Friday 27 June 2008

Adventures in Negro History


It´s been a lot of work, sweat, sleepless nights, having to deal with 60 year-old junkies shooting up outside the studio door, human excrement by the lift....fitting I suppose for an album titled London Zoo.

If your going to be in London at the beginning of August, and you like your beats hard like two day old shit, and lyrics flowing like the Amazon, head over to the album launch party at Brixton´s Mass venue. Also on the bill, Flying Lotus, Kode 9, Spaceape, Warrior Queen, Ricky Ranking and Tippa Irie. That´s a line-up that just makes ya piss don´t it?!

Last week´s program included five tracks from the album, plus a joint and a beat from the latest effort from The Roots, a fav´ of the BugMan.

Started the program with KRS-One´s classic, Sound of the Police. We´ll ya would if like me, you were heading to work then got pulled over by the men in military-blue. The first one told me to take the keys out and put them on the dashboard, all this with his hand on his gun. Another one stood in the middle of the street with shotgun in hand.

Where do they think they are? This ain´t Killadelphia, this is La Laguna, Tenerife for fucksakes!
Okay, so over to the pavement we go. Asked to get everything out my pockets, cool, I gotta get to work, so let´s get this over done quickly, so I can get to the club.

While checking out my id, I speak to myself, "What kinda manner is this they got going on?" Over comes 6" 3" steroid maximus cop, also fingering his weapon ("Skeng!"), nose to mine, "You are not permitted to speak English" or words to that effect.

So ya now know, it´s illegal to quietly speak to one´s self in English when being searched / harassed by the Spanish pigs.

In compliance with steroid maximus´ arrogance, I closed my mouth and put my hands in my pockets....may as well play some pocket-pool while waiting. Even that, a passive wank brought the steroid-hungry animal over again, all up in my face, trying to provoke me so he would have an excuse to beat me to a fucking pulp. No mate, I´m not playing your fucking game.
It´s people like this steroid junkie that put me off from joining the police force when I was in Toronto. I was actually naive enough to think that I would be able to make a change in police attitudes, fool me!

In the end they gave me a ticket / warning for having a knife in the car.....yep, the knife that we bought the day before when we went to the beach, so we could make sandwiches...yeah, you know, to cut the bread, tomatoes etc.

The lesson to be learned? Throw away any item that could be a weapon immediately after use, or better still, don´t buy it, leave it in the shop, and use yer teeth like you was in the Stone Age.
Don´t speak English, and don´t play pocket pool as it could unleash a wrath upon you like you have never seen.

The clip below is from last years demonstration against the Unipol (Intervention police unit in Santa Cruz Tenerife) after some of them beat the living shit outta a teenager. The pork-unit said he fell off his scooter while trying to evade a spot-check. The kid musta had one of them scooters fitted with a Harley-turbo engine, ´cos his face coulda been used as an airship for those above the stadium shots during the Euro2008 football championships. I really think that coulda so easily been me.



Ear Conditioning Playlist 24 June

KRS-One · Sound of the Police (Jive)
NWA · Express Yourself (4th & Broadway)
SuperCat · Scalp Dem / Wu-Tang Remix featuring Method Man (Columbia)
Public Enemy · 98 Posse (DefJam)
The Roots · @15 (DefJam)

The Bug featuring FlowDan & Killa P · Skeng
Keith LeBlanc: Technology Works
The Bug featuring Tippa Irie · Angry
The Bug featuring Ricky Ranking · Too Much Pain
Lenny Bruce: Gee, all you people can tap-dance
The Bug featuring Spaceape · Fuckaz
The Bug featuring Roger Robinson · You & Me

Filastine · La Muerte (Soot)
Cauto · Bona Vida (Dutty Artz)
Skream & Cluekid · Sandsnake (Disfigured Dubs)
Negitiveland: Helter Stupid
Mala· Left Leg Out (DMZ)

Pixies · Planet of Sound (4AD)
Tubby T · "Title ? / Photek Remix
John Cusack: "If your not going to become politically active in 2008, I don´t know when your are going to!"
Miles Davis · The Pan Piper (CBS)
Burial · Ghost Hardware (Hyperdub)
Altered Beats featuring DJ Rob Swift & Liu Sola · Ancient Style (Palm Pictures)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the police in the Canary Islands have seen so many action films they're beguinning to act them out ... Shame on them!!!

d.wattsriot said...

Si senor, I had similar thoughts. There was also one cop brandishing a shotgun as if he was posing for a action film poster.
Hollywood is calling!