Thursday, January 29, 2009

Calle 13 "Electro Movimiento"


Calle 13's new video for "Electro Movimiento." Calle 13's videos are always really fun and innovative for the genre of reggaeton or what he would call musica urbana. This video is really ill, and it totally is following a tend that we're seeing more and more in reggaeton and begining to see pop up more in mainstream hip hop videos of hipster aesthetics. Granted the song has a throw back vibe, but compare it with these...







Call it a cartography of emerging Puerto Rican Hipsterism. Maybe the days of Roqueros vs. Cocolos are over? Well, no, but there is definitely more overt back and forth, in terms of aesthetic presentation anyway.

Kanye and LMFAO beef over Love Lockdown

A few months ago after Kayne release Love Lockdown, LMFAO, whose video "I'm In Miami Trick" I threw up on the site yesterday, did an electro remix of the song and put down some lyrics. Check out the song...



I like LMFAO, I think they're silly, purposefully irreverent, and highly danceable. Well, apparently according to a video that went up on World Star today Kanye didn't so much agree. Craziest part was kayne telling them that he understands why Prince doesn't like people remixing his songs, and that it was as if LMFAO went to his mother's funeral while he was singing a song and remixed it. Deep. Check out LMFAO's response...


Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Hump Day Videos


Hercules and Love Affair - "You Belong" (Watch this one in High Quality)


Tito "El Patron" - "Under"


LMFAO - "I'm in Miami Trick"

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Out the Window



The new video for Ron Browz "Jumpin' (Out the Window)" which is significantly less homoerotic and substantially more hipster-y than "Pop Champagne."

Monday, January 26, 2009

Open Letter to "Martin Louis the King, Jr."


A message from kwest on Vimeo.

Kanye, I too am baffled.

I am in a state of utter bafflement and feel quite befuddled even.

You were cheesing so hard through out the video I though you were going pop a blood vessel or something.

Fantastic.

I never knew you were such a nerd. My geeky little heart sang when you used the corniest line ever, "who do you know with two thumbs and his own Louis shoe, THIS GUY!"

Perfection.

The icing on the cake was that playful and intricate pause when you knew you were dropping a bomb, "Martin Louis the King ....................Junior. Address me as such."

Brilliant use of dramatic pause.

And your hybrid fauxhawk/mullet, or as I like to call it faux-hullet has a certain je ne sais quoi.

All and all, bravo for an outstanding performance of geeky unconscious hipsterism.


Awesomely yours,
nuyoricanhomo

Pennies



The Cool Kids' newest off of the forthcoming When Fish Ride Bicycles

Friday, January 23, 2009

Fox News & Malkin at it Again



Michelle Malkin is like the most absurd and questionable human being on the planet. Fox and Malkin are claiming that Jeezy & Jay's "My President" is racist, not only that but that even the slogan (and statement of the obvious) "my president is Black" is racist.

They're wildin'.

They're bemoaning the fact that we're obviously not a postracial society and that its people of color who are preventing "everyone" from moving "past" race. I for one don't live in a postracial society nor would I like to, and I also don't think that evoking MLK validates claims that we should want to be colorblind. Just because MLK wanted to be respected as a person and as a man didn't mean he didn't want to be respected as a Black man.

People need to get real so props to Jeezy, Jay, Nas, and everyother excited motherfucker out there letting everybody know that our president is Black.

Young Republicans


Wax Obama figure frightens 4 month old baby.

Source: BuzzFeed

Roth Boys in The Building Tonight



I love Asher Roth! Like I said in the last post that gushed over Roth he reminds me of the small liberal arts partying nonsense that I used to love about college...besides all that cool stuff I learned anyway.

Here's to boxed wine.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hip Hop and Obama Making History

The Inauguration was a historic day in hip hop too. With Obama being touted as the first "Hip Hop President," and the hip hop communities strong mobilization for him it was the accomplishment of the political hopes that old school hip hop heads had for the so-called "Hip Hop Generation."

So Jay-Z performing at the Neighborhood Ball is no small thing and I think we need to take a moment to big up the jigga man.



I also love all the Obama inspired hip-hop paraphernalia and songs. Here are a few of my favorites...

Ace Hood's Obama Chain



Obama Air Force 1s


Young Jeezy Feat. Nas - My President Is Black


Jay Z - My President Is Black (rmx)


My President Is Black (DC Mix) - Jay Z (Dirty)

My president is black my Maybach too
And I’ll be goddamned if my diamonds ain’t blue.
My money’s dark green and my Porsche is light grey
I’m headed for DC anybody feel me!!!
My president is black in fact he’s half white,
So even in a racist mind he’s half right
If you got a racist mind it’s alright
My president is black but his house is all White
Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther could walk,
Martin Luther walked so Barack Obama could run
Barack Obama ran so all the children could fly,
So I'm a spread my wings you could meet me in the sky!!!
I already got my own clothes already got my own shoes,
I was hot before Barack imagine what I’m gonna do
Hello Ms. America, hey pretty lady
Red, white, and blue flag wave for me baby
Never thought I’d say this shit baby I’m good
You can keep ya puss, I don’t want no more Bush
No more war, no more Iraq
No more white lies, my president is black!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The End of White America?

I'm a little late on posting this, but here is an interesting article by Vasser prof Hua Hsu. "The End of White America" appeared in this month's The Atlantic and claims that white identity is so "bland" it is no longer desirable. Here's the lead in...

The Election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness” as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like—and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness is no longer the norm? And will a post-white America be less racially divided—or more so?

Check it out for yourselves...

Friday, January 16, 2009

CFP: "Practices of Citizenship, Sustainability And Belonging"

So it definitely feels like the last ASA just happened, but the deadline for the next meeting is coming up on January 26, 2009. Unfortunately, I won't be presenting, but I will be attending since its in D.C. Check out the CFP and get those proposals in...

Call for Proposals: ASA Convention
"Practices of Citizenship, Sustainability And Belonging," November 5-8, 2009, Washington D.C.

The 2009 ASA Program Committee invites colleagues in American Studies and all related disciplines to submit proposals for individual papers, entire sessions, presentations, performances, films, roundtables, workshops, conversations, or alternative formats described below on any topic dealing with American cultures, including topics in disciplines that have been under-represented in American Studies research and teaching.

The ASA Annual Meeting is open to anyone having an interdisciplinary interest in the study of American cultures.

Proposals must be submitted through the ASA's online submission system, which can be found at http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/theasa/theasa09/index.php? The online submission site is now closed. The online submission site will open on December 1, 2008. Deadline for submissions is 11:59 (Pacific) on January 26, 2009.

Meeting Theme

The theme for the 2009 ASA Annual Meeting, to be held in Washington D.C., is "Practices of Citizenship, Sustainability, and Belonging."

Questions of citizenship, belonging and sustainability have for some time been at the heart of much Americans Studies scholarship. Historically, categories of citizenship, traditions of belonging, and concepts of sustainability have been constructed and sustained through specific practices -- of state and society, individuals and communities. They have been subject to profound redefinition, in response to changing national and geopolitical realities. This has always been so. But today, in a time of global and domestic crises, practices of citizenship, sustainability, and belonging demand reflection and debate informed by the ASA's distinct mode of scholarly and civic engagement. Whatever the outcome of the 2008 election, these themes are timely and compelling particularly for the upcoming meeting to be held in the nation's capitol. What better time and place to pose these and related questions: What are the practices that define us as citizens? What are the practices that have sustained and can sustain human communities and the planet? What are the practices that create a sense of belonging in our lives? At the same time, we must ask about the practices that delimit those communities. What costs are exacted by specific constructions of belonging and citizenship? What is sustained, and how is power enacted, in the rituals and practices of individuals and institutions?

A robust tradition of work in American Studies has often emphasized that citizenship is not given. Contrary to conventional wisdom, citizenship is not an abstract attribute, intrinsically available to all native-born and naturalized American citizens. Rather, the issue of who is a citizen, and thus able to claim, following Hannah Arendt, "the right to have rights," has been a deeply contingent and contested matter since the founding of the American nation. In the past and present, the lived experience of citizenship in practice, whether defined from above, by the state, or from below, by persons and groups, has been understood as a double-edged process of inclusion and exclusion. As such, citizenship would seem to be enough for one ASA conference. But in pairing the theme of citizenship with sustainability, we acknowledge the growing interest the latter concept has had in the field of American studies, and its increased influence in national and international public discourse. Notions of sustainability, also marked by debate and contestation, have transformed the theory and practice of citizenship for people in the United States, which in turn, often has global consequences. Notions of sustainability have informed the pursuit of ideas of health, security, justice and well-being in the public arena, ranging from the personal to the planetary, through myriad forms of civic engagement, including the rise of the environmental justice movement, consumer lifestyle choices and boycotts, movements for nuclear disarmament, taxpayer revolts, public health advocacy, HIV-AIDS activism, etc.

Our interest in sustainability, however, extends well beyond the present moment. We believe this keyword can prompt serious inquiry into questions of political economy and citizenship in the past. For example, Thomas Jefferson could only imagine a particular kind of sustainable political economy, one that expanded democracy through increasing the population of landowning white males. To him, this was sustainable, but at what costs to others outside this charmed circle? When have concerns about economic sustainability precluded issues of social change, and when have they been the catalyst for such change? The use of and control over such natural resources as land, water, forests, oil, coal, uranium and other minerals have profoundly shaped national borders, citizenship boundaries and foreign relations. At times, visions of expanded citizenship have relied upon assumptions of economic expansion, while struggles for the expansion of rights frequently have been tied to national and international crises, including global wars. We welcome explorations of these anxious intersections, as well as studies that examine practices that have sought to combine economic stability and increasing equality. We envision a wide range of possible projects, including a re-examination of some utopian communities of the nineteenth century, as well as historical and contemporary examinations of religious practices, social movements, and cultural products. And we seek to encourage ongoing research in all periods, including work by Americanists in environmental studies and Native American studies, scholars of public policy, urban studies, and the social, natural, and behavioral sciences.

We propose the additional keyword, belonging, to invite examinations of the practices by which communities are formed-as sites of political engagement cultural production, and social transformation, from the local to the global. The concept of belonging enables projects that examine formulations of nationalism, as well as those imagined communities that function as alternatives to the modern nation-state, or which simply exist alongside and across its borders. The concept of belonging is crucial for the conference theme because it invites work on religion, which has been integral to the formation of communities, and on media and technology, which have variously transformed the conceptual possibilities and modalities through which belonging is enacted. We welcome inquiry into the full range of media, from the role of print and popular culture since the early Republic, to the rise of "new media," including cable television and the internet, in the construction of new ways of belonging. The term also opens up questions about the construction of family and gender, as well as examinations of foreign policy, transnational organizations, and globalization. As with the other keywords of the theme, we envision the most expansive approach to issues of belonging. That includes us, as American Studies scholars and practitioners. The conference offers an opportunity to consider the theoretical models that scholars in our interdiscipline have drawn on to constitute our intellectual communities, and to assess the success of those models in bridging the many (and growing) subfields and disciplines within American Studies. What models, what types of questions, and which intellectual practices are appropriate to an engaged American Studies that is interested in furthering sustainable practices and states committed to upholding human rights?

Our program committee seeks panels and individual papers that, in examining past and present practices of citizenship, sustainability and belonging, will also further the ASA's commitment to forging an inclusive community of participants from the arts, policy makers, journalists, community organizers and activists, K-16 educators, and international scholars. The conference theme provides a platform, from the nation's capitol, no less, for enhancing the ASA's public profile in a consequential way. In addition to fostering collaboration with communities, both in the DC region and nationally, we also hope that the theme will attract a wider range of scholars, not only from the humanities, cultural studies, and visual culture fields that have been mainstays at ASA meetings, but also Americanists working in the social science disciplines, including economists, demographers, legal scholars and advocates, scholars and practitioners in urban design and planning, geographers, and scholars in such fields as material culture, policy studies, and public health and psychology. We welcome proposals from scholars working in the pre-twentieth century fields, including the colonial era, the early Republic, and the nineteenth century.

An engagement with citizenship as enacted through various modes of practice opens the door to explorations of the concept from multiple perspectives and locations, including but not limited to: the historical and contemporary politics of immigration and deportation, voting rights, Native American sovereignty, practices of belonging or exclusion enacted through music, literature, or media; the history and legacy of social movements from the 18th to the 21st centuries, discourses of human rights and challenges to our understandings of the human, or projects historicizing U.S. racial practices and/or analyzing processes of racialization and constructions of religious identity in the post 9-11 world. Other key issues might include the role of market relations -- corporations, unions, finance, and consumer culture -- in shaping and redefining notions of citizenship and civic belonging; the making of global cities or pastoral dreams; contestations over citizenship through struggles over representation in artistic, literary and cultural production; histories of sex, practices of gender, and the debates over same-sex marriage; the impact of wars and revolutions on categories of belonging; systems of labor, work, and inequality and their ideological justifications; issues of academic freedom, past and present; the relation between religious practice and political behavior; the political dimensions of disease (mental and physical), disasters, and epidemics; politics of the body and constructions of disability; environmental justice; legal and constitutional studies, both nationally and internationally; science and technological studies; access to public spaces, spheres, and resources; internal and expansionist empires, and so on.

By no means do we wish to create the impression that proposals must literally integrate or incorporate all three pillars of our tripartite theme. Rather, we seek proposals of panels, individual papers, and roundtable sessions that foreground at least one of those admittedly big ideas, ideally while placing them in a sort of dialogue with the others. We seek papers and panels that examine issues related to one (perhaps more) of these three concepts in depth, which strikes us as preferable to proposals that attempt to cover all three concepts referenced in the theme. As with citizenship, we thus propose ideas of sustainability and belonging as somewhat free-standing and in themselves expansive rubrics for scholarship.

We feel that such an ambitious theme is warranted by the strong tradition of critically engaged scholarship in American Studies, and more importantly, by the crises--political, constitutional, economic, military, and diplomatic--faced by the United States and the world. Washington D.C., is a fitting place to examine the relationship of the United States., with its growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and its outsized use of the world's energy and water resources, to the poverty and numerous challenges to health, governance, and survival faced by many citizens in the global south. With its national monuments, numerous heritage sites, and government buildings, the District attracts tourists from all over the United States and the world, and its cultural institutions have been at the center of national discussions, occasionally contentious ones, of heritage, historic preservation, and commemoration of the nation's past. At the same time, like most cities of its size, it faces its own chronic problems of inequality and exclusion, and an ongoing struggle waged by District residents for home rule and full citizenship and representation. We look forward to working with the Site Resources committee to draw on the rich cultural resources of Washington DC, and involve local constituencies and scholars seeking to address the concerns particular to residents in the District.

Modest travel, lodging and per diem funds may be available for non-academic participants but limited by the Program Committee's "discretionary" budget. Those participants may request funds during April 2009, and the Program Committee may honor a limited number of such requests. Although the Program Committee may accept proposals that include non-academic participants, it does not thereby obligate itself to provide them with grants. Indicate alternative actions should the program committee not be able to grant your request. Please mail formal, written requests for funding, post-marked in April, to: Convention Director, American Studies Association, 1120 19th St. NW Suite 301, Washington, D.C. 20036.


For more information consult the ASA website: http://www.theasa.net/annual_meeting/page/submitting_a_proposal/

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Sexy Time

Two gems from Best Week Ever...

1. Three queer condom doggies get it on in new Durex Commercial:


2. Chewing the Fat: Batali and Bourdain on Food and Sex


Not to be a prude or anything but eggplants?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Idol Escándalo


Vulture reported that American Idol producer Ken Warwick told the New York Times that "There are places that we went to — you know, to Puerto Rico — and the majority of them weren’t very good at all." That is an interesting stance to take considering that a large number of Latino/a pop stars are Puerto Rican.

According to Idolator, Warwick dissed the island because the San Juan auditions were picketed over labor concerns and the show's "anti-worker practices."

Idolator's Maura Johnston says:
So, did the San Juan auditions really have fewer attendees than a Katharine McPhee concert? Is it a sign that more people don't think that winning Idol is all that? Is there a groundswell of union support in the commonwealth? Or do people just want to be famous on their own turf? One comment on the USA Today blog Idol Chatter noted that Puerto Rico has its own Idol equivalent, Objetiva Fama. Whatever the reason, I can't wait to see how the producers get "creative" with editing this this one.

First Look: Air Jordan 2009



Behind the shoe with the designer.

Tip of the fitted to Real Talk NY

Monday, January 12, 2009

The Louis Vuitton Don's New Kicks

Those of you that know me know that I SWEAT white kicks. I own like two pairs of non-white sneakers and one is a pair of basic black Chuck Taylors. So when I peeped these new Kayne West designed Louis Vuitton boating inspired shoes I started crying from the perfection (not really... okay well maybe a little bit).

I was going to pay down my credit card but...


Source: KanyeUniverseCity: TIME TO CRASH YOUR INTERNET SERVER….

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Re-appropriation and "Arab Money"

So I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, but the tangled web of "Arab Money" keeps getting crazier and more complicated.

First up, I was having dinner at a friends house and he was telling me that while teaching his undergrad class they started talking about "Arab Money" and whether it was offensive and if so how. The responses were mixed but one story stuck in my head. One of the young women told the class that she went out to a hip hop club and that while she was on line a Hummer pulled up blasting "Arab Money" and a "bunch of young Arabs" rolled out "really feeling themselves. That was their song."

There is something interesting about that story in terms of the way that certain forms of self/re-appropriation are playing out as a desire for visibility and recognition in mainstream hip hop culture. That brings us to our second serving of food for thought...



Bless' comedy remix/redo "Hebrew Money." Bless plays on a number of tropes about Jews, money, and spend thrift.

I haven't worked it out yet but there is an interesting triangulation between Arabs, Blacks, and Jews around issues of race, class, and relationships with money and hip hop culture that "Arab Money" and all its various permutations brings to the fore. Its especially interesting to have a song explicitly talking about glamorous images of "Arab life" at a time when Palestinians are experiencing such danger and terror.

Friday, January 9, 2009

I Love Asher Roth



This is Asher Roth performing his song "I Love College" on the Carson Daily Show (I didn't even know Carson Daily had a show but thats cool). Any hip-hop-ish song about beer bonging and beer ponging gets a stamp of approval in my book. I'm also really feeling that the song samples Weezer's "Say it Ain't So" which in my opinion is the ultimate small liberal arts school anthem, at least it was at Oberlin where I went to undergrad.

The remix with Jim Jones is tight...he compares Harlem to College...

Asher Roth feat. Jim Jones - I Love College (Harlem Mix)

Kid Sister is My New Hero


In an interview with Pitchfork Kid Sister spoke about how much she hates Usher's song "Trading Spaces." Pitchfork said, "I take it Usher will not be on your album." To which Kid Sister replied, "I'm gonna fart on Usher! Don't print that...actually it's ok. He deserves it!"

I love a lady who isn't scared to fart on a popular r&b singer.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Is Sasha Fierce Paris is Burning?





So over the holidays I went gay bar hopping with some of my boys (shout out to No Parking and Splash) and was reminded just how much the gays love Beyonce.

It was shaking my left hand in the air like an ass to "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" that made me truly appreciate a quote from "the Naomi Campbell of the Art World" aka Terence Koh. In the year in review issue of New York magazine the artist said,"Sasha Fierce, please watch Paris Is Burning and ask yourself, 'Am I Paris is Burning?'"

classic.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Judiny: "Quien Mato El Hip Hop Dominicano?"



Looks like Dominicanos are calling DOA as well.

Judiny's track points to a number of suspects implicated in Dominican Hip Hop's death including repetitive sounds, tiraeras, and materialism just to name a few.

What is especially interesting is the comments section of this video. A lot of commentors are making statements about race, region, and language, and calling Judiny and Dominican hip hop inauthentic.

Check out the track and the comments and hit me up with some thoughts.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Skillz 2008 Rap Up



Just in case you missed any of it...

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Soulja Boy on NaS & Hip Hop is Dead



Happy New Year Mi Gente!

I'm back with some food for thought from my favorite case study Soulja Boy. As long as Soulja Boy is making video's and running his mouth hip hop academics will be in business.

I've been working on a piece recently about the current crisis in hip hop in the aftermath of NaS' statement that "Hip Hip is Dead." In particurlar I'm interested in how regional and generational divides are encapsulated in that discourse. Soulja Boy touches on a lot of those themes in this video. Soulja Boy tends to say some stupid ass stuff like thanking the slave masters for allowing him to "get all this ice," but not for nothing he is definitely holding older hip hop heads accountable for the current state of hip hop.

Shout out to my boy Elliott for forwarding this clip along.