We all have car troubles.  Unless you have a big bank account and you up-keep your car like clockwork you are bound to have problems, its so inevitable.  Like anybody in my position you run your car hard! From town to town, up and down, stop and go, rolling.  So the other day all these lights went on. NOT GOOD!  When this many lights go on and one of em is your engine light, danger! So i drove home to regroup and go to the know-it-all of info, good & bad, the internet.  I have to say Scion forums is legit and super helpful, love yall. So i decided to go to Sears after i downloaded a couple of coupons that would get me $10 off an oil and filter change.  Have to say the help at Sears was thorough and they don’t charge for an engine diagnosis.  Word came back “the 3rd Cylinder” is firing off.  With that knowledge i drove off thinking that my car was ok for now but needed to get it into some place they could help fix my engine further.  Had to pick up my son from school so i raced off….crap….my car was studdering after every gear shift! ARgh! Couldn’t do anything now.

As i parked my car with it still running hoping that might keep it warm? I go to the door to scoop up my son, i apologize for being a little late and explain that my car was having troubles and the engine light was on.  Then a voice from the back said, “your engine light is on? can i check it real quick?” it was the teachers husband.  He had troubles like this with his car and he had the computer to read engines, YES! So he plugged in the computer and it read the same as Sears, 3rd cylinder.  I thought that was it so i was ready to jet.  But before i could he asked, “you want me to check the engine?” being in a rush i couldn’t deny my car possibly getting more care!  I was gonna transport my son, so a safe car is a good car.  So i pop the hood and he goes to work taking the engine cover off, checking the coils and spark plugs.  Long story short, my spark plug were old and the gap between the spark was worn.  So he cheated the spark by bending the head, temporary fix.  He also explained what he was doing, how to do it myself, and let me borrow his tools to get it done on the weekend.

After he finagled my car, it work well. I am going to get 4 new sparkplugs and fix my poor car.  Im gonna even throw in a wash too. What is the point?   You never know who will help you in your time of need.  I believe God hooked me up with the guy at Sears, cool braddah, and after that he sends my kids teachers husband to help me out.  So when you have a chance to help someone out, help em, if you know how to help other people succeed, do it.  I won’t call it Karma, it is the right thing to do, what you put in is what youll get.  Negative can only equal negative, Positive can only equal positive.  So be positive where everywhere you go, and yes sometimes you will have a stink attitude, but try and fix that quick, so the next time its all good.

..before i edit Know Your Roots: HI Graff part 3 with Dmize, i wanted to lay these thoughts down.  I had the honor to talk story and enter the mind of the homie Keoni Payton.  I’ve know him and his OG crew, AN, for over 15 years.  Ive broke bread with them, went on trips to the mainland, did music, and had fun times, the only thing is i’ve never had was a long conversation with Keoni.  Although we was always at the spots, clubs, and events, for some reason or another i never got to really chop it up with brotha.  I would bump into him every now and then, give some pounds, ask howzit? then move on, so this was the first time i had a conversation longer than 5 minutes.  The 3+ hours i spent with him was thought provoking, deep, insightful, exciting, and educating.  I left the interview with a new found respect and astonishment.  Its hard to explain but i hope after i chop up the video and post it up it does some justice being there live. Only love and respects goes out to Keoni Payton and the whole Pineapple Clan!

So big news was DC shoes added Mike Mo and Nyjah Houston to their roster of skaters. To me it comes down to $$$, you know they paid those two a gang of cash to join their team, i mean what else would it be.  Mike Mo was on one of the best shoe co. of all time, Lakai. So he did the Kosten and went for the Loot. Nyjah, its like whatever with that cat, he is a dope skater but for some reason he has that thing about him where you either hate or love him, but he is HOT right now winning every dang contest.  Companies like DC & NIKE are the same they don’t develop skaters, they don’t discover skaters, nurture and bring up skaters. They straight jack the skaters after the skaters have been pruned to be stars. They should rediscover new designs for their shoes, and a new branch of skate shoes, the DC name has been tainted hard with all the crap they sponsor.  In the end its about $$$ so i guess they get that.

So many things went down in 2011.  I really can’t recall everything.  The one thing is my baby daughter, Calie.  My grown man hustle has upped another notch, after marriage, a son, now a daughter, we in grown folk beast mode, rahhhhh!  2011 was not a great year for tracks, i think i did like 6 tracks all year but they were for other peoples albums.  I did finish 3 mixtapes, real mixes, with tracks blending.  It felt like we was vending every week.  We did lock down Eat The Street which is only gonna get mo’ dope!  I can say that my energy was put into establishing Lightsleepers as a brand which directly helps us with music.  Speaking of us, i don’t know where everyone else stand by i will be putting in more work as an MC.  And now that Sentic is back its on.  We also gotta a serious roster of producers about to drop some amazing albums….Can’t forget we pick up our first skateboarder, which is God sent, Lionel DeGuzman, kid has a great head on his shoulders, skates amazing, respectful, and is the filipino Jack Johnson.  It feels like i won the lottery with this kid.  Favor.  Thats all i can think if off the top. Just like to say thank you to God, with out my faith in him i couldn’t do half the things i do. My supportive family, esp my Wife, son & daughter, love.

Wildchild of the Lootpack.  Who would of thought that Madlib would of blow up like he did. Good looking out to my homie Robert from World of Dance, he let me know that Wildchild was in the building with his son.  His son is Baby Boogaloo is a huge star in the dance world.  While everyone was trying to get Baby boogaloo’s photo i was choppin it up with Wildchild.  Good thing i had the “wheniamonthemic” 12″ in the crate for him to sign.

I asked whats up with a LP reunion he said DJ Romes is in Oxnard and Madlib is busy making music, but he is finishing his solo album.  Told him it would be sick if we could get him and Madlib out in Hawaii.  Hope for the best.

Had a conversation over text with Jus1oh about how “Hawaii Hip-Hop” is starting to pigeon hold or in our terms, mynabird grip, Hip-Hop made by the people of Hawaii.  Kind of like the term, “Asian Hip-Hop” or “White rapper” or “Female DJ.”  It should be if your dope, you dope, and where your from is irrelevant. I try not to refer back to the “back in the days” but back when we were coming up, we made music and stayed creative and had fun doing it.  We never once thought, “oh we have to put Hawaii Hip-Hop on the map” or “we have to rep for Hawaii Hip-Hop” or “we gonna make Hawaii Hip-hop”.  We made Hip-Hop, PERIOD.  Put our tapes and CDs, albums and freestyles.  Then we let the people decide, the people of the world….and guess what, according to the countless dubs, emails, and youtubes poppin up of tracks we made over 10 years ago, we make Dope Hip-Hop period.

Without labeling ourselves “Hawaii Hip-Hop” we made Hip-hop first and foremost.  The fact we was from Hawaii, made us doper, and thats the truth because aint nobody expect Hip-hop to come out of Hawaii.  So when their first impression is “yo this track is fresh,” then the next question is “where these guys from?”, and they find out its Hawaii it makes it that much doper! Kind of like when i first heard Ceschi, hes from Connecticut or OneBeLow who is from Michigan. There music was dope, then you found out they were from places that were not the Hip-Hop hotbed it made it that much more amazing.

In no way am i saying not to rep Hawaii, but why so damn blatant.  Don’t blow your load to fast.  I myself was born and raised in Hawaii and i am of Royal Hawaiian decent & blood.  So basically anything i spit is Hawaii Hip-hop, plain and simple.  I don’t sound like im from LA or NY, or from the South. Now this is just my opinion and maybe its the new Hawaii way to let the freak flag fly and say YO YO WE OVER HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACIFIC, WE RAP, WE MAKE MUSIC, LOOK OVER HEAR!  Droppin every cliche Hawaii popular saying and slang along the way.  To each its own so if you a rah rah cheerleader or a let your action over beats lead your way, its all Hawaii, your Hawaii.

Who would of thought that over 10 years ago a Hip-Hop radio show broadcasting on 300 watts to an island in the middle of the pacific would eventually work with Hurley on a custom board shorts.  Crazy! Don’t wanna sound all “inspiring” but its great to see that when you do what you believe is dope it actually pays off.  I would of like to take more time to design the shorts with one of our most talented friends, Matt Tapia, we only had like days and for me to say NO to this opportunity would of been foolish.  You might be asking yourself, “so how does this related or matter to underground Hip-Hop?”  It doesn’t, really, but to me it does.  I surf and like most of us in Hawaii we grew up in the waves, so it all relative to us in Hawaii.  For me and many other of my Hawaii Hip-hop artists Hip-Hop culture also includes the ocean.  Its where we formula our thoughts and create them into rhymes or beats.  We use the elements of our beautiful island to inspire.  So mahalo to Hurley and Contrast Mag, hope to be invited again next year.

Damn you know me and Supra, i remember when Muska started making his moon boots all crazy.  Reminded me of those old double layered converses…you know the ones that was almost like a boot?  Anyway.  I’ve been keeping tabs on Supra and really dig the spectrum of their offerings.  From simple to the Muska Moon Boots! Booyah! Nah its all good.  I must give props doe, one thing that Supra/Muska does well is integrate the basketball/athletic shoe into a skate shoe.  I started noticing even more that the Skytop III colors ways were becoming more “Jordan-esqe” which is never a bad thing.  I’m so glad there is no elephant/concrete print, to me that play out son!  This black friday Supra is releasing the damn near bulletproof, Skytop III – Stealthy, on the real these shoes are straight illa J, like Dilla Dogs brotha.  Check out Suprafootwear.com for the low low. and if anyone got the hook up i need a pair of dem Stealthy’s!

I’ve been watching How to Make it in America from Jump, really dig the characters of  Ben & Cam and even Domingo (kid cudi) i actually like his acting…it grows on you.  The season one made more sense and felt like a real t-shirt hustle.  I can imagine that in the Big Apple it might be easier to get ups if you know the right peoples, but at the same time it might make it that much harder cuz of all the brands.  Overall season 1 was niceness. Enter season 2 and the story line seems to jump like 1000 steps, from them going to Japan, then coming back to NYC and trying to fulfill and order of thousands for an on-line retailer.  What sucks is that the designs of their brand Crisp, is not that dope its cool but i guess i need to remember that its a tv show.  Maybe they asked Jeff Staple to do the designing, cuz according to him he said that he doesn’t regret any of his designs or projects?  Wait, so your saying that Airwalk x Payless was dope?  That was fail.  Almost like he did that job as a take the money and run.  Airwalk is so Iconic that you could of remade the Enigma’s or 540′s.  Anyway.  The new season is kind of rushed and honestly not that great.  The highlights are Rasta Monsta, Rene, Wilfredo, and Kappo.  Wheres Gingy?  tba.

Man, sucks to read that Mr. Dibbs has fallen ill to Cirrhosis which is the final phase of chronic liver disease.  A spokesperson for Dibbs wrote, “He is no longer able to work being that he is in and out of the hospital too much. In just a month, having no insurance, his medical bills have reached over $485,000. Please, if you can spare it, any amount would help.” I’m trying to put together some kind of fund raiser to show some aloha to Dibbs.  For those that don’t know Mr. Dibbs he is the co-founder of 1200 Hobos a dj, production, mc, & overall dope Hip-hop crew, like Lightsleepers.  Also he is one of the founders of Scribble Jam, i consider Scribble the first Hip-Hop event that gave underground artists a chance to shine.  From Graffiti, MC Battles (which were epic and historic), DJ Battles, and B-Boying, the Scribble really represented the next generation of Hip-Hop.  To donate to click on PayitforwardtoDibbs.