Rui-Long Monico - Geneva // USA Conexion

For the 8th consecutive night, riots and other urban violences have erupted in many cités (= French urban ghettoised quarters) as the result of the death by electrocution of two kids chased by the cops. The unrest started in Clichy-sous-Bois and quickly spread to northern and eastern Paris to the whole country. Angry mobs of over 400 people have been burning cars (350 on Wednesday, over 500 thursday), throwing cocktail Molotov at the cops and bombing the police stations in various areas.

What started as a revenge for the kids' death, became a political outbreak to protest the zero tolerance measures brought in by interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Acting as mediators, the various Muslim associations did a great job at calming the anger felt among the teenagers.

These violences reminds me a lot of the Rodney King riots; it seems like France is 10 years late in the racial problem. Considering that the neighborhood where the unrests took place are part of the worst areas in the country, I'm not surprised of what happened. I mean if you have to add up the poor infrastructure, the overpopulation, the high unemployment, the constant crime and spark the whole thing up with racist cops arresting anyone for the fuck of it, that's what you get. These ghettos have seen similar outbreaks for the past ten years, but every time it's worse, signaling the slow death of the French government.

Click here to see a video of one of the riot at Clichy-sous-Bois.

Click here to download a video showing French cops shooting at kids.
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The clothing brand De Puta Madre was very controversial because of its name. But what most people don't know is that de puta madre is slang for fucking good as in Este fiesta es de puta madre (this party was fucking good).

The brand De Puta Madre was launched from a Barcelona jail cell where two Colombian drug pushers where incarcerated for a period of twenty years. Regretting their criminal past and where it landed them, they created slogans and other ideas for a new clothing company and smuggled them out of their prison. Once out of jail, IFU, one of the traficant, officially launched the brand with wide support in Latin America and Italy.

Using strong themes such as Drugs, Weapons, and Sex and slogans such as Fuck Barbie or Will Fuck for Coke, the brand has become very popular around the clubbing scene and among the golden youth. Behind the really provocative expression lies a very different message:

Do not imitate our words
Do not commit illegal actions
Do not use drugs to feel different
But wear our shirts to be always the best in every way
Without using artificial things that will kill you

Personally I love the brand. The slogans are awesome, anytime you'll wear one of their shirts you'll be sure to have all eyez on you. People will say good and bad stuff about you but hey good or bad advertising is still advertising. Perfect to walk in a club or a party where you don't know anyone. The only regret I have concerning De Puta Madre is that they should diversify and offer more graphics instead of just texts.

What about you, what do you think of this brand?

Take a look at their website: www.deputamadre69.com

Tell us what you don't like about yourself...

Man I don't know where the producers are heading with this third season. We already halfway through and I'm not thrilled or addicted to the show as I was for the first two seasons...

The whole story around Ben White was kinda shaky. Ben White has BIID, some weird ass psychological disease about people wanting to chop their limbs off to be in peace with their inner-self. I'm sure it's a WASP thing, 'cuz it sounds stupid. Well this dude doesn't like his right leg and is willing to pay the practice a $100'000 to do him a favor. Basically Christian pussies out and pull out some moralistic excuse and the dude shoots himself on the leg and Christian ends up doing the surgery on him for free.

I don't really like how Christian is becoming the new Sean and Quentin the new Christian. It's cool for the characters to mature and evolve but removing what made them so genuine is hurting the show.  

The new spa business opened by Gina and Julia is real nice. The interior is well decorated and smell luxury. At first they struggle for customers when Joan Rivers pay them a visit, she decides to promote them through a sperm facial cream. OK, this is sick. That whole sperm facial comes from a confession of one of their customer who admitted using semen from her sons on her face to look younger...

Sean left the practice and got hired by the FBI as a plastic surgeon in the witness protection program. He has to redo the faces of witnesses so they can live a new life without fears of getting killed. Sean goes back to his philanthropy roots on this one and ends falling in love (imao) with his patient.

In the end, Christian proposes to Kimber who accepts. Happy ending...whhooowhooo...

Don't want to extend this post further. Give it a C, peace out.

The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse vs Street's Disciple. First of my series of album deathmatches as inspired by Byron Crawford. I chose these two because double cds are often the reflect of an oversized ego among rappers. Clash of the NY Titans part 1:

Number of Awesome songs:

The Blueprint2 has a lot of awesome songs. Meet the Parents has that Reasonable Doubt style to it, Diamond is Forever has a lot energy and so on and so forth. Nas' few awesome songs weren't of this caliber; he had a lot of good song but nothing unforgettable.

The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse > Street's Disciple

Number of Skipable songs:

Both cds have their share of skipable songs, which is about 1/3 of each record. This is a huge number, but double cds are often full of fillers. Nas' only horrible song was Me & You in which he tries, pretty badly, to sing. Except this abortion, the other songs are just mediocre, mainly because of the generic production. Jay-Z however shows exceptional bad taste in the choice of his songs. '03 Bonnie & Clyde the remake of 2Pac's Me & My Girlfriend, is plain pathetic and so are the interventions by P. Diddy, Sean Paul and The Neptunes.

Street's Disciple > The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse

Lyrics:

Nas always has been a street poet, dropping her mad gems and showing great versatility. Jay-Z is a hustler talking about girlz, dope and himself. Nothing wrong with that but it seems he has been talking about the same shit over and over, just in different ways.

Street's Disciple > The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse

Flow:

Nas is at the top during the whole album. He shows maturity and exceptional breath control. Jay-z can be extraordinary or extremely annoying and amateurish depending on the track.

Street's Disciple > The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse

Production:

Jay-Z got money and knows how to use it. Dr. Dre, Kanye West, The Neptunes, Timbaland he bought them all. The result is a very professional and eclectic and sometimes commercial sound. Nas only used underdogs, half of them probably never did anything major, and the production is very underground. Jay-Z is a step further on this one because Nas relies too much on average beats and has no bombs to propose us.

The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse > Street's Disciple

Artistic Vibe:

As stated previously, Nas' lyrics are deep and well thought. He puts a lot of meaning in his themes and sometimes comes out with beautiful text. Jay-Z don't care much about the artistic value 'cuz it don't sell.

Street's Disciple > The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse

Entertainment Vibe:

Jay-Z's album is far superior entertainment wise. He got dancefloor killers, cruising songs, head-nodders... Nas just got food for the brain.

The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse > Street's Disciple

Notable Appearances:

MOP, Scarface, Rakim, Lenny Kravitz, Big Boi, Killer Mike, Twista. Pick and choose, Jay-Z went all out on the featurings and have something for every taste. Nas just brought friends & family to his Street's Disciple. I like the passage with his dad a lot but the other cameos don't shine that much.

The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse > Street's Disciple

Album Cover:

Jay-Z's close up of his dick sucking lips were not the wisest choice for the cover art. The photographer sure screwed up on this one. Meanwhile Nas tried to bring some class to his cd with his remake of the Last Supper but only achieved to look retarded. Everyone can agree that both of these covers are the worst that they respectively ever came out with.

The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse > Street's Disciple

Result:

The final decision is a tough choice. Like choosing between an artificial and sexy stripper against a faithful and good-looking college girl. Must admit that this stripper has bigger tits, I'll side with her on this one even though I'll probably regret it later.

The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse > Street's Disciple

What's your opinion?

 

Starting now, I am going to post once a month some great lyrics just like The Source. Benzino if you're reading and bytching about me plagiarizing you, you can kiss my ass. Put your suggestions for next month's Music Quotable in the comment section, it doesn't have to be Hip Hop but it can't be heavy metal or country 'cuz I hate this shyt.

For this firt Music Quotable, let me introduce y'all to Sage Francis' vision of the media and the post-9/11 trauma. Poet/Rapper/Political activist show us with great cynism how the Rethuglicans are manipulating us. Looking through the eyez of a pig:

Sage Francis - Makeshift Patriot - 3rd Verse:

We're selling addictive, twenty-four hour candlelight vigils on TV.
Freedom will be defended at the cost of civil liberties.
The viewers are glued to television screens, stuck,
'cause lots of things seem too sick.
I use opportunities to pluck heartstrings for theme music.
I'll show you which culture to pump your fist at,
which foot is right to kiss.
We don't really know who the culprit is yet,
but he looks like this.
We know who the heroes are,
they're not the xenophobes who act hard.
We taught the dog to squat,
how dare he do that shit in our own back yard.
They happen to scar our financial state,
and char our landscape.
Can you count how many times so far I ran back the same damn tape?
While the cameraman creates news and shoves it down our throats,
on the west bank, with the ten second clip put on constant loop to provoke US angst.
So get your tanks and load your guns and hold your suns in a family huddle,
'cause even if we win this tug of war and even the score,
humanity struggles.
There's a need of blood for what's been uncovered under the rubble;
some of them dug for answers in the mess,
but the rest were looking for trouble.