Thieves in the Night

This one's for my man Lloyd the Barber ...

Black Star. Making me choose between it and Reflection Eternal is akin to making me choose between Mats Sundin and Dougie Gilmour, or Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. There is no right or wrong answer.

The following is from Wikipedia:

The title [Black Star] is a reference to a shipping line founded by Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey ...

The centrepiece of the album, "Thieves in the Night," was inspired by author Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye. In the album's liner notes, Kweli explains that the paragraph "struck me as one of the truest critiques of our society, and I read that in high school when I was 15 years old. I think it is especially true in the world of hip hop, because we get blinded by these illusions." The excerpt interpolated in the song is as follows:

And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good but well-behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life.

And the version on the track:

"Not strong, only aggressive/Not free, we only licensed/Not compassionate, only polite (now who the nicest?)/Not good but well behaved/Chasin' after death so we can call ourselves brave, still livin' like mental slaves/Hiding like thieves in the night from life/Illusions of oasis making you look twice.

Amazing, eh?

There's more. Check out the following. Mos Def and live jazz music is an incredible combination ...

Mos and Kweli released Black Star back in 1998. Should the two of them return to the studio to make another album together, it would be like your favourite team winning a championship, 11 years after their first title. Needless to say, it would be a beautiful thing.

The Blast

This blog needs some music.

Every now and again, I'm going to drop some tunes around here via my good friend, YouTube. Music that I'm feeling. And some Toronto-specific content, of course. Why not, right? 

First are foremost, one of the tracks that made me fall in love with hip hop, real hip hop, "The Blast" by Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek, off the most incredible "Reflection Eternal."

I would argue until my final hours that "Reflection" is one of the greatest hip hop albums. Ever. 

Enjoy:

"Even when we suffer losses, I count the victory." Amen, Kweli. I think that's something all of us Toronto sports fans can relate to. 

Trust me, go out and pick up a copy of "Reflection Eternal." Don't download it. Buy it. It's worth every penny.

So when life be stressing me...

my remedy is "bringing back sweet memories."

I love Joe Bowen. It's absolutely ridiculous to think that he made those calls almost ten years ago.

I miss the playoffs.