Jumping in Headfirst

Yeah, that's right.  I'm going left with a super blast from the past, and if you were around with this video aired on MTV/VH1, you're old.  Even I just happened to hear this on the radio today and thought it was catchy enough to earn a spot on JiH.  I knew Bobby Brown was popular back in the day, but I didn't know he was good.  Huh.

Okay, so I'm lazy this week and I decided to go with a classic battle from a defunct battle rap circuit, the West Coast-based GrindTime.  Yes, Korean Jesus used to be a battle rapper.  He was pretty good at it too.   Also, if you're a fan of shorter battles, this one's for you: 16 minute run time.

And, we're back with another Four Color Marathons.  Life was forcing me away from doing this thing, but I decided that I would try to crank out at least four more of these before the year ended. As long as I can remember, Iron Man has always been one of my favorite superheroes in comic books.  And why not?  Tony Stark had it all: women, one of the leading businesses in technology, a genius scientific mind, a membership in the premiere superhero team of the world, and the slickest suit this side of...anywhere.  What WASN'T to like?  Well, hard as it might be to believe, until the movie, Iron Man was nowhere *near* as popular as he is today.  Robert Downey Jr.'s excellent performance as Tony Stark brought a more widespread popularity to character that he just didn't have before.  Which is a shame, because this Four Color Marathon focuses on a little-known run on the character from the late 90's from one of the most profuse writers in the superhero genr...

So, one of the better ways to hype your album release is to have a video hit at about the same time.  It gives fans an idea of what the vibe of the album might be like, plus some dope visuals to stick in their brains. And that's exactly what K-Town legend Jonathan Park, aka Dumbfoundead, came with in this video New Girl: This is probably one of my favorite songs off the album.  I'd be lying if I said it was filled with complicated wordplay, but it's got a chill vibe that you can just lie back and relax to.

Every now and then you got to watch a good slaughter.  I wondered when I watched that Loaded Lux vs. Calicoe battle what this line meant: "Let X-Factor trip.  We won't even drag the script, we'll just lock that aggin in a room and keep showing him the match with Clips." And then I stumbled across this: So after 25 minutes of one guy addressing everything from your battle record, to your girlfriend and relationship with your son, you come back with...15 minutes of fat jokes and some cartoon gun bars?  Really tho?   Detroit cats need to step their game up.  This the third time I've seen ya'll take a L.  And its never all that close.  A lot of these bars had my face scrunched up like Stevie J.  Em need to give some training classes. 

Dumbfoundead's Take the Stares dropped earlier this week. It's got a different feel from his first album, DFD, but every track on it's a banger. I actually shelled out $15 to pre-order it and show my support. Coming from a guy who NEVER buys music, just trust me when I say its worth it.

I'm a day late.  Sorry.  Three tests in a single week take it out of you.  

I'm a day late, and I apologize for that.  But I'm here with a super-dope battle, so watch two masters at work:

I will be the first one to admit that I was not the biggest fan of the Nintendo Wii.  It was 2006, and I thought both Sony and Microsoft had long reached the limit of what could be done with that level of graphical achievement, and Nintendo was going forward with a brand-new system that was basically a slight step over what we already had.  A much younger, far more brand-loyal Sage thought it was insanity, and I initially refused to support them. Now six years later, I'm seeing gamers (mostly ones with PCs) cry out for new consoles because the current-gen is "holding gaming back", and lo and behold the one prediction I WAS right about, Nintendo has become the first of the console developers to release their new creation (whether out of necessity or simply because they wanted to is something I can't conclusively say): the Nintendo WiiU.  The naming leaves something to be desired, but they appear to be sticking with the same kind of idea that led them to create the Wi...

Changed the name to fit the video. Similar idea, but even he knows/says its not a freestyle.   DeLaZoo's one of the more interesting rappers to come out of YouTube--he's pretty new but I think he has a lot of talent.   Check him out as he raps over four classic hip-hop/soul beats.

Charity Starts at Home.  Go cop it here: http://www.theforeignexchangemusic.com/2011/08/phonte---charity-starts-at-home-official-cover-art-and-album-tracklist.php  (Apparently Blogger isn't allowing you to link shit anymore.   Go figure.) 

Another vid from King of the Dot.  This was one I saw early this year, and its actually one of my favorites.  Both rappers came pretty hard though personally I feel like OSA edged it out with his second and third verses.  At 23 minutes, this one's a lot shorter than the normal videos I link to, so no excuses--check that shit out.

Bear with me folks, I'm trying something new here.  It's going to be a series of articles (since I know its hard to digest the longer stuff) that basically came about from me spending too much time in my apartment by myself.   Hopefully you'll find them as hilarious as I do. Inevitably, if a group of geeky people sit down and talk long enough, just as certain as Steven Blum's next voice acting role, one of them will eventually utter these words: "I wish I lived in an anime universe."   And from there the discussion will, at least temporarily, veer off into what anime universe do you wish you could live in.  Depending on the group, you'll get different answers, but almost ALWAYS there'll be someone who will mention some shonen anime series and talk about how awesome it must be to live there. But, is it really?  This, is a semi-realistic look at what it would be like to be a normal person in a shonen anime series. Dragon Ball Z So let...

And so, we're given the first new character of Injustice announced in several months: I'm not sure why I didn't think of Green Arrow.  Well, technically I did back in my Injustice prediction list, but he was just someone I tossed in to fill out the roster.   But it makes so much sense: DC's really into "synergizing the brand" and all that jazz, so who better to place in the game than a character who's got a series coming out really really soon on the CW ?  (Actually, even this announcement is perfectly planned: the series premieres tomorrow night.) Green Arrow seems to fit really well as a technical character with a lot of variety in his special attacks via the trick arrows he employs.  This also almost guarantees Deathstroke being added since he'll be appearing in the Arrow television series, and is somewhat of a nemesis to both Green Arrow and Nightwing anyway. Also, just as a guess, with 14 characters left to appear but only seven months un...

I've never been more impressed with Marvel Comics than I am now. For those out of the loop, starting in October Marvel is beginning its own version of DC's New 52 line of comics. While New 52 claimed to be a "relaunch", in terms of comic history (continuity) it was really a reboot for most characters, with some characters' history having changed completely or disappeared entirely and we're suddenly tracking their first years appearing on DC Earth. MarvelNOW is more along the lines of what DC's New 52 claimed to be: They have relaunched a lot of their most popular characters' into new titles, shuffling around their writers and artists to different titles to offer us a new vision on fan-favorite books. And rather than launch all at once, they've chosen to launch no more than a single new title each week from October to February. We're not aware of them all just yet, but the ones I've seen have largely wow'd me, and what else does Ju...

You know the deal. It's Battle Rap Wednesday. This time we're going with a different league who kinda threw me off when I heard about them. Its called King of the Dot, a pretty big, competitive battle rap league in Canada. This is a fairly recent battle from their World Domination 3 DVD. It's a title shot, so the winner of this goes on to be the actual "King". Normally I have a clear favorite in battle raps but in this case I was kinda even since they both spit some nice lines. Check it out:

Another video coming from one of my favorite rappers right now, Dumbfoundead.  Korean Jesus is borderline sacrilegious as far as titles to call oneself, but he approaches it with such a non-serious attitude that it's hard to be offended.  Plus overall this is just a dope track. Be sure to check out Dumbfoundead's new album Take the Stares on October 16th.  (Totally just realized that was in two weeks.  Sick.)