ERBODY DANCE-U!

Al: I’m not going to front like I am the best dancer in the world, but I can’t help but feel that I’m Usher fuckin’ Raymond if I go to a non-Filipino party that has dancing involved. If there are Filipino people there dancing, best believe I am going to lean against the wall with a Sprite. We are silently judging your bounce, and I don’t need that shit from my fellow people.

Dancing Threats By Ethnicity:

1) Filipino
2) African-Americans
17) Vietnamese

Onions, onions, onions, onions…

Long: Possibly one of the greatest city culture anthems I’ve heard in the last ten years, we might as all well live in Chicago with “Dennehy”. I love the city hype song, especially when it comes with as much humility and love as this. This is not the alternate (and unrecognizable) gangster universe that “California Love” was nor is this the empty braggadocio posturing that was Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz in “Uptown.”

I’ve never been able to Chicago, yet I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve grown up there somehow. Blame it on the nostalgic samples, “I have an Uncle like this” vibe, and name drops that only people well versed in Chicago lore would get. It’s the equivalent of an entire episode of No Reservations smashed into Family Matters condensed into 4 minutes.

Favorite coach Adelman, anchor Mendonsa,  favorite team the Kings, 2002, we could have had them rings…

Put Your Backpacks Back On

Al: Admittedly, I’ve fallen out of love with hip-hop. By that I mean, I don’t frequent forums like I did in the past to argue the merits of Jay-Z’s catalogue, or convince strangers to believe that Guru is an awful rapper. I also just don’t check for the music like I used to. It kind of bums me out, but there’s nothing that’s really grabbed me as of late.

However, I’m starting to feel like 2009 is going to mark the resurgence of emcees that are out to body motherfuckers on songs. A return to lyricism if you will. Case in point, just look how Eminem completely obliterated everybody on the “Forever” track. You can just tell that he was out for blood, and the format of that song (with Eminem going last) was picture perfect in how he showed everybody what the game’s been missing for years. You have Drake, Weezy, and Kanye (3 guys who are arguably at the forefront of hiphop…and that was just awful to type) being their typical vanilla selves, and then Eminem makes them an afterthought after 16 bars. The game has just been way too cute in my opinion, and a motivated Marshall Mathers seemed set out to destroy all that adorable shit with what I consider the absolute best flow in hip hop.

Raekwon’s “Only Built 4 Cubam Linx Pt. 2″ doing considerably well on the sales charts and living up to the namesake of that particular franchise, and Slaughterhouse catching some pretty good buzz makes me think that change gon’ come in the next couple of years.

DANCE-SU. (Slighty NSFW)

Al: The always glorious nation of Nippon has a tendency to take aspects & hobbies from different cultures, and then work really hard towards  improving upon the original design, or repackage it in a way that makes dumbasses like myself salivate with my dollars out. It’s why those kids from Saitama are always laying the hurt on every country that participates in the Little League World Series, or why my girlfriend’s Corolla will never die.

In sum, Japan just has a tendency to make shit cooler, but sometimes they take things and transform it into something that scores  a 14 the unintentional funny scale.

Up dharma Down: Bipolar

So good I didn't even pirate it...or my Mom asked me what I wanted from the Philippines and asked my cousin to get it for me.

Al: I’m a bit ashamed to say that I’m more familiar with music from other Asian countries than I am with the music from my homeland (the non-U.S. one). I know Utada & m-flo from Japan. I have a Twins CD for no good reason, and I have the first Hyolee CD because the insert (guffaw) photos rule and Hyolee is overall a bangin’ woman. My exposure to OPM (Original Pilipino Music) though is very limited. I know of two Lea Salonga songs, and I know that Wowowee is a show that generates feelings of embarrassment and discomfort. In all seriousness, I’ve discovered Moonstar88 and Eraserheads over the years, with the latter still getting serious play in the iTunes after all this time. Think Weezer but in Tagalog. However, none of those bands have really captured my ear the way Up dharma Down has.