Blog 112: a look into number 10, Rising Down by The Roots
Current mood: accomplished
edit....I JUMPED THE GUN FOLKS there was a printing miscommunication and itunes will fix the effup so that anyone who got the album on itunes should get the liner notes.
all apologies
ladies and gentleman
the roots 10th album rising down is in stores now.
because of politics that i won't go into...alot of you asked "why have you stopped the liner notes.
i never did.
and believe it or not....
there are here......
here is song number 1.
i need comments and kudos in the high numbers please so i can get a top 10 placement .
127. THE POW WOW
once upon a time in 1994....
most artists like to do the self congratulatory thing once they reach a milestone (10 albums--and yes The Roots Come Alive and Homegrown Vol 1 and Vol 2 are unique enough to count as new albums thankyouveddymuch) but to let this opportunity pass us by without giving you a peek into the near hell that was the group about to get dropped some 7 months before our national debut Do You Want More?!!???! got released would be criminal if we didn't show you all aspects of what it took to get "here".
for all you liner note junkies out there, brian coleman's Rakim Told Me and its followup Check The Technique are HEAVILY recommended for their thorough insight on the process of many a rap classic that never contained liner notes. DYWM?!!???! was the focus of the latter book. In separate interviews both Tariq and I contradicted each other on what we like to refer to as the "North Carolina Incident". Not that i was there--(label wouldn't spring for a 15 passenger van, so in our leased land cruiser jeep the "bare essential roots" (this was before all press was left up to me) went to do some promo in a few southern cities.
with drab results.
record stores didn't have any promos or customers waiting to meet us (let alone any knowledge of who The Roots were--surprise surprise), and nightclub dancefloors cleared like the red sea when our avant guard sounding "Distortion To Static" came on. The optimism and excitement that we had from the time we got signed until the time we turned the masters into the label were starting to wane. For the first time ever we were hearing words like "marketing" and "angle" and "radio friendly" and "too arty"--yeah it was an eye opener. i guess in our heads we really thought "if it was new and good and quality, then people would embrace us"---i mean they did before right?--(naive thinking on our behalf) sure PE's Nation Of Millions was "good"--but there was an undeniable marketing angle behind that record--not just "oh the beats are dope". De La Soul's 3 Feet High And Rising was "good". But there was an undeniable marketing angle that made that album work when it came out. Their success had absolutely nothing to do with how incredible their wordplay was. So The results of this 7 day near middle passage promo tour trek down south for Tariq and Malik proved to be THE straw that broke the camel's back.
So reading Tariq's interview dismissing the whole "NC incident" as an overexaggeration on my end made me take matters in my own hands.
i was gonna find "that damn conversation" if it was the last thing i was gonna do.
It took me 8 months but i scoured through about 200 cassettes to search for this very conversation you are hearing between Tariq, our manager Richard Nichols his former partner Joe "AJ Shine" Simmons (crucial college radio figure and philly's version of Stretch and Bobbito or Sway and Teck) and Me.
This argument was pretty much the four frustrated heads of this undefinable beast
Joe was the buffer for the label and the good cop. Rich was the Bullhorned smart cop. Tariq was all kinds of angered (which resulted in a curse out so vicious to the label that we nearly got dropped) and me the historian getting this all on tape for i knew in my head that one day we would sit in our millllllion dollar penthouse apartment lighting cigars with our $500 dollar bills and scoff "about the time in which that poor record label truly didn't understand (or care to understand) us."
ahhhh the more things change...................
so Riq is mad Joe is really mad and Rich is losing his cotdamn mind and i'm getting all of this...
blog 111: Peep 4 new Roots songs from new album Rising Down!!!!!!!!!
Current mood: accomplished
Now is the time more than ever that i need kudos and comments in the gazillions. im trying to expose this music to the top half of the myspace blog. i got 8 weeks to let people know that our 10th album is our best album
let’s go people....i need your support now more than ever.
1. The Rising Teaser 18 selections (songs and interludes) 2. Birthday Girl w/ Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy 3. Rising Down w/ Mos Def and Styles P 4. Get Busy w/ Dice Raw and Peedi Crack 5. 75 Bars (Blacks Reconstruction)
for more info and tidbits and stuff go to my webhome
Blog Five Oh (110)
Current mood: aggravated
Category: Blogging
**well....there are two main places one can hear my rants and stuff. most of you come here. and longtime roots supporters go to my website (where i can sorta relax) www.okayplayer.com
when this incident went down i made the decision to just share it with them because of the two sites that one is more "family" oriented and i wanted less rebel rousing and outbursts....
but the main reason i was skeptical to reprint the post was perhaps the embarrassment of this incident happening twice to me since the "buffalo" incident.....don't get me wrong---i've had minor situations since then (pulled over a few times)---but nothing like this shit here. but the okayplayers told me that a person in my position should expose crooked law enforcement people whenever i get the chance.
note: there are good cops. there are bad cops.
the following story is about FUCKED up cops.
actually imma tarentino this for you and go to the very end (something i didn't put on okayplayer)
fast forwards to the end.
(on the phone with manager from enterprise car rentals)
"..mr thompson we got your message last night, we apologize for the situation that occured....but our records show that the registration and the license plates on the vehicle are updated and registered"
(to self) yeah i figured as much....they were just reachin.
(and now the post from okayplayer)
i decided not to myspace this because this shit aint really about a pity party. and getting kudos everytime cops fuck with me. so maybe im just typing for the therapeutic aspect of needing someone to talk to.
i guess i gotta rewind to yesterday.
so i was invited to help campaign on O's behalf yesterday for super tuesday. i did various things in the last 48 hours from calls to door-to-door JW style hawking to errand running to holding signs to doing press. whatever was called for i was their man.
so while doing the press run they asked me about certain issues that i felt barack was behind that i have yet to hear the other candidates bring up.
one of the points was racial profiling
(from his website: Obama will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice.)
this along with rehabilitating criminals and drug addicts (and dealing with the rockefeller laws) seemed pretty important to me. so thus i talked about this alot in the past 48 hours to whomever had a mic in front of my face.
so fast forward 24 hours later leaving a movie theater (outside of venice)
and i noticed in my peripheral view that a cop was behind me. paid nothing to it for this was LA and "red and blue lights is a common sight" ((c)) cube. but 3 blocks later?
i joked in the car "see this is where obama will come in handy because these motherfu---
"blueep blueep!!!"
(pullovertootheriiighttnow!!!!)
pulls over.
(makearightandpullover!!!!!!!!)
"what's he saying?"
(turns volume down on radio)
(rolls window down....)
"again please?"
(MAKEARIGHTANDPULLOVER)
(turns on them flashing lights....and not the Ye variety either)
i swear the buffalo situation aint have SHIT on this situation. i mean they were condescending assholes but at no point did i feel like if i said or exhaled the wrong way id have a bullet up my ass.---but this situation....man......aint NOTHING like getting fucked over by lapd. and i've had a taste of jersey turnpike justice, nypd bs, murderdelph's finest, and even the dea of buffalo.
but man....
guns cocked.
(let me note first off that noone is in their right mind when cops pull them over.....actually because of a phone conversation that kinda put me in a near depressing mood (we mastered al green today and there was a glitch in the mix that blue note is claiming we are releasing this record as is ("noone will notice and we aint spending not one red dime on fixing this") )---so this situation didn't have me in normal panic "oh fuck i forgot im a drug dealer and guns in the trunk" paranoia for i was really thinking "man i may lose half a star rating in rolling stone and be stuck with a regular @@@@ for this al shit (and yes this shit is classic al)---
"step out of the car"
man...the look on dudes face man. i now know why james brown ran 20 years ago. part of me was wishing i had faked not hearing him tell me to make a right and then pull over.
cause now we were secluded.
and these mofos looked like they were out for blood.---meanwhile im going over the lyrics of "99 problems" in my head like ("dare i take the probable cause route?" "do i do that king's english shit to see if this spares me a bullet?" "or do i just shut the fuck up?"
he gave me no reason as to why as to why i was being pulled over.
he asked for my contract for the rental car.
--i mean....sue me....i saw a 12 gage, AND a .57 not to mention cars are driving by now very slowly.
they can't.....place....the ....face....but.....*snap**snap".....---they drive by and stare.
meanwhile my passenger (ms lil angela davis in training) is in the passenger seat trying to sneak out her video camera to maybe record my possible ass future ass whuppin...and im praying to god "please dont let them see her sneak her hands in her pocketbook and think that shit is a gu---
now we are both being frisked near Crash style.
now we are both in the paddy wagon.
and once again...the "carlton" voice inside me is like
"look at us....we look like bohemian black hippies from silver lake---surely they don't think we are like..."real" criminals..."
(even with a phd)
they started questioning her and the carlton voice once again assured me "well when they see that she lives in a rich neighborhood they will realize their mistake and see that we aint criminals....
(even with a phd)
so the process of cleaning out my car happens----again...that carlton voice inside me was like "maybe they'll cut us a break when they see all the fruit and health food shit on the floor....what type of criminals eat mixed fruit?
(even with a phd)
300 dollars worth of psychology books and magazines with our faces in em?
(even with a phd)
scrabble board in the backseat?
(even with a phd)
(for those in the dark....the carlton voice i refer to is when carlton on Fresh Prince was making lame excuses for why him and will got fucked with by the cops....and all he could muster was "*sigh*....they were just doing their jobs will...."---not saying that i would EVER take that disposition....but in my head i was like "yo did you ever think in your life that you would be in the back of a paddywagon?"
i guess the denial was "am i still a nigger in their eyes"
malcolm x said that a black man with a phd is still a nigga in the eyes of many.
i have to say that no matter how clear my diction was....or how "preppy" i styled or if i read strunk and white from top to bottom or if i tried to ease in my occupation in hopes of preferential treatment ---
the answer was emphatically YES.
so now to the point of this post.
well kinda two things:
do laws vary as to what and when cops can fuck with you?---just found out that in philly nutter has given cops permission to randomly search now.--for those well versed in law are warrants needed to search?
and for those that have been in similar degrading situations (i assure you my idea of a good time is not getting my nuts felt in front of my lady fr----sheeeit my idea of a good time is not seeing my lady friend getting her shit all felt up)--
but its like is this the shit that mofos be thinking about when they like "the fuck am i voting for?!?!?" where is my justice?
cause im like.....aint no amount of apologies or money or time machines going 88 mph or "we're sorry ?uest" or black presidents that know what its like to be in my shoes gonna take any of that shit back.
the whole drive back was silent as shit.
how can you not help but internalize that shit?
i mean for that 37 minute ordeal what about slavery that occurred to my ancestors for 37 years? how could they but NOT internalize that shit and pass that venom off to their offspring? and so on and so on and so on and on and on......
i mean fuck it.....fucked up ordeal or not....how do you not internalize that shit so it don't chip at your inner being? cause right about now? i am none to happy about cops right about now. and its shit like this that makes me feel less sorry for them once tragedy stirkes....
----so there it is. another day another harassment story.
Blog Won-OH-BAMA!!!!!!!!!!!! (9)
Current mood: optimistic
ladies and gentleman. super tuesday is upon us. and we have a responsibility.
this is not a plee to you vote as i vote or do as i do. (coughcoughbarack!coughcough)
just kidding.....
--well i'm not.
for someone so connected to an organization that's seen as "political" very rarely have i ever laid my personal politics on the line like this.
i mean personally? i've always rode that ever so easy "politicians are full of shit" stance so long that i actually numbed myself of all political activity in the past 5 to 6 years.
none of which has stopped any community work i've been connected to. but when it comes to actual issues that i feel personally effects me, it saddens me that i really don't look to my government for solutions.
"and what issues effect you personally mr-grammy-on-the-shelf-and-all-the-nikes-you can-eat?"
plenty.
i come from the school of "if my brother's life isn't fine then none of our lives are fine".
of course i feel our education system has been out of wack for as long as i've been alive....and the duration of my parents lifetime.---and before that it was damn near illegal for black people to be educated in this very country.
without putting people's business out there---i got people in my organization now whom i've known since they were 8 years old. and the nightmare stories i've heard about concerning their local public schools moved me enough to arrange it so that their parents can use my address so that their children can have access to the "better" schools in the neighborhood (hey--i agree, the day that black people stop using the "by any means even if i break the law to do what i feel is right" method is a day that is long time coming.)-it was worth all the effort put in the arrange such a scheme. it's either watch them die or run after an opportunity to save some lives.
for those of you really in the dark just watch season 4 of The Wire. if THAT shit don't scare you straight then im sorry....you dont have a soul. i've travelled the globe 20 times over in my life and it amazes me the amount of effort that the government puts into its education in other countries. over in france, argentina, norway, and denmark they dont even charge college tuition!!!
most of you people have Phrenology so no need to go through "Water" again and again.
but as a cat who knows mad drug "offenders" i've never agreed with the issues of "jail as rehab" that our government issues time and time again to non violent offenders. for starters you get the same shit in jail as you do in the outside world....so no rehab there.
and the racist double standard of new york rockefeller laws have NEVER gone down smooth with me (basically those caught with crack cocaine powder get harsher sentences than those caught with regular cocaine----in case you live on another planet...crack is a cheaper affordable substance primarily used by people of color--as opposed to the higher echelon white powder substance used by well....need i spell this out?)
pretty much i gotta go through some sort of profiling (albeit not to the level of buff, ny----shit like that happens to me about once every other year.....which already is 14 times too much) with the authorities. it happens so much that i swore the only shit that kept me calm during that whole ordeal was the false premise of "i guess they are just doing their jobs"----shame i gotta lie to myself to keep my sanity. but seriously.....im certain that most white americans dont get anxiety to the near point of instant colonics whenever they see cops in their rear view mirror.....i mean im as straight as 6:00 and i even i feel like a drug cartel making a run if i get behind the wheel with a cop running my plates behind me.
have i been conditioned to just accept that is how life is? and take it?
look i promised i wasn't going to turn this into the "who will ahmir back blog"---
but i know its so easy to dismiss this election as a meaningless process. i mean i dont even know why im doing this.
one day i woke up and i just.....
well i felt inspired.
i heard the words of Senator Obama and i really felt like he was being "REAL" with me. not just saying shit i wanna hear while he lays his own agenda into effect while the wool is pulled over my eyes.
and although im not playing the smear game....i'd wish people would cut the "does he have experiene?!?!? card. all these revisionists are mistaking hill's 8 years as first lady as a sign of experience. meanwhile his list of community services goes above and beyond the call of duty.
---actually im really about to put my money where my mouth is. i went to the los angeles headquarters and volunteered my services. its almost 1am and im finna to drive door to door to put pamphlets and voting information on the doors of the potential voters.
we finally have a chance to truly make a change this upcoming election.
i BEG of you people that are able to vote on super tuesday to vote
please!
(pardon the run on sentances....its been a long day)
Blog WON-OH-ATE (1/08) Bowling With HOV!
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Music
i spent the weekend holding down Hov one more gin in Vegas. get them Kudos ready.
a step by step guide:
-we are rehearsing "The Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)"
to pass the time (boredom setting in) we jam and reinterpret chords (obviously the opening chords are not the ones on the album..we try and figure out every combo we can every every chord option BUT the one we supposed to play)---really? its a "what would dilla have done with these chords"
-:47 trombonist Jeff Bradshaw asks permission to go to the bathroom, i reluctantly say yes in a humorous manner (you better) "RUN (dmc!)". of course we been working like dogs the past 4 days putting in about 14 hours a day. but when the bossman arrives, all that shit is dead. you can tell by his body position that he is getting impatient with waiting. but one of the fuses went out in the room and the amps wern't on so we had to wait and wait and wait.
if you are wondering why there is an awkward silence in the room.....(more on that later)
1:09 of course i didn't need a "countoff" but at these prices you better be on some Bill Cosby in the kitchen making shit up type shit while you add some bar b que sauce to the already cooked Psghetti (brush up on the Cosby reruns). and i see him about to bitch anymoment.
1:40- that "you'll shoot your eye out" theory for my randy watson partner on key's james poyser. james is such an over accomplished keyboard master. like he knows all these intricate options that a REGULAR cat would never come up with.....but sometimes he can't help but want to be in GEN POP. meaning "sound like an beginner". this is why he loves Kanye's music so much because Kanye has made an art out of traditional "church chords". so around 1:40 the "jazz snobs" in the illadelphonics have a good laugh for James has found a way to add a "wrong" church chord.
1:48 of course Hov-o is not amused. (my bitch ass is blaming it on "we waiting for jeff to come back from the bathroom")
1:56 remembering that there is a bowling alley inside our hotel, i suggest to el hov-o that maybe perhaps if we got off early (yeah right), we could go bowling..you know...something fun instead of counting the B parts of "Roc Boys"
he scoffs to tell me im better off going to see what he saw last night: Cirque De Soleil's Beatles/Love production.
...like i got a few thousand to spare on my 10 bandmates
2:11 my response....
2:29- a run through
about 3:00 the real reason why this normal pnut gallery class clown group (hov included) is quiet as a mouse (you'll see someone's head bopping--you really see it 4:43)
5:00 "someone messes up" (no names)
5:39 i remind the guilty party it was their idea to start this "trick" that we messed up.
5:54-once again.
i miss blogging.
but i miss them kudos that got me in top 10 status too.
Currently
listening
:
Roc Boys
By
Jay-Z
Release date: 20 November, 2007
Blog 107: Two jawns One UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Current mood: sick
i know....i know
i aint blog in a minute....-but at least you know a classic album is coming from all this silence cause ill be damn if yall bag me on making a widack record cause i spent all my time doing 7 hour blogs.
and to think...
my grand return comes in the forum of the most disgusting shit ive ever seen in my life.
so disgusting im not even gonna type it....im sure yall know what this is anyways.
peep our reaction to ...."that" clip shortly before going onstage at stanford.
Blog 106: Let’s Lookout For The Cookout TANYA MORGAN
yeah i know... i like the unusual like the next cat. but a rap group named after a chick (and one that gave me their first works on cassette? ---ok...that trick won me over)
this crew kinda formed being inside of the endless social realm that is my "antfarm" www.okayplayer.com
Donwill, Von Pea, and Ilyas
2 of the members are from the O and one resides in NYC.
their first jawn (im from philly) was entitled Moonlighting (never told you i liked the Al flip on "Pretty" Von...--hope you still aint mad about the pass up on the comp...it literally was a coin toss in the office)
and much like the other okp spawned crew Foregin Exchange (a must have record btw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connected_%28rap_album%29)....they created this record via IMn each other the tracks and vocals. (let's hear it for the internet folks!)
anywho i need yall to go to this lizzzank
http://www.myspace.com/XM
and vote for the almighty Tanya Morgan!!!!! (i do everyday)
they really really really need this look.
i aint even begging for kudos aint this aint even a hard task.
you are already on myspace.
go to the link.
click.
then be out.
and buy tanya morgan.
and foreign exchange.
and little brothers new get back!!!! (when it comes out)
Blog 106: Let’s Lookout For The Cookout TANYA MORGAN
yeah i know... i like the unusual like the next cat. but a rap group named after a chick (and one that gave me their first works on cassette? ---ok...that trick won me over)
this crew kinda formed being inside of the endless social realm that is my "antfarm" www.okayplayer.com
Donwill, Von Pea, and Ilyas
2 of the members are from the O and one resides in NYC.
their first jawn (im from philly) was entitled Moonlighting (never told you i liked the Al flip on "Pretty" Von...--hope you still aint mad about the pass up on the comp...it literally was a coin toss in the office)
and much like the other okp spawned crew Foregin Exchange (a must have record btw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connected_%28rap_album%29)....they created this record via IMn each other the tracks and vocals. (let's hear it for the internet folks!)
anywho i need yall to go to this lizzzank
http://www.myspace.com/XM
and vote for the almighty Tanya Morgan!!!!! (i do everyday)
they really really really need this look.
i aint even begging for kudos aint this aint even a hard task.
you are already on myspace.
go to the link.
click.
then be out.
and buy tanya morgan.
and foreign exchange.
and little brothers new get back!!!! (when it comes out)
accomplished
aggravated
optimistic
sick