King me!

As the NE DC correspondent for the tbdcdcdbdc, at times I draw blank looks when I tell people where I live. Rosedale, son. Generally speaking, I hope they've heard of The Rock 'n Roll hotel. If that doesn't work as a frame of reference, I surrender.

Some time ago, an acquaintance not familiar with the area asked me what it was like. This was clearly code for "do you see people get shot?"/"are there white people there?", but I played dumb and painted a very nice - and I think fairly accurate - picture of the environs. So this girl goes on to ask my cross streets again, and then says "oh... is that near the Checkers ?

My affirmative reply elicited a great deal of concern for my safety. Checkers, I soon found out, is roughly on par with the chicken/fish/pizza/Chinese food/Phillys/munchers carryouts and check cashing establishments as indicators of hood.

Well, if the condos and white folks weren't sign enough, good old Rosedale is now officially coming up.





Maryland Avenue Checkers, RIP.

Jon Stewart (and by association, Comedy Central)

three of my favorite things in the network of tubes are 1) tbdcdcdcdbdc 2) mlb.com and also 3) Jon Stewart's full archive of streaming clips.

seriously: FULL ARCHIVE. i can't stress this enough. there are clips on this site dating back to 1999. that's last millennium?!?! if you had told me that in the future i'd be able to watch television programs from the previous millennium, i would have called you a liar to your face. luckily for me, though, i would have been wrong.

so without further ado, and to avoid boring you further, i present you this clip from 2004 (ya, when we were still in college! if someone had told me that in the future i'd be able to watch television programs from when i was still in college, i would have called you a liar to your face). this is not only an entertaining clip but also topical since it relates to a thebombdotcom.com post written many moons ago.

Better than mangoes

I really can't add anything to this, except that if your work is quite sensitive about things, it might be nsfw.



Really, there should be something snarky to say. A better man than I could find it. But my mind's a little blown right now.

Lyrics of Fury

Now, far be it from tbdcdcdbdc to disrespect the dead. All condolences to the friends and family of this gentleman who was killed as a result of freestyle beef. That said, no such compunction is needed when addressing the hilariously oblivious proofer who let this headline pass.

Detroiter Killed In Rap Battle

Anyone who knows what a rap battle actually is would have to wonder if, like Cappadonna of the Wu, this deadly emcee's paragraphs contain cyanide (@2:50):



I'll admit, I wanted to hear this emcee with verses so ill, so malignant, that he can slaughter his hip-hop adversaries at the drop of a sick stanza. Years ago, Monty Python jested about a JMD (Joke of Mass Destruction), so funny that it took lives. Perhaps hip-hop had finally been refined down to it's purest form of rhyming sarin. I was disappointed upon clicking through to find out after the jump that not only does he not slay wack emcees lyrically, but in fact, unlike Inspectah Deck (above @1:00), he doesn't even lyrically commit armed robbery.

He just gets pissed off and grabs a gun.

Come on. That's just not impressive.

Let The Eagle Soar

Eagles, natch, are like totally best. See below.



And goats? I guess they're totally alright.

But when are eagles and goats better then the sum of their parts? When they form like Voltron, and the eagles are the head. Let me put it in layman's terms - when the eagles are throwing the goats off of the mountains. That's when they cease being eagles, and start being the bombdotcom (dotcom.blogspot.com).

For the impatient, the good bits are at 0:35, 5:00, and 6:30





It took all the energy I had not to bring up this guy:





But it just didn't seem appropriate for this time of affirmation and renewal - my maiden post, and the 100th here at TBDC. All the same, you need to brush up on this. All about Eagle-Eye Lanoo Cherry.

Friday = Funky

I feel like one has an obligation to share devastating funk jams, and so I post this Bar-Kays track via this cat's blog out of Ballard/Seattle (Armed Snobbery).

Saul Williams

i've known about the rapper-poet-philosopher Saul Williams for a while now but never actually listened to his music. after hearing that he released his album for $free.99 a-la radiohead i clearly downloaded but never actually listened to it. well, long story short i finally listened to it.

i got tipped off to him the second time by a new nike ad that features a track of his. the spot is bomb and so is the track. the video is under the song.

Luchini pourin from the sky

So we're not all hip-hop heads, but I encourage ya'll to listen to this song once and then twice and tell me you don't find yourself humming to yourself, "This is it what, Luchini pourin from the sky, let's get rich what..."

Extra Detail:
The original of this song was Camp Lo's only real single and managed to climb to 5th on the rap singles chart (though it is still frequently referenced in the hip-hop community - check WALE's mixtape!). What's fascinating about this track is that if you listen to the lyrics very closely you can tell that they make absolutely no sense.