The Closer Like Kyra Sedgwick AKA 12 Down, 4 To Go

The Boston Celtics held serve at home and pushed the Pistons backs to the wall for the first time in the postseason. The Pistons were at home and the Celtics only managed to win one game on the road in the playoffs (Game 3) so they were 1-7 on the road. On top of that, the Pistons were 5-0 after losses in the postseason as well.

Most NBA experts and analysts were convinced that Detroit was going to win Game 6 and possibly drop Game 7 back in The Jungle on Sunday. The Celtics saw the Lakers come from behind and finish off the Spurs so they had it in their minds that last night was the night for the Pistons to get got. They needed to be taken off of here. In order to be seen as serious contenders for the 2008 NBA Championship it was important that they closed out the Pistons on the road. The place is here, the time is now they thought to themselves.

Rip Hamilton was ready to go. The Palace was rocking, the rafters were packed with 22,076 folks screaming their heads off. 44,152 eyes were going to either witness the Detroit Pistons save their playoff lives or the Boston Celtics finally pull the proverbial plug on the life support machine. The ball was jumped up and both squads were ready to get it in. Would this be the last time the fans in the D would hear Mason holler "DEEEEETROIT BASKETBAAAAAAAAAL!!!!" and see pyrotechnics and drummers? The C's sure hoped so.

The Celtics were aggressive to start the game and Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett all got early buckets to keep the Pistons on their heels. It because obvious that nothing was wrong with Rip Hamilton or Chauncey Billups. Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins had trouble getting involved in the game and Kevin Garnett's shots weren't falling early.

Kevin Garnett got into early foul trouble and Rajon Rondo seemed to have trouble keep Chauncey Billups in front of him as he got into the paint repeatedly. Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace both struggled mightily from the floor but the Celtics kept fouling the Pistons and sending them to the line. The first quarter ended Boston 24 Detroit 21.

The 2nd quarter was rough going as the play got more physical and the defensive pressure became more intense. The Detroit Pistons began putting together a run and made their push to take the lead but the Celtics fought back and neither team could consistently put the ball in the basket leading to a hard fought but low scoring quarter of play. The game was turning ugly than Clint Howard's baby pictures.

Ray Allen made the lead 29-23 on a well timed long ball but Sam Cassell was once again proving to be ineffective on the offensive and defensive ends of the court. After the Pistons scored the Celtics quickly moved the ball down the court and Ray Allen took a pass and drove. When he was double teamed, he quickly kicked the ball out to a wide open James Posey who was waiting on the ball. Swish! The Celtics went up 32-25.

The tide began to turn when the Celtics failed to score again with the 7 point lead and Rip Hamilton hit a big three pointer from the top corner when it bounced twice on the rim and fell in. Kevin Garnett came in off the bench but the C's still failed to score. After what seemed like an eternity on the other end of the court, the Pistons got a huge offensive rebound and kicked the ball out to a wide open Chauncey Billups for three. Thwap! The lead was down to 1 point. BOS 32 DET 31.


The lead was 34-33 in favor Boston before Leon Powe came in and got a huge offensive board and putback with the foul. Powe hit the free throw to put the Celtics up 37-33. The rest of the half was pretty much a free throw exhibition only stopped by a Paul Pierce drive to the hoop to put the C's back up 39-35. The score at halftime: BOS 40 DET 37.

Both teams knew that this was the time to come out with energy and establish dominance once and for all. This game was a quagmire and now someone needed to move the ball, get easy shots going to the hole and most importantly get stops and turn the other team over. The team that answered the bell first and came out of their corner punching was the Celtics.


First Rondo pushed the ball up and hit Kevin Garnett with a pass and he drilled a wide open jumper. Tayshaun Prince hit a contested jumper on the other end. The Celtics came down and found Kevin Garnett wide open behind the three point line. He missed and Rasheed Wallace got the rebound and made an errant outlet pass that Paul Pierce intercepted and took it right to the hole. On the following possession Chauncey Billups smartly penetrated, stopped and ball faked. Once Rajon Rondo left his feet and made contact with him he left the shot go and he banked it in for a three point play


Paul Pierce got the ball on the low block and drew a foul in the act of shooting. He stepped to the line and knocked down both free throws. Chauncey Billups brought the ball down and hit a wide open Rasheed Wallace behind the line. The rebound bounced off of Hulk's hands into Ray Allen's. He looked up and ran 80 feet, kniving through four Piston defenders for the left handed lay up. The Celtics were up 48-42. It was beginning to look like a ball game out there.

The Celtics and Pistons traded baskets until the lead 54-48 in favor of Boston. It was then that the Pistons came alive (no Peter Frampton) and ran off a 16-4 run powered by Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Jason Maxiell and Antonio McDyess. The Pistons lead was 64-58 before one of the weirdest plays in recent memory occurred that became a sort of turning point in the contest.

Following two Rodney Stuckey free throws, the Celtics came down and moved the ball around between Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to get a clean look at a three. Paul Pierce got a wide open look at the top of the key and threw a ball fake as Rip Hamilton came flying at him at full speed. Pierce waited for the contact and once he got hit he let the ball fly. All net. The audience thought Paul Pierce had gotten an obvious 4 point play initiated. The 3 pointer was even added on the scoreboard but referee Bennett Salvatore waved it off and called a stationary Paul Pierce for an offensive foul because he "initiated the contact". The Celtics bench was in uproar. The fans cheered. Paul Pierce was dumbfounded.

The quarter ended with a Pistons 20-6 run and the Pistons had a 68-60 lead going into the final frame. Flip Saunders told Michelle Tafoya that he expected a Celtics run. I guess Flip's psychic because that's what happened after Detroit pushed the lead to 10 on a Hamilton jumper. First KG hit a long jumper, then after a stop Hulk got a wide open look from Pierce and finished with the and one. A free throw followed that cut the Pistons lead in half (70-65).

The C's got another stop and an ineffective Rasheed Wallace (4 pts on 2-12 from the field, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 TO's and 5 fouls in 32 minutes for a team low -15 on the night) fouled Kevin Garnett in the paint while he was shooting. KG knocked down both free throws to bring the lead down to 3 (70-67). The Celtics defense forced another turnover and Kevin Garnett got on the low block and hit a huge turnaround jumper over Maxiell. The lead wad down to 1 (70-69). Paul Pierce was fouled hard twice putting Detroit in the penalty. He hit a free throw to tie the game at 70.

While setting up the offense, Kendrick Perkins managed to pick Rip Hamilton's pocket and he alertly outletted the ball to a streaking Rajon Rondo. He got the ball to a wide open Posey for a three. No dice. The Pistons got the ball to Maxiell on the low block where he hit the turnaround jumper. Rondo hit Garnett for a long jumper to tie it up at 72. Jasion Maxiell hit a fadeaway jumper in the paint. 74-72. Paul Pierce got the ball at the top of the key and slashed his way into the paint, he went into the spin cycle, got hacked by McDyess and made a falling layup. And one. The game was now tied. The free throw fell in to give the Celtics a 75-74 lead with 5:25 left in the game.

On the following possession Rajon Rondo jumped and stole a lazy Rasheed Wallace pass and sprinted down the court. He circled the wagons and found Paul Pierce. Paul then settled into his patented wet 15-18 foot jumper from the bottom corner to push the lead to 77-74. Rasheed Wallace got the ball on the low block against Hulk hoping to stop the bleeding. He managed to get a good look but Perk came away with the board and the C's worked the ball down the Pierce who got fouled in the paint. He hit both free throws to push the lead to 79-74.

A Wallace jumper in the paint made the lead 79-76. Kevin Garnett worked his way into the paint and shot over Chauncey Billups to push the lead back to 5 at 81-76. The Celtics got a huge stop and they walked the ball down the court. The clock was the Pistons enemy and their fans were anxiously hoping that they could stop the bleeding and put together a run. The Celtics moved the ball around with the shot clock running down until they hit a wide open Rajon Rondo near the bottom corner of the court. He let it fly. Nothing but net. The Celtics were up 83-76 with 2:32 left in the game. Several Piston "fans" packed their shit and promptly made for the exits.

Chauncey Billups immediately tricked Rondo into a three point play to cut the lead down to 83-79 after the free throw. Boston got the ball down to their end with a couple of possessions but failed to score both times. The clock was down to 1:45 and the Pistons had possession down by only 4 points. Tayshaun Prince held the ball while his teammates made their way upcourt, this allowed James Posey to sneak up from behind and punch the ball loose. He gathered in the ball and gave it to Paul Pierce who held the ball until Rip Hamilton tackled him and put him at the line. Pierce hit both freebies to make it an 85-79 lead with 1:35 left in the game. More Piston "fans" started looking for an egress.

Chauncey Billups drove hard to the hole where he was met and turned away by The Hulk. Tayshaun Prince came up with the ball and hit a wide open Billups for a corner three that hit the front of the rim and bounced right into Kevin Garnett's hands. As he passed the ball to Rajon Rondo who then handed off to Paul Pierce and brought the ball up even more people began to file out of the building. After a time out, the C's got the clock under a minute but threw up an air ball from deep.

The Pistons got the rebound with the clock running down and Rip Hamilton once again front rimmed another three attempt right into Garnett's hands. He quickly passed the ball to Ray Allen who they wouldn't foul and he whipped the ball to KG with 36.6 seconds left on the clock. He missed both attempts but the mass exodus out of The Palace had already begun even though the game wasn't yet over.

Rasheed Wallace missed another three and Paul Pierce went to the line and made one. After a Stuckey miss at the other end, Ray Allen was fouled and knocked down two with 22.5 left to make it 88-79. A final Pierce free throw at 15.9 and a Garnett offensive rebound on a missed attempt closed the door on the Detroit Pistons season in grand fashion. After ten seasons in a Celtic jersey The Truth finally gets his shot at a title. His boy Antoine Walker got his ring in 2006 and now it's P's turn.

The Celtics could've folded after that phantom foul call but they gutted it out and decided to lay it all on the line and play like champions. They went on a 29-13 run in the 4th quarter powered by James Posey's defense on Chauncey Billups. He made huge plays and in 20 minutes of play he held Chauncey Billups to 2-6 in the 4th quarter and ended at a team best +14 for the night.

Pierce ended with 27 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Ray Allen chipped in 17 points and 6 rebounds and Kevin Garnett added 16 points 6 rebounds and 4 assists to round out the big three. Rondo (11 pts 4 off reb 3 ast) and Hulk (7 pts 7 reb 2 blk 2 stl and +13 overall) also came up big. Billups (29 pts 6 reb 6 ast) and Hamilton (21 pts 4 ast 2 blk) were huge but Wallace, Prince (10 pts) and McDyess pretty much disappeared when they were needed the most.

It's what we waited for all season long. Boston vs. L.A. in a no holds barred battle for ultimate basketball supremacy. I love this game!


Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Boston, MA @ TD Banknorth Garden
June 5th, 2008 @ 9:00 EST ABC
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (1) Los Angeles Lakers


Ubuntu! © Boston Celtics

Get a good seat, Spike!

One.

What's New In Dart's iPod #32 AKA The Review Blog About Nothing

The Lakers beat the old and decrepit San Antonio Spurs to win the Western Conference Championship in 5 games and the Boston Celtics are hoping to close out the Pistons in Detroit tonight. This past week we also lost one of the best emcees in the underground Hip Hop scene, Camu Tao (MHz, Weathermen). I can remember hearing Camu on some many of those great joints during the Backpack Era that it's hard to grasp that anyone that young could pass away. Cancer ain't no joke, people.

Technorati is all fucked up so my posts aren't getting picked up and my authority dropped from 87 to 60. I don't care about that so much...what bothers me is that Favorites are down so I have to go search all of my 165 favorite blogs manually...that's fuckin' ghey. What they hell is up with Technorati? It's been falling apart slowly all month long.

The four projects I'm reviewing today are as follows and will be reviewed in order of listing: Kaze "Block 2 The Basement", Craig G & Marley Marl "Operation: Take Back Hip Hop", Jean Grae & 9th Wonder "Jeanius" and Wale "A Mixtape About Nothing". For those of you new to the party, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here's how my "Cop It Or Not" ratings system breaks down below:


Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.

Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it's in your lane or not.

Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops...'Nuff said.

I don't push the envelope/I push the whole post office! © Chino XL


Kaze is an associate of the North Carolina based collective The Justus League. He’s recorded a few projects in the past with 9th Wonder (Spirit Of ‘94 & several guest spots) and he released a different version of this mixtape before in 2007. Now it’s been retooled, extra tracks have been added and Rawkus is distributing it as part of their Rawkus 50 campaign. Does it still bang? Let’s see:

Best Joints: The Grudge, (Wolves In The Gutter), Silent Ones, Immaculate, Ride Wit Me, Paperwork, I Got Soul, You Call That Gangsta, You Don’t Know, Real Life, The Darkside, Dynasty, The Stereotype (Remix), I Was Raised On It (The 80’s), So Real, Black Man Worldwide, Genuine, Dear God (Trouble At Home), The Quickening, We Want It All

Hot Garbage: Burn It Up

Dart’s Take: With the amendments and it getting a proper release in stores and digitally this mixtape only got better. Kaze comes harder than the typical rappity rap cats you might associate with the Justus League normally. The production is solid throughout and lyrically Kaze doesn’t slack off. He varies it up and shows off his versatility as well witch tracks like “Real Life”, “The Stereotype”, “You Call That Gangsta” and “Dear God (Trouble At Home)”.

Tracks like “I Got Soul”, “Paperwork”, “I Was Raised On It (The 80’s)” and “So Real” are definite headnodders, the only misstep is “Burn It Up” which sound like Kaze and crew were trying too hard to make a club banger. This LP gets a mos def from me. Seek it out.




Last year, Marley Marl hooked up with KRS One and made an eye opening collabo called “Hip Hop Lives”. Can lightning strike twice as Marley Marl steps behind the boards this go ‘round with Juice Crew member Craig G as the Master Of Ceremonies. Will this project hold the attention of Hip Hop heads today? Find out below:

Best Joints: Reintroduction, Quality Work, Made The Change, Deep Down, We Gets It In, Just What I Need, All Seasons, War Going On, Open Ya Eyes, Regrets, Not A Word, Rock Dis

Hot Garbage: Skates, Stay In Ya Lane and Don’t Make Me Laugh didn’t do it for me. Actually, most of these songs were just okay.

Dart’s Take: This album is a’ight but it didn’t make me scrunch up my face once. My head wasn’t bobbing to many of these tracks, I was just listening intently and patiently on a banger, I didn’t replay one track on this entire project.

They were only about 4 solid tracks but the rest were just slightly forgettable background music, sorry to say (the Sadat X track was disappointing to say the least). It wasn’t wack but not too much stood out to me. I was a good solid 6.5 out of 10 all the way through...and I don’t rate on a numeric scale like that. I can’t do better than a maybe for this project.




Jean Grae & 9th Wonder’s long awaited collaboration “Jeanius” finally got a release date and a bunch of creative covers. Is it still as ill as I remember it being? Will Jean Grae call it a career and never release her highly anticipated “Phoenix” LP on Blacksmith/Warner? Will Rip Hamilton play in the game tonight with his hurt elbow? Find out below (except for Rip’s elbow, that is):

Best Joints: Intro, 2 32’s, Don’t Rush Me, My Story, The Time Is Now, Billy Killer, Think About It, 8, American Pimp, This World, Love Thirst, Desperada, Smashmouth

Hot Garbage: N/A (It sucks that this album took 4 years to finally get a proper release)

Dart’s Take: The first time I heard this album back when it first leaked in 2004 on AllHipHop.com I thought it was dope. I marvelled at how Jean Grae murdered every verse and made 9th Wonder’s production even better than what it was. I was looking forward to the proper version dropping and being viewed as a damn near classic project. Never happened...that was 4 years ago!

Now with rumors abound that Jean Grae wants to quit the game (she’s threatened to quit so many times over the past 10 years it’s hard to take seriously. Ask Mr. Len or Pumpkinhead for proof) and she’s supposedly heated that the “LoveThirst” video was released. I say “supposedly” because Jean is a reputed pratical joker, when she wrote her “farewell” blog in the picture she poster I swear it said “Sike” on her fingers.

With all that said, “Jeanius” is sheer genius. I thought so when I had shitty quality audio versions of the tracks and they’re 10x better now. I can’t give this anything but a mos def. Go forth and cop it now that you actually can.




Ever since it turned 2008 people have been waiting for Allido/Interscope signee Wale to drop his Seinfeld inspired mixtape titled “A Mixtape About Nothing”. His "100 Miles And Running" mixtape with Nick Catchdubs really opened the eyes of a lot of sleepers in 2007. Since it’s so heavily anticipated I won’t waste anymore time and I’ll just launch into it. My review is just below:

Best Joints: The Opening Title Sequence, The Roots Song Wale Is On (Rising Down), The Feature Heavy Song (Back In The Go Go), The Freestyle (Roc Boys), The Perfect Plan, The Kramer, The Crazy, The Vacation From Ourselves, The Remake Of A Remake, The Grown Up, The Manipulation, The Artistic Integrity, The Star, The Skit (Untz Untz), The Cliche Lil Wayne Feature (Nike Boots Remix), The BMore Club Slam, The Chicago Falcon Remix, The Hype, The End Credits

Hot Garbage: N/A

Dart’s Take: Heads have been waiting for this mixtape for several months now and Wale does not disappoint the listener one bit. This is an excellent mixtape from top to bottom. I had to give “The Kramer” a couple of rewinds because it was so well executed (Nas, I’m looking at you!), I gave the following tracks a reload as well: “The Vacation From Ourselves”, “The Grown Up”, “The Manipulation”, “The Artistic Integrity (4x)”, “The Star”, “The Hype” and “The End Credits”.

Wale’s creativity and lyricism when matched with The Best Kept Secret’s production makes for a good combination like Positive K and LG. “The Mixtape About Nothing” gets a mos def. Download it here




Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):




Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:

Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:

Skillz-Million Dollar Backpack
Joe Budden-Padded Room
Rhymefest-El Che
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light

Big Boi-Sir Luscious Leftfoot
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
Immortal Technique-The 3rd World
Blu-God Is Good

Termanology-Politics As Usual
Sean Price, Guilty Simpson & Black Milk-Random Axe
Platinum Pied Pipers-Abundance
Method Man & Redman-Blackout 2
Redman-Muddy Waters 2

B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.

The Alchemist-Chemical Warfare
Billy Danze-Behind Gatez
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Baatin-Titus
Common-Invincible Summer
Omen-Be The Judge
Capone-N-Noreaga-Reporting The War
Phat Kat and Elzhi are Cold Steel
Heltah Skeltah-D.I.R.T (Da Incredible Rap Team)


Dart's Fat Tape/CD-R (as of May 30th, 2008):

I Was Raised On It (The 80's)-Kaze
City Lights-Bishop Lamont (prod. by DJ Khalil)
Desperada-9th Wonder & Jean Grae (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Girls Talk-Che Grand
I'm Coming-Chino XL (prod. by DJ Khalil)
The Artistic Integrity-Wale (prod. by Best Kept Secret)
Live Like I'm Dying-Sha Stimuli (prod. by Dao Jones)
Skeletons-Gemstones f/Sarah Green
E! Channel-Elucid f/Suzanne Vega (prod. by DNA)
I Keep It Gutter Like-Lupe Fiasco f/Stack Bundles
Lost In Transit-Currensy (prod. by Nesby Phips)
On A Cloud-Platinum Pied Pipers f/Karma (prod. by Waajeed)
We Gets It In-Craig G. & Marley Marl f/Talib Kweli (prod. by Marley Marl)
Gangstas Theme-Custom Made
Can We Hang Out Tonight?-Count Bass D (prod. by Count Bass D)
Say Goodnight-Reks (prod. by DJ Premier)
Get Off My Dick-Bishop Lamont (prod. by Tha Bizness)
Angel-Platinum Pied Pipers f/Coultrain (prod. by Waajeed)
Don't Rush Me-9th Wonder & Jean Grae (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Naturally-Mickey Factz f/Jade
Children Sing-Pace Won And Mr. Green (prod. by Mr. Green)
Paperwork-Kaze f/Royce Da 5'9"
Keep Comin'-K.Hill f/Shabaam Sahdeeq, Supastition, Torae & Tiffany Paige (prod. by K. Hill)
The Hacksaw Jim Duggan-Wale f/Skyzoo (prod. by Best Kept Secret)
Rock The Spot (All Star Remix)-Bash Bros. f/Sean Price, Rakaa (Dilated Peoples), Reef The Lost Cauze, Verbal Kent, Motion Man, Charlie 2na (Jurassic 5) and Rapper Big Pooh (Little Brother)


Ubuntu! © Boston Celtics

Go Celtics! Close 'em out in the D tonight!

One.

Jesus Saves

The Celtics played one of their worst games of the season on Monday night. They shot 32% from the floor, turned over the ball twice as much as the Pistons and and they could only manage 12 assists all night in a 94-75 loss. The question was on everyone's mind "Which Celtics team would show up tonight?". Ray Allen was once again ineffective as were the rest of the squad. Even though the Celtics were completely inept at both ends of the court the Pistons still couldn't put the C's away until the very end of the contest.

The Celtics allowed Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell to hurt them again and again and Kevin Garnett couldn't even catch the ball in the post to help initiate their offense. With the series tied up at 2-2, the Celtics had to re-establish their home court dominance and possibly push the Pistons to the brink of elimination. The ball was jumped up and the battle for Eastern Conference dominance was joined.

It took both teams a while to get into a groove but one thing was apparent from the outset, Kendrick "The Hulk" (not KP43) Perkins had shown up to play tonight. He's had quite a few monster games this season but one was really needed from him Wednesday night. If the ball came off the rim, then Hulk came down with it. He also provided some offensive punch while Garnett was trying to get going in the post.

Once Kevin Garnett finally found his offense and Rajon Rondo began to impose his will on the game. Shortly thereafter, the Pistons came alive and the Celtics had a few mental lapses including leaving Rasheed Wallace wide open for 3 three pointers which he knocked down. Oddly enough, Wallace wanted no parts of Kendrick Perkins in the paint so he just hovered around the stripe all night.

The first quarter ended in a 23-23 tie after a controversial block on Perkins by Tayshaun Prince. The Pistons came out energized in the 2nd quarter and put together a run while the hapless Celtic defense could do nothing but foul them again and again. Sam Cassell was given the quick hook after turning over the ball twice, the Celtics committed 9 turnovers in the first 15 minutes of the game as the Pistons took a 33-25 lead with 9:00 left in the half.

Rajon Rondo immediately got the offense kickstarted by turning his man over and getting out into transition to get two back to back buckets. The big play was Kevin Garnett's emphatic dunk over Theo Ratliff. The Pistons took a quick time out in an attempt to stem the tide as the momentum was swinging over to the Celtics' side. The teams traded baskets for a while but Garnett was scoring with more frequency in the paint.

On a fast break, Rondo hit Ray Allen with a long pass and he drove to the hole and got a layup with 5:35 left in the half to give him his first easy points of the game. It cut the Pistons lead to 38-35. The game was touch and go until Rajon Rondo found Paul Pierce in the corner for a wide open three pointer to bring the lead down to 1. Kevin Garnett forced Billups to shoot a long three which came off the rim into Rondo's hands. He pushed the ball up court and hit a wide open Ray Allen in rhythm for the three point attempt. Bottom. The Celtics went up 44-42 with 3:19 left in the half.

The play of Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett sparked a 16-4 run to end the first half. Hulk ended the half with 12 points and 13 rebounds and the Celtics were outrebounding the Pistons 28-11 halfway through the game (he outrebounded the entire Pistons team by himself). The Celtics had 15 fast break points to the Pistons' 3. The Celtics were officially on a roll, all they had to do was find a way to sustain it.

The Celtics came out aggressive to start the 3rd quarter, they turned the Pistons over and forced them to foul. Several of the Pistons got into foul trouble trying to match Perkins (18 pts 16 reb 2 blk 2 stl) and Rondo's energy. The Celtics pushed the lead up to 13 before the Pistons were able to bring the lead down to 8 with a Rasheed Wallace (18 pts 4 reb) three and a Chauncey Billups jumper in the lane.

Rajon Rondo calmly brought the ball downcourt, did a stutter step move and knived into the paint while hitting Ray Allen with a perfect pass in rhythm as he let the shot fly. Swish. Celtics were back up by 11 just like that. The crowd let out a cheer, one that they'd been holding in since Game 2 in The Jungle when Ray Allen went for 25. When he finds his shot, he transforms into his alter ego...we call him "Jesus". The Jungle faithful have been waiting to see Jesus. Was he about to make an appearance tonight?

Theo Ratliff was fouled and he went to the line to shoot two. He bricked both free throws and the Celtics pushed the ball upcourt yet again to get a foul and an inbounds play. The ball went into Rondo and he hit Ray Allen who then made a quick move to create space and went into that quick release and perfect follow throw. Wet. The crowd went wild. The lead went up to 14. Jesus is risen.

He drove the hole and got a putback. Later on he drove straight to the hole and banked in a layup of the glass for two more. He hit a technical free throw. He drove to the hole and got hacked so he stepped to the charity stripe again and knocked down two more free throws. Nearing the end of the 3rd quarter, Rondo hit him with a pass just as he came off of a screen and he hit a three from the bottom corner to push the lead to 82-67. Ray Allen had The Glow. He'd gone Super Saiyan for only his second time in the series finishing the quarter with 16 points and the Celtics began the final frame with an 84-71 lead.

The 4th quarter was an ugly affair. Coach Rivers shortened the rotation and due to Tony Allen's ailing Achilles tendon he was forced to keep Rondo (7 pts 6 reb 13 ast 4 stl 1 blk) in for pretty much the entire game. The Pistons made a huge run and the Celtics were completely out of sync for much of the quarter. They turned down wide open shots, mad bad passes, turned the ball over and made key mental lapses time and time again down the stretch.


The Pistons kept attacking while the Celtics could only manage sporadic scoring at key moments towards the end. Paul Pierce (16 pts 5 reb 6 ast), Kevin Garnett and James Posey all hit some big shots that kept the Celtics above water but the Pistons tightened up their defense and the Celtics continued to play a tentative offensive game. The Pistons kept chipping away at the lead but Rajon Rondo hit a huge layup to make the game 94-88 with 4:25 left in the game.

It was down to a 3 point game (99-96) with less than 2 minute left in the game. Rajon Rondo nailed the second free throw and made the lead 4. Rodney Stuckey (13 pts 3 ast 2 stl) made it a one point game off of a Chauncey Billups ( 26 pts 5 reb 6 ast) assist with 1:23 left to go. On an inbounds play in front of the Pistons bench, James Posey passed the ball to Jesus Shuttlesworth who had just come off of a screen clean. He caught and shot all in one fluid motion with a toe on the line. Swish! 102-99 with 1:02 left in the game.

After a few misses the Celtics ended up with the ball with under 30 seconds left in the game and a 102-99 lead. Kevin Garnett missed a long jumper and the Pistons had a chance to tie the game. While holding Ray Allen up around his face and neck area he wrenched his elbow and never made it downcourt. The confused Pistons didn't get into their offense and an alert Rajon Rondo fouled and put them at the line with 8.2 seconds left on the clock. Rip Hamilton (25 pts 4 reb 6 ast 6 TO's) never returned.


Rodney Stuckey missed his first free throw and tried to miss his second but he instead made it (?). This gave the Celtics the ball with a 2 point lead. Kevin Garnett stepped to the line and cooly knocked down two clutch free throws to end the game with 33 points and 7 rebounds. and a 4 point lead. The Pistons knocked down two free throws but they were forced to foul Jesus (29 pts on 5-6 3 pt and 6-6 from the free throw line) who sealed the game with two more clutch free throws. The Celtics won in a barnburner 106-102 in Boston. We all got to see Gino again.

The Celtics shot 51% (37-73, 8-15 from deep) on the night while Pistons went 46% (31-67, 11-21 from three). I could run off a shitload of useless stats but the key stat? BOS 42 rebounds to DET's 25 pretty much tells the tale of the game in my opinion. Game 6 will be in Detroit on Friday and Rip Hamilton is questionable for Game 6. I'll be watching. Go Celtics!


Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals: March 30th, 2008 @ 8:30 PM ESPN
The Palace in Auburn Hills, MI @ DET
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (2) Detroit Pistons
BOS leads 3-2 (best of 7)


One.

Grime Time Revisited

Previously I posted up some proper Grime songs with videos for my readership but the thing about Grime is that it's aesthetic is best understood when it's seen live. It was created as a live artform to be performed at open mics or raves, in the early days of Grime (2002-2005) most of the most memorable sets happened @ shows/raves and on pirate radio shows in and around London. The live element of spraying your bars with your crew interjecting and hyping it up is what made it so unique.

The Grime aesthetic and the Hip Hop aesthetic are different. Beats sometimes sound too fast (140 bpm+), too bass heavy and distorted or maybe in some cases too minimalist. Grime emcees often repeat their bars and do things to fill in time reminiscent of old school emcees during park jams. Oftentimes they sound like they're offbeat or even maybe a bar late. Keep in mind that they are an evolution of Garage and 2 step emcees with mostly Reggae and some Rap influences so they aren't emulating Elzhi, instead they're trying to be recognized as the top boys in Grime and nothing else.

I put together some of the best quality (video and audio wise) live Grime sets I could find on the 'net through YouTube (there are hundreds). Search for the Lord Of The Decks, Practice Hours, Risky Roads, Aim High clips and the list goes on to see what you'll find. Keep in mind that this artform was born from the 2 step/UK Garage scene and slowly evolved from 2000-2002 before completely obliterating that scene and becoming it's own animal in the Spring/Summer of 2002.

Here are some of my favorite live sets largely set @ Radio 1Xtra hosted by the (in)famous DJ/host Tim Westwood (You're still my boy Logan! Respect to Kiss and Adamantium Music):

Ghetto & Devlin (The Movement) and Lightnin-Westwood Radio 1Xtra


Skepta-Westwood Radio 1Xtra Freestyle


Trim & The Circle (Slayer Man, Crunch, Nitro & Swiftleng) @ Radio 1Xtra


Bashy-Westwood Radio 1Xtra Freestyle


Ghetto, Scorcher & Wretch 32 (The Movement)-Westwood Radio 1Xtra



Representing The Grime Youngers (Late 80’s & 90’s Babies):

Griminal straight killin’ it @ F Radio


Griminal & Lil’ Nasty (N.A.S.T.Y Crew)-Westwood Radio 1Xtra Freestyle


Griminal, Chipmunk & Brutal-Westwood 1Xtra Freestyle


Chipmunk-Westwwod Radio 1Xtra Freestyle


Wiley brings Chipmunk & Ice Kid to Westwood Radio 1Xtra


One.

Grime Time

I decided to post up some random Grime videos to show the different aspects of Grime music. Some of these tracks videos go all the way back to 2003 while most of them are from between 2004-2007. There are so many Grime producers and emcees active in the UK (and the US) right now that you'd be surprised. I'll do a better job of selecting joints in the future but YouTube is a real mess right now.

Here some selected joints from Wiley, Kano, Dizzee Rascal, Skepta, Roll Deep, N.A.S.T.Y Crew, Virus Syndicate, Ruff Sqwad and The Movement (Ghetto, Devlin, Wretch 32 & Scorcher). I'll be back with more later on as this is just a warmup for the Grime post I've been working up to for about a year now. Enjoy:


Reload It-Kano


I Luv U-Dizzee Rascal


Slow Down-Virus Syndicate


Girls Love Nasty-N.A.S.T.Y. Crew


Off 2 Work-Dizzee Rascal


Heat Up-Roll Deep


When I’m Ere-Roll Deep


Dealers-The Movement (Devlin, Ghetto, Wretch 32 & Scorcher)


Xtra-Ruff Sqwad


RSMD (Ruff Sqwad Man Dem)-Ruff Sqwad


Punctuation-Wretch 32


Wiley, Skepta, Ghetto, Scorcher and Wretch 32 Live Session


Lord Of The Mics-Kano vs. Wiley Live Session



One.

Coming Soon

Dart Adams presents The Official Handbook Of The Poisonous Paragraphs Universe
Dart Adams presents Rapper/Actor: A Detailed History Of Hip Hoppers Gone Hollywood
Dart Adams presents UK True Grime: An American Hip Hop Head's Guide to UKG/Grime
Dart Adams presents I Was A Cold War Kid Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dart's Rant Of The Day: Black Zombies: The Controversy Over Nas' "Nigger" Album
Dart Adams presents The 10 Greatest Gaming Consoles Of All Times (According To Us)
Dart Adams presents Forced Integration In Comic Books And Cartoon History
Dart's Rant Of The Day: Why I Hate Tyler Perry
Dart Adams presents Journey Into Mystery: Why Can't Black Folks Ever Get To Live To The End In Horror & Sci Fi Films?

Dart Adams presents A B-Boy's Alpha: My First Favorite R & B Albums

Dart Adams presents Hip Hop Jeopardy (The Game Show)
Dart Adams presents Lost In Translation: MTV's Direct Effect

Here's a new muxtape I made consisting of 12 of my personal favorite joints featuring a bunch of emcees just murdering their verses over crazy production. Here's the complete muxtape tracklisting:

Lord Finesse - Actual Facts (Feat. Sadat X, Large Professor & Grand Puba)
Juggaknots - I'm Gonna Kill U
Godfather Don - Properties Of Steel
Company Flow - Blind
Scaramanga - Holdin' New Cards
Call O Da Wild - New York Undercover
Ghostface Killah - Mighty Healthy
Jay Electronica - Victory Is In My Clutches
Elzhi - Come Get It (produced by Jay Dee)
Invincible - Sledgehammer!
Joe Budden - Old School Mouse
Gigan - Krazy World

You can check it out here:

http://dartchampions.muxtape.com/

I was also featured in Travis @ Wake Your Daughter Up's blog series "Interview With A Blogger". Read it here

R.I.P. Camu Tao (MHz, Weathermen, Def Jux)

Rest In Eternal Peace

One.

C's Get A W In The D And Give Them An L

The atmosphere was electric in Detroit last night. The city that fancies calling itself "Titletown" had a huge sports night where the Tigers were winning big and the Red Wings were busy hosting Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Pistons had done what the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers had both failed to do, win a game in The Jungle. The Pistons fans were sure that the Celtics would fall on the road yet again and bring Detroit halfway to another beth in the NBA Finals.

What happened instead was that the Boston Celtics came out with a tremendous amount of hustle and energy to begin the contest. They drove past the Detroit defense and repeatedly attacked the basket. On the other end of the court, the duo of Kevin Garnett and Kendrick "The Hulk" Perkins completely owned the paint and powered the Celtics on their way to an 11-0 lead.

The Pistons didn't panic and slowly got back into the game thanks to their veteran leadership and they succeeded in getting Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen into early foul trouble. After they left the game the Pistons took a short lived lead. The Celtics bench led by James Posey (12 pts 4 reb) and Sam Cassell (5 pts) tightened up their defense and made big shots as the Celtics end the 1st quarter with a 25-17 lead.

In the 2nd quarter, the Boston Celtics got a rejuvenated Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen off of the bench and they both played brilliantly on both ends of the court. Ray Allen (14 pts 6 reb 6 ast) was used as a decoy since his shot wasn't falling, he drove to the basket and caused the defense to collapse so he could hit the open man all night long. Kevin Garnett continued to dominate his matchup with Rasheed Wallace and he proved to be every bit the NBA's Defensive Player Of The Year with 22 points, 13 rebounds. 6 assists and 2 steals on the night.

Rajon Rondo (12 pts 4 ast 3 reb) continued to apply the pressure and pushed the tempo against a largely ineffective Chauncey Billups who finished the game with 6 points on 1-6 shooting from the field, 3 rebounds and 4 assists in just 27 minutes at -25 on the night. The rebounding and offense of Kendrick Perkins (12 pts 10 reb 1 blk 1 stl) and Garnett along with the bench's solid play resulted in a 50-32 halftime lead in front of a stunned crowd in The Palace at Auburn Hills.

The second half started out pretty much the same way the first one did as the Celtics continued their dominance in the paint. Rip Hamilton (26 pts 2 reb 2 ast) and Rodney Stuckey (17 pts 4 ast 4 stl 2 reb) kept them in the game and kept the game from completely getting out of control. The Celtics ultimately pushed the lead all the way up to 24 before the Pistons went on a 6-0 run and got some huge stops to end the quarter and gain some confidence going into the final frame.

The 4th quarter was a dogfight as the Pistons changed their defensive scheme and pressure the Celtics, forcing them to have to make big plays down the stretch. Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey all stepped up their defensive and offensive intensity. They manged to get the lead all the way down to 9 with just more than 3 minute left in the game.

The Pistons aggressiveness also had a drawback...it got the Celtics into the penalty so they could go to the line and continue to score. The Celtics missed three free throws in the fourth quarter but they got enough stops and key rebounds to get them huge conversions late in the game. Ray Allen and Paul Pierce each hit huge threes and Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins both mad big plays as well.

After Rasheed Wallace fouled out, it was pretty much a wrap. Many Piston fans made for the exits and some even booed the home team for a lackluster showing in friendly confines. The Celtics avoided going 0-7 on the road in the NBA playoffs in grand fashion giving the Pistons the lone loss out of all the franchises that played that night in Detroit by the score of 94-80.

Boston shot 46% from the field (32-69) while holding the Pistons to 38% on the night (28-73) including 1-13 from three point range (.077). The Celtics also crashed the boards and outrebounded the Pistons 44 (14 offensive) to 28 (10 offensive) while racking up 20 assists on 32 made baskets to their 15 assists on 28 makes from the floor.

The Pistons forced the Celtics into 15 turnovers while only making 10 all night. Not only that but they came up with 11 steals to Boston's 6 and blocked 9 shots to the Celtics measly 3. The personal fouls and free throws were pretty much even (BOS 25-30 FT DET 23-26).

The Celtics no longer have that monkey on their back now they've won Game 3 in Detroit. The 3 most important games in any 7 game series are Games 1, 3 and 5, The Celtics have won Games 1 and 3 and they haven't lost a Game 5 all playoffs long. The Celtics have regained home court advantage for the series and they go into Game 4 loose. The Pistons have to come out and play consistent basketball while hoping that Chauncey Billups will return to his old form. It's gut check time.



Game 4: May 26th, 2008 @ The Palace in Auburn Hills, MI 8:30 EST ESPN
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (2) Detroit Pistons
BOS leads 2-1 (best of 7)


One.

What's New In Dart's iPod #31 AKA Last Night I Saw Jesus (Too Bad We Still Lost Anyways)

This has been an interesting week to say the least. Hilary Clinton will not come to grips with the fact that she won't become the Democratic nominee and no matter how long she drags this whole affair out Obama will still be the DNC's choice. 

BET continues to outcoon themselves at a pace that would've even made Stepin Fetchit proud. Nas is forced to change the name of his album or force the possibility of having it never come out. Foxy Brown and Remy Martin stay in the news for all the wrong goddamn reasons.

I lost all of my respect for Papoose and Just Blaze and Saigon get off of Atlantic a la Hip Hop and Sickamore with their masters and are now in control of their own destinies. *Plays Crustified Dibbs' "Every Record Label Sucks Dick" loudly* Then 50 Cent goes after Rocsi from BET for stating her opinion about his last wack ass album. At the same time, G Unit releases yet another lame ass single for their upcoming ghey ass LP "Terminate On Sight".

The Celtics couldn't stop the Pistons last night as the bench did nada. Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey did the C's dirty on their own homecourt to tie to Eastern Conference Finals series at 1-1. The Celtics need to come up with at least one win in Detroit (two would be better) to keep hope alive of going to the NBA Finals. At least Ray Allen finally had a big game last night, that's encouraging.


Today I'm reviewing The Cool Kids' "The Bake Sale EP", Rock of Heltah Skeltah's "Shell Shock" mixtape, Jackson Conti (Madlib & Azymuth)'s "Sujinho" and finally Usher's "Here I Stand". For those of you new to the party, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here's how my "Cop It Or Not" ratings system breaks down below:


Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.

Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it's in your lane or not.

Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops...'Nuff said.

...I'm at the Puerto Rican Day Parade doin' The Wop on a float! © Ras Kass

The very first project that I’m reviewing today is The Cool Kids “The Bake Sale” EP. They had an unofficial release get heavily bootlegged and downloaded online but it only helped to get their name out there even more as they were even featured in a commercial earlier this year. Will this EP live up to the hype they’re generating? Let’s see:

Best Joints: What Up, Man, One Two, Mikey Rocks, 88, What It Is, Black Mags, Gold And A Pager, Bassment Party, Jingling, Get Busy, Son

Hot Garbage: A Little Bit Cooler and Chicago Zoo were just meh to me.

Dart’s Take: I wish these cats were more high energy and there were more up tempo type bangers on this. My favorite tracks were What It Is, 88, Black Mags, Gold And A Pager and Get Busy, Son but the tracks all pretty much followed the same old school drum sounds slow ass bass music formula.

It began to annoy me and this was only a 12 track project (my version had two bonus tracks that are available for download @ 2DopeBoyz). Hopefully on their full length they’ll come with more energy but I can’t do better than a maybe.




The Rockness Monster isn’t about to let anything stop him, not even a court case, from rising to the top. His new mixtape “Shell Shock” has been long awaited and now it’s finally here. Will this mixtape remind fans of how nice the other half of Heltah Skeltah is? Find out below:

Best Joints: Shell shock Intro, AYRRR, 300 B.C., Attempted Murder, Me 2 Nigga, Raize Da Roof, Fuck Dat Rapper, RockZilla, Rock Brothaz Wildin’, CrookOnASong, Graveyard Shifty, Da Beast Is Back, Most Dangerous, Rite Back, Doofis, NY Gritty, Mag Force Zoo, LateNite, Ramadan & Stack Paper

Hot Garbage: Flytime just didn’t do it for me and a lot of the non Great 8 guest spots were just meh in comparison to Rock’s bars downgrading the overall enjoyment of several tracks.

Dart’s Take: This is a solid mixtape but it just could’ve been better if it had just been more Rock and less contributions from the Magnum Force/Representativez/Duck Down B Teamers. I’d definitely rock this but I can’t see myself paying album price for it given it’s just a mixtape. I’ll tell you one thing, hearing Rock kill it gets me amped for the D.I.R.T. Heltah Skeltah album. I can only give this joint a maybe cuz it wasn’t anything extra.




Jackson Conti is a collaborative effort between Otis Jackson Jr. AKA Madlib and Mamao of the celebrated band Azymuth. They’ve made magic together on previous Madlib releases and now it’s time for the full length experience. Are you muthafuckas ready for some Brazilian Samba mixed with Latin Jazz? Is it funky? Find out below:

Best Joints: Mamaoism, Berumba, Anna De Amsterdam Interlude, Praca De Republica, Papaya, Brazilian Sugar, Sao Paolo Nights, Xibaba, Upa Neguinho, Casa Forte, Amazon Stroll, Berimbau, Anna De Amsterdam Reprise, Waiting On The Corner, Tijuca Man, Nao Tem Nada Nao, Sunset At Sujinho, Segura Esta Onda

Hot Garbage: N/A (It sucked that the album ended)

Dart’s Take: If you aren’t a fan of Madlib/Yesterday’s New Quintet/Malik Flavors or Brazilian Samba or Latin Jazz then this is not for you. If you’re like me and you grew up listening to all kinds of music and you used go through your parent’s records and play all of their old Brazilian Samba, Afrobeat, or Latin Jazz records like I did then this LP is ridiculoid. I didn’t stop playing this albums for days after I first heard it.

I had “Berumba”, “Praca De Republica”, “Papaya”, “Sao Paolo Nights”, “Upa Neguinho”, “Casa Forte”, “Amazon Stroll” and “Berimbau” all on repeat. I killed “Papaya” and that joint is 10 minutes long! This brought me back to 1984, when I would ask my father to play records that I picked out on his perfectly filed by group and genre mountain. Back when he had that huge top loading VCR and by big brother was learning to program BASIC on our new Commodore 64. Memories. “Sujinho” gets a well deserved mos def.



Usher is unhappy with his label because he feels that they haven’t been pushing his new album enough. They told him that his popularity has slipped because he got married and had a child with a woman that’s too old for him and isn’t all that attractive, thereby hurting his largely female fanbase. Needless to say my boy Usher didn’t take that assessment too well. Usher has reemerged with a new album entitled “Here I Am”. My review of it is just below:

Best Joints: Intro, This Ain’t Sex, Moving Mountains, Trading Places, What’s Your Name, Love You Gently, Best Thing, Before I Met You, Appetite, Lifetime and Revolver

Hot Garbage: I personally didn’t like Love In This Club, His Mistakes, What’s A Man To Do, Love In This Club Part 2, Here I Stand or Will Work For Love

Dart’s Take: This album will forever be known as Usher’s “Kingdom Come”. He isn’t the same Usher as before, now he’s a happily married man, a father, an entrepreneur and part owner of a basketball team so it’s natural he’d start making some “grown folks music”. On this album there’s an eight song stretch from “Something Special” to “Lifetime” that’s all about his wife or relating to his current relationship. This doesn’t make for dance music.

If you’re willing to let Usher grow then you can rock with this album. If you want this dude to stay trying to compete with Chris Brown then maybe you should leave this alone. My favorite joints were “Trading Places”, “What’s Your Name”, “Love You Gently”, “Best Thing” and “Revolver” (I version I’m reviewing is the Japanese retail version with 19 tracks). Overall, I give this a recommended maybe because it’s better than OK and not meh.




Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):



Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:

I'm Also Looking Forward To Reviewing The Following Projects:

Rhymefest-El Che

Skillz-Million Dollar Backpack
Joe Budden-Padded Room
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light

Big Boi-Sir Luscious Leftfoot
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
Immortal Technique-The 3rd World
Blu-God Is Good

Termanology-Politics As Usual
Sean Price, Guilty Simpson & Black Milk-Random Axe
Platinum Pied Pipers-Abundance
Method Man & Redman-Blackout 2
Redman-Muddy Waters 2

B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.

The Alchemist-Chemical Warfare
Billy Danze-Behind Gatez
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Baatin-Titus
Common-Invincible Summer
Omen-Be The Judge
Capone-N-Noreaga-Reporting The War
Phat Kat and Elzhi are Cold Steel
Opio-The Vulture's Wisdom
Heltah Skeltah-D.I.R.T (Da Incredible Rap Team)


Dart's Fat Tape/CD-R (as of May 23rd, 2008):

Murderous Speech-Custom Made
Fuck Dat Rapper-Heltah Skeltah
Name Droppin'-Nino Bless
Gold And A Pager-The Cool Kids
Of On Our Own-Self Scientific (prod. by DJ Khalil)
Black Light Special-Little Brother (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Best Thing-Usher f/Jay-Z (prod. by No I.D.)
The Crush-Vast Aire
Ebony-Camp Lo (prod. by The Apple Juice Kid)
On-Apathy & Celph Titled
9MM-The Clipse f/The Re-Up Gang
Parole-Immortal Technique
Rat Pack Rap-Zilla Rocca f/MAGr & Nico The Beast (prod. by Zilla Rocca)
That's What It Is-DJ Muggs & Planet Asia (prod. by DJ Muggs)
Sing For Me-Ghetto (prod. by Rude Kid)
Get Busy, Son-The Cool Kids
Be Cool-Bishop Lamont f/Xzibit, Glasses Malone, Ras Kass & Mykestro (prod. by Dae One)
Posers-The New Royales f/Jay Electronica
U.M.C (Universal Mind Control)-Common f/Pharell Williams (prod. by Pharell Williams)
Trading Places-Usher
Good Money-Mickey Factz (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Believe It-Saigon f/Red 5ive (prod. by Just Blaze)
N.I.G.G.E.R (The Slave & The Master)-Nas (prod. by DJ Toomp)
Payback-Immortal Technique f/Diabolic & Ras Kass (prod. by Green Lantern)
Papaya-Jackson Conti (Madlib & Mamao of Azymuth)



He got game! © Michael Jordan

Go Celtics! Let's shock the world and get a road win in the D...shit, get a couple!

One.

Dart's Current iPod Nano Rotation (as of May 22nd, 2008)

Here is a visual list of the music contained in my own personal 2GB iPod Nano as of this Thursday, May 22nd, 2008:

Tomorrow's review blog "What's New In Dart's iPod #31" will feature Rock-Shell Shock, Jackson Conti-Sujinho, The Cool Kids-The Bake Sale EP & Usher-Here I Stand. Go Celtics, hopefully Jesus will make an appearance in The Jungle tonight.

One.

Jungle Warfare

It was Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals last night. The Detroit Pistons have been to the Eastern Conference Finals for the past six years and the Boston Celtics are here after being the worst team in the NBA last year. Last year about this time the Celtics organization was praying for one of the top two picks in the 2007 NBA Draft to save their franchise from what seemed liked several more years of basketball oblivion. What a difference a year makes, huh?

The Boston Celtics were just coming off of a draining Game 7 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a hard fought contest that featured LeBron James going Super Saiyan on the C's for 45 points. Luckily, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett delivered the final Kamehameha Wave to escape with the game and series. The Detroit Pistons were resting up and waiting for their next opponent after dispatching the Orlando Magic in just 5 games (3 played without Chauncey Billups).

The Celtics had just played in a grueling game a few days ago and Chauncey Billups was ready to go after a hamstring injury and the Pistons were all rested and ready to play. The ball was thrown up at halfcourt last night and the Celtics immediately went on the attack jumping out to an 8-0 lead. The Pistons slowed down the pace and got back into the game halfway through the quarter. Then the Celtics pulled away to gain a 1st quarter lead behind Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce's scoring and Kendrick Perkins rebounding and defense.

In the 2nd quarter, the Celtics got into the penalty early. This allowed the Pistons to hang in the game by constantly going to the free throw line. Even though the Celtics were outrebounding and shooting a much better percentage from the floor than the Pistons the best they could manage at haltime was a 41-40 lead.

In the 3rd quarter, the Celtics went crazier than Tracy Morgan after a couple of tall boys. They pressed the tempo, tightened up their team defense and continued to take the ball to the hole. They got the Pistons on their heels and put them in the penalty early, The Celtics converted 11 of 13 free throws in the 3rd quarter and established their dominance in the paint. By the time the 3rd quarter was over the Celtics had a 12 point lead and had outscored the Pistons 28-17 in the frame.

The Celtics managed to hold down Rasheed Wallace (11 pts 5 reb 4 ast) and Rip Hamilton was in foul trouble for much of the contest (15 pts 6reb). The two bright spots on the Pistons squad was the play of Antonio McDyess (14 pts 11 reb) and several clutch baskets by Tayshaun Prince (16 pts). Chauncey Billups was completely dominated by Rajon Rondo (11 pts 7 ast 5 stl) and he only managed a meager 9 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 turnovers in 31 total minutes. He ended the night at -18.

Kevin Garnett (26 pts 9 reb 4 ast 2 blk) dominated his matchup with Rasheed Wallace and he and Kendrick "The Hulk" Perkins (5 pts 10 reb) owned the paint yet again. Paul Pierce (22 pts 6 reb 6 ast) returned to his regular world beating self and Ray Allen still hasn't had his breakout game yet (9 pts 4 ast 2 stl) as he didn't hit a single jump shot last night.

The Celtics shot 52% (36-69) as a team and held the Pistons to 42% (28-66). Even though the Pistons had a +5 advantage at the free throw line (19-27 to the C's 14-21) and personal fouls were almost even (BOS 21 DET 20) the Celtics turned the ball over less (DET 13 BOS 10) and had more steals (BOS 10 DET 7).

The rebounds were even for both teams (BOS 37 DET 37) but the Celtics aggressiveness on both sides of the court and contributions from P.J. Brown, Leon Powe, Eddie House and James Posey helped to make the difference as the Boston Celtics came away with an 88-79 victory and win in The Jungle for the 9th straight time in the NBA Playoffs to take a 1-0 series lead in this best of seven series.


Game 2 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals @ TD Banknorth Garden in Boston
Thursday, May 22, 2008 @ 8:30 pm EST on ESPN
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (2) Detroit Pistons
BOS leads 1-0 (best of 7)


One.

Dart Adams presents A Tale Of Ten Trailers 6 AKA The No Hitter Edition

It's that time of month again! I'm going to drop ten trailers on you and hopefully hip some of you to some new flicks on the horizon. In some cases these joints are major blockbusters and others are indie or international joints. Enough talk, let's get it in!:




Steve Spielberg and George Lucas went and got Indy’s hat and whip out of mothballs. Then they banged out a script, woke up Harrison Ford from his nap and then they filmed this movie which stands to make a shitload of money at the box office. Do I give a flying fuck? Find out below:

Dart’s Take: I’m not big on films starring an old White guy with a wide brimmed hat and a whip. Haven’t been since I saw “Roots” as a kid. Call me crazy. I haven’t been much of an Indiana Jones fan but I will see this just because everyone else will have and I don’t wanna be out of the loop. Looks like typical blockbuster action fare to me. *Shrugs shoulders and turns channel to ESPN*





Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) follows up his brilliant documentary/reality show “30 Days” with this ambitious project “Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?”. I’ve been waiting to see this flick since it was first announced. My take on the trailer is just below:

Dart’s Take: This dude is certifiable if he just volunteered to go places that even the US Army dares to tread. He put his life at risk to get this story and I respect him for that. That’s why filmmakers like him and Michael Moore (Roger & Me, Bowling For Columbine) are needed in this current film industry climate. I’ll try to make a point to see this.






Andrew Fleming co-wrote (with Pam Brady) and directed this satire/comedy about a failed actor turned drama teacher in a community where the funding has been cut for the Drama department. What does he do? He makes an outrageous original production and has the students perform it. Read my take below:

Dart’s Take: If you like films like “Waiting For Guffman”, “A Mighty Wind” or movies of that nature then this is for you. The fucked up part is that I could see someone going to this extreme in real life. This trailer is hella funny but I may not see this until it drops on DVD.





Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus) directed this Jeff Buhler adaptation of a Clive Barker short story. A photographer encounters a serial killer on the subway and he must now solve the mystery as to why the bodies of the slain never turn up. He rides the train and waits. My opinion is forthcoming:

Dart’s Take: This looks like an other dark suspensful thriller. I’m not moved or interested enough to want to see this flick in theatres, though. I love Kitamura’s style but I’ll wait to Netflix or Redbox this joint in the Fall when it drops.





“Pineapple Express” is a collaborative effort between the writing team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad) and writer/director David Gordon Green (Snow Angels). A bunch of stoners end up in some shit and they have to find a way out of it. It stars much of the gang from “40 Year Old Virgin”, “Superbad” and “Knocked Up”. What do I think of it? Read below:

Dart’s Take: Now this a goddamn trailer! After seeing this I want to see this movie right now. I’ve heard that the gang have been touring the country and having special screenings of it as well as promoting the wider release of the film. Not only is it funny but it has action as well. I’m definitely checkin’ for this joint.





“Batman: Gotham Knight” is an animated film in the vein of the ultra popular “Animatrix” that explains the backstory of what’s been happening with the Dark Knight by chronicling the events that happened in the time between each new Batman film. The DVD drops July 8th. My reaction to this trailer is below:

Dart’s Take: Sheeeeit! My Blu Ray copy has already been pre-orded after checking out the site and seeing the trailer. If this is anywhere near as good as “The Animatrix” it’ll be worth the money. Plus, what else are HD TV’s and PS3’s for?




“Mongol” is Sergei Bodrov newest foray into the North American market since his film “Nomad” was released and distributed here. It tells the story of Genghis Khan and his rise to power. Read my take below:

Dart’s Take: This film isn’t exactly historically accurate as far as I’ve heard. The international trailers are better and longer but not for an American audience. I’ll more than likely catch this on DVD somewhere because I’ve read “The Secret History Of The Mongols” before and this ain’t it.



Cris Carter called up David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson to ask them if they wanted to make a shitload of money. They both said “Fuck yeah!” so Carter wrote and directed a new X-Files flick called “The X-Files: I Want To Believe”. My thoughts are just below:

Dart’s Take: Interesting. I’m still not gonna go to the theater and see it as the first X-Files movie was just slightly better than OK to me. I remember some individual episodes from the TV show but I wasn’t a big fan of it. Some fanboys are going crazy over this but I ain’t them and they ain’t me. Meh.






“Sangre De Mi Sangre” is also known as “Padre Nuestro” overseas and it’s been huge at all of the international film festivals. Christopher Zalla wrote and directed this story of two Mexicans that sneak into the U.S. looking for better opportunities. One is looking for his father in New York and the other pledges to help him in his quest. Then a whole bunch of fuckery occurs. Read my take on this flick below:

This is easily going to be one of the breakout indie/international films of 2008. IFC has co-signed it and released it to a wider audience and that all but guarantees a fair amount of people will rent it when it becomes available on DVD. I’ll be doing the same as it looks like a good flick to me. It might even be up there with “Trade”.





Johnathan Levine (All The Boys Love Mandy Lane) wrote and directed this story of a boy’s coming of age during the early 90’s in New York. “The Wackness” was a huge Sundance Film Festival favorite and one of the most talked about films of the Winter. Read my take on the trailer below:

Dart’s Take: I’m going to see this flick, bottom line. I’ve been hearing about it from hella people since it showed up at Sundance and everyone whose seen it loves it. I will make it a point to check this flick out regardless of Method Man’s fake Jamaican accent. This and “Pineapple Express” could be two of the biggest cult films of this Summer.


I’ll try to come back with another edition of A Tale Of Ten Trailers on June 20th. Congratulations to John Lester on pitching a no hitter last night and good luck to the Celtics as they to make their way to the NBA Finals tonight.

One.

Dart Adams presents Dartflix Lite #4 (5.15.08-5.31.08)

The good news is that this may end up being the final Dartflix Lite post as IMDb has greatly improved their Now Playing section, now if they can just get someone to catch them up and add all of the new trailers that just came out to the film pages they'd be on point. As of right now, there are hella movie trailers on YouTube and Dailymotion that IMDb has no links to.

Since the summer is coming that means it's Hollywood blockbuster season as well as time that films from many film festivals will finally see the light of day (i.e. The Wackness) as counter programming. The Cannes Film Festival just happened but I've been so wrapped up in the Celtics and Red Sox that I don't even know what happened there this year or what new films were shown. I'm slackin'!

I will post this up now and come back later this afternoon with "Dart Adams presents A Tale Of Ten Trailers 6 AKA The No Hitter Edition". This is has been a pretty uneventful month as far as exciting new releases go so refer back to older posts for any rental ideas if you need to.


Films I recommend (5.15.08-5.31.08) to add to your queue early or for rental from either Netflix or Redbox:

War, Inc.

Redbelt
The Air I Breathe
National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets
Cassandra's Dream
Diary Of The Dead
Finishing The Game
Cleaner
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Hamburger Hill (20th Anniversary Edition)
A Dirty Carnival
Cross Bronx
Directed By Roger Corman
Darfur Now
What Would Jesus Buy?
Iron Man
The Forbidden Kingdom
I'm Not There
The 4400-The Complete Fourth Season
The Great Debaters
Untraceable
Frontier(s)
Botched
The Take
Noriko's Dinner Table
Rambo
The Chair
The Tiger Blade
Control (The Miriam Collection)
Grace Is Gone
The Eye
Boarding Gate
Bomb It
Chaos Theory
Inglorious Bastards (1978)
Heroes Of The East
Come Drink With Me
88 Minutes
Street Kings
Stop-Loss
The Grand
Doomsday
Funny Games
Paranoid Park
Snow Angels
The Bank Job
How To Rob A Bank
City Of Men
In Bruges
Shoot Down
Chicago 10
Charlie Bartlett
Be Kind Rewind
Jumper
Weeds-Season Three
Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?
The Onion Movie
The Killing Of John Lennon
The Tracey Fragments
John Adams (HBO miniseries)
Invisible Target
The Signal
Right At Your Door
Civic Duty
Dragon Tiger Gate
The Boondocks-The Complete Second Season


Rent/Watch these movies at your own risk:

Strange Wilderness
P.S. I Love You
Postal
Sex And The City: The Movie


Coming (relatively) Soon To A Theater (or computer) Near You:

One.

You Can't Bury The Truth AKA LeBron, Sit Yo Ass Down!

The Celtics won yet another Game 7 in The Jungle 97-92 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker did it in their first playoff run together back in 2002. LeBron James scored 45 points in every way conceivable and Paul Pierce scored 41 including two shots that bounced in for 4 total points. Seeing as how the C's won by 5, people joked that the ghost of Red Auerbach tipped them in.

The Celtics outrebounded the Cavs, shot better from the free throw line and avoided making costly turnovers. In the end, hustle plays by Eddie House, James Posey, P.J. Brown and Paul Pierce ended up deciding the game. One team hustled more, executed better on offense and defense and fought harder to come out with the win. Last night, that team was the Boston Celtics.

They have almost no time to get ready for the Detroit Pistons who have been resting and waiting for four days to get an opponent. It all happens tomorrow night, Boston vs. Detroit. Get your popcorn ready! The Celtics have now won 8 straight playoff games in The Jungle, let's see how far the streak can go.

Eastern Conference Finals Game 1 @ TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, MA 8:30 PM
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (2) Detroit Pistons

One.

What's New In Dart's iPod #30 AKA Welcome To Waterworld

For the second straight week in a row hella albums leaked and/or will be available for release this coming Tuesday. Since I know my regular readers would want me to get down to business I’ll do just that and go right into the reviews considering the fact that I'm reviewing 10 LP's this week!

Since Technorati is experiencing issues pinging my blog (and every other Blogger blog is as well) if you don't check back here on your own every day you won't know when I first posted this up. For the uninitiated, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here's how my "Cop It Or Not" ratings system breaks down below:


Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.

Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it's in your lane or not.

Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops...'Nuff said.

I'm an orgy with beats, fucker/You're barely phone sex! © Nico The Beast

Best Joints: The Prelude, It's Your Choice, Feedin' Time, Gangsta, My Life Is Mine, Mark Of The Beast, Get Away, Be A Man, Play No Games, I Was Told, Wanna Rap Wanna Rhyme, Loving You A Lifetime, Croskey Street, Philly Codes, Alone, Sunshine, How Real Are You?, Fly Wit Me, One Of Those Days

Hot Garbage: Be Alright

The Verdict: Nico The Beast is half of the duo Clean Guns and he verbally stiffarms his way though 20 tracks on "No Beast So Fierce". Highly recommended for fans of that raw lyric based East Coast boom bap Hip Hop shit. Check out his MySpace and if you like what you hear then buy it here





Best Joints: Rockferry, Warwick Avenue, Serious, Stepping Stone, Syrup & Honey, Hanging On Too Long, Mercy, Delayed Devotion, I'm Scared, Distant Dreamer, Save It For Your Prayers & Oh Boy

Hot Garbage: N/A

The Verdict: My least favorite song on the whole LP is the lead single "Mercy"and I like that joint. "Warwick Avenue" and "Steeping Stone" need videos STAT! I've been rockin' Duffy's LP since it dropped in the UK and the US release has bonus tracks on it. It's no brainer, really.




Best Joints: Be No Slave, It Don't Stop, The Last Third, Ole, One To 31, Oowee, Simmer Down, The Understanding, The Upgrade, We Are!, What You Holdin'?, You Out There, The Zone

Hot Garbage: N/A (The second half of this LP is crazy! Once we get to "Oowee" it's banger city from then on until the end)

The Verdict: Highly recommended new Hip Hop LP from the God J-Live. He's weathered the major label storm and come through stronger and better for it. This project is loaded with heat rocks..Cop it!




Best Joints: Laser Beam (Scotty's Theme), Justin Case, Ready To Fly, Speakers Pop, AIM, Laser Ray, Precise Calculator, Same Old S#!+, Let It Go, Speakers Funk

Hot Garbage: CinemaX, Pops (a song addressing homophobia in Hip Hop and how your chosen profession affects your gay dad really plants a landmine in your album's continuity. Props for having the courage to make it in the first place, though.), Do The Robot In Cyberspace

The Verdict: These cats have a fun, laid back style that oftentimes ventures into the corny/nerdy side of Hip Hop. Think if the Beastie Boys, Mountain Brothers and Jurassic 5 all were smashed together but instead of being Chinese the MB's were Japanese. The end result? You'd end up with Giant Panda. Give 'em a listen at least first before deciding...they got beats (Justin Case, AIM, Laser Ray, Speakers Funk, etc.) and they can freak it in Japanese.




Best Joints: The Bridge, We Doin' Our..., Filthier AKA "Place", Got 2 Get Done, Be You, Get Me Inside, Threeemcees, Hip Hop Is Dead II and How Low

Hot Garbage: N/A

The Verdict: You know how Travis is about The Smile Rays? If you haven't heard "Moonlighting", "Tanya Morgan Is A Rap Group"or "Tanya Morgan presents Beat Thieves 2" then you need to get familiar. If you truly love Hip Hop then you should check these cats out. Buy this EP on iTunes now.




Best Joints: I Believe, 4 Tomorrow, A Crying Heart, The Beloved, Hood Nursery, Vintage [Things We Share], The End Is Coming

Hot Garbage: Redemption, Profits Of Man, The World, Looking Glass, I Am, Jeshurun, God's Time, Born To Die, O Emmanuel (Zoom)

The Verdict: Everything on this album was so hard to listen to, even the tracks that I could actually stomach. The beats were all lackluster and KP is just preaching over beats now. He's not even trying to emcee anymore. I think it's time he just goes into ministry or speaking full time about Biblical texts and their different interpretations rather than make albums anymore if he's not even gonna try to rhyme. Only diehards need apply, otherwise don't even bother with this. Just watch the History Channel instead.





Best Joints: That's Us, When I Rock, Lounge, Day To Day, Reasons, War Of The World and Bring It Back,

Hot Garbage: Mama Say, Mama Say Midimarc Remix, Mama Say Midimarc Remix Instrumental

The Verdict: Wow, this was underwhelming to say the least. This first leaked late last week through Okayplayer (you know who you are) and was all over the blogosphere by this Monday. This is some typical 9th Wonder production with some inconsistent performances by Spectac and L.E.G.A.C.Y.

I was convinced that Spec was freestyling on some of these joints (When I Rock, Mama Say, War Of The World) because he was all over the place lyrically. This is way too short and disappointing of a project to pay money for in my opinion. Just because it has some cool beats by 9th and a Phonte verse I say give it a listen because it's not flat out garbage.




Best Joints: II Trill, That's Gangsta, Damn I'm Cold, You're Everything, I Luv That, Swang On 'Em, My Block, Get Cha Issue, Underground Thang, If I Die II Night, Another Soldier, If It Was Up II Me, Angel In The Sky and Keep It 100

Hot Garbage: Pop It 4 Pimp and Good II Me

The Verdict: I'm the kind of dude that used to rock "Heavy Mental" in my Walkman and had to be forced to listen to UGK albums by my cousins from down South (thank you, cuz!). Recently, I was rockin' to II Trill after Killah Priest made my ears bleed (and made me read Hosea 6:4 repeatedly).

This is a damn good album and Bun B fans will not be disappointed at all. "I Luv That", "Swang On 'Em", "Another Soldier" and "If It Was Up II Me" all got reloads in the iTunes. Just for the record, Bun...Barack Obama was one of the few senators with enough balls to vote AGAINST the war in Iraq (I felt what you were saying, though). I recommend it.




Best Joints: Same As It Never Was, On Your Knees, Just Won't Stop, The Next Spot, Can't Help This Feeling (those horns!), Amores Bongo, Street Karma (A Cautionary Tale), You're Not All That, Blackwater Drive, Clap Your Hands, Stranded On Earth

Hot Garbage: Game Set And Match (More Or Les dropped the ball)

The Verdict: Great production, ill scratches and vocalist Jessica Darling stepped up and merked every track she got on. Jean Grae laced the The Herbaliser up with yet another hot track as well. "Same As It Never Was" is another gem dropped for The Herbaliser. If you're a fan than you need to cop this. Pure heat.



Best Joints: State Of Emergency, Looongawaited, Sledgehammer!, People Not Places, Spacious Skies, No Easy Answers, Deuce/Ypsi, Recognize, Ransom Notes, Shapeshifters, Ropes, Keep Goin', In The Mourning, Locusts

Hot Garbage: N/A

The Verdict: I've had a promo copy of this album for damn near two months now. I haven't allowed it the leave my house, no one can copy it and I would not allow this joint to leak. That's how much I believe in this album. From top to bottom this is easily one of the best produced projects of the year. 

Top to bottom, Invincible also delivers one of the best overall lyrical performances on an album this year. I have been killing this album for hella long patiently waiting for the chance to finally review it.

"ShapeShifters" drops on May 17th exclusively through Invincible's EMERGENCE label and will go into wide release in stores on June 17th. Invincible doesn't take a single bar off through 14 heat rocks featuring appearances from Buff1, Wordsworth, Finale, The Anomolies Crew, Tiombe Lockhart and production from Black Milk, Waajeed, Houseshoes, The Lab Techs, Belief, Djimon & Jayhask, Knowledge and Apex.

 For all of you claiming that classic material doesn't get made anymore all I can say is "Here you go". "ShapeShifters" gets an emphatic mos def from me. Cop it now.



Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):



Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:

I'm Also Looking Forward To Reviewing The Following Projects:

The Cool Kids-The Bake Sale EP
Rhymefest-El Che

Skillz-Million Dollar Backpack
Joe Budden-Padded Room
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light

Soul Assassins III-DJ Muggs vs. King Madallions (Planet Asia)
Big Boi-Sir Luscious Leftfoot
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
Immortal Technique-The 3rd World
Blu-God Is Good

Termanology-Politics As Usual
Sean Price, Guilty Simpson & Black Milk-Random Axe
Platinum Pied Pipers-Abundance
Method Man & Redman-Blackout 2
Redman-Muddy Waters 2

B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.

The Alchemist-Chemical Warfare
Billy Danze-Behind Gatez
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Baatin-Titus
Common-Invincible Summer
Omen-Be The Judge
Craig G & Marley Marl-Operation: Take Back Hip Hop
Capone-N-Noreaga-Reporting The War
Phat Kat and Elzhi are Cold Steel


Dart's Fat Tape/CD-R (as of May 16th, 2008):

Beat The Speakers Up-Buff1 (prod. by Vaughan T of Lab Techs)
Spazz-N.E.R.D (prod. by The Neptunes)
The Third World-Immortal Technique (prod. by Green Lantern)
The Bridge-Tanya Morgan f/Elucid
Talkin' In My Sleep-Elzhi (prod. by Black Milk)
Serious-Duffy
Everybody Nose Remix-N.E.R.D f/CRS (Kanye West, Pharrell Williams & Lupe Fiasco) & Pusha T
I Believe-Killah Priest (prod. by Kount Fif)
Simmer Down-J-Live
Fall Back-Idle Warship (Talib Kweli & Res) f/Chester French
Yessir-Kurupt (prod. by Pete Rock)
Lookin' Fly-KFi f/Mickey Factz
Don't Feel Bad-Styles Of Beyond f/RZA
Street Karma (A Cautionary Tale)-The Herbaliser f/Jean Grae (prod. by The Herbaliser)
Oowee-J-Live
Philly Codes-Nico The Beast f/Zilla Rocca & 2ew Gun Ciz (prod. by Alex Wood)
Necro- Raekwon f/Ghostface Killah
Money-Rapper Big Pooh (prod. by Young RJ)
Recognize-Invincible f/Finale (prod. by Black Milk)
1-2-1-2-Sandman (Re-Up Gang)
Live Water-Mickey Factz f/Lauryn Hill
Wet Em Up-Tru Life
Warwick Avenue-Duffy
Miami Beach-The Cool Kids
Duece/Ypsi-Invincible f/Buff1, SUN & PL (co-prod. by Djimon and Jayhask & Belief)


No LeBron James team is ever desperate © LeBron James

Let's close 'em out tonight, C's! *Throws threes at the Cavs bench*

One.

Four Of A Kind Beats One King

I'm sure you all saw the game last night and have since seen the TNT recap shows and have checked out ESPN for future analysis. In an effort to not beat you over the head with more of that same 'ol same shit I offer you a photo essay type collage of pics courtesy of Yahoo and add my short take on what allowed the Celtics to go 7-0 in The Jungle last night. Enjoy:


The game down to several basic things. The Cavaliers had a chance to bury the Celtics in the 2nd quarter but they went on a run fueled by two huge Rajon Rondo three pointers that brought the Celtics back from a 14 point deficit. When the 2nd half started, the Celtics played with a new found vigor and put that towards their defense.

Rajon Rondo (20 pts 13 ast 2 blk 2 stl) took over the game and pushed the tempo while Paul Pierce (29 pts 7 reb 3 ast) and Kevin Garnett (26 pts 16 reb 4 ast 3 blk 2 stl) dominated at both ends of the court helping the Celtics outscore the Cavs 29-17 in the 3rd quarter. LeBron James had 23 points at halftime but finished with just 35...most of those coming from the free throw line as opposed to made baskets (he was also 0-5 from three point land).

Ray Allen (11 pts) and Glen "Big Baby" Davis (6 pts on 3-4 shooting) both contributed clutch plays down the stretch as it got hairy towards the end of Game 5. In the end, the Boston Celtics pulled it out 96-89 behind some clutch free throw shooting from Headband P.

The Boston Celtics committed 27 personal fouls to Cleveland's 18 leading to a huge free throw discrepancy. Cleveland shot 28-41 from the line while the Celtics shot just 17-23 as Cleveland had a +11 advantage at the line.

The Boston Celtics outrebounded Cleveland (12 offensive) 38 to (7 offensive) 30 and held LeBron to just 3 boards all night. The Celtics racked up 25 assists on 37 made baskets while the Cavaliers only managed 11 on 29 made baskets. LeBron accounted for 5 of them.

Hopefully the Celtics can break the chain and handle business on the road for a change. The Pistons are waiting and Chauncey Billups is all healed up and waiting for Rajon Rondo to twist his ankles and fuck up his hamstring all over again.

Game 6 in Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena 8pm
Friday, May 16th @ 8PM on Comcast Sports Network, TNT/ESPN



One.

Dart's Rant Of The Day: Dear Hollywood, Please Stop Raping Our Childhood Memories!

As a 70's baby, cartoon, comic book and film enthusiast as well as a writer let me just say that I am completely fed up with Hollywood studios buying up properties to shows and comic books I loved as a kid just to make horrible popcorn movies out of them. Don't think that I'm just talking about this recent rash of comic book/cartoon films, either. My issues with Hollywood and their shitty adaptations goes way back to the 80's.

The first two well written and well executed Superman films made the studio greedy which led to two horrible sequels as well as a crappy spinoff film (1984's Supergirl).

1982's Conan The Barbarian was an epic success both in quality and at the box office. It was also faithfully adapted from the novels and comic book but the producers decided to take a more campy and less realistic approach with it's sequels to gain a wider fanbase. This ultimately resulted in the craptacular films Conan The Destroyer (1984) and the Brigette Nielsen vehicle Red Sonja (1985).

It was a down time for cartoon and comic book properties because they were an unknown quantity and few studios believed that a film that uses a comic book as source material would do well at the box office. That didn't stop horrible film adaptations of Howard The Duck (1986), Masters Of The Universe (1987), The Punisher (1989) and Captain America (1990) from being made. Although the tide was stemmed for a while by a hugely successful Batman movie (1989).

The blockbuster Batman film lead to several comic book properties being greenlit by studios and in 1990 studios unleashed Dick Tracy, Darkman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the blockbuster hungry audience.

Although Dick Tracy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were huge hits for their studios and raked in huge amounts of dough at the box office (TMNT brought in 10x it's original budget at the box office alone), Darkman was a major disappointment both in film quality and financial performance.

The subsequent Batman , TMNT and Darkman sequels became increasingly worse with each film as studios tried to make films that would make the most money as opposed to focusing on the overall quality of the movie itself. Sylvester Stallone, hella special effects and a bunch of explosions couldn't even save the shit sandwich known as Judge Dredd in 1995.

It wasn't until Wesley Snipes burst on the scene with his version of Marvel's Blade in 1998 that studios once again warmed to the idea of movies that used comic books as their source material after it made almost three times it's $45 million dollar budget before it was even made available for sale or rental.

This led to the creation and release of the crappy X Men trilogy which surprisingly enough got exponentially worse with each film and the main characters seemed less and less like the X Men that comic book fans grew up reading.


Ang Lee's long and tediously boring take on The Hulk was a warm mug of cat piss. Was I glad that he decided to humanize Banner and make it a real film? Yes. The whole convoluted storyline with his absentee father and the mutant dogs and no Abomination, Modok or Leader was manure.

Daredevil and it's subsequent spinoff Elektra were both piles of flaming horseshit. Having a fight in a playground? Bullseye has a fuckin' bullseye carved into his forehead? Seriously? Fuck outta here. I'm not even gonna write anything about the Elektra flick (You know why, Dallas!).

The Punisher did nothing more than punish the audience by having them sit through watching the character of Frank Castle get butchered yet again just like his ENTIRE FAMILY did in the film instead of just his wife and son (damn you Dolph Lundgren!).

The Halle Berry vehicle Catwoman sucked cock, balls and licked taint.

The Fantastic Four films set the bar for standards so low you could limbo under it (was that really supposed to be Galactus?). I guess Stan Lee doesn't care about the quality of these films anymore as long as he gets to do a cameo in 'em.


Next came even more terrible Hollywood adaptations of beloved properties like Transformers and Ghost Rider (I really did feel like I was in Hell while watching it!).

Sure, the studios managed to get it right with the Spider Man trilogy (although the last one was definitely pushing it), Ghost World, Hellboy, Constantine (Hellblazer), Sin City, 300, Road To Perdition, A History Of Violence, V Is For Vendetta, 30 Days Of Night, Persepolis and Iron Man but those kind of well executed adaptations are too far and few between (although Hellblazer die hards would disagree with me).


Is it really that hard of a job to find someone who can make an adaptation of a cartoon, comic book or graphic novel and actually make it marketable while keeping the initial spirit and integrity of the source material alive? After seeing the latest Cinemascope-on-crack seizure inducing suckfest that is Speed Racer I'm guessing the answer is a resounding "yes".


Sure, Watchmen is in good hands but we'll still waiting to see exactly how much they ended up watering down the brilliant graphic novel Wanted (not a childhood memory but a damn good graphic novel, read it if you haven't already). It's safe to say that a good 50-60% of the elements from that graphic novel would NEVER make it onto the silver screen so I'm curious to see if they fucked it up or not.

I have high hopes for the upcoming film The Dark Knight based on the quality of the previous film but I'll wait and see with the new Hulk picture since my inner fanboy has been burned so many times over the past 25 years.

After seeing the new publicity stills from the upcoming G.I. Joe (the Heavy Duty one is missing) flick I fear for the future when I'm sitting in a theater with my niece and nephew watching Voltron and hating it while they love it. I can't wait!*


Properties That Soulless Hollywood Studios Are Going To Butcher In The Near Future:


G.I. Joe


Masters Of The Universe


Thundercats




Voltron


Robotech


Dragon Ball Z


Akira

Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun Li

* denotes implied sarcasm

One.

Dart Adams presents Aquaman Or No Aquaman?

As a 70’s baby, I grew up watching all of those damn Superfriends cartoons. Every Saturday I sat there in front of the TV bathing in the radiation emitted by those cathode ray tubes watching the most powerful heroes under the DC Comics banner. There was one hero in particular that stood out from the rest. His name was Aquaman.

Aquaman had the unfortunate power to communicate with sea creatures and he could swim really fast and breathe underwater. Considering that the Superfriends were often getting attacked by super powerful villains or trying to save Earth from alien invasions Aquaman’s powers were virtually useless except for saving people who were trapped at sea. It was usually up to Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman to get gully and save the Earth while Aquaman was in the drink talking to whales and squds and shit.



When it came time to assign missions, Aquaman was always assed out like the little kid at the playground who sucked at sports. He always went off on a ski doo and “patrolled the ocean”. Useless ass muthafucka! I bet the other Superfriends used to crack jokes about him constantly since he didn't even have any super strength or heightened fighting ability of any kind (think Rembrandt in "The Warriors"). In any event, in Hip Hop/Rap groups we refer to any member that can be identified as the weak link as that group’s Aquaman.


The usage of this term became widespread after the legendary 1998 Blaze emcee battle final round between VA crew Supafriendz (Skillz, Danja Mowf & Lonnie B.) member Lonnie B. and Stronghold (Poison Pen, C Rayz Walz, L.I.F.E. Long, Immortal Technique & Breez Evahflowin) representative Breez Evahflowin. Lonnie B. got at Breez but Breez won by delivering the legendary finishing line “You’re the weakest one out the crew/like muthafuckin’ Aquaman!”. It was officially a wrap after that.

Some of the most successful crews in Hip Hop have had Aquamen. Let’s touch on a few with this blog:

I personally consider the Wu Tang Clan to be one of the greatest if not the greatest (yes, I HAVE heard of the Juice Crew!) and most talented crews in Hip Hop history. Do they have a clear cut candidate for an Aquaman? Hell yes! As much as I’d hate to do it I’d identify Mr. Excitement himself, U God as Wu Tang Clan’s resident Aquaman.

The Fugees are yet another group with a clear cut nominee as Pras would be voted most likely to be riding a dolphin out of that crew. The Digable Planets’ C Knowledge AKA Doodlebug would be the most comfortable fighting Black Manta somewhere beneath the briny deep. For D-12, it’s clearly Bizarre that can be identified as the weakest link and so on.

Some crews simply don’t have a member that you can just point out as the weakest link. Try to pick out of Freestyle Fellowship, Hieroglyphics, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and so on. I thought about if any member of the legendary Juice Crew could be considered the Aquaman or Aquawoman of the crew and after a lengthy argument with my brother Buctayla it came down to either Biz Markie or MC Shan. In the end, we both agreed that Shan and Biz were legends in every sense of the word and that the Juice Crew had no clear cut Aquaman.

As far as Public Enemy is concerned, that is another matter entirely. Feel free to post up your own personal lists of groups with and without Aquamen in the comments section below or make up your own lists and post them on your own blogs if you have them. This is a communal game that my Hip Hop fanatic friends and I have been playing for the past 10 years now and it's time for it spread past the Boston/New England area.


One.

Dart's Rant Of The Day: What You Think All The Blogs Is For?

We’ve heard the same argument again and again. Music sucks nowadays, especially Hip Hop/Rap. Everything was better back in the days. No ones making classics anymore. I’ve only heard a few albums that even got me open this whole year. Yakety fuckin’ smackety. 

Every time I hear some on go on about how there are no more good Hip Hop albums anymore I just roll my eyes because at one point in time I was that person. Since none of us have a time machine we might as well deal with the present rather than complaining because shit ain't like it used to be.

Have major labels completely fucked up the music industry by making it radio and single based? Yes. Have record companies been slow in adapting to the digital age? Yes. Insert some other shit that we already know and have written about ad naseum here. This isn’t the time for beating a dead horse, it’s the time for informing consumers that there is *gasp* still Hip Hop worth purchasing and (wait for it!) even more on the horizon to get excited about.

Hip Hop is far from dead but the way we used to hear it and become exposed to it may be dead forever. If you’re not scouring the internet or the bloggerverse for that new shit then chances are you have no idea what (if any) new Hip Hop albums dropped last Tuesday. That’s partly why I started doing my What’s New In Dart’s iPod posts every Friday after reading Eric @ When They Reminisce and Travis @ Wake Your Daughter Up and searching for many of the artists and projects they mentioned on their blogs that I didn't even know existed.

The truth is that there is a vast amount of music out there which makes sense because the digital nature of the market makes it so that more artists can potentially make music and get it out there to the listening public. This is why things like the Rawkus 50 exist in the first place. Last week, Sach Orenstein of Ohword.com made a post about the declining nature of Hip Hop and how nothing interesting or good has come out lately. Mind you, I’m elbow deep in new shit and playing joints on my iTunes when I read his post so I’m like “Bullshit!”.

I had just recently done a post with Travis on WYDU where we each listed our favorite 25 releases of the 1st quarter of 2008...I had to shore my list down then and that was more than a month ago! Rather than agree with Sach that nothing good was out and agree that Hip Hop sucked I called him out on his assessment of 2008 Hip Hop albums so far.

He, of course, wasn’t impressed with my assembled list of 50 plus projects worth purchasing but I expected as much. What pissed me off so much were all of the posters that just thought I was talking out of my ass. I NEVER do that. If I say it, I can back it up (Anyone care to revisit the 100 Cult Movies Of The Internet Era week again?). As far as the list I put up, I have about 10 more joints I can add to it after one week of leaks and promos.

In conclusion, if all you’re going to do is bitch, moan and whine about how horrible Hip Hop/Rap music is now then I don’t care to read or hear about it because I've heard it and read it all before. I’d rather just go about proving you wrong and doing what I do regardless. Go forth and search some of the blogs I check and read on the regular via my own Technorati favorites list to find some new music on your own.

*Anything else I would’ve said in this blog I’ve already said in previous blogs and in posts #1, 9, 15, 16, 18, 24, 34 & 53 here. Also, I'm the new panelist on the production battle blog I Hook A Beat Up along with other members of the blogging version of The Avengers. Check it out.

One.

What's New In Dart's iPod #29 AKA The 8 For 42 Edition

This past week hella albums leaked and I’ll be reviewing them all in the following order UK Grime legend Wiley’s new pre-album mixtape “Grime Wave”, Chicago’s All Natural “Elements: Fire”, Crown City Rocker Rashaan Ahmad’s “The Push”, Elzhi’s tour CD “Europass”, Kidz In The Hall’s long awaited sophomore album “The In Crowd” and J Dilla’s unreleased MCA album “Pay Jay”. Since I’m sure my readers would want me to get down to business I’ll do just that and got right into the reviews this week.

Since Technorati is experiencing some issues pinging my blog if you don't check back here on your own every day you won't know when I posted this up originally. For the uninitiated, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here's how my "Cop It Or Not" ratings system breaks down below:


Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.

Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it's in your lane or not.

Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops...'Nuff said.

The flow is colder than the floor in a cell so bring your weed I gotta story to tell © J Dilla


The very first project that I’m reviewing today is legendary Grime emcee and producer Wiley’s newest offering “Grime Wave. Eskiboy’s lead single “Wearing My Rolex” is climbing the UK charts even though he’s less than enthused with his label’s handling of his first video. Will this mixtape raise anticipation for his upcoming major label project? Let’s see:

Best Joints: Grime Wave, Local Lad, Grime Kid, It’s A Par, Where You Gonna Run To?, Anything Is Possible, Living In London, Fire Ain’t Burning No More, Sky Is Falling, It’s Only Right

Hot Garbage: I wasn’t really feeling If You’re Going Out, I’m Going Out Too or Badman Talking. I just felt like strangling Flodan.

Dart’s Take: This was a pretty good mixtape but nothing overly exciting or groundbreaking is on it. It’s pretty much a solid effort from Wiley, the problem is that I suspect that his album is gonna suck and be watered down so he can move a significant number of units over in the UK.

Considering that he’s helped to pioneer a completely new genre of music and hasn’t yet reaped the financial rewards of it I feel that he deserves success after all of these years of grinding. I give this mixtape a maybe because if you’re not used to Grime or the aesthetic of it then it’ll just sound like noise to you.




All Natural is back with their new project “Elements: Fire”. Capital D and DJ Tone B specialize in that ol’ back to basics Golden Era Hip Hop beats and rhymes boom bap aesthetic. Will this album stand up to the rest of their solid back catalog? Find out below:

Best Joints: Intro, The All, Move, Move, Backslap, Somethingofnothin, Good Life, Poppers Pop, Breakers Break, Nothin’ To Lose, You Know My Name, Signature Flow, World Champion, A View To Kill, Stronger Than Love

Hot Garbage: N/A

Dart’s Take: This is a damn good throwback Hip Hop album from beginning to end. If you didn’t read the liner notes and I told you this album was made in 1997 you’d believe me easy. Especially when you hear Chitown legend Grav spit a guest verse. My neck was hurtin' about halfway through this album from noddin' so hard.

The production was top notch and Capital D brought lyrically time and time again. I had to put “The All”, “You Know My Name”, “World Champion” and “A View To A Kill” on repeat after hearing them for the first time. There wasn’t a weak moment on this album (Rita J ain't as ill as people make her out to be though). This album gets a mos def from me. Cop it.




Rahsaan Ahmad is a member of the widely respected and critically acclaimed crew Crown City Rockers. After going through some personal triumphs and turmoil he decided to record an album about them as a form of therapy. Will his music suffer as a result of this cathartic LP? Find out below:

Best Joints: Hello, If I, The Crush, Close, Give Thanks, Get Funky, Shining, The Pressure, Fight, Here We Go, Ready, Yusef, Cool Down

Hot Garbage: Due to the personal matter of some of these songs they weren’t really wack but I just personally wasn’t feeling Heavenbound, Cancer and Peace.

Dart’s Take: This is official West Coast organic Jazz and Funk influenced Hip Hop straight up and down. If you’re used to tales of drug dealing, murder, misogyny, and at least a fair amount of ig’nant shit with your Rap then you should just ignore this album completely.

Not only is much of this content personal to Rahsaan Ahmad but he’s not heavy on cursing and he’s fairly conscious. That spells kypronite to the typical Rap music buyer. Songs like “Give Thanks”, “Get Funky”, “Heavenbound”, “Shining”, “Cancer” (about his mother’s battle with the deadly disease) and “Peace” would make the typical fan press FFWD on the iTunes.

If you’re already a LA Symphony, Pigeon John or Crown City Rockers fan than this album is a no brainer purchase. For everyone else I suggest you give it a listen to determine if you can rock with that old organic live band West Coast Good Life era Hip Hop music.




If you’ve been a frequent visitor of any Hip Hop messageboard, blog or Elzhi from Slum Village’s MySpace page then I’m sure that you’ve heard several new Elzhi songs like “Save Ya”, “Fire”, “Audio Cinematic” or “The Transitional Joint (Baby Girl Glow)”. All of these songs can be found on the recently leaked tour CD called “Europass”. My review of it is just below:

Best Joints: Intro, That’s That One, Fire, The Reason, Talkin’ In My Sleep, Save Ya, The Know, High Off Life, Heart Of The City, The Transitional Joint (Baby Girl Glow), Dedicated, Motown 25 and Audio Cinematic

Hot Garbage: N/A

Dart’s Take: Dayum! I’ve heard a fair amount of these Elzhi joints before but I never had any good quality audio of them and the production on these tracks is top of the line (Black Milk, T3, DJ Drez, etc.). Elzhi doesn’t disappoint lyrically on any of these joints and he’s even given a run for his money by Royce Da 5’9” on the heat rock “Motown 25”.

I can’t wait until Elzhi releases the solo project or his Cold Steel collaboration with Phat Kat. This gets a mos def easy. Go forth and find it.




Ever since Naledge and Double O dropped their initial album back in 2006 Hip Hop heads have been fiending for more material. Naledge dropped a solo mixtape and Kidz In The Hall released “Detention” with Mick Boogie and “Geniuses Need Love Too”. N

Now that they’ve signed with Duck Down these cats are poised to make some serious noise in ‘08. Next thing you know, they’re on TRL and now their video for “Ridin’ Down The Block” is at #6 on the TRL countdown! The album was available for sale on iTunes this week and officially goes on sale this Tuesday. How did it grab me? Find out below:

Best Joints: Black Out, Paper Trail, Drivin’ Down The Block, Snob Hop, Mr. Alladatshit, Love Hangover, Middle Of The Map Pt.1 & 2, The Pledge, Inner Me and Drivin’ Down The Block Remix

Hot Garbage: Lucifer’s Joyride and Let Your Hair Down are both just meh to me but I absolutely detested The In Crowd. Hate hate hate.

Dart’s Take: This album sounds like it’s made to appeal to a wide audience and grab the ears of more than just Kidz In The Hall’s core fanbase. I felt that this album was too “mainstream” sounding and laid back at some points. Tracks featuring Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes and the godawful title track just didn’t do it for me at all.

The things that do work is when the Kidz do what they do best and Naledge rips it over Double O production. Guest appearances by Phonte of Little Brother, Skyzoo, Camp Lo, Black Milk, Guilty Simpson and host of others really work on this album as tracks like “Black Out”, “Snob Hop”, “Mr. Alladatshit”, “Middle Of The Map Pts. 1 & 2” and “The Pledge” are the crown jewels of the project. Overall, this is a really good LP but I preferred the style of “School Was My Hustle” and “Detention” personally.

Hopefully, this album does really well next Tuesday and gives Duck Down a much deserved spot in the Top 10 on Billboard soon. If kids are going to run out and cop a Hip Hop album because of MTV then I can’t hate if it’s this album or this group. I’m going with a recommended maybe because of excessive smoothness.




Last but not least, the review you’ve all been waiting for since it leaked: J Dilla’s never released MCA project “Pay Jay”. This album is going to be released in the future but first it needs to be mastered and given some cover art. Here’s my take on the project that first leaked through BlackGirlOnline and then hit the bloggerverse and lastly Okayplayer:

Best Joints: Diamonds, We F’ed Up, Fuck The Police, Remember, Fight Club, Creepin’ On You, Trucks, No One Knows, Drive Me Wild, The Diary Of J Dilla, Remember Remix

Hot Garbage: Just the fact that this unfinished project even leaked before it could’ve gotten the treatment it deserved first. The first version was missing producer credits and song titles for God’s sake! I feel kinda dirty for even downloading it in the first place.

Dart’s Take: This album was short as hell, but for fans of J Dilla that’s not really a surprise. His take on music was that shorter tracks often added to the replay factor of them. He only produced “Fuck The Police” which features different vocals from the one that was released as a 12”.

People often fall into the trap of putting these enormous expectations on any recording that Dilla was associated with so this was a rough disappointment to many of them. It wasn’t to me, I remember buying “Ruff Draft”, “Welcome To Detroit”, “Jaylib” and “Donuts”while he was alive as well as the Bling 47 beat CD’s and the J-88 project.

If “Diamonds”, “Creepin’ On You”, “No One Knows”, “Remember” or the remix or any of the other tracks on this project don’t get your head noddin’ prompt a rewind or two or stick in your head for the rest of the day after hearing them then I have no further words for you. Hopefully, heads at MCA get on their jobs and go the the vaults to shore this up and make a proper release out of it in the near future. As far just grading it on the fact that it’s some Dilla material I gotta give it a mos def and pray that it sees the light of day the right way.



Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):



Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:

I'm Also Looking Forward To Reviewing The Following Projects:

Rhymefest-El Che

Skillz-Million Dollar Backpack
Joe Budden-Padded Room
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light

Soul Assassins III-DJ Muggs vs. King Madallions (Planet Asia)
Big Boi-Sir Luscious Leftfoot
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
Invincible-ShapeShifters
Immortal Technique-The 3rd World
Blu-God Is Good

Snowgoons-Black Snow
Termanology-Politics As Usual
Sean Price, Guilty Simpson & Black Milk-Random Axe
Platinum Pied Pipers-Abundance
Method Man & Redman-Blackout 2
Redman-Muddy Waters 2

B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.

The Alchemist-Chemical Warfare
Billy Danze-Behind Gatez
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Baatin-Titus
Common-Invincible Summer
Omen-Be The Judge
Craig G & Marley Marl-Operation: Take Back Hip Hop
Capone-N-Noreaga-Reporting The War
Phat Kat and Elzhi are Cold Steel


Dart's Fat Tape/CD-R (as of May 9th, 2008):

Diamonds-J Dilla (prod. by Nottz)
Motown 25-Elzhi f/Royce Da 5'9" (prod. by Black Milk)
What U Expected-Donny Goines (prod. by Statik Selektah)
I'm A Killya-Billy Danze f/Preacher (prod. by Fizzy Womack)
Things You Do-Joe Budden
Original Dynasty-Custom Made
World Champion-All Natural
Don't Take It Personal-Singapore Kane f/Big Shug (prod. by MoSS)
I'll Be Waitin'-J. Rawls & Middle Child (prod. by J. Rawls)
I Pledge-Kidz In The Hall f/Sean Price & Buckshot (prod. by Double O)
Iron Chef-Trunks f/Del The Funkee Homosapien
Sky Is Falling-Wiley f/Jookie Mundo (prod. by D-Minus)
J. One. s-Serius Jones
The Crush-Raashan Ahmad (prod. by Headnodic)
Too Real-Foxy Brown f/AZ
Where The Cash At?-Swizz Beats (prod, by Swizz Beats)
Yoko Ono-Danny! f/Che Grand (prod. by Danny Swain)
What The People Want-Donny Goines (prod. by Ron Browz)
Circulate-Carlos Nino & Lil' Sci
Middle Of The Map Pt. 2-Kidz In The Hall f/Black Milk & Guilty Simpson (prod. by Double O)
Plead For Your Life-D-12 f/Royce Da 5'9"
Gift Wrap-Che Grand (prod. by Brizzo)
A View To A Kill-All Natural
Jumanji-Mickey Factz f/Nakim, Nymesys, Charlie Clips, Smoke DZA & Curtains
No One Knows-J Dilla (prod. by Supa Dave West)


Son: Daddy what's a cavalier? Father: Something that gets it's ass kicked when it comes into The Jungle! @ Actual conversation I overheard from my window yesterday afternoon

One.

Eight More Slept On Comic Book Titles AKA A Poisonous Paragraphs Comic Book Nerd Special Edition

I haven't done one of these since early January so I was due. I decided not to use any of the titles I dug up in my history of Black superheroes post in February with the exception of Marvel Premiere. Let's get it in!:



Marvel Premiere was a title used as a testing ground of sorts for older and new characters created by Marvel staffers between 1972 and 1981. Some of the odd and varied heroes and villians featured in those pages include Black Panther, Tigra, Wonder Man, Satana, Dominic Fortune, Jack Of Hearts, 3-D Man, Soloman Kane, Woodgod, Monark Starstalker, Star-Lord and Paladin. Several of these creations never saw the light of day again.



Longshot was a bioengineered humanoid created by Mojo to compete in reality based action television shows on Mojoworld. He was given the power of extreme luck and he could incur bad luck in his foes helping him to do the seemingly impossible during combat and escape harm. He led an uprising against Mojo, escaped to Earth and became a member of the X-Men. Ann Nocenti and Art Adams collaborated on the mini series.



Chris Claremont wrote this pivotal tale of Kitty Pride’s coming of age. She becomes a full fledged samurai, gets mindwashed and used as an assassin. Then Wolverine bring her back to normal, they fight the Yakuza, saves her father and she emerges as Shadowcat. Wolverine never called her “kid” again once they got back home from Japan.


Bill Mantlo’s title about a stuntman/martial artist turned hero involves the tale of a man who becomes trapped inside the suit made for him to play a villain in a monster movie. This offbeat title about a man who reluctantly fights demons and becomes a weirdness magnet. Eventually, Blue Devil accepts his role as a superhero and he even joins the Justice League Of America. This titles also features early work by Mike Mignola (“Hellboy”).



Rocket Raccoon is easily one of the weirdest heroes of the 80’s. He hails from a universe overrun with automatons, robots and humanoid animals. He had some interesting adventures while trying to liberate his neck of the universe from the stranglehold of evil and is arguably the inspiration behind Nintendo’s Starfox. He is still active in the Marvel Universe.



Roy Thomas and John Buscema’s answer to DC’s Justice League Of America was Squadron Supreme. They existed in an alternate universe where they created a utopia and kept the peace on Earth. Their only opposition was the evil supergroup Squadron Sinister. Classic mini-series.



Mike Baron’s Badger was based in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin and was about a Vietnam vet martial art expert with multiple personality syndrome that made him think he had the ability to communicate with animals (he didn’t). He often ran afoul of those who were cruel to animals or “raped the land”. A lot of people didn’t get that this comic book was actually a parody of other hero comics. Badger was another classic title from First Comics.



Chris Claremont and Jackson “Butch” Guice told the tale of the first appearance of extradimensional super villain The Entity. He tried to take over The Microverse from Earth, attracting the attention of Baron Karza and The Micronauts. They chased The Entity to the Earth dimension and encountered the X-Men and New Mutants. Eventually, they team together and fight The Entity. Classic Marvel material.


Tomorrow comes another yet another edition of What's New In Dart's iPod. Go Celtics!

One.

Welcome To The Jungle

Last night the Cleveland Cavaliers entered The Jungle to play the first game of the Conference semifinals. The majority of NBA analysts and color commentators all agreed that the Celtics would have a tougher series against the Cavaliers because they are a "better" team than the Hawks and LeBron has torched the Celtics during the regular season.

The thing is that basketball is all about matchups while the Hawks presented a number of problems for the Celtics the only two players on the Cavs roster that present issues for the Celtics are Zydrunas Ilgauskas and LeBron James. The Celtics will throw different looks at LeBron and have him go against Pierce and Posey while shadowing him with Perk and KG. The court shrunk and passing lanes and spacing disappeared instantly when LeBron had the ball in the paint.

Even with all of these defensive schemed put into place LeBron was still just one rebound and one assist shy of a quadruple double...he ended up with 12 points (on 2-18 from the field and 0-6 from deep), 9 rebounds, 9 assists and 10 turnovers. This game was a riddle wrapped in an enigma. Here are some random facts and stats from the game:

The Cavs were 22-26 from the free throw line while the Celtics went just 14-18 for a +8 point advantage in Cleveland's favor.

The Celtics committed 21 turnovers and only forced 17 Cav turnovers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had 12 steals in the game and the Celtics could only muster up 5 all night.

The Celtics only had 18 assists while the Cavaliers managed 19 on 23 made field goals.

Ray Allen was held scoreless in an NBA game for the first time in 11 years.

Paul Pierce was in foul trouble early and only scored 4 points in Game 1.

Based on those stats you'd think that the Celtics lost the game. The thing about stats is that they only tell half of the story, the other half involves desire, mental toughness and making big plays when it counts most. Here are some more stats from last night's game:

The Cleveland Cavaliers were held to 31% shooting from the field (23-75) last night. Kevin Garnett (28 pts 8 rebs 3 ast 2 stl) and Kendrick "The Hulk" Perkins (7 pts 12 rebs 2 blk) controlled the paint. Rajon Rondo (15 pts 5 rebs 6 ast) pushed the tempo and pressured the Cavs guards. James Posey (8 pts on 2-4 from deep) and Sam Cassell (13 pts) each had a couple of clutch three pointers and free throws in the 4th quarter.

Cleveland had a 51-45 lead and possession of the ball with less than 5:00 left in the 3rd quarter before the Celtics went on an 8-1 run to take a slim 53-52 lead into the 4th quarter. It was a back and forth game in the final frame until the Celtics took the lead just to lose it with 1:30 left in the game.

It was 70-68 until Kevin Garnett hit a long clutch jumper @ 1:17 left to tie the game up at 70-70. The Celtics played some tough D at the other end and Sam Cassell came up with the ball and got fouled. The C's took the lead back (72-70) with 52.8 seconds left behind two clutch free throws.

The game was tied again by an Ilgauskas tip-in and Kevin Garnett responded by taking Joe Smith to the hole and converting the go ahead bucket. LeBron James took it on himself to drive to the rack and tie the game but his attempt rimmed out and James Posey grabbed the board and was immediately fouled. He converted the two game sealing free throws with 8.5 seconds left in the contest.

The Boston Celtics scrapped their way throughout an aesthetically challenged (much like our very own Sam I Am) game and came up with a 76-72 triumph in front of the Garden faithful for an all important 1-0 series lead. I haven't seen a Celtics win this gut wrenching since that 2002 playoff 66-64 win against the Detroit Pistons.

Hopefully, both of these teams got their crap games out of their collective systems (with the exception of Rondo and KG). Hopefully, the Celtics spank the James Gang again tomorrow by a sizeable margin (y'all ain't tryin' to see a fired up Headband P!) so we can see Gino while the game's still on.

Game 2 @ TD Banknorth Garden (1) Boston Celtics vs. (4) Cleveland Cavaliers
May 8th @ 7:00 PM ESPN BOS leads 1-0

The Most Likely To Explode For A Big Game Tomorrow Award Goes To:


One.

Dart Adams presents Dartflix Lite #3 (5.1.08-5.15.08)

I decided to do a Dartflix Lite special edition dedicated to the career of Wesley Snipes this week since there were so few films worth seeing being released on the next two Tuesdays. I figured that I should throw in a list of flicks that are going to be available for rental in the coming months to add to your queues as well as a bunch of Wesley Snipes flicks to round out the selection. Some of his later straight to DVD flicks actually are surprisingly good action-wise (the best all around one being "Hard Luck").

ImDb is still not caught up with it's Coming Soon film updates so it's looking like yet another month of Dartflix Lite's. I'll be posting up Dartflix Lite # 4 on May 15th (theme TBD) and Dart Adams presents A Tale Of Ten Trailers 6 on May 20th. It kills me that Wesley Snipes is going to jail for 3 years and Willie Nelson got a slap on the wrist back in the days. It also pisses me off that David Goyer tried to snake the Blade franchise away from Snipes and Amen Ra Films in order to make a vehicle for his proposed Darkstalkers project with "Blade: Trinity"

The legal fight for the Blade franchise and subsequent spinoffs got ugly (Stephen Norrington and Guillermo Del Toro directed the first two films while Goyer wrote them) and it ultimately impeded the progress Snipes and Amen Ra Films had made in getting his dream project greenlit with Marvel, "Black Panther".

Next thing you know, here comes the good 'ol IRS and Wesley flees the country to do straight to DVD action films for quick cash. After years of chasing homie a la U.S. Marshals, the government finally got their man and hit him with 3 bullets in the bing. Here's to the career of one of my personal favorite actors, action stars, martial artists and film producers, Wesley Snipes. Salute.


Films I recommend (5.1.08-5.15.08) to add to your queue early or for rental from either Netflix or Redbox:

Iron Man
The Forbidden Kingdom
I'm Not There
The 4400-The Complete Fourth Season
The Great Debaters
Untraceable
Frontier(s)
Botched
National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets
Finishing The Game
Rambo
The Air I Breathe
The Cleaner
Grace Is Gone
Bomb It
Chaos Theory
Inglorious Bastards (1978)
Heroes Of The East
Come Drink With Me
88 Minutes
Street Kings
Stop-Loss
The Grand
Doomsday
Funny Games
Paranoid Park
Snow Angels
The Bank Job
How To Rob A Bank
City Of Men
In Bruges
Shoot Down
Chicago 10
Charlie Bartlett
Be Kind Rewind
Jumper
Diary Of The Dead
Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?
Cassandra's Dream
The Killing Of John Lennon
The Tracey Fragments
Streets Of Gold
Wild Cats
King Of New York
Mo' Better Blues
Jungle Fever
New Jack City
Passenger 57
Drop Zone
Major League
Boiling Point
White Men Can't Jump
Demolition Man
Murder At 1600
One Night Stand
Rising Sun
Sugar Hill
Money Train
U.S. Marshals
The Art Of War
Blade
Blade II
Blade: Trinity
Chaos
7 Seconds
The Marksman
Unstoppable
Hard Luck
The Contractor


Rent/Watch these movies at your own risk:

Speed Racer
Mad Money
The Hottie & The Nottie
Over Her Dead Body
P.S. I Love You
First Sunday

One.

Threes Up, A Town Down

Sunday afternoon they jumped it up in The Jungle for the right to move on and challenge for the NBA Championship. The Boston Celtics lept out to an early lead in Game 7 of their 1st round series with the Atlanta Hawks and they never looked back. The Celtics lead was predicated on lockdown defense as Kendrick “The Hulk” Perkins (10 pts 10 reb 5 blk in 26 min) and Kevin Garnett (18 pts 11 reb 4 ast 1 blk in 27 min) controlled the paint.

The score was 42-26 at halftime and once the 3rd quarter started the Celtics decided to step on the Hawks throats and not let up. This led to a hard foul by Marvin Williams on a streaking Rajon Rondo at 9:09 left in the 3rd quarter with the score 51-28 that ultimately led to his ejection from the game.

When it was all said and done, the Celtics earned the right to advance to the next round and play last year’s Eastern Conference Champion Cleveland Cavaliers by eradicating the Hawks 99-65 in front of a sellout crowd. Boston inproved to 4-0 at home in the playoffs and punkass Mike Bibby only scored 2 pts with 4 reb and 2 ast in 25 total minutes.

His only points in the entire game came with 3:23 left in the 1st quarter. The Garden faithful got to see Gino at the end of the 3rd quarter. That what you get for those videos you showed in Atlanta (for the record, every Bostonian who appeared in those videos should be ashamed of themselves on the real).

The Celtics won in convincing fashion in front of a national audience by holding Atlanta to 29% shooting from the field behind 10 blocks and 11 steals. The Boston defense also forced 16 turnovers and scored 27 points off of them.

In addition, Boston had 20 total assists to Atlanta’s anemic 11. The Atlanta Hawks fire, youth, length, lateral quickness, fearlessness, anger and athleticism caused several matchup problems for the Celtics in this first round series. In the end, veteran leadership, home cooking and team pride won out. In the 4 games in Boston (192 total game minutes) Atlanta only held a lead for a total of 4 minutes and 53 seconds. That spells out total domination.

Tomorrow, LeBron James will bring the Cleveland Cavaliers to The Jungle. I’m sure he saw that massacre that happened there last night in HD. I can’t wait for Tuesday to see how it all goes down.

Game 1 @ TD Banknorth Garden May 6th, 2008 @ 8PM
Boston Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

*throws threes at my readers*

One.

What's New In Dart's iPod #28 AKA The Three For The Stripes Edition

There were so many new releases last week that some of them spilled over into this weeks edition. Considering that tonight the Celtics are gonna be playing Game 6 in Atlanta tonight for the right to advance to the next round and everyone’s gonna be watching it I’m dedicating todays review blog to the occasion.

The three releases I’ll be highlighting in this edition are UK emcee Kano’s newest mixtape “MC No.1”, Boston group 7L & Esoteric’s “Esoteric Vs. Japan: Pterodactyl Takes Tokyo!” and production team Blue Sky Black Death’s new instrumental project “Late Night Cinema”. For the uninitiated, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here's how my "Cop It Or Not" ratings system breaks down below:


Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.

Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it's in your lane or not.

Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops...'Nuff said.

..Fuck Al Qaeda! 'Cuz I coulda died gettin' a candy bar from a bodega! © Vast Aire


The very first project that I’m reviewing today is UK Grime emcee Kano’s new mixtape “MC No. 1”. He’s left his former label 679 and is now a free agent. He went to the studio and recorded some freestyles over some familiar beats. How does this mixtape measure up against his previous classics “Beats & Bars” and last year's “Kano Mixtape”? Let’s see:

Best Joints: My Name Is...Kano, Old Skool, Duffle Bag Freestyle, Can’t Take My Throne, Hurt, Hustler, Dun Know The MySpace, So Good, The Way I Are, It’s Me N Word, Money In The Bank Freestyle, Stronger, Dead Presidents Freestyle

Hot Garbage: Sexual Eruption (Why do it? AutoTune just ain’t for everybody)

Dart’s Take: In the UK, Grime heads are up in arms about this mixtape because instead of making a return to Grime, he chose to rhyme over a bunch of American Hip Hop/R&B beats instead of some joints by Bless Beats, Rude Kid or a number of other Grime producers. This mixtape is seen as a flaming pile of horseshit across the pond because it doesn’t fit the Grime aesthetic. To a Hip Hop fan this mixtape is better than okay.

Being that I’ve been a fan of Kano’s since the early days I can say that this is easily his laziest work to date and the least inspired effort I’ve heard from him in just over 6 years. The beat selection was wonky at best, he went from “My Name Is..” and “Dead Presidents” to “Crank Dat Soulja Boy” and “It’s Me, Bitches” (the only recent Swizz instrumentals I'd even consider good to rhyme on are "Blow Your Mind" or "School Of Hard Knocks") .

Kano wasn’t as aggressive or hungry as he’d been on past verses, you can tell he was just skating through the tracks. This is just a maybe to me. I’d recommend that you check out his previous mixtapes and albums and skip this one altogether to get a better idea of how nice he is.



Boston underground Hip Hop duo 7L & Esoteric have been in the game for almost 12 years now and dropped classic after classic release during their careers. This new release features Esoteric flipping samples of Japanese anime, cartoons and Godzilla films while 7L handles the cuts. Their new project drops May 6th, what do I think of it? Find out below:

Best Joints: The Arrival, Mecha Mecha, Real Rap Design, Gaiking Skydragon Rap, My New Favorite, Neo-Tokyo, 24 Karat Fiction, Pterolab Beat Oven, Gigantor Says Anything, Emperor Guillotine, Feudal Lords, Knifegirl, Demoralizer, God Less America, Gargoyle Gang Face Science, Plastic Model Version, Godzilla Stomp, Heroic Trio

Hot Garbage: Wrestlelectro and I Do Lo-Fi

Dart’s Take: This was a concept that has been done before but these cats get an “A” for execution. Esoteric went into the Pterolab and cheffed up some ol’ marvelous shit to get your mouth watering on the beats side. The instrumental breaks were ill and tracks like “Mecha Mecha”, “Real Rap Design”, “24 Karat Fiction” (where Eso rhymes as a gold rope that was passed around by Hip Hop legends) and my personal favorite “God Less America”make this a must buy for their fans.

It was nice to hear references to obscure giant robots like Danguard Ace and lines like “well send your ass to the Wolves like Ryan Gomes” while Esoteric flips samples from the old “Force Five” cartoon (yes, I did take part of my name from Jesse Dart of the “Space Keteers”). I give this a recommended maybe strictly because all of my readers may not be able to rock with 7L & ES' style. For those of you that are familiar with them and their back catalogue this joint is a mos def, easy.



The California production team Blue Sky Black Death have previously made albums with Wu affiliates Holocaust and Hell Razah as well as releasing some notable mixtapes (“The Dirtnap Mixtape”) along the way. On April 29th, Babygrande dropped their instrumental opus “Late Night Cinema”. How did it grab me? Read below:

Best Joints: The Era When We Sang, Lord Of Our Vice, Ghosts Among Men, Private Death On A Quiet Eve, Shoot You Dead, Listen Child, My Work Will Be Done, Forgive Me, Different Hours, All The News Is Bad Again and Legacy To Fuel

Hot Garbage: N/A

Dart’s Take: I have to say that this album took me by surprise. I didn’t download the advance and I just waited until all 11 tracks were available before I listened to it. Instead of being the regular old instrumental album with tracks pretty much ready for an emcee to rhyme over, it was done with many layers and different movements almost like a movie score. The tracks often run longer than 5 minutes and none of them feel long because so much happens in each track.

I’ve liked all of BSBD’s previous material but on this one they get to stand at the forefront rather than supporting the emcee. They exceeded my expectations with their lush sonic backdrops and overall musicianship. This is perfect for the iPod when I’m walking around the city throwing threes menacingly. I almost want to write a script to go along with this album, I give “Late Night Cinema” a much deserved mos def.




Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):



Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:

I'm Also Looking Forward To Reviewing The Following Projects:

Rhymefest-El Che

Skillz-Million Dollar Backpack
Joe Budden-Padded Room
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light

Soul Assassins III-DJ Muggs vs. King Madallions (Planet Asia)
Big Boi-Sir Luscious Leftfoot
Scram Jones-Untold Scriptures
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
Invincible-ShapeShifters
Blu-God Is Good

Snowgoons-Black Snow
N.E.R.D-Seeing Sounds
Termanology-Politics As Usual
Platinum Pied Pipers-Abundance
Method Man & Redman-Blackout 2
Redman-Muddy Waters 2

B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.

The Alchemist-Chemical Warfare
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Baatin-Titus
Common-Invincible Summer
Omen-Be The Judge
Craig G & Marley Marl-Operation: Take Back Hip Hop
Capone-N-Noreaga-Reporting The War


Dart's Fat Tape/CD-R (as of May 2nd, 2008):

The Transitional Joint (Baby Girl Glow)-Elzhi (prod. by Black Milk)
The Dough-Prodigy (prod. by Alchemist)
50 Shots (Stream Of Consciousness)-Joell Ortiz
Distant Star-Heliocentrics f/MF Doom & Percee P
Bullshit-Tyga
The Grand Return-The Roots f/Dice Raw & Wahud Ahmad
Legacy To Fuel-Blue Sky Black Death (prod. by Blue Sky Black Death)
Rush-Young Chris f/Beanie Sigel
Real Rap Design-7L & Esoteric f/Moe Pope & Megaphone (prod. by Esoteric)
We F'ed Up-Jay Dee f/Frank N' Dank (prod. by Kanye West)
My Hood-Capone -N-Noreaga f/The Clipse
Stereo Types-Reks (prod. by 1914 & Statik Selektah)
Made The Change-Craig G & Marley Marl (prod. by Marley Marl)
Magnificent-Estelle f/Kardinal Ofishall (prod. by Mark Ronson)
Keep It Live-Big Treal (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Starstruck (Tribute To Sean Bell)-Euclid f/Santogold
War Is Necessary-Nas
Keep It Goin'-O.C. & AG (prod. by E.Blaze)
Shoot You Dead-Blue Sky Black Death (prod. by Blue Sky Black Death)
Cold World-Grand Puba
Calculated Risk-Braille f/Mr. J.Medeiros & Manchild
Psychotic Girl-Spec Boogie f/The Black Keys
Broken Heart-Pharoahe Monch (prod. by Mr. Porter)
Dances With Wolves-Trunks f/Smif N' Wessun & Kardinal Offishall
Overdose On Life-Omen f/Drake, Mickey Factz & Travis Of Gym Class Heroes (prod. by Omen)


We ain't done nothin' yet...we're trying to win a title and put a banner up there © Kevin Garnett


One.

Blood, Sweat & Tears

The Celtics went to Atlanta and got their asses kicked twice in Philips Arena. Sure, the shot clocks don't work and they use an air horn when the shot clock runs out but that didn't deter the Hawks one bit. The Celtics were outplayed, outhustled and they just went stagnant for quarters at a time. As it would be expected, the games got out of hand and players continued to jaw at one another. The catalyst behind most of these dust ups is Al Horford.

Al Horford was taunting Paul Pierce when he was on the ground and he was standing over him. Paul then got up and walked over to the Hawks bench and threw up what looked like a gang sign. All of us at home here in Boston knew what he did and why. The rest of the country? Not so much.

In Boston, much like other cities, we have our own culture. Things that we do in Boston include wearing Adidas, driving like assholes, thinking that we're the center of the universe and we should win everything and throwing threes. As far back as I can remember, people have been throwing threes in Boston.Sometimes it's up or down but it's always with your right hand and your top three fingers while your thumb and pinky are together (like Headband P is doing above in this two year old picture).

The three fingers represent whatever three things you want them to individually but the sign itself represents the city of Boston. There are places you go in the city where if you don't dap with three fingers they don't let you through there. My boy BX Representer from AllHipHop.com once told me that he couldn't even buy a bag of chip from a local store because he didn't know the three finger dap.

Free used to throw threes up during commercial breaks on "106 & Park". Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce have been throwing it up since 1999! One time back when Patrick Ewing was injured on the bench near the tail end of his career he was being interviewed and at the end he said "I'd like to say "Hi" to all my family back home in Boston!" "Hi Ma!" He threw the three in the camera. I guess I'm the only one who remembers that, huh?

Quick! Is she a Bostonian or a Blood? Quick! (Rest of the country, say "Hi" to Gurlfite, truly one of Boston's finest)

Dave Stern says that it's a "menacing gesture" and he doesn't believe that the sign that the entire Celtics team as well the majority of the inner city dwellers of the Metro Boston area threw up has existed since the late 70's. Whatever, onto the game:

The TD Banknorth Garden has become "The Jungle" once again. "The Jungle" was created during the surprise first-ever playoff run of the Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce back in 2002. Ever since, the place has been rockin' during big games. This game qualified, it had it all: drama, hostility, tension, and a must-win situation for both teams. The ball went up and the Celtics and Hawks settled into Game 5.

The game started out close and Perk chucked his mask less than two minutes in (neither he or Marvin Williams were suspended for leaving the bench during the incident in the previous contest). He ended up getting two early fouls and had to grab some pine. Leon Powe (10 pts 7 rebs) stepped on an started producing immediately. He took two key charges, grabbed some offensive boards and scored. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo all got out the hot starts but the C's didn't start to pull away until the 1st quarter was about to end.

When the Big Three had to sit, Sam Cassell (13 pts on 6-8 shooting), James Posey (6 pts 5 rebs) and Glen "Big Baby" Davis all stepped up and made big plays. Tony Allen was noticeably rusty from being out of the rotation. The Celtics stayed ahead for the entire first half and were just cruising along until some shit jumped off with 57 seconds left in the half.

Al Horford horsecollared Kevin Garnett from behind as he went to the hoop and got called for a flagrant foul. At the time the lead was 10 but the pissed off Celtics pushed the lead to 58-43 at the half.

The Atlanta Hawks went on a run to start the second half but it was soon squelched by the Celtics as they clamped down on D. Kevin Garnett anchored the defense and Rajon Rondo initiated the offense. When it was all said and done, the Celtics end up blowing out the Atlanta Hawks 110-85.

Paul Pierce led the the team (22 pts, 7 rebs, 6 ast) along with Kevin Garnett (20 pts, 5 rebs, 7 ast & 3 blk) while Ray Allen mopped up (19 pts 5-8 3pt). Rajon Rondo (12 pts, 7 ast, 4 rebs) dominated at both ends of the court. Game 6 is in Atlanta @ 8:00 pm and the Celtics take a 3-2 lead in the series hoping to put them away for good.

*Throws threes at my readers in a "menacing fashion"*



One.