ByronCrawford.com

Get Dropped

After the jump is the new Snoop Dogg.

Fiddy goes at P Diddy

Diddy's offense? Not letting Pastor Ma$e record for Fiddy's G-Unit label. Also, Fiddy claims Diddy owes him $50,000 for Betha's traveling expenses for their last tour. Huh?

Recorded over the beat to dead prez's "Hip-Hop," and with Kay Slay talking over it half the time, it's pretty shitty even as far as mixtape records go. But a beef between these two could very well end up the source of endless amusement. Maybe someone will even get shot.

Checkit:

• 50 Cent - "The Bomb (Diddy Diss)" [XXL]

Relentless

As if I needed proof that Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land is nothing but the truth, it only took about 20 minutes for the fuck you, you fucking anti-semite emails to start rolling in. At least one kid offered some decent (relatively speaking) counterarguments and suggested another film I should check out.

Are any of you 'bags familiar with this film? A cursory perusal of its website reveals that it might be the work of OJ Simpson lawyer and alleged plagiarist Alan Dershowitz. In the interest of fairness, I'm going to check it out and do a story on it, but I'm not sure when it'll be. I've got a lot of shit to write about these days.

Check it out for yourself at Google Video.

• Relentless: The Search for Peace in the Middle East [Google Video]

The Roots on Letterman

via The Couch Sessions

UPDATE: After the jump is the video for "Shimmer" by Fuel for no good reason other than the fact that it came on the radio the other day on the way back from buying a case of Natty Light. '80s babies represent.

Brother Ali - Original King: Track Review

A bald, albino rapper who records for Slug's Rhymesayers label, Brother Ali is like nerd rap's answer to Edgar Winter. But in a good way. His debut album Shadows on the Sun, which dates clear back to 2003, was widely hailed in Internets rap circles.

I'm assuming he spent the interim scoring with Slug's leftovers, which are probably legion. I know that's what I'd be doing. According to the world's most accurate encyclopedia, its follow-up, The Undisputed Truth, won't be out until next year, but lead single "Original King" dropped the other day.

How is it? Not bad, in a typically half-assed Rhymesayers sort of way. I'm assuming this beat is by Ant, the guy that does all of the Atmosphere stuff. Alas, he hasn't discovered any new tricks, but I've certainly heard worse from him. And Brother Ali sounds nice and angry, the way I like my nerd rappers.

Stream "Original King" at XXL.

• Brother Ali "Original King" [XXL]

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land

I've had a few of you d-bags send me links to this on Google Video over the past several months, so I figured I should probably check it out. I thought about doing a story on it during World War III, but who knew the shit would only last like two weeks. Anyhoo, here's a few things I learned watching Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land.

Palestine =  a huge nasty shithole. No SexyBack. Unemployment in the occupied territories is even worse than in black neighborhoods here in the US. Jews are stealing all the water and bulldozing people's houses so that they can build their own "settlements." You can't go anywhere without a gun being shoved in your face, and sometimes babies die because pregnant women can't get to the hospital.

Jews really do control the media. Israel's original invasion of Lebanon, in 1982, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of civillians (sound familiar?) was a huge, Mel Gibson-style public relations disaster. Hence AIPAC, the most powerful foreign lobby in Washington, press releases from the Israeli Press Office which become evening news in the US, and Jew watchdog groups like the ADL, which pressure journalists to drink the kool-aid or else.

Our coverage of the issue lacks context. Ever see those images on the news of crazed A-rabs throwing rocks at soldiers and tanks? What the US media consitently fails to mention is that they're defending their own land from Isreal, which has been illegally occupying it for going on 40 years. How would you feel if a buncha cracka-ass crackas showed up to your house with guns and declared that it was now their house?

Jews are a crafty bunch. The system of Jewish-only settlements Israel is building in the occupied territories, which are illegal under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention, is purposely designed to give Israel military control over the land and to bogart all of the water. A system of Jew-only roads is being built to connect the settlements to Israel proper, with ultimate aim being complete annexation of the occupied territories.

We should try to understand suicide bombers. What else are they going to do? You can't get a job; you can't go anywhere; there's not even enough water to drink. If you're going to die anyway, why not take a pizzeria full of storm troopers out with you? We should blame Israel for punishing Palestinians collectively everytime one of them decides to blow himself up, which only serves to further the cycle of violence.

Palestinian death = not newsworthy. Way more Palestinians are dying in this conflict than Israelis, but you'd never know it from watching the news or reading the paper. Israeli victims of violence are humanized, while dead Palestinians are referred to as part of an abstraction, i.e. "29 Palestinians were killed today when a rocket hit an apartment building. And here's sports!"

We've given Israel over $100 billion. For guns, tanks, planes and what have you. Israel, a country about the size of New Jersey, has the world's fourth most powerful military thanks to our tax dollars. Meanwhile, jigs in New Orleans can't even get a job rebuilding their own home. Why? So the US can control the flow of oil out of the Middle East.

Critics of Israel = anti-semites? The lynchpin of Israel's PR strategy involves calling anyone who disagrees with them an anti-semite. Jews who condemn Israel's actions = self-hating Jews. What does this make actual, Mel Gibson-style anti-semites? That much less significant.

Check it out for yourself for free at Google Video:

• Peace, Propaganda, & the Promised Land [Google Video]

Pee Diddy

The Unabomber covers "Hey Ya"

Remember when OutKast didn't suck balls?

OutKast whupped by Diddy's girl group

"10 years from now we'll still be on top." -- Diddy, like 10 years ago

"Here’s an idea: Why don’t OutKast just scrap Idlewild altogether and pretend it never existed in the first place?" -- Bol, a month and a half ago

Last week's top four albums according to a thread at okayplayer:

LW TW artist / album label power index % change
-- 1 DANITY KANE BAD BOY/ATLANTIC/ATL G 215,733 --
DANITY KANE

-- 2 OUTKAST LAFACE/ZLG 191,373 --
IDLEWILD

1 3 CHRISTINA AGUILERA RCA/RMG 134,648 -62%
BACK TO BASICS

5 4 CHEETAH GIRLS 2 WALT DISNEY RECORDS 80,484 +1%
SOUNDTRACK

I don't watch Making the Band 3. What the fuck does Danity Kane even sing? And what the fuck kind of name is Danity Kane, anyway?

Video: OK Go - Here It Goes Again

Supposedly they do this live, too.