The beauty of working an ‘underground’ blog is that you get the standard credentials that allow you to interact with successful mainstream artists AND you get a plethora of submitted work from that next generation of replacements, i.e. the underground itself. Recently I came across some music from a rapper out of Athens, GA called StraightFace. I don’t know much about this cat (his website won’t help you), so I’ll stick to the music here. As this single (below) demonstrates, this artist does not make your father’s sort of hip hop. This isn’t boom bap, backpack, hyphy, trap rap or any other ‘genre’ you have come to identify as hip hop. This music falls outside of the placid margins dictated by industry elites, as indicated by the Tame Impala beat, who’s a self-proclaimed maker of psychedelic hypno-groove melodic rock music. Amidst the instrumental debauchery StraightFace is able to lay down some well placed lyrics with depth; a little God speak, a little ‘I still think about that girl’ talk, and plenty of questioning of purpose. I know this sounds crazy town, but trust me, take the path that is off beaten, mix it with a little of your unique creative interpretation of things and you’ll end up with product worth slanging. StraightFace forever? We’ll see, good start though.
S/O to the man himself, he seems to be doing his own PR, which would explain his persistence on Twitter. Keep your eyes peeled for his forthcoming, debut LP entitled Forever, later this year.
When most of us start something creative, it often ends up in a dirty stack of shameful “wish I had more time” attempts in our basement somewhere. When Flying Lotus starts a song and chooses to leave it unfinished, it gets released via Twitter/Soundcloud and gets 65,000 plays in one day. Forget redistributing wealth in this country, how about we start with doling out ‘cool’ in a more equitable manner, spare time too.
This track is apparently a new remix of Frank Ocean’s “Thinking About You”, fans got pretty upset that this is clearly unfinished. FlyLo went on Twitter to apologize that he was drunk when he released the track and that it will come down soon. Yikes. Stream while you can?
Spaceghostpurrp reminds me of Caravaggio, a braggadocious talent with plenty of genius but plagued by a bi-polar tendency to get irrational quickly. I just so happened to be on his Twitter timeline yesterday afternoon when I saw a tweet about how he was about to delete it forever, followed by a message to “Like” the Facebook page in order to keep in the loop. Needless to say, moments later the account changed to @THISSHITDELETED. So it isn’t actually deleted but his handle changed to indicate his displeasure with Twitter (I’m assuming he was fed up with the plethora of feedback available on the network). Again, I believe this simply reeks of instability, Azealia Banks steez (she reneged and ended up coming back to Twitter).
However, his musical talent and take no shit attitude has entertaining facets. Check out his new feature on Pitchfork’s +1 series to see how hype this Raider Klan despot can get at a show in addition to his take on his relationship with A$AP.
“I’m a Young Black American Woman in 2012. I’m a 21-yr-old millionaire. i don’t have to prove myself to anyone… I’ve already paid my dues. I and the generations of women who came before me have been through enough stress and c**p to warrant me (the new generation) a very illustrious, lucrative, luxurious, STRESS-FREE career & life.”
That was a quote from Azealia Banks on her recent Tumblr activity whereby she pulled the “I’m done with rap” card. Ah, Azealia, Azealia, how uncomfortably predictable of you. She also fired her manager who was also Lady Gaga’s manager and deleted her Twitter account, complaining about how accessible the social media platform had made her. Though this is true for all of us, isn’t it the responsibility of a major label artist to produce said social media content? She complains on her Tumblr about not listening to “bloggers” who don’t have “real jobs” and then rants about how lucrative her manufactured image/brand/music has made her. Maybe it was the recent Kanye West beat hoax where she thought she was getting a Kanye beat and tweeted about it, only to find out it was a no-go. Personally I think she is having a bit of a manic episode, one that will most likely drop into a depressive state, at which point you may see it all Tumblr down. For now, get your “Kunt Fix” at her non-annoying social media locations: Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram.
Remember she’s a self declared millionaire and has an upcoming hip hop/rap mixtape about to be released, oh yeah, also has a world tour commencing. She seems to be doing just fine…
Been dealing with idiots who happen to be older than me. My appreciation for the elderly is waning. Here’s some fucking sonic youth you geriatric has-been.
Recently posted on Havoc’s Instagram page – TheRealHavoc
Mobb Deep dropped Black Cocaine last year and promised their fans a follow up early 2012. Scrap that, Havoc has spent the last 24 hours absolutely going in on Prodigy over Twitter. Havoc keeps referencing a meeting Prodigy was supposed to attend, and is also absolutely convinced that Prodigy has fallen for Rihanna, claiming that the hardened rapper is actually under the impression that he has the inside track on marrying the uber-pop starlet. Either way, for a couple of OG’s who pretty much defined street worthy thuggery for a generation of listeners, the fact that this is taking place on Twitter is tomfoolery. For those of you who think Havoc may have been hacked, he clarified that he wasn’t and also opened up today’s twitter day with ” good morning gay p”. Congratulations guys, you just got nominated for lamest hip hop anecdote of the year. On a side note, these guys love their Instagram, both of them are using that application like it’s going out of style, which it is by the way.
Don’t piss off Havoc, he may just tweet your ass to death.
It’s a wild world of marketing out there now. With attention spans at an all time low and with people being forced to describe things in less than 140 characters at a time, it is amusing at times to see the ‘techniques’ implemented in marketing art, especially new music. Smokey Robotic is some excellent new music, and there was a time when that’s all I would have to say to push this music on someone else. Perhaps a mention of music mastermind !llmind and his three band members would help garner a listen as well. But no, nowadays it’s best to leave it simple, wait for somebody “famous” to tweet about your project, then, wait for it….RETWEET! Meh, in this case it was Lindsey Lohan [see below], which to me is the equivalent of Steve Francis endorsing John Wall as the next great thing, #yesterdaysnews #irrelevant.
However, apparently you can spew vile, drink vodka like Vitamin Water and still have respectable taste, in short, Smokey Robotic is dope and you should consume away, it’s just got nothing to do with Lindsey Lohan, and remember, that’s a good thing.
I find it hilarious when an imagination can run wild when inspired by the tweets of ones favorite rapper. Take Ghostface Killah on Twitter this morning, he clearly is not happy with the fact that he is the only one up and about, ready to work. And I’m assuming that he’s referencing Sheek Louch who may have got a little too faded last night at the Abbey Pub, hence the frustration about their worthless snoring asses. That toilet line is priceless. #followghostfacekillah
Today the majority of my time has been spent examining the various shotguns I could buy for home defense and searching for a new apartment to move into here in the City of Angels. For the most part, it was a succesful day, more so for the shotgun than the abode, nevertheless, the point is I’m finding myself increasingly unenthusiastic with daily story lines in the urban music game. Sometimes when I get this way, my appreciation for artistry drops quickly, even with classic dudes my patience runs thin. For example, something that shouldn’t bug me, but is, was the following retweet by Questlove of a Q-Tip tweet.
Somewhat bothersome isn’t it? Could there be a more archaic and incestuous tweet? Questlove yearning to hear the new Common and Q Tip collaboration, I don’t know, to me it seems trite and just plain old. Shit maybe Nas was right, this rap shit is dead, between the oldies and the new boys you got a lot of dogma and fluff. We shall see. I’ll be back in a studio for the first time in a while with Vers Brown this Friday, recording a track for the upcoming EP. I shouldn’t complain, I should get my JFK on, you know, that whole, “ask not what hip hop can do for you, but what you can do for hip hop”.
New York, New York, how many L’s are you going to take? What has happened to create a world where Soulja Boy can come at one of your most recognizable and successful names, call him a fag, challenge him to written and freestyle battles, and the response is “I don’t have a problem with Soulja Boy”, and then a couple of lame ass tweets? Let’s break this bullshit down piece by piece.
Fabulous, like tons of other people, made some jokes about the Kat Stacks, Soulja Boy drama on twitter. Quotes courtesy of Hip Hop DX:
Fabulous: “Lettin Kat Stacks in ur hotel room alone is #StupidBoySwag.. *All u rappers pay attention, that right there is called#StupidBoySwag* AYYYY”
Kinda funny, but nothing really that memorable. Yet for some reason Soulja Boy took offense and had a lot to say in response:
Soulja Boy: “lol fuck that lame ass washed up rapper named fabolous thats a gay ass rap name anyway”
“I tell you what fabolous get yo weak ass on wax and spit them weak ass bars so I can shit on you boy”
“I will murder that nigga fab in a freestyle battle he garbage compared to soulja boy”
Those are some pretty bold words coming from a person that couldn’t write a verse that would have been acceptable in the 90’s if his life depended on it. Not only that, but from someone who had recently been aired out for being a limp dick premature ejaculator, which is a combination God didn’t even know existed. I mean one or the other isn’t that uncommon, but busting a nut before you get hard? That’s some shit.
Now Fab’s not just from New York, but from Brooklyn. A place that forever has talked about themselves as somewhere where you will be punched in the face for just looking at someone the wrong way. A place that has proclaimed themselves as the mecca of lyricism and true talent in rap. So one would assume that Fab would bring the situation into one of two scenarios:
1. A Physical confrontation. Preferably involving Fabulous himself (I mean Soulja Boy looks like he’d be a maximum of 130 pounds after going on the Super Size Me diet), but most likely involving one his goons, like in the Kat Stacks situation where his brother beats on a girl.
2. A rap beef. Where Fabulous takes these comments as inspiration to finally go off on the talentless fucks that New York has been bitching about for years. And no they aren’t talking about every Southerner Jay Electronica, just the pathetic excuses for MC’s. Fab, as a commercially successful rapper that’s plugged into the major media outlets actually has a golden opportunity to come out with something legit, and be a hometown hero. Prove the value of lyricism and wit on a wide scale.
Whichever path Fabulous chose, he wasn’t going to allow a man who refers to himself as a “Pretty Boy”, and rides around with Lil B, a man who refers to himself as a “Pretty Bitch”, call him gay right? Wrong. Loso did everything short of straight up apologizing to Mr. Tell ‘Em.
You can watch the whole interview if you want, but the important part is this quote about the Soulja Boy situation:
“Everybody knows what Kat Stacks does and what she’s about. It was just funny to me. I just did it out of good humor, I have nothing against Soulja Boy. Soulja Boy’s a talent, he’s young, he’s doing his thing as a young man in this industry…I had a little fun on Twitter, I have no beef with Soulja Boy, hopefully he doesn’t have a personal gripe or beef with me. It’s just in good humor, people joke with me all the time. They have a Fab chipped tooth page of me on Twitter.”
So Holland will be playing Spain in the Final of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa on Sunday. Many people are excited, fans of those respective countries are ecstatic. Hell, Dutch porn star Bobbi Eden is so excited or “opgewonden” in Dutch, that she has blasted out the following tweet to all her twitter followers.
“If #ned wins the #worldcup I will give a blowjob to all my followers,”
Well Bobbi, I hope you stock up on Scope and Tylenol, because there is a good chance Holland takes it all. Talk about an entertaining person to follow on Twitter!!!
Eden’s 5,114 followers had exploded to more than 24,000 by Wednesday and the number is rising at a rate of roughly 1,000 an hour. She’s currently at 46,309! Duh.
Follow the action on Bobbi’s account, sign up, in the name of sport.
It’s become standard operating procedure, Twitter is here to stay, have something to say? Tweet it. It has also become quite the playground of entertainment for celebrity stalking/watching. Most everyone who has an active Twitter account, follows people, and therefore, has a preferential order of tweet significance. For example, my favorite entertainment value tweets come from Pill [@Pill4180], Copywrite [@copywrite], and Mac Lethal [@mac_lethal]. I know a lot of people are in to athletes as well, Ron Artest has a bloody twitter army.
Now we got Mike Tyson [@miketyson]. The possibilities are endless. I can see it now, Mike tweeting shit to Evander Holyfield [@boxingchampion]. Or perhaps just mindless tweets about tiger dung. Either way, welcome to Twitter Mike, time to tweet our ears off.
