To Be Continued....

at a time to be announced...

Street Hop

Street Hopppppppppppppppp

RA the Rugged Man dropping knowledge

The Warm Up (Trailer)

J Cole - The Warm Up Trailer (Directed by BBGUN) from bbgun on Vimeo.

Old, but still dope. J. Cole

(Real) BP3 Track List

I posted the rumored track list before, so here's the real one. I'm happy to see J. Cole got a spot, but sad to see that NaS was left off. Should be dope, tho


Blueprint III

Lupe the Fiasco

Gourmet

Home CookeD

ACRONYM

You can venture into their website by clicking this link

Daily Quotable

"Listen, don't make me have to find ya dame, and make the dime gimme brains til my mind is drained, listen/ don't make me grab a nine and aim, and how ya dime did me, do ya mind the same, but different"

CROOKED

Big Pun

Screened this documentary at Universal, really good insight into Pun's life. Drops September 15th along with a Best of Big Pun album release. Apparently they're also going to push "Super Lyrical" as a single, and drop a video for it too. Never too late for a classic track like that, which probably has had little to no airplay.

Blueprint III

1. What We Talking About (Produced by Kanye West)
2. D.O.A. (Produced by No I.D.)
3. Weigh Me Down Feat. Kid Cudi (Produced by Kanye West)
4. Unforgiven (Produced by Kanye West, Additional Production: MGMT)
5. Run This Town Feat. Rihanna & Kanye West (Produced by Kanye West)
6. Empire State Of Mind Feat. Nas (Produced by Kanye West & No I.D.)
7. When It Comes To This (Produced by Timbaland)
8. Always Feat. Drake (Produced by Kanye West)
9. Scenes From The Past (Produced by No I.D., Co-produced by Kanye West)
10. Everyday A Star Is Born Feat. Mr. Hudson (Produced by Kanye West)
11. Already Home (Produced by Kanye West)
12. Forever Young Feat. Mr. Hudson (Produced by Kanye West)
13. Thank You (Produced by No I.D.)

Bonus Tracks:
14. Sound Of The 70s (Produced by Kanye West)
15. We Made History (Produced by Kanye West)


Looking forward to this one...

Ruck n Rock

In-N-Out Burger!!!!!

Despite only being on the West Coast for a month and a half, I must say, I'm hooked. I think I went to In-N-Out at least 9 times during my LA stay, and was filled with good food and joy without fail every single time.

Just look at how crack that looks. Wow it's hurting right now because I know I'm not going to eat one for at least a year (until I invest in the company and start bringing that shit out East). The beauty about In-N-Out, among many things, is that the menu is so simple. Double cheeseburger w/ fries, cheeseburger w/ fries, or hamburger w/ fries. Who gets hamburgers, really? They also have milkshakes, made with 100% real ice cream, not that Wendy's frosty bullshit. But you can also add your own twist to the menu. It's almost like a secret code that In-N-Out regulars just know. You can get a protein burger, wrapped in fresco lettuce with no bun, you can get the burger "animal style", with grilled onions and crack sauce, which you can do the same to your fries, + cheese. Mmmmmmmm.

There are also other things you can do which I'm just not up on yet. Also, the people who work there are really friendly, must be due to that $10 an hour starting wage. All the burgers are cooked fresh, not frozen, not injected w/ preservatives and chemicals. The fries are peeled and sliced daily from potatoes, and the buns are baked fresh. This is the beauty that is In-N-Out burger. Buy tickets to the West Coast (they only have locations in CA, NV, AZ, UT) just to try it. Hop on the bandwagon, you won't hop off.

Lord T & Eloise @ The Viper Room

I honestly could just post that picture and not even have to write anything, in an "enough said" kinda way. But after you take in the visual presented above, probably either laugh or say to yourself "what the fuck", imagine these two "aristocratic", funkadelic, pimpalicious looking dudes going on stage and tearing that shit apart. Because that is exactly what they did. It was my last night in LA, so obviously I wanted to do some wild shit. So through friends of a friend, I went to the Viper Room to see this group I had absolutely no idea about, genre, name etc, called Lord T and Eloise. I got there a little late with my boy Nick, and did a double take when I saw the guys on stage performing. Like in the picture above, one was wearing and 18th century aristocratic outfit with high tights and some kind of cat-eared wig on. The other was painted completely gold and had curlers in his hair... with all this considered, the two were spitting hard body lyrics. Think Beastie Boys/Ice Cube/Snoop Dogg/some Crunk South shit. They are a self-proclaimed "Aristocrunk" rap group from Tennessee, consisted of Lord Treadwell and Maurice Eloise XIII. Aristocrunk is supposed to represent a music genre and a lifestyle, according to aristocrats. I was so surprised to see what I was seeing, and even more surprised that I almost immediately started grooving with the other 50 or so people who were there. The performance was as hype as it was baffling. But got less and less baffling as they continued to play, where it got to the point that you expected any live rapper to prepare their own ridiculous attire to even compete with the Lord and Eloise. They were pouring champagne into peoples mouths and throwing dollar bills at the crowd, one of which I caught and pocketed in a quick and fluid motion. It was one of the illest performances I've ever seen, because of the originality but also because of the talent that they had. It was truly really good music. There was a DJ on the tables, and another performer who was called they "Theodore Roosevelt", wearing a toupée while break dancing/crip walking/crunking... Yeah, it was wild. After the performance, I realized that I had been rockin out next to Seth Green the whole time. So that's why this little ass dude (who I thought was a child, no offense to Seth as I was behind him) was surrounded by like 4 hot girls. So anyway, google these dudes. The live aspect of the act is definitely their strong point, but like I said the music was dope as well, and getting a chance to see them live will bring you fun, happiness and crunk.

Nicky, Maurice Eloise XIII, Benny Blancs, after sipping on some crunk juice.

Daily Quotable(s)

"I never got shook up by talks of Illuminati/ I'm from where niggas talk that talk and walk around the streets all day carryin heat like the human body"

&

"Now, either you wit me or you wit me, cuz even if you against me runnin' wit my enemies they ain't nothin' but mini-me's that I created long, long ago and they only wanna cut off my lineage like the Kennedy's"

-Jay Electronica

Retr0

Wow, they really are going to end up retroing everything. Whatever though, its a quickstrike release so not everyones gonna be skipping down the street with these on. I'll be in Spain, so I am hoping I can fenagle my way into a hidden sneaker store that just so happens to drop these unsuspectingly. Bueno


Jordan Space Jam XI's

50 Greatest Trailers

according to IFC...

I love watching movie trailers, often in theaters I'll be more hyped for the trailer I'm seeing than for the movie I just paid $12.50 to see. But either way, this is an awesome article that lists the top 50 movie trailers of all time according to the good people down at IFC. And yes, they do include links for the listed trailers.
LINK

college boi

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

J COLE LIVIN BUMMY HA HA HA THAT SHIT IS FUNNY (definitely paying homage to "Down Bottom")

Oh and Asher Roth.... go dig a hole

Got a 2 for 1 special today!! Yeah, J. Cole is that nice...


"While they relax I stay in tip top shape, and I stay up on my toes like some gym socks, flip flops, tell them haters to rehab: kick rocks"

"I got a show for you to watch, heres an episode/ pro-fessional, set to blow any minute now, many women smile, look the lights and the action and the cameras be callin/ u niggas gotta loggin, bitch u Fantasy Ballin'"


off The Warm UP

Weedz/Meyer Hawthorne

I've been marathoning on Showtimes original series "Weeds" (shout out to a person who shall not be named for putting me on) for the past couple days, and have gotten through two seasons in record time. The show is hilarious; watch that. Anyway, a lot of people have probably heard of the show's title song "Little Boxes", written and originally recorded by uber-Hippie Malvina Reynolds. The song is ill if you haven't heard it before. Throughout each episode, a new artist covers the opening theme; a cool little way of getting us who have it previously recorded not to skip that shit. I saw an article the other day about this dude Meyer Hawthorne, new dude from Michigan, white dude at that, with a soul/retro vibe, on some Curtis Mayfield shit. That's crazy. He also has the falsetto voice down-pact, which I appreciate because I work on mine every morning in the shower. I'm pretty much biting the whole post from where I heard about dude, but fuck it. Download his cover of "Little Boxes" after the jump, the music video for "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out", Mr. Meyer goes in.






"Little Boxes"

CROOKED

One quarter of the Slaughter, reppin the West Side, Crooked kills us all on this Twista beat...... AYEEEEE

"Daily Quotables"

So I wanted to implement a section of my blog that would involve me adding pretty consistent stuff, hence the "Daily" part of the title, which I hope to be committed too. Since you all know how much I fucks with hip-hop, and the music I'm listening to on the daily, I thought I'd share the daily punchlines and dope quotables that stay blastin from my speakers. So without further ado, the initiation of this little section will be credited to J. Cole, with another dope, yet subtle punchline--shouts to 3sidez blog, dropping daily knowledge, CLICK HERE to see 3sidez piece about J. Cole--that you need to run back to understand, and once you do, you're like "UHHHHHH" (not in a questioning sense, but rather the noise that you make when someone says something hard):


"Long term plans for the fam, we'll be golfin, never catch a nigga double-crossin, unless I'm flossin'" -- from "I'm the Man" off The Come Up mixtape

tough right? yeah

SUperNova

I know I'm late on the vid, but its dope, as is the song.

San Diego/Del Mar/4th of July Madness

This is gonna be a pretty long ass, but hopefully enjoyable post, as I am going to try to just scratch the surface on the madness and escapades that I enjoyed on the 4th of July weekend and the days leading up to it. This is no way has anything to do with Universal Records and the aforementioned group is in no way involved or responsible for my actions.

So after discovering that I had the thursday and friday of the week before the 4th off, and going nuts with joy, I decided to meet up with my boy Nicholas Kaye aka Nicky Nick aka Nicholai Spielberg to partake in some good ole drink-time that was bound to escalate into shenanigans. We went out with the intention of getting allowed into a pretty high class, yet dope ass bar called "The Edison" but we were swiftly denied after discovering that I was violating the dress code in every way humanly possible. No baseball caps, t-shirts, shorts or tennis shoes allowed. Guess what I was rocking? Only if I had the Flavor Flav chain could I have violated it any more, and that's a stretch, they might have let me in just for having the audacity to do so. Nicky Spielberg only violated it in one way. But nonetheless, we were not getting in there that night. We then proceeded to go into this Mexican bar, with a bartender who spoke no English. I conversed with her as best I could, and Nick and I enjoyed two big ass shots of horrible Tequila. Got us feeling nice though, and we went down to this other bar, I forget what it was called, and successfully got in (Shout out to Maine). Before, we asked the bouncer at the Edison something along the lines of "is there anywhere that two assholes dressed like us can get into at this time of night", to which he graciously led us to our eventual destination. We got in and purchased a couple big ass cans of Tecate, and damn, those things do the trick. The rest of the night I will leave out, for my own pride. Nick knows what I'm talking about, but it has something to do with Karaoke, Billie Jean, and Benny Blancs.

The next day, we saw Transformers 2, which was dope. Fuck the haters. And yes, Megan Fox... giiiggity gigigtiy goo Ooooooohhh yeahhhh. That night, we met up with Nick's boy Nicolas Salvador Allende Don't Remember His Last Name. Cool dude though, and seasoned with knowledge on how young chaps are supposed to arrive at a Posh ass place like The Edison, we rolled up with confidence oozing out of our appropriately fashioned attire. Or was that just my hair gel? Chill I don't gel my hair my shit is naturally fly. Like I was feeling great; though that could be due to the multiple shots of Cuervo we took prior to leaving. After waiting on line for about 10 minutes, and taking a piss in a cigar shop, we got to the front of the line. Though our night almost came to an abrupt halt. 20 minutes before that, we hit a parking lot up, and unknowingly insulted one of the bouncers to the exact club we were going to! FUCK. I believe Nick's and his exchange was:

Nick: "Hey can we park here?"
Guy: "Do I look like a fuckin' parking lot attendant?"
Nick: "...Uhh Yeah..."
Guy: "Pshh"

So when we were at the front of the line, Guy informed the other bouncer of what occurred before, and they tried to deny Nick entry. But with some smooth talking, and his dashingly good looks, we were all allowed in, even with my balling ass Maine ID. The place was mad nice, which happened to be LA's first power plant, and had a bunch of ancient power generators for aesthetic purposes, and old reel films displayed on the walls. We were chillin' and after I bought a shot of absinthe, I was OD chilling. The place was cake though, so we left after a while, and hit up another bar, which was bumping Tribe. Shit was great. We met these people at the end of the night... This girl Alma, Claudia, and Luis. Claudia was beautiful, and I will find her, and throw wedding sack over her. But she was the DD that night, so I can now see why she wasn't impressed by my sloppy-ass come ons. Luis was that dude though. Like this dude was 40+ years old chilling with some beautiful Mexican girls rocking a Mustache similar to Giambi's when he was on a busting ass last year.... or Dr. Phil's



I was almost like damn girl I don't even need your number to call you, I just want to chill wit Luis. Anyway, I bought us all shots, which I now regret. Fuck. We then bounced, hit up Micky D's, and got like 4 McDouble's each. And 2 McChicken's each. I regret that too. The next day, Nicky Spielberg and I got up and began our drive to San Diego, or more accurately to Del Mar, where Nick's friend Vanessa Black aka V Dubs the dopest host ever has a beach house.



We got stuck in crazy traffic, but finally arrived at Kendrick aka Chris/Chris aka Kendrick lived. And let me tell you, this house was balling. It had a mini-library, with one of those ladders that slides across it. Nuff said. We met Igor Vanessa's man and his two boys from BK, Steve aka Bouzy and TJ aka Cockadoodledoo. And it was a wrap from there on. Dudes were all chillin. That night, we polished off a bottle of Jameson, and chilled on the beach. We later got back to the beach house, and Mr. Black came through and dropped the quote of the trip: "I never seen so many god damned Snaggle-Toothed Bitches in my life". One of the most hilarious things I've ever heard. Stevie and TJ told us stories about the legendary Mishy, who has pulled off shit you've only seen in your dreams. I passed out, and these guys drew dicks on my face. Fuckin assholes. I got the couch though. Woke up saturday morning feeling like shit of course, but we started to hit the keg and that solved all my problems. It was the fourth of July, and we hit the beach and it was popping. Mad ladies, but I mean I was fucked up all day, and I think I'd be stretching the Truth if I attempted to expand on it. Basically we were just chilling on and off of the beach, in one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to, with cool ass people. I proceeded to pass out mid-day while we were watching Michael Jackson videos, and missed the fireworks. Damnit, I always miss the fireworks! But woke up so appropriately after Kendrick and his boy Blake came thru with a Big ass bottle of Patron they found on the beach, and his other boy Eddie returned after pulling a fast one........... We then were chillin downstairs, and this girl Selene broke out into her own melodious version of "Titanic". Shit was hilarious, and great. Who the else knows what happened. I'm probably missing some stuff, but all in all, it was a great weekend. Nick and I were planning to go to the San Diego Zoo on Sunday, but I was way too hungover for that; and for that matter, too hungover for anything. Like I was too hungover to live. We said our goodbyes, and bounced and I slept the whole way back. And I am just getting over my hangover from Saturday, today... Tuesday. Happy belated 4th to everyone who knows they didn't have as good of a time as us, and unhappy 4th to those who think they even came close; and if it's cool with the Black's, its definitely going down again next year. Benny Blancs

An Article that Makes my Muscles Tingle

This article is great, hilarious, and also very, very true. It lists the 5 most badass, gangsta, cojones of steel, *insert synonyms here* dudes that you probably have never heard of, but will soon bow down to. My personal favorite is Audie Murphy, because not only was he like 5'5, he was denied by the almost all factions of the military, personally took out half of the Wehrmacht, and had a movie made about him based on it all..... THAT HE STARRED IN! LOL. And they actually cut out some of the scenes that were true of lil' old Audie doin' work on the Germans because Audie and the Producers thought it wouldn't be believable, even for hollywood. Crazy.


Ben Hopkins (right) in his past life serving in WWII

The site Cracked.com is hilarious, and they have many articles that list shit like this. Check it ouT.

Play

Are these shirts tough, or am I just a hypebeast? I'm gonna go with the latter... and the former. ITSYABOY! Shout out to Kamila Pagowski and her pops, the latter of whose brand "Play. by Comme Des Garcons" is, and the former, the daughter of the father. Does doing this "latter & former" shit make me sound like a complete asshole or just mad intelligent? I'm gonna go with the latter.

Blog Slackin'

Yeah, I know I've been blog slackin like crazy, but anyone else who is as lazy as I am understands completely. But with that said, I'm ready to get back on my grizzly like a bear skinned rug (Lupe the Fiasco)... after the commercial break.. when I figure out what to talk about...

Holla!

Check these on the Jump


CLean

No Hay Nada Mas

Mighty Mos

Is that Mos Def rhyming in spanish?!? Indeed it is! Even in another language, when you don't know what the hell he's saying, the song sounds good. Shows you the power Mos has in his musical ability.

in English:

"Good ones
Skinny one, call me the Skinny one, but my first name is Jacin Andante (the one who walks)
The last name the one who pays

Listen
That I am witness
The beauty the danger is different, of course it is the truth
The street and the town
The cottages and the centers

City quality costs more
War and life, love and change food that is being kept
Pistol, the prayer is for them
Ladies and gentleman
Family, upbringing
The light in the distance

I want and I say
The good is closer
My view my house my dreams my soul
I want to know and feel your embrace
And your contact, show me something... of course
Amen

Of course, of course, yes of course
There is nothing else, there is nothing else
The End - there is nothing else

Of course, of course, yes of course
There is nothing else, there is nothing else
The End - there is nothing else
Of course, of course, yes of course"

Got the translation from a website, so it's probably wrong, but you get the picture. If you don't have The Ecstatic yet, get on that.

Make That Change

We Are LASERS

Beautiful, We are Lasers will be a classic

Gaylor

This is dedicated to a very special friend of mine, named Taylor. And special she is. She's so special that she gets her own blog post, on the best blog in the world, by the best blogger in the world. Taylor likes bunnies. Taylor likes bunnies a lot. If Taylor had to choose between a human dying, or a bunny being insulted, she would chose the former. Do you know those weird old ladies that have 20+ cats living in their house, Taylor is going to be that lady... with bunnies. Taylor is also a great artist. She loves to draw and has a very promising career in the doodling field. This is a rare original of her amazing work that I am blessed to own:

Wow, look at how good she is! And she did that on an iPhone. An IPHONE! Imagine her with a paintbrush. Taylor is going to be an Astronomer when she grows up. She's so good at astronomy its ridiculous. Taylor will go to the moon. Taylor loves Britney Spears. She refuses to listen to any other music. These are just some of the reasons why Taylor is so special and why I had to show the world her specialness. 

Burton in Wonderland

I always thought the "Alice in Wonderland" stories were pretty bugged out... but in a good way. Although I barely remember the premise, other than it being something about a rabbit hole (shout out to the Matrix). When I heard that Tim Burton would be directing this new version of the film, I got butterflies in my stomach. Nohomo. Tim Burton, who's genius is behind classics like "Edward Scissorhands", "Nightmare Before Christmas", "Sleepy Hollow", two "Batman" films and others I don't feel like mentioning, is bound to tear this shit up. Burton's intricate fantasies and wild-ass imagination are sure to fit perfectly into this film adaptation. The cast looks superofficial as well; Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Crispin Glover are actors who I am quite fond of. A somewhat new actress, Mia Wasikowska, plays Alice. She looks dum good so I'm fine with it. These stills of the characters were just released and damn they are crazy! Depp, at the top, plays the Mad Hatter of course, then it's Alice, Bonham Carter as the Red Queen looking bugged, Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, looking... white. Comes out 5th March, 2010. 

Back to the Feature- Wale & 9th Wonder

This mixtape is so tough. I didn't really even fuck with Wale like that before this, but he really is nasty. And most of the mixtape is produced by 9th Wonder... like, why did they have to OD?  Also, there are so many features on it; hence the title: Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Young Chris, Skyzoo, Talib Kweli, Jean Grae, Royce 5'9", Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Black Thought, Kenn Starr, Memph Bleek, Curren$y, Bun-B, K'Naan, J. Cole (monster, get up on him), Peter, Bjorn, and John and others. That's beast. 

--Oh Shit! quote of the tape: "Word picture hurt niggas, young verse killa/Bitch please, skirt lifta, young Dirk Diggler/Wahlberg Shooter, young flow fluid, and my brain travel like Yung Berg's jewels"

Wale & 9th Wonder- Back to the Feature

Fresco

When in LA... Rep NY

"Between Two Ferns"

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis from Between Two Ferns

From what I've gathered, the majority of those who have seen "The Hangover" find that shit hilarious, as do I, being one of the funniest films I've seen in a while. I mean holy shit I haven't laughed that much in a movie theater since Superbad (I'm sure everyone is saying that). For all those who haven't seen it, first of all, what's wrong with you? Second of all, here's a little introduction to one of the funniest character's in the film, Zach Galifianakis, whose performance in The Hangover intrigued me to find more. This dude is so funny, and the premise of the "Between Two Ferns" skits is hilarious. My writing skills are not that serious, so I'm not going to try to tell you why it's funny or break it down in any critical kind of way. But there are more episodes on Funnyordie.com, with Michael Cera, Natalie Portman, etc. so peep those for yourselves.

No words from a decent man...

Someone needs to get Father Merrin on the line. Oh and what he does with the remote......... weh.

Fire

Being a huge Lupe Fiasco fan, its rare for me to not have heard one of his songs. This strange occurrence happened yesterday, when I came across "Fire", which indeed does the title justice. See for yourselves below. Can't wait til We Are Lasers!

Lupe Fiasco - Fire

Now A Daze

I got put on to Shad by watching this Youtube video (I don't remember who sent it to me, so whoever does can claim it) of him spitting bars:



So after acknowledging that homie from Hockey-Land had serious skills, I of course had to check out his albums, which leads me into the theme of this post. On Shad's sophomore album "The Old Prince", is a track called "Now A Daze", which to me, is an incredible track. First of all, the beat is fire, dunno who produced it but damn that shit rocks. But Shad's flow is impeccable and his lyrics are just so... real. See for yourselves; the song is below the lyrics:

Verse 1

"I'm focused on tryna stay focused In '06
I dealt with some blows now the process
Of sorting thru these ghosts feels hopeless
Its bogus but it still gets under the skin like osmosis
Yo this world's so sick
Like ne-yo's hit, or folks with no OHIP
Don't slip
Know who the staff you roll with is
Your staff can turn to snakes like moses'
And motives get exposed quick
When cash is grossed so don't trip
No sum is worth what your soul is
No sun immersed in the coldness
No son, reverse like the poles is
Get past the bitterness out the standstill
It wasn't in the cards
Some people can't deal
Play the hand youre dealt
Might make a grand still
A man's real if we can return like grant hill"

Verse 2

"Those that know shad know that hes on his own path
Like a nomad rolling without a roadmap
Just 4 lads in a topaz with no gas
I call my car rocafella cuz its got a broke dash
My generation's movin so fast
Runnin like old taps
From fear and stress and tears choked back
Boys hold gats while the girls got no strap
On their dresses and wont eat 'less its low-fat
Between low-cut tops and teeth with gold caps
That new school look's more crazy than OCAD's
When theres no dads to say don't show that
Make em look in your eyes, your mind's where the show's at
And you need more than beats for a dope track
Even with more hooks than a coat rack
And more hot lines than 1-800 phones
That's why most cats in this rap game just don't last
Its not vocab, they need to grow its go nads
And back bone so they can speak and not hold back
We need folks with faith that's gon last
To teach the younger ones how to live with no mask
And pose the kind of questions that most just wont ask
And keep that hope stashed like a safe of cold cash
Our vision for the future can't fade or go black
Like some Kodak pictures at night with no flash
Them cats be pollutin the air like smoke stacks
Let the freshness in get your windows cracked"

Blue King Brown @ The Key Club

It appears that I'm not blogging in chronological order because I saw Blue King Brown before I saw Anjulie, but like I said, I needed to spread the word about Anjulie because that shit was popping. But yeah, I went to the Key Club, another spot on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. On the way over there, driving the dope ass Honda Civic Hybrid (get green) with the O.G. gangsta Utah license plates, I saw what appeared to be either some type of spectacular light show vis-a-vis the 4th of July grand finale, or maybe some type of tripped out techno club that exploded with douchebags. But it turned out to be some celebrity because they were literally being molested by about 7 cameramen all flashing the shit outta him (or her) with a barrage of pictures. Now I understand why celebrities go off on these TMZ paparazzis; shit was blinding me, and I was at LEAST 200 feet away... in my whip, with the windows up... tinted, bitches. I'm gonna go with Miley Cyrus, but who knows.

So I get to the Key Club, and smoothly pull out my balling-ass Maine ID, and quickly got denied. Dude was nice though, and let me in without taking it. Although he fashioned me with two giant X's on each hand further rubbing in the fact that I only have a month til I'm 21, which happens to be the exact date I leave LA. Things just work out so perfectly sometimes don't they. I then meet my co-worker in there, and Blue King Brown is already playing.
They are a "Blues/Roots/Reggae/Hip-Hop/R&B" or somewhere along those lines, who are from Australia. I thought they were good. Especially the lead singer, Natalie Pa'apa'a, who's stage presence was definitely strong. The guitarist was also really talented, going off on a couple solos. They did a couple Fugees covers which was of course real. Natalie also had a some pretty inspiring speeches in between songs, speaking about global awareness, and more over the importance of unity in a changing world. She also indirectly shouted out the protesters in Iran, for standing up against injustice. Thought what she said was real. They definitely rocked the crowd too, half of whom were extremely smacked, judging from the marijuana aroma in the joint (see what I did there?). I thought they were very talented, but my supervisor apparently didn't see potential marketing ability, soo she bounced. Just goes to show you how tough it is to get a deal in this industry, even if you are talented... more on this topic later.

Nike SB Blue Lobster...

If you asked me yesterday, I would say my days of fiending the whole street wear culture, and tireless days of scouring numerous sneaker websites were over... then I saw these jawns, and damn. I guess being out in LA and seeing mad heads with some pretty dope gear all around me is making me want to get back on my shit. The Jedi laces are a nice addition, and overall I think these are fire. They are dropping June 20th, for $250 I believe. That would put a dent in the wallet, so I don't know if I will be copping, but you certainly can.

Anjulie @ The Viper Room

Last night I went to a show at the world famous nightclub "The Viper Room" in West Hollywood to see an artist named Anjulie. The Viper Room was opened by Johnny Depp, and is infamously known for being the place where River Phoenix died of a drug overdose... ("Stand By Me", a classic). The place was really dope- the lighting was cool, had a nice bar, and the stage was a close and compacted so you were right next to the performer.

When I got there, my Boss copped me a Heinekin, score. The stage had its curtains closed, so we were just chillin until finally, they opened, and standing there was Anjulie. I didn't know what to expect, but was presently suprised to discover that she was indeed fine. She hails from Canada; Toronto I think it was (hop on a track with Drizzy!) Aight, Drake is nice, but I do need to stop contributing to this relentless dick-riding by all the Stans out there. Given, homie is gonna blow... pause. Anyway, back to Anjulie...

Her sound is kinda in between a Nelly Furtado and an Amy Winehouse? Her overall performance was mesmerizing... or in other words, I was just stuck watching her do her thing. She was definitely grilling me too... She did 6 or 7 songs, with help from a guitarist and pianist controlling 2 pianos and some sample material. They were quite good as well. The place was vibing, and it was a dope ass performance to watch. So, look out for her, she's drawing some pretty big interest... that's all I'll say.

UMG

BenOfficial is back in effect after one day; what incredible consistency!! So I'm interning at Universal Music Group in LA for part of the summer, which I hope will give me some experience and insight into the music business, man. Specifically, I'm working for Universal Motown/Republic. My daily tasks mostly involve listening to demo's, which gets pretty repetitive because some are so bad... although I don't mean to put down anyone's craft (if you have a worthy demo, hit me up!). I also do some pretty menial shit; aka running errands, getting people coffee and breakfast, and shining shoes. I don't do the last thing. It's all gravy though, I get free lunch. I'm here for about a month and a half, and I'm going to be seeing shows, meeting people, etc etc. So I plan on chronicling the artists I hear, people I meet, and shit I do. Also, if you want to have a great time and chill with the illest dude in the world come out to LA, I have a crib out here and we could have a ball. HOlla at me!