I was watching the Argentina vs Nigeria game the other night and started fiending for some N.O. Bounce. Before long I was searching for some Hot Boy Ronald and I stumbled on this fan video that made me lose it.

But let me back up a little bit first. Hot Boy Ronald is a 9th Ward Bounce artist who's collaborated with Choppa, Juvenile and others. Some of his certified bangers have included "Shake it like a oink" and "Walk like Ronald." The latter is on Bounce Back (2005 - King's Ent.). Looks like he's got a new record called Bottom of the Map. I tried to do a little background on him but Wikipedia's got nothing. Allmusic's got nothing. His own myspace doesn't have a bio (although it's got more bells and whistles than the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics). At that point it becomes a cold case.

As with any Bounce hit, popularity isn't measured in terms of CD sales, but how many youtube videos people post of themselves dancing to your song.

First up you've got Ashley in San Antonio sort of lethargically doing the "Walk like Ronald" with some enormous slippers on.



And then you've got Christina and friends. Um... still a little rough.



Mark, Nick and Stacy are a bit better. But the image quality will screw with your eyes.

In the mid-1980s, though hip hop was still primarily an East Coast phenomenon, it was quickly spreading to other locales like the musically rich bottom of the map, New Orleans. In 1984 Mannie Fresh, Mia X, DJ Wop and New York-transplant Denny D formed New Orleans' first rap crew, New York Incorporated. Two years later, The Ninja Crew (ninjas were hugely popular then) released the first N.O. rap recording "We Destroy" on Miami's 4-Sight label. In 1989, Fresh released D Rules the Nation with another local legend, Gregory D.

  

Not long after, the New Orleans rapper Warren Mayes emerged out of a growing scene that included Tim Smooth and 39 Posse. He was the first rapper in his city to release work through a major label when "Get It Girl" was distributed by Atlantic in 1991. He'd already released Doin Them Right in 1986 but the single "Get It Girl" would enter the New Orleans Rap pantheon. Old school New Orleanian hip hop fans still fondly recall the flashy, Camaro driving local legend who used to wow the crowds (appropriately, given his sartorial sensibility) at Club Adidas.

Washington DC hip-hop organization Words Beats & Life (WBL) are preparing to present their third annual Bum Rush the Boards hip-hop chess tournament. 

The competition, which is open to players of all ages and skill levels, is happening on May 17th in DC. There will also be chess classes for newbies plus classes in how to DJ, emcee, b-boy/b-girl, and a how-to create graffiti art class.

Inspired in part by the Wu Tang Clan and other hip-hop artists and fans' keen interest in the stimulating board game of chess, and taking its name from Public Enemy's classic album Yo! Bum Rush the Show, Bum Rush the Boards, was created to promote the idea of strategic struggle within the hip-hop generation.   The event's organizers say their hope is to "harness the power of hip-hop culture and the science of chess to open the minds of a generation to a host of new options the world has available to them."

Last year in San Jose, a gathering of martial arts, chess, and hip-hop enthusiasts convened for a free hip hop chess exhibition/ grudge match -- also geared for all ages. That event had similar positive goals of wanting to teach hip-hop generation youth the mental benefits of the age old game of chess. The NorCal event, organized by the the International Hip Hop Chess Federation's Leo Libiran and Adisa Banjoko (pictured left), featured on the boards that day Banjoko, DJ QBert, Casual, Davey D, and Boots Riley of The Coup, among others. It was RZA who won the Hip-Hop Chess Federation belt at last year's tournament.

Lots of good hip-hop flavored shows over the next few days in San Francisco including DJ, producer and musician RJD2 at the Independent on Divisidaro tomorrow night (Thursday, April 10) on a bill with Dalek and Happy Chichester - 9PM showtime. Also tomorrow is the Audiopharmacy Spring Harvest Tour with performances from the seven piece Audiopharmacy collective, the ten-piece Bayonics, the Duniya Dance Company, plus DJ sets from Ren the Vinyl Archeologist, DJ Coop D'ville, plus lots more. Showtime 9PM - 3AM at SF club Mighty on Utah. More details here. 

And this weekend at Amoeba Music on Haight Street, San Francisco there will be a free instore when DJ Sake1 Presents Fania on Saturday afternoon (April 12) at Amoeba SF. Note the early showtime of 2PM. Read details on Sake1 (pic left) on Amoeba.Com.

On TV an Interesting looking documentary airs tonight about the so-called "hate edge" offshoot group of the straight edge movement - the hardcore punk based anti drink, drugs, & sex movement inadvertently started by Ian MacKaye when he and Minor Threat recorded the song "Straight Edge" back in the early eighties. Inspired by MacKaye's beliefs, since then a whole hardcore punk-loving and clean living youth movement sprung up, calling itself "straight edge." But in recent years this well-meaning movement has reportedly bred some members who have remained clean but taken to vigilante violence against drug dealers and other (as they see it) bad apples in society. 

In hip-hop circles, you often encounter self-appointed arbiters of hip-hop taste who decry certain supposed negative trends in hip-hop. One frequent target for these musical Taliban is the prevalence of "bling," which is regarded as a new corruption of the scene (conveniently ignoring Gucci-clad, Rolls Royce-flaunting, "paid in full"-singing Eric B and Rakim or the massive gold ropes that adorned every rapper from Big Daddy Kane down the alphabet to Yella.) These paternal advocates of fiscal responsibility feel that rappers should be saving their money, I suppose, and not spending on ostentatious jewelry.

These conservative cultural watchdogs usually then go into an oft-repeated, well-rehearsed diatribe about meaningless, party-centric lyrics, the lack of reliance on DJing, the importance of being real and other things that place them ideologically in the traditionalist camp alongside their trad jazz forebears that griped when jazz moved beyond its Dixieland roots, the guy that yelled "Judas" when Dylan plugged in and prog-rock fans who decried the lack of humorless, showy, technical proficiency when glam began took over the charts and hearts of rock fans in the 70s.

But music evolves, regardless of and sometimes in defiance of the griping and sniping of those stodgy snobs who stand scowling and motionless with arms folded whilst the masses keep on getting down. In 1968 Nik Cohn virtually created rock criticism with his book Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock.  As the title suggests, Cohn viewed the meaningless, shallow, fun music of rock's dawn in higher regard than the pretentious progressive rock of his day.  Another genre of music that haters love to hate is Bounce music. I felt like my love of this despised genre was validated, in a way, when the same Nik Cohn moved to New Orleans and worked with Choppa, an under-rated rapper from Algiers on the West Bank who had a big regional hit with "Choppa Style." Choppa dubbed Cohn "Nik the Trik" and Cohn wrote another book of criticism about his experiences, Triksta: Life and Death and New Orleans Rap.

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