Ludacris! Yeah, man. It is about time that I threw some southern hip-hip into the mix. Whenever I hear southern rap, it reminds me of the good old days before Lil’ Jon came along and ruined it all-up with “Crunk.” I mean, we all thought that Crunk was going to be one of those timeless genres that our great-grandchildren could listen to, while they booty-pop at the school dance. Alas, it seems to have burned out as quickly as it originally came onto the scene. Rants aside southern hip-hop is hot.

Getting back to Luda: Reagan and I were actually having a discussion the other day, over sandwiches, about southern rap. It was about how when we hear albums like “Chicken-n-Beer” or Nelly’s “Country Grammar,” it just reminds us of simpler times. I also think that Luda was hilarious in “2 Fast 2 Furious.” Yes, I am admitting that I actually watched that movie (not that any females reading this didn’t watch it just to see Paul Walker and Tyrese looking hot and acting dumb). Ok, now for the real confession: I own that movie. Hahahaha. The image in this post is actually of Luda’s character from the movie.

I can’t say that I care for Lucacris’ entire body of work. For example “Move, get out the way” drove me absolutely insane.  Some of his songs, on the other hand, fall among the ranks of my favorite hip-hop jams. It is one of those songs that I’m sharing today. “Get back,” is the name of the track. It is from the 2004 album “Red Light District.” It is the edited version. You definitely need a sub, or some headphones with at least 50mm drivers to do the low end justice, on this track.  Click me to play.

Peanut Butter Wolf, AKA Chris Manak, is a California based DJ, who produces and mixes Hip-hop fusion tracks. Hip-hop fusion sounds like kind of a lame term. But I’m not feeling very creative at the moment, and that was the best that I could come up with.

I throw “fusion” in there, because the stuff he puts out is more than just a Timbaland-style beat with some rappers going back and forth over the top of it. A lot of tracks have a strong jazz flow to them. Other’s, have an overt disco flavor. Anyway, the track that I’m sharing today is instrumental. It is from the album “Peanut Butter Breaks.”

The song is called “Summer’s end.” I feel like this is fitting, because, although winter solstice is already almost upon us, winter just showed up in NY last weekend. It is a really mellow groove with some horns and a solid bass line. Give it a spin.

More Bay-area organic hip-hop for you, this week. Brought together by Del tha Funky Homosapien, “Hieroglyphics” first appeared on the scene in the early 1990’s. Though Del is heavily credited as bringing the group together, his vocals are probably not the most prominent in Hiero’s tracks. Del shares the mic well with the whole lot of the Hiero crew. In case you don’t already know, all of the guys from  “Souls of Mischief,” (Tajai, Opio, etc..), can be found in the mix.

As far as I know (feel free to set me straight) “Hieroglyphics” have have only produced two studio albums on a major label. One was released in 1998 called “Third Eye Vision.” The title may sound dirty (and I guess maybe it is), but primarily it refers to the ubiquitous graphic of the three-eyed straight lipped “smiley face” that serves at the group’s logo. The other studio album “Full Circle” was published in ‘03. In addition, there were a handful of discs put out on Hiero’s own label after “Full Circle” was released.

The song that I’m sharing today is from the “Full Circle” album. It samples Bjork’s “Army of me.” It has some swearin’. So, if you are opposed to that sort of thing, then it is probably best to pass up this track. The title is “Let it Roll.” Check it out.

Brian McKnight

Omarion

Monday night, I had the occasion of shooting DJ Webstar’s b-day party for SoJones at the M2 Ultralounge in midtown west. Omarion and Brian McKnight are a few of the celebs that showed. You can check out the rest of my photos at Sojones, as soon as the article is published. I was just invited back, to shoot Mariah Carey’s Halloween party, at the same club. The only problem is that we are already going to Weezer’s party that night. Speaking of Weezer, Reagan met some of them yesterday. So cool.

Common Sense is one of those few rappers from the midwest, who was able to make it big. He hails from Chi-town, and was born “Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr.” He got his start in the early 90’s known mostly by the underground hip-hop crowd. He has done quite a bit of experimentation with his sound, over the years. He has put out several studio albums and worked with a lot of the other big names in hip-hop.

Recently, he has teamed up with Diesel, promoting their fragrance, “Only the Brave.” I shot the red carpet for one of his promo events.

I really like his sound. He incorporates a lot of classic jazz and blues style into his beats. His flow is kind of unique too.  I love the way that he opens the album “Be.” The intro is just a stand up bass, for like the first 30 or 40 seconds of the song, before organ, keyboard drums and strings drop in. He does a lot of that kind of stuff, which is really refreshing, given the tendency of hip-hop trends to inbreed. The song that I’m sharing today is from Common’s first album “Can I borrow a dollar?” (1992). It is called “Soul by the Pound.” WARNING: This song has some swears. So if you are averse, don’t press play.

I had a pretty fun time last night, shooting some production stills for SoJones, during a Jim Jones and DJ Webstar music video shoot. The set was at the shoe store “Medici,” which is right around the corner from the Flatiron Building, on 23rd Street. Since they had to get the whole video done while the store was closed, they worked all night long. I only stuck around until about 2. Here is the Sojones write-up.

Last night Common played a show on Bower at Capitale. It was to promote a new Diesel fragrance. I’m sure that if you read magazines, you have seen the ads. Anyway, I was shooting the red carpet for SoJones. It worked out well, since Reagan had a girls night, tonight. It was the first time I have ever done something like that. It didn’t go as well as I had planned. First of all, it was raining on and off. So I’m sure that half of the people went in the back door. A few models came through before it really started coming down. I was there to photograph Common, but apparently he bypassed the carpet. Anyway, I ended up not even going to the show, because they were going to make me check my camera. I guess that they had already contracted with someone exclusively for the photos in the actual show. Anyway, here are a few of the shots that I got.

^—Olivia Palermo (from “The City”)

^—Michelle Trachtenberg (from “Gossip Girl”)

^—I forgot who this woman is, hahahaha. I’ll figure it out again by the time I publish these on Sojones. So you can check it out over there. (BTW, this is Sessilee Lopez [fashion model])

^—Olivia, again.

It was pretty fun. It would have been better if the weather wouldn’t have crapped out, and if Common would have come in the front door.

7L and Esoteric are a hip hop group out of Boston.  They rhyme about Jamie Lee Curtis and Wookies. I like them. Here is Feudal Lords (feat. Nejel Mongrel) (be forewarned, it has the “s” word).

The Grouch. This guy is frequently collaborating with Murs, Eligh, Zion I etc.. He has a good organic Hip-hop flow. Grouch doesn’t really have a traditional Hip hop dialect. He pronounces the letter “R” in his lyrics, for example. Grouch tends to get a bit political sometimes, with the lyrics. Some of his stuff, I absolutely love. Some of it, I can’t stand. I first heard his music playing over in the overhead speakers at an indoor skate park, that doesn’t exist anymore. After a couple of songs, I had to go ask the guys running the place who the artist was. Grouch has a new album out, it’s called “Show you the World.” I really like most of the stuff on it. I have been listening to it for about a week straight. The song I’m sharing is called “The Bay to LA,” featuring Murs. It isn’t my favorite song on the album. But, it is nice and clean. Plus, it is pretty good. Bend an ear.

I had a blast hanging out with the guys from Rich Yung, Triple 5 Soul, e.5.Charlie, and the Cargo guys, for the past two evenings at the Cargo show. SoJones got me hooked up with press credentials, and the Cargo guys really treated me right. The music was awesome, both yesterday with DJ Camilo, and today with DJ Panther (pictured above). The image below, is one that I shot from the DJ booth, looking down over the event.

The guys below are the ones behind e.5.Charlie. They are a couple of pretty cool characters who hooked me up with a bunch of swag.

You can check out my interviews with Rich Yung, and with Triple 5 Soul, over at SoJones. There are a couple of more interviews I did at the show that we be published on SoJones in the next few days. Here is the article about the history of the show.