This Week's Hottest Tracks

Yeah, it's that time again. Get your CD burners ready and download these new tracks.

1. Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It
By: Ice Cube

Westcoast legend lays down some lyrical pain on this Maestro produced track. Sounds like something that could have been on the 2001 album. Basic drums over an intoxicating piano beat. Very quotable chorus. Remember "Why We Thugs"?

2. Hip Hop
By: Yung Cali

Newcomer set out to change the current Hip Hop trend. A nice blend of pounding piano with new synth. Still keeps the basic westcoast sound. Lyrically, it gives you an overview of rap over the past years. Step yo game up.

3. Blue Magic
By: Jay-Z

Another Jay-Z and Neptunes produced beat? Yeah, but you're gonna love it. The beat knocks with such simplicity and rhythm. Innovation prevails.

4. Ya Dayz R #'d
By: NYG'Z

DJ Premier is back with another great beat. I'm starting to recognize them, due to the similar sounds and structure. But, it delivers just like UPS does.

5. American Dream
By: Bishop Lamont

Dre's newest protege discusses the racism that continues no matter what class you move up into. Slow drums and violins haunt this lyrical track. Be prepared cause this guy is gonna blow up big.

6. Sexual Eruption
By: Snoop Dogg

Now this one is particularly for the ladies. Big Snoop decides to get his T-Pain on and alter his voice. The upbeat tempo and soft syth sound sets the mood.

7. Blow My Mind
By: Styles P featuring Swizz Beatz

SWIZZY MAN! SHOWTIME! Styles P raps over the latest beat from the One Man Band Man. Perfectly sets the nightlife mood with tranquil sounds and synth thumps.

8. Be There
By: Havoc

Self produced single by Havoc delivers with honest vocals and quality sounds.

9. Feel Good
By: G-Unit

GGGGGGGG-Uniiiiiiit. With their new single they ditch the gangsta persona and move straight to the macking. I can help but love the loud bass line. Everyone delivers a well done verse.

10. G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised In The South)
By: Stat Quo

You can probably see by now that I love piano beats which is why Dr. Dre is one of my favorite producers. Stat quo delivers lyrical love on this Piano/Orchestra track. I can't wait for his new album coming soon.

*That's What The Business Is*

Movie Review

Hitman: Movie Review

I have to admit, going into this movie, I didn't have particularly high hopes. I hadn't read any reviews, but I had a bad feeling about it. I know some people might object on the grounds that the really liked the games, but hear me out. You may just change your mind.

Plot: C- (On a good day).

It should be noted that for a movie based on a video game, they really took a lot of liberties with the story of the game. I was surprised to find that Agent 47 was no longer a clone, just an orphan. The "Organization," is still an important aspect in the movie, but not as much as in the game. (Don't worry, I didn't spoil anything important.) My impression of the plot was that it could have worked for any action hero / bad-ass / hit-man; the references and nods to the movie's "roots," just seemed to have been shoe-horned in so they could call it "Hitman," the movie and not "Yet Another Mildly Generic Action Flick".

It should be noted that some of the dialog in this movie is really, really bad. I understand that Agent 47 is supposed to be wooden, but I just couldn't suspend my disbelief that Timothy Olyphant was a hardened killer with skills to match (his face looked a little too "boy"-ish to me; I think Jason Statham might have made a better choice). One thing that really bothered me about the dialog was when characters would ask, "Would you still do it?" and "You're drunk," in one way or another. I don't know if the writers were out of ideas or trying to take up time, but that little tidbit just bothered me. None of the acting was really all that amazing...but I suppose that isn't what you come to a movie like this for, right?

Visual: B-

The visuals help save this movie from being a real stinker. I didn't rate it as highly as "Shoot 'Em Up," because "Hitman" fell in an undesirable middle ground for me. It was by no means as realistic as a movie like "The Bourne Supremacy," where everything that happened was at least plausible. What's more, it wasn't as oh-my-god over-the top as "Shoot 'Em Up," where one may ask: "Did he just jump through the wind shield of a car, kill all its occupants, and roll out the back?" Of course, there are the prerequisite amount of guns, explosions, etc, but very little of it seemed terribly original. There is one other very special surprise that might give some guys incentive to go see this movie - nudity. I won't tell you who exactly will get naked (Not Agent 47, thank goodness), but I can promise you it is a smoking hot female. It's only about 30 seconds of the 90 minute movie though so...you've been warned.

On a side note, this movie wasn't as gory as I was expecting it to be. The worst gore was basically just a blood splatter; the movie almost always cuts away before the details are shown. If you were expecting a hyper-violent movie, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Music: C

There was music in this flick? I say that more as a joke, but honestly I could find nothing particularly memorable about this movie's music. The only stand-out part of it was the inclusion of a sort of remixed "Ave Maria." Hitman fans will recognize the song from past Hitman games, but no one else in the theater is likely to understand the reference. The music was not of terrible importance in the movie, and because of that it can't receive high marks.

Overall (Not An Average): C

I can't recommend this one as highly as other action movies I've seen this Summer. You may get a kick out of it if you've played the games or if you really like action movies, but if you're looking for a movie to break new ground in the genre or really get your adrenaline pumping, you should look elsewhere.

Trailer:



One other thing: I'll be posting my "Rock Band," review after I've played through more of the game - I can say this though, so far I've been nothing but impressed.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Electronic Music Festival

Alright kids! We have another really good event coming up for those who don't know, its called Electronic Music Festival! This is not a massive but it will be just as good! Some of the artists playing many know already like Darude, he is the man who made the song Sandstorm. Everyone knows that one. Darude is like my father of techno, I listened to him since the beginning. It is in the Shrine Auditorium and it will host around 6000 people.

The cool thing about this event is its small, but they are putting so much talent in the line up. The main stage dubbed Seventh Heaven, will be hosting Darude, Ian Van Dahl, DJ Irene, as well as Swedish Egil who opened the main stage at Monster Massive 2007! Some others include Three-0 Josh David, and Decibel Brothers. There are two other stages making it a total of three stages.

The 2nd stage The Divine, will be hosting named artists Richard Vision, Charles Feelgood, Starkillers, and local LA DJ, DJ Reza, who also spun at Monster Massive 07. Stage 3 the Concrete Forrest is the drum and bass local and this is going to be an amazing show if this is what you're into. Reid Speed will be spinning here and I had a chance to meet her at Murder on the Dancefloor back in October. She is a master with drum and bass. She is also a really amazing character.

I urge anyone who likes the rave environment to come and enjoy the talent being brought to us.

This time, I promise to bring my camera!

Keep it Swerve'N

50 Still Pushing "Curtis" with release "I Still Will"

Even after losing by sales to diva Kanye West, Fiddy continues to dish out singles. Choosing more of a cinematic movie feel for his 5th single "I Still Will" he attempts to bring street to mainstream. Like that has ever worked before. (It has, but not often.) Regardless, the video comes to be yet another good Fiddy video, containing one of the sickest beats in hip hop currently.

"I Still Will" (Like people don't know the real title)



What if Fiddy did something different for once?

*That's What The Business Is*

Ok, my personal blog is up and running again

No, I didn't make a blog because B-rad made one :-P I actually had one first. How big was it? Lemme put it this way...smaller than a newborn mouse's penis. So why am I restarting it? To advance my career. Yeah, I'm a whore, I know. But isn't the banner pretty?

Writers on Strike.......And I really don't care

If you don't already know, all of the current television writers have grouped together and began to strike against the shows they write for. I'm guessing over money issues. But, how will we survive without new episodes from hit shows like "Heroes"? The real question is how will we not survive? Despite "Heroes" already shitty writing, there are tons of more forms of entertainment that you have at your disposal. Reality shows don't have writing or at least I don't believe they need writing to tell Tila Tequila what to say and do. Then it wouldn't really be her saying it, and it wouldn't be reality. So, in essence I Love New York 2 will be untouched so I'm happy. Besides, many movies are coming to DVD. You can't tell me that there isn't a movie you can watch instead of TV series bullshit. Plus, the final season of Seinfeld just released on DVD and that is the best show TV ever had. And with today's youtube mania, people can watch millions of videos of practically whatever they want.

All in all there isn't any big problem going on. I'm gonna go listen to Project Pat's New Album and tune out all these whiny writers.

R.I.P

Colbert Report
Family Guy
The Office
South Park (Maybe, I hope it's not affected)

FUCK....

Desperate Housewives
Heroes

*That's What the Business Is*

Ca$his likes to eat at Philly's Best

What are the chances that I would meet today's hottest upcoming rapper at a local food joint. I happen to glance up at the man when he entered. I was like "Cashis?" That moment he remembered me from a post I left on his Myspace about a week earlier. This muthafucka is for real, no joke. We hit it off and are planning to do an interview for his upcoming LP "Loose Cannon" set to release December 18th. On top of that, Eminem's new album is set to drop around the same time to help publicize the the newcomer's first album. "King Mathers" he said was the name of the album. Anyways, you heard it first from B-Rad's Real Talk.

Check back soon for a new song he gon be featured on, "Gimmie the Guap" and his new video "County on Fire" which will be shot on location of the OC fires. Our prayers are still pulling for everyone who lost their homes.

He had a Star of David around his neck. Didn't know he was jewish.

*That's What The Business Is*

Game Review - Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock

Well, as promised, here's my review for Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock.

Quick Notes -

Pros:
The Controller
Most of the songs
The Graphics
Most of the Characters
The Ending (totally sweet)

Cons:
Frustrating / Poorly Balanced Boss Battles
Strange Co-op mode game design choice
Some of the unlockables
No create-a-character!
Anarchy In The UK

Initial Impressions -

Out of the box, I was very impressed with the look of the controller and the game. If you don't notice a considerable upgrade from Guitar Hero 2, you're just not looking all that closely. I must admit - when I first used the new controller, I thought it felt a little wonky, but this was probably due to the fact that I was so used to the Explorer controller. After a few days with it, it feels nice as pie. The fact that it is wireless is a MAJOR plus. This, of course, really allows you to live out your rock-star fantasy by jumping around like you're high or drunk or both. It hasn't made a terribly big difference for me, but I suppose I'm used to playing in place. That could change if I had guests over and there was more energy in the room. I did have a little bit of trouble with the star-power, but more on that later. After playing through a lot of the co-op career mode, I am pleased to report that the core game play remains unchanged. If you liked Guitar Hero 2, you'll like this game. If you hated Guitar Hero 2 with a fiery passion...why are you even reading this review?

Controls (9.25 / 10, provided you play with a guitar accessory) -

As with the previous Guitar Hero games, the guitar is essential to enjoying this game. Honestly, how cool can you feel pulling off a massive hammer-on / pull-off solo with a controller? It just doesn't have the same appeal. With that being said, I had problems with the controller, save for one. To activate "star power," a bonus that can save you from failing an especially hard solo or maximizing your score, as activated by 1) pushing the select button or 2) tilting the guitar upward, as one might see a rock guitar player do. While option 2 is definitely cooler, I found the added sensitivity actually caused star power to activate for me at undesirable times. This only happened sparingly (either completely on accident when re-adjusting the guitar or during an especially fast section of any song), but it was still irritating. This isn't the first time I've encountered this problem in a Guitar Hero game, but it is worth noting if you plan on really throwing around your guitar. For those who are worried about connectivity problems - I faced zero. Everything worked great, and I knew if I ever missed a note, it was because of me, and not the controller.

Music (8.75 / 10)

The music game genre is tricky because there is no way to accommodate everyone's musical tastes. To the game's credit, it boasts a LOT of tracks covering a few decades of music. Also, the fact that a lot of the game's recordings are master tracks really speaks to the game's recognition among those in the music industry. It helps game play a lot too - especially when you've heard the song before, and you expect it to sound a certain way. I personally have no complaints about the set list, except, perhaps, for AFI's "Miss Murder," or The Sex Pistol's, "Anarchy In The UK." The group re-united to re-record the song, but honestly it felt lacking in...energy, excitement, and an interesting note chart. By contrast, In Living Color's re-recording of "Cult of Personality," is easily one of the best songs in the game. There's some stiff competition with songs like "Cliffs of Dover," and "One," but that one is still great, even after all the years. Despite all this, the reason I gave the game an 8.75 out of 10 is because some songs suffer from weird balancing problems, either too soft, or certain parts are too loud. The Stone's "Paint It Black," is especially bad. I like the song a lot, but it's just hard to play along when you can barely hear the music. Forgive me if this sounds snooty, but I don't think a game with this high of production values should suffer from such a mistake.

Game Play (8.999... / 10)

What's not to love about a game that lets you rock out like a pro? Small annoyances that add up to hamper the experience. Before I start with my complaints, I want to say this: this is a fun, solid game. If you've ever like a Guitar Hero game in the past, pick up this one. If you have a passing interest in guitar, pick this game up. If you like rock music turned up loud, pick this game up. It's a great game that suffers some minor flaws. Allow me to explain -

1) The Story.

For the most part, I actually liked the story. I thought the different stories for Single and Co-op mode were also well put together...it just didn't seem like there was enough. A 20 second cartoon between sets that starts and ends abruptly just doesn't cut it for me.

2) Lack of Create-A-Character

For all of you who wanted desperately to express yourself through electronic media...keep waiting. This game includes more characters than previous games, but the biggest customization you can do for any given character is change the color of their outfit. (Ohhh...instead of wearing black shorts now he's wearing jeans...whopty dee.) I was not impressed by this; in fact I was disappointed, especially considering they axed one of my favorite characters from the previous game, Pandora. Sure, you don't look at the character when you are busily tearing up the track, but her replacement, Midori (a peppy j-rocker) seems out of place considering there is not a SINGLE track of J-Rock (or even J-Rock inspired) music in the game. I know there has never been a create-a-rocker mode in ANY Guitar Hero game, past or present, but honestly I think that is definitely one way Red Octane is going to have to step it up for the next installment with games like "Rock Band," on the horizon.

3) The Strange Co-Op Mode choice:

This one requires a little explaining. When you play through on co-op mode, each player picks their preferred difficulty. You can then rock out with a friend, and double your scores, etc. The problem, however, is that if you play through on Hard-Medium, you don't unlock any other difficulties for play. Actually, you only unlock the lowest difficulty you play on. The cash prizes you win after each stage are awarded based only on the lower difficulty...which makes no sense. This design choice may have been put in place to encourage gamers to "step up" to a higher difficulty, but in the end, it only proves frustrating.

4) The Boss Battles.

By far, my biggest beef (which, all things considered, is a rather small beef) with the game is the boss battles. For those not in the know, Neversoft's big addition to the franchise is Battle Mode, where the player and the computer (you can do this in versus mode as well, but I have not had the occasion to try it) face off in a shred-fest to determine who is a better player. Though you get the chance to battle against 3 main opponents (Slash (Guns 'N Roses), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), and a final mystery opponent), you can't practice the tunes for the battles. The only way you can try the battles is to accept them. This is a real shame, because all of the battle songs are incredibly cool (especially the last one)...I'd just like to try them without having to worry about melting the face off of another guitarist. The other problem is that the powers you use are given out at random. You still have to play a string of notes successfully to gain a power-up (kind of like star power, but much more aggressive), but the game chooses which power-up you get. These power-up range from essentially useless (amp overload, which causes the opponent's notes to flash on and off), to devastating (whammy, where the opponent has to mash their whammy bar before they can play more notes; or lefty-flip, which is a real mind bender to humans, but not terribly difficult to the computer). There are other powers like difficulty up (which does nothing if you play on expert) and double (which doubles the notes you have to play, oddly). The fact that everything is so random really seems to make winning more a matter of happening upon the right power-up. On hard mode, I was able to push over the first two bosses (Tom and Slash) in seconds. The final boss battle took me over 10 tries (12, to be exact), which is far too many for a player who has basically destroyed Guitar Hero 2 on expert...(well except for the last two songs, but still)...which brings me to my last point.

5) The Difficulty

A question you might ask yourself is, "Is this game harder than Guitar Hero 2?" The best answer I can give is yes and no. The note charts are definitely much harder. By the third tier of songs, you're already dealing with some fairly difficult rhythms with plenty of hammer-ons / pull-offs. This may come as a surprise to players who are between difficulties (i.e. hard / medium, etc). It may be a nod to the hardcore gamer, but I know it will frustrate some players. On the other hand, you now have a little longer to play the notes on the screen. This means that if your timing is a little to slow / fast, the game won't destroy you. The one problem I found with the system is that songs with extreme amounts of shred feel like randomly mashing buttons...I found this especially true with the final boss battle. Some times I felt it was better to just randomly mash buttons than to actually try to play notes. What's more, some songs just felt like they were on the wrong difficulty tier (Anarchy In the UK is a great example of this).

All in all, you can look past the above complaints if you just want to jump in and have fun. I am examining the game as a long-time fan, and putting it under the microscope. At this point, there really is no other game that feels this cool or close to actually playing guitar (that is, of course, until Rock Band comes out).

Downloadable / Online Content -

Though the Guitar Hero franchise seems like a shoe-in for online content, I found an utter lack of it at this point in time. Guitar Hero 2 also allowed players to download content (thus proving the possibility), but for the most part there wasn't a lot of material to be had (unless you like My Chemical Romance and Trivium). As of right now, the only online content available is a demo for the game (rather useless if you already bought the game in full). Interestingly, Activision and Interscope records teamed up to release a "Guitar Hero 3 Companion Pack," including 11 tracks from the game and three bonus tracks for the game available for download. Basically if you buy the XBox 360 version of the game, you can go on Xbox Live, turn in a code, and get three songs. As of this very moment, however (11-1), I have not been able to redeem my code. In fact, just to register my code and make a log in, I had to wait until Wednesday of this week (even though the game came out on Sunday). Again, it seems like such a top-shelf game should have had all this sorted out, but I'll cut them slack if they can get this issue fixed. In the end, when player created content (or at the very least player created note charts) is available, I will be much happier with this service.

Closing Thoughts

Ultimately, it will be interesting to see how this game compares to Rock Band. From the looks of it, Guitar Hero will be more of a single player experience (especially with the issue with co-op mode), while Rock Band will be more of a party / collaboration game. I can't judge it until I see it, and though I doubt Harmonix will drop a brick, Guitar Hero will definitely have to pick things up a bit if it wants to keep hold of it's spot atop the music genre.

Final Verdict: B+ / A-