In light of the recent barrage of anti-Kanye sentiments, the timing of this video’s release is impeccable.  What originally started as a music video for 808s and Heartbreak has morphed into a vehicle for Kanye to respond to criticis of his narcissistic behavior.  In “We Were Once a Fairytale,” Kanye confronts his ego, and the results are trippy and surreal as only director Spike Jonze could do it.  Anyone else hyped for “Where the Wild Things Are?”

[UPDATE: Kanye's been going around having the film taken down for some inexplicable and unexplained reason.  To me, it was the perfect way to kick back at the haters (better than Jay Leno), but so be it.  You can still catch it over at WorldStarHipHop.]

I figure expectations have just as much of an effect on the way an artist approaches an album creatively as the listener of said album.  It irritates me when I hear an artist talking about appeasing fans, and in most cases, I can assume this entails following the formula that drew listeners in the past.  But, as much as it blows, I guess the only objective barometers for success are sales and critical acclaim, without which all my favorite artists would eventually become school teachers.

As 2009 winds down and I start to reflect on my favorite joints from this year, it’s become apparent that the ones that I’ve enjoyed most are those that dropped into my lap from the periphery.  Albums I eagerly anticipated unequivocally failed to meet my lofty expectations.

Such is the case with Oddise’s Odd Autumn, the fall installment of his seasonal instrumental series, which will go largely unnoticed and without acclaim.  Albums like this don’t suffer from weight of expectations and allow the artist the freedom of experimentation (the fact that Mos Def continues to do his own thing in the face of such expectations is one of the reasons I enjoyed The Ecstatic).  And the result is quite good.  Check it out.

Oddisee Music Presents… Odd Autumn

I’ve had love for Pac Div for a minute now, but in the Internet 2.0/Mixtape Age, there’s just so much filler to sift through before you can determine whether an artist is actually dope or not.  These days, marketing & promotion consists of throwing up anything and everything, regardless of quality, so I’ve heard some really tight shit from Pac Div and some pretty wack shit.  Par for the course, I guess.

But then, you come across songs like the self-titled single above, and I can’t help but get really hyped.  If I’m guilty of anything on this blog (besides neglect), it’s overhyping any promising acts like Detroit Pistons prospects; but this song’s got me feeling like Pac Div’s some kind of modern day, West Coast Tribe, tek talk aside.  The look of the video, their outfits, battle rhymes, the Mohawks’ “CHAMP!” sample all feel really gritty and mad ’90s.  You tend to hear a lot of Hip Hop purists sounding like grumpy old men, harping about the “good old days” and what not, but if Pac Div’s forthcoming album sounds anything like this joint, it should satiate a lot of those naysayers.

The trailer for the upcoming doc “Street Struck: The Big L Story.”  Need I say more?

My man Lex Luthor put me on to this article about the “Nas Syndrome,” which generally refers to the not-so-unique trend of skillful MCs choosing wack beats, using Nasir’s latest, “Untitled,” as an example.  It’s pretty on point, despite Sean Blaze’s assertion that Stillmatic and God’s Son are routinely overlooked.  Sean’s right— to a degree.  Stillmatic is to Nas what The Black Album is to Jay: the overture to their reinvention that simultaneously proved that they both still had “it” and that they had both been slipping in years prior.  As for God’s Son, the beats were predominantly wack, my friend.

Then, I saw this advertisement on Grand Good just now, and it made me wonder What if Nas had taste in beats like ‘Mega? I know, I know.  Too good to be true…

Unlike all the American movie critics still picking Quentin Tarantino’s pubic hairs out of their teeth, I didn’t really enjoy Inglourious Bastards.  It kept switching modes so quickly that there was hardly any of the eccentric and offbeat character development that made his previous movies so great.  He took the time to thorougly introduce characters who subsequently died 10 minutes later.  Paced with some consistency, the movie could have been an hour and a half, rather than two and a half.

And so, that’s, perhaps, why I enjoy the latest commercials from Japanese cell phone service provider Softbank, which also star Brad Pitt.  The below advertisements, directed by Spike Jonze, have only served to amp me up for Where the Wild Things Are

Big ups to Metstradamus for Omar Minaya’s checklist (with no checks).  The Mets’ 2009 season has been a story of horrible, horrible luck (slipping in your bathroom is one thing, but who gets hurt walking back to the dugout?) and incompetent management (really, is the farm system so loaded that we don’t need to sign our draft picks?).

All I can say is Ramon Castro R.I.P.

Stephon recently interacted with his fans live via UStream for 24 whole hours.  You can catch the highlights on Youtube, which include Marbury bawling while listening to Kirk Franklin’s “Lean On Me.”

To recap, Lessons from the Scripture of Starbury:

1. If your kid has a fever, put a potato in the bed (“It sucks the fever out.”)

2. If your kid has the hiccups, put a shoestring on their forehead

3. Swallow Vaseline to heal a sore throat

On a separate note, when asked where he would want his jersey retired, he replied, “Boston.”

It turns out Jon Brion of Eternal Sunshine…/Late Registration fame has a weekly show on La Cienega within walking distance from my crib (the fact that I can walk to anything of note from my apartment is, in itself, astonishing).  It took a visit from my friend and Whale Vagina (aka Bear Hands) guitarist Ted Feldman for me to discover this.  So we stopped by this past Friday to witness Mr. Brion performing in a setting that resembled a piano recital more than a rock concert.  I showed up late, as I am apt to do, and upon arrival, I was instructed to turn off my cell phone and stealthily find my seat in the back of the theater.  Sheesh.

Brion’s set included a saloon-style, upright piano, a bunch of CD/DVD turntables, a guitar plus octave pedal (i.e. bass), harmonica, drums, and a couple synths;  These were all hooked up to a loop machine and apparently controlled via pedal board.  So, in a typical song, he might play an 8-bar loop, let it ride, move to the piano, play a 16-bar loop,  move to the guitar, etc. etc.— pretty cool for a while, but since a majority of his set was played this way, the limitations of not having a band became increasingly stark.  At the end, Fiona Apple appeared from backstage for an extended session plus band.

Some notes from the show:

• Jon Brion doesn’t always write the most intricate music, but he is talented as fuck and can shred on the keys
• He can (obviously) play a bunch of instruments competently, and he alternates between jazz, lounge, pop, rock, and bluegrass with great ease
• Fiona Apple’s voice is not the result of production tricks; she sounds incredible live
• I’m suddenly very attracted to Fiona Apple

Stay Classy.