.

I’ve been subscribed to and occasionally see a post on my feed from “Team Backpack.”  They have some dope content and I like what they are doing for the culture (at least on the surface).  I think frameworks like this are crucial for the survival of Hip-Hop since commercial tv/radio seem to stick to the same ol’ story lines and stereotypes.  We need platforms to advance the culture.

Most intellectual rap is ignored by the younger generations because they are saturated with a barrage of marketing campaigns and stereotypes.  And can you blame them?  They don’t yet comprehend the “real” issues (or want to for that matter).  If I grew up in this generation, I would have prob. done the same.

I know, here comes the “90’s is the best era for Hip-Hop” argument… but there is a valid argument.  First let me defend the current affairs.  Today’s rap music does have more creative rhymes, complex patterns, cadences, etc. and this is a big point we can’t overlook.  I would even say that there are still rappers trying to change the game up a bit and be about positive messages.  Unfortunately, this is not promoted by the mainstream media or by the celebrity rappers themselves.

This is where the “90’s” hip-hop era (in my opinion) was better.  You were bombarded with the “conscious” rap movement.  Either on Arsenio or In Living Color, you would see controversial and conscious rap artists.  They were being played on the radio, at the club, in the streets…

Working at a radio station, they give you a list of songs to play and maybe… if you’re lucky, they will allow a gimme once or twice an hour.  This let’s them control what you hear and more importantly what fits their agenda.

Oh well… enough ranting.  All this to say that this guy Locksmith is dope and reminds me of the good old day message, with today’s flow.  Cyhi The Prince is also pretty clever and these guys blew up the spot.

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While hitting the web today, I ran across an article on Vice titled “Asian Raps Biggest Fan Is A White Guy From Staten Island“.  I really don’t know alot of Asian rappers, but I prob know more than your average Joe.  This is just one of the main reasons I love the Hip-Hop culture.  It transcends race, religion and class.  It can be argued that Hip-hop was born in America, but some of the biggest fan bases are outside of the US.  Korea, Japan, Germany…

There is a reason DJ’s and Rappers travel internationally to do shows.  They appreciate and hunger for the culture and they support the artist.  They don’t turn DJ’s and MC’s into promoters, or make them guarantee bottles.  They promote and just bring talent.

Anyways, i know this is becoming a rant, but that wasn’t my intention.  I just wanted to expose some of the artists I read about that i didn’t know were out there.  Some of the ones I liked were Dumbfoundead, Keith Ape and Lyricks.You can find them on YouTube, so when you get a chance, check them out.

One track i really liked was:

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Found an interesting link that you can search the news that the Times has reported on since 1929!  pretty dope, you can see articles from articles from “Hip-Hop Nation” with Lauren Hill on the cover in 1999 to the “Return of Star Wars” in 1997.  Check it out here: http://time.com/vault/

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Catch me every Thursday from noon to one on The Mix Syndicate Radio!

Click Here to stream…

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Catch me in the mix Sat. Oct 10 from midnight to 1 am on KRYC Rhythm 105.9.

http://tunein.com/radio/Rhythm-1059-s114011/?utm_source=tiEmbed&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=s114011

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Mix Syndicate Radio is the official 24-7 streaming internet radio station of the Mix Syndicate DJs.

Mix Syndicate Radio will feature 50% mixshows and 50% regular programming. The mixshows will cover a wide variety of genres. The station will be available to listen to via ShoutCast, TuneIn and our website (mobile app soon to come).

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Hackers reaches its 20th anniversary! This film payed tribute to the hacker culture in the mid 90’s (95 to be exact). When I graduated high school and got my first “real” windows 95 computer, this movie just came out. I knew the cheesy 3D effects of them “Hacking the Gibson” and browsing file systems were ridiculous, but at that time i didn’t know what is would actually look like, so… Those images stuck in my head.

When the movie was released, I was a n00b and didn’t know much about computers except to be dangerous.  I played with the autoexec.bat files in Windows 3.11 and screwed things up so many times that I had to have one of my friend’s older brother fix it constantly.  He must have hated me.

In the film, there is some folklore as well as a lot of the tilting of the hat to real hackers of the day.  The film didn’t make much money, but i think (at least for me) it became and instant cult classic.  The people over at Hak 5 did a tribute show and gave some interesting factoids, so go check it out here.  I think it’s due time i break this out of my DVD arsenal and watch it again.

One of my favorite parts of the movie is when the FBI agents read the “Hacker’s Manifesto.”  I remeber trying to find this of the internet and finally found a copy.  It’s from the old Phrack Magazine Volume One.  Check it out here:

                               ==Phrack Inc.==

                    Volume One, Issue 7, Phile 3 of 10

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The following was written shortly after my arrest...

                       \/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/

                                      by

                               +++The Mentor+++

                          Written on January 8, 1986
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

        Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers.  "Teenager
Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...
        Damn kids.  They're all alike.

        But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain,
ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker?  Did you ever wonder what
made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
        I am a hacker, enter my world...
        Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of
the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
        Damn underachiever.  They're all alike.

        I'm in junior high or high school.  I've listened to teachers explain
for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction.  I understand it.  "No, Ms.
Smith, I didn't show my work.  I did it in my head..."
        Damn kid.  Probably copied it.  They're all alike.

        I made a discovery today.  I found a computer.  Wait a second, this is
cool.  It does what I want it to.  If it makes a mistake, it's because I
screwed it up.  Not because it doesn't like me...
                Or feels threatened by me...
                Or thinks I'm a smart ass...
                Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
        Damn kid.  All he does is play games.  They're all alike.

        And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through
the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is
sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is
found.
        "This is it... this is where I belong..."
        I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to
them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...
        Damn kid.  Tying up the phone line again.  They're all alike...

        You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at
school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip
through were pre-chewed and tasteless.  We've been dominated by sadists, or
ignored by the apathetic.  The few that had something to teach found us will-
ing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

        This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the
beauty of the baud.  We make use of a service already existing without paying
for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and
you call us criminals.  We explore... and you call us criminals.  We seek
after knowledge... and you call us criminals.  We exist without skin color,
without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals.
You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us
and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

        Yes, I am a criminal.  My crime is that of curiosity.  My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me
for.

        I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto.  You may stop this individual,
but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

                               +++The Mentor+++
_______________________________________________________

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I used to use an app called Bamboo Invoicing to do all my invoicing, track payments, generate quotes and give reports on earnings annually.  Unfortunately, the guy that built it is no longer developing for it.  It was a great app, open source and it worked for me for a really long time.  He recommended another app as a replacement, so i gave it a try and i love it!  it is called PancakeApp and (although it costs about $180), it was easy to install and is a one time fee.  I hate having recurring fees for applications.  So, if you want  to step up from Excel and Word and get something 1000x’s better, look them up.  here is a link.

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My boy SkReWfAcE just released a mix tape called Tape Deck Wreck!  Hit him up if you like his steez!

-One

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I went to a training the other day and heard someone quote this speech. I thought it was brilliant, so i scoured the internet and found it.

“… It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. …”.

Theodore Roosevelt
“Citizenship in a Republic”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris
April 23, 1910

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