What More Can He Say?

I realise of course that this is probably a little late for most people. After all, the ruler has been back for over a week now, with the release of the retirement busting Kingdom Come from the irrepressible Jay-Z, and most of you have probably already made up your minds already. But for me, whose Amazon pre-delivery arrived only today (great service boys), it is an interesting time. And so I have had the album on repeat and am on the third play-through and am still confused. I can't decide if this is really poor, a classic awaiting confirmation from greater familiarity, or just an average album from a man not normally disposed to mediocrity.

It suffers of course from over-hype and expectation, and from the fact that it follows a bonafide great album, the supposed last word of the Black Album. Of course there are some beat-driven highlights (but where is Timbo? Possibly still timetravelling to the land of Futuresex) and a Jay-Z album is never going to be completely bereft of lyrical genius. But the question lingers as to just how much of interest Jay has to say at the moment and why he returned at all. It's not as if the game is crying out for him to save the day, and the truth is that his really, truly great moments come from a place of need, whether coming out (Reasonable Doubt), coming back (Blueprint) or signing off (Black Album). What is tantalising is that this is unlikely to be the last we hear from him on platter. His quest for true greatness in the hip-hop canon demands that this can't now be his last word. And so when he does decide enough is enough we can possibly expect another classic. But to do that he needs to find a hunger again, something real and of real import to say, otherwise his comeback may ironically be the nail that really punctures his legacy. And as an interesting footnote, in two weeks one time nemesis and new label-mate and colleague Nas drops his own long-player, Hip-Hop Is Dead. Word on the streets is that it is a real return to form and so we will see who is wearing the King of New York crown as 2006 ends.

There Are Parties And Then There Are Parties

Get ready for a massive update in the next 24 hours about what it’s like to travel across three continents within 5 days whilst trying to design two collections, get a dream team together to help grow Twelve Bar, work on a whole bunch of collaborations and relocate from London to Los Angeles amongst other things.

For now though let’s get back to what really matters and that’s good music. As everyone knows, there are parties and then there are parties. The last real party I went to was back in August during Magic at the soon-to-be-opened Undftd store in Las Vegas where the one and only Ninth Wonder got on the decks around Midnight and didn’t play one bad tune for the next six hours. Since then everything has been a bit of a disappointment until last Saturday night in Tokyo. Fresh (or not as the case may be) off a 12 hour flight from London I found myself at the Cerulean Tower in Shibuya for the Jazzy Sport party featuring Wajeed from the Platinum Pied Pipers.

Sponsored by New Balance - and boy did they pick the right party to associate themselves with – Wajeed got on the decks and tore the club which was absolutely packed to pieces. From Chaka Khan to Jay Z with a bit of DJ Spinna, Marvin Gaye, Masters At Work and Black Moon thrown in for good measure this was just one of those nights that got better and better the later it got. Given that I was the world’s most tired man I was planning to leave after about half an hour but as it approached 5 in the morning I was still going strong. Good vibes and spectacular tunes – That’s what it was all about and huge props to Tetsuya from New Balance and Taro from Jazzy Sport for making this one happen. Get ready for the big update shortly – I’ve got to go and talk about girls with my boy Yone now!

Got More Flavour Than A Pack Of Cheese & Onion

As Mr William Smith once appositely mused, sometimes I have cause to wonder how the smell from a grill could spark up nostalgia. Remembrance of times past can occur at funny times and have funny prompts, but in this little tale the spark for idle reveries of memory was not from a cookout, but bizarrely from a trip to the dentists. Where is this going, you ask. Well let me tell you a story. One of my best friends is a dentist in London town and as such I am able to get fine toothwork on tap. Lucky me. But a recent visit to get the old gnashers a quick once over provided more value than a clean oral bill of health. For it was at the tooth doctor's that I had the pleasure of meeting a true living legend of hip-hop. For one of my friend's patients is none other than Mr Rodney P, he of pioneering UK group London Posse, and true top man of the UK scene. Incredible luck for me that he happened to be having a check-up after my own, and so my chance came to meet an idol. However, I had received an injection for a small filling and so my meeting with the man who had provided a key element to the soundtrack of my youth wasn't quite the dream meeting of minds I would have hoped. Rather than offer up my ultimate respect in an effortlessly mellow and suave manner, my numb mouth produced only a muffled, drool inflected greeting, followed by a hasty red-faced retreat to curse my cavity and distinct lack of cool in the face of a hero. The one silver lining to this story of social inadequacy is of course that I went back home and dug out Gangster Chronicle, slapped it on and was instantly reminded of just how good the London Posse were. So thank you Mr P, and indeed Bionic, for the memories. Now all I need is to bump into Hijack down at Asda and life really will be complete.

Brothers & Sisters I Don't Know What This World Is Coming To

This is my girl Charisse.

Charisse has a proper job and works as a vet in the East Village. She has two dogs of her own and yesterday we ducked out in the pouring rain to go and buy them some food. Whilst wandering around her local pet shop, I happened upon the most unbelievable and ridiculous thing I have seen in a while. Not even in your wildest dreams could you have imagined an item of this magnitude and importance being produced. Ladies and gentlemen I bring you the FAPE (as in fake Bathing Ape) shark hoody for dogs.




























Whoever said the current streetwear trend isn’t crossing over into the national consciousness needs to seriously think again. With knock-off Bathing Ape shark hoodies being produced for dogs, who knows what’s next. Naturally we had to take a few snaps of our favorite beagle Peanut rocking the hoody and I kid you not – Someone even asked us if it was limited edition.









































In the words of Chuck D himself how low can you go?

Pebbles

It seems like everything is about the 80s at the moment. Last weekend my boy Mikey from Bugz In The Attic had an 80s themed Birthday party which required me to dress up which is something I hate doing. Reluctantly though I agreed to show my face and with my girls Jules (doing her best impression of Fatsarazzi) and Vivian (doing her best impression of a pre Buffalo Stance and Kisses On The Wind Neneh Cherry) in tow we headed down to deepest darkest West London for a night of fun and frolics or not as the case may be. As it turned out, it wasn’t bad at all and when I heard Let’s Hear It For The Boy by Deniece Williams playing as soon as we arrived I knew it was going to be a good night.




























The following evening at Acyde’s Birthday Party I heard Deniece Williams again – two nights in a row damn it - along with a whole load of classic Prince and Nu Shooz and the Gap Band which kept that smile on my face well into the early hours of Monday morning but something was bothering me although I couldn’t figure out what it was.














Then, after a good chat with my girl Amelian in Las Vegas, it hit me. At these 80s jams you always hear When Doves Cry and The Message And Rapture but no one ever drops Girlfriend by Pebbles. Why is this? Girlfriend is quite simply one of the biggest tracks of the 80s and anyone who disagrees with me on this can hit me up if they want to discuss it. Produced by Babyface and LA Reid whom Pebbles actually ended up marrying it is still so fresh it is ridiculous and really should be on the play list at every 80s party and arguably all parties. So all you DJs out there reading this, go out and get this record. It’s worth it for the cover alone.

Back In New York The Same Sh*t Is Going On

If you want to know why there haven’t been too many updates on A Story To Tell of late it’s because I’ve been cooped up in my office in London sorting a million and one things out before the Twelve Bar family head to LA for good next month. There also wasn’t that much going on save for Acyde from Nike’s Birthday party on Sunday night which you can check out at http://www.fatsarazzi.co.uk/ (if you haven’t done so already) so I figured I’d lay low and focus more on work and less on play.

Back in New York though it’s always a different story and, within about half an hour of landing, my boy Ray from Mighty Healthy had picked me up and we were heading down to the Lower East Side for the opening of the new Frank 151 barbershop. A few weeks ago Mike from Frank 151 showed me around the site which was under construction at the time and damn have these guys done a good job with this spot. The fit out is ridiculous and combining a chop shop with a fitted hat counter is a stroke of genius.

Surprise surprise all the heads were out in force and the first cat I bumped into was Mikkel, the owner of Norse Projects in Copenhagen, who I haven’t seen since Bread & Butter in Berlin this summer.













Having recently collaborated on the latest Frank 151 magazine to document the Seattle scene the Goods crew were in the house too representing for the best … sorry I mean West … Coast.














Whilst Dennis from Mighty Healthy was getting up close and personal with Jules – Look out for the new Bijules Absinthe project coming soon – and I was getting distracted by Ivy from The Fader and her friends, Ray took a little time out to get comfortable in the barber’s chair.





























Meanwhile Sean from Rockers was up in the place snapping away for his blog and my old friend Chris, formerly of the Boom Box, and now running No Mas was also representing.



























Before heading out into the night I had a quick chat with the stars of the show, Mike and Steve Malbon from Frank 151, seen here with the one and only Rickey Powell and Ray from Mighty Healthy and they very quickly introduced me to New York’s first female barber who who I think will be cutting my hair in about 20 minutes from now not that I really need a haircut.




























Damn I gotta run – I’m late for my barber.

More in a bit

Love To Hate

I'm sure we have all had the conversation about who in rap has got the best flow, the so called Greatest Of All Time (G.O.A.T) - I may have even mentioned it previously in the annals of A Story To Tell. You know the names that will come out ... Biggie, Rakim, Jay, Nas, Snoop, Eminem, KRS-One (maybe), Tupac (still not sure why?). Anyway, give me one name which always seems to be conspicuous by its absence. That's right, it's the original rapper you love to hate, the one and only Ice Cube. I've never understood why Cube doesn't get the props he deserves. Maybe it is because of his mid-90s hip-hop waning and successful moves into other branches of showbiz, but for me Cube is one of the key reasons I got into hip-hop, and remains a legend. His lyrics and delivery on NWA's key output is clearly incredible and if you take a moment to revisit his first four solo efforts (AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted to Predator, and including the Kill At Will EP) you'd be hard pressed to find someone more on top of their business. Whether spitting pure fury and anger, thoughtful and politically apposite tracts, or just straight up mellow party tunes and tall tales, Cube is the master. Indeed Death Certificate is still one of the most complete rap albums you could find and an all-time classic. So don't let Anaconda and Dangerous Ground cloud your judgement and go back to the source to give praise to a true great.