The homegirl Melina Jones is performing live at Girlfest, 2:45 PM sharp! As far as I know its free. Check out Girlfest Bay Area for all the details.

As you might now from before…Melina Jones is amazingly talented and not to be missed. And btw there’s probably a lot of ladies at Girlfest. Might be some incentive.

Underground hyphy meets underground hip hop’s Nate Dogg. This works.

2 completely separate topics. I’ll get the short one out of the way first.

The new album on Shaman Work Recordings, Wise Intelligent’s “The Talented Timothy Taylor,” is amazing. That + Pharoahe Monch’s album “Desire” have finally affirmed to me that hip hop indeed is alive and well. Please cop this for your own sake. Download the free track, “I’m Him” here. So sick. Just came out today.

Download “I’m Him” (mp3)
from “The Talented Timothy Taylor”
by Wise Intelligent
Shaman Work

More On This Album

Los Angeles Odyssey

But anyways, I’ve been in LA for the past month now, and I got another month down here. I’ve heard many times that myspace is basically LA on the internet. And I would say that LA is just myspace in real life. I’ve met a number of people here, and the basic contact info you get is a myspace page. That’s it. This may not be news to most of you. But see, until today I didn’t have a myspace page. Now it’s myspace.com/animalhiphop. Hooray. But I did it for you, LA.

A side note - contrary to popular belief, people here are friendly, easygoing types, at least where I’ve gone. Which has made it a whole lot easier to meet people and figure out things to do.

Hip Hop In LA

I’ve been out to a few hip hop shows so far. Let me say this. Count Bass D killed it. And his baby is cute and chubby and so tiny and he stayed up and watched the whole show. I think he might just be a musician. Just a hunch.

Egyptian Lover…LA’s finest. He did an exclusivo set at Turntable Lab, pretty rad. Couldn’t stop dancing. Despite his lyrics, I doubt if he ever was a ladies man, but he was a revolutionary with a drum machine. Kind of like an Afrika Bambaataa on the West Coast. Obviously not as essential to hip hop as Bambaataa but for doing what he was doing back in ‘78, you gotta give him props. And his quote, “I make my music and put it on wax for DJ’s to spin at the club, not for no fuckin ipods!” was absolutely needed. Thank you. And thank you for getting 12″s pressed for all your singles.

Scarub of the living legends was pretty good, but it’s Scarub of the living legends. The reason he has to say “of the living legends” is obviously because the living legends are the reason people come out. Scarub is a nice MC, and I would say it’s between him and Murs as to who’s better. Murs obviously is a better storyteller, but I like Scarub’s delivery a little more. But regardless, the crowd, expecting Living Legends and not just “Scarub of,” wasn’t happy. Oh well.

One of the openers, Sol Powa, wasn’t bad…he could use some polishing but has some potential. Check out his page, myspace.com/solpowa and judge for yourself.

Hit up a random electronic/hip hop show at an art gallery/skate store not too far from Venice Beach. It was basically an MPC/Sampler/Drum Machine extravaganza with Daedelus and Books On Tape. Never been to a show like that, but wasn’t bad, Books on Tape is this nerdy little dude who has an MPC with 8 guitar pedals, etc., and he keeps pressing buttons and pedals to make some pretty good club music.

Alright, this post has gotten longer and longer…but anyways, get at me if there’s some bizness to be done. I’ll cover my boy Infinito 2017 in another post…