Making a point......

I've been slack on my gig attendance lately. I used to go to heaps of gigs, but i've only been to one or two this year, and they weren't really standouts so i've backed off from the party rocking lately. I did go to Necro, but I don't really remember it, so it doesn't count. I mean, I was in attendance, but there's no way I could tell you how it was. Damn, that was a good friday night though.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is firstly because next week i'm out to see Dennis Coles aka Tony Starks aka The Ironman aka Sun God aka GHOSTFACE KILLAH, so i'm getting hyped to head out for that.
Secondly, i've been having a discussion with my buddy Jacko about the defining hip hop move, the point. There is no better way to signify, or to garner more crowd response than The Point.
For all you slow mother funkers, let me break it down.
Firstly, if you are a hip hop artist, there is very little you can do on stage, as DJing doesn't really lend itself to Jagger-esque stage moves (although i'd love to see Qbert rocking the naughty schoolboy at his next gig), and if you're a true MC you're much to involved in spitting with the quickness to be leaping all over the stage. That type of shit will leave you out of breath.
So what can a Nilla do to get noticed? You're left with the tried and true option for punctuating your dope verses, The Point.
Here is Ant from Atmosphere highlighting the basic "Point to crowd to punctuate a dope punch line" move, a must for any burgeoning MC who wants people to take him seriously.
Thankyou Slug, nice finger placement and a good strong wrist, that'll have the white boys in the front row nodding in agreement in no time.

Secondly, if you have an exceptionally long line, say the last 4 bars of your verse are one sentence, and you decide that they should be spat in one breath. The only way to highlight your exceptional lung capacity is MC stage move number 2, the "slowly raise hand while spitting and Point to sky on last bar" point.
Brother Ali highlights the importance of extending one finger to further solidify the fact you're pointing at the sky.

Now, these two moves should give you a good feel for basic MC stagecraft, but what if you're in the crowd I hear you ask... what then? Well, since everyone knows that if you are a white male, you have to be gay to dance. Seriously, you cannot be a straight white man, and be able to dance. Sorry, but it's true. So here's the perfect option for you, my 'nilla friend. Just fall back on the tried and true crowd move, The Agreement Point.
Firstly, if anyone (repeat ANYONE) is taking a photo in your general direction, you MUST point at the camera. There is no reason for you not to do this, it MUST be done, and done continually. This shows that you are in control of the situation, and you are in agreement with the photographer when it comes to the question of taking a photo of you.
Example:
Note the white boy front and centre who has decided a little late to do The Agreement Point to camera and has ended up looking a little au fait.


Secondly, the front row is the perfect option for a Point to stage to salute your favourite artist. Again, since I assume most of my audience is made up of white boys, we all know that any self repecting white hip hopper can't be showing too much emotion around other dudes, so instead of screaming like a 12 year old girl, you can just nod your head and give the Agreement Point to whichever artist is currently garnering your approval.
See below for an example of some excellent front row Point and Nod.
Note the single arm reaching out for Z-Trip, as well as the standard 1 finger Point on the far right of the photo.


But don't be too hasty to just throw a Point out willy nilly, if someone catches you in a sloppy Point and Nod you'll have to live with the shame forever.
Poor form buddy, this is a sloppy Point and Nod. You've got the whole thing ass backwards. You're basically poking yourself in the eye there bro. Lift your game.

So there you have it kids, a primer for those who don't know the appropriate way to show respect to a hip hop artist. And please, make sure you Point and Nod to your favourite artists as much as possible, as i've noticed that the Point and Nod is dying out and being replaced by its technological counterpart, the Iphone point.


Cool, but not as respectful.
Peace y'all.

This ain't funny, so don't you dare laugh....

It's just another case of the Eclectical Empire minimix collection.
This one's comedy based, just a few of my favourite pieces with some sweet instrumentals to back them up.
Enjoy kids.
Grab that mofo right HERE

5 Albums I forgot I owned

So I sometimes forget that I own albums, they get lost in the rotation of my Iriver or I purchase them at the same time as another album which gets more spins, so I forget about some great music that's in my collection. But I just reloaded my whole Iriver with new stuff, and so I ran through my CD's to make sure I didn't miss anything, and came across some gold that I had totally forgot about.
Here's a bit of info on these dope pieces, and then there's a D/L of a selection of tracks from each album for you sampling pleasure.
Enjoy kids!

1. Bombay The Hard Way: Guns, Cars And Sitars
This sweet mash-upesque album features the music of Indian composers Anandji and Kalyanji, who composed and conducted music for the "Brownsploitation" films from 60s and '70s Bollywood.
Every track on this record sounds as though it's straight out of a 70's blaxploitation flick, but with an Indian twist to it like a jammin' sitar lick instead of wah-wah guitar.
This funky joint is the work of Dan The Automator, (Dr. Octagon, Handsome Boy Modeling School) with additional beats credit going to Josh Davis, better know as (say it with me now....) DJ Shadow. Some tracks play to the hip-hop influences of the producers, with the boom and the bap emphasized and laid out over sitar loops, flute solos and heavy string and moog accompaniment. Other tunes on the record hold truer to their original forms, with emphasis on composition and instrumentation.
Super funky, and well worth hunting out.

2. Oh No - Exodus into Unheard Rhythms

Exodus is a production project based on the catalog of Galt MacDermot (most famously known for being the man behind the musical Hair). Eothen Alapatt (Stones Throw General Manager) is the connection between Oh No and the man behind the music from Hair. Dating back to his college radio show at Vanderbilt University, Eothen has made a habit of digging up long-forgotten music legends, and he continues to do so at Stones Throw.
Galt's work has proved familiar sampling ground for Stones Throw's artists since Eothen's arrival at the label. But while the original connection isn't his, Oh No's sheer enthusiasm is the catalyst behind this record.
The original idea was to have Oh No make a couple tracks based on Galt's work. He came back with a couple dozen, and the result was a dope ass album with tight beats and great rhymes from a laundry list of M.C's.

3. Ahmad - Self Titled

An excellent lyricist with a smooth voice and great flow, Ahmad (who was only 18 when he made his debut album) delivers an upbeat, laid-back album with classic 90's beats. I can listen to this album any time, but it's super cool for a warm evening on the porch with a few cold ones. Back in The Day remains a stone cold Hip Hop classic, even 15 years after its release.

4. Ivens - Sounds To Expire To

Melbourne’s Awakenings crew has never made conformist hip-hop. In fact there releases are about as far from the stereotypical Triple J Aussie sound as you can get, and this album is no different.
Ivens has been working hard behind the scenes in Melbourne for some time now. A founding member of the Awakenings crew, he locked himself away for twelve months with production whizkid Plutonic Lab, and Sounds To Expire To is the result.
Each and every time Plutonic Lab steps into a studio he (IMO) excels himself. on Sounds to Expire to, he has orchestrated some bizarre futuristic movie soundtrack, haunting and melodic while also dark and moody. A lot like the first two Aesop Rock albums, with Blockheads minimalist style but a less grimey flavour.
Ivens lyrics are very Aesop-esque as well, with some crazy imagery and clever word play making repeat listens a must.

5. Lewis Parker - Masquerades and Silhoutettes
Lewis Parker is seen as the cream of the crop when it comes to a lot of things. Producer-MC's, British Producers, Sample Based Producers, he pretty much reigns supreme over all these catalogues, and this is (mainly) because of this album. Super short (only 8 tracks) but super dope, it pretty much put Britain on the Hip Hop map, as noone could discount this album as a classic. Atmospheric beats and strangly imaginative lyrics make this an album that will stay on high rotation from now on for me.
Well worth hunting out, if anyone ever sees it on Vinyl buy it immediately and i'll buy it off you the same day.
Well, enjoy the sampler kids, remember to support the artists.
Peace

5 Albums I Forgot About Sampler Download

Up from the 36 Chambers....

This is possibly even better than the fake Foreigner drummer.
From Afrojacks.com, a typical day at the Wu Tang Office .





Nothing else to add, this is funny enough by itself.
Peace

Strictly for my 'Nilla's...

Here's the 90's Minimix from the last Eclectical Empire show.
BTW, if you're wondering what the hell the title of this post means, since i'm a white boy the word N***a is obviously out of bounds for me, so it's been replaced by the word 'Nilla (short for Vanilla).
I'm trying to bring this replacement word into the everyday lexicon, so use it, love it, and get everyone saying it.
Let's band together Nilla's, we've been stepped on for too long!
Peace

Grab your 90's goodness right HERE.

You can Ice my nuts you corporate whore....

OK, let me say first off, if Vanilla Ice was legitimately apologising for destroying white people's credibility in Hip Hop (until Em came through and made everyone forget about all that shit), I would salute the guy. Really, I would. I would stand and salute the man if he was really admitting that his music is/was trash, and that he was just in it for a pay check, and that his ghost still haunts white boy rappers to this day, and also that he got hung over a balcony by Suge Knight over "contract issues" (If you haven't heard this story, peep hiphop.sh for the full breakdown. This is the only decent thing Suge has ever done, by the way).
If he was really copping to all that, and genuinely sorry for his corporate whore-dom over the past 20 years, and was trying to gain some credibility back for himself, then i'd finally have some respect for the dude. Some respect.
But if one heads to rightmusicwrongs.com, the first thing you're hit with is a Virgin Mobile advert. Continue a little further, and it takes only a few quick glances at the opening page to realise that THIS WHOLE THING IS JUST ANOTHER MONEY SPINNER.
The Ice Baby isn't sorry for a god-damn thing. In fact, i'll guarantee he's happy as a pig in shit that people still care enough about him to bother getting him to apologise for anything.
This whiny prick will literally do anything to grab the limelight for another few minutes. Literally anything.
Let's consider this for a minute. Vanilla Ice is willing to apologise for his whole career, to a public that doesn't really care any more, just to get a cheque. He literally admits that his whole career is shitful, just to score more money. If he really believed that the world would be better off if he wasn't making music and hogging the limelight, HE'D DO US ALL A FAVOUR AND HAVE A BUCKSHOT SANDWICH RIGHT THIS SECOND.
That's right, I said it. Eat a fucking shotgun you industry prick, i'm tired of these 80's has-beens making a "Comeback", playing on people's love of Kitsch-ness (That's the perfect phrase for this instance, since Kitsch has a dictionary definition of "art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art") and thinking that they are in any way still relevant or important.
That's enough for now, i've been detoxing for the past 5 days so i'm a little on edge, but you get my point. Fuck this punk and anyone who feels that his music was anything other than filler for the radio.
BTW, my favourite part of this whole thing is that he apologises for "the scandals and the gangs". Dude, get it through your head, noone thinks you're hard, you can tote a pump-action in front of a drop top caddy all you like, YOU'RE NOT A GANGSTER. Noone even classifies "Ice Ice Baby" as a rap song. It's pop, through and through.
Peace party people, sorry for the vitreole, but I needed to vent. Here's some real Hip Hop to get the bad taste out of your mouth.

I took a blues break.....

....and I Broke it.
Here's minimix 5, i've lost one of these somewhere along the way, and i'll try and re-up it if I can work out which one is missing.
Grab a handful of funk right HERE
Peace,
Broke A.K.A. Baroke Obama.
P.S. This is the 50th post here at the Trim. Happy half-century to all, and cheers to everyone who have stopped in to peep my random musings along the way. I mostly do this for me, as it keeps me busy and relatively sober, but to paraphrase Jigga...
"I do this for my culture,
to let 'em know what a white boy writes like
when the keyboard's out the holster".
Peace

WSHH ethers CNN, ABC, MSNBC et.al.

OK, so the backstory is this...
Jordan Towers decides to hold a rap smoke-a-thon www.smokeathon.com, and all the weed heads come out of the woodwork to stake their claim.

Of course B-Real steps up hard, and issues the challenge.


Shifta checks in from Jamaica, and reps for the real heads.


And then Mistah F.A.B steps in for the West, smoking mad weed and calling his boys at the grow house.
Now, this was posted in the afternoon of February 6th, note Mistah F.A.B smoking up hard, as well as his crew getting super blazed.

Cut to 12 hours later, and Mistah F.A.B has clearly smoked up for a few more hours with the crew, probably sipped a little liquor too, and has subsequently been in a car accident.
And WSHH is straight back on the scene, with the first video.

So, we have WSHH essentially helping to cause a car accident, and then they're back into it with the survival video.

I love this shit.

I don't sleep, 'cos sleep is the cousin of Death

If y'all don't know Cory Gunz, then lift your game, fix your face, and prepare for the future.
Sure, you can say there are more articulate rappers out there, yes there are more intelligent rappers out there, yes there are more political rappers out there.....
BUT NOONE HAS FLOW LIKE CORY.
NOONE.
NO. ONE.
Not even Weezy. And to prove it, here's 3 videos.


A Milli Re-Versed


Invasion Radio


Heartless Re-Versed

If you don't believe Cory is the future after this, I don't really care, because when the rest of the world is catching up to me i'll be light years ahead, probably listening to some Czechoslovakian vintage funk.
Or i'll just have this on loop.

Peace