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I skimmed that report… it seems pretty legit.
My seismology background is, well, less robust than it could be, so I hesitate to draw conclusions about the source of the quake.
But I have drawn one conclusion… if that quake was caused by human activity, we are fuuuuuuuucked.
Nate – that’s dope. I like the grime cypher.
And you’re right about Kendrick – he has already far surpassed Papoose and Saigon. I am a fan of both of those guys, but Papoose never dropped his major label debut (he was signed to Jive) The Nacirema Dream, though he did recently drop a new mixtape with terrible artwork (http://www.mixtapetorrent.com/papoose-most-hated-alive.) After a crazy long delay, and a falling out with his label (Atlantic) Sai finally dropped his debut album, The Greatest Story Never Told, independently. It received lukewarm reviews (from me,) and didn’t really boost his profile much. He has subsequently dropped a follow-up, The Greatest Story Never Told 2, but I have not heard it yet.
Kendrick on the other hand dropped one of the most acclaimed albums of last year independently, and followed up with a major label debut, which sold 250k copies in the first week. It seems like he has pretty much already made the transition from prospect to star.
I thought the sound was pretty good. I could hear what the rappers were saying without too much trouble. To the degree that I couldn’t understand, it was not because of the sound quality.
I was at the battle. I don’t think that it was fixed, but the judging was an inexact science, since the host was just asking people to cheer for one rapper or the other, and making a spot judgement about which cheer was louder. The cheer-based voting system definitely gave some rappers a hometown advantage. Some rappers clearly had a substantial number or supporters in the crowd. In several cases, both rappers in a battle seemed to have loud fans cheering for them, so there was no definitive crowd favorite.
I thought the judge/host did a pretty good job of awarding the victories, and making rappers go an extra round if it was too close to call.
The two rounds where cheering and judging really came into play were the second semi-final and the final. In the second semi final a short Sichuanese rapper with a blue hoodie battled a known Henan rapper. Both rappers had very strong crowd support, and the host/judge made them go into 5 or 6 overtime rounds to determine the winner, because the cheers were so close after each round. I actually thought that the Sichuanese rapper should have won the battle, but the rapper from Henan advanced.
In the final there was definitely strong fan support for the local Chinese rapper who eventually won. The organizers of the event and many of the rappers participating in it were cheering loudly for him in the match against the Henan rapper, which could have been a factor. I didn’t think that the Sichuanese rapper or the Henan rapper gave their strongest performances of the night in the finals, but it was a good match, and it was a close match, and it could have gone either way. The decision wasn’t a robbery, and I didn’t come away with an suspicion that it was rigged.
All in all the battle was dope. The level of ability among the Chinese battlers has definitely gotten higher in the past few years.
Took me a while to get here, but I finally saw this thread. I cosign the pizza and the job done by Mikes staff of navigating the tricky terrain of Chinese addresses conveyed by non-Chinese speaking foreigners.
Matter of fact, Im going to an AmCham meeting tonight, and we will be eating some Mikes pizza at the meeting!
That Kariem Riggins is dope! Does he have any projects out?
Whoa… just listened to that Dead Prez track. Disappointing.
I stumbled on the pitchfork review of their album also. They called it “unspeakably depressing,” “a slow-motion car wreck,” and said that Dead Prez decided to “go full Enya.” OUCH.
Here is a classic Dead Prez track to cleanse the palate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Q1qdpblR8&feature=fvsr
Someone who pitchfork does like, as do I, is Roc Marciano. They favorably reviewed his last album, Marcberg, and in my mind hit the nail on the head when they said that “Marciano has locked himself in a dilapidated apartment and recorded a masterwork of insular, borderline-sociopathic hip-hop, much in the vein of the mid-1990s heyday of Mobb Deep.”
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14720-marcberg/
Anyway, Marciano just released a new album, and it sounds good. It will probably make the short list of albums that I buy this year:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/reloaded-deluxe-edition/id575936098
More dope instrumental hip hop:
Didn’t realize that Dead Prez was dropping a new album.
Now Im not sure if I want to hear it.
That review is… ouch.
Dope hip hop instrumental tape…. if you like that sort of thing.
http://www.2dopeboyz.com/2012/11/13/the-audible-doctor-and-i-love-her-instrumental-ep/
And in full-field soccer news, the Wanderers started our game with only 9 players last Sunday afternoon. I texted Andy to see if he could help us out in a pinch, but he texted back, ‘Getting out of bed is not an option.’We won 4-0 anyhow.
That’s magnanimous of you to say.
Go ahead and jab in the spear while the belly is exposed.
I was charging towards the goal in the closing seconds of the match, while you, having just made a save, were lying on the ground. All I need to do was put the ball on frame, and I knocked it over.
It was a pretty good game of football though. Look forward to see your team match up against Europe or France… a lot of parity at the top of the table this season.
To my great chagrin I must report a victory for Deportiva Wanka 2-1, over my North American Scum.
They played smart, and beat us fairly, despite the absence of their two top players. I had several chances to score – including a golden opportunity in the closing seconds of the game – and could not find the goal.
Andy played well in goal for his team, but did not score himself, so he and I each won one bet, and neither of us walked away any richer.
The two remaining bets are still up in the air, with Wanka having conceded one less goal than NAS so far, and me having scored two more goals than Andy so far.
