Editorial: On Brother Nature and Quan’s Biases

December 26, 2011 by Quan Vu 10 Comments

UPDATE: I guess I’m still not being clear enough. I said this in the comments section but I figure I’d bring it up to the top of the post for the sake of clarity:

Like I said, I’m only trying to lay my own biases out on the table. This isn’t to diss them. Actually, it’s the opposite. I’m warning you that my previous dismissal of them really WAS unfair. Their music forced me to ask myself, Do I not like this because it’s bad or because of some other personal biases? And I’ve now recognized it was the latter.

Reader William_will brought up a good point in the comments section of the previous post on Real J. Wallace’s new EP. I had tried to respond in the comments section but my response turned into a long-winded essay that was too big for a comment so I’ve reproduced it here. Also, shout out to reader Tomham for the Blues vs. Jazz comment in that same post. That’s on some next level spit.

William_will says:

I’ve seen you review thiss guy a few times & your reviews have made me pass on his projects, after listeing to this and giving Real J Wallace a chance I come to find he is witty honest and a breath of fresh air. I find it odd that your site seems to love “ganster” rap and all its vulgarity and mislead truths but you talk down honest & crative music such as this project. I’m interested to see what you will say about this Godspeed JahBless project I just downloaded from the other cat from Brother Nature. I understand difference in taste but damn Quan Vu you really do have some sort of unspoken hate for these guys.

“Hate” is pretty strong but here are my biases, the best I can figure. There are a lot of factors at work here and I’ll try my best to address them.

In regards to gangster rap, yeah, I mean, I’d be lying if it were as straightforward as there just being a lot of good gangster rap. My “love” for gangster rap is at least partially a political statement. Gangster rap is dying and most people are saying “Good riddance” to the vulgarity, violence, immorality, etc. But I got this strong fear that the death of gangster rap also equates to a silencing of the voiceless people that gangster rap is supposed to speak for. I’m a fan of Kanye but the celebreality rap that he popularized just worries me more that hip-hop is getting less and less connected with actual people. There are for sure plenty of issues with gangster rap. But there’s still this general idea that they’re at the bottom of society and their they’re trying to come up, which is something I can get behind.

About Brother Nature, I’ve met them but I don’t really know them personally. They didn’t like steal my girlfriend or get me fired or anything. At one point, they did correctly call me out for not really being in the scene, going to shows, etc. and I’ve tried to be better about that since then. This isn’t a personal vendetta, but I’d understand if you took it that way.

Anyways, yeah, I’m biased against them for a few reasons and I might have stated them before. Read more of this post

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Brief Notes on 2011 SDMA’s

August 10, 2011 by Quan Vu Leave a Comment


I’m back. Sorry for the short absence, but you know how it is, I just get burnt out sometimes (also, I was spending way too much time watching Sons of Anarchy on Netflix). Thanks for understanding and coming back.

The SDMA’s went down this past Monday. It was better this year than last year for a few reasons:

  • As you already know, the hip-hop nominations were substantially better this year than last.
  • SoundDiego had me covered on drinks to burn away my feelings of douchebaggery as I stood surrounded by elbows grossly rubbing up on each other.
  • I finally met Dominique aka El-Gun Legro.
  • 1019 the Numberman became the first person to get the whole point of this website, which is for me to make rapper friends who will throw women at me on general principle. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any Asians around and I like to keep it real in terms of interracial dating (damn, I think I’ve already referenced Common).
  • I’m no expert, but I like Little Hurricane.
  • The announcers for each hip-hop award miraculously did NOT cheese it up with their outsider status. Good move.
  • Vokab Kompany won “Best Hip-Hop” and played “Ridin’ My Bike (Mr. Ridley remix)” as they came up to the stage. They also shouted out Ridley real quick.
  • Blame won “Best Hip-Hop Album.” Unfortunately he wasn’t there due to some communication issue (no, he did not snub the SDMA’s like I thought). But fortunately, this other North County rapper, Change, rushed the stage and said something to the effect of “Yo, I just wanna say, thank God it wasn’t MC Flow again. This is for real hip-hop!” And while I want to stay away from continuing to use MC Flow as a punching bag (because she’s entirely too nice and I think she’s putting music on the backburner anyway), I am a fan of rappers rushing the stage at awards shows.

I mentioned before that, in the grand scheme of things, the SDMA’s don’t matter too much. MC Flow has won several SDMA’s and even she’s said that the award itself has had little effect on her career. I doubt that Blame will suddenly start caking after this award though that’d be cool (um, buy Endurance here though). But I think it’s useful, at least for the hip-hop community, to look at as a sort of report card for the local entertainment media to see how we’re doing in our coverage. And I think having good media coverage is one of the pre-requisites for fostering a healthier scene. Hopefully, next year will be even better.

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SDMA’s 2011: Official Hip-Hop Nominations

June 27, 2011 by Quan Vu 17 Comments


The official San Diego Music Award nominations were announced today. Here’s a rundown of the hip-hop categories and some thoughts afterward:

Best Hip Hop

Best Hip Hop Album

While it’s not exactly what I’d wanted, it’s actually a lot better than I’d expected. I mean, dude, Genghis Khan–apparently, the most elusive rapper in San Diego and something of a battle rap legend–is nominated. I could never have predicted that in my life. Just when you think awards are all about politics and connections, the city’s biggest rap hermit gets a nod. That’s some baller shit right there. Read more of this post

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Opinion: ‘San Diego Is The Smooth Jazz Capital of the World’

June 2, 2011 by SDRaps.com Guest 5 Comments


Jaz, who works at Batkave Studios, posted an interesting blog entry about the history of the San Diego music scene and how artists today should learn to capitalize off of that foundation. I can’t speak on it too hard but I wonder what everyone else thinks. Here’s what Jaz has to say (you can read the original post on his Facebook page here):

OK LET’S TALK ABOUT JAZZ,

WAIT …………….. Did I say Jazz? A lot of young people are already clicking off the page, but read on and you might learn something.

I’ve been here longer than most of you have been self aware about music and I’ve been watching you complain from a distance about not getting any support or radio play in this town. I haven’t really been saying anything because most of you think you know how to do things and still there are crickets chirping at your shows. The only people in the crowd are other artists who can’t wait for you to get off the stage so they can perform. And the rest of you blindly promote on the internet oblivious to what’s going on because you haven’t really met any of the real movers and shakers in this city face to face. So now I’m ready to talk because a lot of you have confidence but no knowledge about how this city runs. So listen up ……………………………..

Every city has a sound. And if that sound is supported by the wealthy, then that money creates venues, thus creates opportunities to be heard and supported: Read more of this post

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Editorial: You’re the rapper, I’m the critic

June 24, 2010 by Quan Vu 3 Comments

Quan Vu, writing a post for SDRaps.com

I’m a couple months late but I’d like to take this time out to introduce myself: Hi. My name is Quan Vu. And I am a critic.

And if you’re a rapper or artist, you probably hate my guts. After all, everyone’s a critic. Assholes are like opinions–everybody has one. What the hell gives me the right? Who the fuck do I think I am? Why does my opinion matter more than anyone else’s? Why does it matter at all? Read more of this post

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