I’ve mentioned before that I don’t particularly enjoy acapella “freestyles,” but the homey Alex over at Ruby Hornet always picks dope MC to kick verses for his videos. In this edition, Blu recites another crazy verse and Chicago’s own Astonish joins in at the end. If you don’t know, Astonish dropped a great project last year that a lot of you slept on. Check him out here and get familiar.
Barack killed it last night at the Al Smith dinner in NYC. Granted, a staffer obviously wrote his (and McCain’s) jokes, but still, great delivery and too many quotables. Barack’s the man.
Posted in Artists, Videos on October 12th, 2008 by Hyphen
Here’s the full version for Skateboard’s “I’m A PC” commercial. If you ever wondered what N.E.R.D. stands for, now you know. Microsoft and Zune have done a great job linking up with some of the dopest artists out there (shout to Murs & Kidz In The Hall for yesterday’s Zune sponsored show here in Seattle), but it’s going to be tough to convince kids not to go the Apple route. I’ve been a PC user all my life, and while I’ll be keeping my desktop, your boy might be getting himself one of those new MacBook’s next week…
But in all seriousness, this is rather important stuff. For many of us, the Keating Five scandal happened when we were just children. I certainly didn’t know anything about it at the time, and only heard vague references about it before becoming heavily interested in politics a few years ago.
In essence, the behavior and decisions McCain made during this scandal, and even today, make it painfully clear that he is not someone who should have any impact over our economy, especially during a crisis like this. I’m not an economist, but I do firmly believe that there’s a certain level of regulation that you need. The basic Republican tenet of deregulation has been shown time and time again that it’s not beneficial for the country. Simply put, they are awful in all economic matters unless you’re “rich.” May I remind you:
Even if we make every single right decision from here on out, it will take years for us to recover, let alone excel. Obama’s plan and team of economic advisors is head and shoulders above McCain’s, which is why the Republicans have decided to throw the kitchen sink of smears at Barack. It’ll continue to get worse, until McCain completely ruins any sort of positive legacy he has cultivated over the years. But actually, when you look at things like the Keating Five, perhaps his reputation isn’t so sterling after all.
It’d be funnier if the Republicans weren’t really going to steal and deny votes again this election, like they always do. They’ve already started by attempting some incredibly underhanded manuevers with people whose houses have been foreclosed in battleground states, and that’s only the beginning. When you go vote on Nov. 4th (if for some reason you’re not a normal absentee ballot voter), go early, bring all your proper identification, and observe all the rules. We can’t let them pull another Florida on us.
I tried to put y’all up on Fortilive damn near 2 years ago when I put “Stereotypes” on my last mixtape, but now Mush, Slo-Mo, and Illmind are really starting to make their push. In case you still aren’t familiar, peep the video above for a nice introduction to the crew. Be on the lookout for their upcoming mixtape and album, both of which will be fire. Stay up to date on their MySpace page here.
Posted in Artists, Videos on October 3rd, 2008 by Hyphen
You should already know by now, but here’s another clip explaining why you need to cop Jake One’s White Van Music on Tuesday. And for my Seattle people, remember that Jake will be sitting in on Sound Session this week to play the entire album and talk about every joint. Plus, on Monday, we’ll all be at the War Room for the official release party. Ali will also be in the building for a performance. Don’t miss it.
Anyone who knows me in person knows that I’ve been talking about this for a while. As a media studies major, it’s hilarious to watch how predictable the media has become, on both sides. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, an agency like Fox News stoops to new mindblowingly low levels of journalistic integrity. They literally write the headlines they want to see and then just report them, regardless of what actually happened. It’s often said that “history is written by the victor,” and while that will always be true, we now have another form of manipulation blending the lines between fact and fiction.
If I can dictate what happens tomorrow, I don’t have to do anything today. I just make it so. Scary.
By the way, the hour of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report is by far the best thing on television. If you’re not watching these programs on a nightly basis, you’re missing out on the smartest humor out there. I pity the fool.
Even though it’s sarcastic, I just didn’t feel right typing “don’t vote” in the title. Get out there and help make a difference. Washington State people: like they mentioned in this video, some states, including ours, end voter registration on the 4th. THAT’S SATURDAY.
Wow. At this point, every moronic, bumbling, “college kid who didn’t do the reading” answer Palin gives is actually getting scarier and scarier. This person just isn’t informed enough about issues to be a 72 year old, 4 time cancer survivor (who won’t release his full medical records) heartbeat away from being the president. I mean, are you serious? Really? Her as the leader of the free world? This is a joke…right?
The debate tomorrow will be interesting, but the talking points and headlines from the right wing have already been written. Her expectations are so low that as long as she doesn’t pass out on stage, people will claim she did a great job. Also, regardless of how Biden performs, he’ll be called a sexist or condescending. We already know it’s coming, so watch for that spin right after the debate. So predictable.
In truth, if they stick to the issues, it will be clear than Palin (and McCain) is nothing more than empty rhetoric, without any real policies or plans to improve the country. She’ll throw around buzzwords like “reform” and “maverick” and pepper her answers with references to America’s greatness and how to keep us safe from terrorism. Ironically, one of her main attack points will be that Biden has been in Washington too long and she’s the ‘new blood.’ Sadly, he running mate is John McCain. Every attack with that line of thinking could easily be applied to her own presidential candidate, which I hope the pundits will point out after the debate. After all, we are talking about the American public here. We need things to be laid out explicitly for them to understand what they are watching, preferably with a shiny diagram or two.
The bottom line is that this is a ‘change’ election. When the country goes through a hard time, the party in power gets voted out and the other one gets its shot. McCain was running as the ‘experience’ candidate while Barack was the ‘change’ candidate. Once they realized that they would lose this battle all day, every day, McCain’s camp went with Palin and tried to morph into a ‘change’ campaign. They aren’t, but it’s a cute effort, and you’ll see this moronic hypocrisy on display tomorrow night. Don’t you just love our political process?
