My Philosophy

If it seems like I’ve spilled a few quarts of ink on Sportn’ Life
Records over the last few (and I am not paying for the dry cleaning,
y’all), it’s only because in my ever so humble opinion there is not
a more exiting collective in town right now. Fresh-out MC Fatal
Lucciauno is a riot-making behemoth (who’s opening for Wu-Tang Clan
at the Sho-Do December 1 with Scribes and Graves),
Spaceman wields one of the town’s illest voices (shades of the
Rockness Monsta) and rock-star-level charisma, and D.Black‘s
sage self-discovery has given the MC, father, and Sn’L co-owner an
arresting dimension and depth—”God Like” from White Van
Music and a new sampler of material cut from his upcoming
Rejuvenation LP testify to that. The Life is shutting shit down,
quite literally—its recent showcase at the Sunset came to a
rather unexpected end when power in a three-block radius suddenly
shut down right before Black hit the stage. Thankfully it was just
a run-of-the-mill blackout and not the jump-off of the imminent
zombie apocalypse; as Hov once said: Lights out niggas!

You can also catch Space at High Dive on November 28, with fellow
Lifer SK, bossy Young Soprano, Jay Barz,
Gameboy, Ripynt, Json, DJ Rise, and Mic
Phenom (joined by Street Academy‘s Logics, who
reports that his solo debut, When All Else Fails, is coming
soon). Phenom (that’s fuh-nom, not fee-nom), well known for the
heaps of emotional abuse he regularly hands out to foes in
put-some-money-on-it street battles (check them YouTubes), is the
favorite for the 206’s coveted 2008 About Fucking Time award for
prepping his mixtape The Day the Earth Stood Still. Klaatu
barada nikto! Really doe.

The next edition of the Corner is on November 29 (at the Rendezvous,
of course), with Chi-town MC Soul, Petty P, Tulsi, and my
man Redskin the General—yep, Blockburners are
definitely in the building, as you should be. Make sure you check out
that video for Redskin’s “Headhuntin” and download his dope Kay
Slay–hosted, B-Mello-mixed Warrior Status mixtape from the General’s MySpace(/redskinthegeneral).

El Corazón is yet another building you’ll want to be in come
December 3, if you like Young Buck (along with fellow Young-ster
Soprano, Logics, Diggz Dimes)—and who
doesn’t? Just for the love of everything you may consider holy, make
sure you do not go there the night before, lest your senses be assailed
by the artificial, MTV-created douche-rap stylings of Shwayze. I
mean Cisco fucking Adler—really? What is this, the
renaissance of worthless celebrity-spawn? Shwayze’s not even credible
as far as so-called “hipster rap”; these guys make Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes look like Willie “Read These Nikes”
D from the freaking Geto Boys. Play witcha mama, Shwayze!