Cypress Hill Live in Philly 10/29/07; News Roundup

First off, I'm real real sorry for not having any updates in well, almost 2 weeks. I hope it didn't seem like this blog went up for 2 weeks and then just disappeared into oblivion...forget that! ANHS is back and in full effect. I was just away on a trip for a whole week to Boston (I thought it was only going to last a few days, but hey) so now I'm back in Philly read to keep things flowing. And I'll be starting a new job in a week so I'll make the most of my time now while I'm still unemployed and have way too much free time. I had a big tweak-out though when I thought my external hard drive with all my 31,000 songs (probably half or more are rap) crashed. Then it started working again, and now it's acting up. I better buy a new hard drive quick and transfer everything before everything really gets screwed. Here's hoping that I don't end up losing anything, I've got way too much good music to lose it all. Oh and if anyone cares, I'm listening to Hard 2 Obtain's "Ism and Blues" right now, a classic as always. Good shit.

So after way too long I'll finally tell ya'll about the Cypress Hill show at the TLA in Philadelphia on October 29th. It was a banger of a show and the Hill never disappoint. The TLA is a small venue, holds maybe 500 people, and it was my 5th time seeing them, but the first time as a headlining act and in such a small venue. Festivals are cool and all, but hip-hop acts at big festivals don't always sound that great (CH is a BIG exception to that though). So yea, I was at the show with my buddy and the Hill played another great set. First up were 2 opening acts, one called Black Landlords and the other whose name I never caught. They were both pretty dope and could hold it down. The group whose name I didn't catch reminded me of The Roots a little, and they even had a female MC who was actually pretty decent.

After that of course came Cypress Hill and the crowd was definitely feeling it. Every time I've seen them their setlists are pretty similar, which is a shame cuz they really do have a deep catalog. Interestingly, they didn't play any tracks from their last album, "Til Death Do Us Part," even though in this kind of show most of the people there would probably know it. I'm not a big fan of that album but it got good reviews so go figure. They played the usual suspects though, like "Cock the Hammer," "Insane in the Brain," "How I Could Just Kill a Man, "Hits From Da Bong" etc. I was real disappointed they didn't bring out the obligatory 4 foot bong on stage as the intro to "Hits From Da Bong" plays. That's practically a staple at their shows, and Bobo (the percussionist) always does a big rip to the dome and goes back to the bongos (bongs, bongos, haha, get it?) Besides that though, Cypress Hill was on point and played to an energized crowd who was obviously as psyched as I was to seem them in such a small venue where their beats really BOOM. I still wish DJ Muggs would tour with them, that would be cool, but Sen Dog is still a great hypeman and even a somewhat decent rapper. Being the blogger that I am, I brought my digital camera with to take some pics and videos, but of course in the dark venue they didn't come out too well. Here are some pics that came out sort of clear, and some videos I put up on Youtube as well. Enjoy ya'll:


The opening act whose name I don't know















Yea that's B-Real. They all came out blurry.















This is probably the clearest shot I got all night. I know it's sad....I'd post up some more but the quality is pretty laughable, so naaah. Damn lighting.

Below are 3 videos I took with my Canon digital camera, hosted on Youtube. Sorry for the bad quality, but it is what it is...

Performing "Hand on the Pump"



Performing "Dr. Greenthumb" (with a crowd banter intro)



Performing "Rap Superstar"








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Quick news roundup.

Ghostface Killah has his own limited edition doll now, with only 1,000 made and costing $500. 500 bucks for a doll, da fuck? I don't care if it has a medallion made of 14 karat gold. Hell, I don't care if it's got that sweet, addicting crack hidden inside, I would never pay that much for a damn doll. That's for suckers. I mean, it's got a pimp robe and everything, but not for $500. Hell no.


In other Wu-Tang news, looks like there's some more in-fighting in the group.
Ghostface AND Raekwon are both speaking out against RZA publicly. Ghostface dislikes the hierarchy in the group, says he didn't get paid enough from the Rock the Bells tour (which I saw in NYC both dates by the way), and that the release of "8 Diagrams" was going to conflict with his own solo LP's release. Raekwon says he's "being taken advantage of" and would like to make a Wu-Tang Clan album in the future without RZA. Them's is fightin' words! Method Man has also criticized RZA's business partner, Divine, in the past. I didn't know anything about that. In response to all this, a spokesman for the RZA says "It's all his fault, and he'll take the responsibility." What the hell is going on here people? Just recently Raekwon said that things get a little crazy when the Wu are not together as a group, but that when they are together things just gel and go smoothly. But now he does a 180?

This does not bode well for The Wu at all. This is not the first time members have bitched about the group as a whole and how it's run, and it's obvious everyone's got beef with the RZA. I remember reading a couple years ago how Cappadonna was making money as a taxi driver in Baltimore because he never got his royalties from working with the Wu. Raekwon's and Ghost's public criticisms of RZA may even lead other members to speak out, which wouldn't surprise me. But then again, there's so many damn rappers in the group that it's hard for everything to be equal. I mean, GZA's probably the best rapper in the group but gets little love, and Inspectah Deck is even more ignored, which sucks cuz along with GZA, he's my favorite member of the Wu (it's hard to pick though). And I'm sure that U-God and Masta Killa will now come out of the woodwork to bitch too, but they're both wack MCs so who really cares. I just saw the other day that the Wu-Tang Clan will be doing another tour and will be playing in Philly in January. I've already seen 'em 3 times so who knows if I'll go again, and who knows if they'll even be doing the show? They seem ready to implode.

In an SOHH.com article, Raekwon goes even further and talks about how no one in the group besides RZA is happy with the album; they don't like the heavy use of guitars and calls RZA a "hip-hop hippie." I'm not gonna lie, that's some funny shit. RZA of course basically responded "Fuck you, I'm the RZA and I know what I'm doing." So it really does look like the rest of the group will try to release their own album called "Shaolin vs Wu-Tang" after "8 Diagrams" drops. Who knows what'll happen now, who knows.
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Lil' Wayne, Busta Rhymes, Remy Ma and Ja Rule all somehow managed to appear in court on the same day in regards to their various charges. It was all a big spectacle and blah blah blah, but we all know that nothing's really going to happen to them. The one interesting case is Remy Ma's, who's accused of shooting a friend. But she'll probably get off, just like all other celebrities. Word up to the United States criminal justice system.
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There's 2 new 2Pac albums coming out this December, both career retrospectives. Does anyone give a shit anymore? Do we even need these? There already was a 2 disc Greatest Hits set, and NO ONE wants anymore 2Pac remix albums. Those albums should rot in hell. C'mon Afeni, give us more stuff like "Better Days" and "R U Still Down." Those were great posthumous releases with great material that didn't totally insult his legacy. Stuff like the remix album and "Pac's Life" were just a disgrace. Who wants to hear 2Pac rapping with GGGGG-Uuuunnniiiit? I sure as hell don't. And if there really is someone out there that does, let me know and I will go find them and give 'em a nice slap in the face and tell them to "Wake the fuck up!" In more positive news though, they caught the guy who put a noose on the 2Pac statue. Good for them. Stick him in prison and don't let him go.

That's about all I got right now. If you've still been checking out the blog every so often since my last post, wondering if this thing had died, thanks for sticking around still. I'm still looking for more ways to spread the word about this blog, so if anyone has some ideas on how to advertise it drop me a line at anhsblog@gmail.com

In the coming days look for some album reviews, including one of Somobe's "The Great Communication," some new underground rap from Las Vegas (yea you read it right) that is seriously dope.

Peace