AN ORIGINAL AT GENO'S

cheese whiz? really?
Pop Life is on the move this weekend. For all my Philly heads, find me here and here on Friday. It's practically raining Asian American hip-hop! Or something like that.

Laptop's in the shop (again. Hello fried logic board!) so posts will be sporadic, though I am figuring out how to blog from this (yeah, I know. I need help). Real quick: Caught Nas live at the Fillmore on Tuesday (shout out to Eric. S @ the Fillmore and J.T. @ Mouther.com). It was a decent, one hour set: opened well with Nas killing it on an all-Illmatic set but after he came back for an encore, it all fell apart. I don't know if dude was tired, hella high, or both but he started to forget his lyrics. Not once but about five songs in a row, culminating in a really bad look when he started lip-synching to "Doo Rags." And even then, he only remembered every fifth word. "Lost" Tapes indeed. Step your stage game up, son!

Quick thoughts: 1) "Live at the BBQ" - always timeless. 2) Salaam Remi really did do a fantastic job with producing "Made You Look." I've never heard that song so loud before and it is amazing. 3) When did "Hate Me Now" become a Nas' anthem? I thought fans HATED that jawn? 4) Nas did an ODB tribute with a few songs. Short, not very well planned, but a cool gesture regardless. 5) What to wait for on Street's Disciple: "Coon Picnic" - a song dedicated to "all those fake ass heroes". I didn't catch all the names who got served, but Kobe was up there. 6) When did folks stop putting up lighters and putting up cell phones instead? 7) Nas isn't exactly short but he's a lot more slight than I thought he'd be. Mostly though, he lacks a commanding presence on stage...he's energetic and performative but compare him with KRS One, who just takes over an entire club's space and owns it. 8) Almost the whole show ran off a digital file (DAT, CD or otherwise). At one point, it sounded like the DJ was backspinning the vinyl but from where I was sitting, I could see that he was just faking it. The turntable wasn't even moving forward, let alone being backspun. Ah, the beauty of illusion.

Lastly, for those not keeping up with my exploits over on Soul Sides (shame on you), I've started pseudo-podcasting. The latest installment is on MF Doom's new MM...Food.