Random and Mr. Miranda (aka Mirandom) release "Wednesday" music video; Rebecca Black mulls legal action

I've been slacking on ye olde weblog all year, but after five and a half months, something finally landed in my inbox that inspired me to write for free - a new video from Valley MCs Random and Mr. Miranda for the song "Wednesday" from their upcoming release The Memorandum. The song is all about slogging through a typical workweek and the sense of relief that comes with making it through "hump day."

I've written features on both of these guys for New Times, and they're two of the hardest working and most talented artists in the local hip-hop scene. I've felt for a while now that either one of these guys could be the rapper who finally puts Phoenix on the hip-hop map. Who knows? Maybe they'll accomplish that goal together. Wednesday might not be as sexy of a day as - oh, I don't know - Friday, but in the hands of Mr. Miranda and Random, it's not looking too bad at all.

Check out the video for "Wednesday" after the break. The song was co-produced by Random and EOM and the video was directed by Spicy Fud.

Arizona rappers unite to denounce SB 1070

Russell Pearce: legalizing guns and criminalizing Mexicans since 2001

Unless you've been living with your head under a rock, you've probably heard about SB 1070, a bill passed by the Arizona legislature and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer that essentially forces average beat cops to act as immigration enforcement officers. The bill was the brainchild of Sen. Russell Pearce (R-Mesa), a conservative Mormon and apparent neo-Nazi sympathizer. As if Sheriff Joe wasn't a big enough embarrassment for a state still trying to live down the whole MLK holiday flap from the early '90s, we now have a law set to go into effect that, for all intents and purposes, requires brown people to carry proof of citizenship every time they leave the house.

One of the biggest ironies of this bill (and there are many, believe me) is that the majority of its backers are conservatives who support a free market capitalist economy. These people have no problem with huge corporations outsourcing thousands of American jobs to countries full of brown people, but god forbid one of those brown people sneaks into America to bus their table, wash their dishes or pick the lettuce that went into their salad. That we simply cannot abide.