Black Rock & the First Hip Hop Musical

"I apologize for being absent from Hip-Hop and letting these corny ass niggas take over the game. See what happens when a niggaa takes a vacation?” -Sticky Fingaz

Onyx is one of my favorite hiphop groups ever, maybe you'll remember me mentioning them here. If hiphop is not your thing, disregard this post and go listen to your Muse faggotry :) this is real recognize real here. Anyways, this extended week-end I was checking out release dates on their DVD and found out that the ever-rumored new album entitled Black Rock actually drops in 2009! Two catches to the title: the first, pretty obvious one, references the reason they chose the group name (onyx being a black gem); the second one is explained below:

Fredro: The new album is definitely going to be hard. We're gonna take it back to the original way and then we're going to do the Black Rock album, which is promised, which is a hybrid rock n' roll album and thatâ's gonna be coming out next summer. So the Black Rock album, that's going to be the new shit.

Pete the Meat: You have a band you're playing with?

Sticky: Yeah, we got a couple of different bands that we're going to be working with, trying to make this shit pop off and trying to be hip-hop mixed with that rock shit and that's what we started and that's what we're going to finish with that whole "Slam"�. That whole hybrid of putting rap and rock together and we're gonna do twelve of those.

Sonee: Right.

Fredro: That's gonna be crazy.

Pete the Meat: I was wondering if it was going to be Biohazard. When I heard that Judgement Night soundtrack back in the day, I never really heard anything like that before, you know?

Sticky: Those are our influence, man. All that hard drums, hard guitars, we are into loops, just all the instruments and, kind of, you know, being the musicians with our lyrics to correspond with the music but it's all hard bass lines, drums and guitar riffs. So it was just a given to go with Biohazard and they just fit right with us, like our rock counterparts or something.

Sonee: Son had the ill tattoo on his inner lip, wildin'. Them dudes was hard body. They was out here from Brooklyn doing their thing real hard so that was a crazy hard match made in hip-hop history. You know how Run DMC did it with Aerosmith, so that'what it is. That inspiration is always there.

Fredro: We never even did a show with the Beastie Boys before. We never did a show with the Red Hot Chili Peppers; and these are the people that we looked up to making our records. And that’s the lane we had then and that same lane is still open. With all this Down South shit poppin’ off, we’re like, yo, instead of trying to come back with a crazy street album, let’s get in this lane with this rock ‘n’ roll record. Let’s get on tour and show these motherfuckers what we do on stage ‘cause that’s our strong point, our performance. I don’t think no performer or no group our there that really could fuck with us.

No need to tell you I'll be counting down the days. Madface invasion, part two. Here's to hoping that classic boom bap shit will come back hard and strong.

Also related - a Sticky Fingaz freestyle that got me going OOOH SHHHHIIT out loud ("If I didnt have cottonmouth I'd spit in yo face"), just so you snap snap bling motherfuckers remember hiphop's about lyricism, and the rest is P Diddy player fronting type of shit that's only fooling 13 yo kids. More on his involvement in comics, playing Blade and other stuff in this interview here. Little known fact: Marvel comics, which Sticky is a big fan of, actually have an Onyx comic you can read online here.

But moving on to the second topic: the same mr. Fingaz (teehee), via Major Independents - that he runs with his Onyx bros - will soon release a movie called A Day In The Life, the 1st ever hiphop musical they say, which he wrote, directed and stars in. What Roger Ebert had to say: “This movie runs the train on Mamma Mia. SLAM! Dunt dodda, dunt dodda LET THE BOYS BE BOYS!"

A Day In The Life - bande annonce
Uploaded by homhom

Yeah it looks a little gimmicky, but if you appreciated the narrative in songs like "Veronica" (I know I did), it'll be worth watching most def. Btw, Drena De Niro is Robert De Niro's daughter.

Below - boyz being boyz, this is the music I grew up to and will always love. Might not be the most intellectual effort out there, but it was and will remain a fucking riot starter. Check out that fucking crowd, and tell me hiphop isn't mosh pit music. Mind you, this video's 15 years old. Mad faced, grimey, crazy motherfuckers.

Onyx - Slam
Uploaded by bullback

PS Thanks to all my homies for knowing exakly what I wanted for my b-day, so other than the cinnamon smokes and other cool shit, could this blog have helped? Hmm :) Anyways, now Maria's kicking my ass at Mortal Kombat, and I wish I was kidding :))