Mack 10 is the name

Mack 10 is one of my favourite West Coast rappers. Originally I heard him on the West Side Connection's second album, Terrorist Threats, which unfortunately marked not only the final West Side Connection album, but the departure of Mack 10 & Ice Cube's partnership. Mack really emerged in 1995, with his aptly titled Mack 10, which has some really bumping tracks.

Mack 10 the album really served as an intro to who the fizzuck, Mack 10 was. The album starts out with Mack 10 robbing McDonalds, with Ice Cube getting into the action after Mack orders "Get me large fries, strawberry shake and happy meal for my daughter too". The album then jumps into foe life.

With an immediate diss toward the East Coast.  Unfortunately this is only in the album version of the track.

Mack 10 you know you rule hip-hop an...

Ice Cube you know you rule hip-hop an...

Wait a minute... that ain't how the West Coast Rock

The track then gets going :

Khacki suit ski mask is my attire
With my luck cut my chucks on the barbed wire
Fool where ya keep the rims and tires
'fo yo' life expires I'm as nutty as Michael Myers
Didn't think about the Rottweiler
A lot of stiches in the ass
Blood in the Impala

Great track, the video clip is even funnier. It has Mack 10 jumping off all kinds of buildings and getting his arse bitten by a Rottweiler, including some lowrider action that might challenge Slim Thug. Slabs and blades aside, one of my other favourite tracks is Chicken Hawk, the name of which because Mack 10 trains and flys Pidgeons. Mack 10 spoke on this in the linked interview.

So what's up with the birds?

"I raise pigeons, homey. I've been raising 'em since I was a little boy."

How many you got?

"About 50 or 60."

So why do you like raising pigeons so much?

"They flip. I got tumblers, the kind that go up in the air and turn flips in the air."

Which is interesting - I can't say I know many rappers into flying Pidgeons at all. Chicken Hawk has some really nice laid back bass guitar, some other electro sounds and some kind of flying eagle noises. It's a very track for Mack's delivery. The track is just what I've come to expect from Mack - it's not deep or philosophical, but it is good and enjoyable. Who knows why he went at Common, but they are worlds apart.

But that misses the point, Mack 10 has stayed true to his roots. As Freddie Foxxx said on The Militia, 

When you speak of who's the dopest MC, I don't come up
But when you speak of who's the livest MC, I stay what up, what's up?

The same applies for Mack. He may not, and never will be the dopest MC, but he is good at what he does. With some of the toys that are claiming the West Coast nowadays, I still prefer Mack 10 over most of them.  Even his more recent albums such as The Paper Route have been pretty decent. While little apart from his first album and Westside Connection's Bow Down album has really made an impact for Mack, with his fanbase fading into the new millenium . His 2005 album, Hustla's Handbook only sold a couple of thousand. But, will Mack 10 make a comeback? It seems as if the West Coast has gone on a real down hill recently, The Game's One Blood sounds good;

But there was no Mack. Even WC from Westside Connection, has had a spade of small sales on his latest album, Guilty By Affiliation. Even if you don't like Mack 10, the question still begs. Is the West Coast Dead? Or is this merely a form of the cancer that is "killing" hip-hop now? Personally I don't think it is dead, but it is becoming harder to both find underground hip-hop, but increasingly good hip-hop period. Mack 10 is one of the few names I hope keeps putting out some decent music. Because a lot of this other shit is just tripe.

Keep it Fresh
Mack 10 the Album
7/10

No More Tacos For LA

As the Taco Truck Battle Heats Up in Los Angeles . I remember when I was in Los Angeles (and indeed, much of the West Coast) getting cheap eats from Mexican joints was what it was all about. The ones in New York were, equally delicious, especially in Spanish Harlem. But really, imagine LA without them. The NPR reports:

Los Angeles County officials recently passed a law that makes it a misdemeanor to park a taco truck in the same place for more than an hour. Violators face penalties of up to $1,000 in fines or six months in jail. and imagine L.A. Drivers not driving using the Road

Indeed, Jonathan Gold, who gets paid to eat what he wants is described as:

[Gold] tackled the Porno Burrito, faced down the city’s toughest maitre d’s, scouted out street-side taco carts at midnight, slurped the San Gabriel Valley’s spiciest noodles and experienced every possible sensation of smoke and char and animal in a single thin slice of astronomically expensive Kyushu rib eye. Now Jonathan Gold, the L.A. Weekly’s restaurant critic, has won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. This is the first Pulitzer Prize for the L.A. Weekly and the first time a restaurant critic has won the distinguished award.

It directly references the Burritos of Los Angeles. Which are as integral an element of culture as any other food in LA.

Good on the Taco Truckers, they plan to "...mobilize about 150 taco truck owners into a sort of "taco resistance." When the law goes into effect May 15, they vow to stay parked — right where they are.". There's more then just the Taco Trucks pissed about this too.

Sometimes I don't get city councils at all, especially, it seems, Los Angeles.

Tacohunt, is a great blog, which reminds me so much of the streetside taco stalls I saw in Guatemala city last time I was there, and less so, Honduras. I am proposing there is a united resistance to this utter tripe.

It really makes me wonder what the City of Los Angeles is doing with itself. Some may say it's karma for West Coast Rap going to relative shit. But realistically, something that has become so stained in the memory of all those who have eaten in LA. What is the harm in street side stalls? New York has them. Except they have a variety of different foods.

Why don't they open this law up, to allow competition amongst all food. Isn't America about competition and freedom? This law challenges both.

Shame.