I'm severely not looking forward to 2016. Can we just cancel the rest of this year before it gets any worse—and it surely will have by the time this sees print—and pause? Just, like, slide into some kind of null state indefinitely, effective immediately? What I'm saying is, can we somehow defer the actual passing of any more time? While this would mean missing Star Wars and Captain America: Civil War, we'd also miss the War on Blacks and the war in Syria. Looking at it like that, I think my FOMO could probably handle that. I have unfortunately arranged my life in such a way that I cannot simply stay in bed the majority of the day, which is kind of a lifestyle change, and not one I'm super thrilled with. You live and you learn (hopefully).
A couple weeks back, I noted that Tacoma's King Leez had joined up with Raz Simone's Black Umbrella movement, a great move in my opinion (peep the "Missin" video to see where that's heading). Now it appears that the criminally underrated Malitia MaliMob have done so as well, according to the press release accompanying the release of MMM's "Wake Up Call" video. The Mob—usually a duo but still temporarily slimmed down to just the super-hyphy rasp of Chino'o in the wake of J-Krown's arrest and bid (after being shot from behind by SPD)—have seen national press via a Noisey profile, and been around the country playing shows with Shabazz Palaces and THEESatisfaction, literally flying their flag as proud sons of Somalia.
For some reason, they've never really seemed to be fully embraced or included in the local rap reindeer games, which makes them a perfect fit for Black Umbrella's sorta self-sufficient misfit MO—and helps to further cement BU one of the Northwest's strongest collectives.
I've heard new music from Fatal Lucciauno that sounds like his best to date—King Leez just gets better, and now this. MMM's ISIS release (yeah, they called it that) still holds up, and "Wake Up Call," from their upcoming Sport & Coke, balances the sample's sunniness with some appropriately dire urgency. I admire how Raz is willing to alienate some of his fan base to express himself—and is down to go to bat for his partners doing the same. Not purely treating art like a lick or a micromanaged business plan to further a brand—who knew that was even a thing anymore?
Also still a thing: Rhymesayers Entertainment, which recently celebrated 20 years of existence with a blowout show in Minneapolis's Target Center arena featuring every act they'd ever signed, including Boom Bap Project, Grayskul, Grieves, Jake One, and Kimya Dawson. I think of the homies who just got to play for 20K people, and how important RSE was to an entire indie circuit, let alone the Seattle acts they put on, and want to extend a heartfelt thanks—to them and to everybody who connected those dots. Okay. Back to bed for me. Green star: 
