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In honor of the release of Straight Outta Compton let's review one of the lesser celebrated tracks on that album, 8 Ball. Neither Eazy or Dre wrote their own verses on this record (Ice Cube did the lion's share of the work) - truth is, Eazy wasn't a blessed MC - can't imagine how much time they spent just to get these verses "passable". Still, there was something so cool about the whole damn thing. 

I'm out west this week working on a video game - so this could not be more appropriate. Dig this 8-bit version of the Tupac and Dre classic. 

Another year, another fun-filled performance. This time my band picked up a few extra key players and tackled Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. It's an idea that me and Brandon T. Washington have been kicking around for a few years. When my bass player Ant Gravino heard me pitch it, he was all in. Enthusiastically. Ant only owns a few hip-hop albums but The Chronic and Doggystyle are two of his favorites. Drummer Ian Shepherd was ready to tackle the MPC beats.  So I picked the songs, made the set and recruited Jesse Brown on keys, Mike Ingram on guitar and Ci Ci Stewart on backing vocals. Here are some pics and video highlights. Such a good time.

Photo by Troy Stanger

Jeopardy unveiled a category called "It's a Rap" on a recent episode. Just listening to Alex Trebek read these lyrics makes me giggle. 

One of the creative minds behind N.W.A., The D.O.C. made a name for himself in the 80's gangsta rap stage. But in 1989 a car accident left The D.O.C. with damaged vocal cords. He would never fully recover and instead continued to ghostwrite for the likes of Dr. Dre and Snoop. Rumor has it though that he will be releasing his fourth studio album (which has already been 7 years in the making).