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I spent most of this evening playing basketball outside (messed around and got a triple double), which didn't leave me with much time to put together a post for today. Two discussions I wanted to link to:

First up is a lecture that Chuck D gave in New York on Tuesday. He discussed a bunch of hip hop-related topics, but the most interesting part to me was his take on Russell Simmon's recent support of censorship. Here's what Chuck D said in response:

"My beef with them (Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen) is that they sound like the government by assuming that position themselves. By saying that they have the power and everybody should listen to us. Get the fuck out of here."

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the whole matter. Back when Russell and Lyor were making obscene amounts of money off of hip hop, they didn't have any problem with their artists using those three words that they suddenly find more offensive than the idea of censorship. Now that this is suddenly a hot topic in the media due to Don Imus talking wreckless on the mic, the man who brought us albums from Noreaga, Onyx and Shawnna (among others) is going to tell us what the standards of decency should be? At least on the surface of things, it seems like the announcement is serving more as a tool for promoting Russell Simmons rather than an earnest attempt to combat racism and misogyny.

That isn't to say that I'm necessarily in favor of rappers dropping a "bitch" or "ho" into every other line in their lyrics, but I don't need an out-of-touch multi-millionaire telling me what is or isn't offensive.

Here are two of the highlights from the Chuck D discussion (they're both short clips):

Part 1 - The future of MCing
Part 3 - Russell and Lyor are buzzards circling the carcass of Hip Hop

The second interview I wanted to point out is one that XXL recently did with Mister F.A.B. (shout out to Zilla for the heads up on this one). Here's the highlight:

"My generation and my fans don�t give a fuck about Del [tha funkee homosapien]. I pay the older dudes their respect, but I feel like time gotta move on. DJ Shadow took me on tour all around the world with him. I love him for that. But if my fans saw DJ Shadow scratchin�, they�d be like, 'What the fuck is that all about?' You gotta understand; I�m of the 2Pac generation. People can�t get mad at us, like, 'You don�t know your history.' �Cause when y�all was scratchin� records, I was 10-years-old. We don�t understand the culture. We�ll be like, 'Who the fuck is Prince Paul?' That�s our mentality. I just turned 25, so I rep for 25 and under. "

I'd probably be willing to muster up a little more outrage over this if hyphy hadn't played itself out, but as it is the quote pretty much speaks for itself.

And a quick update on Theory Hazit, who was featured on this site about a month ago. He's just released a video for the first single off of his new album, Extra Credit. Click here to watch the video for Emit Gninrut.

In my opinion, that's not even one of the stronger tracks on Extra Credit, so if you like that you'll definitely want to go cop the album. You can buy it over at hiphopismusic.com.

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