Savage -Swing (remix ft. Soulja Boy)

So we've heard lots of news around the blogs about Savage doing great on the US iTunes, and that his single "Swing" would be getting remixed, and someone would be jumping on the track with him. Well, turns out it was ultimate love-to-hate/hate-to-love artist today, Soulja Boy.

Here's the track:


Personally, I never really liked the original song in the first place, and Soulja Boy's presence doesn't make it any better. In fact his little intro thing completely puts me off from the beginning. And what's this "Oh na na?"

My final word on the track is if it's making a New Zealand artist some money, then I'm all for it. So go ahead Savage, and make your money.

MTV Australia Awards

First off, just wanted to say that the GTA: IV available in NZ is NOT the unedited version, it is infact the Aussie version. Stupid Take Two submitted the Aussie version to be classified. So it's not the NZ censor's fault, it's bloody Rockstar!

But anyway, the awards.

Absolutely horrible. We'll start with the beginning. That is Mischa Barton introducing the show and the host... "Wyclef Gene." [sic] From that moment on, it was destined to failure. Next came Wyclef's failed attempts at trying to connect with the Aussie audience. Then awards, and failed humor, performances, and more awards and everything all over again until it finished.

Highlights of the night:

• Scribe - It was pretty obvious Scribe would win, hell he was sitting right there with Sir-Vere. But the best part was his drunken speech. F***ing o-sum!
• The voiceover dude from Mythbusters - You know that voice that would come out of no where to announce a performer or a presenter? That's the dude that does the voiceovers on Mythbusters! The narrator. Robert Lee.
• Juliette Lewis and the Licks performance - No, I didn't put this as a highlight because it was great. It was okay... up until the extended, full-band drum solo, or whatever it was. I had to change the channel, then change back, then change away, and then back, many times. Finally it seemed over, until Juliette proclaimed that we thought we knew her. Then the madness went on for about another minute or so. So satisfyingly horrific, I wouldn't be surprised to find it on Youtube one day soon.
• Potbelleez performance - The only performance that seemed to really connect with the whole crowd.
• Swearing - 'Nuff said.
  

Lowlights of the night:

• The Veronicas having their mic's turned off - At the beginning of the performance, they had their mics turned on, but their voices kept on being drowned out, so the directors or whatever decided to turn down their mics and turn up the pre-recorded vocals. And the tell tale sign was when they came together and walked to the front of the stage. They were saying things in the mic, but nothing was coming out :D
• Wyclef hosting - Dude's a great performer, song writer, all that. I'll give him props. But dude can't host awards shows. Get someone who knows what they're doing.
  
• The whole freaking concept! - Sports, acting, and karma awards, etc.? What the hell happened to best R&B/Hip Hop? Best Rock? Album of the Year? Way to go MTV Australia, you devalued all of your artists by not giving them something to go up against, just themselves. And you devalued the NZ artists. You completely fail at awards.

It had it's moments, but mostly it was just a study into the depths of mediocrity. Let's hope next year they get their act together and do a proper awards ceremony.

Lost Theft Auto: IV

Only a few more hours till Episode 9 of Season 4 finally hits our screens! I'm planning on rewatching all of Season 4 so far tomorrow, and finish it off with the new episode. I hope it lives up to all this hype :D

Also, I preordered GTA:IV. Thank god New Zealand has an R18 rating, unlike Aussie. That's right, UNEDITED! Woo! April is a month of greatness!

Lost - Midseason Break: Week 3

Well, it's the end of our 3rd week without Lost, most of my withdrawal symptoms are fading, and I'm just generally looking forward to seeing some more Lost.

As of this moment, only 14 more days left to go!

Okay, so I lied, I'm dying for a Lost fix. I'm so tempted to buy the Lost season 3 dvds, but I really want to get them on Blu-ray, and they're not available on Blu-ray over here. So I'm forced to rewatch Season 4 so far, again. Did any of y'all catch the changing machines and the different breathing apparatus of that dude when Michael was in the hospital and he dreamed about Libby? I thought that was strange.

But anyway, not a whole lot of info. According to DarkUFO, there may be another hour of Lost this season! So that takes it from 5 remaining hours to 6!

What are y'all doing to sate your Lost cravings?

Hip Hop Blog Update

So as you are probably all aware if you keep up with the NZ Hip Hop blogs, the Tour of Dirty has made it's way around NZ, and that's pretty much all the talk has been on the blogs. Well there have been a few gems posted up lately that everyone should take a look at.

First up, over on Slick Talk, Slick-Van XL (a.k.a. PNC) has a great post up about his song Just Roll. He's got a mix up that takes all the lines he references from 80s and 90s songs and puts them actual song. See if you can get them all :D He also explains about how he got the sample for the song, and it's quite an interesting story.

Next, over on Full Disclosure, P-Money's got a post about the NZ music industry, and how one might go about selling beats. The disclaimer at the start mentions it's not an indepth explanation, but even this on-the-surface look at the NZ music industry is fascinating, and worth the read.

Over on MTC, they've got a few vids of their artists up. The two I found most interesting are of Young Sid. One is a behind the scenes clip of the making of Sid's latest video for his single "My Letter", and the other is a preview of said video. The video looks like it's set to be pretty good from what I can see on the behind the scenes clip, although the preview looks quite... self-indulgent. So I won't make any decisions or anything till the whole thing comes out. I'm a fan of Sid, being from South Aucks and all, so yeah.

David Dallas is still pumping out the content like nobody's business. You'd think he'd want to relax after being on tour, I suppose that's why his manager upped the latest mix. 41 has just remixed one of my favourite songs off of Magic City, Get Back, which features none other than Dave and PNC. If I'd never heard the original beat for this, I think this could have been a great choice, but the original can't be surpassed on this occasion. So go check it out, and if you haven't heard the original, watch this after the 1.59 mark:



One more MTC post, this time from veteran DJ Sir-Vere. Dude put up a post hyping Smashproof's new stuff hard, and I've got to say it's got me excited. He makes a great point concerning Tyree, and people not feeling his flow or lyrical ability, and I have to say I was one of them. I know the guy has musical talent (I was in his music class in High School, the dude is hella talented), so it's great to here Sir-Vere say he's a lot better than he was. So yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing some new Smashproof.

Finally, we end our journey with Straight From The Horse's Mouth, Mareko's blog. Dude posted up some massive news about one of his Deceptikonz brothers, Savage, making it all the way to #16 on the iTunes US Top 100 Hip Hop charts. I think that's seriously the highest a New Zealand hip hop artist has ever gotten in any US chart... unless you count OMC as hip hop. But even then I can't remember how far they got. I may not like Savage's music, style or lyrics, but I got to give him credit for doing that, man. That's almost unbelievable.

That's all for now.

Peace