So I posted this about a month ago on the Coachella message board.
Yeah I’m cheatin’ on you, get over it, rah did.
But like any good pusher, I kept somethin’ special for my best customers, and no matter how hard I’m gunna try to keep K’naan an underground sensation he’s about to blow, and homie deserves it. So before the US band wagon forms, get educated.
K’naan [K’naan Warsame)- The Somalan Born rapper has been on a pilgrimage to both; break into the Hip Hop world while staying true to his roots, and tell of the plight of those in Somalia. I first came across K’naan 2 years ago, and mid-last year was reminded of him thans to this Freestyle that appeared on BET 2008 Hip Hop Awards The Cypher … http://hiphopst.blogspot.com/2008/10…8-cyphers.html… K’naan has been performing since 1999, when the Canadian based producer Sol Guy booked him a spoken word performance at the UN. He is now looking to break into the US Hip Hop scene with his sophomore album, Troubadour, this February. Troubadour was mainly recorded in Jamaica at Bob Marley’s home studio, after an invite from his son Damian. Troubadour will feature artist like Damian Marley, Mos Def, and Chubb Rock, all artists that brought K’naan along on tour.
K’naan might not rep the traditional hip hop “hood”, but according to him “If you want to be like, `I’m from the hood. We got it rough. We got gats,’ I think you should know the alternative exists. I’m speaking in the same language of hip-hop which decidedly speaks about rough neighborhoods. So if there is a place for rough neighborhoods, then here comes the Mother of Rough Neighborhoods.”
Peep his myspace here.. http://www.myspace.com/knaanmusic
now my special gift for those who believe in OSH.
K’naan Troubadour Sampler, found this in an African mask shop in Philly.
So coming up I had alot of nicknames, and alot stemmed from hip-hop Johnny Blaze, John Blaze, John john the Phenomenon, San Diego John and sporadically in the late 90’s and early 00’s, John Forte was a standard too. Until that fateful afternoon in 2001 when the Refugee Allstar himself was just too “Hot” for even his own good. Forte was about to release his follow up to the 1997 debut album Poly Sci, but before the Forte could even get back to The Camp, in Orange, NJ he was stopped and detained at the Newark International Airport. Forte was set to serve fourteen years for possession with intent to distribute about thirty-one pounds of liquid cocaine, worth $1.5 million.
7 years later, and maybe just to prove Kanye wrong, Bush pardoned Forte and reduced his sentence from 14 to 7 years. Forte is set to drop back onto the street on December 22, 2008 just in time for Christmas with the fam. So to get you back up on John before he hits the street I’m back to hit you with a taste of Poly Sci.
But if you forget how Hot Forte was before he fell off, Neglectedsounds has a little post you may wanna check out too.
A’ight its back to the basement to kick it with Santa and Rah, I’m not gunna make ya’ll wait that long again though. So keep checkin’ back for a throwback and the new Freshness in ‘09.
and I hate to say it but it might be alittle scarce for the next few days too.
You see rah and I both are mid finals and though we voe to bring you the freshest, its truly gotta be dope for us to break the schedule and pay it any mind.
that being said this is the crack… http://betamaxmas.com/… you have to check out this site. Just when I thought it was impossible to get into the holiday spirit when its 70 out I found this site.
and if you need alittle more help getting that Christmas spirit just sit back and remember the Olde School.
Footage off “Biggie Smalls: Rap Phenomenon” dropping 11.27 on Gold Dust.
Now for the first time, in a celebration of his life and music, select personal video footage shot by Biggie’s own camera by his crew -uncut and uncensored will be released to the public. Take a step closer to the man, watch how he lived on-and-off the road, share his lifestyle and day-to-day antics, ride with him on his first tour. You know OSH is copping this!! So go cop yours!
Yeah so I know its been a minute and I know I O all ya’ll some FIRE. And I know this cat brings it, his last 5 have been fo real so sit back and close your eyes. Rah, you got this earlier today, everyone else dig in…
Yo thats right its Wu Thursday. For all ya’ll that know me, know any day can be a Wu tribute but guess what its NOW. Wuchess mentioned somethin today on twitter that everyone needs to peep, and just like the first Wu mixtape I got this is free so I don’t wanna hear the .. “aww but I don’t by cd’s anymore” shit, So heres the deal set your DVR’s to BET tonight and if you don’t know peep the OFFICIAL WU MOVIE, trailer seen here http://wumovie.com/ .
And realtalk, come on here and post what you think of the movie, I know its no Wu- Manual, found here but the old school ODB footage should be worth the DVR.
I’ll probably peep that at some point this weekend because tonight, if your in the San Diego area, and you got $26 in your pocket you need to be down at Canes. I’ll be at Canes. Johnny Blaze will be at Canes, the Funk Docta Spock will be at Canes. You should be at Canes.
But yo I get it its not even like Meth or Red have done anything that you might like.
Plus its Thursday and a full moon so don’t worry there won’t be any freaks out.
If you can’t get to Cane’s, well you should be embarrassed but at least the Wu will be back, well more like the Wu will be at HOB next month… … Sans their old frontman Meth, who will be on the East coast leg of his Methodman Redman Tour.
So If I don’t see you tonight at the show.
and let me leave you with this.
Peace,
John, John Bacardi straight up
hold the ice
so nice like New York
they had to name me twice.
Ok so in the last 24 hours I SHOULD have posted here like 12 times, bc there’s some stank comin’ from the basement, but instead I’ve been workin (for the man), grindin’ (for myself), and cookin’ up some new OSH -ish about to drop. (more on that in the weeks to come)
But first… Y must Dick’s show there tips in public? Or better yet why did happy hour cause some lumberjack wannabe, baboon to show his ass last night? Unless you OWN an place of business… you ALWAYS end up lookin’ like an ASS when you act like a caveman.
and dude I look like a caveman.
ok sorry about the PSA
But for real, and its a good segue to our next topic.
Rap Ads
What happened when they start drinkin sprite?.
I was listenin’ to a Mixtape from BlindIUseToBeForTheKids and mid way through the track list I noticed a St. Ides freestyle, this would normally not be a thing but I thought of of of my boys back in college and his unnatural love for “flavored Crooked I” so I skipped to check out the old Wu St. Ides commercial freestyle. It was short, and the sound quality sucked; but They loved that product and the verse had some fire to it. It was a refreshing break from overly produced sprite and Impala commercials of today.
So I started to do some research and talked to Rah for a bit… I found out that back in the day rappers used to rap about products that they actually used, and kick it with people in commercials they may actually be seen with. Now I don’t know if Biggie or Meth ever did a Dutchie commercial or if Slick Rick ever gave props to the dude where he got his chains. and I know for a FACT Flavor Flav never did a Timex commercial and though Run DMC did more for Adidas in one song than any ad agency could in the entire life of the brand, somehow they didn’t even cross paths in the commercial sense until 2007, after the death of Jam Master Jay when the company paid only for stock footage and the use of a song. So why aren’t rappers really reppin’ in ads what they rap about in songs.
Well come to find out the St. Ides ads caused a stir among the community and ended up making rappers look more gangster and more like “hooligans” and this did not bode well for a new genre on the rise. So according to another blog Str8 Dope heres a more in depth histor y of the commercials and the controversy .
Amazing! I then proceeded to dig around Google and I found a small blurb from 2002 from a record store:
V/A DJ Drank’s Greatest Malt Liquor Hits cd-r 11.98VERY LIMITED. And we think the blurb on the back of the cd says it best, so we’ll just quote it:Before the appropriately named Alkaholiks DJ/producer E-Swift hooked up with King Tee and DJ Pooh to work on a series of 60-second St. Ides TV and radio commercial spots that they had been commissioned to do: complete with a budget that allowed them to bring in some of the best emcees of the day. These rap commercials were really really good (they sound better than most commercial rap crap today!) and were so immensely popular at the time (early 90’s when commercial radio didn’t play nearly as much rap as today, esp. West Coast artists) that they resulted in listeners jamming radio station request lines at stations like Wild 107, San Francisco just to hear Cube or the Geto Boys rap about their favorite high-octane malt liquor. Not surprisingly with lyrics like Cube’s “Get your girl in the mood quicker, get your jimmy thicker, with St. Ides malt liquor,” it wasn’t long before controversy soon overshadowed the advertising campaign. Outraged protests followed particularly in African-American and Hispanic communities where malt-liquor billboards and posters were defaced. Additionally the St. Ides commercials were publicly criticized by the U.S. Surgeon General and the New York State Consumer Protection Commission and drew fines from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, as well as the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Additionally Korean grocers boycotted St. Ides, but for a different reason, for their use of Ice Cube as their spokesperson. Their protest was based on Cube’s derogatory lyrical comments about Koreans in his album “Death Certificate.” (Note: McKenzie River, the San Francisco-based maker of St. Ides, consequently temporarily discontinued using Ice Cube.) But the biggest criticism of the St. Ides commercials was that it used hip hop/rap music, a genre most popular with teenagers at the time, to sell malt liquor directly to underage drinkers. This was further enforced when St. Ides blatantly marketed a nonalcoholic drink for kids, boldly using the St. Ides name/logo (check out the lyrics to Ice Cube’s “Crooked I For All Ages” track #30). Overall the reaction to the St. Ides ads was so intense that G. Heileman Co., the national brewer that had created the St. Ides label, disavowed any connection with St. Ides. And eventually the commercials were banned altogether and never heard/seen again.
Instead leaving us with crap like this,
But rest assured I’ve done the leg work and now I’m about to reopen the St. Ides vault…
(the quality is all over the place and I just have them in Alphabetical order but enjoy.)
2Pac & Snoop
Cypress Hill
DJ. Pooh
Dr. Dre
Ice Cube
Ice Cube & Geto Boys
King Tee
Mc Eiht
Meth & Red
Notorious BIG
Rakim’s radio commercia
The Wu
and finally the 8 minute mixtape, I’m lookin for an mp3 for ya’ll but just open a new tab and put this on in the back.
Red and (talkin’ about the WU) Meth have a show in San Diego on Nov. 13th. just know that.
What ups ya’ll? After that John Legend I’m stuck on some GOOD [Getting Out Our Dreams] Music so when i heard this in my car today I had to drop alittle knowledge.
Well it looks like in this economy even the head of GOOD Music, Kanye West, can’t find a “Good Ass Job”. The prereleased title of his fourth album will have to wait because last night in LA Ye held a listening party for his NEW Album, thats right slated to release mid December is 808’s and Heartbreaks, a new album from Kanye West on which he is rumored to SING on every track. I hope this doesn’t mean that Kanye meets Scream and we end up with a voice modulated opus that falls short, but with what I have heard from it (you know not being on Ye’s super-exclusive listening party list and all) it COULD be tight. Ye usually does a great job mixing feels and styles and voice modulators can get tired quick so I guess we”l have to wait for December to make any real decision.
Hey but if it it flops, according to Kanyelive.com and one MTV report Kanye will be back to rappin’ and drop ANOTHER CD in June. Maybe by then after the election, the holidays, and some CHANGE, we could get back to gettin that “Good Ass Job.”
Until then Check out the only leaks I’ve found so far. and make sure you peep the final debate tonight. and next month VOTE- and if your in CA NO on prop 8, and NO on prop D if you want reasons just ask.
