Peter Gunnz

It seems distinctly possible E-40 might be running low on beats given that he's dropping 3 albums in 1 day later this year with the Block Brochure trilogy, so here's a suggestion from ya boy who thought the title track of Cousin Fik's first 'tape was superior to anything on his more celebrated second 'tape last year - get busy over the electronic version of Peter Gunn from the 1983 Bally Midway arcade version of Spy Hunter :


I got luh for the Mancini original and the subsequent covers by Elvis, the Blues Brothers and Art Of Noise & Duane Eddy but Knuck if You Buck to all my fellow 70s babies raised in the 80s who consider the Spy Hunter version as the definitive take on Peter Gunn due to a childhood misspent in seaside towns stealing money from slot machines in order to fund their addiction to the O.G cockpit arcade game.

Droop-E sampling the obvious melody for an E-40 & B-Legit sex-jam by the name of Thigh Hunter would be cool 'n' all, but '40 is a virtuoso performer who possesses a flow so acrobatic he can tackle production the average Rapper would run a mile from and so him weaving some sort of epic D-Boy narrative storytelling track about car chases on packed freeways, backstreet blowjobs from 'hoodrats and shoot-outs in motel rooms for cocaine with semi-automatic pistols entitled Pie Hunter over the winding terrain of the full 5 minute 34 second of it here would be the ideal scenario.

Reasons why I love Youtube # 18

For the Video-Thunder homies - the very rare and secrete clip of former creepy child antiques expert-turned-Cherie Blair carbon-copy trannie Lauren "James" Harries performance of Dead Or Alive's You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) with a little help from its architect former 80s pop star-turned-UK-equivalent of Ru-Paul-meets-Mickey Rourke trannie Pete Burns on Big Brother's Bit On The Side late last year; the most surreal TV performance since Corey Feldman lip-synced What's Up With Youth on Howard Stern's old Channel 9 show in 1992 :


And for the Rap-nerd homies, in addition to my theory that Max B may have possibly pilfered his cackle from Mystikal, is it possible he also sneakily plagiarized his OWWW-ing from Pete Burns' revamped karaoke rendition of You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) on Celebrity Big Brother back in 2006 after his British man dem Tanna and the 031 UK Bloods accidentally sent him & French Montana a DVD of CBB4 highlights instead of the fabled footage of Juelz getting kidnapped and robbed in London?


SMH @ the only Rap song to interpolate You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) being by a hack like Flo Rida. Ma$e and Puffy circa '98 woulda/coulda/shoulda slayed that shit.

The grillz dat pay da billz

Blahzay Blahzay - Ice Grillz
(From Buzy Blahzay 12"; 2000)


I never had much time for either part of Danger, Pain I Feel, Blah Blah Blah, Good Cop Bad Cop or anything else from the Blahzay Blahzay LP in 1996, but this indie-era cut 12" on Fat Beats from four years later had me scrambling through the flotsam & jetsam who'd stand around in legendary defunct London record store Mr Bongo on a saturday afternoon getting in the way when I was trying to browse for old Beatnuts singles to get to the counter and ask what it was after hearing it there sometime around summer 2000.

The Blahzay lads do their thing ("when we war, your blood'll bubble when you bleed/n*ggas actin' funny when I'm with the momma of my seed"), but I'm sure even their nearest 'n' dearest would be willing to concede that P.F. Cuttin' is the star of the song with his spooky production giving the song a feel of narrow-eyed staredowns on the Brooklyn train and the scratched hook of that Busta line from his joint on the Madd Rapper album where D. Dot Rapped like a non-limp wristed Kweli being the soundtrack which always plays in my head when giving the evil-eye to teenagers in the cinema who are contemplating coming to sit near us on the back row. Shoo, back down a few tiers you fucking feral rubes.

P.F. Cuttin' must've really dug whatever the sample is on this because he reused it again 7 years later for the intro on Sean Price's Jesus Price Supastar album. P's the better rapper, but Ice Grillz goes way harder as a song.

The magic number : underappreciated 2011 Rap video moments

Officially the final 2011-themed post you'll be reading on here, but it's neccessary because I see too many bloggers looking down their noses at modern Rap videos when they surely can't even begin to appreciate certain songs in their full glory without being familiar with the facial expressions, mannerisms, hand gestures, outfits and milieu from them. Well, that and the unfortunate fact that I'm feeling existentially adrift at the moment and this is the best idea I can come up with for a post today.


Ayo Wooh Da Kid in the My G video, put your shirt on you fat fucking cun...er, I mean nice 6-pack there, dunn. You workin' out or just visitin' the same doctor as Darryn Lyons?


Lines about fellatio crop up in Louie's songs almost as frequently as the word kush and he even has his own Put It In Your Mouth of sorts with What That Mouth Do, so it makes perfect sense he'd pay homage to Degeneration X's SUCK IT! gesture in one of his videos. FYI : Louie's the HBK of this modern Rap shit and these other jobber Rappers all y'all bloggers are sweatin' are Road Dogg & Billy Gunn.


So, I was reading some snooty Noz proclamation that he "doesn't watch videos" and I was like man, how can you possibly get the most out of What's Happenin' if you don't even know that you're supposed to point to your temples when Lil' Phat says "get ya mind right" and you're unfamiliar with the Batman TV series-esque cartoon POW! font which pops on on screen when he goes on to say "chick-chick - BOW! Now you hearin' about the youngin"?

Martorial elegance # 58

TWIN TOWERS, STILL STANDIN'
NO FLY ZONE, PAPER PLANES AIN'T LANDIN'

As I type this very sentence a team of Turks are somewhere in a lock-up busily bootlegging these shirts with the Hulk Hogan 9/11 JPG on them. Hat tip to O'Eardley for finding this.

Young Mohamed Atta, no plane lessons
cocaine lessons to supply the towers
I had 40 crack and divide the towers
workin' hard to reprovide the towers

Rap - always the first artform to go there with tasteless references to atrocious acts of genocide.

Feels good, man

It's always a satisfying feeling when a certified jam you've written about that's been given the cold-shoulder by the rest of the Rap blogosphere receives a video, as proven by My Side Of The Story by A-Mafia last year :

Bitch...bitch...bitch...bitch...bitch...bitch
You deserve all six
No, I can't co-exist
Yeah, I know I ain't shit
Before I'd say "I do!" *I Don't*, I'd rather say "I quit!"
$tarlito ft. Tha Joker - Ho Problems
(From #UW: Separation Anxiety EP; 2011)


I think the reason why I feel such an affinity with 'Lito might have as much to do with him being so lithe and lanky that he appears to have major problems finding sweatshirts that are long enough in the body as his heavy-hearted music. I feel your pain, B - smalls are generally too short on some Baby GAP type shit, mediums tend to fit correct on the body but have Filipino Frank wide neck-holes and larges tend to be voluminous like DB Tha General's hoody in the Upgrade 'Em 2 in the King Of Oakland trilogy video. A depressing situation that has me feelin' like AZ in 1995 :

AZ ft. Amar Pep & Barsham - We Can't Win
(From Doe Or Die; 1995)


Always thought Anthony shoulda tried to snag Mobb Deep cameos for this cut about how Rudy Giuliani is a secrete shapeshifting reptilian pal of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff instead of letting the track's producer and some dude we never heard of again who'd just discovered The X-Files Rap on it.

Slim Dunkin = officially the new 2pac

Just like 2pac supposedly prophesied his own death on the Makaveli album with a bunch of dates to do with the number 7 or sumfink, did Slim Dunkin eerily predict his own fate with this scene from the Twin Towers 2 (Intro) video back in august?


Youtube sez : actual facts is actual facts, kid :

Neo maxi zoom DB

As a free mixtape, DB Tha General's quality control on I Invented Gas is exercised far less stringently than for his exclusive iTunes/Amazon releases like The Young OG II and The King Of Oakland, but here's the 3 reasons why I'm glad the 'tape popped up today in my feed on this bleary opening afternoon of 2012 :

DB Tha General - 1 Million Bars
(From I Invented Gas mixtape; 2012)


1. We now have an MP3 of 1 Million Barz, possibly the only Rap song to accidentally namecheck a cast member of 'Allo 'Allo..

2. Originally set for release in late november, we now know that "I'm leaking this shit for y'all over the weekend" is Rap release code for "it'll finally appear online over a month later than scheduled on the first day of the new year, my dudes!"

3. Bitch Azz N*ggaz is the best throwback Mob music jam since '40 hit us with the triumvirate of Takin' 'Em Back, Mr Flamboyant 2K11 and My Money Straight last march :

DB Tha General - Bitch Azz N*ggaz
From I Invented Gas mixtape; 2012)