Good day brothers and sisters. It is a good day. Eh? Hey. Yay. Happy Halloween. I am celebrating by… writing a song. I keep thinking I’ve got ATD15 sewn up, then something comes along. There’s this last minute addition happening - I gotta thank Just Blaze for it, really. Thanks Just Blaze. This is lovely. Really it is. 66 BPM. A sample. Some drums. I bought some egg shakers in Ireland. Been freaking those. A little beatbox. Simple ass ole break. Ba-BVOOM-CHA - Bvoom-CHA.
Ali’s downstairs putting his make-up on. He looks good, no doubt. Somewhere out there my peoples Baz and Debs and brand new baby Noah are getting down. Big up them. Big up Martin and Mary. Saturday! Jeres is doing a gig tonight. I should be there, but this song is happening. So big up him. RIP Paul Fox from The Ruts, thanks for the riff. Big up Luke, seeing some Nazi band with my lil’ brother. Big up Zef, out there in Chester, rowdy little sod, making it happen. Big up Mary in her new house the landlord ain’t cleaned - I know how that goes! Mika and BJ in their own house, no sofa and a nice low table. Big up Wade, living the dream in Tokyo. Shout out to my babydoll, working late. Big up Mothers and fathers and daughters and sons everywhere.
Now, listen here. I have been a fan, and user, of vocoders for a long time. I don’t mind Akon - that new joint of his about rubbing that little girl on stage is awesome. I even like me a bit of T Pain. [II]. I Know What I’m Doing and So Hood are among the greatest hooks of the decade thusfar. But Lil Wayne’s recent dabblings with the autotune over-set on The Drought Is Over Part 4, and now, incredibly, Snoop Dogg’s, might just have taken it all a bit too far.
All you moaning ass rappers, hating on your label, your distributor, your manager, whatever - listen to Cham! Cham speaks the truth! There is better advice in this video than you ever got off of anybody! Word to Stan Lee’s How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way!
PS - We saw Ratatouille last night, and confirm that it is great.
A big Thank You You Are Awesome to The Fine People of Galway, especially Colin and Paula, for showing us suck a great time, and a better quality of life than we poor London scum are used to.
Wah.
London tastes funny, and I miss Galway already, but never mind that. I got a week of email to sort through, a mixtape to finish (this week, worry not), and an album to get into. I was downloading photos from the gig to post up here, but the battery went and I left the charger round ppf’s. Take that (/\) for now. Akira The Don & The Women, last Saturday, October 20th. Left to right - Me, Blonde Jeremy, Mika, Mary. Booya.
I have been getting lots of funny letters while I’ve been away. I might do a letters column this week if I get a bit of time. But in the meanwhile, this following piece of good advice was sent to me by one of my fine young American peoples. Check it:
“Hey PEOPLE, You all know how it feels when you’re talking to someone>>>online, and your mom is standing right behind you, reading every word that>>>appears on the screen. Then of, course the person swears or talks about how>>>much you love your crush or something and your mom reads it and tells you>>>to get offline that instant and not talk to that person anymore. Well, What>>>can we do about that? To solve this problem, now we have started the ‘code>>>9′ system. In code 9, you simply press the number ”9” when your parent or>>>sibling is watching over you shoulder as you type. The person you’re>>>talking to will know what your talking about, and begin a conversation on>>>homework or something. When your parent or sibling leaves, press ”99” to>>>let the person know that they are gone, so you can begin a normal>>>conversation again. Please send this to everyone you know so that Code 9>>>can begin to go into effect. PLEASE: Copy and paste it to other people, DO>>>NOT forward it.>>”
See that? That is forward thinking. That is innovation.
Oink.cd has taken back it’s frontpage from the BPI and their miserable, loserish, grasping chums. It now links to a google search for “what to use instead of oink”, making the point - when does it become illegal to link for stuff? Google will find you every pirated file out there. BPI gonna take out Google? Me think not. Taking out Napster did not stop P2P. These people are donuts if they think this recent spate of arrests will make a bit of difference. While they dillied, dallied, dithered and dicked about, refusing to face the reality of the situation, a whole generation grew up with a download-for-free mindset. Why weren’t you goons selling MP3s in ‘97? Why weren’t you treating net like radio and taking a percentage off of ISP’s in exchange for their right to legally distribute noises willy nilly? Or something more forward thinking than, like, suing people and hoping they stop? Luddites! TORIES! You were flogging CDs for £16 in ‘95. Dudes had the same record on vinyl, tape, and CD. You had more money than sweat glands, you pigs. You kept it all for yourselves. Now look at you. Dickheads.
Good day to you from sunny Galway. I write to you from the tabletop of my nice apartment just outside the city. The gig on Saturday was top five of all time awesome. We had an ace time and I will post photos as soon as I can connect cameras and things to a machine and all that.
We are off to play Galway tomorrow. We are very excited. Details of the show can be found here.
Narstie and Little Man were round yesterday doing music and smoking really big zoots. Littles zoned out for a bit and melted into one of my shitty blue half-sofas (what does one call such a thing in the singular?), and was followed by Narstie a little later, who got super boxed and freaked out by one of my tigers (the one that’s still got it’s head on). Check it.
Aside from getting really boxed, we made some fine music, including the jump-off joint for ATD15. It’s better you’ve had to wait longer for that that than you might have. We’ve got brand new, Don Studios recorded contributions from the aforementioned Brixton caners, along with Bashy, Black Piranhas, Why Lout?, and Lethal Bizzle. Maybe some other cats might get on if we can get the scheduling right - release has gone back two weeks, because I am going to IRELAND for a WEEK and plan to actually CHILL a little bit rather than BUST MY ASS, although it is good for a man to BUST HIS ASS, just not all day every day. [II]
Oh, that picture up there is from this time me and my fine lady and my little brother went to a party and I got pissed in the house before we left making a song with Jeres, so by the time I got on the tube I was wasteman wasted and babbling angrily. Speaking of which, I just got some footage of the Jam Making Only Day Of Summer I mentioned a little while back, that I am scared to put out there for fear of fucking up the space time continum, but we shall SEE…
OK. To the Nas News. From PlayLouder:
Fox “News” is full of shit, Jesse Jackson is a hater, and Nas isn’t calling his new album Nigga. He’s calling it Nigger. Word to Richard Pryor.
Following their awesomely Bras Eyeian NAS MURDER OUTRAGE piece the other day, Foxnews.com released a statement claiming to be from a “source” inside Nas’ label, Def Jam, claiming they were in no way going to release an album called Nigga, and Nas didn’t have an album coming out anyway, apart from his Greatest Hits.
Adding to the attack, ambulance chasing puppet-of-the-white-devils Jesse Jackson whined, “I wish he would use his talents to lift up and inspire, not degrade.”
“It’s now called Nigger,” said Nas, speaking to MTV, “and it is set to hit stores December 11… I don’t know where that [report] came from and neither does Def Jam. None of us knows where that came from.”
Ur, the ever active and supremacist Fox “news” imagination, mayhap?
“I’m a street disciple,” said Nas. “I’m talking to the streets. Stay out of our business. You ain’t got no business worrying about what the word ‘nigger’ is or acting like you know what my album is about without talking to me. Whether you in the NAACP or you Jesse Jackson. I respect all of them. I just want them to know: Never fall victim to Fox. Never victim to shit they do. What they do is try to hurry up and get you on the phone and try to get you to talk about something you might not know about yet.”
“If Cornell West was making an album called ‘Nigger’, they would know he’s got something intellectual to say,” Nas continued. “To think I’m gonna say something that’s not intellectual is calling me a nigger, and to be called a nigger by Jesse Jackson and the NAACP is counterproductive, counter-revolutionary.”
“I wanna make the word easy on muthafuckas ears. You see how white boys ain’t mad at ‘cracker’ ’cause it don’t have the same [sting] as ‘nigger’? I want ‘nigger’ to have less meaning than ‘cracker.’ With all the bullshit that’s going on in the world, racism is at its peak. I wanna do the shit that’s not being done. I wanna be the artist who ain’t out. I wanna make the music I wanna hear … We’re taking power from the word.”
What power there is to be taken won’t be helped much by TPTB - the album with have minimal marketing, not that Nas minds - he says he just wants the music out there.
“You can’t wait till everybody is ready. I used to wait. Now I have that shit in me … where it is, what it is, buy it or don’t but it, it’s cool. Whoever likes it, cool. Whoever don’t like it, cool … but it’s gotta come out now. This ‘Nigger’ album is bigger than an album. This is for my daughter, when she looks back and sees all the chump niggas in the game, she’ll say, ‘My pops was a man.’ When I have more kids, they’ll see, “He was a man.’ That will inspire them to be real in their life. Some people say I’m conscious, some say I’m a gangsta rapper … it’s just me doing me. I’m stomping in my own lane. I’m doing what I do.”
Nigger will be out a week before Weezy’s LP, on December 11th. Production comes from Salaam Remi, Jermaine Dupri, Diddy, and DJ Toomp.
From PlayLouder (who I am writing two “news stories” a day for right now)
In calling his new LP Nigga, Nas hasn’t just pissed off ambulance chasing self-appointed “black leaders” like Jesse Jackson. No, those cracka-ass crackas over at Fox are absolutely outraged!
Go on! Click play. So you can:
Glory! As some cracka ass cracka accuses Nas of glorifying those Virginia Rech murders by, um, doing a gig in the area!
Marvel! As some cracka ass cracka intern fishes out every negative, gun-related Nas line they can find and mashes them into a 15 second scarefest, with the word “MURDER!” flashing on screen like hypnotherapy!
Choke! As some ho ass ho does a Nas impression, and raps about pumps! “What’s up with this, using this kind of language?!” she screams, looking fit to combust.
Weep! As representatives from AllHipHop.com and Sohh.com fail to help in the slightest!
Bang Your Head Against The Screen! As nobody bothers to point out that perhaps waging an illegal war on a sovereign nation and butchering its inhabitants with BIG FUCKING GUNS might just have a bit more of an influence on the children of Amerikkka than fucking NAS!
This is one Actual Chorus away from being the best song Evah.
PS - Mother FUGG Mac Lethal. That is the worst ad campaign I have ever seen. (PS - if you aint, it is a picture of his ugly ass head with the slogan “I Am A Rapper And I don’t Like Rap”. Lame.
A moment of silence for Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, if we may.
OK.
Back to business.
911? What?
“That Mohammed Atta dressed like a Mafioso, had a stripper girlfriend, smuggled drugs, was already a licensed pilot when he entered the US, enjoyed pork chops, drank to excess and did cocaine, was closer to Europeans than Arabs in Florida, and included the names of defence contractors on his email list, proves how dangerous the radical fundamentalist Muslim can be.”
From the three years old, but, crazily, still relevant Coincidence Theorist’s Guide To 911.
And Al*x J**es?
Well, he supports Ron Paul. Who is a racist. He is pro-life, and pro-gun. He shouts a lot.
Listen to the amplified voices of New Truth and pay attention to where they’ve pitched their tent,” writes Jeff Wells. “If you’re not already there yourself by conscious choice, it may surprise you. They’ll tell you that “Left” and “Right” are fictions woven by the same enslavers, and then launch into uncompromising, nativist rants against foreigners (the Mexicans are coming), denial of environmental crises (an affront to property rights and individualism), internationalism (paranoid fear of the “blue helmet“), taxation and gun control. And listen attentively to some others, influential yet off the main stage, and you’ll hear Larouchian tropes, “Patriot” and militia jargon, coded speech about “international bankers” and the necessities of historical “revision.” (”Suspecting what the Israeli/Palistine conflict is really about,” posts “Killtown”, “the strong evidence Israel was involved with 9/11, and seeing how 9/11 was faked in general, it makes me wonder how much of the Holocaust was true or not…. WingTV seems to think the Holocaust was a major hoax like 9/11 was along with Judicial-Inc.”)
In 2007, the largest tent for “9/11 Truth” in America is led and dominated by conservatives, far-right “Patriots” and Libertarians. So naturally it follows the choice for President is not Kucinich, who would “take our guns” and do something righteous with federal power instead of abolish it, but Ron Paul, even though his position on 9/11 is better described as blowback than “inside job.” (”I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blowback,” said Paul.)
Dark shit, then.
But if nothing else, Steroid Bill Hicks Al*x Jo*es has done a tremendous job of reminding American people what lies behind the the cloak of their media. Of course, they must then ask themselves what lies behind Mister J*nes.
So, I did actually attempt to get the Radiohead album, like, FROM Radiohead today, but that proved difficult. Sort it out dumbasses! I know your manager!
Well, I met him in a bar in LA once. He was very nice. Very English. You need that, when you’re in LA, sometimes, else you start to believe the whole world is bright orange.
Freelance author Paulette Cooper was born into one hell of a reality, in Auschwitz, to parents who didn’t survive the camp. In 1971 her first book was published, entitled The Scandal of Scientology, and included an interview with the disaffected L Ron Hubbard Jr, which revealed for the first time to a general readership the relation of Hubbard Sr to Aleister Crowley, and of Scientology to the occult. The Church had already sued Cooper for an article she’d written that appeared in London’s Queen Magazine in December, 1969, which was also the month she received her first death threat, so of course they sued again. And neither did it end there.
Cooper found herself frequently followed, and multiple attempts were made to break into her apartment. Her phone was found to be tapped, and calls were often obscene and menacing. Anonymous hate mail piled up. She soon felt compelled to move to a residence with higher security, and her cousin Joy took over her apartment. Soon after, Joy opened the door to an unexpected delivery of flowers, and the deliveryman “unwrapped the flowers and there was a gun in it,” Paulette told a Clearwater City Council hearing on Scientology in 1981:
And he took out the gun and he put it at Joy’s temple and he cocked the gun, and we don’t know whether it misfired, whether it was empty and it was a scare technique, what happened, but somehow, the gun did not go off. And he started choking her, and she was able to break away and she started to scream. And the person ran away.
And so she called a detective and he said, “It’s a very wild attack because there doesn’t seem to be any motive for it.” There was no attempted rape, there was no attempted robbery, and why should somebody just suddenly try to kill her….
Then things got crazy.
About a week or two later at my apartment, I received a visit from the FBI. And they informed me that the public relations person from Scientology had claimed that she had received a couple of bomb threats and asked — and had named me as somebody likely to send bomb threats.
Cooper didn’t take the accusation very seriously, and consented to be fingerprinted. On May 19, 1973, she was indicted on three counts of sending bomb threats through the mail. (This is one of the letters.) And it came to that because, although she testified before a grand jury she had never before seen the letters, somehow, her fingerprints were found on them. (”I felt like a grand piano had just hit me on the head. I — I fainted sitting up; the whole room just turned upside down and I didn’t know what to do. And the, of course, the lawyers wanted more money.”)
It wasn’t until 1977 that the FBI, by its seizure of Scientology documents, learned that the Church had entirely forged the bomb threats to discredit its critic, and had crafted a project called “Operation Freakout” to either drive Cooper to suicide or a mental institution. Part of the plan consisted of a Scientology volunteer impersonating Cooper and making verbal threats towards the President and Henry Kissinger, and a second volunteer reporting them. Another named Jerry Levin moved into Cooper’s building and befriended her during her darkest months, and reported back to the Church such things as “She can’t sleep again…she’s talking suicide. Wouldn’t this be great for Scientology!”
Cooper very nearly lost her reality, because Scientology’s reach was not exceeded by its means and intent to destroy it. And if we indwell our philosophies and make them our life rather than our lifestyle, we may evoke the same order of determined forces and find similar life and death consequence. If not, then we’re more likely to merely freak ourselves out by paranoid invocation and commend ourselves as “info guerrillas.”
A hard choice. But property doesn’t have to choose.
I leaked a track from ATD15. It is a version of a 50 Cent song about Couping. Cop it here.
Speaking of leaks, that Beatles sampling Wu-joint seems to have leaked. And it is nigh on identical to Ghost’s version, musically (which sampled a COVER of the thing) - only with Eryka Badu whispering on it. Mef’s on it. He is good on it. But, well, I dunno… I am not sure if it sucks, or the simplicity of the original is just too powerful to replicate successfully. Judge for yourself.
And speaking of judging, you can all start doing that NOW - after you;ve clicked below and watched an Akira The Don soundtracked Greek bank advert.
Wow, look at that! See what that is? That is the sound of Fruityloops and Acid! In full effect!
Yes yes yes, more brand new, Akira The Don produced Lethal Bizzle goodness. I am told this stuff is being hammered in New York right now, which is HEAVY.
Pow!
Oh, I forgot to mention - I got a song in this new movie about footie called In The Hands of Gods. I haven’t seen it yet though, so I couldn’t tell you if it’s any good or not. But it’s got me in it so it must be!
From Wu-Tang Corp:
“The legendary Hip-Hop group, Wu-Tang Clan, has recently cleared the first ever Beatles sample for their upcoming Album, 8 Diagrams.
The group was originally scheduled for a November 13th release but due to the magnitude of the sample and the History being made, 8 Diagrams will now impact on December 4th.
Special Thanks to Danny Harrison & Erykah Badu for helping bring this song to life!! Also Thanks to The Harrison Estate & The Beatles for helping make this possible!!”
Gosh, eh?
It’s weird though. Didn’t Ghost sample that tune already? On that My Guitar thang that I had labeled as Star Guitar on one of those classy ATD joints. Yeah. He DID. Well, sort of. He raps the shit out of some instrumental cover version of the thing. Listen here. It’s great. That shit was too expensive for those dumbfucks at Epic to be arsed to clear - but RZA’s on some serious shit this time round. According to Wikipedia, George Harrison’s son Dhani Harrison (a big Wu-Tang fan) and John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers are on the song, called Gently Weeps, that features Mef and Ghost playing a drug addict, and drug dealer, respectively. RZA calls the latter’s performance “one of the best lyrics I’m ever heard him say”. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
A moment of silence for Mobb Deep’s 
