Forrest Armstrong's Blog, page 7

Best Shit in the Fucking World

Over and over and over and over. Over and over and over and over is the story of my past few days.

Good Things on the Horizon…

There's a couple approaching releases I'm excited about… just heard this new Erykah Badu track "Strawberry Incense" that Madlib produced and been repeating it ever since. It's off Badu's upcoming album, New Amerykah Part  Two (Return of the Ankh), which is due out March 30th. Also lovin the art by Emek… who also did the art for the equally beautiful Part One -

 

And check this out… J.Rocc just spinned some Madvillainy 2 on the radio early, & now all of us get to enjoy it.

Speaking of horizons...

Moving Back to Boston

Bittersweet, as usual. Never easy to leave anywhere but ever since I was five and my parents got divorced I've moved all over like mad and got used to it. I like to drift. So although it's getting beautiful in Portland now, with the sun leaning on our heads and the white blossoms out – apple blossoms, I learned – I feel it's time to flip the page to the next chapter. The brick-plastered streets of Boston loom too strong in my memories; I need to get back to fuel up. Dunno where I'll go from t...

RIP Nujabes

For those who don't know yet (I didn't until just recently), Nujabes passed away last month in a traffic accident, at the age of 36. This guy was one of the finest producers working within the arena of hip hop, though his style transcended hip hop by a lot and became kind of a league of its own. I wanted to share this ten song mix that Strictly Beats put together of his work – for those unfamiliar, it'll be a great introduction; for those who loved him, it'll be a good celebration of his...

Sam Pink

owns. Just wanted to mention that. We've got his book I Am Going to Clone Myself Then Kill the Clone and Eat It out on the kitchen table and I've been picking it up daily, reading over the poems in it. They're always funny, but in a way I've never really seen before; uncomfortably poetic for how lunatic they are. He's got another book coming soon from Afterbirth Books, Frowns Need Friends Too. Check out his blog here.

Here's a couple poems from the one I'm reading now:

Everyone Is Trying to...

J. Rocc

I'm been listening to a lot of Stones Throw lately (as usual) and one thing I'm amazed by is J. Rocc's mixes, no matter what kind of music he's mixing. It could seriously be anything – jazz, dollar bin records, hip hop whatever… but hearing the way he blends different songs together and permutates the sound is unreal to me. Inspiring. A true artist. Here's an example from him in 2009 - and he fucks with one of my favorite Tribe songs of all time: "Oh My God!"

DJ Grumble Releases Freestyle Tools Vol. 5!

I'm a huge fan of DJ Grumble's beats… all of us in Boston are. You might remember hearing about Grumble a while back when I interviewed him… now he's got out a 5th volume to the Freestyle Tools series, doper than ever – and featuring another producer I'm a big fan of, Kid Vision. Download it for free here.

Art I Bumped This Week (3/16)

I'ma do this every week… just take a minute to mention the art I've been eating recently, getting inspiration off. Comic books've been big for me lately, and right now I'm reading one of the best I know of by the legendary Grant Morrison:

The Invisibles by Grant Morrison, 1994-2000.

A highly psychedelic and experimental comic about a secret society trying to…… I'm not sure yet. Still early into the series and apparently the nature of this comic is that you really don't know the story until...

Donuts

This is a terrific short documentary on J Dilla, made by Stussy. I found it on the Stones Throw website – it comes in three parts, but part three is what I wanted to share especially because it focuses entirely on J Dilla's deathbed album, Donuts. To hear these guys who really knew him and worked with him talk about it, it just reinforces how deep this masterpiece is, and makes me wish Dilla was still around to live and make music again.

If you haven't heard Donuts yet, get on it immediately –...

JRJ Interview

I love this interview with Jeremy Robert Johnson (the author of Angeldust Apocalypse and the force behind Swallowdown Press). I'm lucky enough to get to chill with J all the time and the thing that's so great about this interview is that you'll pretty much understand how crazy he is in regular conversation when you listen to it. He's manages to be incredibly smart and incredibly stupid at the same time, all the time.

Listen to the interview here – it's episode 3.