Yeah, that's right it's Nas feat. AZ "Serious" which I assume is from Nas' forthcoming 'Streets Disciple' album. The file was apparently taken from a DJ Clue? mixtape though, so expect to hear ya man screaming over the song. Make sure you right click the link and "save as" as well.

I'm actually feeling this track, which if you know about my love/hate relationship with all things Nas might be a little surprising to you. But Nas almost sounds like Nas on this shit. Granted, it's in a sort of Jay-Z kind of way though ( hopefully this will make sense to folks who listen to the song ). I dunno though, I just can't take dude's deeper "grown man" voice seriously. It just doesn't sound right. It sounds put on. Or like he's having all his vocals pitched down in the studio. It's especially frustrating when placed next to AZ though because the Aziatik sounds the same as he always has. And lyrically, well, Nas just ain't spittin' the lines that he once did. He's just never gonna say shit like "when I was 12, I went to hell for snuffin' Jesus" that burns into your brain anymore, and I guess I gotta get used to that. I mean, he's flowing in a couple places on this track, but his words don't really carry the weight or the memorability that I wish they did.

AZ on the other hand is killing shit. Dude's flow has remained as sharp as it was when he recorded "Rather Unique" and I'd actually suggest that in the decade since "Life's A Bitch" dropped he's grown into the type of lyricist that should garner respect based on his raw skills, despite the fact that he's never really achieved fame, commercial success or widespread acclaim. Dude's just a fuckin' beast in the vocal booth and in my estimation he owns this track.

As for the track itself, it rocks pretty hard with another Incredible Bongo Band loop. This time it's "Bongo Rock" or "Last Bongo In Belgium." One of them shits. Yeah, it's simple but it's effective, and I ain't mad at it.

But don't believe me, check it out for yourself.

When you think of hip-hop what comes to mind?

Do you think of a DJ with a deep record collection setting up in front of his community and spinning records for their education, for their pleasure and for the explosive reaction those rare grooves have in the bodies of certain appreciative dancers? Do you hear the echoes of Rock, Jazz, Blues, Punk, Funk, R&B and more? Do you hear records produced by Black groups, White groups, Asian groups, Europeans, Africans? Do you hear pre-recorded music of every stripe being played and often manipulated ... mixed, cut, chopped, scratched maybe to the point of being a new compostion ... in a near scientific method ... a method called "hip-hop?"

Or do you think of rappers... umm... rapping?

What's the difference?

Well, I think I just might let Grandmaster Flash answer that question.

It's just like when the world took the word Hip-Hop and called it Rap. When you think about Rap, it excludes the break-dancer and the DJ. When you think about Rap, you think about vocals only. So I'm here for Hip-Hop. I have no problem with Rap because I play it all. But I got to get this story out even it rides along side Rap. I ain't trying to kill nothing. I'm here to say that they should exist together and that Hip-Hop is the title. - Grandmaster Flash

Flash speaks those words of wisdom ( which I think just might be the most important hip-hop related quote of the decade ) in an interview with ThaFormula.com jam-packed with his often enlightening thoughts about hip-hop, djing, the history of both and how he's persevered so long in an industry that would probably prefer to forget people like him.

Modern urban society is beset with many problems.

Dumb teenagers.

Stupid young adults.

Preposterous fashions.

Shitty rap music.

Surreally idiotic entertainment and lifestyle trends.

And the list don't even stop there.

But what could possibly be to blame for these horrors you ask?

Well, the answer is actually pretty simple.

The crack babies are ruining hip-hop y'all!

Juelz ... Dip-Dip ... Santana ... Set-Set ... Dip-Set ... Dip-Set ... Dip-Set ... Dip-Set !!! !!! !!!

Last week while riding down to New York City with M.I.C. and 12XU for CMJ we happend to catch Wendy Williams on the radio yammering about allegations that were flying around regarding some comments made by legendary emcee KRS-One about the 9/11 "terror attacks." Word was that he had claimed black folks "cheered" when the towers fell, adding that many felt a sense of justice "when the planes hit the buildings" and finally proclaiming that 9/11 "doesn't affect us the hip-hop community," because it "happened to them, not us," explaining that by "them" he meant "the rich ... those who are oppressing us."

While listening to the broadcast I immediately piped in because I am admittedly one of the people he was talking about who viewed the events of 9/11 not as a day of fear and atrocity but as a day of righteous retribution against the banks, insurance agencies, corporations and government agencies who make thier livings robbing people, polluting the enviroment, destroying peoples lives, and even killing people outright ... mostly in the name of "just doing their job" and trying to make a buck that were housed in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Despite my fears that the attack was just going to wind up serving the people it set out to hurt -- which it has in that it's resulted in an even more harsh form of institutionalized disregard for freedom, personal sovereignty and civil liberties that benefits only the most evil elements of the government and their coporate partners -- and my suspicions that there was some one or some thing behind the attacks that is much bigger and scarier than some group of Muslim "terrorists" hiding in a cave somewhere -- word to Jadakiss " ... why did Bush knock down the towers?" -- I felt deeply that a portion of society who had beneffited for so long from deciet, theft, disease, personal injury, death, war, tragedy and destruction had finally had all of those things and more heaped upon them ... right where they work and collect their ill-gotten gains. KRS-One's recollection was right! It was finally happening ... finally happening to "them, not us!" No phrase was more fitting than his alleged words ... "Mmmm - justice."

So I spouted off for a few minutes, 12XU jumped in with his own memories of the day, as did M.I.C. and the discussion quickly moved off into the murky waters of American society, racism, economics, world politics, religion, and more based on our own understandings and experiences. Wherever we were or whatever we were doing on September 11th 2001, and however we felt or whatever we thought about it, one thing was clear ... that all three of us ... all children of the '70s ... raised in the '80s ... products of the hip-hop and punk rock movements ... and quickly approaching 30 ... fully understood and respected where KRS-One was coming from.

Of course, KRS-One has responded to the initial uproar and alleged not so much that he was misquoted, but that the context of what he was saying just isn't within the realm of a lot of American's understanding. Surprisingly he didn't really back off from his point, which is refreshing in these days of fear and gutlessness, but he clearly wished to distance himself from the New York Post's proclamation that he was in fact aligned with Al Queda.

Of course, things could be a lot worse for KRS-One.

How?

Well, he could be Busta Rhymes.

See, the internet can be a pretty mean place sometimes, and the once respected emcee & former member of Leaders Of The New School is about to find that out... the hard way.

Not content to mearly align a rapper like KRS-One with Al Queda, some Christian hip-hop fan and arm-chair internet conspiracy theorist has gone so far as to declare that Osama bin Laden and his Al Queda network are in fact innocent because rapper Busta Rhymes is the real culprit behind the 9/11 terror attacks and he even detailed the plans for the attack on an album cover and in his lyrics!

He quotes the song "Against All Odds" ...

DESTROY ANY ARCH RIVAL, OR ANY CHALLENGER
MAKE YOU REMEMBER THIS DAY NIGGA, MARK IT ON YA CALENDER
I'm showin' you somethin', you ain’t sayin' nothin'
My niggaz make noise like a bunch of volcanoes errupting
NONE OF Y'ALL NIGGAZ REALLY WANNA WAR...
THE TYPE OF NIGGA TO CRASH MY PLANE IN YOUR BUILDING IN THE NAME OF ALLAH

Cites the album's cover -- which shows New York engulfed in explosive catastrophe -- for evidence...



And goes to great pains to calculate that the utterance of the line about crashing planes occurs at -01:19 during the track in question!

Yeah, it's wacky, but after folks in the media tried claiming that Killarmy and other hip-hop acts affiliated with the 5% Nation of Gods & Earths had somehow influenced the suspect in the D.C. area sniper case I wouldn't be surprised if people picked up on this in the aftermath of the KRS-One bruhaha as the next "paint a rapper as a terrorist" news story.

All I know is that I have a whole new respect for Busta Rhymes all of a sudden. :-)

Just a few days ago he announced that he had inked a new deal with the Babygrande label ( home of Jedi Mind Tricks, 7L & Esoteric, Jean Grae & Brand Nubian ) to distribute his forthcoming album 'The Middle Passage.' And from what I've been told he's been destroying packed houses across the country, from California to last week's CMJ convention in New York. But now he's spitting fire and laying the blame for 9/11 squarely at the feet of George W. Bush, his daddy and his daddy's buddy Ronald Reagan on a scorching new track called "Bin Laden" featuring Mos Def on the chorus and production courtesy of Slim Shady's homie DJ Green Lantern of all people!

Apparently this is an exclusive joint recorded for a Green Lantern mix-tape, and it comes courtesy of the audio section of the D12 World website. So go check them out some time... if that's the sort of thing you like checking out.

Thanks to Comcast's "On Demand" service I've actually seen Chromeo's "Needy Girl" video.

The track was already in the running to be named one of the best electro-pop jams of all time. Which is no mean feat when one considers the fact that it's a contemporary record and not some old forgotten slab of dancefloor packing plastic. But now the song actually has a set of accompanying visuals that rival anything from the synthesizer fueled days of the 1980s! We're talking about a video that should find itself at home in the same echelon in which Herbie Hancock's breakdance inciting classic "Rockit" resides.

I mean the fuckin' thing's got milk, gold-fronts and dancing robots in it for chrissakes!

So peep it...

Chromeo "Needy Girl"

Real Media ( All Speeds )

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If you're anything like me you like Kelis.

And if you are indeed like me and you do indeed like Kelis then you also like "Millionaire," her duet with Outkast's Andre3000 from last year's 'Tasty' album.

Hopefully you're not like me when it comes to your internet connection speed though. Because I think you might need something faster than my not-quite-56k-connection to watch the new "Millionaire" video...

Kelis feat. Andre3000 "Millionaire"

Real Media Lo

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Epitaph Records is offering an mp3 of a new song called "Slow Down Gandhi" by Sage Francis from his forthcoming album 'A Healthy Distrust' for download. Just right-click the link and "save as."

Or you can check out their CMJ e-card featuring this track, some other joints from their roster of artists and a schedule of their CMJ related events.

Sage posted the lyrics up in a MySpace bulletin today...

There once was a song called "Arrest the President."
Contemporary music.
A hit with the kids.
It was a top ten.
I wasn't pop then so I missed the bus a bit.
But politics was on everybody's hot-this-summer list.

...and I gotta say that I'm already looking forward to this record, big time!

British emcee and singer Ms. Dynamite was arrested on October 1st on charges stemming from allegations that she slapped some broad at a restaurant in September.

I really don't mind that dude Guerilla Black too much.

Sure, he looks and sounds EXACTLY like the late-great Notorious B.I.G. and even uses similar beats and song concepts. But hey, Biggie's dead right? And this Guerilla Black guy's songs aren't that bad at all!

I mean, it's not like you can hate on a guy just because he happens to bear a resemblance to a deceased rapper... or blame him for having a voice that just happens to be nearly indentical to that same rapper's... can you?

Well, yeah, you can actually.

Or at least you can once you behold Guerrilla Black EXPOSED for the fraud that he is!

See, apparently the artist currently known as Guerilla Black was once known as Big Cizzle. And guess what yall? He didn't sound like Biggie at all! And the situation is only made worse once you hear Big Cizzle spit the line "yall ain't comin' back like Biggie to be born again" on the song "Ay-Yo", which can be heard at the link above.

It's almost got the air of some kind of conspiracy!

Looking at this, the Angelous case ( he sounds just like Jay-Z in case you didn't know ) and Black Thought's imitation of the still very much alive Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap on the recent 'The Tipping Point' album it makes one wonder if impersonation won't be the next big fad in the rap world.

Lets hope not.

Could it be true?

Have emcees Butterfly, Doodlebug and Mecca The Ladybug of Digable Planets reunited to deliver a dose of "Blackitolism" to the people?

Or is this just another case of a beloved hip-hop group trying to be "Cool Like Dat" with the media by creating a "9th Wonder" that will only prove to be fraudulent?

Known for her work alongside longtime partner Martha Wash singing back-up for gender-bending diva Sylvester on disco classics like "Dance ( Disco Heat )" & "( You Make Me Feel ) Mighty Real," and later for releasing the dance-floor hit "It's Raining Men," Izora Rhodes Armstead of Weather Girls/Two Tons O' Fun fame died on September 16th of heart failure.

Pop-punk band Green Day is selling recordable compat discs pre-printed with their own album artwork in a pretty ingenious effort meant to encourage "responsible burning."