Stage Show Riddim

(Baby) Cham, "Rudeboy Pledge" (YSI link)

Spice and Pinchers, "Rudeboy Love" (YSI link)

Assassin, "Good Over Evil" (YSI link)

I can't believe that it's snowing out again, what a supreme disappointment. I can't bear to consider weeks more of snow and cold on the East Coast, so I'm going to put up some dancehall and pretend it's 90 degrees and the ladies are in bikinis and I've got too much sand in my bathing suit. Serenity now!

Here's one of my favorite riddims I've heard in a minute, the Stage Show riddim. It's another Dave Kelly classic, the man who is responsible for literally hundreds of amazing riddims over the past few decades. I owe this post to my bol Project Matt, who has the Cham song above, "Rudeboy Pledge" as his song on myspace. It immediately hit me, as Cham has this great voice and sing-talks about how he has forgotten about his hood and city, while his rivals live it up elsewhere. Oh but it's the instrumental that floored me, this minimalist classic that has a simply huge loping bassline. Add to that steel drums and a vocoder-y vocal that helps make the melody and you have another heater.

The Spice and Pincher version might be the most club-friendly, featuring a nice female-male back and forth vibe. Assassin delivers something more in line with the Cham one, shouting down Babylon, another real good tune. Grab the Riddim Driven : 2 Bad Riddims for a nice look at two Dave Kelly riddims coming out of his Mad House Productions. Grab the Cham from Turntable Lab.

-Read the latest Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker, where Hersh looks at the new Bush policy in the Middle East. It basically entails us cozying up to Sunni extremists, a.k.a. Al Queda supporters, you know the people who attacked us on September 11th, in the region to undermine Iran. Kevin Drum has more on the insanity, as do both Digby and Tristero at Hullabaloo.

-Glenn Greenwald of Salon destroys the despicable coward Joe Lieberman over Joementum's op-ed today in the WSJ on the "new" Iraq policy. It really does sum up the Iraq tragedy, the lies, the incompetence, the fascist attacks on dissent.

-Since the world is probably coming to an end, you might as well party. Tonight, Roxy Cottontail brings in Texas mixtape legend Rapid Ric for her weekly Sway jawn (305 Spring St.). It should be a massive night of Texas rap, not sure what else you could ask for on a Monday.