Zion I-tis

Things that make me happy:

• B-boy anthems
• Nina Simone
• Drums that sound like buckets in the subway
• B-boy anthems with subway buckets that are based entirely on Nina Simone classics

Hence...

ZION I - SAME OL

If this doesn't make your Christmas...

I don't know what will.

REFLECTION ETERNAL FT MOS DEF, JAY ELECTRONICA, & J.COLE - ON ANOTHER LEVEL

Goings On About Town

^ Full Clip supporter No-mas animates Dock Ellis' taking of LSD while pitching a no-hitter.

• Lil Wayne uses all the drugs in Mexico.
• College football players are really into narcolepsy.
• Omar from The Wire talks life outside the show.
• Dame Dash gets Mos Def rocking again.
• Tracklist to Jay-Z's new 40th birthday mixtape.
• After decades of misses, Adidas gets it right.
• NYC cop and hip-hop CD hustler have a shootout on 42nd st.

Stumblebum Brass Band

I just saw these cats in the subway and they are hands down my new favorite band above or below ground. They are a true old school NYC LES act...rapid-fire yet guttural vocalizations, ferocious trumpet playing, raunchy and rough basslines...everything my neighborhood represents in personality, sound, and appearance.

I did a bit of Googling when I got home, and despite feeling bad for them being so talented and stuck with the rats, I realized that they have performed with The Roots, in addition to being booed off the always awful America's Got Talent (thank god...if David Hassellhoff and his posse of zealots liked this I would unpost it).

Currently there are no mp3s of their music available unless you buy their CD for $10 on the L train platform. But I guarantee you will be hearing more from them in the future.

The Meanest Thing I'd Never Say

I've been wondering where El-P and Def Jux have been lately. But then I realized, oh, they're are just holed up in a tiny Brooklyn apartment for weeks on end writing incredibly complex, poetic, depressingly dope songs about pain and loss. Silly me.

This isnt brooklyn,
its a colony of wayward bees without a queen

and we are not people,
more like sims controlled by childish deities,

but see we're alive now,
and thats not time we're wasting, nah this is life

and you're so pretty,
like the gleam off that blade when you slipped my ribs the shivy,

this aint a breakup,
i like to think of it as a stay of execution,

and thats not the air im clearing,
its the wispy trails of our cumulus pollution,

and thats not despair you're feeling,
its the petchulant reaction of a wounded child

and thats not the door im looking at,
its an escape hatch to this zeppelin we're inside...

You're not a woman,
you're a piranha with cutlery for dentured up smile

and i'm not a man,
i'm an incomplete punchline to a joke i dont understand,

that's not your diary,
it's a cookbook and i'm you're favorite chapter when you're bored

and thats not a love letter,
its a recipe for the same slop you've served before

this aint an insult,
its the clearest truth i've ever had the misery to speak
but these arent words,
these are the terms of my surrender and defeat

but i'm not sorry,
beyond the sorry nature of existing with no plans,

please dont touch me.
just wave goodbye with that claw thats not a hand.

did I mention that I...

EL-P - HOW TO SERVE MAN

K-Os Wishes He Was Me

For the record, I went on a date with Natalie Portman when I was 15. How you like them apples, Superstar?

K-OS - I WISH I KNEW NATALIE PORTMAN

All About My Bills Like Buffalo

^ This is the entire new Lil Wayne documentary, The Carter, which won multiple awards at Sundance, and is absolutely worth a full viewing.

Apparently Wayne's people pulled their support for the project a week or two after it premiered, and although most of the film is positive, it's easy to see why. Aside from the blatant display of his drug habit and neglect of his daughter, the film accurately captures the insanity of Wayne's superstar status: unending interviews, recording, shows, syrup and weed, and the consequent lack of friendships or real relationships that surrounds it all. His only real friend, his tour manager, calls Wayne out on all of this too, which doesn't really help the cause.

Still, aside from the negatives, there's a lot to respect about Wayne after seeing this. His work ethic and dedication to his craft trumps 99% of the people on the planet (of course quality and quantity don't quite sync in Wayne's portfolio, but whatever). His energy and enthusiasm for the game is also unmatched, especially after everything is said and done the dude probably sleeps 1 hour a week.

And he still makes shit that I like, which I can't quite figure out yet. Off the new mixtape No Ceilings, yadig?:

LIL WAYNE FT GUDDA GUDDA - BREAK UP

Cinco Banking

Your wife's new legal name is TAARGUS TAARGUS. Is this okay?

The best show on television second to The Office, is the newly-discovered Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job. If you haven't seen this yet you need to cop a bag of Pineapple Blueberry Express and get to it. Also great next to Cinco Banking is The Cinco Phone series.

I'm Back Bitches

Ya I done been gone. What of it? I'm just following in the footsteps of those before me. The Black Sheeps, Souls of Mischiefs, and Ricky Williams' of the world who disappear without a trace to drive cabs or smoke weed at massage school, then arbitrarily reappear to kill it.

I got the turtleneck in Turkestan. - A-Plus

SOULS OF MISCHIEF - PROPER AIM


SOULS OF MISCHIEF - WONI

BLACK SHEEP - DOIN IT WRONG

PLUS!: Remeet Ricky Williams, if you haven't met him already.