World-Wide Hip-Hop

I haven't had much time this month to update the blog. I'm working on the new album, finishing exams and enjoying the warm weather. Its been exceptionally hot in Holland the last few days and the beaches are packed. 

On the music side I did a collabo with my peoples Jess and Mr R. on their new album La sombra: Exorcismo (The Shadow: Exorcism). Their album is a Spanish mix of rap, reggae, dub, reggamuffin, and R & B. I'm on track 11 "Todos a Una," featuring artists from across the map. 

Ondy from Germany, Battle Lexical (Barcelona), That (Lleida), Calleja (Pamplona), Manda Shai (Zaragoza), Meta Style (Tarragona), Tyger Vinum (Netherlands), Facundo Gonzalez (Dominican Republic), Mr. M (Romania), Skalpel (France), Jamp (Colombia), Luxor (Portugal), Leiterman (Malaga), Mc Ghandi (Morocco) and Santi (Uruguay).

The track is hard, the production is dope, and all the artists came with bars. World-wide Hip-Hop at its finest. You can listen to the song below and download the album buy clicking the link. La sombra: Exorcismo

 



Baby Cannibalism

Customs officials in South Korea have intercepted more than 35 attempts by smugglers from China transporting the powdered flesh of babies. The babies bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder and filled into capsules. Since August they have captured people with around 17,450 capsules disguised as stamina boosters. 

Some people believe the capsules are a cure  for sickness and diseases. The smugglers told customs officials they thought the capsules were ordinary stamina boosters and did not know the ingredients. As of yet no charges have been made against any of the smugglers and Chinese officials are reluctant to share information about the matter.  Read more about the story here smuggled capsules contain human flesh and check the news report below. 

Micro Meals

Japan is known for many things. Perhaps what its most famous for is turning full sized objects smaller. Consumer products like cell phones, appliances, and even automobiles are all shrunk down to compact sizes. They have expanded their talent for miniaturizing things to food. Below is a video of a complete fast food meal cheese burgers, french fries, ketchup and beverage all the size of a child's toy. 

It may sound like something you can buy at your local supermarket but it's not. Each item in the package must be recreated by adding water and being heated in a microwave (except for the cola). Not only the burger but the bun, cheese, ketchup and fries are all in powder form. I did a little research and found out that the entire meal is edible. It has no artificial coloring and is less than 100 calories. Now that's what I call low fat fast food. Check out the video.

Tibetan Singing Bowls

While searching for a gift for my sister I came across a site that had Tibetan Singing Bowls. I never heard of bowls that sing so I did a little research into their history. 

Singing bowls were historically used in India to help align the chakras (spiritual energy) and  assist in meditation. During ancient times Buddha brought crystal singing bowls from India to Tibet while spreading his teachings of Buddhism. Since then the bowls have been used in monasteries by monks for religious rituals to reach deeper levels of meditation, relaxation and healing. There are rumors that it's forbidden for monks to speak about the singing bowls. There are also rumors that the bowls are used in secret rituals, giving them the ability to travel to different dimensions of space and time. 

Tibetan Singing Bowls are considered a powerful spiritual tool and have migrated from the monastery into the homes of practitioners world-wide. Aside from meditation they're also used for Relaxation, Massage, Yoga, Stress Reduction and Healing. To learn more about the singing bowls and their unusual history go to www.silverskyimports.com or click the link.

Resurrecting the Dead

Tupac Shakur dead in 1995. His legacy is in the music which has endured and gained more popularity over the last 17 years. Recently at the 2012 Coachella festival a 3D (3 dimensional) hologram of Tupac was debuted performing along side west coast legend Snoop Dogg. The image was like a scene out of science fiction films. The hologram was so realistic it had viewers questioning if Tupac had been resurrected from the dead like Lazarus or was alive and had faked his death like Machiavelli.

The hologram costs a reported 10 million U.S. dollars to create. It was designed by a company out of London which uses a state of the art high definition camera to broadcast a 3D holographic image on stage. The hologram gives the illusion of a real person and is created from scratch. Which means they don't use revamped archive footage or old video. Instead they create the entire image and performance from scratch. 

This technology opens the door for artists and government delegates to give performances or speeches from a remote location while viewers believe they're seeing the real thing. The military applications for this type of technology are to numerous to count and not part of this post. But I'm sure if you watch the videos below you can come up with a few on your own. Check it out. 

White Boy Rap

For those puritans and racially sensitive people who take offense to the title of this post...Fuck You and stop reading my blog. This post is recognition of Hip-Hop's cultural diversity. When I use the term white boy, it refers to any rapper of mostly Caucasian descent. I say mostly cuz almost every being on the planet is mixed with more than one race.

The reason white rappers were always associated by their race is because Hip-Hop started out as a minority music genre. It was composed of a diverse group of Blacks, Latino's and a few Asians that were down with the culture. The first white rappers I ever heard were the Iconic 80's group 3rd Bass. It was composed of MC Serch, Pete Nice, and DJ Richie Rich (who was Black). Serch and Pete Nice were groundbreaking at the time cuz there were no other white rappers exposed to the mainstream and successful.

Their success along with the group Beastie Boys opened the door for artists like Vanilla Ice,  Mark Wahlberg aka Marky Mark (who back in 1992 had a hit single called Good Vibrations) and numerous other rappers. Due to the stigma that white guys couldn't rap, there was a lot of negativity from insiders on the whole phenomenon. Vanilla Ice was rumored to have been held over the balcony at his hotel by goons because he lied about being from the hood, when he was really a rich kid from the suburbs. Marky Mark had friction from numerous rap groups cuz although he was from Boston he wasn't known in the hood. Plus the fact his older brother was in boy band New Kids on the Block didn't help his gangsta persona.

Since then there have been many white rappers, but few (House of Pain) who have sustained a presence in the music industry.  One guy who never let his race (or the stigma around it) stop his hustle is R.A. the Rugged Man. He has never been known as a white rapper he is always referred to as a dope MC. R.A. has spit with legends Biggie, Kool G. Rap, Wu Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and to many more to mention. He is one of the MC's along with Kid Rock that championed the white rapper movement and changed how people view white boy rap. The reason he is globally respected is because he can actually rap. Their efforts opened the doors for Eminem, Machine Gun Kelly, and other white rappers currently experiencing success. 

Below are videos from MC's Slaine, Ill Bill, Celph Titled, Sage Francis, Vinnie Paz and R.A. the Rugged Man. They are all MC's that prove you can't judge a person's talent by their color.

Self Driving Cars

Google isn't just a search engine anymore. Since buying youtube they have expanded into music, merchandising, advertising and now automobiles. In 2010 Google began a project that would create autonomous automobiles. In other words cars that would steer and drive themselves. The idea sounds like vehicles seen in science fiction movies like I, Robot and Blade Runner, but they're real.

The plan behind the project was designed to give blind and disabled people a safe means of travel (aside from public transportation). They also believe autonomous vehicles would make our roads and highways safer for everyone. Since introducing this smart vehicle in 2010 Google has steadily improved the vehicles response time and performance. Now in 2012 they've completed more than 200 hours of real driving on the roads and the vehicle seems almost ready for mass production. Below are videos showing some of the test runs for these self-driving cars...like it or not the technology now exists where science fiction has become reality.

Avatar

When I heard they made a new series based off Avatar I knew I had to check it out. I stopped following Toriko because there was a lot of humor but not enough story and action. By the way when I write about Avatar its not the big blue skinned people from the James Cameron film. I'm writing about Avatar: The Last Airbender.

This show was on years before J.C. stole the name and made it about aliens. The Last Airbender was a boy named Aang and he was the Avatar of his world. Benders were people who had the psychokinetic ability to control one of the four elements Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. An Avatar is a person who could control the flow of all four elements.  One was born every hundred years and when he or she died a new Avatar is born in their place.

The series lasted for three seasons from 2005 - 2008 and followed the story of Aang as he learned to master the four elements. While he learned these skills he had to avoid being captured and executed. Aang was the last Airbender because the rest of the Airbenders were wiped out by the king of the fire nation in an attempt to control the world. He had inside knowledge that the next Avatar would come from the Air nation and made a preemptive strike to remove the threat. 

The series was ridiculously popular because it was a mix of martial arts, psychokinetic beings, action and humorous adventure. There was a motion picture version released in 2010 directed by M. Night Shyamalan which received mixed reviews. Now after a four year hiatus there is a new story arc that takes place in the Avatar world. It's called The Legend of Korra and takes place 70 years after Aang has died. So far there are only two episodes but the show has added a nice twist the Avatar tale and worth checking out.  Below I posted clips from some of the original Avatar series and the new one.

New Muzik

I've been listening to new muzik from coast to coast and overseas. I'm looking for the best albums to put in the next album review post. While searching for the right albums I've had the privilege of discovering a few new artists. Below is music by industry veterans Saigon (ft. Quan), Killer Mike (ft. Young Jeezy) and Mysonne. Mysonne has been spittin bars since The Lox and DMX were still on Ruff Ryders. He went away for awhile, but since his return he has been dropping some hard tracks. 

There's also new comers Lightweight and L. Hammond. One from NYC the other from Seattle WA. both MC's got bars and spit with different styles. Lately the trend has been for NY rappers to sound like their from somewhere else. Whether it be from the south, Chicago, West coast or even from the UK. It's got to the point where its hard to tell if these cats are from New York. The MC's in the line-up below all represent their region to the fullest, and each track is dope.

Visual Seduction Art

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – Feb. 6, 1918) was an Austrian born painter that played a major role in the Vienna Secessionist movement.

There’s not much I can write about Gustav that hasn’t been written before. His most famous work is a painting named “The Kiss” that is known world-wide. Although that painting is his most famous...it isn’t my favorite. Lesser known painting “The Virgin” was the first painting I remember seeing by Gustav that captured my attention.

What I love about his art is the aggressive use of gold leaf color and extraordinary detail. It gives his art a three dimensional look that’s hard to create on canvas. Another thing I noticed (and liked) about Gustav’s work is his love of the female form. Women were his muse. The majority of his work consists of different women, mostly nude drawn in what can only be described as erotic poses. During his time, some of his paintings were labeled heretical and pornographic. The church did not like it. 

Below I posted some of his painting and if you want to know more about this talented artist click the link to the Gustav Klimt Collection.