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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Cypress Hill

  • First Spin 2/24/09: Jonas Brothers, Chris Isaak & More!!

    jonasI must say, it’s a bit difficult to drum up the enthusiasm to put this column together when there isn’t a damn thing coming out that I’m interested in. For as long as I’ve been buying music as an adult and following release dates, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this far into a year while buying so little music. Even worse, I’m strangely ambivalent about most of the music that I’ve bought. Weird, huh?

    Anyway, here’s what’s out today:

    B-Real “Smoke & Mirrors”– I think I wrote something a while back about unnecessary solo albums, and here’s yet another one. Do we really need an entire album of B-Real and that VOICE without the respite that Sen Dog’s angry barks provide? Does anyone really care that B-Real has an album out? Has anyone given half a fuck about anything Cypress Hill has recorded in a decade? Talk about flaming out. 2 good albums and then they went straight down shit street.

    Chris Isaak “Mr. Lucky”-I like Chris Isaak. He doesn’t take the being a star thing too seriously, he’s got an appealing voice and he’s quite attractive. That said, I own nothing by Chris Isaak save for a greatest hits compilation. I don’t really feel like I’m missing anything either. Anyhow, Chris has a new TV show premiering which is proably quite good, so he’s hitting us from both angles. Go, synergy!

    Jonas Brothers “Music from the 3-D Concert Experience”– Labels don’t seem to learn when it comes to teen groups. To wit: NKOTB-studio albums, Christmas album, remix album. Hanson-studio album, “early years” release, Christmas album, live album. The result in both cases? People stopped caring. Anyway, the Jonases, fresh from being embarrassed on the Grammys by Adele and embarrassing themselves with Stevie Wonder, are releasing their very first live album, something like six months after their last studio album came out. How long till the bubble bursts? Cue teenage girls going crazy.

    K’naan “Troubadour”– I don’t know much about this guy, other than some great reviews I’ve seen. Considering how little else is out, I might give this one a shot. Looks like he’s working the same alt-rap vibe that fellow Canuck MC k-os does, and the guest list (Adam Levine, Mos Def, Damien Marley) is pretty stellar for an artist unknown in the US. This might be worth it for the right price.

    Van Morrison “Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl”-Yup, it’s Van the Man, performing the songs from one of his best-known and most-loved albums forty years after the fact. Albums like this are so unnecessary. I’d rather just listen to the original.

    Elsewhere, there seems to be at least one release from every genre imaginable. If you’re a hip-hopper, you might want to check out Joe Budden’s long-awaited “Padded Room”, his first studio release in something like seven or eight years. Blues rockers will take to JJ Cale’s “Roll On”, while you’ll get more of a straight-ahead blues sound with Shemekia Copeland’s “Never Going Back”. Metalheads will go for the new Lamb of God and Hatebreed releases, while Prince fans (like me) will dig on Wendy & Lisa’s new one, called “White Flags of Winter Chimneys”, which I believe is only available digitally (meaning that I won’t buy it).

    On the reissue tip, Stax is re-releasing some of Isaac Hayes’ classic work, including the seminal “Black Moses” album. Erasure is summarizing their career with a 40-song Best of, reggae superstar Elephant Man has his first hits comp arriving in stores, and in the category of albums no one asked for: there are best-ofs arriving from Bloodhound Gang and Insane Clown Posse.

    Get the full list of releases here.

  • VH-1 Hip Hop Honors ’08 – Quick Thoughts

    Unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think anyone on this site talked about the Hip Hop Honors show from earlier in the week. I know that Money Mike was possibly not even going to be able to watch the show until later in the week. I wasn’t able to live blog it, but did get to catch most of it.

    I love this concept, this show, and everything about why VH-1 does this show. You wonder why VH-1 does this and not say, MTV or BET, or even a network channel.

    What happens when I watch this show (and previous years as well) is that I smile. I simply smile throughout the entire thing. It reminds me of when and why I fell in love with hip hop in the first place. We hip hop fans are a funny bunch. We dislike far more of the current music that hip hop artists produce today than we like. The music from our youth will always be better than what’s out now. But damnit, if you talk bad about the art that we love, get ready to defend your stance. For hours. We are a passionate bunch. We’ve had to sell people on the fact that being an emcee is just as much of a honed skill as anything else. You don’t think so? Try rapping. We’ve had to let those know that while Whitney Houston’s voice is a gift, so is Jay-Z’s flow. And we never feel as if anyone thinks our music is on an equal plane as rock music. All of those things come back to me when I watch this show. Every year.

    The cool thing about this show is that it’s a show of acknowledgment. You can argue as to why certain people are honored earlier than others (I’m sure being able to show up with your crew intact is one of the reasons), but really, I don’t care. Hopefully, all the right folks will be honored eventually. This year, Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Naughty By Nature, Slick Rick, and Too Short were honored. As has been the case with the previous shows, to “honor” the hip hop legends, current and former hip hop stars come out and perform some of the honorees previous hits. And then the legends themselves get on stage. It was great to see Slick Rick on stage performing from his throne. Cypress Hill got the show started off with a bang and had a great live performance. And how did they get Naughty By Nature back together? I thought Treach and them didn’t get a long? But I was probably most excited to see De La’s performance, and I’ve included that below.

    Hopefully VH-1 continues to run this show. For people like me and those who are much bigger fans of the culture and the music, it’s maybe the best thing that VH-1 has done or will ever do. Hopefully we’ll get Money Mike’s thoughts when he gets the chance to watch the show.

    You can watch it online if you didn’t catch it on the tube at VH-1.com or check their schedule to see when they are showing it again.