CNN.com - Hip-hop producer faces Dubai drug charges - Jun 27, 2006

CNN.com - Hip-hop producer faces Dubai drug charges - Jun 27, 2006

I saw this on CNN and it blew my mind - I was in a band with Dallas Austin in high school in the late 1980s, and not only is he a platinum-selling producer, but now he's joined the pantheon of rock stars locked up abroad for having a little something for the road. Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Rush Limbaugh, and so forth. Except dude is in Dubai - what are Dallas Austin and Naomi Campbell doing partying in Dubai? Miami's not exotic enough? Bangkok? Tokyo? Dag - I'd get a room at Comfort Inn in Memphis.

Lupe Fiasco - finally, some real hip hop

Every once in a while we get some real stuff, like Jurassic 5 or the Pharcyde guys - hip hop that reminds of you of why it all mattered to begin with. It wasn't always weak, boring beats and bling and guns and bootyquakes and "itsyaberfday" and the rest of what passes for hip hop on the radio. Lupe Fiasco is like that - I heard his track "Kick, Push" on WRAS the other night, driving home from rehearsal, and it was like hearing Eric B and Rakim for the first time back when. The rush of strings, the laid-back flow, and a rhyme about skateboarding, for Pete's sake! It's simple, cinematic, and fresh. Click on the title of this post to go check it out.

I don't know if the rest of the record will stand up, but here's hoping.

gigs this weekend

I get to go out and be a real working musician this weekend! It's about time. On Saturday, June 24th, at 4:00 I'll be on the Coca Cola stage in Atlanta's Peidmont Park playing bass for Sue Witty as part of Gay Pride weekend. Later that same night, weaklazyliar plays a private party in the swank Virginia Highlands neighborhood. You can't come, but have no doubts that G will post about the shenanigans on the weaklazypage.

If you're so inclined (or if, like me, you're not "inclined," so to speak, but sympathetic) come on by the park on Saturday. There'll be biker chicks and large hairy men in tiaras. (It's in my rider.)

a new title, a new focus (or really kind of an acknowledgement of the old focus)

In an effort to get back up on the blogwagon after falling off - due to work and other stuff - I have renamed this decrepit outpost and admitted to myself that I like to write about (duh) music and politics. So that's what I'll do here. The thing is, I'm really down on the mainstream tenor of each right now. The American political discourse is part pissing contest, part Easter parade, and part crap cannon - and it's aimed right at us. Likewise, if you listen to the radio in most cities, you hear a steady parade of soundalikes and lowest-common-denominator genre exercises. Is it garage rock this week? Cool - put the dual rectifier away and go get me a 20-watt class A tube combo.

Anyway, I'll drop by more often and gripe and grouse and post links and whatnot. Drop me a line sometime.

Said what, now?

AllHipHop.com : Daily Hip-Hop News

Fitty and Steve collaborating on a computer line? Is that what I read? My sweet lord...

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush calls for gay marriage ban

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush calls for gay marriage ban

I just sent an email to the White House asking them to drop this blatant attempt to divide the electorate and distract midterm voters from the real issues facing this country. I tried to be civil and to the point, and to not say anything that would earn me a visit from Fox News Sec-er, I mean the Secret Service. November 06 is our chance to refute the Bush agenda, that is if they don't steal this one too.