Afrika Bam
So I went to this hip hop thing that took place in the second floor of an auto garage last night. That was a cool-ass place to see a hip hop show. There was a big area for breakers to break it down, there was a live hip hop band there performing for a bit, Primeridian performed, too. I’ve been hearing their names around Chicago forever, but I’ve never had a chance to see them live. They were tight, all original beats, and two dudes flowing some hot shit. And at the end of the night, the man himself Afrika Bambaataa hit the decks for two hours. It was tight, he spun some super old tracks, and some fresh takes on newer tracks, like the milkshake song, lol, that was funny. Price’s Kiss over this TIGHT beat. It was cool. Tolgar came by, Tina came by, and my boy Ranjit helped throw the event down. Crazy, this Indian b-boy bringing Afrika Bam to a garage to throw down. Apparently the show was organized to protest against a hip hop show at the vic friday night sponsored by Kool cigarette’s. I still gotta talk to some people to get a better scoop on what exactly their beef is with that, so I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
The rest of the weekend was… cheap. I’m leaving for Mexico to go to a friends wedding on Wednesday, so this weekend I kept on the downlow so I can keep my funds for the trip. Friday I chilled with Eric, had a beer at his place and just hung out. Saturday… what the hell did I do saturday? Oh yea, chilled with Tolgar, got a bite to eat with Tina and her old buddy from work Phil. Sunday went to a Capoiera class, then hit up the Bam show. It’s on.
What I’m listing to right now:
manilal nag, raag jog: My boy Ajit from Michigan hooked me up with a bunch of good Indian classical CDs when I was up there last weekend, and I’ve been listening to this CD incessantly. His melodic development just sounds so sweet and serene. There’s this part of the song where he’s doing his jhala (the fastest section of an instrumental in which the melody played on the main strings is accompanied by rapid strumming of the drone-strings) where for a few beats he’ll stop hitting his drone strings altogether, play through a few dissident notes, and resolve back starting up the rapid strumming of the drone strings again, and is just sounds SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET. I’ll put a sample up on my site if I can, you gotta hear it. Or just go out and buy the CD.