News In Rap

Another News In Rap. I have to say, somehow the joy isn't there anymore for me, in the way it was when I started these. Oddly, I find my other freestyles much more satisfying. I think in the coming weeks, I'll be playing around with doing different things for News In Rap, whether that means changing up the beat, not just reading the Google Feed, or something else. Not really sure what I'll do next week. But it won't be quite the standard thing we've gotten used to.

Cheers,
Seth

Guess I just forgot last week, amidst all the busyness. Oh well. Had a great comedy show on Thursday, which was pleasant, but I seem to be falling behind on the rest of my to do list. My sexy new microphone has acquired very unsexy static issues, putting me back on my old cheap mic until I figure out what's going wrong. But if my mic ever gets fixed, I have a song I was AMIDST RECORDING when the mic started staticking. I know, timing is everything, right?

Definite ups and downs in the rap this week. There are a few minutes of terrible ADD-laden half-rhymes, and a few minutes of solid flow. I got caught up clicking through one story and got distracted. But there was some other story where I randomly had a rhyme I really liked. I can't remember what it was, but I'll guess I'll go listen after I post it.

Did you know that Bill Cosby has some new hip-hop project? As someone who likes both Bill Cosby and hip-hop, this interests me.

If you haven't already voted for my SongFight song, now is an excellent time to do so.

Although I recorded this in haste minutes before I'm taking a weekend trip, I'm actually pretty pleased with it. It's not like being personally in a rush makes the beat go any faster or slower, and perhaps the urgency filled me with energy.

Anyway, the important thing is for you to go check out my new song, Feature Creep. You have to click the "play full song here" link to hear the full song, but you'll want to read the lyrics afterwords, otherwise you'll miss some of the ridiculous things I did with them.

Also, it's a vote-driven contest with a prize. So if you enjoy my song, I would much appreciate if you happen to vote for it. If you really enjoy it, feel free to forward the link to others. And if you don't enjoy it, then vote for someone else. (While obviously I'd prefer that people vote for me, I think Karl and Xoc are both sensible alternate choices.)

Thanks,
Seth
a.k.a. Ham-STAR

Disappointed with the quality of the News In Rap I just posted, I decided to freestyle as I was uploading it. I recorded that freestyle and am uploading it now. In order to avoid an infinite loop, I did not freestyle during the upload of the freestyle I did during the upload of the News In Rap.

Clear?

This news in rap isn't great, but that's okay. Because I'm also posting a freestyle for people to listen to later.

On the way out the door for a few days, realized I hadn't updated this week. So, you get a shortened version. Enjoy, or don't!

Well, we're in Autumn now, so hopefully my difficulties with NIR will Fall. Hey, they can't all be good.

I spent all weekend playing 26 boardgames, one for each letter.

I'm also starting work on a non-freestyled rap, so hopefully before the end of the year I'll have a new song released.

Last News In Rap of the summer.

Oddly, my freestyles at local performances are getting better as my News In Rapping gets worse. Not quite sure why that is. I think I'm becoming more ensconced in rap thoughts, and not able to process the continuous stream of visual information at the same time. Should probably try to account for that in some way, but it's not like I practice this. I just hit record, start rapping, and post it.

I can't believe summer is almost over. Hardly seems fair.

My apologies for not having an episode last week. I was briefly in talks with a fledgling Internet radio station about doing the News In Rap live, but it turns out they were looking for a full hour show, and lately it seems I have enough trouble filling my 11 minutes.

I'm really hoping all this swine flu scare ends up being the nothing that the bird flu scare was, rather than the terrifying pandemic that it sounds like it's becoming.

Loud trucks and construction vehicles outside my window woke me up early thismorning, so I'm a little groggy. Freestyling while groggy is harder. But we've still got all the important headlines, from Obama to Myanmar.

The land once had
Some fleeting fame
Myanmar is
The current name

Burma - save.

Sick of seeing economic collapse at the top of the news page? Me too! Well, this week offers some relief; bad news from Iran took over two of the top six stories on today's Google News view. And Greenspan even thinks the economy may rebound, which means you may only have days to get cash for your clunker.

As for the archiving issue mentioned last week, my friend (and fellow Massachusetts nerdcore artist) 3rr0r has kindly offered to pick up some of the old archived episodes, so they'll soon be migrating from this site to his, in order to make room for more new episodes here.

Meanwhile, I'm hungry. Time for a sammich.

I note that according to the message on the bottom of my update podcast page, I have used up most of my storage limit. In a few weeks, I will have to either stop posting new episodes, or start deleting old ones. I guess the 30-minute presidential debate extravaganza that started it off can probably go.

Anyway, Gates is in the news this week, and it's not Bill for once. Plus: Insight into economic woes and financial regulation. Hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,
Seth

I am sort of tired and on a post-event slump. Nerdapalooza was amazing, I got to freestyle with some cool people and meet and hang out with many more. Then I came home to a poetry slam hosted by Taylor Mali, which I managed to win. (No, Mali wasn't competing, just hosting. If he was competing, there's no way I would have won, because he's Taylor fucking Mali.)

I wonder if there are standards for vulgarity in the episode description? Guess I'll find out.

I get a little more opinionated this week than usual. Maybe it's because I'd already heard about a number of the stories for once, so I have something to say about them rather than just reading directly from the headlines.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this week's podcast twice as much as usual, because it will have to tide you over through next week. As I mention in my rap, I'll be at Nerdapalooza in Orlando this weekend. If you happen to be there, feel free introduce yourself and say hello. Especially if you want to kick some freestyles.

Best,
Seth
a.k.a. "Ham-STAR"
seth@risingpun.com

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