During the Harlem heroin plague of the seventies, few dealers were bigger than Frank Lucas and Leroy “Nicky” Barnes. Both made millions selling dope, lived the wide-brimmed-hat high life, enabled the addiction of whole neighborhoods, and, eventually, got caught. Both were locked up and later cooperated with authorities—some might call it snitching. Now, with Lucas confined to a wheelchair and Barnes in some Witness Protection Program locale, each is the subject of a current film. Barnes reports on his life and times in the flava-full documentary Mr. Untouchable. Lucas hit the ultimate Hollywood jackpot, getting Denzel Washington, no less, to play him in American Gangster(reviewed this week in “The Culture Pages”). And so, three decades after their heyday, these former street titans are still generating commerce. This makes sense, as both insist they were businessmen, first and foremost. The trick for an ambitious black man in the seventies dope game was to minimize the sway of the Italian distributors who had controlled the Harlem scene for decades. Using sheer volume as an edge, Barnes cut increasingly favorable deals with his Mafia partners. He had the biggest clientele—hundreds of thousands of repeat (and repeat) buyers. It was a captive market, and he was their low-cost retailer. Lucas, more of a boutique operator, managed to bypass the Italians altogether by establishing the grisly but exceedingly lucrative “cadaver connection”—a direct line from Asia’s “Golden Triangle” poppy growers straight to 116th Street, smuggling heroin inside the coffins of American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War. When the possibility emerged that these two old-school street rivals might be willing to engage in what could only be called a historic conversation—they haven’t spoken in 30 years—it was easy to envision yelling, phone slamming, and maybe even a death threat or two.
My two cents: I was made privy to copy of American Gangster this past Saturday. Although I am a fan, Denzel’s pageantry of signature facial expressions and standardized cavalier bravado have been mundane since Ricochet yet for AG they’re chock full (no-homo). Though casting was “best in years” for a Hollywood A-movie the action was shiftless and the idleness molded boredom save for the shooting scenes which best explicated the destruction of a bullet. Get in gear to ready yourself for Dame Dash's (producer) Mr. Untouchable.
James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has provoked outrage with his comments, made ahead of his arrival in Britain October 17, 2007. Watson one of the world’s most respected scientists is embroiled in an extraordinary row after claiming that black people are less intelligent than white people. In flaccid PR whitewashing he has issued an apology: “There is no scientific basis for such a belief.”
A talk box is a device that produces the classic "talking guitar sound". With it, the musician is able to produce vowel-like sounds, as well as consonants, words and/or phrases. It is not a vocorder (a unit that electronically blends speech with a musical instrument synthesizer), but achieves a similar effect via a much simpler and direct method. The talk box works on the principle of reproducing sound from an amplifier and directing it into the mouth of the performer. The performer's lips and vocal cavities (mouth, throat, and larynx) further modulate and shape the sound. The resulting "talking guitar" output is then fed through a microphone and from there is amplified through the PA system or sent to the recording console of the studio. Instead of a speaker, the talk box uses a compression driver. These drivers are actually designed to be used with PA systems to reproduce high frequency sound. A length of vinyl tubing is inserted into the open end of the driver. The other end of the tubing is placed in the performer's mouth to modulate the sound. The talk box is connected to the speaker output of the guitar amp. If a single amp is used, the output from the talk box is plugged into the speaker cabinet. A switch on the talk box sends the guitar amp output to either the internal horn driver of the talk box, or direct to the speaker cabinet. Note that a microphone is an integral part of the talk box effect, since without it, the effect cannot be heard over the din of the average band.
A pair of Haitians in the Bronx, Stony Browder Jr. and his brother Thomas (who renamed himself August Darnell), formed Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band in 1974 with singer CoryDaye as the centerpiece. The band's name was chosen as a tribute to the group's first manager, Dr. Buzzard, who was from the south and told the young musicians stories about his own band days in the 1940's in places like Savannah. "This is the craziest group I've ever seen," said Andy Hernandez. "When I auditioned to join the group, they didn't even ask me to play any music. They gave me a questionnaire to fill out instead." The questionnaire asked for information like: What is your political affiliation? What type of women do you go out with? Would you be willing not to wear tight pants? Do you consider yourself straight or a brat? Andy scored 48 out of a possible 100 points - onhigher than dozens of others that applied and he was invited to join the group. The group consisted of lead singer, and the only female, Cory Daye (as previously noted in the latter), guitarist/pianist Stony Browder Jr. bass player August Darnell and drummer Mickey Sevilla. The origins of the group date back to the early 1970's when Stony and August began playing together in a South Bronx band called The Strangers. The pair cut a very forgettable record for Roulette Records. In 1972 Cory joined forces with August & Stony after launching her own career at age 17 at a Halloween party "after a life of crime proved unrewarding." Her voice was light and limber, given to tripping scat rather than roars and moans, and the group's music was an effortless blend of big-band swing, jump blues, show tunes, and Caribbean boogie. Mickey, a former teacher at The Manhattan School of Music, joined in 1974 and Andy gave up social work in 1975 to round out the group as its vibe player.
Though I’m not certain whence this comes I presuppose that one of the members of Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band furnished the following adducer: "We have to attribute much of our success to voodoo...There's something very powerful about drums and rhythm. We use drums very upfront in our music, and it seems to pull people in. It's voodoo!"
Truth & Soul proffers a new podcast from DJ Akalepse & Gil Parker entitled: The Dump. The Dump is a mix betwixt (M-W: Word of the Day) choice hip-hop, funk & soul. iTunes subscription is free.
Freeway, the best beard in rap, commented to MTV: “Everybody knows I’m Muslim. I made my pilgrimage, I traveled to Mecca. Me being Muslim, I’m not even supposed to be doing music. It takes away from the remembrance of God. For me and for the other (Muslims) in the world, the time they are listening to my music, they could be reading, studying the Koran. The time I’m doing music, I could be studying the Koran. Me knowing that’s the right thing to do and I’m doing something wrong, I had to buckle down and get myself together. ‘Do I really wanna do this? Do I really wanna go against my God like that?’ I came up with the conclusion, and here we go.” “I got that love for it and the passion. I’m doing so good, it keeps coming. And I gotta keep feeding my family. So, like song What We Do Is Wrong, that’s how I look at it. We all are sinners, but I repent and ask God to forgive for the things I do.
Philly and Detroit MCs crest at the parabola of good music. Free has been preeminently par excellence since featuring on the The Dynasty. Free’s lost to callowCassidy has no bearing as Cass offers ineffectual support to both axial and radial loads (bad joke). Free personifies “dumbnice” – let such a talent welcome your long weekend. Free at last...
White man Ric Silver threatens to sue instructional videos of the electric slide dance courtesy of his copyright which charges the arrangement consist of 22 steps and not the 18 habitually flitted convention:
Mos Def and company preeminent the National Student Walk-Outtoday at 12:00 noon (Central time) armed with student leaders from over 100 campuses in support of the Jena 6 as advertised on The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement:
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The group name Alphabet Soup is explained as follows:
The communicative rudiments of language starts with the alphabet. The alphabet is a set of letters and/or other characters written or otherwise (oral-tradition, etc.) arranged in a customary order to convey knowledge or inform. The "Soup" was our music. Together the compliment of both words (alphabet) and music rendered the EP: Sunny Day In Harlem.
Holden Caulfield is a fictional character created by J. D. Salinger. Holden is the teenage protagonist of Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye ; Holden also appears in some of Salinger's other literary works.
Physically, Holden is gangly and tall. He is also described as having several gray hairs on the right side of his head. These two qualities contribute to Caulfield's appearing to be older than his age, yet his mannerisms and behavior contradict that impression. One of Caulfield's most striking and quintessential qualities is his powerful revulsion for "phony" human qualities. Qualities such as narcissism, hypocrisy, and superficiality embody Holden's concept of phoniness; and, unfortunately, Holden is adept at realizing these qualities in other people. This serves to bolster Holden's cynicism and consequently contributes to his mistrust of other people. Interestingly, despite Holden's strong disdain for phony qualities, he exhibits some of the qualities that he abhors, thereby making him a somewhat tragic character.
Caulfield is the second of four children, with two brothers, D.B. and Allie, and one sister, Phoebe. (There is also a second sister, Viola, who is briefly mentioned in the short story "I'm Crazy," but is never referred to again.) Allie is deceased at the time of The Catcher in the Rye. Their parents are left unnamed in Salinger's works.
Born into a life of wealth and privilege, Caulfield looks down upon the elite world he occupies. He questions the values of his class and society and sometimes appears to oppose conventions merely for the sake of opposition. He is widely considered to be the template for the "angry young man" archetype.
Accordingly, my man "2-Liter" considers my acerbic critiques a "hate" of everything and my "can't fuck with me B!!!" dancing rants didn't/ don't exactly raise the bar thusly "2-Liter" has thereupon labeled me the consummate Holden Caulfield of the east-coast.
GED
To MC/Emcee is to move the crowd through master of ceremony microphone control.
GED is a MC/Emcee. GED is an abbreviation for Gorilla Ed. GED has previously performed under following names: "Nubian", “Low Key”, “Ed Lowe”, “Lowe” and currently Gorilla Ed/GED
GED is, most recently, featured on the first two mixtapes of the Shine Mixtape/ XM 66 Raw series: Volume 1, hosted by Jim Jones and Nore and Volume 2, hosted by Nas and Swizz Beats.
