wowzers. didn’t think you could ever see anything like this, did you? well believe it. japan loves reggae and dancehall. jasmin threw this my way and told me i couldn’t embed it because it was a facebook video. ha! you can’t stop me.

well!? thoughts!? talk to me.

last time you saw X.O. , it was probably when he dropped the takeover 2 back in the beginning of june. the mixtape, with the wale-assisted "rid’n (remix)," had the streets and the blogs going crazy!

X.O.’s latest effort, "US vs. THEM," is like a mix between an EP and a full-length album. nine crazy tracks, with INCREDIBLE production from team demolition, best kept secret, judah, and jaguar skillz. he also recruits some solid local talent to help him out on the tracks, including benji, ra the MC, marky, tragic, and nightmare.  you hear lyricial progression, as X.O.’s uncanny storytelling ability is highlighted on "act like you know," and his chameleon-esque rhyme scheme switches up on tracks such as "ring, ring." there’s even some club-friendly/trunk music joints, too.

this joint gets my vote as the best thing i’ve heard in weeks, hip hop wise. if you like real rap, and you want to know the next rapper to blow from the DMV, then this is for you.

THIS IS THE BEST MIXTAPE IN ROTATION RIGHT NOW!

DL: X.O. – US vs. THEM (the EP)

and a BONUS video from our homies, MAJOR DC! get your gear there, ASAP. they hold me down. wzup undadog, wzup dukki!

yo, i thought gucci was in jail!? he keeps on coming with more heat. GUCCI GUCCI! shout out to quinn, nick hall, marcel, and all the other DC gucci fans for making me realize he’s essential in iTunes playlists everywhere.

true story: quinn coleman (aka mr. DCtoBC that just lost all motivation to do anything DCtoBC related…call him out when you see him.) saw kenny burns riding around the city shining, in a chariot (i kid you not. a carriage with a horse pulling it) around the monument area, the day before inauguration. LOL. watch this joint, it’s trill.

jabari probably doesn’t think i check his e-mails he sends me. but i read every one, and watch the videos that interest me. this one struck me especially because it deals with how people in the hip hop industry look at the power of the internet. a four part, round table discussion featuring hip hop veterans 9th wonder (grammy award winnning producer, made joints for everybody from little brother and jay-z), guru (most famous for his engineering game), and the young gunz.

THAT’s why these dudes (well, at least 9th and guru) are veterans. their input and insight on the internet and technology’s affect on the internet is incredible. please watch if you get a second. shout out to jabari, and shout out to commonwealth for blessing him with the gear!

did i ever tell you guys that the guy above was my landlord for the summer of 2007?

ok, let me explain. if you’ve ever seen the best show on TV, the wire, you’d know that gbenga akinnagbe (silent “g” in the first name) portrays chris partlow, arguably the craziest, most intense character in the show.

he’s like me. kinda. he’s from montgomery county, maryland. he grew up about 15 minutes from my house. he’s also nigerian, as i found out when he called me after replying to his craigslist ad for subletting an apartment. he started speaking to me in yoruba, because he knew my family was from that part of nigeria just by reading my name in an e-mail. when he discovered i didn’t know what the blood he was saying, he laughed and we got down to business. a week later, i was furnishing his extra large 4-bedroom jumpoff.

like i said, i found his apartment on craigslist. it was listed in washington heights, home of the haze/dominicans/arroz con pollo on every corner. 163 and broadway, man.

he was definitely a nice guy, although every time he asked for the rent, i almost shat my pants. why, you ask?

that’s why. try not paying the rent to that guy. your body will be floating in the mississippi river.

yeah, that’s right. i said it. i want to start a dorm room version of cribs. i was watching cribs today, and there were some spoiled rich brats who nobody knew (they weren’t famous. not even a little bit. randoms. i was livid.) showing off their mansions that their parents owned. so if MTV can do that, let me do an MTV dorm room cribs. MTV as in modi television though.

do you think i can pull it off!? can we get some feedback on this idea, please!? i want to do one every week, and i want every college across the globe to participate. i’m gonna spread the word/the idea to some people, including my dude evan from check my campus, and see what i can come up with. just throwing the idea out there. talk to me. and watch this as inspiration.

P.S.: don’t you kinda want to know the square who lives in the room in the picture? it’s a kid from MIT. what a neat freak. but wouldn’t you be curious as to how he’s living over there? that’s why this could be huge. or maybe not at all. we’ll see.

i hate when black people talk about the way other black people talk. you always hear somebody make fun of somebody who sounds “too white,” and that’s crazy to me.

what is sounding white, anyway!? i never got it. if you grew up in the suburbs, most of which tend to have substantially less black people than areas closer to the city, and you went to a private school, most of which are more expensive and not very diverse, then the chances are, you will grow up to be a product of your environment. so how can anybody be stupid enough to say something like “you aren’t black enough?” what is black?

i thought about all of this after reading this article on bill cosby’s daughter, evin. peep the excerpt:

“My own people used to say to me, ‘You speak like a white woman.’ What does that even mean, anyway? Everyone has their way of speaking and living their life. No one should be judging and assuming that because I’m black, I have to speak in that hip-hop way. That’s something I prefer not to do.”

oh boy! the hip hop way!? i don’t know about all that, evin. but i while she may have offended a bunch of black people with that statement, i know what she’s trying to say. and i co-sign. somebody once told me, jokingly, that i wasn’t really black. and i said, “i’m nigerian. i’m the blackest you can get. when you get there, let me know.” got’em. lifestyle defines everything. take a sociology class and your mind realizes all this stuff.

don’t take it from me, though. just let my man remington wallace burnett break it down for you. LOL. this is a must watch!

just enjoy it for what it is. some vicious club music. too bad i could have made the same exact song if he just wrote me the lyrics. that auto-tune use of his is pretty suspect, and yet i’m still a fan.