'These new ringtone rappers… God will punish their decadent souls.'

Oh Word has the exclusive Bin Laden interview, antidote to imminent 9/11 handwringing:

I needed some next shit. I can’t keep coming back with the same steez. The industry is hurting right now with downloading and security around tall buildings n’ airports being up.

Beer and Rap Update

There's a piece surveying wheat beers in the current issue of The Onion. Note that it was written when the morning commute involved shirts sweating through by 7AM, rather than coasting through a cool, umm, spritz. The most notable omission*, New Glarus' Dancing Man Wheat, already got a shout-out in a previous issue--and an initial attempt to shoehorn Fearful Symmetries into the intro led to some piece-wide bloat. The original, politically-charged context was funnier anyway.

Also, tangentially re: something else I'm way behind on: KRS-One talks about reclaiming the n-word, Fat Joe.


^{*also checked a bunch of places for Viking's Belgian Dim Whit (July seasonal), with no luck}

El Guante says: I'm eager to try those Twin Cities travel agents...

... or just hop into a van with Minnesota plates. Let's continue the onslaught, by asking El Guante about geographical matters and CD sales, because hip-hop fandom is all about state lines and stats.

====

H: How much does Madison hip-hop have some sort of beachead in, or pipeline to, the Twin Cities?

El Guante: I think a lot of it just comes straight through The Crest, because they're the biggest act from Madison, BY FAR—and they have a lot of connections up there. I think The Crest bring a lot of Twin Cities artists down, who then network with some artists here, and then the Crest go up to the Twin Cities a lot. Not to talk bad about everyone else—but The Crest have the biggest fan base and are doing the most stuff.

H: Do you feel some sort of obligation to open things up for other artists, people you're working with right now, just by virtue of being there?

EG: Not especially. I mean I'm making this move for selfish reasons: I want to further my own career. But if other doors are opened and bridges are built because of that—that's just kinda the icing on the cake.

H: What are you most looking forward to that you wouldn't be able to get here?

EG: Even though I'll be living in the Twin Cities, we're planning on traveling a lot and touring.... If I were in Madison I could still probably do some of it—I think it's just going to be easier now. So I'm most excited about working with this independent label on setting up tours. I just want to travel and play shows right now: I don't have a day job, this is a good time of my life to do that.

H: Do you think there's gonna be a yearly exodus of artists who want to take their careers seriously/further?

EG: To an extent, simply because it's a college town, and with First Wave we're going to have more college students in the hip-hop scene than there has been traditionally. Then yeah, 'cause naturally college students leave after college, most of the time—but you're talking about the other acts.

I don't know—because The Crest [have] been based here for a long time and they're still successful. Most of the acts that are having any kind of success right now don't necessarily need to uproot or go anywhere else. There are certain perks, but I don't think it's an absolute necessity.

H: I've been to a bunch of empty hip-hop shows here—what factors do you think lead to that?

I mean, on one hand, there's a national downturn in attendance at live shows of every genre. That's anecdotal—just what I hear from people. Specifically, in terms of hip-hop in Madison: people need to be more creative. When I move I just want to play shows—aside from when I'm touring—I wanna play shows that are always like an event, with some kinda theme, like a Valentine's show, something special. The era of three bands at the King Club on a Friday night is kind of over. And that's not just hip-hop.

H: Have you kept track of how many CDs you've sold?

EG: not really, I have a vague idea. Around 200 of the first one that wasn't very good, before I really knew what I was doing. Then around 4-500 of Vanishing Point. We must've made about 500-700 of the mixtape, that we were just selling or giving away for free—the Grey Summer mixtape. So it's all been very localized, half of it to people that I know personally, and half of it to people at shows and stuff. That's definitely a goal of mine (it's gonna help by moving away) not to just sell CDs to my friends.

H: You now have a presence in two markets, aside from Minneapolis being a lot bigger--

I think it could be really nice, cause after leaving here I can come back, and like I was saying before, a show here would be more of an event. It wouldn't be just me playing another show, it would be me coming back after I've been gone for three months, and hopefully all my friends would come out, people who remember me from shows would come out. After touring, I'm hoping my show will get better and more engaging....

And then the two markets thing would be cool. [Maybe I'll] live in a different city for two years, and then move. Like I'll move to Des Moines for two years, and move to Chicago for two years.

H: Des Moines?

EG: [laughs] That's the first thing that popped into my head

H: do you have some special connection to Des Moines?

EG: not at all...

====

El Guante's final show as a Madisonian is at the King Club. It's an event, though, 'cause it's uptown Saturday night, and there will be 20,000 artists on stage. And before I forget, Guante gave me permission to leak a hitherto unheard track.

THIS IS IT [mp3, zshared]

More Onion flavor

Here's that debut piece from last week's issue, re: Ka-boom!Box's monthly DJ sets @ Mickey's, with accompanying podcast.

El Guante says... Eat at Taste of Asia

Kyle Myhre, aka El Guante, recently posted a few points of clarification re: my Q&A in the current issue of The Onion with him. WHICH YOU SHOULD STILL GO PICK UP. I think the more open-ended of those points will be addressed as I post more content from our original conversation on Dane101 and Emcees Without Voices but figured I'd get this thing up quickly, since it's actually about a restaurant that I'd hoped would get some additional exposure from the piece, as he'd strongly endorsed it, and mentioned that its business was being hurt by the construction along East Washington.

As per his blog, in the very last item of the Q&A...

One one blog post, you directed everyone in Madison to eat at Taste of Asia. You said, don't ask questions, but why?

[Laughs] I love Chinese buffets, like good old American, greasy Chinese food. I'm thinking about filming a music video there, or like a YouTube bio. Next time I go, I'll have to talk to them.

...Myhre wanted to convey that the East Washington buffet "Taste of Asia is NOT greasy-- i was saying that most places are-- and i like that-- but what makes ToA special is that the food is a bit more classy."

There wasn't any intent to quote him out of context by clipping his full endorsement, but I understand the concern, so here's the rest of his take on the Taste of Asia, from the original transcript:

Taste of Asia's the best in town because it's not as greasy, it's not just Chinese: they serve Hmong, Laotian, Thai food. We bought a bunch of egg rolls from them for a party we were having, 'cause they were doing a fundraiser: selling these egg rolls to help Hmong immigrants. They're good people, and again, the food is just great. The one thing they don't have is an ice cream machine. If they had that, I'd never leave.

What's an ideal meal there?
I like a lot of white rice, which is boring—but also a lot of broccoli from the chicken and broccoli. They also serve really good sesame chicken and General Tso's chicken, because it's crispier: it's not just soggy breaded stuff. But the best thing they have there are the Hmong egg rolls--not as fried as a traditional Chinese buffet egg roll.

Taste of Asia can be found @ 2817 East Washington. They've got a website, but it doesn't seem to have been updated for a while.

====

Myhre also says he's not sure if he booked the Coup's plane ticket. I wrote that in the intro on the basis of a conversation I had with him during Hip-hop as a Movement Week. I was trying to determine if Pam the Funkstress would be DJing, and he was able to rule her appearance out because he'd "booked" the tickets for the band and Boots Riley, but hadn't seen a Pam listed. In scare-quotes, 'cause, as he now posts...

I think I helped book the Coup tickets-- Katrina Flores and the Multicultural Student Coalition may have done that though--i don't really remember. I remember being at the Student Travel place for what seemed like hours, but I was probably just following Katrina's orders. haha.

Actually, I'll be at Natt Spil tonight. Or, "Reason #30292 why Ashley Watkins is a vegetarian."

Last time I was at Natt Spil, the proprietor of At War With Metal was patient enough to watch me eat two Brie and Braeburn pizzas. Tonight, I'll be there, listening to a set by WSUM's Ashley Watkins. She will probably be spinning some combination of dub, reggae, and .... SKA? You should show up and buy her a drink: my checking account is overdrafted, because of shit like buying two pretentious pizzas to gear up for a night AT THE CLUB.

While you should be able to subscribe to her WSUM podcast by heading to the far reaches of the WSUM.NET Cosmos, here's Ashley explaining why she's a vegetarian. I wish I could relay more of her wit beyond the decks, but she's always issuing ominous proclamations about the liberties taken by my blogging style. Join an old email dialogue in medias res, at this relatively mild (affectionate, even?) insult...

AW: hah, you little turd.

H: speaking of which, I've been mesmerized by the [image] below all week, and have had trouble coming up with a pretense to link to it.

It's quite the decadent turd.

AW: bling bling gone too far...diamonds on mah neck, diamonds on mah
grill, titanium in mah gutz/turdz.

reason #30292 why i am a vegetarian.

====

Recipe for Oysters Guggenheim Bilbao [via Megnut]

Where you'll find us

We do not, quite frankly, have time to outline our futuristically, anachronistically, scatologically oxymoronic syndication scheme to anyone who doesn't have the money to bank-roll the project. If you would like to make an offer, but have lost track of us, the track below explains how to get in touch.

• Devin the Dude, "Boo Boo'n" [mp3, z-shared]

happy hangover, america

"If there ain't no light at the end of the tunnel, then build a fire and roast marshmallows on sticks of dynamite..."--El Guante's July 4th Anthem,

"Unmastered"[this was originally a MySpace rip, go there to stream].

Boom?

We're going to talk some shit about press releases (and mention a few things re: El Guante's penultimate rap show) whenever we wake up in the afternoon. But first, we'd like to share our favorite line from an email he sent out June 21st:

His blog, "Why Is El Guante So Angry," has become a widely-trafficked local website due to its unique blend of hip hop, politics and vitriol.

Lucha Libre, Grey Scare-ish, Coolzey and Radix @ High Noon

Since copping the Killer Genuine Draft mixtape at last Thursday's Ghetto Fusion-F.A.B. King Club show, I've decided to retire from music blogging and write press releases for a forthcoming album of murderous craft brew jingles by a member of the Public Drunkards.

You can catch a Ghetto F.A.B. profile at the Madison Times. Perhaps the author could've inquired about Curtis Mayfield's influence on SYAD: "Sit your ass down. Bitch, sit your ass down."

Or maybe gone to a show*?

Ghetto F.A.B. is apparently known for high-energy, live performances: The two say they'll give an "unforgettable performance" every time. While Isabell lures the girls with his "rugged delivery" — he is often referred to as a “lady's man” — Loving does his part by giving the audience a reason to stay on their feet.

"We please the crowd," Isabell gloatted [sic] playfully. "They chant with us; we pull people on stage. We even talk to them afterwards."

So I guess it's safe to say that Ghetto F.A.B. is all about having fun.

====

Career change aside, I will probably be at the High Noon tonight in non-blogging capacity.

$6, 9pm, 21+

Locally: MC Starr and Pain 1, then Lucha Libre (i kid) whose Plantando Bandero I grabbed yesterday @ Exclusive.

Iowan Coolzey is also going to be there. Let Madison's newest, and soon to be most-prolific, hip-hop blog tell you about his EP, Soixante-Neuf.

...skip down to the last track, "Art World," Coolzey's nightmarish, funny vision of a culture superstore that's losing ground to independent creatives. Coolzey takes the voice of the company, indignant that "we even took the safest art, made it into glossy posters,/ but they wouldn't but the shit, so we had no sales turnover/ I want to bend them over and spank them all, very long and hard/ only two percent of the kids we solicited applied for an Art World card."

• Download Coolzey's Biz Markie homage "French Fries and Ice Cream" [mp3, right-click, save-as]
• Read Coolzey's interview Maximum Ink interview. He was going to tour with the Crest, or something. Who knew? I didn't.
  

I gather Bostonians RADIx are headlining. If you go to their myspace, you will hear that they, like Kidz in the Hall, could not leave "93 'til infinity" well enough alone.

====

NOTE:

• I rather enjoyed that show--notwithstanding creepy-happy guest-rapper grinning throughout that hook-cycle. Also, DJ Fusion's uncle has no more business spinning in public than I.
  

Crowd Participation

Emcees Without Voices' first "hip-hop" content of the month: I posted a gallery of sorts from the Library Mall half of today's Elements of Change "Hip-Hop Revival."

Two things not noted there:

• Around 5pm, I finished working in the library and was free to catch the closing minutes. A drunk old white* guy lumbered up to me and leaned in conspiratorially: "Didn't someone tell them about the bitches and hos?" Yes sir, they were regrettably missing. Fuck you too. Hold on tight to that plastic cup from the Rathskeller and keep walking.*
  
• The lady below (right arm raised) was way into the call and response stuff. PEACE LOVE AND UNITY.
  

*obviously, I have a conflicted relationship with gender dynamics and race vis a vis rap/hip-hop. As I mentioned earlier to the proprietor of Madison's newest hip-hop blog--written by another (presumptive) white person--this has been my go-to GET SHIT DONE track for the past few weeks.

overheard #3: marketing blunts for school credit

MTM braintrust discussing leafletting strategies in Helen C. White (College) Library, 5/10...

MTM propagandist: The Union called again.

Imaginary Memorial Union Employee: How did you hear about Madtown Munchies?

MTMP: I ripped down your flyer...

====

Bonus, 5/12

Passenger in Yukon, at State and Lake: Ooohh! A DeLorean!!!