Every day of my life, my inbox gets flooded with e-mails from PR people pitching me singles, videos, mixtapes, et cetera—which I immediately delete with extreme prejudice, knowing I'll soon see those same items posted to blogs, to my social-media feeds and such. Why does the so-called news feel no different from this? Like, what am I supposed to be scared of right this moment? (ISIS, or ISIL if ya nasty.) What am I supposed to be angry about? Newly discovered (there's a new one every day!) security lapses in the Obama White House? (Surely not the non-indictment of the cop who shot and killed John Crawford in an Ohio Walmart, or the dropped charges for the one who shot and killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones.) What am I supposed to be REALLY scared of? Ebola, duh. It's a scary horror-movie disease that did stellar numbers on its most recent African campaign—and it's now made its way here, after US Patient Zero was released from a Dallas-area hospital. Hilarious! You can't make up shit like this—at least not without a couple hours and a Michael Crichton manuscript. Meanwhile, gathered military forces in Missouri are running drills on how to quash the rebellion expected when Darren Wilson gets not so much as a scuff on his Sketchers. Yeah, I know, I got my tinfoil hat on right now, but shit, y'all forgave Pharrell, right?

The US also apparently "forgave" Cape Town, South Africa, resident Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), after it was reported that the rapper was denied entrance into the Home of the Free back in May, leading him to cancel a US tour. He nonetheless popped up at a show in NYC in July—and most importantly, he will be at the Showbox at the Market on Wednesday, October 8, with Raz Simone and Portland-based singer Lilla. (Can I get a "Boogie man!") Whatever was the real reason that Bey canceled his tour then—it was assumed by a few that it was due to US government response to a 2013 video, in which he underwent a good ol' by-the-book force-feeding, Guantanamo Bay style, to protest what the US does to its illegal detainees. For me to call it merely hard to watch would be an understatement—but then a lot of y'all watch that Human Centipede shit for fun. Also for fun on October 8—over at the Neptune, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist play classic records from Afrika Bambaataa's personal record collection. For, it's worth noting, probably a helluva lot more money than Bambaataa could get by spinning them. Now, Shadow and CC are high-level practitioners, obviously, and this is all to honor the legend and Zulu Nation founder, one of the very architects of hiphop culture, and Bam blessed the proceedings. Still, isn't that kinda the most colonizer-ass shit you ever heard? Uh, at least just in the realm of hiphop? Um... in the last five minutes? Okay. Also of interest is the fact that Boston's Edan (with Paten Locke) is coming along as well—though I highly doubt he'll be doing a faithful rendition of his 2005 psych-indie-rap classic Beauty and the Beat. Can't win 'em all. Or any, sometimes.