C. Hannibal cultural history, digital media, music

For Sale, No Scratches

If you’re a DJ or you write for a blog or other media outlet, then you’re familiar with promo CDs.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling on Tuesday that an eBay seller has the right to sell promotional CDs marked with the “Not for Sale” tag. Universal Music Group brought the suit against Troy Augosto, he won in 2008, so this recent ruling just locks it in: go ahead and sell those good promos, you know, the one’s with the hole-punch in the back, or the bar code scratched out. It’s legal.

For CD buyback spots check the back of your local indie weekly or this site. For typical prices paid CDs, check out Amoeba’s rates.

[via]

Photo from Amoeba Music, S.F. from theobelisk.net

C. Hannibal cultural history, visually speaking

To Die For

The trailer for the documentary “Women Are Heroes,” by French street photog JR is making the rounds again, this time in a version for the English speakers. The exhibit itself is over a year old, and part of his 28 Millimètres project, this time focused on women in conflict zones (whether through war, poverty or simply the system).

January 12 he’s dropping what’s being billed as the movie of the adventure.

The artist, who you learn more about here, does interventions using blown up black and white portraits. For this project he went to Brazil, Cambodia and the squatter’s village called Kibera in Kenya.

This made me think of the tattoo that Tupac had on his chest that read “2.Die.4” under a small Queen Nefertiti image.

This project may not be giving political power to the millions of women who struggle in the world, but like one African woman says in one of the video trailers, people will at least wonder who they are, and that gives them voice. At the end of the day, John and Yoko knew what they were talking about with that song.

 

For more on this documentary and collected clips check out:

Facebook

Dailymotion

C. Hannibal cultural history, los angeles, music, visually speaking

Would Pac Approve?

 

I’m not showing you this found photo so that you can see how funny looking Marc is. I was just wondering what happened to all those posters that used to decorated my room. All gone, except for the Ali poster over there in the left corner. I bought that huge Pac poster shortly after he died, when I was an undergrad in college. I didn’t mind Tupac was giving me the double middle finger. I’d like to know who took that, however. Was it in Vibe?

I think that if Tupac were alive today, he would be recording over techno and house beats, because that’s just what you’re supposed to do nowadays as a rapper. I really hope there’s no posthumous album with that gimmick in the works, unless it’s by David Guetta and maybe Will.I.Am, maybe.

Below, a recent mix by Brooklyn native and Detroit transplant Kevin Saunderson, considered one of the pioneers of Detroit Techno. Check a previous post about a historical documentary on that scene.

Kevin Saunderson – 2010-12-10 – Live at Mixdown Channel 955 Detroit Radio by Electro-Mix-Memory

Pac would either work with him, or one of the new jacks on the scene such as L.A. techno duo Raíz. Or, Pac would go crazy on you at the suggestion he record over these beats. But I’d like to think of him as more worldly than that.

Mixes by Raíz | acid circus

If you’re in Hollywood next week, you can check out the two DJ sets plus many more on Wednesday, Jan. 12. The ghost of Tupac may be hanging out further west on Sunset. RSVP for free entry. The venue is small, so it won’t turn into one of those events Dennis Romero likes to write about.

C. Hannibal cultural history

Pleather Hip-Hop Ephemera

 

I don’t know if my cousin Pancho bought this on Broad St. in Newark or on Canal Street in N.Y., but somehow in the early 90s I ended up with it. I think maybe he left it at my house because he really didn’t love it that much. It was hanging in my hallway closet since I can remember. I never rocked it (until now), the fashion of pleather medallions wore off after a year or so and they just weren’t hiphop for too long. Now,  Batman (I think) still remains hiphop.
The fortune I have at being able to run through my old shit at my parents’ house in Jersey makes me really happy. Especially when I found those North Face gloves, mint condition, no crust. Nice.

Above is a Batman medallion that some how came on the scene during that period in hiphop when De La Soul and X-Clan had everyone rocking a beaded this or leather that. Some people had the Malcolm X.  Kind of fun finding these objects again. I’ve been secretly rocking this medallion since I rediscovered it last week. I guess in some way, pieces of “junk” like this tell us a little about who we were, and where we were at in life.

This song is a bit post-pleather medallion but I’m finding out it’s one of my favorite 90s era rap songs.

Son Get Wrec (Enta Da Stage, 1993)

 

http://k002.kiwi6.com/uploads/hotlink?id=687v7y61d0
C. Hannibal cultural history

Mo’ Language

 

 

The white collar set will always have a fascination with “urban” America. But living in Harlem, I’m always astounded by some of the non-brown and non-Dominican faces I see strutting up the street (more hurriedly after it gets dark). “This land is your land,” is required singing in kindergarten, no?  The new mantra for 2011 midwest suburban migration to the hood.

That’s maybe what made the Urban Dictionary so popular. People started moving to the hood because rent was too high in the normal “friendly” places and they wanted to be able to feel like they belonged. The biggest point to assimilating into any culture is getting past the language barrier. But I find  Aaron Peckham’s Urban Dictionary (above is a page from the 2007: Mo’ Urban Dictionary) as a tool that serves the initiated and the uninitiated. I’m able to explain better to my journalism peers what the hell I’m talking about, and the squarest of the bunch can seem cool when they rattle stuff off like “word is born”. Thank you, Internest.

 

C. Hannibal cinema culture, cultural history, digital media

Drinking More Tron-Aid

Okay. I’ll admit it, my stanism for Tron:Legacy is right out of the 3rd grade. But it’ll probably subside when I get around to the proper IMAX treatment. Besides, most movies I see more than once never hold up to the second viewing. And I can’t stop listening to this soundtrack. I don’t belong to the Daft Punk cult or anything like that, I just think this is a really clean score (listen to it, along with the extras in one long stream below) and the techno bits really lend well to the overall futuraristic light speed essence of it all.

I swear I don’t work for Disney.

Mickey photo via greatwhiteshark.com

C. Hannibal cinema culture, cultural history

Colombiana

For a lot of guys (and women), I’m sure it’s a great thing that the fetish object that is the Latina has a new popular mainstream U.S. embodiment in TV star Sofia Vergara. Type her name into google and you can find all the boob pics you want and see all the awful *cough SOUL PLANE cough* movies she had to work on until she scored a winner. Of course her character is the same carbon copy of other feisty Latin immigrant spouses that goes back decades. I’m just here to celebrate that after Shakira’s worn out her welcome, Hollywood is finally catching on to the fact that Colombian women are hot.

Vergara is up for a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as a Golden Globe. Let’s hope she wins it so that we don’t just think of hips and drug mules when we want to celebrate Colombians in the U.S. entertainment spotlight.

 

 

Photo via.

C. Hannibal cultural history, music

Missing Lauryn’s Newark State of Mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4it9RUXsA4

“It’s all economics…” Lauryn Hill goes in on Jeru @ 4:15 in the video above.

When the news hit that Lauryn Hill is going on a 17 city tour, I met it with a big “so tf what?”. I’m tired of all this anticipation for her, man. She’s from my geographic area on the map, and next to Redman, she was like the only other person we could claim as our own, our super, mega best. Really all she did was make people question my part of New Jersey. Yeah, more Jersey jokes.

That crazy woman had the whole industry in the palm of her hand. She did the cool thing by rejecting it, but then all that diva-ish behavior and then no solid comeback? Squalid, man. Squalid career. She left a lot of people impoverished, her music fed a lot of souls. A vitamin if you were down. A soothing tonic if you had some relationship troubles. I won’t tell you which songs, because if you look at her catalog, there’s only so few to choose from.

The thing though that really gets me is that she didn’t represent. Here you have Rah Digga, who even though no one buys her records, she’s still grinding. STILL.

Lauryn marries into a musical legacy and hops off the planet. Now, I’ve seen her perform in these “secret” shows and other false Fugees reunions that she’ll do for a corporate buck, but it all lacks.  I think she tries to explain in this recent interview what made her a recluse, again.

But back to my main point. She didn’t represent like she was supposed to. See, she was repping South Orange, which is basically (greater) Newark, depending on your degree of boughy-ness. As stated in

Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide: Volume 1: East Coast and West Coast:

“Whether you’re representing Newark (aka Brick City), Irvington (aka Hooterville), or East Orange (aka Illtown), you still represent Newark”

As for Mrs. Hill, I wouldn’t hold my breath for any comeback or new songs, maybe in another 20 years when she’s older. For now, here are the classics, like warm butter on some syrupy pancakes:

 

Continue reading “Missing Lauryn’s Newark State of Mind” →

C. Hannibal cinema culture, cultural history

The Trejo Machine

PacificCoastNews.com

 

He’s a “Hollywood Machine“. Orale.

Danny Trejo at the Hollywood Christmas parade last month.

Few outside Hollywood know it, but Danny Trejo has much more clout in the movie industry than most would think a career bad guy would have. Here’s a Q&A that talks about his indie film roots. Earlier this year, the LA Times wrote:

A quarter of a century later, the actor has starred in seemingly every third Hollywood action movie, including “Heat,” “Con Air” and numerous Robert Rodriguez films (in which his character is almost always named for a weapon). Trejo averages – averages – between 10 and 13 movies per year, often showing up on set for a few days, plying his villainous trade and leaving.

I like his blue collar view of working on multi-million dollar movies:

“Acting for me is like being a contractor or a plumber or a house painter. I don’t distinguish what house I’m gonna paint. Just ‘cuz I’m not getting as much money for this house, I still have to do a good job,” he said in slightly accented English, describing his attitude toward his earlier character parts.

Continue reading “The Trejo Machine” →