These pictures are screen grabs from the documentary La Lupe: The Queen of Latin Soul (2007), by award-winning director Ela Troyano.
For more on La Lupe, including downloadable audio, check out this post over at DJ Sonido Franko’s blog.
Google Video pick of the week #005
At one point during an unseasonably cold and windy Mexico City evening, the video monitors behind Nortec Collective showed some animation that resembled a Kraftwerk video, except the guys playing the machines had mustaches and Norteño style cowboy hats.
An appropriate nod to their forefathers in electro experimentation. Here´s video from Sunday night.
This week´s Google Video is a smart documentary all about how 3 young Black men channeled the cold, rust and depression of 90s Detroit into techno, Europe´s millenial music. Of course, for me, techno used to only remind me of vampires in a club.
Google Video pick of the week #004
¨Dream is Destiny,¨ precedes one of the first beats in Richard Linklater´s 2001 animated feature Waking Life. Since I´m headed to SXSW in Austin, I figured I would post about this movie, which is so imaginatively rendered, and made by a writer/director best-known for catapulting Austin slackers into the film-making limelight.
Linklater, who in some of his older pictures, and with no facial hair, kind of reminds me of a young Richie Sambora, was the poster boy for the indie film era that spawned (Jersey´s most visible movie director) Kevin Smith. And he has a resume as respected as any mildly successful Hollywood movie guy. Most of his films find niche audiences, but he´s made at least one movie everyone saw, School of Rock. His last movie, about Orson Welles, got good reviews.
¨Waking Life,¨ was one of two animated features the Texas director managed to bring to the screen. It uses a technique called ¨rotoscoping.¨ According to this Wired piece, ¨artists digitally trace over some frames of live-action footage by hand with a Wacom pen and tablet,¨ to create the trippy effects.
You can read a Web Q&A with the director, where he mentions some of the music he likes: ¨Duke Ellington and Bunny Berrigan and Fats Waller…¨ (via Empire Online).
Must See Factor: 5
Best Reason to See It: It gets kind of deep and existential in places.
Best part of the movie: The part where the guy gets shot.
Manny Pacquiao of DJs
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Pac Man proved his dominance again this weekend. According to the New York Times Manny´s pull on the Filipino people is such that even the gangsters take a break on a Pacquiao fight night. He´s the first from his country to be such a huge international cultural icon. Before him, who were the heroes little Filipino boys and girls looked up to?
For kids wanting a career in music, perhaps Neil Armstrong is someone to take that title. Filipino Djs, especially those from California ( Neil reps NY) are really holding together the art of turntablism, party deejaying and hip-hop mixtape culture. Neil even spoke against the RIAA pressure on the mixtape industry some years ago.
DJ Neil ¨Armstrong¨ Rodriguez, is a New York-bred DJ who rose up in the turntablist competitions ruled by the Bay Area. He started taking turntables seriously in the mid 90s after earning a chemical engineering degree, and has been growing more ultra-successful in the last 5 years.
There was this gig as tour DJ for Jay-Z for several years, (here’s a Q&A I did with him in the Spring of 2008), which led to deejaying gigs in China during the Olympics. He no longer tours with Jigga, but has a nice job as spokesman for the Adidas/Star Wars campaign. He also released a free mixtape this month that´s dedicated to Jay-Z.
Rodriguez has crafted a mixtape ouvre that’s taken the concept of a Ron G “blend” tape a lot farther than maybe it was supposed to go. His mixtapes tap into raw nostalgia at times, and sometimes just hinge on an emotion. Check ¨Warmfuzzy¨.
I´m not Filipino, but a Filipino national who immigrated to Newark, NJ, during the turn of the Century did marry into my family. This is him below. I´ve heard he was good at martial arts, but that could´ve been a stereotype passed down through the generations. He was known as ¨Pop¨.
To hear more Neil Armstrong mixes, check out a mixtape/soundtrack to travel he did. The excellent classic rock filled “Extraordinary” mix, part of his All Out Kings series. And also check out his updated podcast page, where you can hear his “Warmfuzzy,” mix. Hear this mix from L.A.’s The Do-Over.
¨Laugh now cry later, I rhyme greater…¨
A hail of bullets ended his life on March 9, 1997.
Biggie DVD on sale at Mexico City´s El Chopo market.
C.J. Wallace, B.I.G´s son. Photos taken at Barnes and Noble at the Grove in Hollwyood, 2008.
Hay Guey
I was reading another solid post by my man Daniel Hernandez yesterday, over at his always rich Intersections blog, talking about COLOMBIANOS of Northern Mexico. Months before, Vice magazine enthralled me with a piece on Cholombianos. Basically, cholos who rock to salsa cumbia and bite Colombian style.
Noticing a discrepancy in his spelling of the term, my inner copy editor screamed out, and I commented to my boy that he had it wrong: It’s “Cholombianos.”
No. He wasn’t wrong. But, yes, we’re both right.
To clear this up, I shot an email to Toy Selectah, pictured up top, who was mentioned in the piece. I interviewed Toy at last year’s SXSW for a piece on Niña Dioz. She was his protegé at the time. Toy, a veteran of the music business for about 15 years, helped create Mexican hip-hop. He’s the oracle for all things Monterrey, hiphop, cumbia and Mexico DJ culture.
Says Toy, via email:
“Colombianos” or “Colombians”, here in Monterrey, is definitely referring to the cholo colombian style. “Cholombianos” is just the combination of words to explains these guys looks. Like a typical Monterrey cholo, his aesthetic is being a Colombian wanna-be!!”
For more Toy Selectah, check out this hour-and-a-half long interview he recently did with Red Bull Academy.
He talks about hip-hop in Mexico and the rise of reggaeton …
“What is interesting to me is that it’s a genre based on a PC and a Fruityloops program.”
He also says “ghetto blaster” during the interview.
Toy Selectah mixes you can stream now:
Toy Selectah Mini-Raverton Mix (www.sistemalocal.org)
Top photo by Deanna Dent.
Tohui Panda and the¨Mexican Madonna¨
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There hadn´t been a fatal animal attack story in the news for a while, which is why Tilikum´s killing of his Seaworld trainer last week dominated the headlines.
For me it brought to mind that terrible exploitation movie Orca (1977). And renewed international interest in the debate about captive animals who, like humans, probably don´t take very well to incarceration.
But the issue is more about the exploitation of captive animals for our benefit. A beer company used to make money off of Shamu, and when the theme park business stopped making much money, it was sold.
I´m sure this caused some headaches in the boardroom of the Blackstone Group, too, which had just purchased Seaworld from that beer company just a few months ago in a $2.7 billion deal. Business, before the accident wasn´t so hot and according to the Wall Street journal, the acquisition was
…the largest private-equity deal of 2009 and one of the largest since the financial crisis began more than two years ago.
On a more personal note, this incident recalls my 6th grade trip to the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn, Michael Jackson, the tiger mauling in San Francisco, Bo Derek and Tohui, the Panda of Chapultepec Zoo.
Tohui, which in tarahumara Nahuatl language means ¨child,¨ became something of a pop culture phenom back in the 1980s here in Mexico City. On a global level, it was the first time, outside of China, that a giant panda was born and lived in captivity. Mexico has one of the most successful panda breeding programs in the world.
The panda was a sensation, becoming the city´s mascot and main zoo attraction, and also a marketing wonder, with an anime movie and a hit pop song.
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The song, ¨El Pequeño Panda De Chapultepec,¨ (1982) was a huge hit for Yuri, a singer from Veracruz who first came on the scene with a solid Spanish version of Debby Boone´s ¨You Light Up my life,¨ you can listen here. Yuri is considered one of Mexico´s greatest pop stars. Appearances in Playboy (rather tame, but you can see here, here and here) led to her being dubbed the ¨Mexican Madonna,¨ something that inspired U.S. tabloid media.
Guru Death Watch
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UPDATE: 3/3/10 Guru released a statement saying he is recovering.
Rap blogs are all over Guru´s hospitalization. The rapper, once known as MC Kiethy E, seemed to have had a busy touring schedule and just released a free album online. Gang Starr´s music, for us 80s babies, was part of our high school soundtrack. Guru´s voice helped you deal with break-ups, your own inner demons and the proverbial streets.
I remember him as one of the first rappers to claim one place while being for another. In the rap world, where authenticity is necessary, he got a sort of pass I don´t think a lot of rappers claiming Brooklyn could have gotten away with. He clearly raps with a Boston accent on so many records.
Author Mickey Hess actually analyzes Guru´s hometown mentions in a blog post. In it, he´s addressing concerns from an editor about Guru and the early Boston rap scene. The exchange concerns Hess´book on regional hiphop.
Looking at this data confirms my sense that in the early years Guru used New York (and particularly Brooklyn) as his rhetorical home base. While it resolved my editor’s question, it doesn’t speak to the deeper (and perhaps more controversial) question about how Guru’s Boston references compared to those of other early Boston rappers.
Guru was never my favorite solo rapper, it was his pairing with DJ Premier that made hip-hop magic. Even he admitted it was ¨Mostly Tha Voice,¨ that created his appeal. Still, a rapper way past his prime, Guru was one of the bold names among rap´s golden age in the 90s, plus, he introduced so many of us to French rap (as seen in the video above).
As hiphop fans we forgave him for the breakup of Gang Starr and forgave him for trying to act, and it was mostly because he was an artist with so much classic material under his belt.
For more on Guru check out this Rolling Stone article on his third Jazzmatazz album, 10 years ago; audio interview from last summer with the Philaflava blog; download his free album, ¨Guru 7.0 – The Street Sciptures¨ and for Spanish speaking rap fans, here´s why Guru ¨He llevado el hip hop a otro nivel.¨
Chasing the Hood Surgeon: On finding a son of Dr. Dre
In 2006, after reading online that Dr. Dre had a son recording tracks under the name Hood Surgeon, I got the hair brain idea I would find him and write about it for the L.A. Times.
It was an experience that gave me some good practice as a reporter. I tracked him down all the way to a home-built recording studio in Corona, CA. I also got a hold of his sister, Manaj, who was also trying to become a recording artist, charging that her bloodline to Dr. Dre gave her the right. Both were telling me that dad wouldn´t help them get on. Worst of all, after I did all the interviews and running around and writing, nobody wanted to touch my work, either.
A couple reporters at the paper tried to help me out. Zilch, nada. Nobody cared about Dre´s offspring. All they cared about was, ¨When is Detox coming out?¨
So, here I present to you gentle reader, in all of its unedited, 2006 glory my never-ran story on Dr. Dre´s two kids. Enjoy
¶ Inside the tiny recording booth, above a custom detail shop in the Inland Empire, a young man, at least 6’2, raps into a microphone. His back to the Plexiglas partition, he rhymes fiercely. Starting and stopping…assuring clarity in ever phrase.
“Stop. Go Back,” says the recording engineer, Rik Brown. “Hear the kick?”
It’s a process that takes longer to complete than one would imagine. How hard is it to rhyme into a microphone?
Using the moniker, “Hood Surgeon,” the rapper, born Curtis McClemore (he likes to tell people it´s young, but CA business records show otherwise), needs a deft hand to continue a legacy that has defined rap music in the West.
A fan of 90’s rap music, McClemore says he always was a fan of N.W.A’s music, but he also held admiration for East Coast rap. “I ain’t gonna lie, I grew up on Wu-Tang. I used to like how they put their lyrics together.”
“I thought the East Coast was the ones. Then when I found out,” he says referring to when his mother told him who his famous father was, “I was like, ‘the West,’ this is where it is.”
He said as he delved into the music characterized by the G-Funk sound made so famous by his father.
It was a zeitgeist for him, at 12, finding out he was Dr Dre’s first-born, “It pushed me harder. I said I was going to meet him one day.”
Long Road to meet his father
To the left of a flat panel computer screen showing Pro Tools rests a picture with a thin black frame. In it, Dr Dre stands next to a slightly taller version of himself, Curtis. It was at the “8-Mile” premier.
The picture shows a strange mix of nervous familiarity, and in some way resembles the kind of unfamiliarity a fan might share with his idol. It also exists on his myspace page. Further proof that he is who he claims to be.
Unlike his half-sister Latoya Young, who says that she’s always known who her father was, “Since I was 3.”
McClemore, who likes to say his last name is Young, didn’t meet Dr Dre until he hit legal drinking age.
“It’s like crazy growing up, not knowing who your real dad is, ” he says.
From his early 20’s, Dr Dre has documented his gritty upbringing on the streets of Compton. A founding member of seminal gangster-rap collective, N.W.A, Dre is often credited with creating the ever popular West Coast ‘G-Funk,’ a synth-heavy sound with a deep bass line that recalls the beauty and danger of California life.
McClemore, born in 1981, would have been born when Dre was 16.
Continue reading “Chasing the Hood Surgeon: On finding a son of Dr. Dre”
California Sunshine: L.A. L.A.
- Big City of Dreams
For all my family and friends on the East Coast enduring crazy weather this weekend, just remember, L.A. She keeps you safe and warm; like in California Dreamin´.
Click on the picture of the skyline and take a quick drive through downtown L.A. of the early 70s, in the opening minutes of Steven Spielberg´s Duel (1971), courtesy of Google Video.
channibalsmith.com 
