Heavy Mentalist

This Monday’s mixtape is not really a mixtape, but is. Sort of.

Big K.R.I.T.’s ReturnOf4Eva is the Mississippi spitter’s follow up to his 2010 mixtape K.R.I.T. Wuz Here.

This CD shows that K.R.I.T. is more than just another nonsense rapper, he also has a lot on his mind and is unafraid to share his struggles of being a different kind of Southern rap artist trying to get on in the rap game.

His music combines the best of the UGK and OutKast sound, but with a twist to make it all uniquely K.R.I.T. Those looking to devour more substantive sounds from rap’s new breed will feast on this.

If there are any bones to pick with this album for me, it would have to be that, although many of the lyrics are positive and inspiring on this CD and the beats heavy, K.R.I.T. falls into the patriarchal trap of calling women “hos” on a couple of tracks. And no, I’m not a “ho”, so I’m not personally offended by it, but that doesn’t and shouldn’t matter. The fact is, I’m tired of male rappers who are all about knowledge and progress except for when it comes to women.  Continue reading...

I don’t quite know what to make of this new Arizona law that makes providing abortions based on fetus gender and race illegal. In early abortion, how do we even know what the race and gender of a fetus is?

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the law on March 26, 2011

In my mind this could only mean a couple of things:

1. There are growing numbers of Arizona women coming to abortion clinics concerned about the race of their child conceived during interracial sex, and telling their abortion providers “I can’t have this baby because it might be (insert race here)!”

2. Arizona doesn’t want too many of a certain race or sex of baby aborted. Question is, which race/gender might they be trying to save?

Arizona is the first state in the US to have a law like this on the books. And although the article I linked to attempts to explain the motives behind the law, the explanation seems suspect to me plus this law reeks of being part of a devious plot to slowly reverse Roe v. Wade.  Continue reading...

Below is a live performance of the Last Poets “This Is Madness” from Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. According to the Red Hot + Cool Wikipedia page, “This fifth entry in the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series was heralded as the “Album of the Year” by Time Magazine upon its release in 1994 by GRP Records.”

With performances like this on it I see why.

The poem is an updated version which was originally recorded for the Poet’s 1971 album, This is Madness.

New music from Awkword & Y-Love, “Mr. President (The Wisconsin Song).

Video shoot for this track will be in Madison, WI on Thursday, April 7, on the streets! If you want to get involved, email TheWisconsinSong[at]gmail.com.

Mr. President (The Wisconsin Song) ft. Y-Love (prod. The White Shadow) by AWKWORD

Since I blogged about Angie Stone getting arrested yesterday I thought I’d blog about one of her songs today. This track, “No More Rain (In this Cloud)” is from Angie Stone’s 1999 debut solo album Black Diamond, and samples another heavy, heavy love song, Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)”, a live performance video for which is below.

I think both of these songs are beautiful and Angie really fills her song with emotion, but damn, that Gladys Knight. Woo! *shivers*

I’ve often wondered if something about my ears is…just different from the ears of young people today. A lot of new music today sounds like crap to me, especially when I compare it to, not just music I grew up with, but music my parents and their parents grew up with!