so often. You don’t see the executives of the Altria group going and shooting up the corporate offices of Anheuser Busch do you? I know in an election cycle this will be an unpopular idea due to the huge number of American jobs that would be lost (hustlers, smugglers, prison guards) but still, from my soapbox over here it all seems very clear. In the meantime, if the ganja pays your rent, keep on hustling!

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Real badman ting. The dancehall arena is a harsh place, and the stakes are high. Some artists can make great records. And some can stand up in the arena and kill. Some can do both. There’s been a big resurgence in interest in Ninjaman lately, with a lot of LDN artists bigging him up and shouting him out. As Skepta, who’s Nigerian, said: “I think a lot of my caribbean friends didn’t want me to know about Ninjaman.”

Not gonna do a lot of long talking, for those who don’t understand patois just watch who gets a forward and during who’s song the bottles start flying. Peep Ninja throwing Supercats style back in his face at 1:20. Big clash.

NINJAMAN VS. SUPERCAT AT STING 1991:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0t-ANfbVyg[/youtube]

And Ninja was still a threat twelve years later in 2003, to such an extent that one of dancehall’s contemporary warlords felt the need to go beyond lyrics to lock off what he clearly saw as a serious lyrical threat to his then-new status.

NINJAMAN VS VYBZ KARTEL AT STING 2003: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP-6uTtm00g&feature=related[/youtube]

To my mind as soon as someone has to pick up a bottle in a lyrical war, they’ve lost the clash.

Finally, Ninja discusses the contemporary dancehall scene, and says some very pointed things. He’s cut his dreads, and looks like he’s been through a lot, and has a lot to say.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PmIPcxnWmI&feature=related[/youtube]

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dexplicit

It is very, very rare that you will see me posting anyone else’s fliers on here besides DA family. Trouble + Bass is extended family tree though and I am just personally excited about this event. I am a big big fan of Dexplicit‘s Bassline/Niche House output in the past few years, bringing the energy and colors of grime into a 4×4 format.  If you are in NYC you are a FOOL to miss this.  I also have no qualms promoting this because Dex himself is such a nice friendly dude.  We’ve only spoken over the internet but his niceness comes through.  I like people like that and want them to win.  The world is so full of assholes, the people who aren’t deserve singling out.

Also check /Ruptures WFMU radio show Jan. 23rd for an exclusive mix by Dexplicit full up with unreleased dubs, as well as (I think) an interview.

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77klash
A big shout out to Diplo for showing my riddim “Mad Again” a lot of love on his Mad Decent blog. The tune is with 77Klash spitting and dancehall legend Johnny Osbourne on the chorus. For those of you who’ve heard it on myspace now’s your chance to grab it on an exclusive preview download.

Move quickly because I’m not sure how long it’ll be up there for DL. Wierdly he’s got a different tune called Mad Again coming out on his label with among others a remix from my boy Drop The Lime, great minds think alike I guess.

Watch out for the tune coming soon on the Iron Shirt mixtape as well as on 77Klash’s Code Fi Di Streets EP.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqoFwZUp5vc[/youtube]

In a change from our semi-usual editorial policy of hyping our music, attacking other people and posting things that are stupid yet funny, I’ve decided to put on my amateur-political-analyst fake New Era fitted hat and take a look at this years upcoming presidential election.

The event that’s inspired me to do so is Barack Obama’s shocking and very public political beat down of Hilary Clinton. For those who don’t watch politics, you may not have noticed that last night not only did he win, but beat her embarassingly into not second but third place, behind John Edwards. Obama took just under 38% to Hilary’s just over 29%, for a nine point difference. For someone who’s only been a senator for three years going up against one of the beloved political dynasties of our age, this is a big deal. The fact that he did so in a state that’s 95.9% white pretty much blows out of the water a lot of people’s claims that Amerika would never elect a black man for president as well as evaporating all the talk about Clinton’s “Inevitability”. Personally, I think it’s great.

And for those who will say “But America is still racist, he can never win!” I will point you to one of my new favorite subjects, the Republican candidates. Basically, you could run a one-legged chicken against ALL of these people and beat them. Let’s take a look.

In the lead, we’ve got Mike Huckabee (20%), former baptist minister and governor of Arkansas. With much less money and Republican establishment support he blew a big hole in the candidacy of the Republican directly behind him, Mitt Romney(18%). Basically coming from nowhere he leapt to the front of the race primarily based on the fact that, in the eyes of the Evangelical Christians who make up 60% of Republicans in Iowa, there is no other “socially conservative” Republican in the race that they can stomach.

Romney, as a Mormon, has ZERO chance winning over these people. They’ve all seen Big Love, they’re not convinced. Behind him is John McCain (13%). I actually have some sympathy for this guy out of all of them because as strongly as I disagree with him and think he’s basically insane, he seems like he believes in his insanity and is willing to stick up for it. Fair play. Still, his sticking to his convictions, including his recent statement that he wouldn’t mind if the Iraq war went on for another 100 years, is not going to win him the general election. Even Republicans are embarassed about the war by now, there were no weapons, we didn’t get to steal any oil and worst of all we can’t even win the damn thing. Whoops.

Next we’ve got Fred Thompson (13%), that actor guy. Nope, you’re not the governator, it’s not gonna work. Ron Paul (2%), who seems crazy in a good way, is great on the Iraq war and came in fifth. I’d say he’s probably too good for any serious number of republican’s to vote for, not bad-crazy enough at all.

Which gives me great GREAT satisfaction to announce, that bringing up the rear in sixth place is my personal least favorite person on earth, Rudy Giuliani. Let me just take a moment to say, you thought you were going to win Rudy? Nyeah nyeah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You 9/11-exploiting, adultering, police-murder-endorsing fascist, you FAIL! I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. Having lived through 8 years of Giuliani time personally in NYC I have many many reasons to hate this guy, not the least of which is that he is a giant asshole. What he will be good for, in true form, is attacking and taking the air out of the other hopeless Republican candidates.

I tell you, Tuesday night I will be sitting watching the NH primaries with a big bowl of popcorn and laughing my head off as the Republicans step on each others faces trying to climb to the top of the mountain of loserdom that they are swiftly becoming. It just goes to show, that there is a limited amount of evil insanity that ANYONE, even the pathologically misleadable American people, will put up with and vote for. I think for the first time in my life I may actually enjoy a presidential election.

All statistics are loosey-goosey and un-fact checked. It’s a music blog, if you don’t like it go read someone else.

edit: fixed McCain and Thompson percentages, thanks Lamin (we are fact checked after all, though not by ourselves). And in response to your question about disinformation, I wouldn’t be too sure about that.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrVmEQIsWmw[/youtube]Boom! The first episode of Dutty Artz Television (aka DATV#001) lands with a bang and crash.

Check out the DA family repping at NYC’s original and best dubstep night Dub War. DJ /Rupture, Geko Jones and Jahdan pon mic. It was a wicked night, the sound was booming, the vibes were strong and Rupture dropped a whole bunch of exxxclusive Dutty material including a bunch of tunes by myself. Check the video and watch my Can’t Breathe Remix fuck up the place when it drops. Starting the episode is new producer Cauto from Barcelona’s Bona Vida another BIG tune that will be out very soon, along with the Can’t Breathe Remix on our first release DA00 DUTTY REMIX ZERO 12″.

Shout out to Dave Q from Dub War, we did a great interview but the sound didn’t come thru, we’ll get you next time fam. Shouts to everyone who was in the building: Elliel and 3rd Rayl from Funkworthy Sound, Human, DJ Child from PGM, Twin Sounds, Star Eyes from T&B, Secret Agent Gel, NRON, Lamin, First City Crew and all the ravers raving!

Watch this space and our new YouTube channel for further episodes and updates, upcoming features include our own NYC Street Fashion coverage and Cooking with the Family, a segment where we watch our musician friends cook their favorite dishes.

Available in both downloadable Podcast and YouTube formats. iTunes compatibility coming soon (fuck apple).

Podcast:

[display_podcast]

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The RIAA has done gone lost their minds.

RIAA LINER NOTES

Not really, actually I got this from Boing Boing. Still, you believed me for a sec didn’t you?

The music industry is flopping, gasping, dying. I will be loudly drunk wearing a party hat at and stained hawaiian shirt at the funeral.

David Byrne has some smart things to say about it at Wired. Yes, I know, another post of content boosting, but substantive blogging is hard work. More real content, for those of you who like that, very soon.

Also, we got a mailing list! Sign up and we will send you tasty spam, that you want to read, I swear.

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DUTTY ARTZ

Our first release, DA00, a 12″, is at the plant and will release soon. Listen to short clips of 3 out of 4 of the tracks over at the brand new Dutty Artz myspace page. More infos as we get closer to street date.

Also a new tune with 77Klash and the original dancehall legend Mr. Buddybye himself Johhny Osbourne over my production the Mad Again riddim can be heard on my own myspace page. It’s making waves in the dancehall right now, expect a release in early 2008.

In other news I’ve been meaning to put a note up here about my boy Alex, at Sound-Ink, the label that released my album Pale Fire. He read my diatribe against labels, distributors, etc getting in between me and my personal expression, and took it personally. I’ve since cleared it up with him but I’d just like to make it clear on the public record here that Sound-Ink was fine and they are not who I was talking about. Who was I talking about? Get a copy of my discography and play detective.

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mobb deep purple vision

I remember the first time I heard slowed down, or screwed music. I
was in an old lincoln towncar, driving through Orlando, FL with a dude
named Cleon. It was hot as hell, and me and some guys from NY were
down there shooting a no budget gangster flick. We shot in the hotel
we were sleeping two to a bed in and used real guns for ‘props’.
Driving around during the day in the heat Cleon would play these
slowed down CDs that this dude Pookie Duke (who was also acting in the
film) would make using a cassette machine and a CD burner. Anything
was fair game, erika badu (sounding like a man talking about tyrone
slowed down, yikes), michael jackson, and lots and lots of southern
rap that I had never heard of. Usually just bare drum machine beats
and people saying violence. Slowed down, high out of my mind as I was
most of that week, in that heat, it sounded absolutely satanic. I
asked Cleon about it and he explained: “Well, during the day, when
you’re driving, you listen to the slowed down one. Then at night at
the club you listen to the fast one. But boy, if that DJ in the club
played the slowed down, he would have a riot. People would just get
TOO crunk.” I went to that club (still cant remember the name) and I
could see what he meant. Certain songs couldn’t get played halfway
through, even at regular speed. People would get too hype and start
fighting. Sort of like grime raves in the UK, and why they banned
“Pow”. But after hearing that stuff, and how demonic it was, I
couldn’t get the slowed down idea out of my head. Afterwards I
learned about DJ Screw and the whole codeinated Houston slowed down
scene, and got pretty into that. My two favorite from that style if
you’re looking for something to check are the S.L.A.B. – The Anthem
album slowed down, and David Banner’s first album slowed down by Michael 5000 Watts (jpeg on link is wrong but tracklist is right).

The slowed down hook has now become a staple of American commercial
rap, and lately some American Dubstep producers have started using
slowed down voices in their tracks too. I was out at Dub War and
heard some of these played and decided to make one of my own. I
picked one of my most favorite songs of all time, Mobb Deep’s “Shook
Ones”. I originally just wanted to use the acapella phrase that my track starts with.

“I’m only 19 but my mind is old and when things get for real my warm
heart turns cold”

I was gonna take that, make that a hook and give it to one of my 19
year old grime mc friends in London. But then I got bored with that
idea and felt that the drop wasn’t quite hard or deep enough and just
decided to sample the whole chorus, slowed down, with the beat in
there, and give the track a bit more of a opiated houston vibe. The results
are here, in 320 mp3 format.

Download it, play it, voice on it, do whatever you want with it.

It’s a big bait illegal sample so you’ll have a hard time making money with it, plus I just don’t care that much.

Lately I’ve been pretty down on the whole music industry, and
especially making money inside it. It’s kind of pathetic. Some
people I know fight and struggle so hard to make a living from music,
and I did that for a few years too. Now that I’m back in NYC though I
make non-music money, and it’s so easy compared to music it’s like a
bad joke. And because I’m not putting economic pressure on my music,
I’ve been enjoying making music again. It’s kind of a fucked up. The
most fucked up part about it is, considering the amount of money most
people I know make selling copies of their music (cd, vinyl, mp3,
whatever), it’s basically not even worth it. The only money worth
making is performance money, and the occasional license to TV or a
video game, and for those reasons it may actually turn out that giving
away all your music for free on the internet will actually make you
MORE money. Hopefully the whole industry will collapse in one final
fit of coked up executive self-defeatery very soon and we, the
artists, will be able to figure out some new way that actually works
for us economically. My best idea so far is something like the TV
tax in the UK. Everything is free on the internet (like it already
is) and iff you own a computer or mp3 player you pay a yearly tax to
the government and they pay publishing money to the artists. Either
that or build that tax into mp3 players and internet service charges.
iPods for example, have been making Apple a SHITLOAD of money based on
the non-advertised idea that the player is expensive, but the music is
free. I want some of that money Steve Jobbs.