It’s not often that I get emotional over a musician’s death, but when I heard Isaac Hayes passed away I was saddened, like I'd lost a friend. In fact, his music was my friend in times when I needed it the most. If I was in love, Isaac encouraged me. If a girl left me, Isaac was there to console me. When I hated the world, Isaac was there to show that love conquers all. Basically, when the shit hit the fan, Isaac Hayes was a friend when no one else was.

Back in 1994, I was hired as a bass player to go on the road with a band. After each tour, someone in the crew or band got let go in the most absurd passive aggressive manner. It was never "thank you, but your services are no longer needed", it was just  a lot of bad vibes until you either quit or once the tour ended you were replaced without notice. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I figured they were going to fire me at any time. It was like being in the mob and waiting for a hit that would eventually come. On the last tour, I knew my time had come. We were in Europe and I was starting to get the bad vibes. I was getting the silent treatment from everyone on tour, including the star of the show. I felt ignored and was getting shut out of activities that a band and crew engage in on tour. Alone in my bunk on a bus, I found solace through music. My anger about my situation was alleviated by a rotation of The Stooges Funhouse, Black Flag’s Slip It In and NWA’s Straight Outta Compton. But once I was done with my anger and the rotation of those CD’s, I felt that isolation deep inside. Those long drives over night from city to city can be some of the loneliest times, especially if you don’t feel like you have any friends around you. I missed my family, Los Angeles and Mexican food. I missed talking to people on a homie level. That’s where Isaac came in.

Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician (and rapper before it was officially called "rap") whose “Theme From Shaft” earned him both Academy and Grammy awards, was found dead at his home earlier today. He was 65.

According to the Associated Press, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill today. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis. The cause of death was not immediately known.
  
Like so many great American soul artists, Hayes started out singing in the church from a very young age. He taught himself how to play piano, organ, and saxophone and before launching his own career in Memphis at Stax-Volt (whose treatment would later cause him much stress), he worked behind the scenes at the label as a writer for others.  His work there included co-writing the big hit "Soul Man" for Sam and Dave. 1967 was the year Hayes began his solo career with the debut Presenting Isaac Hayes, followed two years later by the commercially successful landmark album Hot Buttered Soul. 

The albums kept coming, including The Isaac Hayes Movement and To Be Continued, but it was the 1971 release of the score to the movie Shaft that would push him to the top. The score also earned him an Academy Award (for Best Score) and a Grammy. He continued his creative streak that year with
the amazing Black Moses album. In 1973 he released Joy and the next year composed two soundtracks, Truck Turner (a film that he also starred in) and Tough Guys.

Ganymede

Ganymede is the largest satellite in our solar system and probably more interesting than the planet Mercury. It orbits the largest planet in the system, Jupiter. Imagine taking a gander into the sky and seeing that red storm swirling above you like the eye of Sauron! Luckily for citizens of Ganymede, you can't get shrooms there, because that would pretty much guarantee a scary time.



200km below Ganymede's icy surface, a salty subsurface ocean exists*. It is the only moon in the solar system to possess a magnetosphere. Its atmosphere is primarily composed of oxygen in various states.

 
           
The handsomest man alive since the handsomest man expired               The handsomest moon

It was named after the Gods' cupbearer in the Greek religion. The position of divine cupbearer had previously been filled by the goddess of youth, Hebe, who was replaced following the abduction and installation of Ganymede at Zeus' insistence. 

Where it all went down- in what's now Turkey

Ganymede was a Trojan prince and the most handsome guy alive in his day. One day he was tending sheep whilst vacationing in Phyrgia. There he caught Zeus' pederastic eye and the god sent a giant eagle to abduct the guy and bring him to Olympus. In Olympia, he was well-liked except, perhaps not surprisingly, by Zeus' wife Hera. His greatest contribution to we mortals was inventing mead, the delicious alcoholic honey brew which made Grendel go cuckoo for cocoa puffs in distant Götaland.

Due to the sheer volume of really great new hip-hop dropping these days, this is the second Amoeblog hip-hop round up for this week. Click here to check out part one from Friday, which included the Berkeley Amoeba Music Top Five plus news items on A.G. Cubano, DJ Teeko, Diplo, and NaS.

Meantime, this second part round-up comes complete with my personal top ten hip-hop chart. This chart is song oriented rather than album based. The songs are all new 2008 releases, unless otherwise noted, and are culled from various formats including vinyl, CDs, mixtape CDs, 7" singles, and MP3s. Most should be available at Amoeba Music now or in the very near future. Ask Amoeba's always helpful & informed staff for assistance if you ever have questions on any music.

                    JAMOEBLOG TOP TEN HIP-HOP TRACKS: 08:10:08

1) NaS "Black President" (Def Jam)
2) Jean Grae + 9th Wonder feat K Hill, Edgar Allen Floe, & Joe Scudda "Smashmouth" (Blacksmith)
3) KRS-One "Pick It Up" (KOCH)
4) Rza as Bobby Digital feat. Monk & Thea "Drama" (KOCH)
5) Stacy Epps "Cosmik Dust" (JapanNubianMusic)
6) Keak da Sneak, E40 & Clyde Carson "All I Know" (KOCH)
7) DJ Quest "Killing The Cut" (ZQ Records)
8) Tony Matterhorn "Big Belly Guns" (Mad Decent)
9) dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip "Look For The Woman" (Strange Famous)
10) Esen "Please Don't Leave Me" (Take A Record)

In anticipation of Chico Sonido’s DJ set for Worldwide Underground. I wanted to post up some of my favorite videos. What does this have to do with Chico Sonido? Well…he, along with his crew of DJ’s Ganas, Enorbito, Hoseh & Lengua, have a night called Mas Exitos. They describe Mas Exitos as “a bi-weekly event that traces the connections between the music made on both continents of the Americas. Think of it as a National Geographic documentary on sound that will take you from the Andes of Peru to the East Side of LA. From fuzzy cumbias, to funky jazz oddities, to psych freak-outs and janky beats...”

I call it the best DJ night currently in L.A. The next Mas Exitos happens 8/12
@
The Verdugo Bar
3408 Verdugo Rd.
Glassell Park 90065
Free


Anieto Molina "La Cumbia Sapuesana"



El General "Muevelo"