Moving Forward, Looking Back

Lot's of shit on deck, I've been neglectful, I know. Now comes the point in the season where winter gets old, slushy and gross. You stay in the house unless you have to work and count down the days till mid March. You, the reader will be the beneficiary of my solitary confinement.

One of my favorite things about New York is how when songs blow up here they're absolutely ubiquitous. You walk down the street and it's pounding out of every other car, playing out of a display boom box at Virgin, being sung and danced to by a group of pre-teens on the train. Right now this is that song. Jadakiss can be maddening, the last half year or so he's confined himself to R&B joints or his own shit that sounds R&B. While the results aren't always as miserable as one might assume (I kind of like his work on Neyo's "Right by my side") I miss the days when songs like "Put ya hands up" could get heavy rotation. Jada's a technician, one of the few punchline rappers who are also capable of content, as he delivers here effortlessly over a smooth jazz loop. I had been dreading the release of Notorious, but an interesting looking new preview, coupled with the absolute Biggie mania breaking out all over Brooklyn, significant as he's never far from the collective consciousness as it is, has me thinking I just might be over at the Court Street cinema January 16th. A very pertinent question being discussed at the moment is what kind of music would Biggie be making if he were here today? I like to think it wouldn't be so far from what his Yonkers protege specializes in, microphone proficiency with no made up shit.