Raw I’ma give it to ya, with some trivia: About four years back, I download a track from somewhere (can’t remember where I found it) - it was El Michels Affair, “Glaciers of Ice”. I thought I had found the sample Raekwon used on what I would call the one of the best songs off the Cuban Linx album. It took me a couple of years before I came to the realization who El Michels Affair is.

Turns out that El Michels Affair is a backing band that performs for the Wu-Tang (or, really, for Ghost and Raekwon). Leon Michels is the head of the group, and the co-founder of a record label called Truth & Soul, which specializes in nu-funk/soul music. El Michels Affair has a sound that could be from the 70’s, but that’s not where they come from. Instead, the band is mostly seen playing live for Raek & Ghost, or releasing “instrumental” versions of Wu classics. Peep the video below to see some footage of El Michels Affair and the Wu doing C.R.E.A.M. live: http://www.youtube.com/v/ei2JbYeHl-I&

Why stop there? Here is Raek & the EMA performing Ice Cream live (apparently minus Cab-badonna, who was no doubt making pickups in Baltimore, which he loves like he love his d*ck size):
http://www.youtube.com/v/cVkqfECauSk&

And here’s a soulful instrumental version of C.R.E.A.M. recorded by El Michels Affair (not to be mistaken with the actual song The Rza sampled for C.R.E.A.M., which is “As Long As I Got You” by The Charmels):
http://www.youtube.com/v/Ku2yGHzcCQQ&

Rap styles vary: In case you are wondering how EMA got that sweet 70’s sound down - one of the first cats they signed to the label was an old-timer who goes by the name of Tyron Ashley, from Plainview, NJ. When he was a young man playing in bands in the 70’s, Plainview was the spot for funk/soul music. It’s the hometown of Parliment (yes, George Clinton grew up there), and there was lots of black musicians in the city back in those days - gospel, R&B, soul, funk, doo wop - you name it. And the studio that everyone supposedly passed through belong to none other than… Tyrone Ashley. This is a man who might have heard some good music in his time, you dig?

The Saga Continues: Truth & Soul operates out of a studio in Brooklyn, on North 10th Street in Williamsburg. That’s really Williamsburg, not Bushwick a.k.a. “East Williamsburg” as the realty stars have been known to sell it. That kinda kills me, actually. It’s funny how Bushwick, Flatbush, Crown Heights, and even Bed-Stuy have all sort of disappeared or shrunk over the past ten to fifteen years, to be replaced with new names. Sh*t, from now on I’m no longer telling people I live in Queens, but in “East Manhattan”. But I’m digressing.

Enter the Wu-Tang Zone: Truth & Soul recently did a remix for Amy Winehouse of “Love Is A Losing Game”. This is not Amy Winehouse’s (or her music producers) first foray into North Brooklyn. Not less than a mile away from Truth & Soul’s studio is the Mehanan Street Studio, home of Daptones Records and Amy’s backing band of choice, The Daptones. We wrote about that connection when we did this post earlier this year about Jay-Z , Sharon Jones, the Daptones, and Amy Winehouse.

Rappening is what’s happening: That British cokehead lady sure does know where to go to find some retro-sounding bands, doesn’t she? And the answer is North Brooklyn. The day of Brooklyn as the center of hip-hop may have passed (thank Rudy Guiliani and gentrification for that), but even if D&D studios isn’t as influential it once was, Brooklyn is still churning out hits in a new form. For the record, here’s my favorite Brooklyn track from that era, if only because it still cracks me up to hear Chubb Rock getting angry political on a track.

In ‘95 we take back Ebbets’ Field: Completely unrelated piece of trivia to share - Charles Ebbets’s (the sports executive for whom Ebbets’ Field was named after) nephew (Charles C. Ebbets) was a photographer during 20’s and 30’s, and took one of the most famous and iconoclastic photos of NYC ever - “Lunch Atop A Skyscraper”:

Some more stuff to check out: The El Michels Affair’s cover of “Walk On By” (sounds like the Isaac Hayes soul version, not so much the DIonne Warrick + Burt Bucharach original version):
http://www.ubiquityrecords.com/mpeg/ur195_01.mp3

All over sports websites people are talking about how the Cavs and LeBron James got the best of Kobe and the Lakers, Sunday. I though, have one question: did anyone other than me notice that the Los Angeles Lakers on their home court were the recipients of exactly zero foul calls at the end of the game yesterday. No call when Larry Hughes clearly hit Kobe Bryant’s forearm on a made jumper (to tie the score at 92) from the right wing. No call on Lamar Odom’s drive on the right baseline when he was smacked by Ira Newble (score, 94-93 Cleveland). No foul call again on Hughes when Kobe went up for the layin (96-95 Cavs) after the steal at the end of the game. And no foul call when Daniel Gibson took a full swing and chopped Kobe Bryant’s arms to hack the ball away from Bryant (still 96-95 Cavs). Zero calls on your home court? Only when James is involved does this happen.

Everyone in the game know Kobe Bryant is the best player in the world, period. But only the NBA knows that it is James, not Bryant, who is the player they want to shine when the games are shown nationally.

See, it is no accident that the Cavs, a team with only one reliable scorer, can lead the league in 4th quarter comebacks after being down at the end of three. Just ask Kobe after last season.

His-story is and will be written by the winners – and the unthinking

What is stolen from every victim of some thing more powerful than they is the right to control how they are perceived retrospectively.

This premise of power and future perception might now apply in the case of Indiana Pacers center, David Harrison. Harrison’s NBA career is in jeopardy because he failed his third drug test, all for marijuana. Harrison believes that pot should be legal and based on all peer-reviewed scientific evidence it’s benefits far outweigh any deleterious effects it might have. Harrison recently gave an interview in which he explained his philosophy concerning marijuana.

But his use of a benign drug might just cost him his career.

The conversation surrounding Harrison and anyone negatively impacted or marijuana consumption has a correlate with steroids. Despite what the nay-sayers attempt to say, the only real scientific evidence for steroids is that for healthy males over 25 it is not only relatively benign, its ingestion is recommended for men over 32-35 to raise their testosterone level to an optimal level. Marijuana is used as a pain reliever for chemotherapy patients and assuages the effects of glaucoma. A recent study found that not only does marijuana not cause cancer as has been suggested by some “experts” it may act as a protective agent against the disease.

Yet in the face of evidence, historic and scientific, both marijuana and steroids have been demonized by the U.S. government and those in government-associated agencies. Why this is the case is left for conjecture as no government representative provides any cogent reasoning for this demonization. It is this lack of government evidence that has caused people like Harrison and the many, many proponents for the legalization of marijuana much consternation. The same applies to steroids.

Then, when non-government associated people and groups weigh in on these matters using faulty and values have proven to be fluid depending on the person and situation, the gulf that already exists between the two sides only widens, and the rhetoric becomes more contentious.

A perfect correlate is the subject of UFOs. Those in the government, government-associated people and groups, and lay people who side with those two entities ask for tangible evidence for the existence of UFOs. All that can be provided by the pro-UFO side is anecdotal and circumstantial evidence.

Yet with steroids and marijuana these same groups, people and entities want us to accept their anecdotal and circumstantial evidence to condemn steroids and marijuana. Trot out the parents of a young athlete who committed suicide. Trot out the story of an ex-NFL player and an ex-MLB player who both once used steroids who died young. Never mind that the young man might well have been too young to use steroids without encountering negative effects from the drug and that, listening to the father, that there may have been undue pressure to succeed placed on the young man (Rob Garibaldi). Never mind that the ex-NFL player’s own physician indicated that steroids had nothing to do with his death (Lyle Alzado). Never mind that the ex-baseball player was a cocaine addict with an alcohol problem (Ken Caminiti). With marijuana we are told to believe that using marijuana invariably leads to use of drugs like heroin and cocaine; that it leads to anti-social behavior, and a lack of personal drive. We are not asked but told to believe these stories and the conclusion that steroids are solely to blame for their sad endings without any tangible proof. We are told to believe this in the face of tangible proof to the contrary.

What is saddest for people like David Harrison and those who use steroids is that their legacies are being tarnished by not only those with the power to manipulate the conversation, the value system, the morality, and even the burden of proof regarding the drugs in question, but their situations are exacerbated by lay people like sportswriters who have the time to but refuse to think critically and critically weigh the evidence for and against these drugs. And by doing so they ultimately fail a public that depends on them for the very thinking for which they are responsible.

David Harrison and others who use marijuana and men who use steroids are but a few of the millions of victims littered across America who have become entwined in the web of manipulated morals and values, and irresponsible and uncritical rhetoric.

Clemens Rocks

Now on Internets everywhere: An analysis of the Career of Roger Clemens. Brought to you by Roger Clemens through the Roger Clemens public relations team of Hendricks Sports Management. A preview:

This report will evaluate the career of Roger Clemens, one of the most successful pitchers in major league history. It will examine both the quality and quantity of his pitching over the course of his 24-year career. As of the 2007 season, Clemens was one of the twenty-nine active major league players who were at least 40 years old. Of those twenty-nine, eighteen were pitchers, and twelve of those were starting pitchers.

An analysis of the Career of Roger Clemens - Site Reviews follow:

Believe it. It’s Clemens raw (LA Daily Rewind). An unbelievable performance (New York Nightly). This report out Mitchell’s the Mitchell Report (Chicago Railroader). You can even view it in HTML (The Academic Review of Reviews). There’s no Clemens like Clemens - unless it’s Favre (John Madden, MLB Steroid Streetball ‘09). Quintessential Clemens - was his guilt ever in doubt? (Sistern and Fleabert). It’s as if he injected something (Sports On My Mind).

SOMM Video Widget

On the left column under the tag line, “Sometimes a Chain Reaction Starts Here,” you will see “Vod-Pod” videos. The widget can load five at a time, so I’ll use it judiciously to post the best and pertinent to the times videos and video snippets I can find. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think.

peace,

DWil

A very real end to Tilghman-Tiger-Wilbon, et al.

It must be nice to be white. Or Cablacuasasianhisspanuslimewish. Or Michael Wilbon (getting paid!).

What you fail to understand is that all it took from Tiger is to say is something like this:

“The word “lynch” has very real meaning to “African-Americans” I prefer black, nobody calls you white people, Euro-Imperialists, do they - well, most people don’t?) and I do not condone its use in the context of a joke - ever. That said, I talked about it with Kelly and she does understand the depth of emotion the word conjures. She is a great person and a friend. She has apologized and agreed to make a personal appearance at my school to talk with students about the importance of racial sensitivity, empathy, and understanding during Black History Month. That’s all I have to say. I’d like to think this ends all conversation on the subject.”

That’s all. It is not too much to ask. Saying and doing something like that would have allowed Woods to keep from looking like a petulant punk and Wilbon from looking like a Tiger Woods apologist and a name-dropper - she’s Charles Barkley’s friend, too (and if I had to bet, I’d wager that Kelly Tilghman is not on Wilbon’s list of people to call if someone dear to him died. She might be a dear associate, close associate, friend of Tiger’s so I trust her, something like that, but friend? No. The people on the list to call when you’re emotionally vulnerable are friends.)

What comes around….

Fourteen years after Don Nelson fought to get Chris Webber from the Orlando Magic in a draft day trade, had an acrimonious relationship with Webber, and then traded the power forward to the Washington Wizards, Nellie wants Webber back in Oakland:

“I hope that it happens to be quite honest with you,” Nelson said Sunday before the Warriors beat the New York Knicks 106-104. “I think our team needs it.”

But not everyone in the Bay area thinks this is a good idea, especially Bruce Jenkins of the SF Chronicle:

Consider, though, how it all could go wrong:

– Some would say Nelson is trying to prove a point by erasing one of the few blemishes on his coaching reputation, even at the cost of chemistry.

– We haven’t seen enough of the Warriors’ thrilling new identity. It started late last season and reached life-changing heights in the playoffs. If Webber shows up this week, it ends far too soon.

– Among many people who closely have followed his career, Webber is known as a phony and a con man - “invariably a pain in the ass,” as one insider put it Sunday night. It’s not like the team is bringing in Grant Hill.

– Everything about Webber says “yesterday.” Really bleak yesterdays, in the Warriors’ case. He hasn’t played a minute this season, and even if he arrives in reasonable shape, he can’t run with the likes of Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins and Davis, no matter what the players say. He can’t do it, OK? Can’t.

– Webber simply isn’t a winner. Wasn’t in college, hasn’t been in the NBA. As a shooter at crunch time, he is a time-tested failure.

– He gives the team some size, absolutely. But if he takes significant minutes away from Biedrins and others considered to be part of the team’s future, it would be a crime.

– Even if the experiment works, the Warriors are no larger a playoff threat to the giants of the Western Conference than they were before. It’s not like the move has “championship” written all over it, and with Webber almost certain to leave the team (and perhaps retire) in the summer, it would set the stage for discord and transition on a roster that, to this point, cries out for longevity.

We’ll be watching.

George Martin is walking

George Martin is walking across America for 9/11 First Responders. It’s a great story (see the related video in the left column).