The Score blew up in 1996 and there was no looking back for Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras Michel. The Fugees’ second album flowed out of speakers around the world with a combination of superb bass drops, verbal hijinks, and unparalleled class that simply left weakass hip hop in the past and helped propel the genre into a new century.

I have no research to back me up, but I imagine few albums have been career-makers or-propellants to the extent The Score was for the three members of The Fugees. Even the runt of the trio – Pras – parlayed the success of this monumental album into side-projects and exposure. The Score is that good.

Refresh your memory with one of the non-single tracks, “How Many Mics”, a track that lets the rhymes and flow shine without the distraction of pumped up production and little sampling (only The Moody Blues’ “Twilight Time”).

   The Fugees – How Many Mics

There is no one particularly Poptastic thing about the Fun Lovin’ Criminals. Their being alone simply captures the essence of the concept. Produce good songs? Check. Don’t seem yourself too seriously? Check. Have a goofy take on a Pope of Greenwhich Village vibe? Check. Not afraid to look a bit silly now and then? Check.

They’re like a Poptastic Frankenstein, stitched together from some of the best and most Poptastic aspects of different decades since the 1970s.

The Fun Lovin’ Criminals are the Ambassadors of Poptastic Plenipotentiary.

   Fun Lovin’ Criminals – King Of New York (Cooley High Remix)

In the annals of Crap Rap, 2 Live Crew hold a very special place. Not only is their brand of hip hop just painfully mediocre, it’s the sort that, for all intents and purposes, is designed simply to provide controversy. And, damned if it didn’t generate enough controversy and scandal to propel it to the top of the Billboard Rap Chart and into the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989.

That said, everytime I hear “Me So Horny” I start to crack up. I get the giggles listening to the Full Metal Jacket clip played over and over and, of course, in the past had to say it over and over to get on the nerves of the Bean. Ah, good times.

Someday we here at 100b will make a graphic of the Poptastic Wheel so everyone can see how the good-to-bad-to-good continuum works for this sort of stuff. It’s a scientific thing. Like physics or even chemistry. Put enough bad into a song and, at some point, it becomes good again.

   2 Live Crew – Me So Horny

What better way to “Start It Up” after a much-deserved 100break by the 100b crew than to throw some of A Tribe Called Quest atcha?

There is no doubt that among the groups formed during The Golden Age Of Hip Hop the Tribe is among the best. I wouldn’t laugh at anyone suggesting they belong among the best evar. The beats. The flow. The lyrics. There’s simply no need to hype these guys up. Their reputation and quality shine through with every spin of the disc.

Stayed tuned for more from the Bean, Tamboosh and yours truly. 100b is back refreshed and energized!

   A Tribe Called Quest – Start It Up

Regular readers already know I loves the hip hop. Thinking of a topic for my Zany Charts at-bat, I began to wonder about the build up to hip hop chart success. I mean, the pre-history between, say, Debbie Harry fashion-rapping on “Rapture” in 1980 and before the 1986 cross-over success of “Walk This Way” (Run-D.M.C.) and the Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill. I’m talking about the five or six years after hip hop was already firmly rooted in the inner cities and when it spread into a wider national and international consciousness.

What were some of the key moments and trailblazing tracks that lead to rampant chart success in the 90s and Naughties? Not necessarily what were the best tracks (though most of these are undeniable classics) or what were the most successful within a slice of the American cultural pie. I’m talking about what were some of the keys that really launched hip hop to a wider audience when there were still industry insiders, commentatories, average joes actually saying, “This is just a passing fad.”

The first emcee to sign to a major label (Mercury), Kurtis Blow released “The Breaks”, his second single, in 1980. The song broke into the Billboard R&B Top 5, eventually went gold, and Blow’s appearance on Soul Train would be the first nationally televised performance by an emcee.

   Kurtis Blow – The Breaks

The Funky Four Plus One became the first hip hop group to appear before a national television audience, performing their Sugarhill classic “That’s The Joint” on the 1981 Valentine’s Day broadcast of Saturday Night Live hosted by none other than Debbie Harry.

   Funky Four Plus One – That’s The Joint

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five need no introduction and the 1982 single “The Message” is a big part of the reason why. Among the first hip hop tracks to speak to inner city life and problems, “The Message” peaked at #62 in the Billboard Hot 100 and has since been sampled many times over.

   Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five – The Message

Herbie Hancock and Grand Mixer D.ST’s “Rock It” and Kurtis Blow’s “Basketball” (off the 1984 Ego Trip) are the two earliest hip hop tracks I can remember. I wasn’t completely hooked just yet, but I clearly remember these as the start of my hip hop journey. “Rock It” would be the first solid hit to prominently feature serious wheels of steel.

   Herbie Hancock – Rock It (ft Grand Mixer D.ST)

Considering the style of Blow’s relatively popular “Basketball” in 1984, to hear “The Show” by Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, featuring Slick Rick, in 1985 marked the sea change coming in hip hop. This was the dawn of the future.

   Doug E. Fresh – The Show (ft Ricky D a.k.a. Slick Rick)

And, if “The Show” was the dawn, then Eric B. & Rakim were the true morning of hip hop, blowing the doors off with “Eric B. is President” in 1986. This was the new benchmark by which hip hop albums and emcees would be measured. From there, there was no turning back for hip hop and its growing legions of fans.

   Eric B & Rakim – Eric B Is President

In May 2007, I posted an Aesop Rock Mini-Sampler Backtrack. R.A. The Rugged Man is not Aesop Rock. In fact, The Rugged Man is to Aesop Rock as turds are to brownies. Aesop is a cerebral underground hip-hop lyricist. The Rugged Man is often filthy and rudely vapid, which should come as no surprise given he holds Kook G. Rap as one of his primary influences. He’s the seedier side of underground hip hop and is not for the easily offended or those of delicate constitution.

And The Rugged Man is one of my favorite emcees.

With only two full-length albums made a decade apart (Night Of The Bloody Apes in 1994 – never released – and Die Rugged Man Die in 2004), it says a helluvalot about his skills that R.A. is as well as known as he actually is among the hip hop community.

To introduce R.A. The Rugged Man to the uninitiated, three tracks from between 1999-2006 for your consideration. First, “Stanley Kubrick” (Soundbombing 2 1999). Next, “Lessons” (Die Rugged Man Die 2004), a capsule biography without unnecessary apologies and one of only two singles from his only full release. Finally, a superb example of his explosive skills at internal rhyming in his verse for Jedi Mind Tricks’ “Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story” (Servants In Heavan, Kings In Hell, 2006), the story of his father in the first person.

For those possessing the aforementioned delicate constitution, only “Stanley Kubrick” contains anything remotely as crude as The Rugged Man has been known to spit.

   R.A. The Rugged Man – Stanley Kubrick
   R.A. The Rugged Man – Lessons
   Jedi Mind Tricks – Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story (ft R.A. The Rugged Man)

During a visit to Rough Trade East last weekend, I picked up Best Of Grand Royal 12’s, a collection of, as the smart folks at Rough Trade note, “not strictly legit” Beastie Boys remixes released in September 2007. Beasties? Yes, please. Remixes? What more could a remix whore like me want?

Michael (Mike D) Diamond, Adam (MCA) Yauch and Adam (Ad-Rock) Horovitz have been making The Music – in one guise (punk) or another (hip hop) – since 1984. After two and a half decades in the biz, having sold in the neighborhood of 20 million albums (20,000,000, otherwise known as alot) and sprouted more than a few gray hairs, the trio are giants of music, yet still manage to maintain their independent streak and underground sensibility and respect.

Between 1985 and 2008, these three goofballs have made their presence known with 14 Top 50 singles in the United Kingdom (three of them Top 10) and six Top 100 (four Top 50) singles in the United States. I have to say, having observed U.K. charts since my days spent lounging around WPTS in the early 90s, they’re just that much more adventurous over here. What is usually underground or college music in The States has a fighting chance for wider success in Britain. Example: Singles off Ill Communication didn’t really get a sniffle in the U.S., but reached #19 (“Sabotage”), #19 (“Get It Together”) and #27 (“Sure Shot”) in the U.K.

It always fascinates me when artists have mega-multi-platinum album success over the course of decades while not hitting huge peaks of singles chart success. These always seem to be the most respected performers. Year-in, year-out they practice their craft, honing, refining and expanding what makes them legends. The Beastie Boys fall into this category. They jumped into the public eye with Licensed To Ill in 1987 and haven’t looked back. And, while they haven’t torn up the charts, a new Beasties album is always anticipated.

All Hail! those Boys from the Boroughs!

   Intergalactic (Strawberry Bath And Jelly Soles Instrumental Version)
   (Original #28 U.S., #5 U.K.)

   The Negotiation Limerick File (Handsome Boy Modelling School Makeover)
   (Original #29 U.S. Modern Rock Chart)

   Sure Shot (Green Mix)
   (Original #27 U.K.)

While 2 Live Crew were busy fucking around and acting the fools on Move Somethin’ [1988] and As Nasty As They Wanna Be [1989], something happened in the world of hip hop. … Boom! N.W.A. moved from relative obscurity to (inter)national prominence with Straight Outta Compton [1988] and 100 Miles And Runnin’ [1990]. I say relative obscurity because N.W.A. And The Posse [1987] went gold. That’s chicken feed compared to the double platinum blowup of Straight Outta Compton, an album that, now, seems mild, but, back then, walked up and smacked you in the face demanding a place in music history whether you liked it or not.

N.W.A. was pretty nearly a supergroup in reverse, with most of the members later taking separate roads on their way toward moderate-to-massive success via platinum solo releases and/or branching out to other areas of the entertainment industry. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre pursued widely successful careers. Eazy-E kept his mug in the limelight enough to garner attention when he succumbed to AIDS. The D.O.C. released the superb No One Can Do It Better before having his larnyx damaged in a car accident. MC Ren went platinum with Shock Of The Hour and cemented a place in hip hop’s underground with his collaboration with Public Enemy and Paris on Rebirth Of A Nation. Only Yella, from among the more prominent members, didn’t see much post-N.W.A. success, though he’s now leveraging his involvement with N.W.A. to pursue his DJ Yella Entertainment porn directing career.

   N.W.A. – Express Yourself (Remix)
   N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton (Extended Mix)

Yeah, so what. I start all of posts with excuses about why my post might (probably) sucks eggs. This week I have yet another excuse. A good one. For me at least. I bought a refurbished MacBook Pro from Apple and, hot damn, it’s sweet! So, I phaffed about for the past four or five days setting it up. What this meant is I had to export and import all my RSS feeds and all the entries was zapped to Kingdom Come.

Anywho, onto this edition of my disjointed and disconnected collection of news-ish tidbits … a.k.a. some stuff that comes from the Interweb into your feeder reader for people that don’t know the news too good.

I may have nuked my backlogged feeds, but you couldn’t have missed the blow-up over what seems to now be known as the ‘Barack Obama Race Speech’ or ‘A More Perfect Union’ or Obama really taking on the elephant in the corner of his campaign or Obama taking on the even bigger elephant crushing the United States with his big ass. Predictably, the Right – in this instance, the White Right, most notably – is all up in tizzy.

(Beware: This video is the FULL speech, running nearly 38 minutes.)

From the inspiring to the painful. Submitted for your approval, two tales about the pathetic and their attempts to mean something to someone somewhere:

Tale #1: The Smashing Pumpkins are suing Virgin Records over the licensing of their tracks to Pepsi and Amazon.com. Their reasons? Negatively impacting the credibility they worked ever so hard for years to build with their fans. … They still have fans?

Tale #2: NME, the infamous rag that loves a band or artist one week and hates them the next, is making a Robbie Williams-style attempt to become relevant in the U.S. Good luck. Prediction: NME will fail miserably and then write off the U.S. as musically useless.

This month’s 100best of … selection, Elvis Costello, is opting to release his upcoming album (Momofuku) via digital download and vinyl only. Interesting. Somewhere a record exec just pooped herself a bit.

Undoubtedly, the number and variety of reality crap (*COUGH*), I mean, shows is just out of hand and definitely, somehow, at the heart of the decline of Western Civilization. Even so … Oh. My. God. Let this be shown in the U.K.! The concept is so cringable I can’t not look. I’m so gonna be thuggin to this.

Weezer, Justice, The Klaxons, Mars Volta, DJ Shadow. No, that’s not the lineup for an indie/underground festival. That’s a selection of the artists on the Gran Turismo 5 soundtrack, scheduled for release for the PS3 in April.

On March 16, tamboosh clued you into the existence of hip hop at SXSW with some cuts from The Cool Kids. Well, here’s another I bumped into on my travels along the musical backroads of this so-called Information Superhighway (shout out to The Rap Up) …

   The Carps (ft The Cool Kids) – Heaven’s Gates & Hell’s Flames
   (Warning: 12.28 MondoBites!)

Want to know more about The Carps? Check out their CarpSpace.

That’s it. I’m done. Out.

I can feel myself entering a hip hop phase again, having drifted away for a few months. In my regular pre-post scramble, the Geto Boys popped into my head. When it comes to the Geto Boys many (if not most) hip hop heads will immediately think of their only truly big time single, “Mind Playing Tricks On Me”, off We Can’t Be Stopped (1991).

This isn’t the best rap track ever. In fact, “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” is very much of its time. But, damn, if it ain’t catchy. Listen to it once and it’ll be looping through your head incessantly, especially if your memory is seeded with it already.

   Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks On Me

As a special bonus, here is the irrepressible Isaac Hayes’ “Hung Up On My Baby” from the 1974 Tough Guys soundtrack. Listen to it for 10-15 seconds and it’s obvious why I’ve thrown this up as well.

   Isaac Hayes – Hung Up On My Baby

Just when I thought I could not get more jealous of all you people who get to go to South By Southwest. The AP tells us that Hip Hop has gotten more and more of a foothold on SXSW. Ice Cube, Bun B, The Clipse, Dizzee Rascal, 2 Live Crew, Talib Kweli, The Cool Kids are just a selection of the mouth-watering acts that grace the festival’s stages. For those of you who are missin’ out as well, let the amazing Cool Kids rub-a-dub-dub some more salt in the wound. Damn, that smarts.

   The Cool Kids – Pump Up The Volume
   The Cool Kids – ‘88

Released together with “Phuncky Feel One” as a double a-side, “How I Could Just Kill A Man” was the first single off Cypress Hill (1991) and the absolute B-O-M-B back in 1991-1992. For me at least, it’s one of those tracks which, even at the time, marked the end of the Golden Age of Hip Hop and the start of 1990s Gangsta. Sure there were other albums prior to that, but, for good or ill, releases from Ice Cube and Cypress Hill in 1990 and 1991 seemed to just smack the Golden Age into the history books.

I bought every Cypress Hill release after being grabbed by them back then and have seen them in concert twice. Some albums are better than others, but, for the nostaglia factor alone, nothing beats tracks off that first album. Today you can taste the late-Golden Age production of the original 1991 vintage, the Spanish version from Los Grandes Exitos En Español (1999) and contrast both those with the visceral Rage Against The Machine cover.

   Cypress Hill – How I Could Just Kill A Man
   Cypress Hill – No Entiendes La Onda

   Rage Against The Machine – How I Could Just Kill A Man

Now you know this shiznit is gonna slam when the emcee is Kevie ‘Waterbed’ Kev (a.k.a. Kevin Strong) from The Fantastic Five. He’s a ladies man and that’s all there is to it.

Don’t believe me? Check this 1983 track out …

   Kevie Kev – All Night Long (Waterbed)

Touch it, why don’tcha.

Argh! Carnage! Was WordPress upgraded? It doesn’t matter. The net effect was that, somehow, my ‘Use the visual rich editor when writing’ setting was checked when normally it isn’t. Of course, I only double-checked this after screwing up a few of my older posts – deleting one in utter frustration. So, you all can just pretend my Muse post still exists. All of which is a perfect segue-way into today’s Classics post. Some late-Golden Age Brand Nubian to play while ass-whipping Internet gremlins.

I didn’t go for the standard selection, something from One For All, instead opting for a track off their 1993 second album – In God We Trust – which pushed its way to #12 in the album charts and #4 in the R&B/Hip Hop Chart (making it Brand Nubians biggest chart success even if it wasn’t as acclaimed as their debut).

“Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down” helped In God We Trust and Brand Nubian achieve wider notoriety for its openly homophobic lyrics. Yes, hip-hop has flaws. Please, let’s not start a debate about this. Irrespective of its homophobia, this post-Grand Puba Brand Nubian track, produced by Diamond D, still flows.

   Brand Nubian – Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down

You will notice the sound quality on this track, or, rather, the lack of it. I have no clue why that is. I purchased it from an online music store (a real one, though it remains unnamed) as a replacement for my long-gone Golden Age tape collection. The quality was this disappointing. Just pump up the volume and pretend you’re listening to a well-loved old tape.

Not too long ago the Macarena came up in a recent post and the subject of dance fads brought along the Soulja Boy Dance craze that’s been sweeping the world lately. I didn’t know it was as popular as it is until I saw a ten minute segment on a BBC show about it the other day, which involved a man, who probably is a bit more mature than Soulja Boy’s target audience, doing the dance in a Flashdance type outfit. It was special. Anyway, it got me thinking about all the Hip Hop hits that came out lately that had some sort of dance especially designed for it.

Fear of looking like MC Hammer, or worse, a teeny bopper and consequently losing their hood membership card, made the head-nod and the C-Walk the only approved moves among serious rap artists of the early and mid-nineties. Hip Hop purists, who look back fondly at that time when ‘Hip Hop had something to say’, are less than amused with the new wave of fun, flighty rap songs who encourage all the zany dancing. Especially, Hip Hop from the South of the US has been accused of “killing” the industry with the introduction of Crunk and Snap. Their songs are said to be low in quality and lyrical content, but why can’t there be a serious, deep side as well as a simple, booty shaking side to Hip Hop and everything in between? Such a versatile medium surely can contain the full spectrum of entertainment? I like that many recent artists just want to see their audience dance to their music. It’s part of a grand tradition of songs that set off dance crazes. The Twist, the Jerk, the Mashed Potato were all great songs with great dances and I’m glad that our generation will have some dances to look back on as well to mark the time other than that darn Macarena.

I’m gonna try to list most of the biggest songs that sparked dance crazes from the last three years. Most of these dances are mixed and matched, and combined with the dancer’s own personal styles. Now, I’m sure I’ll miss a lot of the dances around but I’m no dance expert so don’t take it personally if I don’t mention your favorite song or dance. Alright, here they are with either a link to the video or an mp3:

   Huey – Pop, Lock & Drop It (video)

I suspect that Pop, Lock & Drop It from the summer of 2006 like “Laffy Taffy” and “Salt Shaker”, is just another way to have girls shake their stuff, but cleverly disguised as a fun dance move. The dance is not that complicated, but it is hard on the thighs.

   DJ Webstar & Young B – Chicken Noodle Soup

The Chicken Noodle Soup dance, originally from Harlem, inspired this song and it became last year’s summer hit. It sounds a bit like a cross between The Buckwheat Boyz’ “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” and anything by Fatman Scoop, but both the song and the frantic dance are soso catchy.

   Terror Squad ft. Fat Joe & Remy Ma – Lean Back (video)

Released in the summer of 2004 “Lean Back” fast became HUGE, and one of the few moves here that everybody can do, all you gotta do is lean back and rock away with some attitude.

   Jason Foxx & The Hood Presidents – Aunt Jackie

A hit from earlier this year and my absolute FAVORITE song and dance in this list. It has an old skool flow, it’s funky and contagious and it makes me yearn for those days when I was little and we used to have block parties just for us kids in the summer in my neighborhood. Growing up sucks.

   Dem Franchize Boys – Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It

This group from Atlanta popularized The Snap Dance. I’m not sure this song counts as a dance fad song, since the Snap Dance came first, but it fast became so popular when the song first came out in 2005 that the move is now also known as the Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It.

   Lil’ Mama – G-Slide (Tour Bus) (video)

I loved the strong beats of Lil’ Mama’s poppy, high school themed hit “Lipgloss” from this summer, which also had a dance of the same name, but “G-Slide” actually calls on the people to do the dance. A beat is set to the children’s nursery rhyme “The Wheels On The Bus” and in a cute, fashion Lil’ Mama tells us how to do The G-Slide.

   Crime Mob ft. Little Scrappy – Rock Yo Hips (video)

This song has the familiar booty glorifying lyrics, but it has a really cute dance for the ladies and those brave men in touch with their feminine side.

   Unk – Walk It Out

Yet another Atlanta native who came out with a catchy song and dance at the end of the summer of 2006. The basics of the Walk It Out steps are fairly simple, but once people add their personal touches it can become a pretty spectacular dance.

   Cupid – Cupid Shuffle (video)

The Cupid Shuffle came out at the start of this year and actually looks a lot like the Electric Slide when danced with a bunch of people. It’s pretty easy to follow, just let your feet do what the lyrics tell you and you’re there.

   Down aka Kilo – Lean Like A Cholo (video)

Leaning like a cholo looks an awful lot like leaning back and doing the rockaway, except with your elbows out. But far be it for me to criticize a cholo, so lookin’ good and keep on leaning!

   Young Dro – Shoulder Lean (video)

Yet another way to look cool while leaning and swaying.

   3rd FLO aka Heizman Boiz – Do The Heizman (video)

The Heizman uses an American football move and is named after John Heisman, a famous American college football player and coach who also lends his name to a trophy that looks like a little bronze guy doing that move. This dance should be used when the person you’re hitting on has a bad case of halitosis if you go by the lyrics. I couldn’t find out a whole lot more about 3rd Flo, but I did learn that they’ve been signed to J Million Records and are working on their debut album.

   Luch Millions – Bunny Hop

I’m almost scared to talk about Da Bunny Hop, not to be confused with the wedding dance from the fifties by the way. People seem to be very territorial when it comes to the origin of dances. Anyway, I hope I got this right, this dance originated in New Orleans, but other cities including Atlanta have put their own twist on the move as well. Luch Millions’ “Bunny Hop” is the more popular song, but it should be noted that Da Entourage from Louisiana also recorded a song with the same name. Luch Millions’ version uses the Oompa Loompa melody, which sounds weird but it works as a dance song. Though this is a big local hit the man hasn’t been signed yet, but I’m sure that’s only a matter of time.

   Soulja Boy – Crank Dat

And finally the song that started me thinking about this post. Since its release in April this year, it’s been taking over the globe and it has the potential to become as cemented in popular culture as the term Bling, to the point where your great-aunt Esther knows how to ’superman that ho’. Yuch. That’s not gonna be a pretty image, but in the meantime enjoy it. And all you party poopers out there stop your moaning and get dancing. Hip Hop isn’t dead, it’s too busy having fun to care about dying.

The Go! Team unleashed their sophomore release – Proof of Youth – in September and I’ve had it in the CD changer on and off for a few months now. However, I never took the opportunity to shout out about how thoroughly enjoyable the follow up to their 2004 debut (Thunder, Lightning, Strike) is.

Well, damn it, it is enjoyable! If you’re one of the cadre that have their first release, then you’ll definitely need to buy yourself a copy of this new album. If you haven’t yet partaken of their bountiful and deliciously upbeat musical fruits I highly recommend you treat yourself to both. Though there isn’t an incredible amount of difference between both albums you can easily chalk it up in the ‘never too much of a good thing’ category!

For more about the band and upcoming gigs head over to the official site of The Go! Team.

If you are unconvinced by the 100b recommendation, further proof can be obtained at The Go! Team presence on MySpace.

   The Go! Team – Titanic Vandalism

I can’t even remember buying this 25-track, RZA-produced soundtrack. It must have been an informed impulse purchase. Samurai? Black samurai with an afro? RZA produced the soundtrack? Cool. Sweet. Cha-ching. Going through the collection for Backtrack preparations Afro Samurai jumped up and down until I gave it another listen.

For the uninitiated – like I originally was – Afro Samurai is an anime adaptation of a manga series. The five-parter originally aired earlier this year in the U.S. (on Spike TV) and U.K. (on Adult Swim). Not only is the soundtrack produced by the RZA, Samuel L. Jackson is the voice of Afro Samurai.

Sadly, I haven’t seen it yet myself. The soundtrack was enough to get me started. However, having listened to the album again, I think I may have to get me a little some of that. Even more fun – if true and if it ever comes to fruition – there may be an actual Afro Samurai movie starring Jackson. Ladies and gentlemen, the hardest working man in showbiz!

You can get yourself a copy of the DVD at Amazon (U.S.). Denizens of the U.K. need to wait until next month (according to the page at Play.com). I’ve just pre-ordered mine.

While you wait, find the way of the warrior with these tracks from the soundtrack and peruse the Afro Samurai website for goodies:

   The RZA – Certified Samurai (ft Talib Kweli, Lil Free, Suga Bang)
   The RZA – Just A Lil Dude “Who Dat Ovah There” (ft Q-Tip, Free Murd)
   The RZA – Fury In My Eyes / Revenge (ft Thea)

Official Afro Samurai website

With Nina Sky due to release their delayed second non-mixtape album (The Musical) later this summer, I thought I’d make public that the duo is one of my guilty pleasures. Yes, the soundtrack of my life features groups and artists of the softer, female-based variety. Of course, I make this confession in confidence, so you shouldn’t spread it around.

There’s something about their simple harmonization that’s just plain ol’ catchy and easy to listen to. Oh, and they have the obligatory ’sex appeal’. That helps, too. To prove it on the harmonization front, I’ve dug around in my bucket-of-fun for some collaborations they’ve done. Tell me you aren’t mesmerized. Of course, if you’re not a hip hop fan – and the samples below are pulled from my hip hop collection instead of their more R&B solo tracks – then definitely pick up their self-titled debut while waiting to buy the second album.

   The Alchemist – Hold You Down (ft Prodigy, Nina Sky, Illa Ghee)
   Garcia – Let Me Hear You Say (ft Pitbull, Nina Sky, NORE)(Hood Remix)
   Pitbull – Turnin Me On (ft Nina Sky)(Remix)
   Sean Paul – Connection (ft Nina Sky)

Visit the Nina SkySpace to have a listen to other tracks and, even better, the Official Nina Sky site, at which you can download a few 100% free mixtapes.