Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
THE LEGACY OF A BIG BEAR
it all began (for me) in 2008. i was in france with subtitle. and Briefcase Rockers, the label subtitle started that would later release several juan huevos projects, was getting repped to the fullest. our whole crew, along with its affiliates, etc. were part of the umbrella group known as B.E.A.R.
Business
Espionage
Audio
Recordings
obviously, bears were a recurring theme in label artwork, and we had all kinds of bear-themed pics on our myspace page.
i don't remember how i came across this, i may have been google searching "bear" images or maybe the homey lockjaw sent it to me, since he always puts me up on hilarious rap ish.
this is amazing for lots of reasons. it not only contains bears, but it also has a connection to a line from one of my songs (gittinz hot) that became a mantra for me and my tour mates: "you should do a lot of thangs". i popped my head on it and flipped the title.
i posted the picture in various locales on the interweb. then something caught my eye on facebook. a certain bearded music writer had his own flip!
it seemed like my knowledge of this very crev-looking album cover was not as exclusive as i imagined. were hip white guys like myself passing around the photo like a viral video, getting our kicks at the thought of an ursine-friendly rapper hanging in a cave with his silk-clad bear homeys, smoking cubans and eating nuts and berries? was it becoming a blogged-about sensation? was i going to run out of hyphens describing it? holy sh-t, did i just realize his name was written in honey?
i haven't thought about it much since then. but the homey lockjaw just hit me the other day with this absolutely CLASSIC link of hip hop album covers "remixed" to have comic book characters in them. easily recognized flips of The Great Adventures of Slick Rick and Illmatic and Straight Outta Compton make up the bulk of these, but i couldn't believe that this made the cut, further supporting the theory that the Big Bear cover had made some kind of impact on music nerds for its sheer genius.
there is even a british (college?) student's flip of it (with MS paint) out there.
one may ask, "well, how does the music sound?" i checked out a bit of it, not bad, but nothing special. it came out in the late 90's ... reminds me of 8Ball & MJG but nowhere near as timeless. i think this whole episode is best summed up with the outro to an online review of the Big Bear record: "A mediocre representation of two styles of southern rap in the 90's, Doin Thangs isn't worth its weight, and the only 'thang' it's 'doin' is getting laughed at for its cover." but i would switch out 'laughed at' with 'appreciated' ... word.
Business
Espionage
Audio
Recordings
obviously, bears were a recurring theme in label artwork, and we had all kinds of bear-themed pics on our myspace page.
i don't remember how i came across this, i may have been google searching "bear" images or maybe the homey lockjaw sent it to me, since he always puts me up on hilarious rap ish.
this is amazing for lots of reasons. it not only contains bears, but it also has a connection to a line from one of my songs (gittinz hot) that became a mantra for me and my tour mates: "you should do a lot of thangs". i popped my head on it and flipped the title.
i posted the picture in various locales on the interweb. then something caught my eye on facebook. a certain bearded music writer had his own flip!
it seemed like my knowledge of this very crev-looking album cover was not as exclusive as i imagined. were hip white guys like myself passing around the photo like a viral video, getting our kicks at the thought of an ursine-friendly rapper hanging in a cave with his silk-clad bear homeys, smoking cubans and eating nuts and berries? was it becoming a blogged-about sensation? was i going to run out of hyphens describing it? holy sh-t, did i just realize his name was written in honey?
i haven't thought about it much since then. but the homey lockjaw just hit me the other day with this absolutely CLASSIC link of hip hop album covers "remixed" to have comic book characters in them. easily recognized flips of The Great Adventures of Slick Rick and Illmatic and Straight Outta Compton make up the bulk of these, but i couldn't believe that this made the cut, further supporting the theory that the Big Bear cover had made some kind of impact on music nerds for its sheer genius.
there is even a british (college?) student's flip of it (with MS paint) out there.
one may ask, "well, how does the music sound?" i checked out a bit of it, not bad, but nothing special. it came out in the late 90's ... reminds me of 8Ball & MJG but nowhere near as timeless. i think this whole episode is best summed up with the outro to an online review of the Big Bear record: "A mediocre representation of two styles of southern rap in the 90's, Doin Thangs isn't worth its weight, and the only 'thang' it's 'doin' is getting laughed at for its cover." but i would switch out 'laughed at' with 'appreciated' ... word.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Jerk Out
this is really ill beyond words for me, as a massive Prince/The Time fan, and all that is affiliated and associated with said artists. during Prince's Harem Week on the Grip Tapes facebook page, i looked up Mazarati cause i actually thought it was a girl group, not the project of the flamboyant jheri-curled superstar that i discovered. he and his band truly truly truly (outrageous) deserve their own blog but i just have to break down this one song.
in 1990, The Time put out a record called Pandemonium and had a hit single with Jerk Out. this video is incredible ---> Jerk Out (these guys made it rain in the club way before any rapper. great cameos, great cars, the dancing, a trip to the ATM ... these dudes were on it in this.)
blah blah blah anyways, i came across this Mazarati version of it that is def from the early 80's, has Prince all over it vocally, and pretty much (yet again) confirms that Prince does a ton of ghost-writing for his affiliated bands and definitely wrote Jerk Out. more on Mazarati? --> wiki wiki wiki
what really gets me, besides just the existence of this at all, is the rougher lyrics. Prince was definitely more raw back in the day, and full of angst on the issues of race, sex, gender, etc.
The Time:
"i took her to my crib and i laid her down /
her body felt kinda right /
maybe I was wrong, but what the hell? /
i figured that was what she liked."
Mazarati:
"i took her to my crib and i tied her up /
i think that's what she liked. /
maybe i was wrong, what the hell? /
it didn't matter to me, she was white."
check it out:
in 1990, The Time put out a record called Pandemonium and had a hit single with Jerk Out. this video is incredible ---> Jerk Out (these guys made it rain in the club way before any rapper. great cameos, great cars, the dancing, a trip to the ATM ... these dudes were on it in this.)
blah blah blah anyways, i came across this Mazarati version of it that is def from the early 80's, has Prince all over it vocally, and pretty much (yet again) confirms that Prince does a ton of ghost-writing for his affiliated bands and definitely wrote Jerk Out. more on Mazarati? --> wiki wiki wiki
what really gets me, besides just the existence of this at all, is the rougher lyrics. Prince was definitely more raw back in the day, and full of angst on the issues of race, sex, gender, etc.
The Time:
"i took her to my crib and i laid her down /
her body felt kinda right /
maybe I was wrong, but what the hell? /
i figured that was what she liked."
Mazarati:
"i took her to my crib and i tied her up /
i think that's what she liked. /
maybe i was wrong, what the hell? /
it didn't matter to me, she was white."
check it out:
Thursday, August 12, 2010
i had this. i want it again.
i bought my 4th Swatch while i was in Honolulu earlier this summer. this is my favorite one from my youth, the only one i don't still have.
Monday, August 2, 2010
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