Unabashedly declaring Little Dragon as my favorite group out right now.
I haven’t really had a favorite group or a band or an artist for that matter that I have felt this much in a loooong while so it is a really big deal for me.
The homies and I went to the Little Dragon show this past Wednesday at The Independent over in Frisco and damn if it wasn’t the most spiritual experience I’ve had in a long while. It’s Friday now and I’m still on a high from the show.
Yukimi Nagano’s voice is so powerful and her stage presence and energy on the stage transforms you from spectator into participant. She jumped into the crowd and starting giggin in the middle of the audience space & got the docile folks in the middle more into it. From then it was on! At one point towards the very end of the show she damn near went horizontal in mid-air and landed face first onto the stage…and kept going! Yukimi was definitely a performer possesed on Wednesday night. I can’t say enough about the band of Erik, Frederick, and Hakan who provide a backdrop that never actually plays the background. Yukimi’s voice & all of their instrumentation together blend into an atmospheric evironment that completely envelopes the entire venue. I’m sorry, i’m not going to go back and edit, I’m just going to let myself ramble like a starstruck fan because honestly I can’t remember a time that I’ve been this excited about music or musicians, and for that I will allow myself to come across like a blabbering screaming TRL fan standing outside with a sign. I was extra juiced when somebody at the same show posted some videos of it on youtube, and that’s the reason for this post. My first post since August if anyone besides me is counting.
And the CROWD was dope as fuck as well! Easily twice as many people than the show in May. I think the band was definitely appreciative of the exuberant folks clapping, screaming, yelling, dancing, and smiling. I damn near drove down to Santa Cruz to see them at The Rio where they’re playing tonight.
Little Dragon GOES!
Test @ The Independent 11/4/09 -
After the Rain @ The Independent 11/4/09 -
Her screams hurt me soul so beautifully, ugh.
Jockin’ Hella Too Tough & Very Okay With That,
GMitch.
PS- Do people still write reviews of shows? Because this one definitely deserved a fuckin well thought out write up! Come on Colinrespose!…no pressure tho.
PPS- Shout out to komodoTV for posting these videos on youtube!
PPPS- Shout out to Adriel Luis for putting up Colin on this group who then put me up on them. Ugh, gotta love word of mouth.
I want to make up a catchy stage-name for myself one day, just like the artist never known as Eric Marlon Bishop aka Jamie Foxx. I guess it’ll stay Slavename for the time being. Anyways, this video was just a little too ridiculous not to post. Jamie Foxx could read the newspaper silently to himself and it would be entertaining.
Hahhahahahahaahaha, clapclapclapclapclap, laugh some more, ahhahahaha,
The way our collective attention spans work these days, the rappers who remain the most relevant in public perception are either on EVERY new single out (Wayne, Kanye), getting in trouble with the law (Wayne, Kanye, T.I.), or just by being outtapocket with petty beefs (Rick Ross, 50 Cent). Now, none of these things necessesarily bother me very much at all, I just write this to make an observation about how quickly both rappers and songs become outdated and irrelevant in our collective consciousness. It’s crazy interesting to me particularly when I begin to take this same concept and apply it to real hard pressing issues affecting our communities both local and global.
The same way we dismiss rappers who haven’t leaked a new song every couple weeks is the same way so many of us in the U.S. relate to the current socio-economic and political issues we face as a people. For example, the tragedy of prolonged violence in the Middle-East is overshadowed by controversial torture procedures enforced during the Bush administration. Of course torture should be looked at closely, it’s inhumane, unspeakably fucked up and shouldn’t happen, but the amount of time the media chooses to focus on it while not telling us much of anything new about it is simply a waste of time. There’s ALL KINDS of death and fucked up shit going on right now in the Bay Area and it seems like the shit that our communities go through are just forgotten and pushed aside for the new subject du jour (of the day). The role of mass media as a central tool for propaganda and distraction can NEVER be underemphasized.
Interestingly enough, this video of Lupe Fiasco performing his song, “The Coolest,” off of his album The Cool, brought all of this to mind. Specifically because back when this album first came out Lupe was my favorite rapper by FAR and in my head nobody could top his talent at songwriting, wordplay, etc etc. But if someone had asked me who my favorite rapper in the game was yesterday he wouldn’t even have crossed my mind initially. Knowing me, I probly woulda said Young Dro or someone. But then I went back and looked at this video and was just floored again at this fool. He’s just ridiculous. I mean how long ago was 2007 really? But I’m SURE if i put together a mix to throw on at a party and it had something from Lupe’s 2007 album on it muhfuckas would definitely be giving me the stink face. It makes me check myself and my own susceptibility to being swept up into the waves of the “current” and losing touch on things that I loved (or things that affected me) but I just hadn’t thought of in a while.
(Sometimes I ramble, sorry).
Anywho, here goes the video that sparked this tangent:
Peace.
G-Mitch
PS – Shout out to DSB for checkin me and makin me do a new blog. Your turn now bruh bruh!
Happy Birfday Week Me! Feb. 7th I turn 25. We finna be gettin’ STUEY in San Ramon Saturday night at the Outpost! Be there, or don’t and wish you was! Holla.
Controversial Police Shooting is what Wolf Blitzer on CNN is calling it. “New Developments: RAGE IN THE STREETS.”
Oscar Grant III. Anita Gay. Gary King Jr. These are the names that I know of, I know there are more. They must’ve not been in broad daylight when they were murdered, or gunned down on a main street during rush hour, or shot in the back on New Year’s on a BART platform with a train full of passengers whom had in their possesion camera phones.
I was at the protest at the Fruitvale BART station, where Oscar Grant III was killed by FORMER police officer, Johannes Mehserle (who apparently no longer has to give a statement since he resigned).
“Mehserle’s resignation takes away BART’s ability to leverage a statement out of him, since he can no longer be fired for remaining silent,” Orloff said. (Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff)
For what it’s worth, it was probably one of the most diverse protests I’ve ever been to. It’s always wild to see so many different kinds of people from hella different backgrounds who are affected and reeling from tragedies such as Oscar Grant’s murder. The media can’t just be like, “Blacks are outraged over this,” or use some language that isolates the grief and anger, everyone is hurt to some degree. Well, the media can, does, and will say whatever they damn well please, but at least we can take away from the pictures the range of the people gathered.
After listening to the devastatingly hopeful words spoken by demonstators, participating in one sustained ‘make as much noise as you can’ moment, reflecting in our collective and individual moment(s) of silence, taking in all of the visuals and people, and talking to plenty of loved ones at the protest I left feeling all the rage, calmness, confusion, love, pain, admiration, and fear that I came into the protest with. While we were driving back home my homie got a text from his sister saying that ‘we left just in time’ because people had started rioting.
For me, protests and riots are very complicated. I love and hate them. (My mama told me to never use the word ‘hate’ because it is a very strong word, thanks mama, but i feel very strongly about protests and riots so i chose to use the word this time).
I hate protests because like so many others i’m tired of going to protests where nothing but talk and yelling happens, and hella often it feels like the speakers are yelling angrily at me like it was me who did something wrong. Adrizzle of ILL-Literacy captured my thoughts and feelings about protests exactly when he wrote, “i stopped going to protests for the same reason i stopped going to church–the speakers always talk like they’re better than you, and i hate when people tell me to stand up when i’m already standing. but this was a good one.”
I hate protests because I’m tired of people with their communist manifestos and newspapers and all that shit, because that shit always feels hella idealistic and arrogant to me. I’m not saying don’t be idealistic, but damn, in some ways they feel like the religious right to me, always trying to beat you over the head with their ideas, when most of them just seem lost in the clouds, sorry i just have to write what i feel.
I hate protests because we all know that gathering is not enough. Gathering didn’t prevent our government from waging an ongoing War on Terror, gathering will not bring back Oscar Grant or anyone else lost to senseless acts of violence. But we already know that, and still we gather, which leads me into why i love protests.
I love protests because they remind me that i am not alone in my thoughts and emotions and understandings surrounding injustice. While we all grieve individually, we come together to let each other as well as the families of the victims know that they are not alone in their grief, fear, and confusion. We all cannot feel or understand the depths of the pain, but we can show that we care and do not want a family’s loss to go unseen, unacknowledged, and forgotten.
I hate riots because i hate that violence begets more violence, and loss begets even more loss, and the cycle remains continuous.
I hate riots because people who are not involved are forced to become involved because they now suffer and are victims from the chaos that is ‘the mob.’ People, businesses, cars, etc, of people who had nothing to do with the killing of Oscar Grant, were injured, destroyed, and defaced last night. Ingorance begets further ignorance, and dumb shit begets more dumb shit. Of course losing a loved one is worse than losing a business, but that is the lamest fuckin’ excuse as to why local businesses windows are being smashed and defaced, especially the businesses of other people of color (fuck McDonalds).
I hate riots because the holice get to squad up in their cowboy riot gear and cause even more havoc, when it’s their violent murderous actions that are the reason that people are rioting in the first place.
I hate riots because they usually wind up, in the everyday course of things, making shit worse on the day to day. Riots usually happen in neighborhoods and areas that are heavily populated with poor people of color. When shit gets fucked up it is almost always their shit that gets fucked up. Those already victimized by oppression simply become more burdened. Also, new laws get created to allow the police more freedoms to hurt and subject people.
I hate the word riot. Often the word riot is used in place of the word uprising, because riots are representative of uncontrolled chaos and are easily criminalized and racialized by government officials, the holice, and the media. The word uprising elludes that there has been a wrongdoing or injustice inflicted upon a person or people to which people are now justifiably reacting in response to.
I love riots, or rather, uprisings because they are a natural outlet of rage in opposition to authority inflicting injustice. If you are going to fuck up my people and my community i should have the right to fuck up your shit too. Which why it is almost theraputic to watch a police car be stomped on by some hyphy ass dudes, light things on fire, and watch unarmed people confront a line of police in full riot gear. It’s a false sense of power and control and it feeds into unhealthy thoughts of vengence, but it remains empowering nonetheless, even if it is somewhat ephemeral and short lived.
It’s not that i hate more than i love. It’s because of love that i can have the relationships that i have with people, and it’s why i can express myself in the ways that i do. All of the progressive social change that i have seen over the years have always occured do to the use of love as a guiding principle. If i think about my favorite people and favorite aritsts i can easily see how it is their own love of people and life that makes me admire and love them reciprocally. I simply hate because there is some reprehensible shit that i hella dont want to see in our collective and individual reactions to oppression and tragedy.
All in All, there is really no reason for me to believe that justice will be served in the killing of Oscar Grant. Can anyone tell me of a case in which an officer has been sentenced to time in prison over the killing of an innocent person? If so, please let me know, because there is no prior conviction that i can think of that would suggest to me that this will not play out like all the similar cases before this one. This is not nihilism, because I do have hope, and i do want this case to be different, but i also recognize that there are no past occurances that would give me reason to believe that somehow this time actually WILL be different. Even IF Obama is our new president.
As i was driving home last night at around 2 a.m. i took a left turn past a cop car and the thought rolled through my head that if he shot me right then and there it would most likely go unnoticed. it was the middle of the night and there was nobody around and i was scared at the thought, and then i was hella mad that this has to be something that scares me as im driving home to go to sleep. Not a camera phone in sight. Sweet dreams, huh.
Invincible gracing the cover of Metro Times (Detroit’s weekly alternative for news, arts, culture, music, film, food, fashion and more).
I can’t claim to know a lot about Oakland Unity High School or Invincible, but I did come across this video on youtube while I was trying to find songs from Invincible.
Invincible at Oakland Unity High School:
Invincible is a rapper from DETROIT, Michigan and like so many other incredible emcees that come outta the city made famous by their automotive factories, Eminem and J Dilla (whom I share a birthday with Feb. 7, holla), she puts words together in an incredibly beastly way. She’s also ’bout something, as she couples her emceeing with her activism. Listing, “Audre Lorde, Nina Simone, MC Lyte, Gil Scott-Heron, James Baldwin, Paulo Freire and the Detroit Summer Yoot” as some of her influences on her Myspace music page. It’s pretty inspirational to see aritists of her caliber putting their time and energy doing good work, like coming all the way out here to Oakland and leading workshops in schools, where she is also spittin’ fire about the Prison Industrial Complex as an incredibly destructive, corrupt, and inhumane institution and how it fucks up individuals as well as communities. I’ll let you decide what you think, I just wanna hear her album hella bad now. Here’s a video that displays how ridiculous she rips it.
Invincible: “Sledgehammer!” Official Video:
That shit’s DOPE.
Here’s to Hip Hop & Activism & 2008 bringing some Cold-Hearted Hot Stueyness,
G. Mitch
P.S. Shout to Paula for waking me up from napping (cuz i aint never sleepin) on Invincible!
P.S. Coming Soon… Senbei & Slavename Present: The Mitchell Report…dun dun dun…
Maybe this is why I used to do so well on spelling tests...
I HELLA grew up playing with one of these (hella square ass fun times)! I also found a website where you can practice your spelling online by using it. I just had hella fun spelling a bunch of “A” words. So can you!! Holler at it.
G.
P.S. – Fuck Texas Instruments tho, they are one of the many corporations using prison inmates to make their products while paying them nada. Have Fun tho!
This is one of my favorite songs ever and i just found out that there was a video for it. We knocked this song, DJ DMD – “Go Back Home,” and Devin – “See What I Can Pull,” everyday of the 2001 summer…ON AN ACTUAL MIXTAPE THAT I MADE! Remember mixtapes! That’s what’s up. Be prepared for lengthy misogyny on the latter two.
We fucks with that Screwed Up Click, Devin, and H-Town in general, indeed.
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