Jumping in Headfirst

Going old school rock with this one. Back when they used to name themselves after states and cities and whatnot. I love this song. Blame Scrubs. Forgive the corny lyrics in the video...or not, and sing along if that's your thing.

Okay, so I'm not a huge Hall and Oates fan. ...Not really. I copped the best of way way back though and I'm a huge fan of THAT. 20 tracks and almost all of them are amazing stuff. Here's one of my favorites. She's Gone. Does this have something to do with my current state? ...Not really. Hope you love it, though admittedly the album is cooler, where I guess they played with Hall's voice so its extra-deep--works very well.

And so we're up with the song of the day, again. Jeez, its like these things are...daily or something. :D Anyway, another group I'm a huge fan of, is Little Brother. They really are pretty much everything I'm looking for in a rap group. They've got the lyrical cleverness, the beats that make my head nod--like they say so often in their songs. "Dope beats, dope rhymes, nigga that's hip-hop." Just..'cause I can't help it...I want to give you guys a Wiki link to Stop the Violence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_the_Violence). Read the link first--once you listen to the song, you'll see why I wanted you to. Anyway, keepin' it short, onto the show folks.

Another rock song. Go figure. You might think I was...a fan or something. That's the funny thing about Japan. When THEY do a song for a cartoon, or a television show? Its actually good. Imagine that. Rock out.

Video of the Day was some classic hip-hop, so I figured the song of the day should be a sharp contrast. Imagine that. Rock music. And here I was told that, I didn't like rock music. Ain't that about a bitch. Me and my two best friends are the only black people in town who listen to rock as much as rap (also one of the few people who enjoyed J-Rock, at that), but apparently, I don't like it. Man...screw it. Just...listen to the song. Jihei Tansaku actually probably wasn't a big favorite of mine when I first heard it, but a couple months ago I had my mp3 player on random and this song came up and something about the intro got me really hyped and made me love it. But, shutting up now. Listen to the song folks.

Okay, trying to get away from the MJ stuff now, so we're going to move away from the King of Pop, and move to a person some might call the King of Hip-Hop. Working on being slightly more succinct, in my posts, so no long stories or whatever. Its good music. Speaks for itself. Enjoy.

So yesterday I did some of MJ's hits as a solo act. But you know he was inspiring people through his music in a group act with the Jackson 5 for years prior to that. Kids these days probably don't know that, but I can almost guarantee you they've sung a Jackson 5 song at some point in their lives. And while I've never had that many Jackson 5 songs myself, I DO have some favorites. Hit the jump. Never Can Say Goodbye. A definite classic. Admittedly, I'd never heard it before I copped the Man in the Mirror mixtape, but here's one we've all heard, no doubt. (This one's a live.) The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back". Gotta love it. Lastly, there's this one, which I really wanted to do after I heard little MJ do the chorus on Rhymefest's song. As good as Bill Withers' version. ....Now I gotta toss THAT in. Know where your stuff comes from, folks. I ain't like all these people who've never wrote a song in their life but...

Yeah, I'm doing another day of MJ tributes. What's it say at the top? Jumping in Headfirst? Right, that's my site, so we do what I wanna do. Plus, I intended to give you guys these anyway, just not at first. The first of these is a cover of the Michael Jackson song, Smooth Criminal. I hate to say it, but I first heard this song watching American Pie 2 when I was 14 and liked it so much I had to get someone to burn me a CD with it. Still--whatever. I like it, hope you do too. Admittedly, while the video is amusing, its nowhere near as cool as some of MJ's. That said? The kid breakdancing? Hilarious. Heh, if you didn't like THAT one, I know you won't like this next one. I HATE doing this, but apparently a gang of jack-asses on YT got rid of all the fan-uploaded versions of this, so I'll have to link you to it. I hate doing that. One, because I like the traffic. Two? You can catch stupid reading their comments. Fall Out Boy's cover of Beat ...

Was going to hook you guys up with Masami Okui's Key today for my Song, but as said before, I found out about Michael Jackson's death, and that made me change my game up. So instead, today I'll be giving you guys some tribute songs by one of my favorite rappers, Rhymefest, who devoted an entire mixtape to Mike last year called Man in the Mirror. Enjoy your music folks. Let's kick things off with Rhymefest's title track, Man in the Mirror...kind of "new-school" MJ, but its a great, great song. Couldn't find this one on YT, but still. Rhymefest's Breakadawn is classic. You can hear the respect both rappers have for MJ in it through the references and their view of how he affected their lives and how he lived his. And lastly...my absolute favorite of Rhymefest's MJ tribute songs...No Sunshine. A very young Michael Jackson (who I'd never heard before this, and it blew me away) fucking RIPS Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine in the ch...

Initially, I'd planned to give you guys another dose of Do As Infinity, but then, I heard some news that made me put the breaks on that. Michael Jackson, one of the greatest music stars of all time, has passed. And I know the bar ain't that high here anymore, but, for once, I'm gonna put the jokes away. We're not going to talk about whatever "problems" the man had. We're not going to act like they didn't exist--its just...for once we're going to put that away and remember the best of The King of Pop. Three videos this time. Billie Jean was always one of my favorite MJ songs. Like Jamie Foxx said--it was very pop, but at the same time it was one of the most "street" songs ever released, when you listened to the lyrics. (He was doing the "that's NOT my baby's momma" shit WAY before these so called "hood niggas" with this shit.) Next up... Thriller is one of the greatest songs, and greatest videos of all time...

And, here we are with the start of the OTHER new column at JiH. Basically, I'm a huge music buff. If I can vibe to it, I want it. But that means a lot of the songs I like just won't have videos, plus there's way too many to just do one a day, so I'm doubling up. This column will be for the songs that don't actually have a music video since, for whatever reason, they weren't granted "single" status. So, give the jump a quick click and see what Santa Sage has for you today. I've said this in a column elsewhere, but I'm absolutely in love with Masami Okui and her voluminous body of fantastic work. She's a superb artist who doesn't get enough credit for being so awesome, and one of my favorite albums of hers is her sixth, entitled Neei. For whatever reason, the J-Pop Queen had slowly been moving away from her pop roots with every album after her first, with Neei being almost pure rock. My absolute favorite of the songs on this al...

Sage: Aight, you got the video ready? Bunny DJ*: Nope. Sage: What do you mean "nope"? Bunny DJ: We couldn't find it. Its not out there. Sage: ...Its Do As Infinity. They're one of the biggest bands in J-Pop, and this is one of their very first videos. Its gotta be out there! Bunny DJ: If it is, we won't be getting to it soon. Plus, didn't they break up? Sage: Yeah, but they were huge! Bunny DJ: But they broke up like, three years ago. You know how humans are. All about what's "now". Sage: ...Dammit. You're right. *sighs, gives her a carrot* Thanks. Bunny DJ: *takes it, munches* Thanks. We did get a live though. Man, I don't know what to say. But you see we ain't shit around here. Today was SUPPOSED to be the start of a new series of columns on JiH: Video of the Day. Where I get a music video of a song I really like and upload it here. But that ain't work out, since on my first choice embedding the video was...

Apologies for this being late. Intended to have this out Wednesday. Anyhow, this is the leftover stuff from E3 that I didn't get around to talking about before. Anyway, a special edition of TheLinkUp coming. After that though, is a post about comics, I should warn. (Oh noes! ANOTHER comic post?! I must be "obsessed".) Def Jam Rapstar *: Okay, I admit it, I'm a fan of rap music. For some reason that's a crime or something, but whatever. I mean, don't get me wrong. I know that, *cough*, certain people wouldn't believe it, but I LOVE rock music. So games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are right up my alley. But at the same time, every now and again, I just wanna show people that, "Nigga, I know more rap songs than you." (This isn't exclusive to rap though. Sometimes I wanna show off my mad knowledge of J-Rock songs. When I tell you I can put a hurting on a Asian Kung-Fu Generation joint...) And apparently, Def Jam Rapstar...

So its the last day of E3 and I'm pretty sure its all but over, but I'm hoping there are at least a few surprises. As always I'm only talking about the games I actually give a crap about, or if nothing else I find noteworthy. So don't expect a super long list. And here is the rest of it. - The new DJ Hero game looks kinda sweet, I have to admit it. I actually saw this on Day One, but I felt it was worth mentioning. CRAZY difficult, and I can already see the backlash of the "heads" who think you should go spend months of your life to actually learn turntabling. Which isn't a TOTALLY bad idea, but the thing is I'd never do more with it than put it on the list of "cool shit I can do"--just so I could be DJ SageShini, ya know? Anyhow. I was thinking the game would be all hip-hop, but they appear to have gone back to the roots of turntabling, using a mix of dance, electronica, and hip-hop. The video I saw on Day One on G4 had a mash-up of...

Okay, so its Day Two of E3. All the major presentations are done, but no big deal, right? The developers themselves no doubt have some pretty impressive games they want to showcase that the Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo didn't really feel was worth bringing up during their time on-stage. And some of those games are usually the ones that catch everyone's eye--after all, the press conferences are mostly just to show us what they think is going to be a hit (MAG), or to showcase a new entry in a franchise that's ALREADY a hit (Halo, God of War, Final Fantasy, Mario). I shouldn't have to say this, but I feel its necessary. I'm not operating under pretenses of being important, or of being a journalist. If I'm talking about a game, I'm talking about it because I, personally, am hyped. If I don't give a fuck about a game, guess what? It don't get a mention. With that in mind, hit the link below for more. And here is the rest of it. - Finally got to see a d...

Unique title, but E3 kinda caught me offguard this year. I don't actively search gaming sites because these days most games I'm really not that interested in, and gaming doesn't really work on quite the cycle something like comics or manga does. (CERTAINLY not how most manga works.) I want more Flash: Rebirth, I just have to wait thirty days. I want more Uncharted, I either better play it again or get ready to wait a year or two. Anyway, fortunately I hadn't missed anything, and I have G4. Usually good for nothing more than getting a look at the stunningly beautiful Olivia Munn, one must always concede that they have almost invaluable coverage of the biggest video game and the biggest comic book conventions in America, E3 and the San Diego Comic-Con, so I was able to see the presentations for both Nintendo and Sony. (I probably could've catched Microsoft's too, but, who cares? I don't want a 360--its mostly FPS games anyway, and well, we've been o...