January 2009 Archives

The zillionaire time-burglars over at Activision recently announced their latest bid for the zeitgeist, and it's hinged entirely on the universal desire to stand around looking cool. I would pretend like I'm uninterested in this game, but that's so not the case.

Pack up the van, kids. We're going back to Cali!!! Wait, what's that about the economy?

From trusted pundit Stephen Colbert:

"The Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl? They haven't been to a championship since 1947. That's the global equivalent of Spain suddenly ruling the world again."


...In other late night news, collegiate emcee and tangential target, Asher Roth, makes his network debut tonight on "Last Call with Carson Daly." The man is relatively talented and poetic, as evidenced by his obligatory "A Millie" freestyle. Likewise, last summer's Greenhouse Effect  mixtape is worth stashing on a hard drive.

But the single is terrible and we have no reason to believe his forthcoming debut won't be exploitative candy-ass monkey shit for Alpha Chi Omega spring flings. The publicity stills don't help.

Update: Rhymefest explains why he had to ether Chucky.

Lmao. What can I say? 'Fest hasn't been this grimey since his Scribble Jam days.

"Go play Rock Band with Asher Roth."

Rhymefest - Supersonic (Chucky Cheese) (Charles Hamilton diss)

Way before he was catching ire for making mind-numbingly idiotic and racist music videos, Busta Rhymes was one of the most colorful, original members of the New School. In fact, you may recall, he was a leader...

Cheo Hodari Coker, the screenwriter for the recent biopic "Notorious," has signed on to convert the Run-DMC biography into what will likely be a similar movie, albeit set in the 80's, and with three main characters instead of one. 

Since his celebrated, triumphant election, heads have secretly wondered what the Barack Obama age will mean to hip-hop.
Specifically, will a culture so vitally attached to a villainous ruling party in terms of, you know, content, suddenly toe the line and pledge allegiance? And if this happens, won't the music lose its lifeblood? As Nas rattled off for 50 minutes about everything evil on last summer's Untitled, he did so closing on an optimistic footnote about the new guy.
How does one stick it to the man, when the man is, kinda sorta the man?
As this is sorted out internally, one thing is clear, the sudden rise of circular, simplistic white man arguments of this nature:

Obama won, why are you still angry?

Some Madd Rapper shit. There's an army of right-leaning intellectuals finding a silver lining in using the Obama win as an excuse to do away with hip-hop's legacy and impact once and for all. Take today's sensationalist, ill-backed and poorly presented  column by Newsbusters's Tim Graham.
The headline says it all and the piece goes on to attack Russell Simmons' recent NPR interview, using favorite old tricks like quoting N.W.A. out of context.

This isn't so much news, as it as a heavy-handed recommendation to write this guy intelligent hate mail. To serve this guy up proper because it's infuriating that the genre's credibility and significance - especially golden era Cube shit - is still in question. We must protect this house.
That's mail@timgraham.net

Over here at ATG, we have a special kinship with The Great Ghostdeini. So when we reference Tony Starks, we're not talking about a certain blackface-bachelor-turned-Oscar-nominee...

Following a universally ridiculed debut performance in a Vegas night club, Oscar-nominted actor-turned-recluse, Joaquin Phoenix, continues to insist he's serious via his publicist. And what's more hip-hop than setting the streets on fire via your pr firm?
In any case, the prevailing theory is that Phoenix, a painfully self-aware and intelligent actor, is conducting a social experiment and having fun fucking with the media.
You can check the method if you haven't ridiculed it with friends already after the jump.

PREDICTION: I think he's half serious. It's a difficult and deflating exercise to sift through the muddled audio, but I get three or four lines that suggest conscious lyricism. Or at least a noble attempt. Plus the beard recalls the facewear of indie staples like Aesop Rock, Sage Francis and Glue.

Little Brother's forward-thinking starter, Phonte, is hard at work with multitudes of new tracks he's previewing on his Myspace profile. His Foreign Exchange project just released a video as well (after the jump).
In the interim, the man is blessing fans with his Oscar season reviews.
Like most Americans, he's got a hard on for "Slumdog Millionaire." Over here, we're not as enthusiastic about the film, and defer to Slate's Dennis Lim for closing arguments. Anyway, the above breaks down "Seven Pounds," and is, pound for pound, his most entertaining review.

***SPOILER ALERT***

"Seven Pounds" : Will Smith the actor : Willienium : Will Smith the rapper

No, y'all, I am not even sorry for making my first official girl post a delicious pop slice of heaven.

Ever since Kanye declared himself pop, it seems much in the world of legitimately cool music has gone with him.

This video for "I'm Not Sorry," by thecocknbullkid is just another example, in the style of such femmes as Little Boots, Santogold and Kid Sister, of how hooks, infectious beats and fun lyrics are reinventing the art form.

Watch this, you won't be sorry.

There's a headline I never dreamed I'd write. Should I have? Wale, the starting freshman from D.C. and acclaimed mixtape auteur, recently revealed that he's three weeks out from completing recording on his debut album and currently polishing some tracks he did with none other than Dave Sitek of the critically beloved avant-garde outfit, TV on the Radio...

Another posthumous Dilla effort is this week's pick of the litter. But other standouts add to the year's first noteworthy batch of hip-hop releases...

Lykke Li loves hip-hop. Hip-hop loves Lykke Li. Cool. I'm all about inter-genre miscegenation. But doesn't this cover of Rick Ross' Miami classic "Hustlin'" remind you of that drunk, amused white girl at the party who busts a freestyle in front of an equally drunk and amused crowd?

"Most of my friends/ they still deal cocaine." Preach.

Check out Lykke up-close and stone-cold sober in her brand new video for "Tonight" over at Stereogum.

Supergroups are almost always a bad idea. They look fucking terrific on paper, they generate a ton of buzz, and then the album drops and everyone is universally disappointed. BUT, doesn't this tracklist look fucking terrific? (more after the jump)

If you missed it last week, Lil Wayne confirmed the existence of a rock solo LP scheduled for an April 7th release date, leaked a drop-D rock track called "Prom Queen," made the game collectively roll its eyes.