"Freedom got an AK" - Da Lench Mob

News item the first: Sorry it's been a few days since I blogged. Andrea was here, and I was too busy doing rad things like seeing the Hall Monitors and drinking at the Brickskeller with her to write about music you need to be listening to. Get over it.

News item the second: My buddy Chris wrote about Pan's Labyrinth on his killer blog, Film Blender. It was one of my favorite movies in a long time, and it was way better seeing it with someone who is going to write her masters' thesis on fairy tales and their application in contemporary stories. Anyway, check Chris out here: http://film-blender.blogspot.com/

News item the third: The new Ted Leo album, Living With the Living, is insanely good. I'll post about it when I feel like it's truly ingrained in my mind, but I will say "Who Do You Love?" will be rockin' blocks soon, and as for "The Lost Brigade?" Imagine your favorite Jam song, multiply it by the best sex you've ever had, square it, and it'll be half as cool as "The Lost Brigade."

Anyway, I decided after a break, the best way to follow up indie folk-rock and 30's jazz was to do some early 90's gangsta rap agitprop. (Cristina is STOKED.) Finding all my old Bill Hicks CDs reignited my interested in the LA riots, and Da Lench Mob is the kind of group that has the immediacy and we-are-there realism that CNN only dreams about.

Proteges of Ice Cube back when that truly mattered (pre-Are We There Yet?), Da Lench Mob were there prototypical angry black men who're mad as hell and ain't gonna take it anymore. Their debut album's title, Guerrillas in tha Mist, should be evidence enough of their Molotov cocktail outlook. It's a killer record, full of the rape-whistle urgency of the best Bomb Squad albums and pissed off rhymes of everyone who ever got busted lifting a loaf of bread.

Guerrillas in tha Mist might not be a completely forgotten classic, but it's certainly neglected. It's up there with Be, Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury, You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having, Food and Liquor, Amerikkka's Most Wanted, and Lyte as a Rock as one of my favorite rap albums. Dig in, Chester.

Freedom Got an AK - http://www.mediafire.com/?6ainemf2mgr

Lost in tha System - http://www.mediafire.com/?6ygugonmju0