I'll keep this short and simple. This is one of my favorite albums currently in rotation. They make tremendous strides from the first album as far as lyrical content and production (and I loved the first album). Go and cop this album right now.
And while you are at it, why don't you pick up their first album. It's that fire too.
The guys at Jib Jab take on Walmart, Target and outsourcing. Hilarious, but all too true. Check it out here.
Before I get into the quiz boys and girls, I gotta get something off my mind.
Imagine (for those of you that appreciate quality music), that your favorite artist has been on a hiatus from their last album that has lasted what seems longer than the Chicago Cubs' last appearance in the World Series. Suddenly, your friend sends you an e-mail with an embedded link, with the subject line "thought you'd find this interesting" You open the link to an article, and it unvails that (Insert fav artist here) is dropping a new album. You rejoice...only to read further that the album will be a greatest hits album...
If you don't know by now, after many months of speculation, my favorite group (The Roots) has signed w/ President Carter and the Def Jam label. Initially I was pleased w/ this accomplishment as I still believe after 15 years in the game, the Roots still don't get their props. You can imagine my excitement when I learned that the Roots will be dropping 3 albums in the span of 4 months. To my suprise, 2 of those months are greatest hits joints....
I HATE GREATEST HITS ALBUMS!!!!
Don't get it twisted. Greatest hits complilations serve their purpose. They get the casual fan more involved in the music. I mean hell, I didn't turn into a fan of the Temptations by hearing "Pappa Was a Rolling Stone" one time, and watching the Temptations mini-series on CBS (although I still laugh at the David Ruffin line "AIN'T NOBODY COME TO SEE YOU OTIS"...and the answer is yes, I own the DVD). But I digress...
Greatest Hits Albums (GHAs) are just another hustle by the record company. Contrary to popular belief, the decision to release GHAs comes from the record label and NOT the artist. (Yes, this is why when those of you pick up a GHA, some of the songs on there are wack). More times than not, the GHA will come out w/o the artist even knowing about it! This strategy is an insult to not only the artist, but the true fans of the artist as well. Because when you release a GHA, your only demographic becomes people who say "Yo, I've been sleeping on this (artist) for years man...now's my chance to get back in the game." So hey, maybe there is hope for Yazarah, Little Brother & Ralphael Saadiq's solo career...
...that is unless you prefer to download all your music, which is also killing "True music", but that's another topic...on to the quiz!
Bringing you more heat from his hands than Liu Kang,
B. Holcomb
P.S. The Roots' 7th album entitled Game Theory is scheduled to arrive in stores sometime in Feb 06
P.P.S., Yes I know the Roots' last album came out on July 2004. And no I'm not an advocate of the artist that "drops an album once a year for my fan's sake" as Ludacris once spoke.
Once again it's on...
1. Name the former BET Rap City host who referred to his/herself as "The Hip Hop Informer"
2. Name the group who sings back up in the song "Doggy Dogg World" by Snoop Dogg
3. 2Pac used to be a backup dancer for Digital Underground...only to later branch out on his own and his now listed on some people's lists as the GOAT
Name the old school group who used to serve as backup dancers for Whodini?
4. Who has the last verse in the 3rd Bass classic "Gas Face"
5. Name the mixtape DJ who refers to himself as "The Drama King"
6. Name the member of Puffy's "Da Band" who was from Miami.
7. Name the movie in which Hype Williams made his directorial debut that starred DMX & Nas.
8. Speaking of Nas, whose line did he sample to use as a hook in his 2004 hit "Thief's Theme"?
9. We're @ bar just hangin' out, and I'm describing somebody whose "wrists are frozen". What is the observation I've just made out this person. (There are two possible answers and I'll accept both).
10. Which of the following artist(s) were not in Biggie's "One More Chance Video"?
a) Brownstone
b) Craig Mack
c) Changing Faces
d) D-Nice
e) Zhane
f) Luke
g) Faith
3 point bonus: In the "One More Chance" video, why was Heavy D at the door? (Hint: think "Self Destruction)
(answers are now published in the comments section)
Still hoping that Sony won't charge ppl four bills for the PS3...
B. Holcomb
The Nation has a great piece regarding the rebuilding of New Orleans that provides additional illumination on some of the comments that have been in the press lately about New Orleans never again being a majority black city. Seeing some of the designs that community leaders have in mind this appears to be gentrification on steroids. From the article:
I don't have the heart to tell Nyler that I suspect she is on to something; that many of the African-American workers from her neighborhood may never be welcomed back to rebuild their city. An hour earlier I had interviewed New Orleans' top corporate lobbyist, Mark Drennen. As president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., Drennen was in an expansive mood, pumped up by signs from Washington that the corporations he represents--everything from Chevron to Liberty Bank to Coca-Cola--were about to receive a package of tax breaks, subsidies and relaxed regulations so generous it would make the job of a lobbyist virtually obsolete.
Listening to Drennen enthuse about the opportunities opened up by the storm, I was struck by his reference to African-Americans in New Orleans as "the minority community." At 67 percent of the population, they are in fact the clear majority, while whites like Drennen make up just 27 percent. It was no doubt a simple verbal slip, but I couldn't help feeling that it was also a glimpse into the desired demographics of the new-and-improved city being imagined by its white elite, one that won't have much room for Nyler or her neighbors who know how to fix houses. "I honestly don't know and I don't think anyone knows how they are going to fit in," Drennen said of the city's unemployed.
New Orleans is already displaying signs of a demographic shift so dramatic that some evacuees describe it as "ethnic cleansing." Before Mayor Ray Nagin called for a second evacuation, the people streaming back into dry areas were mostly white, while those with no homes to return to are overwhelmingly black. This, we are assured, is not a conspiracy; it's simple geography--a reflection of the fact that wealth in New Orleans buys altitude. That means that the driest areas are the whitest (the French Quarter is 90 percent white; the Garden District, 89 percent; Audubon, 86 percent; neighboring Jefferson Parish, where people were also allowed to return, 65 percent). Some dry areas, like Algiers, did have large low-income African-American populations before the storm, but in all the billions for reconstruction, there is no budget for transportation back from the far-flung shelters where those residents ended up. So even when resettlement is permitted, many may not be able to return.
