Yup, SON of a BUSH, Tony BeWARE BLAIR, COLIE P and the DICK are still looking, and god bless those young cats that got to do the real work of trying to police that wild scene over there. But it’s time for another t-dome coming atcha, no doubt, I got things on my mind. Rolling off PE tour #47 was quite an experience, as the other side of the bloc always seems more at home for my own worldly tastes. You name it, in every aspect it always seems much more soulful than the west where all the money resides. The food, the air, the peeps, many males swear up and down the women are very high on the scales of appearance, and this survey is from some well traveled world roadsters indeed. SERBIA-MONTENEGRO for example was indeed a great experience. It seemed like SACRAMENTO or HOUSTON in a way, and BELGRADE resonated with a SOUTH AMERICAN vibe to me. VLADE DIVAC and PEJA STOJACOVICH must feel at home with the SACKINGS it looks so similar. In a war torn area the aftermath has created a people who cherish sticking together for a cause and then having a good time with one another. Post Milosevic times there have the economy making adjustments to go as forward as they can. The pieces of former YUGOSLAVIA, CROATIA, SLOVENIA and BOSNIA are fueled by the passion of the people, which in turn hope to keep governments forward thinking and acting for the sake of all as opposed to only themselves. Much appreciation goes out to Eber COMRADE who schooled us much of the way.

The music and the gig was something, and we played in front of many peeps who knew the meaning of “FIGHT THE POWER” for real. The crews who played before us had their rap game tight as hell, and I checked them out doing their thing like WU, organized cats on stage spittin. The press conference that GRIFF, SILBERT MANI and I did was in front of around 75 press people, and this hip hop nation anticipated exactly what they got and more. The biggest question, would there be a pipeline of American rap acts to travel there in lieu of hip hop exchange. Some of these peeps had taken buses to BUDAPEST, HUNGARY years ago when the wall was just 3-4 years down. Many remember taking a chance trying to get to the gig we did in nearby ZAGREB, CROATIA knee deep when the war was really goin down. Now the people wanna get together and suspect that the real enemies in this are the divisive politic of church and state (sounds familiar). It has something to do with the hunger evident in this eastern part of Europe. More than 25% of this year’s NBA draft were cats from this area and abroad, something about the basics and the love for the game as opposed to just the toys. The same theory applies in the realm of music, and hip hop. In a game of linguistics, these cats dangle with 3-4 languages, something that will figure in later once the sleepy heads of Amerikkka figure that there’s a rest of the world that’s bigger than the 2000 x 3000 sq mile box the states are within. The EURO helps these countries figure into this NEW WHIRL ODOR, let’s hope the people come out on top of this, in a world increasingly psychologically controlled by the MMM not the KKK, that’s MICROSOFT, MTV and McDONALDS.

Here’s another thing, CHARLES TAYLOR conveniently escapes from a US prison, and runs to LIBERIA. Now the snakkkes wanna go and say he’s foul. Sounds like the real NORE, sounds like B-LADEN, sounds like THAT DAMN INSANE story all over again. It’s this double-talk that confuses the people. AFRICA back has the west’s footprints all in it, and now the cowboys wanna look like the cats to the rescue? Governments are the cancer of civilization.

Let me tell you what I can’t stand. When someone asks your name but doesn’t offer theirs. I’m approachable as hell, but the way I was raised was to introduce my name before I ask the name of others. It’s simple. Some people will stop you in your tracks by saying dumb caveman sh#t like, “Hey you tell me what your name is?” without proper courtesy. I was stuck on the side of a road last week filling my car with antifreeze when this cat stopped, and instead of seeing what was wrong, he’s up trying to figure out who I am. This is typical of the millennium. Common judgment & courtesy is beyond automation.

R.I.P. to the great BARRY WHITE. Overall I respect that man because when rap music was catching hell in the mid-eighties, he spoke up for it, and was one of the few R&B stars to do so. That was support for RUN-DMC after the incident in LONG BEACH during the RAISING HELL tour in 1986. His music is timeless, play it all month yall, and the rest of the year.

Props to SIR FREDDIE FOXXX, always a great cat. In this month’s ELEMENTAL MAGAZINE he plainly says that his representation for the little man, the independent, the underground struggler, the underdog... his KONEXXXION out now.

The HULK struck me like the MATRIXX RELOADED. Too much of a drab storyline. I ain’t an action fanatic but the MATRIXX spent toooo much time in ZION. And the HULK spent too much time in BRUCE BANNER’s head. I will say this, when he turned into the HULK and started wrecking sh#t, it was the flyest, most violent animation I have ever seen on the screen. When he turned back to BB I too shrunk, back into my seat.

Getting a PHATBOX in my ride ‘60 gigs of hard drive’ shee the fear is the thing’ll last longer than the damn car itself! I have taken it two times this summer for thermostat and hoses.

Appeared again on JIM ROME’s show on ESPN, it’s a real cool show and I hope ROMEY has it for a very long time. Another cat in rap who has his sports thing together is PHIFE from TRIBE CALLED QUEST, who I think is gonna be that other rap regular besides yours truly.

Speaking of ESPN, GARY G WIZ, AMANI K SMITH and myself completed the ESPY award show opening theme song entitled “LETS GET LOUD”. No it ain’t got anything to do with J-Los song of the same name which is some dance tune having no reason for a sports cat to get loud about. This cut is in the same vein as a stadium rocker during a game. G-WIZ and myself ain’t new to this, previously composing SHUT EM DOWN and last year’s SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL GAME OF THE WEEK THEME. This cut is constructed to 1. Work as the ESPY theme; 2. Become a song unto itself featuring BUSTA RHYMES, PHIFE DOG, MC LYTE, and FLAV and myself. Add to this a hook by AEROSMITH’s STEVEN TYLER and JOE PERRY this compiled squad will go by the name of the SPITBALLERS; 3. The final goal of the record is to work as a stadium/arena anthem, possibly to encourage an offensive burst by the home team. Cuts like QUEEN’s “WE WILL ROCK YOU,” and GARY GLITTER’s “ROCK AND ROLL PT2,” are the vein we are reaching for. Mad thanks out to HARDGROOVE who reached out to famed producer JACK DOUGLAS to make this happen big time in getting me in touch to ask AEROSMITH to get down.

The video was fun and in fact a switch of character. The director is a sports nut but salivated at the shot to produce, in essence, a rap video to be spliced with sports footage. BUSTA had to break out on tour so he shot a car driving scene that I would have done in LA, the next two days the rest of us shot our scenes in VEGAS. FLAV and I shot the mandatory club scenes with the party chicks and the whole nine. PHIFE shot the pool shots. It was done at the MALOOF’s PALMS CASINO where the REAL WORLD was shot on the roof suite. I don’t drink, smoke or gamble, so to me VEGAS has always been some place where old people do their thing. The PALMS is geared for a younger fresher attitude, it’s a great place. All in all it was a great time and a throwback to when FLAV and I were running clubs back in the day.

As for the rest of tour 47 last month, HELSINKI revisited was great but I think I said that in my last t-dome. This time rolling around SCANDINAVIA, in and out of the airport, we dug getting down at the COPENHAGEN show. In DENMARK TYPHOON and DJ POWER were great in their interviews and along with DJ FOLDOUT of GERMANY lookout for these cats to put two shows up on the re-launched WWW.BRINGTHENOISE.COM on the RAPSTATION RADIO INTERNETWORK next month. As for BERLIN, we played at an arena on the formerly EAST BERLIN side, today as a full city fourteen years later you can’t really tell the dif anymore. RIMINI BEACH, ITALY as usual, or as I remember it, was hot and very nice indeed, we felt like rap dons in our meetings at a beachside restaurant on our day off. We didn’t really hit ITALY this year as hard as expected so next year we will bring it to ROME and MILAN as well as hitting POLAND, HUNGARY, SWEDEN, NORWAY, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND and FRANCE in 2004.

ESTONIA was intriguing, a country 10 years into their freedom from the USSR, it’s a young nation that has just as many ties to SCANDINAVIA as RUSSIA. The people inside the government are MTVish cats. The gig was 3 hours away from TALLIN, the main city, and the airport. It was outside as a festival and the enthusiasm was high. We played before reggae-bounce cat SHAGGY who concentrates on pushing records across the earth. It was his fourth time there, and he rocks. His band is tight and every year he throws a big festival in JAMAICA. He invited us down, it would be greeeeeat to finish the year on a chill there. In ESTONIA the big push is for the country to have the English language as a requirement and that everybody be online. They’re making things happen there, high up in the world it didn’t get dark until 11:45 pm. In GREECE the red, black and green machine returned after 10 years to do two dates in ATHENS and one in TSLONICA, a beach city. The gigs, and press conference was live as hell and ATHENS still reminds me of a blend between LA and MIAMI, warm and full of history. Hip hop-wise props go to my man SAKIS for a great interview and holding it down out there. Next year the Olympics are being held there, the airport is fresh and new and the city as well as the country is ready. Did I say the hotels in EUROPE these days are soooo much better than when we toured the land as rookies in the winter of 1987.

Whew, this is looking like a 2000 word piece, peep it... The MELTDOWN FESTIVAL in LONDON was a gig being put to task at the ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL. Had a great time doing the gig, but the amazing aspect of that was when guitarist KHARI WYNN was within a creative Hendrixish frenzy and at the end hurled his guitar. GRIFF had the wherewithal to come out of seemingly nowhere to make a TOMMY AGEEish catch of it by the strings! That was the highlight, and the fact that many peeps were seeing us for the first time in years out there, courtesy of LEE SCRATCH PERRY.

AMSTERDAM as usual was it’s always electric self. The gig was at the famed PARADISO and it’s customary for us to meet and greet with the peeps, and to outdo ourselves. This time it’s not hard because the PE rhythm section is as hot as any I’ve seen or heard. BRYAN HARDGROOVE, KHARI WYNN, and MIKE ‘Funky Mike’ FAULKNER are locked into the groove. Now it’s time to introduce our other bands and sets to the table. The next installment of the 3 part European Invasion is called MKLVFKWR Tour #48, that’s short for ‘Make love fu*k war’, since son of a bush, Tony Blair, and a small select crew wanna put the world under one thumb. The rest of the earth does not agree with these guys, again governments are the cancer of civilization.

CHILI’s got this blackberry Tea that’s slammmmin!

When I see a whole family in a HUMMER on dubs, seriously it tosses me for a loop 4 real. Or a young mother blasting a kitted out sound system with a baby chair in the back with her child in it. Don’t let hip hop make us stupid. I’m not fully blaming hip hop for violence, but for influencing heads that should know better. How does a public personality like BEENIE SIEGAL think he can get away with shooting anybody? The feds wait for celebs to do some sh*t to turn themselves in. Fame comes real cheap these days. It’s almost like fame is a homing device, a subliminal homing device. This kid that got killed from BAYLOR U is an example of this fake hip hop bravado gone overboard and has been accepted into today’s world as ‘street cred’, thus the same fabric of people are falling victim to the same ways of what real life ain’t about. Rappers with limited vocabs getting the position just because they’re black is not enough. Like I said before, the NBA tells the black college player if he ain’t good enough to leave school early he won’t be good enough for the league. Expect the NBA to be half European / whatever by 2010. Being just black ain’t good enough. Like in baseball black comes from the Diaspora and rarely the states, for the former black sport opportunity. The work and knowledge ethic among U.S. blacks is swirling down the drain because we foolishly think we have it made.

PUFFSTER’S Making Of The Band on MTV is a great thing I think to spank some reality into those that think the streets will make them good performers. PUFF crushes those spirits in order to rebuild them the right way. There is so little of this in showbiz today, and increasingly less of it in sports where the coaches can no longer control the players single-handedly. Basketball and hip hop are similarly out of control. To me the NBA is one on team garbage to look at, as many feel most rap may be garbage to listen to. I missed the NBA finals while overseas and was told the quality was terrible. The basics and the hunger is what made the damn thing happen as stellar as it did in the first place. Style and substance, the blends of basics with flair or flavor to it. Being black simply doesn’t mean an automatic guarantee in greatness without dedication, education and work. Simple as that, and this is never more evident then when I see the hunger and the love across the world for hip hop especially. The third installment of the EUROPEAN INVASION hits SPAIN and PORTUGAL as well as hitting the UK yet again for the RESPECT FESTIVAL. Again, peep JOSHSAM@SLAMJAMZ.COM for info at www.SLAMjamz.com, for more info and the mighty resurgence of WWW.RAPSTATION.COM, the new WWW.PUBLICENEMY.COM front page info center, and worldwide internet radio at www.bringthenoise.com and I’m out... MKLVFKWR.

Mistachuck@rapstation.com