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Here's a cool interview with Drumagick, the guys who did Easy Boom. Great question near the end about what old Brasilian records they'd turn someone on to in a dusty record shop - gives me some new names to watch for.

New Freddie Foxxx album coming, it's called "The Konexion". Here's a preview: Paine (produced by Premo) and The Real Emcee. Freddie is just a classic, dope emcee, he might talk about the same shit all the time but there's always a clever little twist to it. Fun fact (from the Ego Trip Book of Rap Lists): the group was originally supposed to be "Eric B & Freddie Foxxx", but Freddie missed their first recording session together (this was c. 1986) so Kid Wizard Rakim stepped in. I'm happy things turned out the way they did, it would have been kind of a bizzaro world otherwise.

And the Golden Star Lounge? Let's just say this: it'll be hard to top the first one. The spot was ridiculously jammed, and it was nice to see some new people (and regular faces) at the open mic, but the highlight for me was the feature performances. Garmamie ripped it as usual, but maaaaaaan did John Akpata tear it up with his piece that pulled together the G8 conference, George W. Bush, gentrification, and just about everything else. He challenged Bush to a fight for world peace, even brought Don King & Vince McMahon into the equation. "And if he doesn't show? It's 'cause he's YELLA". Nth digri is building something special, here's hoping that this scene gets seen by a wider audience. The vibe at these events is at the same time intelligent, shocking, eye-opening, and warm, and more people need to be exposed.

I was in a good mood when I hit Switch 'cause I was still riding on the waves from Golden Star. In fact I still am.

Switch was quiet last night as expected (the monthly Stamina party was across town), but it was a "Smooth Out"-type night, true to its name. Shouts to Alkaline, Fizik, PDP, Kelly Wren, Saracino, Cham, and the whole Simple Tings crew for making it smooth.

If you're in Ottawa, don't forget that the Golden Star Lounge is tonight.

Official notice: the Burberry pattern is PLAYED OUT. This includes Burberry scarves, cologne, and Air Force Ones. If we see you in it, we will laugh at you.

Tron of Chappelle's show, however, is still holdin' it down like 4Hero.

Tomorrow night I'm up at Escape for Switch, a great breaks/drum'n'bass weekly that the Simple Tings boys are doing. Alkaline, Haze, and Fiver are also on the bill, and the concept is "The Smooth Out", so some smoother broken stuff will get dropped. I'm sure Stamina at Surface & Antibalas will draw big, but I think it's gonna be a tight little night. Demus & I went last week and had a noice time, good vibes all around.

Full details in the column at left.

Naomi Klein wrote an interesting article in today's Globe about why Canada should continue to stand up against the American war on Iraq. I think Naomi's oversimplifies a lot of complex issues in her work and does a disservice to those trying to inch things in the right direction, but I agree with her here. This war may be the very beginning of a long decline in American dominance in the world.

As the EU, China and India emerge as major world forces, multilateralism is becoming more important than ever. If the U.S. can't play that game, they may be left behind in the decades to come.

This is a new sound that caught my attention. "Ruff Neck Sound" by Artful Dodger feat. Richie Dan, Sevi G (Basement Mix). Word is they're pushing to call the style "basement": R&B meets garage meets dancehall. Categories be damned, I'm loving this tune. "X amount of crews a' put on them dancing shoes", indeed!

Props to everyone who attended the first Sunday Session up at the Kitsch House. Good food, good music, and good people really does work. Sunday afternoons are also a great time to drop all the hot relaxed-fit beats that don't work in the club. Watch out for more Sunday afternoon eats'n'beats affairs in Ottawa in the future. . .

Perseus, Faust, and Shortee are coming to Ottawa to demonstrate Final Scratch on May 8. I'm kinda eager to check out this Final Scratch thing. The ability to manipulate just about any song/sound in the same way we've been manipulating stuff on vinyl is a tempting proposition.

Check the link above to see when they're coming to your part of the world.

DJ Marky's Brasilian Job mix has been in my headphones a lot lately. I love the mix of the smoother, song-based drum'n'bass with a few harder cuts. It's also got a little of the trance-influenced flavour with the rolls and filters, something I've never really checked before. I'm still not sure what to make of that sound - to me the illest thing about drum'n'bass has always been the crunchy, hip hop-style drums.

Hip hop producers need to pick up on the Brasilian sound too. The only tracks that come to mind are J-Live "Don't Play" and Black-Eyed Peas "Fallin' Up", both hotness.

My shit right now: Chappelle's Show. In the grand tradition of In Living Colour & Ego Trip magazine, Dave spends most of the show making fun of every race. Past highlights include Tyrone the Crackhead, the white girl singing Dave's thoughts, Wu Tang Financial (featuring the real RZA and Genius!), and any skit involving "Tron". What else can I say about it? Ahhh, there's a musical performance every show. Guests have included Mos Def, Busta Rhymes, Talib Kweli & Fat Joe. The unique thing is that they never perform in front of a crowd, it's always some weird place like in the passenger's seat of Chappelle's truck. Check episode 2 for the Mos thing though, he debuts something new and NICE.

It's on Comedy Central in the US, but I don't think we get it in Canada. I wouldn't know, I don't have much in the way of cable channels. Search for Chappelle on Kazaa for now and snag the DVD when it comes out.

P.S. Dane, you and I will watch this together & shit ourselves laughing, Chappelle made this just for us. . .

Recommended in Ottawa this Friday (March 28): the first Golden Star Lounge. nth digri is finally launching a monthly night, giving the poetry jams a consistent venue. It'll be nice to have a regular event, and I think it'll push the poets to build and bring something new every month.

Info:
African Palace (376 Rideau Street), 8:30 PM to 11:00 PM, Tickets $7.00

with performances by: the nth digri, Jonathan (from Magic Circle), Captain Sunshine, Selem, Garmamie, John Akpata, Jackie Lawrence and an OPEN MIC
hosted by Moses
Full details

There's nothing more gangsta than a Civic filled to the brim with records. Good luck with the new crib D-mass. Thanks to Fiver for running outside in his t-shirt.

Zach de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine) and DJ Shadow have done a collabo against the war in Iraq. It's nice to see someone like Shadow, who's part of a pretty inwardly-looking scene, get involved in a little commentary on the world around him. The beat is on the rock-y, Unkle tip.

Looks like the Jaylib project will be split up into 2 parts: Madlib of Jay Dee beats & J-Dilla and Frank'n'Dank over Madlib beats. This shit can't possibly live up to expectations, but I'm eager to hear it regardless. . .

My ace Stu Blunt just hit me with something nice. Stu and Sonia are in Japan teaching English right now. They've never been gadget people, but when in Rome, do as, so they picked up cell phones. I guess the stories are true, they really do have the next shit in Japan - Stu's inexpensive celly has a digital camera built in. You read about this stuff, but in practice it's really cool to open your email and see an up-to-the-minute pic of some of your best friends. The best uses of the Internet are all about bringing people together. Here's the pic:

Here's an Okayplayer discussion on who the next hip hop producer to make it big might be. In hip hop, any era is defined by the sounds of a small pool of key producers, so this is always an interesting discussion.

At the top of my want list right now: the extended mix of Bugz in the Attic's version of "Zombie". Every time I play out the album (Red Hot & Riot), someone asks what it is. Every time I tell a friend to pick it up, I get extra love. Still recommended.

I think Walter Cronkite worded a simple, eloquent argument against the war in Iraq.

I was just about to hit the sack and turn off the computer, but something on the screen (at blogger.com) caught my eye. It was a link to this site, which appears to be the weblog of an Iraqi man who lives in Baghdad. Look at the post from 5:46am March 20. I found out that the war just started from a man in Iraq, via the Internet.

Here's hoping it's a short one.

As I listen to Camp Lo & Ishmael's "Swing", I can't help but think: how hot a producer was Ski? He did most of Camp Lo's first album, also Jay-Z's "Who You Wit" and "Streets Is Watching". I think I'm gonna go make a beat right now. Here's an old Ski interview - watch out 'cause I think he's down with a new group now. . .

A great video that prolly hasn't seen much play outside Canada's Muchmusic: K-Os "Superstar Pt. 0" (hi speed Windows Media). It's a broken take on his album track, and the video is a great little piece featuring some noice breaking. I remember Dane picked this up on white a while back. . . it's a shame they didn't get it out to the "Loose Lips" crowd, they would have eaten it up world-wide. Like "Ol' Time Killin", another North Coast classic that hardly saw the light of day elsewhere and remains a hidden gem.

This comes via fellow Ottawa cat Aloke's MusicNonStop site. I've just started to check it, highly recommended if you're into the more broken side of what you read here. Dude is WAY up on all the unreleased stuff: respect due!

Bugz in the Attic dot com is come. Hype is just hype but on pure music alone there's not much getting me as excited as what's coming out of this camp these days.

Last Friday Chameleonic (uh, time to update that photo homey) and I hauled down to Toronto for the monthly Session up at Surface. I dunno how they bill it, so let's just say it's a premier "broken beat plus whatever else is hot" type night. How did it go down? The crowd filled out nicely with some cool but non-posing people, . The music? Classics ("Hold It Down Bugz remix"), Arcee feat. Kardinal, brand new Spacek, funk, "Come Close (Dilla remix)", and new Moonstarr remixes of Jazzanova hot off the CD-R. THAT is what I like to hear. Any night where there's uncoordinated guys in hockey jerseys trying to breakdance at 3am is a from-the-ground-up success to me. We also met the nu jazzy Penny Lane: thanks for giving us a good story girl. . .

Big up Moonstarr, Stuart, Roland Deschamps and everyone else we met for showing us a good time, and special propers to Andrew Allsgood for a killer set and great hospitality all day. We'll reciprocate when you come down here. . .

The CBC Poetry Faceoff? Nice. Props to everyone involved, from the poets to the CBC crew to the up-for-it crowd. Special ups to Alan Neal for showing love to the DJ and all the folks on the far side of middle age who gave daps. The results (and clips) are here.

A special shout to Dane, who BROUGHT it at the Faceoff. Dane's been my Palm Squad bredren for a few years now, and he's off to Toronto now to do big things, things that I'll be sure to mention on here. Because they'll be tight. I'm gonna miss you my friend, from movies (& shit-talking) to spinning (& shit-talking). I'm going through old shots and I don't have any photos of us together, we need to fix that.

First, some photos, I'll be back in a while with the stories. . .


Chameleonic and I are already branching out, from the Uprising DJs to club nights to bookstores in T-dot. Next up: socks.


Ahh, you captured the essence of the Poetry Faceoff with the mic in the foreground there. Nice, Ruby. Apologies to the rest of the set that came out (Dane, Amica, Mowgli et al) but I don't know how to work this camera and you all look like night of the living braindead.


The crowd up at the first Stamina getting down. Next up? March 28, and here's the lineup.


Oni moves up a few rungs on the social ladder just days after her JC encounter. Yours truly needs to learn that screwfacing is not the way. . .


The one and only Oni hangs with Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister of Canada.

Gone for a while, but now I'm back again. Big post coming soon about Full Contact & Session in T-dot this weekend. In the meantime, Chuck D (Public Enemy)'s piece on 50 Cent is well worth a read. He brings an interesting perspective on how a lot of g'ed up hip hop is basically poor people selling out their background to rich media execs. I find it hard to argue with that premise - that's pretty much what's going on, right?

Tomorrow is Full Contact Poetry on the NAC's 4th stage (full info). There'll be a few tickets at the door if you show up right mad early (doors at 7pm, show starts at 7:30). These poetry things OUGHT to be a hot ticket: I haven't been disappointed yet. I'll be opening with some soulness so come early if you want to ride high. . . Anthony, I just might bring some Al for you, ha ha!

Kweli's Get By video is out. Realplayer Hi-speed Lo-speed Windows Media Hi-speed Lo-speed.

Kwa, I like the beard. The simple video is nice, strictly shots of New York. I've always liked videos that are made up of city scenes. Hope this is the one that pushes him gold, because he's got a lot to say.

From Renaissance Soul:
On the forthcoming "Two/Three" LP from Dabrye coming this winter on Ghostly Internatonal, Phat Kat & Jay Dee will be dropping some verses on a cut called "Game Over". A single for this hot joint is coming this summer, and "Game Over" will be included on the debut album "The Undeniable LP" from Phat Kat.

This Red Bull Music Academy concept is tight. Interviews with the hottest underground producers with a lot of the questions you'd ask as a fan or fellow producer. Here's a Madlib piece, including a preview of some of his broken beat stuff and collabos with MF Doom & Jay Dee: text and video (25 min.). Never would have guessed that he uses a Boss SP-303 Dr. Sample in a big way! I never really bought into the hype about 'lib before but most of the new shit belongs in the Grace because it's sick. Dude is realizing his potential.

Oh lord, the cut-up track with all the scratched inserts is so nice! You must watch the video. This is inspiring, I am AMPED!

March 2003 chart

1. Champion Soul feat. Jillian Lindsey - Wha'Cha Got? (Main Squeeze)
2. Rewind 2 (Ubiquity)
3. Seiji - Loose Tips (Breath & Stop) (Floorplay)
4. Nas feat. Jadakiss & Ludacris - Made You Look (Remix) (White)
5. Chains and Black Exhaust (Jones)
6. Rise Ashen - Earth Dragon (Fossilfuel)
7. Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell & Uncle Charlie Wilson - Beautiful (Priority)
8. Sonic & Silver - Under the Sun (Soul:r)
9. Yesterday's New Quintet - Suite for Weldon (Stone's Throw)
10. Appetizers - Naturally Vibrant (Maurice Fulton mix) (Wagon Cookin')

Check out a whole gang of charts on Cleerance's site.

Wait for it: the "Get By" remix is coming. Kweli, Mos Def, Jay Z & Kanye West.

While you're waiting, get hang your fix with the Mos Def, Roc & Kanye joint. Hope the Get By rmx is a little more fulfilling. . .

The sound around here these days is Rewind 2. It's the real neo-soul: Waajeed (Platinum Pied Pipers), Madlib, Terry Callier & Nicola Conte covering Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield, Bobby Caldwell & Chrissie Hynde. This is the stuff that makes playing lounge gigs so nice: it's the fat music that's for easing, not for dancing. At the moment, I am riding high.

Here's a short chat with some of the participants. I like what Waajeed had to say especially: "This whole Rewind experience has opened my eyes and I'm no longer focusing on being in the who's-who list, or working on tracks for big name releases. I'm more interested in a hands-on approach. To hear and be a part of something like Rewind is refreshing because I know there are people really making heartfelt music."

Like everyone else who knows what time it is, I've always been a KG fan. Since the All-Star game though, I've been keeping a closer eye on him and just digging on his mastery of so many aspects of the game. ESPN has a nice piece on how he's maintaining right now and why he deserves to win League MVP. Here's hoping that they can somehow bring a complementary star to Minnesota and win Garnett the championship he deserves before his career is out.

Kid Koala's new album is a graphic novel with a musical accompaniment. He always comes up with something interesting. . .

It's a sad day in hip hop: looks like D&D Studios has gone under. D&D was like the Electric Lady of hip hop: quality sound, community and just plain vibes converged to make it a studio from which classic music flowed for years. It was best known as the place that DJ Premier laid down just about everything he produced, including dozens of classics. I'm going to take a moment to put on Biggie's Unbelievable and reminisce about D&D.

New Kardinal prod. by the Neptunes: Belly Dancer (thanks Melanism). Thumbs up from me: a different sound that's far from generic, but still hot for the clubs. I hope this is what puts Kardinal over the top, he DESERVES to live comfortably off music. Perhaps it will all come down to the video. . . ah well, Kardi will always have people like us on his side.

Whooooo, busy days. Propers to everyone who came out for Surface @ Stamina last Friday. I was a little off my game for a few reasons, but I'm happy to see that everyone had a bangin time. Big up all crews: I thought everyone came lovely, especially Speedrock for taking home the win and (all-female) DeCypher for not backing down from the manly men. Kinda has me amped to spin at another b-boy battle.

Here's a look if you missed it (thanks Pfeif).