Phorilla.com

Just saw producer and man-about-town Michael Caffrey go by on his one-speed bike. People like Mike are making bike helmets cool - I'm not joking, dude looked very stylish AND very safe. Worried Moms and school-visiting police everywhere will rejoice!

Pleasure of the moment: Mark Ronson feat. Ghostface & Nate Dogg "Ooh Wee!". . . bringing together disco strings, "Mardi Gras"-style bells and a fat break. In the tradition of Ghostface's "Cherchez Le Ghost" and Kweli's "Get By" I have a feeling it will get all the dancefloors moving, from screwfaced to jigged-out. The flip is a Mos Def & MOP collabo that flips Lenny Kravitz alright.

Uh-oh Demus, I know you'll shed a tear or two at this one: put it up on the Internet and the exclusivity is gone. Tight as this Riddimdirectory site is, it means that non-Caribbean white people across the globe will now be able to learn the actual names of all the riddims by sitting in front of their computers. Is nothing sacred?

Thanks to Bimal for the heads-up.

Great thread on Okayplayer on dumb shit people have said on the topic of music.

Lil' Jaz of the Turnstylez is teaching classes at the Royal Conservatory of Music's community school. Here's hoping that the artform never becomes saturated and commodified like piano or violin, but there's nothing wrong with teaching it in a more formal setting.

Upcoming in Ottawa if you're not away for Caribana:
DeCypher Cru's Summer Jam on Parliament Hill. Here's the sched:

1:00-2:00 � Open Breaks Jam - Bring yer dancin' shoes!
2:00-2:30 � Open Mic - Bring yer beats n' bad ass rhymes! We're calling out the MC's, Poets, and Beatboxers to come out and show off your skill!
2:30-4:00 � One on one Good Vibes Breaks Battle - Bring yer best smile an' flyest moves. Get ready for some unusual challenges. (eg. who ever gets the audience to laugh, wins a battle.)
4:00-End � Breaks Routines Showcase and Open Jam - Bring what you've been workin' on. We want to see some serious group work!

Respect because over and above the dancing, the girls always bring the nice nice vibe to their events. And why are they doing it? This is why.

Whattup whattup. Last night was kinda cuh-razy, respect to everyone who shook it at the Zibibbo loft until early in the morning. Linus won the track of the night battle with that "Bring the Noise"/"Slave 4 U"/"Ghostbusters" mash-up, good lord that fit the moment. Great to see people too, too many to name who I don't see too often.

I think next time I'll plan my set ahead though - ended up talking to people all night and when I hit the decks found myself scrambling to find the next joint. A set from my small but growing reggae & dancehall selection sounds about right. . . last Friday of August we do it all over again.

I couldn't stay long at the African Palace, but little sis was really impressed. I hear that Kaie Kellough used the English language in an uncommon way. I don't know if the Golden Star Lounge is going down next month 'cause many of the usual suspects will be performing out of town, but I'll keep you posted.

Gotta bounce, listen to 2 reasons why I'm feeling Jay-Z despite everything:
Young Black and Gifted and Flava in Ya Ear freestyle (both Realaudio).

I like this deal that sends Spree to Minnesota. Finally KG's got someone running beside him who can score and who's got the same will to win. Even if Spree does always go to his right, ha ha!

Also had to share this: Puff Daddy claims he wants to buy the Knicks. Never in a million years will this happen but oh lord, how much humour would it provide the world? Wouldn't have to worry about something to talk about with your boys anymore, there'd always be something like "did you hear how Diddy wants to change the uniforms to chinchilla" to jaw on. . .

Thanks to Selecta J for this one: Senior Citizens Scratching Lessons. Here's more on the Scratch DJ Academy - it looks like they're doing the thing right, nice and pro.

Always good to see open-minded older folks. Pops is still a big fan of Get Ur Freak On and Brown Paper Bag, he gets extra love for that.

Julian: let's keep the email thing going, it's always a pleasure discussing ideas with you. Check your inbox. . .

Having been away from the online mix for a while, I missed Aloke's review of Uprising one (scroll down to the June 2 entry). Lots of details from a convo with Moonstarr in there too. Thanks for the kind words man, I didn't realize you stuck around 'til the very end. Hope to see you around again soon. . .

All the things on the new chart are worth checking, but there's a couple lesser-known ones that are especially worth getting up on.

The new Drumagick is a beautifully-arranged Brasilian drum'n'bass piece. For real, this is one of more beautiful melodies I've heard in a while. It's actually a remix of a guy called Leandro Bonfim. Know anything about him? Hit me at sopa@phorilla.com, 'cause I want to know more. Here's a clip. . .

The Little Brother re-edit takes what * I think * is a skit on the album and turn it into a floor-filler. The shit was hot already but flip it into a 6-minute jam with a couple bridges and it's gold. I think it's Phonte singing too, dude should sing more often. Makes me sold on picking up the Little Bro album. . .

Common thread between these cuts? Nice arrangements. . . can't overlook that factor of a good tune. . .

July 2003 chart lands here:

1. Talib Kweli feat. Jay-Z & Busta Rhymes - Get By Rmx. (Rawkus)
2. Drumagick - Malta (Schema)
3. Gang Starr - The Ownerz LP (Virgin)
4. Little Brother - Make Me Hot (Yam Who Re-edit) (Yam Who)
5. Red Astaire - Follow Me (GAMM)
6. Dudley Perkins - Money (Stone's Throw)
7. BrassMunk - BIG (BrassMunk)
8. Alison Crockett - Rain (Wah Wah 45s)
9. Champion Soul - The Future Ways of Black Folk (Main Squeeze)
10. Djinji Brown - Abuelita's Dance (7 Heads)

The place to be this Friday is DISORGANISED, the first edition of a new monthly party that Cham and I are throwing alongside Linus of Organised Sound (591A Bank St). We say "Hip hop punk funk broken beat 2000" 'cause it's a little bit less organized and more "anything goes" than the full-on Uprising parties. A monthly opportunity for us to throw down new and old records with friends, and friends of friends. And some of their friends. Juan Carlos will be painting at this first one, and we'll have other guests doing good good things at future ones.

It's going down at the loft above Zibibbo (it's called the "Camarillo Brillo) at 495 Somerset West (map). Spot only holds 40 people, so show up early in that 9pm-2am time frame. Tight? Yup.

Also going down Friday (and a good pre-Disorganised show) is the us-ual Golden Star Lounge at the African Palace. This month's guest is Kaie Kellough.

I was remarking to someone the other day that it's dope to see the opinions and challenges of my generation finally hitting the journalistic mainstream. The Globe & Mail's recent 12-part series on The New Canada is a shining example. Finally, they're talking about what we're facing.

The whole series is worth reading, but the highlights are: Two Weddings, One Marriage, which goes from the little accomodations you've got to make at a cross-cultural marriage to the bigger issues that back them up; The Fusion Generation, which suggests that a lot of the time what pushes us young bloods to work together is economics more than anything; and Changing Native History, which covers the emergence of aboriginal peoples into a bigger role in running things around here. All recommended.

The new Kanye is out. B-side is "Through the Wire", but the A-side wins. Two Words: hot shit. Guests lineup is: Mos Def (yup), Freeway (fire) and the HARLEM BOYS' CHOIR (damn!). I'm not gonna build up the album with unattainable expectations but I AM looking forward.

What I'm bumpin' these days: 9th Wonder's "God's Stepson", a remix album of Nas's "God's Son". It's open source music: put out an acapella of your album, and people will remix it! My favourite reinterpretations right now are "I Can", "Get Down" and "Warrior Song".

Advance look at the new Jay-Z, "The Black Album". Will it be a return to the quality of "Reasonable Doubt"? We'll see. . .

How nice is some of the production on Freeway's joints? The album has some nice moments ("Line 'em Up" is cool) but there are other tracks circulating that do the soul sample/hard drums things better than anyone. I think it's mostly Just Blaze production: there's "Let's Go", which is made out of basketball samples and trumps the other attempts at the concept; "Weed & Cocaine" feat. Peedi Crakk, a beat so straight sick it refreshes the sped-up vocal sample thing; and "What We Do", which has me saying "bang like T-mac" about just about everything.

Also lovin' it: the Detroit Experiment album. Some of the D's finest jazz musicians with post-production by Carl Craig. The cover of the Blackbyrds "Think Twice" is the highlight - dudes bandy about the term "future soul" but this is the real deal.

Whoa - basketball just got crazy. Payton AND Malone are both going to the Lake Show. Zo is joining Kidd in NJ. Barring the Mavs, Spurs and Kings, we might see some lop-sided games, but they'll be NICE lop-sided games. Good lord, Payton running point alongside Kobe is going to be ridiculose.

2003-04 should also be the season of catching the young Bron. This writer chooses to build him up, in excess, as the once and future king, but it's one of the only pieces that captures the feeling of watching James play live.

Don't get complacement. These kinds of people are still on the streets and in the halls of power:
- A white supremacist is running for mayor of Ottawa. That sounds like a joke or something but it's not, these people are still around. Better they voice their opinions than keep quiet and just act on them, though.
- Jan Harder is running for councillor again. I think Harder is more guilty of ignorance than outright "whites rule" feelings, but I don't think we need any ignorance at City Hall either.

Been listening to the new Worldwide (Brownswood Basement episode, and here's the tracklisting). Gilles P drops half a dozen unreleased Roy Ayers nuggets from the 70s - apparently BBE is putting out an album-full. Lush!

Speaking of Nuggets, have you seen the new jerseys? The shinin' scares me a little, but I like the colours. I hope the Rockets follow the same return to simplicity.

Alright, so Phorilla.com is back after a long slumber. Uprising was unstoppable, took a break to get some shit in order and now it's time to write and write again.

Kanye West's video for "Through the Wire" is sick. The beat is certainly no "Get By", but with the Chaka Khan/Chicago connection and subject matter it just works. I'm also getting a little more comfortable with some of these 80s-sounding beats after "Excuse Me Miss" and some of that Somatik stuff prepped us all for the return of the 80s pads and reverb snares. . . great concept for the video, a nice change from all the expensive fantasy shit that's big now, and a lot more fun to watch too.

The background on Kanye is that he got in a car accident a while back, almost died and had to get his jaw wired shut for a few months. He put out a mixtape detailing the experience and hasn't been hiding the effect it had on him. Everyone's talking about his album due out this fall, I've gotta say I'm a little amped too. Check for his spoken word stuff too, he did a terrific piece up on Def Comedy Jam a while back. . .