I decided to listen to some classic WU TANG CLAN when something "clicked". As co-creator, writer, and graphic designer, Jerry Frissen is the RZA of the Lucha Libre team. The predominantly African American Wu Tang embraced the (at that time) cult Asian Action Cinema culture and integrated it into their music and visual style. The predominantly European Lucha Libre Crew embraces the culture of Mexican Wrestling and integrates it into the concept and visual style of their comics. The Wu Tang crew had a slew of amazingly talented emcees with a wide range of rhyming and delivery styles. The Lucha Libre crew has a slew of amazingly talented artists with a wide range of linework and design approaches. Need I say more? It's a shame that the first two years of Wu Tang music has been generally forgotten. Their early work was filled with passion, skill, and an aggressiveness that made the music beautifully intimidating.

My sister bought me tickets to DJ SHADOW and CUT CHEMIST's "Hard Sell" Show at the Hollywood Bowl. Man, what a show! Seeing these guys perform revitalizes my musical spirit at a time when there's very little to look forward to in mainstream Hip-Hop. "Hard Sell" was DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's attempt to revisit what they established in their legendary "Brain Freeze" and "Product Placement" performances. All records used were original 45's played on 1 of 8 record players on stage. Everything was done in real time with only a guitar loop machine used to occasionally loop a sampled beat that is recorded in front of the audience. In and of itself, the performance was awesome. Both DJ's skills are as sharp as they've ever been and the visuals complemented the musical themes of their sets perfectly. But what really sealed the deal was the location. Being outdoors on a perfect Los Angeles evening drinking wine and bobbing my head to such an amazing mix of breaks was heavenly!Here's some video from their previous live collaborations:BRAIN FREEZE 1999(Sorry, this file cannot be embedded!)PUSH BUTTON OBJECTS 2004