no trivia

Fantagraphics is having a 75% off sale on 250 of their books and...

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:32:41 -0400

Fantagraphics is having a 75% off sale on 250 of their books and comics. Here’s what I got. You should buy some stuff!

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Songs of the Week

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:49:00 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Songs of the Week:

French Montana Is a Non-Entity! Tea-Party Beatmaker Drops Hot Garbage? Grand Hustle returns to little fanfare…Tree slurs samples. Pharrell ruins Daft Punk goodwill.

No Trivia @ SPIN: The 'U.O.E.N.O.' Rape Rap Controversy One Month Later

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:11:48 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: The 'U.O.E.N.O.' Rape Rap Controversy One Month Later:

The “U.O.E.N.O” controversy actually ended with a lot of people winning! I try to explain why it was a good example of hip-hop governing itself. Plus, more words on Childish Major.

No Trivia @ SPIN: Response to A-Trak's 'HuffPo' Molly Essay

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:07:14 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: Response to A-Trak's 'HuffPo' Molly Essay:

Really enjoyed A-Trak’s Huffington Post editorial, especially as a diagnosis of where mainstream hip-hop’s at right now and what it’s doing. But I also think this molly-scare is histrionic and weirdly racial? A hopefully, respectful response.

CITY PAPER: Review of 'Kon-Tiki'

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:32:00 -0400

CITY PAPER: Review of 'Kon-Tiki':

Reviewed the Oscar for “Best Foreign Language Film”-nominated movie Kon-Tiki for the Baltimore City Paper. It’s the story of Thor Heyerdahl, who you’ve probably heard about at some point in your life, done in this weird CGI-soaked, John Ford-gone-Wes Anderson style? This is definitely not a great movie and it’s got some problems, but I really enjoyed it, flaws and all. A secretly fucking weird as hell movie.

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Release of the Week, Mykki Blanco

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:17:39 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Release of the Week, Mykki Blanco:

This week’s pick is Mykki Blanco’s Betty Rubble: The Initiation. More all-over-the-place than Cosmic Angel (and that seems to be the point), it includes a rap-and-bullshit throwback track, and a dramatic monologue that mentions Christiane F. Yep!

CITY PAPER: On Blaqstarr's EDM Abortion DJ Set

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:52:37 -0400

CITY PAPER: On Blaqstarr's EDM Abortion DJ Set:

Despite what your cool friends will tell you, there is nothing inherently wrong with EDM and dubstep. When done well, EDM and dubstep afford the same anim…

So, I went and saw Blaqstarr on Saturday night in Baltimore. It was pretty lame. Some local types are mad about this which is to be expected. But this stuff needs to be called out. When like, excellent DJs get lazy and/or caught up in the LCD “crowd-pleasing” vortex, we need to call them on their shit. Similarly, Mannie Fresh did an EDM-ish set in New York a few months back. No one wants this!

No Trivia @ SPIN: On Kanye's Performance Art Weekend

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:48:04 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: On Kanye's Performance Art Weekend:

Something about “New Slaves,” “Black Skinhead”, and his SNL appearance. Kind of skeptical of these noise-rappy, half-corny “rock star” moves, but it’s Kanye, so it will probably end up awesome.

Haven’t done this in a while! Got lazy, and also...

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:22:00 -0400

Haven’t done this in a while! Got lazy, and also haven’t bought that many records lately. But last month, when I was doing my taxes, I realized it was super helpful for keeping track of the occasional record or digital purchase that I write-off. So, I’m resurrecting it. Also, everybody loves lists.

(Physical Music Purchased)

Boyfriend, Secret City Cassette ($5.00)
The xx, “Jamie xx Edits” 12-Inch ($11.98)
Main Attrakionz, Bossalinis & Fooliyones LP ($14.98)

(On My iPod)

Anika, Anika EP
Antwon, In Dark Denim
Chance the Rapper, Acid Rap
Cities Aviv, Black Pleasure
Gene the Southern Child, Artillery Splurgin’
Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx, We’re New Here
Gunplay, Inside I’m Sufferin’, Outside I’m Stuntin’
The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls of America
The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
Iamsu!, Suzy 6 $peed
Kevin Gates, The Luca Brasi Story
Peter Allen, The Very Best of Peter Allen
Screaming Females, Ugly
suicideyear, Japan
Thin Lizzy, Chinatown
Tim Hecker, Harmony In Ultraviolet
Tim Hecker, Mirages
Toro y Moi, Anything In Return
The xx, Coexist
The xx, xx

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Songs of the Week

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:13:15 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Songs of the Week:

Eve with Pusha T & Juicy J, Fergie with Q-Tip and Goonrock, Locksmith, Mayalino, and Vampire Weekend.

bombedatapollo: CRUCIAL

Thu, 16 May 2013 01:04:15 -0400

bombedatapollo:

CRUCIAL

I reviewed Homeboy Sandman’s Kool Herc: Fertile Crescent...

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:05:45 -0400

I reviewed Homeboy Sandman’s Kool Herc: Fertile Crescent for SPIN. Another impressive, very weird release from this guy. I also LOL @ “a New York Renaissance” that hangs its hat on Smoke DZA types. Click below to read the review:

“Last month, Hot 97 morning-show host, notoriously aggressive “real hip-hop” defender, and professional Nicki Minaj antagonizer Peter Rosenberg released the pointedly titled free mixtape New York Renaissance. Verily, the tape declared the riotous return of New York City hip-hop, mostly focusing on Internet-built buzzing talents like blog-rap cipher A$AP Rocky, tough-guy foodie Action Bronson, teenaged traditionalist Joey Bada$$, Tumblr-hop meme-grabbers Flatbush Zombies, coke-rap contender Troy Ave, and so forth.

The tape’s standout, though, was the expressionistic, sore-thumb sincerity of Homeboy Sandman’s “The Plot Thickens.” Repurposed from the rapper’s 2012 album First of a Living Breed, it boasts a bumpy, vinyl-hiss beat wed to relaxed, virtuosic lines about the evils of stop-and-frisk, the multicultural wonders of his Queens hometown, and the reasons why he’s a better rapper than everybody else. It had no business on such an in-the-pocket and obnoxiously right-now mixtape — Sandman is far removed from the pan-regional trends and post-swag lyrical expectations of this forced “movement.” His affable attitude doesn’t match the aggression-cribbed-from-the-South snarl of A$AP or the low-stakes, weeded, and totally whatever rhymes of the Curren$y-cosigned pot-rapper Smoke DZA…”

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Release of the Week, Eve

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:03 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Release of the Week, Eve:

First, read Julianne Escobedo Shepherd’s review of Eve’s new album Lip Lock. I just added some extra thoughts about this pretty good record that hopefully finds an audience. RIYL: The first half of Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, the idea of that Rye Rye album, SoundCloud weirdness.

No Trivia @ SPIN: The RIAA's On-Demand Stream Policy is Hostile to Hip-Hop

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:12:31 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: The RIAA's On-Demand Stream Policy is Hostile to Hip-Hop:

Last week, the RIAA announced that streaming (audio and video) would count towards Gold and Platinum record sales. Of course, sites like DatPiff and WorldStar aren’t considered. Here’s why that stinks!

Some 2013 albums that are slept on

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:50:00 -0400

I did this list for SPIN of slept-on first quarter rap releases. You can read it here. Below are eight more. Only a few of them are rap, though.

Anika - Anika EP
DJ Angelbaby - Get Pumped Vol. 1
Fusils A Pompe - Felix x Faure Money
Gene the Southern Child - Artillery Splurging
Lee Bannon - Caligula Theme Music 2.7.5
Mount Moriah - Miracle Temple
No Gang Colors - Def America
Western Think & Beautiful Lou - Mobbin’ No Sobbin’

What is up with Gucci Mane in 2013? Just don't understand what is up with the dude now?

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:16:58 -0400

Yeah, he’s just sort of done. Truly joyless, at this point. I don’t understand the fake-ass narrative some rap bloggers tried to push that like, “Woah he’s back again,” when his work from 2011-2012 was pretty much on the same “Dude can rap but clearly doesn’t give a shit anymore” tip but not quite so hazy and at times, hateful?

You've mentioned in the past that you took a screenwriting class and have written some screenplays. Any favorite screenwriters that you consider to be exceptionally good at their craft? I ask because I'm trying my hand at screenwriting and reading screenplays will probably be more helpful than reading Robert McKee or whoever. Also because I'm tired of everyone telling me to read William Goldman.

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:14:16 -0400

I took two screenwriting classes. One was as an undergraduate for a Communications credit and I got a B minus. The other, I took for only three days when I was in graduate school. Then I dropped out (an experience you can read all about right here). Also, yeah I have written a few screenplays but they are all pretty wretched in retrospect. And it’s been probably five years since I tried. Dunno, just trying to make it clear here that I am hardly the ideal person to ask about this sort of thing! I also can’t say I am a fan of too many screenwriters specifically, though I definitely have a few favorites I would recommend. So, here we go…

A screenwriter who seemed to consistently do good work, whoever was directing his words, is Paul Schrader. His work from The Yakuza to American Gigolo is stunning, I think (I am not including Raging Bull there on purpose because that movie stinks on every level). Like, Schrader’s writing makes a exploitation movie like Rolling Thunder 15-20% smarter than it needs to be. He knows when to be “smart” and when to just like indulge dumb movie pleasures. And there’s Taxi Driver, obviously. One of the best things about Taxi Driver is how Travis is in (almost) every scene and so the whole movie is from his perspective, but you barely even notice that, or like, it just feels organic, you know? That’s a very self-conscious technique that he doesn’t oversell and that’s what makes the movie so moving and like, ambiguous.

Another screenplay I would recommend would be River’s Edge by Neal Jimenez. I’ve never actually read the screenplay, but so much of that movie’s success hinges on the way it is structured and that to me, is screenwriting. Specifically, time is so carefully accounted for and acknowledged in that movie. The movie takes place over a few days and pretty much every hour of those days is incorporated into the script. No shortcuts or cheats or anything like that. The more you watch it, the more you see how every piece of it fits together perfectly. There’s a lot of characters and they’re all intersecting or pairing off but it all holds together in a totally anti-Magnolia super self-conscious way. Again: Doing smart things but doing them without being a big loud dick about it.

Alan Goldberg’s screenplay, Love In Vain is kind of the gold standard in that regard. It has also never been made into a movie, but the screenplay was published like a piece of literature, which is pretty amazing. Goldberg does so much with basic facts of Robert Johnson’s life and mixes a ton of research and like ethno-historical stuff from the era without any of it feeling forced. And there’s a wandering drift to the storytelling that fits the temporal living of a Delta blues dude playing, drinking, and screwing. It’s a biopic in the sense that it is a movie about a real person’s life and is heavily rooted in research and “facts,” but it doesn’t forget the “art” half of the equation, either. He gets it, man. Maybe one of the reasons it’s never been made into a movie is because it doesn’t need to be a movie to work?

Also, I just realized I didn’t discuss or even celebrate dialogue! I didn’t intend to do that, but I think that’s probably telling of what I look for, or think is important in screenwriting. It isn’t snappy clever conversations full of quotables, at all. It’s building a really rigid but invisible frame around the narrative. To me, the trick of a good screenplay is to indulge all that structure-structure-structure stuff without it being too obvious. Like, doing the three-act deal while also accounting for tangents and atmosphere is ideal.

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Songs of the Week

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:02:26 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: Rap Songs of the Week:

Ab-Soul, Action Bronson, Gene the Southern Child, Scotty, and suicideyear.

No Trivia @ SPIN: On Riff Raff's 'One Life to Live' Appearance

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:01:13 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: On Riff Raff's 'One Life to Live' Appearance:

Riff Raff shows up a weird soap and display late-Brando anti-actor swagger. Also, One Life to Live is a fucking weird-ass show.

No Trivia @ SPIN: Chance the Rapper & Acid

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:02:25 -0400

No Trivia @ SPIN: Chance the Rapper & Acid:

Cheated this week and gave Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap the “rap release of the week” because I just wanted to talk about this mixtape some more. Mostly just me talking about how it makes me wanna do acid again.