I only have a few minutes before I gotta pack for my triumphant return to the Sea, which is happening in t-minus 9 hours…8…7…6…

But I wanted to just briefly pass along two of my favorite pieces of hip-hop media. They don’t relate specifically to the 206 scene, but the last time I checked, hip-hop was happening in every damn nook and cranny of our fair nation. (Sometimes I even need to escape our little insular 206 world!) That being said, peep game:

The first thing you need to check for on the regular is Ill Doctrine, Jay Smooth’s online hip-hop/politico/pop-culture op-ed series. Smooth is proof that there’s a hip-hop nerd hiding inside all of us. Ill Doctrine is kinda like The Source. If The Source grew a brain, a conscience, and a soul. (Oh, snap!!) It always seems like Jay says what I want to say, but in much more eloquent and creative ways. Here’s his latest post, on the Budden vs. Raekwon beef:

The second worthwhile item is the film Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a documentary by filmmaker Byron Hurt. Here’s a preview:

It’s a film that tackles themes of masculinity, homophobia, and sexism in hip-hop music. It’s easily one of the most important music documentaries ever made. Byron Hurt really turns hip-hop upside down and shakes all of its ugly parts onto the table so they can be explored carefully. Don’t miss it.

(Quick story about this film: I first saw it at a free screening at Columbia University. The main reason I went is because I heard Talib Kweli would be participating on a discussion panel after the screening — along with Mr. Hurt and a host of other hip-hop intelligentsia. Kweli was his normal thoughtful and engaging self, but the real star of the screening was Byron Hurt and his film. I came away impressed and with a disturbed perspective on how a lot of rappers end up marginalizing themselves by the lyrics they spit. I also had my first celebrity encounter in New York when I ended up standing at a urinal next to Talib Kweli. I resisted the urge to challenge him to a freestyle battle.)