My man Ben and I have known each other since he came to Sidwell in 3rd grade, and years later, we’re still cool. So cool, in fact, that he hollered at me to join him in a conversation about consent.
Yeah, you heard me. CONSENT. He’s started an AWESOME organization called The Consensual Project that teams up with schools and universities to talk to the young folks about consent in hookups, relationships, and I guess anywhere its present in their daily lives. It’s a pretty interesting concept, and once he told me about it, I was excited for him. Now, when he asked me to get on camera and talk about consent in hookup culture, I was a little reluctant. I didn’t wanna put myself out there like that, because…well, if you know about the infamous Roster post…no, but really, I just wasn’t really 100% ready to talk about it. After some persuading, we ended up talking on camera for about 45 minutes. Ben whittled all of that down to this five minute clip you’re about to see. Check it out, and then scroll down to see what I have to say about things you didn’t catch due to editing.
Okay, so that was me being pretty damn honest about hookups and such. Now, a few things you didn’t see that I spoke about.
One of the big things we talked about was how black culture and white culture differ. For instance, partying and communication between the two, generally speaking, is lightyears apart in terms of similarity. I frequent all sorts of parties, but let’s talk about the black ones real quick. Since I’m from DC, I know how the party culture/climate is. When you hit a party around these parts, girls get grabbed up and that’s just kinda how it goes, they know what it is. It’s not a real grab, it’s that light grab. You know, the joint that’s like our mating call. The girls know what’s up, the guys know what’s up. It’s not aggressive, it’s just what we do. Our culture kinda embraced that and that’s just how it’s done these days. Can we change it? Probably. But I proposed to Ben in our convo that maybe a combination of body language and consent is how change can be achieved.
I also quickly touched on how sometimes, the element of surprise is cooler than consent. Let’s just be real for a second: you don’t wanna know it all. Asking to kiss somebody is cool, but that rush of getting kissed or kissing somebody is almost unmatched! Ben and I have differing views here, but I think that in the end, like I said before, body language and consent combined can communicate pretty much everything that needs to be communicated in these scenarios.
I had a great time working with Ben, and I’m excited to see what The Consensual Project has up its sleeves in the near future. Schools, BOOK THE MAN! He’s literally getting gigs all over the country, and I’m proud of his progress. Check the site out here, it’s probably one of the smoothest, most easily navigable sites online. Whoever designed that should win some kind of award.
my man kardi! he never thought i’d post him on this site, but the day has come! the NYC-born, milton academy high-school student built a studio in his man’s closet and recorded this joint that samples lady gaga’s “just dance“, and the beat is brilliant (produced by matthew trammell, aka thiz, a fellow BC student. yerp.), and if you acknowledge the man’s handicap (recording in a makeshift studio), you can without a doubt appreciate this track as a pretty crucial party song. who cares that he’s not old enough to drink?! it’s like 2009′s “tipsy”, and he’s speaking truth! let’s get it. his full mixtape, kardiology, dropped a few weeks ago. grab it here.
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the rich boys are everybody’s favorite new talent. and i don’t mean new like they just came out. they’ve been grinding for years, sitting on beats that would make the likes of yeezy and skateboard p shake in their boots. the nigerian-by-way-of-chicago-but-now-post-up-in-NYC duo (twins, if you didn’t catch that yet. come on, stay with me) have such appeal to eclectic musicgoers such as myself because they infuse so many different sounds and genres. you’ve heard their other stuff (if not, get familiar here, and QUICK!), but don’t get it twisted; if they wanna make something for hip hop veterans like the clipse or foxy brown, they can do that with utmost ease. and already have. click here and here, respectively if you don’t believe me. they made those, and much more. and they’re only a couple years older than me. what a resume.
i figured i’d treat you to a few gems that not everybody got a chance to grab before they hit MTV. that’s what i’m here for, anyway. quick history lesson 102: Christian Rich.
Section 001: Hit The Slopes.
if you don’t know armand van helden, then you better hit that wikipedia. the boston-born musicsmith is pictured above, and his globetrotting ways have led to him becoming one of the biggest international hit makers and remixers of all-time. somehow, someway, christian rich linked up with him and created this JAM. this needs to go on any party mix that you have in your iTunes immediately. jam it (if you’d like to see the video, it’s here, currently at almost 200,000 plays), and download the track below that.
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creative people can come up with the trillest ideas in seconds. harmless daydreaming brought about the far-fetched idea of the three-time award winning trapper of the year, young jeezy eating at Lola’s in NYC’s tribeca neighborhood, and then heading off to perform at club sway, where his vocals would be placed over these less drug trafficking, but drug induced instrumentals.
then they turned it into a reality in a couple days, because they can do that. the short EP features 5 jeezy tracks remixed with some songs that you’re probably familiar with. it’s a jeezy you’ve never heard, and a christian rich that you’ve been dreaming to hear. click the artwork, or grab it via the link below.
NOTE: this is a re-up. this post was at the end of ’08, during x-mas break i believe.
so i get a text from my man john daise a few weeks ago, asking me to hit up this concert with him and some of his squad members. “little dragon, at the black cat down in DC.”
who the f*** is little dragon?!
that’s what i thought. and because of that, i didn’t make that move. days later, i did my thorough research on them. they are an electronic music band based in sweden, and they have the sexiest lead singer of all time. whoooweeee. japanese chicks just do it for me, man. so fly. and she can SING!
apparently, that DC show was their first performance in the US, and i definitely regret missing them. it’s all good, they’ll be back. anyway, allow me to put you on, and then let me know how you feel. good, bad, i don’t care. just talk about it! UPDATE: for some reason the samples won’t work for little dragon songs anymore (they probably asked my server to stop letting me put their jams up), but the downloads still work. so enjoy.
if you dig them as much as i do, you will YouTube them. they have some videos for some of their songs. and it allows you to see just how sexy she is. ha! oh, and shout out to austin purnell + john daise for putting me on to them for real.
UPDATE: for some reason the samples won’t work for little dragon songs anymore (they probably asked my server to stop letting me put their jams up), but the downloads still work. so enjoy.
so i hit atlanta last spring, solo like i usually do when i make power moves, and i posted up with my cousin for about a week out in an area called cascade. that’s when i was introduced to some of the greatest music ever made.
i introduce to you CushCush, a duo out of h-town, texas. made up of my man b*luckett (on the right) and his man ace boon coon, the two have been DJ’ing for a minute, and love to jam that stuff with heavy drum breaks, crucial synths, and good vocals. i don’t even really know the genre they specialize in, but if i had to call it anything, i would say it’s a vicious mix between drum ‘n’ bass (D&B, google that stuff, it’s big in the UK!) club/house, and hip hop. essentially, i’m talking about any music that you want to just jam to, they fuck with and incorporate into their sets. it can be madonna, it can be project pat. and typically, it’s a mash-up of both.
anyway, after they sensed my intrigue, they gave me some required [online] reading material to get more acquainted with this type of music, like discobelle. i’ve been DL’ing these mixes ever since. great gym music! i’m sharing it with you. i kinda figure this is the future of music, because it combines all genres and types of people (hipsters, hip hop heads, ravers, suburbs, city folk, you get the idea) and makes the ultimate party-going experience, if you’re the open-minded type. in fact, i was in the A a few weeks ago, and my cuz and b*luckett took me to this spot, MJQ, which was probably the illest experience i’ve had in a club. ever. let me know how you feel about this 30-minute set right here, and be on the look out for more mixes just like this in the future.
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coming fall ’09, i believe. and did you know the dude who does cleveland’s voice isn’t even black? he had me fooled for the last 8 years. i got some video for this monumental show, and it all looks like the process is shaping up to be incredible. i heard kanye is already scheduled to show up in one of the first episodes, as well as sanaa lathan and other prominent celebrities. my only question is, does the show have black writers? i’m just asking.
ah, my naija people! don’t take offense to the statement. listen.
this past sunday, i was over at my cousin’s place. my dad and brother sat down with a rack of family friends for a meal of jollof rice, plantain, and stew. somehow the conversation evolved into a deep conversation about nigerians and music. we all were scouring our brains for nigerians that have made their mark in the industry relatively recently. we came up with seal, sade, and wale. (editor’s note: and chamillionaire. i swear. but in all honesty, i don’t even think he knows it. so we will leave him out of the conversation completely.) and while there’s no denying that their heritage is indeed routed in nigeria, they aren’t labeled as nigerian artists. both seal and sade grew up in england, and wale is a dmv representer all day. as far as any typical fan can tell, they don’t claim the country. and nothing is wrong with that! if you didn’t grow up there, what can you do? story of my life.
but really. let me make a bold statement: nigeria hasn’t really had an artist that both embodies the country’s culture and appeals to the masses since fela kuti. and by the way, do some research on this guy, seriously. i promise you’ll want to see hollywood make a biopic, ASAP. fela was incredibly influential on music, much like bob marley in his era. but when fela died of AIDS in ’97, nobody made a valiant effort to take advantage of fela’s impressive pioneering. thus, the portal closed up, and other regions bogarded their way to the mainstream. see how reggae is huge over in the states? remember when you rocked those green, yellow, red and black adidas with the shirt to match? that’s because the movement in the islands was so powerful. bob led the way, and his disciples followed mercilessly.
my hypothesis is, those adidas could have been green and white for the nigerian flag, right along side the joints in the rastafarian colors. and it’s not too late! god knows how, but my uncle got his hands on an emerging artist by the name of asa (pronounced: A-sha), and she may just be the new age trailblazer for the most populated country in africa.
i think she’s incredible. she, as well as whoever is handling her career, will see a fat check in the mail soon if all goes as planned. she was born in france, but left at 2 for lagos and never looked back. and neither will the fans she acquires as she conquers the world. so if you start to see her places, know who put you on.
christian rich is the future. so when you see the twins all over the globe doing sold out shows and approving multi-million dollar deals from their iPhones, don’t say i didn’t put you on early.
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the talented duo was also featured on mylove bomb mixtape i dropped last week. i’m just saying. so if you want more, go get it.
my girl alex lux put me on last year, but these dudes have been working HARD together for like half a decade! how come nobody put me on earlier!? and how come nobody the blogosphere hasn’t hyped these dudes like they hype all those slum rappers from the NY? come on eskay, come on dopeboyz, come on every other huge music blog out there! nobody has a flow similar to them, in the world.
UPDATE: shake over @ 2dopeboyz heard my outcry, and posted the new compilation by supreeme. he disagreed with them being the best thing out the A since 3 stacks & sir lucious left foot, but that’s fair enough. we can agree to disagree. at least i caused enough controversy for these dudes to be heard. good looks, shake!
i’m going out on a limb and saying these dudes are the best thing out of the A since outkast. i even bought their supremacy album on itunes. i figure with two statements as powerful as that that, you’re pretty much forced to DL the compilation album, and bump it in the whip until you understand why i said what i said.
no background stories on these cats or anything. i don’t really know much besides they’re composed of two black dudes, one white guy who was born in england and has an accent that you can pick up every time he spits. i think. i could be wrong. the one thing i am certain of is their skill. if they don’t get respect in the ’08, then someone make me an A&R. i’ll throw them in the mix.
samples:
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click the album art or the link below to DL the album.
who produces their music!? someone tell me! the beats are freaked to the nth degree!
check them out on myspace for some other tracks and to catch their vibe. individualists like sh!t. back cover art is below. ***hit me up if you want some more exclusive supreeme tracks that i got my hands on, and shout out to my girl josie for informing me that this gem had dropped.***
i was one of millions anxiously waiting the debut of this video on herfection some months ago, after my homie kyra put me on to this guy’s 25th hour mixtape a while back. i haven’t heard much from this guy since the video dropped, so i’m throwing it back up in hopes of a resurgence of dom kennedy love!
what up, left coast? this is your newest MC. embrace him, put him on remix tracks, and give him some radio play. thanks.
damn. if that’s what cali is like, then it truly is active.
