‘that ain’t my nature, to be honest’

Whole lotta love for Common’s interview with Time Out NY. For his kneeding, plumping (i’m looking for a baker’s metaphor here), yes enriching of the English language. Which is alive (yeast!). Because of this interview, “freshest” ought to be nominated as a new entry to the OED. It even has an antonym:

EXCERPT TONY ISSUE #664 (JUNE 19-25, 2008)
…
What did you think of Angelina Jolie?
All around, she’s just the freshest, man.

Could you define freshest?
Someone who’s fresh has a lot of good qualities. When I describe Angelina as being fresh, I’m saying, like, she’s beautiful, she’s creative, she’s cool, she’s funny, she’s real, she has style, she’s a good mother. It’s like being a good tree. A good tree don’t bear no bad fruit. Angelina is a good tree.

What percentage of people you meet are fresh?
I’d give it 5 percent—and I meet a lot of people.

Who else is fresh?
Obama is fresh. John F. Kennedy was fresh. With certain people, it’s just about what they do. It’s about their aura, about who they are, the choices they’ve made.

So I take it that you don’t think George W. Bush is fresh?
Are you saying that you think that he is?

No! Do you?
Nah—he’s the opposite. He’s wack. Or, as N.E.R.D. says, “He so anti, he don’t even matter. He’s antimatter.”

—
luv.

on the mic

I’ve long said that if I were ever going to karaoke, it would have to be a hip-hop song. [Or something by Sublime. For every rule there is that exception.] Why? Because it’s less singing and more akin to fast-paced, badass spoken word. Sort of. This disclaimer has gotten me off the hook among my karaoke-ing friends, because how often are songbooks updated? Never. Who sings anything newer than 1995? No one.
Enter hip-hop karaoke. It’s a monthly gig at the Knitting Factory downtown, that’s been turning over the mic to hip-hop fans of all stripes for a couple of years now. It’s a fantastic scene, entertaining and open-minded, as in, you don’t have to ooze hip-hop flava or attitude to be embraced by the audience. Your heart has to be in it, and the rest is what it is. Let me put it this way, the highlight of the night was three 17-year-old boys, super nerdy and gawky in that mid-adolescent way—the cherub-faced Asian kid wearing the Abercrombie hoodie was at least a foot shorter than his two friends—belting out Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.” The song came out in 1989, meaning that these boys were, at best, conceived. I relate—I am anything but the picture of a hip-hop fan, and yet there I was, growing up in a small swath of land between suburbia and a military base and I was constantly adjusting the tuner on my boombox to try and get reception of Power 106 FM, an L.A. based hip-hop radio station based almost 100 miles away. It was occasionally interrupted by the local police scanner, but otherwise, the signal was strong, if you could get the dial just… so.
So, what song would I do/might be doing under the courage of a couple of drinks? It would have to be Salt n’ Peppa’s “Shoop.” But I need a Salt. Or Peppa. Any volunteers?