DVDs
Grip Video - Vol. 8
The Grip guys keep cranking out their scene DVDs, this time anchoring Vol. 8 around the 2005 Formula D finals at Irwindale, California. We respect anyone making a passionate effort to document the import scene, so we got love for Grip. They keep it focused and the work is that of genuine enthusiasts. That said, Vol. 8 doesn't have much for the Honda junkie, some action footage of RS-R's drift S2000 aside. But if you're an equal opportunity car/motorsports lover, there's some good stuff in this one, including a Datsun 260Z with a turbo SR20 swap. The owner is very candid about what a beast it is to drive, but damn it looks like good, tire-shredding fun. There's an entertaining interview with Dai Yoshihara, driver for the Pacific Rim drift team and good footage from the Formula D finals (although pretty much from one angle only). The video shoot with Kristine Charles, a sizzling Spanish/Filipina model in Hawaii, is almost worth the admission alone.
CDs
Public Enemy
Rebirth of a Nation
Guerilla Funk - www.guerillafunk.com
Man, I wanted to like this record. I really did. I'm dating myself, but I got into P.E. when Chuck D's Uzi weighed a ton. The group knocked its next two albums outta the park, hit a double with Apocalypse '91... and its caustic "By the Time I Get to Arizona," then started whiffing from album five onwards. But for a few gems, like '98's "He Got Game," the well has mostly run dry.
Terminator X is gone, off somewhere raising ostriches. Flava bounced between jail and reality shows. But Chuck is still pissed and can mince words with the best minds in hip-hop (few that there are) and in other political circles. But his attack has mellowed and the sonically thin, lopey, gangsta-like beats from producer Paris only further cool the fire. Even when Chuck is really spitting, the tracks just don't have the weight. Rebirth's best track is the calm ghetto narrative "Invisible Man."
Perhaps I'm just jaded and can only hear P.E. through the squalor of the Bomb Squad, the beats-and-noise terrorists that made those first few records sound like scorching asphalt. Paris does a respectable job, but this is America 2006. We need Mistachuck swinging a hammer, not a stick of bamboo.
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