NehruvianDOOM A Bishop Neru Project

                                                      

There are very few rappers that get me as excited as MF DOOM, and there is nothing that DOOM does that gets me more excited than a collab with a mashed up name that makes shuffling his songs near impossible. From Madlib to Danger Mouse the man has a history of collabs that stand the test of time. DOOM steps behind the board this time, providing production and hook work, while letting the 17 year old Bishop Nehru take the lion’s share of verse duty on the album. While the lack of an actual DOOM verse is a shame, I’ll be damned if Nehru didn’t deliver two super solid verses over one of the dopest beats I have heard in awhile. If every song on the album has comparable quality to this one we are in for a treat when it drops on September 23rd. DOOM clearly has serious faith in the young Bishop Nehru, and if this song is any indication that faith is well placed. Not to mention the trippy artwork has to be one of the coolest album covers in years, or at least since Pinata.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Apes prove their superiority and take over the world. It makes about as much sense as slow rotting corpses taking over or the popularity of Two Broke Girls, but god knows we have taken bigger leaps of logic. Summer blockbuster don't have to be big dumb explosion fests where nothing makes any  sense and one giant metal thing punches some other giant metal thing; you can in fact have your cake and eat it too. Hell this movie goes beyond even the thoughtful action movie instead choosing to balance elements from westerns, gangster films, science fiction and even political dramas. Although it never reaches the heights it seemed to be striving for it definitely hits more than it misses and has apes firing machine guns from horseback. What the hell else are you looking for?

 

The movie’s central plot hinges upon the upcoming clash between the dwindling human society living in the city and the expanding ape one that exists in the surrounding woods. Our foreknowledge of the eventual outcome casts a sense of hopelessness over the human story. In this way it acts as an antithesis of the classical western where the naturalistic tribal society is already doomed to be wiped out by the encroaching modern man before the story even begins. That same sense of inevitable doom hangs over the film, but it is the modern society that will be eliminated by the tribal one. It even has the white men learning the merits of the tribe by spending with a child and/or women. Hell at a certain point I was halfway expecting some sort of cross-species loving, looks like puritanical America struck again.

The film aims to have a sense of moral relativism. Where there are no bad guys just competing factions and ideals. While for the majority of the film this holds true, neither the apes nor the humans could be considered the villains, there is definitely a villain, and he is more Dr. No than he is Tony Soprano. This is Caesar’s show, and he gets to be the hero. And every hero gets a villain to punch in the face. An evil villain isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when everything before that in the film is set up as this morally ambiguous clash between two rival societies attempting to coexist in a new world it feels like a cheap way to get the conflict started. The main theme of the film seems to be the ways fear can turn us into monsters, but being scared doesn't absolve you for being an asshole. As the conflict ramps up it feels if anybody would just stop and talk about this shit for five minutes everything would have turned out alright, but maybe that was the point.

The performances were good, furry and non-furry alike. Although whether that is due to the actors or some poor dude sitting in front of a computer in a Burbank basement I couldn't tell you. Overall this is one solid flick. Despite it not quite reaching the high bar it set for itself in the beginning of the film, it is still a thoroughly satisfying summer movie and one that tries to be something greater. That is perhaps the thing I love most about the movie; it feels so genuine. It is a big blockbuster sequel without any returning characters, save ones that are completely computer generated. It even changes genre. In a summer full of cheap cash-ins and movies that were clearly made in boardrooms full of shareholders Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is clearly trying to be something unique, and even when it fails you have to commend the effort. Unfortunately, there is one glaring flaw in the film; that being the complete lack of a shirtless Charlton Heston, but I guess that is just a sign of the times.

  

Personally, if you told me last year that YG’s album would be one of the best rap albums of the year I would have thought you were crazy. C’mon YG has had some dope music in the past, but I never thought his hardcore gangsta rap would be allowed on the radio. YG’s new album entitled “My Krazy Life” tells his life story of growing up in Compton running with the gangs, robbing houses, and of course YG bickin back being bool. For those of you not in the know Bickin back bein bool is a Blood phrase in which they replace the C in words for a B instead, for example instead of Compton it would be Bompton and so on. The music video shows what being a blood is like in Compton, and personally it scares the living jeeheebies out of me. YG and his gang of bloods are always strapped and they have the possibility of being shot at anytime or day by their rival gang the Crips. Its a very real way of showing a day in the life of a Compton Blood. And for all you young kids and little girls out there blastin bickin back bein bool and trying to sound hard its not just a jam to get down too; it really is a Blood’s lifestyle of complete thuggery that most of us have no idea of what it’s really like.

Taylor Bennett

                                                       

                                                

I kept hearing the name Taylor Bennett popping all over the place with people saying nothing but good things about him. So I took some time out of my busy summer schedule of working and seeing how many California burritos I can eat in a week to look into the rapper and I played the video New Chevy featuring King Louie as my first Taylor Bennett experience, check it out down below.

My first reaction was who is this rapper that looks just like Chance The Rapper, dresses like Chance, dances like Chance and even raps/sings like him.  His chorus sounds just like a typical Chance chorus with his squeaky raspy voice. Being a Chance The Rapper fan I dismissed Taylor as just a poor man's  Chance, but than I did some research and saw this pic of the two rappers.

Yup that's right Taylor Bennett and Chance Bennett are brothers! Who would have guessed? Taylor Bennett is the younger brother of Chance The Rapper and an up and coming rapper in his own right. It isn't very surprising that Taylor Bennett would share  Chance's Style since they both grew up together, but he definitely varies his style check out his older video of Speed Racer and his Remix of Goldie by ASAP Rocky.

Those are some of his older projects which display his versatility and unique skills that give you a Taylor Bennett vibe and not just “oh that's Chance’s lil bro trying to be like him”. His newest mix tape is about two months old and is entitled Mainstream Music check it out below.

If you want more of Taylor Bennett, like I did, check out this cool little interview down below and find out more about this young gun.

Long Live The New Flesh

Jimmy Johnson

I’ll admit that at first I thought six time Nascar champion Jimmie Johnson had been signed to OVO and was about to blow us all out of the water with a gangster rap album chronicling his rise to stock car fame. I was understandably disappointed to learn otherwise. Despite my now broken expectations I gave this other Jimmy Johnson a listen and was pleasantly surprised. The Toronto native raps with an aggressive energy over laid back smokey beats. This juxtaposition  provides a unique sound that could help him stand out amongst the increasingly crowded rap game. His style leads me to think that OVO is the perfect place for him to grow. That aggressive yet laid back energy can be found on his EP In God We Trust and his Sun Goes Down video. Check him out

Cozz

So apparently J Cole has his own label now. Poor Jay Z sitting there crying over photos of J Cole and Kanye standing there with their lunchboxes and backpacks on their first day of school and now they’re all grown up signing their own rappers. Dreamville has signed South Central LA rapper Cozz and for good reason. Dude can spit. He only has two songs out, I Need That and Dreams, right now. Most people grind their whole lives putting out tape after tape without any attention save for the occasional datpiff commenter, but this guy puts out two songs and gets immediately scooped up by a rising star. It sounds unbelievable until you listen to the man’s two songs. Solid beats combined with a versatile flow and raw emotion lead to a song that is infinitely bumpable. Both songs just drip with raw talent and it makes the wait for his upcoming album Cozz and Effect all the more unbearable.

Daddy knows Best

                             

          These are the jams that throw your dad  back to the good ole days getting down with his homies, blasting the radio and living like a young buck. Today we celebrate the 60s in all of its amazing glory were talking back during the Woodstock days, a man on the moon, and all the hippie glory of the VW Bus, but of course we cannot forget about the shag carpet. The days were bright in the 60s and the radio was jammin playing now what we call the classics.

                                                                         Creedence Clearwater-Down On The Corner

    The 60’s “Turn Down For What” anthem is best described as Creedence Clearwater’s “Down On The Corner”. The ultimate turn up song for the crazy 60's definitely goes to Creedence Clearwater.

The Foundations-Build Me Up Buttercup Baby

                          One of my favorites from the 60s it was actually one of my parents wedding songs and every now and then my dad will belt at the top of his “Why do you build me up buttercup baby”

Van Morrison-Brown Eyed Girl

An all time classic right here and what makes the song even better is the “Brown Eyed Girl” Van Morrison is singing about is his daughter. If that fact doesn't just warm your heart I don't know what will.

Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay           

Such a great jam a timeless classic to say the very least, Otis actually died in a plane crash before the release of this soothing song.

Bobby Womack-California Dreaming

Last and certainly not least R.I.P to the late Bobby Womack. A great song that sum up the amazing state of California, I'm sure hippies were blasting this jam in their VW Vans on their way to California .

The Best Of The Rest Summer Movies

     

Captain Torture from Zero Dark Thirty and Commissioner Gordon versus a Gollum led army of apes count me in. I’m they’ll shove in some hippy subplot about how the apes are people too, but there is nothing wrong with a blockbuster with a little brains behind it. I’d say that Rise did that very well so I am willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt.  
          

If you haven’t seen the Nic Cage classic that is Stolen I suggest you remedy that right now. His daughter gets stolen and so he gets sucked back into his old life as a bad ass to get her back. So yeah it is pretty much just Taken except the bad guy is Josh Lucas with long blonde hair and a peg leg, and that isn’t even the most ridiculous thing that happens. It is one of the most ridiculously hilarious movies I have ever seen, and Rage looks like the exact same movie but with Danny Glover thrown in for the hell of it. It looks like fans of cheesy B movies with camp coming out of the ears are in for a treat. Or it will be the bad kind of bad, but its hard to be excited for that huh.  
 
         

I almost didn’t post the trailer just cause of how bad that looked. I know its directed by Lucifer’s own Brett Ratner, forever cursed be his name, and yeah the CGI is bad, and the writing sounds even worse. But it is a Hercules movie about his labors with the goddamned Rock. That has to be like the most perfect thing ever. How awesome could the Rock beating the shit out of mythological creatures with a friggin club. I mean if you aren’t at least looking forward to that what is the point of living in this world anymore. That could be a truly transcendent experience, or it could just be really bad, yeah probably gonna be bad. 
   
         

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first Sin City, but I am sucker for weird art style and noir so I have to admit I’ll end up seeing this movie. Its got a cast worth throwing on a cardboard stand up poster with heavy hitters like JGL, Josh Brolin, Mickey Rourke and  Eva Green especially who always loves getting naked and chewing scenery. So at the very least we will have that to look forward too.
   

That right there is one of my favorite trailers in a long time. Look at all the action, Look at all the adventure, look at all the moxy. What could be better than a puckish rogue in space banging green chicks and hanging out with talking trees. I couldn’t think of anything either. It is like a checklist of cool space shit, carbon copy of Han Solo; check, stoic tough guy alien; check, alien chick that looks human enough to still be treated as a sex object; check, and all of that thrown into a pot of comic book craziness and Disney money. That alone makes it my most anticipated movie of the summer. Not to mention it is directed by James Gunn, the guy who made Super which went way darker than I expected maybe too dark, so who the hell knows what might happen. Either way it has been too damned long since somebody just went flying around in space.

G-Eazy

                                                                 

Two years ago I was a high school grad who could not wait to enter the college atmosphere and party my gpa and scholarship away. I started listening to more college artists such as Sammy Adams, Aer, and of course G-Eazy. I fell in love with G-Eazy, first of all, because he definitely has the best hair in the rap game that flows perfectly with his rocking wardrobe of leather jackets and tight black jeans. Of course the number one reason for why I admire G-Eazy is the enamore that he fills the ladies with. Girls flock to his concerts and shows hoping for G-Eazy to sign one or both of their tits. On the musical side he has solid beats. He mainly raps about his party lifestyle as he is constantly on tour partying like a college freshman, with the exception of having worry about any sort of GPA. G-Eazy definitely put out his best album so far, and as a college student, I love his album “These Things Happen”. All of his features, such as Asap Ferg, E40, and Jay Ant, fills the album with very interesting and 'inspiring' verses. E40, primarily, kills his verse on Far Alone proving that age does not define the rapper. Where G-Eazy truly shines, though, is in his solo acts, his unique Oakland voice, and smack talking lyrics, such as “Yeah, rappers try to brag about accomplishments but nothing you've been dropping yet astonishes.” "Almost Famous,” my second favorite - but hey who cares about me - shows G-Eazy’s versatile chorus skills showing off his raspy voice. Oh and did I mention his music videos are off the heezy? Check out my favorite one by him down below.

      Truth be told, I am a huge fan of G-Eazy because he seems to rap about relateable things. Sure, I know I don’t have the babes flocking to me, and the only person that asks me to sign anything is the local burrito boy to pay for my carne asada fries. But I understand what he raps about,  for instance I know “Tumblr Girls” and know how they act. One thing I will add about the G-Eazy album is that the older rap crowd will not appreciate “These Things Happen” as much as the teen/college rap crowd will because they don't seem to be able to understand and relate to the culture of our youthfulness. The older crowd does not get the fact of drinking into oblivion and living every day like its your last or lets say tend to forget. The elder generation of rap probably have steady jobs and cannot afford to party with models and a bunch of college students. However for the typical college student this album speaks directly to you! Ok I know what your saying, I hear you. I'll shut up and let you peep the album down below if you dig it scoop it up on Itunes.

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X-Men Ending Credits

Who was that Egyptian dude at the end of Days of Future Past?

That pale skinny dude at the end of X-Men Days of Future Past is about to blow every other superhero movie out of the goddamned water. I spent a decent chunk of my childhood in what can best be described as a jungle house, and I’m not saying this just to impress you with my hip bohemian childhood. It is to illustrate that as a young precocious boy I chose the X-Men cartoon over a literal jungle to explore. Shit was totally rad.

There is quite possibly nothing on this earth that makes me as happy as that damn song. Just by linking it there I had to listen to it for the better part of an hour. The X Men blew my mind. Simple as that, they were superheroes that weren't really superheroes. The villain wasn't a lunatic bent on conquering the world for the hell of it or hopelessly insecure about his receded hairline, he was a smart man that had seen the horror of mankind’s inhumanity and refused to let it happen again.They didn't run around New York City saving little old ladies and getting their picture in the paper. They were outcasts and weirdos. They had secret identities not because they wanted to keep dating cute red heads, but because we were hunting them. Their own parents would turn them in. They had a short hairy dude that gargled acid, a woman who hurt everyone she touched, and certain Cajun man that incites feelings in me that I am still not totally comfortable with. We didn't hoist them on our shoulders or see them as pretty blatant Christ analogues; we put them in camps, branded them and drove them into hiding because they were different because they made us feel small. Despite that every episode they put on their yellow and blue spandex and fought some nefarious evil to keep us safe. All because that beautiful bald bastard believed in us. He stood up, unfortunate word choice there, not just for the persecuted but for the persecutors. He firmly believed and fought for the best possible outcome no matter how impossible it seemed, and he had a sweet ass floating chair made of gold. The X-Men weren't about good triumphing over evil, it was a clash of ideologies, and then Apocalypse came along.

That dude’s voice alone still haunts my dreams. Not to mention the dude was a giant blue guy in a robot suit with really indescript powers. I still have no idea what mutant power he had. He could grow really big, fire lasers from his hands, and turn his appendages into guns which in retrospect does seem a tad redundant considering the whole lasers from the hands thing. But hey you got to sell action figure accessories somehow. The fact that you had no idea what this giant blue man was capable of  made him all the more terrifying. Apocalypse was an insurmountable force without any conceivable limits. He didn't want to rule us; he wanted to eradicate us because we were unfit. He is a force of nature, the unrelenting march of time personified. We are obsolete compared to them and sooner or later we will fade away. We are the neanderthals huddled around the cave fire hiding from the new southern invader. Whether it happens this century or in a billion years eventually humanity as we know it will cease to exist. He is that inevitability made flesh. He is no more evil than an asteroid or the Ice Age. He is progress. He is Apocalypse, and we can only delay him.

Young Thug, Asap Ferg, and Freddie Gibbs just dropped a hot new song entitled "Old English" produced by Salva and Nick Hook. Lets be honest we all think were straight thugs when we have a forty in our hands. Now thanks to this new track we can now bump a tune while we stand against the wall of a party holding our forty's and channeling our inner hood rat. OK maybe I'm the only one who does this, needless to say "Old English" is a great song that will be coming up on Mass Appeal Compilation Vol. 1. Go ahead and listen to the track down below and if you dig it you can purchase it on Itunes.    

    He is self proclaimed as  Butterscotch Boss Rap, The Game’s Shirley Temple, Jody Highroller,  The White Gucci Mane with a spray tan, and The Rap Games Cassius Clay. He is Riff Raff, and he has just released an album that could quite possibly be one of the top the albums of the summer! I know what you are saying; Riff Raff? The man with crazy braided hair, with MTV, Simpsons, and BET tattoos can actually make music that we should take seriously? Yes, I know you are thinking: “No way am I taking  any of Riff Raff’s music seriously.” But I want you, with open ears, to peep the intro to Riff Raff’s album than you can decide whether or not to come back and keep reading as I praise Riff Raff’s crazy rap skills and silly rhyming techniques. Go ahead take a listen to the  intro into a great album.
         

            

 Still Here? Yup, just as I had expected. It's a silly intro - don't get me wrong - but it sets up the crazy rap ride that the album takes you on. Riff Raff is a crazy artist who most fans have dismissed  as a joke and tune into his music and videos for comedic entertainment, saying to themselves: “Is this guy for real?.” I was that that guy when it came to  Riff Raffs last year, as my brother listened to “Larry Bird” and “Dolce and Gabbana.” Riff Raff has continued to work hard and improve  his rap skills, and you cannot deny the fact that the man has  flow; his southern twang and unique lyrics “Yeah mysterious, (mysterious), my mermaids are bi-curious,” along with crazy beats from Mad Decent’s producer Diplo, make his album different from the heap of the rap albums out there. To truly understand Riff Raff’s music you need to realize who Riff Raff is. Riff Raff is a crazy rapper who loves to be silly, fool around, and party hard. Riff Raff really does not care about whether he looks ghetto or not, he simply enjoys doing whatever pleases him - whether that is wearing shark teeth grills or having his side burns shaved into lightning bolts. When you listen to Riff Raff you should not expect to hear gang lyrics or how many people he has killed. Instead Riff Raff raps about how he will  "Pull up in the chariot with glow-in-the-dark Bart Simpson haircut.” That is who Riff Raff is,  and his fans, including myself, have come to  terms with the fact that he is not your average everyday rapper. We enjoy Riff Raff because of  his weird rap lyrics, crazy hair, and laugh along when he says ridiculous things like, "With tactical air-brushed golden skin, unblemished physique/Rap game Dawson's Creek." Neon Icon is an undeniably fun album that you can bump with your friends this summer. It boasts impressive features from Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Paul Wall, Amber Coffman, Mike Posner, and Slim Thug. Some of my favorites from the album include Cool It Down, Lava Glaciers, Tip Toe Wing in My Jawwwdinz, and Maybe You Love Me. So without further adieu, here is his latest and greatest album, Neon Icon.