The Wire, Season Five, Episode 9 – Late Edition

Grade: A

Sometimes, it’s truly beautiful to watch a plan come together. To watch great writers construct great storylines over three seasons and then bring it all together, executed with pitch-perfect performances, and have it come off perfectly is a stunning achievement. With the ninth episode of the fifth season of The Wire, every note hit perfectly. It’s the best episode of the season. Shoot, it might well be the best episode of the past two seasons.

Oh yeah, SPOILERS follow. It was a royal pain in the ass to write around the spoilers last week, so I’m not even going to attempt it this week.

This show is divided into too halves: one where everything goes right for the “good guys” and one where things finally fly off the rails. The first half deals with the fall of Marlo Stansfield. A season of maneuvering and conniving by McNulty and Lester finally pays off as the Baltimore PD finally makes it’s big bust, taking down damn near all of Stansfield’s entire crew, as well as the Greeks’ entire heroin shipment. There are bad guys in bracelets. There’s even a press conference held by the Mayor was lots of dope on the damn table (Reporter William Zorzi’s running commentary during said press conference damn near steals the show). It’s a good day for the good guys. So why does McNulty still feel miserable?

And then everything falls apart in the second half. It was obvious that the bottom would eventually fall out of McNulty’s scheme; I’ve been waiting the proverbial other shoe to drop since the end of Episode 2. But watching it unfold still had striking dramatic power, as Kima decides to spill the beans to Daniels. This not only imperils McNulty, but also the Stansfield case, as if it comes out that Lester Freamon is lying about the source of the information on Marlo, everything they’ve gathered is inadmissible. Despite the fact that it was clear that McNulty and Lester were totally out of control as the season wore on, I’m still not sure I agree with Kima’s decision to turn McNulty in. I’m not saying she did the wrong thing, but I’m really not sure it was the right thing to do either.

Things look increasingly grim for Scott as well, as Gus continues running a full court press to check if he’s been piping stories. It’s sort of interesting the Scott comes off completely unsympathetic, whereas McNulty doesn’t seem nearly as bad. I guess it’s the motives that make Scott so despicable: he’s piping stories out of ambition to improve his own career. And while stroking his own ego is a component of why McNulty started this whole mess (He doesn’t want to let Marlo win and wants to prove yet again he’s the smartest guy on the block), he’s well beyond trying to improve his standing in the police force. He has a legit desire to help cops get their jobs done.

The last 15 minutes of the episode made me want to cry both tears of joy and sorrow. Bubbles achieve gets a long-deserved measure of measure of redemption. His speech is one of the most uplifting scenes of the season. It’s good to see that he might be one of the few characters that get a happy ending. Meanwhile, things take a perilous and tragic turn for Michael and Duqan. It’s clear that Michael, despite seeming like such a natural at living the street life, really isn’t cut out for life as a gangster. Alas, he learns this too late, and there’s nowhere else for him to go. And Duquan again gets the short end of the stick. The episode’s final moments are absolutely heartbreaking.

Last week I foolishly worried that they were going to blow their dramatic wad on this episode and there would be nothing left for the series finale. Jeez, I’m a schmuck. This episode indeed raised the stakes, but left more than enough room to raise them even further. If there’s any justice, HBO has given Simon and company tow hours to wrap this up.

Akrobatik – Absolute Value

Grade: B+/A-

There aren’t many MCs like Akrobatik out there these days. Most rappers decide they want to just rap about one thing. They either talk about just selling coke, or just crushing a wack MC, or just saving the world, or just ejaculating on a woman’s back and covering her with a sheet. However, Akrobatik is one of those rare genuine lyrical throwbacks to the late ’80s and early ‘90s: a balanced MC. The Boston native is just as comfortable tearing an MC’s head off as he is dealing with complex social commentary as he is talking about how much he misses his girlfriend. With Absolute Value, Akrobatik releases his second full-length album, and his first solo release in close to five years. It’s the first bonafide good album of 2008.

You can hear a passion and earnestness in Ak’s lyrics that is lacking in other mic controllers. It comes across on tracks like “Step it Up,” where he spits grade-A braggadocio over a beat inspired by “Phantom of the Opera.” Yes, “Phantom of the Opera.” He again demonstrates his passion “Front Steps Pt. 2 (Tough Love).” Whereas as part 1, featured on his last solo album, Balance, was an ode to the joys of hanging on the block, Ak flips it on the sequel, using the song to admonish those who sit around, doing nothing with their lives.

Some of the albums brightest moments come when Akrobatik keeps it short and sweet, on songs that clock in at less than three minutes in length. “Soul Glo” has a bouncy exuberance, with its elastic drums, horn and keyboard stabs, and vocal stabs popping in and out throughout the track. It’s a decidedly different feel for the Beatminerz crew, who produced the track. The J-Zone produced title track features Ak throwing more lyrical jabs and uppercuts over Zone’s trademark off-kilter keyboards. “Ak B. Nimble” is a super-hyped uptempo track produced by Baby Israel, with Ak flexing his lyrical muscles over what sounds like a 110 BPM beat box. The album ends with “Back Home to You,” a brief but touching dedication to the loved ones he leaves behind when he tours the world.

Ak also shines when he teams up with a myriad of guests. He teams with Little Brother on “Be Prepared,” where they drop a little knowledge on the lackluster state of hip-hop and the world in general. “Beast Mode” teams Ak with his Perceptionists partners, as him and Mr. Lif trade arsenic-laced verses over a Fakts One beat. “Black Hell Breaks Loose” is the album’s high-water mark. Rapping over a nasty loop that seems inspired from a gritty Blaxploitation kung-fu flick, Ak shares the spotlight with Willie Evans Jr. and Therapy of Florida’s Alias Brothers (formerly Asamov). All show and prove with a ton of panache

While Ak’s collaborations with his contemporaries are clear winners, it odd that his tracks with hip-hop legends aren’t as strong. None are wack, but few really stand out on an album dripping with quality. Album-opener “A to the K,” featuring Cypress Hill’s B-Real on the chorus, lacks the energy of the albums other battle-oriented tracks. The legendary hip-hop badass Freddie Foxx aka Bumpy Knuckles sounds subdued on “If We Can’t Build.” The song isn’t bad, but it sounds like low-rent version of a late ’90s KRS-One track. “Kindred,” featuring Chuck D, is actually a strong effort, but for reasons nothing to do with the Rhyme Animal. The ode to how times haven’t changed, juxtaposing the days of slavery to post-Hurricane Katrina insanity, is both sad and beautiful. However, Chuck D’s rhetoric on the chorus doesn’t add anything to the song.

It’s good to see that Akrobatik hasn’t missed a step since his last release. It’s difficult to put together a cohesive solo album when you share mic time with some many MCs and use so many different producers. However, it all holds together, and Absolute Value pretty much bangs from beginning to end.

The Wire: Season 5, Episode 8 – Clarifications

I understand that time is running out

Grade: A-

Again, I’ve been slacking on this; many apologies. But for the home stretch of the final three episodes, I’m going to be on top of things.

Things look alternately grim and hopeful, in a perverse way, in Baltimore. A major turning point for the entire series occurs in this episode. Although I’m not going to spoil it, (even though it happens a scant 20 minutes into the episode) I will say it’s executed about as well as you could expect it to be, and it demonstrates we quick things can change in the streets.

McNulty’s crackpot scheme is actually bearing fruit. He continues to successfully smokescreen the police brass and the Mayor of Baltimore with his non-existent serial kille,r while securing the funding to keep the police doing actual police work. Thanks to his scam, the Baltimore PD is back to the funding level that they were at before the massive cuts. They’re finally able to put surveillance on an increasingly sloppy Marlo, still convinced that no one is watching him. Much like Colvin in Season 3, by breaking the law, McNulty has managed to help people. Of course, it cuts both ways.. His efforts of sharing the wealth that his make-believe serial killer are undermined by the fact that a few too amny people know what’s going on, to one extent or another. Furthermore, his family life continues to deteriorate, and his conversation with Beadie towards the episode cuts to the core of his character.

Meanwhile, Omar continues to carry out his vendetta against Marlo, taking out corners and trashing Marlo’s stash and good name. Things progress on this end about the way that they have to.

There are lots of other good moments throughout the episode. The reappearance of Poot was sort of heart-warming, and shows that not all of the characters non-essential to this season have met tragic ends (e.g. Savino, dead in an alley, or Randy, a sweet kid turned hard-ass trapped in a group home). Dukie continues his efforts to extract himself from the dope game. The quick resurrection of Clay Davis is a sight to behold. Even though it’s clear that Lester isn’t about to let him off the hook. The episode also shows the further moral slippages of Mayor Carcetti, who becomes increasingly willing to compromise his principles in pursuit of a seat in the statehouse. And the McNulty and Kima’s visit to FBI headquarters is about as funny as anything on the show this season.

The only drawback I can think of that after months of me complaining that they weren’t being given enough time, it looks like their wrapping things up too early. From the looks of things, a lot of the show’s plot-threads could be tied up by the next episode. And clean-up episode for the show’s finale doesn’t sound that interesting. But that’s more perception on my part, rather than what will undoubtedly be the reality.

More Primary Silliness

I just want to remind everyone how incredibly stupid and protracted the primary process has become in this country.

On this February morning, nine months before the actual general election, voters in 24 states are heading to polls. For the Democrats it’s a two-person race; for the Republicans, there’s probably three people legitimately hanging around. Just a month ago, the fields for both parties were considerably more crowded. But today a little under half the states in the nation are choosing between two or three candidates, largely because of how four to seven states voted, depending on your party.

Think about it: because of how people voted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina voted, registered Democrats in these states essentially can either vote for Clinton or Obama. It’s slightly better for Republicans, because they’ve got Michigan, Wyoming, and Florida in the mix. But I’m uncomfortable with states like f%^&ing Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada being so instrumental in thinning the herd. Just because a candidate can’t get votes in Wyoming, Michigan, and New Hampshire doesn’t mean he or she shouldn’t get a chance to campaign in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and yes California. And it’s not fair that both races could essentially be over after today, a full month before voters in Texas and Ohio get their say.

And let me reiterate that because every state in the nation moved up their primaries so that they could “matter,” both nominations could be decided nine months before the general election. That means a woman could get knocked up tonight, carry the pregnancy to full term, and conceivably have a bouncing baby boy or girl on the morning of Election Day. That is a long f@#$ing time that this nation is going to have to deal with General Election rhetoric. And general-election rhetoric is one of the true banes of my existence. Please, someone stop the madness.

So what else could I write about?

...I mean, besides the follow-up to that the Rawkus story I started a little while ago, but I’ll get to that later this week. Promise.

All of life was centered around the Superbowl yesterday, so I might as well right about that, as “late” as I may be. Even as I type this, “THE” sports story has become Bobby Knight’s resignation.

So, you may have heard the Giants won and that it was a big deal. I personally didn’t have strong feelings either way. I guess when it came down to it, I was kind of rooting for the Pats, because while I don’t like them, I dislike the Giants even more. Plus, it was the best chance I’d ever have to see an undefeated NFL season during my life, so I kind of wanted to see it happen.

But that’s all over and done with, and a we now live in a world where Eli Manning is Superbowl MVP, Tom Coughlin looks like a super-genius, and the Pats finish the season with as many wins than any other NFL has ever recorded, but are still disappointed. So, here’s a list of the good and bad things, from my perspective, that come out of the Giants win/Pats loss:

The Good:

1. I never have to have it shoved down my throat that the 2007 Pats are the greatest team ever. Losing kills the luster.

2. The “Brady is as good as Montana” statements can cease and seckle for a little while now. It wasn’t really Brady’s fault the Pat’s lost, but the fact remains that Montana never lost a Superbowl or spent as much time on his back during key drives as Brady did. Big Joe Cool remains the Gold Standard for play-off and Superbowl QBs.

3. Strahan’s kind of a goof, but I can support him having a ring, because he’s great and what he does and almost anyone who hangs around the league long enough becomes respectable. I also like Amani Toomer, and he gets his deserved ring.

4. There’s some karmic retribution for Belichick running up the score on teams for two-thirds of the season. Always thought it was a classless move on his part, more so than the allegations of cheating. Well, now his team got held to its fewest point total all season; all is right in the world.

5. Tiki Barber looks like a moron. Dude is whining doofus and always was a whining doofus. And he looks really stupid right now. I approve.

The Bad:

1. I must deal with more Mercury Morris and the rest of the 1972 Dolphins on TV. I find the whole lot of them insufferable, Morris more than the others. Probably the biggest reason why I wanted the Pats to win was to shut them up. Now I get to watch Morris act like a bigger jackass than usual. But in all fairness, he would have remained an insufferable jackass even if the Pars won.

2. I gotta listen to people comparing Eli’s drive to Joe Montana’s drive in Superbowl 23. Um, no. Sorry. Wrong answer. Montana’s 92-yard, 11-play drive epitomized absolute flawless execution when his team needed to make its way down the field to win. Eli’s drive wasn’t NEARLY as flawless, and well, cool. Eli needed a little a scrambled and a circus catch to win. Not even close.

3. The rehabilitation of Tom Coughlin. Coughlin has always been insufferable as a coach. More than Belichick even. Dude is a consummate sour ass and excruciating to play for. He’s been a jerk and treating his players like shit at every stop he’s made. His behavior damn near got him fired for close to three straight seasons, including this one. Now, he’s a genius for out-coaching the coach who out-coaches everyone, and this win guaranteed the he’ll stick around for at least two more years. Oh goody.

4. More talk of how the Pats we’ll be back next year. They’ve got the Niners first round draft pick, and will probably be christened the odds-on favorites to win it all next year as well. And there’ll be a whole load of talk about them wanting to redeem themselves. So I’ll never be able to escape this season that wasn’t. I can find it my heart to root for the post-2002 Pats once. But twice? I don’t think so.

The Wire, Season 5, Epsiode #5, “Reaction Quotes”

Grade B+/A-

Thousand pardons for skipping the episode four recap, but the weight of Prop Joe’s death weighed heavy on my soul. Or I was just pretty busy. Whichever you choose to believe. So now the season is halfway over, and they’ve safely moved past set-up made to get into the meat of the plot.

The cuts of the metaphorical prime rib, just to extend this silly metaphor, continue to be McNulty’s fictitious serial killer and Marlo’s impending war with Omar. The focus for most of the episode is on McNulty’s scheme and how it intertwines with getting more resources for the cops to go after Marlo. McNult manipulates everyone who surrounds him while they try to play their own games. Watching McNulty and lowlife reporter Scott trying to out-weasel each other was priceless, especially when it’s clear McNulty has the upper-hand as always.

As an unexpected side effect of McNulty's maneuvering (at least for me) is the reintroduction of “the Wire,” as all of the grand-standing leads to the tapping of two phones: one completely useless and the other legit. With all the “big” issues that this series covers (schools, the media, the decaying city) it’s easy to forget that the wire itself is the common thread throughout all five seasons. It shouldn't be so easy to forget, 'cause it's the name of the show, but still. Other good little bonuses are the further inclusion of Carver and Herc, as the former coninutes to be good police and the latter does something right only after getting booted from the force.

When the story turns to the impending Omar/Marlo battle royale, most of the episode centers around the waiting game. Omar and his new partner Donnie sit in a car listening to Oldies while staking out the home of Monk, one of Marlo’s lieutenants. Omar knows it’s likely a trap, but he’s a patient man. As always Michael K. Williams does an excellent job of portraying a man of singular focus, even if he spends most of his screen-time smoking Newports in a hooptie.

One area where the episode lacked was in the lack of reaction to the death of Prop Joe. I mean the man was the Kingpin of East Baltimore and probably the most powerful drug dealer in the city (in terms of influence that went beyond Marlo’s muscle). I know the Co-Op doesn’t that meet daily or anything, but you’d think they’d have some sort of reaction. Especially Slim Charles, who must thinking things look a little fishy. I know there’s time and likely budget descriptions, but this reinforces why they need 12 or 13 episodes this season. There’s so much plot, that characters like Herc, Carver, and Beatie have to wait two episodes between appearances.

Speaking of two-episode hiatuses, Bubbles is back from his, apparently spending his time off-screen scrubbing pots at the soup kitchen. This time, his story is considerably more interesting, as he’s still gripped by grief and guilt, this time convinced that he’s contracted HIV, and gets his sponsor Waylon to take him to a free clinic. The interplay between Waylon and Bubbles this time is extremely compelling, suggesting that maybe Steve Earle had a bad day on the set the last time around.

Here’s hoping next week the plot continues to thicken. And maybe Omar can spend a little less time sitting in car.

A Razor-Edge Resurrection? Pt 1: The Preface.

I’ve never believed that hip-hop is dead, but I will concede that it’s kind of dull. The music has become so thoroughly in the mainstream that no one really tries anything new. You pretty know much know what you’re going to get in terms of sound and quality just by looking at the back of the CD and the production credits. During any given year, I can pretty much tell which albums I’m going to like and which ones I’m not even before they’re released. Rarely does anything come along that legitimately intrigues me, muh less excites me in any way shape or form. It didn’t used to be that way, and it might that level of interest may indeed return.

First, a little history: Back around 1996 or 1997, underground hip-hop got REALLY interesting. As the music was starting to get mainstream radio/video love as being a commercially viable, a separate counter-movement was afoot. “Unsigned” and “independent” artists rallied around the idea of making music that openly revolted against the decadent values of mainstream hip-hop. An era marked by fish-eye lensed videos and shiny suits spawned a nationwide musical resistance movement who railed against R&B singers on the choruses of the song and sampling pop-hits from the Eighties. It sounded closer to the hip-hop that I grew up listening to and loving; it sounded like how hip-hop was “supposed” to sound.

If there was any label that represented the rebellion against hip-hop’s status quo, it was Rawkus Records. After spending it’s early years specializing in drum-n-bass and house music, during the mid to late 1990s the New York-based label start dropping a slough of 12” singles by mostly New York-based artists who’d been grinding in the city’s underground making decidedly left of center music. There were other labels putting in work and releasing quality music, like Fondle ’Em, Makin Records, Guesswhile, and Raw Shack, but Rawkus was leading the charge. Rawkus’ most notable full-length releases during these salad days were by Company Flow and Black Star (the duo of Mos Def and Talib Kweli), who were the poster-children of this “Independent and Loving It” era. Other artists that dropped 12”s on Rawkus included guess like Sir Menelik, Shabaam Sahdeeq, L-Fudge, Black Attach, the Artifacts (under the name of the Brick City Kids), RA the Rugged Man, B-1, etc.

Not to sound too corny, but it was a fairly inspirational time to love independent hip-hop, and I personally swore by everything the label put out. I remember visiting the label headquarters back in 1998, as I was visiting some journalism schools, to meet some of the guys I’d been gabbing with over the phone as a writer for the now-defunct 4080 magazine. It was the first time I’d been in a record label of any sort, and, still being young and reasonably naive, I believed I was stepping into some sort of hallowed ground of independent hip-hop, along the lines of Living Legends’ “Outhouse” loft in East Oakland or Los Angeles’ Good Life Café. I remember being ecstatic that I left scoring a copy of the yet to released Lyricist Lounge compilation double CD and a cassette of what was to be Company Flow’s follow-up EP.

Sadly, Rawkus’ salad days were short-lived. Their fall has been detailed extensively by a few writers and artists, including a great piece published by XXL a few years ago (written by a friend/fellow Medill School of Journalism alumnus Adam Matthews). What appears to have killed Rawkus was after getting a taste of money, they decided to start behaving like any other label. Rather than catering to their strengths, creating left-of-center independent hip-hop, they started chasing big names and major media exposure. They stepped on a lot of toes in the process and lost the support of a lot of the artists’ that helped them build their name. After a series of buy-outs and mergers (by the likes of MCA, Geffen, and Interscope), the label folded in late 2003/early 2004.

So, fast-forward to mid-2006, and the Rawkus Records re-launches, with brand new distribution and much more low-key M.O. The label’s first slate of releases eschewed their previous NY hip-hop focus, as their roster sported artists like Kidz in the Hall (out of Chicago), Panacea (from Washington D.C.) Hezekiah (Delaware/Philadelphia), and the Procussions (Seattle). As 2007 rolled around, they added releases by artists like Blue Scholars (Seattle) and producer Marco Polo (Toronto). While these releases didn’t exactly spark the imagination like their late 1990s stuff, most if not of all these albums were interesting. Kidz N Hall’s “School is My Hustle” was among the 20 or 30 best hip-hop albums of 2006, and Marco Polo “Nostalgia,” featuring Masta Ace, is considered the best hip-hop song of 2007 by legions of bloggers and backpackers, present company included (Well, somewhere in the Top 5 for me).

But by far their most “interesting” move was the launch and execution of the “Rawkus 50” campaign by the end of 2007. Which I’ll get into the next installment.