I'll Give You a Topic, Discuss: Christmas Music 11:49 AM

Nowadays, Christmas preparations start earlier and earlier each year, so I figured it was okay to bring this up now... I was at a local thrift last week shop digging through the dollar bin records, when I realized that about %90 of the dust-covered albums I was thumbing through were discarded Christmas LP's -- that's about 9 feet of just Christmas records! If we base what people don't like on what they throw away, it would seem that people aren't all that fond of Christmas music -- at least not where I'm from. Yet, we will all start hearing Christmas music everywhere very soon -- that is, if you haven't already started -- and people claim to like it... So:

What's your take on Christmas music? Is it a fun and cheery way of ringing in the holiday spirit, or a massive waste of our airwaves? 

Talk amongst yourselves.

- The illDefined

We Were Once a Fairytale 4:41 PM

Spike Jonze and Kanye West teamed up in this trippy little short film. Kanye plays a plastered pathetic loser. I won't tell you what happens because you should watch it. Surprisingly Kanye does an amazing job acting, and Spike Jonze accurately portrays the feeling of being drunk to a tee. This is a cool little vid, enjoy!

Talking to Roses in the Library - The illDefined 11:30 AM

Let's workshop it, eh?

Talking to Roses in the Library

We’re lonely in these books,

The shelves can’t speak to the empty dreams

Fainted to shadows between the lines and we’re. still. alive.

Faded beyond the perfect windows we never, quite, touch.

cans out of grasp

air Falls over hands,
thoughts come last:
the self-owned laughs

of a laughable past we deny the children we will never have

Greed for the keen of heart // these windows shine insomniacs

finding forgotten pieces of a love in the back of a subcompact

there was no fluorescence then,               just us

there was no flicker then,   just us

there was no now, there was no then,   just us

there were ridges on mountains I could only dream over timberlines

there were cascades

 in rainbows

 that wrote

             their rhythms

                                 in falling leaves

there were rains that fell from the stars

there were snows that danced freckles on the moon

there was sleep

wake me when September ends

falling from the stars.

I’m

Okay. Perhaps this time

I’ll find prettier words

All the words

come with me,

out of the depths within my walls

All the words,

with my eyes shut since the Day You Left.

This too shall pass.

A leaf in the wind

talking quietly to sad roses.

A song,

 for a mother

A song,

 for every day

for the river waters that run with the sun

drifting heroes into twilight mornings

I have

no answer

A leaf

in the wind

           - The illDefined

Jay ElecHannukah 5:59 PM

And so the ever-elusive, ever creative Jay Electronica returns with "Exhibit C," a new track produced by Just Blaze. My first thought upon seeing this was, "about time." Jay hasn't released anything in an oddly long time, especially after building such a strong buzz in 2008 when he released "Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)." Then again, he and Ms. Badu had a baby this year, so I'll cut him some slack. I usually would never post a radio rip of anything because I'm a stickler for sound quality, but this song is too tight to wait on. Despite the radio hiss and low quality of this version, Jay Elect does what he does best, mixing gritty street mythology and careful introspection with serious lyrical acrobatics. Here's to hoping that Jay will put out music more frequently from now on, although as odd and unconventional as he is, I don't have my hopes up. Props to The Full Clip for putting me onto this dude in the first place. Check out the track below:

Jay Electronica - Exhibit C [Radio Rip] (Produced by Just Blaze)



And in case you've been sleeping, here's Jay's opus, a song that I consider an underground classic, which features him blacking out over beatless loops from Jon Brion's Eternal Sunshine score. Peep:

Jay Electronica - Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)

Some Kind of Love 10:10 AM

File this one in the "It Doesn't Have to Make Sense" category... just let me know if you enjoy it.

peace, love and level vibes,

- The illDefined

There’s nothing better than an ice cream cone on a Sunday afternoon in late spring when it’s not too hot, with a light breeze. I honestly don’t have any idea what the fuck I am talking about I haven’t had ice cream on a Sunday afternoon in late spring in years, maybe decades. Fuck you.

I haven’t had a good milkshake in about that long either, what the fuck happened to the world. Ice cream has gone out of style, cosmos are the new root beer float, I miss egg creams. What the fuck was an egg cream anyway? They sound disgusting.

Did you wash your hands the last time you went to the bathroom? No, I didn’t think so, you filthy marmot. Yes? Did you wash your balls, too? No? Did you still feel clean? You dirty pervert.

Yes I’m ornery, you got a problem with that? Fuck you and everything you believe in, I’m right you’re wrong and this is the way shit goes, so sometimes you just have to fucking deal with it, okay, buddy?

Dert - Westside of the Moon 9:09 AM

Boom Shaka Laka.

Rest assured that this download will probably be the best use of your bandwith this week (if not this month). I've been playing this in every situation from studying to house parties for the last three weeks, and I still can't get over just how ridiculous these beats are. As the title and cover suggest, the whole tape is filled with tracks that are sampled from Pink Floyd -- I say sampled because they are far more than "remixes" -- and they are ALL incredible. Highlight track: #16 (samples Floyd's "Money"). And don't worry, he gave this one away for free.

Happy listening, young grasshopper.

Download: DERT Floyd - The Westside of the Moon

Salaam/Shalom/Peace

- The illDefined

EMINEM IS BACK: 50's "Psycho" + Cypher w/ Black Thought 1:00 PM

New Verses Show Legend Has Returned to Form

I never thought I'd see the day when TheNewConfusion would have successive posts featuring 50 Cent and Lil' Wayne -- but credit where credit is due: these guys are making some good music.

Some songs have started leaking off 50 Cent's upcoming Before I Self-Destruct, and, honestly, I don't really care, but Eminem KILLS this track. 50 Cent gets thoroughly Renegaded on "Psycho" -- HERE is the lyrically vicious, havoc-wreaking Eminem we've been missing ("beat the octo-mom to death with a Cabbage Patch Kid.") His flow is back in form, too. He's taking risks, dropping behind the beat, then riding it hit for hit, then jumping out in front for a bit -- the result is that ridiculous, one-of-a-kind flow that Shady made his name with. Check the song and then check out incredible "freestyle" cypher featuring Black Thought, Mos Def, and Eminem (with DJ Premier on the cuts).


Download/Listen:50 Cent - Psycho feat. Eminem

NEW WEEZY!! -- No Ceilings (Free Album) 9:33 PM

For avid Weezy fans like myself, this is a day of reckoning. After eons of suspense, lying in wait and memorizing the profoundly nonsensical distortions of ill-logical shit Lil' Wayne says on his verses, Young Carter finally dropped a new mixtape last week: No Ceilings.

On No Ceilings, Wayne does what he is wont to do: dominate. Weezy never fails to create a metaphor I've never heard before. His similes are so creative I wonder if he actually is from Mars. As usual he's in top form here remixing other peoples' songs. He destroys them. I know TNC is usually out to expose you to more conscious rappers who don't prefer to talk about money, bitches and weed, but sometimes you need a little unconsciousness. Pun intended.

Download: Lil Wayne - No Ceilings

Here is the track "Ice Cream" of No Ceilings -- dope example of the hilarious shit Weezy says:

Forum: On Writing - ThePseudonym 5:48 PM

(ThePseudonym)

ESC and illDefined already shared their thoughts. Now, ThePseudonym, as expected, drops some serious science on the utility and justifications for writing. But is he right? Is writing just a means of communication? Or is there more to it?

Forum - On Writing - ThePseudonym

In searching for what writing is, I took a moment to reflect on characteristics that make writing “good”. When analyzed literally and definitively, a piece of writing is a visual compilation of markings (letters, characters, etc.). If seen as such, what can make writing good or bad? According to our definition, it could be assumed that the visual quality of the writing would indicate its caliber.

“Good” writing, however, connotes a work that conveys a message clearly and coherently. “Better” writing often puts into words complex and difficult-to-describe concepts. Writing, in the sense most often used, is a means of communicating a point, or idea. It is a mechanism that humans have used to communicate with for thousands of years. The writer is given an opportunity to release and transfer streams of consciousness to be understood by one or many readers.

Writing has many advantages over other forms of communication. Like speech, written words can elicit vibrant and meaningful images and ideas; however, the time required to write and read these same concepts provides time for mental digestion – leading (usually) to a more coherent product. Speech also has the disadvantage of being limited by the social anxieties of the speaker.

Because communication is such a seminal element of writing, text is meant to be read and received by an audience. Diaries are a one-way street for thought - a kind of mental masturbation – that provide no more than therapy and release for the author. Do not get me wrong: I don’t underestimate the utility of writing for oneself, but without an audience, there is no transfer of thought, and no need to write coherently or concisely.

The beauty of writing lies in the true communication of what is on the mind. It allows the thinker to ruminate in his thought before presenting a finished concept to be interpreted and understood by another thinker. Writing allows solitary and concentrated thought to flow in a medium that allows an almost infinite viewership.

Why do you write?