BET Cyphers pt.1 Nikki Minaj, Buckshot, Crown Royyal & Joe Budden pt..2 Mos Def, Black Thought & Eminem

Primo provides the platform. Emcees let loose.

Pt.One




Pt.Two

This Week's Anthem: The Roots- "How I Got Over"

Those Illadel cats are back at it, with "How I Got Over" (name of album and single) set to release in February next year. The track is mad nice and Black's singing ain't even wack, though you get the feeling he's avoiding every high note. Dope video too.

Who won?

Gave this a sonic glance..but my money's on Em.

This Week's Anthem (retrospective edition): Loop Troop

This was intended to be the week's anthem before I got on the plane... but fuck it. Its good to be home!!!!

This Week's Anthem: The Jackson 5 "2,4,6,8"

"2,4,6,8 who do you appreciate?"

R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

Thank you for the music, and thank you for the memories. You will never be forgotten.

Kananji Recommends: "World Be Free" by Muamin Collective

The Cleveland Ohio duo (Zion & aLive) Muamin Collective, bring some freshness to a sweltering summer in desperate need of some AC Slater chill-out reedonkulusness with World Be Free. "Enjoy yo'selves bitches!"

This Week's Anthem: Nas "Star Wars"

Off the much ignored, 2004, Illmatic 10th anniversary edition (allow for nostalgic sigh)...this track should remind you of why Nas is one of the great ones. oh! and Large Professor is on the beat , the Darth Vader theme is straight ig'nant!

This Week's Anthem: Blu & Exile "So(ul) Amazin'"

Blu & Exile gets bizay! "The fattest Biggie with no Pun intended"....forget about it!

This Week's Anthem: People Under The Stairs- "San Fransisco Knights"

Keelay & Zaire - "Alright With Me" feat. Dminor & Phonte

Summer's around the bend and with it comes a tirade of R'n'B songs vying for your ass on the dance floor; in certain places money may actually be thrown at you to achieve this. Here's one that's actually good though, Keelay and Zaire provide the mellow funkadelics and Dminor and Phonte follow along nicely. Dminor sort of reminds me of a more rotund Jon B. Come to think of it didn't Jon B have a song called "alright with....". Oh shit!

Mos Def: "Casa Bey"

Another track off the upcoming The Ecstatic, Mr. Flaco Bey goes on some freewheeling lyricism, accompanied by a DJ Preservation cut and sample of Brazilian band Banda Black Rio's track "Casa Forte". June 9th can't come soon enough!!

"This is like deja vu all over again" - Yogi Berra

Supernews!: Terrorism is 1776 (see more of this at current.tv/supernews )

The Cool Kids x Don Cannon: Gone Fishing (Mixtape)

Chuck English & Mikey (Rocks) come back from the "Bake Sale" LP with Gone Fishing. Expect all the ingredients necessary for a Cool Kids product i.e Corpse-resurrecting bass x slap-happy snares x sneaker and bicycle references galore x stupefying word association = all around dopeness.

1min. 40sec of unadulterated funky freshness.

My entry for the "No.1 Stan" contest that was being ran over at Vibe mag... turns out I'm not eligible to enter, but wouldn't want it to go to waste. Thanks to C for putting me onto the competition...and to Bliss and his ginormous screen, which made reading the verse easier (that's what I'm looking at throughout). Check it out and let me know...oh and I've been having this debate with myself for a while...the "Nuttin' sweet like a candy gram scam" line, has it been used before? Because it felt familiar when I wrote it.

"Myspace jump-off. Boing!" - Grafh

The Myspace page is up...finally. Thanks to Lion for doing it up. Check it out at www.myspace.com/kananji

Deeez Nutz!!

David Shuster's gratuitous use of double entendres in this segment about the Republican anti-tax tea parties leads me to think that everybody at the left wing MSNBC was in on the joke. How Shuster pulls it off with a straight face though blows me away (pause). Just watch...

Zion I: "Geek To The Beat"

Oakland outfit Zion I (MC Zumbi and Producer AmpLive) manage to make an otherwise mediocre song seem really good with a dope video - I'm suprised diddy (circa late 90s/early 2000s) didn't patent the technique. I don't know who's at the directorial helm but kudos are due. Kudos also to AmpLive for the fikky-fikky fresh percs.

"You like fish sticks...you're a gay fish"

Possibly the best use of auto tune ever.

JESUS H. CHRIST, THIS IS SWANKY!!!

Just click here.

Dumela Bitches!!

HBO's new series "No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency" (which airs on Sunday 30th) has been getting a lot of hype as of late. From the cast - Jill Scott plays the lead role of Precious Ramotswe, a long side Anika Noni Rose ("Dreamgirls"), Colin Salmon (Brosnan-era James Bond, "The Bank Job"), Lucian Msamati, Desmond Dube - to the setting (Botswana).

Based on the book series of the same name by Alexander McCall Smith, the series follows the day to day sluething shinannigans of Precious in the city of Gaborone. If the excitement about this show is anything to go by it promises to be another HBO banger. Take a look see...

G.L.C. ft. Kanye West: "The Big Screen"

Kanye sifts through his library of beats (is "library" what you call a collection of instrumentals?) for this one. I can't help but feel that G.L.C got short changed. Oh yeah and as my Japanese hombres T-Shirt often reminds me " Friends do not let friends grow mullets"...so I guess G.L.C. gets the last laugh.

Rising Son Recommends:

Passed by this article on TheDailybeast.com (a site I would recommend for anyone who wants to seem smarter than they actually are*). Anyways back to the skinny, the article entitled "Is Angelina Bad for Africa" Zambian economist, Dambisa Moyo, talks about the effects of aid in Africa and takes swipes at Angelina Jolie, Bono (I know!) and even her old professor; renowned economist Jeffery Sachs in the process. Quantum leap on the links.

* Check out Supernews! to appear seemlessly witty and well informed all at the same time.

"Wild thing, I think I love ya"

This is the trailer for the cinematic adaption of Maurice Sendak's classic kiddy-winx book "Where the Wild Things Are". With Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation") behind the camera apparatus it promises to be epic. As epic as the book? I'll let you decide, but by the looks of the trailer it should at least be visually swanky.

Konichiwa Bitches!

Lupe's new outfit Japanese Cartoon bring some politically aware cartoon punk for ya ear...oh and word through the grapevine is the L.U.P.End project has been abandoned and he's working on some disgruntled high school outcast themed LP called "Lasers", so keep an eye out. But in the mean time in between time...

Japanese Cartoon: Crowd Participation

The Ballet Is Back!

In celebration of Spandau Ballet's reunion (quantum leap for full story) here's a couple of songs you may recognize and their respective swagga jackaz.

*Quick side note before we being..as reference to those unfortunate enough to be born in the 90s: think Maroon 5's "It Won't Be Soon Before Long"...except good and sung by people with penises.

"True"...best song of the 80s?



P.M. Dawn take a respectable crack at it and get kudos for the Tony Hadley feature component on "Set Adrift on a Memory Bliss"...



Nelly...well..um..yeah...evidently even Chris Robinson fell asleep.



"To Cut A Long Story Short"...feel the power of Spandau bitches!



Freestylers give Spandau a breakbeat-ing and they come out relatively unscathed...



"Chant No.1 ( I Don't Need This Pressure)". You ain't know Spandau Ballet could kick a rhyme or few did ya?...on some Blondie "Rapture" type steez.



Yeeeeahh Boy!...2 Live Crew jump on the band wagon (amongst other things) on the Dick's Delight Mix of "We Want Some Pussy".

Put up or shut up. ("bo! bo!bo!")

I could start this off with excuses as to why the mix tape ain't down pat yet...but I don't do excuses on G.P. So here's a track from the "Meanwhile in Malawi" mix tape, the track is called Hip Hop 101. It's the un-mastered version so it's still sketchy in parts. Hope you dig it.