Miami Lice
October 24, 2008 @ 4:00 AM
O.J. Sipmson: If I Did It
O.J. Simpson became famous among the non-american-football-liking –general public in 1994 as the main suspect in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and a waiter Ron Goldman who happened to be there in the wrong place at the wrong time. Before that he’d been a pro footballer until -78. He’s black. His ex-wife was white. The murder trial became one of the biggest media circuses in the history of crime. Racial tensions ran high surrounding the trial. In the end the jury found O.J. not guilty of the murders. In 1997, a civil court found him responsible for the deaths and liable to pay millions in damages to the victims’ families. Don’t ask me how that’s possible—two basically opposite verdicts in one and the same case. Anyway, following the second verdict, to escape paying a penny, O.J. moved to Florida, which apparently is a legal haven for people who owe a lot of money they have no intention of paying.
Last year saw the publication of O.J.’s hypothetical confession, in which he describes his family life and relationship with Nicole leading up to the murders, the night of the murders and the immediate aftermath. The way it could have happened. The book has an introduction by the Goldman family and a prologue by the ghost-writer who wrote the book based on interviews with Simpson. It’s a mess. It reads well, it’s compelling, but at the end of the day, you can’t get around he fact that it doesn’t answer any questions. It’s a bit like scripted reality TV, only the reality part of it is that two people really got killed. Is this the script? The publishers say it’s a genuine confession, O.J. says it’s fiction. Both have their obvious motives. The copyright to the work was won in court by the Goldman family, so most of the profits go to them to pay for O.J.’s debt to them, which now stands at 38 million. Simpson gets jack shit. It’s a bizarre book and it feels weird reading it and it feels weird paying money for it.
Yelawolf
The Wolf came out skating with us one day. He’s got a huge pick up truck. He’s a white rapper from Alabama and he’s a pretty sick skater as well. We youtubed him and saw Newport skating in the background of his video. He’s got a new project called Stereo, which he describes as a hip hop tribute to classic rock. Here’s what else he had to say.
So you’re from Alabama? How did you end up in Miami?
Yeah I’m from a small town in Alabama called Gadsden. Uhm. I’m out here in Miami recording with a homie of mine Dj Ideal. And, uhm, just by chance all my homies are out here, Newport and all the skateboarders and shit.
What have you been working on in Miami just now?
It’s a mixtape called Stereo, it’s a hiphop tribute to classic rock, I’ve been working on it with Dj Ideal for like a month and a half. We just dug out all the dope classic rock records that we could find and we, uhm, we mixed them, you know? It’s real dope man, I’m excited about it. We really just went in and tried to maintain the original sound of the records instead of putting 808s everywhere, making it corny. I work really hard on my mixtapes you know, they’re concept oriented. I don’t do my mixtapes like most people, who just go jack beats, steal other people’s beats.
You had Element backing this one somehow?
First time I came out here Newport introduced me to Jimmy Lannon. And we were skating in Atlanta one time and I caught a couple clips with them and they kicked it with me. And I took Jimmy and the whole crew to couple of my shows and I let them stay at mine. I had a huge warehouse at the time so the whole crew just posted up there. So Jimmy told The Whip, the team manager about me and my music and that I skated and shit, so they put me on flow. So they’re sending me boxes and I started sending The Whip some music and asked them if they’d be interested in getting behind the music. And so yeah, I just got the pass couple of days ago, so shit man, hopefully we’ll get this shit into Element stores and skate shops, you know.
What would be the best way for people reading this to get a hold of your music?
Hop on the internet, Myspace is open: , and we’re gonna start flooding Youtube with all the records, so you can just do a search for Yelawolf.
