Freshly Dipped Tour was a few weeks back in Sacramento and the headline act was Hieroglyphics with performances from Souls Of Mischief, Pep Love, Casual, Knobody, Musab, Tanya Morgan and Seattle's own Blue Scholars. I was Lucky enough to not have to pay the $20 to get in because of my boy Rich. Thank you! I brought my friend Spencer and Lucky and might I add: This event was at a skatepark so the event was different from anything I've attended. The music was too loud for me to stand right in front of the stage so I just stood backstage and watched each set. Geologic from Blue Scholars was chillen backstage and Janelle who is Geologic's little sister is a good friend of mine. She told me to show some Sacramento love and that's exactly what I did. I was nervous at first but I just said what's up and gave him his props. He's madd chill! Musab, Knobody, Tanya Morgan, and Blue Scholars put on a fresh show, indeed. I also ran into the beautiful, Ruby, from Ill-Literacy and Dahlak. It's a pleasure everytime.

(Hieroglyphics - Anna)

Soul's of Mischief, Pep Love, Casual, and the rest of the Hiero crew hit the stage but no sign of Del which was whack. He was the one person who I wanted to see most. Nonetheless, it was fresh! Souls ended the show with 93 Til Infinity. My friend Lucky was crushing on DJ Sabzi from Blue Scholars so she wanted to get a pic with him but we thought Blue Scholars left. I spotted Sabzi and Lucky went straight up to him and asked for the pic. Sabzi asked me to come in also but Lucky wouldn't approve. Lol.

(Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity)

I'm upset with myself... Again I didn't try to at least ask for an interview or a video shoutout from Blue Scholars, Tanya Morgan, Hiero or Souls Of Mischief and everyone of them were in front of me. Even if their answer was no at least I asked. I let my nerves get the best of me and I blank out. Sigh... I'm just venting but enjoy the pics and the videos. Peace.

look what i found on casual's youtube page

so yeah im back in brooklyn and i posted a new videoblog HERE. remember when i said i was gonna videoblog more? well im sayin that again. i cant promise nothing tho. its been a whirlwind since i touched down here in bkand between opening mail, baby showering and getting extorted by wells fargo i think i found my routine again, or maybe not. regardless its business as usual.

i got alot in the works for this month. basically is still brooklynati or bust (aka the record needs to be turned in ASAP) and aside from that im workin on getting some of this solo work off my chest too.

thats about all i got for right now...

If you're looking for a regular, run of the mill blog entry, stop reading. I certainly can't stop you from continuing to pace through the words. But I can try to warn you. This entry serves only one purpose, to help me study. That is, I'm studying now and this will be the median through which I explain and then in turn retain the information much better than just reading from the book. Or at least that's the goal. So if you're looking for how I'm feeling, or what my plans are for the week, you're not going to find it here.

If you're looking for a condensed, very truncated discourse on Syntax and Morphology outlined strictly by my quiz study guide, then you've come to the right place! Take a seat, if you haven't already, and enjoy the voyage as I take you on a magical whirlwind tour of just a small slice of the wonderful world of Linguistics!

Where to begin!?
Disclaimer: Most of the following is straight out of my textbook, Linguistics for Non-Linguistics: 4th Ed. by Frank Parker and Kathryn Riley. As much as I would love to actually be able to regurgitate this right off the top of my head and actually sound professional and academic... I'm not there yet.

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Syntax!

Here is a wonderful definition of Syntax I found on Urban Dictionary.

Syntax	4 up, 23 down
	Syntax- Words used by kids with large unibrows who also happens to be extremely emotional, and think theirselves to be the modern day Shakespere. "Colin once said "Please dont mock my correct syntax, it upsets my black little broken heart."

Hilarious as it is, I can't say it is correct. :P

Syntax is the study of phrases, clauses and sentences. OR "the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages. In addition to referring to the discipline, the term syntax is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language" (Wiki: Syntax). AKA Grammar!

These are a few of the core elements of the theory of syntax:

1. Words in a language are organized into different categories or, "parts of speech".
2. Words in phrases must have a particular left-to-right ordering. (Or top-to-bottom as in Japanese) In other words, structured order. e.g. In English "the big house" is acceptable, "big the house" is not.
3. Words in sentences are arranged not only in left-to-right order, but also in hierarchical structure.
4. Sentence structures are related by transformations: operations that move a category from one location to another within a structure. (Am I losing you yet?)
5. Transformations are subject to various constraints that limit their application.

Categories:

The classification of words into categories or parts of speech goes back at least as far as Plato who first mentioned the categories noun, verb, and sentence (nohma, rhema, and logos, respectively). Categories are theoretical constructs, part of the unobservable theory of syntax. Linguists have historically classified words into categories solely because postulating such categories helps them explain phenomena that they otherwise could not explain.

Words in the human languages can be categorized in terms of their behavior. For example, some words can be made plural, whereas others cannot. I.E. nouns can be made plural; other words can't.

Linguists have grouped words into two corresponding types of categories: lexical categories, which include items such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; and phrasal categories, which include items such as noun phrases, verb phrases, etc, and so on. The theory is that every phrasal category contains at least on lexical category of the same basic type.

Left-to-Right Ordering:

Words in English cannot appear in any random order. The left-to-right sequence of items within a phrase is governed by principles that are codified in phrase structure rules. PS rules specify three types of information:

• which elements are permitted in a particular type of phrase.
• the left-to-right ordering of those elements.
• whether any of the elements are optional.

These relatively simple rules make it possible to generate, or describe, an extremely large number of English phrases. PS rules form the basis for tree diagrams, which allow us to visualize how the components in a phrase are related, and PS rules also allow us to represent an important property of human language called recursion.

Examples of specific PS rules for English:

• Sentence: S->NP-VP A sentence consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase.
• Noun Phrase: NP->(Det)-(Ap)-N-(PP) A noun phrase must contain a noun. The noun may be preceded by a determiner, an adjective phrase, or both, and it may be followed by a prepositional phrase.
• Verb Phrase: VP->V-({NP/AP})-(PP) A verb phrase must contain a verb. The verb may be followed by a noun phrase, an adjective phrase, or neither. The verb phrase may end in a prepositional phrase, but need not.
• Adjective Phrase: AP->(I)-Adj An adjective phrase must contain an adjective. The adjective may be preceded by an intensifier (e.g., very).
• Prepositional Phrase: PP->Prep-NP A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase.

Constituent Structure:

Phrases, clauses, and sentences are more than just a set of words or. as we have just discussed, categories arranged in left-to-right order. Rather, they are sets of categories organized into a hierarchical structure. For example, consider the phrase American history teacher. Any native speaker of English can verify, this phrase is ambiguous: it can mean either 'a teacher of American history' or 'a history teacher who is American'.

One way to explain this phenomenon is to assume that phrases are organized into hierarchical structures and that there are cases where more than one such structure can be assigned to a particular phrase. Such cases are said to exhibit structural ambiguity.

Transformations:

Transformations is just a breakdown and analysis of how we structure certain sentences, transforming one type to another.

This section literally gives me a headache just thinking about it, so if you're really interested you can read this Wikipedia page on the amazing world of Wh-movement!

Inflectional Movement, or I-Movement, moves the tensed verb (which is always the first verb) to the left of the subject NP. For example:

1. John has concealed the document.
2. Has John concealed the document?

----And now time for something (not) completely different!----

Side note: One nice thing about this quiz I'm studying for is that it is in my Linguistics 102 course, the basics.  I'm simultaneously taking other higher level Linguistics classes, one of which is LING 321: Morphology & Syntax. So my quiz is on what I'm studying in my other class. I can't say its making it a whole lot easier... but it certainly doesn't hurt. And now, back to the lesson!

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Morphology!

Morphology is the study of word formation. Morphology is to words what syntax is to sentences. That is, morphology is concerned with the structure of words, just as syntax is concerned with the structure of sentences.

1. Words are made up of meaningful units called morphemes.
2. Some morphemes, called lexical morphemes, have meaning in and of themselves; others, called grammatical morphemes, specify the relationship between one lexical morpheme and another.
3. Some morphemes, called free morphemes, can stand alone as words; others, called bound morphemes, cannot.
4. Bound morphemes can be divided into two types, inflectional and derivational.
5. Languages create new words systematically.

Morphemes:

A morpheme can be loosely defined as a minimal unit having more or less constant meaning associated with more or less constant form. Consider a simple example: the word buyers is made up of three morphemes {buy} + {er} + {s}. Each of these morphemes has a unique meaning: {buy} = verb 'buy'; {er} = 'one who performs an action'; {s} = 'more than one.' Together they mean something like 'more than one person who buys things.'

The more combinations a morpheme can occur in, the more productive it is said to be; the more productive a morpheme is, the stronger evidence that it is a separate morpheme.

There are four points to note about morphemes.

• First, they are distinct from syllables. The word alligator, for example, consists of one morpheme but has four syllables; cats, on the other hand, consists of two morphemes but has only one syllable.
• Second, identical spellings do not necessarily indicate identical morphemes. For example, consider buyer and shorter, each of which ends in -er. Note that the -er in buyer means something like 'one who,' while the -er in shorter means something like 'to a greater degree than.'
• Third, the definition of a morpheme as a minimal unit with more or less constant meaning associated with more or less constant form should be taken as a general rule rather than a hard and fast criterion. For example, boys can be divided into {boy} + {s}, but the word men, however, does not seem to be as easily divisible into morphemes, since plurality is marked not by the addition of an -s but rather by a change in vowel (from man) ({man}+{PLU})
• Fourth, the goal of morphological analysis is to determine the rules that speakers actually follow for forming words in a particular language. However, it is often difficult for the linguist to distinguish between the etymology (i.e. history) or a word and its structure in the minds of present-day speakers.

Lexical and Grammatical Morphemes:

Lexical morphemes have a sense (i.e. meaning) in and of themselves. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives are typical of lexical morphemes. Grammatical morphemes, on the other hand, don't really have a sense in and of themselves; instead they express some sort of relationship between lexical morphemes. Prepositions, articles, and conjunctions are typical of grammatical morphemes.

Free and Bound Morphemes:

In contrast to the division between lexical and grammatical morphemes, the distinction between free and bound morphemes is straightforward. Free morphemes are those that can stand alone as words. They may be lexical (e.g., {serve}, {press}) or they may be grammatical (e.g., {at}, {and}). Bound morphemes, on the other hand, cannot stand alone as words. Likewise, they may be lexical (e.g., {clude} as in exclude, include, and preclude) or they may be grammatical (e.g., {PLU} = plural as in boys, girls, and cats).

Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes:

This distinction applies only to the class of bound, grammatical morphemes. The more familiar term for the class of bound grammatical morphemes is affix. Affixes, in turn, can be subdivided into prefixes and suffixes, depending upon whether they are attached to the beginning or the end of a lexical morpheme.

Inflectional Affixes: English has eight inflectional affixes; all other affixes are derivational. The eight inflectional affixes are listed below, along with the type of root that each attaches to and a representative example.

• {PLU} = plural Noun e.g. boys
• {POSS} = possesive Noun e.g. boy's
• {COMP} = comparative Adjective e.g. older
• {SUP} = superlative Adjective e.g. oldest
• {PRES} = present Verb walks
• {PAST} = past Verb walked
• {PAST PART} = past participle Verb driven
• {PRES PART} = present participle Verb driving

Derivational Affixes: Unlike the inflectional affixes, which number only eight in English, the set of derivational affixes is open-ended; that is, there are a potentially infinite number of them (although the number is finite at any one time for a particular speaker). A few representative examples: The suffix {ize} attaches to a noun and turns it into the corresponding verb, as in criticize, rubberize, vulcanize, pasteurize, mesmerize, and so on. The suffix {ly} attaches to an adjective and turns it into the corresponding adverb, as in quickly, carefully, swiftly, mightily, and so on. Note that there is another separate derivational affix, also spelled -ly, which attaches to a noun and changes it into the corresponding adjective, as in friendly, manly, neighborly, and so on.

Word-Formation Processes:

Another area of interest to linguists is the formation of new words in a language. The following are common word-formation processes.

• Derivation. This involves the addition of a derivational affix, changing the syntactic category of the item to which it is attached (e.g., orient(V)-> orientation(N)).
• Category Extension. This involves the extension of a morpheme from one syntactic category to another (e.g., chair(N)-> chair(V)).
• Compound. This involves creating a new word by combining two free morphemes (e.g., put-down).
• Root Creation. A root creation is a brand new word based on no pre-existing morphemes (e.g., Kodak).
• Clipped Form. A clipped form is a shortened form of a pre-existing morpheme (e.g., bra < brassiere).
• Blend. A blend is a combination of parts of two pre-existing forms (e.g., smog < smoke + fog).
• Acronym. An acronym is a word formed from the first letter(s) of each word in a phrase (e.g., NASA < National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
• Abbreviation. An abbreviation is a word formed from the names of the first letters of the prominent syllables of a word (e.g., TV < Television) or of words in a phrase (e.g., FBI < Federal Bureau of Investigation).
• Proper Name. This process forms a word from a proper name (e.g., hamburger < Hamburg).
• Folk Etymology. This process forms a word by substituting a common native form for an exotic (often foreign) form with a similar pronunciation (e.g., cockroach < Spanish cucuracha 'wood louse').
• Back Formation. A back formation is a word formed by removing what is mistaken for an affix (e.g., edit < editor, peddle < peddler).

Summary:

Central to this theory of morphology is the concept of morpheme, as well as the distinctions between lexical and grammatical morphemes, bound and free morphemes, and inflectional and derivational morphemes. Within inflectional morphology, regularities within the English auxiliary verb system allow us to predict which inflected forms will follow which auxiliary verbs. Finally, word-formation processes provide an account o how new words are introduced into the lexicon.

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WHEW! How's that for a slice of fried gold? And that is just a taste my friends. My brain kind of hurts now. Or maybe I'm just tired. I started this whole study session drinking Green tea, then in the last half hour switched to herbal sleepy-time tea. So it is probably that which is causing my head to feel a little drowsy. That and its midnight. And I have to be up at 6:30am for work. AGAIN. I need to take a nap or something tomorrow. Cause I certainly ain't gettin' a proper amount of sleep tonight. Such is student life, and the sacrifices we make for the pursuit of knowledge.

Lets just hope I retain some of this for the quiz tomorrow.

-Moniker Vise
"Planting seeds of revolution"

I've been wanting to make this post for a few weeks now. I believe DJ Hyphen & Grynch can attest haha. Dah well, better late than ever. You might have noticed me dropping random posts dedicated to certain areas (T-Dot, Brooklyn, Cali, etc). This time I decided to take it to the North West. It's not a post full of brand new shit like usual (some is though) but it's still worth checking out. Seattle needs to be heard. I'm tellin ya'll. So check the tracks below and hit the jump for Common Market performing a few joints off their latest album, Tobacco Road, during their stop at KEXP Radio.

DOWNLOAD: Grynch - I'm A Dreamer f. Geologic (Blue Scholars) & Thig Natural*
DOWNLOAD: The Physics - Bran New Thang | I Heart Beer | Ready For We
DOWNLOAD: Boom Bap Project - Welcome to Seattle (prod. Jake One)
DOWNLOAD: D. Black - Flyin' High
DOWNLOAD: Parker Brothaz - Seattle (Rather Be With You)
DOWNLOAD:GMK - Look Around f. J. Pinder

*This will be featured on Grynch's upcoming Something More EP, produced entirely by the Boston production duo, Two Good Men.

Common Market - Gol'Dust (Live)

Common Market - Nina Sing (Live)

Shouts to MB for the YouTube heads up!

Love that mural in the back also...  Btw, if anyone is curious Zia (the director) is Sabzi's brother (Sabzi the DJ he's the white looking dude in the vid)  Makes me remember Saba, a friend my brother had in elementary, only when my brother was in like 5th grade (I think) he moved away to Iran... I think o_o? heh.

And to my other loves~

I mentioned a plushie binge the the last post :3  sewingstars' makes the CUTEST things!  I LOVE her crying eggboy and some of her newer stuff are the pumpkins to celebrate Halloween I guess.

One of my other fave softie makers is ElizabethD from Gourmet Amigurumi.  She has a book out if anyone is interested.  She insane with attention to detail.  You can pretty much figure out her aesthetic since everything she does is really distinctive.  I'd have to say the eyes are signature though, lots of detail around the eyes that just makes it pop.  The fawn at the bottom is patterned in her book, only its just all brown, cute no?

And as long as were talking about plushies, combining food and craft just seems genius to me :D although that might just be because I'm super hungry right now and lack fiber in my diet...  Here's some food related softies, starting from the left, some spoiled boneless chicken by Robyn D: poor thing is totally aware of his demise, next is some dim sum by .lani, and because I love anything having to do with Mexican folk art I added the Small Cat Club's softies of calaveras de dulces D: haven't had one of those since I was like 8 x_x

Of course the classic plushie is from an animal, though an octopus isn't really the normal creation :D

This one's another creation of the Small Cat Club's and its been painted.  I love her expression and the two front teeth just makes it super cute D:

DeviantArt is also a nice place to see plushies~  (I'm starting to sound really obbossesd ._.) anyway, I like this one of matches

Summary of Life by ~FrealaF on deviantART makes you kinda look at matches in a new light XD

And last but not least there's a fiber artist named Patricia Waller.  XD I like, but then again I have a bit of a sick sense of humor.

A crochet collection of S+M gear lol

The last three weekends were full of activity for myself.  On the 23rd, Dru and I got to catch the Janaelle Monea show at Nectar Lounge with very much thanks to Dorian for making it all possible.  (Check out his blog "The Audacity of Dope" for some of the newest and most prevailent Hip-Hop news around.  The show was amazing.  That girl can put on a performance like none other.  She was running at 100% the entire time she is on stage.  She pulls the crowd in, get you involved and makes it a personal show, and that's hard to do in Seattle.  The whole band had a great dynamic not only with their performances but with maintaining the crowds involvement level.  If Janelle need a break, the guitarist and drummer would rock out with their own interlude.  Very well done performance.  I was in it to begin with 100%

On the 30th, I caught Bumbershoot which was a good year for me.  I was able to see all the bands I really wanted to see and they were on small stages which was nice.  I started with Neko Case who was great but her sounds doesn't stray too much from what you get on a store bought album.  Beautiful voice and great music but not enough of a difference to make me want to go out for it again.  Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, were a blast.  Very nice whimsical tone to the event mixed in with Thao's drunken debauchery to make it that much more enjoyable.  She brought her flavor and funk in a pint glass.  The performace was on point, getting the whole crowd to clap in with them, which again is tough to do in Seattle.  It was a very fun show to catch coming out of my mediocre show of Neko.  Next was Estelle, who was just boring.  Bitch would not stop talking.  Yeah okay we will have fun; but then again we will be careful.  Okay we get it lady.  Have funbut be careful.  I know they tell you were are all dumb over here in the states but we aren't retarded 8 year olds.  Once is enough hun.  I love your music but your yamma becomes a bit much.  Then we had Saul Williams who put on a great lively show getting everyone in on it.  Even thoughs who were just passing by.  You heard them walking into the crowd asking who he was.  He had great stage pressance and did his job well.  Beck was very entertaining, mixing and matching the perfect setlist for the crowd he was playing to.  He also had the most enetertaining light show I think you can get at a Bumbershoot show.  All in all very good.

On the 6th Dru and I caught Rock the Bells, thanks again Dorrian.  All the performaces were pretty much what I was expecting.  Jedi got up there and got the job done, Little Brother worked the crowd and had some fun, Murs had his fun with the audience, Blue Scholars lead the crowd as usual very well and did their Seattle thing, Mos Def yelled over a James Brown track for about 50 minutes, NAS, The Pharcyde, and Tribe were all on point and put on a very good show.  You can tell that these guys know what they are doing by now.  It has been a very enjoyable series of weekends so I retired for this weekend.

But what I am here to say is you should all check out a CD called "Youth Novels" by Lykke Li.  She is a female vocalist from Denmark who has an amazing voive that can range from floaty and playful to heavy and mysterious.  Very lo-fi in the music but focused on the vocals.  She has a show at Neumo's Oct.29th.  I know I will be attending and I do believe yall should too.  I am going to be posting a couple of things up onto the calender There are also Black Kids, Mission to Burma, Notwist, and Silver Jews shows coming up as well that I am going to try and make it out to.

spotted @ PST gettin it in... shouts out to sake 1 and ankh marketing*

so as of 9.14.08 the shows resume, kinda. for the next 2 days (the 14th and 15th) we will be opening up for the living legends in santa cruz and then san francisco. we then take tuesday and wednesday to kiss our lovely emeryville home goodbye and trade the waterfronts luxourious lap in for cramped vans, early wake up calls and seedy motels with our homies from hiero.

after 2.5 months of non stop country crossing action its safe to say that minus any unforseen acts of god i can do 2.5 weeks standing on my head. hell we been sittin on the dock of the bay for the past month and while it has been productive as hell (with a lil chillin mixed in) i kinda miss the road. i mean how can you not? its a powerful drug.

for the entire month we have been intending link up with everybody from the tour but its been failing miserably. we have just been kinda concerned with tryna feel at home to be honest. i mean its alot of work getting done between the chilling an half of the work that we end up doing happens during honest conversations and just being in the same room when that lightbulb goes off over somebodies head but there is alot to be said for the creature comforts and effects of ones personal space.

okay i have no idea where this post was going to be honest... i was gonna name drop a few of the hiero homies and talk about how we all live busy lives and our day to day's are spent between work and psuedo adjustment so we cant really find time to meet in the middle and we will end up basically living with them for the next two weeks so it will be rectified then.

there i said it in plain english. no verbose blogspeak or floral wordiness.. lol ill see yall later. imma go drank my drink and play this black milk beat tape for the umpteenth time.

*no promo.. them my folks yo

]]> http://whoisthemidastouch.wordpress.com/?p=301 Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:55:07 +0000 thegoldensilence http://whoisthemidastouch.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/a-new-adventures-in-freestyle-rapping-episode/ enjoy.

The Democratic National Committee is neither democratic, nor national, nor a committee. If it were democratic why would it reject the voices of the people, who protest against its rule? If it were national, it wouldn't be driven by imperialist and globalist corporate interests. (Let us not forget William J. Clinton - perhaps the best known globalist in the country). And if it were truly a committee then anybody could join it - not just the political puppets of corporate power.

-Mumia Abu-Jamal

I'm going to give Obama a breather tonight, because as washed up ol' Ice-T says, "Don't hate the player, hate the game." And Obama isn't much to blame for continuation and promotion of neoliberal and conservative leanings within the Democratic party and so-called progressive mainstream politics; the individual really has little influence in politics and are really just reactionary reflections of the macro-system. The United States' political system is fundamentally flawed and this Democratic National Convention is such a biting reminder of how messed up things are.

If TV coverage were any indicator, the DNC would be one of the most important political occurrences of the entire year (I think I counted at least ten channels covering the convention). But really it's completely irrelevant to our political state and just a perfect display of the sensationalized, personalized, and completely irrelevant nature of US politics. This convention looks like something the blatantly corporate-loving Republicans would dream up but for a party (and candidate) that claims to fight for the working-class, oppressed people of the US, this convention is totally out of touch with reality. The convention is being held in a corporate sponsored arena (the Pepsi Center), with Walt Disney World-esque light shows and entertainment, and hundreds of pre-made, laminated signs for the audience to hold up for each speaker (so much for the claim of being environmentally sustainable). Only invited guests are able to attend the convention and no one from the "general public" is even able to get inside. There is no freedom of speech; only sterile, pre-approved addresses by sterile, pre-approved speakers. The speakers that do have the opportunity to talk, tell highly-personalized stories, almost completely ignore the important issues at hand, and seem to just bask in privilege, non-confrontation, and armchair liberalism while on stage. I appreciate Michelle Obama for telling such a heart-warming story about Barack and herself but I really don't give a shit. What does he plan on doing with Iraq, the economy, Russia, the environment, corporate control, fair trade, and domestic social welfare? I'm sure thoughtful political discussion would ruin the Democrats' party. And enough with the nice-guy, family-man irrelevant bullshit. I'm sure Bush is a nice guy and a great dad and we see what he's done. We see where the Democrats interests are: with the privilaged. As Mumia says above, \"The Democratic National Committee is neither democratic, nor national, nor a committee.\" So much for the populism that the Democratic party has touted. So much for planning a movement of "change.

But this is just typical of the US political discourse. We focus so much on the individual and put our trust in politicians that we become so easily apathetic, frustrated, and disjointed when they undoubtedly fail us. US politics have fallen victim to individualism, which makes people think that religion, personal traits, family, and personal history are important to be president, when they are not. This focus on personal politics has made the poor, rural Southern whites, first-generation immigrants, women from "traditional" backgrounds, and many black people turn away for progressivism, when, in all reality this movement benefits them the most. I'm not naïve enough to expect all or even a majority of oppressed peoples to collectively act due to the constant pressure of the system and general conservativeness of the American political environment (I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say Obama is "too liberal") but I do hope for the resurgence of an issue-based, community driven democracy.

There is hope, even in Denver during this convention. There are Recreate '68 protests, which Mumia speaks of in his broadcast. These protests confront the Democrats on problems such as Iraq and human rights abuses. They will feature some great speakers such as Ida Audeh, a Palestinian refugee, Kathleen Cleaver of the Black Panters, and Fred Hampton, Jr. And some of my favorite hip-hop groups will be performing: Dead Prez, Public Enemy, and Blue Scholars. So thank you to the people carrying on real democracy in Denver this week. Power to the people.

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, I was able to hit up the Freshly Dipped Tour while in the Cincinnati area and it was, of course, a extremely tight show. It was an interesting lineup with Tanya Morgan, Knobody, Musab, Blue Scholars, and the legendary Hieroglyphics. I'd been thinking about going to the show for a while because of Blue Scholars and Hiero, but when it was announced that Tanya Morgan was added to the concert list a couple of months ago, I knew I had to make it. It was a diverse group of artists representing the West Coast, Northwest, Midwest, and East Coast; but as somebody said during the show, "People try to divide hip-hop into a million different categories, but there are only two types of hip-hop: dope hip-hop and wack hip-hop."  Let's just say there were dope artists at this show.

The almighty Tanya Morgan started things off, which they do well. This was the second time I've seen Tanya Morgan live and they bring a lot of energy to shows. Illyas wasn't there but Von Pea and Donwill represented Brooklynatti well with a couple of songs off of Moonlighting along with a couple of tracks from their dope new EP, The Bridge. I'm going to do a Tanya Morgan appreciation post soon so I won't ramble on about them too long. But I was impressed as always with Tanya and even got to talk to Donwill again for a little bit. He's real friendly and I appreciate it that he chops it up with us fans after his shows. (He also runs a pretty nice blog himself.)

Next was Knobody, who's from Cali and a part of the Hiero Imperium. I'd never heard his music before but he was a nice MC. He seemed to be associated mainly with A-Plus from Hiero, who was his hype-man. Where Tanya Morgan has a pretty polished, high energy act, Knobody's music was a little grimier and focused mostly on the everyday struggle.  He only did a couple of songs so I couldn't get a good feel for his music, but he dropped a couple of tight acappellas.

The third opener was Musab, also of the Hiero Imperium who I think is from Minnesota. He's done some work with Atmosphere in the past and has a pretty unique style like most hip-hop artists from Minnesota. He's also the first artist I have ever seen drink a martini on stage and perform his song "Hat & Shoes" on a stool, kind of like an old jazz musician. But when things heated up his hype-man brought out a megaphone, which is also a first for all the hip-hop shows I've been to. He had a fresh performance and an interesting take on hip-hop.

I was pretty hyped for Blue Scholars, who came on next. My b-double-o worked her magic and got backstage before Blue Scholars came on. They talked about Filipino politics for a bit and she asked him to do our favorite song, 50K Deep, which is about the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. The lyrics are pretty mindblowing and Sabzi's production is one of my favorites. Well Blue Scholars is just as impressive live as they are on their albums. Geologic might be one of the most underrated (and balanced) MCs around. I've always been a huge fan of Sabzi's production but he's also pretty skilled on the 1's and 2's. Blue Scholars can be somewhat laid back on their albums but Geo brought a ton of energy live and I was impressed with how many people seemed to know their songs. Geologic and Sabzi should go down as one of the classic hip-hop MC/DJ-producer duos. I have a feeling they would have blown up even more if they were based in LA or New York because it seems like Seattle isn't exactly a hip-hop Mecca. It's artists like Blue Scholars that make me passionate about hip-hop: they make great music, have a powerful message, and are very down to earth comrades.

And while everybody showed love to the first four artists, you could tell everybody was there for Hieroglyphics. I first became familiar with Hiero a couple of years ago when I first saw their logo: the three-eyed face that I use all the time for avatars, computer backgrounds, etc. The symbol is important to me because it sums up what I strive for and what I value in hip-hop music. I found somebody more fanatic than me, though, about the symbol: he had it tattooed on his forearm. But I eventually came to appreciate the Hiero catalog and have become a big fan of their music, especially whenever Del tha Funkee Homosapien is on a track. Unfortunately Del wasn't there but I was hyped nonetheless. I won't go into all the details but they did all of my favorite tracks and it was a pretty crazy show. Hiero might have become one of my favorite live acts after that show and I would love to see them with Del. I was glad that Hiero didn't have what I call the Wu-Tang Syndrome, where they have twenty people on the stage with each dude shouting into their mic at the same time. While Hiero had about eight people on stage, they passed around a couple of mics and were good about highlighting the MC who had a line at that time instead of shouting over him, which is what makes Wu-Tang shows pretty annoying.

While I've been to quite a few small-venue shows this year, this show was definitely the best. The diversity of artists and the quality of the acts made it an extremely dope show. It was also nice to talk to several of the artists, who seemed to love being apart of such a classic hip-hop environment as much as I did.  My appreciation of all the artists increased after the show, which is always a good sign.  Unlike a lot of hip-hop collectives, Hiero seems real selective and focused; and also put together one of the tightest concert tours of the year. Hopefully I'll be able to catch Tanya Morgan, Blue Scholars, and Hiero again in the future.

WORT-FM welcomes
HIEROGLYPHICS (SOULS OF MISCHIEF, PEP LOVE, & CASUAL) with BLUE SCHOLARS

Also featuring

KNOBODY
MUSAB
TANYA MORGAN
Tuesday, August 12 -- 9pm
High Noon Saloon
608.268.1122
$15 adv $17 dos - 18+

Free Download:
Hieroglyphics- What The Funk

we met up with Jian, Drew, and Dan who rolled in from DC, then went right to the venue. (i think the bouncer went to my high school). the venue, Bedrock, was cool. two floors: upper level with a full length bar and stage; lower level with another bar, pool tables, and the backstage/vip section.

we were thinking that Blue Scholars would be on around 10 (we got there a little before 9), but i find out from Saba that they weren't gonna be on until 11:30. what?! everyone i was with had work the next morning, except for me (one of the benefits of not having a job), but we were determined to see them no matter the lack of sleep. was it worth it? absolutely.

as soon as Saba went on stage to set up, we rushed to the front. the venue wasn't as packed as i was thinking it would be, but then again, it was a tuesday night. we were also looking for more asian faces...i think we eventually spotted one, but it was kinda dark, so maybe it was just wishful thinking. (*edit: there was at least one other filipina in the room, whom i met later backstage, so yes, we weren't the only ones).

i dunno why they turned on the smoke machine, but that's why most of my pics turned out a bit hazy...or maybe it was just that smokin'.

except for this one. when the smoke finally cleared away.

i took some videos, but i was too close to the speaker so all you can really hear is the thump of the bass. after the show, i got a chance to chill with Blue Scholars backstage. at one point, a member of Heiroglyphics asked me where i was from, and when i told him "bel air", he changed his question and asked what my nationality was. probably should've said "american" instead of "filipino" but that would've tripped him up more. he was asking me if i smoked weed and invited me to smoke with them in the other room. i kindly declined, then the staff kicked me out cause they were closing and i wasn't with "the band".

i think their set was a lot better than the show at oberlin, but maybe it has little to do with their actual peformance, and more with me enjoying this show more because i was no longer in ohio and was surrounded by really good, old friends. either way, it was an incredible night--out with folks i haven't seen in months, rockin it to real good hip hop music, and feeling like i made the right choice about living in maryland and trying to (re)establish myself here. we are making progress.

]]> http://grilledsteeze.wordpress.com/?p=152 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:33:50 +0000 grilledsteeze http://grilledsteeze.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/guru-feat-common-market-blue-scholars-the-game-needs-me/ Guru, Geologic from Blue Scholars, and RA Scion from Common Market. This is some chill shit. This has been on the internets since the winter, but I don't care... Off one of the Jazzmatazz mixtapes, I think the 4th one... Seattle stand up. Damn.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Seattle is the future. Blue Scholars, Common Market, Gabriel Teodros (all the Mass Line artists), Macklemore and most importantly DYME DEF. All outta one city, shiiiit. And that's just a few. Indie rockers Modest Mouse also hail from the Evergreen State. Here's a remix of Blue Scholars 'Inkwell', (off of their classic self titled album) over a Modest Mouse 'Float On' beat mixed by Sabzi (the producer of Blue Scholars and also Common Market; the guy rapping in Blue Scholars is Geologic.) I dig, and that's what matters. And if I did, you dig.

DOWNLOAD HERE

This tour had about five acts, but I only arrived in time for the penultimate act, which was the Blue Scholars. I'd heard from all my Seattle friends that seeing the Blue Scholars live was amazing, but this isn't Seattle, so it was a little bit of a letdown. The crowd was low-energy as hell, which was no good. Also, the mix was such that I could hear every word that Geo spat, which was a first at any show for me, but it also kind of worked against the group's own good. First of all, it meant that the beats were low enough that only the bass was audible, which meant that all of Sabzi's great, airy samples were brushed aside. Also, it called attention to some of the group's weaker lyrical moments, and, more importantly, to the fact that Geo barely changed his cadence at all during any point in the show. The entire set was just a constant barrage of uniform meter. Overall, it was definitely a solid set, but, as the boring-ass crowd demonstrated, nothing to get excited over.

Hieroglyphics and pictures after the jump:

Hieroglyphics was a different story. Although they were performing without Del, it was clear from the outset that these were experienced performers. Hieroglyphics has been chronically underappreciated for ten years, but the beauty of that fact is that these guys perform because they love to do it. It was clear that the group was having as much fun as the crowd, which picked up considerably for Hieroglyphics' set. Even though certain members of the group were starting to look a little old, every single MC brought heat to the stage, and the collective energy of the five MCs present was reminiscent of Wu-Tang, who have clearly been an influence on Hieroglyphics. They only did one verse of the only Hieroglyphics song I've listened to more than once, "Fantasy Island," so I was hardly familiar with the music. Nonetheless, this show was live. In both senses of the word. Hieroglyphics are damn good performers, and I'm definitely going to be going back and listening to them more so I can enjoy even more the next time.

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On Saturday they came to LA and played the El Rey theater and I went with my brother. They rocked the freaking house.

This is a video of their song "Back Home"

C’est par une prière en baya’i (incompréhensible pour les occidentaux que nous sommes) et ensuite sur la page du « Second Chapter » que s’ouvre cet album pittoresque, un micro-bouillon de cultures qui incrémente dans leur hip-hop rafraîchissant aussi bien des éléments folkloriques (« Bayani », « Xenophobia », « The Distance ») que des ambiances soulful (« Ordinary Guys », « Still Got Love »). Les Blue Scholars se veulent des humbles personnes situées dans la norme, sans fausse modestie, des gens qui parlent de choses et d’autres naturellement, des rapports humains, des sujets du moment comme la guerre en Irak (« Back Home »), etc… Geologic possède un style narratif souvent descriptif bien utile pour ouvrir les yeux sur sa vision objective des choses, des problèmes culturels et sociaux dans la plupart des cas (« Fire for the People » et « 50 Thousand Deep » témoignent de leur intérêt pour la thématique sociale locale) mais lui et Sabzi sont là aussi pour représenter leur ville comme tout bons hip-hopers (« North By Northwest »), sans aucune agressivité ou violence dans leurs textes puisqu'ils viennent de la côte Pacifique... Ces représentants (trop rares) de la partie Nord-ouest des Etats-Unis nous offrent un concentré de leur savoir-faire sur « Morning for America ».

Leurs aventures ne sont pas finies, puisque les Blue Scholars ont sorti fin 2007 l'EP ainsi que le clip de « Joe Metro » et de « Loyalty ». Un album à découvrir paisiblement si l'intérêt vous en dit.