SOHH Left Coast

As strange as it is to be going from yesterday’s blog about a documentary that denounces gangbanging to today’s blog about an up and coming rapper who glorifies it, that’s the way things go. Hip hop is a fickle- not to mention hypocritical -culture, and as much as I would love to write a daily blog about positive things happening in hip hop, I’d probably run out of subject matter in 3 days and not come across anything else for a month. And truth be told, I doubt it would garner much interest.

That said, we gotta keep it movin’ (to the K.I.M.)...

A little more than a week ago when Dr. Dre called in to Power 106 to discuss a few of the details about Detox’s release in 2007, he mentioned the names of two “new guys” he’d be working with in the near future The first name was one that we’re pretty much all familiar with at this point- Bishop Lamont. But the second name was one that I hadn’t really heard before; or if it was, it wasn’t a name that really caught my attention. That second name was Slim The Mobster.

I checked out dude’s myspace page, and besides a quick mention of a mixtape with DJ Clue, he had some pretty dope tracks on there, two of which were “Ten Gat Commandments” and “Right There”. The latter track has a simple, low-budget-sounding beat, but it’s a fresh little melody so it pops off pretty well. And as for “Ten Gat Commandments”... Well, check it out for yourself.

I’m definitely feeling that slowed down beat with the sitar sample; it kinda reminds me of a cross between “Give It To Me” from Mobb Deep and “Tried By Twelve” (one of my favorite songs of all time) by East Flatbush Project. Dude proves on this one that he can adapt and ride a slow beat better than a lot of vets out there, while he proves on some of his other tracks that he can flip some different shit. While so many new rappers are popping up these days, barely any of ‘em can switch their style up. Just based on the couple of songs from his myspace page, I’m pretty convinced that he can actually do that without coming off as schizophernic, and that’s one of the reasons this dude is living up to the hype for me.

It’s speculation to say that Slim will be dropping an album on Aftermath, although at this point, all signs are saying that’s the case. But even if he is indeed the newest Aftermath signee, one need only to look at Dre’s track record of putting out albums from some other Aftermath artists, namely The Last Emperor, Hittman and of course the biggest letdown, Rakim.

If you’re interested in finding out a little more about Slim, here’s a little documentary that shows a little more of who he is and where he comes from. While a good portion of it is your typical gangster posturing and arms-brandishing fare, he definitely has a couple interesting things to say about being locked up towards the end. If you do choose to watch it though, be forewarned that it runs a little long (around 11 minutes).

You can also check Slim’s myspace page at www.myspace.com/slimdamobsta.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (232)

I know that two blogs about documentaries in a 7-day period might be a little heavy for some of you, but in the wider scope of things this is way more important than any other topic I could have chosen to write about today. With the way ignorance is currently plaguing hip hop, which is a culture that once prided itself on the fundamentals of knowledge, it can’t hurt to shed some light on something that has the potential to spread a little bit of positive growth.

Up to this point, I’m fairly sure that not too many of you are familiar with the name Cle “Bone” Sloan, although I’m sure quite a few of you caught him in Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day, where he plays one of the Bloods who refuses to do Alonzo’s (Denzel Washington) dirty work in one of the film’s final scenes. But with Bastards Of The Party, Sloan- with the help of Fuqua, who serves as producer - is making a name for himself as a director and narrator by presenting us with one of the most in-depth, personal, and historically rich accounts of gang culture that has ever hit the screen.

Sloan, who was an Athens Park Blood himself, set out to learn the history behind the culture of violence that he had adopted as his own and in doing so, decided to lay out his findings on film. For a first-time director, Cle Sloan does an incredible job of laying out a decade-by decade timeline of how the Bloods and Crips came to be what they are today. While the history is far too vast to capture every incident that ever took place, Cle does an amazing job of prioritizing, and laying out some of the major events that played a role in the evolution- or de-evolution -of Los Angeles gangs. He also provides some harrowing interviews from past and present-day Bloods and Crips, as well as some amazing archival footage.

But one of the main points of the film- and the theory from which Sloan derived the documentary’s title -is that the birth of the Bloods and Crips was a direct result of the disbanding of the Black Panther Party. And as far-fetched of an idea as this might sound to some of you, the evidence overwhelmingly supports this claim. (And although the film doesn't cover it at all, the same theory applies to modern-day gangs in Chicago.)

With hip hop idolizing gang lifestyle the way that it does- especially West Coast hip hop -I can’t stress how important this film is for people to watch, especially since a good portion of dudes out there bangin’ probably don’t know shit about the history of the sets they bang. There’s no way that my words could possibly do this film the justice that it deserves; Bastards is easily one of the most mesmerizing, frightening and eye-opening documentaries I’ve ever seen; yet one can’t help but feel sad that things have gone this far and gotten this out-of-control. If there will ever be a piece of media that’s accessible enough to make it painfully clear that gangbanging is, in its purest essence, total bullshit, than this is it.

I know the old adage that “Knowledge is Power” is a little cliched, so look at it this way: the less you know, the easier it is for people with knowledge to take advantage of you. Being apathetic to the point that you don’t know shit about your history, your current events or your future is dangerous, but it’s scary how the majority of the youth today is ignoring that fact.

Bastards Of The Party airs Wednesday night on HBO. You’ll have to check your local listings for exact times, but if there’s one thing you watch on cable this year, I would highly recommend making this a priority. For any of you that have had the chance to watch this since its debut on February 6th, let me know your thoughts on it.

In the meantime, here’s a trailer for the film:

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (248)

Hopefully everyone had a good weeekend, and since that Vh1 special on Sierra Leone aired again yesterday, I hope that some more of you had the chance to watch it. But as we always do, we’re going to start the week off on a positive note with another West Coast Classic.

Now in hip hop when people mention the West Coast, 95% of the time, they’re talking about California. It’s not so much a generalization, as it is observation; most of the rap that’s come from this side of the map has come Cali, just as most of the hip hop albums to come from the East have been from the state of New York (and even more specifically, from New York City.)

But there was at least one rapper to make some big waves from a state other than California, and today we’re gonna give him some shine. His name was Sir Mix-A-Lot, and he came out reppin’ Seattle, Washington.

Although he became a household name when “Baby Got Back” dropped in 1991 (and I’m sure he’s still getting fat ass royalty checks from that song), Mix-A-Lot actually had quite a few decent songs before and after that, and a couple of those songs garnered some moderate success as singles. Just about anyone who’s ever been to a strip club has heard “Put ‘Em On the Glass,” and pretty much everybody over the age of 21 has heard “My Hooptie” at some point or another- even “Buttermilk Bisquits” blew up a little bit. But the runner-up to “Baby Got Back” in terms of radio play and general success has got to be 1988’s “Posse On Broadway.”

Unfortunately, Mix-A-Lot all but disappeared not long after he dropped , although it wasn’t for lack of trying to stay in the game. When all was said and done, he dropped six full lengths (with the most recent being Daddy’s Home in 2003), an EP and a best-of album. He also recently popped up on the awful West Coast remix of Nas’ “Where Are They Now.”

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)

I’m only gonna touch on this real quick since I know people flip out when I speak on anything that’s not West Coast-related, but some things transcend coastal properties, and this case it even transcends hip hop to some extent. I hope some of you got a chance to catch the Vh1 special last night on conflict diamonds and Sierra Leone, “Bling’d: Blood, Diamonds, and Hip Hop.”

While I’m sure pretty much everyone is at least somewhat familiar with the scenarios that were presented during the presentation, the more the word gets put out there, the better. And Vh1 did a good job with providing some powerful images and some pretty heartbreaking stories. I don’t know what kind of effect it had on the artists that went to Sierra Leone- those artists being Paul Wall, Raekwon and Tego Calderon -but I suspect that their intentions were pure in being part of the project, and hopefully each of them got something out of it. Especially the one who profits like a motherfucker off of the diamond trade by making a $500,000 diamond grill for Lil’ Wayne.

I’m assuming that Vh1 will be airing repeats of the special; I highly recommend setting aside some time to watch it if they do. And if you'd like to learn more about the subject, there's tons of info out there at your disposal. Spend 30 minutes learning about something important next week instead of arguing over dumb shit on a the boards.

And now, back to business.

Yesterday was a sad day in SOHH Left Coast world. When I posted the list of the 100-plus artists that Dr. Dre has worked with up to this point, it was to prove a point: that it would be virtually impossible to collaborate with everyone he had ever worked with on Detox, which is something Dre said he was looking to do. The improbability of that happening was the whole point behind the blog, and I was fairly confident that everybody would see that, but apparently SARCASM is something that a lot of readers are unfamiliar with.

To further simplify the point I was trying to get across yesterday, it ain’t gonna happen.

And for Brillyancestar, who was looking for the name of the joint that Dre did with Chace Infinite, the song was called “Assassins LLC,” and it was apparently on DJ Muggs’ Hits For Hire mixtape. Good luck finding it though... after the whole DJ Drama/Cannon scandal, resources are pretty scarce out there.

In new releases this week, Visionaries Crew member and annoyingly nasal emcee LMNO dropped a new album called Workethic, Mob Figaz dropped a new mixtape titled AP.9 Presents: The Life and Times of The Mob Figaz, and Thizz Nation Volumes 9 thru 11 dropped featuring Rydah J Klyde, Bavgate and Johnny Cash, respectively.

Last but not least, for those of you who didn’t get to see DJ Skee’s video of the so-called “confrontation” between The Game and Young Buck duringAll Star Break last weekend, here it is:

Everyobdy have a good weekend; I’ll see you next week.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 1:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (227)

As I’m sure everybody read yesterday, Dr. Dre announced on Power 106 that he will definitely be releasing Detox in 2007, and that the album will have 12 or 13 songs. He also stated the following:

"I'm trying to get everybody that I've ever worked with over the years to appear on the records.”

With that said, these would be the guest stars on the album:

-Jimmy Z
-JJ Fad
-Lady of Rage
-The Party
-Stat Quo
-Snoop Dogg(y Dogg)
-Nine Inch Nails
-Above The Law
-Dawn Robinson
-Method Man
-Killa Ben
-Knoc-turn’al
-Truth Hurts
-DMX
-Rakim
-E-A Ski
-Royce Da 5’9”
-Jay Z
-Ras Kass
-Toni Braxton
-Mobb Deep
-40 Glocc
-Jelly Roll
-B-Real
-Nature
-RBX
-DJ Muggs
-DJ Clue
-Obie Trice
-Ab Liva
-Bilal
-Burt Bacharach
-Joe Beast
-Xzibit
-Jadakiss
-Busta Rhymes
-Gwen Stefani
-Every rapper who was on “We’re All in the Same Gang”
-The D.O.C.
-Too Short
-DJ Quik
-Eve (of Destruction)
-Chris Botti
-Devin The Dude
-Hittman (By the way, where’s his album?)
-Nas
-Kurupt
-50 Cent
-Michel’le (Dre’s former girlfriend)
-L.V. (of “Gangsta’s Paradise” fame)
-The Game
-Mack 10
-Stat Quo
-Chace Infinite
-Phatsi Bossi
-Kokane
-Mary J. Blige
-D12
-Master P.
-The Rolling Stones
-Tray Dee
-Sticky Fingaz
-Nate Dogg
-Rappinstine
-King Tee
-Ms. Roq
-Mel Man
-Warren G
-AZ
-Goldie Loc
-Mix Master Spade
-Bobby Jimmy and The Critters
-MC Ren
-Dat Nigga Daz
-Toddy Tee
-Foxy Brown
-Defari
-Rose Royce
-Group Therapy
-Scarface
-LL Cool J
-RBX
-Yella
-Ice Cube
-C.I.A
-Eminem

Damn. Those are gonna be some long ass songs.

And I even left a couple of people out.

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Since it’s Thursday, here’s this week’s City Guide for, um... the entire West Coast. Hit me up if you have any events coming up.

Thursday, February 22 (TONIGHT)
The Clipse Secret Myspace Show
1530 Ivar
Hollywood, CA
FREE
Doors @ 10pm

Saturday, March 3rd
The Jacka, Big Rich, Equipto
Fat City
314 11th Street
San Francisco, CA
$15 presales, $20 at the door
Doors @8:30, Show starts @ 9:30

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 1:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (282)

While the core members of the Dogg Pound are set to release their next album, Dogg Chit, on March 27th, there’s going to be some other activity coming from the DPG camp in the next months as well.

Recently, Kurupt and his new fiance’ Gail Gotti announced the date for their wedding, but they also made another announcement- that they’d be releasing an album together, John and Yoko style. With that allegorical reference made, you can probably guess how I felt about that idea. But just in case you can’t, I’ll simplify it for you. I was skeptical.

But then I went to Kurupt’s Myspace page to check things out for myself.

I gotta say man, the shit is a lot better than I would’ve expected. Of course we know Kurupt can spit- that’s a given -but what about his girl? Truth be told, a big part of my skepticism about the album was due to the fact that I had never heard Gail spit. But now I can safely say that the chick can keep up with Kurupt Young Gotti.

Right now, all I have to go on is the strength of one song- “Rap Or Death,” featuring Prodigy from Mobb Deep. But if the majority of the tracks on the album end up being of as high a caliber as that one, this should be some shit to look forward to. While there’s currently no release date set, they’re apparently shooting for sometime in Summer of ‘07. To hear “Rap Or Death,” you can check out Kurupt’s myspace page at www.myspace.com/therealkurupt.

On to the next album...

Anyone who pays attention to West Coast hip hop is familiar with the name Priest “Soopafly” Brooks. Besides being one of the best (and most consistent) producers on the Left Coast, Soopafly has also proven himself as a rapper in the meantime through numerous guest spots. Although a lot of his appearances have been limited to short singing parts, anyone who’s ever heard him rhyme can vouch- dude can definitely hold his own.

After producing countless joints for countless artists, Soopafly has finally released a solo album, titled Bangin’ West Coast. While he did release a compilation in 2001 called Dat Whoopty Woop, this will serve as his first proper release. I’m not sure if the album is being distributed on a major scale, but for now it’s available for purchase at Soopafly’s first myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/soopaflydpgc. As expected, there are guest spots on Bangin’ from Daz, Kurupt and Snoop on several tracks, as well as B-Real, Nate Dogg and Damani.

 There are several songs on Soopafly’s myspace that you can check out at http://www.myspace.com/flyguydpgc, but there’s a song called that isn’t on there, and it’s definitely worth checking out. The song is called “That Way,” and you can check it out at dubcnn.com. Soopafly is also currently working on the Western Union album with Damani and Bad Lucc, so keep an eye out for that in the near future.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (291)

We got a couple of things to touch on today...

First off, the All Star break generated far fewer headlines than I predicted. While I would love to conclude that this means the hoards of hip hop artists who descended on the City of Sin for the weekend conducted themselves in a responsible and mature fashion, I highly doubt that’s the case.

A more realistic conclusion would be that: A) Dudes knew the porkchop patrol would be out in full muthafuckin’ effect this weekend, and therefore they kept a low profile, and B) getting your pockets ran through/ chain snatched/ etc. by local vegas grimys is an embarrassing situation, and one best kept out of the media dailies if possible. I’m pretty sure that dudes came crew-heavy and/or bodyguard-heavy to Vegas to avoid scenario B, but there’s a rumor circulating that at least one rapper did lose his chain this weekend.

The one big story that did seem to emerge from this weekend (besides the false rumor about E-40 being involved in a major car crash) was the reported near-scuffle between The Game and Young Buck at a T.I./Young Jeezy party. For those of you who haven’t already heard the story in one of it’s various forms, Young Buck got up on stage while Jeezy was up there and started making gestures at The Game and his crew, who were seated in the VIP area. Jayceon and company apparently started making their way down to the stage, but were stopped short by security, who apparently escorted Buck and Jeezy outside while restraining Game and his squad. Both artists apparently went the rest of the weekend without incident, but the craziest part of the whole situation is that Game was reportedly looking to diffuse the situation rather than aggravate it. If that’s true, I gotta say I’m proud dude is finally trying to take the high road. But first I’m gonna have to wait another week to see if any new G-Unot diss tracks pop addressing the subject. And for being one of the few people Game has actually given dap to in the last year, this certainly puts Jeezy in an uncomfortable situation.

All in all though, I’m glad to hear everybody made it out of Vegas alive. Who would've guessed that two rappers who hold such a well-publicized grudge against one another (and who both have a penchant for tempermental violent outbreaks in clubs) could be in the same room without taking things to fisticuffs or worse? I guess it just goes to show ya... that's entertainment...

Don’t forget to holler at the SOHH Left Coast Myspace Page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (225)

Since all of the rumors popped up this weekend about E-40 getting in a car accident, it’s only right we start the week off with a West Coast classic from 40 Belafonte himself. And for those of you haven’t caught up on the news yet, the car accident rumor was untrue; according to an email I got from his publicist, 40’s doing fine.

One thing I’m having trouble understanding is why so many people started hating on E-40 in the past year or so. Besides Too Short and ‘Pac, he’s arguably the biggest rapper to make it big out of the bay and in a career that’s lasted over 15 years, he’s continued to stay relevant. He’s almost 40 years old, and yet he put out a dope album last year, seen a ton of the mainstream success and radio play that’s eluded him for much of his career, and has been a constant to go-to man for memorable guest appearances. But although there are people who hate on what he’s doing these days, there aren’t too many hip hop fans who have negative things to say about any of his early work.

When E-40 dropped The Mailman in 1993 his unique style of rapping not only grabbed the attention of thousands of rap fans in Northern Cali, but of Jive Records. In one of the first examples of independent record labels blowing up on their own and then moving on to bigger and better things, 40 signed a distribution deal with Jive in ‘94 for himself and his label, Sick Wid It, for $3.5 million. That’s big money now; imagine how much money it was 13 years ago.

But the video for “Captain Save-A-Hoe” was quite obviously made before the big budget video days. That said, it succeeded in proving that a little bit of creativity goes a long way when an artist has limited funds for a video shoot. As simple as it is, the premise for the video was a decent idea, and the dude playing the Captain was stupid funny.

“Captain Save-A-Hoe” featured appearances from the rest of The Click, which included 40’s sister Suga T, his cousin B-Legit The Savage and his brother D-Shot. While every member of The Click typically came with hot verses (although I always thought B-Legit came the hardest other than 40 Water), in my humble opinion this song is still one of the best examples of their talent.

Of course “Hurricane” was a classic in it’s own right, but we’ll save that one for another day.

Holler at the official SOHH Left Coast Myspace page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)

I didn’t get around to mentioning any of the albums that dropped this week (other than the Keak, Messy Marv and P.S.D. album that I was talking about last week, so I’m going to take the opportunity to catch up on it today.

All you Cellski fans out there probably already know but for anyone who didn’t, the Bay Area legend dropped the follow-up to his 1995 classic (back when he was still going by Young Cellski), Mr. Predicter. The album is titled, appropriately enough, Mr. Predicter Chapter 2.

Although people’s feelings towards him on these boards seem to be generally negative, but I should still let you know that Keak Da Sneak dropped a new joint on Tuesday called On One. Kinda strange to release a solo album on the same day you’re releasing a collabo album with two other cats, but I guess Keak is a complex dude. Or something like that.

This one kind of came outta nowhere, but South Central Cartel also dropped a new album on the 13th, entitled Westurrection. If I had to guess, I would assume that they didn’t take that title for a test run by, I don’t know... saying it out loud before handing it in. 40 Glocc, San Quinn and Ms Kane al make guest appearances on the album.

In upcoming release news, fans of good hip hop will be pleased to hear that DJ Muggs and Gza will be releasing the Grandmasters Remix Album on March 9th. The album will feature 12 remixes from what the press release is hailng as “some of the hottest producers in the game,” and will come packaged with a DVD featuring footage from the Grandmasters World Tour.

Also, we have one last addition to the itinerary for crazy-ass All Star weekend in Vegas. E-40 and Lil Scrappy will be performing on Saturday at a free Myspace Secret Show hosted by Mike Jones. The all ages show will take place at University Theatre and the doors open at noon. If you read my blog yesterday, you can officially add this to my list of places in Las Vegas where things are going to get sketchy in a very short amount of time.

As always, I hope everyone has a good weekend. If you’re out in Vegas, tuck ya chain and keep your dick dry, because this weekend is gonna be a doozy.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

So unless you’ve been living in a shoebox for the past month, you already know that this weekend is the NBA All Star weekend. As is the case every year, droves of NBA stars and greasy rap dudes will descend on the weekend with visions of debauchery dancing in their heads.

Except for that this year is worse. Because this time the weekend is in the City of Sin.

Last year in Houston, the only thing you had to worry about was Steve Nash gettin’ his lean on after getting overcharged for Promethazine by the shady looking dude in his hotel lobby, or a tumbleweed getting some dust on Jigga’s new baby dolphin-skin loafers. But 2007 has presented a veritable Pandora’s Box of scenarios that can go wrong.

Putting NBA players in a room with hookers is one thing; they’re used to it at this point (You saw He Got Game, didn’t you? Recruitment tactics, son!), and for most of them, that kind of pressure isn’t shit. In fact, half of the players married hookers. But putting NBA players in a city full of coke, gambling and hookers? Shit is gonna hit the fan. Or fans. If you think Artest was testy that fateful night in Detroit, just wait ‘til you see him playing after a 29 hour coke binge.

And I haven’t even mentioned the rap dudes yet...

Regular, real-life certified rap stars are going to be a big enough problem this weekend; as egos will be in even higher gear than usual, plus we all remember what happened to ‘Pac when he was in town for the Tyson/Seldon fight in ‘96. But what about all of the bummy ass nobodys who had the good sense and opportunistic mind to make hotel reservations early? All Star weekend is one of the few events where rappers, famous and obscure alike, will be gathering side by side to display their plumage and strut their shit. With everyone gunning for attention and doing their best to show what a badass they are, it’s a given that someone’s going to get their toes stepped on and will subsequently end up starting some shit.

Which leads me to the next section...

In the past couple of days, SOHH has posted numerous All Star popoffs that various rap dudes and/or sports dudes are putting together. Anyone who can correctly guess where the biggest melee will be this weekend will win all of the money. Which is, of course, no money at all.

For the record I’m placing my marker on anything that Jim Jones has his grubby little hands on, specifically that shit that him and Stringer Bell are hosting together- that has bad news written all over it. Plus we all know that things tend to jumpoff when Capo goes to b-ball games. Let’s just hope snitch-ass Lil Cease doesn’t show up.

Either way, I'm expecting some biblical type of shit this weekend; you know, the rapture. Plagues and swarms of locusts... all of that shit. But we'll see.

And since it’s Thursday, here’s your City Guide:

If you’re ballin like that (yes, ballin’ with only one A... that other shit is played out, kids) here are a few things popping off this weekend in Las Vegas... Also, there are all of the events that have been posted in the News section the last few days.

2007 NBA ALLSTAR WEEKEND
LAS VEGAS
Friday Feb 16, 2007
Joe Jaxson . BIGGA . Suave . NiteLife Ent.
presents
NE-YO ALLSTAR MANSION PARTY
OFFICIAL CONCERT AFTER-PARTY
HOSTED BY NE-YO, NICK CANNON, and DALLAS COWBOYS- DeMARCUS WARE
at
THE PARADISE MANSION
4450 West Capovilla Ave. Las Vegas, NV
"A Gated 2 Acre Paradise Estate with its own Private NightClub"
ENJOY A TOP SHELF OPEN BAR ALL NIGHT
featuring Music by
Hot 97's
DJ Envy "The People's Choice"
&
NYC's Top Club DJ
DJ Kaos "The Main Event"
Doors Open at 9pm
General Admission $150 ( $100 Online at VEGASMANSIONPARTY.COM)
Entrance to Mansion NightClub & Top Shelf Open Bar
VIP Admission $200
Entrance to Mansion NightClub & Top Shelf Open Bar
RoundTrip MotorCoach Transportation from Vegas Strip Hotels, Meet &
Greet Artist and Access Inside the Mansion-VIP
No Long Lines, Valet Parking and Immediate Entry for all ticket holders
for more info and tickets
www.vegasmansionparty.com
..........................................................................................................................................
Saturday Feb 17, 2006
BIGGA - Joe Jaxson - NiteLife Ent.
presents
BALLIN'
NBA ALL-STAR MANSION PARTY
Hosted by
JIM JONES
performing his #1Smash Hit
'WE FLY HIGH'
at
THE PARADISE MANSION
4450 West Capovilla Ave. Las Vegas, NV
"A Gated 2 Acre Paradise Estate with its own Private NightClub"
ENJOY A TOP SHELF OPEN BAR ALL NIGHT
featuring Music by
Hot 97's
DJ Envy "The People's Choice"
&
NYC's Top Club DJ
DJ Kaos "The Main Event"
Doors Open at 9pm
General Admission $150 ( $100 Online at VEGASMANSIONPARTY.COM)
Mansion NightClub & Top Shelf Open Bar
VIP Admission $200
Includes RoundTrip MotorCoach Transportation from Vegas Strip Hotels,
Meet & Greet Artist and Access Inside the Mansion-VIP
No Long Lines, Valet Parking and Immediate Entry for all ticket holders
for more info and tickets
www.vegasmansionparty.com
..........................................................................................................................................
Sunday Feb 18, 2006
BIGGA- Joe Jaxson - NiteLife Ent.
presents
BET on BLACK
NBA ALL-STAR GAME VIEWING & PARTY
Hosted by
BET'S MadLinx
with Half-time performance by
RED CAFE performing
Buddy-Remix -Musiq featuring Red Cafe
Bling Blaow and Diddy Bop
Special Invited Guests Fabolous and Musiq
at
THE PARADISE MANSION
4450 West Capovilla Ave. Las Vegas, NV
"A Gated 2 Acre Paradise Estate with its own Private NightClub"
ENJOY A TOP SHELF OPEN BAR & FOOD BUFFET
featuring Music by
The Infamous
Mad Linx
&
NYC's Top Club DJ
DJ Kaos "The Main Event"
Special Invited Guests : MUSIQ and FABOLOUS
Doors Open at 3pm
General Admission $100
Mansion NightClub & Top Shelf Open Bar
VIP Admission $150
Includes RoundTrip MotorCoach Transportation from Vegas Strip Hotels,
Meet & Greet Artist and Access Inside the Mansion-VIP
No Long Lines, Valet Parking and Immediate Entry for all ticket holders
for more info and tickets www.vegasmansionparty.com

And if you’re in the Los Angeles area this weekend:

Sunday, Feb 18th: 2mex /Medusa/Jizzim/Aceyalone
@the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood. All ages.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (302)

After a thoroughly successful (and drama-free) first event, March 8th will see the second installment of the Unity Festival. DJ Muggs and Chace Infinite’s tribute to Bigga B is definitely shaping up to be a consistent string of dope events, and hopefully it continues to succeed at achieving the goal its organizers were aiming for- bringing Los Angeles residents of various ethnicities and background together to celebrate hip hop culture in a peaceful manner.

Where the last installment (which I had also posted a blog about prior to the event taking place; hopefully some of you got the chance to go and check it out) saw performances from Strong Arm Steady, Chace Infinite (of Self Scientific) with Sick Symphonies, and Ras Kass with Alchemist, March’s Unity Festival will feature performances from Chino XL, Pacific Division & The Oddibles, La Coka Nostra and Evidence with Defari.

I’ve had the chance to see Evidence perform with Dilated Peoples, and I also saw Defari rock it a few times alongside Tha Alkaholiks so I can definitely vouch that the two of them onstage together will make for a dope performance. Chino XL used to be one of the hugest lyrical talents in the West, but these days, he’s more of a swole-up b-movie actor than any kind lyrical force to be wreckoned with. Nonetheless, if he touches down on any of the classics from Here to Save You All it should make for at least a couple great moments.

As far as the other acts, I’m not really sure... and I don’t mean that in a bad way, but I’m just not really familiar. La Coka Nostra is apparently a new project from Danny Boy, Everlast (yup, he’s rapping again instead of singing), DJ Lethal and Ill Bill- so it’s basically House Of Pain featuring one-third Non Phixion. I was never really a big fan of House Of Pain- although of course I got down with “Jump Around” when that shit first came out back in the day, and you’re lying out of your ass if you try to say that you didn’t -and I can’t stand all of the bluesy, wannabe folk shit that Everlast tried to do, but I will say that Ill Bill is a fucking maniac on the mic. I listened to a couple of songs on their myspace page, and it wasn’t really all that impressive. But that was mostly due to weak production, so maybe the live show will be something different.

As far as Pacific Division, these guys are the shit. Their sound is along the lines of Little Brother or early Slum Village shit, and they’ll definitely bring a positive vibe to the event. If you haven’t heard them yet, check out their myspace page at www.myspace.com/pacificdivisionmusic; they have some major heaters on their for you to check out.

Basically, if you’re out in the L.A. area, you should go out and check this event out. Muggs, Chace Infinite and the rest of the Soul Assassins camp are doing an amazing thing here by tryin to put on quality events, and more importantly, by doing something to try to make hip hop events safe and fun environments again. For more details, vist www.myspace.com/unitysuperfest.

Also, I know the haters out there don’t celebrate this holiday, but for every man or woman out there that’s going to be celebrating Valentine’s Day with the person they love, my best goes out to you and yours. Today’s actually my one year wedding anniversary, so I’m loving this day already. And I’m especially looking forward to crackin’ that 1998 bottle of Dom P that we got on our wedding day.

If you’re looking for a soundtrack to whatever you’ve got planned for tonight, Los Angeles DJ and label founder extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf put together a nice little Valentine’s Day mixtape that’s available until tomorrow. You can listen to it at http://www.stonesthrow.com/pbwolf/valentinesday.html.

Or you can just pop in the ol’ Al Green tape...

Either way, enjoy your day whether you’re sharing it with someone else or not.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Since people wasted a whole day talking about my fuckups in yesterday’s blog, I feel bad dragging it on for another day. But since I’m going to continue writing these blogs, and some of you are going to continue to read them, I guess there are a few things I should clear up before we move on.

First off, I apologize for the misinformation in yesterday’s blog about Brotha Lynch Hung’s “Rest In Piss.” I incorrectly stated that Lynch’s neighborhood, Garden Blocc, was in North Sacramento when, in fact, it’s actually in South Sacramento. I’ve never been there (and never said that I had) and truth be told, it’s likely that I’ll go on living the rest of my life in Downtown Sacramento without ever feeling the need to visit that neighborhood. And as far as the whole EBK thing, I was told that was what it stood for when I was sixteen (ten years ago) and I never bothered to research if that was true. Although in hindsight, that definition does seem a little retarded. But I’m a humble guy, and I’ll admit- I obviously didn’t have all the facts, and I should’ve researched the things I wasn’t 100% sure about before posting the blog.

While I write most of these blogs that people will enjoy reading them and//or commenting about them, I should make it known that I fall asleep at night without giving the slightest fuck what any of the nameless, faceless readers of the blog think about me as a person.

That said, if some annoying guy from Texas who comes on a West Coast blog to complain and talk shit on a daily basis and some other guy with a constant chip on his shoulder want to come on here and try to scuff my pride by calling me a “dork” or a “square” or a “nerd,” you guys can type until your fucking fingers fall off. I’m not really tripping on trying to earn any kind of street cred with the hip hop blog crowd, and to be honest, you sound a little hypocritical coming on an internet hip hop site (daily) and having the balls to call someone else a nerd.

But I did graduate high school, and I did take a couple college courses- shit, I even read books -and if focusing on shit that actually matters in life makes me a “nerd” or a “dork,” that’s all good with me. I know the cool thing in hip hop for the past decade has been to basically be an ignorant shithead, but when all that blows over in five years (or will it?), I’ll still be a well educated “nerd” with a good job and a smile on my face, and you guys will be swaggering and mean-mugging your way through a lonely, misguided, misogynistic life in your mid-thirties... but you’ll look hella cool doing it, and that’s the big picture, right? Right?

At some point, I hope that the people that shit their pants yesterday due to my geographical mistake and my erroneous breakdown of the letters EBK (and subsequently suggested that I go drown myself) can get over the fact that I made a mistake yesterday and move on with life. After all, a couple of you spent so much time getting your hyena on that you didn’t even comment on the actual topic that you seemed to care so much about. But if not, I'd be lying if I said that I cared if you ever came back here again.

I’ll see you all back in here tomorrow, where hopefully we can get back to talking about hip hop. I hope everybody has a good Tuesday in the meantime.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 1:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)

It's Monday, and you know how we get things rollin'...

I’ve been waiting to find some way to do a Brotha Lynch blog (he is from Sacramento, after all) and since Ron Mexico asked for it, so here it is. This is easily the most famous and most oft-quoted Brotha Lynch song ever, so it was an easy choice. It’s gotta be “Rest in Piss.”

There haven’t been a whole lot of rappers that gangster cats, regular dudes and backpacker kids could all get down with, but Lynch is one of those rappers. Maybe it was different since we all had love for him since he was from Sacto (the Garden Blocc, which is a Crip neighborhood in North Sacramento off of the Garden Highway), but I can remember being in high school and knowing people from all different walks of life who owned Season of Da Siccness, including myself. And just about every person I know who grew up in the Sacramento area can finish the verse if you start ‘em off with “It’s EBK all day, every day ‘til the day I die...”

Even though his lyrics were pretty gruesome and almost comical in how over the top they were in terms of the whole cannibalism/EBK (Eden Baby Killa) thing, Lynch spit that sped-up, anunciated gangster shit better than anyone else. Lynch was- and still is -a lyricist, even if his subject matter wasn’t exactly on the traditional hip hop vibe. I’ve heard stories from more than one person about Lynch showing up to random Sacramento house parties and kicking freestyles to whatever kind of music was playing, and killing it. And dude had a crazy stage show from what I heard as well; a friend of mine went to a Lynch show back in the day and said he came out in a coffin and had breakdancing pallbearers.

Season Of Da Siccness went gold (which is a pretty big deal for an album released on an independent label), but Brotha Lynch hasn’t had a ton of success since then. He still makes quality albums, but Siccness, which was his second album, is widely regarded as a prime example of hardcore rap at it’s finest. Lynch released an album in 2006 with MC Eiht called The New Season, which had the follow up to “rest In Piss,” “Agent Double 0 Deuce 4 Blocc & CPT (Rest In Piss 2006)” on it. He also has a new album slated for a 2007 release called Dinner & a Movie.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (215)

Since so many of you like to whine about my topics/writing so much, I’m gonna go ahead and let you guys handle it today. Get to work, junior bloggers...

Here are some possible topics:

-Snoop’s coke habit
-Why Eighty’s blogs suck
-Why/how Eighty himself is wack
-Binge drinking
-How Xzibit got the scar on his face
-Rappers on drugs
-Why The Game is the best/ why The Game sucks
-Why everything that comes out of Oakland must be hyphy
-What ever happened to the B.O.O. Y.A.A Tribe?

Enjoy!

I’ll see you on Monday, kids. Have a good weekend, and don’t eat too much paste.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 1:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (30)

I was starting to think nobody was gonna get it, but then somebody finally came through at the end of the day with the correct answer. To the homie Leftcoast415, you got it right... The underground album I was talking about was Messy Marv,Keak Da Sneak and P.S.D. Tha Drivah’s collabo Da Bidness, which drops next Tuesday.

Although P.S.D. might be a little less known, everybody should know who Messy Marv and Keak Da Sneak are by this point. Although a lot of people on this blog site talk greasy on Keak, most of them probably don’t know shit about his career with 3x Krazy, much less his career as a solo artist.

I’ll have to admit, it took me a while to warm up to Keak at first, and I can still only take him in small doses. But when he’s only appearing for one verse on a song, I can usually get into his shit. I understand that his style and his voice aren’t for everyone, but he’s a legend at this point, and the way that he’s conducted himself throughout his 12-year-long career has been nothing less than respectable. Plus, he stays near Sacramento, so I gotta show him some hometown love for that.

Messy Marv is no less of a vet; he just released Muzik Fo Tha Taliban, and if I’m not mistaken, that shit is like his 16th album as a solo artist in 11 years, which is crazy. And that’s not even counting Bully’s Wit Fullys albums. When you talk about dudes from the Bay that have made a career out of kicking gangsta shit, Messcalen is one of the first names to come up.

And last but not least, P.S.D. Tha Drivah is from the camp that everybody else in the nation loves to hate, Thizz Ent. I honestly don’t know too much about dude, other than the fact that his flow is pretty nice and he sounds like he’s got a little bit of a Southern accent. He was also part of Cutthroat Committee with Mac Dre and Dubee, but I never really got into them too much so I can't say I'm all that familiar.

The only track I’ve heard off of Da Bidness so far is “Cus Cus,” but based off of the strength of that track, I’m definitely looking forward to hearing more. I shoud have a copy of it soon, and I’ll let you all know how it is once I get a chance to give it a couple of spins.

In the meantime, you can listen to “Cus Cus” on P.S.D.’s myspage at www.myspace.com/psdthadrivah. While you’re over there, you can also add the official SOHH Left Coast myspace page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast.
**************************************************************************************************************

City Guide:
If you're tryin to get your party on tonight, hit up R&R:
Rockin & Roseville Tonite! 21+
Hosted By: Mixxula
at 9:00 PM
Rebounds
4451 Pacific Street
Rocklin, CA 95677

And if you're down to travel ...

You might as well go ahead and make that trip. It's gonna be off the chain.

***************************************************
2007 NBA ALLSTAR WEEKEND
LAS VEGAS

Friday Feb 16, 2007

Joe Jaxson . BIGGA . Suave . NiteLife Ent.
presents

NE-YO ALLSTAR MANSION PARTY

OFFICIAL CONCERT AFTER-PARTY

HOSTED BY NE-YO, NICK CANNON, and DALLAS COWBOYS- DeMARCUS WARE
at
THE PARADISE MANSION
4450 West Capovilla Ave. Las Vegas, NV

"A Gated 2 Acre Paradise Estate with its own Private NightClub"

ENJOY A TOP SHELF OPEN BAR ALL NIGHT

featuring Music by

Hot 97's
DJ Envy "The People's Choice"
&

NYC's Top Club DJ
DJ Kaos "The Main Event"

Doors Open at 9pm

General Admission $150 ( $100 Online at VEGASMANSIONPARTY.COM)
Entrance to Mansion NightClub & Top Shelf Open Bar

VIP Admission $200
Entrance to Mansion NightClub & Top Shelf Open Bar
RoundTrip MotorCoach Transportation from Vegas Strip Hotels, Meet &
Greet Artist and Access Inside the Mansion-VIP

No Long Lines, Valet Parking and Immediate Entry for all ticket holders

for more info and tickets

www.vegasmansionparty.com

..........................................................................................................................................
Saturday Feb 17, 2006

BIGGA - Joe Jaxson - NiteLife Ent.
presents

BALLIN'
NBA ALL-STAR MANSION PARTY

Hosted by
JIM JONES

performing his #1Smash Hit
'WE FLY HIGH'

at
THE PARADISE MANSION
4450 West Capovilla Ave. Las Vegas, NV

"A Gated 2 Acre Paradise Estate with its own Private NightClub"

ENJOY A TOP SHELF OPEN BAR ALL NIGHT

featuring Music by

Hot 97's
DJ Envy "The People's Choice"
&

NYC's Top Club DJ
DJ Kaos "The Main Event"

Doors Open at 9pm
General Admission $150 ( $100 Online at VEGASMANSIONPARTY.COM)
Mansion NightClub & Top Shelf Open Bar

VIP Admission $200
Includes RoundTrip MotorCoach Transportation from Vegas Strip Hotels,
Meet & Greet Artist and Access Inside the Mansion-VIP

No Long Lines, Valet Parking and Immediate Entry for all ticket holders

for more info and tickets
www.vegasmansionparty.com

..........................................................................................................................................

Sunday Feb 18, 2006

BIGGA- Joe Jaxson - NiteLife Ent.
presents

BET on BLACK
NBA ALL-STAR GAME VIEWING & PARTY

Hosted by
BET'S MadLinx

with Half-time performance by
RED CAFE performing
Buddy-Remix -Musiq featuring Red Cafe
Bling Blaow and Diddy Bop

Special Invited Guests Fabolous and Musiq
at
THE PARADISE MANSION
4450 West Capovilla Ave. Las Vegas, NV

"A Gated 2 Acre Paradise Estate with its own Private NightClub"

ENJOY A TOP SHELF OPEN BAR & FOOD BUFFET

featuring Music by

The Infamous
Mad Linx

&
NYC's Top Club DJ
DJ Kaos "The Main Event"

Special Invited Guests : MUSIQ and FABOLOUS

Doors Open at 3pm
General Admission $100
Mansion NightClub & Top Shelf Open Bar

VIP Admission $150
Includes RoundTrip MotorCoach Transportation from Vegas Strip Hotels,
Meet & Greet Artist and Access Inside the Mansion-VIP

No Long Lines, Valet Parking and Immediate Entry for all ticket holders

for more info and tickets www.vegasmansionparty.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you know of any parties, upcoming hip-hop events, concerts or bangin clubs, send flyers and/or info to sohhleftcoast@sohh.com.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)

For those who don’t already know, there’s gonna be a big album dropping this month. It may not be some seismic event felt throughout the hip hop community like when Snoop or Game or Cube dropped their albums last year, but for heads that check for underground shit, this is one they’ve been waiting for.

With mainstream hip hop in the slumping state that it’s been in recently, a lot of hip hop fans are paying a little more attention to the underground circuit. And for fans of West Coast hip hop, this has almost been a necessity; there only a small handful of Cali rappers currently releasing music on major labels, and those releases come few and far between.

The Bay Area has long been the breeding ground for successful independent artists, and in the last few years the scene has been as healthy as ever. Although the recent shine some Bay Area artists have been getting recently has helped them sell a few more records nationally, most Bay Area artists have been able to live more than comfortably solely by doing relatively big numbers in Cali alone (and sites like friscostreetshow.com).

There have been a lot of disparaging comments made about independent artists by readers of this blog, and I can’t really understand it. It seems like there's a demographic of ignorant 15 year olds that feel like there arent any shitty rappers signed to majors and there aren't any dope rappers signed to indie labels.

Good music is good music, and if you’re only copping albums that have singles getting played on 106th and Park, there’s a whole world of good ass music that you’re missing out on. And besides that, how do you call yourself a hip hop fan if you only go out and buy the albums that well-known artists are dropping? If you listen to West Coast hip hop but you followed that rule in 2006, that means you bought like five albums last year...

I’m gonna let everyone know what album it is that I’m talking about tomorrow, and as usual, the haters will be out in full force- mark my words.

Stay tuned...

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)

Melyssa Ford drives a Honda Accord.

And I had a feeling this was gonna be the next single...

I seem to get in trouble every time I talk about The Game whether it’s negative or positive, so i’ll just let you guys do the talking today... Lemme know what you think of the video.

For the record, I think the shit’s fresh, even though it’s pretty simple.

But those girls made fuckin’ fools out of themselves by appearing in that video... especially Gloria Velez. Shit is saaaaaad.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (249)

And as promised, your bonus for the day...

Here’s the one that started it all: “Ya Mama.” Please take note of some of the suspect shit that passed for style in those days.

Tune in next week for two more West Coast Classics from The Pharcyde...

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's Monday so we're gonna get things cracking like we always do...

But today I’m gonna hit everybody off with a little something extra to make sure we all make it through the week alright... Today we got two West Coast Classics for the price of one.

This is the first of two videos that I’ll be posting from The Pharcyde today, and unless you’re under 21 years old or your parents didn’t let you leave the house or watch TV during the early nineties, then you should be familiar. In fact, it’s likely that a good portion of you will know all the words to this one, ‘cause it’s a classic, and this is definitely one of those tracks that gets frequent play at shows, festivals, BBQs, hip hop functions, etc.

The year was 1992, and the song is “Passin’ Me By.”

Riding high off the success of “Ya Mama,” the first single from their album Bizzare Ride 2 the Pharcyde, Fatlip, Imani, Bootie Brown and Slimkid3 dropped a song about a love that wasn’t meant to be. Although the theme differed from the pimp-talk braggadocio that had dominated hip hop since its inception, something about the song resonated within people, and it quiclky became a commercial hit. But the humanity behind the lyrics and the story that they were telling made it much more than that, and over the last 15 years (holy shit, I can’t believe this track came out 15 years ago) “Passin’ Me By” has proved that it’s a classic that can withstand the test of time.

Tune in at 1:30 Pacific Standard Time for part 2...

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)

This week, we're gonna cover some new West Coast music that you can hear for yourself by heading over to these artists' myspace pages. I hate to jock that website after all of the fuckin' lives it's ruined, and all of the money it's added to Rupert Murdoch's bank account, but that site has done wonders in terms of cutting away at the barriers between artists and fans.

At any rate, on with the show...

For those who don’t already know, Prodigy of Mobb Deep has tapped none other than West Coast super-producer Alchemist to provide the beats for his upcoming album, Return of the Mac- apparently all the songs will have a 70’s feel to ‘em, hence the album title. Al seems to work magic whenever he gets on board with the Mobb, and from the three tracks I’ve heard so far, this album should be a banger. Return of The Mac is slated to drop March 27th.

And if anyone knows where I can swoop up Alchemist's No Days Off mixtape, please holler...

Also dropping March 27th will be a new one from Tha Dogg Pound entitled- cleverly enough -Dogg Chit. You already know there’s gonna be some bangers on there. If you haven’t already heard the new single off of the album, “Vibe With a Pimp,” you can check it out on their myspace page. Kurupt will also be dropping an LP with J. Wells shortly thereafter... no release date on that one yet.