Nil Doctrine

New Jean Grae: “U & Me & Everyone We Know” (AUDIO)

jay smooth — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:38:05 +0000

Some grownup talk about relationships from Jean Grae, on the first single/leak/whatever you call new songs on the internet now, from her “Cake Or Death” album, “U & Me & Everyone We Know.” Always happy to see some new Jean Greasy in the world.

Snoop Dogg On “The Price Is Right” (VIDEO)

jay smooth — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:22:54 +0000

Drew Carey welcomes Snoop Dogg as guest co-host and announcer on The Price Is Right. Snoop seems more enthusiastic about game show hosting here than he has about rapping in years. Even though his uglier moments like “Can U Control Your Hoe” always linger in the back of my mind, I always enjoy seeing him in venues like this. See more video at miss info’s spot.

Cee-Lo Green singing Imagine (VIDEO)

jay smooth — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:54:28 +0000

Here’s the video of CeeLo Green doing a controversial cover version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” for New Year’s Eve. Not the worst performance from Cee-Lo even if there were some struggles in the high notes. But Cee-Lo also offended some John Lennon fans by changing one of the song’s key lyrics, when he changed “and no religion too” to “and all religion is true.” I gotta agree it’s kind of a shame for Cee-Lo to edit Lennon’s words here. I always admired how Lennon’s songs can be so irresistibly loving and positive, giving them a universal appeal for any audience, while also being so cynical and subversive at times in their substance. See Cee-Lo Green’s performance of “Imagine,” with lyrical alterations, below,

(source here lyrics after the cut.)

John Lennon “Imagine” lyrics (as sung by Cee-lo Green here)

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And all religion is true [originally: no religion too]
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

DJ JS1 Breaks Set

jay smooth — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:13:45 +0000

DJ JS 1 – Breaks & Beats 8/26/11 by Jsmooth995 on Mixcloud

Last week the Rock Steady Crew’s own DJ JS1 did a great guest set on my radio show, spinning a ton of classic breaks and beats. Take a listen and see how many tracks you can name.

Download link

On Lauryn Hill and Shaking the Vending Machine

jay smooth — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:37:00 +0000

Just a few thoughts on Lauryn’s good news last week. For those who have been asking: I’m not sure I have anything to add about the debt ceiling farce, that hasn’t been said already, but I did post about it here.

Reading the Debt Ceiling

jay smooth — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:28:01 +0000

Some of the things I’ve in the last 24 hours:

Early rundown of the deal

NYT hates the deal

WSJ loves the deal (note even they use language that acknowledges it as a hostage situation.)

Daily Kos defends the deal

Daily Kos hates the deal

Paul Krugman really really hates the deal

Mother Jones also doesn’t like the deal

The deal shows how the whole system is screwed

The deal shows how Obama has moved to the right

The deal really really shows how Obama has moved to the right

That’s not true, Obama just had no choice here

Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein

Eugene Robinson

Zerlina Maxwell’s twitter

Robert Reich’s twitter

My conclusion:

Uhh, yeah.

Which take do you agree with? What else should I be reading?

People’s Champion: The Eli Porter Documentary (Full Video)

jay smooth — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:38:27 +0000

People’s Champion: Behind the Battle from Trent Babbington on Vimeo.

I’ve been sidelined from making videos by getting a tooth pulled, and should be back on it this week. but in the meantime here’s a newly released documentary about hip-hop’s viral “I deed it” sensation from a few years ago, Eli Porter. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but I look forward to seeing what happens when you explore the human story behind this type of internet meme. I appear in the film briefly, in my capacity as an expert in the field of Random Internet Stuff

It was hard to wrap my head around the Eli Porter phenomenon, at first. People were obviously sending the video around for the purpose of mocking him, and I didn’t want to join in on that. But I couldn’t deny the clip had an addictive kind of oddity to it, especially after the remixes by helios2003 that took the surreality to a whole other level.

But over time I think, or at least I’d like to think, that Eli has earned a sort of respect from the public (even if that respect is still partly tongue-in-cheek), and that he’s gone from butt-of-a-joke to a sort of underdog hero. And I hope this film helps brings a bit more of that respect to Eli Porter–the actual human being–and helps make this whole viral phenomenon end up as a positive experience for him. Even if I still wish he had more enlightened views on certain social issues, such as Rosie O’Donnell’s attendance at bridal showers.

How The BET Awards Changed My Life

jay smooth — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 12:53:53 +0000

Giving thanks to Tiffany Green and BET, for the picture that captures everything I would’ve said in all the videos I never made this past year. If you were smart enough not to watch that show, here is the snafu I am referring to, and that Tiffany’s reacting to in the photo:

I usually like to avoid taking shots at BET since they’re such an easy target, and they have done some good things over the years..but at times like this they just make it impossible!

The Last Thing I Learned From Gil Scott-Heron

jay smooth — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 12:47:26 +0000

A lot of people asked me to post DJ Monk One’s Gil Scott Heron tribute mix from our radio show, and I wanted to say a few words to go along with it. This video might not be too interesting for anyone, but it’s one of those things I just had to put into words for myself.

And more importantly, here is DJ Monk One’s superb Gil Scott Heron mix, from our tribute show two weeks ago on WBAI 99.5 FM:

The Gil Scott Heron mix by jsmooth995

How LeBron James Broke the Golden Rule of Sports

jay smooth — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 12:40:00 +0000

A long and ranty ramble loosely inspired by Lebron’s press conference on Sunday. Not meant to be taken too seriously, I don’t have any beef with Lebron in general, and I know he was just venting his frustrations & didn’t mean anything too deep. I just thought it was funny to see him basically breaking the fourth wall, and breaking the tacit agreement we have with all athletes that they’ll keep pretending they’re doing something important as long as we keep pretending we believe them.

“All the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they have to get back to the real world at some point.” – Lebron after losing the championship series.