get down: March 2009

Slammed The Child On The Hard Concrete

DJ J-Rocc is one of the illest to ever mix a mixtape. Always a nicely-blended balanced, but wide selection. Case in point Concrete Beats Vol. 1 (click on the pic above).

Pete Rock & CL Smooth-"Back On The Block"
De La Soul-"With Me (inst.)"
Marvin Gaye-"After The Dance (inst.)"
Lou Reed-"Walk On The Wild Side"
A Tribe Called Quest-"Can I Kick It?"
Slum Village-"Players (inst.)"
Soul II Soul-"Back To Life"
Reflection Eternal-"To Late (inst.)"
Coldcut-"Not Paid Enough"
Black Moon-"Who Got The Props (inst.)"
Sugarhill Gang-"Rappers Delight"
JB's-"Givin Up Food For Funk"
JB's-"More Peas"
JB's-"You Can Have Watergate"
Que Dee-"Supa Shit"
Frank N Dank-"Love (A Thing Of The Past)"
Slum Village-"Fall In Love (LP Version / Remix)"
Fatback Band-"Put Your Love"
Kool & The Gang-"Who's Gonna Take The Weight"
Herbie Hancock-"Watermelon Man"
Roy Ayers-"Life Is Just A Moment"
Take 6-"Spread Love"
Mark The 45 King-"Love Beat"
Mobb Deep-"Rare Species"
Guru-"Watch What You Say"
The Beatnuts-"No Escapin This"
Eddie Drennon-"Do What You Gotta Do"
Fela & The Africa 70-"Water Get No Enemy"

Doom's Day

MF Doom's new album Born Like This (J. Dilla, Madlib, Jake One, Doom & Thom Yorke beats):

Why Utada Hikaru Will Never Be Big Outside Of Japan

Because whoever is representing her here in the United States is blowing it out of their a$e$. I love Utada, her sound and voice are so unique and special. Deep River was a life changer for me. And even though her English albums aren't as strong, they are solid enough to have a strong following, especially in Hawaii and Los Angeles where there are large Asian populations (First Love made the charts in Hawaii). But her promotion sucks. And whoever is on her US "team" should try another career. They should be fired and standing in the unemployment line.

Case in point: On our way to her listening "party" this past Tuesday at Hollywood and Highland, we were listening very intently to 102.7 KISS FM (the pop wasteland station in LA), as they were one of the sponsors of the event. Within the hour and half in traffic listening, we heard 1, yes 1, 30 second plug for the event that the announcer sort of mumbled through once. Way to go Team Utada! And that was just the beginning. We got there at 5:30pm, the event starts at 6pm. The line is about 50 people deep. An announcement is made that 100 people are sure to get in. As we wait the line continues to grow around the corner. Maybe 100-150 people there. Then a grip of "RSVP" people start showing up and are immediately let in to Sephora.

(Brief side note) A listening party at Sephora, a cosmetics store! As Donald Trump says, "You're fired." I've been to a few listening parties including Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, Common's Finding Forever and Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple and none of them have been at such a sh*t location. Fired!

Back to the story at hand, there was no mention of RSVPing anywhere that I could see and I am both a member of her fan club and myspace group. Email notices here. TAKE OFF IMEEM??????????????????????????????????????????????????

So they probably let in about 80 people who have RSVPd. Then an announcement is yelled by a bunch of different ex-gang-bangin'/Cholo-lookin' wannabe-mall-cops that they will only let in about 20 more people. Everyone else (about 80+ people), thanks for waiting for an hour or more, but time to "go home, shop, eat...I don't really care, you just can't be standing here because it's a fire hazard." But as we all know, fans can be hardcore, especially Asian ones. So it took a while for people to actually start dispersing and then when they did they just hung around in front of the store to at least hear the album a little. Can you really blame them, even if it isn't worth listening to. While they were doing this, mind you it is a Tues. night so no one is out, and all the "La Eme" rent-a-cops keep shouting, "YOU CAN'T STAND HERE!!!", "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH, I KNOW YOU DO!!!", "YOU ARE TRESPASSING AND WE WILL ARREST YOU." Good public relations Team Utada. So about 100 or so disappointed hardcore fans got nothing. And some of us lucky ones, like me, got this stupid promotional flyer (pictured above) for the event that we couldn't even get in.

Yes, the rent-a-cops upset me. But ultimately, the fault falls on the artists themselves, as they are the ones who pick their team. The team are the ones who decided to have Sephora as the venue. The team are the ones who decided to have KIIS "promotion". The team are the ones who decided on the Hollywood & Highland rent-a-cops. And again, the team was hired by the artist or the artist's manager. Either way the ultimate decision goes to the artist. SO TO UTADA, THANKS FOR A "GREAT" MEMORY. AS A FAN (AN EX-FAN NOW) WHO LIVES OUTSIDE OF JAPAN AND WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE ABLE TO SEE YOU PERFORM, THANKS FOR EXCLUDING US. AND IF YOU ARE HAVING A CONCERT THE NEXT TIME I DO GO TO JAPAN, I'D RATHER CLEAN THE TOILETS IN THE SUMO'S LOCKER ROOM. LOVE THE NEW HAIR, YOU LOOK LIKE SOMEONE ELSE.

[MP3] Utada Hikaru :: First Love through Ultra Blue albums

[MP3] Utada Hikaru :: Heart Station

[MP3] Utada Hikaru :: Exodus

[MP3] Utada Hikaru :: This Is The One

Arigato Utada!

::MH::

Music Is Back!!!

Just click on the pic. Nomak's Muziq & Foto. Something to yoga-out to (banner are you scared of yoga?). More good music to come!

Movement 102: Skanking

A Woman's Work

A woman's influence is strong.

::MH::

Who Is It?

Lot's of controversy surrounding the Michael Jackson concert in London. I thought something was shady when I got an email notice from them (I signed up at MJ's fan club, just in case I got lucky) saying that I didn't get a password for the first round of tickets (and that it also went from 10 shows to 30 shows). And then I accidentally missed my email with the second password in it. So I missed the boat (I don't know how I missed it, but it turns out I might be lucky that I did). Then I get another email saying that the presale for the 45 shows is over. 45 shows??!?!!?! Can somebody please explain to me how that is even possible? Then I hear that there is some issue about them selling most of their presale tickets directly to scalpers to increase the price of the tickets, in which Viagogo (England's Ticketmaster) is suing AEG Live (the concert organizers). Wait, it gets better. The icing on the cake is that the MJ at the press conference when they announced this comeback tour, was an impostor. A la MF Doom? Now I can understand that this could be a brilliant press stunt, but then I hear that he has been having health issues as well? And that AEG only has 10 shows covered by insurance?

45 shows + health issues + fake MJ = good thing I missed that presale email. But I am sad that I may never be able to see MJ live.

::MH::

Listening To Lil' Wayne Makes You Dumb?

Not that this surprises me much, because I listen to Sufjan a lot. But I thought listening to jazz made you smarter?

::MH::

Getdownnn Radio OG

How did the posse go from this:

to this???

We're all for change, but sometimes you got to leave the leopard-skin tights at home. This is for the OG's sportin' those baggy khakis, Cons & ropes.

Iraqi Debo

The King Of Pop FOR SALE

Times are still tough, but if you got some extra cash in your sofa, you can always buy yourself Michael Jackson's llama or oxygen chamber. Click on the pic above to see more of the items on auction in April by Juliene's in Beverly Hills. He will also be making his final performance in London this summer. Remember the time when MJ was The Man?