constantly fighting against the powers that consciously control the subconscious of the masses
the supahvillain rants ish
Sunday, January 27, 2008
...Digging in Myspace [2]
thanks to the mighty mr mass for this. a brilliant hip hop album by rhymefest with beats sampled from MJ/Jackson5 classics. this shit is hilarious, genius, definitely worth listening to.
if you know me, you know how i love street fighter. 1up had the chance to play SF4 (still in early development) and talk to producer on the project. the video below is an interesting 20-minute discussion about the current state of the game which also features, for first time, some gameplay footage. i'm quite skeptical about the 3d art even though gameplay is 2d but from what i can see, the game is far from finished so anything can still change. only time will tell. hadoken!
straight outta my hometown, lagos, i give you an underground hiphop mixtape - mic worx - the 007 project. 7 007-themed tracks for the year 2007 featuring some of the best emcees and producers in nigeria. totally raw shit - a must-listen for true hiphop heads.
As they year 2007 concludes the Lagos, Nigeria, Hip-hop underground scene is on a collision course with Her majesty’s secret service finest: James bond agent 007. Venomous and Bigfoot, the MIC WORX production duo direct this aural epic with samples jacked from the vaults of MI-5, neck-breaking basslines and their signature pounding drums.
Vodka martinis - shaken not stirred - beautiful women, international intrigue and espionage are lyrically conveyed my some of the best lyricist you’ve never heard of. Mi Fliss (Nuff Noize) delivers some of the raunchiest lyrics to the theme of ‘Octopussy’ where he juggles his numerous groupies with 8 arms while he “works his pelvis like Elvis’s leg” and tells how the girls “went from you cute but broke to damn Fliss I’m horny”. Thus single-handedly earning the Parental advisory tag.
"On Live and let die" Dasuki (of The Kaliphate) gives an alternate vision of the 007 myth reshaping James bond and as the introspective reluctant hero “My charm makes it hard to suspect/ the gross deception…Got a lot of respect/ but deep down I’m ashamed to be a part of this mess/ …truth be told I’ld rather be left/ to stroll home but in this life I guess that’s inside of a lex/…that’s why I don gun-proof suit armour/ and die from knife wounds you call it ironic but it’s really karma”. Psalmurai and Animus also deliver in That raw unadultrated Kaliphate flavour - unparallel delivery meets witty lyricism.
Karma seems to be an underlying theme as Mr. Rae and Teckzilla (Ill Alliance) revisit the main 007 theme as a cautionary tale of the gangster life starring a 2007 Lazarus slain and resurrected in the dreams of his murderer and like the hook says “Karma is a bitch/ Your past sins are resurrected/ going for a swim?/ the waters are shark infested/ who let the beast out/ they live in all of us/ heres a twist to the tale of the man called lazarus”.
Deck The Nexus and Enigma (Str8 Buttah) trade razor sharp darts on Intellects (007 mindstate). Deck sets it off with the instantly memorable “Aiyyo, My mind travels landscapes and vegetations/ stay on the rise like helium through elevation/ professor Deck-avier the one last genius/ paralyse every emcee in an 8 mile radius/and when they was ill I granted them euthanasia/ perform surgeries on mics without anesthesia…” and enigma blacks out on some “…never basic or evasive though the cypher is hypothetical/ the lyrical demon is six hunderd and sixty six steps ahead of you/ ain’t discussing lame digits with two zeros and 1 seven/ royal casino stakes crushes when putting your head in…” ish.
GQ and Gemini, over the lush strings of ‘you only live twice’, tell tales of a second life in christ walking the tightrope between cautionary tale and gospel rap, gracefully, without coming off preachy. Mr. Rae (Str8 Buttah) shows up again on “Moonraker/Heartbreaker” with a new branch to the mythology of his everchanging persona the moonraker/heartbreaker - half-time/space wanderer, half-unfaithful lover. Don-P (of the grand emperors) and Azeez (The Kaliphate) Deliver the compilations finale in ‘Eyes shut’ a fitting conclusion name dropping 007 references in slippery style Don P sets the tempo for you to press replay when it all ends.
The beats are the real stars of this mixtape as the maestros BigFoot and Venomous show on every track backed up with help of nostalgia and the aura of one of pop cultures favorite sons. The 007 Project is a must hear for lovers of hiphop, bond and everyone else who bothers to read this. Word to Ian Fleming.
Track Listing 1. Lazarus ft. Ill Alliance (Str8 Buttah) 2. Octopussy ft. Mi Fliss (Nuff Noize) 3. Intellects (007 Mindstate) ft. Deck The Nexus and Enigma (Str8 Buttah) 4. Live and let die ft. Psalmurai, Dasuki and A9mus (The Kaliphate) 5. Moonraker/Heartbreaker ft. Mr. Rae (Str8 Buttah) 6. You only live twice ft. Gemini and GQ 7. Eyes shut ft. Don P and Azeez (Grand Emperors/The Kaliphate)
so i disappeared again. i assure you it's was all for a good cause - i've been working on a hotly-anticipated project that i shall not mention on this blog so as not to attract attention from crazy fanboys. 2007 wasn't bad at all but could've been much better. hence, i've got myself 8 resolutions for 2008.
1. get back to updating this blog frequently (pretty obvious) 2. find more time for my baby AI engine - simulacra x 3. keep in touch with friends on and offline (i should really get over being busy/tired all the time) 4. do exercises every morning before work (to fix my back problem) 5. perfect the art of street fighting, 3rd strike style 6. read at least, one novel. 7. watch a live juve game. 8. find music, listen to more music, make music
last time i made new year resolutions, i was probably like 7 yrs old. that gives you an idea of how serious i take this stuff. this blog needed an update anyway. oh well, i think the most important thing i need this 2008, after being drained in 2007 is inspiration to keep going. happy new year!
been a while but rotation must continue. enter soweto kinch's "a life in the day of B19 - tales of the tower block" - another jazz/hip hop (UK) hybrid album. to be honest, i've never really gotten into UK hip hop and i don't even know where to begin to search for quality stuff. so when a workmate (who i introduced to madlib) gave me the album a month ago, i was skeptical but ended up surprised. boy, there's so much good shit out there i don't know about. this is soweto's 2nd album, released in 2006. it is the first instalment of a two-part concept album documenting the lives of three inner-city birmingham men which IMHO is way nicer than his first album "conversations with the unseen". the quality i admire most in an emcee is his ability to tell stories and that's what this album does superbly. it's a concept album, so you'll have to listen to it from track 1 to 15 in that order, to really feel it - well, probably only the jazz-tuned mind. my favourite tracks: everybody raps (13) - maybe its because of the public announcer-rapper with a hardcore yoruba accent spitting rhymes, i don't know. padz (7) - this is a parody of mtv cribs showing how material and silly the world is. love gamble (5) - the story of the misfortunes of adrian. word-from-your-moms ish.
inspired by dart adam's originator series, and helped by my lack of originality, i'm just gonna blog about early influences that resulted in me getting hooked on football (thats soccer, yanks), music, and computers/games. my 3 passions.
part uno: football. two people are responsible for this: my pops, and maradona. i can't remember what age i was when i began to understand the purpose of a box with bright flickering images which they called a TV (maybe 3), but every weekend i was intrigued at why my dad would spend the whole day staring at that box supposedly watching some dudes kicking some ball around. that was football and the coolest part was of course was the scream "GOAL!" and the happy and sometimes sad faces after. by fate i was hooked. my pops had a freaking library of VHS tapes filled up with complete world cup matches from beyond my time and i was literally forced to watch them cos i liked bright lights and that TV stole the show. my dad explained the rules of the game and i was in. and then there was diego. first, a fact and a shame: i actually started supporting argentina before my own country, nigeria. at age 5, i could name every player in the '86 world cup argentine team meanwhile i was often mistaking our flying eagles for our green eagles (blame the miracle of dammam for that). shameful i know.
every budding kid footballer always has a hero to look up to. at that time, maradona was the best in the world so naturally he was my hero. it's a known fact that the guy was a f**king genius so i won't bore you. he was truly an "i" in a "team". argentina's confirmation as world football superpowers and napoli's rise from mediocrity are obvious testaments to that. during my years under-10, when i got the chance, i'd watch my dad's argentina world cup tapes, watching all of maradona's moves carefully and then practice them when/where i could: in school, on the streets (my legs are infested with scars), in the house (living room/bedroom regularly smashing light bulbs, picture frames, anything breakable). maradona got me playing and i learned my early moves from him. my best footballer yet, though, is zidane. from age 15, i improved immensely and understood the game better by just watching zidane. i so badly wanted to be a professional footballer because of that dude. when he joined juve in '96 which had only just become my favorite team, i realised i was a juventino for life. but hey this post is supposed to about originators, and it's getting long, and i'm tired, so i'll stop. you get the point. oh BTW, i kick ass on winning eleven aka pro evo. though i don't play as much as i used to, niggys know, i'm a legend! 1997 - 2004 i was unfukwitable!
stuff that has kept me from blogging: moved house... bought stuff... been broke... workaholic tendencies... no home internet... family stuff... TV... crate digging... rediscovered a gem... laziness and whatnot. it's all ok now. i think i've found a way to balance all these and more will be back soon in full effect.
