[Non-Sports Content Alert!!! This one is extra credit. I know we've gone pretty heavy on the music lately, but I hope that I'm introducing you to new stuff once in a while and that you enjoy a little audial field trip.]
Every once in a while, you come across a song at just the right time. A couple of the lines resonate perfectly with what you are going through, and you want to listen to it over and over again. Great songs can bond with parts of your life irreversably. I can still remember listening to Feel The Real on a trip to Ireland junior year in high school in my shitty old Discman that skipped every 8 seconds. It wasn't enough to keep me from playing it repeatedly.
Only a few of the Fack Youk faithful would remember this, but a while ago I wrote a post on a white rapper from Halifax named Classified. I found him via a pretty random connection through a BitTorrent site and have been a fan ever since. He produces all of his own stuff and used to have to keep a full-time job to be able to afford to rent studio time.
It would be a rags to riches story, but he's still relatively underground, especially in the U.S. His rhymes are honest and unpretentious, and his tracks are tightly put together. There are parts of this song that would have worked for tomorrow's game post ("I know that everything that goes up, must come down, That everybody with luck, must run out") but I didn't want to give it short shrift. This appears to be the official music video and in the spirit of his music, it forgoes any bullshit and is straight to the point.
Now a couple years after this drop, I'll probably flop, But thats the way it goes when you get on the top, I'm talkin bout Canada, yo this industry's a joke, I'm a canadian rap star, and kid I'm still broke.
But I ain't work in years, and some think I'm famous, While other people ask when the hell I'm gonna make it, I'm good where I'm at, keep the glamour and the glitz, I don't run from my fans, cause my stamina is shit.
I'm guessing this isn't how Phil Hughes was hoping his first start this year was going to set up. Filling in for a historically bad Chien Ming Wang, the former top prospect is taking the mound, looking to stop a four game losing streak that has got some pretty grounded observers to give some fairly bleak prognoses.
Mr. Hughes has pitched 19 1/3 innings for Scranton this year over the course of three starts. He's allowed 4 ER (1.86 ERA), struck out 19 and only walked 3. Overall, in his three stints in AAA, he's struck out more than a batter per inning, only given up 2 HRs, but has an ERA of 4.06 (primarily due to some poor rehab starts last year).
In 2007, Hughes started 13 games, put together 5 "quality starts" and tallied a 4.46 ERA, which was exactly league average (100 ERA+). Last year was obviously a gigantic dissapointment, in which his only two quality starts were over five months apart, both against Toronto. One was his first start of the season, on April 3rd, and the other was after both teams were officially eliminated from playoff contention on September 24th. Hughes threw 8.0 innings of two run ball in the Rogers Centre, but left with the game tied and still couldn't chalk one up in the win column for the year.
He's doesn't turn 23 until June, but a lot of fans are running short on patience with the young gun. Phil could really use a competent performance to remind everyone how highly they once thought of him. The Yanks could certainly use a win to stem the tide of the losing streak and salvage the possibilty of taking this series from the Tigers.
It feels like a pretty big game for both Hughes and the Yankess; as important as a game in April can feel. You can tell, because the media is already foaming at the mouth, ready to overract to it. If Hughes can prove he can be a viable replacement for Chien Ming Wang, it takes a lot of pressure off the Yanks. If he gets rocked, the tailspin continues, with no relief in sight.
Hey Phil, no pressure...
I'm in the zone like the Bulls at home, with mad stains on my shirt from the beer and foam, Cause the crew with all the brew buries squads like treasures, With the Hennessey and Coke tryin to deal with life's pressures.
Contents under pressure (contents under pressure), I hope for the best and expect the worst, get stress off my chest everytime I bust a verse.
On a certain level, this is sort of a cop out because I'm not up to snarkicizing every one of these photos or really writing anything substantive at all. On the other hand, I trust you will enjoy this slide show commemorating my experience at Hoboken's St. Patty's day celebration.
Most of these photos were snapped from the hip so as to keep them somewhat covert, but as you will see towards the end, I got pretty sloppy and people definitely started noticing. I promise there are some gems in there, especially the one with Sampson and the guy in the yellow shirt.
It's not a coincidence that I set the show to "Keep It Pourin'" by Tha Alkaholiks.
Stumbling upon the above gentleman's music was a total fluke. I found it when was downloading an album by Tash I actually purchased when I was a junior in high school and used to listen to with my boy Calvin driving around after school in Albany. My BitTorrent site has what they call "Similar Artist Maps", which are incredibly useful for finding music similar to other stuff you like.
Here is Eric Clapton's:
Pretty logical, right? It connects him to his side projects like Derek and the Dominoes, Cream and Blind Faith, people he's collaborated with such as B.B. King and Derek Trucks, and also similar guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Now take a look at Tash's:
Tash was a member of The [sic] (should be "Tha") Alkaholiks, and DJ Revolution did some of the tracks on their later albums. The fact that he is linked with Classified is either a small sample size glitch or a very clever joke.
Rico Smith a.k.a Catastrophe (Tash) is a black dude from the West Coast of the U.S. and Classified is a white dude from the East Coast of Canada. They couldn't be further apart geographically or stylistically. But I like them both, so maybe the site is just that good.
The thing that is really awesome about Classified's music is that it's blissfully unselfconscious. He raps about being from Nova Scotia and says "oot" and "aboot" in his rhymes. If for nothing other than the unintentional comedy of a Canadian rapper who actually sounds Canadian, give the song below a listen. He's opened for Ludacris, Busta Rhymes and The Game, so he's got some real skills as well.
He forced his way up through the ranks of the underground rap scene, doing all of his own recording and producing on his own dime before signing a deal with URBNET Records in 2004.
"The Maritimes" is a genuine and aboveboard tribute to his home territory, framed by an underlying track of bagpipes.
I'm from the East Coast of Canada, home of the bag pipe, Known for the fiddle players, beer and our keg price, Known for Alexander Keith's and the Donair, Home of the Mooseheads, but I don't really go there, We pay a buck for a litre of gas (and) Smokes cost $10 a pack (damn) We always mix our tobacco with weed, It's just the way, we always done it, shit is natural to me...
Now that the game has been officially postponed I think we can say "let it rain". Get it out of your system, Weather Gods, cause once this system passes it's shaping up to be a pretty nice weekened. 
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