And Ryan Reynolds just extinguished it…you have to be efffing KIDDING ME!
Arguably my favorite superhero of all time (depending on what mood I’m in) finally gets his own movie. And it stars a guy who was the Hollywood blueprint for Dane Cook when he was still accepting friend requests on MySpace after a show at Tulane University. Kill me now.
I want to live in that room
Sadly, Dan Deacon didn’t make either my nor Douglas’ list 
New music from my Rap Pack brethren, 2ew Gunn Ciz aka The Rap Vinny Chase of YBME Entertainment. The Designer Drug EP is a 9 song collaboration with Brizzo of “Big Man” fame as well as “Changes Made” off Nico’s Dinner is Served mixtape (still available for free to your right!).
And like all good product, it’s backed by 2 Dope Boyz. GET IT NOW!
Unlike most people, I haven’t been terribly distraught over Michael’s passing last week. I missed yesterday’s lavish memorial service, though the good folks on Twitter gave me minute updates on who was doing what.
Like most 80’s babies, Michael was a MASSIVE part of my childhood, from rehearsing the dance moves to “Thriller” in my living room to bringing my VHS copy of Moonwalker to Catholic school any time we had Movie Day planned in advance (I was so steadfastly bringing in my copy of Moonwalker to grade school that a classmate, who I later bumped in to in college, first remembered that about me after not seeing me for over a decade). I played the “Moonwalker” arcade ad nauseum at the Harrisburg East Mall anytime I would go visit my relatives in Steelton, PA. I used to do drawings of Michael’s phoenix chestplate from the “Remember the Times” video on all my made-up comic book heroes I would craft in the back of class in 5th grade. And you bet your ass I wanted to kill those select few kids who were lucky enough to have the “Beat It” jacket in South Philly, riding around their bikes, feeling bigger than the world.
With all of that said…I still feel no sympathy or sadness over Michael’s passing. I think it’s because he broke my heart so many times over the past 15 years that I was almost glad he moved on to a better place. The child molestation accusations, the weird two-night ABC special on him from earlier this decade in which he came off as an aloof shopaholic, the Thriller remake album which featured Fergie, Akon, and will.i.am…I mean, there wasn’t much to root for post-Dangerous. When I think about the resurgance of Prince after he squandered the mid 90’s and early 00’s, it made me upset at Michael that he was almost caught up with things that were beneath him–publicity spats, baby mama drama, collaborating with much lesser talents on new materials. This is how it must feel to grow up rooting for Barry Bonds–and then his head becomes the Epcot Center. Sure, he’s still arguably the best, but the most recent memories are taitned.
Fair or not, Michael was the king. Now that he’s gone people are blogging and remixing and tweeting and actually going to record stores and empyting the Pop/Rock bins under “J”. It’s incredible. My question is: if Michael meant this much to so many people’s lives, where were they the past 10 years? Maybe they became numb to the public spectacle of MJ, the seemingly endless potshots thrown at him by comedians and talk show hosts every 6 months. Maybe they just didn’t like the newer music he was making–2001’s Invincible didn’t make much of a dent and that Thriller remake is better left unacknowledged. Whatever the reason, I am happy that the man’s music is being celebrated once again because let’s face it–looking at the list of tracks Michael has cut is like looking at the starting roster for an All-Star team.
I’ve been listening to Michael’s work constantly with a new excitement. We all know every nuance to “Billie Jean” and “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”, arguably the two greatest dance songs ever made–but what about “Get on the Floor”, a rare non-top 10 hit off of Off the Wall?
Since you are all smart and internet savvy, I’m posting my personal MJ playlist compiled the past few days cherry picked from various blogs that have paid a much more fitting and extensive tribute to the King than I ever could. Since Michael’s music will be in our ears the rest of our lives, it’s only right to start embracing every inch of his catalogue now.
Rest in peace, Mike!
1. “Pretty Young Thing (U-Tern Edit)” Michael Jackson
2. “Remember the Time (Siik Remix)” Michael Jackson
3. “I Wanna Be Where You Are (Jackson 5 cover)” Erykah Badu and The Roots
4. “Baby Be Mine” Michael Jackson
5. “I Can’t Help It” Michael Jackson
6. “Leave Me Alone” Michael Jackson
7. “Rock With You (Cookin Soul Notorious B.I.G. Mashup)” Michael Jackson
8. “Maybe Tomorrow” Jackson 5
9. “The Way You Make Me Feel” Michael Jackson
10. “Human Nature” Michael Jackson
11. “Get on the Floor” Michael Jackson
12. “You Are Not Alone (Viking and CJ Milli Shooting Stars Tribute)” Michael Jackson
My first entry for iStandard is a piece on the Mighty Mos Def, something I was all too eager to write last month when The Ecstatic dropped. In case you didn’t see my post on Mos for his Verse of the Year Nominee for “Auditorium” (which I would in retrospect swap out for “Revelations”), the Boogie Man has returned to form in 2009 with a solid-and-almost-spectacular LP that hasn’t left the Rocca Mobile upon its purchase.
50 Cent has never made a great video. Coming out in 2003 with the buzz he had from mixtapes, the underdog card he used again then-NYC giant Ja Rule, and the intoxicating story of catching 9 shots and surviving didn’t need much more than a couple takes of him jogging in an Aftermath lab to take him to the next level.
Today, 50 Cent made a GREAT video. It’s 2009. His album Before I Self Destruct has been pushed back further than Phil Jackson’s hairline. Outside of a 2 month roast of Officer Ricky and the release of his new street LP War Angel, Fiddy hasn’t had much of a leg to stand on in a world where hip hop sangas like Drake are becoming the new wave.
Hence, the above video for “Okay, You’re Right”
My first impression: Curtis looks like the freaky clowns from the classic 90s horror flick “Killer Klowns From Outer Space”
Historically, 50 has worked best when his back was against the wall. Because he’s more of a business man than an artist, he needed his pockets to take a beating before he stepped up his artsy fartsy side. This video would not have been made if G-Unit was still rolling in sales and popularity a la 2004. And that’s excellent because 50 had to devise a new way to get our attention.
Apparently this video is a take-off on an underutilized award winning commercial “Carousel” which is pretty unnerving and excellent in its our accord. If Kanye was gangsta, this is a move he would’ve made with Michel Gondry. Here’s the original commercial:
For the first time since I graduate college, I’m excited for 50 Cent material. I can even enjoy the irony of a cameo from Tim Thomas in the video, since he, like 50 in his updated “Point Break” bank robbery moment, is a thief who has pillaged several NBA teams often with vicious and despicable methods of criminology (if only Timmy would’ve worn a clown mask, the fans of the Knicks and Clippers could get past the apathetic, multi-million dollar sucking he’s given them). Even the” frozen in a glow stream of chalk lines with Matrix-like camera shots” are well placed considering Large Professor did an entire dope-ass video with that effect last year:
The actual song is “Ok You’re Right” is totally secondary, and no 50 video would be complete without death threats, boasting about his millions, and honies in a club holding champagne (though those bottles look like VO5 more than anything else). And if 50 sell a million copies of his new album, he’ll have no incentive to be artistic and striking and out of the box ever again. At least we can enjoy this moment, where hip hop’s richest goon is dressed in a clown mask rapping in a chimney.
One of the unseen bonuses of making an album like The Slow Twilight is that not only will casual rap fans clown you in the comment section of 2 Dope Boyz (at least their listening), but literary fools will want to dissect the freaky nuances and moments of unadulterated geekery on the album with you.
Brandon Soderberg at No Trivia is one of those literay fools, and I say “fool” as a term of endearment a la Ice Cube circa 1992. I’m very flattered to have this album receive such glowing praise, and, well, a whole helluva lotta words describing it.
A choice excerpt from the analysis of “No Resolution”:
Sampling the hyper-recognizable or the unexpected is a welcome trend returning to hip-hop as of late and Shadowboxers’ Blurry Drones (Douglas Martin) is particularly artful at finding something simultaneously new and traditional in the debauched whine of the Velvet Underground’s “Venus In Furs”. Neither intimidated by such a legendary song nor interested in destroying it beyond recognition, Martin keeps enough of the Velvets’ musical DNA in there to make it a sort of jazz-like riff on the original (like say, Charlie Parker doing “White Christmas”) and something wholly different. And Zilla extends the inscrutable paranoia of the original (named after a Austrian S & M novel) to the very current, the very modern day–the universal.
I think I'm goin' cray-zee!
Had to chill from the Shadowboxers press kick in order to let you know that Alchemist completed the greatest interview of 2009. It’s like Hunter Thompson + ODB + flippant Bob Dylan of the mid 60’s + Sun Ra + Bobcat Goldthwait.
An excerpt:
Q: You’re doing interviews all day. How do you prepare for that?
A: I think of the dumbest shit that I can possibly say and then I practice. I usually do that for two hours and then I do a running high five to the mirror a few times. Practice my game face and do a couple of sit-ups and handstands and cartwheels, just the regular calisthenics that I can do inside my apartment and really, really psyche myself out for the crazy, next level questions that are going to be thrown at me, kind of like a little sparring thing you do with yourself, get ready for the jab and the uppercut of questions.
BRAVO, Al!!!!
And here’s my pick thus far for video of the year: Alchemist & Oh No “Under Siege” from their upcoming Gangrene project
Artwork by Danielle Zarrella
Artwork by Danielle Zarrella
5 O’Clock Shadowboxers
The Slow Twilight (Sharebee link)
*******
Digital liner notes (because my inner record geek won’t let me go to bed just yet).
For everyone who’s been asking, well here we are! For those who just caught wind of this album the past few weeks from the good folks running the blogs who posted some songs and videos, please…take off your shoes and cool out for a minute. A geisha girl will be by shortly with a cigar and Sunny Delight.
Today marks the 8th official release for Beat Garden Entertainment since our inception in 2006, and I must say this one was the Big Kahuna Burger. That isn’t a slight to the previous LPs, EPs, and mixtapes we’ve released the past 3 years–it’s just that album was finished waaaay back in January of this year, and it’s available to you today, June 23, 2009. That’s a bit dubious for a free internet download, no?
Then again, nothing about this album has been orthodox. My collaborator Doulgas Martin reached out to me in December 2007 with the track “High Noon” after enjoying some of the songs I had posted on Passion of the Weiss as a contributor to my column The Beat Generation. Since then, we’ve been lucky enough to craft an album that is frankly the antithesis of summer. And by “lucky”, I mean we have awful timing.
Douglas and I have never met. We have never even talked on the phone. But this being the Digital Age and all, why the hell should simple human contact stop two people on two separate coasts from making a noir-hop album based on samples of skinny white guys mashing up lo-fi guitars?
Hence, The Slow Twilight.
If you’ve enjoyed my previous solo outings or my work with my brother Nico the Beast in our group Clean Guns, this album might throw you for a curve. And that was the point–to do something challenging and terrifying with little to no regard for what people might say or think or blog or “like” on Facebook.
I do “like” People Falling Down Stairs on Facebook, for the record.
It was really difficult writing this album. Some songs were done in a day. Some took more than 3 months to write. And some were being re-recorded and transformed just days before the final deadline. But it was all done for the sake of a quality hip hop album that sounded like nothing before it. I don’t have enough ideas in my head to flood the internet with four songs a week, so if you’ve been a fan for a while, I truly appreciate your patience. I’ve put a lot of things on hold to see this album all the way through because I believe in the quality of the material. The feedback has been tremendous from the gate and the comments from people really made me feel like this album was tapping into something cool while we were waiting to get it in to your hands.
Wait…where was I?
Oh yeah–European socialism. It’s really taking shape since the late 1990’s and it’s not just for hip—oh wait.
Yeah.
Writing The Slow Twilight.
Who really cares?
Honestly.
You don’t.
You’ve already downloaded the damn thing and it’s sitting on your desktop just WAITING to be dragged onto your iTunes, and you have 3 other windows open, and you’re tweeting from your cell.
WELL SO AM I, DAMMIT!!!!!
Jokes aside, this is the THANK YOU segment (feel free to skip ahead if you’re a heartless wench who just wants free crap). This album would not look and sound and be as available as it is without the extensive labors of our publicist Jonathan Kim (it’s truly been an honor to work with you), our good friend Jeff Weiss who A&R’d the damn thing (you should’ve signed us to that “1995 Bad Boy contract” and caked forever off this thing), our wonderful graphic artiste Danielle Zarrella who banged out the striking artwork in record time (I still owe you one for “Tropic Thunder” tickets), our tireless video director Henry Choi who concocted “Weak Stomach” seemingly high off peyote and killed it regardless, our young bol photographer Jimmy Giambrone (I might have to buy you another cheese steak at London after this is all done–great work as usual, Jimbo!), my business partners and best friends Big O and Nico the Beast, who supported this project from day one even when it made no frickin sense and now look like eccentric geniuses because, well, they are, ALL of the bloggers, writers, critics, etc. who helped spread the word about this album, past, present, and future, and the good folks at Wawa and Netflix, the true pillars of this project during the recording of this album.
Most importantly, I want to thank God, my entire family, my friends, and all of the artists I admire because they’ve both made me realize I’m just a goofy vessel for their energy, their inspiration, their will, their patience, their work ethic, their creativity, and their penchant for fart jokes.
Finally, this album was inspired by all the good and the bad events that marked my life from 2007-2008. If you were around during any part of that time, then there’s a small piece of our interactions somewhere in this album. Believe me.
I’m not just saying that.
Seriously.
It’s not a hoax to make you listen to the whole thing, though that would be nice.
Honestly.
I went to Catholic school for 12 years–I’m trustworthy and pious.
Take my word for it.
I’m typing this on a blog. What more do you need?
-Stephen “Zilla Rocca” Zales
June 23, 2009
12:01 am
33jones.com Presents: BRING ME THE REMIX OF ZILLA ROCCA!
Nico the Beast: DINNER IS SERVED VOL. 1
Streets Is Talking