"Buggin Out For The City"

Ahaaaaaaaaa (imagine it sounding like that oh so memorable Jadakiss laugh)! What's good my peoples? Just got back last night from NY, which explains my slight lapse in my posting for the past 4 days...had a HELL of a weekend. Original purpose of the trip was business, the H-Man is now actually WORKING if you can believe it! So Friday was an all day boozefest for real, started in Lower East, moved to Williamsburg, BK, out to Soho, out to 129th street (still don't know how the fuck i ended up so far uptown) and finally back in Lower East side after about 14 hours of binge drinking. Got to see some friends, and ended up going to Santos Party House to see Q-Tip spin. I happened to be with my homie Sonny, who somehow knows Tip. Once we got to Santos it was off the chain, ended up being up the booth with Q-Tip, drinking patron out the bottle. To make things even crazier, as if kickin it and meeting a living legend like Tip wasn't enough, we were graced with a visit by Ali Shaheed Muhammad! I still can't wrap my head around the fact that i met 2/3 of A Tribe Called Quest in one night ( i don't really count Jarobi, as he was basically MIA from after the first album ...) As if this still isn't completely ridiculous, Statik Selektah was in the house too, he gave me a copy of his joint he did with Saigon Recently (All in a Day's Work , all recorded in 24 hours, i recommend you cop it, its dope). We were chatting and I told him that I happened to follow him on Twitter. He immediately asked what my twitter name was (SwervinIrvin , follow me!) and upon returning to MJ's crib where was staying, discovered what you see at the top of this post. WOW. That was my only hip-hop related activity that weekend, besides for the constant iPoding anywhere and everywhere. I'm back in NYC on Friday, going to the Blu & Exile show tomorrow, seeing Lebron prolly demolish the Wizards on Thursday (maybe Agent Zero can help us?) and gonna see the man reppin my city, WALE, in Richmond next week. Can i get an amen?

Oh. And i almost forgot...I did a little bit of work that y'all should thoroughly appreciate, it'll be up real soon. In the meanwhile, try not to piss in your pants from anticipation!

Ridah out!

"La Rime Qui Te Braque"

Heyaaaaa. Wanted to hit you with a little project that i participated in during the summer of 2007. My friend Emily happened to be with a guy that was in this small Parisian rap crew, known as Tout Pour Tuer (TPT in short, check their Myspace right HERE), the group actually consists of 5 rappers, Provok,Oxad, Nord1, HDI and Mooka. Being aspiring filmmakers, Zack (the haterest hater of them all, haha) and I decided to make a music video for them. We worked on an almost nonexistent budget (less than 100 euros, all spent on water basically, it was steaaaaaaming hot), shot for two days, and below is the end result. A 35mm adapter was used to give the image a "film" look. Besides for the blistering heat, the other challenge was being able to control a 40 plus person pot smokin, graffiti sprayin and 40 drinkin crew, but we managed in teh end after an exhausting 14 or so hours. It was an awesome couple of days, and even if the video ain't exactly professional. it ain't shabby neither. Directed by Zack Spiger, produced my moi, and great photos by Alicia Karpetsky. Below is the vid, as well as couple of tracks off their Tout Pour Tuer mixtape. Big thanks to Zack, Em-dog, SoLo (you know who you are!), Alicia, Jonathan, and Ruby for making it happen. Big up to Mooka, Nord1, Oxad, HDI, Provok, Krazy Man, Tryce, Ruby, Sheron, Skunk, Frank and all the rest of the TPT crew.



DOWNLOAD

Tout Pour Tuer - "C'est Du Deuss"
Tout Pour Tuer - "Sonne L'Alarme"
Tout Pour Tuer - "A Coeur Ouvert"


TPT Crew


Young H-Man, "flyer than the rest of them..."


Emilyyyyyyyy


Oxad lighting his spliff in style


Zack, Solo and H-Man being serious nerds.

"Shoes of Gooooooooooooooold..."

Aight aight! Hot off the press, here's dat new new. This one holds a special place in my heart (however small it may be haha), cuz the vocals are by none other than ALIXE TURNER. That's right, H-Man's little sistaaaa! She lives up in cold ass Montreal, and just recorded with with DJ Kid Legit (check out his Myspace right HERE and his mixtape download right HERE ). Really excited that my sis is gettin back into singing, so please give her all the support you got! Anyways, id think it was a phat cut even if i didn't happen to be related to 1/2 of the artists performing this. Below is the track, as well as the download link! Cop it!

p.s. Much love Alixe. Keep doing your thang.




DOWNLOAD - Kid Legit ft. Alixe Turner

"When i start rhymin' bare breddahs a start hidin, my dark writing strikes many like charge lightnin'"

Whats poppin' fresh peoples? My boy Pavan (a.k.a Orifice Vulgatron from The Foreign Beggars) hit me with this a few days ago. Signed to Dented Records , Kyza Smirnoff (a.k.a Mr. Sayso) is due to release his eagely anticipated project S.H.O.T.S. O.F. S.M.I.R.N.O.F.F. in the near future, these two track below are the first singles off of, entitled "Dirty", and "Love N Music". He is also currently working on a full LP entitled Brand New Same Old Me. I'm really feelin this guy's flow, and it definitely feels good to be posting some UK shit for a change. Especially lovin "Love N Music", totally summin up how love and music truly do go hand in hand, and how much a love of music is something to cherish. To hear more of his music check out his myspace page right HERE. Best of luck to Kyza with the projects, and to all of the Dented Records family out in London. Cheers!

"This thing we call rhyming's no different from coal mining, we both on assignment to unearth the diamond..."

Better late than never, here are the pics and the recap of the Mos Def concert that i attended about a month ago, at the 9:30 club in D.C. Just got my sis to send me the pics from Montreal, forgot her camera cord last time she came round... Hadn't been to that venue since i saw Kweli there over 4 years ago. So, it started out sorta negatively... Mos had a double bill at the place, one performance at 6:30 and one at 9:30, we arrived (with lil'sis and Sona a.k.a "Ride Or Die") at 8:30 thinking that after a short wait we would have no problem going right on in. It was BALLS TO THE WALL cold, and upon arriving, a long line informs us that he had not arrived yet for the 6:30 show. This lasted til 9:30, so after a few beers at DC9, we returned and waited at least an hour in the blistering cold. Needless to say, by the time we got let it at 11:15 everyone was sort of mildly ill tempered, but Mos made it ALL go away. He played a mind blowing 2 and a half hour set that was more like a jam session than a concert. I was stunned at how much onstage presence, charisma and humor the Boogeyman has. He played the old (closing with my personal favorite "Memories") going through such classics as "Umi Says", "Brooklyn" and "Ms. Fat Booty" along the way. He played a few new songs, including the powerfully raw "Quiet Dog" and unreleased (and unleaked in studio version...) "Casa Forte". At one point the two stage DJ's battled for supremacy, going toe to toe with classic reggae jams. The concert really was a treat, I had been dying to see Mighty Mos for YEARS, and it truly was worth every goddamn penny of those 44 dollars. I am now looking ever more forward to the new album, The Ecstatic. Thanks and Cheers Dante!

Mos Def - Words - The Ecstatic - in stores Spring 2009



Mos Def - Life In Marvelous Times

Mos Def - Quiet Dog

Mos Def - Casa Forte (Live)

"Dans mon quartier mon gars. J'ai vu des gosses qui se bousillent en bas..."

Whatup whatup, i return to you after a couple days of rest and recovery from the dreaded (and most celebrated) St. Patrick's day outing. As promised, i wanna hook you guys up with the music of on the DOPEST (tied for first in my books with the legendary IAM) French hip-hop groups of all time, Supreme NTM. Think of them as the French version of Public Enemy politically, with their anti law enforcement lyrics, and of course their name itself, as "NTM" is the acronym for "Nique Ta Mere" (literally meaning "Fuck your mother"), a popular vulgar expression in street slang (basically the equivalent of "motherfucker", a term no stranger to U.S. hip-hop). They consist of two emcees, Joey Starr and Kool Shen, both hailing from the suburbs of Paris (specifically Seine-St.Denis), started rapping in the mid 80's and had a successful (and legally tumultuous, especially in the case of Joey...) career until they split up in 2000. Both emcees have deeply contrasting flows, Kool Shen having a funky, melodic one and Joey an energetic, deep and raucous flow. They were the first to truly have a transcontinental collaboration with an American artist, it resulting in the phenomenal "Affirmative Action Remix" with Nas, AZ and Foxy Brown. Both have pursued solo careers since then, i personally prefer Joey's (even though he is the "watered down" version of what he used to be) but they have both done quite alright for themselves. In October of 2008, NTM reunited for a series of 3 concerts in Paris, their first performance in 9 years. Shit sold out in 30 MINUTES. Damn i wish i hadn't moved, haha... Anyways, here are my favorite of their tracks, and one solo Joey Starr cut that i think is vicious. "Seine St. Denis! Seine St. Denis! Funky Funky Fresh!"


La Fievre


Le Monde de Demain


That's my People

Pose ton gun
by Akira_s_back

Pose Ton Gun

[Rare] NTM Live - Seine St Denis Style
by sAdCiTy

Seine St. Denis Style Live

CLIP-NTM - Laisse Pas Trainer Ton Fils
by greg81000

Laisse Pas Trainer Ton Fils


The Firm & NTM - Affirmative Action Remix

Joey Starr - métèque
by Vincent8Z

Joey Star - Meteque

"I know you missin all the - FAAAAAAAME! But along with celebrity comes bout seventy shots to your frame..."

Alright, I AM back. I know I've been completely M.I.A (paper planin'...) for the past week, and for that i do apologize, its been an eventful/blur (in more ways than one) week. Last Wednesday is when it all started, it was my birthday, and evening was MOST HONORABLE. Some delicious dinner in Alexandria, some surrious drinking at Marvin (including with a white guy whose REAL name is Martin King Jr., aint that some shit?), strip club, and waking up the next morning at 11 am, shirtless on the carpet in my boy B-Ride's basement wondering where the fuck i was... Big up to Ride Or Die, Dave a.k.a Jada, Sally, Bob and Nadizzle for making my B-day memorable. Since then the going out had been pretty much nonstop, but since then i have gotten a job in NYC, and BEEN ACCEPTED TO NYU GRAD FOR NEXT FALL! Looks like the H-Man will be relocating soon to the Rotten Apple, and will be able to kick it with Knutz, Hman and Pantera a lot more often. So, ill be posting a legit post tomorrow, as today is St. Paddy's and i do NOT expect to be home before tomorrow. Happy Rideday!