Phorilla.com

Picked up the Nelly Furtado roots 45, Slum Village "Tainted", and the new Blackalicious joint today. All 3 are nice, and I'll have to listen to the Blackalicious more before rendering final verdict, but ?uestlove's drums on "Nowhere Fast" are WHAT!? Phased-out crispy sickness :-)

Also read this today, can't say that I'm the least bit surprised. I've always thought that the net brought people closer, and brought people closer to new ideas. Here's a new idea. . .

Go to Krewcial's site and listen to the album promo MP3. Heard about him 'cause he's a regular poster on Okayplayer. Nothing groundbreaking, but he does the Pete/Madlib/Jay Dee-influenced underground hip hop thing REALLY well. He's from somewhere in central Europe. I always wonder what happens to cats like this when they find their own, entirely unique sound - maybe that's where Jazzanova come from?

You'd best watch this series. . . talk about bringing the heat back to basketball! The last few games of the Lakers-Kings series have been cold: people are gonna be talking about these classic battles in the years to come. I recommend ESPN, Dime's daily Smack feature and Hoopsworld to stay up on ball.

Looks like Madlib is up to some more evil. . . The Axelrod/Madlib should be real tight!

I'm surprised this story hasn't blown up more . . . things have changed since I was a shorty and Marc Garneau was the boom-lick, I guess space exploration doesn't garner the same big headlines it used to. NASA has discovered water on Mars and they're looking to send up some cats to peep it. This is MAD exciting! There's something very special about the human race going to visit a new planet for the first time.

I wonder if I.G. Culture, 4Hero, and their Rotary Connection 2010 brethren will drop some joints to commemorate this? I'm playin, but this is the kind of event that fits with their retro-futurist worldview. I'm curious to see whether the mission acts as a unifying force or if it turns into another race between the superpowers. Stay tuned.

Just heard the Rockets are doing new uniforms. It's about time they got rid of the Super Mario banker pinstripes mumus they've been rocking for too long. Those joints were ALWAYS ugly without the "ironic ugly" appeal of the old Nuggets unis.


Let them know they need to lose the Gordon Gartrell jammies and just tweak the classic Hakeem joints like Detroit and Seattle did last season. . .

Summertime is right for listening to Madlib 7's, Kankick, 4Hero. . . I'm reading The Social Life of Information and Against Race. Book # 2 is very illuminating but really academic in tone. . . one of those books where you can listen to side A before you have to turn the page.

1st nomination for line of the summer:

"At the white boy club while I'm buying the bar, they like (in a Smashmouth voice): 'hey now, you're an all-star'"

- Noreaga 'Nothing'

You don't hear much from Mo'Wax these days, but this looks tight. Mo Wax has repackaged dancehall dubs for Fader-reading types. . . Go here and scroll down halfway down the page to the "Now Thing" LP (with the pink bootys), take a listen. As someone who just listens to dancehall on the radio (where they never play the instrumentals), I like hearing the dubs straight up. . . there's a lot more going on than you'd expect. As old as I get, I will never tire of the Stress riddim. MORE FIYA!

Hello world. Meet the nicest t-shirt ever. We've all sketched out Mr. T as a DJ, but it's the Jordans that make this the shit. Peep these cats as well, they're where I sourced my Trane shirt. It's summer man: time to start thinking about looking clean.

Peep this article on The Coup (in the Washington Post, no less!) . . . getting the hand claps to sound right IS hard. This did remind me how weak most hip hop journalism is, though. When was the last time you read a profile of a group in a hip hop magazine that wasn't just a fluff piece?