Good Peoples.

I am really diggin my new phone, the Palm Pre!  Smaller than an iphone and equipt with a keyboard.  I love the hand gestures and the fact that you can run multiple apps at the same time. The pictures come out pretty good too.

Visited my homie Shawn at MECHA HAWAII in Kaimuki.  This spot is a gem of a place for all Japanese toys, transformers, gundam, etc.  Choppin’ it up with Shawn is a riot, he has a great insite on importing and business.  He also has a great sense of humor.  Trying to figure out how we can work on a few projects.  Check him out in Kaimuki or at www.mechahawaii.com

First i would like to thank everyone that supports and helps LS.  Big ups to all the homies that print shirts and stickers.  I met Lawrence…hmm…well i don’t know how i met him, ohh wait.  I was selling paint to KRES One and i met Lawrence then.  He told me that they had a sticker shop and he offered to print our stickers.  Perfect timing cuz i was cutting and transfering the LS stickers myself so to find someone to do it for us was a relief.  Law, is also a riot, i can’t explain his humor but we get hella sarcastic and sometime we don’t know when someone is serious.  Check out his company, Redefine in the Pearl Kai shopping center, he is located in the Mobi shop!  Good Peoples.

How to sell shirts?

I was talking story with a homie at in4 about what shirts are the hot sellers.  As we were talking at least 3 shirts with a design incorporating – Girls, Guns, Weed, and Money, were sold.  You know LS is about clean and timeless, relative and tight.  So we started talking that if LS made a shirt with a naked chick with guns smoking weed that i could make some money.  Makes me sick that companies know that these elements sell and straight up make it known and blatant.    But Hey, if you found your one trick pony i guess you can ride that ass all the way to bank.  It seems that every “street wear” company has that “one” or  a “few” shirts with the naked chick with a bandana because she has a busted grill.  I wish more people in the industry would call it out, but i figure it’s a lost cause and most companies knowing that a design like that makes money goes in full knowledge that – GIRLS, GUNS, WEED, MONEY = $$$$

ps. i was going to put bandannas on the Girl Scout logo,and turn the green into a weed leaf on one side and a dollar bill on the other, but that would have been a waste of my time.  side note; girl scout cookies are overratted. LOL

Beatroot Qt ova!

Its been a blessing to have Easy Music Center host the Beatroot qualifiers.  The stress of doing monthly events for a qualifier, like the ones we did at Rred Elephant, is no more.  I do miss having an event at night, a monthly that i know i can enjoy.  This past 6 of 6 BR was a nice one with a mix of styles that makes the battles enjoyable.

Homie Kayphade, he is definitely a force to be dealt with.  I hope to see him next season.  Mucho mahalos for filling in on a whims notice.  To be young and hungry to get on, the best!

Peter, the owner of EMC, i love his blunt and progressive attitude toward things.  We hope to have at least one demo of a new product next season.  Mahalo to Peter and the staff of EMC.

What can we say about Chastise?  He showed up last season out of know where and put on a show.  I love his soulful beats and he is always one win away from qualifying.  But hey, this battle is never about winning but it would be nice for Chas to move on to the Grands.

Kazu came with some beats and he battled Earwig in the finals. It was a close one but Wigs edged it out.  Respect to Kazu, he brought down his mac tower.  Gotta respect the producers that make that sacrifice.

Tiki from LA now going to UH is that kid that is learning on the job. With every battle he is educating himself more that UH will. Did i  just say that.

Earwig a.k.a Wigs, i believe this was his 3rd battle and it goes to show that if you can either rock a MPC or a combo of MPC x Computer you have a good chance of winning a Quali.  He had this one beat, that i believe secured the win.  The beat layered a few different horn samples.  Anywerds, big ups to all who entered a beatroot battle in 2009 and everyone who came thru and supported. See you at the Grands.  Peace.

Daggin’

I love records.  I could credit it to my pops, he had a fat collection of Jazz, Hawaiian, Rock, and Psych rock that i inherited.  Or it could be just the way a Hip-hop head should follow, cuz with out the records there can be no Hip-hop.  Reguardless, i will never stop diggin’ or stop playing vinyl.  I compare it to a guitar player or a drummer, technology creates electric drum machines and hi-tech electric guitars-tricked out.  Still you have drummers hitting skins and guitar players miking up an acoustic guitar.  I saw a documentary on sampling and they interviewed Clyde Stubblefield, the man who is the “Funky Drummer” i’m sure he could of played funky drummer on a electric set, right? Wrong, if he did 99% of the funk of that beat would be lost.  Who the heck wants to see Clyde Stubblefield on a electric drum set? Anyway, records, we love ’em.

See that old man<—the guy to the left, thats me minus that fact that he is haole.  I will be diggin’ when i am that age. This was the start of the excavation, check my over priced weak cup of coffee in the foreground.

There was some gems, i found a filipino funk record, a bunch of funk 45’s, Nine’s – “whatcha want”, and Tribes’ -“Hot Set on a Platter” just to name a few.

Asita in the Building! Joe and Lauren, they know dem records.  Did yall hears Joes new 45?  He got Devin the dude on that joint.  On the reels, the new Contraband (Joe Dub, Alex75) is gonna be a classic joint.  If you wanna chop it up about records hit them up.  I met Joe back in the day on ATAK message boards, he supported Hawaii Hip-hop even before Hawaii supported and he was living in the Bay.  Whats crazy is he moved down here a few years back and feels like i know that fool forever, mutual friends and peoples we chill with. Thats fam right thur.

Keep it more dusty than digital yall.

2010 the next.

Its the new year and i am supa excited for this year. Back in 1997 i could of never imagine that a passion to give people great Hip-hop over the radio would culminate to making music, traveling, meeting an abundance of people, events, and apparel.  I mean i did believe back then that i wanted to do things different from the norm.  Also, i knew that i needed to learn from the people making it happen in order to be successful.

Its crazy to think that in 1997 i made my first lightsleepers shirt and gave them away to people as promo.  It wasn’t until i met fybes and asked him to do a Lightsleepers with the flavor of the chocolate logo, enter the OG script.  Later i was chopping it up with KOAK and asked him to do a tag logo with drips, enter the OG Drip.  Now i am blessed to work with SpelOne, Matt Tapia, PeekabooMonster, Angel179, and a host of other.

So i hope that in 2010 we can push forward and release good music, quality gear, and fun events.  We should all take note to the Freestyle Fellowship and never tolerate fear, who cares about 2012, or the economic crisis.  Even the furlow day might be a wake up call that parents need to start taking a more educational role in their lifes.  Lets not Fear, but lets believe and have faith in the future!  Don’t sleep.

Dj Club Battle.

I’m biased to a dj spinning vinyl, nothing new. In a dj mix battle if its serato vs. vinyl, you better believe the dj using serato should, and i say should totally demolish the guy using vinyl. The use of serato is unlimited. Well that wasn’t the case at the Mai Tai dj mix battle. Where Jahson 45 Revolver KILLED Dj Audisse. From song selection, transitions, crowd reaction, mixing, over all presentation, and all that jazz! He MURKED Audisse. Check it out.

Murder she wrote! he even had scratch disses and cut a bit! extra points. Now check Audie…

Don’t get me wrong, Audie is good in his own right, but honestly do you really think he won? Maybe cuz he sang a sweet song at the end. Also you got a computer in front of you and you djin’ for 13 years, i would have thrown in 20 tracks back to back, done the sickest accapellas.  Whatevers, funny i know most of the judges really good.  But the clincher was they had a tie breaker from an anonymous vote.  Glad homie stayed anom, cuz the people was dissapointed and isn’t this dj battle about moving the people?  Props to DJ Bone for the footy and heads up and Big up to the Selecta JAHSON the 45 REVOLVER!

BEP.

The Black Eyed Peas used to be ATBAN KLANN, they were signed to RUTHLESS. Yes that is the label owned by E-Eazy! It was Will i Am, Apple, and some other kids. Eazy moved on and Will recruited Apple and Taboo. They used to rock with a fresh singer named Kim Hill which has way more soul appeal than Fergie, who took over.

I remember seeing this video on MTV and really diggin the vibe. The only thing is it came out on the tail end of the Fellowship, Blowed, Pharcyed, Hiero, etc. So i think it got lost in the shuffle. You could see the potential but i think they didn’t have the front man, the power vocalist to drive the group.

Talk about a reinvention, when this dropped it was a good time. Hip-hop was in the Jiggy era – Diddy and crap. BEP came with the uptempo jazzy beats and chilled out on the ill word play. It wasn’t a full dumb down but they definitely kept it lest tech than the ATBAN Days.

Joints & Jams, was my go to jam i used to play when i dj’ed at Pussycat Lounge @ The Wave (rip). I would use this as a buffer to play other hip-hop that people would normally never listen to.

I give them props for using Esthero, but you could tell that they were moving in a bad direction – i mean creatively and musically. Talk about dumbing down their style. The dopest thing about this song was the shouts to Blood of Abraham!

Yo one good thing is the repped Filipino hard with this song and im not sure it might of been the only all PI song that made it to US mainstream.