Ice-T & Long-time Producer Afrika Islam Form EDM/Hip-Hop Label Electronic Beat Empire & Unleash MR.X's The Brutal EP (EBE NATION)

For starters: above, you will see a rather striking image pulled from Claude "Paradise" Gray & Giuseppe "u.net" Pipitone's 2016 Wax Poetics photo-book, No Half Steppin' - An Oral & Pictorial History of New York City Club The Latin Quarter & The Birth of Hip-Hop's Golden Era. It's indeed, a photo Gray & Pipitone's book featuring Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five sharp-spitter Grandmaster Melle Mel, Afrika Islam & Ice-T taken sometime in 1986 either in or around New York's infamous club, The Latin Quarter. Afrika Islam kick-started his musical career at the tender age of 10, as he joined The Bronx-bred Hip-Hop/breakin' group, Rock Steady Crew in 1977. Islam would go on to cut his teeth acting as an apprentice under Afrika Bambaataa and was an early member of Bambaataa's international cultural awareness group, The Universal Zulu Nation. Throughout his decades-long career, Afrika Islam has repeatedly collaborated with New Jersey's own musician, rapper, song-writer, actor, record executive, record producer, and author Ice-T.

Afrika Islam single-handedly produced the entirety of Ice's first three studio albums released between 1987-89: Rhyme Pays, Power, and The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech... Just Watch What You Say! Ice-T & Afrika Islam would later collaborate on select cuts from Dennis Hopper's Colors (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,) Rhyme $yndicate's Rhyme $yndicate Comin' Through, and Ice's fourth album, O.G. Original Gangster (1991) as well as a number of 12-inch singles and non-album tracks. Now, nearly 31 years after their first collaboration, Ice-T & Afrika Islam AKA DJ MR.X AKA Charlie Funk have reunited for their first multi-media collaboration in decades. Ice-T & MR.X have formed their own record label, Electronic Beat Empire—or just EBE NATION, for short—attempting to bridge the gap between Hip-Hop/Gangster Rap, Electronic Dance Music (EDM,) and Techno/House music. "With artwork evocative of graphic novels and images of extraterrestrial biological entities in their music videos, Ice-T & MR.X built a record label named Electronic Beat Empire; EBE is also, short for Extraterrestrial Biological Entities," EBE NATION wrote within a recent emailed press release.

Since launching around April, EBE NATION's first releases include: a MR.X REMIX of Ice-T & Afrika Islam's 1988 collaboration "COLORS," "BOUNCE THAT A$$" as Charlie Funk feat. Ice-T, "RAGE OF THE MACHINE" | MR.X WASABI BYTES | REMIX Video, MR.X's "KILLER (KILLER) DIE," and a 6-track collaborative genre-eschewing EP entitled The Brutal. "EXCLUSIVE: I mentioned last year that I was entering the EDM world! My original producer, Afrika Islam, and I have started a new EDM [label, Electronic] Beat Empire. Introducing: DJ MR.X. You've been WARNED! 💥" ICE-T (@FINALLEVEL) enthusiastically Tweeted back on July 17th. Executive Produced by both Ice-T & MR.X, Ice's first foray into EDM/EBE's inaugural release has been described as "a murderous EP of irresistibly catchy, computer-based music." MR.X & Ice-T's The Brutal EP is now available on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Beatport, Google Play, Juno Download, Napster, Soundcloud, Spotify, TIDAL, and like-minded digital streaming platforms.

"Let Me Shine for You:" Lindsay Lohan for Playboy (Winter 2011-12 Leak)

Lindsay Lohan essentially embodies exactly "What NOT to Do In Hollywood :" Fame, fortune, success... sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll . Within a fairly short period of time, Lohan somehow managed to obtain a plentiful helping of POWER @ a very young age. This gradual rise-downfall was captured on film; Between 1998-2010, she portrayed a wide array of roles across the silver screen in movies including: Mean Girls, Bobby , Herbie Fully Loaded , Georgia Rule, Machete , and Freaky Friday . Between rapid-paced film shoots, Lindsay Lohan also found time to record 2 Pop Rock albums for Casablanca , Speak (2004) and A Litter More Personal-Raw (2005). Needless to say, Lindsay Lohan has gotten roped up in a lot of troubles and woes with the law over the last 3-5 years... a vicious cycle of drugs, arrest, court, rehab, "daddy issues," jail time [Repeat]. That's the pure basics of it - But Google that shit for additional info, if necessary. Towards the end of

[W]reckless, Topless American Youth: Lana del Rey - "Born 2 Die" (Britney Spears Birthday 30)

Lana del Rey [Lizzy Grant] effectively became 2011's "It Girl" with the release of her phenomenal debut single, "Video Games" (Stranger) . Like many struggling singer-songwriters, Grant has been signed, dropped, and significantly changed her public image since bursting onto the scene (2009). With that said, it can be assumed that Lana del Rey has collected just as many "haters" as she has avid supporters. To be perfectly honest, the only other artist I can think of that made this much commotion... garnered so much wide-spread buzz/hate and critical acclaim -- right out of the gates -- with just one track is Britney Spears . And maybe in this post- Mike musical era, that's the true synthesis of Pop Culture: Britney Lynn Spears . After months of repeated teasing and speculation, Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die will [finally] be released this coming Jan. 30-31, 2012. Pitchfork reports that it will feature "Off to The Ra

Liberty Bell Cracked In 1/2: Ween - "Freedom of '76" (Gene Ween's Final Send-Off)

Chocolate & Cheese (1994) was one of the first albums I bought with my own money. I was in some sort of BMG Music Club , where you'd buy 5 CD's and then get 10 for "FREE." It was all sent through mail order and you picked the titles from some special booklet. I'm almost positive that Chocolate & Cheese's side boob-baring album cover was what initially drew me in... mind you, I was 12-15 and the zany Ween logo/middle finger CD graphic really didn't hurt either. Honestly, I forget how I really felt about it @ the time, but a few years later, my older cousin Josh told me that Ween were this BIG college "jam band." CKY did some sort pf 93.3 radio takeover to promote their new album and played "Freedom of '76" late that night on air. Needless to say, I re-visited Chocolate & Cheese @ about 20-something this go 'round and I fucking loved it! Ween were really weird, yet talented... almost too talented. I can vaguel

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