Phorilla.com

This is wild! Candace Parker, a 6'4" woman, won the McDonald's high school All-American dunk contest on Monday. This is hilarious and kinda dope :-)

The other competitors must feel like shit. Can you imagine losing to a girl. . . IN THE DUNK CONTEST?

Big-up to D-mass, T-Wrecks and Pat for showing up in the Ottawa Xpress's DMC piece. D: hope that nasty case of gas you displayed in the cover shot has cleared up ;-)

Back in classic form! As usual, you need high-speed & Realplayer:

Da Band
If Beer Ads were real
Muppets 2k4
Snoop Dogg / Tyrone performance

Just out, this version's unmastered (4mb MP3). Still not feeling Bleek lyrically, but he sounds hungry over 9th's heat. Another Curtom style soul beat.

A great interview with 4hero is up on the Futureboogie site. Highlights include: what they look for in a track when they remix, their thoughts on how "Hold It Down" could have been a crossover hit (true, true), and this bit:

"I think nobody really wants to admit it but in order to be a good producer you must have a competitive side but when you got so much great music coming out around you it's just as easy to get lost in, admire the music and forget about your competitive side until it's time to focus on a new project/album again."

Fake bohos can bite this, nothing beats friendly (but ruff) competition mayne!

Looks like music in 2004 will continue to be stellar with this LP from 4Hero and a new one from Jazzanova over the next few months. The return of a raw and gritty Comm Sense is the one I'm anticipating most though. . .

Common, Mos Def, Pos, Trugoy and Q-Tip on a real, non-bootleg remix of "She Wants To Move". Thanks to Eat_One on Okayplayer for this one.

Hi-speed version is here. Featuring Celebrities on trial, what Dave is really thinking and musical performance by Wyclef. As always respect to Jose3030.

It's a 14-min Realaudio preview. Nice to hear him update his sound with some sparser beats and bouncier bits. I love hearing dudes flip raw samples into bouncier sounds - the combination of the skittery and the raw puts together two of my favourite things. I'm still feeling it like I felt Soul Survivor 1 though: good, but not on the classic level of his earlier work.

Appearances from Pharaoh Monche, Dead Prez, Skillz, Kardinal, Little Brother. The jammy is the Slum Village one that pops up at the end of the preview though.

Don't forget that this Friday, Cham, Michael Caffrey and myself are breaking out the "huh?" funk at Zibibbo. This night is gonna be a hell of a lot of fun, we're each pulling some gems out the crates. Full details follow. . .

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Uprising Fam presents:
DANCE TO THIS!
A night dedicated to the best in off-kilter beats

On Friday, March 19, the Uprising Fam presents Dance To THIS! @ Zibibbo, a night dedicated to the left-field rhythms of some of the most forward-thinking music around.

There are a lot of opportunities to hear beats of all varieties - beats that are pretty straightforward. But what about those cuts that are just a little different? The ones that steer clear of the 4/4 time signature, the ones that are a little slower, or the ones that are just plain "out there". . . You know, the funk you don't normally hear on the dancefloor. The tunes you dance to while you're doing your dishes in the kitchen, but never get a chance to share with a crew of sweaty movers and shakers.

That's what Dance To THIS! is all about. The Uprising Fam (myself and Cham) will be joined by Michael Caffrey in dropping some of the weirder dancefloor music from our record collections. If you don't know Michael, he comes with a rep. He's been involved in bands from Beautifuzz to Unireverse, and he's got one of the largest record collections in town. He was even Princess Superstar's tour DJ back in the day.

So join us for a night dedicated to exploring the more off-kilter side of music. A night when we challenge you to Dance. . . To THIS!

DJs:
Michael Caffrey
Pho (Uprising Fam, Palm Squad, phorilla.com)
Chameleonic (Uprising Fam, Cleerance, Norml)

the loft above Zibibbo
495 Somerset W.
door: 5 dollars
9:30pm-2am

Expect to hear the likes of:
Jazzanova
Madlib
Squarepusher
ESG
Silver Apples
I.G. Culture
Can
Timbaland
Amon Tobin
Prince Paul
and many more. . .

flyer: front back

I'm calling it early: New Jack Swing will make a comeback in the next couple years. We've had just about enough of all things early 80s, it's time to do it up fresh for '88! Yup, it's the return of the drum-machine-and-synth version of the Bomb Squad's wall of sound production, perhaps best exemplified by early Janet Jackson producers Flyte Tyme (Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis). At the same time , it prolly means you'll hear "Rumpshaker" and "My Prerogative" every time you go out in 2006. . .

For a New Jack Swing primer, peep this NJS4ever.com, which is one hell of a labour of love. The video section is a good start, but steer clear of the lover's tunes and head straight for the likes of Guy's "Wanna Get With You", Ice T's "New Jack Hustler" and BBD's "She's Dope". . .

The Gossiping Bitches rate the new rap videos in full gossiping, bitchy style. My favourite line (re: Jin's learn Chinese): "Wyclef steals the show however as he karate kicks and bows his way through an illmatic racial-stereotyping of a performance - I was just waiting for him to start playing air guitar with a wok."

Wax Poetics has a nice little piece about Larry Gold, the guy who arranges the strings on records for Timbaland, the Roots. A bit of an eye-opener, I never realized that these guys even brought in string arrangers. . .

Featuring the game show "I Know Black People", another "When Keepin' It Real Goes Wrong" and a performance by Erykah Badu. As always, it's in high speed Realvideo, and big-up Jose3030.

In high speed Realvideo.

Check it here. Once again Kon comes with the cool concept and executes it nicely. Cameo by Comm at the end. I just wish they'd been able to use the original Lauryn sample. . .

Fun fact: If I'm not mistaken, that's Dame Dash's sister starring in the video.