Dart Against Humanity

On today's episode Dart discusses his personal feelings on art, culture, standards and what moves him from an emotional, tonal and creative standpoint vs. other people might enjoy that differs from his preference & why he doesn't like when people ask for his opinion on certain things because of it. Art is open to interpretation and what I enjoy and what you enjoy might be two completely different things for a wide array of reasons.

Today Dart discusses how he's passing the time 70 full days into quarantine doing home improvements, researching, doing consulting, fact checking & staying busy. Conversations jump from "The Last Dance", Top 5 discussions, UTFO's debut album, New Edition's "My Secret" controversy, video game release dates, Nintendo & the Turbo Grafx-16 Mini. A lot of ground was covered in only 45 minutes

Today Dart Adams discusses Ice Cube's debut solo album "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" assisted by the Bomb Squad after leaving N.W.A.on the 30th anniversary of its release. The album's importance, lasting influence and role in the continuum of classic Rap albums is also expounded upon. Read Ice Cube’s “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective by Dart Adams on Medium!

Dart decides to talk about his early days playing basketball and the life lessons he learned from being a kid who had natural ability, height and a love for the game who never really worked on his game although he watched a lot of ball and the reality checks he faces when he went up against those who did and the world of difference between organized basketball & streetball/pick up ball during my young teen years. Enjoy...

Dart Adams discusses everything that's happened in the almost 3 month hiatus between Season 4 and Season 5 the final season of Dart Against Humanity, including the COVID-19 virus that's resulted in me being quarantined/sheltering at home for 49 days. I discuss my present mental state, coping mechanisms, early thought process, thoughts on being productive and what I'm doing to pass the time and stay positive in hopes the curve flattens some time in May. 

In the final episode of Season 4, I discuss the past 10 years of my career and where my path crossed with FWMJ. Abare is a term dealing with the damage you can do in trades or exchanges in fighting games that allow you to survive or come out on top even when you're at a disadvantage. I talk about how I managed to get to where I am in my career and what the future holds for Dart Against Humanity going forward. 

On this edition of Dart Against Humanity, I discuss the ugly events surrounding the shoddy handling of reporting the sudden passing of Kobe Bryant & his daughter Gigi this past Sunday. I was so disgusted with the media and humanity as a whole I fell back from real time social media (especially Twitter) for 3 days. I discuss my thoughts on the past week & my personal process dealing with his death and the overwhelming wave of grief consuming my present spaces. Rest in eternal peace to everyone who lost their lives on Sunday. Amen.

The discussion today is about cult films, how that designation has changed over time and how easy or hard it is for a film to earn that title in the era of Real Time Social Media with all of the different streaming portals both legitimate and of the pirate variety. I even list quite a few cult classics and highly slept on films from the past 25 or so years in the process...

Dart returned from MIT after seeing Harry Allen x Rob Swift's Harbanger turntable septet/orchestra with a fresh perspective on the value of Hip Hop culture. He talks about the transformative nature of Hip Hop culture and how art evolves over time due to influence while providing examples from his own life experiences. Next Friday will be about a brand new subject entirely.

Last night, I went to MIT to witness a lecture between legendary journalist/author Harry Allen & legendary DJ/turntablist Rob Swift. I had known both for quite a while but the subject matter of the lecture really resonated with me on many levels as a creative who isn't constantly aspiring to be better and reach the many lofty goals I have for myself which I might never reach. This podcast is about self discovery, self expression & reminding myself to enjoy the process/journey rather than the fact I'm not where I want to be yet. This is The Learning.

On the first episode of Dart Against Humanity recorded in 2020, Dart discusses his research done for articles about 1985 & 1990, including how & why it took so long for the first Rap song to hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, MC Hammer's unique single roll out for his 1990 LP "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em", how Bell Biv DeVoe's 1990 single & LP "Poison" changed the dynamic of the Pop charts plus the odd case of the ascent of Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall In Love" on the Hot 100 vs. Lisa Stansfield's "All Around The World" which was released as a single in North America in January 1990 but blew up on the Black music charts. Also, Dart discusses his initial findings regarding Run DMC's sophomore album "King Of Rock" which was released in January 1985. 

On today's episode of Dart Against Humanity, he discusses his spoiler free reaction to seeing "The Rise Of Skywalker" last Friday, his new Medium piece "Tetsuo & Adulthood: The Influence Of “Akira” 30 Years Later" and he recounts his top 5 Christmases from when he was a kid to young adulthood. 

Dart talks about dealing with the potentially crippling doubt & uncertainty involved with being work for hire and having to deal with trying to sell your art to people that don't value it anywhere near as much as you do within that same space. The talk veers into the many ways this manifests itself or how the writer  views storytelling in other mediums in order to study what works or doesn't work so they can apply it to their own craft/output. 

Dart talks about his experience at the 2019 Boston Music Awards, the passing of Hip Hop legend PHASE2 & what it means to him (and all of us), "Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker", "Dune", "Robotech" and for some odd reason? "Transformers: The Movie"

In this episode I address the last episode being trash, the Drake normalized rappers singing take, the 90's R&B wasn't filthy take, when I learned R&B was filthy back in 1984 and lost my innocence thus spoiling it for everyone else, working on my next two books, Uptown vs. Def Jam, digging for records fueling music discovery and I finish acknowledging the 20th anniversary of Ego Trip's Book Of Rap Lists. 

Rebounding from Thanksgiving, Dart does an episode about the adaptation of the new season of "Watchmen", Martin Scorcese's "The Irishman", the Boston Celtics' insistence on booing Kyrie Irving as their being successful without him and how to stay motivated as a writer when you're not on the fringes simply trying to survive, New week's episode will be way better, I promise...

On this episode of Dart Against Humanity I observe the 25th anniversary of Redman's classic sophomore album "Dare Iz A Darkside". I recall Def Jam's Month Of The Man promotional campaign. I even read from the album credits/liner notes of the CD J card & excerpts from Adario Strange's The Source cover story on Redman "Hell On Earth". 

Dart discusses Winter albums again, which leads him to discussing the 25th anniversary of Method Man's classic debut "Tical" in detail. He also rehashes his Twitter debate about how iconic the Wu Tang Clan logo is then he sets up next week's discussion about Def Jam's Month Of The Man campaign and Redman's "Dare Iz A Darkside".

Dart discusses his thoughts about the game "Death Stranding" then talks us through the process of researching for several pieces he's presently writing including his Method Man "Tical" 25th anniversary retrospective, Independent As F* 3 & liner notes he's doing for an upcoming album which made him stumble on several erroneous release dates from 1989. Also, it looks like November 9th, 1999 is the real 20th anniversary of MF DOOM's "Operation: Doomsday".