So Far This Week… April 23rd, 2014

If you didn’t catch it, Season 4 of The Boondocks kicked off Monday night with a hilarious guest spot from Michael B. Jordan. It wasn’t up to par with the Season 1-2 hilarity, but it was good to have it back. It made me realize how many crazy things have happened since The Boondocks were last on the air in August of 2010. Here’s a great read if you want to be in the know.

Happy Birthday to Game Boy! The iconic hand-held console turned 25 on Monday. From Game Boy to Game MAN.

Amazon Prime has made a major move in the bout with Netflix by striking a contract with HBO (sorry Thronies, no luck for you). However, you can still catch classic shows like The Wire and The Sopranos on the streaming service; check the link here for more details. Does this change your view about switching streaming services?

There is news of sequels abound… namely for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Super Troopers and The Goonies.

Ubisoft is currently working on adding a co-op mode to Assassin’s Creed: Unity. This could be the thing that finally gets me into playing the online modes for AC. Unity drops Holiday season 2014.

Months after Quentin Tarantino lost his shit when somebody leaked the script to a film titled The Hateful Eight, he has dropped the suit (for the time being) and plans on continuing progress to create the film. Nobody wins here more than us.

If you thought the Cartoon Network show Beware the Batman was dead, you were almost correct. The poorly received show will be returning to CN, but airing at 3am on Saturday night – so pretty much still dead.

Looks like we should be gearing up for a video-game version of Kick-Ass 2 (check out our review here). I won’t lie – it looks terrible. As much as I love the franchise, it will take a whole lot of convincing to pay for something that looks this bad.

If you like picking apart each episode of Game of Thrones to predict the schemes and plot twists, but haven’t had time to catch up on the books like us, here is a little bit to get you through the weeks. Episode titles and descriptions give away more than I think they should, but it’s still fun to predict.

If I didn’t love Batman so much, I would say that DC Comics is overdoing it for their 75th Anniversary celebration. We can now look forward to Batman stealing the variant cover to almost every major DC book in July to commemorate the Dark Knight.

Oh boy, let the floodgates and scandal commence; whistle-blowers are blowing (poor choice of words) their whistles to uncover a “pedophile ring” among powerful Hollywood execs. If this really is the case, I hope justice gets served to the fullest.

On a lighter note (or maybe not) Chew, the Eisner Award winning comic book series about an FDA agent who uses psychic connection from the things (or people) he eats to solve crime mysteries, will be released in animated form, with The Walking Dead‘s Steve Yeun and Dr. Horrible‘s Felicia Day already down for voice acting.

It would seem the almighty Oprah Winfrey approves of comic books! The one in particular she advocated for on her show was March: Book One. Hush actually reviewed this book in honor of Black History Month; you can check it out here.

 

Diggin’ Through the Crates: Pharoahe Monch “Agent Orange”

Artist: Pharoahe Monch

Song: “Agent Orange”

Album: The Awakening (2003), a mixtape that preluded his second studio album (Desire). Free download here.

Before we begin, let’s just start out by introducing a lot of you to Pharoahe Monch, as not many I’ve spoken with have had the pleasure of listening to this hidden star of Hip-Hop. While not achieving a lot of commercial success, anything that comes out of Pharoahe’s mouth is lyrical gold. Starting out as half of the group Organized Konfusion, Pharoahe quickly gained the reputation of being a cerebral and entertaining emcee. Since his solo debut in 1999, Internal Affairs, Pharoahe has blown up the independent scene, tackling social and political topics with such clarity and hilarity.

Lyric: “It’s not a Game Boy, X-Box or PlayStation/It’s Resident Evil when every President’s a mason/ Robbin’ y’all fools like Dick Grayson”

Meaning/Character Reference:

Holy “Agent Orange,” Pharoahe Monch! That sure sounds scary and intense. In the mixtape leading to his second album, Desire, he reminds listeners that he is not only a wordsmith but is quite comic savvy, as well. “Agent Orange” is a song portraying the horrid war-time nature the United States government has been proved to display, referencing the US’ use of herbicidal warfare in the Vietnam War that left hundreds of thousands civilians starving and/or permanently physically deformed. When Pharoahe Monch starts listing off the game systems of our past, present, and future, he is basically throwing a brick through Congress windows with a note attached saying, “NOT TODAY, GOVERNMENT! DO I LOOK LIKE A BRAND NEW MORTAL KOMBAT VS. DC UNIVERSE GAME? BECAUSE I AM NOT TO BE PLAYED WITH” – sassy finger snapping ensues. Gloriously, Pharoahe Monch reaches out to the comic book world and pays homage to a superhero that only seek one thing – justice. Don’t lie; you said justice in your best Batman voice, didn’t you? What he is saying is that the system is robbin’ knowledge, power, and all that other good stuff from We, the People. For those of you out there who are wondering who Dick Grayson is, he is the only dude who can look badass in a red speedo, green gloves and a yellow cape, ROBIN! Boom, there is that AHA moment!  Pharoahe Monch is similar to Robin because they are both underrated and underestimated. If Dick Grayson can evolve from Robin into Nightwing, then maybe, just maybe, Pharoahe Monch can turn into Ra…sure, let’s go with that.

It’s a Dick… in a box

Fun Fact: In Eminem’s “Rap God,” which we featured on last week’s “Diggin’ Through the Crates” piece, actually references Pharoahe Monch, a heralded Hip-Hop artist in the underground community. As a lifetime fan of both, it’s refreshing to hear that even a pop legend like Eminem knows who the real artists are: “I know there was a time where once I/Was king of the underground, but I still rap like I’m on my Pharoahe Monch grind.”

That does it for this week guys! Check back next week for more nerd-infused Hip-Hop. Also, if you’re interested at all in learning more about the artist or the subject matter in our posts, don’t hesitate to ask. Pharoahe Monch’s fourth solo album, entitled P.T.S.D., is slated for a release January 2014. Be sure to check us out for a comprehensive review on that! Til next time, nerds…

Written by Evan Lowe and Sherif Elkhatib