Lexicon Will Rap and Rock Your Panties Off

These two brothers from LA have been on the indie hip hop scene for a while with a loyal West Coast following, and now us East Coasters are also diggin' it with their current album, The Rapstars E.P., and anticipating their new album release coming in 2008. They kinda remind of us of 311 and a little bit of the Beastie Boys and their carefree, witty lyrics set them apart from those emcees trying to be all serious. They have their own style for sure and its guaranteed that true hip hop heads and hot chicks will be making it to their shows...oh yeah, and Perez Hilton.

L and F: Lexicon basically means vocabulary or even dictionary. How'd you come up with this name?
Oak: Ever since we started making music (mid-late 90's) we've always been outcasts. First we were the only white guys in our area rapping and freestyling with the best of em, and even when underground hiphop eventually became saturated with white rappers, we still were thought of as weird and different. We'd be talking about girls and drinking when all the other white MC's were talking about more abstract stuff with real dense lyrics and topics. Just not our style at all. And since we fused rock and hiphop, we don't fit into either genre at all. So to make a long story long, our name represents our originality. Each field of work, politics, sports, etc, has it's own lexicon (like you said, vocab or words that are specific to that field). Because we're so different and always have been, we're our own lexicon. And since our job is to work with words, it makes even more sense.

Nick: plus it sounds like the future.

L and F: You guys have fused hip hop and rock really well and we think fans of both genres can appreciate. Who are your musical influences?
Nick: We grew up on groups like A Tribe Called Quest, De La, and Diamond D and all of the other amazing hip hop that was coming out in the early and mid nineties. So that whole era is a huge influence to us, but at same time, our ex-hippy parents were bumping The Police and Talking Heads and the Rolling Stones and stuff like that so by the time we were at a mature enough age to like more than one style of music, there was a jumbled mess of everything in my collection.
Oak: I think our hiphop schooling made it possible to fuse rap and rock in a dope way. Nobody who has ever really tried it before was a hiphop head first and foremost...instead they were rockers trying to rap. It doesn't work. I think and hope that we bring an integrity to our music that you can only find in real, true, from the heart hiphop, regardless of how "rock" it sounds.

L and F: Your raps talk about getting with girls a lot. Do you think this helps or hurts getting ass after a show?
Oak: All of it...girls either a) think its charming, b) think we're chauvinist pigs, or c) think we're too much drama. But it all doesn't matter anyway cause we both seem to always have girlfriends.
Nick: Yeah, i kind of see it as a bat signal to my future wife. It's really the only reason i'm doing it. haha.

L and F: Perez Hilton, the Queen of All Media, gave you props on his site. There's no one better to be on your side right now. Did you see a boost in your fanbase?
Nick: The girls emailing us on myspace became a whole lot more attractive. But yeah it was pretty crazy. The day Perez featured us we got so many hits on myspace that then they featured us.

L and F: You sample the Geto Boys in Big Money which is real hot, do you guys live like big money rock stars? Like, do you still have jobs and drive your mom's Plymouth Voyager or are you balla' status already?
Oak: Glad you're feelin it! Although totally exaggerated, the song is kinda true about the way we live. We're lucky enough to be making money from what we love to do and don't have day jobs, but things get scary about oh, every other day. Can we claim "super-minor balla' status?" "Ballin a few times a month?"
Nick: I just make sure I look good and go to places that have open bars so I can look like a big tipper.

L and F: What can we expect from Lexicon coming up? Any shameless plugs (not butt
related)?
Nick: Album is done! Final touches are being put on it now but it probably won't be out until the first half of 2008 at some point. Vague enough? We also have some crazy big stuff in the works but seriously, as douchy as it sounds, we are contractually bound to not speak of it. I swear.
Oak: it really truly will be worth the wait...we hate that its taken so long to get this album out there. We're gonna be putting up some previews on our myspace soon...keep checkin back!

The question we always ask...

L and F: When you guys get super big, will you become media whores, driving around
all drunk and showing you privates like some celebrities we know?
Oak: We're supposed to wait until we're super big to do that stuff?? All I do is drive around (in my beat up civic) buck naked, drunk, with so many guns stuffed under my seat that i can't even move the chair forward or backwards. Wait, what?
Nick: Hahaha. But yes. Yes. Without a doubt. I already have a reservation in rehab.

Check 'em out at Lexicon Music and their Myspace

I wish it were "Fanny Pack Boy"

We try to be hip to the happenings on the hip hop scene which means we go right into the line of fire for our readers and get the scoop (not really, we just post Myspace bulletins encouraging non-posers to help us). Anyway, Playaz Circle's current hit has us wondering about the meaning of "little dufflebag boy". Now, at first we were hoping they were referencing something to do with homo-thuggery but this is not the case, to our dismay. Apparently, a duffle bag boy runs drugs for dealers. Now, I have seen ATL so I am in the know about how all this works but I am questioning the necessity of such a dangerous occupation. The reasons are apparently different from years past. At the height of hip hop (and you heads know when that was) many rappers claimed that selling/running drugs was merely a means of survival. The dope game provided basic needs and supported their spawns. In "Juicy", Biggie says, "Buildings that I was hustlin' in front of that called the police on me when I was just tryin' to make some money to feed my daughters". In today's industry, rappers are real honest about the fact they just want money, rims, and rarities. My favorite line in "Duffle Bag Boy" is, "You niggaz barely dressin', I got thousands piling, that's that salad dressin', I'm on my thousandth island". They go on and on to brag about the excess money that affords them what the common pauper never will be able to. This leads me to my point. Were there always duffle bag boys or is this a new luxury kinda like valet parking? Were Biggie and others exxagerating about their "struggle" and also doing it all for the glory of drugs and sending some young buck to do the dirty work? Is there really any validity to the drug game as survival especially when people end up dead? Or, is it like "ATL" and the carefree kid gives up rollerskating to be like Big Boi and sling drugs?

P.S. When looking for a photo for this post, we found this book that was published in 1999 and here's the blurb on it:

Young Danny Duncan runs away from home and hitch hikes to a new life. He is soon involved in an exciting series of adventures, and becomes unwittingly entangled in an international drug-running operation

Interesting...

-LC

It's Cleavage vs. Cleavers and the result is Delta Delta Deadly!

This halloween, I suggest you really klass it up and rent LC's fav "horror" movie, Sorority House Massacre II: Nighty Nightmare. The title alone sends a jubilant morse code of come hithers to all my pleasure sensors. This film has it all folks: a gut wrenchingly unpredictable plot, amazing Academy Award worthy acting and special effects to make Spielberg smooge his taper
leg britches. Ok, none of this is true but who doesn't love hot 80's chicks running around in all the wrong directions in their panties and halter tops with the boob bottoms showing?! This is what you'll get...but wait there's more: You'll receive totally cheesy innuendos and plenty of
inconsistencies to get a successful drinking game going (keep an eye out for the shadow of the ketchup bottle on the wall when the "blood" splatters). Not to mention, the totally not-creepy and unconvincing possible killer, Orville Ketchum, in all his fat, acne-scarred glory. Seriously, this is a must have. Now, you may have to request your local video store to actually order it because most people have never heard of the first Sorority House Massacre, much less the second but it will be well worth it. Have I ever steered you wrong?

-LC

"Where's My Pacifier?!" by Hillbilly Harlot

Isn't it a little too early to wax nostalgic about the mid to late 90's? Maybe I am just getting older and those were my 'glory days' , if gratuitous amounts of lesbian-esque rock (no LC, I'm not speaking of your favorite group of all time, The Indigo Girls), all ages clubs, short hair, thrift store pants, vomit, wannabe crusties and trip hop qualify as glorious.
So the buzz is that the return of the rave is actually on it's way out. Huh? It came back? I thought it all faded away after that movie "Go" came out. (Which I watched the other night) Once it becomes that mainstream and brosephs are popping X, wearing Dr. Suess hats and dry humping to the latest Josh Wink remix..well it curls up and dies on it's own.
Now them Europeans over there in Europe never lost hope. They kept it going strong with spandex Frenchmen type shirts and leather pants. But there's this trend called NuRave and I never even knew about it. It's all about the Klaxons, who now try to admit their involvement w/NuRave was a joke. Some classify Canser De Sexy as NuRave, again, in my best Britney voice..HUH? Can someone fill me in? Being in my mid-twenties is no excuse for ignorance. I mean, come on! I'm hip!
I swear! I read Vice and Missbehave! I post on PPK.com! I long for neon Nikes, which I now know is becoming an anti-trend. How did I not know about NuRave? Because what I thought hipsterfication (god, I am SO fucking sick of that word) was actually NuRave. While yes, there are old heads attempting to really rave on, it's not very popular here...yet. So NuRave is just ironic looking people dancing to Diplo or Low Budget or whoever is on the scene since they don't really come here anymore. Raving is ironic looking people dancing with glowsticks to the aforementioned Josh Wink.
Allow me to take a look in my crystal crack rock. I predict Ska is next. What else is left? Goth never left (those people are really committed) Punk is dead. Dig out your Reel Big Fish cd's and start skankin away, kids!
"I'm right on top of that, Rose"

-HH