Straight Trippin'

NACOTHEQUE BACK TO DOIN’ IT OLD SKOOL

An Official Announcement from Nacotheque Producers and Resident DJs
AMYLULITA & MARCELO CUNNING

NEW YORK, NY - After two years of awesome nights every second and fourth Saturday at Fontana's in NYC the producers have decided to go back to doin’ it old skool. Originally Nacotheque was a mobile, underground, alternative Latin dance party in NYC where producers Marcelo Cunning and Amylu Meneses put together special one-off parties wherever and whenever. After about a year and half of club hopping Nacotheque was invited to start a bi-month party at Fontana’s and called it home ever since. After October 2009 there won't be anymore pre-scheduled monthly parties at Fontana's.

“We’re not ending Nacotheque. Just going back to doing it when there’s something special to celebrate like an album release party that we really love or an after-party for a band we love.” Says Amylu. The producers will be taking this time to focus on other projects as well as catching up on some much needed sleep. "Thanks to everyone that has supported us in our 3+ years of existence. We've met lots of amazing people and we have nothing but good memories behind the parties. But don't fret, it's not the last you've seen of us." Says Marcelo.

The last four official monthly parties at Fontana’s will be on Saturday, September 12th - the official Hello Seahorse! “Bestia” album release party with guest DJ Carlos Tropicaza (Los Fancy Free), Saturday September 26th - TBA, Saturday, October 10th - special live performance by the leader singer of Porter JUAN SON, and October 24th - the Nacotheque Halloween Costume party with a very special live performance by Mexico City’s reina of anarchy cumbia AMANDITITITA. She’ll be filming scenes for her next music video during the party!

Again, we repeat Nacotheque is NOT ending!! The Nacotheque producers will continue planning special one-off parties in NYC when the time is right; continue participating in special gigs out of town, as well as starting up some other fun projects. Stay tuned!

Location: Fontana’s (in the basement) - 105 Eldridge St btwn Broome & Grand St.
Time: 11:00PM – 4AM
Age Limit: 21+ w/ ID
OPEN BAR: 11pm - 12am SVEDKA Vodka

Live performances & guest DJs for Sept & Oct:
Sept, 12 – Hello Seahorse! “Bestia” release party + guest DJ Carlos Tropicaza (Los Fancy Free)
Sept, 26 – TBA
Cover: $5 at the door

Oct, 10 – Juan Son
Oct, 26 – Amandititita (also filming scenes for her new music video)
Cover: $10 at the door

Skinny Jeans: The Movement

The New Boyz address Jerkin' Fashion specifically in the following video clips. I think their commentary about how the 80's influenced them is really interesting. Throw back with swag...







Revenge of the Nerds... I love it!

Tim Wise on Race and the Healthcare Protests

*tip of the fitted to Racialicious

Juleieta Venegas: "Bestia"

Julieta Venegas remixed Hello Seahorse's quiet hit "Bestia."

♫♫♫ "Bestia" (Julieta Venegas Remix)

Check out the original:

De La Ghetto: "Tu Eres La Mejor"

De La Ghetto remakes Drake's "Best I Ever Had"

Guelo Star: "Muerte Al Auto-tune"

zSHARE - Guelo Star - Muerte al Auto-Tune.mp3

Guelo Star's version of Jay-Z's "D.O.A."

Gay, Gay, Gay (Gay) [And More Gay].

"I’m gay. My music is gay. My show is gay. And I love that it’s gay. And I love my gay fans and they’re all going to be coming to our show. And it’s going to remain gay."

- Lady Gaga tells Kanye West what to expect when she opens for him.

*Tip of the fitted to Mun2

"vamos a ver aqui quien es quien"

The evolution of toasting and the tiraera, from Fania to 12 Discipulos.

Blue Scholars: Hi-808

I love Blue Scholars! They stay holding it down for social activist hip-hop. I love how effortlessly they throw in references to A/PA figures and history next to lines about "smoke signals from those Maui trees." If you don't have any of their albums I strongly recommend them all. Genius.

Dancehall Hipsterism: "Pon De Floor"

The official video for Major Lazer's "Pon De Floor" (featuring Vybz Kartel).

The electro-dancehall beat of this song is wild. It seems like the electro vibe is gaining a lot of momentum in new reggaeton, dancehall, and hip hop tracks along with videos with a "hipster"/day-glo aesthetic. Really really interesting shifts are taking place in "urban" music.

The dances in this video are pretty crazy! Anyone who says that perreo/daggering/grinding takes no skill should take a look at this video because those were some pretty complicated sexualized gymnastics going on!

Fat Joe Responds to LIza Rios

Fat Joe is an idiot.

While he says he doesn't think "a man should raise his hand to a woman," he clearly has a problem when a man does hit a woman and that woman speaks out.

Regardless of whether Liza Rios made some bad decisions financially or not, for Fat Joe to feel comfortable enough on the radio to say that Liza's choice to speak about the violence that Pun inflicted on her and her kids was a "disrespect" (because beating someone with the butt of a gun isn't a disrespect) AND that that is essentially why she deserves what has happened to them IS WRONG.

Fat Joe did nothing but prove how strong the code of silence around issues of domestic abuse is within hip hop. He says he never saw Pun hit her or the kids, but I would imagine that the bruises and cuts caused by the impact of a gun, a lead pipe, or the fists of a 600lb man hitting a woman's face and body would be visible for quite some time. But Fat Joe continues to deny that he knew about the abuse despite the fact that others in Pun's crew have admitted to witnessing the domestic abuse.

Fat Joe is trying to discredit Liza's claims by complaining about how she's "airing dirty laundry," hopefully people will see through his attempts to blame the victim.

"Abusadora" Nominated for VMA Best Pop Video

As Entertainment Weekly's Simon Vozick-Levinson's puts it:

The list of nominees in the Best Pop Video category of this year’s MTV Video Music Awards starts off predictably enough: Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” Britney Spears’ “Womanizer,” Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” Cobra Starship’s “Good Girls Go Bad.” And then there’s the fifth nominee, Wisin y Yandel’s “Abusadora.” Go ahead, fans of those first four artists. We’ll excuse you if you exclaim, “Wisin y who?!“

El Duo de la Historia were the only Latino/a artists nominated for a premio this year, so this is pretty big considering that they are a reggaeton act as opposed to a more straight-forward pop act.

Of course depending on how people view this nomination, this might only lend credence to the claim that reggaeton is dead.

Joel Tenenbaum Gets Hit With A $675K Fine For Downloading Music

This case and verdict is utterly absurd. Our favorite ethnomusicologist Wayne Marshall served as a "Fact Witness" during the case, check out his take on the trail:

WayneandWax.com: Bearing Witness, or Not - Part 1

WayneandWax.com: Bearing Witness, or Not - Part 2

WayneandWax.com: Bearing Witness, or Not - Part 3

Interview with Liza Rios (Big Pun's Wife) on MS Drama TV

MS Drama TV reports "Big Pun's Wife talks about Living in Shelter, Abuse, Fat Joe, & Trying to Survive"

This video is heartbreaking. Shattering the myth of the incredible wealth that hip hop generates for rapper and their families, Liza Rios reveals the fact that her and her children are currently living in a city shelter. After Pun's death his family was left with little financially and those in a position to help them have vanished. Fat Joe who has a financial obligation to the Rios family (especially since he continues to eat off of his association with Pun to this day) refuses to share any of the money that Pun continues to generate, withholding the royalties due to Pun's family.

Liza appeared on E! True Hollywood Stories: Rapper Wives and spoke about her and her children's experiences of abuse at Pun's hands. She also spoke candidly about this in the documentary released a couple of years ago about Pun, Still Not a Player. She has been shunned and even threatened by rappers close to Pun, including Fat Joe.

Apparently no snitching extends to speaking out against domestic violence as well.

Elizabeth M. Berry details the silence around abuse in the hip hop community in her piece for VIBE Magazine "Love Hurts: Rap's Black Eye". In this excerpt from "Love Hurts" about Liza Rios, Berry writes:

Before going to sleep, many little girls pray for a new Barbie, an Xbox game, or a trip to Disney World. At age 7, Vanessa Rios asked only that "Papi would stop hitting Mami." It was May 1999, and Vanessa was staying with her aunt, Penelope Rios Santiago, in Miami. After Santiago overheard her niece's bedtime prayer, she confronted her brother, Christopher Rios. His reaction? It wasn't true, he said.

Though he had much in common with other abusers, Christopher Rios was also different: He was Big Pun, a famous rap star. He first hit his wife, Liza, when she was 16, and over the course of their 10-year relationship, she claims he sent her to the hospital three times and prevented her from seeking needed medical attention on many other occasions. "One time he told me to change the batteries in his beeper," says Liza Rios, now 31. "I totally forgot about it, and he took this lead pipe and started swinging on me. I had my daughter in my arms, and I told Cuban [Link, who was there] to take the baby. After he finished beating me, my elbow was twisted out of place. I was limping for two months."

Each time Rios got up the courage to leave, Pun tracked her down and convinced her to come back to him. "After we got married and he had that paper, it was like he had bought me," she says. Still, though she was financially reliant on him, Rios began to loathe his extravagant displays. "I didn't even enjoy the jewelry, because it was, like, I got the extra bracelet because you punched me extra hard," she says.

Rios did leave Pun twice, but returned both times, and she was with him when he died of a heart attack in 2000. Backed by footage of Pun pistol-whipping her, she and other witnesses described his beatings in the 2002 documentary Big Pun: Still Not a Player, which she co-produced. Many criticized her for going public, among them Fat Joe, who argued that if there was abuse, Pun must've been justified. Others wondered why Rios waited until he died to tell her story.

For some women, speaking out while their abuser is alive is not an option. Murder at the hands of a romantic partner is a leading cause of death among African-American women between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that intimate partner violence in the United States leads to two million injuries annually and nearly 1,300 murders. "I tried to use my life as a testimony. I hope that somebody can learn from this story," Rios says during a phone interview. Another factor motivated Rios: Chris's assaults have had a huge and lasting impact on their children. "My son was smacking my girls up for any little thing," says Rios. "Even though they love Chris, my kids have a lot of anger, too. They still have nightmares, but my son has calmed down a lot. He hasn't hit his sisters in a long time."

Liza has been courageously speaking out against domestic abuse and the lack of financial security that the families of famous rappers often experience for years and has unfortunately often been met with open hostility and contempt. As Liza continues to speak out I just wish that the hip hop community would listen.