December 2008

Derek Luke steps into the rap game in his new role as Sean "Puffy" Combs in the biopic Notorious about the late rapper B.I.G.

By Dominga Martin

On January 16th the world will see Derek Luke as they never have before-dancing, rapping and getting jiggy...or shall I say, Diddy?

When the buzz hit the street that Mr. Luke was cast as hip-hop mogul "Puffy" in the film Notorious, I had my doubts. After all, Derek Luke is a serious actor isn't he? Does he have what it takes to play one of the rap industry's biggest hype men? Yes! After reviewing the film, Mr. Luke had my vote, along with a few other cast members who add to the ensemble of this highly anticipated biopic.

Director George Tillman (Soul Food) takes us inside the real life tale of Brooklyn rapper Christopher Wallace (AKA Notorious B.I.G.).

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The Goon Trax website is one of the slowest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And on top of that, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of content therein. Apart from that, it’s nice. But you know what? Their website being nothing less than aggravating is made up for by the label’s 2008 releases. Check out Tha Connection for proof of that.

But there are other folks having their music released by the Japan based Goon Trax. Awon is one of them.

You can take a listen to a few tracks from Awon’s Beautiful Loser (I know there really doesn’t need to be another work with that title – but listen) over at Rhymehouse.

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There seem to be more and more notable festivals cropping up not just all over the country, but all over the world.

One of the most prestigious festivals – which is a funny description of a beverage soaked, drug fueled week – takes place every year in Austin, Texas. While not generally thought of as a bastion of liberal thought and music, Austin is basically engorged with college students and music folks. Even the early ‘90s film Slacker was filmed there.

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Miles Davis has been interpreted by musicians in every genre. Even before his death this was occurring, so there’s not a good reason for it to stop now.

At first mention of remixing Miles, I instantly think of the Bill Laswell disc Panthalassa (The Music of Miles Davis 1969-1974). On that offering, producer Laswell uses only tracks from the electric period of Miles’ career. The disc ends up sounding similar to any live Miles recording from the ear – it’s loud, funky, ambient and abrasive all at once, which is a pretty incredible feat.

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One of the most amusing and consistent rappers in the game at this point is Del the Funkee Homosapien (aka Teren Delvon Jones). The Bay area based rapper has taken the Heiro name and spread it world wide. Oh yeah, he’s Ice Cube’s cousin too. And most recently he worked with El-P, a NYC based supa-producer and emcee, to release 2008’s Eleventh Hour. It was his first disc in nearly eight years and perhaps because of that, there was a great deal of built up pressure to release a classic. So, that disc wasn’t as well received as some may have expected – myself included – but Del still has the Gorillaz, right? Right.

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Everyone’s busy during the holidays, but some more so than others.

Freeway, after he’s wrapped up his holiday shopping, has promised to release a new track everyday for the month of December. And so far he’s kept his word. Right now, we’re obviously 23 days deep into his campaign with just over a week left.

Is there going to be a special edition for Christmas and New Year’s? We have to wait to find out. But until then you can head over to 2 Dope Boys for all of the posts.

Accompanying each post is usually a picture, but a few are paired with video. So far, my favorites gotta be Freeway’s freestyle from DJ Green Lantern’s show. Somehow he’s able to rap non-stop for a ridiculously long time. He trades off verses with Young Chris, but the video clocks in at about fifteen minutes.

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The Smoking Section just had its seven millionth page view. It probably has to do with the wide ranging and in depth coverage of anything and everything hip hop related.

And you know what else is hip hop related? Getting high. There’s really no way to get around that one at all. And if that’s something that you find near and dear to your heart, then just wait until tomorrow for the second installment of Mythblazers.

What’s Mythblazers, you might ask? Well, friends rapper Curren$y hosts a web based show about how to get high under difficult circumstances. There’s been a time, when you’ve been ready to smoke, but are left without any normal means to do so.

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One of my favorite rap discs from the ‘90s is the self titled Haiku d’Etat release. That group, and their lone disc, sported Abstract Rude, Mikah 9 and Aceyalone. Notably, the later two were at one time a part of the all too short lived Freestyle Fellowship, whose lone proper album released in the early ‘90s is still name checked if anyone talks about underground hip hop long enough. As a whole it’s not quite to the level of 36 Chambers or Illmatic, but some of the raps come pretty close.

Mikah 9, though has changed his name to the eerily similar Myka Nyne. That probably doesn’t demarcate some deviation in style – it just has some the letter ‘y’ in it now – that’s all.

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If not for Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets (of course) hip hop would look drastically different than it does today. Rap might utilize totally different source samples. It might not have the same potential ability to affect politics and society. It might just be totally different. Without The Revolution Won’t Be Televised and the rest of Scott-Heron’s catalog, the course of American music might be drastically changed. It’s just not something that one would really want to consider seriously.

Scott-Heron has always been a voice to be heard over the din, but recently that voice was quieted with the news of his father’s death. Gil Heron was 86.

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Emcee and producer Sole has had a rather remarkable decade. His label, Anticon, has risen to the vanguard of underground hip-hop amidst his innumerable album releases.

The underground though can be divided up into two categories – and for the most part it seems that this division can be guided by race. Really in this day and age that’s pretty ridiculous, but if you’ve ever been to a show by an Anticon crew member, the audience is overwhelmingly white. That’s not good or bad – but I guess than that Anticon is at the vanguard of white, underground hip-hop.

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There isn’t anything to dislike about P.O.S. And his new album Never Better, on Rhymesayers, which is to be released February 3^rd, probably won’t be too bad. There’s even a sneak preview of the track “Goodbye” for download.

The production is without question above boards and the raps aren’t in the least boring. But like most of the Rhymesayers stable, there really isn’t too much to set P.O.S. apart from the rest of the rap world. His back story – playing in punk bands – is rather interesting. But again, unfortunately it doesn’t necessarily translate into good raps.

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