A video.
Starring Curren$y featuring Young Roddy & Trademark Da Skydiver.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
"SPEAKERS GOING HAMMER!": The Albums: 2010.
20/Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)
If it is alright with you, Erykah Badu would like a moment to herself. A “ticket out of town” to look around and see where she stands in this world, in HER world, with her music, lover, and her babies. She already spoke for the people, seizing our attention by grabbing a mirror and saying, “America, LOOK! Do you see what I see?” with her magnificently rhapsodic disc from 2008, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War). With New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), she turns insular, “in her mind tusslin’”, focusing on those “only two emotions that humankind experience: fear and love”, and how they are currently being applied in this thing she calls life. From the album’s early centerpiece forward, Badu sits in her window seat, holding a mirror up to herself and her love life, traversing thru numerous moments of clarity over a constant stream of soulfully smooth, and patented funk laced grooves. The Erykah we see here may be, in her words, “outta sight and outta mind”, but she’s never too far gone, making our connection to the emotional vibratory frequencies on display here that much easier to latch onto.
KEY TRACKS: Window Seat/Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long/Umm Hmm
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
"SPEAKERS GOING HAMMER!": The Albums: 2010.
21/Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
“Kids, gather around. Yeah, I need your focus. I know it seems like the world is so hopeless...”
But not today.
Not here,
Not now...
Welcome. Welcome to the world of the Plastic Beach. “It's like wonderland.” A gorgeous and melancholy place where artists of all shapes and sizes come together and collaborate and make a joyful noise onto the world with whatever sounds, instruments, and melodies are best suited in order for them to do so. Fascinating. Like pictures, animated. Vivid and in Technicolor. “Rollin. Deep Holein’. Click clacking. CRACK-A-LACKING! Full packing”, with Ringmaster Damon Albarn at the helm helping each and every guest artist blend in and create with ease (B.Womack, Mos Def, Little Dragon, Lou Reed, Gruff Rhys, De La Soul, plus and many more!). This is the world of the Plastic Beach.
KEY TRACKS: White Flag/Empire Ants/On Melancholy Hill
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tightrope.
Words.
"It's been not quite two months since Republicans won a sweeping midterm victory, and already they seem divided, embattled and - not to mince words - freaked out. For good reason, I might add.
...I don't want to overstate the Republicans' predicament. They did, after all, take control of the House and win six more seats in the Senate. But during the lame-duck session, it seemed to dawn on GOP leaders that they begin the new Congress burdened with great expectations - but lacking commensurate power. It's going to be a challenge for Republicans just to maintain party unity, much less to enact the kind of conservative agenda they promised to their enthusiastic, impatient voters.
...Republicans face what, for them, is an unpleasant but inescapable reality. Ideologically, most Americans describe themselves as moderate or conservative; but when it comes to getting assistance from the government, most Americans are moderate or liberal. Look at health care, the issue that won the election for the GOP. According to polls, voters clearly favor the benefits that Obama's reforms will provide. All they really oppose is the insurance mandate that makes those benefits possible.
The idea of small, limited government may be appealing, but this is a big, complicated country. As some Republicans already know, and others soon will learn."
"SPEAKERS GOING HAMMER!": The Albums: 2010.
22/Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
Track Two.
Dance or Die.
HER:
“I'm praying for the man sitting without much time/May he understand the clock will never rewind/Wisen him and sharpen him and give him a motto/Hate no more, said he must hate no more/You see the daylight comes into the kingdom/But the kingdom's full of ignorant men/Just keep rebelling away, you gotta dream it away/Because the weatherman on TV ain't creating the weather/This man wants to see another jubilation/And that man wants us in emancipation/And then there is the man who wants a stronger nation/You see we really got to and I think that we ought to/Protect the mind from degradation/Sow in the seeds of education/They run from us/Are we that dangerous?...”
Out of the races and onto the tracks she presents to you, Janelle Monae, The Archandroid. They don’t package em like this anymore, because it can’t be manufactured. Deep thinking music loving CRAFT at its finest. Wonderfully eclectic without skidding off the rails, this is a debut album from a grounded musician whose creativity and musicality, it appears, knows no bounds. “Another flavor, something like a Terminator”, Janelle wants us all to revel in the jubilation, and, like he mentioned above, stand in emancipation. With this collection of songs right here, she gets it, and we do too. Welcome to Metropolis. Listen and be captivated.
KEY TRACKS: Locked Inside/Tightrope/Oh, Maker
Monday, December 27, 2010
"SPEAKERS GOING HAMMER!": The Albums: 2010.
AND
23/Cee-Lo Green - The Lady Killer & Jazmine Sullivan - Love Me Back
Surrounding yourself in all of the necessary trappings needed (and provided by our great soul forebrothas & sistahs)to create a stirring soul record is easy. The correct pitch, tone, and slight traces of mimicry can get the job done, but it takes more to stand out and make it WORK. It takes an ear, a student of the melody and lover of the sound to add to the cannon, borrowing where needed, while moving far beyond the realm of mimicry by inserting a sound, style or flow that is all their own. Not an easy task. But Jazmine Sullivan & Cee-Lo Green succeed where most others merely get by. The themes, the yearning, that passion and those sounds are all familiar, but the phrasings and showmanship is all theirs. Go ahead and file these two albums under "THE TRUTH", cause Ladies & Gentlemen, THIS is how you do it.
KEY TRACKS (CEE-LO): F*ck You/Bodies/Fool For You
KEY TRACKS (JAZMINE): 10 Seconds/Love You Long Time/Excuse Me
"SPEAKERS GOING HAMMER!": The Albums: 2010.
24/Jenny & Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now
Jenny & Johnny are solo musicians (when Jenny’s not busy co-fronting Rilo Kiley), Jenny Lewis & Jonathan Rice. Jenny & Johnny are a couple. And over the course of this disc’s thirty six minutes, Jenny & Johnny make sweet light hearted music together, and have a little fun. The duo’s LP I’m Having Fun Now is a brief eleven track set in which two fun loving sweethearts share vocal duties, harmonize, tell stories, and shoot the shit, often with a wink and a nod, or a friendly jab in the arm. Whether riffing on life, talking politics, or cooing lullabies, Jenny & Johnny keep it warm and delightful, never letting up on their musical chemistry or the good times that are to be had.
KEY TRACKS: Scissor Runner/My Pet Snakes/Big Wave
Saturday, December 25, 2010
"SPEAKERS GOING HAMMER!": The Albums: 2010.
25/The Black Keys - Brothers
This is an album by The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. The name of this album is Brothers. The music contained within is raw, a little smoky, & all kinds of sweaty. This is the finished product from two musicians that craft that old time woozy, bluesy, down home rock and roll as if they’re attached at the hip, like Brothers. Potent like a shot of your darkest finest STRAIGHT, no chaser. The name of this album is Brothers. It’s an album from the Black Keys. And it will take you there.
KEY TRACKS: Howlin’ For You/Sinister Kid/I’m Not the One
"L TO THE O! V TO THE E!": SINGLES 2010.
01/Robyn - Dancing on My Own
The girl at the center of this song before us is a broken heart ridin’ solo, floating in the abyss. She appears to have lost him and is watching him carry on from the shadows, catching peaks in broken stilettos, while trying to hold it together and dance, on her own. Except she can’t, cause we won’t let her. This song won’t let us. We, like this song, are too triumphant for all that. We roll our eyes with Robyn. We’ve been there like Robyn. We’re in the corner, watching him kiss her with Robyn. We laugh, damn near cry, and shout, “Can you believe this shit?” with Robyn. We feel for Robyn, understand with Robyn, and refuse to wallow in the emotions you would expect from a woman in this song’s situation. We are simply HERE & THERE with Robyn, relating, letting the music take us away and remind us to keep it together; Stuntin’, cause we got our own. What a beautiful escape.
Friday, December 24, 2010
"L TO THE O! V TO THE E!": SINGLES 2010.
02/Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
Let's go all the way tonight. No regrets, just love. Press play. Let’s go Uptown with our euphoria, and feel it in a love song. We can dance until we die. Feellikewerelivina Teenage Dream. The way you turn me on. You get me. You move me. You groove me Katy, Dr. Luke, Max Martin. Turn the volume up. Come away with me. Push up on me. Feel your warmth against mine. Let's runaway and don't ever look back. This is real. Put your hands on me in my skin tight jeans, get my heart racing, be my Teenage Dream tonight… Pop music rarely feels this good. Press play, runaway, and never look back.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
THE PEOPLE'S COURT.
A Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"Wow, we’re getting a new nuclear arms control treaty for Christmas. I know some of you were hoping for iPads. But still, big news.
Good work, White House!
...Nothing, not even Humvees in chains, was going to stop the progress of what has recently become known as the “hard-charging lame-duck Congress.” It is a perfect image, with its suggestion of a flock racing along in the clumsiest manner possible but still stumbling over the finish line.
...Unemployment compensation! Gay rights! Food safety! Judicial appointments! Arms control! Health care for 9/11 responders!
But let’s admit it. Nothing would have gotten done if Obama hadn’t swallowed that loathsome compromise on tax cuts for the wealthy.
If he’d taken the high road, Congress would be in a holiday war. The long-term unemployed would be staggering into the new year without benefits. The rest of the world would look upon the United States as a country so dysfunctional that it can’t even ratify a treaty to help keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. The people who worked at ground zero would still be uncertain about their future, and our gay and lesbian soldiers would still be living in fear.
It’s depressing to think that there was no way to win that would not have involved giving away billions of dollars to people who don’t need it. But it’s kind of cheery to think we have a president who actually does know what he’s doing."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Lame Ducks Triumphant
Words.
"Wow, we’re getting a new nuclear arms control treaty for Christmas. I know some of you were hoping for iPads. But still, big news.
Good work, White House!
...Nothing, not even Humvees in chains, was going to stop the progress of what has recently become known as the “hard-charging lame-duck Congress.” It is a perfect image, with its suggestion of a flock racing along in the clumsiest manner possible but still stumbling over the finish line.
...Unemployment compensation! Gay rights! Food safety! Judicial appointments! Arms control! Health care for 9/11 responders!
But let’s admit it. Nothing would have gotten done if Obama hadn’t swallowed that loathsome compromise on tax cuts for the wealthy.
If he’d taken the high road, Congress would be in a holiday war. The long-term unemployed would be staggering into the new year without benefits. The rest of the world would look upon the United States as a country so dysfunctional that it can’t even ratify a treaty to help keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. The people who worked at ground zero would still be uncertain about their future, and our gay and lesbian soldiers would still be living in fear.
It’s depressing to think that there was no way to win that would not have involved giving away billions of dollars to people who don’t need it. But it’s kind of cheery to think we have a president who actually does know what he’s doing."
"L TO THE O! V TO THE E!": SINGLES 2010.
03/Chris Brown feat. Tyga & Kevin McCall - Deuces
A Moment of Clarity.
Deuces, aside from being the most relaxed and straightforward R&B track of the year, shoots straight from the hip; Cool, calm, and collected, like a conversation amongst friends, letting it all hang out, and just telling it like it is (or like it was). No need for calling names or overtly trying to put people on blast. As Chris says at the top of the track, “All that bullshit’s for the birds”. I’m moving on to something better, kick rocks with all that nonsense and drama girl "DEUCES!". Bye.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
"L TO THE O! V TO THE E!": SINGLES 2010.
04/Big Boi feat. Gucci Mane - Shine Blockas
“Tell me what it look like, tell me what it is. Tell me what that LIFE like, tell me how it feel...”
It’s like THIS: Two dope boys and a southernplayalistic beat waxing poetic, telling it like it is. Speaking on that LIFE/lifestyle few are accustomed to, and stuntin' like it’s NUTHIN' cause the flow comes naturally. This is grown man B.I. with its head to sky, shinin, flaucin’, luxuriating in the life. These two they done made it, playing on, playing on, so weak minded haters fall back, cause this ain’t yo song.
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