Just saw the great news over at okayplayer (via nahright) a little while ago. N*E*R*D, fresh off Glow in the Dark, will give their North American fans a treat by touring with Common, whose new album is dropping soon. New York City is guaranteed to be one of the stops. I had planned for Rock the Bells to be my last big show for summer, but I HAVE TO go see this one. I hope the tickets wont sell out before I have a chance to snag one.
MY BABY’S BACK!!!
Below is a list of 10 classic albums that I’ve never listened to from beginning to end. This list might shock you because some of these are pretty crazy. My reason for not hearing many of them is that I wasn’t in the country when these albums were released. I really started listening to rap at around age 13. Anyway, feel free to gasp and scoff at some of the ones that made the list. I plan to get caught up so I wont have to stare at people blankly when they wax poetic about how great these albums are.
NWA – Straight Outta Compton 
Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back 
Dead Prez – Let’s get Free 
Mobb Deep – The Infamous 
De La Soul – Stakes is High 
Scarface – the Fix 
Wu Tang Clan – Enter the 36 Chambers 
GZA – Liquid Swords 
A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory 
Outkast – Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik
So there you have it. I’ve exposed myself. But let’s be clear. Just because I haven’t heard some of the best rap albums ever released, doesn’t mean I don’t know Hip Hop. Plus, it’s impossible to have heard EVERYTHING. Seriously though, I need to listen and familiarize myself with these immediately. I cannot call myself a true ‘Hip Hop head’ if I don’t.
I had the pleasure of seeing WALE, JAY ELECTRONICA, IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE, DEAD PREZ, RAEKWON + GHOSTFACE, REDMAN, MURS, RAKIM, DE LA SOUL, NAS, THE PHARCYDE, MOS DEF, AND A TRIBE CALLED QUEST perform on Saturday July 26th at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, a suburb just outside of Boston.
Here are some of the pictures I took.
Q-Tip
Posdnuos and Maceo (De La Soul)
M1 of Dead prez
REDMAN
GHOSTFACE
RAEKWON
RAKIM
IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE
Stic man
MURS on the big screen
WALE
The ABSTRACT and the FIVE FOOTER
NaS from a distance
The crowd was filled with people wearing Celtics and Red sox t-shirts, jerseys and baseball caps. It was a cool atmosphere and even though my seats weren’t as close to the stage as I would have preferred, I had a good time. Each performer did a great job and everyone went on stage in a timely manner except for Dead Prez who were late due to a traffic jam. But they still managed to go on and with enough time to do “Turn off your Radio” and “Hip hop”, which was a huge crowd pleaser.
The standout performances in my opinion were by the Pharcyde and NaS. This was my first time seeing NaS live and he tore the stage down during his performances of “Made you Look”, “Got yourself a Gun” and “Sly Fox”. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him live. He also performed my favorite song from the Untitled album, “N-I-G-G-E-R”. It was also amazing to see ATCQ performing live together. Jarobi was there and they did a great set including ‘We got the Jazz”, “Can I kick it” and “Electric Relaxation”. It was a real thrill to watch them all on stage. Phife was amazing, and so was Q-tip. I really enjoyed this year’s show very much.
More pics here
I’m a little late with this but you know what they say…better late than never. Gnarls Barkley comes through with a rather disturbing yet really ill video for the hottest track on ‘The Odd Couple’. This song really resonates with me for some reason. I bet I’ll find myself thinking about this video in the days to come.
I saw this on Consequence’s Kyte channel and couldn’t resist posting it since I saw Tribe perform last night at Rock the bells in Boston. I forgot to record some video unfortunately so this will have to suffice for now.
Also caught the behind the scenes looks at the new “Disperse” video. I am so happy he’s making a video for that song. It’s my favorite on the “Don’t Quit your Day Job” album.
Black in America
I missed both shows this week. You can catch clips of the first two installments here .
Here’s the trailer from Talib Kweli’s upcoming documentary which will feature a ton of guest appearances from Kanye West, Mos Def, The Beastie Boys, Dave Chappelle, The Roots, Jay-Z, De La Soul, Common, Hi-Tek, Jean Grae, Pharrell, Killer Mike, Fat Lip, Damon Dash, Rosario Dawson, Pete Rock, Marc Ecko, Mad Lib Bobbito, Black Sheep, Cee-Lo, and The Dungeon Family.
I’m posted this because I really like Talib Kweli. I’m just not sure if I’m into the whole ”Idol Warship” group thing just yet.
If you’re like me, then you probably think Cam’ron is wonderful. And you’re probably wondering what he’s been up to lately. Well, I came across a little compilation of relatively recent tid bits and freestyles, (including a snippet of ”Beat Build“)over at gstar holdings. For some reason finding this made my whole Friday. Here you go.
