If you were to click here, sign up for Big King Remembered In Time's ReturnOf4Eva to get the leaked single "Dreamin" (clean or dirty) from the album, you would get this in your confirmation email:
What's good wit it, thank you for joining what i like to call Returnof4eva.
You are now experiencing music as i love it, Music as i live it & Music as i envisioned it.
This is for all my fans that love that classic ish. This is that Returnof4eva.
- BIG K.R.I.T.
If you were to click here, you could download KevingNottingham.com Presents - Home Town Hero: The Best Of Big K.R.I.T.
Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner who the FBI - to this day - goes out of its way to ensure his continued imprisonment, despite admitting that the "facts" and "evidence" used to convict him where manufactured.
Buggin Malone - Dedication to Leonard Peliter off Birth of a Warrior.
Mos Def - Sunshine (Prod. by Kanye West) off The New Danger (2004).
"Slim nigga that casts a big shadow / Cherokee red to shoot the long arrow / got more skill, more aim, and more ammo / you can get it all from a big or small barrel / like "Hail Mary, full of grace" / niggaz come in and shoot up the place / [...]" - Mos Def
Fashawn Feat. J. Cole & Omen (Prod. by J. Cole) - Relaxation off Higher Learning 2.
"Lord giveth, then he taketh / like an Indian giver / [...]" - J. Cole
Buggin Malone - The Beat Goes On... Tribute to Leonard Peltier off Spirit World(?).
The Crossroads Episode 13 - Free Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier!
Just Dizle - Video Mix 2. [UPDATE] 2011.02.27 8:14 PM EST Click here for the website.
CLARIFICATION: DJ Just Dizle is a French DJ who did video mixes in Jam Master DJ Scratch (Part I) & (Part II). EPMD's DJ Scratch (a.k.a. "Jam Master DJ Scratch") did the turntable set featured in "Vinyl Vaults Issue #0," which inspired me to start a series dedicated to turntablism (and which Just Dizle put up on his Vimeo so the world can check it). Peace, peace y'all.
1. Dead Prez - Hip-Hop
2. Krs-1 & Marley Marl - Hip Hop Lives
3. The Roots - You Got Me
4. Ahmad - Back In The Day
5. Bahamadia - True Honey Buns
6. The Notorious B.I.G. - Dead Wrong
7. Fabolous - Breathe
8. Black Moon - Stay Real
9. Jay-Z - Lost Ones
10. Ghostface Killah ft Raekwon - Motherless Child
11. 2 Bal Niggets - La Sédition
12. Sean Price - Slap Boxing
13. The Notorious B.I.G. - Warning
14. Total - Can't You See (Biggie Verse)
15. Ruff Ryders - World War III ft Jadakiss
16. Smiff N Wessun - Bucktown
17. Blahzay Blahzay - Danger
18. Heather B. ft M.O.P. - My Kinda Nigga
19. Heltah Skeltah - Therapy
20. EPMD - Da Joint
21. Erick Sermon - Bomdigi
22. AZ - Sugar Hill
23. Top Quality - Magnum Opus
24. Digable Planets - Nickel Bag
25. Jodeci - Get On Up
26. Rah Digga - Breakfool
27. Sean Price - Boom Bye Yeah
28. EPMD - Symphony 2000
29. Showbiz & AG - Next Level
30. Sticky Fingaz - Get It Up
31. Mobb Deep ft Rapper Big Noyd - Give Up The Good Just Fast
32. DJ Jazzy Jeff ft Peedi Peedi - Brand New Funk Remix
33. GZA - Breaker Breaker
34. Das Efx - They Want EFX
35. Warren G & Nate Dogg - Regulate
J. Cole - Nothing Like It. Kanye West instrumental.
B.o.B Feat. J. Cole - Gladiators.
B.o.B & J. Cole in the studio making Heat!! (Via.)
J. Cole Feat. B.o.B - Pass Me By.
J. Cole x Wale x Melanie Fiona - Beautiful Bliss (Live). (Via.)
J. Cole freestyles into "Before I'm Gone" at HOB Sunset (Via.)
. . . Cole World!i
New J. Cole - Nothing Like It (Ustream Kanye West Instrumental Freestyle) + J. Cole x B.o.B + J. Cole x Wale x Melanie Fiona LIVE + J. Cole House of Blues Freestyle!
"I was asked if I was interested in covering a pearl jam song by mtv2. I thought it was funny that they wanted to include me, being a rapper and all, but I wanted to take a shot at it. I loved ten when it came out, rocked the tape till it popped. One of my favorites on it was why go, none of the bands they asked had picked it yet so I did. I though about reworking the original lyrics into a rap kind of situation, but then I was playing the melody on one of my keyboards and thought it might be more fun to just straight cover it. So I did. It was fun. I hope you likes it." - P.O.S
"P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life (Acoustic)" by P.O.S. (Stefon Alexander).
Pearl Jam - Why Go.
P.O.S. - P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life.
I'm not particularly a fan of this much screaming in my music, but P.O.S. sampled this song for "P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life."
Underoath - It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door [Music Video].
The Art of Rap (Dir. by Ice-T) | Movie Trailer #1 (Via.)
Interviews with Immortal Technique, Chuck D, Treach, Grandmaster Caz, Lord Jamar, Kool Keith, Raekwon, Big Daddy Kane, DJ Premier, Trigger & Smooth, Dana Dane, Lord Finesse, & Diabolique.
France has the world's largest hip-hop market outside of the United States. (Note: I don't even speak English that well, so I have little to no idea what people are saying when I post something in another language.)
"We're all fam / we're all distant relatives / [...]" - Nasir Jones
Nas & Damian Marley (Distant Relatives) Feat. K'naan - Africa Must Wake Up.
"Your history is too complex and rigid / for some Western critics / they want the whole subjective minutes / [...] / The slave ship captured, our diaspora is the final chapter / the ancestral lineage built pyramids / America's first immigrants, the kings and daughters from our waters / the first architect, the first philosohers / astronomers, the first prophets and the doctors were us, us / [...]" - Nas
Afrocentric historian Ivan Van Sertima (among others with different agendas who argue for early Chinese or prior European connections with the "New World," etc., et al., in addition to Leif Eriksson and the early, but short-lived, Viking settlement of North America) has argued for Pre-Columbian contact between the indigenous people of the Americas and the rest of the world, which is what the above cited lyrics most likely pertain to.
Tha Alkaholiks Feat. Ol' Dirty Bastard - Hip Hop Drunkies.
"I divide square emcees like math / bend you in half and drink a genuine draft / I stomp 'em then skied out with all the wampum / [...]" - J-Ro
Wikipedia says that "Wampum are traditional, sacred shell beads of Eastern Woodlands tribes. They include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam. Woven belts of wampum have been created to commemorate treaties or historical events, and for exchange in personal social transactions, such as marriages. In colonial North America, European colonists often used wampum as currency for trading with native Americans."
Wu-Tang Killa Beez (Beretta9, Islord, Dom Pachino, 9th Prince, Killa Sin) - Dancing With Wolves.
Many things can be said about Kevin Costner's movie (click here for the IMdB) Dancing With Wolves (1990), but to sum it up with one fact, the Lakota/Nakota/Dakota peoples ("Sioux") have a masculine and feminine form of their language/dialects - the movie employed a female speech coach so that all of the male warriors in the movie talked like women . . .
Mohammad Dangerfield (Hasan Salam & Rugged N Raw) Feat. Immortal Technique - Break Of A Star.
"I ain't banking off of one chance / to [change something with max status(?)] I parallel sun dance / [...]" - Second Verse
The Sun Dance is a traditional Native American spiritual ceremony. Wikipedia article here.
The Crossroads Episode 11 - The "We're All Fam" Edition
Awon & Kameleon Beats - Black in America [2011 Music Video].
Ice Cube - Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It [Uncut Music Video]. Shouts to Maximus on this song.
"My mind on my money, money on my mind / If you owe me ten dollars, you ain't giving me nine / You all ain't give me 40 acres and a mule / So I got my Glock 40, now I'm cool / And if Al Sharpton is speaking for me / Somebody tell him the word and tell him I don't approve / Tell him I'll remove the curses / If you tell me our schools gonna be perfect / When Jena 6 don't exist / Tell him that's when I'll stop saying bitch - beee-itch!" - Jay-Z, "Say Hello," off American Gangster.
Awon With That Real Talk: Black in America (*New Music* 2011 Music Video)
Concept has three volumes of instrumentals ($5 each). You can click here for Rejuvenation (2009) or here for Long Days & Long Nights (2008) - both are available for free.99.
"Johnny Spanish - you should fear 'im, boy / spitting all venom in your body got the serum for it / like the Cherokee and Iroquois / we some baggage handlers, you just some errand boys / I'm fucking ill, I'm just so real I'm crying tears of joy / well, fuck the police we ain't paranoid / well - just a little / [...]" - Johnny Spanish
This one might be a stretch, but I think there are sometimes connotations in lyrics that could/might should be examined.
Johnny Spanish Feat. The Roots - Shiny (Remix).
"I came, I saw, I conquered / [...]" - Johnny Spanish (Chorus.)
"If I catch you bootlegging my shit, don't buy it / I'm-uh show you a pirate like Captain Jack Sparrow / rob you point blank with a knife, bow, and arrow / [...]" - Nappy Roots (First Verse.)
The Crossroads Episode 10.5 - Johnny Spanish (Continued)
Revolutionary brothers & sisters protesting in Libya (click here for info) are being killed by fighter jets - where do you think Gaddafi got those? Click here for an article on Obama's (versus the American Right's) responses to Arabic unrest and revolution.
Pace Won & Mr. Green - Can You Hear Me? (A Tribute to the People of Tunisia) (official music video dir. by Sam Lipman-Stern). (Via.)
Music Video for "Can You Hear Me? (A Tribute to the People of Tunisia)" by Pace Won & Mr. Green
Naturally Amazing - Streets Git A Hold Of Me (Blacksmith Presents: The Community Mixtape)
"I ride out like a native / that's shouts out to my Apache / [...]" - Naturally Amazing
J. Cole Feat. Lee Fields & The Expressions - Ladies off The Warm Up mixtape.
Yea, ay, look / when she talks she so closed minded / all she want to do is shop / she so clothes minded / wanna cop the latest before them other hoes find it / material girl yet somehow I don't mind it / probably cause she so fine it will blow your mind - she black and Pocahontas / [...]" - J. Cole (Had to check that he said "Pocahontas" (Via.).)
60 Second Assassin Feat. Timbo King, 12 O'Clock, & Chi-King - Clockz N' Kingz off Sunz Of Man Presents: 60 Second Assassin - Remarkable Timing (2010).
"Counter clockwise, count the troops, not the lies / I see through your foolish attempts with closed eyes / I'm Sitting Bull with a peace pipe, wanna pull? / Got timberwolves dressed in all, sheep's wool / From the blocks to the box, from the fingers to the tops / Less is much more, but my need's a whole lot / [...]" - Timbo King (Via.)
Johnny Spanish - Raw Talent (The Lip).
"I been wanting this since I was 5, playing the piano / th'hustler in the streets, wondering if the D ain't know / so you can find me in the back of the beamer / rolling up a whole Sacagawea / know that I happen to be thuh / illest from my city dawg / [...]" - Johnny Spanish
As much as I love hip-hop and as much as it loves drugs, the fact that it makes nearly everything (Jimi Hendrix, Sacagawea, Sitting Bull, etc., et al.) into a reference to it can be exasperating at times. Or just entertaining. Sacagawea wiki here.
Again, not exactly hip-hop, although I'm still waiting for the Jack White x Jay-Z song(s)...
The White Stripes - Icky Thump.
"White Americans, what, nothin' better to do? / Why don't you kick yourself out? You're an immigrant, too / Who's usin' who? What should we do? / Well, you know you can't be a pimp and a prostitute, too / [...]" - Jack White (Via.)
A little lesson in Euclidean geometry and perhaps some enlightenment, courtesy of Glitch Mob.
The Glitch Mob Feat. Swan - Between Two Points [Official Music Video] (Via.)
This video is pretty dark (light-wise, not necessarily content or message-wise) and the song kind of laid back (more so than I recognize from the Greene Street show I saw The Glitch Mob play in Greensboro, NC, awhile back). It reminds me of some of the old Tool videos, but not done in claymation. Not bad, I can dig it. Can you?
"Between Two Points" New Glitch Mob Music Video Featuring Swan
In 2000, Congress authorized the Wakpa Sica Historical Society (WSHS) to receive $18.2 million in grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to build the Reconciliation Place on land it placed in trust for eleven tribes of the Sioux Nation. The Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place will house an economic development center, the Tribal Judicial Support Center, the Native American Mediation Training Center, and the Sioux Nation Supreme Court. The Cultural Center will display and interpret tribal history, art, and culture.
The Lakota term for this project is Ake Okiciyuwastepi Wolakota Tipi. Its literal meaning is "house of people who come together again to share and to bring peace and goodness." The goal of the project is to build a place where all people can gather to work for better cultural understanding and improved justice.
The Reconciliation Place is being built on land that has been returned in trust to the Tribes of the Sioux Nation by Congress. This breakthrough project has been under developement for 16 years.
The above is an example of modern Native American architecture; Oxford University Press's Native American Architecture (1990) book description says that "For many people, Native American architecture calls to mind the wigwam, tipi, iglu, and pueblo. Yet the richly diverse building traditions of Native Americans encompass much more, including specific structures for sleeping, working, worshipping, meditating, playing, dancing, lounging, giving birth, decision-making, cleansing, storing and preparing food, caring for animals, and honoring the dead. In effect, the architecture covers all facets of Indian life." (Via.)
Below is a photograph of the Tribal Office Headquarters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST), located in Fort Yates, ND, the reservation where Sitting Bull was murdered.
"The Movement is deep-rooted / [...]" - Iomos Marad
Unknown Mizery Feat. PeepTheRevolution All Stars - Peep The Revolution. YouTube Description: "Featuring:. ALI THE SON OF ABDUL, CROOKED SHAKESPEARE, NENA BLEU, LIFE LONG, CHECKMATE, IOMOS MARAD, ILLSKILLED and RESPECT THA GOD / Produced by: Aneeway Jones / Album: Empty Handed Warrior / The album is a collaboration project with UNKNOWN MIZERY (Canada) and producer ANEEWAY (France)." This song features collaborators from Canada, Brooklyn, NJ, Chi Town, & France.
"Street corners feel cornered in the fear of the road / [...] I can speak to the trees, listen to a shell as I free to a seashell / whisper to a jail how I've grown in my speech / [...]" - First Verse
"Spliff in my hand, feel the half of a gram / combine my energy and transform / water to sand, wander these stolen lands / make music cause I need it / intentions loyal, who believes him? / not even his seed sees him / give me a piece of reason, they rather give me a piece for squeezin' / no peace in Eden, pack a peace pipe with a piece of green 'n' / raise my middle finger to the world / before my end day, join for peace achievin' / how can you tell her to smile with a broken heart? / how can you tell him to stop his crime, how's he going to fill the shopping cart? / We need to know who we are, turn off the TV / and turn this on / [PEEP THE REVOLUTION / PEEP THE REVOLUTION, THE REVOLUTION] / [...]" - Second Verse
"The book'suh eye doctor to the blind and eye patch wearin' cyclops(-es) / unlock your optics, see my people skyrocket / set 'em free, 12 bars of revolution, mentally / secrets held the key - decipher signs that's sent to me / th' spiritual awakening, sounds of levees breaking / the comet's coming, Mother Earth is spinning and shaking / a master mason building with planets and constellations / escape the domination with powers of concentration / meditation 's helped me evade being assimilated / the Matrix always waiting for rebels to be eliminated / that's the cycle, your life force is really the gem / far from where we started, but it's coming back around again /" - Third Verse
Incidentally, many traditional Native American societies view time as circular, rather than strictly linear.
The Crossroads Episode 9: Turtle Island Architecture
French Beatboxer Eklips Hip-Hop History. YouTube Comment: "0:24Slick Rick & Doug E? Fresh Tribute - La-Di-Da-Di0:30Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full0:40Rob Base - It Takes Two0:46N2Deep - Back to the Hotel0:51Public Enemy - Bring the Noise0:54Cypress Hill - Insane in the Membrane1:02Dr Dre - Nuthin But A G Thang1:13Real Hip Hop - Das efx1:16Shimmy Shimmy Ya - Old Dirty Bastard1:19Wu tang - Mystery of ChessBoxing Method Man1:30KRS One - Step into a World1:34Loyalty - South Bronx1:38NAS - Represent / Like this so everyone can see : ) [.]"
Bob Marley - Redemption Song (Acoustic LIVE in New York).
Damu The Fudgemunk - The Bright Side (Vocal Version).
"Shine bright, shine a light / shine a gem [...] / Check it: shining bright / I gotta light for my colonization / fertilize or pollination / [...]" - Damu The Fudgemunk
MC Esoteric - Guns, Germs, And Steel off Boston Pharaoh (2011.)
Guns, Germs, And Steel (1997) is a book by Jared Diamond (Wiki here, PBS special here).
The Crossroads Episode 8: Emancipate Yourself From Mental Slavery
Click here for a Yahoo article "From Libya to Bahrain, Mideast autocracy under fire." Click here for NPR on "The Impact Of Rising Food Prices On Arab Unrest."
Click here for "12 Things You Need To Know About Public Workers and The Uprising in Wisconsin" and check it out:
Revolution Of The Mind Feat. Reef The Lost Cauze - They Must All... (Prod. by Keelay & Zaire).
Revolution Of The Mind - Die For My People (Prod. by Snowgoons) [Official Video].
Click here to read about the protests in Libya. Click here to read about protesters' takeover of Bahrain Square. Bernie Madoff says other people in the financial sector "had to know" (click here). Click here for an article on the darker side of the happenings in Egypt (viz. Lara Logan of CBS News).
Revolution Of The Mind - Rise Again (2009).
Sabac Red Feat. Revolution Of The Mind - America's A Business (Prod. by Krohme). Sabac Red is the executive producer on the Honor in Sin project by Revolution Of The Mind.
"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." - Mark Twain
Twain has a quote about American politicians not being the most honest or cheapest, but staying bought when you put them in your pocket, but I can't seem to locate it . . .
"Dear Reader, Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
Hero (2002) is one of my favorite films of its stylization, rich color saturation, and cinematography and the RZA has gotten cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Hero - click here for the trailer -, 2046) for the Man With the Iron Fists; not to (re-)mention wrestler Dave Bautistsa, MMA arena figher Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Russell Crowe, Quentin Taraninto, Eli Roth, - or the Abbot of Wu-Tang himself. (Via.)
Picture from Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997).
And now, legendary blaxploitation actress Pam Grier tweeted "returned from Shanghai film directed by RZA of Wu Tang." (Via.)
This movie is going to be dope.
. . . Unrelated, but awesome nonetheless - Rubik's Cube x a human brain . . .
The IMAKEMADBEATS Video Game!!! Official Infomercial.
THE GAME
To accompany his first solo album, which debuted less than a month ago via Doxside Music Group, producerIMAKEMADBEATS enters the gaming front, releasing IMAKEMADBEATS: The Game, a computer-based alternative to your X-Box which shares the artist's deep passion for production, and lets you-make-mad-beats. The concept for this project originally came during a brainstorming session between Synopse, creator of the IMAKEMADBEATS: The Game, and IMMB himself on how to stand out among other indie labels and best promote the IMAKEMADBEATS album. "We wanted to reach people who love the challenge of video games that may have never heard of me otherwise," explains IMAKEMADBEATS. Synopse also expressed possibility for future expansions of the game, adding that, "There were a few more ideas that were tossed around that you might see in later incarnations."
Setting the stage for the game, the creators have developed a unique storyline for players to get fully immersed: The first show of IMAKEMADBEATS' new tour is right around the corner, but tragedy has struck and all of his beats have been stolen. Now, it's up to you, the player, enlisted as IMMB's assistant engineer to use the virtual midi-controller to help reproduce several of the beats from the IMAKEMADBEATS album in a "Simon Says" style game-play. Available via free download for both Mac and Window platforms, hip-hop fans and gaming enthusiasts alike can take on IMAKEMADBEATS: The Game.
Watch the Official Infomercial for IMAKEMADBEATS: The Game:
[Click here.]
Download IMAKEMADBEATS: The Game:
Air Version:
[Click here.]
Windows Version:
[Click here.]
Download the Manual for IMAKEMADBEATS The Game:
[Click here.]
Please post buy links:
Doxside Music Group Store (featuring special package deals including IMMB T-shirts and more): [Click here.]
Bandcamp: http://imakemadbeats.bandcamp.com/album/imakemadbeats-2
iTunes: [Click here.]
Amazon: [Click here.]
This music video is a stark and simplistic black & white affair, but kind of awesome for exactly those reasons. The frenzied dancing can kind of leave a feeling of hauntedness with the viewer.
"Lotus Flower" Music Video - New Radiohead from "The King of Limbs"
Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down. YouTube Description: "When I first heard this song.. all I could hear was like the beat.. the drums.. it reminded me of indian [drums]... and the words of the song.. wow. / So I made this video in honor of the native american people whom suffered at the hands of the church and the residential school. While the [...] official video has some big names.. like iggy pop, sheryl crow, kid rock, bono etc.. [Chris Rock, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Owen Wilson? Click here for that version.] the stars of this video are all dead. / Johnny Cash was a great man and had a lot to say about the treatment of native americans. / I hope you like my interpretation."
Nino Bless Feat. Johnny Cash - God'll Cut You Down.
J-Live - Home Or Away (2011).
"Stand for triple threat / what it mean? / let's see: the DJ, the producer, the emcee / more like knowledge, wisdom, and understandin' / it's hard work on three - so throw your hands in / now throw your hands up / man up, stand up / til the show and the cup runneth over / the flow so fluid that you can't stay sober / like 3/4ths water: we tearing the whole globe up / / I'm chilling, keeping it simple, sipping a mimosa / sitting Indian style while eating a simosa / lounging with a lady friend fit for a poster / ass fatter than a left tackle from Samoa / [...]" - J-Live
The Last Emperor - Do You Remember?
Yes, I remember. / Do you remember? / Some say the price of life has a costly amount / when it comes to fights, I mighta lost me a bout / but I never lost my head / cause that would cost me a scalp / [...]" - Last Emperor
On "scalping," Wikipedia says that "Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. / The purpose of scalping is to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war. / Scalping is often associated with frontier warfare in North America, and was practiced by Native Americans, colonists, and frontiersmen across centuries of violent conflict. William Brandon and Keith Rosenberg, Native American specialists, state that some Mexican (e.g., Sonora and Chihuahua) and American territories (e.g., Arizona) paid bounties for enemy Native American scalps. Contrary to popular belief, scalping was far from universal amongst Native Americans."
Apani B - Assimilate off Picture This (2004).
The Crossroads Episode 7: The "Oh Really Now?" Edition
