Who the Hell Are The BuffNerds?

While surfing the Internet in January during Winter Break, as I was wont to do, I came upon this little gem of a music video by two intriguing artists, K.i.D. and Futuristic:

 The music was smooth and hip, yet avant-garde. RaP GaME Salvador Dali, if you will.

Since that time, my Youtube feed has provided me a steady stream of "BuffNerds" videos, and my final verdict is that these guys are next to blow. They're whole vibe is total West Coast cool -- the color-drenched videography, the loose rapping style, the names. My personal favorite of the crew is K.i.D., but you can watch this crew video below and decide for yourself.

Just remember: I was the first guy in India to put on for the 'Nerds.

Indian Rupee at Seven-Week High; "The Amazing Spiderman" is Dubious; And Other News

This was a cray cray week; I saw "The Amazing Spiderman" in iMax 3D. That night was significant because it also marked my first time truly getting "caught" in an Indian monsoon. We were stuck for about an hour in a small Wadala back-alley market -- with no electricity -- as the streets got more and more flooded and the imposing Indian locals inched creepily close.

But perhaps even more important: the Indian rupee is rebounding! According to the Wall Street Journal, it reached a seven-week high against the U.S. dollar yesterday. Now if only if the dollar can sink below that 53.79 rupees mark, I can REALLY celebrate this Fourth of July!

Oh yeah, by the way, the Amazing Spiderman was WeakSauce Malloy. I'm pretty sure they just rummaged through Sam Raimi's office trashbin for the storyline. My good friend Hipster Spiderman would be ashamed.

The Illustrious Rhymesayers of the Ivory Towers

Smart, hard-working people make great music. Sometimes as great as any wild-haired, drug-addled artist -- not to say the two are mutually exclusive. It was true with Columbia-educated Rodgers and Hammerstein, with Yale-educated Cole Porter, and it's damn true now.

Case number one: Kinetics and One Love. Recently Cornell-graduated. Writers of such recent Billboard hits as "Airplanes" and "Strange Clouds," and composers of my personal favorite Lana Del Rey remix:

Case Number Two: Hoodie Allen. A 2010 UPenn Graduate who...not gonna lie...I was pretty damn skeptical about. But the dude has pretty much conquered the Internet, and hell if he doesn't make some catchy tunes. I'm not quite certain of the boundaries between Internet supremacy and "mainstream" supremacy anymore, but I'll just go ahead and say that this guy is as close to mainstream success as any former dorm-room rat of our generation. 

Case Number Three: Mike Posner. 2010 Duke graduate. Huge overachiever. Creator of J. Biebz' "Boyfriend," and great music in general. Innovator.

RaP GaMe TaYLoR SWiFT!

This is my kind of hip-hop...straight irony, no filler. I guess you could say the low-fi beat, melodramatic imagery and bold clash of personalities is some sort of commentary on modern young adulthood...probably...the apathetic materialism of young adulthood. But I really just like it for RiFF RAFF. Enjoy!

"Hey, wanna hear me rap?"

In high school, I was friends with Avery Capizzi, a rapper whose claims of connections to hip-hop superstars occasionally earned him derision -- though he was bolstered by, at times, shockingly good music. Early in senior year, he began asking fellow Yorktown High School seniors to rap on his upcoming mixtape. Though many ridiculed the offer, a fair number took the opportunity to transfer our love of hip-hop to an actual product. The result -- the 703 Mixtape Vol. 1 -- was fairly professionally mixed, well-structured, and featured a smattering of awkwardly self-confident suburban teenagers spitting bars alongside a few DC rap middleweights. The response was primarily positive -- enough to spawn a sequel.

Personally, the concept of rapping excited me enough to continue in college. For friends, fraternity brothers and family, my rapping usually incited curiosity, occasionally ridicule, but eventually, accolades and encouragement. Ironically, that encouragement came right as I decided to quit. They don't love you till you're gone I guess.

It took me a while to reconcile my love -- and ability -- of rapping with the other facets of my life: school, interest in media/finance, normal friends who don't rap, etc. Considering I officially "quit," I guess you can say I never actually did figure out where to configure rap. However, as long as there are vocal-less instrumentals in this world, and small apartment parties, I will continue to approach comely females and impress them with a few well-chosen bars. How else will I keep the skill alive? Enjoy a sample below.