Spank Rock and Chuck D Houston On A Monday

It’s been a while since I’ve really written anything on this thang thang here. I really didn’t even post a proper review of SXSW, just a zillion photos. I haven’t been able to think about that shit lately with all the work going on. Plus to be honest I find it really hard to just sit down and write about all the records I should be writing about here.

Seriously, I don’t really post about records, or review records and mixtapes all that much cuz I know what kind of flood gate that’s going to open. I already get requests everyday from people wanting me to post their mixtapes, write about their CD’s and post their covers of CD’s that may or may not ever come out. Imagine if I actually did it.

And to be real man. I’m really enjoying everything that’s going on in and around Houston these days. This city is thriving and I’m all up in it. I’m thankful for that. But on the real, I can’t just sit around and listen to these records all day.

The other morning I got into a friends car to ride over to Taqueria Arandas to get a burrito that I think later may have made me break out into hives. On the passenger seat was a copy of Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions.” I immediately popped it in.

It’s been a good few years since I have listened to this disc. This album that I used to jump around my room to like a spazztic monkey to from start to finish. Seriously. I’m a Public Enemy fan for real. I remember the day I bought “Yo Bum Rush the Show.” On vinyl. In the very back of a record store. Back before rap music even had it’s own rack let alone section of a record store. I can still see my young self, standing there staring at the cover in front of the rack like “MAN I FINALLY HAVE THIS.” I saw them open for the Beastie Boys in Erie, PA a few months before and was seriously transfixed. I remember not really knowing what to think as the entire crowd just sat there and stared at them, while me and my heavy metal homeboy Mark (I also was quite heavy metal at like 14 years old) stood up in the 12th row. Seriously, like 25 of the 3000 people there were standing up for PE. The rest of the crowd was like, this is too much. (I also remember the traffic I sat in in Houston riding from UH to Sound Exchange to get Fear of a Black Planet the day it came out).

Chuck D was the most powerful performer I had ever seen at that point. Flav was bananas. And the S1-W’s all had machine guns. I walked in the Erie Civic Center having no idea who Public Enemy was other than they were a new rap group signed to Def Jam. I walked out with my head spinning.

Anyway, the other day I was in this car and as “Bring the Noize” boomed out of the system. I seriously got choked up. I didn’t cry and there were no tears but I got that lump in my throat and thought to myself, “What happened?” How could a music so powerful become so large yet so weak compared to this right here? Don’t get me wrong, I still love her, but shit, you can’t just listen to Chuck D in his prime, with his genuine message, and compare him to anyone today. Including himself. O.k. and me too. And everybody.

Chuck D will be speaking at University of Houston tonight (Monday) night. Click link for more details.

I’m listening to Son of Bazerk – Bazerk Bazerk Bazerk right now. I do that a lot. Favorite record of all time.

If I’m showing my age so be it. I’ll stay forever young via MySpace. I don’t ever have to change my picture right? MySpace actually makes me a little sick. But it’s a great tool. Before they had all the band shit, like a year or whatever ago, I signed up and deleted that shit right away. I thought to myself “I’m pretty good about keeping up with my friends and I don’t need a bunch of bikini bitches from Singapore and Indiana parading as my friends making me look real faulty. I gotta delete this shit.”

But then it became this monster promotional tool. Not to mention a great place to find gangsta rappers who can’t keep a cell phone number (and some who can, fine). I’m going to Chicago May 4th with Rapid Ric and want to connect with a gang (literally) of folks I used to see all the time when I lived there. I think Chicago is home to one of the most dynamic, and under rated rap scenes in the country. Some of my favorite artists are out there (Psycho Drama, EC Illa, Do or Die, Triple Darkness, etc) but over the years it seems as though a lot of those cats have had a hard time being heard outside the Mad Midwest. Maybe MySpace will be their saving grace.

It’s just funny to me to see hard ass dudes from the Chi and Gary, Indiana all up on the MySpace. Mastering it with floating type and funny icons and shit. Tracers on the mouse thang and shit. Here’s a few of my potnas. Be friends.

K-Rino

Coughee Brothaz

Devin the Dude

Chamillionaire

Pimp C

Bun B

Psycho Drama

Newsense

Triple Darkness

Legendary Traxster

EC Illa

Ric Jilla

Vizion

Monday Night Houston, Texas welcome them Spankrock boys. They’re performing at one of my favorite bars, The Proletariat on Richmond just east of Montrose. I’ma go down there and holler. You should too.