VIDEO: Jam Master Jay Documentary Trailer

The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) has announced that “Two Turntables and a Microphone,” a music documentary about the life and untimely death of Jam Master Jay with guest appearances by Russell Simmons, Reverend Run, Jay-Z, LL Cool J and 50 Cent, will have its world premiere as the opening night film of the 2008 Hollywood Black Film Festival. The premiere, sponsored by One Village Entertainment, will take place on Tuesday, June 3, 8:00 pm at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, California; the festival runs June 3–8. Trailer below.

Via DS.

NEWS: Rev. Run To Tour With Kid Rock + Album. Ew.

Anger management drop out Kid Rock is taking Run DMC's Rev. Run out on tour for his upcoming tour. And they are they're collaborating on an album as well.

NEWS: J.A.M. Awards Tribute To Jam Master Jay

It killed me to not be able to attend this due to birthday obligations (my own) last night. Mobb Deep, M.O.P., Jim Jones, Papoose, De La Soul, Dead Prez, Everlast, Raekwon, Snoop Dogg and others performed at the J.A.M. Awards, a tribute to the late Jam Master Jay’s vision of Justice, Arts & Music. This sounds it would've hit the old school sweet spot: "EPMD took the stage to perform classics including “You Gots to Chill,” “So Wat Cha Sayin” and “Headbanger.” LL Cool J joined them for a verse, putting his fist in the air for JMJ." (More over at RS)


Related: Inspired by the recent murder of Sean Taylor and other violent crimes recent, P. Rosenberg wrote an interesting, long and worthwhile post about violence, hip hop culture and responsibility here called 'We Must Change This Ourselves'.

CONTEST: DMC @ Joe's Pub, NYC Nov. 15

Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels of the legendary Run DMC will be performing at the beautiful and intimate NYC venue Joe's Pub next week. Wanna go? I'm giving away a pair of tickets. See below.


WHAT TO DO TO WIN: Write me at wes[AT]liberatedmatter[DOT]com (subject line: DMC CONTEST) and tell me what your favorite Run DMC song is. One winner will be randomly picked and sent a pair of tickets.

Thursday, November 15, 11.30PM
Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run DMC
Joe's Pub
425 LaFayette
$15, (buy tix)

Related: Check this interview I did with DMC last year.

NEWS: Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels Performing At Joe's Pub NYC

In a surprising move Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels of the legendary Run DMC will be performing at the beautiful and intimate NYC venue Joe's Pub in November.


Thursday, November 15, 11.30PM
Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run DMC
Joe's Pub
425 LaFayette
$15, (buy tix)

A New Day

As I was welcomed to Spring 2007 these past few days I considered if Global Warming was all that bad. I haven't seen an Inconvenient Truth yet, but I'm going to guess they do not attempt to put a positive spin to the whole thing. For example, ever since visiting the Bay Area there I've been thinking: "Wow the Bay Area climate is hella nice. I wish I lived somewhere with eternal springtime." But New York must consistently aggravate me with it's sickening climate. BUT if Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed! Global Warming has brought me Brooklyn blossoming in January and I walked around in a t-shirt! Craziness.

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to put together some questions for DMC of the legendary Run DMC. As a Hip Hop fan I was thrilled and honored. Read an excerpt below and the full interview can be found here.

BV: Do you follow today's hip hop closely? Who are some of the newer artists you're checking for?

DMC: Not at all really. It's not interesting. Well, I'm not going to say it's not interesting. It's very interesting and creative. The problem with it - it's all monotonous. It's the same thing for the last seven years. LL (cool J) said hip hop today is like one long record and one long video. A lot of it is funny and creative – but it is not relative to the life I live. To be in hip hop [today] you gotta have your hip hop manual: I gotta have my posse – check. I gotta have my bitches and hoes – check. I gotta have my bling…NO!!! You don't need any of that. Hip hop is about what is here [points to heart]. For me hip hop is NWA, Run DMC, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Eric B and Rakim. If you look at hip hop right now just from the concepts and images!?!?! It's frightening. Because it makes people think that is what hip hop is about. - Read the full interview here

Oh and by the way, you may have noticed the new look? Yes, I'm very pleased with it. My very first time ever building a CSS section plus blogger template from scratch! The background comes from the photo above, which I took at a Sufjan Stevens concert, you may know him from the inside of Ms K's locker.

Download
Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice on You [live] (MP3) via TimeDoor