The Roots in D.C.

It's another sad chapter. That chapter being me in the same city where The Roots are performing and me NOT going to the show. It's happened three times now (see previous 'The Roots' posts for deets). Enough already.

The most recent edition was in D.C., December 2009. The Roots were there for not one, but two shows: on Tuesday, December 29th and Wednesday, 30th. My sister gave me a heads up several days in advance, maybe more than that, but she thought the ticket price was high at $45 (plus service fees). I was on the fence. I had planned to be in D.C. to bring in twenty-ten, but my funds were a bit low at the time. Then on Monday, my boy from D.C. called. He knew I'd be in town and wanted to know if I wanted to go see The Roots. I balked at the ticket prices. He seemed indecisive too. He mentioned that the December 30th show had already sold out (though I initially thought he said it was cancelled because it had not sold out).

On Tuesday as I was headed to D.C., I got antsy. I began to think: 'Yes, I do want to go to see The Roots!' This is the one group that I can see over and over and over again and never tire of seeing them perform. Well, seeing them in D.C. did not happen for me. The closest I got was this money shot (see above) from in front of the 930 Club. Good looking tour bus, right?

I thought I could roll up to the venue and snap up some tix and be on my way. Right. It did not go down like that. My boy did end up going though. He's obviously got some connections in the Chocolate City. To add insult to injury, he also walked away w/'another' drum stick from Questlove.

Enough of my whining. Lucky me and you ... The Roots have some pics and commentary about the D.C. shows posted on Okayplayer.

So get to gettin hip hoppers. The moral to this story is that when The Roots come to town, get the ticket and balk at the price later. kfox.

VIDEO: The Eric Mire Band f/Melissa Czarnik

Eric Mire somehow discovered this blog and now he and his band and Melissa Czarnik are on my radar. And this thanks to the magic of Twitter. Not only did Mire find the Indy Hip Hop Blog, but he sent me a 'tweet' w/a link to this vid. Love that.

The vid is right up my alley. I do get lots of emails and tweets and sometimes I respond in a timely manner and sometimes not. There is no rhyme or reason to what I decide to listen to. It's just a matter of timing.

I like the music. I like the band. I like Czarnik's delivery. This track fits her nicely. I am an uptempo kind of girl, but the slow roll on this one is cool. It's a nice vibe. I think that it helps that music is good. Let's give this Milwaukee collabo some love.



Oh, and get a free download of The Eric Mire Band f/Melissa Czarnik. And if you are so inclined, you can purchase The Eric Mires Band cd or Melissa Czarnik's cd.

Anyway, enough from me. Check it for yoself hip hoppers. kfox.

Best Rap Albums of 2009

Ha! I love lists. But the truth is, lists are a product of one person. It's one person's opinion on what was the best of the best or whatever the list is about.

That said, there were thousands of lists that were generated for the end of 2009 and the end of the 2000-2009 decade. That's how I found this list on the 10 Best Rap Albums of 2009. There's also a companion list of the Most Disappointing Rap Albums of 2009, but I chose to focus on the positive, albeit, someone else's idea of positivity in list making.

This list was compiled by Henry Adaso from About.com. I must say, I did not know that About.com was in the business of hip hop. As a result of my 'not-knowingness', I almost missed out on a well developed list. Yes, the list is full of gems. My theory on this is that About.com may or may not be into the business of hip hop, but they know to hire someone who is. So much props to Adaso for making a shine-shine list.

I won't give it all away because I want you to go to the list and read the comments, but there's Raekwon and Clipse and I've been meaning to blog about the number one artist for some time now. It is all good ... in the decade where Nas proclaimed 'hip hop is dead', this list demonstrates just the opposite.

What about you hip hoppers? Who's on your best of 2009 hip hop list? kfox.

Skillz's 2009 Wrap Up

So, you've check out Skillz' previous year's wrap up (see my previous post). Time to see what he has to say about '09.

You can get the audio of the Skillz '09 Wrap up on Hip Hop Wired.

Time to do some reflecting hip hoppers. Let's make '10 a 10. kfox.