Blondes. Schwing.

Lykke Li. I officially add you to my list of Blondes. It's a small list. But you're there.

Ps I saw her live once, and she.can.get.it.

Get SoMe.

She was-HARDLY-acting Naughty.

I hate stupid bitches. Correction: I hate ignorant bitches. I'll never hold it against someone that they are not as smart as others, but ignorant.birds. are god's plague to society.

Those are the bitches that'll fight your ass in the mall over some Mrs. Fields Cookies.

Those are the bitches with kool-aid hair that'll put down an umbrella as their marker for that long ass Megabus line from NYC to DC. But really, in other non stereotypical ways, ignorant bitches are really people (doesn't have to be a female) who are just dumb, and don't even try to not be dumb.

They're all up in the mix when they don't even know who you're talking about. They're talking behind the back of people they JUST met. They're getting in all sorts of stuuupid relationship/sexual situations and can't even blame it on the al-al-al-al-alcohol. And essentially, they act really, really, really new about the whole thing.

As you can tell, it's hard for me to completely form this idea, so here are some great Atlantinians who did it for me. And for all you ignorant birds:

I know you like to think your shit don't stank, but lean a little bit closer

you'll see

roses really smell

like boo-boo.

s.b. : Mighty fine only got you somewhere half the time. And the other half it either got you cussed out or coming up short.

FEATure--today is hero day: Nicki Minaj

This has taken me some time to realize, acknowledge, admit to myself, and admit publicly but:

I LOVE NICKI MINAJ

I know, this doesn't make me special or revolutionary BUT if you know me (which if you're reading this, there's a good chance you do) you would know that I am a huge cynic. Like gigantic. Seriously, I should switch to Gallatin and major in Cynicism with a minor in Being a Bitch (it could probably happen considering someone majored in "Keeping it Real"). On top of being a cynic, pop-culture critic, and some sort of queer-feministy activist, when I first heard of Nicki Minaj I was not impressed. I mean, most I knew about her is something about being some sort of bicurious and that she somehow knows how to put "pussy on your sideburns" which, quite frankly, I don't think anybody wants. So I was all like "Here we go, some trick-ass bird hoe pretending to make out with girls in order to get media attention and is just a useless siliconed up failure of a Black woman". (Harsh? I said I'd minor in Being a Bitch.)

And then a few things happened...

1- I saw her performance in the video for Trey Songz's blah song about alcohol blah blah "Bottom's Up". I think I read on pitchfork or COS something about how Minaj's performance was the only thing of interest in the video, and after watching the video I agreed.

2- I saw the video of her performance at the VMA's and was like "I don't know what the HELL that was, but I really liked it!"

So at this point I was all like, "I respect her. She's in a pretty monotonous, unexciting radio-driven industry right now where no one is really doing anything and instead of just being a trick-ass hoe bird doing trick-ass hoe bird shit, she's really trying to bring fun and creativity and some craziness to her 'ish. She recognizes she's gonna have to sell her sex and her body to get the spotlight, but once she has it she's gonna try to do something different too. Props to that neo-feministy hustle. Work it girl."

3- I listened to Monster. I was givin' the bitch respect but I still wasn't trying to show love or anything. My good friend told me I should listen to Monster because Minaj's verse on it is incredible. And I was all "Nahhhh". And then she was like "You don't understand, when I'm running and that song comes on it's her verse that gives me the strength to finish that last mile!" Now, this is the same girl who told me that she also imagines Beyonce's thighs to motivate her while running so I was taking that with a grain of salt, but I listened to it anyway. And thats when I fell in love. Not only does she flip between like, idk, 30 different characters during her verse, but she brings the most energy, game, and power on a track flooded with some of the toughest dudes in hip hop. Somehow between Kanye West, Jay Z, and Rick fucking Ross, Minaj not only has the ILLEST FLOW on the track but does the most creative and impressive thing with an awesome beat (seriously, the best thing any of the other rappers do with it is maybe Kanye's hook...snore) I honestly fast-forward 3:35 seconds into the song for her part every time I listen to the track. You should do the same.

Now look at what you just saw this is what you live for ahhhh, I'm a motherfuckin Monster!

So there you have it. I love Nicki Minaj. No matter what boring ass beat, bomb ass beat, stupid ass video and theme, or live performance demand is thrown her way, she makes it 100% entertaining and enjoyable, and does so with an impressive amount of talent.

People give her a lot of shit because she doesn't give a lot of credit to her foremothers of Hip-Hop. I'll do it for her. The first thing I thought about when I saw that VMA performance was Missy. Missy was by far and perhaps still holds the title for being the most creative, grotesque, in your face, zany female (or arguably male) MC. And then there's Lil Kim, the original "Black Barbie", Foxy Brown, etc. They were definitely great but I have to ask....when is the last time we had one of them around? Arguably, a decade. I would say it's been near a ten years since we had a fresh female MC all up in our faces the way they were and the way Nicki is now, and that may be the reason she doesn't spend a whole lotta time throwing props their way: because they had their time, stopped, and now the moment is hers. No one else is doing it, and I will go ahead and say she deserves her shine.

She is one of the handful of current artists that truly inspire me, and I never thought a "hood-rat-ass-trick-bird" would do that. So cheers to Nicki Minaj, and if you're still trying to hate....just give up.

"Haters you can kill yourselves"--Nicki Minaj, "Check it Out".

FEATure- today is hero day: Jay Z

I rap.

No no-, it surprises me too that this housedj/black-soul-hipster-lookin- chick actually drops some verses and I will publicly announce now that the rapper who has been most influential to me is Jay-Z.

Idk what that does to my street cred or my music snobbery cred, but I'm going to explain. I grew up in the 90s....that use to make me young and my memory of pop culture and pop history insignificant but I don't think that's the case anymore. Furthermore, I grew up in the hood/ a predominantly working class-middle class Black neighborhood of a super segregated New York State city with two very older siblings who were driving by the time was I was walking. Likely, with a single-parent working mother, when I wasn't with my grandma I was with my siblings-- in their cars, with their friends, in the house; being exposed to whatever radio, cassettes (90s!), or music videos they played and watched. It was all hip-hop and R&B, so as I child, before I grew a musical identity of my own, I continued to listen to what they listened to and watched the videos they watched. The artists behind these songs, at least the hip-hop ones, that I remember were Big Pun, Foxy, Missy, and Jay Z.

*(I missed tupac and biggie, and I ain't gonna front like I ever tried to catch up. I didn't. It's just the way it was for me)*

Jay stuck out the most. I'll try and regain some cred by saying that the prime of J's musical careers were the albums he came out with during my childhood (Reasonable Doubt to the Black Album). These are the albums people think of when we call him one of the best rappers of all time. When I was 11 and 13 I ordered the Blueprint, Jay-Z: MTV Unplugged and The Black Album from a CD catalog that was the way to order CDs before Apple was more than a fruit and Amazon existed. Can't tell you how many times I listened to them, how much I heard bits of myself in songs like Dec. 4th, can't tell you how much I appreciated, learned from, and absorbed J's flow on the tracks, how much I escaped to or understood the stories painted in these albums.

Many communities don't get voices...sometimes its problematic to have rappers, rap, hip-hop, and pop-hop as it's become to be the voice of urban, black, or youth communities. But during that time period, Jay was the voice of my community. And he did it with class.

Yes, class, though hip-hop can be seen as a sort of classless art form. What's expected from an artistic tool used to discuss a dirty, grimy, dark lifestyle and existence? It's a heavy burden to do that and do it well and many rappers fail and many rappers get lost and many rappers don't even try and abandon that tradition, one that was started when the first boats arrived from Africa so when a rapper does do it well-- you can feel it.

But enough philosophy. J painted my childhood until I got to the point where I abandoned hip-hop for music that made more sense to me at the time. And although there were a few more rappers that also grabbed my attention before I left (Luda, Nelly, Missy, Busta...), whenever I sat down to tell a story, to release something--it came out in rhyme and in the form of a rap verse and I always had Jay- Z in the back of my mind.

And that's just my story, but I don't know a whole lot of other music lovers who don't have a solid Jay-Z track in their catalog of 50 best songs of their memory. But more than just the far-reaching potency of his music, what must also be respected is Jay-Z's business sense. This dude has done some serious, serious, entreneurship. He's built an empire of record labels, basketball teams, clothing lines, restaurants, clubs, real-estate, beer...everything. He's retired, married a superstar, made albums, went on tour, launched some of the most famous rappers and producers into the game, come back, released an album, went on tour, produced a broadway musical, and returned to claim his throne. But in all fame, glitz, glamour, and general hallabaloo, we sorta lost sight of the J we use to know and couldn't quite remember if he deserves the respect he seems to be demanding.

Enter J's new book (yeah homie's an *author* now) "Decoded", and more importantly his recent conversation with Dr. Cornel West (moderated by some crazy European dude) at the New York Public library. These two media releases brings Jigga back to the level of leader, poet, and important community (Black community, music industry community, hip-hop community) voice. Not gonna give a full synopsis, but you need to watch this ish. They talk about anything and everything that is relevant to these two cultural figures. Without a doubt, whether we like it or not, Jay is going down in pop-culture history, but before we dismiss it I think it's important to understand what he's saying as he continues to make his mark. Take for example this: "The internet was a way of the music industry purging itself". Dude believes the same thing I do, that the internet is the way to escape the banality, shallowness, and "thinness", as Dr. West calls it, of radio-driven commercial music (see the success of J Cole's new mixtape). Jay even admits that he left the system for two years to build with other artists because he's disgusted with the fact that "people don't even believe in artist development anymore."

As I've made my return back to hip-hop, I've come to know a lot of young MCs and musicians who see the hip-hop game and music industry as a way to make it. As a way to escape. They wanna be "BIG" big. They wanna have the money, the lights, the glam. They wanna be the next Jays, Lupes, Drakes, whatevers. Without leaving you my own opinion on all that, or even what I want from music myself ( who wouldn't mind a Jay-Z story of their own?), I'll leave you with a beautiful quote from "Decoded" about what the men and women we grew up with used this music thing for.

The 70s were a strange time, especially in Black America.The music was beautiful in part because it was keeping a type of torch lit in dark times...I feel like we as rappers, djs, producers were able to smuggle some of the magic of that dying civilization out of the music and use it to build a new world. We were kids without fathers so we found our fathers on wax, and on streets, and in history, and in a way that was a gift. We got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves...rap took the remnants of a dying society and created something new. Our fathers were gone, usually because they just bounced, but we took the records to build something fresh.

Popculture eaters/historians/cultural students--watch or listen to this conversation.

My fellow musicians and aritists--what new world are you building, and what ancestors are you bringing with you?

Glocal

Some friends of mine are doing big things and getting all types of recognition on all types of levels. I'm a firm believer of showing "local" support and giving shouts to being doing their thangss. So check some of this 'ish out.

1) Dj ShyGuy- Earlier this week shyguy dropped this docu-video of him making some fresh beats. It's like watching batman in the batcave. I tweeted about it a lil earlier but you should def watch it here incase you're not on your twitter game (or not following me. which you should be.)

I See, So Icey from Alexander Holm on Vimeo.

2. If you're looking for a ridiciulous partytime, follow Bad Kids Crew. Mike Knopf and friends have been notoriously throwing bacchus-like brooklyn bashes and shows for a minute now. Don't sleep on it. They have one this friday--LIGHTS PLEASE!: SUMMER IN NOVEMBER.

3. Lastly, but not to be confused with leastly- Rob Roy dropped the well matched, beautifully haunting video for the beautifully haunting bass lead song "Carmencita". I'm not saying anymore. Just watch it.

All I got for now. Anything else going on let me know.

Dzigaout.

Remember When Slim Shady tried to be sexy?

I haven't dropped any new 'ish on here in a minute, so before I get to that I thought i'd post this old gem.
How many 5th-8th grade girls drooled over this one?

Playlists for the broken hearted

cus sometimes life gets complicated. Enjoy a few free downloads, but you gotta click em to find em.

1- Feist, Let it Die

2- Kleerup Ft. Lykke Li, Until We Bleed

3- Copeland, The Safest Ledge

4- Matthew Santos, Drop a Coin

5- Samantha Crain, Beloved We Have Expired

6- Airborne Toxic Event, Sometime Around Midnight

7- Mike del Rio, What More Can I say

8- Jay-Z, Song Cry

9- Vampire Weekend, I think UR a Contra

10- Regina Spektor, Samson

Rockit

My favorite Gorillaz song. And Video. Reject false idols yo.

New Nicki Minaj videos goes Korean, borrows MJ choreography, and features Will.I.Am in white face?

It's like a goddamn LG commercial meets a Missy Elliot video