Childish Gambino - This Is America

Well now, here's a music video that's going to be talked about and examined A LOT this week/month/year. This isn't exactly a song I would crank up in the car on a road trip, but the video, as a piece of art, is really powerful. At least it seems powerful to me, I guess that's for people smarter than I am to debate for eternity. I will say it's nice that we can talk about something in hip hop and politics other than Kanye.

Wordburglar "Boombaparang"

Wordburglar has a new video out, you should watch it. Then you should go to bandcamp and download the album Rapplicable skills. Then you should eat a healthy breakfast and call you mother, she worries about you.

Unmaking Links

The Making and Unmaking of Iggy Azalea. This is a really interesting article on the rise and fall(?) of old Igloo Australia. It's funny because after reading the article it's hard to say that she didn't work hard for her success, but you could definitely make the argument that even with all that work she didn't really "earn" it. It'll be interesting to see if she ends up a flash in the pan or if her career can recover from some very strong criticism.

Hydra And Red Skull Cosplay Banned By Rose City Comic Con. I've seen these Hello Kitty Nazis at ECCC before. I guess they were at RCCC somewhere, also there was another group just dressed up as SS troopers that somehow I missed. I'm pretty fine with the ban. Portland has a bit of an issue with Neo-Nazis so even ignoring the current political climate I can see how they would want to address this in this way. Frankly with all the nut jobs out there and mass shootings going on I get a bit uncomfortable anytime I see cosplayers in realistic military gear. I'm cool with fake weapons and like Halo combat armor but some of these guys that want to dress up like characters from COD are just a bit unnerving. I guess that's a weird hair to split but I'm totally splitting it.

Fan Films to Watch Right Now. I've seen the Punisher short film listed here and it's definitely legit, really makes me wish Thomas Jane had gotten one more chance at Frank Castle. The Power Rangers one is a bit less engaging, it's too over the top and in love with its own concept. Still if you have a few minutes to burn it worth checking out this list, there's some other good ones on here.

These Teens KNOW NOTHING ABOUT 90'S HIP-HOP AND SHOULD FEEL BAD!

Here's one of those videos where a bunch of teenagers don't know about something that happened 20-30 years ago and everyone is either supposed to be shocked or feel old. I mean sure I guess it does that. What it really highlights is something I've been thinking about a lot lately while stuck in traffic listening to my old man jams.

My generation (gen-X) is going to be the first generation of grandparents who were really into hip-hop, right? Sure, there were probably some really hip 30 or 40 year olds that loved Run DMC when they first came out but for the most part Gen-Xers are really the first generation raised in a culture where hip-hop was fully accepted and incredibly popular. How weird is that going to be? Bunch of super old dudes just chilling at the retirement home bumping Enter the Wu-Tang or Ready to Die. Hopefully they'll have a really big screen tv with a killer retro-game emulator, maybe some Surge on tap.

Welp, I'm ready to retire now.

More Or Les - Cuppa

Holy crap kids, never go on vacation and then have your kids get sick when you're back from vacation. I'm just now crawling out of the pile of crap I've been buried in all week. I SHOULD be back to regular schedule of half ass bloggery next week. I have zero clue though when I'm going to get my big fancy year end recap done.

In the meantime enjoy this new single off the new More or Les album, BLOW THE FUCK UP BUT STAY HUMBLE. It's pretty fantastic.

Krum & Rob Viktum - Suitcases and Passports

Krum (the rapper formerly known as Playdough) and Rob Viktum released a few album about a month ago called Bare Knuckle Gospel. It's pretty good and it's free if you sign up for some newsletter thing. You've got a spare gmail account sitting around right? Go get the album. Just Do it.

Can't Stop Won't Stop: Fire & Rain

Enough with all the sappy talk about wrestling, here's a new video by Can't Stop Won't Stop. I absolutely LOVE these guys. We need more rappers repping Reno. I don't know why, I just think we do. I don't know if it will really help anything but it certainly can't hurt, right?

Malibu Shark Attack - Better Off as Friends

Hey kids, I'm working on a super gigantic link post that's going to take like my whole lunch break so in the meantime here's the opening track to Malibu Shark Attack's self titled release. It's like one of my favorite albums from the last couple years. You should check it out.

It's National Spaghetti Day!

I've been dying for an excuse to post this Mom's Spaghetti video from Eminem and someone over on reddit said it was National Spaghetti Day, so here we are.

Ceschi: This Won't Last Forever

Ceschi Ramos or Ceschi is a rapper I've heard before but I've never really listened too. Someone in my Facebook feed this morning posted this video for This Won't Last Forever and holy cow, what a great song. I'm definitely going to be looking up his newest album later tonight.

Non-Nude Links

Playboy to Drop Nudity as Internet Fills Demand. I saw this come across my tweet feed last night a couple times and I swear I thought it was an Onion article. Are you telling me people are going to have to actually start reading Playboy for the articles? What planet are we living on?

Also I totally picked this cover out of the 1,000 that showed up when I googled "playboy cover" because of the roller blades and swatch watches BUT look at that blurb. "The Women of The Women's Colleges". Man, that must have been a great issue.

Exploring a Decade-Old, Abandoned Fantasy Game. Minions of Mirth is the name, vast open world gameplay with out a single player around is their game. Kinda spooky, like exploring an abandoned town or something. I'm surprised the servers are still on. I can't imagine it's that expensive to maintain if there's no one logging on to play but it still can't be free.

Emilia Clarke Is the Sexiest Woman Alive 2015. Congratulations to Emilia Clarke for wining such a prestigious award? Real talk, Emilia Clarke is certainly not unattractive but she's not even the sexiest woman on Game of Thrones. Did Nathalie Emmanuel die or something?

What it's like to illustrate a cover for Marvel Comics. These Marvel Hip Hop covers are going to be the death of my budget. I picked up the Dr. Strange/Dr. Dre The Chronic cover last weekend. It was $9.99 as opposed to the regular $3.99. I can't keep with that sort of price increase, especially when there's all these new books I want to check out. Argh, first world problems.

Blackalicious: The Blowup

I stumbled across this video for the Blackalicious song The Blowup and omg, it's the greatest thing ever. How it only has 60,000 views I have no idea. Spending too much time on the internet I've seen a lot of these mashup videos but I don't know if I've ever seen one as good as this. Whoever edited it is a certified genius.

Turn up the bass on your laptop or tablet and bump this like it was the Humpty Dance.

Backburner: Heatwave

It looks like the great Northwest heatwave might be coming to an end. It's supposed to rain all weekend and temperatures are going to be back in the 70s where they finally belong. Lets celebrate the end of the Heatwave with a song from Backburner (Thesis, Timbuktu, Wordburglar, Jesse Dangerously, Chokeules & Jay Bizzy) called Heatwave. Also lets pray for a little rain over in Eastern Washington, my parents live over there and the wildfires are some seriously scary shit.

Jesse Dangerously: fml lol smdh

I'm almost positive I've posted this video before but I don't care. It's an amazing song, I should post it every week. Everybody has problems, right?

Straight outta The Muppet Show

Here's the Muppets performing NWA's Express Yourself. There are worse ways to start your morning.

Also here's your fun reminder that in Express Yourself Dr. Dre claims that he never smokes week because it'll "cause a brother brain damage". Maybe Easy-E had some good points about Dre being a big old phoney.

Mega Ran "Infinite Lives"

Super talented "nerdcore" rapper Random AKA Mega Ran just released this new video for Infinite Lives. Not only is it a catchy song that will get stuck in your head but the video is pretty cool. I love the added 3d effect to the classic Sonic levels. I kinda wish someone would get on that.

Taxpayer Links

Inside the Redman MTV Cribs Episode. Stop what you are doing and read this wonderfully written article on one of the seminal moments of MTV. I haven't been this as excited to link to something since the oral history of Baywatch a couple years ago. They even interview Sugar Bear. SUGAR BEAR!

Chris Christie Spent $82,594 Of Taxpayer Money At An NFL Stadium. HOLY SHITSNACKS that's a lot of cotton candy. It's roughly $5,000 a game. What are you buying that's costing that kind of money? Is the Old Milwaukee being personally delivered by the Swedish Bikini team? Man, American politics are crazy crooked. Maybe not Italian level crooked but still super crooked.

Black Widow Absent From A Toy Based On One Of Her Coolest AoU Moments. Of course she is. I've mentioned this before but holy crap is it hard to find female representation in kids toys. I've actually been sort of happy with the Skylanders videogame/toys in this aspect. There are quite a few cool female Skylanders and miracle of all miracles, my son doesn't have a problem playing them at all. Now if they could just lower the price of Swap Force guys a bit...

The top ten arcade racing games of the 1980s. This article is hella old but I don't care. Hard Driving was the bomb yo. I swear I learned how to drive a stick on that thing. I mean I didn't of course. All I learned about was how to dump the clutch in a tremendously dangerous fashion but who cares? Did you see those 3-D graphics?

Killer Mike: Rick Flair

"You’re talking to the Rolex wearin’, diamond ring wearin’, kiss stealin’, wheelin’ dealin’, limousine ridin’, jet flyin’ son of a gun. And I’m having a hard time holding these alligators down. Woo"

Beastie Boys: Check It out

I've got nothing today. So here's the Beastie Boys appearance on Letterman from 2004. It's pretty awesome. I'm a total sucker for performances while walking. If I had like a billion dollars I'd have rappers follow me everywhere I go rapping behind me. I'd mix it up day to day, like Tuesdays afternoons would be 3rd Bass or something. I don't want to be a total a-hole and bogart all of Pete Nice's time.

MC Lars: Dragon Blood

Woo Woo, new MC Lars video AND it's all about Game of Thrones! What is this my birthday? Seriously, I'm old and it's entirely possible I've forgotten my birthday.

This is pretty much every office worker's dream isn't it? Quitting/Getting Fired and just wrecking shit on your way out the door. Out of the oh what, 30 people I work with on a daily basis I think all of 3 get it. And by it I mean they aren't complete morons hell bent on ruining my day. Anyhoo, Game of Thrones season 5 premieres this weekend. That's something cool, right? RIGHT?