The Audacity of Dope

For time. Complete all reps of each exercise before moving to the next.

100 pull ups
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 air squats

Blew my PR out the water by 45 seconds and finished in 18:01.  “Yep yep” – Teddy.  In related crossfit news, I’m thoroughly obsessed with handstand push ups.  Shout to Foundation.

Hahahaha sonned. I love when the hypocrisy of these morons is pointed out so clearly. In their defense, “they are lying sacks of sh*t.”  Well said John.

I always love hearing behind the scenes stories about songs, especially when they involve my favorite living MC (RIP Big L), Elzhi. MichiganHipHop.com linked up with El and had him recount some of his classic material, including “Come and Get It,” “Reunion,” “Boomerang Slang,” “Scattered Pictures,” “Hiding Place,” “Motown 25,” “Guessing Game,” “Love It Here,” and “Colors.”

If you haven’t already, cop The Preface!  Seattle people: remember that El and Black Milk will be coming to town next week for the Redbull Big Tune.  I’ll post up the schedule of events in a few days for y’all…

As always, Jay Smooth is so on point. Between all of the fire and brimstone spewed by Palin, Romney, and Rudy and the 9-11’s, there was one overriding theme: these people have no ideas of their own and have nothing left other than attacking Barack. Besides the fact that we’re all tired of these divisive tactics, last night, Palin crossed the line by disrespecting and belittling community organizers. This is the year when the voters, especially all the new blood registered by the Obama campaign, will step up and change American politics. Goodbye Rove and company. Your days are numbered.

Plain and simple, the Republicans took to the stage last night and lied through their teeth to the American people. It’s pretty shocking and despicable when the Associated Press (a news service based on reporting facts, not opinion) has to take you to task for some of your inaccuracies. Here are just a few of the examples:

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention

By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 3, 11:48 PM ET

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: “I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.”

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a “bridge to nowhere.”

PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate.”

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: “The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply … She’s responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. I’m entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain’s phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she’s no more “responsible” for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: “She’s the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under “federal status,” which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska’s national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: “We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.”

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

Source.

Keep this in mind when McCain hobbles on stage tonight and spews some more falsehoods.

Hahaha, I just clicked play on the newest edition of GGR and it’s already gold.  Phonte’s opening joint is his tribute to Aaron Hall and Keith Sweat, and it only gets better from that point on:

This week Phonte discusses how John McCain has officially ethered himself, the failure of the American education system, and uncovers a lost duet between Keith Sweat and Aaron Hall.

1. Phonte “I Wanna Do Ya Baby”
2. D.R. “Hands Down”
3. Q-Tip “Gettin Up”
4. Jesse Boykins III “Tabloids” (Machinedrum Remix)
5. Dwele “Feels So Good”
6. Spon “Tango Flo” (feat. P.K. The Gift)
7. The Randy Watson Experience “Electric Circus”
8. The Randy Watson Experience “Paisley Rain & Purple Pancakes (i.e. Nigga I Ate Shrimp In Studio B)”
9. The Herbaliser “It’s Just For You”
10. RJD2 “Caged Bird”
11. James Pants “Good Things”
12. Pete Rock “That’s What I’m Talking About”
13. Mary J. Blige “You Bring Me Joy”
14. Slum Village “Fall In Love”
15. Robert Strauss “Rhythm Of Life” (feat. Ritchie Henessey & Chris Rouse) (Yoruba Soul Mix)
16. Capitol A “Serve It Up” (Starship Remix)
17. Zo! “Inertia” (feat. Tiffany Paige)
18. Domu presents Pete Simpson “Play This Song”
19. DJ Vadim “Theme from Conquest of the Irrational” (The Prunes Remix)
20. S1 “Be Sure”
21. FS Green “Chancletas”
22. Fat Jon “Tell Me”
23. Samon Kawamura “How Long?”
24. Eric Rico “Today”

Download here.

My thoughts:

• Illmind killed that beat.
• Sean and Rock murdered their verses, especially P.
• Rock’s “…and I like Macy Gray” line reminds me of one of my pet peeves: if you use someone for a punchline, don’t apologize right afterward.  Especially if it’s someone like Macy Gray.  I think Royce did the same thing with an Omarion line a while back.  You’re a dope, grimy rapper…why are you copping out of dissing somebody like Macy Gray or Omarion?  wtfffff.
• Why’d the Charlie Manson character look like a cross between Carrot Top and “The Interrupter” off Conan O’Brien’s show?
• Look out for D.I.R.T. dropping September 30th!

Heltah Skeltah – “Everything Is Heltah Skeltah”

Swiped from OnSmash.

And WLotD has reached a new low:

“Etcetera, I told ya, I get paid by the letter/
Like: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z”
–Lil’ Wayne, “Ransom”

This is off the new Drake track that hit the net today.  It boggles my mind how much gibberish Wayne spits and how so many people are quick to jock him.  You have to hear how wack this is:

Drake ft. Lil’ Wayne – “Ransom”

For those outside of Seattle who haven’t heard of my dude J. Pinder yet, y’all need to get ready.  We have a lot of talent up here in the 206 and Pin is definitely the next to blow up on a national level.  While he readies his debut album, he already released a great mixtape with Vitamin D last year entitled Backpack Wax.  I’m not really sure why the behind the scenes documentary of this project is coming out now, but hey, better late than never.  These clips should serve as a nice introduction as they follow Pinder through the creative process for the mixtape and feature testimonials from some of the most respected (and my favorite) people in the scene.  Be sure to keep your eye out for more Pinder related goodness over at his new blog, the Daily Pintern.  He’ll also be appearing on Jake One’s upcoming White Van Music, as Jake mentions below.

206up.

LOL @ the required shot of “hot girl washing low rider, ends up watering herself instead.”  If that doesn’t scream west coast video, I don’t know what does.  Also, I have to ask, what’s up with the random dude doing flips?

Anyway, I’m not mad at it at all.  This is exactly the kind of “commercial” type joint that S.A.S. should make…something dope, catchy, and authentic to their sound.  I love it.  Here’s the track if you don’t already have this 2008 summer anthem:

Strong Arm Steady ft. Blaqtoven – “Can’t Let Go”

Blaqtoven killed the beat and hook, especially the way it rides out.