Just caught the news this evening that NYC Graffiti Legend “Stay High 149″ has passed away. Stay High is a graffiti Triple OG who always kept his tag simple but effective and got up over several decades. He is one of the few cats who could put a tag up on a wall, and no other dude would dare put a throwie or piece over it. Now that’s clout!

I was honored to meet Stay High back in 2004 when he used to hang around the Frank 151 office. I met him a few times after that as well. One time he laced me with a lil canvas of his “Voice Of The Ghetto” tag that I STILL have hanging in my office till this day! The last time I bumped into Stay High was probably 2008. I laced him with a “Swagger Is Nothing, Talent Is Everything” T-Shirt as well as a copy of the new CD. Didn’t realize till later that I caught a picture of him right in front of a portrait of Dondi, another legend who passed way too soon.

Stay High is a true NYC Graffiti Legend. Honored to have a chance to meet the man and shake his hand during my lifetime. The “Voice Of The Ghetto” will be missed. Rest In Peace.

And apparently a Stay High 149 movie was already in the works, I had no idea. Spotted this at Frolab.

Rest In Peace Stay High 149. Gone but never forgotten.

During my last trip to NYC I made a trip over to Bushwick Brooklyn (and ended up bumping into emcee Skyzoo on the train) to catch up with the homies from Brooklyn Wildlife. We sat down and talked about the history of Señor Kaos as well as what “The Kaos Effect” LP is about and how it came together.

Check it out…

Episode 01 – In Studio with Senor Kaos by Brooklynwildlife on Mixcloud

Make sure you check out Brooklyn Wildlife for other features, music, stories, and BK culture.
Shouts to the homies Chief Justice and Chris Carr. Salute fellas.

During my trip to Nueva York last month I linked up with the good people from Crazy Al Cayne TV aka CAC-TV for their web series “Spittin In The Whip.” They select emcees to drive around NYC and do exactly that Spit rhymes in the whip. The rules are: 1-You have to select a beat from this list. 2-Whatever beat you select you have to stick with it, can’t switch to another beat 3-You have to spit over the whole beat.

10 days after the A3C Festival ended, I took a trip up to NYC for the 2011 CMJ Festival. On Tuesday night I made a surprise appearance during Fresh Daily’s set at Drom for the Brooklyn Bodega showcase.

Then on Thursday I rocked at the Thompson Hotel for the Digiwaxx showcase. Both were super short sets, but new fans were made, and that’s what counts. The Kaos Effect LP is coming 11.11.11. Can’t wait for y’all to hear it.

BET Follow Friday catches up with Toronto / NYC Emcee Eternia to talk about her name, her neighborhood and more.

Crazy, before I caught this Eternia shot me a tweet to met know she was headed to ATL this fall for the A3C Festival.

The Queens homie J-Zone shot me an e-mail today with the info about his new book Root for the Villain: Rap, Bullshit and a Celebration of Failure, and I must say, I CAN’T WAIT TO READ IT!

From Captain Back Slap Himself:

Greetings,
Normally, I’d have to stick up a check cashing joint wearing Speedos and a Black Bart Simpson t-shirt to get mentioned in the LA Times.
The production work I did for The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer from Saturday Night Live) on their Incredibad album in 2009 came up in their feature in the Times last week. I was eventually interviewed for it (about halfway down). Here’s the link…

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-lonely-island-20110524,0,4368046.story

In other news, I’ll be publishing my first book, Root for the Villain: Rap, Bullshit and a Celebration of Failure, this fall. Those who dug my grumpy old man tirades and general lampoonery from years past might enjoy this collection of curmudgeonly rants, hip-hop-inspired memoirs, humorous outlooks on failure, and think pieces on the general stupidity of the world at large in 2011.

If you:

are over 30
are a native New Yorker
often wonder if men are the new women
feel it’s perfectly acceptable to wear a clip-on tie with Master P’s face on it to a corporate job interview
have a college degree that got you two choices in the real world: the broom or the mop
had the opportunity to work with the legendary musical heroes of your childhood, then your broke ass got sued by one of them for copyright infringement
stuck a fork in dating in America and are now looking into blow-up dolls due to their low maintenance, low noise level, and low cost (an air body beats an airhead)
were robbed for a fake gold chain in the early ’90s
had a music career that kind of went kaput, so you were forced to get a “real” job and fall back into “real world” protocol. It was then you learned that the hip-hop 401k does not exist. Better yet, nothing exists. The Baby Boomers took it all.
are sick of “couple accounts” on Facebook (Fellas, if you allow your girl to create one page for the both of you, her d*ck is bigger than yours. Furthermore, anyone over the age of 21 trying to “poke” me will be attacked with a Wiffle ball bat.)
still use a Walkman and collect records
live with your hostile 87-year-old grandmother who passes gas 24/7, leaves her dentures on your bathroom sink, and disrupts pimpin’ at the house
were a hip-hop kid of the ’90s and/or enjoy nostalgic music business stories from that era
plan on entering the music business and want to read true accounts of how utterly dysfunctional and useless most of the people in it are
are sick of hearing all this bourgeois “Eat, Pray, Love” bullshit on dates. I want NYC’s crime rate to return to the 1990 statistics for a week; then you’ll really be praying to travel someplace expensive to “find yourself”. Shut the f*ck up and stop whining.
hate incessant texting, emoticons, internet lingo from grown ass men and women (ROTFL, OMG and similar dreck), “Gadget Hoes”, “Flash Hoes”, and “Cosmo Hoes”. (Note: If you come to the club solely to text all night or to ask me to take a picture of you and your raggedy bird ass friends holding drinks, those last three terms apply to you.)
are a curmudgeon with an allergy to bullshit
don’t stand a chance in life doing anything that doesn’t involve purchasing a Mister Softee ice cream truck, but truly believe that one day you will run for mayor and win…

This book is for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Root for the Villain is for 0.0002% of the world’s population and will probably sell like it. It’s my first attempt at publishing a book after having my work published in bits and pieces over the years, so pardon me while I figure this out on the fly. More info coming soon!

HA.

(Señor Kaos & J-Zone in Rochdale Village Queens NYC Summer 09)

Stay Tuned to Zone’s new site Govillaingo.com for updates and more comedy.

Earlier today I was talking the homie Chicagorilla and he let me know Nah Right had the official movie poster up for the new A Tribe Called Quest documentary as well as a new trailer. Looks like director Michael Rappaport linked with Yahoo to premier this updated trailer to the new film.

As Hangover 2 just took in 85 milly at the box office last week, it looks like Hollywood is just getting started with what they have coming for us this summer. The new X-Men joint, Super 8, new Planet Of The Apes feature, but out of everything this one here is the one myself and every Hip Hop head is waiting to catch.

Check it out…

The Tribe movie will hit theaters July 8th in NYC and LA. If your in ATL we’ll get to see it on July 22nd in select theaters. I’m working on getting to NYC to catch that premier.

A few weeks ago I was in the barber shop, and my barber was talking about how he was flying up to NYC to catch Mobb Deep’s first live performance since the return of Prodigy from a 3 year prison sentence. Well it all went down this past Friday night at the Best Buy Theatre (Formerly Nokia Theatre) in Manhattan. Thanks to the good ole Internet you can get a glimpse of what it was like to be in the place.

Along with Mobb Deep the show also featured performances from the Money Making Jam Boys (Black Thought, STS, Dice Raw, Truck North, & Porn), plus Raekwon & Ghostface. To somebody like me in the ATL that’s a pretty crazy lineup, but it was just another friday night in NYC.

Check out some footage of the Mobb’s return to the stage. You can check out the full recap over at XXL.

An Eye For An Eye with special guest Raekwon

Aug 13th – 15th marked the first annual Nike World Basketball Festival in NYC. I didn’t get a chance to make it to NYC for the festivities, but I heard the city was on fire. The Rucker, MSG, Niketown, Atmos, etc. all had special events going on during the week.

Check out this video piece shot by Ola Kudu at Rucker Park during WBF.