Beats And Rhymes

This is a rap column. I write about rap music. Been doing it for over five years now (time flies). Lately though, I haven’t been in much of a rap mood. Not on some “rap sucks and I’m so bored with everything” kind of way. More like an, “I’ve been drinking Heineken for five years, and this month I’m going to have a Corona” kind of thing. Feel me? Have you heard Sam Roberts yet? He’s a kid from Montreal who I can’t stop listening to. Put out a little EP last year and blew it up all over radio, then got picked up by Universal in New York. I’m sure there’ll be big things on the horizon for this cat. If you feel like it, I highly recommend checking it out. When I was younger, and rap was first really breaking through, hip hop cats had to fight to get respect. The media, our parents, teachers, other kids… they were just hating on it. To be down with hip hop back then, you almost had to reciprocate the hate back on the rockers and hippies and punks who wouldn’t respect your scene. To like rap was to hate on everything else, until rap got its proper respect. These days, cats bitch and moan about how mainstream it’s gotten, but what the fuck? Isn’t that what we were fighting for? There were always a few artists who broke through here and there into the hands of other fans. Partying with cats who were all about Anthrax, Metallica and GNR, it wasn’t too hard to get them into some Ice-T or Public Enemy. The energy was similar. My hippie friends would let me slip on a Pharcyde or Tribe Called Quest tape in between their Grateful Dead and Phish jams. Cypress Hill played a big part in bringing that rock audience into the hip hop world. Weeded music is weeded music, I guess. I remember when the Beatnuts first came out, and one of them was wearing a Nirvana shirt in all their photos. Cats were clowning on dude. I wonder how many of you rap fans out there have ever listened to a Nirvana album? Been listening to this other cat Lindy quite a bit, too. Caught him playing here and there over the years—one of my favorite live bands—and he put out an indie record last year which stays in heavy rotation with me. Check out www.lindymusic.com. It’s pretty cool how these days all the different musical worlds seem to be meshing. It’s not always a good thing, with corny fools like Limp Bizkit rapping horribly, but then other shit like N.E.R.D. comes along and more than makes up for the crud. I’m still going to do a hip hop version of Megadeth’s “Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying” if I can get ahold of Dave Mustaine. So anyway, do a search for some of these names, and let me know if you’re feeling any of it: Cheerleader, Three Inches of Blood, Welcome Karma, Nasty On, Billy Talent, Pimp, Alexisonfire, IceNine, Boy, The Salads, Three Days Grace. Oh yeah, I’m touring Europe for two months this March and April, so any heads out there who want to hook up on the other side, hit me up. Peace, FRITZ THA CAT

Top Nine (in no particular order)

1. Jon Juan & Record Face (recordface@hotmail.com)

2. Murs: The End of the Beginning (Def Jux)

3. The Streets (Vice)

4. Gringo Grinder feat. Fritz tha Cat (pantone@rogers.com)

5. Advertising the Invisible: Exotic Logic (Evil Genius)

6. Beans 12” (fuck, I forget the name, but it’s so dope.)

7. IceNine (www.flatwax.com)

8. Benzino (just kidding, dude needs to really quit. Eminem’s about to destroy him.)

9. Rikoshay: demo (hotness!)