holy fuck this is the freakiest thing ever!!!!

Am I a fan of Rush Hour? Hellllllllllno.

Am I a fan of Asians in space? Hellllllllllllyeah!

Remember Izza Kizza, the rapper dude with the superhero theme??  His mixtape Kizzaland just dropped!  I’m bout to go trek the skreets of Queens so I can’t peep it right now but let me know what you think!

Download here.

Meet Genebie aka ebz.  We met freshman year of college in philosophy class, and soon after she became one of my best friends ever.  Deeeeeeeeeeeep.  ebz recently made the big move to the big apple, so as Cali transplants we’ve decided to spend the next week or so exploring the basic need-to-knows about New York (well, I’m not a real transplant since I’m only living here for a few weeks…does that make me an implant?)

Yesterday we met up at 10am (the earliest I’ve been up this whole time out here!) and took the long trainride from Harlem to Coney Island, the infamous amusement park/faire in south Brooklyn.  NY mornings are great…I really need to start waking up to them, instead of falling asleep to them.

Coney Island has a lot of character.  In a lot of ways, that’s pretty much all it has…eroded buildings, sketchy hot dog stands, every other business shut down, broken glass all up in the sand at the beach, random old man in a tutu waving a lifeguard’s pole around like a magic wand…but at the same time it’s what people go for.  It’s a reminder that not everything in this world can be the squeaky-clean Disneyland atmosphere that we’ve come to expect as a status quo.  Unfortunately, there are plans to tear down half the park and replace it with condos as early as next year.  I suppose the greatest enemy to history is the future.

While walking along the beach we came across this crazy building that looked like it had been emptied out.  It was dark inside and the walls were peeling in all ways possible. “What could someone turn that building into that would bring business but still have an old school feel?” asked ebz.

Oh snap!  It’s a skating rink!

As you can probably tell from the photos, it wasn’t the sunniest day yesterday.  In fact, the clouds loomed over the shore and kept getting blacker and blacker.  We fought the chances, despite the forecast of scattered thunderstorms.  Before all the thunder and lighting and rain though, it was actually quite nice…humid and hot, but bearable.  We bounced out right before it started pouring.

Creepy pictures of the creepy dude at the subway playing creepy music to creepy dolls dancing creepily:

To avoid the rain we tried to catch Dark Knight but the shit’s still sold out!  Malarchy, I say!  So despite the fact that we had been eating all day, I decided to take ebz to Malecon, the spot I have to go to at least once each time I’m in the city.  It’s Ruby’s favorite place, and for good reason (oh us poor Californians, deprived of Dominican food).

The staples: Snapper in red sauce, rice and beans, and sweet plantains.  Enough to feed to world travelers with the munchies.

Before I left for NY, my roommate Mai-Lei and I became major fankids of Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80’s, a compilation of 80’s covers by producer Zo! and Phonte of Little Brother. The one we couldn’t get out of our heads was their version of “Human,” and for the entire week before my departure we would randomly sing, text, or creepily whisper its lyrics into each others’ ears.

Hotness, right? Well amidst the craziness of my trip I didn’t realize that the EP actually dropped the day I left! They only printed 2,500 copies! You can get yours here.

This is really really dope. Click here to learn more about CISMA.

Found this on Yeezy’s blog.

Oh snizzap! It’s the Monkey King! Here’s a promo put together by Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn (the guys behind Gorillaz) for BBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics. Pretty dern spiffy, though I still prefer the stuff I watched at grandma’s house everyday after kindergarten:

Come to think of it, watching that clip gives me a lot of clues as to how I ended up the way I am…

Last night my homie Jeannel took me downtown to do a walkthrough of the legendary Knitting Factory, the potential venue for iLL-Literacy’s NYC show in November!

Founded in 1987, Knitting Factory immediately became a staple in the New York music scene, especially for jazz and experimental music.  Artists who have rocked its stages in the past include Sonic Youth, Beck, the GZA, and Big Daddy Kane.

The venue houses three stages–the lounge (capacity 100), the taproom (200), and the main stage (400).  We’re gunning for the main stage.  Our last NY show was in February at the Bowery Poetry Club, and we managed to pull 200 with just two weeks promotion…my hope is that with some more preparation and some Cali charm, we can pack this house in the fall.

I first learned about KF back in ‘04 when a pre-Get Lifted John Legend dropped a live album recorded there.  Four years later he’s touring arenas and I see him in Brooklyn rocking a crowd of 10,000.  *Ahem* I’m just following footsteps…

With the struggling economy and rocketing rent prices, the Tribeca building, which houses the Knitting Factory, is at risk of being sold when the lease ends in 2009.  There are talks of moving KF to Brooklyn, but nothing’s been finalized yet.  In the meantime, here’s hoping that we get to play at this landmark venue before it vanishes into history!

Meet Kissey Asplund.  Isn’t she purrrrrrdy?  I don’t know what it is about gorgeous singers that makes me fall in love with them instantly.  Oh yeah…they’re gorgeous, and they’re singers.

Last night I linked up with the homeslice K~Swift for some trouble.  The man is so incredibly New Yawwwk, and me being a Baylien, it was pretty much a barrage of mads and hellas everywhere.  Before heading to Brooklyn to see Kissey, we stopped by the Bowery Poetry Club to catch Amiri Baraka read.  The man’s just way too badass.

We met up with Helene and made a quick train ride to Williamsburg/Green Point (aka the capitol of hipsterdom) for Kissey’s birthday bbq.  Unfortunately, they were only cooking cow so we headed inside, where everyone else was too cool to dance.  I’m baffled by how anyone can resist moving their feet in a situation like last night where the DJ was playing Stevie, Michael, and Marvin back to back.  That’s Williamsburg for you.

Anyway, if you haven’t checked out Kissey Asplund, you definitely definitely have to!  She, like Amiri, is badass.  I copped her album Plethora a few weeks ago and it’s been on constant repeat.  Think Amel Larrieux meets Meshell Ndegeocello, from Sweden.  Okay, that’s kind of hard to imagine.  Check this out:

Kissey Asplund - 6am

Despite everyone being too cool to dance, we did unearth something that I never thought I’d see in Williamsburg–AN ASIAN COUPLE!!!!!!!!!  That’s right folks, we’re not just for old white men anymore!

When we got outside, it looked like the clouds had finally given in, and it was pouring like a mufugga.

But I had to take a picture in front of the big ass “ill” anyway.

Swift and I headed back to the Lower East Side and hit up the weekly at Kush.  Give it up for Afroasiatic connections baby!!!!!  Hey, can you blame me for getting excited?  It gets tiring walking around with iLL-Literacy and getting stared at like we’re some crazy social experiment.  BROWN PEOPLE UNITE IN MUSIC!

The music was hotttt but it was difficult to dance with my shoes and socks soaked and wrinkling up my toes on the inside.  Also, amidst all that, I stepped in some doodoo that I hope was from a dog.  Luckily, it was with my right foot, which was wearing the shoes that don’t have grooves on the bottom.  See?  Practicality in the new styleeee.

If I witnessed this, I don’t think I’d ever be able to eat there again.