Recognize Exhibit @ the National Portrait Gallery in D.C.

So I'm vacationing in the nation's capital. I visit the district w/some frequency since I have family and lots of friends that live in the area. Sometimes, I check out the cultural scene, but often I don't have the time.

But on this trip, I did get a chance to see a great deal. I had heard about the "Recognize" Exhibit, but the person who mentioned it to me did not seem so impressed. So now you are thinking that I was impressed, and I will say that I really enjoyed it! It was a small exhibit, considering the size of the museum, but I'll take it.

What was there to like about it? Everything. There were still photos of the hip hop icons like KRS-One as well as SuperNatural and DJs Shadow and Cut Chemist and my boy ?uesto from The Roots; there was paintings of LL Cool J and Ice Cube; there was a mixed media piece that paid tribute to some of the fallen hip hoppers like Biggie, Lisa "Left-eye" Lopez and others; a poem by Nikki Giovanni; some film shorts set to hip hop music and several graffiti murals. The website has images of nearly everything that is in the exhibit (in the event that you can't get there, but would like to see how hip hop fits into the major museum scene).

The artists behind the exhibit are incredible. I went w/a friend who is a true art connoisseur. And he gave me the back story on most of the artists especially Kehinde Wiley, whose talent is exceptional. I truly love David Scheinbaum's photography; I could look at it for hours. Just the kind of photographer that captures so much in an image. And who knew that so many hip hop artists make a stop in the Sunshine Theater in New Mexico.

Good stuff ... if you get a chance to see it, definitely take it in. It's there until October 26, 2008 ... and it's free and I know you are down w/that price tag hip hoppers! Get your culture on, kfox.

REVIEW: "Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme"

So it's 2008 and "Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme" was released in 2000 and I am just now getting around to watching it - my loss, eh? And it would have taken longer for me to see it, but here's what happened:

I had just finished watching "Michael Clayton" and I went to my Netflix queue to rearrange some things - like to move "The Savages" up, rearrange, "There Will Be Blood" as well as add "First Sunday" and "Norbit" (I have to see for myself if they are, indeed, as bad as some say they are) and I need a little comedy in my life.

So ... I've been seeing a button labeled 'play' next to a few of my selections. But one of my selections is "In Cold Blood" which is #60 on my queue and I am/was not in such a hurry to see that. But I did want to sample this "watch movies instantly" feature.

Well, my first glitch was that that feature is not supported in Mozilla's Firefox browser - shameful. However, over on the Internet Explorer browser, after a download of something and an upgrade of something else, the movie worked like a charm.

I thought that the quality of the movie might be mediocre, but no, no ... it's good looking.

So I was intending to just take a peek at "Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme" and then dip out, but since my selection was hip hop related, it grabbed my attention. I was lovin it especially since right in the beginning there is a vintage freestyle segment with my boys Black Thought and ?uestlove! Love that.

It's a nice doc; makes me wish I had seen it sooner, but it's still in my queue, so I can watch it anytime and that is cool. The uncool part is that I could not rewind - and when brothas were spitting rhymes at warp speed, I needed to trackback for a double take.

Some of the legends that make an appearance include:

• Mos Def
• Talib Kweli
• The Last Poets
• Divine Styler
• Boots (from The Coup)
• Supernatural
• Craig G
  

I could go on ... and maybe I will on another post. Meanwhile, you can check out the doc on YouTube. They even break it up into several parts for your viewing pleasure - though the quality is not as good as the Netflix version.

You gotta get your freebies the best way you can hip hoppers. kfox.