I think my manic depressive state and suicidal tendencies played a huge role on who I was back then. “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” was one of the numerous songs I wrote and produced myself. There were three verses: my first two verses—the verse that Bill rapped was my own third verse. It was a record I originally recorded for my solo album, but nobody wanted that song. I swear…nobody. Willie D. didn’t think the record would work, but he wrote a verse to it anyway after J had done his research on this song. He found some people who were really feeling it. He wanted everybody to rap on it. It became a Geto Boys record.
If you look at my face on the We Can’t Be Stopped album cover you can tell I didn’t want to be apart of that photo shoot. Bill was still in the hospital. He was highly sedated, man. (Just days before the We Can’t Be Stopped photo shoot, a drunken and depressed Bushwick Bill shot himself in the eye after his girlfriend refused to shoot him during an altercation.) We took that picture at the actual hospital where Bill was at. And Chief, who was our manager at the time, said, ‘Bill, take the eye patch down.’ And I was like, ‘Awww f**k! Man, this is some bulls**t.’ I strongly believe that what goes on in this house stays in this house. I didn’t really want to put Bill out there like that. How many people have gotten their eye shot out and captured it on an album cover for everyone to remember? It’s hard to wake up in the morning and deal with that one.
Any student of Hip-Hop or music in general needs to read this article, I took some of my favorite albums from Brad and put them after the jump, but Vibe has his entire catalog broken down in chronological order. Classic material.
From what I’m hearing via twitter and other peoples in Oakland the rioting wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and hopefully the people of Oakland realized that destroying your own city is not the way to help this situation. Of course we are all upset at the verdict but burning your own homes and places of work won’t help you or the family of Oscar Grant.
He was an eccentric, outsize figure almost never photographed without wearing one of the elaborate science-fiction inspired masks and costumes that he made along with the sculpture and paintings that became the mainstays of his career in later years. He fashioned himself as an urban philosopher, whose overarching theory, which he called Gothic Futurism, posited that graffiti writers were trying to liberate the mystical power of letters from the strictures of modern alphabetical standardization and had inherited this mission in part from medieval monks.
I saw this news on Harry Allen’s twitter yesterday, but it wasn’t till the New York Times confirmed it earlier today that I could accept that it wasn’t just a rumor. Watch the video above if you don’t know about Rammellzee, one of Hip-Hop’s original creative geniuses. We here at PDS send our blessings and condolences to his family and friends.
While I was there I worked in a few aspects of the relief effort including a solidarity mission to aid the Earthquake survivors. In addition to all of this Myself, Cormega and Styles P participated in a show to support Haitian Hip Hop and rebuild the community. I would like to thank Arms Around Haiti and Hip Hop for Haiti for inviting me to be a part of this movement. While I was there I saw both devastation and rebuilding efforts. I also broke bread with people who had lost their entire family. Literally, everyone but them was deceased. Then there were those whose grief centered around losing a mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter as a direct result of what happened. It should make everyone reading this feel blessed to have anyone in his or her life. Think about that… Now think about it some more.
This is a letter that Immortal wrote to express his feelings on the state of Haiti today, whether or not the UN is helpful, and where has all the aid money been going. Please read the rest of it after the break, especially after the last post about Jersey Shore I think we need this in our life.
I don’t know enough about this case to talk about it at length, but as far as I know from people who do know this man is a drug kingpin no if and buts about it. Just because you give out turkeys on thanksgiving doesn’t mean you won’t shoot G money in the end. His entire statement after the jump.
Andre 3000: I was young and wilder and some of my fashion choices people didn’t accept at the time. I started getting flak from some people, so they were like, Either he’s gay or on drugs. And it’s funny because I was high as hell all the way through Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, but by ATLiens and Aquemini I wasn’t smoking or drinking.
Big Boi: Back then, there was a whole bunch of shit talking. People just couldn’t understand how we were making the type of music we were making. There were a lot of attacks coming at my partner, so we wanted OutKast to be like,You fuck with my homeboy, we gonna fuck you up.We wanted to let people know, this man doesn’t stand by himself. I mean, that’s my dog. It’s a team effort.
Andre 3000: With Big Boi standing by me I knew I had to address some of the shit cause I can’t have my homeboy looking bad. I knew a lotta people felt like Southernplayalistic was some of our hardest work and they felt like we strayed from that. So Return of the Gangsta was trying to give them a sense of, Hey, I’m still a regular person.
At the end of the day, you’ve still got to go through the same neighborhoods so sometimes you have to say stuff to let people know what it is. I’m a man so you can’t say some of this stuff to me. The things in that verse were addressing all of that.
- Big Boi & Andre on the making of Return Of The G.
You can read the entire incredible article here. Props to Maurice Garland, who wrote the Ozone cover story on Big Boi, which is after the jump. I can’t believe it’s been twelve years since Aquemini first dropped. Just like every other Kast album it sounded so different from the one before it that I didn’t get it on first listen. While I liked it I wanted it to sound more like Atliens, and I wanted Atliens to sound more like SouthernplayalisticCadillacMusic. After repeated listens though I realized that them boys had done it again. One of the best albums of all time if it’s not in your collection then you shouldn’t call yourself a fan of music.
Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years.
Not to be too cliche, but Houston we have a problem. I’m nowhere near the expert to speak on this at all so if you want some concrete information on the spill click here. Full transcription of President Obama’s speech after the break.
Wyclef stopped by the offices of NPR to speak about what is going on in Haiti one hundred days after the earthquake. The interviewer definitely doesn’t back down from the tough questions about what Yele has been up to and the controversies surrounding the organization. They also speak about his new album after the get past all that. Thanks to National Public Radio.
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A rant about people who say “oh I never pay attention to poilitics because I know it doesn’t matter, the whole system is rigged, every politician is the same, yadda yadda yadda.”
This is one of my pet peeves so I may have gotten bit more vexed than usual.
If you visit this site with any type of regularity you need to watch this video now. As always Jsmooth breaks it down as only he can.
WASHINGTON — Congress gave final approval on Sunday to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and remake the nation’s health care system along the lines proposed by President Obama.
By a vote of 219 to 212, the House passed the bill after a day of tumultuous debate that echoed the epic struggle of the last year. The action sent the bill to President Obama, whose crusade for such legislation has been a hallmark of his presidency.
After a loong year of President Obama trying to be bi partisan and give Republicans a chance to be a part of this, as soon as he realized that most of his opposition are they themselves puppets for the Insurance co, he put those 2 middle fingers up and did it dolo. Congratulations, you were right in electing Barack Obama to office, your vote was not in vain.
