sorry for the lack of updates again, I had to travel to an island real quick, and then jet across the Atlantic, you understand. more frequent updates, i promise. or you can bitch at me directly.
Chubb Rock, Jeru & O.C. – The Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers (produced by DJ Premiere)
classic, classic, classic. I used to think Chubb had the best verse, but Jeru kills it.
p.s. what up Dave
Nas – Can’t Nobody Love Me Like You (unreleased BLEND produced by Kanye West)
I have no idea on the story behind this track. I first heard it years ago as an instrumental and then somehow this version with Nas on it popped up on my computer at home (CA) after I got back from abroad (Spain, yes, a post is coming, but you can get a small preview of what it was like by peeping the homies over at Urban Samurai). It doesn’t sound like a blend, but it might be some verses off of the time between I Am… and Nastradamus, because I don’t listen to that Nas too often. it’s a blend off the I Am… track, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, told you guys I don’t listen to those Nas albums too much.
I heard 9th Wonder spun this joint at a recent DJing gig.
Benjamin Bratt as Miguel Piñero – Lower East Side
Miguel Piñero is one of my favorite poets, maybe because of all the similarites between his art and his life and many of the themes in Hip Hop. a Puerto-Rican immigrant from New York, Piñero had a long list of convictions and a drug habit by the time he landed in Sing Sing sometime in the seventies. in there, he honed his writing and wrote a play about prison called Short Eyes. after his release he found a new life as a poet, writer and small-time actor, but couldn’t shake his old life off, and ultimately died from his substance abuse.
This poem of his is recited by Benjamin Bratt, who played dude in the Hollywood (read: sappy) rendition of his life. it actually comes across pretty good, and many of the elements of loyalty and attachment to his old hood, L.E.S. in NY, are real reminiscent of the way Hip Hop treats and romanticizes the hood. too bad this fool was way realer than most of these clowns. another big contribution Piñero made to Hip Hop inadvertantly was his founding of a refuge for poets in NYC called the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which later on in the nineties would house performances by up and coming MC’s like MF DOOM (he made his very first post-Zev Luv X appearance there). please, do yourself a favor, even though it’s not very Hip Hop to read go and pick up one of Piñero’s books, even if you’re not into that ‘artsy’ shit, it’s powerful writing.
