Classroom Management 101

This is how us good teachers keep our kids in line.

Back 2 Work

Black People? Let's Talk.

What's going on? You'd never know our president was black...


"...Bunny Colvin would not approve."

Laughing-to-keep-from-crying quotables abound, but still, SMH. We got a long way to go folks. And at a school? One named after Harriet Tubman, no less... 

That's deep.

Humble Pie

(We're on obvious youtube mode over here right now.)

My previous hate of The Cool Kids notwithstanding, this song GOES. In my younger days, a song like this'd be liable to get a lil somethin started if the circumstances called for it nahmean?!

Ha! Sike nah... But for real, I digs this.

Reason #2,401 Why I Like White People

That just happened. Yup. It did.

Best Interview Ever

Hilarious.

dope

I support this.

I'm from Virginia...

A lil unprovoked homestate pride for ya. Lord Willin' was one of the greatest rap albums ever. And this track? Classic.

There are NO niggas in Portland

Cuz if there were, this woulda been veeeeerrrry *ahem* different.

Your Daily Dose of Soul

Kick your feet back, close your eyes, and enjoy--that is, after you click play.

You Know What Time It Is

Is that not the dopest wall clock ever?

Shoes attract shoes

This dude's bout to blow.

Necklace Over My Shades? Yeah, She Did That.

Ace Hood - "Champion" ft. Jazmine Sullivan & Rick Ross

I intentionally slept on Ace Hood's album Ruthless. (I mean, it's Ace Hood after all.) This song has forced me to go back and actually download it though. First, Ace actually raps well over this track, and Ricky does what he does (which is rap well as well--Weezy would been a better feature though). But you KNOW Jazmine murders it dead. That hook is like sanctified hood gospel. And you know I ain't complaining about Ms. Sullivan looking all sexythick in the video neither. Get it how you live baby.

Postscript: "You can't tell me nothing," is perhaps the most beautiful use of the double negative in the English language. No hyperbole. I love ebonics.

The Morning After Meets The Night Of...

You think I'm posting this cuz of the eye candy don't you? Nah son, they're just added bonuses. This track is a banger. Methinks I need to find the instrumental...

The Show Must Go On

You Hype! Sike Nah... fave Little Dragon will be performing in Philly on Tuesday, July 21 at The Fire. Tix are only $7 and are sold at the door the day of the show. I missed their last show in the city of motherless thugs cuz I was on my schoolyear grind, but I definitely won't miss this one. And if you don't know Little Dragon, write your name on your eyeball with a sharp piece of glass, or get this and get familiar.


Also, everybody's favorite underdog, Teedra Moses, will be performing in DC on July 25 as part of the Triple Star Sound Stage. I'll be doing my best to get down there for that. Little Dragon has a DC date as well, but you can't expect me to do everything for yall. Bing that jawn on google or google that jawn on bing.

Word to Griffins on Mountaintops

Dave jus dropped a slew of these in my inbox. The Paxtons spent their 4th of July weekend back at home in their beloved Chi-City. Betwixt the barbeques and Suzie-Q's, they got a few hometown heads to share why they support the Paxtons. First up is one of my personal faves, Chitown rapper Skech 185.

Honestly, if I were you, I would take 3 minutes and watch this video, not for The Paxtons shoutout (no shots of course), but just to listen to when they let Skech loose. At the 1:30 mark, Skech lets you know that NO OTHER RAPPER can eff with him. I'll bet my mama on that one, and I'm a Cancer, which means I LOVES my mama.

Still skeptical? Stop reading and click play. First listen to why he supports Chris and Dave (and why you should) then put a pillow somewhere beneath your chin, because your jaw will definitely drop to the floor after listening to these bars. I'm done.

Distance Has No Way of Making Love Understandable

You should know by now that I'm a fan of The Bad Plus, especially their last release with Wendy Lewis, For All I Care. (<-Click that to get that.) It is easily one of the best releases of the past twelve months. It combines great piano playing with masterful drumming and bass-work. Add in Wendy's dark, sultry voice and the music becomes undeniable. Not to mention that it's an album of covers, which is my most basic musical affinity. (See Cibelle's cover of Tom Waits' "Green Grass," Marc Broussard's "S.O.S.," etc.) Bonus points if it's a live cover. To those who have ever suggested that I do music professionally--after I first gave you the mean side-eye--I would say that if I did ever make music, I'd prolly only do covers.



Cuz at the end of the day, what makes a good song worth remaking is the songwriting. Lyrics that wrap themselves around each note, rhythms that seem to be lyrics themselves; when it's on, it's on. What's great about The Bad Plus is that they know how to maintain the integrity of the original song while still finding a way to make it different and new.



"Comfortably Numb" is an excellent example of that fact. Taking a Pink Floyd song that is already disturbing enough by itself (the video below will attest to that fact), the trio-turned-quartet find a way to make it as dark and ominous as possible sans actual wrist-slitting. Listening to the cover version, you'd think they recorded it in complete darkness, with maybe a lava lamp somewhere in the studio so nobody ran into each other during the most frenetic sequences. 



If you haven't gotten For All I Care yet, you might as well pour piss in your hair. (Did that gross you out? I hope so; that's what I was going for.) I can't guarantee that you'll dig every single last track--my tastes do have a larger range than most--but if you listen to it and can't find at least a few tracks that make you say "UHH!!" you might as well stop visiting this blog because I probably wouldn't like you in real life. No bull.

WORK Release Recap

Thanks to everybody who came through Ubiq last night for The Paxtons x Anml Hse party. Johnny put up a couple pics from the night. It was definitely a good time.

The Paxtons x ANML HSE x Ubiq = FREE PARTY

This Tuesday, The Paxtons will be in Philly along with the world-famous ANML HSE crew at Ubiq. It's a FREE party with FREE liquor, FREE music, FREE dancing, FREE fun, FREE twerkage, a FREE performance, and some FREE giveaways. We will also be dropping an AnmlHse collaboration tee for sale that day during the event (more info on that later). All I can say is, if you want a tee and you're not in Philly, get at me. Especially all you Wash U folks, the tees are certified vicious. (And you know I only rock the finest of cotton tees.)

And oh, I almost forgot. It's all FREE!!

Tuesday, July 7.
7-10pm
Ubiq Walnut (1509 Walnut St., Center City, Phila)

They'll also be performing at Sneakerpimps Philly on Thursday. More on that later.

Wee Small Hours

Click the album cover to download

Bad dreams suck. Hope everybody enjoyed your Independence Day festivities. I managed to hit the beach long enough for minimal sun burnage and got back to Philly in time for a 4th of July party with this guy at what amounts to an inner-city mansion. From the roof deck I watched fireworks in Camden, Penn's Landing, Northern Liberties, and, of course, the Art Museum simultaneously. It was nice. What sucks is when I finally got to sleep, your boy had the goonies show up in his dreams. (Not really, but I had some disturbing dreams.) Needless to say, I woke up a lil shooken. To calm my nerves, I had to holler at my boy Chet.

Chet Baker was a legendary jazz trumpeter. He was also a vocalist in his own right and this album is nothing short of classic. I'd actually planned on posting this jawn a while back, but never got around to it. I guarantee you'll enjoy it or your money back. Disfruta.

Nappy Headed Hoes vs The Booby Queens

Drake - Best I Ever Had

This video is the winner for best opening ever. I can pretty much guarantee that this will be MTV Jams Jam of the Week next week. Jay's "D.O.A." is the current week's Jam. Coincidence? I don't believe in them.

Drake definitely deserves props for this one. The video is cooteriffic. I just hope somebody sent Don Imus his check for inspiring the treatment. And the cut-ins are hilarious. "When they put that D on you, take that D!" Double entendres FTW.

Falsetto

Click the album cover to download

I'm not a Maxwell fan at all, but some of yall are. I don't care what kinda Jenny Jones makeover they gave this nigga, his music always annoyed me. That includes his latest single. I honestly don't know the name of it, but I know it has "wings" in it and the video has hoes floating in the air for no reason. (I'm sure there is some kinda reason, but since I'm not a fan, I'm hating.) Anyways, this one's for yall. Disfruta.

You Must Be Stevie

Click the album cover to download

I was definitely pleasantly surprised by Jeremih's debut. Even though "Birthday Sex" was and is an instant classic, I was skeptical that the Morgan Park-grad could deliver an entire album of catchy sing along songs that didn't come off as corny. Pie on my face. This jawn is decent as a mug, and the songwriting is actually pretty good. Jeremih's debut is basically a bedroom party waiting to happen. Maybe it's something about the way the wind hits Lake Michigan but this dude might be able to carry Kellz's banner for the young folks (no pedo). The mood and melodies are updated takes on what made Kellz famous (minus the child porn, of course.) And I can't hate on someone who sings "The perfect equation, like mx+b=y, we are probably apart." Some of you might can hate, but me? I can't. That's slope-intercept form, nigga.

Enough of me, get to clicking. Disfruta.

All In A Good Day

Click the album cover to download

You knew this day was coming. So yes, your favorite blogger's favorite blogger has been on a bit of a hiatus as of late. May and June (and most of April too) were busy as uckfay, and let's be real, blogging doesn't pay the bills, WORK does.

Which brings us to today's post. Longtime readers know that I've been hitting you with exclusives from The Paxtons for a good minute since pre-Members Only. You should also know that your boys pulled Atmos, Ubiq, and The Smoking Section along for the ride, along with other Paxton faithful (what up Khal!) who have supported Chris and Dave throughout this entire process.

Today, you finally get to listen to what all the fuss is about. The digital version is missing 2 tracks. It was intentional though. To get the two missing tracks, you have to go here. Also this free download is for a limited time only. Feel free to support good independent hip-hop by getting at that iTunes and downloading it. If you're like me, you prolly don't pay for music, but real talk, even I coughed up some money when Janelle Monae first started selling "Violet Stars, Happy Hunting" on her Myspace page purely because I wanted to help an independent artist. Support good music!

Now that you have the whole thing, I'ma put my quarter-dollar in and give you the run-down on three of my faves. Production-wise, this jawn is not to be effed with. For anyone who thought The Paxtons music was a lil too saccharine for their liking, "Theme Music" is so raw there might be traces of E. coli in your earhole after listening to it. Word to Colorado beef. "Atlas" is my hands-down favorite track off the whole album, and it took a lot for me to not leak it to yall earlier. Tagging it with "Perspicacity" is by no means an accident (yeah, these niggas got vocabularies).

Last, but definitely not least, is this friggin "Still Waiting." First, let me remind you that The Paxtons produced the ENTIRE album. Every track you hear, they made. Chris and Dave were sitting on the instrumental to "Still Waiting" for a minute. In fact, some of you might remember that I streamed the instrumental on the blog over a year ago after Dave slid it to me. I was promptly hit up with emails and comments about what that beat was and who made it, but had to keep it close for the niggas Paxton. To all of our benefit, these dudes rip this track to pieces rhapsodizing about their beloved hometown of Chicago, Illinois. As Oscar Wao explains, there's no place like home, and after a long day of WORK, that's prolly the first place we all wanna be. Scroll up and get to clicking. It's yours now. Disfruta.