Monday, March 7, 2011

The King of Coloureds...rise up!


a letter from a guy who has been disbarred from law in the US for 13 years (IN THE MATTER OF PAUL MPANDE NGOBENI) skelling trevor manuel, the architect of south africa's functional economy??? please. 

the pretense on which manuel wrote the letter was completely justified. and i've met many people who fail to see the interest or the controversialness (it is a word) of Manyi's comment, saying "but there are lots of coloureds in the western cape...they should blah blah blah" and, unfortunately, this needs to be repeated: the mandate awarded to the ANC to govern SA is not to govern a nation of different races, it is to govern South Africans in their own country. now, until Manyi changes that and gets all the 'coloureds' ('saardjie baartmans', 'strandloopers', 'ge-bastered'-gangsters, suni and shiite muslims, khoisan, namas, and brian habana) to hand in their passports in exchange for a dompas, these South Africans are going to stay where ever they dam well please.

the way i view Ngobeni's letter is simple: he helped zuma with the arms deal and now he's looking for more game. also, the colour of the labour does not infer a flavour, thus, it is not a quality of the labour market - what differential? in fact, his knowledge of economics is putrid and self-damming - ngobeni simply implies that the magic pointing finger that these 'coloureds' posses is required throughout the country, 'come here coloured boy, you have what i cannot find anywhere else'. apartheid's coloured preference policy is read as "divide en konker plan, subseksy 2".

i've been told never to underestimate the power and intelligence of government, but this only serves to marginalize the already marginalized. i just dont see what the benefits could be for the government.

the only logical conclusion is that this entire debacle has something to do with Trevor Manuel moving to COPE... he was, after all, the only high profile ANC member not to step over. maybe south africa's about to mature into a tumultuous democracy??? all that is certain, is that investor confidence over the long term is down; we'll see if trevor takes this very generous gift or not.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Album Review: Saigon - The Greatest Story Never Told

yeah, well - this guy Saigon was all kinds of hype for 6 years and years. were expectations high? well, not really - but he was from a era in rap that i really miss. i remember sitting down with a new album, preparing for a weekend of heat around town during the afternoon - hopefully getting out of the house with music in a format that i can get out of the house with - but if not, what followed normally would go something like this,
1) crank it up
2) get the head action going
3) start reading everything i can about the album
4) listen to it again
5) read the entire album jacket, and go "yeah, that's what i thought... no surprises there" - i'd think this is something like tiger woods would go through as he planned his approach to the green when he was in his prime
6) by now i'd have formed all my opinions and i'm throwing them bones
7) pick a favourite track that i feel connects with something significant in my life, and memorize the lyrics

its good to finally get an album with which i can rediscover that process. but dont get me wrong, the album's not perfect. the biggest issue is that the best track he recorded in years is not on it, but there's a link if you click the picture... it's so cold.

one thing thats absolutely dope is that with each collab, you can tell that Saigon was after a certain sounds  from ripped classic choruses on Kanye's It's Alright - a classic kanye dusty crate-rape , to smokey sunday sunrise beach front cruise track, Better Way featuring Layzie Bone. The intro even has FatmanScoop over a contra-adventure island style string beat. it's so classic, it's inshane. did i mention Qtip? (hope it doesnt make him wanna release another album, though).

saigon maybe a classic brooklyn-brawler rapper, but this album speaks volumes about rap and how it's change - there's even a track with genre-crossing Dj Colbert.

one message i really dig about the album is that you might make a casual greeting with your friends as you part, but the truth, guy, is that there arent many people out there - and for many, none - who can replace your homies. shit, i dont feel like doing jack if my trusted homies arent up for any... and that's where THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD be at.

best track on the album: it's not on the album, but there's a link to the "It's So Cold"-video on youtube over hurr