Nineteen Ninety Never

(image snagged from The MidWasteland)

A few months ago I wrote about how The Cool Kids rapped about riding bikes and at Pharrell and Lupe were all about skateboarding.

Here’s a couple of tracks that will back me up on the second part of that theory.

Kick Push is a great track from Lupe in which he tells the story of just spending the day rolling around on a skateboard - “a rebel to the world with no place to go.” It is also worth noting the following quote from Lupe that I found in Wikipedia:

“…I’m not a skater and I don’t want to keep putting on the faces of people who’ve been skating for 20 years and actually lived out “Kick, Push”.

Whatevs. He’s still alright with me.

Lupe Fiasco - Kick Push (ESTAW Remix)

Pharrell constantly refers to himself as Skateboard P. I respect that.

Pharrell - Raspy Shit

He also named his brand of shoes Ice Creams. I just think that’s hilarious.

Since Pharrell and Lupe are doing well enough with out me, you should take the time to check out ESTAW’s MySpace. Turns out the kid is from Holland.

(photo courtesy of Ren Bostelaar)

So I checked out the Cadence Weapon show in Toronto last Thursday, and have to say that I’m now a fan. I hadn’t heard anything by him, but he came recommended by the Persian Prince himself so for $12 at Lee’s Palace, how could I go wrong? I couldn’t, and part of the reason was because he reminds me of Tracy Morgan.

While the video for Real Estate is pretty good (thanks to The Tape for the find), the track is actually begging to be put over top of a re-purposed clips from Glengarry Glen Ross. If I had a video editing program, I’d probably do it myself.

But since I don’t, you might as well check out this 40 minute mix of house music “hosted” by Alec Baldwin clips from Glengarry (via the always-entertaining Canuckflack).

Cadence Weapon - Real Estate

Cadence Weapon - House Music

Cadence Weapon - House Music (A1 Bassline Remix)

Anyways, I gotta dedicate this post to my boy Davey Boy Taylor holdin’ down the real estate game, Van-City style.

There’s more of Roland Pemberton (aka Cadence Weapon) on MySpace or his official site.

Man, after that earlier post about White Collar Wu-Tang and now this one, it feels like it is Take Your Rapper To Work Week or something.

According to Wikipedia, Jook music is a “dance-driven genre” that is a mixture of “Bass, House and Hip-Hop.” It comes from Tampa Bay, a town alternately known as Jook City or Trigga City.

Count me in.

Tampa Tony - Can’t Juke Without Me (Tactic Re-edit)

R. Kelly - Hook It Up (UMYO Juke Remix)

One of the best parts about Tampa Tony’s Myspace profile is the number of people stopping by to show him some “luv” and express their support for him while he is in jail.

Tracks courtesy of Palms Out Sounds.

Solid beats and rhymes from NASA and CERN respectively. Nerdcore represent, wha wha!

Did you learn something new?

My friend Claudio filmed this clip of a midget dressed like Chucky from the Child’s Play movies rapping on the streets of LA. If you look closely, you can see the mask on the ground beside him. The fake knife that he pretended to stab my friend with is in his back pocket.

Midget Chuckie Beatboxing

“It goes by many names: “The Crisis,” “The Dark Years,” “The Walking Plague,” as well as newer and more “hip” titles such as “World War Z” or “Z War One.” I personally dislike this last moniker as it implies an inevitable “Z War Two.” For me, it will always be “The Zombie War,” and while many may protest the scientific inaccuracy of the word zombie, they will be hard-pressed to discover a more globally accepted term for the creatures that almost caused our extinction. Zombie remains a devestating word, unrivaled in its power to conjure up so many memories or emotions, and it is these memories, and emotions, that are the subject of this book.”

So begins World War Z by Max Brooks, the best book I’ve read all year and probably the best book about zombies ever written.

Inspired, I’ve put collected a couple of zombie-related tracks to celebrate humanity’s victory over the undead hordes.

“Zombie Panic” - Oddioblender

“When Zombies Attack” - NC-MCs feat. Sizzle Stixx

“Zombie Killa” - ZeaLous1

“Zombies Ate My Neighbours” - Chozo_Ninpo and MC Inadequate

All tracks courtesy of the geekily fantastic RhymeTorrents.

Image of Yonkers courtesy of John Petersen, who created it for the book.

File this one under “internet memes I never knew existed” - videos that are a mashup of rap and clips from the classic G.I. Joe Cartoon.

Here we have DESTRO and The Baroness doing a rendition of Junior M.A.F.I.A’s “Get Money”

Check out Dr. Smoov’s YouTube channel for more.

199X’s other contributor, The Persian Prince, finally chimes in:

“My first live hip hop experience that I remember was in impromptu hip hop concert in the apartment above the Black Market in Halifax. Stinkin’ Rich (Buck 65’s old moniker) and Cory Bowles, of Trailer Park Boys fame (then with Truro rap group, Hip Club Groove) set up some speakers out the window and started rapping. The year was 1996 and the track might have been ‘Success without College.’

Those were the days…..”

Success Without College - Buck 65

Download

Expect more from The Persian Prince soon.

(image courtesy of The Lavish View)

Last week, my friend told me that I should check out The Cool Kids.

“I’ve been bumping that shit in the car, windows down, all around the Central Business District,” he said. He lives in Vancouver, and he’s right. This is the kind of stuff you can bump in the car with the windows down.

Where Pharell and Lupe rhyme about skateboarding, these guys talk about riding bikes and stunna shades. I also love the lyrics to their track Bassment Party:

Every party I hop the bar and dance with the chicks on top of that

Bartender be like “get off a that!”

I’m like “not ’til I get rich off of rap!

The Cool Kids - Bassment Party

Download
Starski & The Cool Kids - Stunnas On (Pfunkt’s Wear My Stunnas at Night Remix) (from Palmsout Sounds)

Download

Hot Biscuits has a few more tracks from them, or check these kids out on their MySpace page or buy their Bake Sale EP on iTunes.