ByronCrawford.com

Quoted: Dream Hampton on occupation, democracy, and divestment

The following is from an interview '90s era hip-hop journalist Dream Hampton did with a site called The Starting Five. So, far, I've only had time to skim it (gotta feed the monkey), but it looks like there's a shedload of knowledge being dropped. Along with a lot of names. Ha!

Mizzo: History of course is written by the victors.

Dream: We sit around and have these ridiculous conversations about whether Spanish should be spoken in a state whose name is Spanish. California is a Spanish word. Texas is a Spanish word. Arizona is a Spanish word. These lands were so called won by Roosevelt in the Spanish American War. We can accept as a fact of occupying land. All people don’t, but this happens in the world and in history…I understand that.

What’s happening in Gaza in terms of starving women and children…killing women and children. Since the Korean War, there have been more women and children victims than men. We’re the the ones who suffer because of war.

Israel has been behaving like thugs for so so long and they do it with money that America gives them.

It’s really important that we divest.

South Africa is free…finally. Their people never stopped resisting. Their people were also too, resisting with rocks.

What finally ended up breaking down the Apartheid regime in South Africa was a divestment. An international divestment economically.

It’s difficult in America to look at Palestine. People won’t even allow you to call it Palestine. They call it Israel and the Palestinians.

As Edward Said wrote…his grandmother went to the post office to send something to Palestine and the person working said there is no such place. So, we don’t even have language in America. When we do we are bullied.

Whenever we talk about Israel, we are bullied by accusations of antisemitism…as if Arabs weren’t Semites.

Palestine is in a precarious position of being an anomaly in the Arab world as more and more Arab countries are moving more and more towards Shia. Israel claims to be the only Democracy in the region but hello…Palestine is a Democracy. They vote. Women don’t veil there–not that that makes you a Democracy.

The American definition of Democracy is a joke. America with its broken ass voting system. Their definition of Democracy…what they use as a watermark to determine whether or not a place is so called Democratic is its voting system. Palestinians elected Hamas just like dumb ass Americans elected Bush. I wish I could have went and did a land invasion of Florida or bombed Ohio off the map after they elected Bush, but that’s not how it works.

They did the same thing in Lebanon. They didn’t like Hezbollah. They didn’t like the people who the people of Lebanon put into power…

Whatever, I can’t even go on about Israel…

The most important action we can take is to not be afraid to talk about it because we can’t even talk about it or have sane logical conversations about Israel because of again antisemitism charges and also because of how super organized they tend to be. If you care about human lives then divest in any way that you can. Stop shopping at Starbucks. Stop shopping at Toys-R-Us. Stop shopping at Dunkin’ Donuts. Stop buying Häagen-Dazs.

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Checkit: D Original: Interview With Dream Hampton [The Starting Five]

Previously: Quoted: Kosha Dillz on why hip-hop should be pro-Israel

No they didn't just flip the Postal Service

Regardless of what you might hear on Twitter, the Kickdrums' Smash the System mixtape is mostly a whole lotta boring LCD rap, with way too many guest raps by Ray Cash. (They must owe him money.) To be sure, I've heard worse rap albums this year. Like, that RZA album. But to the extent that Smash the System is a worthwhile listen, it's mostly due to the people they've convinced to rap on it, especially the mighty Royce da 5'9.

Which is kind of a bad look for a production team, no?

That being said, I'll give credit where credit is due. The Kickdrums at least had the sense to flip the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights." Which could very well be the most popular song on the Internets evar, right up there with "Don't Stop Believing." No, really. I remember once reading that somewhere. It's one of those things that stuck out in my mind, like the fact that Wikipedia is the world's most accurate encyclopedia.

I wonder if they got the idea from that MGMT "Electric Feel" remix with Jim Jones, i.e. the late, great Noz's new least favorite rap song evar. Is this where hip-hop is headed - producers trolling the charts over at last.fm, looking for new indie rock records to flip?

Checkit: Verbal and The Kickdrums are Idiot Savant "The Times" [zSHARE]

And after the jump is the video for "Such Great Heights."

Posse on Trendwatch: Hipster rap under fire

"Since when is it cool to dress like a dude that fucks another dude?" -- Termanology

The three instances that constitue a trend, according to the New York Times' rule:

1) The other day, Charles Hamilton got pwned by Serius Jones in a battle.

There's a video of it over on World Star. I didn't bother posting it or otherwise mentioning it, because a) it's one of those lame beefs where both sides are fucking losers anyway, like Joe Budden vs. Saigon; b) none of the rhymes struck me as all that interesting (which is generally the case with freestyle rap); and c) it wasn't even that clear to me that Hamilton got pwned. It looked like Serius Jones was judged the winner more so because he's bigger and looks like an adult, whereas Charles Hamilton looks like a little fruit.

2) Rhymefest hanged Charles Hamilton in effigy, and made a dis record about him over Oasis' JJ Fad's "Supersonic."

It's pretty meh, by Rhymefest standards. Also, there's that thing about both sides being fucking losers anyway. I can't believe Rhymefest actually brags about the Grammy he got for "Jesus Walks."

Checkit: Rhymefest "Supersonic (Chucky Cheese)" [zSHARE via Fake Shore Drive]

3) Termanology just released my new favorite Termanology song evar, "Tight Pants Are 4 Girls."

Is he going at Kanye? Lord knows Kanye is having a hard enough day as it is. Or did someone at Vlad TV add that picture of Kanye and the team of gay men he travels with (?) because they knew I'd find it amusing? Check the video for yourself, after the jump.

History's most dedicated hoo-er

Thought Karrine "Superhead" Steffans was a filthy hoo-er? Well, she ain't got shit on this slut.

Zeny Borak, a Japanese/Filipina pr0n star out of Tokyo, claims to have slept with over 200,000 men during the course of her career. Her goal is to have sex with over a million men, before it's all said and done with. Though, as it's pointed out on the blog Their Toys, where I found out about her (by mistake, natch), she'd have to fuck about 110 guys a day, for the next 20 years, to accomplish that feat.

Also, the number of men she's slept with - 203,765, to be exact - is by her own count, and for all we know, she could be exaggerating. As we learned on December 7th, 1941, you can't trust the Japanese any further than you can throw them. But we know she's been with a ridonkulous number of men in her actual films (as many as 1,400 per), aside from however many she's been with in the private parties she throws.

Checkit: 10 Sexual Anomalies That Will Make Your Head Spin [Theirtoys.com Blog]

Where's Bun B's fatwah?

I know, this is ancient. I got an email about it the other day, from someone who's gonna get rich and famous sending unsolicited emails to bloggers. I just didn't get a chance to look into it until just now, despite the fact that it involves a couple of my favorite topics - Bun B, and the Muslim tendency towards violence.

Bun B was a guest on Kay Slay's show on satellite radio, and the topic somehow turned to ways of getting back at people. Kay Slay, who would strike me as a potential sex offender, if only for those videos of him all but shoving his forearm inside of pr0n stars Sara Jay and Ice La Fox, describes the process of slipping someone a roofie. Someone off camera suggests Kay Slay write a book on ways of getting back at people, and Bun B replies that there already is such a book - the Qur'an. Ha!

One question: Where's the half-assed boycott of Bun B's music by the Muslims in hip-hop group, like they tried to pull on me a few years ago, when I did a post on the jihadist themes in Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor?

Check the video after the jump, courtesy of Vlad TV, which is gradually making a case for itself as being as invaluable as the mighty World Star Hip Hop, if not even more so, due to a technology known in tech circles as a motherfucking RSS feed.

Teriyaki Boyz - Serious Japanese: Album Review

By Akuma, who has his own blog now

Teriyaki Boyz, Serious Japanese (Startrak, 2009)

Nigo, who runs the Bape clothing label, also does hip-hop in his spare time with some of his Japanese pals, much to the dismay of anyone with ears. They already had one album out which leant heavily on Nigo’s celebrity connections to provide beats. This follows the existing formula. Will their skills have developed on their sophomore release, to now approach something listenable? No, they won’t.

HaX0r insults Kanye's late mother

Last night, an angry woman tried to teach Kanye West a lesson about feminism. Or was it just some haX0r trying to fuck with people?

I got an email from what looked Kanye West, but then I saw it was someone who was probably just looking for Kanye West. The return address was something along the lines of whereyouatyeezy at gmail. I should have known. It's not Kanye's m.o. to email people, unless your Pharrell or somebody. As many of you know, Kanye and I have a long history together, and he hasn't emailed me even once. (I'll admit, I'm a little bit salty. Nullus.) His mom emailed once, like five years ago, as mentioned in that story about me in the Riverfront Times.

Speaking of Kanye's late mother, she happened to be the subject of this email. The subject line read, "Kanye West's Mother Goes for Gold to Help Son Promote Misogyny, Indecency & Artistic Expression on Blog Zero," whatever that means. And then there were three separate items, made to look as if they were posts from Kanye's blog. Their titles were: "MY MAMA'S FINE AZZ. DON'T YOU WANNA HIT IT?," "STRAIGHT FROM THE CLEARANCE RACK AT PAYLESS SHOE SOURCE.... MY NEW SNEAKERS!!," "MY MAMA'S FINE AZZ AGAIN. YOU TOO CAN HIT THIS!," and "I'M A GROWN MAN AND STILL PLAY WITH LEGO TOYS."

And there were pictures to go along with each of them, but I didn't want to take a look at them and run the risk of my computer getting all fucked the fuck up. I remember reading, way back when I was in college, that you can get some sort of virus from looking at pictures in email. Which is why pictures are set to not display by default in gmail. But I'm definitely curious as to what these pictures are of. I was checking Twitter last night, and I know eskay, Miss Info, and ?uestlove all got the email, and they made it sound like it was pretty disrespectful, I wonder if the pictures were pornographic in nature.

Then, at the very bottom of the email, in pink, there was the following message:

When you objectify women you promote violence, trivialize sex, disrespect your mother, damage a young girl's sense of self-esteem and steal her human agency.  Every 7 minutes a woman is sexually attacked in the United States. Every 3 minutes a woman is sexually attacked around the world. We are all mothers, sisters and daughters to somebody. This isn't art..and it isn't funny

Hmm...

My guess is that this must have been someone who reads his blog, where he posts lots of pictures of women in their underwear - usually shit he stole from sites that are in the business of posting a lot of pictures of women in their underwear, without any kind of attribution.

The Real World: Brooklyn - Episode 4: Episode Summary

During last week's preview of tonight's episode, some guy called the house claiming to be a friend of Miss Hot Topic, then they cut to a shot of her crying. I thought someone might have died, but then I read earlier today that it was her father, and that he might have once molested her.

Hilarious.

Not that I find that sort of thing amusing. I'm just saying. Once you take it to the level of calling the house pretending to be someone else, when it's gonna be aired on TV... that just goes to show a certain level of dedication. I wonder what he did to her, and why he called, i.e. what he'd like to do to her now.

It appears that tonight's episode is also gonna focus on the black chick with the huge fake cans. I remember hearing on the first episode that she was a teen beauty queen out in the sticks, and I couldn't help but be reminded of this girl I went to school with who actually won one of those things. I wouldn't kick her out of my bed for crackers, but still. It was obvious to me that those teen beauty pageants aren't as selective when it comes to the looks department.

That being said, I wonder if the black chick with the huge fake cans used to be skinnier back when she was in pageants, and maybe she put some weight on once she got the implants, or if she actually competed that way. It's not like she's old enough that that could have been a long time ago. Or was she in a special teen beauty pageant for black chicks, where they don't care as much if you're carrying a little extra weight?

Amber Rose, anyone? Bueller?

The Rap Up posted pictures of this ethnically ambiguous video ho rocking the skee ball, aka the little brother, and I'm not sure what to think. This is either the hottest thing I've seen all morning, or it's down right disturbing. And honestly, I'm leaning towards the former. (Which is to say, I popped a semi. Nullus.) What gives?

Generally, I like my white chicks white, and my black chicks black. I figure, if I'm gonna get with a white chick, she might as well have a sunny disposition and a nice, full head of hair, and, if I'm gonna get with a black chick, she might as well be built like a Sherman tank - none of this in between bullshit. And I lurve nothing more than a girl with a nice, full head of hair. Or so I thought.

Take a look at this girl's pictures, after the jump, and let me know what you think. Of course, you'd give it to this girl hard, as if the fate of humanity depended on it. Her ass is just too incredible no to. But could you actually be involved in a relationship with a woman with a skee ball? What if she had the best body evar?

RZA - Afro Samurai Resurrection: Album Review

RZA, Afro Samurai Resurrection (Koch Graveyard, 2009)
The RZA's back getting that soundtrack money - in this case, for another one of these Afro Samurai movies. Or is this one of those series they show on the Cartoon Network at night, for stoners and other assorted losers?

You can stream the entire album on the RZA's MySpace, which I'll point out is pretty elaborate and pretty well done. I might need to get something like that for my MySpace, even though I haven't so much as seen it since like 2007.

• RZA @ MySpace