2009 Top 5 Movies

2009 was a good year in film. I think 2010 might beat it out, but I can't predict the future.

I didn't see everything I wanted to this year. I didn't see Avatar, In The Loop, Hurt Locker and a few more.

So I can't really say that this list really captures the year.

Also I don't fuck with art films that much so if I missed some piece of shit Vincent Gallo dud I sincerely apologize with all my heart.

Also while I'm taking a piss..."Where The Wild Things Are" was bleh. Sorry Spike at least you made your money son. Of course I'm hugely bias. As I think the best thing he ever did was Pharcyde's "Drop" and Girl's "Mouse". Love those.


#5 The Carter



This movie is sort of an anomaly. It had the potential to be one of the best documentaries ever, but legal snafus and creative differences made the film self destruct. Who ever was directing the film did a great job of filming and a horrendous job of interviewing Wayne. The whole time you get the sense that he is completely put off by the crew's presence and their lack of understanding how to talk to him.

They wanted to cover the "sensational" highlights of his career over and over, Wayne shooting himself, losing his virginity at 11, selling drugs, but failed to realize that if you just let him talk about whatever crazy shit he is thinking about the film would have written itself.

Still worth a watch and is very entertaining, but again lots of potential and not a lot of substance.

Trailer Here

#4 Inglourious Basterds



It wasn't what everyone expected including myself, but I like this flick. The dialogue was awesome and the comedic relief was epic. Brad Pitt's best role since Snatch possibly.

Trailer Here

#3 The Hangover



I don't really care what you think. I died the first time I saw this with the Ice Man. I laughed hard and it validated my point that Zach Galifianakis was the most slept on comedian in the world. The Tyson cameo for the win. Don't front.

Trailer Here

#2 Tyson



Best documentary of the year. Hands down. The single most interesting portrait of one human being I have ever seen. I have always been on team Tyson. Every 80's kid should be. To me he represented being the best. There was no disputing it. He simply ruled. To see his thought process and to hear his perspective in a way that was so truly candid was awesome.

Trailer Here

#1 Bronson



My personal favorite for so many reasons.

Just an amazing film. Superbly acted and wonderfully shot. I can't really say anything else. If dude doesn't get nominated for an Oscar it would really be a gross over site, but then again the Academy doesn't even recognize "Comedy" as real category of film so I don't think they are firing on all cylinders to begin with.

Trailer Here

2009 Top 5 Viral Videos

Viral videos are awesome. They will never get played out. All you have to do is the say the phrase "Yo son, did you see the clip of dude....." and instantly everyone is either listening to your every word or better yet running to their computer or iPhone looking up the video.

Plus you get to describe things that are so out of pocket.

For example:

"Ummm type in 5 dudes sexing up furniture to Pretty Ricky song."

And like the champ that it is the internet delivers.

Compiling this list was hard and there was no real way to really comb through the year's best of fairly. If you got a heater that you haven't seen on here specifically put it in the comments.

#5 Juggalo The Gathering Infomercial



God this one will bum you out for life, but much like a car wreck there is no turning away from the horror that is Juggalos.

"On stage kickin' the Faygo"

"The Gathering prides itself on providing only the best from the underground music primarily the wicked shit."

Wow.

#4 Bangs "Take You To The Movies"



I like this song. No really. I like this song. I mean the dude has a fucking point at least. He wants to take shorty to the movies. He is willing to purchase said shorty popcorn and things she likes.

I don't think he could make it any clearer.

#3 Drunkest Guy Ever Goes Back For More Beer



Dude was an over night sensation. He is either the single most drunk dude ever to be recorded or the world's best physical comedian.

I like this particular version with the dramatic score.

#2 Your Business Card Is Crap



This dude.

My man here is dropping so much science.

"It took me 25 years to design this."

"It doesn't fit in a rolodex because it DOESN'T belong in a rolodex."

#1 Christian Side Hug



I really can not describe this clip. It is the single funniest viral clip of the year, yet most intellectually offensive clip I have ever seen.

Who are these buffoons?

Who let them do this at church no less?

Why did they write this song?

What in god's name is a fucking a side hug?

So many unanswered questions.

2009 Top 5 Spray Wizards

Graffiti is what it is. I've come to realize that arguing about it is much like arguing about anything else. Politics, religion, butt sex, whatever. There is no right or wrong.

There are certain aspects of the culture that I despise and I have lamented about that before numerous times. One of the most interesting facets of graffiti is that people rarely if ever agree on who is considered "good". The criteria for being good at graffiti doesn't really exist because it in of itself is a culture of despicable little cunts that would rather bump their gums and hear their own voice than give someone some credit.

I don't care for that line of thinking at all. Even people I don't "like" I still can recognize the value or the skill in what they do.

The moral of this whole rant:

Do not worry about anyone's opinions of you. There will ALWAYS be some asshole waiting to shit in your cereal so why even worry about what the hell they have to say.

Let's get back to the list.

This list is simply people I personally think were doing it this year and many years before. No one is really better than the other.

#5 Horfe (Paris)




One perusal through this guy's output and you will surely see the vast diversity of style from this beast of spray. Horfe has a penchant for mid to late 70's styles, but he also adds his own steez to it all which is what makes him stand out. When you look at his flicks you can't help but get jealous of the spots this guy is doing.

#4 Smash 137 (New York via Switzerland)




I have always liked Smash 137's work. I remember the first time I saw it and I instantly noticed that his pieces stood out in a really good way. Someone gave me his new book Smash 137 by OTR for Xmas. In it he really goes in depth on the origins of his style and gives his thoughts on style writing in general. After reading it straight through it gave me a huge amount of respect for his process. The dude does outlines so effortlessly it pretty much bums me out on the daily.

#3 Jurne (California)




This guy.

I know a few cats that paint with dude on the regular and as much as I do not want to publicly "fan out" Jurne is doing it. I can't even fathom how he does his pieces. They are so clean and so bonkers. At first glance you'd think he was just recycling 90's styles, but that would be short changing dude's hustle. He is really on his own planet style wise.

One peep at his thread or flickr account and you will see a writer that isn't really equaled as far as I can tell.

#2 Adek (New York and Worldwide)




If I didn't know better I would have thought this guy was either a robot or a team of people pretending to be one person. Amazingly enough he is simply just a man with a can or an army of one which ever you prefer.

Adek has always seem to be ahead of everyone. I go somewhere and he's been there and left his mark. He leaves it so frequently that you'd think that he lived there. Wrong. He was just visiting. I flew to New York and as soon as the taxi pulls up to the bridge there he was. His throw-ups drenching every wall in sight. His tags on every damn roll down door in the city.

Is he the most up writer of all time? Fuck if I know and fuck if I care. The guy doesn't need anyone's stamp of approval. He just keeps doing what he does.

#1 Dondi (New York) R.I.P




Dondi? Oh how original you say? Why does Dondi make the list? Cause he was fucking Dondi.

It's really strange how relevant Dondi remains in the culture. So many roads lead back to him. His style wasn't the most unique I could ask my buddy Keo TC5 to probably list off all of the writers that Dondi was inspired by and mixed together to create his style no problem. So if he wasn't the most original then why is he still so highly regarded to me and the culture in general? I guess when you look at his pieces there was just something they had whether it was in his letters or his color schemes or his overall technique and cleanliness that just simply stand the test of time and probably always will.

Whenever I get stuck on an outline or unispired I grab Style Master General and I get an instant jolt. I often end up going cover to cover with the dam thing and forget I was even drawing.

2009 Was A Shitty Year:

Sacer RIP



Iz The Wiz RIP

2009 Top 5 Blogs

Blogging about blogs.

Many people have been championing Twitter as the big deal of 2009. Many of you already know where I stand on the evil T, but who the fuck am I to judge?

This is SDTW's Top 5 Blogs for 2009:

#5 Nah Right

Nah Right

What can you say about Nah Right? Nothing really. To me it's the only blog about hip-hop and rap I ever really need to check. Eskay is brilliant for not proliferating his own opinions and instead just lets the music and the stans do the talking for themselves.

It's also nice not having to search for mixtapes because if you're manager or p.r team aren't dinosaurs they know getting your tape up on Nah Right is the best move you can make period.

#4 Ignored Prayers

Ignored Prayers

The purest of the pure.

I don't personally know this cat, but some people I do, do. Is that how you say that? Anyways, dude is the king of the "no fucking way" posts. He always has the fire internet shit. I could never match him.

He updates pretty consistently which is one of the my biggest pet peeves for blogs. Either do it a lot or don't. There is no in between.

#3 Dancehall Mobi

Dancehall Dot Mobi

Ya ya no one cares about dancehall except for me, but to find a blog that actually has relevant updates daily is a god send. Sorry jah send.

So much clash info and new chunes updated daily. Sometimes you get a dry spell of boring posts, but then all of a sudden BAM! you get a flick of Lisa Hype blowing Vybz Kartel and you're back to slackness.

Run it.

#2 LameBook

Lame Book

I never tire of you Lamebook. You reveal SO much of how lame social networking can be and how awesome or not awesome our species can be.

It's so post worthy I made it a regular feature on here for crying out loud.

#1 FFFFound

FFFFOUND.COm

You can waste your entire life away trolling through FFFFOUND and all its ocular goodness.

It never ceases to inspire.

Get some.

* Feel free to put your own Top 5's in the comments you bastards.

2009 Top 5 Rap Albums

No decent blog would be complete without "Top 5" lists for the end of the year. After all I am a white guy and white people HAVE to rate things in lists or else they don't know what to support. It's one of the many burdens of being of Caucasian decent.

Moving along.

2009 was the year that I really got back into rap. I have been hard on my old friend rap in the past few years and let's be honest rap needs to start acting right.

Now don't get your chonies in a bunch if you don't see MC Such and Such on here because 1.) no one is losing sleep over SDTW's Top 5 "anything" 2.) Critics do not matter * including yours truly.

So without further adieu I give yall nukkas my Top 5 Rap Albums/Mixtapes of 2009.

#5 OJ Da Juice Man "The Otha Side Of The Trap..."



Upon first listen I kind of wrote Mousier Juice off as a Jeezy wannabe. Wrong. I bumped this album in the Vic' all summer. It's just silly, go dumb, trap rap, but Juice has that savoir faire to keep you listening even if his bars are not going to go down in the history of greatest lyrics ever penned.

One of his best qualities is how budget looking his stuff is. His album art, videos, his attire are all laughable. I like that. The dude is wearing iPod headphones in his video for Christ's sake! He can't even rap sync. Awesome.

Favorite Track: "Cop A Chicken"



Get some juice

#4 Uncle Murder "Back On My Bull Shit"



This is my dude. Uncle Murder is SO underrated. Sure, he's a one trick pony, but he truly excels when he's talking about.... wait for it.....murdering people. That's okay though. Because he has the unique ability to come up with different ways to describe said subject matter and it's hugely entertaining. Also you get the feeling that dude has done quite a bit of dirt. Yeah rap is fake for the most part, but dude has the scars to prove it.

My biggest disappoint in him this year was when he changed his name to Uncle M. WTF? Satan doesn't change his name so why should Uncle Murder?

Favorite Track: "Dont Be Actin' Like"



Your favorite Uncle

#3 Makeshift "No Doze" Mixtape



Blatantly plugging the homie? Fuck that! This dude is my favorite regular dude rapper. Why? Mr. Shift ONLY raps about shit he ACTUALLY does. He spits bars over self produced beats (*bonus points) about San Diego life. What is San Diego life you ask? It is very simple. It is drinking 40's, smoking purple piff, rocking Cortez', waking up to sunshine, clowing on nerds, and the ever constant hunt of getting rootis' a.k.a chicks.

That's all he talks about. I can support that. He also is very humble and is his biggest critic which is a true sign of a great artist. If more rappers took the time to talk about real life we wouldn't have a whole army of fucking retards at bus stops talking about shit they've never done trying to jump fools for their fucking iPod. Well at least I think so.

Favorite Track: "Good Morning"



Get some Shift music

#2 Pill "4075:The Refill" Mixtape



Pill who? Exactly.

This dude was way off my radar for the whole year practically.

He's really inspiring to be honest. He is the South's best hope for 2010. Why? I guess it is because the dude actually gives a shit. He knows that people in the hood do not have many choices and even more important the less fortunate youth of the U.S have very few role models. That shit is really important even if dude is just a rapper. His whole niche is the fact that he essentially wants you to know that selling drugs, shooting people, acting a fool is an option for some, but if you want to really get anywhere in life you simply need to work hard.

He walks the thinnest line between trap rap and role model rap. That takes quite a bit of skill in my opinion.

Favorite Track: "Trap Goin' Ham"



Take your Pill


#1 Raekwon "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2"



There was no way you could have told me that Raekwon would have been able to pull off the impossible. I would have simply not believed it without hearing it myself.

A lot of blogs will claim this as the best album of the year and they will ALL be correct to say so. This dude basically pulled off something that no rapper has really ever done. Following up a classic with a classic. That is if you skip over "Lex Diamond Story" and any other rubbish he put his name to in between the two releases.

He some how managed to remake the entire vibe of one of the most coveted 90's rap classics: OB4CL. I'm still in shock how he was able to pull it off. Dude can go make techno as far as I'm concerned and I would still respect his hustle.

The whole album sounds complete. It plays like an album, but shines on certain tracks obviously.

You stans can take your Blueprint 3 and shove it up your culo. I didn't even bother posting the leak when I got it, because even though Jay Z is talented and an actually a cool dude I have no interest in listening to his "Blueprints" or "Black Albums" when I can put on tunes like this by the Chef.

Favorite Track: "Cold Outside"




Only Built For Free Links

Strange Days

Even when I was at my most "backpackingness" I still fucked with The Doors.

Strange indeed.

If you never have heard the Lizard King speak well I think you're missing out.

These Are Strange Days My Friends

I Heart The Internets

Fucking get some!

Jordan Loves Kats

The best photographer in the city stopped by again.

Follow him here

I Heart The Internets

If I was in a crew this would be the daily uniform.

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood

This song is the jam.

It's like this haunting melancholy back and forth between the two singers.

It's bugged out.

Big L

I am a huge Big L stan. Most of my friends are too.

If you grew up on 90's hip hop and rap how could you not be?
The dude was just heads and shoulders above everyone else.

Some critics say that had he not died before his big crossover people would not have made him into the "cult" like figure he is today.

I guess you can make that argument with any musician that has ever died. Biggie, Pac, Cobain, Hendrix, etc.

It's pretty haterish though to try and discredit someone's catalog just because they are deceased. In fact it is very bitch made to do so. I mean Brittany Murphy just kicked the bucket and I'm pretty confident they aren't gonna go back and analyze her away from camera acting subtleties in her silver screen debut "Clueless" just because she's 6 feet now. So stop dissing the god.

For my two cents Big L was the truth. If the goal of rapping is to brag about how awesome you are and how lame everyone else is then Big L was the best that ever did it. Period.

Enough fanning out.

I came across what has to be the most extensive collection of Big L rarities, white labels, alternates, b-sides, remixes ever compiled. I have a lot of L tapes and have made it a habit to snatch any one I come across, but this site is ridiculous though. I can't even scratch the surface.

So dive in and find your own forgotten 90's L gems.

BigL Rarities

Little John

A lot of people email asking me where I get so many rare albums and such.

If you haven't heard yet music is free now. Well to be specific it's been free for a really long time.

The trick is finding people that can steer you towards quality music that you're searching for or better yet have not even heard of before.

A lot of my 80's dancehall and roots albums come from a few blogs.

Specifically this Little John is from P-A-To Da Reggae

Whoever this dude is he knows tunes.

I posted up the back of the cover as it is a classic Limonious illustration.

Check out the album and the rest of P-A's albums. There's too many to even name.

Vybz Kartel "Marie"

A nice likkle chune about marijuana by Di Teacher.

Singing about marijuana will never die.

It may as well one be of the universal song themes: love, death, pain, sex, heartache and of course weed.

Graff Purge

Flicks of some fellow spray wizards.








The make yourself scarce flick is priceless.

I Heart The Internets

Say what you want about his poor choices in movie roles (minus New Jack City and Surviving The Game), but Ice-T knows how to pick a wife.

NBA Refs

Refs are like cops. Human. Prone to errors. They play favorites and show blatant bias. And unless you're a complete moron they effect the outcome of every game. Also they pretty much have the final say. Once in a blue moon a call will be overturned after a game, but that is just to further create the illusion that sports are 100% fair.

This NBA referee turnt snitch breaks it down to 60 Minutes on how shady the business of a referee really is.

I don't think these dudes are to blame entirely. The league/owners already know ALL of this. Sports are after all a business. Also this doesn't make me want to not watch sports. It is what it is.

Sports are designed and run to make money.

After watching this I quickly began to realize why Allen Iverson was always so mad all the time.

Dude never smiles and rightly so.

Watch the whole piece below.

John Cardiel x Sizzla

In a combination style.

I Heart The Internets

So not metal.

Flying Coffin

Jason rarely disappoints.

More Here

Look Book by Fan Kult x Jordan Loves Kats

Reggae Album Covers

Leroy Smart can never be beaten.

Meagan Good

All I want for X-Mas is Meagan Good baking cinnamon rolls in my kitchen.

Butt ass naked of course.

Picture of The Day

I don't remember where I came across this flick.

Black Moon

I saved the best for last with the BCC albums.

Come follow me

*Bonus instrumental lp link after the jump.

Fuck You Carl

Not cool Carl. So not cool.

SDTW Approves

My English friend Visual Dislexic from HurtYouBad has a little side blog hustle that is worth perusing.

Check it out:

SafeCoolOk

Gucci

It's Gucci.

There's some radio friendly duds here and there, but overall it's worth checking out.


Get whiteboy wasted