this is the life...

watch this...



now go here... www.goodlifelove.com

this documentary is being screened tonight in toronto. i was hoping to make it up for it, but shit, i'm knee deep in boxes right now, packing up my life (again), getting ready to move all my shit into my mom's basement, so i can, once again, live out of a backpack for the next six or eight months. i wish i could have made it up for this. i'll be the first in line to buy it on dvd when (if?) it comes out.

for myself, the whole good life/project blowed/l.a. underground movement of the early 90s pretty much defined my future involvement in hip-hop. i know it's the same for my circle of friends. and i know it's the same for the little pockets of people in every city who were the mirror reflection of my group. everywhere, we were inspired by the likes of the freestyle fellowship, the pharcyde, abstract rude, medusa, volume 10, cve, jurassic 5, dark leaf, and the list goes on and on...

back in those days, when sheena lester (props!) was running things at rappages magazine, and j-smoov had his b-boy kingdom column, every month we would read about these emcees, and try like to hell to find their tapes. i remember hooking up with smoov at one point, and becoming his canadian rep for the b-boy kingdom (this was back when i was publishing my little rap magazine) - ordering tapes from him to sell at local stores - and feeling honoured to be a part of it. later on, through my magazine work, and promoting shows, i ended up meeting and working with a lot of these cats that i used to look up to. some of 'em even became friends to this day. and at one point, on a trip to l.a., i even got to back up my man mindbender while he performed on stage at project blowed. shit, that was crazy. it's a trip to think about. back then, when i was 15 or 16, we straight worshipped these cats, and there we were chilling in leimert park with the crew. they inspired us to freestyle like it was going to the gym. every day, for hours and hours after school. i remember this one apartment i lived in where we had my man ben's turntables set up in the basement, and sometimes there were would be a dozen emcees in there, for hours, until the place got so hot and sweaty and that we all had to get outside for some fresh air, exhausted, exhilarated...

there was a unity in the movement, too. this relatively small group of people in l.a. gave rise to reflective little scenes in every other city you can imagine. in other countries. around the world. the impact can still be felt today. it is truly global. and like mikah 9 says in the trailer, they had no idea they were making history...