Monday, September 21, 2009

GOODIE MOB Reunion


REAL MUSIC. My dad would scoff at the notion that the sounds iexperienced tonight were real music. Its the difference in generations and perceptions. But i can say with assurity that tonight was like Christmas for me and about 3000+ more. Goodie Mob reunited onstage in a major way. In order to shed some light on how prolific it was for me to see them
we have to go back—-to 1995 at the very least.
My freshman year of college. I barely made it out of highschool. Its the truth I had stars in my eyes and music in ears. So busy being a disgruntled youth that math and science fell to the wayside and 2 summers in summerschool were the only recourse to graduating on time with the diploma (advanced academic) mom and dad had picked out for me.
My saving grace for 2 years was soccer. I wasn’t very good to begin with but Coach Mary Roach saw something in me.So she started to groomme and between my on field skills and a high SAT score college bound was still an option. Even better the notion of going sans money out of mom and dads checking account. Let the church say AMEN! So it was my first time in 3 years playing with girls I didnt know.Even worse I was a walk on try out… there were about 50 girls vying for 8 spots. It was a tumultous 2 weeks as I went thru the whole unnerving process of tryouts. But I made it.
I was on the team but i was having a hard time settling in. Enter Duane Banks. Of all the people I would most like to find on facebook Duane is in slots 1-3. He’s truely a nice guy. He went to Lakeside High( MY ALMA MATERS ARCH RIVAL) and has a wicked soccer game. We were sitting in practice and Coach Armstead was on me about my lack of aggression. I wasn’t mean enough. I wasn’t intimidating in my approach. I will admit my run is pretty funny I run like a beauty queen. Duane took me aside in a much nicer tone told me that he and Coach saw the potential for me to be an amazing defensive player and Coach was trying to get me riled up. I told him I didn’t have a lot to be angry about except riding MARTA.
Duane said not to worry we would figure it out. The next day I was listening to a Meeks tape. The Meeks tape was how I passed Advanced English my senior year. Mr Jim Meeks made us learn about a hundred different passages of prose from great works. I have a hard time retaining things so i read the passages over music and listened to the tapes day in and day out even in my sleep.
Anyway Duane felt like that tape was one of my problems and he handed me his GOODIE MOB tape. I was like whats this. He asked me if i liked Outkast. I was like yeah. I love outkast I couldn’t always relate to the things theY rapped about but it evoked a feeling in me so when he told me Goodie Mob was their kin I was immediately geeked.
Its serious that i tell you this in this way. SOUL FOOD changed my life.The flow, the wordspeak, the beats. I instantly was in love. I listened to that tape everyday hundreds of times. Soul Food would become my anthem, Cell theraphy put me into *kill* mode before a game. Every song although I had not lived it meant something to me. For me it was the begining of a beautiful thing. Music became more prevalent in my life. Soul food was the basis of many a *turn that noise down* from my dad. It would spark debates about samples. It would give the parents an avenue to remind me the things i was “rapping” about i had never in my suburban life experienced. It was a life changing piece od magnetic tape. Dungeon Family would woo me time and again Society of Soul where both my father and I would find a common ground thanks to Sleepy Brown and his father. Jamal Ahmad would play Migratenation on WCLK, while Mike Swift would play ”Changes” on WREK.
For me my music had finally met with my father- a record and I do mean record we bought it from Ear Wax ( r.i.p) we both could enjoy even Right Tonight. The cuts were infectious and consious from there my dad would often ask me if there was anything new from Organized Noise he began to appreciate my music. He still felt that sampling music did not give *my artists* the right to call themselves musicians but he was open to change
To stand at Masquerade tonight running into people i knew closely( Slyvester,Margaret, Shannon, Dominick) and some I only knew via word of mouth( Tara, Brandi ATLien). Standing there in the rain. hoodie pulled tight to protect my camera. Listening to DJ Jelly weave a musical tapestry of my teen and young adulthood. Hearing first hand the thunder and the swell of Georgia Me’s poetry. Throwing bows up for Pastor Troy … thinking about my heartbeat when YoungBloodz did 85( thats our song) and then to finally revel in Goodie Mob on stage. Hereing my song live with a band the growl of Khujo the tease of Ceelo blessing us with a Frankie Beverly cover way better than the original. To hear the crowd all lifted in song trying to reach those notes in “before i let go”. So many beautiful people dancing, singing, smoking swaying in unity over and under the groove of Dungeon FAMILY. FAMILY. Tomorrow they may go the way the roads take them but tonight. tonight. tonight.
I left early and people were lined at will call and hour plus into the show still getting tickets wanting to be apart of the experience. RAIN MUDD AND MUSIC. As I drove to work I considered the weight of what I’d witness. The leveity of it all. This was my WOODSTOCK people will ask if you were there. Not only can I say i was there in the trenches doing what I love. I realised something that was special I’m a Ga Girl born and raised. My mom went to Archer but graduated from Washington High. My cousins went to Mays, Banneker, Doug. I remember when Alonzo Crim wasnt Crim highschool so may things came rushing into me. Pride that GM could bring such a diverse crowd together unintimadated by the elements…. Ok my love letter is headed towards gushing and so I tie it off. If you were too cheap to pay for the 40ticket. Shame. Tonight Janet herself could have called me for a photoshoot and i woulda had to say NO!

Get The New 6'6 240 TSHIRTS


MULLAGE ft JUVENILE, DORROUGH, YO GOTTI - TRICK'N **REMIX**


Gucci Mane Feat. Shawty Lo, Ludacris, The Dream- Atlanta GA


Valentine, Stamps hope to revitalize hip-hop scene in Athens



After a two-year absence from the local music scene, rapper-producer Tommy Valentine returned to Classic City stages in April and has done anything but take it nice and slow since then.
In addition to hosting a pair of sold-out shows at the 40 Watt and an eight-hour block party at the Max Canada, Valentine is cementing his spot in the Athens hip-hop community by forming an alliance - known as Mean Mic Entertainment - with Bobby Stamps, manager of Southern rap artist Bubba Sparxxx.
Valentine and Stamps will celebrate their collaboration with a hip-hop extravaganza tonight at the New Earth Music Hall, which will feature a set by Valentine as well as other in-town performers like Profound Breadth, Fresh and KNP.
The pair also has plans to host a weekly hip-hop concert series Tuesdays at New Earth (hosted by local legend Elite Tha Showstoppa, who also will host tonight's show ), launch a Web site, develop a local radio show, release albums, compilations and mix tapes and bring major label hip-hop artists to town.
"I've been on a path since March, when I returned to the hip-hop scene, and each show we've had has been a greater success, which I think has gone a long way to unifying the local scene," says Valentine, who had recorded and released three albums before his abrupt departure from public life in 2007.
"We've now got between seven and 10 artists who could do a show on their own, which has been my goal for the last several months."
"Tommy and I hope to provide an outlet for deserving artists in Athens and maybe people who aren't from Athens, but are going to the university or who have friends at the university," says Stamps, an Athens native now living in Atlanta. "It seems like the hip-hop scene in Athens has fallen behind, particularly when you look at all the other scenes there. It's really embarrassing to me.
"Bubba Sparxxx came out in 2000 and got a major label deal and we're the only hip-hop act to come out of Athens. Everybody will tell you that Athens is the No. 1 college music scene in America and it's just crazy to me that there's not more of a hip-hop scene and there's not more performers, writers and producers coming out of Athens. Tommy and I want to really build something here."
A Bubba Sparxxx show at the 40 Watt in the mid-2000s provided the opportunity for Valentine and Stamps to get together for the first time.
"I met Bobby in 2005 or 2006, when I opened for Bubba Sparxxx," Valentine says. "We stayed in touch after that point. Bobby is one of those guys who was part of the first wave of Athens hip-hop, which included DJ Crisis, Ishues, Fort Knox, DJ Danger Mouse and Bubba Sparxxx, which used to get together regularly at Mean Mike's downtown. I was too young to get in, but from the outside I could see the cooperation between the various artists and that was an inspiration to me. So we wanted our new venture to play off the Mean Mike's venue."
Valentine and Stamps became reacquainted earlier this year and decided in August to form Mean Mic Entertainment.
"Somebody encouraged Bobby to keep tabs on me and I would hear from him from time to time," Valentine says. "When I made my comeback earlier this year, we started meeting and I was really picking Bobby's brain. The more we talked, the more we found we had in common, so we decided to form a venture to promote hip-hop in Athens."
"I met Tommy when he was a high school kid freestyling," Stamps says. "Tommy promoted and opened for Bubba two times and I was impressed with his overall talent, his ability to write and perform, but also his business sense. We stayed in touch through the years, and I was very impressed with what he did at those 40 Watt shows earlier this year. He sold out a show and these days it's hard to sell out a hip-hop show with a name artist who has tunes on the radio. He's hardworking, talented and organized and I wanted to see what we could do together to make the Athens scene thrive."
Clearly stoked by his coalition with Stamps, Valentine appears equally enthused by the arrangement Mean Mic Entertainment has forged with New Earth, known formerly as Blur.
"I'm really excited about that," he says. "The New Earth Music Hall is embracing diverse types of music - it's clear they're going to be supportive of all the extremes in the Athens music scene. We're excited about our big show there tonight as the official launch of our venture, but the weekly hip-hop shows there is also a big achievement. If those shows draw anywhere near the audiences we got at the 40 Watt, we'll have a lot going for us. This is the start of something really exciting."
Although he will have some administrative duties with Mean Mic, Valentine says he's placing most of his creative focus on his music.
"When I left music two years ago, it was because I was spending too much time on business and I lost my passion for the music," he says. "I don't play to manage other artists or to stop making music. My dedication is to this scene, which allowed me to learn the skills and abilities I now have. The greater the success the scene has, the more potential I'll have to attract local fans and earn an audience."

LIVE Interview this Tuesday at livestream.com/soundviziontv


PINNEY WOODS ft LIL WAYNE - BE AIIGHT


DJ CHUCKIE x JERMAINE DUPRI - LET THE BASS KICK


KRS-One & Buckshot - Full Length Clean Album (SURVIVAL SKILLS)


E-40 Feat, Young Jeezy & B-Legit - Get Money


Young Buck - Can't Catch Me


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Poem from Norman Jordan called "A Go Green Flash Dream"


Hey EverybodyI am trying to start a movement to get people to take the caps off of water bottles before throwing them in the trash, so that trapped water can evaporate into the air instead of being buried in trash dumps. I wrote the below poem about it that I wish you would forward to everyone on your email address list.

A Go Green Flash Dream
Uncap
Empty
Watertight jugs
Set free
Entombed
Lingering droplets
Rescue
Clouds from bottles.

Norman Jordan


http://africanamericanartsheritageacad.ning.com

KRS-One & Buckshot Ft. Mary J. Blige - The Way I Live


JUVENILE "MONEY DONT FOLD" **CLEAN/DIRT


Sam Freeze ft Ric Atari "Drop"


Yo Gotti - 5 Star Bitch Remix Feat.Gucci Mane, Trina, Lil Boosie


http://monsterleak.com/blog/?p=290