Getting to know LY

It was the smooth and charismatic aura of Rakim from the 1986 video of Microphone Fiend that made the attention for rap swell in the eyes of LY at the age of 12. "...His whole presence made him," the Miramar rapper explained to me. Referring to Rakim with an excitement in his voice that's brought back from time. "I knew that I could do the same thing that he was doing."

It's easy to question, 'what sets this unsigned artist apart from the rest?' With today's repetitive acts of MC's constantly flooding the scene with diamond grillz and larger than life egos that's sworn to leave a person dead in the street, there's that curiosity of what a new artist can bring to the plate besides the rest. The question shortly lead to rest as an infectious beat oozed from out of the speakers within the small studio set up of LY's manager's home.

"Who made that beat," I ask, cutting Ly short of his words. "I did," he states in a matter of fact tone. The beat is electrifying and clever as it goes along with LY's fast paced provocative spitting. The song is called Golddiggah and carries a distinctive hook that LY spits in Creole. It's an infectious tune that forces you to just dance. I'm impressed! A sexy club banger!

"There's L, Y, the producer, who makes his own beats and then there is LY the authentic rapper. Ly is an exceptional producer slash rapper in one," explains the Haitian-bred MC. "There aren't as many rappers doing what I do."
"I look at rapping as an art. Most rappers don't look at that. It's all about the wordplay," he explains as he begins to dissect some of his lyrics for me.

"Wordplay nigga...will kill you with two phrases," is a line proclaimed within Outta Respect, which contains a beat with a serious setting. His lyrical threats come alive as I sit back and listen to the next sample, Gangsta's Don't Fall in Love. The title alone flashes back to the average rapper's path of ego but the word trickery that LY reveals can win any critic over along with the fact that he produced the beat himself.

"Music...that's my calling. Just knowing that you can come out with something better and the fact that I don't ever want to be wasted talent is what drives me."

"His style is a style that speaks for itself," added Chance, LY's current manager.. "He can't be labeled. He's just real.
With most artist, music is just their hustle. But with LY, it seems as if music is his first love. Now that's real!

Bitter Sweet Tuesday

It's a celebration! Well not quite! My heart was skipping beats after the Miami Heat won their first championship but I was still trying to deal with these damn pains from the tooth extractions. I took my last Hydrocodine pill and was suffering from withdrawals of trying to go to sleep and dealing with the most deadliest headaches.
I relied on my visit to MySpace to entertain me earlier today and I made a visit to GreenBag Entertainment's page. Greenbag Entertainment is a group that consists of three members. Zeek, Gliss and terror. At first, I wasn't impressed with the page because the profile picture had a gang of people in it, looking really bootleg. But if it wasn't for the automatic play of the first song on the page, I would've had a short visit.
The first song, In the 305 has clever wordplay. It's the first line that's notable. Zeek spits, "It's a jungle in Dade, best bet you better stay home or find yourself like Dennis Rodman with a sprayed dome." Anything that involves Dennis Rodman, I find amusing.
The seond song on the playlist, By The Name Of, had left me feeling violated within the introduction spit by Gliss. With a screwed up face, I crossed my legs after hearing Gliss profess. "I fuck a lot of bitches, I need to slow it down but I make a lot of money just to hoe around". Can I get an EEEEEl! Too distatseful but Zeek revives the track with his smooth flow. He has a sexy smooth flow that keeps the song pumping.
Lil Haiti, I wasn't feeling all that well. The introduction is spoken in Creole for like two damn minutes. I don't mind a few seconds of listening to creole but after a while it gets to personal. I don't know what the heck is being said!
Party arty is the last song on the playlist. Whoever created this music profile did a good job of keeping this track for last cause the beat is annoyingly repetitive and my least favorite rapper, Gliss is featured on the entire track by himself. Matter of fact, he must've made this page cause is pictures are everywhere to be found on the page!

Marcus Blake is so cool.

I could watch Marcus Blake perform all damn day! He's so cool! I didn't want him to leave the stage after he performed last night at Mellow Monday's. When he steps to the mic, his words flow out like water. And his presence is amazingly unique. I sound like such a groupie right now but I just appreciate people that carry their own style and seem fearless. When I look at Marcus Blake that's what I see. A fearless unique down to earth soul that has a talent with words that flow like a favorite song.
I found his MySpace page! You can easily pick up Blakes talent of wording by just reading what he posts on there. I look forward to seeing the poet next week. He's amazing!

Bikini Bottoms

Pain! That’s who I spent this past weekend with. After having four of my wisdom teeth extracted this past Thursday, not only did I have to deal with the unusual discomfort; I had a series of deadly headaches, which I learned symbolized my withdrawals from that good ol’ drug called Vicodin.
Since the cable was cut off, the internet became my primary source of entertainment for the weekend. YBF and Crunk and Disorderly are the best blogs ever!! They’re the perfect sources for the typical pop culture whore, like myself. And of course there was MySpace a.k.a CrackSpace. An hour easily adds up into eight after signing onto the network.
While I was browsing through the wonders of aspiring sugar daddy's and America's Next Top Model wanna be's, I accepted a friend request from a brother named SlyKat, a Miami rapper who works under the production of City Kids entertainment.
When I first visited City Kidz Entertainment music profile on MySpace, I was not pleased with the picture of raper SlyKat sitting in between a group of bikini wearing asses. It was just too typical and distatseful. If it wasn't for the purpose of this blog, I wouldn't have tried to listen to any of the rapper's music. But SlyKat's music is worth listening to.
The beat from Just chillin featuring Chamillionaire is attractive and compliments the title of the song....chillin. I like it.
The next song Ooh Darlin is simple and sweet. It talks about different relationships and seems to exract some genuine testimonies of several past relationships from Slykat.
After taking a quick listen to these two songs my initial impression of this Miami artist watered down a little bit. I'm just not a fan of his bikini bottom portrait.

Lyrical Lashes

MelloMondays was off the chain as I expected. My friend and I arrived towards the end. We interrupted the attention of some earthly sister that was babbling on and on over some 'too deep to understand', spiritual, save the world nonsense. She almost turned me off. But after "Ms Erykah Tabu" finally left the stage, Antonia Janae(hope I spelled that right), back-up singer for Jill Scott, blessed us with her jamaican-slang inspired song "fuckery".
I didn't catch on to the message of what she was singing, but I was intrigued by her vocal skills. She was a little rocky in the throat at first, but eventually brought out some power and pulled my ass in.
I knew that I arrived at just the right time when Will The Real 1 took over. The OverTown native was spitting out typical conscience-wise poetry but at the same time I maintained focused. With a voice like his and the type of wordplay he achieves (referring to the power of his brain to trendy 22 inch spinning rims) all eyes and ears maintained still fascination through his unique lyrical tongue lashing.
The next poet in line, 20 year old Youngsta, represented the 'best for last' as he blessed everyone (especially the ladies) with an outstanding performance. I missed the name of his first poem but it was based on Poet vs. Rapper, shining on the idea that a poet is always genuine while most rappers remain fake.
Love, his next poem, embraced all of the ladies. Through his pronunciation and promising word play, I felt like I was being baptized by the bar. Jesus! Flying panties would've been suitable for his departure from the stage. Yes!

Mellow Mondays

I can't stand Monday! Monday stands as the start over day; the end mark of a short weekend missed; it's sooo drawn out. At my 9 to 5, Monday represents a day for no B-s'in. The only justice that I occasionally receive from a monday is through my visits to Mellow Mondays.

I miss Mellow Monday's! It's been a long and overdue minute since I've attended and I'm begining to itch for some satisfying word play. It's a place for the grown and sexy. A chilled out spot where you can hear some of your favorite mellow hip hop tunes, enjoy a couple of drinks, look at a couple of cuties and best of all, listen to some of the best spoken-word poets.
It's a spot where you can frequently catch your favorite Def Comedy featured poets or neo-soul artist whose words grab you from the heart and leave you dazed and inspired. Well, that's how I feel each time that I take a visit.
I got into the habit of going to these type of spots when I first visited Audi's near downtown Fort Lauderdale. But ever since I ran upon Mellow Mondays earlier this year through my buddy Jason, I've become convinced that Mellow is the hottest poetry cafe in Miami. You can catch me there this coming Monday!

Kiki Valdes

Here's another artist straight out of Miami with the works of raw talent. His name is Kiki Valdes. My friend Maicol put me on to this talented man through the Myspace network. From the looks of Valdes's works, there is a strong sense of Hispanic culture and the use of his colors plays as a great tease to the eye. Through his Myspace profile, he describes his work as "latino designed American Art- New Cuba" describing himself as "the artist for the people". A personal favorite of mine from off of Valdes's Myspace profile is "A Che Industry", a painting that the artist created at the age of 17. Oddly, Johnny Depp came into my mind as soon as I saw the male face in the painting. Doesn't it remind you of a pirate? But beside all of that, the colors are intriguing and with the stars playing as a backdrop similar to the American flag...I'm thinking that the idea of anti-communism played part of the collage...I can't put my finger on it .
You can find this artist stroking some of his latest work live at either Club Bed or Club Empire on South Beach. The painter was also recognized through the Miami Herald. Stay tuned for more updates on this impressive artist....

Free Agents

I couldn't make it to an invite from a friend that wanted me to see the Free Agents at Santos for memorial weekend on South Beach. Instead, I visited their MySpace page and got to listen to a few of their tracks.
The Free Agents is a group made up of two rappers and one singer who carries an annoyingly distinct Bahamian accent throughout his vocals. Sounds like an updated version of Born Jamericans plus one.
Out of the 4 tracks on their page playlist, Livin In Bondage was my favorite listen. It's a conscious themed song filled with powerful messages such as "they eating and we getting ignored like we aint hungry, and worse I've got to have money for women to love me". Livin' in Bondage consist of ideas inspired from 9/11 and the current political structure within America. The message is clear and defines life in America as a 'war'.
The other three tracks didn't stand on my level of admiration like Livin In Bondage. The remaining songs were too bubbly and incomplete and needs some more tailoring for a whole sound. Better production is what this group needs. When I listen to Free Agents, I tell my self that they're good, but there's just something missing. It's like eating chicken with half the seasoning.