So this was the London date of GZA the genius' UK tour in which Skinny performed beforehand at many. I'm gona say something controversial now. Despite GZA being considered one of the all time greats for that cryptic, mad flow, classic New York, Wu tang shit; his performance of the night resembled that of an ageing veteran; miffed at the young bucks of the game and those who've killed the market of 'real hip hop' with their pop influenced concoption of hip-pop. Luckily he was able to air these grievances when he performed his track of that exact purpose, going at 50 cent and Souljah boy on 'Paper plates'.
Other tracks he shone on included the classic opener 'Liquid Swords' and the best backronym in the music industry B.I.B.L.E (which stands for Basic Instructions Before Leavin' Earth, in case you were wondering), in which Killah Preist provided his verse on stage with plenty of flair and enthusiasm, exposing GZAs lack of those necessary qualitys on stage.
On a more positive note, Skinnyman absolutely smashed it, as he does 90% of the time, and you can tell he was feeding off packed Electric Ballroom's field of hip hop junkies as he made dedications to the fallen Wu soldier, ODB, which as you probably guessed made the crowd orally cream their proverbial pants. Check the image gallery below, provided by Melvs.
An amazing story from Urbana, Ohio, originally from the Springfield News-Sun:
Andrew Vactor was facing a $150 fine for playing rap music too loudly on his car stereo in July. But a judge offered to reduce that to $35 if Vactor spent 20 hours listening to classical music by the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.
Vactor, 24, lasted only about 15 minutes, a probation officer said.
It wasn't the music, Vactor said, he just needed to be at practice with the rest of the Urbana University basketball team.
"I didn't have the time to deal with that," he said. "I just decided to pay the fine."
Champaign County Municipal Court Judge Susan Fornof-Lippencott says the idea was to force Vactor to listen to something he might not prefer, just as other people had no choice but to listen to his loud rap music.
Jason Gross at Popmatters.com hits the nail on the head: the assumption that rap is de-civilising, that classical is somehow its antithesis, and that merely to listen to it for a few hours will neuter any antisocial behaviour, is imbecilic hogwash. And to punish one guy in his car for noise pollution is wrong-headed when those responsible for the real musical pollution in our lives, here and all over the world – classical piped into the tube, chart music played to speed up your purchases in the high street, supposedly soothing light classics on planes – are never brought to book.
