Everything Was Going According To Plan, Man

That line above breaks my heart every time I hear it. RIP Subroc.
I wrote about Stones Throw's crazy deluxe remastered reissue of Operation: Doomsday in the May issue of Exclaim! Yup, it comes with a DOOM lunchbox, take a gander.
Peep the "?" video above on the direct link for some cool director's commentary from director Piston Honda.
Apparently the original DOOM mask was created by Lord Scotch aka KEO aka Jonathan Lethem's brother (read The Fortress of Solitude, it tells Scotch's story), using a mask from Kane from WWE. Something like this, probably.

Pitchfork's Ian Cohen summed up Operation: Doomsday pretty well if you haven't heard it. Read Icy On Purpose, basically.

It's just slang rap democracy

Just reviewed Raekwon's live show over at Exclaim! Rae was one of the few rappers who returned to where he started and it benefitted him. Was surprised to see a lot of people there knew all the words to the OBCL2 material. Nice to see. Click the excerpt below to read the whole thing.

"How many of y'all fuck with real hip-hop?" Raekwon shouted as he took to the Ritual stage a few minutes past midnight. Clad in a military jacket and a Yankees cap, the Wu-Tang MC began his set with his star-making verse from "C.R.E.A.M.," which the energized crowd shouted word for word. Backed by a DJ and hypeman, Rae blazed through a succession of early Wu highlights, from the murky bass of "Da Mystery of Chessboxing" to his vivid opening verse on "Can It All Be So Simple." Every few songs, the DJ cut the beat and Rae freaked it a cappella to the delight of the crowd. The hypeman commanded the audience to chant Wu-Tang and they complied without hesitation, throwing their W's in the air.

Highlight of the night: seeing a girl recite Ghostface's absolutely filthy verse on "Jihad" verbatim. That's probably someone's wifey, damn!

Passion of the Weiss: "The Death of the Saviour Emcee"

Wrote a longer piece at Passion about hip-hop's obsession with finding a saviour for the genre. Quite proud of this one. Click the excerpt below to read the whole feature.

What revisionist rap fans forget is that the Roots were lamenting the state of the genre in ’96, a year which brought us ATliens, All Eyez On Me, The Score, Hell On Earth and Reasonable Doubt. Nas was supposed to save purists from pop-rap in ’94 but two years later, Jones became part of the problem with It Was Written (at least in their eyes.) Fast forward a few years later, and rap hit the peak of its commercialism. At the height of the jiggy era, the East Coast rap scene was hungry for a popular rapper who rapped well about something more resonant than cash, money and hoes. Bad Boy owned shiny-suit-and-ties rap over 80s pop tracks, while Ruff Ryders delivered aggressive club bangers, but select fans felt like there was something missing. Purist fans expected a lyricist who would make no concessions to commercial appeal.

Plus: Just reviewed Blueprint's new album Adventures in The Counter-culture for Exclaim!, click the excerpt for the whole shebang.

Blueprint's sophomore album has been a long-time coming, arriving six years after his 2005 solo debut, 1988. The Columbus, OH rapper/producer has kept busy in the meantime, teaming with RJD2 and fellow OH resident Illogic in the groups Soul Position and Greenhouse, respectively. With Adventures in the Counter-Culture, Printmatic makes a conscious move beyond boom-bap as a solo artist.

"Keep Bouncing" is one of my favourite tracks off the album. Don't sleep on the video chica in the bookie visor either.



Rewind. A few other recent writeups for Exclaim!:
Pharaohe Monch - W.A.R.
Cunninlynguists - Oneirology
Raekwon - Shaolin Vs. Wu Tang
Lupe Fiasco - Lasers