In case you didn´t feel like showing up

Opinion on the Public Enemy concert here last month was expressed on the forum at http://www.lagenda.com One person stated that the government should not have financially assisted the gig, as "there are several Canarian acts that piss over PE anytime or day of the week." The money would have been better spent on the local rappers. The post did elicit a response asking who these rappers or groups were, and at this time of writing, the seven or eight us that contributed to the ´gig review´ are still waiting with moist anticipation to see who these groups are.

Did I say it before? If not, the concert was a history lesson, covering social-politics, global issues, racism, hip hop state of mind, the Canaries is not Spain issue, funk, soul, WuTang, RunDMC, LL, Led Zep, AC/DC, Sly, Bob Marley, Tommie Smith, 911 is a Joke, Fight the Power, By the Time I get to Arizona, Welcome to the Terrordome, Son of a Bush, 20 years of Public Enemy, now rolling with live drums, bass and guitar. Professor Griff, James Bomb and the S1W´s, the blues delivered by their road manager via harmonica, Jimi, P-Funk, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, the internet, running a tight organization and being in control of your thing. Vision and dedication, insight and understanding. Flava Flav and his drum solo....yep, plus a sense of humour. James, Louis, Malcolm, Huey, Bobby, Muhammad Ali, Martin, Mumia. That sound! Rebel Without a Pause, Can´t Truss It, Shut Em Down, DJ Lord....oh lord, what a solo, completly phhhhucked my head with his decknology and he weren´t smilin....serious as cancer. Chuck blogged that Lord was like Mobb Deep, hadn´t had any clean clothes for like 5ive days, I thought maybe he just had his game face on.

I was alerted to a written review of the concert and notes on the press conference,
where I brought up the issue of the gig having El Dia as a sponsor of the concert, as El Dia have been at the forefront of dissing African brothers trying to reach out for a better life, trying to get to Europe via the Canary Islands.
The writer said PE were on the verge of cancelling the show because of the sponsorship issue raised. Nah, not at all, I think the reviewer was trying to be a hype man like Flava, but he ain´t quite got it yet. Chuck and Griff responded to my information in a clear sensible manner...I didn´t expect them to know about El Dia, publishing articles about Africans bringing Aids and shit, I was just bringing some info to the table. Yeah, people did get tense, but not PE.

One of the issues of living on an island is that everybody knows everybody, and if you don´t play along with certain people, you are gonna get jacked, like not get work or contracts, or advertising revenue, etc. so people hold their cards to their chests, so as not to offend anyone, because that person could be the person writing their cheque some where along the line, and I think that mentality is part of the issue with people not saying exactly what they feel, and maybe siding with El Dia, while El Dia could have spoken for themselves, I mean, as media sponsors of the gig, you´d expect them to have a journalist at the press conference, innit?

Some at the press conference would rather I didn´t bring up the El Dia scenario, but it didn´t kill anybody. I have never had anybody say anything about my colour until El Dia and the nationalist Coalition Canarias political party started with their illegal immigrant subsaharian hysteria bullshit....the ignorant are sucking up the agenda laid out for them by their masters and dishing it out to anybody with darker skin...and nappy heads. Personally, I´m like, Fuck El Dia....well at least the crusty old fool that runs the ship, fuck Coalition Canarias too...their immigrant-bashing actions have been played out before, it just shows how desperate they are in lacking foresight and imagination. They and the people have forgotten that government works for the people and not the other way round. Oh, and fuck anybody that thinks that dressing up as a Sambo and thinking I´m gonna think it´s cool to do so.

There are elections here now and during a debate last week, the heads of the three largest political parties, PP, CC, and the supposed Socialists held a debate, and when the question of Africa came up, two of them said there should be a "Marshall Plan for Africa". Wasn´t the original Marshall Plan used by the US to get a financial strangehold on Europe through the guise of post-World War Two financial assistance? So, now the West can forget about the recent debt forgiveness thing and find new ways to plunder the African continent? Even the Live8 spawned promises of billions of cash never materialized, about ten percent of pledges have been received according to the UN and other sources.

....and now sports!

The PE influence was still simmering in some of of the selection for this week. Dug out some classic joints of the shelves, Fatback, Trouble Funk, WuTang, Cube, London Posse and Jim Ingram´s "fireside chat".
Many years ago, Fun-da-mental had the pleasure of going to Australia and New Zealand alongside Primal Scream and Ministry for the Big Day Out festival tour....some memorable moments let me tell you., but I won´t say more than that right now, except I caught every show of them two bands...full on 200%! So got a couple jams from them in there.

DHS, House of God, a classic old school cut and paste breaks joint.....closing with some gospel from Willie Mae....

Ear Conditioning
8 May 2007 Playlist

The Flaming Lips / After the Goldrush (Caroline)
Panteras Negras / Comunicando (Esan Ozeaki)
Mary Margaret O´Hara / Keeping you in Mind (Virgin)
Tom Zé / Toc (Luaka Bop)
Zim Ngqawana / You think you know me (Sheer Sound)
Natacha Atlas / Duden · Talvin Singh Remix (Nation)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan / Sari Seri Raat Teri Yaad (Magnasound)
King L Man / FILHSF (Ear Con)

El-P / Drive (DefJux)
Sean Penn / On US TV, he tells it how it should be... "Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld...should all be in fucking jail!"
Fatback / King Tim III (Polydor)
Trouble Funk / Drop the Bomb (Sugarhill)
Ice Cube / Jackin´for beats (4th & Broadway)
Wu Tang Clan / Reunion · Funkstorung Remix (Loud)
London Posse / How´s life in London · Ragga Mix (Wordplay)
Jim Ingram / Homebrew

Primal Scream / Blood Money (Astralwerks)
Ministry / The Missing (Sire)
Ministry / Deity (Sire)

DHS / House of God
Sir Menelik / So Intelligent (Rawkus)
DJ Krush / Transition (Sony)
Roots Manuva / Double Drat (Bid Dada)
Kode 9 & The Spaceape / Nine (Hyperdub)
Saul Williams / Twice the first time
Willie Mae Ford Smith / What manner of man is this