The event was sponsored by the Red Bull Music academy. If you don’t know, the RBMA is some serious shit. They sponsor yearly conferences in exotic locales all over the world. This year it’s in Barcelona. It’s been in Sao Paulo, Seattle, Rome, and Cape Town among other world cultural capitals. These conferences bring together up and coming producers, DJs, and musicians for lectures, networking events, and, of course, studio time. Check out their podcasts on iTunes for past lectures and RBMA Radio for DJ sets and interviews with music luminaries.

Before things got underway, they had the honeys passing out the complimentary Red Bull, although I came totally expecting booze. Not even a Heineken? I can’t stand Red Bull. Two sips and I get a headache, but I appreciated the chance to gain some insight into one of my music heroes.

The panel was moderated by the hosts of XM’s The Rhyme and was broadcast live on satellite radio. Pete Rock and Talib shared some studio memories and of recoding in J Dilla’s basement studio. Pete shared how he was inspired by Dilla and how Dilla would call him in the midnight hours to let him listen to a beat he just made. Mrs. Yancey talked a bit about how Pete was one of Dilla’s icons growing up and how they came to be great friends over the years of friendly competition and collaboration. Talib told the audience about how anyone who worked with Dilla would have to come out the the Dirty D. Frank and Dank would be the tour guides and take guests on hours long drives of Detroit to give people the feel of the city before, finally, going to meet J Dilla himsel at his mom’s house.

Some of the cats in the audience tried to get deep with their questions asking Mrs. Yancey about health care for the urban poor. She shared some of her experiences dealing with her son’s battle with Lupus and how medication and treatment bills would get into the tens of thousands of dollars. Mrs. Yancey told us how she’s never felt greater love than she’s felt from fans towards J Dilla and his music. But it wasn’t always so. She wanted to send him to college to study engineering so that if his music career didn’t work out, he could have something to fall back on. Even as his work was getting recognized, she was worried that people were using him for selfish gains; how he was always content to be in the background, out of the spotlight, even as albums he’d worked on garnered Grammy nominations.

The night concluded with a live band recreating some of J Dilla’s most memorable beats. Led by Pete Rock’s younger brother, Grap Luva, they ripped through the creme de la creme of Jaylib, Slum Village, ATCQ, and Donuts. For a few key cuts, local MCs took the mic to spit their renditions of some of my favorite rap verses. Check the video:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/y0w0h9j8RLg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Local favorite Flex Matthew takes to the mic to rip F*ck the Police (via Upset the Setup).

All throughout the night, the energy in the room was to the roof. During the panel discussion, everyone was as riveted as I was listening to some their heroes talking about another one of the greats that left us too soon. As Mrs. Yancey mentioned, J Dilla was there that night in spirit. He definitely would have approved of such a fitting tribute.

Some more photos of the night:

Sorry for some of the blurry shots. I’m still getting used to the camera, although it makes for some cool effects in some cases. Some better pictures from the night can be found here.

As most people about to graduate do, I started up the dreaded job search. I knew this day would come again, as I had already experienced this when I got my undergrad. This is the great time when you look through hundreds of online job descriptions that don’t make any sense, but you apply anyways.

Sample:

Job: Operations Research Analyst, U.S. Airforce
Major Duties: Apply rigorous methods of logic and scientific disciplines to develop and evaluate alternative approaches and courses of action for a wide spectrum of problems.

wide range of problems, hey why not….

Operations Research Analyst, U.S. Army
Major Duties: This position is developmental. You will utilize professional knowledge of mathematical, statistical, econometric, and other scientific methods and techniques to perform a variety of Cost Analysis duties in support of HQDA.

Do I know what HQDA is? Hell no…but lets apply anyways…

Its also the time when you put your resume for those on campus interviews and talk to some jackass about how much you would love to inslave yourself to his company if given the chance while he talks about how much he loves his job in designing bombs that inflict maximum damage to the target, while i sit and wonder if his work has killed any innocent lives…

And the best part was when I get a missed fone with no voice mail, which i google the number to find out who had called me. Its the patent office, which I wouldn’t mind working for. After calling back to the number 3 times a day for a week, I finally get through to someone who looks up my file and asks if I will finish by may, when it clearly says on my resume that I will graduate in aug. Then he tells me if i change my mind (ie drop out of grad school with 4 months remaining) that i should give him a call back soon, since I can take a lower position with a b.s., if not call back in the summer. Why the hell would I drop out of grad school???

I’m sure the frustrations will continue, and Ill keep you guys posted on who I sign my soul away to…

the only seat in the house

writing down her wish…what did she wish for? the entire beenie baby collection for christmas

preparing for the procession in harajuku

@ the tokyo met

ueno park afternoons

arcade gaming on another level, son

ten dollar peaches in ueno. only in tokyo

this is why tyo is the mecca…ueno kicks store (there are about 20 in a square mile)

shibuya

shibuya roll-call!

the busiest cross walk in the world, kid. just pick a point on the opposite side and aim for it

zoom, zoom

another procession…this one in the back streets of shibuya – tell me that isn’t the coolest thing you’ve ever seen

i was down in the g-town the other night on the way to dins with m’julie, going to hit up some indian food. i saw a new sneaker/streetwear store that had opened up (which is all the rage these days. i thought of opening a shop here years ago and now the market is saturated). this new shop was in the same space once occupied by a dc record/punk/also sold some limited nikes shop of note.

so the next day i walk in to check it out and feel out the scene. i start talking with some of the dudes working there and the guy behind the counter, who i later found out is a part owner, asked me if i did my nike id’s in the studio and then asked me who i had as my design consultant. as im responding i blank on exactly who i had but i remember that we were chilling out with jolie during our first round although i couldnt remember her name. so i said to the guy i can remember her name but it was this really fine-ass girl. both of the dudes just bust out laughing and the non-owner guy is like damn. jolie was the owner’s ex-girl. not meaning to put this dude on blast or anything i’m like she was mad cool though and knew her shit. so we start talking for a minute about how they met (he was working at sean john where jolie now works) and how he has stupid amounts of vip id’s and how the whole id thing gets lame after a while.
the whole thing was mildly comical and just goes to show how small the whole street wear community is even as it’s reaching critical commercial mass.

also copped these on sale + discount for 140.

biggup kickballers. check the interweb: www.kickballersdc.com.

so much for OPSEC

street market alley

squid on the street

more deliciousness on the street

put that sucker on a stick and call it dinner

south korean coke

hiking the concrete jungle

pusan the hard way

the pusan sky line

a tour guide talks in the joint security area (JSA) – the only place in the dmz where north and south connect. north korea in the background

a couple of nk soldiers march by

south korean soldiers standing watch on north korea

south korean soldier in the modified judo stance. all sk watch standers in view of nk stand this way, wearing rayban aviators as a means of intimidation.

standing watch on the military demarcation line (dml)

the axe murder incident in august 1976 involved the attempted trimming of a poplar tree which resulted in the death of two american soldiers and operation paul bunyan. the poplar tree obstructed the view of north korea from one of the south korean observation towers. operation paul bunyan – the chopping down completely of the tree – involved air, sea and land support. before this time, the soldiers of both sides were permitted to go back and forth across the MDL inside of the JSA, a privilege since revoked as a result of this incident. This is the site of the poplar tree – now a memorial to the american soldiers killed in the axe murder incident. war is madness

the north korean’s kept an eye on us the entire time. there are probably photos of my face sitting in some manilla envelope on a north korean officer’s desk. this particular guy was watching with binoculars the entire time we were in this part of the JSA

another view in the JSA

south korean soldier on watch

looking out over communist north. from here you could see the massive flags each side flies (the north korean flag poll is the tallest in the world), freedom village nad propganda village – the only two residential areas residing in the MDL and “freedom bridge,” given its name following the signing of the armistice when north and south korean prisoners were allowed to return home.

liberty boat ride back to the good ship blue ridge following the DMZ tour

dinner on darling harbor

document the sea food extravaganza

the j.o. jungle breaking bread in darling harbor

luke, bud and kyle eating on circular quay

shot of the opera house from the ferry

another view

adam looking as suave as it gets with a plastic beer cup

cairns australia with a new friend

the australians play some strange games at the club…

adam, bud and yours truly out in cairns

i’m savage in the sack, baby

is schoolgirls down or is it just me? im feenin.

word life.

Word to economics without the triple beam.