Monday, July 24, 2000
I missed two nights of De La Soul and an intimate evening with Ida. I'm not happy, but what can you do? It happens.
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Friday, July 21, 2000
Word to the 3rd.
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Wednesday, July 19, 2000
The adventures of Laughing Boy, Lefty and Danger Boy as mentioned yesterday can be found here in Real Audio.

I know I'm kind of late in getting this, but I finally got Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists yesterday. I got home from the bookstore about 8:30 PM and just started reading. Hilarious and on point, I read almost the entire 352 pages and when I finally got around to putting the book down, it was after 2:00 AM. This book is a must have.
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Tuesday, July 18, 2000
SHOT OUT: To the Jinx's Laughing Boy, Lefty and Danger Boy for their adventures on NPR's All Things Considered today.
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EAT YOUR WORDS DEPT.: Okay, so I may have jumped the gun on IE 5.5. I went to uninstall it and saw the repair option. Repaired it and seems to work fine. Please disregard maniacal rant below. I knew I was in trouble when Microsoft's pages were not coming up right. It does seem strange that I need to repair IE 5.5 before I really get a chance to use it. Hmm...
08:42 | link |

I just downloaded and installed IE 5.5 for Windows. IT'S TOTAL FUCKING CRAP! If you are thinking about it, don't. It has trouble with anything outside of straight HTML from my experience. XML? Forget it. CSS? Forget it. Trust me IE 5.0 works better.
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Monday, July 17, 2000
Apologies to anyone that had problems accessing this site over the weekend. My web hosting company had some DNS problems that have just gotten fixed in the last hour or so.

A good time was had by all last night as Heather, Ed, Lee Morgan and I shared dal, puris, pakoras and date chutney.
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Sunday, July 16, 2000
Happy Birthday to Kerry. She rocks.

Guru Purnima today. All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga!
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Saturday, July 15, 2000
At Pat and Hope's working on stuff.
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Saw the X-Men movie last night. I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually a good movie and not just a good comicbook movie. It wasn't over the top like the Batman franchise turned into. Wasn't a sappy pile of crap like the Superman movies. It's good to see that Marvel is finally getting things right. Heather kind of said it best when she said it was like a good comicbook and it left you anticipating the next issue. That it did clearly leaving an opening for the sequel (which all movies seem to do these days). Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was the best by far and the reports you may have heard about him essentially becoming Wolverine are true. Patrick Stewart as Professor X was surprisingly low key in a good way. Tyler Mane's Sabretooth character didn't really do a whole lot except growl. Anna Paquin as Rogue was confused and interesting. She is definitely a good actress. Ian McKellen as Magneto was great. Magneto wasn't an all out villian as you would think. Ray Park made the Toad an actually bad-ass as compared to the comic world's mutant whipping boy. If you are sharp, actually some are quite obvious, you will notice cameos by Kitty Pryde, Pyro, Iceman, Collosus, Cannonball, and Jubilee as students in Xavier's school. Which brings up the point that if you have any sort of familiarity with the comicbook, the "inaccuracies" definitely stand out, however, they made the movie work and if it were absolutely true to the comic, it would be way to much background to put into a 90 minute movie. There is, of course, more to say but seeing as I'm quickly losing my interest in continuing this entry...It's okay. It happens.
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Thursday, July 13, 2000
In this week's Baltimore City Paper, Lee Gardner's article "On the Down Low" asks the question, "Can Baltimore Hip-Hop Come Up from Underground?" The answer it seems is a reserved "yes." Never heard of anybody from Baltimore beside Sisqo and Dru Hill? Never heard of any Baltimore hip-hop? Well there is a reason for it. You figure most major cities now have at least one recognized hip-hop star. New York and Los Angeles have too many to list. Detroit had Awesome Dre and the Hardcore Committee and now Eminem. Boston will always tout Gang Starr just because Guru grew up in Roxbury (DJ Premier is originally from Texas), but should put more emphasis on local Ed OG especially since Guru's alliance is more toward Brooklyn than Beantown. Chicago is all about Common, as it should be. Philadelphia spawned the second DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will "Fresh Prince" Smith, the Goats and its best to date, the Roots. Cleveland has that whole Bones-Thugs thing. Florida had 2 Live Crew among others. Forget about the Deep South or South Coast stuff, they drop a new act every day it seems (of course they all sound the same too). Even my original hometown of Flint, Michigan had MC Breed, to which you can say what you will, but he put out a ton of records and you have to admit "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'" was the jam.

But Baltimore? Hmm...[scratching head]...nothing. That, of course, is not to say there was never any Baltimore hip-hop. Baltimore has a tradition of hip-hop that is arguably as long as anywhere outside of New York as current Def Jam/Def Soul president and former Baltimoron Kevin Liles will tell you. In the 80s, Liles was a member of a local mixing crew that spun records at all the local parties. When hip-hop started to rear its head, Liles along with MC Cool Rod formed Numarx, which became "one of the city's premier hip-hop collectives."

"We had the whole thing," Liles says by phone from Los Angeles, still a little bleary from being up all night at a video shoot for Def Soul diva Kelly Price. "We had battle crews, and we'd go against each other--from DJ battling to MC battling to who made the hottest records. Whenever touring acts like LL Cool J, Salt 'n' Pepa, and Run-DMC would come through, we'd open for them. We used to be able to fill 5,000, 6,000-seat arenas ourselves."

There were other crews, of course. We Rock Crew and Z3 MCs top name a few. But what about now? Noted stand outs are Labtekwon, Pork Chop and new up and coming emcee Norm Skola. While Labtekwon is probably Baltimore's most prolific emcee, Pork Chop has had singles on the Box and BET as well as making the Billboard charts briefly with his single "Wit It or What?" Labtekwon is the more rounded emcee being diverse, articulate and intelligent. Pork Chop is more street if you know what I mean. Frankly, I don't know how someone can get big with a handle like "Pork Chop," but if some kid can call himself "Puffy" and make a bunch of wack, but high-selling, records I guess anything is possible. But with all due respect, the Chop does have skills. Norm Skola has had a couple of self-released singles and has quite buzz forming around him. With his hard working nature, look for Norm Skola to be verge of something big in Baltimore and possibley reaching farther than the beltway and is readying a tour with hip-hop legend Doug E. Fresh. For local crews it seems that Charm City Records Crew has things lock, stock and barrel. So there is a definite hip-hop presence in Baltimore. That much has been established. Why isn't Baltimore hip-hop big? And more importantly, why isn't Baltimore hip-hop big in Baltimore?

Labtekwon will quickly tell you quickly it has a lot to do with club music. As hip-hop in Baltimore was emerging as the Baltimore sound in the clubs, actual club music, as in booty-shaking club music, was rearing it's head in nearby DC. Eventually, club music took Baltimore over and still has the city in its grip to this day. Hip-hop, for the most part, is nonexistant in Baltimore clubs. Baltimore radio is a sorry thing to begin with and hip-hop on Baltimore radio is even worse. In Baltimore, hip-hop gets surprising little play on the radio outside of Top 40 crossovers or dance mixes. WERQ 92.3FM, better known as 92Q Jams, is a sad excuse for an urban radio station, but it does have Rap Attack. Rap Attack is the stations dedicated hip-hop show. Though it's only a weekly show, Saturday nights 7-9PM (what a horrible timeslot, ugh), Rap Attack is one of two radio shows that has local talent. The other is Morgan State University's (WEAA 89.9 FM) Strictly Hip-Hop, which is on Saturdays nights 12 midnight to 5 AM.

Another major drawback for Baltimore that it has never had a steady hip-hop fixture as New York did with the Rooftops, the Latin Quarters, Tramps (all of which have been gone for sometime, save for Tramps which closed it's doors last year) and more recently with the Lyricists Lounge. With no place to really hear hip-hop live or otherwise, Baltimore's hip-hop scene, well, never happened. With no air play, no regular place to meet, how can a culture such as hip-hop grow anywhere? It can't and it didn't. This gives no reason for anyone outside of Baltimore to look at Baltimore for hip-hop. People would come from all over the tri-state area to go to New York. Master P and that whole Cash Money/No Limit thing put the South on the map. There were similar obstacles to over come there as there are in Baltimore. Nobody cared about Louisana except for the people there, people like Master P. When the locals care about hip-hop, hip-hop will flourish and grow, eventually catching the eye or ear in this case to those outside of Baltimore.

More than launching individual artists, Labtekwon insists, Baltimore needs to concern itself with nurturing a scene that values skill and entertainment value over clique affiliations and making a big noise, a scene that has something original to offer. Achieve that, he theorizes, and national attention will come.

"You need a culture," he says. "You have to have something that your own environment is going to appreciate before other people are going to want to come and enjoy it.

"If [local hip-hop] music and performances are entertaining, club music couldn't beat that. Down South they listen to booty-shake, but they still blew up their version of rap. They're still listening to booty-shake, but they listen to Cash Money too."

Culture or no culture, no one will break out until they have the goods to unite the city under one groove. As Liles points out, "If it's hard for you to get everybody in Baltimore, how am I going to convince everybody else everywhere else?"

"People think that all you have to do is come up with some hot rhymes and some tight beats," Labtekwon says. "And I've been telling people for years that if that was the case we would have been on the map already. Baltimore hasn't caught on that it's quality first."

There will always be hip-hop in Baltimore. But for Baltimore to gain respect it has to nuture it's own scene. Luckily it seems that people like Labtekwon, Pork Chop, Norm Skola and the Charm City Records Crew are on the right track. Recently, a new club on Eutaw Street has opened called the Tunnel and features national and local hip-hop acts. With Sisqo and Dru Hill gaining notoriety, more focus will hopefully be shifted Baltimore's way. Hopefully that will water the hip-hop seeds that have already been sewn and perhaps something will grow. Thoughts?
12:16 | link |

Wednesday, July 12, 2000
Untilthebreakofdawn.com, where our motto is "We'll have content one of these days."
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Tuesday, July 11, 2000
Sometimes I even amaze myself at what an utter and complete fucking idiot I can be.

In an unrelated note, Fred tells me that my suspicions were correct. Rahzel has not performed with the Roots since dropping his solo record, Make The Music 2000. Thanks Fred.

Jurassic 5 has been added the following dates on the Beastie Boys/Rage Against the Machine Rhyme and Reason Tour.

Aug. 2	Toronto	Molson Park
Aug. 4	Buffalo	Darien Lakes Amphitheater
Aug. 5	Washington DC	RFK Stadium
Aug. 7	Pittsburgh	Starlake Amphitheater
Aug. 11	Hartford	The Meadows

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Monday, July 10, 2000
MY BAD: It wasn't Rahzel as reported here, it was Scratch. I don't think Rahzel has performed with the Roots for some time. Anyone know for sure?

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: My God. I'm juicy and good. Who would have known? (Thanks to NTD)

Went and saw the Perfect Storm on Friday. The beginning was sentimental and sappy and then boring as nothing was happening as they fished. However, once the storm was actually raging, it was pretty good. Clooney was good, but not stellar as a kind of crazy fishing captain. No one else really stuck out, I'm mean Clooney didn't really stick out much either. Winner of the Sappiest Line: Murph's son, "Can we talk about something else?" all teary-eyed of course. Who recognized Karen Allen? "MARION! Close your eyes! Don't look!" "INDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" ;-)
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Friday, July 07, 2000
Silly, silly, silly people. *sigh*
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Thursday, July 06, 2000
There is a great article in the New York Times today. The article, "Guarding the Borders Of the Hip-Hop Nation," is part of the the Times' "How Race is Lived in America" series. The article discusses Elliott Wilson, editor of XXL and formerly Ego Trip, and William "Upski" Wimsatt, graffiti artist, writer and one of the Utne Reader's 20 Visionaries of 1996, as they struggle through what it means to be black and white, respectively, in the world of hip hop, a world dominated by blacks, but an industry financed and controlled by whites.

Wilson's plight of whether or not he's selling out to whitey by taking a high paying job as editor for a white-owned hip hop magazine (XXL) after his own magazine (Ego Trip) went belly up. Ego Trip, although dead as paper magazine lives on as an online zine, a book and record compilation. Wilson has been sucessful in turning around XXL, but still has doubts whether he's being true to hip hop when he states, "My magazine isn't some white-boy magazine, though...It's black, too. I'm not sacrificing what XXL stands for," but adds, "it can't be totally black if a white man is signing the check."

Upski, who embraced hip hop and black culture at an early age in Chicago graffing and b-boying, touts hip hop as a means of bringing the different races and classes together in this country. He has written two books on the subject, No More Prisons and Bomb the Suburbs. Upski caused a stir in the world of hip hop in 1993 when he wrote what has become to be known as the "wigger article" for the Source that essentially added up to telling blacks don't let whites take over hip hop. Upski also deals with his own demons when he has an encounter with a black woman at the laundromat.

Sometimes, he said, he believed that black people were dumber than whites. Sometimes he felt the opposite. Now, as the washers ended their cycles, he hauled the wet clothes to the dryers. A stout black woman stood beside an empty cart. He asked if she was using it. She stared at him, bewildered. He asked again. Nothing.

Exasperated, he simply grabbed the cart and heaped it with his clothes.

Later on, he said: "When that happened, part of my gut reaction was, 'This is a black woman who has limited brain capacity, and it fits my stereotype of blacks having less cognitive intelligence.' "

Would a white woman have understood?

"It's dangerous for me to even say that," he said. "But that's what I thought."

It's interesting to read of Wilson's and Upski's successes, failures and hang ups in their attempts to preserve hip hop culture. I can identify with Upski's plight of being the white kid in a hip hop world. Though unlike Upski, I didn't "act black" (not Upski's words). I listened to hip hop and rap (still do, albeit judiciously). I breakdanced a little. I even rapped for a while. I didn't need to mock anyone by proving that I was down to gain acceptance. But I never felt like I had to prove that I was down. Was I accepted? Usually, but there were those who blew me off because I was white. Did that bother me? Sometimes. But, I figured that was their hang up and not mine. If that's their problem, did I really want to be friends with them? Nope. I saw no reason to be on anyone's jock in order to be down. Anyway, there's a point here somewhere. What do you think?
12:30 | link |

Strange dream last night. I was at Michael & Zöe's in Boston getting a tofutti blend-in. The strange thing is that Michael & Zöe's is not in Boston. M & Z's is in the Lower East Side on the corner of the 6th and 2nd Avenue (M & Z's is highly recommended, by the way, if you are ever in the city. When in Boston, I recommend Toscanini's. The burnt caramel ice cream rocks). Now the really strange part. As I walk up to the counter to place my order, a girl with short, spikey hair gets her order and passes me as she turns to walk out. With a hanging, open mouth, my dumbfounded head turns to follow her as she leaves. She stops to open the door for someone coming in and sees me with my hanging mouth staring at her. "Meg?" She now has this nervous smile like she is trying to place me. "It's okay," I tell her, "You don't know me, but I like your site." She smiles and nods her head. She understands. She says thanks, waves her hand, takes her sunglasses from the top of her head and places them on her face and leaves. Another strange thing, Meg was about a foot taller than me. Although, I have never met Meg, I have a feeling that she is not 6' 7", but I could be wrong I suppose. Boston? Michael & Zöe's in Boston? Meg in M & Z's in Boston? (Meg being in Boston isn't so strange when you think about it.) Meg being an Amazon? What does this mean? No clue. I'm chalking it up to just another weird dream.
07:15 | link |

Wednesday, July 05, 2000
Action and adventure. Where to start, where to start? Let's backtrack a little bit. Friday night I went and saw Jets to Brazil at Fletcher's. Honestly, I never paid much attention to Jets and never really got around to listening to their stuff. Zero Zero opened up the night and while looking like a Ben Sherman ad they were pretty good. The were fun. A lot of bands are good, but they're not fun. Being fun is an important thing. Their guitarist looked like Govardhana-Lal, too. Up next was this hip hop group, Dalek (Dialek? sp ?) from Newark, NJ. Kind of a surprise to have a hip hop band sandwiched between indie rock or pop or whatever the kids call it these days. They were good. I wanted to talk to them and they said they had merch in the back and I was hoping to grab a cd or something. When I got to the back, there were no merch tables to be found. Mullendore showed up. He's such as wise-ass. Finally, Jets came on. To show you how much of an old man I am becoming, my legs were killing by this point and I only stayed for their first four songs. They were what I expected, though - tight and efficient.

Sunday, I went and saw the Roots at the 9:30 as I briefly mentioned here. Monday, was a totally disasterous day at work with our sys admin gone and two guys (which I am one of that two) who don't know as much as they should trying to fix things and make things work. We eventually made it through the day relatively unscathed (possible security compromise and stupid stuff like /var/spool/mail being at 100%) and I went to see the Roots again and this time a certain someone showed up and, yes, it was aces. The Roots were better on this night, even though the were great the night before. It might of had something to do with the fact that ?uestlove was in house and behind the drum kit with his big ol' fro. This time I was sort of towards the back of the club and this guy who thought he was dancing on MTV, i.e. he danced the same way with the same rhythm to every song despite the actual beat and rhythm of what the band was playing, was hitting me all night (the night before it was this guy who could pass for ReRun from What's Happening!? fame). The set was slightly different from the night before. They even busted out some Ol' Dirty Bastard, Run-DMC, Jay-Z, Boogie Down Productions and Suger Hill Gang among others adding in some Roots Crew flavor. Spent the rest of the night with Heather talking about lesbians and gay men. ;-)

The Fourth of July was duly celebrated with a call to Lila at 7 something-er-other in the morning because I had something to tell her, laundry with one load being messed up in the dryer, napping and hanging out with Heather watching bits and pieces of Road Warrior, Bulworth ("Bulworth, you know yo' my nigga") and some strange French movie ("Yes...gently"). There was also some Magic 8 Ball and Slinky action.

So far today is not so bad, but not so great either. Tired. Too many late nights in a row. Work is hectic this morning but starting to slow down a little bit. Today, Lila is busting my ass.
07:21 | link |

Sunday, July 02, 2000
I just got back from seeing the Roots at DC's 9:30 Club. I will say it here and now. The Roots are the best live hip hop act today. Period. Black Thought was incredible with his flow and was always on point. Rahzel was incredible with turntable technique, vocals that is. ?uestlove was not there (he's on tour with D'Angelo) so Black Thought's little brother E filled in on the drums. The kid did good. I cleared the dance floor once or twice breaking out the old hardcore techniques. In other words, there was a lot of pushing up by the stage. I realized a few things while I was there.

1. I don't know the Root's songs as well as I thought.
2. My motor skills deteriated to the point where I seem to have the rhythm of a slug.

I was supposed to go with a certain someone, but for whatever reason it didn't work out. I tried to get some other people to go when that certain someone was MIA to no avail. I had no trouble getting rid of the ticket and even sold it for less than what I paid, because I'm either a nice guy or an all out sucker. You be the judge. Tonight was a good practice run for tomorrow night's show. Hopefully I can get that certain someone to go with me. That would be aces.
22:06 | link |