The Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Seen

Every few months or so, when either of these two legendary gentlemen come to mind, I watch this video. What a flawless and unique collaborative performance by two masters who are no longer with us; not to mention the skill and precision of the accompanying orchestra.  I hope this caliber of artistry is not an endangered species, but I fear it is.

That’s Entertainment

Part of the business of entertainment is taking advantage of the inexperience and narrow frame of reference of youth by presenting things to them as unique and exceptional when they really have been done a million times before and don’t require much talent to produce.  The reason why the vast majority of media is marketed towards the youngest of all demographics is because they are not nearly as picky and discriminating as adults.  An adult has much more discretionary income than a teenager, but that same adult is typically more difficult to entertain; simply because he has lived longer, experienced more and has a much greater bank of wisdom with which he can compare and contrast what one is selling.  Therefore, the smarter business move is to market to the less informed demographic where chance of monetary success is greater.  As each generation ages a few years and acquires more knowledge of the world, they usually figure out that much of the things they enjoyed weren’t really as good as they once thought, and this realization not so coincidentally occurs right around the age they are leaving the target demographic.   When unique high-quality entertainment does occasionally emerge on the scene, older generations gravitate to it like a well in a desert.

The older one gets, the less easily one is impressed.  If you are finding it more and more difficult to be entertained, don’t worry.  You’re just growing up.

Let’s Go to the Movies

I don’t watch a lot of  movies.  When I do, it is usually at home and I must stumble upon it on television while channel surfing.   I almost NEVER go to the theater to see  a film.  In fact, in the past six years I had been to two movies (“Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Little Miss Sunshine,” both at AFI) until the other night.

Several weeks ago, I promised my wife we would see “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” She has read all of the novels (one of the many reasons I love my wife – she reads a lot) and we needed a date night to ourselves after the chaos of the holidays. Below I have listed a few observations from my movie going experience.  I believe my lack of participation in American cinema over the past decade may provide a unique perspective (comparable to a company that hires an outside consultant to tell them things they can’t or don’t want to hear.)

First, I know a night at the movies is expensive.  I have always been prepared for this.  That being said, I couldn’t help but laugh at the Hollywood hustle this time around.  Two movie tickets, two drinks and one popcorn cost us $41.00.  The prices at the concession stand are even higher than at sporting events, and at least those serve alcohol to numb the pain of being extorted.  Prior to going to the movie, my wife and I had dinner at a restaurant across the street. The total bill, with drinks and tip, was $31.00.  Until last night, I have NEVER paid more for a movie than I have for dinner on a date.  With prices being what they are, it is easy to see how a movie like “Avatar” could shatter box office records.  In the past, if I didn’t like a movie, I laughed and walked out.  But for $22.50, I would seriously consider requesting a manager and asking for a refund.

Second, movie previews are the most cliché thing in the world.  Each one starts with an ominous A or E Minor orchestral chord, with a couple of lines of calm dialog.  The music suddenly stops and there is a lead suspense phrase.  Then, the music picks up intensity as pieces of action sequences are cut between more aggressive pieces of dialog (usually arguing, yelling, witty banter etc.) As the music builds to its crescendo, a piece of dialog is played foreshadowing the critical consequences of the lead character’s failure. At that moment, the music suddenly stops once more, and the suspense catch phrase of dialog is cut in.  The music returns to the A or E Minor suspense chord and either fades or cuts abruptly as the movie title appears on-screen.  I saw four previews that followed this exact formula.  The only one’s that didn’t were comedies, and they have their own recognizable clichéd pattern (which I’m sure you can figure out just by analyzing one the next time you are at the movies.)

The point of all of this, is that the movie industry has been out of ideas for quite some time.  You see this in the tired concepts and ideas which they continuously re-hash over and over.  The previews look the same because the films are.  Visually, American films are stunning, but the story lines are rarely unique and come across as stale.  Why anyone with any sense would patronize a theater on a regular basis is beyond me.  Especially when one can now purchase an 82 inch flat screen for under $2500, build a home theater set up, then rent the films from Red Box for a $1.50 in under 90 days from when the film is released.  The investment pays for itself within 18 months versus going to the theater and seeing a movie every weekend.

All this being said, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” wasn’t bad.  Wait for the DVD though.

The Reason for the Season

On December 25th, the god Mithras was born to a virgin. He would later be killed & then resurrected 3 days later; all of this happening several hundred years before Jesus. Enjoy your holiday.

Chilling with one of the Mario Bros.

Hanging out in the studio on Halloween weekend with my nephew Chantz and Wellington

Rock the Bells stuff

The rest of Team Demo and I got the opportunity to attend the final show of this year’s Rock the Bells Festival on August 29th at Merriweather Post. Special thanks to Jarobi and A Tribe Called Quest for hooking up the tickets and the backstage passes. The four of us rarely get to hang out outside the studio together (lately I haven’t been outside the studio at all) so this was a great chance to kick back, network and have some fun with friends and colleagues.

Team Demo's Experience, J. Cosell and Zechariah Wise

A couple of thoughts… First, all of the bathrooms in the dressing room trailers were locked. I know the Event staff doesn’t want to clean toilets, but neither should they want to drop a deuce in a portajohn. Second, why does Monster put water in a can? When I first grabbed one, I of course thought it was an energy drink that had been fucked up at the factory. I’m sorry but my brain isn’t comfortable with something being sipped out of a can with no taste to it. It’s just weird. Third, I didn’t watch Lauryn Hill perform. I was in the artist lounge because her contract requires the entire backstage to be cleared. I therefore cannot and would not comment on her performance. I will say those of you with complaints should bear in mind that she can’t perform anything off of “Mis-education” due to stipulations from the lawsuit she lost over the album’s production.

L to R- DJ Dialtone, Rakim, Experience, J-Cosell, Busy B, Jarobi, Zechariah Wise

The entire event was a blast and a lot of love and respect came our way which is always greatly appreciated.

Team Demo's J. Cosell and DJ Dialtone

my dad has been working on his b-boy stance

This is the man who took me to my very first rap concert when I was 13. Grillmaster P!

Guru and the Reaction to “Hip Hop Deaths”

Keith “Guru” Elam died this week of cardiac arrest at the age of 43.  He was one half of one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time.  I met him twice, most notably when I was 18 years old while still in high school and still under the spell of hip hop fanaticism which I would later outgrow by becoming a professional within the culture/ business I had been religiously following.  I was introduced to Guru as a local up and coming mc and producer with a bright future.  We chatted and I naively asked if he was looking for artists.  He wasn’t of course, but he took the time to tell me why.  He treated me like a colleague when we both knew damn well I was not.  This I’m sure was merely a reflection of his character, but his death and the subsequent fanfare has got me to thinking.

I did not know Guru.  In fact, I can think of several people with whom I spent more time, who have since passed away who evoked only a moment or two of reflection by my self before I carried on with the rest of my own life.  I am not a cold or callous person.  I have just had several devastating losses already in my life and will have plenty more as time goes on.  This is due to the fact that I am fortunate enough to have a lot of people who I love dearly, and one day, many of those individuals will most likely die before me.  Nothing is free.  The price of great love, is great loss.  It is for this reason I cannot share in the grief of someone I did not know.  If I were to allow myself to be affected by the death of every person whose work I enjoyed,  i would be miserable.  I did not know guru.  We are not related.  My condolences to his family and friends.

Many of my contemporaries react differently to the deaths of individuals they did not know.  They refer to deceased rappers as OUR icons, or OUR heroes.  They spend a week playing the music of the deceased and then add them to this running list of dead rappers that they can spout off at a moment’s notice.  This is clearly the craving of a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves.  In my youth, I saw hip hop as that something the way they do.  I mistakenly thought of it as some kind of giant fraternity containing people of similar worldview, similar passions and similar ideals.  But this perception faded with every new hip hop enthusiast who made my acquaintance.  We weren’t the same at all.  Very few people actually shared my priorities, ideals and passion.  Hip Hop was not some club we had all signed up to join.  It did not have a test or a written code to which we all adhered.  The perception of Hip Hop and it’s values was different (sometimes drastically) with every individual pledging allegiance to it.  I realized that what I thought of as hip hop was only a tiny fraction of who I am as a person.  Hell, it was only a tiny fraction of who I am musically! I liberated myself from the religiosity and began doing what I wanted to do without any regard of how it relates to “hip hop.”

Guru and I didn’t share some sort of connection because we both create or enjoy hip hop music and that single commonality is not enough for me to do or feel anything unique when he passed away (I certainly wouldn’t expect him to do the same for me if the roles were reversed.)  I am not part of some big family with Guru and every other deceased rapper just because we all at one point enjoyed spitting rhymes.  I am not obligated to feel bad and post R.I.P. on message boards just because someone in the same profession met their demise.  It is not fair to a Guru or ANY other artist of his stature for a person like me to assume some kind of connection or relation just because we occasionally create the same genre of music.  How pretentious would that be of me?  “Yeah man, you know I feel you man because I’m like you.”  At the same time, I don’t want some arrogant kid to feel the same way towards me.  “Nah buddy, you ain’t like me.”   Just because we’ve both made a few beats doesn’t mean we have anything of significance in common.

It sucks when a person who brought enjoyment to our lives passes away. But unless you are a miserable human being, the list of these people should be in the thousands.  Death will eventually come to ALL of them and to you.  Fortunately, many of them are able to leave behind much of what brought us joy.  In the case of Guru- some very good records.  Enjoy them, and for the sake of your own happiness, save the grief for those who pass away who TRULY matter to YOU.

On a side note… I just received my first e-mail from a club promoter inviting me to a “R.I.P. Guru Party.” Now that’s classy. What a tool.

The Time to Support DMV Hip Hop is Now!

There has never been a more crucial moment in the long history of hip hop music in the Washington, DC area. For the first time in a long time, a hip hop artist from DC is dropping a major label release. Wale’s “Attention Deficit,” hits stores on November 10th. For those of you DMV hip hop heads who for whatever reason, intend NOT to support Wale, please hear me out.

I hate the fact that hip hop music is so regionally identified. It is one of the many things I don’t like about hip hop. It seems that “where an artist is from” is the first question anyone asks when they hear something new. The world has become so small thanks to our new abilities to communicate with one another. Yet in hip hop, we want to group people by neighborhood. This practice is outdated but it is the reality and because of that, we now have an artist, Wale, who has been given the burden of seemingly carrying an entire city and region on his back.  It is not fair but it is what it is. Imagine for a moment, you are in a pitch black room. You cannot see a thing except for small little lights appearing and vanishing. Each of these lights looks like something on a christmas tree. They are not powerful enough to cast any glow on the rest of the room. You are still blind. Suddenly, a 60 watt light bulb ignites. It’s so bright it draws all your attention, but then you realize that it’s light has now made everything else in the room visible. You had no idea of the wonderful contents in the room, but now you can see them. The room is the DC hip hop scene, the 60 watt bulb is Wale, and the little lights are all those who came before him.

Over the past year, I have heard a ton of jealous and flat-out hateful garbage being spewed by DMV residents towards Wale. Everybody from so-called fans, to artists, to even local radio personalities. I don’t know what personal vendetta any of them have against Wale, but this self-serving ego-maniacal bullshit needs to stop right now. Maybe you don’t like his music or his style. Maybe you think YOU should be in his place. Maybe you think he doesn’t show love to DC (which is utterly ridiculous.) Whatever you feel about Wale personally is irrelevant. Wale is his own man with his own artistry who is going to do what he wants. But he also bears the burden of being a proxy for all of those talented artists who came before him who never got a shot, and all of those who have been sitting in the darkness hoping for a chance. LIke it or not, he is the DMV’s light bulb. It makes absolutely no sense for anyone who has been sitting in the dark with him to try to dim his brightness in any way. The entire room may be visible thanks to that light. Make it brighter! Buy his album!

In addition, I am proud to say that my DMV based production company, Team Demo, produced the street single, “Crime Wave”  for 50 Cent’s new album, “Before I self-Destruct.”  The album is available on itunes now and in stores on November 16th.  The better this album does, the more attention we get.  Which means more attention to the many DMV artists we produce.  Please support us in adding another small light to Wale’s glow! 

The time is now everybody.   There are a dozen or so super talented artists from the DMV that are ready for deals and opportunities RIGHT NOW!  Help make the light that is illuminating the room even brighter and before you know it, we all may need sunglasses.

Gasp! New Illa Ghee Video

So I’m chilling watching some game at the crib while my lady is on her laptop.  Suddenly she gasps and proclaims, “oh wow Illa!”  She had reached the 1.19 mark of the new Illa Ghee video which I have re-posted from depthcharge.com.  My homie is getting it in… Literally…

New video for “My Image” off of the “Bullet and a Bracelet” album on Depth Charge Digital available on itunes and everywhere else. The song was produced by Team Demo and recorded and mixed by Zechariah Wise at Depth Charge Studios. Parental Discretion is Advised!