Show Tufli "Smiles" Dope

Sometimes you wanna see be do well just because of association, talent, and all around work ethic. Well that's how I feel about the boy Show Tufli dude is talented, has a great work ethic, and he is a friend of a friend (although that's irrelevant since he is still Dope). So peep his latest visual of Dopeness "Smiles." A summer flow, great eye candy, and all around good song.

Show Tufli On Twitter

ASAP Rocky "Purple Swag"

Wish a sample from the DJ Screw & Big Hawk classic "June 27th" this guy ASAP Rocky brings something dope. This is another thing to go to show that the lines of culture, generatioers, race, and location are getting smaller. This New York dude taking hints from the South, West, and everything else and make his own lane. Good shit. May be later getting around to this but fuck it. "That big booty/Juciy Fruity."

Dope Review: Lil Wayne "Sorry 4 The Wait"

New Orleans Rapper Lil Wayne is known in certain circles more for songs like "Sky is the Limit" or "Georgia (Bush)" or even "Murder this Shit" than the songs like "Lollipop" or "Fireman" or even "The Block is Hot." Though a Multi-Platinum rapper many times over with his commercial releases, he is just as many times Platinum in the streets with over a dozen free promotional street released tapes.From his early Sqad Up series tapes to the pre-superstardom tapes of of the "Tha Carter II" era with "The Dedication" and "The Drought" series of tapes. Wayne last tape before this latest release was 2009 monster of a tape "No Ceilings." As the world waits for a new "studio" album (honestly some mixtapes are better than some rappers albums these days) "Tha Carter 4" Lil Wayne drops "Sorry 4 The Wait" his 12 track prelude to the latest "Carter" installment. "Sorry 4 The Wait" follows the basic formula of success for his previous mixtape endeavors: 1. Using other artist popular beats while 2. Making the beats even hotter with Lil Wayne lyrics while 3.Adding the assistance of few choice rappers, that won't outshine The Carter.

"Sorry 4 The Wait" "Tunechi's Back" borrowing the Meek Mill "Tupac Back." Though the beat has been used dozens of times in the past few months, Wyane brings refreshing while using the same cadence and adding his own flavor of "wishing to take a shot of Ciroc with Pac/sorry till album drop." On the remainder of this 42 minute tape, Wayne borrows the latest street anthems of the past six months and puts his own spin on them, sometimes working while most of the time not. Wayne excels on the tracks where you don't expect him. The Gunplay borrowed "Rollin" offers the same Wayne we are use to: shooting people, bad bitches, Mack Maine, and his "Pa Birdman." The same is true on the YC borrowed "Racks", Wayne merely once again just borrows the flow and cadence of the orignal artist and not bringing anything new or boundrie being pushed than his usual bad bitches, Birdman, and G5 private plain flying antics -- that Wayne fans have come to know and love nonetheless it just does not feel new.

Where Wayne does shine on "Sorry 4 The Wait" is where you didn't hear it coming. "Gucci Gucci" borrows the Kreayshawn viral hit of the same name. If you didn't know that "Gucci Gucci" you would think this was a Weezy original, and it works because he doesn't borrow Kreayshawn's flow but starts his own and actually fits in well in "the one big room full of bad bitches." Other standouts are the Lil B assited "Grove St. Party" and Miguel's "Sure Thing" could be this albums "Single" in respect to "No Ceilings." And the "Hands Up" track could be easily played in any club as a toast to a birthday or the good life.

The highest point is the title track "Sorry 4 The Wait" which Wayne borrows Adele's opus "Rolling in the The Deep." The albums track is the only one where you can see the emotion of someone who has just finish doing a prison sentence and trying to come to terms with past drug issues. When Wayne raps "I ain't playin with niggas no sir not me/and they can't blindfold what my 3rd eye see/yea I was locked up but like a bird I'm free" and furthers raps his true emotions "Hello Goodbye where are you Wayne?/I'm somewhere between joy and pain/And I reached for the stars and got stuck in the clouds/Got high as a bitch and left my love on the ground." This is a track that shows Wayne's true emotions (as I can see) and not the elevated self on the braggadocios tracks."Sorry 4 The Wait" the song and the mixtape as a whole looks as if Wayne is getting his footing back together so he can really shoot out the gate with "Tha Carter 4" and reclaim his spot.

Overall I would give this tape a 8.5/10 because its the same Wayne that we know and all love for the most part already and that fact that a song as strong as "Sorry 4 The Wait" gives me hope for the "The Carter 4". Honestly I'm just happy I can be able to go into the barber shop and ask "Y'all heard that new Wayne yet." So hit Google download "Sorry 4 The Wait"

Tracklist:
1. Tunechi’s Back *****
2. Rollin’ (Freestyle)***
3. Throwed Off (Freestyle) (feat. Gudda Gudda)**
4. Gucci Gucci (Freestyle)****
5. Marvin’s Room (Freestyle)*****
6. Sure Thing (Freestyle)****
7. Grove St. Party (Freestyle) (feat. Lil’ B)****
8. Racks (Freestyle)**
9. Hands Up (My Last) (Freestyle)****
10. Sorry 4 The Wait*****
11. Inkredible (Remix) (Freestyle) (feat. Thugga, Raw Dizzy, Flow)*****
12. Run The World (Girls) (Freestyle)***

The Weeknd House of Balloons Dopeness.

What do you get when you mix the open sexual prowess of Prince, an affinity for party drugs, mixed with batches subtle instrumentation set against and earth shattering crescendo explosions, all put together by a mysterious Canadian that openly displays his insecurities and vulnerably about love and life as a fellow Canadian that he was consigned by? The answer would be the The Weeknd and his "House of Balloons".
"House of Balloons" is a 9 track album full of love, rejection, sex, all fueled by evenings of heavy drug use and set to the soundtrack of in house production from Doc McKinney & ILLANGELO. The album begins appropriately titled "High For This", where The Weeknd tells his companion that they "don't know whats in store but you know what your here for" and assuring to enjoy the ride they most surely want to be "High for This." An album with many double entendre of seemingly endless drug and sex references may seem like overkill and come off a vulgar and crude yet but it works well here. Just like Moby's "Play" starts off with great excitement and as a constructed effort and closes on a minimalist sound evident on "The Party & The After Party" a 7:40 banger that utilizes sample of Baltimore based indy-pop darlings Beach House's "Master of None" to show how the party is closing and he cautions his date to "hold your drink don't you fall." For "The After Party" portion of the song The Weeknd shows his happiness of not being able to believe that they made it home from the party. Though it sounds like a stretch the "two songs" one blend together seamlessly. "House of Ballons" is also the feelings of heartbreak after it is discovered your mate cheated on on "The Knowing" or pure sadness in the feelings yearning for love and getting reject and once again yearning for love (Did you catch all that?) on "Wicked Games", where he croons "bring your love baby I can bring my shame/bring the drugs baby I can bring my pain/I got my heart right here/I got my scars right here" and ultimently and almost exhausted declares "just tell me you love for tonight even though you don't love me." The entire album is not just ballads of pain, songs like "The Morning" and "Loft Music" could easily be played at any dance party with the songs hard knocking crescendos. The Weeknd like Drake also dabbles in a bit of rapping, but is at his strongest with sex, drugs, and rock and roll pain ballads. The Weeknd - House Of Balloons by The_Weeknd
The Weeknd Official Blog

Beach House "Master of None" (Directed by J. Durel)

A Discussion on Psilocybin Mushrooms

Below a podcast about the use of Psilocybin Mushrooms during a Johns Hopkins Study in 2008
A Discussion on Psilocybin Mushrooms by Jonnie Dope
For centuries indigenous cultures have used the hallucinogenic properties of various plants, to break over to the other side. Psilocybin mushroom in particular were used by the indigenous people of modern day Mexico for spiritual purposes. In 2006, the U.S. government funded a randomized and double-blinded study by Johns Hopkins University. Hopkins studied the spiritual effects of psilocybin mushrooms. The study involved 36 college-educated adults who had never tried psilocybin nor had a history of drug use, and had religious or spiritual interests; the average age of the participants was 46 years. The participants were closely observed for eight-hour intervals in a laboratory while under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms. In the fall of 2008 Hopkins repeated the study. I had the pleasure of sitting down B**** D**** from Baltimore, a participant in the recent study. In the below podcast Mr. D**** talks about the reason he participated in the study and what spiritual awakens he encountered and his overall thoughts on drugs and “having respect for drugs.”

Biking in Baltimore Dope

As I continue to expand my blog and brand, I went into the vault and found some of older writings and Podcast that dealt with real issues outside of the normal music that I post. Nonetheless its still Dope. Below is a podcast and article I did on biking in Baltimore, with voices from people in the forefront of the trend in Baltimore. Enjoy.
Biking in Baltimore Podcast by Jonnie Dope

When Governor Martin O’Malley was Mayor of Baltimore, he followed the growing trends in cities such Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington D.C and set out to make Baltimore a more Biker friendly city. Under the direction of the Baltimore City Department of Planning in an effort to, “To enhance and promote bicycling, [in Baltimore] created a Bicycle Master Plan in 2006.”
College Park based Toole Design Group, which specializes in pedestrian, traffic calming, and bicycle research throughout the Baltimore-Washington region, aided the City of Baltimore’s Departments of Planning and Transportation in creating The Baltimore Bicycle Master Plan. The Plan outline the benefits including: traffic relief, environmental benefits of decreased pollution and the health benefits that one would get from biking. The Master Plan more importantly called for “A plan to coordinate the formal integration of bicycles in existing infrastructure” , by adding bike routes, making mass transit bike accessible, provide bike parking, and provide better communication with the biker community of Baltimore by hosting various events and forums.
When Martin O’Malley headed south to take residence in the Governor’s Mansion, Mayor Shelia Dixon kept forth with The Bicycle Master Plan, explains Nate Evans, the Bike and Pedestrian Planner for the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. In E-mail, Evans explained that the city has “42 miles of bike lanes” in almost all parts of the city and notes that in the Master Plan on 15 were initially recommend and primarily in the downtown business district. Evans continues by listing other accomplishments of the Master Plan over the years including more bike racks and parking, the establishment of the College town Bicycle Network, and the promotion of various bike related events such as a bike summit at the beginning May with local bike advocates and the upcoming Bike to Work Day (May 15th).
Even with all the strides the City and The Bicycle Master Plan have taken in making Baltimore more biker friendly those who ride bikes in the city on an almost daily basis and are directly connected to the Baltimore biking community see room for major grounds for improvement in the overall effort.
Local bikers also bikers echo similar sentiments of the positive benefits of biking. Brian Rewers, a local bartender in Federal Hill who bikes to work from his home in the Canton neighbor of Baltimore. Rewers, who has been biking in the city for almost four years, said he started biking since it was faster and he didn’t have to deal with the hassle of parking, “as well as not having to spend money on gas and worrying about [his] car getting dinged up” and more importantly “not having to worry about drinking and driving.” Rewers also sees riding a bike as a safety risk “in his commute which can lead to him “getting hit by a car at any time.” Rewers concludes that he “would always get crap for riding through the harbor and feels that’s a great spot” to ride and sees that as an issue that The Bicycle Master Plan should have addressed.
Jay Claddagh, a Biology masters degree candidate at Towson University bikes from South Baltimore to school in Towson. Claddagh, who has been biking in the city for two years, likes riding his bike because he states “if it’s under four miles, [he] can get to [his] destination faster on bike,” as oppose to his car and finds biking to “make the city smaller” by giving him the opportunity to experience areas he would not have if he were driving. Claddagh also sees shortcoming in The Bicycle Master Plan. Claddagh argues that the designated bike lanes are not dispersed thoroughly enough around the city.
Mike Evans, of the Department of Transportation for Baltimore responses to these concerns is that “the city is currently designing bike networks for Park Heights and Southeast Baltimore” and “Collecting bike and pedestrian numbers with automated counters to evaluate and plan future bike lanes.” Evans, understanding the daunting task states, “The reality of the bike plan is that it will probably not be complete. We only have a fraction of total roads designated as bike routes or with lanes Baltimore has a long way to go.” But on a lighter note admits, “The current budget situation [due to the economy] has [had] no impacted the plan, just the implementation,” since “the bike budget experience a modest decrease this fiscal year.”
With more planning and involvement with local bikers The Bicycle Master Plan, is track for permanent.

Click the logo below to check out the Baltimore Bicyle Works website.

Shared Vision Dopeness.

For some reason, I guess to the the climate and sales in the music indutry an artist won't release a song for each video. Thankfully people can come up with his or her very own vision of what the song would have been trasnlated to in a visual.

Derick G is the personal Cash Money videoagrapher and he put together his own vision of what he would see Drake's "Light Up" should look like. G uses females as stand-ins for Drake, Jay-Z & the incarcerated Lil Wayne

DERICK G's PORTRAYAL OF "LIGHT UP" from DERICK G on Vimeo.

yonie.ethiopian.love Provides an equallly dope underaurated portatly of an artist video. They take "Devil in a New Dress" from Kanye West's hit album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and add life to one of the dopest tracks on the album.

DEVIL from yonie.ethiopian.love on Vimeo.