Got a chance to check out my first UH game in over a year this past weekend….hit up the Boise / UH game at Aloha Stadium with fellow lightsleepers KTC and Wade. Good fun to hang with the fellas and enjoy some laughs and drinks — but that was the extent of our fun that evening. Game sucked balls, and it was pretty depressing to see UH get rolled. I was commenting to the guys that it’s amazing how far UH has gone down over the last 2 years…from riding on top to feeding on the bottom (posted by well.being)
“I just want it to be looked at with a higher appreciation. It’s not something you can do overnight,” he said. “I try to make not only the craft seem interesting, but the story behind it.”
“I always felt bored trying to learn another instrument when I’m already born with an instrument,” Tom said. “I’ll hear the beat, and I’ll want to become that sound. In my mind, I am the instrument.
Could we be witnessing Hawai’i’s first beatbox star?” (Andy Bumatai)
Are we really talking about the same person here? Seriously….I don’t try to hate on folks on purpose…but if this dude is the future of beat boxing…God help us. And yes, I know that Andy Bumatai isn’t the best person to judge beatboxing, but on the real, I think even if I had never heard beatboxing before, I would STILL recognize mediocre talent…
Please. Stop. Jason. Tom.
I pretty much had given up on Buckshot in recent years, so it was refreshing to see this dope collab between Shorty and KRS…..haven’t heard the rest of their stuff together, but looking forward to it! Love the concept and the calling-out….good to see the vets chiming in!
I think it hit me when Hawaii-based Lakea (aka HumDrum) made a mention in the Lightsleepers Forum with the following words of wisdom:
“i hate being a hater, but i kinda hate that people who arent living here are repping here harder than people who are living here.”
In one small sentence, HumDrum captured my sentiments exactly. To start off with, let me say this — I truly do dig Blue Scholars. They’ve made consistently dope music, and their multi-level methods of getting their music out there and heard is something to behold. Never met them personally, but if I take Lofa’s word on it, these fellas are down to earth and more importantly, down for the cause. Can’t say I didn’t feel a small kine rush of pride when they shouted out (audibly and visually) the Lightsleepers family in their HI-808 track.
With that disclaimer in place, let me tell you why this whole “Oof! EP” bothers me. At each and every Hawaii show, I constantly find myself surrounded by some of the dopest underground contributors IN THE FRICKIN’ WORLD. Hands down. Hawaii has enough dope emcees, writers, b-boys, turntablists, artists and designers to fill this page up. I’ve watched our scene grow across all fronts, and seen a lot of these folks gain the nationwide recognition they deserve. Lightsleepers. Siq Records. NSK. Angry Woebots. Tassho. Omega Cix. Asita Records. ALR. GroundUp. EK. Waikiki B-Boys. In4mation. Prototype. Fitted. Contrast. Etc. Etc. Etc. Hometown pride, indeed.
And yet, at least in my own opinion, this invisible ceiling hangs over us. Props to Blue Scholars for reppin up Hawaii on such a large scale. But yet, here you got a literally out-of-town crew doing more in a 6-month span to showcase Hawaii then all of us are doing right now. Sold out shows. National tours. Dope videos. Great multi-media marketing. You got tons of ordinary joes in Hawaii right now talking about “that dope Hawaii song that Blue Scholars made.” And yet, you ask these same people to list Kama’aina talent, and they’re at a loss for words.
This is NOT a call to action. This is NOT a diss intended to disrupt anyone’s body of work. This IS a wake-up call to myself, my crew, my peers to put in that damn work.
As you’re reading this, the inevitable argument will arise that yes, we are making progress. And I agree. When I see the homie Tassho making moves with Good Music, opening at huge festivals and absolutely killing it on the design front, I get all chicken-skin. Watching Timer cruise Germany and showcase his incredible art made me crap my pants. Cracking open a crisp copy of Contrast Mag and thinking about how dope a product the homie Race has put out makes me proud. And yet, so much more can be accomplished. So many talented people are around us everyday that can contribute something earthshattering. And I for one, can’t wait to see them rise up.
So, here goes: Omega Cix — put out that album homie. I’ve been waiting since high school to hear a full-length from you. I think I speak for everyone out there that’s been hanging on every verse and every word you’ve put out. We need an album. By the way, I’ll be bugging you about this until the day we expire. By the way, this same “put out an album” call goes out to the following: Ghesol, Nabahe, Rhyme, HumDrum, EK, Lofa (yes, you too….I gotta hear you speak on some stuff!) Doc, Staplemouth, Temper T, Riff Raff, Hi-State (been too long since I hear the whole crew!), Soul Pacific, Ion Myke………and the list goes on. Yes, yes, I know some of you guys working on stuff, but seriously, let’s jam it out! There’s only so many times I can hear someone say “brah, it’s almost done…” or “brah, just waiting on the cover art…” (this goes for me too…)
Okay, I’m finished. Let’s rep Hawaii. And please, let’s do it harder and with more conviction than a crew that grew up here in the 80’s. No diss. Just a gut check. Bombai I gotta release a whole album about my love for San Francisco based on my college years spent up there.
well.being
with all these grind time battles I’ve been watching I wonder how all the 90’s battle vets would do in the gt format. the one dude that I wish would make an appearance on gt is mr. Oliver the hitman Hart aka eyedea. He’d probably smash fools in the battles, but personally I don’t think he smashes songs too well. Just my opinion. here’s a song from his new album “By the Throat” with abilities. It just dropped this week. This video affirms my belief that eyedea should try and revive his first passion and start slaying emcees again. btw I still waiting for that ek vs fredo vid. WI
Great fun from bachelor party to the reception. Cheehu Tpau!
maybe the journey to heaven will be like this picture: a tunnel of your favorite earthly jams before we rock out to God’s eternal turntables. I got to hit up vegas with my wife and a couple of her friends. When I dropped them off to the malls, I hit up some record spots in the near by area. First stop was Record City. Picked up Aceyalone’s 2nd album book of.. snatched up some digable planets and some good funky oldy gems. maybe one day I’ll get the nerve to enter a beat root. maybe
5 bones on iTUNES
I’ve been in a “listening to music” drought as of late. When I logged onto myspace a few weeks back I saw those famous Bug Eyed homie, Pigeon John, gracing the log in page. His new E.P with L.A. Symph brotha Flynn Adam refreshed my dry ears with “Pink Limo.” Five fresh tracks only 5 bucks on iTunes. From the get go, Chimpanzees sets the tone for this party hyped album. I played this song for my kids in the car and they were bouncing all around. I miss hearing FUN albums (ugly duckling, NMB, KTC,). The next track is my favorite for some odd reason because I’m not a fan of Girl focused songs. But “Girlies” comes off proper with the back and forth between pigeon and flynn. It’s sick with the vixen chick in the background causing drama. kinda like the hip hop verson of MTV’s “The Hills” (my wife’s fav…but I can ‘t stand it…but I pretend like I’m not watching but I am).
The whole album is on constant rotation for me and quenched my thirst for Good, Fun, Music…ROOTBEER!
Well, thought I’d finish up my New York City wrap-up…it’s been a crazy week since I’ve been back home–that’s the thing with trips—as much as I love getting away from the day-to-day of work here in Hawaii, there’s always that much more to stress over when you get back…
The rest of my trip to NYC was spent in a 2 day conference for work–interesting stuff for sure, but I was chewing at the bit to get back out and explore the city…here’s the rest of my trip summarized…
Spent quite a bit of Friday and Saturday doing some shopping for the fam back home–first stop was F.A.O Schwarz, the toy store made infamous in the Tom Hanks movie, ‘Big’…..now, having a baby has made me truly appreciate toy stores, so it was a trip to see this place in person…3 stories of craziness—honestly, the best toy store I’ve seen in my life. On the real, this place had a “create a Muppet” section—where you could put together a custom-made Muppet…absolutely bananas. The thing looked exactly like the Muppets I grew up watching–but at a $130 a pop, I had to pass on bringing one home..
chopsticks, anyone?
On the way back to Times Square, I came across a couple of cool landmarks—the Ed Sullivan Theater, where David Letterman films his show (and where U2 spent the week as his musical guests..) and none other than the headquarters for Bad Boy Entertainment…hahahaa…dude, where did Bad Boy go wrong? How the hell do you kick start with dope emcees like Craig Mack and Biggie and end up creating straight trash?! Oh well…
Ed Sullivan Theater..
should have thrown up a LS sticker on their door!
Times Square was a trip—-crazy advertisments everywhere, MTV Studios (without the screaming TRL fans) and some pretty good sales going on at Virgin Records (yet another music store shutting down for business permanently)…
Times Square
One of the highlights of my trip had to be the visit to Ground Zero. We spent quite a bit of time checking the whole scene out–it was mindblowing to imagine what people must have felt like on 9/11…sheer pandemonium for sure. Good news is, construction is well under way for the new ‘Freedom Towers’ that will replace the WTC, but I kept thinking that it’s gonna be a bitch to find tenants willing to move in…at least, that’s what I think. We also spent some time checking out the church right across the street from Ground Zero–a church that’s been around for hundreds of years (George Washington used to attend..now, that’s history!) and made it out without a single broken pane of glass on 9/11….
Ground Zero..
The 9/11 Memorial in the church...
Wall Street was equally insane—to think that the whole world’s financial pulse starts and stops according to this one small street is crazy…
The New York Stock Exchange
All in all, a good trip….but honestly, I don’t think I could see myself living there….it truly is the epicenter of American culture and business, but there’s just something about this place that gets under your skin, in a bad way. To see people rush around with total disregard to anything other than their own personal satisfaction is something that I had a hard time with, coming from Hawaii. I’ll be back to visit for sure, but Hawaii is where it’s at, and I’m more convinced than ever of that fact.
Don’t sleep…this place sure doesn’t.
Bring me your tired, your weak, your shakas in masses..
Just got back from NYC late yesterday after a 14 hour flight complete with 2 lay-overs, some horrible airport food, and a mid-plane viewing of Slumdog Millionaire…and dang, it feels good to be home! For real, as much as I dig the mainland and everything it has to offer, NOTHING beats home. Killer weather, great people, great lifestyle…can’t beat it, in this man’s honest opinion.
Well, here goes the summary of my NYC trip —
Arrived last Wednesday to 20 degree weather—it had snowed the day before, so the city was still rocking some ice chunks on the road and what-not. I came prepared with some heavy jackets, but thankfully, the weather kept getting better and better while we were there. By day 5, the temp had reached the 60’s, and I felt like listening to Mobb Deep’s “Temperature Rising”….okay wait. See, that’s the thing with NYC…being a hip-hop fan, you can’t help but see all the little signs, neighborhoods, street names, etc without thinking about some song you heard in back in the day. It’s a trip to see it come to life for yourself. But hey, I’m still not hard core enough (Kav was) to head out to the Bronx by myself….
The first day I was there, I did all the usual–hitting up the spots like Grand Central station, Times Square, the subway system (which rules, by the way……dirty as hell, but awesome for travel)…the thing about NYC that really got me is just how HUGE this place is. Hard to capture in words or pictures, but you really do just stand there in awe at how grand the scale of things is here….
View of the outlying neighborhoods of NYC...frickin HUGE
Grand Central Station was dope….HUGE in scale, and lots of good eateries, including Junior’s—killer cheesecake.
Grand Central Station..
On the real, we averaged about 4-5 miles on foot every day we were in New York—no one in their right mind owns a car here—parking is nuts, pedestrians are even more nuts, and the public transportation is on point….filthy, but on point.
Sheer size of NYC tripped me out...
subway!
I made do with a $20 Metrocard the whole time I was there–subway was legit! I guess I always imagined Hollywood’s portrayal of the subway—so it was a pleasant surprise to actually NOT get mugged, stabbed, chased down by Wesley Snipes & Woody Harrelson en route to the Money Train, and told (in Spanish) that my girlfriend was fooling around on me from the Devil himself (Pacino..). EVERYONE rides the subway…and I gotta say, it’s super efficient to get where you need to get….I dug it.
One of the “must-see” places I had to hit up was the New Era flagship store…..caught the subway to a downtown station called Astor Place, walked several blocks down, and bam….there I was! Honestly, I’ve only recently gotten into the whole hat thing–used to rock em a lot back in the days, but never got back into em until the last year or so (thanks to Wade and Temper for getting me on the bandwagon for that one..). For some reason, I always get into stuff like 3 years after everyone else…oh well. Anyways–store was dope, customer services was shiet, and was fresh to just see that many fitteds in one place. Honestly thought, I gotta say that Fitted right here in Hawaii still KILLS over every other spot I’ve seen..big ups to the locals…..got a dope NY Mets hat, and a few New Era Blanks (blank hats with just the side logo) for the boys….
New Era Flagship Store - NYC
My brother's obviously not into the hats...cruising on the bench..hahaa
Aiight..plenty more to come…but that’s it for now. Still hanging from jetlag! (posted by well.being)
