I'm sittin in the crib, dreamin'

Featuring arguably the best rap conversation ever. To think about the potentially massive load of classic footage like this sitting around in DJs cribs...

Recovering from the wknd that was

Taking it to the Suburbs

Paramore - That's What You Get

I like this song. And in case u didn't notice, blogger took down the Jay-Z "History" post. I'm seriously considering making that move to wordpress...

Rip and Run

Kanye West - Anyway ft. Kid Cudi [Radio Rip]

Non-CDQ rips are the law of the land right now. Enjoy till blogger sends another takedown notice.

Ringmaster

I was waiting for the group rip, but i really don't care enough to keep waiting. Click the album to download and disfrutar. The link is borrowed so some of the less bootleg-savvy may notice there a few hoops to jump through before you can actually download, but when your album's theme has something to do with the circus, I guess it's kinda appropriate.

Edit: Spoke too soon. Group rip's up. Click the album cover.

Put a [Link] On It

Not much of a point in waiting for the group rip. It's the webrip and the bitrate is pretty decent so disfruta. Click the album cover to download.

Edit: Deluxe Edition group rip is up now. Disfruta.

Happy Birthday Grandma

Since 1942, my grandmother has celebrated November 14 as her born day. This year, The Paxtons are throwing a party in Harlem, NYC on my granny's bday, November 14 (which is the Friday after tomorrow). She's not invited, but you are. Here are the reasons you wanna be in attendance:

• It's at Casa Frela, home to Beyonce's "If I Were A Boy" video
• Open bar all night
• Free giveaways.
• It's hosted by yours truly and DJ Jerome Baker III (sup to the Commonwealth DC collective).
• It will be ignorant ignant--ridiculously so.
• And oh, open bar all night
• President-elect Obama wants you there.
  
• No need to pregame, cuz u can forego the $5 donation if you bring liquor or any other substance to "keep the party going"

Since I'll be on the mic, I can guarantee that Jeezy's "Black President" will be played multiple times, if not consecutively, cuz it gets me hype. (You can CC: Allah on that one.) This invite goes out to all of yall, whether yall know us personally or not, cuz it's gonna be a lotta heads in this jawn. If ur in NYC be there. If ur in Philly or the DMV, hop on that young Chinatown to NYC.  A nigga like me might even take the day off from work. It's a celebration!

Best Political Team

...this all follows back to a convo I was having with my brother-in-blog this weekend in DC, but I'll fill you in. CNN has the baddest women on television!!! SERIOUSLY. Furthermore all DC anchors are vicious too. Ironically, at least half of CNN's current rank and file spent some time on DMV television sets. Now of course there's a logical explantion for that, having nothing to do with their Atlanta address. The creme always rises, which typically includes tv dimes or average chicks who's political knowledge and general awareness of current affairs is s**tting on the nation (as we say in the Chi). After you kill the game in the Nation's Capital, where else do you go!? Either way, here's my picks for The Best Political Team on Television.

THE STARTING 5

Soledad O' Brian - PG
What more reason do you need? She's a vet in the game, killed the ratings with Blacks in America, and a People Magazine-certified sexy


Veronica De La Cruz - SG
Damn.


Amy Holmes - SF
As versatile as it gets... and just plain BAD.


Betty Nguyen - PF
Experience Wins Championships.


Sara Sidner - C
Dont hate on the big girl... PFG's run the low post

THE BENCH


Kiran Chetry - 6th Man
First off the bench... EARLY!


Abbie Boudreau - The Long-Range Threat
Doesn't she just look like a vicious spot-up shooter?


Alina Cho - The Import
Yao Ming anyone?


Fredricka Whitfield - The Veteran
Every good team needs veteran leadership and she's definitely been around the block a few times.


Naauma Delaney - The Rookie
Point guard of the future... peep game.


Sunny Hostin - The Benchwarmer
I couldn't ask for a more attractive splinter collecter.

Unlikely Hero

In the wake of Barack's success, I wanted to share something that touched me (pause) yesterday. While watching CNN for like 20 consecutive hours, I came across this clip.



Terrence J of 106 & Park, a show from a network that "us" (i use that liberally) college-educated black folk love to hate on, jacked a slogan popularized by Soulja Boy (or the DC go-go scene depending on who u ask) and attempted to help change the world. Though he fell short of his goal of 100,000 registered voters, 25K is nothing to sneeze at. Especially when battleground states like Indiana were decided by less than 24,000 votes. Can't knock the hustle.

Black President

We're taking a break for the rest of the day. Let's make history.

Medici Music

Since the last month has been so busy, I've been slacking on even listening to most the new music out. My trip back home gave me the opportunity to holler at the newest jawn from The Abstract. Let me tell you, this is vicious. (Track 5, "You"?--niiiice) I'm really waiting for the instrumentals to come out, cuz Q-Tip's latest is an aural treat. Click the album cover to download.

Swing Low

While most of yall were trick-or-treating Friday night (innuendo intended), I was on a Chinatown down to DC. I'm not sure if you know or not, but there's a big election and I wanted to make sure my vote counted, so I went back to VA to cast my ballot in what has become a crucial swing state. I knew I couldn't be home to vote on Tuesday, and since Saturday was the last day for early voting, your boy had to take a last minute viaje south of the Mason Dixon.

To begin, I got up at 5:30 Saturday morn to head up to the DMV cuz ma dukes told me the lines had been crazy all week. Since Saturday was the last day, I was sure the lines'd be even more ridiculous. I got there between 6:15 and 6:30 and found that there were already about 30 ppl waiting outside, cold and dark. The DMV didn't even open till 8 and by that time, the line had wound its way around the building and back. Since I was one of the early risers, I was outta there by 8:30, but for those late-comers, voting was an all-day event. I drove back by there when I was headed back to DC and saw cars parked everywhere and a nigga selling Obama memoribilia on the corner. If I didn't know better, I woulda thought it was some kinda block party.

All that to say, today's the day, and if ur reading this, I damn sure hope you voted.

Black President.

The only time I enjoyed listening to Khaled yell

T-Pain - "Karaoke"

No lie, I thought T-Pain deserved consideration when MTV did their first "Hottest MC's in the game" bit a couple years back because, autotune or not, the Pain be spittin.

Affion Crockett is funnier than I thought

This jawn is old as hell but i just caught it. Be sure to watch the whole thing for the Freeway cameo at the end. HILARIOUS!

A mind not changed by place or time

Most mornings, I begin my day with Social Studies, which gaurantees me 30-60 minutes of relative quiet from my students. During this time, I check my emails, holler at the blogosphere, and get my dose of news. Today I happened upon this Op-Ed from the NY Times. Since it channelled the works of John Milton, #4 on my list of favorite authors (after Shakespeare, Donne, and Carl Phillips), in reference to Obama, I thought it worth a repost.

The Power of Passive Campaigning

In the aftermath of the 2000 and 2004 elections, the post-mortem verdict was that the Republicans had run a better campaign. They knew how to seize or manufacture an issue. They were able to master the dynamics of negative advertising. They kept on message. Now, when many print and TV commentators are predicting if not assuming an Obama victory, the conventional wisdom is that this time the Democrats have run a better campaign.

When did the Democrats smarten up? When did they learn how to outdo the Republicans at their own game?

The answer is that they didn’t. They decided — or rather Obama decided — to play another game, one we haven’t seen for a while, and it’s a question as to whether we’ve ever seen it. The name of this game is straightforward campaigning, or rather straightforward non-campaigning.

We saw it in the 10 days when the activity around the mounting economic crisis was at its height. Henry Paulson alternated between scaring members of Congress and scaring the public. Nancy Pelosi alternated between playing the responsible Congressional statesperson and playing the partisan attack dog. Media commentators went from one hysterical prediction to another. John McCain went from saying there’s nothing to worry about to saying there’s everything to worry about to saying that he would fix everything by suspending his campaign to saying that he was not suspending his campaign and that he would debate after all.

And Barack Obama? He didn’t do much and he said less (O.K., he did say some reassuring, optimistic things), and his poll numbers went up.

Weeks later, the pattern continues, but in an even more intense form. The McCain campaign huffs and puffs and jumps from charge to charge: Obama consorts with terrorists; he’s a socialist; he’s a communist; he is un-American; he’s not one of us; he’s a celebrity; he’s going to take your money and give it to people who never did a day’s work; he’s going to sell out Israel; he’ll cozy up to foreign dictators; he’s measuring the drapes.

In response, Obama explains his tax policy for the umpteenth time, points out that capitalists like Warren Buffet support him, details his relationship with Bill Ayers, lists those he consults with, observes that Senator McCain, by his own boast, voted with President George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, and calls for change.

What he (or his campaign) doesn’t do is bring up the Keating Five, or make veiled references to McCain’s treatment of his first wife, or make fun of Sarah Palin (she doesn’t need any help), or disparage his opponent’s experience, or hint at the disabilities of age. He just stands there looking languid (George Will called him the Fred Astaire of politics), always smiling and never raising his voice.

Meanwhile, McCain’s surrogates get red in the face on TV when they try to explain away the latest jaw-dropping thing Sarah Palin has said, or proclaim that anything can happen in seven days, or respond to ever more discouraging poll numbers by saying (how’s this for a weak cliché) that the only poll that counts is the poll on election day. (I know things are bad when my wife, a staunch Democrat, feels sorry for them.)

What’s going on here? I find an answer in a most unlikely place, John Milton’s “Paradise Regained,” a four-book poem in which a very busy and agitated Satan dances around a preternaturally still Jesus until, driven half-crazy by the response he’s not getting, the arch-rebel (i.e., maverick) loses it, crying in exasperation, “What dost thou in this world?”

Now, I don’t mean to suggest that McCain is the devil or that Obama is the Messiah (although some of his supporters think of him that way), just that the rhetorical strategies the two literary figures employ match up with the strategies employed by the two candidates. What Satan wants to do is draw Jesus out, provoke him to an unwisely exasperated response, get him to claim too much for his own powers. What Jesus does is reply with an equanimity conveyed by the adjectives and adverbs that preface his words: “unaltered,” “temperately,” “patiently,” “calmly,” “unmoved,” “sagely,” “in brief.”

In response, Satan gets ever more desperate; he conjures up rain and wind storms (in the midst of which Jesus sits “unappalled in calm”); he tempts him with the riches of poetry and philosophy (which Jesus is careful neither to reject nor deify); and finally, having run out of schemes and scares and “swollen with rage,” he resorts to physical violence (McCain has not gone so far, although some of his supporters clearly want to), picking Jesus up bodily and depositing him on the spire of the temple in the hope that he will either fall to his death or turn into Superman and undermine the entire point of his 40-day trial in the wilderness. He doesn’t do either. He does nothing, and Satan, “smitten with amazement” — even this hasn’t worked — “fell.”

Toward the end, the poem describes the mighty contest in a metaphor that captures its odd and negative dynamic. Jesus is “a solid rock” continually assaulted by “surging waves”; and even though the repeated assaults result only in the waves being “all to shivers dashed,” they keep on coming until they exhaust themselves “in froth or bubbles.” The power Jesus generates is the power of not moving from the still center of his being and refusing to step into an arena of action defined by his opponent. So it is with Obama, who barely exerts himself and absorbs attack after attack, each of which, rather than wounding him, leaves him stronger. It’s rope-a-dope on a grand scale.

And McCain knows it. Last Wednesday, campaigning in New Hampshire, he spoke sneeringly about Obama’s campaign being “disciplined and careful.” That’s exactly right, and so far the combination of discipline and care — care not to get out too far in front of anything — along with a boatload of money is working just fine. Jesus is usually the political model for Republicans, but this time his brand of passive, patient leadership is being channeled by a Democrat.

Moby Dick

Feist - Honey, Honey

One thing I love about white music is that they will work an album forever. Iunt even know how old The Reminder is anymore, but i do know this song is and always has been heat rock. It now has a cool friggin video to go along with it. Disfruta.

Miss me?

Simply because it's been so long since a proper update, I figured I'd come outta left field with this. I'd give details, but their internet game is sick and I don't want this post deleted. Here's the vid of their first single.



So yeah it's not for everyone. It might make you consider 'shrooming with liberal hippy white friends. Might not. Either way, I'm a fan. And oh yeah, click the album cover to download.

P.S. The password is tfy

You Can Vote However You Like

It's been a week, I know. I'm extra busy right now, but enjoy this.

Eugenics

Shame on you if you've never seen this. It is a classic youtube video. I'm only posting it because a few of my students this year remind me of this dude (sadly).

There are adults like this who procreate with one another and create children like this. I've met these adults and I (try to) teach their kids.

I wish I were lying.

Eurozone

Jazzanova - Look What You're Doin' To Me (feat. Phonte)

lifted blatantly from NahRight.

No that's not pilates, her body just thick.

Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

So yeah, I knew about the "If I Were A Boy" video early cuz it was shot at Casa Frela. This one, however, snuck up on me on Vh1 Soul last night. And when I say "snuck up," I mean I don't think I blinked during the entire 3 minutes and 19 seconds for fear that I would miss something. Cot durn...

Aesthete

Little Brother - Passion Flower (Prod. by 9th Wonder)

How many boyz [go] raw?

Your girl is preggers. Ain't that about some...

Mrs. Officer

Beyonce - If I Were A Boy

If yall didn't catch the subtle reference, parts of this video were shot at Casa Frela in Harlem, which is where yours truly will be hosting The Paxtons' party November 14th. BTDubbs, the video is decent. Disfruta.

Chickens come home to roost

Surprise, surprise! Caught this last night on Keith Olberman. (Yeah, I spend my Friday nights watching cable news.) After realizing that he had no message, John McCain's smear campaign against Obama has come back to bite him. Twice in the same town hall, he was forced to play the role of gentleman and personally put the lid on the bigoted rhetoric his campaign has been dishing out. Obama's an arab and white people should be scared of a President Obama? Nigga please.

Despite what the talking heads on TV are saying, I think McCain's public disavowal here of what his wife and Sarah Palin have been propagating is genuine. I'm not so cynical as to think McCain only did that to look like a gentleman-politician. At the end of the day, McCain is a decent white guy and I'm sure he probably didn't like the idea of running such a dirty campaign through the next month. Nonetheless, the fact that this happened in front of TV cameras (twice) during his supposed preferred format, a town hall, is the sweetest of ironies. You reap what you sow.

NBC interviewed the senile "Obama is an arab" woman here:



And oh, I almost forgot about the Palin Troopergate Report that came out yesterday too:

On my late night

Uncle Murda ft. Jay-Z - ________________? [Radio Rip]

Song has no title (yet), but Hov takes a swipe at Fat Joe and the beat is niiiiiiice. It feels good to hear Jay take shots at niggas again.

Edit: It's 6-7 years old. No wonder.