KRS-One Over Violins

KRS is one of my favorite MC's of all-time. This bit from the Smirnoff show (see directly below) proves he still has what makes him one of the greatest ever. So clever and creative, fresh for '08! Thanks to Rob Stone and Cornerstone for this Rosenblog exclusive.

Smirnoff Signature Mix Series Show

Tuesday night in NY, the good peoples at Cornerstone put together the Smirnoff Signature Mix Series show at Element. The performers were Q-Tip, Common and KRS-One. The concept was that each artist would perform their "Signature Mix" of one of their classic songs. Q-Tip's was a remix of "Midnight" by Cool and Dre, Common's was a remix of "The Light" by Just Blaze, and KRS-One's is "Criminal Minded '08" by DJ Premier. I don't personally think any of those songs need remixing, but it was a fun party and the new collaborations are more like new songs anyway, because the beats and rhymes are totally different from the originals.
Check out the video of the performances below... the new songs can be downloaded here.

Equally as important, I got to meet and take some pictures with a couple of my old school heroes Positive K and Melle Mel.

AM's Sneaker Problem

Check out DJ AM with all of his sneakers trying to eat him alive. As you can see, AM is partial to Dunks. A lot of Dunks. Hey, AM, at least now that you have all of your music digitized you don't have to have a room full of vinyl records AND a separate room for your sneakers. Yay.

Jazzy Jeff & AM @ Prime

This should be a good one! A 4 turntable routine will be quite incredible.

Rude Jude in Las Vegas

For those that don't know, Rude Jude is the co-host of Sirius Satellite Radio's Shade45's afternoon drive-time "The All-Out Show" (M-F 4-8PM EST). Last week, Jude came out to the MAGIC Convention in Las Vegas to get some interviews for the show. Along the way, Jude met the above roller-skater-lady who apparently is a singer. Also while in Vegas, Jude and I took a trip to the Hooters Hotel & Casino, and went to... Hooters while we were there. Yes, there is a Hooters restaurant inside the Hooters Casino. Jude told everyone it was his birthday, and he danced.

We took Jude to go see George Carlin at the Orleans Casino, because, like Jude, Carlin is very angry and self-destructive. There was a man standing in line at the casino that kind-of looked like George, so I prompted Jude to ask for a picture. Jude did, and him and the older gentleman exchanged words. Because, as the man said, "who would want to take a f$%#&in' picture with YOU?"
Jude also decided that he was going to bring his backgammon board with him. Everywhere.

So he wound up at the Spearmint Rhino with his calf-skin covered portable travel backgammon case at 2 in the morning. I can't wait until our next trip to Vegas with Jude.

Shady Devil

Last summer, the design team at Shady Ltd. (whom I've dubbed The Dark Minds) came up with the idea for the Shady Devil character. We first used him on the back cover of the Re-Up because Em liked it so much.
So the illustrator, Kelvis, is so talented that he decided to make a 3-D scale vinyl model of the character, by hand. Kelvis went on to create 25 numbered, hand-painted figures of the critter. And I just got mine!
Look at the amazing, hand-painted detail. This thing is truly great. It stands about 10" tall. Good for Kelvis. Great for Shady Ltd.!

Shady Ltd. @ MAGIC Convention

For your viewing pleasure, below is the amateur home video (shot by me) of Shady Records' own Dro giving us a tour of the Shady Ltd. booth at the MAGIC Convention in Las Vegas last week. I tried to do something more interesting than just post a bunch of pictures. The show was really great for us, as we had the added attraction of Shade45's own Cipha Sounds, Angela Yee and Rude Jude doing interviews from the booth's upper deck. Thanks to Mistah F.A.B., Kidz in the Hall, Jay-Z, Bun-B, Paul Wall, Three 6 Mafia, Uncle Luke, and Young Buck for stopping by and supporting (among others... those are the guys that were there when I was).

Em & Proof Freestyles (#100)

For my 100th Rosenblog post, I present this video clip. It was shot during the MTV News Kurt Loder interview of Eminem in front of the house that he grew up in on Dresden in Detroit. This was probably shot in February or March of '99. I don't recall exactly but I think peices of this were used on-air in the news special, but not the whole thing uncut like this. Pretty fun stuff... Big Proof Forever.

Air Max 95 - NikeID

Nike has had their ID online custom store open for years now, and they have offered the ability to create custom AirMax 95's for like 2 years. To be clear, the 95 is my favorite sneaker ever, hands-down. But before, the actual "customization" was kind of limited. Specifically, you weren’t able to change the "panels" or color layers; they were locked into a pre-existing template that you could just mix and match with different soles, eyelets, tongue colors, laces, etc. But recently, this changed. Being an AirMax 95 fiend, I went a little crazy and ordered more (like I need them) with these new custom options. So fun. So little room left for sneakers.

Travis Barker & ?uestlove Jam Session

For the 5th year running, The Roots held their all-star jam session the night before the Grammy's at LA's Key Club on Sunset. I'm not going to tell you exactly what went on because I wasn't there, unfortunately. But I was fortunate enough to get this clip of Travis and ?uestlove having a sickening drum-exchange.

Metro Times/J. Dilla Article '96

I keep a lot of random artifacts, and recently I came across this article from Detroit's Metro Times weekly free newspaper from October of '96. I'm posting this now to recognize the birthday and memorial of James Yancey a/k/a Jaydee a/k/a J. Dilla, who most of you know passed away a couple of years ago (2/74-2/06). Interesting analyses of the Detroit hip-hop scene at the time... No mention of Eminem which is funny.
Historical trivia fact about J. is that he was originally known as John Doe, but abandoned the name when he realized it was taken- only to switch up to Jaydee (his middle name being Dewitt) and have that coincidentally adopted by Jermain Dupri. The game misses you, Jay.

The Patriot Bar

I'm sure I must have noticed this bar before which is located on Chambers Street near Church Street in Tribeca, it's just a block or so away from the heart of where the New York Giants' victory parade took place this past Tuesday. As I walked by on my way to vote in the primaries, I noticed the irony- on the day that this little bar was at it's most ironic it ever will be.
Sorry it's sideways, I'm not that nice at this html stuff.
Notice the "We Won" scribbled on the external blackboard and the Giants' fans standing out front like they just took over someone's castle. I guess they kind of did.

Bored With Being Rich?

These dudes have wayyy too much money. Check this article out on people in the United Arab Emirates spending ridiculous sums of money on lower numbered license plates.

Dog Day- 18 & NO!

I'm not going to spend this entire entry blasting the Patriots. Its unnecessary, the scoreboard said it all. At the end of the day, not perfect. Nope. Perfection is so rare that it eluded even the seemingly "best team ever".
Next season, the season after that, and the season following when people start talking about "they could go all the way undefeated" or "this could be a perfect season", just reach over and smack them. People are too quick to get excited about this possibility. Teams have bad games and get beat. Especially over a longer series of games. Who knows if the '72 Dolphins would have won 19 games straight? I'm not trying to take anything away from them, but come on. 17 is much different than 19. Just ask Bill. I'm just sayin'...
Now on to those Giants. What can you say? At the end of the day it boiled down to fundementals. Rush the passer, make sacks. Play physical and aggressive. Don't make stupid mistakes. And don't give up. EVER. That last Eli touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress (Go Green! Go White!) was so simple and basic. Quick slant to the corner of the end zone. Beat the coverage. Throw the football. BAM! Success. The Giants weren't flashy, weren't pulling trick plays, they were just performing.
And what more could we ask of Eli Manning? This Superbowl was his Bar Mitzvah. Eli became a man last night, and a true champion. Who would have ever thought? Don't give up. Ever. My wife even made Bridget Moynahan masks which we hung around the living room. They worked. Like magical football scarecrows or totem poles or something.
I remember back in week 8 of this past season when the Patriots played the Skins, and won 52-7. In the 4th quarter, with only like 7 or 8 minutes left, winning by like 40 points, on 4th down- New England went for a touchdown instead of taking the field goal. Against good old Joe Gibbs. Rubbing it in his face. This wasn't the first or last time during the regular season they poured it on like that. I didn't like it, I felt that it was nasty and disrespectful. Karma is a bitch. And sometimes, she's exactly what we need.

Travis Barker & DJ AM Superbowl Intro

In case you missed it, our clients Travis Barker and DJ AM did justice to the NFL theme on Fox. Check it out below.

Super Chicken Heat

ABC's Nightline had a peice about the hottest chicken wings on the planet tonight at a place in Chicago called Jack Melnick's Corner Tap. I am not the kind of person that likes their wings so hot that it becomes uncomfortable... I just don't see the point. I do like them very hot, but these just sound silly. They use a pepper called the Red Savina, which is supposedly 65 times hotter than a jalapeno pepper.
Big coincidence, because there was another article I saw today about Hooter's chain, which claims that they sell a million wings on Superbowl Sunday in the Chicago and Tampa areas alon, compared to the 650,000 these restaurants sell on a normal week.
It seems that even the real media gets excited about eating chicken wings and writes about it prior to Super Sunday. Just like Paul Rosenblog.