There's A Glitch In The Matrix! © Trinity

Triple fuckin' overtime? Another close loss? More holding the basketball instead of running? Will this be the end for our heroes or will they manage to live to fight (and play) for another day? Find out in the thrilling conclusion Saturday May 2nd @ TD Banknorth Garden AKA The Jungle in Boston. Oh...and to all the heads on TSS that wonder why I've been so quiet I've been busy as hell writing lately. Once I'm done with this particular project you'll get sick of me again, I promise.

Follow me on Twitter and take the opportunity to kick me while I'm down if the Celtics lose (God forbid) or just enjoy reading me impart nuggets of wisdom or shit on rappers and entertainers all day. Make sure to message or DM me so I know you're a reader/human so I don't block you thinking you're a bot/hella boring. It's like micro blogging x instant messenger, be wary...there is a wrong way to do it, though.

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Dart Adams presents Dart, Are You Awake?

Another issue with being a semi anonymous blogger is your credibility level. Things that I like or love I write with passion about and things I dread and absolutely abhor tend to get the same treatment. The thinking is that I can thoroughly shit on certain things and people without fear of reprisal or retaliation because no one knows who I am. One of the problems with Hip Hop journalism is that people are afraid to say what they really want in this new climate for fear of being branded a "hater" or being approached by an artist. This isn't why I haven't revealed who I am yet as I'd say/write the exact same shit if my identity was publicly known.

I used to have people tell me that they loved or hated what I did as an emcee and I eventually discovered that everything isn't for everybody. I don't feel that certain artists aesthetics work for me and since I have my own blog I can be open with that and my biases towards others as well. Everything is out in the open here. Whereas if I worked for a magazine and I hated Lil' Boosie's face yet I was still given the album to review it would be seen as that magazine saying they'd "rather knifefight Jack Bauer underwater with a punctured lung and a cracked clavicle than listen to another minute of this drek". On Poisonous Paragraphs you know that the person that wrote that was me, myself and I alone.


Don't get it twisted and think I talk all this shit because I'm safe behind this persona. I write like I talk for the most part so anything I type on this keyboard you should imagine that I'd say it to you if you were standing directly in front of me. It's like Hex Murda said to me on Twitter a while back, based on what I wrote he thought I sounded and looked like my avatar so if he saw me I better not look like Fievel. Nah, there's a reason why I picked that particular picture of Luke Cage as my avatar and why I put it at the top of many of my posts. You instantly think that what you're reading is coming from that guy based on how I write. It's all a conscious decision I made long ago.


One day, I'm going to have to be seen and interviewed so it's important that I'm myself as much as humanly possible when I write. The whole purpose is for any reader of mine to feel like they have somewhat of a grip on what I'd say about something or be curious to hear my take on something. Then there's the whole question as to why I don't have any contributors to Poisonous Paragraphs or why I won't post up content for other sources here...well that's pretty goddamn simple. How can I truly call this MY blog if I have everyone else's shit on here? I've written in excess of 560 blogs in 28 months for an average of 20 a month and I haven't even scratched the surface of subjects I can write about yet. That's why I'm still up at 3 AM writing this very same sentence right now.

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Dart Adams presents Who You Think I Am?

Way back in the days when the Wu Tang Clan first hit the scene they featured an emcee named Ghostface Killah. Ghost kept his visage covered with either a stocking or a ski mask during the crew's earliest videos and press pictures because he had a case pending and because he thought it added to his mystique as an emcee. I thought it was a dope idea because you had nothing to judge him on other than his lyrics or the consistency of his bars/verses throughout his career rather than other perimeter shit. I also thought about the whole superhero/supervillain dynamic when you never get to see their faces and you have to take them who they claim to be and judge them solely on their actions.

In 1996, before Nas released his second album "It Was Written" he did an interview with The Source and he discussed how he wished he could just rhyme without all the other bullshit involved in the industry. He remarked about how ill he thought Ghostface Killah was because all he had to do was just lay down his verses and that was it. Photo shoots and videos wouldn't be overpowered by his image because all that mattered was how he came off on that track he was on. Of course, once Tony Starks face was revealed to the world his career changed immediately. Now it was about expanding on his image, the wallabees, the bathrobes over the clothes and the golden eagle bracelet. Before no one knew what he looked like none of that ever came into play.


Nas' comments were overblown by the Hip Hop media and fans alike but I completely understood what he meant. What if Biggie was allowed to remain the grimy Brooklyn ex-drug dealer with the army jacket over the jeans and Timberlands rather than becoming the suited playa/Big Poppa/Frank White that Diddy turned him into? What if Kimberly Jones never adopted Nelda (The Original Queen Bee)'s whole image and stayed herself? Would she have still gotten so much plastic surgery if she felt she was enough already? Think about Inga Marchand and how different her career would have been if we only focused on her bars and NOT her bras. Remember how girls responded to Method Man when they first saw him? Why do you think Def Jam made it such a point to sign him?

Think about the people you add to MySpace/Facebook/Twitter every day. Appearance and image matters. I personally focus on content rather than flashy shit in my every day life so I figured if I was going to commit to that philosophy in my writing and commentary then I couldn't be a hypocrite. All you have to judge me on is my previous body of work and/or my current material if you want to add me on MySpace/Facebook/Twitter, etc. Once I finally end this whole anonymous charade watch how the entire game will change or how.

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Dart Adams presents The Mystery Of Dart

As most of you regular readers know, I prefer to write about things rather than myself...although from time to time I'll throw you all a bone and reveal some of my extensive and varied background. It's been almost three years and I think I've written my government name once one this blog and never even posted a picture of myself. I've previously written about a few of my jobs, my time at Morgan State University in Baltimore, even dropped some clues about my previous life as an emcee but I've never really gone into detail about it save for the revisited version of "Please Listen To My Demo © EPMD". I guess I still haven't decided to face it yet.

I realized that a great amount of my readers still have a number of questions regarding me, this blog and the features on it and my past. This really hit me hard when I started on Twitter and I discovered exactly how many questions I'd left in the air considering all the shit I know. I guess the fact that even people in Boston aren't aware who I am although they've communicated with me since 2005 has left even more questions in the air. The purpose of me doing this so that I can write about whoever and whatever I want without anyone feeling that I'm just cosigning my friends or affiliates. In order to do so I completely removed myself from the scene.


The thing is that same approach I took on BostonRap.com back in 2005 soon spread to AllHipHop.com & XXL.com in 2006. When I decided to start this blog during my time at AllHipHop.com I figured "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" so I've remained the faceless but highly opinionated blogger who rarely does interviews and doesn't get photographed. A few people have seen me out in public and asked if I was Dart Adams (which surprised the hell out of me) so it's hilarious that I've managed to keep this up this long. One day soon, the "mask" will come off and like Ghostface Killah once said "Once the face got revealed, the game got real".

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What's New In Dart's iPod #75 AKA Where Amazing Happens

So far these NBA playoffs have been extremely exciting as the Bulls and 76'ers managed to come away with upsets. Several players had out of body experiences and a couple of 'em went Super Saiyan in front of a worldwide audience (Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, LeBron James, Dywane Wade, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, etc.). Amazing has happened so far but the real test lies in the future playoff rounds. The Bruins also swept the hated Montreal Canadiens 4-0 and the Red Sox start their first series vs. their mortal enemies the New York Yankees tonight. I also did a new collaborative blog with my boy Travis Glave @ Wake Your Daughter Up so be on the lookout for that one!

This week I'll be reviewing four new projects that recently hit the 'net/bloggerverse and/or will be landing on store shelves soon in the following order: Curren$y "This Ain't No Mixtape", The Grouch & Eligh "Say G&E", Men Without Pants "Naturally" and yU "Before Taxes". For those of you new to this blog, 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.

Only ask me questions about the guys that're playing! © Doc Rivers


Best Joints: The Briefing, Get It Ya Self, Blown Away, Scared Of Monstas, Elevator Musik, On My Plane, 16 Switches Spitter, The Jets Son, LOL, Sail On, Got It, Power Button, Up Here, Cook Up, Food For Thought, Galaxy, Look Up To The Jets, Something Like & Top Of The Money

Hot Garbage: N/A (About 5 or 6 of these tracks could've used different beats though)

Dart's Take: Curren$y Da Hot Spitta is yet another one of the young emcees that have become blog favorites through to his nonstop grinding, lyrical consistency and a gang of mixtapes he's put out. This is his official debut street album available from Boston based Hip Hop label Amalgam Digital. This album is pretty impressive in the sense that Curren$y varies up his flows and song topics while keeping his lyricism as the main focus. You can tell when he has outside production because the beats just stand out so much more. The underwhelming sonic aspect of this album prevented Spitta from earning a mos def. I give "This Ain't A Mixtape" a highly recommended maybe.





Best Joints: Intro, Say G&E!, Push On (Push Up), Old Souls, Boom, Denial, I Know You Wanna Feel, Teach Me The Way, All In, Do It Again, Rivers Run Dry, No Flowers, Comin' Up and Sign Of The Times

Hot Garbage: Worried About The World was just meh to me.

Dart's Take: I've been a fan of the Living Legends since the late 90's when the Backpack Era was at it's peak (1997-2002). I even have a super rare issue of Subculture Magazine with a detailed Living Legends interview in it featuring all of it's members. I was listening to old tapes from The Grouch back in 1997/8 so to review an album from Grouch & Eligh in 2009 is kinda surreal. The crazy thing is that these guys having lost anything in their lyricsm or flows after 12 years plus since I first heard them.

The Grouch has the same hunger on the mic that he had on "Nothing Changes", "Success Is Destiny" &"Fuck The Dumb", that alone is commendable. Eligh spits with the same command and intensity he had on "As They Pass", "A Story Of 2 Worlds", & "Sidewaydaze". When you take these two legendary West Coast rhyme veterans you can expect nothing less than great material. If you're not a Legendary head this might skew a bit boring to you (possibly) or you might love it. Either way I give "Say G&E!" a highly recommended maybe.






Best Joints: Superfine, My Balloon, Let's Meet In Real Life, If You're Thinkin' Of Me, I Do and Goodbye

Hot Garbage: And The Girls Go (Where's Mark Ronson when you really need him?), Double Life, Never Gonna Do That Again. Rock Show, Keep On Movin', All You Need Is Luck and The Beginning.

Dart's Take: One of my favorite all time producers is Dan "The Automator" Nakamura. He and Jon Spencer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion collaborated to make an album I was very interested in hearing last summer when it was announced by their label that the project was coming soon. After 8 months of delays and a Japanese release but no American LP I ultimately stopped caring. The album has recently surfaced on the 'net so I decided to review it....Uhh, what the fuck is this supposed to be exactly?

Half of this album I was praying that the song hurried up and ended and the other half I hoped that they didn't fuck it up with the noise and annoying vocals. I couldn't get into this project at all. It was a disjointed clusterfuck of noise kinda reminiscent of that N.A.S.A. LP some people actually think is good. I could've gone without ever even hearing this collaborative album and I would've been just fine. "Naturally" has earned every bit of an oh no from me.




Best Joints: Before Taxes Intro, Beats & Rhymes from March25 (Kick Styles), Almost Time, Thought About It, BreakDown, Corners, The UP&UP, Close, Fine, Lunchin', Native, Memory, The Rock, In The Reign, MmHmm and Brainwash

Hot Garbage: N/A

Dart's Take: Last week we got beat in the head with DMV supergroup Diamond District's "In The Ruff" LP. This week 1/3rd of Diamond District decided to expand on his "Before Taxes EP" and make it an LP. You add yU's verses to production from The 1978ers (Slimkat78 & yU), Oddisee, Kev Brown & Bilal Salaam and guest appearances from the DMV crews Low Budget and The Remainz plus Grap Luva and Finale and the end result is another ridiculous free album.

I played this jawn to death this past week. I feel asleep playing it and woke up just to play it again from the beginning in the morning! I give "Before Taxes" a mos def. Good lookin' out to my boy Kenny Fresh @ Fresh Selects for putting us all on!





Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):



Projects I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop in 2009:

Rhymefest-El Che
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light
Royce Da 5'9"-Street Hop
Big Boi-Sir Luscious Leftfoot, Son Of Chico Dusty
Mos Def-The Ecstatic LP
Royce Da 5'9"-Street Hop
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
Blu-God Is Good
Sean Price, Guilty Simpson & Black Milk-Random Axe
Redman-Muddy Waters 2
B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.
Billy Danze-Behind Gatez
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Baatin-Titus
Phat Kat and Elzhi are Cold Steel
The Beatnuts-The Planet Of The Crates
Skepta-Microphone Champion
Ski Beatz-Half Man, Half Amazing
Evidence-Cats & Dogs
Statik Selektah-The Hangover


The NBA...where amazing happens © NBA Entertainment

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