Keeping it real
Rapper Kanye West, apparently not liking curry cuisine this side of the pond, ordered Indian dishes to go from a Welsh restaurant for a party in New York.
Delivering the trans-Atlantic order from British Raj, near Newport, Wales, to West's party scheduled for Wednesday will involve dry ice containers, a helicopter ride to Heathrow, a business-class flight to New York and a limousine to West's door, the Independent said Monday.
The operation, which will be overseen by head chef Kaysor Ahmed, will cost West more than $3,800 for the restaurant tab alone. An average meal at the Indian restaurant usually costs $38.
The six-time Grammy winner was given the restaurant's number by rapper Snoop Dogg, who has dined at the restaurant.
The order includes eight portions of Ayre fish, vegetable biryani, mixed vegetables, chutney, onion bhaji and chapati.
"It is unbelievable, I didn't even know this Snoop Dogg man had eaten our food before," restaurant owner Masud Ahmed told The independent. "And when the order came in on the fax we had no idea who Kanye West was; we had to type his name into Google." - UPI, March 5, 2007
Didn't I see something similar in an episode of
M*A*S*H?
Labels: hip and/or hop
I'm ready for it to build into a frightening trend
One worrisome trend was the decline in sales of hip-hop albums, which had been among the stronger performers in recent years. (Hip-hop acts also received little love from the Recording Academy; no rap album received a nomination in any of the major categories.) - New York Times, February 12, 2007
Basing a recording industry on a monoculture like hip-hop makes about as much sense as
basing an entire network primetime schedule on a game show. That
worked out really well for ABC. Unfortunately, I suppose country music will be there to take up the slack.
Here's an item that really shows how far out of the mainstream I am:
WASHINGTON, December 22, 2006 – The soundtrack to the Disney Channel’s original TV movie High School Musical proves popular with kids and parents alike, as it closes out 2006 tied with country superstars Rascal Flatts for the highest certified album of 2006, according to the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) year-end wrap-up.
What this appears to be saying is not only that (a) people in large numbers are spending money on dreck like
Rascal Flatts, but (b) there is something called "High School Musical" that I've never even heard of. Yes, the living is easy here at the Don't Trust Snakes Fortress of Solitude. Indeed, I only recently found out about Rascal Flatts, which seems to share a naming consultant with the short-lived TV show
Shasta McNasty.
It was oddly uncompelling to see the Police perform at the
Grammys. Do you suppose that "Roxanne" is
anyone's favorite Police song? Doubtful. Odd that it became their signature song. I could easily reel off 20 of their songs that are better than that chestnut.
Oh, all right, if you insist.
Don't Trust Snakes 20 Police Songs Better Than "Roxanne""Hole in My Life"
"Can't Stand Losing You"
"Truth Hits Everybody"
"Message in a Bottle"
"Reggatta de Blanc"
"Bring on the Night"
"Walking on the Moon"
"On Any Other Day"
"Does Everyone Stare"
"Don't Stand So Close To Me"
"When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around"
"Bombs Away"
"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"
"Spirits in the Material World"
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"
"Invisible Sun"
"Ωmegaman"
"Secret Journey"
"Synchronicity I"
"King of Pain"
Labels: hip and/or hop
Finished your holiday rapping, beotch?
A new documentary . . . "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes," questions the violence, degradation of women and homophobia in much of rap music. - New York Times, December 23, 2006
Evidently the documentary does not question the value of rap
as music. Is much of it any more than simple/simplistic poetry based on rhymed couplets, set to a rhythm track? The songs could all be about the fall of Troy and the musical issues would remain. Of course it's music in the broad sense, but it's the sort of music about which it makes no sense to ask who is the Mozart or Horowitz or
Hendrix of the genre.
Speaking of Hendrix, here's a tip for bands everywhere: don't try to cover "Spanish Castle Magic". It never works out.
Labels: hip and/or hop, mocking others
Hip and/or hop interlude
It may shock you to learn that I am a
philistine. At least when it comes to hip-hop and rap. Or is it hip-hop/rap? Are they different? Regardless, I don't care for it/them and I don't appreciate it/them. When my musical taste was being formed, Run-DMC played on MTV as a novelty act. If you had told me in the mid-1980s that music like theirs would dominate the charts in 20 years, it would have been no more believable than if you said the same thing about the work of "Weird Al" Yankovic.
I won't bore you with a diatribe (for once), but I will leave you with a question. Not only do I think the question has no answer, I think it is a nonsensical question, like asking "Who is smarter, Albert Einstein or a rock?" (thanks, Scott).
My question is this:
Who is the Jimi Hendrix of rap?I'm not looking for someone who died young. I'm thinking of Hendrix's instrumental virtuosity and songwriting ability. Bonus points for explaining what the terms "songwriting ability" and, especially, "instrumental virtuosity" might mean in the context of rap/hip-hop.
Labels: hip and/or hop, mocking others
