Jay Smooth has announced that he will be premiering, not one, but two new entries of his acclaimed video blog, Ill Doctrine, per week via Animal. With his inaugural vlog post via his new e-home, Jay addresses one of hip-hop’s great pastimes: its fixation on conspiracy theories. Specifically, the recently circulated email that allegedly details an early ’90s secret meeting between record executives and controllers of the private prison system that resulted in collusion to spread gangsta rap throughout the music industry, thus creating more criminals and increasing the country’s need for more prisons. (Damn. Now, UMC’s unexpectedly rugged second album is starting to make all kinds of sense.) Is this conspiracy theory legit? Can the rap world save itself from conspiring itself into oblivion? Peep the vid and find out, after the jump…
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Those missing the charms of Snoop Dogg’s too brief dalliance with MTV, Doggy Fizzle Televizzle, will be glad to know that the Doggfather’s GGN News (a/k/a the Double G Hood News) is enjoying its third season on the Internutz. In the latest broadcast, GGN News anchor Nemo Hoes (Snoop) is joined by NOLA’s finest, Curren$y, for smoke-filled riffs on semi-recent news headlines – like when DJ Khaled’s bus blew up. And as entertaining as it is watching Snoop in tears laughing at video of 1997′s Ironman World Championship competition, it’s the special in-studio musical performance that truly wins: Legendary X-rated soul man Blowfly joins Snoop for a re-interpretation of an R. Kelly classic newly dubbed, “I Believe My Dick Can Fly” (second line: “I believe my balls can touch the sky”). Feel the magic, after the jump…
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Jay-Z might have been partially responsible for yesterday’s most awkward rap-related press conference moment, but his thoughtful words afterwards suggest maybe he was busy thinking big picture rather than minor photo op. In an interview with CNN, Jay threw his support behind President Obama’s recent endorsement of same sex marriage, calling it, “the right thing to do.”
Said, Hov:
“I’ve always thought it as something that was still holding the country back. What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple… whether it costs [President Obama] votes or not – again, it’s not about votes. It’s about people. It’s the right thing to do as a human being.”
By our count that makes all of four notable rappers (Jay, Chuck D, El-P and, of course, Fat Joe) who’ve publicly voiced some progressive opinion on the issue – each in their own special way (though, frankly, no one’s touching Joey Crack’s response). Peep the interview with Jay-Z, after the jump…
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Jay Smooth is liking the new camera, we see. The vlogger supreme is back, and shares some views on Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality, why it took as long as it did for any sitting POTUS to go there, and how pressure from the left on our politicians actually works in the long run. Peep it, after the jump…
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Andreas Vingaard’s excellent 8 Million Stories series – which consists of short video portraits of longtime New Yorkers – returns with a profile of Jerry Reaper, former member of one of the most notable street gangs to ever call the Bronx home, The Reapers. Interviewed on the turf of the Reapers’ 1st division, Bronx River Houses, where he was born and raised, Jerry thoughtfully recalls the ethnic transformation of his old stomping ground, the evolution of The Reapers’ colors over the years, the club’s procedure for stashing weapons, and how hip-hop turned so many street kids – like fellow Bronx River resident Afrika Bambaataa – from gangbangers to “Disco Dannys.” Real deal oral history from those who lived it. Check it out, after the jump…
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Just how we slept on these three grannies checking out the infamous Kim Kardashian sex tape on a laptop is beyond us. Hittin’ the Internetz about a week ago and notching up nearly 2 million views on YouTube, the following clip shows some elderly friends enjoying lunch when all of a sudden the videotaped rendezvous between Kim K. and Ray-J comes up and next thing you know the ladies are surfin’ for pr0n. While some of the comments by the seniors run on the more lovable grandmama side (“Ray J who?”), surprisingly quite a few of the reactions are bleep-worthy hilarity (“His tongue is as long as his *censored*”). Find out what else these randy grannies had to say after the hump…
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This 1988 “educational video” courtesy of the the New York Transit Museum Archives is one of them crime doesn’t pay spots aimed at curbing vandalism through fear tactics. Well, if anyone is scared in this video it surely isn’t the Nike-clad “graffiti writer” who cheerfully whistles his way while hitting up a wall at the Borough Hall station in Brooklyn. The heavy (and awesome) synth soundtrack at the start is straight out of a straight to video B-movie action thriller and the music during the “chase” scene has got T.J. Hooker cutting room floor written all over it. “Some people think vandalizing MTA property is fun,” says the moonlighting Quiet Storm DJ of a narrator. By the looks of this PSA, why yes it is. Peep it after the fill in…
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In the spring of 1992 LA Weekly photographer Ted Soqui spent more than two weeks documenting chaos on the streets of Los Angeles during the L.A. Riots, a/k/a the L.A. Uprising. With the 20-year anniversary of the riots upon us this weekend, LA Weekly had Soqui revisit several of the devastated locations he shot back in ’92 to contrast their visages then and now. In some instances things have changed quite a bit; in others sadly less so. Soqui also shares recollections of his experiences with writer Patrick Range McDonald. Take a look a few of the amazing images from his photo essay, after the jump…
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This coming Sunday April 29th marks 20 years since the city of Los Angeles exploded in racial and civil unrest for six days after a jury acquitted four police officers in the highly-publicized videotaped beating of Black motorist Rodney King. The violent aftermath: over 50 people killed, at least 2,000 citizens injured, and almost $1 billion worth of property destroyed mainly by arson. It was in the heat of all the looting and madness when local ABC news cameras interviewed filmmaker John Singleton on the street. “We’re sitting on a bomb,” said the clearly outraged Boyz N The Hood director before other angry folks made their way on camera. See Singleton get interrupted by two crazed ladies who go at it and hear the newscaster’s eye-opening remarks after the jump…
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Jay Smooth’s “Ill Doctrine” videos are the best – smart, funny, and insightful. Last time we heard from Jay he was parodying Jay-Z’s “Glory” while channeling the persona of a frustrated neo-con forced to back Romney. Now he’s back as himself. He’s got a new camera, yet is finding it irrationally difficult to say goodbye to his old trusty piece of gear. As fellow packrats we sympathize. Will Jay bid his old camera a tearful so long, or can he kick sentimentality to the curb? All will be revealed, after the jump…
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