Thursday, January 19, 2006 arts. michigandaily.com artspage@michigandaily.com catbt lRirkigFrn ~tt 5A I FUNKY FOUR + 1 FIVE TOP PIECES OF POP CULTURE COMPLIMENTS OF THE DAILY ARTS EDITORS Real World / Road Rules Gauntlet - Washed-up reality stars come back for more on the latest MTV challenge with even more 'roided-up, hairless males and attention-whoring females. There's nothing quite as funny as seeing 35-year-old out-of-shape contestants struggling to keep up with the younger generation. Throw in a bunch of tension compounded from previous seasons and perennial alcoholic/Gauntlet beast Ruthie getting eliminated this week, and you've got one of the most entertaining ways to spend a cold Ann Arbor night. Isiah/Simmons beef - The Knicks GM told Stephen A. Smith on his radio show that if he sees sportswriter Bill Simmons on the street, "it's gonna be a problem with me and him." A South Side Chicago Bad Boy who once punched his own teammate versus a sheltered New England writer? We'll go with the Isiah. Trust us, we work with a lot of pale New Englanders. Scott Storch - Not only has this awkward white guy produced most of the shitty songs associated with equally mediocre rappers (see Mr. Cent's "Candy Shop" and Fatty Joe's "Get It Poppin' "), but a recent New York Times article shows him buying new-money yellow dia- monds and talking about giving Paris Hilton a Bentley for her birth- day. To summarize, Timbaland is now a bodybuilder, Pharrell has gotten too big for his britches and Storch is suddenly self-important. Remember when rappers were the only ones with big egos? Courtesy of ABC "So about 'The Wonder Years.' You might not know this, but I was stoned the entire time." COOKIE DOESN'T CRUMBLE SAVAGE FINALLY FINDS A HIT WITH INORDINATELY DARK SITCOM Ying Yang Twinz, "Shake" featuring Pitbull - Yes, the Twinz are ridiculous- ly foul. Yes, the creepy horror synths fill the dance floor. And, of course, Pitbull upstages everyone, getting nasty stuff on the radio by rapping in Spanish and using slang he probably shouldn't: White Daily staffer: "I didn't know Hispanic rappers could say the 'N' word now." Black Daily staffer: "Neither did I!" By Mark Schultz For the Daily Former "Wonder Years" child star Fred Savage hasn't had much to do after an acting career that peaked with puberty, but ABC has given the falling star another chance with the new sitcom "Crumbs." And playing Mitch Crumb, a struggling writer trying to hide his homosexuality, might actually be his ticket back to TV stardom. Crumbs Thursday at 9:30 p.m. ABC to add to his offbeat life, including his mom - who maybe isn't as sane as the doctors who released her thought she was - and the return of his deadbeat dad Billy (William Devane, "24"), who announces he has gotten his current flame pregnant. The pair of morally and emotionally askew parents becomes the foundation of the show, with Savage's biggest come- dic points coming in his reactions to them. Then there's jealous Jody Crumb, who has seri- ous sibling envy over Mitch's Hollywood career, launched by Mitch's adaptation of the death of their third brother. The mention of this dead sibling sends "Crumbs" into dark territory, where most shows don't venture in their pilots (and usually for good reason). "Crumbs" tries to show this dark side along with the hilarity of a fractured family, a novel idea that might prove too heavy for primetime. "Crumbs," like many sitcom pilots, is flush with the usual topics - crazy jokes, gay jokes, sibling rivalry jokes - that do early work developing the characters. These jokes are typical, delivered with impeccably timed sitcom wit, and the characters' comments fit perfectly into the show's plot. But besides their normal, prepackaged sitcom musings, these characters also have a certain sense of reality to them. They're all flawed and very human: the insecure gay writer, the bizarre, frazzled mom and the womanizing chef all wallow in their imperfection, but we like it. In fact, each charac- ter's flaws are so much greater their reductive comedic "foibles"; the characters are actually all fairly twisted and unlike your typical sitcom makeup. The show's pilot, like virtually all pilots, isn't great, but "Crumbs" has a future. It has the kind of open-ended premise that very successful series like "The Simpsons" and "Seinfeld" had, where vagueness of plot can help it develop in almost any direction. The series that try to do something overly unique usually end up failing, but "Crumbs" is happy being another story of the not- so-average family. Granted, not-so-average families are sitcom bread and butter, but "Crumbs" shows a fam- ily that doesn't always conquer their flaws with pluck. Humor is just as likely to spring from dark moments as it is from laugh-track gags. Anchored by Savage and Curtin - two sitcom veterans who know how to make a show funny -"Crumbs" could be the plug to fill the hole in ABC's dismal primetime sitcom lineup. UGG boots - It snowed! You don't look like a fucking idiot anymore. Congratula- tions. Crumb is presumably happy in Los Angeles, but he's soon called back to his small hometown to over- see the release of his mother Suzanne ("SNL" and "Third Rock from the Sun" alum Jane Curtin) from a mental institution. Here he comes back into con- tact with old friend Andrea (Maggie Lawson) and oversexed brother Jody (Eddie McClintock), both of whom work at a restaurant bearing the Crumb sur- name. Mitch now has a whole new set of problems Courtesy of SarahWest.com Fading hip-hop label catalogs early releases By Lloyd Cargo Daily Arts Writer Rawkus has long been synonymous with conscious indie hip hop, providing a haven for New York City MCs to transcend gangster posturing and other ______________ mainstream rap cliches. After working Various with several major labels during the past Ars few years, Rawkus was finally bought by Geffen Records, ending its reign as Rawkus Records: one of the preeminent hip-hop indies. Best of Decade To celebrate the demise of the label that 1, 1995-2005 brought backpack rap to colleges across Rawkus/Geffen the nation, Rawkus is releasing Rawkus Records: Best of Decade I,1995-2005. The title itself is a bit of a misnomer as the vast major- ity of the tracks are from the late '90s, because the label has been more or less inactive for the past five years. This isn't a problem, though; that era represents somewhat of a second golden age in New York hip hop. For a short while, Brooklyn was the epicenter of the hip-hop world, Mos Def and Talib Kweli were still a team and MC's like Big L and Pharoahe Monch teamed with producers like Hi-Tek and Ayatolla to create hip hop with a message. Unfortunately Talib Kweli and Mos Def never real- ized their commercial potential and hip hop has rapidly, moved away from a conscious aesthetic and an opti- mistic outlook (as well as from New York City) to head down to the dirty South. While Kweli might be your favorite rapper's favorite rapper, "Get By" doesn't sell like "Stay Fly." That doesn't subtract from the importance of this compi- lation, especially if it exposes new listeners to some of the essential Rawkus releases. It's a great place to start, but it barely skims the surface of the Rawkus catalogue. All the hits are here, from Black Star's "Definition" to Mos Def's "Ms. Fat Booty," and every track is fire. There's no dead weight, though it's easy to complain that Mos Def saturates Best of/Decade I, with an appearance on nine of the 15 tracks. But of course, as the face of the label, it's only appropriate. Hopefully, Best of Decade I won't be a eulogy for Rawkus. Label cofounders Jarret Myer and Brian Brater pledge in the liner notes to remain faithful to the label's mission statement, writing "Rawkus intends to bring a fresh approach to the entire media game using the most artistic and culturally significant aspects of the underground. And the next time the underground bends the course of pop cul- ture, we hope to be seated courtside once again." The meta- phor works, but unfortunately Rawkus is akin to Spike Lee at a Knicks game, waiting out hip hop's rebuilding process while remaining nostalgic about its glory days. 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