the king of pop is dead.

as party and i started our first, full-fledged, 800-watts-induced practice, we were greeted with the news that michael jackson was dead. it didn't ruin our day. in fact, there wasn't much of a response from either of us. but the elephant in the room was almost unavoidable. michael jackson is dead. sure, you can take some cheap shots at him. but i'm not going to. yes, he was a freak. but before that, he was a star. he grew up with the ever-spawning and growing papparazzi. shit, he practically invented the stalked and hunted celebrity that we know so well from grocery market magazine stands and crappy cable television shows. before there was E! there was michael jackson. before pepsi threwback, it was a choice of a new generation... that pepsi ad, the one where jackson emerges on-stage from the flames and fireworks, is one of my earliest childhood memories. i specifically remember seeing that commercial during a station break of a david copperfield primetime special: escape from alcatraz. copperfield invented big illusion, like jackson invented the moon walk. it was the time. pre-berlin wall 1980s type shit. ronald reagan and soviets and cold wars... it all goes hand-in-hand in my memory.

i've already reminised longer than i had intended. i didn't cry when jackson died. i didn't even pause. i mean, seriously, if michael jackson wasn't at the top of your celebrity death pool, then you either weren't paying attention or you didn't have a celebrity death pool. it's sick, i know. all of it. not just the death pool, no! the sickest part of all is that good old m.j... the other m.j. from the 80s (not michael jordan)... invented super-celebrity. he invented the moon walk. he invented the white, ghoulish, pieces-falling-off-my-face freak that we all grew to love to hate... and why? he did it for YOU. he made music... for you. he performed... for you. he dyed his skin (or didn't) for you! he shrunk his nose into a dissolving face-drop face-lift for you. he dwelt in a compound that looked like a make-shift disney world, a fantasy world... for you? because of you? you made him a god. and we love to watch our gods die. what is more interesting than a mega-celebrity? answer: a mega-celebrity's death. we build our gods to die for our sins. then we ask, what the hell happened to that guy?! what a freak! what a jerk, molestor, weirdo... insert your favorite jackson diss. he disfigured himself... tried to invent a plastically enhanced fountain of youth... for you. isn't it beautiful?! isn't it amazing!? what he did... what he made... isn't it beautiful?

when brittney commits suicide, or winehouse overdoses... (and this is all "god-forbid" material) ...when lohan goes nuts (if she hasn't already)... and o.j. kills (or finds the real murderers from his new prison cell) ...it will simply be another celebrity who did it all for you. you want to watch... they want you to watch... we build our gods to die. so don't ridicule them. they did it all for you! it was ALL FOR YOU.

...so now that i've completely ranted on the whole michael jackson death, let me reitterate: it did not affect the wine thieves' rehearsal at all. we had an amazing rehearsal. pulled out the stops, broke out in freestyles, and generally lived it up in the basement. ..oh, if those cynder blocks could talk!? (those cynder blocks would rock.) ..they saw us thru countless jersey bound trunk crew rehearsals, a short comedy we made called, billy tony... thru fake sword fights with real swords, real jams with fake drums... from party's old sleeping quarters to gum's fake death on the exhaust-pipe of my since-sold motorcycle... those walls have held in the must and musk, mold and cold... some of my best memories were born out of that basment.

sex & co. (our new ep) will be out monday, the 29th of june. three days away. that gives us a month until our first show... and in the interim period you will be able to download the sex & co. ep. we will be prepping and rehearsing, promoting and selling discs...

..and if our music ever draws us into any sort of spotlight, no matter how dim or how light a shade of lime... i'm going to burn it to the ground. before the demons infest me (i have plenty, thanks). before the papparazzi shoots me, i'm shooting first. before i fight the natural order of things...

don't stop til you get enough.
god bless saint michael.

- hype o