“When they rob from the poor and give to the rich, they call it paying taxes, you living legit.
If you rob from the rich and you give to the poor, you got to go to jail cause you breaking the law.
Damn, Life is a bitch.
Welcome to Law Library, Part 6!”
A while back, I was talking with my little brother Nicholas Alfonso Mason, AKA The Jaguar about how it is time for the music industry to shove the next Eminem down America’s throats (I just doesn’t make financial sense not to).
I am not sure about the “Next Eminem” thing. He sounds like the kid in every fraternity that can kind of flow after a chronic jay and a beer bong. Only better.
Which means there is no doubt he will probably be huge.
I have always been a fan of three Jewish kids from Brooklyn rapping, but not sure about “Suburban Rap” straight outta West Chester, PA. (Hell, I don’t even know where West Chester, PA is.)
“See, I’m a city slicker I ain’t no townie
Right now I wish I had another hash brownie”
But I don’t hate.
America will probably eat this up.
Just like they do Olive Garden.
However, I will continue to eat at Babbo, NYC.
This is more my Steez:
Car Thief – Beastie Boys
“I’m a writer a poet a genius I know it
I don’t buy cheeba I grow it
People always trying to get next to me
I had a beautiful experience on Ecstasy
Smoked up a bag of elephant tranquilizer
Because I had to deal with a money hungry miser
Had a caine filled Kool with my man Rush Rush
Saw my teeth fall in the sink when I started to brush
You be doing nose candy on the Bowie Coke Mirror
My girl asked for some but I pretended not to hear her”
“It’s only a matter of time before all these “im doing this one for the ladies”, autotone,buying out the bar fake ass rappers meet their doom.
I’m not a big fan of Termanology but he does some good work with Premier and he did a dope track over the Crooklyn Dodgers beat hittin on the hip-pop artist. Now all we need is some heavy hitters to come along…
“First it was the dumbed down lyrics and chants/now its autotone and thugs in tight pants”
Termanology – Tight Pants Are For Girls
Beat of course from:
Crooklyn Dodgers
All I have to say, is “finally”.
The world is changing.
For the better.
“We need more Bishop Lamont’s and Wale’s, we need more Saigon’s and more Freeway’s”
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK
The Guide to Getting More Out of Life
A few days ago, El Miz tipped me off on Kenzo Digital’s City of God’s Son (click to download the project for+ free).
Then my little brother, Nicholas Alfonso Mason, AKA The Jaguar, emails me telling me that his friend (and mine) worked on City of God’s Son.
I just checked out the trailer. Looks crazy. And dope. And crazy dope.
“City of God’s Son” Trailer – Kenzo Digital – www.CityofGodSon.com
Kenzo is the apprentice of world-renowned video artist Nam June Paik and has had films screened at both the TriBeCa and Mill Valley Film Festivals. He served as Director of COGS and co-wrote the project with Academy Award-nominated writer/director Victor Quinaz.
COGS (City of God’s Son) is quite unique. It can be described as an epic, a musical, a soundscape, a movie for the blind, an art installation and a coming-of-age story. Kenzo also refers to COGS as “viral musical sound art.” COGS is a blend of multiple media and art genres and it explores new grounds for unconventional storytelling and ultimately gives rise to what Kenzo terms the world’s first “Beat Cinematic”. Kenzo arrived at this term by combining various mediums including 3D audio, multiple musical genres, and sound bites. Using some of hip-hop’s and film’s greatest talents (including Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie Smalls, Samuel L. Jackson and Joe Bataan), his aim is to create his own cross-medium ensemble cast, and out of many mediums, to create something epic and new.
Hip-hop is the perfect choice for this because, just like COGS itself, hip-hop is a genre created using only the resources available, and re-contextualizing them to create something bold and innovative. In effect, Kenzo aims to redefine remix culture, through creating a Quentin Tarantino-esque piece of pop art that uses 90′s hip-hop culture as its palette. More than just a remix or mash-up, COGS comments on the icon of the gangster, the media obsession with this character, and its function within hip-hop culture. An homage to arguably hip-hop’s most culturally potent era, COGS explores the mythology behind both musical icons and gangster film icons alike, and creates a world in which the two co-exist. COGS is part Sin City, part Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio programming, and part Nas’ Illmatic. Essentially, COGS ties these works together by playing off of the listener’s familiarities with these genres and re-contextualizing them within a coming-of-age crime drama set in a mythical, jungle metropolis.
Set in a world of magical realism, the story explores the relationship between father and son and the struggle to define themselves in a world where their futures appear pre-ordained. COGS riffs on the icon and myth of the gangster used generously throughout the history of hip-hop and American pop culture. The story embraces both the dichotomy of such societal reverence and media obsession with the moral quandary such a lifestyle calls into question. By using the genre’s most influential artists and manipulating them into characters that humanize and, at times, contradict their media persona, COGS aims to dissect concepts of machismo and push the envelope for using music as a more directly narrative medium. It also interweaves many classic crime films into the sound design and score of the piece, melding together the world of film with music into a new format of super visceral soundscape and musical narrative. In all of this there is the unique invention of self-proclamation; artists labeling themselves, touting beefs with other artists, and challenging the status quo to a sort of existential shout-out session. By exploring these themes within a familiar story structure COGS hopes to dissect the phenomena and redefine remix culture.
Its hard to believe that Belly is already ten years old. Belly was directed by Hype Williams, of the fish eye lens fame on music videos.
“It was the best time of our lives. Getting Money was all we ever did.” – NAS
Most movies starring rappers suck. DMX, Method Man and Nas are good in Belly. Its also hard to believe that Hype Williams never made another movie after this. And Taral Hicks is mad fly.
“Sold my soul to the devil, the price was cheap. It was cold on this level, twice as deep”- DMX
The look and feel of Belly are insane. And it borrows heavy from Scarface. If you are going to borrow heavy from something, Scarface is the place to do it.
“Nowadays you gotta walk the street and watch your back
Cause brothers with the gats don’t be knowing how to act They always pull the glock when somebody rocks that knot
And if they get shot they often snitch to the cops
Now tell me this ain’t living foul:
She just had a baby child and shes back to selling cracks vials
On the Ave cause shes addicted to the fast cash
How long will that last before the cops be up in that ass?
But honey-dip don’t wanna listen cause she’s in no position
Now nobody gives a pot to piss in
Her life is stuck and filled with bad luck So she fucks and fucks to earn another buck
She don’t really care about pride And she jumps into another ride then committed suicide
Hey Yo, this goes on and on Shaw
Everybody’s doing their own thing
From hooker in the drug slang”
I will be chilling with the WU this weekend.
And swooping fly girls.
I case you wanted to know.
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA El Campeón De La Gente
The Guide to Getting More Out of Life
The Guide to Getting More Out of Travel
