• HEY, BILL-O: “THAT’S RACIST” © SHOWZEN
June 11th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Wherein we introduce a new segment, an homage to the Wonder Showzen catch phrase: THAT’S RACIST!
• Mandatory Lil Wayne Post
June 10th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Yep. That’s the cover. Much much more offensive than the Nas album title.
I was in Virgin Megastore for the air conditioning on my way home today. Standing in front of the new releases rack. This sweaty misshapen middle aged liquor stinking white dude looks at Tha Carter III. He picks it up after muttering something to me which I couldn’t decipher. As he walks away, he yells:
Lil’ Wayne! He’s the lollipop man!
Moments like these wonder if it’s time to leave New York, but I bet this happens everywhere.
• What Could Have Been: Nas’ “In Rainbows” potential
June 10th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
The Original Cover, The One You Won’t See In Stores
So, Gregg Gillis, Mr. Girl Talk himself, has announced that his next release, the 300-plus (up from Night Ripper’s 250) sample party entitled Feed The Animals, is going to be a net-based pay what you want release, much like Radiohead’s In Rainbows, and while that makes sense for him, there’s another artist who I think should be going out there and releasing their music independently: Nas.
Of course the odds of this happening are nil since Mr. Jones just signed that deal with Def Jam which started with Hip Hop Is Dead. I assume he’s got the money in the bank to produce a whole album and videos, etc., but I may be wrong there. On the I-Just-Heard tip, though, Nas and Green Lantern just dropped the mixtape The Nigger Tape.
With statements like
“This record is about how the older generation looks down on us. … There’s a crew of older black people, [they're] on their way out and we’re on our way up,” Nas said. “It looks like hip-hop n—as is about to make that Oprah money, and that’s scary to them.”
MTV Interview
you’d think that this would also be the prime opportunity to make a statement by doing things differently. Some grass-roots promotion, while still making bank. An artist like Nas doesn’t have to send promo copies, he could get reviews through listening parties to avoid as quick a leak as most artists would have to endure.
Further, I see three distinct advantages to a self release:
1) he could have had the freedom to call it whatever he wanted, and make it a true artistic statement record and not be tainted by Wal-Mart not wanting to sell anything controversial and Al Sharpton being so tight-assed.
2) this could have been that major career moment that he seems to keep striving for yet never quite pulling off, partially in thanks to the free press that he’d be getting for it, more than he even already is.
3) Not only could he do an online release, but the physical level sales could be done in any number of ways, from selective record stores getting Exclusives to guys who sell mix tapes on the street. This could be reverse psychology marketing, make it harder to get to drive up the demand. And hell, if Nas could afford it, he could have released a full studio quality album for free online with the purpose of getting it to as many people as possible, getting his message out there big time.
Luckily for us, though, despite the fact that this will not be happening I think the album will be able to stand on it’s own.
• New Nas Video “Be A Nigger Too”
June 9th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Nas, getting his 25th Hour* on, in the new video for the song “Be A Nigger Too,” off of his self-titled release NaS, formerly known as Nigga, which was originally to be titled Nigger.
Who makes teaser posters for music videos?
The same people who put effort and thought into music videos.
And when did it start that the internet became the place you’d find the best videos first?
Celeb cameos: Larry Gilliard Jr. AKA D’Angelo Barksdale, Andre Royo AKA “Bubbles”, John Cho AKA Harold Lee, Gbenga Akinnagbe AKA Chris Partlow, and James Kyson Lee AKA Ando from Heroes.
* Fuck Dirty Harry, Spike Lee is right, Eastwood’s head is up his ass.
• Precise and Eye-Catching Headlines Regarding Amy Winehouse For The Win
June 9th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
I posted a link to the racism video on Facebook, but this well crafted piece of journalism reiterating the story proved chuckle-worthy. Also: I’m scared that Winehouse won’t live past the end of the decade. See here about that.
Every once in a while, I’ll be scrolling through New News Wire, my RSS reader of choise, when I happen upon a headline I can tell was crafted to catch the eye. Egotastic’s nameless troll of a writer has the blogging style of a very well informed mouth-breather of a stalker of the stars, so if you for some reason or another click around and read more of his posts and are disturbed, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
• 3G iPhone: Utterly “Meh”
June 9th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
It was announced today.
It has a MLB.com application that for some reason doesn’t show you the pitch placement/arc that MLB.com shows you.
It’s cheaper. (But not actually cheap).
It’s faster. (But not as fast as WiFi).
It maxes out at 16 GB (300 bucks).
And It’s not a flying car.
Maybe I’ll get one come Christmas time, but I can wait for this.
• HC.WP.Com’s Shit List
June 8th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Yep, they’ve made it off. Further, this is what happens when I don’t sleep.
• Judging Hillary
June 7th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
… is not a new show on TNT.
1:16 PM: A-. It was a bit late, depending on your P.O.V., but that was a good speech, despite being a bit copy-pasted with it’s many endings. Bill and Hillary, the first Tolkienesque Family. Ran just under a half an hour, though, and could have ended a little stronger.
1:11 PM: “Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward.”
1:09 PM: “We will someday launch a woman into the White House.” – Out of context that’s HILARIOUS.
1:03 PM: New Early Afternoon Drinking Game, a shot for every, “That is why we have to elect Barack Obama our president”
1:02 PM: Yep. She telegraphed that line: “Today I am standing with Barack Obama to say ‘Yes We Can‘,” damn. I didn’t think she was going to borrow the rhetoric this soon.
1:01 PM: Wait, is she going to say …
1:00 PM: Hammering home that it’s about putting a DEMOCRAT in the White House.
12:59 PM: Reminding us that Bill had 2/3 of the democratic presidential terms in the 40 years she’s been in politics.
12:58 PM: “No exceptions, no excuses,” HRC on Universal Health Care (and the one policy difference that we really can remember between her and Barack).
12:56 PM: Holy shit, this is a decent speech. She’s doing her best. I’m happy about this. Happy for her, even.
12:55 PM: “The way to continue our fight is to … do all we can to elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States.” Big applause. Some boos, but BIG APPLAUSE line. She’s used the word suspend, and ENDORSE, and FULL SUPPORT. We know from MSNBC people that suspend is more about the money. “Barack Obama has lived the American Dream,” hot damn what a quote.
12:53 PM: The Invisible Americans line.
12:52 PM: She’s met a lot of people.
12:51 PM: This 18 Million Number, and this list of many peoples who have at one point or another voted for her.
12:50 PM: Talking about an ornery man who voted for her in the place of his dead wife.
12:49 PM: “To the young people,” meaning a 13 year old in this reference.
12:47 PM: They won’t let her talk, all this applause. I wonder how many people there are Obama people. /Snark.
12:44 PM: It’s on. 8-9K there, Hillary, Bill, Chelsea, and Hillary’s mother are there. Reports are saying that she’ll be talking about what’s at risk. That her female supporters who she loves for supporting her have a lot of reason to stop McCain from being elected president. That makes the most sense to me.
In 2 hours, we will have the end of Hillary’s run for the president. I’d taken the week off of Clinton coverage, choosing not to Zapruder her Victory Speech on Tuesday night, and this might be the last you see me talking Hillary on this site.
Unless we see some god awful ridiculous rhetoric out of Hillary, that whole undercutting thing from Tuesday, I’ll be keeping things civil. So what I’m saying is if my rating for the speech runs near “She’s Insincere”-ville, it’ll be dicey. So, follow this post for live updates regarding the speech.
11:55: HRC running at least 10 minutes late. Not sure why.
Noon: She still hasn’t left yet. I’m … not going to say anything yet. The back of my mind has been saying “I’ll believe it when I see it.” I’m starting to wonder if there could be ANY possibility that I won’t be seeing it.
12:15: MSNBC’s Ron Allen says that 1. Hillary’s always late. 2. She’ll be in possibly at 12:45. 3. Her speech shouldn’t be longer than 20 to 30 minutes. So not cool.
• On Their Way …
June 2nd, 2008 § Leave a Comment
> The Kick Ass Week wherein we tie a balloon to the mailbox in SoHo as the universal sign for PARTY OVER HERE, almost the “Good-Bye SoHo” party as I’m on my way to Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
> I’ve owned a few pieces of tech that I’m feeling ready to review (headphones, laptop).
> Review of the amazing McSweeney’s #27.
> I’m about half-way through Grand Theft Auto IV and think I’ll soon be able to issue words.
and finally, tomorrow …
> The end of HRC 2008. The end of my attitude towards it and her. It would be worthless to continue that campaign when we’ve already got the Incredible Crash Dummy himself McCain on the way.
