Apt. 5B Podcast Hosted by Kil: Born To Use Mics Books ...Dope of Nah?

For this week's ep of my podcast Apt. 5B we've got me & Porsha's #BookOfRhymes monthly book club on tap with Vince, Joanna & Tone breaking down "Born To Use Mics" a book that's dedicated to Nas' 5 mic classic Illmatic. And anything written about Illmatic should automatically be dope right? Well, in the immortal words of Charlie Murphy...WRONG! So check out a DOOOOOOOOPE roundtable discussion on the good (I personally don't have ANYTHING good to say about this book), the bad (I got a lot of bad tho) and the ugly (and I do got  A WHOLE LOT of ugly) about this book, our fave chapters (I personally don't have one), our fave songs off Illmatic and why, if we never heard Illmatic would this book make us want to, how many mics we give it and why we need hip hop heads and not just black folk to document our hip hop culture so that is doesn't get fucked up for the next generation. As usual, this is just ANOTHER dope ep ya'll and don't forget to subscribe to our You Tube and Mixcloud pages!

Apt. 5B Podcast Hosted by Kil: #BookOfRhymes The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F&ck - Mark Manson

For the newest ep of my podcast Apt. 5B #BookOfRhymes edition, me & my squad Porsha, Vince & Joanna are chopping it up about Mark Manson's book The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F&ck. We're diving into our thoughts on self help books in general, our first impressions of the books, how we personally deal with our problems, did we take anything away from the book to use in our daily lives and of course how many mics this jawn walks away with! ANOTHER dope ep ya'll and don't forget to subscribe to our You Tube and Mixcloud pages! 

Apt. 5B Podcast Hosted by Kil: #BookofRhymes - Annihilation

I've always been an avid book reader but over the past couple of years I've fallen off BIG TIME! To be honest I know it has a lot to do with me not commuting into DC anymore on the trains cause that's where I got the bulk of my reading done. But I also know a rack of my time nowadays is spent making beats, hosting podcasts, being on twitter, playing 2K & the million other things I do. So I figured the only way I was gonna get back on pint to was to get somebody to hold me accountable. Which is where Porsha and our newly formed twitter book club #BookofRhymes comes into play.

So for the 1st ep of our #BookofRhymes/Apt. 5B podcast me, Porsha and my cuzzo Joanna are chopping it up about Jeff Vandermeer's book and the new movie that just dropped Friday Annihilation. How many mics we give it, what characters we rocked with and the ones we didn't and why your personalities will dictate if you like this book or not. We're also chopping it up about our thoughts on Marvel's Black Panther REALLY live up to all of this hype and how many mics that gets. And even though we're not chopping it up about hip hop ya'll can STILL trust & believe this is just anther DOOOOOOOOPE ep! Don't forget to subscribe to our You Tube and Mixcloud pages!

Book of Rhymes: Lo Life An American Classic

My name is Kil...and I'm an addict. It all started my freshmen year at Morgan State. One of the first people I met was my dude K Polo from the Bronx. Dude had the ill Geo Tracker (yeah, in '92 a geo tracker was the shit) and was always blasting whatever was the dopest mixtapes that was on tap but what stood out to me about dude was that he rocked NOTHING but Polo. And I don't mean a hoodie here and a shirts there. I'm talking shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, jackets, coats, hats, socks, boots, umbrellas, book bags, etc. etc. Now growing up in Philly I never really saw cats rock Lo like that. I remember back when I would stay in Brooklyn for the summer, my cousin ran with this cat Alex who rocked nuthin but Lo but at that time the Lo didn't "speak to me" like that. But by the time I got to Morgan, it was a wrap cause the Lo was mos def speaking to me now! All my peoples from NYC were rocking Lo but outside K Polo my peoples the Minion Crew were the most influential cats on my Lo addiction. Everybody in their crew rocked Lo and I do mean EVERYBODY! I remember taking pics with these dudes and I was just happy to have a Lo hat on trying to keep up with them!  In college, I was literally running any and every scam to get my hands on some Lo. Hell, I damn near got kicked outta college for doing some ole behind the back, no look pass type scams...all for the love of the Lo.

Book of Rhymes: No Half Steppin' - Claude "Paradise" Gray & Giuseppe "u.net" Pipitone

"As you get up and dance at the LQ" - Public Enemy

Anybody who knows me knows I'm Philly born and breed but what I realized a lot of folk don't know is that I spent every summer from 3rd to 9th grade with my cousins in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. And ever since I saw Beat Street in '84, I would literally beg my cousins EVERYDAY to take me to "hip hop landmarks" like LL's hood Farmers BLVD. in Queens, KRS One's stomping grounds in the South Bronx, Delancey Street so I could go shopping like Dana Dane and of course Hollis so I could cop some shell top adidas like Run, D and Jay. But the spot that I would beg them the most to take me to was the Latin Quarters. Now, if you never heard of the Latin Quarters, it was probably the most popular hip hop club during the 80's. Yeah, you had the Rooftop, The Red Parrot, Union Square, the Roxy and the Disco Fever (and best believe I begged to go to all of those place too) but none of those spots could hold a candle to the Latin Quarters in my eyes. Now, the only problem was this is back in '86 and I was only 12 years old BUT I had already been DJing for 2 years. And there was no way in my 12 year old mind that I wasn't going to go to the Latin Quarters and battle Red Alert and knock him out the box and be like Double K in Beat Street and become the new in house DJ for the LQ! (yeah, I had a VIVID imagination as a kid) Now, the 2nd problem was there was no way my cousin who was 18 at the time was gonna be caught dead in the LQ with a 12 year old little kid. So needless to say I never got to go to the LQ and kick it with hip hop's elite or see my 3 fave groups at the time BDP, Ultramag and Stetsasonic perform or battle Red Alert and take over hip hop on Kiss FM but now 30 years later thanks to Wax Poetics I've got the book "Ain't No Half Steppin" on tap that paints the perfect picture of what the LQ looked and felt like back in the day!

Book of Rhymes: Pines

Science fiction is easily my favorite genre of books, movies and TV shows. Trust, I love a dope gangsta flick and even a good Fast & Furious action flick but give me something dope on some ole Twilight Zone ish and I'm good to go. In fact, after The Wire the Twilight Zone is my 2nd favorite TV show EVER! The highlight of every New Year's Eve for me ever since I was in 7th grade was The Twilight Zone marathon. And the crazy thing is after watching this marathon for over 29 years I STILL see episodes that I've never seen before which I have absolutely no idea how that's possible. I honestly think they're making new episodes now and throwing them in the marathon mix every year just to mess with us. But all of that to say I science fiction is my ish. So when I saw the trailer for this new Fox TV show that was about to drop called "Wayward Pines" about a dude waking up in a town outta nowhere and trying to figure out how the hell he got there, I was all in. And after watching the first ep and word got to ear that this show was based on a book by this cat Blake Crouch, the book got copped quick, fast and in a hurry.

Book of Rhymes: Not A Game - The Incredible Rise & Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson

When it comes to Allen Iverson I honestly think I was dude's biggest fan. Now, riddle me this...what was the key word in that sentence? Yup...ya'll guessed it..."was." I can't remember the first time I saw Iverson because I wasn't a huge college hoops dude back in the early/mid 90's but the thing that stood out to me about dude was of course those ill Georgetown unis but more importantly was dude's bulldog tattoo. Before Iverson, I thought tattoos were for bikers, crazy folk and wrestlers (see Dennis Rodman and Bam Bam Bigelow) but Iverson made that bulldog tat seem like it was the dopest thing in the world. I remember when the Sixers got the #1 pick, I was hype as hell that this dude might be actually running point for MY squad. Well, we all know what came next. A rack of exciting moments in South Philly & throughout the NBA, the MVP trophy, that 2000-2001 Finals run and stopping the Lakers' sweep through the playoffs and that infamous step over Tyron Lue moment, all the all star appearances, etc. etc. But there were also a rack of for a lack of better words, fucked up moments in South Philly too. From court cases, shelved rap albums, no shows appearances, suspensions, gun charges, martial issues and of course the infamous practice rant that everybody from Jazzy Jeff & J Live to my dude Fanat used in their rhymes. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was back in '07 when Iverson was a no show at a bowling event in Philly for families of season ticket holders because he was beefing with Mo Cheeks. Why was that the final straw for me? Because at that time I had just become a father and all I could think about was what if I had promised my daughter a chance to meet Allen Iverson and this asshole doesn't show up? And the reason was because he was beefing with his coach? And now baby girl is sad and disappointed?!?!?! Nah bruh, I was done with dude after that.

Book of Rhymes: The Leftovers

I'm a certified TV junkie. And I'm not talking about that reality show ish (even though "Love & Hip Hop Atlanta" is scheduled weekly in my DVR) but more so whatever dope series are on tap. So whether it's Sons of Anarchy, Fargo, The Americans, House of Cards or The Walking Dead to Homeland, Masters of Sex, Orange is The New Black, Luther, House of Lies or Top Boy my DVR always teeters on being full. But the network that REALLY put me onto dope series was HBO. I think we can ALL agree that HBO is like the god fathers of modern day television with two simple words..."The Sopranos" & "The Wire" (well, I guess that was actually 4 words, 5 if you count the "&") and every other network out there trying to play catch up. And since my TV is ALWAYS on in my house, that's how I usually come across new music, the latest hoopla in sports and new shows and that's exactly how I got put onto HBO's newest series "The Leftovers." From the commercial I saw, it looks like people literally disappear outta no where and since I'm big into the whole mystery/supernatural stuff this got scheduled into my DVR quick, fast in a hurry. Then I did the knowledge and found out that this series is based off a book by the same name and after hearing that it was a wrap cause ya'll know me being the book worm I am, my challenge over the next 2 weeks was to finish this book before the show premiered on HBO on June 29th. So, a week later and my challenge completed with time to spare, the question of the week is am I still hype to see "The Leftovers?" And the answer is simple, naw...I'm not.

Book of Rhymes: John Calipari's Players First

I’m from Philly and I REALLY love basketball. And if you’re from Philly and REALLY love basketball…then you 9 times outta 10 love John Chaney. Now, for those of you who aren’t from Philly and don’t love hoops, John Chaney was the legendary basketball coach at my parent’s alma mater Temple University. So, why is John Chaney’s name coming up if I’m talking about John Calipari’s new book? Well, simply put it’s because I love Chaney SO freaking much, that it pains me to say that I actually like (not love) John Calipari. Why is that you may ask? Just google “John Chaney vs. John Calipari” and you’ll get what I’m talking about. But let’s just say it had something to do with Chaney saying he would kill Calipari. So now ya’ll get it….so how can I like a coach who one of my hoops hero wanted to kill?!?!?! For YEARS I refused to root for Cal simply because of Chaney…that’s how deep my Philly roots run. Plus, from that corny “Refuse to Lose” motto up at Umass to the New Jersey Nets fiasco he was a part of…I wasn’t foolin’ with dude. But once my man Juanny from Camden went down to Memphis to play with Cal, the healing process started. And by the time D. Rose was running point for him, I actually started to root for dude and by the time Wall was running Kentucky’s squad, I was all in with Cal. The only problem now is he’s coaching at University of Kentucky…and I HATE the University of Kentucky!

Book of Rhymes: The Returned

The other day my dude got at me about two scripts I sent him that I wanted him to check out. After he gave me some feedback, he asked me “so what’s this thing you’ve got with death?” And to be honest I didn’t even realize that 4 of the 6 scripts that I’ve written somehow, someway all deal with death. So after thinking about it, I guess my man was right…I do have a “thing” with death. I remember when I was a kid, I’d always think about what happens if I die while I’m sleep. And I’m sure the whole “if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take” prayer before going to sleep didn’t help either. Then in ’96 I lost 3 good friends, all within a 5 month span, which brought my “fear” of death back in full swing. My dad actually helped me deal with this fear by simply explaining that when it’s your time to go…it’s your time to go and there’s nuthin you can do about it. There’s no “final destination” hoopla going on cause if you almost died or “escaped” death, then it wasn’t your time to go. So, that along with giving my life to Christ helped me get past my fear of death with the whole “being absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord” and that way of thinking REALLY helped me deal with the death of my grandmother back in ’99.

Book of Rhymes: Mo Meta Blues - Questlove

I can't hold you, I've never been a Questlove fan. Yeah, I LOVE the Roots to death (even though I'm not in love with the bulk of their releases since "Things Fall Apart") but not Questlove. Why? Because I never understood what he brought to the group. Now that my sound kinda weird and ya'll might be saying  "duh...Kil, he's the drummer." And of course I know he's the drummer but the bulk of my favorite Root's songs have that drum machine "boom bap" feel to them...so why do they need a drummer in the group?  Questlove stans will say something like "but Quest plays the drums but he resampls them through a drum machine to give it "that" feel." My response is, "why not just use a drum machine?" I remember reading this article a while back about how Pete Rock uses the MPC2000XL now instead of the SP-1200 but he runs it through all of this "stuff" to get it to sound like a SP-1200 and me and my dude Mills was like "why not just use the SP-1200 then?" Most folk who know me, know I wasn't in love with "Do You Want More" or "Organix" mostly because of the live feel and the "jazzyness" and both releases were just too light in the ass for me. It wasn't til "Illadelph" that I can say that I became a fan of The Roots and trust me, it had A LOT to do with the harder drums and samples. So, if some my fave Root's jawns were produced by other producers, I gotta ask again...what's Quest for again?

Now trust, I'm not trying to throw the man under the bus because I know money's EASILY one of the best drummers of our generation, not to mention an incredible music director and band leader but since the Roots starting moving in a "harder" direction, I've always questioned his roll in the group. He even touched on it in the liner notes of "Illadelph" when he states, "stop making my loops sound artificial, they're going to think I'm not on the album." But since we're on the topic of Quest's liner notes, that's another place where I can't front on dude cause money has an uncanny ability through his writings to allow you to be a fly on the wall through the journey of making a Root's album. It was to the point that if a Root's album didn't have liner notes it automatically lost half of mic from me when it came time to rate the album cause Quest made the liner notes just as important as the beats and rhymes. So when I found out Quest was coming out with a book of his memoirs I knew I'd be first in line to cop it. But hold tight for a minute...I've played myself in the past, copping cat's biographies and memoirs thinking I'm gonna get a breakdown on how their albums were made and how their rhymes were written a la Brian Coleman's "Check The Technique" only to find myself bored outta my mind cause I'm just hearing about their childhood, and how much of a thug they are, and all of the chicks they banged or hearing a lot of other cat's stories that are more exciting then their own. But no matter how many past hip hop memoirs have done me dirty, I would bet money that if anybody in the entire game could pull off a hip hop memoir the right way, that it would be Questlove. And guess what? I wasn't wrong by any means.

Quest starts off the book saying that he doesn't want this to be your average book...and it isn't. There are so many dope things about this book, I honestly don't know where to start. We can start off with how there are so many different layers to this book and the dopest part is they all work together without confusing the hell outta you. First you've got  Rich Nichols (The Root's co-manager from day one) and Quest having random conversations throughout the book that eventually lead to Rich's thought becoming footnotes to Quest's thoughts which is one of the illest things I've ever come across in an artist's memoirs. It's literally like an episode of What's Happening when you would hear Dwayne's side of the story and then you hear Raj's and Rerun's side. The same thing is going on here. Sometimes the way Quest says things went down, Rich remembers the exact opposite happening. Then you've got emails from Ben Greenman (the cowriter) to Ben Greenberg (the editor) explaining how the book is coming along and what changes are being made and then mix that in with the "Quest Loves Records" parts of the book which is a breakdown of some of Quest's favorite records and what affect they had on his life and then there's also that 'lil part about Quest's life story which I'm glad to say he's a wide open book about. Whether he's talking about his family life from his pop being a "softer" version of Joe Jackson, his pop making him smoke 14 cigs as a kid and his pop wanting a cut outta his "Do You Want More" advance to his relationship with Tariq, how they met, how Tariq and Wanya (from Boyz II Men) going at it over a shorty lead to them forming a group and how a fist fight between them from 20+ years ago still affects them to this day.

And how can I leave out how funny this dude Quest is...money has some of the funniest stories for days! How about the time Prince's assistant texted Quest about a Valentine's Day skating party he was having and told Quest that he should bring some "cool" people and outta everybody in Quest's crew, he ends up going with Eddie Murphy. (sounds like a Charlie Murphy story from The Chapelle show right?) Or what about the time at the '95 Source Awards when the whole Suge/Puff drama went down and as Quest remembers it, as soon as John Singleton said the winner for producer of the year was Dr. Dre he grabbed his date and ran out the awards and didn't look back. "I felt like Lot and his wife fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah and I didn't turn around for that very reason. I felt like my life was in danger." After finishing this book (in one day I might add...can't remember the last time I finished a book in one day) I mos def not only understand why Quest has been a part of the Roots but more importantly that The Roots probably wouldn't be The Roots I love, without Quest. So even though I've never been a Questlove torch bearer or even a fan, I now realize how can you not root (no pun intended) for a dude who went from playing buckets on South Street in Philly for money to eat to becoming the band leader for the soon to be tonight show? And the answer is simple...you HAVE to root for him.

4 outta 5

Book of Rhymes: Michael Vick's Finally Free

I'm mos def looking forward to this. It drops Sept. 4th and you can pre-order your copy here...