in

I think this might be good. Rhymefest was doing all the radio/internet interview rounds awhile back when that "chiraq" movie was coming out. He made a lot of good points about spike lee being a d*ckhead. If you don't know rhymefest, the short of it is that he's a rapper, he's a smart motherf**ker, and he's been with kanye from the very beginning* though he was/is? signed outside of g.o.o.d music. I once saw or read a good story about his friends wanting to beat up a teenage kanye the first time they met him because the teenage kanye was soft and an arrogant asshole. It's been a long time but kanye never get's his credit for how he blew up and tried to put on for every chicago artist you could think of, I mean he had a whole chicago rap industry signed to g.o.o.d music itself. I read a piece about this documentary before showtime got involved and I remember being really intrigued and captivated but it had no distribution so I resigned myself to never seeing it. I might be a little bit of a defeatist.

* He even wrote on a bunch of kanye songs throughout his career. It looks like all that is over with though. On the other hand I guess you can never tell, buddies will be buddies right?

in

Once again here I am discovering music from the end of a movie. You can make a good case that it's turning into my main source for finding new music. Despite all appearances this is probably my favorite type of sh*t, being from a long line of city dwelling musicians who for no good reason think they're f**king cowboys. I think it's the only way of holding onto one's edge while you know, searching the depths of your soul and other soft ass sh*t. It should be mentioned that dan auerbach produced this right here. If that doesn't mean anything to you, you're slipping.

in

from Pop vs Jock @ PopMontreal 2012

I have this friend that plays in a pickup basketball league with Win Butler from Arcade Fire. This isn't some country club sh*t either, this is some everyone give your five bucks to Marc-Andre who rented the gym type of deal. My friend isn't a music fan, so while was he telling me about all this, he couldn't remember Win's name. He just kept referring to him as "this musician that goes hard in the post"

This clip is from Win Butler's semi-annual Pop vs. Jock basketball game at the 2012 Pop Montreal Festival. The POP team usually consists of Win alongside his musician friends (Nikolai Fraiture from The Strokes, Justin Vernon from Bon Iver) and ex-ballers like Luke Bonner, Brian Scalabrine, and Matt Bonner, while the opposition are usually players from Montreal's University basketball teams. Here we see the POP team down 3 with 17.6 seconds left in the 4th. Fresh off a timeout, team POP runs an effective inbounding play anchored by Win. I won't spoil the finish but check the fundamentals on this guy as he cuts across the paint, leading with his long-ass arms. On a side note, I think that the political statement homie made during his 2016 celebrity game MVP acceptance speech was great. Too bad they didn't let him finish, I have a feeling he was going to say "Everybody's entitled to free healthcare. That way when I break your nose backing you down in the paint, you won't have to mortgage your mom's house hoe. F**k Kobe, and tell Amber Rose to come holler at me."

in

In all honesty my dilla knowledge kind of ends around the time he stopped being jaydee. Fortunately no dilla knowledge is necessary for the enjoyment of this clip. Just an appreciation for rap history and an appreciation for motherf**kers telling stories. I would like to thank whoever edited this video for blacking out what sounds like a pretty bleak situation in the background.

in

This is enjoyable, just a little something something on kanye. For the video they spell it "kanYe" with a capital "y". Is that a thing? I've never seen it done that way and frankly I don't really dig it. Unless that's how you actually spell it of course, in which case, I can't take back that you know I don't like it but forget it, it's none of my business. Before you watch this video make sure you keep in mind that though it's fun listening to what music journalists have to say about kanye, don't take anything nerds say about rap seriously. They don't know how to feel music. They just listen and think about it through a nerd prism and get all the ideas wrong. Look at how happy they are when they're talking about kanye though.

in

Truth is that montreal has had various moments in the sun. There was the era when we were the go to city if you wanted some pretentious indie rock music. There was also the montreal beatmaker boom from a couple years back, though that may still be happening, I couldn't tell you. Unfortunately though, ever since I stepped off the plane from north carolina like 15 years ago the rap scene has been stagnant and truthfully, generally untalented. It's definitely worth pointing out that I'm strictly talking about the english rap scene. I have no real gauge as to the quality of french rap because, well, I never listened to it. This is for several reasons but the two most important ones are,  A: I don't speak french and B: Their flows were terrible. Here we are in 2016 though and it looks like we're finally coming into our own. In fact we got a bunch of people who are actually doing some real good sh*t. I was inspired to do this mix/blend after I began seeing some montreal compilations popping up around the internet. The problem was that I wasn't seeing any of my sh*t on them. I don't want to go full kanye or anything but the idea of a montreal rap conversation without me involved is laughable. It should be noted however that I'm not laughing. Anyway, here it is, hope you dig that sh*t.

in

I've been with this boogie sh*t since I first heard "bitter raps". He particularly kills this freestyle right here. This is how it's done. Where in the hell was this recorded though? The sonic quality is f**king crazy. Sounds like a solid steel bunker party. I saw an australian movie on netflix with a scene in a bomb shelter right under where a wild end-of-days party was going on. It wasn't a bad film. I'll let you know what it's called when I remember.

in
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She goes by the name of outrageous karina. She's from san jose and I've considered it but I don't think that's what makes her outrageous. I'm all about that second verse with the rap personally, I'm glad we've finally reached a point where women can rap about lady things, as opposed to when they used to only be permitted to rap about lady parts. You know, their vaginas and such. Also, the quickest way to get hella respect from me is to do something like that long ass echo at the end.

in

Remember when chuck inglish was in the cool kids?  They ended up being a weird group historically speaking, having the distinction of being one of those kinds of artists who never really took off in a major way and yet are silently responsible for huge shifts in culture. I wonder how many of those kinds of people have existed? it's hard to quantify, being that sneakiness is such an big part of it. The way the current hip-hop fan dresses is like a f**king straight line back to the cool kids. The way the average person dresses is a straight line to hip-hop. You do the math. In a world where people seem to be more concerned with fashion than any era I've been a part of, the cool kids should be gods. There should be statues erected in the streets with f**king 20 foot supras. Their breakout internet hit "black mags" dropped in 2007. Soulja boy's "crank that" dropped in 2007. Look at that sh*t! One time I was in a band with two punk dudes and I swear to god, the only rap music they seemed to know was the cool kids. I wasn't really with it at the time, too much nostalgia for a forward thinking motherf**ker like me. Yet here I am cosigning this track right here. I guess I just didn't relate to that other particular brand of nostalgia. This I can get behind. A 12 year old me wasn't riding bmx's, a 12 year old me was watching bass music videos and fantasizing about freaknik. I never figured out how to order one of the videos off the internet without alerting my parents, though in hindsight, I don't think it would have been a thing.