Get To Know H.E.R.

Yeah, you know what this means. I’m gonna be a bit too busy today to do an album review, but tomorrow I promise you the review of Skillz’ newest, The Million Dollar Backpack. That should be a good time, but for now, all I got for you are some videos of a couple of my favorites. Some of you guys probably prefer watching videos and learning more about the culture than reading my album reviews anyways, so enjoy today’s light entry.

Before ANYTHING, just thought I’d let my few readers know. Madvillainy 2 is up for digital download via StoneThrow’s website. Despite the friggin misleading name, it’s not the sequel that fans have been patiently waiting for since the first one rocked the shit out of our world. According to Stonethrow Records, the official second album is coming, but in the meantime, Madlib couldn’t wait, so he decided to remix the first album and put it out there. You know what this means. It’s all fucking MF Doom’s fault that this is taking so damn long. Him and Del should seriously be nominated for the “takes forever to get to recording promised albums” award. Anyways, I haven’t had the chance to give it a listen yet, but if it’s anywhere near the first, it’s gonna be a great album. Besides, Madlib rarely disappoints.

http://www.stonesthrow.com/

And now, on to other things.

First up is my one of my favorite breakers, Ronnie. Dude has never failed to place in the top three of the Red Bull BC One, and actually took first place last year. Here’s the video of the 2007 finals in which Ronnie, representing the US, beat fellow US breaker Roxrite for first place.

Alright, next up we got Kid Koala, the DJ behind the boards of the critically acclaimed supergroup Deltron 3030. If you’ve never listened to solo DJ albums, Kid Koala is a great place to start. His music somehow lets the listener know just how much damn fun he had making his records and that makes it that much more enjoyable. Here’s a video of Kid Koala doing a sort of Drunk Trumpet II in which he pretty much plays the trumpet with his turntable. Enjoy

Around last week, I did a short entry on three of my favorite b-boys and I mentioned briefly that breakdancing is one of the four elements of hip hop. Since I’ve already covered that, and since the majority of the blog is devoted to rapping, I figured I might as well devote this entry to the final two elements. Or three, depending on who you ask.

The first of the remaining two or three (screw it. two and a half) elements is the one that causes the most controversy: street art, otherwise known as graffiti. Some call it vandalism, other’s call it an expression of the self, I say whatever it is, it remains an integral part of the hip hop culture. Here’s a video of a sick graffiti animation done by this cat named Blu.

Damn, if that’s not legit art, I don’t know what is. Anyways, the second of the remaining elements is one that the mainstream hears of all the time, but probably has no real idea of what it is: the art of DJ-ing. I say most people have no idea what it is because let’s face it. When most people hear the word DJ, they’ll think of one of two things. Either they’ll think of that lame ass mixtape DJ who just gets a bunch of hot tracks, puts them together, and shouts his or her name on it a million times or they’ll think of the dude in the club that spins the new garbage. And that’s the sad truth. I now present to you, what a DJ should be like. It’s a clip of the one and only DJ freaking Qbert.

Fuck, that’s some fast ass hands. And now, we’re at our final, sometimes disputed part of the hip hop culture. I honestly think that it’s a legit part of the culture, but people just like the nice square number of four, and don’t wanna ruin that. Anyways, the fifth element is one that everyone should be familiar with, beatboxing. And to tell you the truth, when I hear beatboxing, I only think of two names: Doug E. Fresh and Rahzel. And since I think that most of my readers will find Rahzel’s technique to be of more interest, without further ado, voila.

Hope ya’ll had a spectacular Independence Day weekend.

Yesterday I decided to watch MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew at a friend’s place. I don’t think MTV has too many great shows, but this show is one of the better ones. Well, at least the first season was. The second one thus far is shaping up to be a disaster in my opinion, but that’s not the point of this entry. The point of this entry is just to bring into the forefront the “official” dance of the hip hop culture. Strictly speaking, that will have to be one of the four essential elements of the game, and the only form of dance that I’ve ever been amazed by (aside from ballroom dancing strangely enough), breakdancing, or b-boying. A lot of people these days don’t think that b-boying is considered as a legit form of dancing, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. If you’re gonna call that grinding and booty shaking dancing, you can definitely recognize breaking as such. But what I write isn’t gonna prove that, so for your pleasure, I’ve put up some clips from three of my favorites from the Red Bull BC One 2005 (my favorite so far).

First up is Lilou from France. Dude is one of the most creative breakers I’ve ever seen in my life. And especially for those who think that b-boying is all tricks, watch the boy Lilou do it. The way he rides a beat is just incredible.

Next up is Sonic from Denmark. Sonic is just real fun to watch. His footwork is nasty and you can tell he’s having a freaking blast out there on the dance floor.

Finally we have Pelenzhino from Brazil. Honestly, I like him because he reminds me of Eddy Gordo from Tekken 3. And he is a great dancer as well.