A Great Quote re: Glenn Beck's Van Jones Metaphorical Lynch Mob


If you haven't seen it, there's a series of YouTube videos of Glenn Beck's systematic metaphorical career-lynching of former Green Czar Van Jones for his radical past. Huffington Post covered it in an article whose headline referred to Jones as "Beck's first scalp," but more importantly, blogger Mark Kleiman had the following fantastic reality check about this campaign of Beck's against all things Obama:

"If you want to say batshit-crazy stuff and still be treated as a respectable participant in the national debate, you'd better be a Republican."

True dat.

I Know This is Kind of Vain of Me, But...


...I've been tracking the numbers for OMM on Google Analytics, and despite my predictions to the contrary, there are a reasonable number of people who actually read the blog. But the real reason I started the blog was to begin a conversation. So feel free to leave a comment, anonymous or otherwise!

128 Oz. of Great-erade: 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2,' by Raekwon

'Chef in the kitchen cookin' up with the crimeys...'

It's 100 percent unfair to compare Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2 to its stone-cold classic predecessor. It just is. No matter how loud you go "OHHHHHH!" when you hear the familiar, ill loop on "Pyrex Vision" (an old Premier beat copped from one of my all-time favorite LPs, OC's Jewelz), it's not going to be the same as that first time you heard "Verbal Intercourse." Believe me, I want it to. I'm boom-bap to the bone, but the Golden Age has passed.

That said, Pt. 2 is every bit as great as I hoped it would or could be. It's easily the second-best album of Raekwon's career, and hearkens back to the original as much as it can without being deliberately backward-looking.

As someone who judges most rap songs based primarily on their production, I don't know if Rae dropped any of his best verses on the albums between the two Cuban Linx, because I truthfully have never listened to any of them in their entirety. All I know is that he dropped some sick guest verses over the past year (on Doom's joint in particular, over another old-school sample), threw down some equally excellent rhymes on two mixtapes, Blood on Chef's Apron and Cuban Revolution, and topped all three with Pt. 2. From the eerie organ on "Black Mozart" to the wavery, paranoid bassline of "Have Mercy," the record captures what I suppose I'd metaphorically call that "Usual Suspects" vibe that provided the backdrop for such intricate crime storytelling the first time around.

Rae shows that same attention to detail on tracks like "Catalina," the plucky "10 Bricks" and the hollow "laaaa's" of "Gihad." He even gets a little emotional over the perfect Dilla track in the ODB tribute "Ason Jones."




And it wouldn't be a proper Cuban Linx sequel if it wasn't guest-starring (billed right on the cover) Ghostface on at least a third of the tracks. He doesn't disappoint, blasting away on the the Clan-cut opener, "House of Flying Daggers" and the greatest Wu track in a decade, "New Wu," which will have you pulling out Enter the 36 Chambers all over again.

Some of the production exhibits a little of the clunkiness that caused older Wu records like The W and Iron Flag to drag on occasion, but it's so refreshing to hear Rae back in the saddle that it doesn't really matter. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and dub this period of mid-'00s resurgence, from Masta Killa's No Said Date up through now, the Wu-Tang Renaissance. In that roughly five-year span, you have No Said Date, Made In Brooklyn, Fishscale (and More Fish and Another One I Can't Think Of), Chamber Music, Pro Tools, Dopium (debatable, I grant you, but still... a decent U-God solo record? That's almost a miracle), Cuban Linx II and even solid joints from former weed-carriers I had written off, like Bronze Nazareth and particularly Hell Razah (Killah Priest, I've just given up on... either he's just too deep for me, or he's the most boring intelligent rapper I've ever fucking heard. I'm also writing off Rza's Digi Snax, for reasons which should be obvious to anyone unfortunate enough to have heard it. Rza should tell Bobby Digital that he needs to stick to writing the script for the second season of "Afro Samurai").

So... welcome back, Chef. You cooked up another tasty batch.

The Mixtape Mash-Up

Above, Havoc's 'From Now On' mixtape

Work's been busy, so I haven't been posting quite as often as usual, but lately one thing I have noticed is that a lot of the stuff I've been liking lately has come in the form of mixtapes.

Now, I have a longstanding and generally mild distaste for the mixtape, as a collection of tossed-off B-sides and shitty freestyles, but I understand its function as a buzz-generator for the artist. One thing that draws me to some mixtapes is my passion for Jamaican dancehall music, which not only has mixtapes galore, but also has a variety of different artists giving their take on the same beat. Although dancehall usually takes a fairly spare beat and adds some instrumentation to go along with the verses; hip-hop mixtapes don't spice up the production much.

That said, a few have definitely caught my eye recently:

• Wu-Tang South, Wu South, Vol. 1 - This Baltimore-based group, which appears to be Rush and Cappadonna, along with a few select guests and the obligatory posthumous ODB verse, has supposedly been around since 2006, and this mixtape, hosted by DJ Saki, is seeing its "official" release (whatever that means) in 2009. Normally, anything with Cappadonna on more than half the tracks hasn't warranted my praise in the past, but this is a definite exception. "Here Today" kicks things off with a soul chop and a tinny keyboard line that feels like classic Wu without being classic Wu. "Born in NYC" mixes up a dusty synth line with a heavy piano, and "NYC City Standup" actually does do the dancehall thang, flipping Redman's "Da Goodness" with a buzzing horn hit.

• Havoc, From Now On - I've always been a huge Mobb Deep fan. And even though, starting with Murda Muzik, their work has been a little bit suspect (with a few notable exceptions), I always check out a new release from the QB crew. I have to say that it's kind of disheartening to see the G-Unit emblem on a Mobb Deep-affiliated record, but shit, times are tight all around. Is there even a Loud Records anymore? (Answer: Supposedly, it was resurrected as a part of Street Records, over the summer. Not confirmed). Anyway, I'm getting away from the point. This is a decent mixtape that retains the Mobb's menacing sound with a few new elements and little more flossiness ("We don't pop shots no more, we launch rockets"). The opener, "Smells Like 9/5," could have been a Hell on Earth B-side, "Letter to P" is a heart-to-heart sent out to Prodigy over a smooth soul choir and fuzzy guitar, and "24k Rap" nabs the bassline from Xzibit's "Los Angeles Times," adding some forlorn echoes along with verses from Ghostface Killah and the late J. Dilla. Definitely better than P's Product of the '80s.

• Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew, Kings of Salone: the DJ Gravy Mixtape - Thanks to Doc Zeus for putting me up on this Sierra Leone-based crew. They mostly truck in dancehall, with a few dashes of hip-hop thrown in from time to time. Actually, there's a fair variety of uptempo, danceable tracks on the mixtape's brief 31 minutes, ranging from party jams ("Bondo Kallay," "Laba Laba," "Any Girl") to neck-snapping hip-hop "Rapapumpum" to gladiator dancehall (the massive "Honda"). "Makossa" flips a familiar old-school beat, and "Give Me Your Number" is straight-up rocksteady. A perfect summer disc.

• Raekwon, Cuban Revolution - This is actually the second mixtape Rae's put out lately (Blood on Chef's Apron was the other) but Revolution is the latest round of material to keep everyone salivating for fall's supposed, alleged (dare I uttter it?) Cuban Linx Deuce, and it's pretty great. Featuring Ghost on a solid third of the album, it might as well be called Cuban Linx 1.5, or maybe Even More Motherfuckin' Fish. "Run Away" would fit in with any of Rae or Ghost's best solo work, "Better Shoot Something" works one of those old baroque-soul Wu loops, and "Slang Copulation" reunites out the old "Verbal Intercourse" trio with Nas, Ghost and some spooky ooh's (oh, and Cappadonna, too, but fuckit, he had his fifteen seconds earlier). Host DJ Memory Man even rounds things out with a loping soul loop that pairs up Ghost and Rae with a great Biggie verse. 

Obscure Music Spotlight: 'Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast,' by Cornershop

'Who fingered rock'n'roll...?'

If you're under 20, you probably would recognize Cornershop as the band whose awesomely-smooth "Candyman" was backing Lebon James' baby-powder-smackin' Nike commercial. And even if you're over 20, you might only know the UK band from their moderately-popular '97 single, "Brimful of Asha."

But Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakast is the perfect time to get to know 'em.

I can't help but think frontman Tjinder Singh had the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock festival (coming up, by the way) in mind while creating Judy. I hesitate to call it "bubble-gum pop,' but in the late-'60s sense of the word, that's kind of what it is: slightly-psychedlic day-glo folk-rock with a few Eastern twists.

"Who Fingered Rock'n'Roll?" kicks things off with a straight-ahead rock beat and a gospel chorus that would do Joe Cocker proud, accented by ringing sitar plucks.

"Soul School" adds a string section and rolls even more smoothly, despite a grungy guitar crunching underneath, and tracks like the organ-grinding "The Constant Springs" and the title track even add a mellow clarinet melody.

"Free Love" mixes in more of the Singh brothers' Indian roots, setting a traditional raga melody to syncopated drums and backward guitar, and if you're not in a '60s frame of mind yet, witness the wall of chorus that anchors their cover of Manfred Mann's "Quinn the Eskimo," the most straight-forward track on the album.

If you're looking for allegorical lyrics and deep meaning, seek ye elsewhere. The largely-nonsensical libretto is a jumping-off point for the excellent music.

A few interludes hearken back 1997's hip-hop-influenced When I Was Born for the 7th Time, but for the most part, this is a near-perfect summer folk-rock record with a few well-placed freaky twists.

Hear samples at their Myspace site, and then git it.

Throwback Sunday: 'Vanishing Point' Soundtrack

"Kowalski... you listening, brother?"

A stunt car driver goes pedal to the metal from Colorado to L.A., dodging massive amounts of police on the way thanks to "traffic tips" from a blind soul DJ.

That's it. That's the whole plot of 1971's Vanishing Point. Oh, that and some chick who rides around buck-ass naked on her motorcycle all the time.

The film served as partial inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's half of the Grindhouse movies, Death Proof. It was on AMC this past weekend, and after seeing it, I can say that the best part is the soundtrack.

From Jimmy Reed's superfunky acoustic workout "Welcome to Nevada" to Bobby Doyle's soul rave-up "The Girl's Got It Together," it's a solid 40 minutes of late-'60s greatness, from folky gospel (Big Mama Thornton's "Sing Out for Jesus") to a balls-out bluegrass hoedown (Doug Dillard Expedition's "Runaway Country")

128 Oz. of Haterade: 'Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen'




"Hi. My name is Michael Bay, and I never met a stereotype

I couldn't totally and completely exploit..."

[Below is my review of Transformers 2, in the clever guise of an open letter to franchise director Michael Bay]:

Dear Mr. Bay:

You almost made me a believer with the original Transformers. Having seen several of your previous film experiences, each one a bit more, what's the word... boomtastic, or perhaps explosinomenal... than the next, I was convinced that while you were more than able to create large balls of fire, when it came to working with actors, you were on the same page as George Lucas, to whom Harrison Ford once famously said, "George, you can type this shit, but you sure can't say it."

But in Transformers, most of the main characters had no actual soul; they were robots. You went and got the original voice for Optimus Prime, and that was pretty awesome. The special effects were great, and Shia LeBoeuf showed that he had quite a bit of comic talent and timing ("Satan's Camaro is in my yard; it's STALKING ME!").

And then you got me all hyped up with the Super Bowl teaser trailer, which showed massive Decepticon devastation. Sweet.

But then came Transformers 2, where no stereotype goes un-trampled and no storyline goes un-pilfered. LeBoeuf's Sam Witwicky is off to some university that looks like Hogwart's if you subtracted the magic and added booty shorts, where he discovers that a tiny little shard of The All-Spark - which caused all the trouble in the FIRST movie - uhhh, well, it got stuck in his hoodie. And now, the Decepticons are after it so they can turn on a giant machine that will destroy the sun to harness its energy.

Why they weren't trying to do this the first time around is beyond me.

And sure, the special effects are still awesome, with the notable exception of two characters, Skids and Mudflap, who I'd politely refer to as the One-Step-Below-Al-Jolson Autobots, pretty patently-offensive African-American caricatures who come complete with everything but gold teeth.... oh, wait, except that one DOES have a gold tooth.

Wow... really...?

In interviews, your writers and the actors who voiced the robots have tried to blame this on the fact that the Autobots "learn" by downloading information from the World Wide Web, and that Skids and Mudflap are "wannabe gangster types." And if you want to deflect blame onto a fictional concept over which you had total control, that's cool. But let's not forget that the primary audience for this PG-13 movie - although you wouldn't know that from the amount of Megan Fox ass shots, the Decepticon schoolgirl whose tail comes out of her panties and tries to strangle Sam and the curse words - is children.

Children who might not make the distinction, and perhaps see it as the latest in a long line of "oh-but-isn't-it-funny?" characters that serve no real plot purpose, other than to "add humor" by mocking black culture.

And I'll admit, there probably wouldn't be as much backlash if Skids and Mudflap had been a broken-down Silverado and a mobile trailer who transformed into toothless redneck robots making jokes about not being able to read - which both characters are forced to admit in Transformers 2, by the way - but that doesn't make it any less offensive.

Onion Associate Entertainment Editor Tasha Robinson put it best and most succintly in Sandy Cohen's article on The Huffington Post:

"They don't really have any positive effect on the film," she said. "They only exist to talk in bad ebonics, beat each other up and talk about how stupid each other is."

Black actor Reno Wilson, who voiced Mudflap, said "it's unfair to assume the characters are black."

Except of course that they're the only two characters in the whole movie whose voices bear any resemblance to African-Americans. If you don't count Tyrese, who really doesn't talk; he spends most of Revenge of the Fallen flexing his arms and looking like the supermodel that he used to be before he tried his hand at music (props on "Sweet Lady," though) and now film.

And all of this is to make no mention of the fact that the film is pretty much a two-and-a-half-hour vehicle for technical wizardry, sorely lacking in the plot department and basically a slightly-smudged carbon copy of the original.

So thanks, Mr. Bay. I eagerly await Pearl Harbor 2, starring Buddy Hackett as Japanese Imperial General Hideki Tojo.