Big Ben

I'm always happy when people find their way back to the art that ignites their passion. Good for Will. It's been years since I've been on here. Hope everyone is doing well.

Come on, man. Enjoy it. You've got six posts with negativity, life is too beautiful for that. I'll also point out that those artists he has collaborated with in the past were not of his era either, with the exception of Biz or Slick Rick and a handful of others. He's collaborated with people outside his norm throughout his career and I can't complain about this choice and the messege. Let Will be... different. Dope track.

This and new De La in the same day? Fantastic!

I posted about this a while back. It's actually an article from volume 2 (which at the time you could order from Jazzy's site autographed, though unfortunately i'd already preordered it.) I definitely recommend picking up both book, there filled with these types of articles for a **** ton of classic hip hop albums.

This was sad news for sure. I was lucky enough to drive to New Orleans and see him perform back in 09(I think). He sat the whole time but was still captivating.

Looks like they showed up this week too, this time shows the beginning of their partnership. http://boingboing.net/2015/05/05/the-fresh-prince-meets-dj-jazz.html

​While you can read all the pages on that sight (It's updated every week) I recommend picking up the trades. I have the first two and there pretty cool, they're printed on that old comic style paper and are over sized so they're pretty big. The two trades cover 1975 to 1983.

http://boingboing.net/2015/04/28/hip-hop-family-tree-dj-jazzy.html

On Wisconsin!!!

Awesome! That was funny, and it's nice to see it happen publicly, maybe it'll put more pressure on him. I like that Kimmel asked a questions I've always wondered about, basically why hasn't he ever really been featured on other musicians music. Its a bit of a tragedy that he isn't.

I gotta agree with AJ here. I'm a fan of LL and Ice Cube but both have been inconsistent with there music the last few years. Effectively you can't water a plant whenever you feel like it. When you go away on a trip and come back to water that plant it's not the same. If you leave your craft and come back, you come back to where you left off, so there's very limited growth. When you look at artists who've stuck to there craft with their entire focus you see growth, you see artists that have gotten better as they've aged (I.E. De La, Pharoahe Monch). That being said, it sounds as if Will has never stopped and has continually made music so there's a chance that he's grown as a musician. I would prefer that he'd just spend time with Jazzy, who's also not quit the craft, and let their own magic occur. When you listen to a lot of hip-hop albums now a days they lack cohesion. These albums are riddled with a number of different sounds rather then one consistent vibe which I think the product overall suffers, which is why I would like to see the album solely produced by Jazzy. I think its the main fault of Lost and Found, lack of consistency, something I believe even Jazzy has touched on in the past when he's mentioned Will being surrounded by people who are afraid to tell him that somethings not working, which is another reason I'd like to see Jazzy take control of any future album by Will. In the end even Will has admitted (his usual excuse for lack of music) that when you split your focus they both suffer.

Thankfully we're still getting peppered with new music.

Here is an excerpt from the book: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/parents-just-dont-understand-oral-history-will-smith?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_108698541

It's filled with a lot of stuff for hip-hop fans for sure. I love when talking about filming Parents just Don't understand, Carli called Russell Simmons and told him that Will was going to be bigger then Eddie Murphy and then Russell Simmons replied with "Well, he may be Malcolm Jamal-Warner but he ain't no Eddie Murphy."

I pre-ordered Brian Coleman's Check the Technique Vol 2 and it was on my doorstep Monday when I got back from visiting my parents. I have the first volume and I ordered this one for two reasons. The first being the sample chapter they posted with 3rd Bass and their Cactus Album. The second because I looked at the chapter listing and I saw He's the DJ, I'm the Rappper--Clearly that's an automatic credit card choice right there. It was worth it for sure. Unfortunately there was no sign of Will (but as fan's I think we're accustomed to his minute involvement in all things hip-hop) but all the information is great. It's filled with a lot of little information on the creation of the album and little details on a lot of tracks. Jeff was one of those involved (had he not, I don't know if I would have picked up the book) but the information from the others involved was spot on too. Besides Jeff there was Ann Carli, Pete Q. Harris, Joe Nicolo, and Ready Rock. There's just a lot of fun information about the process behind the scenes and some fun trivia that I think a lot of fan's would appreciate. Like on Brand New Funk Ready Rock imitated the James Brown "Get Down!" because Jeff had, accidentally, erased the sample. There were four copies of the Nightmare video, one of which Jeff's girlfriend recorded over. (There's till hope though, it appears that Ann Carli may have a copy somewhere!) There's also some detail's about what it looked like. Jeff had originally recorded the DJ cuts for an entirely DJ album but they decided to do a double album instead. Apparently there are some cuts we've never heard out there. The Live At Union Square cut was trimmed down from a half hour, Jeff apparently has a copy. One of the comments I found interesting was Jeff saying that Time to Chill "...had less substance... that one was filler..." I thought that was interesting because it's actually one of my favorite tracks on there. It was a fun read, there section is 30 pages, and I'd recommend it. The only other one I've read was the sample 3rd Bass album but it's got a lot of other classics that I'm looking forward to like: Black Sheep- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises in the East Mos Def & Talib - Are Black Star Naughty by Nature - Naughty by Nature There's a bunch more but I'm lazy. Here's the link to the book: http://www.getondown.com/blog/2014/06/pre-sale-for-brian-colemans-upcoming-book-check-the-technique-volume-2/