Cultural Artifact C-198P - Category: Decline of American Empire

Blackhole sun, won't you come.

Oh Snap! You Got Served, B-Rock!

This is becoming so tiresome.

Does Obama really have to defend himself for articulating the obvious? People in the Rustbelt are bitter because they’ve been economically disenfranchised for nearly three decades now. This is somehow slanderous and/or elitist? What? Oh, that’s right: HRC completed her law degree via a correspondence course and spent her nascent legal career doing pro-bono work for unwed mothers working in sweatshops. Nope, wait: she graduated from Yale and worked for a white shoe law firm. Yet somehow she understands the working-class better than fellow Ivy-leaguer Obama? You can almost hear the machinery in her head clicking as she cranks out this disingenuous drivel.

I feel like Roddy Rowdy Piper once he gets the sunglasses in “They Live"; can’t anybody else see through this $#!t? Didn’t the Dems lose the White House and Congress precisely for the reasons Obama stated? Didn’t these “optimistic” working-class people turn to Bush whose basic platform was: “Hey, I’m a decent guy, just like you! And I don’t cheat on my wife, because I love Jesus!” Are you really going to tell me Americans aren’t angry about the ramifications of globalization? Really? And Obama’s out of touch?

All respect I ever had for the Clintons has completely evaporated. The needle’s going into the red in that respect; I’m actually starting to loathe both of them. Man, I cannot wait until August.

Spin it Back: Appreciating the Golden (Not-Really-That) Oldies

I've purchased maybe one full-fledged hip-hop album in the past five years I think, the thoroughly satisfying debut album, "Below the Heavens" from a duo named Blu and Exile. I guess I should count the last two Kanye albums, but those are just empty calories--the music equivalent of summer tent-pole movies. I don't know if I ever thought hip-hop would necessarily grow with me, but it pains me to find how much it's regressed and remained stagnant for the last I don't know decade and a half?

I'm not about to go off on a "$#!t was way tighter in my day!"-rant, but for the record it was. There's no subjectivity applicable here. It just was. Anyways, I recently picked up "Blowout Comb" the second and sadly last LP of new material from the Digable Planets. I owned the album when it first came out in '94 and gave it a few spins before burying it in my burgeoning record collection in favor of exploring the strange sounds of the newly emerged Wu-Tang Clan.

Unfortunately, the disc was also a casualty of a car break-in many years later (why take somebody's music of all things? Stereo, fine. Whatever you can find! But stealing music is like stealing memories--some things are just irreplaceable.) Now nearly fifteen years later through the magic of iTunes, I've been reunited with Butterfly, Doodlebug and Ladybug Mecca. I have to say, the album's aged really well. The heavily jazz-oriented production along with the trio's mellow deliveries meld into one fluid groove over the album's thirteen tracks. In retrospect this may have been one of the last great records of hip-hop's Golden Age (1987, period beginning with Eric B. and Rakim's "Paid in Full"-1995, period ending with Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx"). The hip-hop landscape was so diverse in that period. And the quality was uniform coast-to-coast. Random groups would just drop solid albums out of nowhere (Heltah Skeltah, Boogiemonsters, Goodie Mob, Lords of the Underground, Das EFX, Black Moon, Pharcyde...).

Uh, oh. Let me stop. I'm headed down Nostalgia Ave. Alright, so today's music isn't so bad. Timbaland gets crazy praise for his inventiveness and seemingly inexhaustible supply of infectious compositions. As much as I'm loathe to admit, Lil Wayne could very well be the best rapper around--and that's not meant to be a backhanded compliment. I'll admit that much. Now get off my lawn.

Lyrics from Digable Planet's "La Femme Fetal" off their first LP Reachin'...
it was 8:49 on a beautiful 9th day of july
there was not a cloud to speak of so the orange sun hung
lonely in the sky
i was laying prone in my cabby home
listening to fine nappy jackie and his jazzcat's horn
sliding in a tape of bird on verve when suddenly rang my phone
hello butterfly , a voice said
slip on some duds comb out your fro and slide on down to my pad
the vibe here is very pleasant and i truly request your presence
a problem of great magnitude has arose
and as we speak it grows
damn, what could it be i thought
a juice i bought and rolled on down to her spot
seeing bros i know slapping fives i arrived and pressed G-5
and there was nikki
lookin some kind of sad with tears fallin from her eyes
she sat me down
and dug my frown and began to run it down
"you remember my boyfriend sid that fly kid who i love
well our love was often a verb and spontaneity has brought a third
but do to our youth and economic state we wish to terminate
about this we don't feel great , but baby that's how it is
but the feds have dissed me
they ignore and dismiss
and the pro-lifers harass me outside the clinic
and call me a murderer, now that's hate
so needless to say we're in a mental state of debate"
hey beautiful bird i said digging her somber mood
the fascists are some heavy dudes
they don't really give a damn about life
they just don't want a woman to
control her body or have the right to choose
but baby that ain't nothin'
they just want a male finger on the button
because if you say war they will send them to die by the score
aborting mission should be your volition
but if souter and thomas have their way
you'll be standing in line unable to get welfare while they'll be out
hunting and fishing
it has always been around it will always have a niche
but they'll make it a privilege not a right
accessible only to the rich
hey, pro-lifers should dig themselves
cause life doesn't stop after birth
and to a child born to the unprepared
it might even just get worse
the situation would surely change if they were to find themselves in it
supporters of the h-bomb and fire-bombing clinics
what type of shit is that? orwellian in fact
if roe v wade was overturned would not the desire remain intact
leaving young girls to risk their healths
and doctors to botch and watch as they kill themselves
now i hate to sound macabre
but hey, isn't it my job
to lay it on the masses and get them off their asses
to fight against these fascists
so whatever you decide make that move with pride
sid will be there
and so will i
an insect til i die
rhythms and sounds
spinning around
confrontations
across the nation
your block
my block
dreadlocks
what a shock
land of the free - but not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me

Needless to say, you should pick them up if you don't own either album. Later!