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!

The Initiation

So this is my initiation into the world of blogging, which seems to be becoming a more and more necessary facet of ones social internet resume, therefore I'm joining the fucking party. I plan on this being a temporary outlet for which I will post my thoughts, which constantly seem to be bursting out of my skull. I'm from New York City, born and raised, and live in Manhattan part of the time. I also live in the Bronx, and rep that shit hard-body! I'm open-minded and ambitious to learn everything and everything about everything. Does that even make sense? Probably not. Aight I don't need this to be long-winded, so without further ado, I welcome you to "Wise Words From a Decent Man". Why, you might ask? 1. I am a very welcoming person. 2. I am bumping Drake heavy these days. 3. I feel I am a decent man. 4. with some wise words, and 5. I just really didn't feel like taking an hour to think of a better name, na meaaan?

Topics of discussion:

Music (Hip-Hop)
Music (Everything else)
Sports
Film
Politics?
Girls (I'm sooo nice with the ladies, ask anyone I know)
Social/Environmental awareness
Clothes/Sneakers (writing fashion would be gay wouldn't it)
Everything else...