At this year’s Daymon Day people painted a mural that honored deceased local icons and members of the community Daymon Dodson,  DJ Przm, “E”, Camu Tao, Todd Minton and Andyman on the back of a handball court at Tuttle Park in Columbus, Ohio.

Check the mural out after the jump.

Daymon Dodson

DJ Przm

Emmanuel “E” Martin

Camu Tao

Todd Minton

AndyMan Davis

Masta Ace- Slaughtahouse

Last Friday, Odd Future Records “signed” a new artist Young N*gga. It seems like it might be Tyler, the Creator having fun. Listen for yourself..

It reminded me of Masta Ace’s song Slaughterhouse(video posted above) which is probably the reason the Westside Connection started. I don’t think Tyler detests rappers like Young N*gga quite like Masta Ace did Early 90′s CB4 types.

I think he is in between parody, and role playing on that one.

After the jump some more joke raps.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Prince Paul-Psycho Linguistics

the Hip Hop skit inventor,Prince Paul understood that some East Coast Rap was as dumb as some of the G-Rap overkill.

Pyscho-Linguistics clowns the overly gothic, lyrical myrical super-scientifical rappers on this song off an album that clowns everyone Psychoanalysis.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Black Sheep-U Mean I’m Not

Black Sheep predated Master Ase with this parody of early 90′s Gangsta Rap.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Diesal Truckers

I stopped listning to Kool Keith after Sex Style. But there is a Funky Redkneck on this song and I felt like Kool Keith deserves credit on creating the alter-ego character

Click here to view the embedded video.

Blair Cosby Presents Cerial Carpens

the Late Camu Tao from here in Columbus was very good a creating odd characters, and then making rap songs from their perspective.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Andy Milonakis Feat Lil B

Now there are songs where you can’t tell if they are joking or not.

MP3: Camu’s Back

Pac Back. Pun Back. Biggie Back. Eazy-E Back. Big L Back.Freaky Tah Back. Stack Bundles Back.

So it’s only right that Camu’s friend Cool Ray Slick aka Aqward proclaims Tero Smith to be back.

Copywrite, Jakki, the ghost of Camu and Tage rapping at the Carabar here in Columbus.

This song is off the Life and Times of Peter Nelson available at the finer record stores everywhere.

Welp. I’d link to think anyone who claims to like music is aware of this. But we all have our own lives to lead. HOWEVER, All Eyes in the underground hip hop galaxy focus on our city as we being the home of some of the greatest talent ever celebrate the release of Camu Tao’s King of Hearts album on Def Jux/Fat Possum Records.
El-P is flying in to present our city the album, and enjoy the city that Camu loved.
ooohh so a national release in Columbus…say word..
but wait..lets not get too cool.
All the proceeds from the door benefit the James Cancer Center.
So..hopefully you will come and join us.
I feel like this is one of the musical moments that someone with pyrotechnics at the Schott could’nt trump.
5 dollar suggested donation.
DJ Pos 2, DJ Detox, DJ Carol, DJ True Skillz, and DJ Drastic on the tables
Hoster by El-Producto.
Album plays at midnight.
the packaging will make you cry.
In the Short North. At Skullys. On High Street. In Columbus Ohio.

400 Lb Ear Lifts and Leak Smoke……..

By Eduardo Jones

Mr. Flexner asked me if I’d like to share a Camu memory with everybody for his blog. Now, I started thinking back about Camu and my experiences with him, two stories really stick out in my head more than any others– so I’ll share both.

Let’s take a trip back in time to the hay days of Bernies, back when the air was alive with Hip Hop, raw sewage, blunt smoke and the smell of 200 sweaty assholes on a Sunday night. I believe if memory serves me right is where I’d first met Camu. I was still a pretty new face around Columbus, but as fate would have it I somehow met all the right people. Jesus, it frightens me at times to think what would have happened if I’d met some meat head frat boy instead of Asend and Lil Steph.
On this particular night in question I was down at Bernies with Cameron. He was a very close friend of mine, but as many of you know Cameron tended to be a bully. He was the epitome of a Debo. The kid weighed in at around 400lbs, and had a taste for imposing his will on people. If they didn’t play by Cameron’s rules odds were he was smacking the shit out of them. He also tended to get pissed and start fights over some really stupid shit. I’m not shit talking him; I’m just telling it like it is.

I was getting my drink on and bullshitting with PRZM about how we needed to find some bitches; as par for the course when I talked with P. If you knew PRZM, you know he had three loves– Polo, Pussy, and Music; not necessarily in that order either. Suddenly our conversation was interrupted by some commotion out on the dance floor. It doesn’t take long for me to realize its Cameron man handling someone. This was going to be a problem as it usually was because of Cameron’s size nobody really ever wanted to nor tried to interfere when he was getting his Debo on.

Needless to say the music stops and everybody’s kind of just like what the fuck is going on. The next thing I know Camu comes bum rushing across the floor like a freight train. He spins Cameron around and grabs him by the ears and picks him up off the floor. No joke: picked his fat ass up off the ground by his ears! Then runs with him across the dance floor, and proceeds to bounce his head off this iron girder that holds the building up. Cameron’s feet still aren’t touching the ground by the way. He’s pale white and doesn’t even know what to say or do and it’s obvious by the look in his eyes he’s shocked and scared. I mean come on this was probably the first time anybody lifted him off the ground, never mind by the fucking ears! Cameron obviously didn’t want any of Camu after this. That always tends to be the way with bullies though. Once somebody actually shows them they aren’t scared and they can’t pull that shit on them, they tend to piss down their legs like a scared puppy.

That was one thing I always admired about Camu. He was fun, friendly, and a clown, but he never took shit from anybody and would always be quick to put somebody in their place if they stepped out of line; sometimes when nobody else would.

Now for this next memory we need to fast forward a few years. Camu came by my house one day. I can’t remember why or what for. Probably just to kick it. Anyways, I’m going through this box of shit in my room and I find this bottle of leak. I have no clue how long I’ve had it or how the hell I even got it. Back then I always had drugs, so most likely it was something I put away for a special occasion and forgot all about.

I show it to Camu and ask. “You want to get wet?” Needless to say he agrees and we start smoking dips. Something aint right about this shit though. I don’t know if it was because it was old or watered down, but it aint that strong. I mean it’s doing its job but not the way it should be. So we decided we needed to smoke as much of this shit as we could to get to the proper level. So we spend the next couple hours smoking this shit. Before long we decide we need to go out and do something. So we head down to Skully’s to meet up with the usual suspects. Camu tells me to bring the bottle so we can keep smoking it at the bar.

By now we’re both pretty dusted. It took twice as much as it probably should of, but everything got that nice electric fog feel to it after a while. We’re in one of those just us frames of mind you tend to get in when you’re the only people fucked up on one specific substance. So we aren’t really being too social. We’re just sitting at this table in the corner dipping cigarettes.

Camu decides he wants to go smoke a blunt and we should just say fuck it and pour the rest of the bottle on the blunt . Excess is always best, I have to agree. So there we are off on the side of Skully’s rolling this blunt and soaking it with this leak. Just before Mu sparks it, he looks at me says. ”Listen if anybody comes over here and wants to hit this shit, just pass it to them and don’t say shit.” I can agree with this plan, after all I’m the guy who used to sneak in tweak shacks when everybody had finally crashed and dip their fingers in bowls of liquid acid for shits an giggles. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t Mu’s plan to just get people wet for no reason or maybe it was. I think he just didn’t want anybody knowing we were smoking leak. So rather than be like no don’t hit that shit! Why not just pass it to them? Ignorance is bliss, right?

In no time these three chicks come around the corner and see Mu and I hitting this blunt. Of course they’re all like hey let us get down. So I pass it to them. Mind you this thing is sopping in leak! It doesn’t take long for one of them to say this thing tastes a little funny. Mu says it’s these new menthol blunt wraps he got in New York and they fucking buy it. I’m looking at Mu the whole time about to lose my shit, because these bitches are puffing on this thing like it’s the last blunt in the land. Mu’s just staring at me with this look in his eyes, like this is funny shit, but you better not say anything. It’s taking me everything in me to not just burst out in a hysterical laughter. I can’t even look at Mu at this point.

Before long the blunt is gone. These bitches are looking a little twisted and bounce thinking they just smoked two suckers weed and weren’t giving them the time of day otherwise. The minute they get in their car and pull off me and Mu started laughing so hard we were practically crying. I don’t know what ever happened to those chicks, but I doubt they ever just walked up on two strangers and tried to smoke all of their weed ever again.

Camu was a one in a million type and they’ll never be another like him again. I always had fun whenever I hung out with Mu. I miss him greatly and wish I had gotten more time with him than I did. I guess in a way the release party this Monday for The King Of Hearts is a way to rock out and hang out with him one more time. I know his spirit will be there in full effect.

MP3:Copywrite-Forever and a Day

“On Forever and a Day” RJD2 and Copywrite work together to mourn their fellow Megahert, Camu Tao. They brought in an indie rock group, Middle Distance Runner, to add layers and sing the hook. This is the first song on Copywrite’s upcoming album the Life and Time of Pete Nelson due out in October.

Def Jux and Fat Possum are putting out Camu’s album King of Hearts August 16th

(I swear to Allah that I’m not trying to get on this computer and talk about death everyday. Not to get all Jim Carrol, but, 3 major figures in hip hop from Columbus did die. And both of Copy’s parents are deceased so…artists are gonna make art about what affects them )

CAMU TAO “KING OF HEARTS” TO SEE RELEASE ON DEFINITIVE JUX / FAT POSSUM ON AUGUST 17

PLUS Personal letter from Jaime “EL-P” Meline

CAMU TAO : “KING OF HEARTS“

(Definitive Jux/Fat Possum; August 17, 2010)

Two years ago today  Tero “Camu Tao” Smith died after a grueling battle with cancer.  He was a friend, a son, a brother, a groom to be and last but not least a brilliant producer, singer, rapper and entertainer.  Words can not express the heartache that has been felt in the wake of his passing by those who loved and respected him.

In many ways KING OF HEARTS is a record of what could have been, a snapshot of an artist mid-evolution.  In some ways it’s a diary discovered in the belongings of a friend who passed away. Or maybe it’s a scrap book of a master inventor with only half of the schematics of some incredible new invention detailed inside. You don’t need to see the invention fully realized in order to recognize the magnitude of the creative force behind the sketches.

For those of you who know, I don’t feel like I have to explain to you how important the release of KING OF HEARTS is.  He was, as I’ve said before, the secret none of us wanted to keep.  He is a legend.

For the many of you out there unfamiliar with Camu and his work:  we’ve written a bio/press release as well as collected some of his music as well as a world premier off of KOH called “Perfect Plan” which I’m putting below.  I only ask that you take a little bit of time out of your day to investigate.  Don’t let yourself be closed off to this mans music simply because you haven’t heard of it/him before.  Getting his amazing, weird, raw and original music heard is all he ever wanted.  We only ask that you give him that chance.  I believe you’ll be happy you finally discovered the world of the King Of Hearts.  I know for the many of us who loved and respected him that knowing Camu and his music changed us forever.

What we hope happens when you hear King Of Hearts is that you feel the way we feel; This music (even in its raw form) is some of the bravest, most surprising, inspired, and (now more so than ever) poignant material around from an artist who was only beginning to tap into his potential. It’s a raw reminder for his fans, friends, and family of how special and off the wall his energy was, and yet it sounds nothing like anything he’s ever done before or has previously been known for.  In fact, I don’t think it’s over the top to say that what Camu was doing sounds like nothing before it because I know for a fact that there was never anyone like Camu before him.

There won’t ever be another after, either.

Rest In Peace, Tero “Camu Tao” Smith

Sincerely,

Jaime “EL-P” Meline

For two years I have written about Camu on this day.  Not a day has gone by that we, his family, friends and fans, haven’t thought about him.  About who he was, what he did and what he never got the chance to do.  About the talent he never got to truly share with the world and the love he did.  For over four years I have hoped to make the following bittersweet announcement:

This summer, on August 17th, Camu Tao’s first and final solo album KING OF HEARTS will be released by Definitive Jux in collaboration with Fat Possum Records.  In conjunction with this release we will also be giving away (for free) the 2005 Central Services (Camu Tao and EL-P) ep “Forever Frozen In Television Time”.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PRESS RELEASE:

Camu Tao, the legendary MC, producer, and singer, whose life was tragically cut short on May 25th, 2008 after a protracted battle with lung cancer, will have his debut solo album and final statement, King of Hearts, posthumously released on August 17, 2010 as a collaborative release between Fat Possum Records and Definitive Jux. Described by friends, peers and colleagues as “wild, proud, loving, tough, outspoken, spontaneous, and brilliant,” Tao was a creative powerhouse whose output was as staggering in its scope of influences as it was emotionally evocative.  El-P describes King of Hearts as “raw, exciting and unlike anything anyone has heard”.  Even newer school rappers feel the impact of Camu’s work, “These songs are so before their time it’s ridiculous” says Kid Cudi.   Cage sums up the album as “a masterpiece in the making.”

Camu got his start in the late 90′s alongside RJD2 and Copywrite in Columbus, OH’s seminal hip hop group MHZ whose releases were issued by Bobbito Garcia’s legendary vinyl only label Fondle ‘Em Records. After dropping his cult classic solo debut 12-inch Hold the Floor on Definitive Jux in 2001 he went on to become a central fixture at the label, his distinctive contributions playing a key role in The Weathermen (his crew with Aesop Rock, Cage, El-P, Yak Ballz, Tame One and Breeze Brewin) and as one half of S.A. SMASH(alongside Keith “Metro” Lawson) on their 2003 Def Jux full length album Smashy Trashy. As a producer his brilliant contributions are evidenced on Cage’s seminal album Hell’s Winter, and The Perceptionists’ Black Dialogue, as well as appearances on Aesop Rock’s Danger, Fire & Knives, El-P’s Fantastic Damage and Collecting the Kid, Prefuse 73′s Surrounded By Silence, and many, many others.

At the time of his death Camu Tao was working on what his friends and colleagues anticipated to be his breakthrough solo record, King of Hearts, initially scheduled for release on Definitive Jux in 2008, but left incomplete in the wake of his cancer diagnosis. Pieced together from the demos and home recordings he left behind (which have subsequently earned him fans amongst such esteemed peers as Dangermouse, Kid Cudi, and many others), the new release offers a privileged view of a magnum opus in the making by a blossoming visionary who was denied the opportunity to bring his unique masterpiece to fulfillment. The record marks a departure from his former works, most notably as it finds Camu favoring a distinctively playful, semi-soul croon as well as the off-kilter and wild rapping that earned him a reputation among peers and fans as an innovative genius. Musically King of Hearts delves into realms of gritty, electropunk pop, alternately veering between the dark carnival-esque and the sublimely summery. Pleasantly disorienting electronic tones cascade and pulse as dense, propulsive beats build a solid foundation upon which Tao constructs immensely hooky and infectious choruses. Written and produced by Camu himself, King Of Hearts is the last vision of a criminally underrated talent in the midst of a major artistic breakthrough cut short before being fully completed.

Also prior to his death Camu Tao formed production crew and side project Central Services with longtime friend & collaborator El-P, whose long awaited 2004 debut EP Forever Frozen in Television Time has gone unreleased until now. In conjunction with the release of King of Hearts Definitive Jux will be issuing Central Services’ EP as a free digital download.

Thoughts on King of Hearts:

“These songs are so before their time it’s ridiculous. The melodies and
harmonies are very clever, the lyrics are quick witted and his vocal
arrangements are genius. People need to hear this shit and know this
man’s story. Camu was a great future Ohio talent who I’m sure would
have made a huge mark in this mediocre industry.” – Kid Cudi

“It’s a shame he couldn’t fully finish this record and an even bigger
shame we lost him. You can feel the pain in his voice as you get lost
in his words and music. King of Hearts is a masterpiece in the making.” – Cage

“I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be able to finally put our
dear friend Camu Tao’s King Of Hearts record out and to have
partners like the good people at Fat Possum to do it.  The music is
raw, exciting and unlike anything anyone has heard.  Finally we get to
share the final vision of this very special person with you all.” – El-P

“When I played the Camu tracks, I thought it was one of the best things I’d ever heard from the Def Jux camp.  I’m really anxious and excited to release King of Hearts, and to be working with Def Jux.” – Matthew Johnson (founder Fat Possum)

MP3:Mhz freestyle 98 on the Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito Show 89.9

(Via The Bustown Stomp)

Writing about the MHZ is weird for Donewaiting.com cause, do I say…RJD2′s rap group. Do I say the late Camu Tao’s rap group? Copywrite’s?

Regardless, on what would be the rock fan’s reference point, the Mhz spawned a good chunk of what Columbus Hip Hop became nationally recognized for.

The above freestyle was from when Tage, Camu and Copy apprearred on Stretch & Bobbito. We had been for years savoring bootlegs of the infuential NYC radio show.

I mean Columbus rappers were on the same show that had become infamous because of Big L and Jay-z freestyles? The same show that broke Wu-Tang’s first single?

I just being amazed how many times they said Columbus during this program. Still bugs me out listening to it now.

It was like….”Bobbito knows where Columbus is…no way.”

A few weeks ago we celebrated the 4th annual Daymon Day here in Columbus. We had a basketball tourney, tribute mural, emcee battle, parade and a rowdy dance party. We got our Rucker park on and then brought it into the streets.

For those that aren’t familar with Daymon Day but like things perhaps reading this article before or after viewing the following videos and pictures might give you some background info.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video shot by A.J.(i think) shows the parade.

Watch it if you think marching 300 plus people in the middle of the road to Black Sabbath, Dilla, Cam’ron, M.O.P. , DJ Przm, Camu Tao, Jim Jones,Pharoah Monche and Racist Joe instrumentals to honor their fallen loved ones on an OSU gameday sounds interesting.

Photos taken by Danielle Kline that show a different detail after the jump.

I missed the basketball tourney that CJ Townsend organized because I was out in the burbs buying Montana’s for a couple doods’ outline colors for one of the graffiti murals.As for the basketball contest, I guess Central City Recordings brought in some ringers and won the game.

The other big story from the tourney, was Team Weedsteeler was narrowly defeated by the Grip 14-1. The other highlight was that Ron House played for Agit Reader(i think) and appeherently was a fierce competitor.

I got to the Park right before the rap battle between Zero Star and EC Vol. The battle was in front of the newly restored Tuttle Park handball court mural.

A. Kern and Ender did a wonderful job covering up the alterations made by tags, drawing of penises and the weather that had overtaken the iconic mural orginally meticulously painted by B. Jones, S.Zook, G. Sparano and D. Duncan that expressed both graffiti writer’s civic pride and their often underestimated abilties.

(A. Kern is the young muralist that painted the Blue Danube, every Daymon mural, and the bathrooms of Milkbar among other things. Two of his murals were included in the Dispatch’s recent Top Ten Murals in Columbus.)

Unlike the cityscape that A.Kern fixed, the bottom pieces of N.E.W.S. were dissed beyond repair, so Ender created a universal font that honored our cities fallen Hip Hop heros, Daymon Dodson, DJ Przm, and Camu Tao.

The mural, in its orginal form, had burners of the words, North, East, West, and South, directing the viewer to the idea that the kids that paint the city with letters could literally paint the city to the letter. The letters were on the original mural were intentionally painted in highly stylized graffiti form next to an amazing rendering of the cityscape of downtown Columbus.

The idea of those involved with the graffiti restoration process was that deviating from a graffiti font was ok. The point that letters can be as technical challenging as photorealistic scenery had be proven by the mural’s original artists.

The muralists were restoring the idea that graffiti writers love their city and interact with their community.

So maybe the actual mural wasnt exactly restored to exact original form.

But the remembrance of icons and their contributions to our city is important to our city’s culture and identity development. Graffiti was used to put this back in people’s minds.

A legible font conveyed this sentiment by being more viewer accessible.

(plus the back wall has 18+ burners on it, painted by BSA,PBJ, ESE,IOK, 3WA and TFC doods.)

This set the stage for a rap battle between Zero Star and EC Vol.

Click here to view the embedded video.

video of battle by Chase Manhattan(i think)

DIY MARCHING BAND:Tony “Envelope” Collinger and Mike “DJ Detox” Tormey set up a PA in the back of a pick-up truck so that Detox could dejay while people marched in the parade.

Danielle Kline made a dinosaur float so that the Daymon Dodson doll would have somewhere to sit during the parade.

Parade time.

This is Jacqueliene Arias, a journalist, artist and filmmaker in town from NYC because of the festival on Gay Street downtown. She contacted me via facebook because she is making a documentary and wanted to talk about Columbus art and culture. So I picked her up.

She was really impressed by what she saw at ID09 on Gay Street. She expressed a notion that it was shame the events were the same day. I told her a real city can support two festivals in the same day.( Which Columbus did easily)

I told her that organizers of ID09 did try to include us.

However our parade is greatly contingent on having mural space to paint tribute walls, and the spectacle of marching in front of OSU celebrating football fans on gameday on OSU campus.

Daymon loved absurdity so trumping OSU football is prolly the best thing we could ever do.

Picture being a freshman at OSU:

You are on a porch playing beerpong. So pumped that the Buckeyes just won and you have a case of Natty Light to toast these glorious times..

You look over, and OMG, in the middle of the street are 300 people of every background possible except your own, marching to the instrumental Dipset’s “What’s Really Good” while chanting Racist Joe.

Might make you spit out your shitty beer, and create a memory

(and at least we had a painting of downtown’s skyline)

rofl

The parade concluded on 5th and High where the crowd sung Daymon’s hit song, “Bitch, You Don’t Know Shit”.

I was terrified because Daymon’s family were there and the song is explicit.

To my suprise/relief Daymon’s mom knew the words. She giggled during and did not sing the “bitch” or “shit” parts. It was laughshh you don’t laughshh. It was beautiful that she had discovered and enjoyed that aspect of her son.

Detox finally gets to get out of the truck after dejaying a parade.

Eventually we left Milk Bar and headed to the Summit for this afterparty:

http://s877.photobucket.com/albums/ab339/itspos/daymon%20day/daymon%20day%20summit%20st%20jam/?action=view&current=100_0544.flv

video courtesy of pos 2.