Links for the Shut-In

I'm sick, so while I'm laid up I'll share what I've been entertaining myself with.

New Fat Albert in the Hood from your boys at WhackPiktures & PikahssOvision:


The episode itself still doesn't top Episode 2 for me, but they've included the in-between show bumpers and a commercial that is CLASSIC.

Videos, as per usual, save the day when it comes to being ill. If you like JRPGs at all and you own an Xbox 360, you need Lost Odysseyin your life right this minute. Old school combat with characters that buck a lot of the Japanese RPG stereotypes combines to make a pretty satisfying experience. Here's that TV spot they did for it a while back with Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" as the soundtrack:


MTV Jams has been indulging in videos from around '98 or so all day, I suppose in an effort to remind you of just how quickly mainstream Hip Hop has declined over the years. I'd kill to hear the sort of stuff I clowned back then on the radio now. Oh how we taunted and jeered at Silk the Shocker's feature on the remix to Cam'ron's "Horse and Carriage" but if only we had known how good we had it back in high school.


Now I'm off to eat something and in all likelihood pass out in front of the terebi...oh dear. They've gone even further back:


Truly, this is a banner day.

Seeya later, homey.

So, my roommate and one of my best friends moved out last night for Texas and given the nature of his departure we didn't get a chance to say proper goodbyes. If I had a choice on how we were going to spend our last few hours as roommates, rather than hurriedly packing his things into his car I probably would've elected to drive around the South Bay listening to Devin the Dude.

We bonded over several things, but nothing more fervently than Hip Hop's answer to the old-school dirty blues musician. A weed-smoking fornicator whose main objective when crafting a song is to make the listener laugh, but he's been known to slip in a few life lessons and valuable truths when you're not looking. His music certainly assisted in the cementing of our friendship, whether it was muscling through knuckleheads to get to to the front of the stage at one of his shows, or simply airing out the week's problems while on a late night drive up and down 101.

I'll miss my friend and hopefully we'll see each other again before too long. For today though, I'll throw on a few of the Devin joints that got a lot of burn in the whip in our travels and hope that on his way back to Texas that he's doing the same.


Devin the Dude - Do What You Wanna Do


Devin the Dude - Almighty Dollar from Waitin' To Inhale

Throwback Thursday: Auditory Civil Disobedience

Keeping the train from yesterday rolling. If you haven't already, hit up Racewire to see what you can do to get involved in getting the word out about Oscar Grant. This week's edition of the Throwback comes to you from the Blastmaster himself, KRS-One's "Sound of Da Police" from 1993's Return Of The Boom Bap:


Bonus: One of my favorite anti-police brutality joints from college, "Kill Me First" from Blueprint's album, 1998. Cop it from Blueprint's own store on vinyl or CD at the link provided.

R.I.P. Oscar Grant

One more post and I'm outta here for the night. Quick and to the point, if you don't know about it, Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a BART police officer in at the Fruitvale station on New Years Day. I first heard about it from this news report where they talk about the multiple witness videos that were captured on scene, and there were protests this evening that turned violent. Of course, I've seen reactions here and that echo always comes along with protests going wrong. See the first comment underneath the San Fran Chronicle article I linked to as a good example.

Not that I condone violence of any sort, but seeing as how the initial incident took so long to reach national attention, it is unconscionable to assume that people should simply be quiet about it. Taking action is definitely the move, and a lot of people have already linked to this article from RaceWire detailing 5 things you can do to get involved.

Like I said a while back, we've still got a lot of work to do. The key is not to give the naysayers any reason to shout us down. Use your anger, don't let it use you.

Bonus: Here's a link to Davey D's Breakdown FM show where he interviews John Burris on the incident.

Fat Albert in the Hood

I was a pretty big fan of what I heard from P.P.T., with their 2007 album Tres Monos In Love having more than few cuts that made for my traveling music playlist. They managed to mesh 70s, the parts of black R&B in the 80s that I actually enjoyed (see: Cameo, The Time, etc.) and funk with Hip Hop into a final product that came off more sincere and organic than it had any right to.

Ever since then, I'd been looking out for anything that they were up to and a few weeks ago I stumbled upon their latest hijinks:


That's right. Clips from old episodes of Fat Albert, redubbed with new VO and music courtesy of Dilla. Keep your fingers crossed that Cosby doesn't get wind of these, 'cause they're foul-mouthed and wild ig'nant, but damned if they're not funny. Here's episode two, entitled Who's the Baby Daddy, which features a track from AwkQuarius at about 1:15.


AwkQuarius is the new group from the P and T in P.P.T., Pikahsso and Tahiti. The joint's called "Let's Hit the Town" and been in my head on a constant loop ever since I saw the episode. You can cop it fromAmazon or Itunes for just 99 cents.

Head on over to Pikahsso's blog to show your appreciation for the hilarity him and Tahiti are bringing and keep an eye out for more new music from AwkQuarius.

Bonus: Here's the video for one of my favorite P.P.T. joints "When We Was Kool." A slice of 80s/early 90s nostalgia that I've got no problem endorsing.

Joe Budden drops Knowledge

Continuing on with this week's theme of doing new, better shit in '09, we've got another angle of the Joe Budden vs. Ransom beef that Jay Smooth spoke on. An integral part of the whole thing was DJ Vlad, a mixtape DJ who's been more famous recently for perpetuating beef and spotlighting reprehensible behavior via his YouTube videos than any outstanding tapes he's put out. He actually put up the video of Ransom's crew assaulting a guy that was tangentially related to the whole mess. Here, courtesy of 2dopeboyz is Budden on Angela Yee's Shade 45 radio show confronting DJ Vlad about the journalistic merit in videotaping rappers and their hangers-on slapping innocent people.



There's a lot of truth in what Joe Budden's saying there. Vlad's not "putting certain information out in the world" that people really need. He's getting pageviews by sensationalism. It's his right, certainly, but that doesn't mean we should be helping him along. I've never been a big Joe Budden fan, but between his coalition of the illing in the underground supergroup Slaughterhouse and insightful commentary like this, he's definitely got my respect.

To make up for the renunciation of ignorance (and missing a post yesterday), I'll be posting something wildly inappropriate and hilarious later on today. Do you remember Fat Albert? I guarantee you'll never seen him and the gang the same way after my next post.

Jay Smooth (as usual) Drops Knowledge

I don't do a lot of commenting on blogs or forums, and Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine fame illustrates why perfectly in this video drop. After Just Blaze posted the video of Jay Smooth's commentary on the Joe Budden vs. Ransom beef (seen here), one of the regulars at Just's site decided to comment on Jay Smooth's decision to speak on rappers beefing while the situation in Gaza is going on. His words:

This Jay Smooth guy is ignorance at its finest.

Firstly, He’s Isreali, and has the ability/opportunity to educate ppl and influence their views. Half the ppl in AMERICA dont know shit about Gaza. But instead, he uses his effort to discuss how ‘beef’ used to be good for hiphop, but now isnt. GTFOH.

Jay Smooth's retort:


This whole situation is my biggest problem with the internets. People talking out turn, or rather, speaking as though they're infinitely informed on subject where they have little to no proper knowledge. Between that and the self-righteousness that comes from people who feel as though the platform the internet affords them equals infallibility, I've wanted to give up on using the internet as a social tool altogether on more than a few occasions.

With this being my first post of the new year, I think I'm going to use Jay Smooth's video as a call for a new movement. I originally gravitated to the internet because along with all the information I had access to, it allowed me to communicate with and befriend a lot of different people who probably wouldn't think to strike up a convo with me away from the keyboard and vice versa. Along the way though, I've definitely found that this ease of use has a flipside and a lot of folks have a tendency to go from zero to asshole in the speed of a keystroke.

We called for change in '08 and got it. I figure for the new year, let's call for civility on the internet. It's a long shot, I know, but we pulled off something crazy before.