In lieu of today’s Breakbeat Tuesday jumpoff, I am heading out into the cold cold cold hard black earth that is Manhattan so a brother can get his head cut. Got to prep for this weekend, where I will be hitting up some shows in Canada (Thursday at Hi Fi in Calgary & Friday at Fortune Sound in Vancouver) and Seattle (Saturday at HG Lodge.) Peep the events page for more details. Anyway, you know how we do – got to stay fresh to death, No Delilah.
However to satisfy my loyal reader’s never ending thirst for useless knowledge and WMDs, and my never ending hunger to keep on talking, a brand new Cosmo’s Crates went up today over at the Fool’s Gold site. Big shout out to Carl Bean.
So looks like my second career as burgeoning bloggeur is taking off! My dear friends over at the legendary Ego Trip Magazine have just launched their amazing new website –www.egotripland.com – firmly planting both feet in the 21st Century! Now understand how humbling that is. Ego Trip is basically the greatest magazine to have ever graced the news stand racks in and around Union Square. No but for real, the magazine was a game changer, and the whole gang (lead by the enigmatic Ted Bawno) really succeeded in creating a type of magazine that was aped and duplicated by so many after the fact. But they all fell short, cause this was the original! I’m not going to even go into how GAME CHANGING – GAME CHANGING SON – the White Rapper Show was…
So anyway, I’m on the roster of mighty-fine bloggers now for the site. Whereas my Fool’s Gold column will be more about music rediscovery, my Ego Trip series will probably be more of a stream of consciousness, dadaist steez that is more akin to shit that pops off on my Twitter feed. I told Chairman Mao yesterday that I will be working out the tone of it all (much like the site will be working things out as well) but, much like this career of mine, I think we’ll just be making shit up as I go along. But I assured him that my first post wouldn’t be about me playing Stevie Nicks and Labelle Youtube clips on repeat and sitting here crying here at my desk… So I wrote a quick nod in reverence to the 25th anniversary of the passing of one of the greatest and baddest motherfuckers to ever grace this planet, the one and only Phil Lynott.
Understand that this is a family thing, but when my good friends over at Fool’s Gold Records asked me to do a reoccurring column for their brand new (and fresh to death) site I couldn’t say no. You all should know I love running my mouth by now… But for real, today is the jumpoff for the new jawn, “Cosmos’s Crates” which is gonna be a weekly thing over there. I’ll be doing the knowledge on joints that you SHOULD know, but may have slipped through the cracks. Probably be a healthy amount of oldies cause, as my homie and Fool’s Gold family member P-Thugg has said to me, “I’m a true funkateer.” Apparently a raconteur as well… But it will definitely be a lot of other cool shit too. Big shout to Nick Catchdini, A-Trak and the rest of my brothers over there.
I wrote this thing like 3 times and then trashed it, just trying to figure out the right way of putting it. I’m not really good at this type of thing – eulogizing people I guess – and it’s also still kinda fresh up in the mix. But Teena Marie left the planet today. She’s one of my most favorite R&B singers of all time. But to actually just refer to her as just an R&B singer really doesn’t do her justice. Through the string of pop hits and chart dominance of her time, it’s often overlooked that she was one of the finest female singer / songwriters of a generation. And I don’t know… I know there’s always a lot of talk about her being a “white girl with a black voice” and, while I know what they’re saying but also in a sense I think that marginalizes things. It wasn’t a “white voice” or a “black voice” it was HER voice. Truly unique, and absolutely brilliant. And her voice rang out for so much more than just music, but also for the rights for artists to do what they do naturally – to create and to be not hindered by label politics. Her internal conflict with her label Motown helped lay the framework for what is called The Brockert Initiative (after her born name, Mary Christine Brockert) which makes it illegal for a record company to keep an artist under contract without releasing new material for that artist, helping not just her deal but many more after the fact. She was a gifted singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. She also was a strong independent woman who made strides in having control and independence over her career at a time when that was tough for any artist, not to mention for a female artist.
I told a friend lately that for 2011, I resolve myself to be able to say more with less. So I think I will start tonight, and instead of speaking about the woman, allow her to speak to all of us through her work. RIP Teena Marie.
Dante’s Hifi – Miami – April 20 
