I shall, proceed, to rock the tikes...

Via MetalLungies. I just had to re-post this video for you homies who have not seen it.



Now, if they could only appear on Blue's Clues...

What do you all make of this? Does this go against that Pitchfork review I cited in my last post? Have The Roots really gone soft?

I guess things really do fall apart. Or, they are coming together in a cosmically-unknownable fashion.

Y'all know the legendary

It's time for a hip-hop news update.

Big news from The Roots. I cannot believe that they would become a house band for Jimmy Fallon on The Late Late Show. Doesn't that seem odd? I cannot imagine The Roots filling the same position as The Max Weinberg 7. Can you?

I wonder about the implications it would have for The Roots' image. As it stands now, I agree with the statement by Nate Patrin in his review of "Rising Down": It's gotten to the point where I can't even imagine the Roots being soft anymore. Seriously. With three straight albums where political overtones are so present, can their rep hold up while ?uestlove gives drum-cues for laughter to Jimmy Fallon's questionable comedic talent? (Actually, I take that back. Have you heard "The Bathroom Wall?" Classic. No sarcasm. So sincerious.)

I'll be interested to see the results of this social experiment. It seems like the wrong fit for The Roots as they stand. It would make more sense for the old Roots, the ones whose "organic hip-hop jazz" and "bass check 1, 2" made it a fun group to hear, with their seemingly-unbeatable cohesion between traditional jazz music and new-school hip-hop braggadocio and energy. The new Roots? The ones I saw about a month ago, with their darker, more brooding sensibility? I'll be interested to see the approach they take. I trust ?uestlove to do justice to their presence in some manner, but I wonder: will it work out in the long term?

Remember the name

The New York Times has this gem of a story on how how the name "Barack," along with the rest of the Obama given names, are being given to newborns left and right.

Kenya is ground zero for the trend:

From Election Day through Saturday afternoon, 43 children born at the Nyanza Provincial Hospital in Kisumu were named after the Obamas, with 23 boys given the first and middle name Barack Obama and 20 girls named Michelle Obama.

I gotta say, it is kind of a cool thought to think that, 15 years down the line, high schools around the nation will have a bunch of Baracks, and it won't even be novel or anything. People will know why that kid has that name, won't have any hang-ups about it (depending on the region of the country we are discussing), and I think it is good for the American public. General exposure to things foreign (names especially) can bring about more understanding, in my opinion.

But I think the people of the world who choose Barack for the newest members of their families are missing a big opportunity. I know that giving your kid Barack is popular, and seems appropriate to commemorate Obama in the most humbling of manners, but I think parents need to be taking it all a step further. Why not go back to the roots of the name, to the native tongue, and find another name? It is a more indirect reference to the impact of Obama, and it could also serve to introduce a whole new generation of names into our society.

I mean, if you want to stay Kenyan, what about "Jimiyu," or "Lusala," or even "Chiumbo?" Or take it back to your own roots, if not Kenyan. Like Obama mentions in the article, his name is from the same root as Baruch, the Hebrew name for "one who is blessed." So bam, Jews get an option. I'm sure Arabs have a similar name based on the root, and Italians, and Irish, so on and so forth.

If parents take it back to the roots, they not only shout-out the connection Obama has with the roots, but they shout-out the importance of going back to the roots at all, rather than going with the popularity of a name.

But I won't lie. You might be introduced to Barack Lipkin within the next 10 years or so. Or maybe Baruch, to take my own advice. Either way, my kid's nickname would be B-Rock, so that you can be sure of.

A sign of things to come?

Check out this New York Times map:



Texas to Obama? Awesome. This IS going to be a historic election.