Return To Mecca

Whose idea was this? Whoever it was, needs to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Seriously. Mecca and The Soul Brother...classic. And I mean, "classic", in every sense of the word. Not how "classic" is bandied about and used to label every new album by every new artist, that you schmoes think is "hot". No. This is the real deal. The early Ziti years? This album stayed in rotation. Pete Rock was in a zone. C.L. Smooth couldn't spell a bad verse. It was that kind of album.

2010. What makes this special? We are treated to a deluxe re-issue, that is usually reserved for Jazz album staples and pivotal rock albums. Very rarely does a Hip-Hop album get the re-issue that it deserves. This one? You can put it on the shelf next to your A Love Supreme anniversary edition. C'mon. You read these posts. You know that I'm a sucker for good packaging. Remember the Jake One/Freeway album? The presentation of that set was one of the main reasons I bought it. [Note: There was a post on here. Dig it up.]

You could download it, but this album makes the case for buying a physical CD. This set includes the original (classic) album with a second disc loaded with treats and trimmings. Instrumentals. Acapellas. Remixes. A booklet with entries from the players involved. As a bonus; a poster for your locker.

You kids are so lucky.

Cop it. Enjoy it. Learn you something.

p.s. Shouts to Traffic Entertainment Group. You people are saints. With that said, I will be by your offices to rub your feet in exotic oils from faraway lands.

I Bid You Adu

NOTE: The following exchange took place in a bagel spot...somewhere.

Jose: Yo son...Sade is f*cking beautiful.

Ziti: Who are you telling? She's probably one of the most visually compelling women I've ever seen. The subtlety. The grace. That barefoot two-step. Amazing.

Jose: If she walked in this muthaf*cker [right now] and said "Yo, Jose...I want you to come be with me and just stay in the house all day and do nothing. F*ck it. I would drop everything! I mean everything!

Ziti: She's dope.

Jose: I'm not playing. I would change my name to "Adu". My name would be Jose Sade Adu.

Ziti: (laughs)

Jose: I would stay in the house all day and just cook Salmon fillets. All you would hear from me would be "yes m'am" and "no m'am". You wouldn't hear a peep out of me.

Ziti: (laughs) She's beautiful.

Jose: You're damn right" she's "beautiful"! She's a f*cking stunner!

Ziti: She's glorious. No doubt about it. Soooooo, what are you ordering?

Jose: Yo, son.....if Sade walks in here, right now, I'm out! F*ck that.

Ziti: Jeez.

Jose: "Jose Adu", son. "Jose Adu".

Dope on plastic

Tapes. I had/have 1000's of them. Literally. Played em'. Broke em'. Snapped em'. Operated on em'. Spliced em'. Those little boxes with the two reels inside? Magical. A good number of those tapes were mixtapes. Tapes were usually copped on the street, from a dude hustling them, 2 for $15 style. Having the newest tape, in some circles, was like having a new pair of sneakers. Certain mixtapes would get "run in the ground" like a classic album. In some cases, some mixtapes got more play than an album you'd buy in the store.

Some of the familiar mixtape names?

Kid Capri

Ron G.

Doo-Wop

DJ Envy

Silver Surfa

Dirty Harry

Action Pac

Boo The Barber

DJ Camilo

DJ Clue

DJ S&S

Showtime

DJ Hollywood

Green Lantern

Analog living at its finest.

Two clips: One of classic Yo! MTV Raps footage feat. the legendary Kid Capri. The other is a rip of the blend featured in the first clip.

Learn you something.

[Note: The turntable skill demonstrated by Kid Capri should be standard arsenal for any DJ that plays Hip-Hop music. If you're a DJ and cannot perform said skill, then maybe you should re-think your hobby.]

God Made Dirt

I miss this dude. The genre is a less dangerous and more subdued place without him here. That isn't a good thing.

No, this isn't some tired post about how Hip-Hop, as an art form, has lost its relevance or energy. You can have that argument. Actually, all you have to do is turn on your radio. The music now? It's more marketing than machismo. It favors ringtones over renaissance. It's not so much dead...it's just safe. Credible art cannot function without some element of danger. At some point your creative heroes have to be ass-kickers. Your creative heroes need to be above the law. Your creative hereos need to live by an esoteric set of rules that only they fully understand. The presence of Ol' Dirty, in the music, gave us that. He was a hero.

He was reckless. Loud. Aloof. He liked women. Women liked him. He was funny. He renamed himself "Big Baby Jesus". He didn't care. That's what made him great. No matter how on-the-edge his antics appeared, there always seemed to be some methodical underpinnings that were more cerebral than we actually gave him credit for.

Like any good hero, he didn't feign humanity. His family said he was generous. His mother raved about his good character and how she loved her "Rusty". He helped lift a car to free a little girl, trapped underneath. His crew, the Brooklyn Zoo, was his Wu-Tang Clan inside Wu-Tang Clan. He was "out there", but--by many accounts--he was loved.

His music was a mash of god-speak, misogyny, sex, and comedy. The album skits were a mix of out-loud conversations and childhood musings. The songs could go from punching you in your mouth to professing his love, R&B style. He once proclaimed in a song: "Bitches, we love you!" No matter how twisted or humorous, you never mistook Dirty for the guy you could snuff. Yeah, he might have been singing The Love Boat theme (loudly and in public) going up an escalator, but you would probably think twice before you stepped to him. He was that dude, but he wasn't that dude either.

I don't know if Dirty was truly "crazy". Maybe. Or maybe his plan was to make you think he was crazy. The famous MTV limo ride. The infamous Grammy Awards speech crashing. The women. The 13 children. The album cover with the Jheri Curl wig and jumpsuit. Some may say foolishness or buffoonery. Some may say genius or brilliance. Whatever the case, it was him. He owned that. There were Wu-Tang interviews where it was apparent that even his fellow group members didn't quite understand him. You could say it was drugs. Maybe. But to totally encapsulate the Ol' Dirty Bastard character, as a result of drug use, is dismissive and surface. Somehow, you got the feeling that even if it was the drugs, the ODB persona was purposely crafted as the hero alternative to the mild-mannered Russell Jones. Whereas Russell Jones is the Clark Kent, ODB is the Superman. They function as two symbiotic entities within the same person.

Music, especially the music of young people, at some point has to be dangerous. It has to invoke some sense of rebellion. It has to be a statement against assimilation. In some ways it has to be a manifesto to not giving a f*ck. Listening to his albums (more so his debut) gave me that. In one listen, the music could be wild and sometimes unfocused. On another listen, it was calculated and dense. Some of the subject matter is off-the-wall; somehow it's also empowering.

[Current] Hip-Hop isn't dead. It's safe, subdued...and less dangerous.

I miss you, Dirty. Things, here on Earth, are not the same without you.

In Big Baby Jesus name, Amen.

I Want The Knife

Watched this when I was 9 or 10...over...and over...and over.

Probably where I developed my charm and wit.

On The Rocks

NOTE: The following exchange took place in a bagel spot...somewhere.

Ziti: Diddy says Ross is the new Biggie Smalls.

Jose: F*ck outta here!

Ziti: (laughs) You're wild!

Jose: I'm not fucking with Diddy anyway. Last year we were partying, a bottle of Ciroc was $14. Now a bottle is $40! F*ck outta here!

Ziti: (laughs)

Jose: That sh*t isn't Goose! That sh*t isn't Belvedere! What the f*ck Diddy?! I mean---does it come with some free sh*t?

Is the bottle autographed by Carl Thomas? Does it come with a Best of Bad Boy mixtape? Does it come with a Dirty Money/Diddy Beats t-shirt? $40 for that?! I want a gift-with-purchase!

And the sad thing is, people are going to buy it because it's more expensive now. F*ck outta here!

Ziti: That's how dudes roll. Raise the price on some average sh*t and watch the "ballers" come out of the woodwork.

Jose: That's just something for ghetto dudes to buy, to impress those dirty birds in the club. You raise the price on something, some ghetto ass is going to buy it because they think it's the "thing to do".

Ziti: Right.

Jose: I'm saying--that's not a premium liquor. It's vodka with juice in it.

Ziti: (laughs) You're killing me. You are f*cking stupid!

Jose: You know why I drink Goose?

Ziti: Why's that?

Jose: I like my Vodka made by faceless motherf*ckers. I don't wanna see the chairman of my Vodka company on the gottdamn BET awards. Talking about, "Hello. Good morning." F*ck outta here!

I like my liquor made by motherf*ckers who wear suits everyday. I like my liquor made by motherf*ckers who put Grey Poupon on their sandwiches. I don't want my liquor's CEO on stage---dancing---with a fog machine and special effects.

Ziti: Sometimes, dude does something and I'll think, "smart". Other times? I don't know. But you know what? Everybody's entitled to a little ebb and flow.

Jose: That's cool. Just don't try and f*ck me on the price of liquor, man.

Ziti: You'd never see the CEO of Ocean Spray doing that.

Black Sheep - Forever LuvLee

I love when legendary groups choose to stay in the game and still put out quality material. This album? Solid. Guest shots from: Jean Grae, AZ, Rosie Perez and The Native Tongues.

Reason to cop?

It doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. Classic Dres. Dope production. Everyday/Everyman rhymes.

Hold up! Rosie Perez is on this album? Rosie "Ziti's been digging you since the Spike Lee movie" Perez?!?!? Oh snap!

That's reason alone to buy.

The album, From The Black Pool of Genius

King.

Props to Spike Lee.

Purple Cupcakes and Raspberry Beret-ed Iced Tea

In celebration of the Purple One's birthday, Ziti presents to you:

20 Reasons why Prince will always be the original Don Dada:

[Note: Originally posted in June of 2006. Re-posted in honor of Prince's B-Day.]

1. Only musician (still) rocking a perm (outside of James Brown) that you give props to.

2. Only dude that can dress like a cross between a 3 Musketeer and a pirate and get away with it.....and take your girl.

3. Can talk about doing "the nasty" and God all in the same song.

4. Met Nikki in a hotel lobby, masturbating in a magazine.

5. Starfish and Coffee

6. Influenced a whole generation of musicians: Andre 3000, Bilal, D'angelo, Raphael Saadiq, Meshell N'degeocello, Common, TLC, Questlove, N.E.R.D., Badu, Alicia Keys, Missy Elliot, Alanis Morrisette, Cody Chestnutt, Trent Reznor, Lenny Kravitz and the list goes on.

7. Adore

8. He can ride a purple motorcycle, with a freshly permed do, wearing a purple trenchcoat and high heels.....with a guitar on his back.....and take your girl!

9. Has more aliases than Wu-Tang, Nas, Madlib, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Outkast combined.

10. Makes thick bodied sexy's purify themselves in the waters of Lake Minnetonka ("wait that's not Lake Minnetonka!")

11. Can wear pants with the butt cheeks cut out.......and take your girl!

12. No one else has killer lines like these:

"You don't have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude" (from "Kiss")

"You can tear up my clothes, smash up my ride...well maybe not the ride" (from "Adore")

"If I was your girlfriend would you come to me if somebody hurt you--- even if that somebody was me? ("If I Was Your Girlfriend")

"You sexy muthaf*cker" ("Sexy MotherF*cker")

"Damn U, you're so fine" ("Damn U")

"I wanna be your lover. I wanna be your mother and your sister too" ("I Wanna Be Your Lover")

"Does everybody know about the quake? BULLSHIT!" ("Housequake")

13. 20 years after Purple Rain he can still toss you a heater like "Black Sweat".

14. Named a group after one of his babes (Vanity 6) and made her the lead singer. Then bounced her, put another babe in her spot and re-named it after her (Apollonia 6). Now that's "gangsta"!

15. One of the few artists, outside of Hip Hop, that had background dancers as part of his group (i.e. Jerome Benton circa "Under The Cherry Moon" and Kat circa "Sign Of The Times"). I betcha that's where Kane got the idea for Scoob & Scrap.

16. Speaking of Hip Hop...wasn't the song "1999" a posse track? [do the math: Dez Dickerson, Gayle Chapman, Lisa Coleman and Prince].

17. Can give an artist a throwaway track and make them hot! (See: Sinead O'Connor, Patti Labelle, Tevin Campbell, The Family, The Time, The Bangles, Sheena Easton, Chaka Khan *see bottom)

18. One more nod to Hip Hop: didn't Prince (a.k.a. The Kid) and Morris Day portray artist "beefing" with each other prior to 50 Cent and Ja Rule? Matter of fact this was before Shan and KRS-One! AND....how gangster was it in [the movie] Purple Rain when Morris Day goes, "So how's the family?" right after Prince's dad shot himself? That sh*t could've been on a mixtape! That's right up there with Makavelli's "Hit Em Up" or Nasir's "Ether".

19. Walked into a record exec meeting, at Warner Brothers, with the word "slave" written on his face. If you don't see how raw that is, try pulling that same sh*t at work tomorrow!

20. You gotta be an icon when you change your name to a f*cking symbol! A F*CKING SYMBOL! I mean changing your name? Sure....that's been done. But how many dudes can pull some sh*t like changing their name to something that looks like a pretzel (with no way to pronounce it) and have the balls to be DEAD serious! Even if you made jokes, he still had mofo's calling him "The Artist". Game recognize game.

Note: Eddie Murphy has gone on record saying Prince did indeed whup him and Charlie Murph in basketball.....wearing heels! AND this was said years before Chapelle's Show was on the air!

* Even before the Prince connection, Chaka had a hit with her cover of "I Feel For You" another Prince penned gem.

Oh yeah....what's up with Taja Sevelle? "Love Is Contagious" was my sh*t!

Happy Birthday, Prince.

Ziti

p.s. do you think you could send one of those lingerie wearing, mulatto sexy's my way?

Mayer + Snoop = Gangsta

Oftentimes, a label has an artist whose career needs a bit of a boost. Sometimes, it's a matter of updating tired and outdated production. You have a great artist, but for some reason the audience is not there. Hmmm. What do you do? Well, most of these record label mountain climbers wouldn't know their ass from their elbow. They have a formula: Take equal parts marginalized rapper/singer + equal parts Top/Pop 100 producer = Hit Single. Surefire...right? Nope. I mean...that sh*t works sometimes. Sometimes. Often, the results are disastrous. Just because you're hot over HERE, doesn't mean thats going to translate [well] over THERE. I dig Nine Inch Nails. I dig Norah Jones. I don't think I'm interested in a collaboration between the two.

The flip side? You have artists/musicians who actually understand the value and nuances of their craft. They know that they have a quality that if mixed with a true and accepting component, it will yield amazing results. You take a soulful rapper/crooner like Cee-Lo and mix him with a Beatles/Jay-Z mashing Danger Mouse. That pairing results in the genius that is Gnarls Barkley.

You take a moderately successful rapper like Freeway, pair him with underground production staple Jake One and you get The Stimulus Package (one of the better Hip-Hop albums of 2010). Al Green? An R&B legend. You wanna make a classic Reverend Al album without the late great Willie Mitchell? Simple. You employ the services of James Poysner and Questlove. Al Green is soul music. You have to have to pair him with guys who understand the music, the textures and the legacy, of not only Al Green, but soul music itself.

You're not re-inventing the wheel. It's equal parts peanut butter + equal parts strawberry jam. Rocket science it is not.

That brings us to my next case: Snoop Dogg and Mayer Hawthorne. You love Snoop. I love Snoop. In 2010, your mom probably loves Snoop. He's moved past the gang banging tunes of his youth and has settled comfortably in the realms of reality show dad and T-Mobile pitchman. BUT, he still makes albums. Actually, they're not quite bad. The trick is balancing mainstream Snoop against a Snoop Dogg album that exhibits some sort of Hip-Hop creditability (you're probably laughing as "hip-hop creditability" really doesn't exist, on a large scale).

Some of the better Snoop tunes have been the laid-back, easy breezy tracks wherein nobody gets shot (or "187'ed")---not even cops. I mean, even Snoop admitted he doesn't listen to much rap in his off time. Nope. He's more interested in listening to The Stylistics, The Dramatics, The Miracles, Al Green, Teddy P. etc. (i.e. the good music that plays in the beginning of inner city, shoot-em-up gangster movies).

Throwback soul music? Who, in 2010, understands that zone better than my new favorite, Mayer Hawthorne? Exactly. Yeah we've had some white girl brits who sing it, but truthfully, SOME of those chicks are the products of good production [with the notable exception of Adele and Alice Russell].

You pair the Smokey Robinson-infused (and influenced) groove of Mayer with the O.G. groove of Snoop and what do you get? Gangsta Luv.

It's retro, but modern. It's innovative--largely in part--that it takes pieces of classic American music and successfully melds it with Hip-Hop.

Son, I was sold with the doo-wop intro.