February 29, 2004
This Week in Lists
1. Showa Shinzan International Yukigassen. If you're like me & you don't speak or read Japanese, then we'll just have to trust the Wall Street Journal when they say that it roughly translates to something like the International Snowball Fight Championships. Yeah, I know. You'd better go read the article. I'm really into the etching-style portrait above, too.
2. Method Man & Redman get their own Fox sitcom! It's the tried & true "fish(es) out of water" scenario. Bizarre.
3. Local Chicago weblog Gapers Block is pretty good but I really love their Ask The Librarian column. This week's column answers a question I've often wondered about. What's the deal with all those sketchy motels on Lincoln, up near Chicago's northern border?
4. Register to vote. "Down with W" as my dad says.
5. Arthur Magazine is among the best out there & it's free! You can even download pdfs from their website. Get to it.
6. Photographs by Mike Rhoades. Great guy, great photographs.
7. I can't remember how I ended up at the Fact Index but it was at a page explaining the different versions of Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door.
8. Sakaguchi Tomoyuki takes pictures at night with a digital camera.
9. Look at all the boxes of cereal at Imaginary World.
10. My friend Stephen reviewed the new Madvillain & it ended up on the Stones Throw site!
Dude is heavily opinionated.
I am surprised that the Stone's Throw site didn't edit some of his content.
He should check himself from slagging celebrities like Big Daddy Kane, Eric B, Pharrell and claiming wide stereotypes like 'Ivy League dog kennel worker with a paycheck from Blender or Revolver' just to get his point across.
Just sounds like regurgitated hater poison.
I like Stephen's abstract analogies though, he connects with them on that level.
and now what's wrong with collobo tracks?
These dudes are obviously people who work well by themselves, while others love spitting verses one after another in a vocal booth with the Hypnotic goin' round.
s'like a party, nawmean?
are we gonna start hating on crews like the Wu now?
I personally like the Madvillian album, but the annoying promo made me just about hate it until I'd heard it all the way though.
I must go on record by saying that I'm fed up with Madlib though.
as a producer he is diluted.
That Shades of Blue record was straight up doo doo of the diahhrea variety.
The Trojan compilation was just that, a compilation.
and that Dudley Perkins sounds like something more than just his soul is wounded, albeit strange, almost esoteric, gasp!
We can all agree that anything MF touches turns to gold anyway.
blah blah blah...
Stephen's definitely got some strong opinions. I don't know any music critics that don't. I can't speak to the slagging but you gotta admit that the phenomenon of "guesting" has led to a watering down of lot of records, especially in the late 90s. It seemed like a lot of albums were sold on the strength of a few verses from a big name instead of focusing on the main characters. Some of my favorite cuts have guests, though. The one that comes to mind is Gang Starr's "I'm the Man" with Lil Dap & Jeru (I'll tap ya...jaw). And I don't know anyone who hates on the Wu. Just because they got some duds doesn't make me like the good ones any less. I just got Ghostface's Supreme Clientele LP tonight! I guess the collaborations are good when they're good & bad when they're bad. Blah.
On Madlib, I agree with you. The Shades of Blue thing is beyond me but I like a couple of those Yesterdays New Quintet tracks. I wasn't really into that Dudley Perkins either, a little too something something. The Jaylib is growing on me. There's a track on the 2nd or 3rd side, maybe the one with Talib, that's pretty great.
Posted by: Rob at March 1, 2004 11:51 PM