Hmm, strange -- looks like quite a few of my friends are "going grey." Was it something I said?
As an addendum to the previous post, I ended up two days later at the Viper Room to see a group I've been vibing on for some time, Blue Scholars, as the headliner for a breast cancer benefit show. These cats are an MC / DJ duo out of Seattle, WA, and in my opinion, one of the freshest, most mature sounds to eminate out of a Hip Hop speaker in years. The lyrics are engaging, the music is melodic, and the beats are bumping. Kinda remniscent of Pete Rock & CL Smooth with a bit of Public Enemy, KRS-One, and Gang Starr mixed in, THIS is the shit that I love about the music I grew up on, and this is the shit that I so rarely see anymore. It's funny, because I envision this as the Hip Hop equivalent of what ex-hippies who "still have that revolutionary spirit, but also realistically have the mortgage to pay" would listen to. Except these cats are younger than me, and as I've said before, I feel like I'm just getting started. Fuckit, call me old, but I'm on some Blue Scholar jock
. . . and proud of it.
So to see them in a venue as small as where I did was a great geek moment for me. I got to legitimize my fandom by seeing them live, was equally impressed by their stage presence, and even was moved to ask for an autograph.
And I hate asking for autographs. But for those of whom I'm truly a fan, I figure its a nice compliment for the artists as well as a cool geek-out moment for me.
Point to all this being that not only are the elite and exclusive often enh-enh, but so often are the truly exciting "celebrity" moments better with artists and people who have our respect for their talents and abilities, rather than their E!-value or VH-1 noteriety.
That night, I was also exposed to this cat Braille
. . . who did most of his set with his eyes closed. Dude really caught my attention, with some acrobatic wordplay and general comfortability with his image. See, as much as I'm used to whiteboys on stage, dressed in collared, button-down shirts and spitting verses and flexing DJ skills that would make Kool Herc envious, I still think that most American audiences haven't caught on to how much the culture and music of Hip Hop has grown. The shit transcended color lines a long time ago, but now the talent is actually catching up with the "social allowances." So on top of the kid being nice on the mic, he came with his own "real," talking about his love for Jesus and how he was expecting his first child with his wife, who was sitting over in the corner. Now some of you know my short-patience with those who profess too much (borderline bragging) about being born again, but with this dude, it was simply a case of giving a quick, humble shout out. And at the end of the day, you just can't front on someone who knows who they are, which is something that got lost a long time ago when "keep it real" became a far-too-commonplace catchphrase.
This weekend, I also caught these cats, Native Guns
at the Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture. Another crew that caught my attention thanks to Blue Scholars, these dudes caught wreck, even in the face of two blown fuses. I'd only heard about them, but in the same spirit as when I caught onto Jeru the Damaja when he was affiliated with Gang Starr, or Big Pun from Fat Joe, a reference from Blue Scholars was good enough for me. These guys didn't disappint in the least bit.
And like I said, it was all better than a party I couldn't otherwise get into that I didn't otherwise care about attending.
In other news, I'm back in the gym again, this time working out at the newly opened Legends MMA Training Center. Man, there's just no way around it -- I love combat sports. Even as much as I suck at them, I love the grueling excercise and demand for "leaving it all on the mat." I didn't think that four years of horribly bad high school wrestling would lead to this in my life, but I've found that in my 4 years of amateur wrestling, 2 part-time years of pro wrestling, and 3 years of Kempo Karate, my life just doesn't seem complete if I'm not going toe-to-toe, blow-for-blow off against someone. Whether I like it or not, I have a feeling that its going to be a part of my life for as long as I can get up in the morning.
Fighting and Hip Hop - two great tastes that taste great together, I guess.
Yeah, and I still love this girl!
As an addendum to the previous post, I ended up two days later at the Viper Room to see a group I've been vibing on for some time, Blue Scholars, as the headliner for a breast cancer benefit show. These cats are an MC / DJ duo out of Seattle, WA, and in my opinion, one of the freshest, most mature sounds to eminate out of a Hip Hop speaker in years. The lyrics are engaging, the music is melodic, and the beats are bumping. Kinda remniscent of Pete Rock & CL Smooth with a bit of Public Enemy, KRS-One, and Gang Starr mixed in, THIS is the shit that I love about the music I grew up on, and this is the shit that I so rarely see anymore. It's funny, because I envision this as the Hip Hop equivalent of what ex-hippies who "still have that revolutionary spirit, but also realistically have the mortgage to pay" would listen to. Except these cats are younger than me, and as I've said before, I feel like I'm just getting started. Fuckit, call me old, but I'm on some Blue Scholar jock
. . . and proud of it.
So to see them in a venue as small as where I did was a great geek moment for me. I got to legitimize my fandom by seeing them live, was equally impressed by their stage presence, and even was moved to ask for an autograph.
And I hate asking for autographs. But for those of whom I'm truly a fan, I figure its a nice compliment for the artists as well as a cool geek-out moment for me.
Point to all this being that not only are the elite and exclusive often enh-enh, but so often are the truly exciting "celebrity" moments better with artists and people who have our respect for their talents and abilities, rather than their E!-value or VH-1 noteriety.
That night, I was also exposed to this cat Braille
. . . who did most of his set with his eyes closed. Dude really caught my attention, with some acrobatic wordplay and general comfortability with his image. See, as much as I'm used to whiteboys on stage, dressed in collared, button-down shirts and spitting verses and flexing DJ skills that would make Kool Herc envious, I still think that most American audiences haven't caught on to how much the culture and music of Hip Hop has grown. The shit transcended color lines a long time ago, but now the talent is actually catching up with the "social allowances." So on top of the kid being nice on the mic, he came with his own "real," talking about his love for Jesus and how he was expecting his first child with his wife, who was sitting over in the corner. Now some of you know my short-patience with those who profess too much (borderline bragging) about being born again, but with this dude, it was simply a case of giving a quick, humble shout out. And at the end of the day, you just can't front on someone who knows who they are, which is something that got lost a long time ago when "keep it real" became a far-too-commonplace catchphrase.
This weekend, I also caught these cats, Native Guns
at the Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture. Another crew that caught my attention thanks to Blue Scholars, these dudes caught wreck, even in the face of two blown fuses. I'd only heard about them, but in the same spirit as when I caught onto Jeru the Damaja when he was affiliated with Gang Starr, or Big Pun from Fat Joe, a reference from Blue Scholars was good enough for me. These guys didn't disappint in the least bit. And like I said, it was all better than a party I couldn't otherwise get into that I didn't otherwise care about attending.
In other news, I'm back in the gym again, this time working out at the newly opened Legends MMA Training Center. Man, there's just no way around it -- I love combat sports. Even as much as I suck at them, I love the grueling excercise and demand for "leaving it all on the mat." I didn't think that four years of horribly bad high school wrestling would lead to this in my life, but I've found that in my 4 years of amateur wrestling, 2 part-time years of pro wrestling, and 3 years of Kempo Karate, my life just doesn't seem complete if I'm not going toe-to-toe, blow-for-blow off against someone. Whether I like it or not, I have a feeling that its going to be a part of my life for as long as I can get up in the morning.
Fighting and Hip Hop - two great tastes that taste great together, I guess.
Yeah, and I still love this girl!
VIEW 14 of 14 COMMENTS
jj_r0x0rz:
akirali:
He knows him comics and his physics. He's got my vote 