Introducing The Most Valuables

Plus Notorious, Omari Salisbury

By Jose Gutierrez Jr., M.Ed. on December 24, 2008

The new year is right around the block. Read up next week as I dish out the 1st Annual Live From I-5: The 25360 Awards.  Everyone (besides me) is eligible for recognition for the 25360’s MCs, DJs, Activists, Hustler, Album, Mixtape, Entrepreneur and ‘other’ awards of the year for 2008.  This should be a fun piece of work.  Don’t get it twisted… I am the lone voter this year, but as the column grows in 2009, I will certainly include the voice of The 25360’s people… write me with your ideas and thoughts!



Speaking of entrepreneurs… Another boom shot to Omari Salisbury, the visionary businessan of Definition Wireless (the only Black-owned wireless phone franchise in the Pacific Northwest) and Seaspot Media Group.  Big O, as he is affectionately called by his friends and acquaintances has recently launched a MySpace-like social networking site for Pacific Northwest region-based sexy people, movers and shakers called, Dynamic VIPS.  Look it up and get in the game — support a real hustler! 



It’s soooo dangerous!  Ms. Voletta Wallace has finally reached the critical point of completion for her late son’s bio-pic, Notorious.  Yes, the life of one Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls aka The Black Frank White aka The King of New York is finally going to be projected on the big screen on January 16th, 2009.  This is the first actually story of a hip-hop artist using his real name and true-life events, wherein 50 Cent (Get Rich or Die Tryin’), Eminem (8 Mile) and Russell Simmons (Krush Groove) used different names and included embellishments in their respective films.  Hopefully, the film does Biggie justice, director George Tillman (Soul Food and Men of Honor) is the man behind the lens and he does good work.  Biggie’s influence has been global and his appeal across cultural and social schisms — universal and certainly he is loved in The 25360.



THE MOST VALUABLES

Something new this week in the Live From I-5 column; a sub-section. It is high time that the ‘Most Valuables’ segment be referred to y’all!  This is dedicated to the slept-on, forgotten nouns of hip-hop, that they be recounted.  The people, places and things that any hip-hop head should be doing his/her research on or should have in close proximity like Robitussin on a sick-bed day.  This week I was rolling with two of The 25360’s favorite budding MCs, Puget and his boy Icky Spits.  After listening to an advance of Puget’s new album (I’ll keep it under wraps for now, but it is good!) we took a ride and low and behold, who is getting play in the deck?  One of my favorite albums from 1994 – K-Dee’s Ass, Gas or Cash.  Now, Puget is lauded as a crowd favorite in The South Sound, but the fact that he had this rare jewel pumpin’ in the deck made me give him a new-found respect. 



For those who don’t know, K-Dee is one of Ice Cube’s disciples from the first generation of Lench Mob Records (1994-1996). Cube re-launched the label in 2006.  Plain and simple from production, to lyrics, content and delivery, Ass, Gas or Cash is an indisputable ‘mack bible on tape’.  From classics like “Hittin’ Corners” and “The Best Thing Goin’”, K-Dee delivers a gem that is certainly NOT for everyone – but I loved it in 1994 and it is a lovable today.  The comedic delivery of K-Dee does not take away from the tons of game laid down like silk sheets.  You’ll have to listen for yourself, but good luck finding this one… it’s out of print and just like Kokane’s original piece of audio mastery, Funk Upon A Rhyme, you will only find these rarities online for about $100 a pop.



Let me not forget!  Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Ramadan and whatever else I may have left out…



Peace & Love

 

Jose S. Gutierrez Jr. is an editor, writer and producer. A graduate of Washington State University and student at The Evergreen State College, he writes and edits the Pacific Northwest section of OZONE Magazine and hosts and produces Live From I-5 Radio (since ’89) every Friday at 3 p.m. on KAOS 89.3 FM (www.kaosradio.org) in Olympia. He writes a weekly hip-hop column in the music section on the Weekly Volcano’s Web site.