To be honest, when I heard this the other day I just thought it was a tight mashup with some random background music, but it turns out that it’s a mashup with the intro music to “The Office,” a show that I’ve clearly never seen. So, here’s yet another excuse for all of you in the dark about Weezy to finally give him a listen, albeit for a ridiculous reason:
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This video, entitled “The Sandpit,” is a series of time-lapsed photos depicting “a day in the life of New York City, as seen in miniature” by utilizing the art of tilt-shift photography, a post-processing technique of editing a photograph that is usually achieved by selectively focusing on certain portions of a photo, while blurring out the other parts, and which, when done correctly, somehow makes a scene look, well, miniaturized. The following is an example of this technique at its finest and its most beautiful (you can also see the “making of” here). By shooting and editing some 35,000 shots, the photographer truly makes the big city look like a bunch of Lego’s…in a good way (just trust me and watch it):
(also, this is WELL worth leaving my fine, fine site, even if it’s just for a few minutes, and watching this in all its glory, both in HD and in full-screen, by clicking here)
Yes, it’s more hyperbole, but no it’s not bullshit. Look at what respected hip-hop blog It’s All the Way Live had to say about Black Thought, the eternally underrated frontman and MC for The Roots, and the freestyle he recently spit on Shade 45 in a tribute to the late producer-extraordinaire J Dilla:
Black Thought has been considered by many to be among the best emcees of all time, but after his incredible ‘freestyles’ on the Shade 45 Dilla tribute recently, many hip-hop heads bowed down and gave him the crown as THE greatest. Even Q-Tip was at a loss for words when it came his time to grab the mic. While this has been floating around the net for a bit, here’s our exclusive mix of the session, with some of the levels raised (including bass) and mastered properly. I edited out Tony Toca (sorry pal) and everything flows perfectly. Enjoy raw emceeing at its finest over Dilla beats.
Honestly, that introduction might not even do it justice. Admittedly, it’s virtually impossible for Thought to have spit all of this off the dome, forcing us to put quotation marks around the word “freestyle,” but even if every word of it was written down it is STILL nothing short of remarkable. It’s a rare combination of extraordinary lyrics, a smooth, natural flow and a sick Dilla beat, and what you get is a showcase of the enormous talent that is Black Thought, who so often gets overlooked while surrounded by the universally-recognized brilliance of The Roots (and the charisma of his fellow bandmate, drummer ?uestlove). Here, though, you are treated to Black Thought at the top of his game, spitting in a raw, almost unrecognizably raspy voice and at a pace that literally leaves Q-Tip laughing (as you’ll hear) at its sickness. Originally this was three separate freestyles on the same radio show, but, as mentioned above, this file has been mastered into one perfectly fluid track. You can either download it below or listen to it below that; either way it’s eleven-plus minutes of rapping that will blow your mind:
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Ok, first off, I’ll admit that I am certainly one to use hyperbole on occasion (e.g. the post below this one), but if you don’t agree with the title of this post then you are just a shitass. Now, you may have heard of OK Go, and, if so, the reason you have is probably the only reason I’ve heard of them as well: their incredible video for “Here it Goes Again,” that bomb-ass video where they all dance/skate on treadmills synchronized with the music, etc (refresh your memory below). Well that video has officially been moved down to #2 on the list of greatest music videos of all time (Michael Jackson’s “Jam” video featuring Michael Jordan notwithstanding) to make room for OK Go’s most recent effort, the video for “This Too Shall Pass,” which somehow outdoes their previous effort with the most amazing spectacle of Rube Goldberg-like shit I’ve ever seen (and that includes Ethan’s favorite Honda commercial, which is bomb also, but not quite as awesome):
A few weeks back, OK Go lead singer Damien Kulash made an impassioned plea to his record label in the op-ed section of the New York Times to please, please, PLEASE allow bloggers and other unsavory social-media types to embed their YouTube music videos. You see, the label had shortsightedly disabled the embed feature that made the band popular in the first place, which Kulash effectively argued was limiting the band’s appeal and revenue-generating ability. Well, coincidentally enough, the band just so happens to have a new(ish) LP out and, what do you know, today they released a brand-new video! And guess what? After taking a beating in the court of public opinion, their record label caved and now this newly minted “controversial” video that you’re about to see will be embedded on thousands of websites within the next twelve hours or so. Controversy aside, the band has actually done the impossible and managed to top their groundbreaking “Here It Goes Again” by developing what will no doubt go down in history as the mother of all Rube Goldberg contraptions. On top of that, we’re fairly certain that this video’s majesty will inspire Hollywood to start fast-tracking a Mouse Trap feature film by week’s end.
Now I believe the title to be a BIT misleading, as I don’t think you necessarily should know these 15 things…but they remain 15 interesting things about breasts certainly won’t hurt you to know, but, more importantly, will also give you an excuse to look at cartoon-drawn pictures of boobs at work and then just say that you’re learning:
Also, definitely click on this picture to zoom in…
The song is actually called “Flamboyant (Freestyle #2)” and is off of “The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs;” download a much better quality version here or listen to it below:
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Easily one of the more interesting things I’ve read in a long time: If you became the last person on Earth, what would you do? This particular commenter has a plan down to a T, including four or five different phases and everything. Well worth the read. [via Kottke obv]
Republic nightclub in New Orleans has a sign on the door that reads, “If it’s on Jersey Shore it’s not coming through the door: No Affliction, No Ed Hardy, No Christian Audigier, No Exceptions.”
