• 

  Collard Greens & Gunpowda

  Many dog owners and trainers feed their pets an admixture of leftover food from the dinner table and gunpowder. It is said that gunpowder causes a canine to be more aggressive, erratic. Angry. In essence, the food portion of this strange diet sustains the dog's growth while the gunpowder alters it's temperament and corrodes it's emotional stability. The combination simultaneously nurtures and destroys the animal. Dogs reared in this manner are most often killed in dog fights, die from health complications, or are put to sleep.... Sorepo Records proudly announces the release of Blac Phoak's groundbreaking new album, the aptly titled Collard Greens and Gunpowda. After selling over 9,000 hand-to-hand units of their underground album, The Movement, the eight member group, Yum Yum, Donavelli, Spody, Ni'key Baby, Vorhese, DK, Emlo, and Chozen, are back with their first commercial release. The new project flows as life does itself highlighting and poetically interpreting all of the fundamental human emotions including distress, anger, pain, depression, happiness, fear, love, and sensuality. The album's title relates to the opposing spiritual, emotional, and socio-psychological forces shaping the lives and perspectives of the group members. The group finds it's roots in the historic city of Selma at the heart of Alabama's Black Belt region. The Black Belt, also referred to as the Bible Belt, is one of the most economically deprived regions in the nation, prompting comparisons to third world countries. Moreover, the Bible Belt, despite it's religious intensity, is overwhelmed by crime, violence, and failing educational institutions. It is a world were black mothers are forced to raise their children to survive instead of to live. It is this incongruous background that lays the foundation for the group's unique perspective: While Selma's civil rights legacy, black power ethos, and concentrated spirituality afforded the group members their consciousness, character, and faith, the city's joblessness and hopelessness are partly responsible for the group's anger, emotional instability as well as for the more destructive aspects of their personalities. Collard Greens and Gunpowda is concept driven from beginning to end. Following closely to the theme of the album, most of the songs reflect the contradictory nature of the black experience. However, despite the intensity and scope of the album, it still maintains a unique commercial appeal. One of the group's most defining songs, "First Thang Monday Mornin' (Remix)" is an unusually self-aware song about procrastination, failed self-change, and regret. The refrain reads in part, "First thang Monday mornin', I'm getting off this nicotine, puttin' down this alcohol and slacking off these collar' greens, but Monday neva comes." Also featured on Collard Greens is the subversive "Start a Riot," a street anthem destined to be a coast to coast club banger. This song, in particular, is a classic example of the Blac Phoak formula... "Give your audience what they need to hear, flipped in a way they want to hear it". Not overlooking the lighthearted side of life, Collard Greens & Gunpowda includes the tongue in cheek "Southern Lovers". One of the albums more humorous and whimsical tracks, it is seemingly a song about "gimme guls" (the southern version of gold diggers), but is more a play on materialism. The song finds the artists instructing us on how to get the gold diggers without giving the gold. In the process, they almost make it cool to be broke: "Southern lovers ain't no Casanovas ridin' 'round in no Range Rovers, girl we drive in Chevy Novas hemmin' you up on yo' mama's sofa." All in all, the masterfully assembled Collard Greens and Gunpowda is a breath of fresh air in the some times suffocating world of Hip-Hop music. The album, boldly combining social commentary, emotional disclosure and commercial appeal, can only be described as Collard Greens and Gunpowda. The group members with their varied lifestyles, distinct personalities and diverse perspectives can only be described as Blac Phoak. A movement indeed. Chozen "Man this is fo'real to me. I mean the way I connect with it is almost spiritual. I actually believe, I was born to be an MC. That's why they call me 'Chozen'....and when I hit that stage man, I go into a whole 'nother zone. But on another level, I also believe that what I do can affect the world, and I stand by my beliefs because I was taught that a man is nothing without his integrity. I was also raised to speak my mind, so of course this music is just natural to me. I done seen so much and been through so much...I just want to bring my point of view and my experiences to our music and give something to the world that has as much grit, intensity, passion and significance as this here ditch we represent." Yum Yum "There ain't no way to really describe me or my style. It's slaughta. I been all over and ran with all types of cats, from arm robbers to activist, dope dealers to doctors, hustlers to lawyers. So I picked up a little of this, a little of that from everybody along the way. I ain't no psychologist or nothing, but you could say that that's what shaped the attitude I approach life with. I don't want no stress. I didn't even want to be no rapper. I wasn't one of those cats walking around with a backpack and a notebook all of the time, but when we created Sorepo and set up the studio I would be down there messing around with the group and they started telling me that I had a raw style. They damn near made me get on a song. Up until then, I was doing it as a joke. I still just rap when I feel like it. But I guess I'll keep doing it. Ain't no telling." Nikki Donavelli "My life is crazy because I was like raised in two different places with two different realities. My people back in Ohio was heavy in the dope game-I ain't gone lie I got caught up...did almost a year--but my mom always made me aware of the history of our folk. And then living in Selma just reinforced all of the stuff I had learned. The level of consciousness I put into my songs is just a reflection of the crazy way I was brought up. You know, Collard Greens and Gunpowda. The content of my lyrics is a lot of times inspired by folk like W.E.B. Dubois and Malcolm X, but the spirit of my rhymes have the influence of cats like Tupac Shakur, the Last Poets and Donald Goines. I feel like it's on me to represent them all." D.K. "Man, I have 5 brothers & sisters and I grew up in a home that sometimes had up to 19 other people in it--Foreal. My family was real active in the community, so I was raised on the struggle. At the same time, growing up around all them people, you got to create your own space just to keep your sanity. Sometimes you had to fight just to eat. Man, that's the story of my life. I been at it with someone or something every since I was peeing in the bed. It's been a constant war with myself, always challenging myself, always trying to get better. It really just comes down to survival. You know a lot of people call me hard-headed, but sometimes I feel like it's my will that gets me by. I'm a born competiter. Now, I almost feel like I am competing with myself. It's like 'can I make a hotter beat?' or 'can I write some more fire lyrics?' I feel like I am about to loose it sometimes because I know they ain't ready for us and I'm ready for them to know they ain't." Spody "Man I been hustlin' all my life. And it seem like I been rappin' as long as I been hustlin, so I guess you can say I'm a veteran of both worlds. I bring to hip hop, what I got from the streets. That type of Wisdom and Knowledge that can't be learned in 4th period history class. I know I got something to get and give from this. Ain't no free lunch in life, and ain't nobody gone give you sh-t. You got to earn it or take it. And after watching so many of my homeboys getting locked up and buried, I knew there wasn't nothing left for me on the streets. What I'm doing now

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 17.54 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Italien: Venedig

  Die historische Lagunenstadt Venedig steht auf mehreren Inseln, die durch eine Vielzahl von Brücken verbunden sind. Ein System aus Kanälen ersetzt hier die Strassen. Die Paläste, die am Ufer des Canale Grande liegen, demonstrieren die Macht und den Einfluss, den Venedig Jahrhunderte lang hatte. Gotische Baukunst und der Oberfluss des Barock treffen in dieser schönen Stadt eindrucksvoll aufeinander. In weniger als einer Stunde kann man mit dem Boot Burno erreichen. Hier wird Fischerei und Spitzenherstellung groß geschrieben. Oder auch Murano, das bekannt für seine Glasbläser ist. Drei goldene Jahrhunderte in Frieden und Wohlstand machten Venedig zu einer glamourösen, märchenhaften Stadt, wie es keine zweite gibt. 120 Kirchen, 400 Brücken - diese Stadt auf dem Wasser sucht Seinesgleichen. Die Basilika Di San Marco, bekannt als die 'goldene Basilika' wird von 2500 Säulen aus Granit und Marmor getragen. Umgeben von Gebäuden aus verschiedenen Zeitaltern, ist der Piazzi Di San Marco mit Sicherheit einer der berühmtesten Plätze der Welt. Und dann gibt es noch den Carneval - hier hat man die Chance einmal die Maske Casanovas zu tragen, oder auch einfach nur gut zu essen und zu trinken. Napoleon beschrieb Venedig als, 'den schönsten Treffpunkt in Europa' und er hatte recht!

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 6.44 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Die Memoiren des Casanova - Kartenspiel

  Die frivolen Memoiren des Giacomo Casanova gehörenzu den Klassikern der Weltliteratur. Paul-Émile Bécat,einer der bekanntesten Illustratoren erotischer Kunst des20. Jahrhunderts, hat die Abenteuer Casanovas vor übereinem halben Jahrhundert ebenso spielerisch wie kunstvollins Bild gesetzt und ein Kartenspiel geschaffen, dasweltweit von Sammlern gesucht und heute zu Höchstpreisengehandelt wird. Nun ist es erstmals wieder inerstklassiger Ausstattung erhältlich.

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 14.00 EUR excl. shipping

---

---