Things to thank in 2011

So the last post of the year as I will try to look back on my personal life. My achivements and things that I think are moving for the next year.

  • A whole year living in Cancun, nothing like chilling next to a beautiful beach. 
  • Flying to New York and watching the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Mobb Deep, Immortal technique etc 
  • Starting the certification for OpenOffice.org as well as the Internships 
  • Building a new tech community in Cancun with Tequilla Valley 
  • Becoming the technical lead for OLPC Mexico and country manager for FLISOL and Software Freedom Day 
  • Giving some PHD classes on free software

Some goals for new year include:

  • Expand the certification project to the rest of the world 
  • Moving back to Europe 
  • Going to ApacheCon and representing OpenOffice 
  • Consolidating a olpc group in sugar development in Cancun 
  • Push better quality and development community 
  • Finalize the OpenOffice guide and bring it up to par with the english version 
  • Give out a course on free software processes and environment for enterprise 
  • Follow the NBA and see Lebron James live game
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The way we were….

I’ve become a fan of the show called The Cypher, which is a talk show about hiphop. I am also a member of three big hiphop groups in facebook, Wu-World Wide, Acquired Taste and Remembering Hiphop. They share a lot of video’s about hiphop. However I am sensing a change on the way hiphop is being talked about. Before we were always the first, the first Hiphop generation president, the first Hiphop couple (with Salt-n-Pepa and Treach), later was Biggie and Faith and now Jay-Z and Beyonce.

However now most hiphopers are not 20yr old kids but 35 going 40. And what used to be playa hating in the late 90’s during puffy era is now consider not just old school but really old.

Granted I never really saw a discussion between the old Sugar Hill Gang, Big Daddy Kane, 2 live crew and Eric B and Rakim fans complaining about true hiphop vs fake hiphop. Maybe hiphop as a general form was just way too young to be old school. Listen to some of those oldschool and musically was a bit too basic. Producer technologies were not really up there, so the beats were pretty much alike. Check LL Cool J – I need a Beat and Big Daddy Kane I get the job done for example.

But fast forward 15 years later and the landscape now is way too complex, there is no west coast coming up but crunk music, with monikers such as Lil B, Souljah Boy and co. Now kids are not into gangsta rap, not into hardcore hiphop, but just want to hit the club and get their dance off. Of course I don’t want to make it sound like all hiphop is just a bad copy of Jersey Shore. There is definitly great music being done like Lost Children of Babylon and Immortal Technique. Or even Kanye is much better than all the rest of the hiphop out there, commercially speaking. Great producers like Madvillan, 9th wonder and even hardcore hiphopers like Joel Ortiz and Vinnie Paz. Lots of veterans want to make a comeback and even help the whole scene to come back like Raekwon pull up Capone-N-Noreaga and now trying to do the same with Havoc and Prodigy. But Rae is doing his thing, he even just drop a new video last week.

Well I guess hiphop will keep evolving, and spreading out. Too many emcees too many albums, most are underground and I guess you need to keep moving and at least keep your ear to your prefernce so you can never be old school.

Last time a friend of mine told me I was old school because I listen to the Wu which is odd since Wu keep making music. Just last year several Wu-related albums were dropped. From OB4CL pt II, Shaolin vs Wu-Tang, Wu-Massacre, Apollo Kids, Inspectah Deck, 9th Prince, Hell Razah, The Swarm pt II and Shyheim dropped albums. Not to mention the odd mixtapes like the Magical Chambers and El Michael’s Affair. New albums like Liquid Swords pt 2, Blackout 3, Young Dirty Bastard, and other long awaited albums are still in the making.

However the hardcore style is a bit forgotten or drain into the underground, true headed hiphop also a bit not as relevant as Rawkus record days. So you gotta wonder if this is just things to come, and is all about Nicky Minaj, lil B, Lil wayne, lil P, Wacka Flacka, and more ignorant hiphop coming our way, also labeled as young hiphop. After all the only innovation in Hiphop in the 2000’s era was crunk music and autotune. I just hope it doesn’t up like Thugnificent from the boondocks…. not.

Thungnificent on autotune.

Deck’s style?

Back on Wu-ForEver site they re-pulish an article about the Rebel INS upcoming manifesto, the article actually got me thinking into providing a bit of my take. How does the Wu-Tang prime flower shine so much within the group yet so lost in the solo environment… here is my original answer:

You know when I think of the Rebel INS I expect a battle cat with a very guttery like story telling. Unfortuantely you are completely right, his highlights havent really pass to his solo projects. I mean I think of Inspectah on Cold World, talking about “I thought he was death but instead, he hit a 12 yr old girl in the head and then left”.

Or a big opener like Triumph “I bomb atomically, Socrates philosophies and high prophecies, can’t define it how I’ve been droppin’ this“. Just pure epic hiphop gold.
He is definitely a force of nature in his verse, the talent is there, but the inspiration and ability to create momentum goes kind of sour.
I remember Deck doing great collabo’s like the one with GangstarI leave scientist mentally scarce, triple extra large, sounds like rockstars who smash guitars“. However when I heard uncontrollable substance, revolution, it was just an angle more of talib kweli than an old shaolin soldier.

Mast Killa album in contrast could recreate the magic, the kung-fu flics, the 120 questions, the science and math was basically in place, and even if his albums was slept on, it was a classic in it’s own nature.
I think Deck need to come back to the shaolin soul, prove his own thoughts, and inspire the pain from the slums. Bring Tekitha, that girl build miracles. The project would be much powerful and gutterful and then you have a master works.