By now, you all know that hip hop group, fratpack, recently dropped a newish offering called frwednesday Mixtape. If you don't and you're keen on hearing it then download it HERE. Now, back to today's post. It brings The Ordinary Girl great pleasure to give you a first look at the Calibre Justice video. Over a Justice beat, Mr Calibre goes in about his vices (Coca Cola) and his pet-peeves (pretty boys rappers, teehee) and more. The joint is taken off frwednesday Mixtape and the video was shot a hop and skip away from where Mr Calibre and his crew hang out and skate on Funisu boards by me.
As someone who has known the brothers, me and Mr Calibre, since the days when the latter used to insist people say his whole alias (Mr Mr Calibre The Boy With Infinite Skill), I must say it's been quite something to watch him grow and come into his own like this. And as a rap fan, I'd have to say it's even nicer to hear him spitting about, amongst other things, not caring whether you know any of the names he mentions in the verse. The point is, you don't have to worry about that - you'll know in due time and inspite of your resistance. The visuals are brought to life by the producing and rapping half of fratpack, me. No, Dude, I'm not getting you a director's chair just yet. Doesn't it look like it was fun at this sausage party? I'm kidding, I'm kidding, fratpack loves the ladies. Peep the Calibre Justice video below:
Just a reminder that the frwednesday Mixtape by the brothers known as fratpack is now available for free download OVER HERE. How cool is that picture of Mr Calibre? About as cool as him beasting on Calibre Justice which is also off the frwednesday mixtape. The producer and rapper half of fratpack, me, actually took that shot. Mr Calibre and me dropped this musical offering to hold you hip hop lovers over until the Famlove EP drops. And when's that? When they decide to give it to you. Ha! For now, enjoy the frwednesdays Mixtape.
Usually we don't don't this but uh...*cues R Kelly's Ignition Remix*
Ha! Sorry about that.
No, usually we don't tell you to maybe read a book. If it's on theblagg, we want you to read it. Period. But the reason today's post carries a "maybe" with it is two-fold. First, we haven't really read Sharp Sharp: South Africa Street Style. The second reason is because upon paging through Ed Suter's book, there was plenty of rolling of the eyes and quite frankly, boredom.
The only reason we'd like for you to see it is because on a random day near the home away from home of fratpack's Mr Calibre, someone thought he dresses really well and asked to take a picture of him. This picture is in Sharp Sharp. So maybe this is more of a shameless plug for someone we know who (in our opinion) dresses well.
But in terms of the book itself, peruse it in your local bookstore and then decide whether you'd like to own it. I think Milli (of the Miss Milli B blog) summarised how I feel (even after only paging through it in a store) about this book in her Mail & Guardian article so go over and read that too.
Happy Hump Day! If you've been reading theblagg or following fratpack (@fratpackmusic) then you already know what frwednesday is all about. If not then do not pass go, do not collect 200 and get the heck off the internet. I'm just kidding. Come back, come back. Now, you all know the hip hop group called fratpack (one word, all lower case), right? For every Wednesday of the past couple of months, they would release a song for their fam. Called frwednesdays, the songs were mostly the two brothers rapping on beats that me far-outed. So it's only fitting that me and Mr Calibre drop a compilation of those joints and a few new ones on a Wednesday. Yep, TODAY. The frwednesday Mixtape is available for free download over HERE and in addition to features by the likes of BIG FKN GUN and Reason as well as far-outing my favourite Zaki Ibrahim song, the mixtape is packed full of surprises. The frwednesday mixtape is the final offering before fratpack's famlove EP is released in the final quarter of this year. Tell all your frwednes! Here's the tracklist:
This has got to be one of the catchiest hooks The Ordinary Girl has heard all year. New joint from fratpack is called Walk and Ride. Mr Calibre is first and me is last on this Chuck Inglish beat. Listen:
Those Vaal Triangle boys, me and Mr Calibre, will perform at Club Illusions (in the V) on Saturday night. As you can see on the flyer, young Kiernan will also do his thing. Interestingly - yes, I just said that - fratpack put their own spin on AKA's hit, All I Know and called in Plan B. The pseudo-vocoder is really funny (sorry, Dude) but the message is dope. Listen to it here:
So in The Ordinary Girl's part of the world, this weekend is Rocking The Daisies. Sigh. I won't go into the reason behind the sigh. However, if you're up in Joburg tomorrow then check me and Mr Calibre out at Throwdown at OST in Newtown. On the decks will be Da Buddist and Soulo Starr. Doors open at 8pm and R50 gets you in. This is my favourite fratpack track. Oldie but goodie. Enjoy.
This is not a Broke Phi Broke frat. This is not a cheesy intro. Ahem. This is fratpack all lowercase!) and their take on The Kills' Sour Cherry. Made up of three Vaal Triangle dudes: me, Mr Mr Calibre The Boy With Infinite Skill as well as Hytone (not pictured) the crew has been doing their thing for a bit now. You might have heard of their Far Out Mixtape - or not.
But theblagg is going to make sure you hear their second, as yet untitled, mixtape which is going to hit a site near you on May 27. For now though, enjoy Sour Cherry.
The other day, Dude had some music business to take care of. And guess who got to tag along? Put your hand down Young Calibre! Anyway, so we get there and Battlekat (producer/founding Optical Ill member/general dope dude) is lacing a verse. Of course Dude and I aren’t allowed to bear witness. So we’re stalled outside. We’re told BK is just putting the final touches to a chorus he is singing. My stomach bellows another tune. Don’t judge me, it was late and I was famished. Anyway. I had this intense craving for Chicken Licken chicken wings – what else? And I was in a hurry to go before Alex gets dodgy. But nope, the wings and I… we could never be! This is going somewhere, I promise. But before I could bid the studio good day, I said good day (ok, that’s my last Girlfriends reference, promise) I had to sit through what felt like forever and a day while cats got their shit together. And you know what? It was worth it. Battlekat’s vocals were like butter on this joint. And you’ll hear it in due time, but for now take my word for it. The layering was like a honeycomb being turned lovingly by a fat chef with a little bald-headed brother named Bob. And that got me thinking. Everyone knows Battlekat is an awesome producer. And if you didn’t know that he is a great singer too, well then I just told you that. However, he raps like most awesome producers rap – JDilla anyone? So that lead to this thinking: who, if there is even anyone, can sing as well as they rap? Or vice versa. And for you blaggers and blaggettes, I kill de bull. And in the event of me having no bull to kill, I will give you a list of rappers who really can rap but who can also saaaaang!* Then we’ll throw in ones that we’re still on the fence about… LAURYN HILL Rap rating? 10 – Have you heard of Fugees? It should have been called Lauryn N ‘Em Singing? 10 – Which other girl could go toe to toe with Mary J “Queen of Hip/Hop Soul” Blige on a song where both had to sing? And on her debut album nogal! Proof of perfection:
theblagg thinks she should come back already, all is forgiven and stop being stubborn before Lesego takes that Unplugged picture off her wall.
MOS DEF Rap rating? 10 - T.O.G’s new crush, Jozen Cummings recently posed a question on twitter, and I’m paraphrasing here: Who can honestly say they like Talib over Mos Def or Common? Don’t worry, I’ll wait. Singing? 9 – Only because Mos has done it all from 60s impersonations to afro-beat cool and serenading r&b suitor. See for yourself:
theblagg thinks he should do good on his word and relocate to South Africa, we’re sure Bahamadia can accommodate him in her Hillbrow pad and stop marrying girls after only 96 hours of meeting them. Unless that girl’s initials are T.O.G. Just saying.
ANDRE 3000 Rap rating? 8 – We’re not saying that having a dangerously wack rapper who is more concerned about grooming dogs and making suspect cameos in music videos-turned-movies doesn’t automatically make you the dope one in the crew. But it sure does help. Singing? 8 – Don’t you just think of a taller, much taller, and just plain manly good-looking Prince when you hear 3Stacks? Well listen then:
theblagg thinks he should come back into the game and school these kids about the evolution of an artist and stop it with the relaxed hair now!
PHONTE Rap rating? 9 – on any given day you can find Phontigallo and Little Brother quotes being passed around in my house like potato salad on a Sunday. Phonte’s lines work as status updates and ways to find out if you’re compatible with someone or not. Singing? 6 – We have to admit, sometimes we don’t know when Phonte (or his alter ego, Percy Miracles) is singing for real for real. But we enjoy it all the time! You know his indi project (yes where he sounds like the sweetest songbird) and labour of love, Foreign Exchange? No? Then get off this site and get onto google. Seriously. But come right back ok? So you can enjoy this:
theblagg thinks he should keep making that heartfelt mushy music that you cook supper to and stop eating whatever he is eating. Have you seen how big he is?
DRAKE Rap rating? 5 – Yes, you don’t have to squint. I’ll say it again: Shawty is a 5 in my book. He has received notable buzz, but wouldn’t you if you could lace a decent 16 AND the members of your group had names like Gudda Gudda and Lil Chuckie? Singing? 6 – T.O.G will be the first to admit that Drizzy Rogers can hold a note. But how far will the whining take him though? This feels like what Mr West wanted to achieve with 808s and Heartbreaks, right? Don’t front:
theblagg thinks he should keep writing r&b for AKeys and Tank and stop trying to do it himself all the damn time AND also stop going to his barber because that hairline… just no.
theblagg thinks Pharrel, Queen Latifah and Estelle should just stick to rapping. Thanks.
*Before you get your panties in a tswape, I didn’t pick any South Africans because I don’t know any SA rappers who have sold millions or thousands or hundreds off of their singing talent.
So it seems some of you weren't feeling the Beyonce post.
Oh well.
I love love love love love Joel Ortiz. On any given day he is my favourite Slaughterhouse emcee - although Dude and Young Calibre might want to slaughter me for saying that. Here he is on Call Me (featuring Novel), a cute as hell song with a sweet video too.
You know you got that good-good if dude dissed you in 1995 and he's still thinking about you in 2010! Even Joel is a fan of love. All together now: awwww. "Do me a favour Joel, don't you ever ever ever ever... call meeeeeee!"
I think this might be my new get-dressed-for-the-club joint.
Doesn't Joel resemble a XXL Travis McCoy? Just my thought blaggers and blaggettes. Just my thoughts.
-T.O.G
UPDATED to say: Word on the tube is that the pretty mami that appears at the 4.00 - 4.06 mark is actually the real chick that young Joel dissed in 1995. How cute is that?
