This didn’t make the Working Man LP. Still pretty live, though.
You can catch Pro — along with Strange Famous labelmate’s Sage Francis, B.Dolan, and Metermaids – this Saturday at Fete for the Working Man release party. All of the particulars can be seen on our sidebar to the right. If the details are no longer available, congratulations, you and I both missed the show. (My dude Murdoc is getting married that day/evening. Yeeeeet.) Better luck next time.
Back in high school I recall having a conversation about rap music with my father. He always complained that he could never understand the majority of the lyrics, and the lyrics he could decipher were filthy and not for the ears of my mother. I, of course, took exception and sought to prove him wrong and printed out lyrics from two songs. Allow me to reiterate the time frame … high school … early 2000′s or late 90′s … puberty. I’ll be the first to admit of my life-and rap-ignorance during these times. Which is evident in the fact that the two songs I printed out weren’t the best examples to try and sway my dad to the dark side of rap. One was a Method Man song, something from Tical 2000 and the other was a song off of a DJ Clue mixtape. So I pretty much dropped the ball on the conversion.
Fast forward to today. I have a rap blog. Which, in 2012 terms means I’m gainfully unemployed. But more importantly, this shit-house of self-deprecating and false senses of superiority has helped me explore sub-genres that I would never have given a try in the past. That, and my overall maturity as a human, has gravitated me towards music with more of a message and actual lyrics with actual meanings. Also, I’ve finally been able to appreciate music that I can relate to, instead of music I just like the sound of. Admittedly, this is never the end-all-be-all prerequisite to liking music, but it’s something I never paid any attention to as a pimple faced-youth who rocked out to “More Money, More Cash, More Hoes,” the remixed version of the original from The Corrupter Soundtrack. The following is my trip through music, in my modern day taste, appeals to both the old me and the current self-righteous me.
This morning I woke up and felt like some good ol’ Valentines Day self-loathing. I considered bringing my strange love for End Times and Gloria Was A KROQER – both of which turn my stomach when listening — onto The Echo Chamber Blog, or even elaborating on how I once crawled into a hole and started to write a book inspired by a Slim Kid Tre line. However, no one really wants to read that stuff, and, more importantly, it’s not like me to openly air-out my dirty laundry on a media outlet or networking feed. Plus, my mood brightened-up after breakfast and a hefty morning dose of nine-to-five slavery.
So here I am now with a Valentine’s treat for you, courtesy of Sage Francis. It won’t die in one week, make you any fatter, or require a cotton swab and blood work. It’s a song, twenty-years in the making, that Mr. Strange Famous just finished by “twisting what was originally a tale of unrequited love into a bizarre story about a man who thinks it’s appropriate to woo his lady with battle raps.” Give it a listen:
A 2011 version of “Fuck The Police.” It’s disturbing that the fine folks at Strange Famous found so many video clips of police brutality readily available on the interwebs to use in this video. If this record doesn’t sum up 2011 as a whole I’m not sure what does. All the pigs who spray and beat peaceful protesters and cover up their badges with black tape have to be the biggest cowards I’ve ever read about. That includes dead beat dads and frat boys hazing each other. The utter thought that the biggest gang in America can forcefully remove protesters without any repercussions makes us look just like the countries in the middle east that have been over throwing their governments since earlier this year.
Yet we’re supposed to be the most powerful, all knowing, all mighty America. BART Police are straight up murderers, Providence Police are straight up drug kingpins and racketeerers, NYPD is a lowly group of high school educated, overweight, scum bags that break up hip-hop shows because a large group of black people are having fun (look up the Pete Rock & Smif-N-Wessun show from earlier this year if that last one confuses you.)
Sage Francis and his paternal twin B. Dolan, and most everyone else from the Strange Famous camp for that matter, have been showing support for the Occupy Wall Street movement since its inception. Me, personally, I think they need to sit down, reorganize, get a clearer message and set of demands before more innocent people get pistol whipped and/or billy-clubbed. But I agree 100% with their overall point of needing a change and I admire the fact that there still is a large group of Americans who aren’t blindly led by corporate greed and silly religious backed pundits who spew venom each day in Washington. I commend B. Dolan and Uncle Sage for being a voice in the hip-hop community that is rational and progressive, yet still comes across as dope music (this Buddy Peace beat is pretty fucking amazing).
And what really grinds my gears, shout out to Peter Griffin, HipHopDx.com has this video up with NO FUCKING WRITE UP about it. Just the video. They’re the biggest hip-hop related website out there and they have zero journalistic accountability. TECB struggles to get respect from artists we happily write about from our own town(s) and meanwhile these conglomerate ass hats don’t have the wherewithal to write even a single sentence relating hip-hop to the OWS movement under this video. I’m appalled. Shocked, even.
But as I said, I’m grateful to come from the same state as B. Dolan and Sage as they have a soap box that reaches so many and they use it for good. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older and focus more on things that matter around me — i.e. politics, news, beliefs, etc. — but the past couple of years, especially 2011, I’ve gravitated towards progressive hip-hop that has a defined message and doesn’t deviate from their agenda. And it’s 100% okay to have an agenda, if you don’t you’re doing this whole life thing wrong.
Special shout out to Strange Famous records and Uncommon Records. Two indie labels that have rosters filled with artists from all over the globe that all have a common goal; to be independent.
Another remix contest brought to you by Strange Famous Records. Probably aren’t as many great submissions here as there were in the 2Mex contest, but, nonetheless, contestants still managed to drop a few gems on the SFR crew.
Step into the SoundCloud fitting room, and try some of these remixes on for size:
