A Bit Of Light Reading

Following on from my personally revelatory research into the theories surrounding Michael Jordan being a douchebag, I have just begun reading this book and am halfway through already. More fuel to the fire. It’s actually pretty well written and comes highly recommended if you like this sort of thing.

Far from being a coherent unit bursting at the seams with selflessness and brotherly love, it paints the Bulls to be a bunch of underpaid, whinging tossers who are constantly back biting each other and living in the eternal fear of being traded. So far nobody has come off worse than Jordan. I’m halfway through the book, which on the timeline equals halfway through the season, and as the situation currently stands it seems incredibly unlikely that they are going to win the championship.

Only they did. 23 years ago. Pretty trippy stuff, dude. 

Michael Jordan Is An Absolute Asshole?

Greetings, dear friends. It's been a while. Fresh off an extensive break from sharing my solid gold opinions on this informative super highway of ours, I thought I might once again dip my fungal-infected toes in the tepid pond of the intraweb. It is my intention to work myself up to finally writing my letter to Jay Electronica after the horrific experience of seeing him 'performing' live last year (long story), but more recently I have once again felt the urge to write due to being inspired by the deluded ravings and bad grammar of certain blog-happy-know-it-alls that continuously talk utter shite about things that they clearly know nothing about. You know who you are. Anyway, I digress. Onto the feature presentation : ARSEHOLE?

I am a massive Michael Jordan fan. Alway have been, always will be. He is the greatest Basketball player of all time. This is an indisputable fact. It's not just the numbers he put up that made him the greatest, however; for many years people have been quick to pinpoint his unparalleled drive to win and his inhuman competitive spirit as the foundation for the super human feats that he achieved during his storied career.

Having fiercely guarded his personal life and opinions over the years due to the scrutinising and invasive nature of the media glare that was constantly upon him for so many years, coupled with the general reverence that he has always been shown by fans and critics alike, it was only a matter of time before stories of the more nauseating side of his nature became apparent. Below follows a short selection of tales from reliable sources which give a slight glimpse into the man that I and many others have idolised for such a long time.

I still love Mike, don't get me wrong, but after reading these little (lifted) tidbits I can't help but imagine that the man is most likely a complete c*nt. The moral of the story : don't rely on your idols to actually be nice people. We've all been there (Can anyone say Raekwon The Chef? What a knob).

  Text lifted from http://bleacherreport.com/.

POOR MUGGSY BOGUES

In the Bulls’ first-round battle against the Charlotte Hornets in 1995 after Jordan’s highly touted comeback to the NBA, Jordan didn’t hesitate to leave his mark. According to former Bulls assistant coach Johnny Bach, Jordan was guarding Muggsy Bogues (who was all of 5 foot 3) when this happened: On the biggest possession of the game, Muggsy had the ball with the Hornets down one. Jordan backed off of him and told him, 'Shoot it, you f***ing midget.' Muggsy shot it, didn’t come close. A year later Muggsy actually told Johnny Bach that he believes that single play ruined his career. His shot never recovered. The next year, Bogues’ career certainly started to decline. Whether or not Jordan was the primary reason for this is up to debate.


POOR RODNEY MCCRAY

Rodney McCray joined the Chicago Bulls in the 1992-1993 season at the age of 31. He was a very serviceable forward who had just averaged 16.6 points and 8.2 rebounds three years prior. Eager to win a title, he was willing to come off the bench to help the Bulls. He had no idea what would come next. When asked by Sports Illustrated, a former teammate of Michael Jordan had this to say: 'He's the most viciously competitive player I've ever seen. That's what makes him, I think, the greatest player ever. He has practically ruined [reserve forward] Rodney McCray for us.' When the two players are on opposite teams in scrimmages, the source says, "[ Jordan] is in Rodney's face, screaming, 'You're a loser! You've always been a loser!' Rodney can hardly put up a jumper now.’ McCray ended up winning a title that year, but only averaged 15.9 minutes per game. It was also the last season he ever played.

POOR KWAME BROWN

Kwame Brown has become one of the biggest NBA draft busts of all time. He stands as one example of young talented phenoms who never lived up to their hype. However, his situation as a Washington Wizard certainly wasn’t helped by the general manager who drafted him. In a Sports Illustrated article by L. Jon Wertheim: As a leader Jordan proved more tormentor than mentor. Many Washington players got the business end of a Jordan harangue, but he designated second-year forward Kwame Brown as the whipping boy…A source told SI that Jordan ritually reduced Brown to tears in front of the team. The article continues that Jordan called Kwame Brown expletives, including homophobic remarks, according to The Washington Post.

POOR CHARLES BARKLEY

The 1993 NBA Finals was a showdown between two of NBA’s biggest superstars of all time: Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns and Michael Jordan of the Bulls. They were also great friends who went golfing together in the middle of the championship series. According to Bulls assistant coach Johnny Bach: The day before game 4 of the Bulls Suns finals with the Bulls leading the series 2-1. Michael and Charles Barkley went golfing. They played 48 holes of golf. And Michael bought Charles a $20,000 diamond earring. Johnny asked MJ, “what did you do all that for?” Michael responded, “he won’t get in my way the rest of the series, what’s $20,000 to me? Charles thinks we’re great friends. I hate that fat f—.” Jordan dropped 55 in game 4 and Barkley never touched him once.

Another example of MJ parring off one of his supposed best friends is below, something that he vehemently denied after Pip snitched on him. Seems far more believable now though.

And finally, his Hall Of Fame Induction speech is the icing on the cake. He's still a legend, he'll always be a legend, but lord almighty the man sounds like an insufferable prick . Test below lifted from an article by Rick Reilly @ ESPN.com. Full piece HERE.

Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame talk was the Exxon Valdez of speeches. It was, by turns, rude, vindictive and flammable. And that was just when he was trying to be funny. It was tactless, egotistical and unbecoming. When it was done, nobody wanted to be like Mike. In the entire 23-minute cringe-athon, there were only six thank yous, seven if you count his sarcastic rip at the very Hall that was inducting him. "Thank you, Hall of Fame, for raising ticket prices, I guess," he sneered.

By comparison, David Robinson's classy and heartfelt seven-minute speech had 17. Joe Montana's even shorter speech in Canton had 23. Who wrote your speech Mike? Kanye West? Nobody was spared, including his high school coach, his high school teammate, his college coach, two of his pro coaches, his college roommate, his pro owner, his pro general manager, the man who was presenting him that evening, even his kids! "I wouldn't want to be you guys if I had to," he said as they squirmed in their seats.

Famous Brighton Hip Hop Producer Wins 1987 NBA All Star MVP

NOBODY TOLD ME IDO COULD BALL. AND THAT HE WAS SO OLD

Charles Barkley : Top 50 Quotes

Arguably one of (if not the) best 'little big men' to ever play the game, the intensity of Sir Charles' game on the court was only matched by his outrageous antics and outspoken demeanor off of it. The man is a motherfucking legend and, despite his probable objections to the use of the term, he essentially embodies the entire ethos of acting 'mad n*ggerish' (a compliment of the highest order).

Now retired and a talking head for ESPN/NBA, he still continues to amuse with his unique sense of humour and unquestionable devotion to being a boss. Below, counting down from the top, we have the top 50 Charles Barkley quotes as spoken by the man himself. Shouts to Black Randy on the assist. Enjoy.

50. "I can be bought. If they paid me enough, I'd work for the Klan."

49. "You got to believe in yourself. Hell, I believe I'm the best-looking guy in the world and I might be right."

48. "I don't hate anyone, at least not for more than 48 minutes, barring overtime."

47. "We better not be doing the Bulls this year. Man, they suck! Bunch of high school kids with $70 million contracts. Damn! I hate my mother for having me too soon."

46. "You can talk without saying a thing. I don't ever want to be that type of person."

45. After retiring from basketball "I'm just what America needs - another unemployed black man.

44. Ernie: "Did they recognize you in South Dakota?"
Charles: "Yes, they did. It was easy because I was the only black person there. When they see me walking down the street they say 'There he goes again'. And when I come back the next year they say 'He's back yawl!'"

43. Right after Peja won the 3-point contest: "Kenny said it was going to be an all-international night. I want to know which international brother is going to win the slam dunk contest."

42. On the Enron scandal investigation: "Almost all those politicians took money from Enron, and there they are holding hearings. That's like O.J. Simpson getting in the Rae Carruth jury pool."

41. "I had to explain to my daughter why that skank Monica Lewinski has an hour special on HBO this weekend."

40. Ernie: "Auburn is a pretty good school. To graduate from there I suppose you really need to work hard and put forth maximum effort."
Charles: "20 pts and 10 rebounds will get you through also!"

39. "Every time I think about changing a diaper, I run a little bit harder and a little bit faster to make sure I can afford a nanny until my daughter's old enough to take care of that herself."

38. EJ: "Did you graduate from Auburn?"
Charles: "No, but I have a couple people working for me who did."

37. "Dick Bavetta and Moses parted the Red Sea together."

36. Ernie Johnson, on Reggie Evans being caught grabbing the rocks of Chris Kaman: "(Reggie Evans) got caught with his hand in the cookie jar."Charles Barkley: "Ernie, I don't know where you get your cookies at but the rest of us don't get ours there."

35. On his 17-year old daughter not dating yet: "Thank goodness. I just hope she doesn't start before I go in the Hall of Fame. That way, I won't have to kill anybody before I get inducted."

34. Kenny: "There's guys who go over to Europe and play overseas from America, and they dominate!"
Charles: "Those are called 'brothers'

33. After Wang has a shot blocked: "He's got to bring something stronger than that. That's like bringing milk to a bar, it's not strong enough"

32. Barkley on Turner Sports office having a betting pool on his weight: "That is starting to hurt my feelings. I don't mind skinny people making fun of me, we all do that, but I don't want fat people making fun of me."

31. "We are in the business of kicking butt and business is very, very good."

30. When the Dream Team was about to play the Angola national team, during pre-game interviews the other USA players provided diplomatic, face saving comments about how they would play hard and felt strongly they would win. When Chuck was asked about Angola and the game, he replied: "They're in a lot of trouble."

29. Charles Barkley on his thoughts about retiring before the season: "I remember sitting down with the Rockets and saying, 'Yeah. I'm going to retire.' They said, 'Well, we'll give you $9 million.' And I said, 'You got a pen on you?'"

28. Man, everything gets blamed on the Clintons, every single thing in this world. I think Bill Clinton shot JFK, too.

27. "I know why his name is DMX. Because his real name is Earl. Imagine if his name was Earl the rapper."

26. "If you go out with a girl and they say she has a great personality, she's ugly. If they tell you a guy works hard, he can't play a lick. Same thing."

25. After Kevin Garnett threw a ball into the crowd out of frustration and was ejected. They showed footage of the man that got hit by the ball being taken away in a stretcher and his daughter was crying. Charles commented that players take passes to the face all the time. He topped it off by saying: "You know why that little girl's crying? It's because she's thinking 'my daddy's a wussy'".

24. Barkley on Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith eating a box of hot Krispy Kreme donuts in front of him: “Both of y’all are2 going to hell for that. Y’all are going to hell with a first-class ticket. Is that how you treat your partner? Krispy Kreme might be the greatest invention in the history of civilization when they’re hot. Y’all are cruel man.”

23. "It's kinda great to see the Celtics doin well again cuz that was so much fun in my day to go to the Boston Garden and they spit at you and throw things at you and talk about your mom. It sounds like dinner at Kenny Smith's house."

22. "I think that the team that wins game five will win the series. Unless we lose game five."

21. Charles Barkley after seeing a picture of Sam Cassell on the screen: "Phone home." And later he remarks to Kenny, "Sam Cassell is a good guy, but he's not going to wind up on the cover of GQ anytime soon."

20. While watching someone in Australia put $1 million worth of rubies on a table: "Damn, must not be any black folks in Australia. You can't just leave $1 million worth of jewelry lying around the 'hood."

19. Asked if he had ever been in the governor's office in Montgomery, Barkley said no. "They don't let many black people in the governor's mansion in Alabama," he said, "unless they're cleaning."

18. On the goal of the '92 Olympic Dream Team when playing Panama in the Tournament of the Americas: "To get the Canal back."

17. To Kenny: "Hakeem couldn't kick your ass cuz you were too close, kissin his!"

16. Barkley on Hanno Mottola, who, as EJ remarked "is the first NBA player from Finland". Charles replies: "Of course he is the first NBA player from Finland, he's the only person in Finland."

15. On supersized Oliver Miller: "You can't even jump high enough to touch the rim, unless they put a Big Mac on it."

14. "All I know is, as long as I led the Southeastern Conference in scoring, my grades would be fine."

13. On North Carolina missing 22 of its last 23 shots in losing to Georgetown in the NCAA tournament last weekend: "Stevie Wonder could make one of 23 shots."

12. I'd never buy my girl a watch... she's already got a clock over the stove.

11. "I always laugh when people ask me about rebounding techniques. I've got a technique. It's called just go get the damn ball."

10. On the Portland Trail Blazers (back when they were known as the Jail Blazers) serving Thanksgiving meals: "In between arrests they do community service."

9. "Yeah Ernie, its called defense, I mean I wouldn't know anything about it personally but I've heard about it through the grapevine.

8. "Well, when I went off to college, the guys I used to hang with were pumping gas and voting Democrat. Today they're still pumping gas and voting Democrat. Guess the Democrats didn't do much for them."

7. "When I was recruited at Auburn [university], they took me to a strip joint. When I saw those titties on Buffy, I knew that Auburn met my academic requirements."

6. "Hey Stanley, you could be a great player if you learned just two words: I'm full."— Barkley yelling to 300-plus-pound Houston Rockets teammate Stanley Roberts

5. "I heard Tonya Harding is calling herself the Charles Barkley of figure skating. I was going to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized I have no character."

4. On the All-Star Game: "Hell, there ain't but 15 black millionaires in the whole country & half of 'em are right here in this room."

3. On Jerry Krause still being able to keep his job as GM of the Chicago Bulls: "Jerry Krause must have pictures of his boss's wife having sex with a monkey."

2. After throwing a guy through a 1st floor window in a bar Charles was in front of the judge.
Judge: "Your sanctions are community service and a fine, do you have any regrets?"
Charles: "Yeah I regret we weren't on a higher floor"

1. After an Olympic Dream Team victory over Angola, in which they won 116-48, Charles got into a physical altercation with a member of Angola towards the end of the game, afterwards he says.

"Somebody hits me, I'm going to hit him back. Even if it does look like he hasn't eaten in a couple weeks. I thought he was going to pull a spear on me."

Tim Hardaway Going H.A.M.

I fucking love this. Makes me want to go out and play ball right now in the freezing cold with my fucked up knees and ankles. Maybe next summer.



The funny thing is that if anyone dared open their mouth in the NBA these days they'd be slapped with 8000 technicals, a 12 billion dollar fine and be banned for the whole season. If there was a season to begin with. Oh right.




Anyone remember Run TMC? They were the shit.

Random White Basketball Plavers Vol. 3

JOE WOLF




On the front, Joe Wolf has the looks and the name of an All American hero destined for great things. The back of the card tells a different story however. First of all, look at this motherfucker's mullet. You might have got away with this in the 1980's but even in the early 90's this must have been somewhat of a faux pas. Fair enough the NBA wasn't necessarily as 'cool' as it is now with regards to players rocking outrageous tattoos and colour coordinated accessories, but god damn it, if MJ couldn't wear his black and red Jordan ones in the league surely Joey here should have had some sort of restrictions placed on his hairstyle. Lets look at the stats.

From 4 NBA season totals -

GP = 259
FG% = .422
FT% = .783
REB= 1090
AST = 380
STL = 160
BLK = 87
PTS = 1615 / AVG = 6.2 PPG

So, a pretty lackluster career in all. Add to this the criminal length of his shorts (you ain't John Stockton, buddy) and those Converse that he's rocking and the only notable thing about Joes career is his throwback, which of course wasn't a throwback then, it was just a jersey. Also, to add insult to injury I don't suppose he actually owned it, just borrowed it to underperform in.

Winston Wolf he was not.

New Beatnik Feature. I'm Ballin'.

^ All day baby.

Less of an interview/review, seemingly more of a kind off off-the-wall psych profile, Beatnik Online have just posted a little piece about me here. Go peep that. Words by Rob Boffard, flicks courtesy of Romain Kedochim. I wore new Jordans just for the occasion too.

2 points that were incorrect in this write up - A) I most certainly AM the best rapper out of the FU Music camp and B) my inside game is INCREDIBLE. I don't know what Rob was talking about there, his fingers must have slipped on the keyboard. Dont test the kid on the court.... although you wouldnt really get a chance, as my knees and ankles are legitimately fucked, but with a few hundred quids worth of straps, supports and bandages I'm a regular Bill Wennington haha.

Have a read. At the very least you can't say im lying when I say say that 'my life is real'.


PS - To any aspiring battle rappers who might be reading this, try harder.

Random White Basketball Players Vol. 2

BRAD DAVIS




Look at this goofy motherfucker. Can someone say "the hills have eyes"? Check out that horribly inbred face and hick mullet. Something really not kosher about that. Also, his birthday is 1955 and his first NBA season is 1985. WTF? Who lets a guy looking like this into the league at age 30? He looks like he should be wearing overalls and fixing brakes somewhere in the deep south. Lets have a look at the stats.

85/86 - 9.3 ppg
86/87 - 7.0 ppg
87/88 - 7.2 ppg
88/89 - 6.4 ppg
89/90 - 6.4 ppg
90/91 - 5.4 ppg

So, apart from a MASSIVE surge in productivity by 0.2 ppg between '87 and '88, Brad's career was on a steady decline as soon as he started playing.

He must have got home after every game, saw Craig Ehlo and Mark Price on the TV and started crying his eyes out. How shit.

Previously : Random White Basketball Players Vol. 1

The Vintage Vaults - Nike Hoop Heroes

Does anyone remember this line of clothing? I remember copping these when I was about 12 or 13 on a trip to Malta with the fam. The hat is classic 90's, i.e. a sickly combination of organic and pastel colours that make you want to hurl, but seeing as Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley were two of my favourite players alongside MJ I appreciated that they were given the same amount of shine on this clothing line. This holiday and the subsequent purchases came shortly after Scottie Pippen took the MVP award at the 1994 All Star game, a game I remember very well for 2 reasons - Shaq was completely locked out of the game, scoring fuck all points and Scottie wore the all red Nike Air Flights that he wasn't allowed to rock during the regular season (much like MJ's black and red ones).



The reason I remember this so well is that during this trip to Malta I actually saw the red kicks in a shop and begged my old dear to buy them for me, which she of course refused, and with good reason. However, with me chipping in whatever money I had a compromise was reached, which saw me not only copping the hat but a matching T shirt to go with it. Due to my hoarding tendencies and the ever abundant space of THE PIRANHA TANK, these items still exist to this day. Cheers Dad.






However, despite the dopeness/grotesque nature of the hat, it really is the T shirt that takes the biscuit. The artwork is by a geezer called Mark Ryden... Ive googled him but no dice. The thing that bugs me more than A) The fact this t shirt is faded to fuck and no longer fits me B) Ive obviously used it as some sort of cleaning rag (hence the black marks) and C) B, is that I can't for the life of me remember OR find any evidence to suggest that similar illustrated garms were manufactured to depict Pippen, Barkley and Hardaway in similar situations. I would literally cut off your right arm for a set of all 4 in good condition. Observe -






See what I mean on the fade? It's fucking heart breaking. Still, when I was 12 years old, I wasnt thinking about the future, plus I could only rock this joint if I had one of those faggoty skinny skater boy physiques, and I don't. Still, I'm well within my rights to be cheesed off. If ANYONE OUT THERE READING THIS can at the very least point me towards any existing illustrtions like this one I would be most appreciative.

As an aside but essentially the whole reason I wrote this post, I Googled 'Nike Hoop Heroes' and this is one of the results that came up. Anyone want to buy a hat? Holla at me.

Taken from http://brianprocell.bigcartel.com/product/nike-hoop-heroes



You kids and your 'snap backs'. In my day we called them hats. Ive still got a bunch of original starter joints and some fake joints that i got whilst on various holidays. Are they really worth $200 a pop?

HOLLA

***EDIT***

Found a website for Mark Ryden. No mention of the Hoop Heroes work but im going to holla at him and see if i get a response. http://www.markryden.com/

Random photo from the Hoop Heroes tour, mid 90's I assume, I can see Pip and Charles Barkley in there at least. HERE

Also -

And While We're On The Subject Of Basketball.....

One of the greatest plays ever in the history of the game, from one of the greatest players to do it. Pure gold.

Random White Basketball Players Vol. 1

Time for another new segment, once again with thanks to Eddy Piranha who had these hidden away in a dark corner of the attic. I used to be a massive basketball fan, both playing and following the NBA. Unfortunately, many teenage summers spent pounding up and down the concrete have left my knees and ankles completely and utterly fucked, so I'm only really good for a game of H.O.R.S.E. these days. Also, as soon as the 96' Bulls team split up, I pretty much stopped following the NBA. I don't even know who took the title this year.

Anyway, I found a stash of upper deck trading cards from the 91/92 season in The Piranha Tank. I vaguely remember picking up hundreds of these for an incredibly cheap price, mainly due to the fact that they were all complete nobodies and therefore none of the cards were collectors items. The best thing bout this pointless stash, however, is the amount of completely random, ugly, bizarrely named and, according to their stats, shit basketball players. The fact that they're white is not a race issues, but with the exception of a select few we all know that white dudes have never been part of the NBA elite, plus the haircuts, retro uniforms and goofy ass kicks are a touch. So, without further ado, i present to you -

1. TODD LICHTI




In all honesty, Todd wasn't doing too badly at this point in his career, or so it would seem. Jumping from an 8 point to a 14 point average in a year is quite impressive, but a closer look reveals that in the 89/90 season he played 79 games (out of 82 regular season match ups), whereas in 90/91 he only played 29 games. Still, at the time he was ranked second on his conference's all time scoring list. I don't really understand how that is possible in the slightest from looking at his stats, but it says it on the card, so fuck knows.

Anyway, thats not the point. Check the goofy motherfucker out. Its fair to say that somebody likes short shorts. His kicks are nice though. At least he's not rocking Pony.

Let The Battle Commence

European Championship Qualifying

Wales v England, GpG, 15:00




My Dad, Eddy Pirahna, is Welsh. I am English. Today one of us will be laying in a pool of blood on the front room floor (or both of us, if there's no goals).

If England don't win this I'll probably off myself anyway.

If You Like Basketball, Watch This

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

Biggie Smalls

RIP Manute Bol

How Many Of Us Have Them?

Friends. How many of us really have them? I am truly blessed by having some really, really good ones. Maybe even better than yours. For this reason, I want to send a big peace and shout out to my brother PG AKA Mick Glacier who, for no reason whatsoever other than him being a complete legend, put a £0.90 pence bid on ebay on four Michael Jordan VHS for me without my knowledge and consequently won them. What a motherfucking boss. PG is getting hitched this year and I'm the best man at the wedding so this amazing and thoughtful act of generosity will be repaid by me removing one of the planned Romanian transexual hooker anecdotes from my speech. Only one though.

Cheers Peej.

The Spoils

Michael Jordan : 23 Years

Contrary to what you may otherwise think I am not just a fan of the man's brand of shoes but I am also a massive fan of Basketball in general; it just so happens that Michael Jordan is A) the greatest player EVER and B) inspired the creation of the greatest training shoe EVER. I'm not going to drone on about his achievements etc etc, needless to say all you need to do is watch this video below. Entitled '23 Years', it documents, bullet point style, the man's sporting life over that very same period (and 23 just happens to be the number that he wore on his jersey - see what they did there?).

I believe it was made by the US sporting channel ESPN but who cares anyway, just watch it, its a whole bunch of dopeness compacted into about 7 minutes. Oh, and shout to my man Daps who watched Jordan PLAY AT CHICAGO STADIUM IN THE STATES DURING THE 1992 PLAYOFFS and described the experience as "boring". Harald Gloockler would NOT approve.

Chill Uncle Phil Jackson

So, not only is Phil Jackson one of, if not the most successful coach in NBA history, but the man also has impeccable style. Peep the vid below. Its anyone's guess as to who rocked Jordans with a suit first; it was either Big Phil or The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Either way, they're both winners (although Phil Jackson has a shit load more swag than Will Smith these days).











Excuse me, but I've just answered my own question. Will Smith is rocking Jordan Vs, Big Phil is wearing Jordan IVs which means that the big homie Phil is officially the winner. Catch Will Smith still playing the Fresh Prince in a cinema near you soon.

Cover Art, Boom Bye Yay

A personal favourite of mine, Brother Ali's 'Champion' EP. Brother Ali is a true legend. My man Daps put me onto this EP when we held down the crib at Thug Mansions a million years ago, we used to jam it on the old Vestax Handy Trax while we cleaned the kitchen. So about once every 6 weeks then. Still, as with all good music, the outstanding cover art compliments the dope music and vice versa. I haven't got a clue who the artist is, in case you were wondering.



In a similar capacity, my main man TEXT (aka Alex Young) is an absolutely fucking magnificent artist and made his own painting of Ali using his patented spray/drip technique. Basically its all done with spray cans, layers upon layers of little squirts (pause) culminating in the finished work, in this case another imagining of The Greatest himself. Alex Young has also done the artwork for my 'Cold Lazarus' LP in a similar vein, so watch out for that. Go check his steez at http://brainofalexyoung.com. Church.

Biggie Smalls

RIP Manute Bol