How much do I love that Bill Clinton not only makes things sound so simple….AND he manages to reference the apple pie joke that Jon Stewart makes in the clip that I put in the last post.

LOL @ “After you eat 250, you won’t care that you don’t own a home.”

LOL @ the “bar of loving Obama enough”

I’m no expert, and I’m not prepared to debate on this guy’s legacy or actions during his wife’s campaign….but I just like him.

(pic spotted at NY Mag)

Or…we can just keep debating about rap.

So I’m reading that the House of Reps voted no to that $700 billy bailout plan. And now markets both here (Dow Jones) and around the world are reacting by dropping down and getting their toasted eagles on.

me? I’m just confused and concerned because on the one hand, I was kind of wondering if this $700b plan was gonna thoroughly punish the losers for losing, or make us regular folks pay for their recklessness. I was also wondering if the critics were right about the plan being too rushed, and giving too much power to this guy Henry Paulson. (I mean, didnt he demand that there would be no questioning no monitoring no peeking from anyone else on what he was doing?) But then if both McCain and Obama agreed the plan needed to be passed, and lots of folks said that not passing it could trigger a way bigger collapse….then maybe it was a necessary evil? (Here’s an awesomely pessimistic clip on NYtimes.com)

Most of all, I’m just stressed because I dont know enough to form an opinion and I can’t ask my smart friends, because we all read more rap blogs than finance blogs and its too late to catch up now! (sigh)

Hopefully Jon Stewart will help me, but that’s not for another 7 hours. And judging from the looks of the news now….we’re already screwed.
At least his pre-bailout bust report was hilarious…

I went to the WSOHH 25k x 4 rap battle….which was held in what I’m pretty sure was a giant’s armpit. (and the giant was wearing a leather jumpsuit, in the subway, by the way)….Mikey already posted some of the battle videos in the previous post. (“royale” may have been a stretch)

Now, I dont really know what else to add about the battle, because…well, there’s no conclusion yet. WTF. Due to an archaic text-voting system, we still have no winner. You have to pay 99cents to vote (?!?!) and I can’t seem to find a deadline for the votes….sooooo…I guess folks in the Bronx won’t know if they’re gonna beat up folks from Philly until…what…first day of spring?

I missed Murder Mook murdering (heard that was the best part of the night…I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that it was also the most oxygenated)….I definitely saw Lady Luck annihilating (and rece steele suffering from extreme hair-frizz). And as for Ness vs Mysonne. I dunno. Ness was definitely thrown off when he realized that he had to go 5 rounds instead of 3. So his last 2 rounds sounded like leftover Dylan (Dylan Dylan) disses. But in the first couple rounds, Ness may have had the upper hand. I kind of lost interest after the juicy first round…..either that or I started to lose consciousness.

(but big up to the friendly Bang Bang Boogie guys who made sure I didnt get squished)

Now one thing I will say….

Favorite line of the night: Lady Luck “When I come through, I got the roof missin’, when Rece come thru she got a tooth missin’.”

dead.

Most uncomfortable moment: When Ness said something in his rhyme about, Cuban Linx you can get a scar on your other cheek…..and um, Cuban was right there in the corner, with the smile and the nod. For the rest of the battle, I kept checking to make sure Cuban was still in his corner. If not…I was ready to stop, drop and roll right out the door.

Somehow I think that’s gonna come back to haunt us.

more photos after the jump….

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Mysonne Vs. E. Ness

It went down last in Harlem – 8 emcees, a crowded room full of rowdy spectators, and a lot of tough talk = a money fueled rap battle sponsored by the World Series of Hip-Hop.

Round 1 – Undercard 10k

T-Rex (NY) vs. Tech 9 (Philly)

Round 2 – 25k

Murda Mook (NY) vs. Young Hot (Philly)

Round 3 – 25k

Lady Luck (NJ) vs. Rece Steele (NY)

Round 4 – Main Event – 25k

Mysonne (NY) vs. E. Ness (Philly)

Reminiscent of Smack DVD and Fight Klub’s glory days, both Philly and New York’s best battle rhymers sparked some excitement back into the ill-fated rap battle. But judge for yourselves, really though the winners are yet to be determined and will be decided by the fans. Hit up World Series of hip hop to vote.

Philly’s Tech 9 surprised a lot of NY heads and gave the more experienced T-Rex a run for his money. There were defintely more then a few beards in the building, but Murda Mook ate new comer Young Hot like a Philly cheesteak, and possibly had the most entertaning rhymes of the night. As for the ladies, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Lady Luck barely had to break a sweat for this one, peep. The real nail-biter was Mysonne vs. Ness, and even with my view while balancing on top of 2 chairs next to Joe Budden, I think a several more replays are still needed for my verdict.

(All the battles after the jump)

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(thanks to Mike Fresh for the heads up)

Love how Chris masters the hug/slice manuever so well….to Terrence “You Read?” and “That was so original! All of the videos on BET, none of them look alike!”…..

“My favorite R&B singer….is Lou Rawls.”

“I’m broke….I’m on 106 n Park, right….People don’t know, I’m replacing Rozzi [sic…come’on, man]. (Terrance: Is that an upgrade or downgrade?)….I love BET. I used to watch your father AJ on this show…he’s proud of you. Your moms Free is a little sad. She wants you to go back to college.”

(But note to Mr Rock….you need to get out of Alpine, NJ more often…yes, there are plenty of Asian-American fans in the hip hop world…even ones willing to stand in line outside of Black Entertainment Television, lol. I’m surprised at his surprise….)

(props to Freddyo)

I’m surprised no one has done a digital age remake of the classic Hoodratz track “Bootlegga“….oh, yeah…because its futile, lol.

Ha@ what Nahright posted in response…

” The game is digital now, but most of you artists and labels are still working an analog hustle. Just because you launched a social networking site and threw a couple of “blogs” up on Youtube, doesn’t mean you know what the fuck you’re doing. And you can talk tough in videos like this one all you want, but unless you’re putting out some dope product, nobody has to buy your album. The days of ya’ll selling us 1 or 2 dope songs for the price of 20 are over.”

well, it wasn’t exactly a screening, because both of the videos shown are already out: the one with Chris Brown “I Know What Them Girls Like”; and the one featuring Floyd Mayweather, “Undisputed.” But it was really nice to hear Luda talk casually about the videos, his new album, the false reports of his retirement, and of course, his “suspicious” pool house fire…..Luda played a couple tracks off “Theater of the Mind,” including a song called “MVP” produced by DJ Premier, a song called “Everybody Hates Chris” produced by Don Cannon and featuring Chris Rock, and more.
He also confirmed that he is working on a duo-album with Shawwna called “Battle of the Sexes.” Interesting!

(Mike Fresh was on hand to capture the action….)

Much love to everyone that I chatted with at the party: my girl Yvette Davila, Chris Atlas, BoBo, Nile, Nigel, Pecas (Happy Belated), Jeff Dixon and his dad (another Happy Bday), Chaka Zulu, Shakir Stewart (the heir, lol), Ced, Mazzi, Wendy (Nitrolicious), and of course Ludacris himself.

after the jump…. further evidence that there’s something wrong with me, lol….

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(Kaws x Reas = the most subversive second childhood ever. Kaws wasnt actually showing, he was just showing support….lol, I couldnt hear Todd when he introduced the guy in the middle, but luckily Kaws schooled me to the fact that its KR the creator of all things Krink! Indelible ink!)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, some of my favorite artists were on hand at the opening of Steve Lazarides’ The Outsiders NY show….make sure you check out the show, which is open to the public for the next month.

Even though I missed seeing my book editor supreme, Dana Albarella-James and young Helen (the Future)….it was still nice seeing all the interesting pieces, chatting with Todd James aka Reas, seeing Kaws (one of my favorite artists and a lovely fellow), and catching up with the boys, Noah Callahan-Bever (Complex jefe), Brent Rollins (Ego Trip and more) etc….

click to see more party pics after the jump….
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More new Killa F–kin Cam leaks off his upcoming Crime Pays album…..this CD-quality track comes courtesy of the homie Legend (Onsmash)…..

Cam’ron “Still The Reason”

Cam is the anti-Ye/50….recluse rap!

(this is a photo of Atrak, me, and Kid Sister backstage at SummerJam ’08….there are a couple weird things happening geometrically in this pic***)

Thank you to DJ Nick Catchdubs, who runs Fool’s Gold Records with the homie Atrak…..for sending over this happy shiny song from Kid Sister. (She’s from Chicago like me, which is super added extra credit)

“Family Reunion” is featuring David Banner and produced by Diplo (of “Paper Planes” and Santo Gold fame)

Click here to download the song.

***ok, so first off…this pic makes Atrak look like a giant! I mean, sure, I’m small, but I’m like a pygmy here. Also….this pic makes it look like Kid Sister has one leg. Either her other leg is tucked in her skirt, flamingo-style….or, she’s got amazing balance.