Hell yeah, this is the best one yet. The arts-and-crafts Haterade bottle is par for the course, but the shark sets it off:

Previously on Black Plastic Bag: Trippin Troy Is Highly Resourceful

I wish no ill will on Mambo Sauce, or its always-on-the-FM single “Welcome To D.C.” It’s a classic “rep your shit” track: enthusiastically provincial, but not rigidly insiderish. KYS and PGC are wise to spin it all the time, if only because it keeps their playlists from sounding too corporate. But I gotta be honest: That high-pitched keyboard riff gets on my nerves. I know it’s essential to the tone of the song; that is, it efficiently communicates the idea of “take warning, we’re coming.” But if somebody could work up a synth-free remix, I’d be grateful. Some YouTube love:

Chris Richards recently mentioned that Bullets, his R&B/club/hip-hop crossover project with DJ Dave Nada, was looking for a singer again. Their first recruit, Sarah Thompson, simply decided the gig wasn’t for her, Richards tells Black Plastic Bag.

“Things didn’t work with our original lineup, and Dave and I are still making tracks together and are looking for a frontwoman who can sing, rap, dance, throw down,” he says. “We should have a new demo up on MySpace right after Christmas.”

Richards and Nada each continue to DJ regularly here and there.

From an e-mail titled “an open letter to rolling stone” by publicist Maggie Vail:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

We, the undersigned independent record labels, wish to share our indignation regarding Rolling Stone’s November 15th pull out editorial, which featured the names of our artists in conjunction with an ad for Camel cigarettes. This editorial cartoon gives every impression of being part and parcel of the advertisement wrapped around it.

The use of an artist’s name to promote a brand or product should be done only with the artist’s explicit consent, something that was neither solicited nor obtained from the labels or bands.

When questioned, Rolling Stone has referred to the “Indie Rock Universe” pull out section as an “editorial”, but it hardly seems accidental that this editorial content is wrapped in a giant ad from R.J. Reynolds announcing their support for independent artists and labels. The idea that this was a coincidence in any way seems dubious at best. There are two other pull out sections in this same issue of Rolling Stone. Both are wrapped in advertising, but neither of these ads could be construed as part of the editorial content within.

Many of the bands named, and the labels that represent them, are very unhappy with the implication that they have any involvement with R.J. Reynolds and Camel cigarettes. We ask that Rolling Stone apologize for blurring the line between editorial and advertisement, and in doing so, implying that the bands named support the product being advertised.

Sincerely, Kill Rock Stars, Touch and Go, Skin Graft, Lovepump United, Lucky Madison, 5RC, Audio Dregs, and Fryk Beat.

Maggie Vail
Kill Rock Stars

If you read BoingBoing regularly or have friends with outré tastes, then you surely know of “2 Girls 1 Cup,” which might be the most Not-Safe-For-Work thing in all the history of NSFW nasty yucky wrongness. Now, I promise am not lying when I say that I have never watched it. (And I’ve never actually looked at the original Goatse picture, either. This is true.) Perhaps I am timid. I prefer to think, however, that my imagination is more powerful than doo-doo reality. Call me the Doo-Doo Starchild.

But enough of that. Here’s what I want: I want Bang Camaro to record a song that has the following chorus:

2 girls 1 cup
It’s kinda fucked up
What they do to that cup!
2 girls 1 cup
It’s fucked up, yeah
It’s FUCKED UP!

If you caught the Stones Throw/2K Sports Bounce Tour at the Black Cat last night, chances are that MC Percee P casually solicited you to purchase either Perseverance, his excellent CD from earlier this year, or a remix version of the disc that isn’t due to hit the street until January. P was on the sidewalk before the show; he milled in the crowd during other rappers’ sets; and he stood by the door at the end of the night. Considering that he’d otherwise be an all-but-forgotten denizen of the ’80s Bronx scene, it makes perfect sense that he’s hustling for every last dollar. You’d be doing it too, if you got the kind of second chance that Stones Throw is giving him. And his set was all about the MC as master craftsman. He held the mic in his left hand, diddling his fingers on it like a trumpet player. And he was always on the beat.

Other highlights: DJ J. Rocc’s soul experiments throughout the night; the live drums/two-DJs set featuring Karriem Riggins (who used to play with Ray Brown) on skins with Madlib and Rocc; and the DVD mix by Peanut Butter Wolf that closed the show. Wolf even dropped in a little of Blahzay Blahzay’s “Danger.” A good portion of the crowd stuck around to see Wolf’s entire set, which he ended by showing the entire video for the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Triumph.”

It was almost like waiting for the recessional hymn to end before leaving church on Sunday.

In response to the broken neck suffered by CNN anchor John Roberts, the media-insider blog FishbowlDC went with a Busta Rhymes reference. For the record, we here at BPB would’ve gone Shaolin-style with “Protect Ya Neck.”

Everybody’s favorite obnoxious gossip site says that Pimp C, the beatmaking, rabble-rousing half of UGK, died this morning in Hollywood. Here’s our review of the Houston group’s latest disc, Underground Kingz.

The 2001 compilation Dublab Presents: Freeways is a curious time capsule: With its pre-9/11 sweetness, lingering dot-com optimism and ProTools-y introspection, the music predated the iPod by a few months but easily matched the friendly/techy vibe of Apple’s little white boxes. I can’t hear these tracks without thinking about harvesting MP3s from proto-blogs that prompted pure discovery, not necessarily mass file-sharing or conspicuous song-leakage.

But enough yucky nostalgia: The point here is that the era’s gentle electronica (call it dub, ambient, whatever) can definitely sound quite thin in retrospect, but the Dublab folks proved to have superior tastes, and they treated Freeways like a statement of purpose: Dntel is on there, as well as Madlib (as Yesterday’s New Quintet), Daedelus, John Tejada, and others.

The LA label/collective is now making the album available for the first time iTunes. Some freebies:

Downloads:
Languis & Fer Chloca “The Sky Below” (MP3)
Ammoncontact “Chord (Parts 1-2)” (MP3)

As Oprah knows, Brad Pitt is officially “gay” for architecture. And as anybody with a TV is sure to hear this week, ad nauseam, some Katrina victims will be better off because of Brad’s avocation.

Ice Cube actually studied architecture at the Phoenix Institute of Technology. But so far, he’s just made comments about Katrina. (And had beef with Oprah.)

Cube told Blender: “I liked architecture at one point. I got turned onto it by a teacher. I thought if this rap thing didn’t work, then I could make a career of it.”

For the record, if I was a box-office draw like Cube, I wouldn’t let Brad Pitt kick my ass at anything.