The Cool Kids

 Mikey Rocks & Chuck Inglish

This is the hottest of the hottest. A fresh new take on music that generated right here in Chicago. I am so proud of these guys for making it this far. Their first album The Bake Sale drops tomorrow, June 10th  in all major music stores (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc)

I went to college with “Chuck Inglish” and just seeing everything that he hoped for take off into something so big is really inspiring. These kids have toured (and keep touring) all over the world. Its really exciting!  Even in his status the kid stay grounded. Its something I respect more than anything.

Here is a breakdown on them from Wikipedia:

The Cool Kids are a hip hop duo from Chicago, Illinois and Detroit, Michigan. The duo consists of Antoine “Mikey Rocks” Reed (originally from Matteson, Illinois) and Evan “Chuck Inglish” Ingersoll (originally from Mount Clemens, Michigan). The Cool Kids’ music has been released primarily via their MySpace page, but have been signed the independent Chocolate Industries via their own label C.A.K.E Recordings. Reed and Ingersoll have collaborated with several other musical artists and made appearances in numerous media.

The members of The Cool Kids met in 2005 when Reed found a beat on the Internet that Ingersoll had produced. The two met to discuss terms of the beat’s sale, and eventually ended up recording for two hours.They were inspired by hip hop in the 1980s and artists like Eric B. & Rakim. Ingersoll began promoting the new duo’s material, and it was eventually booked by Josh Young of Flosstradamus for a DJ performance. At this performance (in a venue called Town Hall Pub), the duo met the DJ Diplo who offered to release a mixtape of their unreleased tracks titled Totally Flossed Outon his label Mad Decent, though it was eventually released on C.A.K.E. Recordings. They also received an offer from the DJ A-Trak to sign to his Fool’s Gold label, which they did, but only for one single.

^{They are making it big so if you’re not on The Cool Kids wagon by now…you’re snoozing!!!}

This music video by The Game ft. Kanye West pokes fun at the life of “groupies” in the music industry. I think its somewhat comical and sad at the same time. The fake “warning” at the beggining of the video already sets the audience up for a joke. So do the little “pop-ups” here and there that make fun of the people on set and/or models/actors. I wouldnt go as far as saying it tasteless… its almost in a sense praising these women who will got to extreeme measures for their 3 minutes of fame. It’s a “you gotta do what you gotta do” attitude on the subject.

This song is on The Game’s album: The Devils Advocate which came out in late 2006. I believe the idea for this song had something to do with Karrine Steffans – a “video vixen” who wrote a tell-all book on the life of music video girls in 2005.

The title of her book is Confessions of a Video Vixen: Part tell-all, part cautionary tale, this emotionally charged memoir from a former video vixen nicknamed ‘Superhead’ goes beyond the glamour of celebrity to reveal the inner workings of the hip-hop dancer industry – from the physical and emotional abuse that’s rampant in the industry, and which marked her own life – to the excessive use of drugs, sex and bling.

This assignment is a tough one. I like to keep an open mind to new or “different” music. I guess the one kind of music that I cant really get into (its not even a genre its more of an instrument) the famous Synthesizer; its fairly new and already played out (in my opinion.) Britney Spears, T-Payne, Lil Wayne, and a long list of others use this almost robotic voice alteration…

Lil’ Wayne’s latest song “lollipop” is done with a synthesizer; that kid is clever… But I find it to be pretty annoying because of the instrument.

A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument. The difference between electronic instruments and acoustic instruments can be illustrated with a few examples: a flute creates its sound by setting a pipe of air into resonation; a violin makes a sound as the player “bows” a string into self-oscillation, which is then transferred and amplified by a specially crafted wooden “case”. Acoustic instruments are all mechanical – something must be moving or resonating for sounds to be created.

There is a big underground political movement in the making dating back somewhere in the 1960’s. The incident that took place on 9/11 since pushed this movement over the edge in efforts to educate the public about what’s going on in our government. I chose this song because it has no hidden messages; anyone can understand what the artist is trying to get across if they take the time to listen. The more I learn about how dirty our government is the more I wonder why everyone is so oblivious to what’s happening.

The song talks about the media and the efforts our government makes (and succeeds) in keeping us away from the truth. I want to pull a few lyrics from this song, again, its very straight forward and very self explanatory.

The chorus:

I don’t believe Bob Marley died from cancer
31 years ago I would’ve been a panther
They killed Huey cause they knew he had the answer
The views that you see in the news is propaganda

Huey Newton, the head honcho of the Black Panther Party, was assassinated in 1989 making his movement of peace and prosperity for minorities unsuccessful. Like many other revolutionary leaders i.e MLK, JFK, Tupac Shakur, Malcom X (just to name a few) are mysteriously taken out before drastic change can come into play.

Man made god, outta ignorance and fear
If God made man, then why the hell would he put us here?
I thought he’s supposed to be the all loving
The same God who let Hitler put the jews in the oven

Religion is a touchy subject to a lot of people so I’m not going to get into my current beliefs for the sake of this assignment. I can relate to the statement above because I have been exposed to the point he’s trying to make from several different angles. A big part of that has to do with a film; Zeitgeist. If you are interested in learning more in supports to this and other important social/political theories please visit: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com

Its not coincidence, its been too many studied incidents
It could’ve been the Klan who put that bomb at the Olympics
But it probably was the FBI, deep at the call
Cuz if they make us all panic then they can start martial law

Martial Law: The body of law imposed by the military over civilian affairs (usually in time of war or civil crisis); overrides civil law. Fear is one of the greatest weapons our government uses against us. This song touches on that, but mostly the media and how its used as a distraction to keep the public entertained. Its like we’re park of a big show, the media tells us what to pay attention to while the people behind the curtain take control of our lives.

P a y  a t t e n t i o n

Intro: (news snippets)
“Let me now turn, to our program for the future…”
“The economy right now, is extremely supportive of the president and his
policies”
“FBI scientists have found chemical traces, consistent with a bomb or a
missle, on a piece of wreckage…”
“Police using clubs and tear gas against demonstrators…”
“They called me a mother -(bleeped out)-ing so-and-so…and a white
facist…like they said, ‘you’re getting some of your own medicine’…”

Singing:
Telling lies, to our children
Telling lies, to our children
Telling lies, to our babies
Only truth, can take us…

Verse 1:
You can’t fool all the people all of the time
But if you fool the right ones, then the rest will fall behind
Tell me who’s got control of your mind? your world view?
Is it the news or the movie you’re taking your girl to? (uh)
Know what i’m sayin cause Uncle Sam got a plan
If you examine what they tellin us then you will understand
What they plantin in the seeds of the next generation
Feeding our children miseducation
No one knows if there’s UFO’s or any life on mars
Or what they do when they up in the stars
Because i don’t believe a word of what the president said
He filling our head with lies got us hypnotised
When he be speaking in cold words about crime and poverty
Drugs, welfare, prisons, guns and robbery
It really means us, there’s no excuse for the slander
But what’s good for the goose, is still good for the gander
See…

Chorus:
I don’t believe Bob Marley died from cancer
31 years ago i woulda been a panther
They killed Huey cause they knew he had the answer
The views that you see in the news is propaganda

Singing:
Telling lies, to our children
Telling lies, to our children
Telling lies, to our babies
Only truth, can take us…

Verse 2:
I don’t want no computer chip in my arm
I don’t wanna die by a nuclear bomb
I say we all rush the pentagon, pull out guns
And grab the intercom, my first word’s will be I believe
Man made God, outta ignorance and fear
If God made man, then why the hell would he put us here?
I thought he’s supposed to be the all loving
The same God who let Hitler put the Jews in the oven
We don’t fall for the regular shit, they try to feed us
All this half-ass leadership, flippin position
They turn politcian and shut the hell up and follow tradition
For your TV screen, is telling lies to your vision
Every channel got some brainwashed cop shit to watch
Running up in niggas cribs claiming that they heard shots
It’s a plot, but busta can you tell me who’s greedier?
Big corporations, the pigs or the media?
Sign of the times, terrorism on the rise
Commercial airplanes, falling out the sky like flies
Make me wonder what secrets went down with Bob Brown (?)
Who burnt churches to the ground with no evidence found?
It’s not coincidence, it’s been too many studied incidents
It coulda been the Klan who put that bomb at the Olympics
But it probably was the FBI, deep at the call
Cuz if they make us all panic then they can start martial law

Chorus:
I don’t believe Bob Marley died from cancer
31 years ago i woulda been a panther
They killed Huey cause they knew he had the answer
The views that you see in the news is propaganda

I don’t believe Bob Marley died from cancer
31 years ago i woulda been a panther
They killed Huey cause they knew he had the answer
The views that you see in the news is muthafuckin propaganda

Singing:
Police is telling lies fooling millions
What are they teaching our kids in these school buildings?
Televised, enterprised in all the killing
Controlling our lives, this ain’t living
No this ain’t living

Chant:
FBI, CIA
ATF, KKK
IRS, TNT
CBS, NBC

FBI, CIA
ATF, KKK
IRS, TNT
CBS, NBC

Singing:
Telling lies, to our children
Telling lies, to our children
Telling lies, to our babies
Only truth, can take us…

News snippet:
“uh, we view each other uh, with uh, a great love and a great understanding
and that we
try to expand this to the general, uh, black population and also people,
oppressed people all over the world, and, i think that uh, we differ from
uhmm… uh, some other groups simply because we understand the system better
than uh, most uh, groups understand the system, and uh, with this
realisation, uh, we attempt to form a strong political base based in the
community with the only strength that we have and that’s the strength of uh,
a potentially destructive force if we don’t get freedom.”

I dont listen to much radio since the ipod revolution. Mostly because I really dont like all the mainstream music out there and I listen to a variety of genres. Having that said, I am SOOOOOO happy you gave us this assignment (Gavin) if it wasnt for you I wouldnt have discovered Pandora Radio which is just AMAZING! Sure it puts Dj’s out of commision but its all about the MUSIC (((THE WAY IT SHOULD BE)))

This radio staion matches the artist of your choice to similar artists. you can even tell it if you dont like the song or if you want them to play something similar to it. freaking awesome! It’s very user friendly and just to the point of music…music that YOU want to hear not what the “general public” wants you to hear.

Check them out!

http://www.pandora.com/

B96 on the other hand… I really cant stand the MC’s… they are super annoying… especially Eddie and Jobo. I think its supposed to target a younger audience that likes to be told what to do. No originality. very “kid” friendly they seem to me. everything is super censored that no one can say what they really want. Awesome quote : freedom is the ability to tell people what they don’t want to hear. (or something like that) I think I heard it from Gavin in Mythology & Pop Culture…correct me if I’m wrong! 

The song I chose to compare is “What’s going on” by Marvin Gaye (1981) and The All Star Tribute(2001) which consists of various artists. I’m a big fan of original music but the song by the All Stars is taylord to our day and time which makes it just as good as the original; as Nas clearly states:

I can feel what was bothering Marvin
Why his words forever remain
Dealing with these modern day problems
‘Cause of ignorance surrounding me and my constituents
Too many infected
Too many lives diminishing

The funny thing is that we are still dealing with all these issues, however, the incident that took place on 9/11 changed a  big part of the original message. Here is a brief expelanation from Bono on why this video is important. If you want to see the original, you can you tube it; its pretty easy to locate.

Hello All :] This is somewhat of a new song… Its by Estelle Ft. Kanye West (Produced by Will.I.Am. This guy is a lyrical genius…. a lot of people dig Kanye but they dont really listen to him. Take the song “I wonder” off of his last album for instance… it has such a deep meaning in what people consider the way to live life and the “norms” that society has created. He is truly an innovator in my eyes.

Estelle was recently nominated as “BEST NEW ARTIST” for the BET awards taking place June 24th.   Enjoy!