Hard NOC Life 306: De La Soul is Not Dead

On this special episode of Hard NOC Life, Shawn Taylor returns to join Keith as they look back at the legacy of De La Soul, one month after the group’s entire catalog was finally released to streaming platforms and a new generation of hip-hop fans.

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De La Forever

Aside from father and husband, there are few titles that mean more to me than, b-boy. Yes, I have just entered my 50s, but b-boy still resonates for me as an operational position. While I no longer believe hip hop can change the world — the culture did move some things around — I do believe that hip hop can change us, so we can better navigate the world.

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‘Catwoman: Hunted’ Leads DC Animation’s 2022 Movie Slate

It was a huge day for the Bat and the Cat today! In addition to the new trailer for The Batman dropping, featuring Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight opposite Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman, DC Animated Movies announced their next big offering, coming February 8, 2022, Catwoman: Hunted!

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The Middle Geeks Episode 27: ‘We Are Lady Parts’ Review

We are SO excited to discuss Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts, a British series featuring a punk rock band of all Muslim women of color, including MENA women, premiering today on Peacock TV! What did we love particularly about this series, and how well does it handle representation? We also discuss the news of the additional Sandman for Netflix, including the Lebanese Razane Jammal, American Eid debuting on Disney+, and much more!

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Hard NOC Life 204: Why So Serious

Dominic and Keith are discussing the latest WandaVision, speculating about Monica Rambeau’s future in the MCU, breaking down the Snyder Cut trailer (and its associated Joker memes), revisiting the De La Soul episode of Teen Titans GO!, and getting hyped for digital-first comics set in the Burton and Donner cinematic universes.

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Teen Titans Soul: De La Go!

One of the the greatest cultural tragedies of the digital era is that De La Soul’s early music isn’t streaming. An early victim of the sample-clearance wars (over 70 on their masterful debut, 3 Feet High and Rising), De La’s cultural impact — and promise — has never been allowed to be fully realized. Not only has the streaming era proved to stifle De La’s early output, their contracts only covered physical media releases as no one anticipated that streaming would become the primary way we’d all experience media.

With new modes of delivery, new contracts have to be made for those previous albums. And De La has tried to do this in good faith, but Tommy Boy Records, the label De La was originally signed to, has refused to give them a mutually equitable deal. Tommy Boy would take the lion’s share of the profits, even though all of De La’s albums have recouped (made back initial production/investment costs).

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DC FanDome: Get Ready to Explore the Multiverse

Upon its announcement the DC FanDome experience was going to showcase four separate rooms to explore and a full schedule of DC fan experiences that users could choose from to create a customized itinerary. However, as you can see from the incredible Hall of Heroes event itself two weeks ago, there was just too much awesome to contain to one day.

So on September 12, for 24 hours, get ready to return to the FanDome, to explore the multiverse!

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Get Ready for the DC FanDome!

It’s been a long, long quarantine folks. Let’s be honest, under normal circumstances, we’d all be waist deep in Con season — the most wonderful time of the year; starting with Wondercon, then Paleyfest, E3, Anime Expo, and glorious, glorious SDCC. But alas, 2020 has been something of a cruel master. And while truthfully these are a.) first-world problems, and b.) necessary sacrifices to maintain health and safety, yours truly still longs for the ability to take solace and comfort in the simple joys of abandoning life’s problems, and uniting as one ginormous tribe of nerds, hugging and crying over the excitement generated from the world debut of the most anticipated trailers of the year in Hall H. I miss those days, and if you’re anything like me, I’m sure you all do too.

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One-on-One with ‘Teen Titans GO! To The Movies’ Star Khary Payton

Opening in theaters everywhere today, Teen Titans GO! To The Movies is the superhero film we need right now. Blending the animated series’ mix of satire, pop culture references, and all-around wackiness, TTGTTM deserves to be DC’s highest rated movie since last year’s Wonder Woman. I got a chance to have a chat with one of the stars of the film, and one of the most iconic voice actors in the business, Khary Payton, about being Cyborg.

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‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’ is Fun for Kids and Their Grown-ups

As a geek parent, I, for the most part, have been unsuccessful in passing on my enthusiasms to my teen and tween daughters. Sure, my eldest is now a confirmed Potterhead, but only years after her mother and I bequeathed her our books, which she refused to read because they were ours. She discovered and fell in love with Stranger Things on her own, too, which I guess is what works with her — if we’d told her to watch it, maybe she wouldn’t have listened. Her younger sister is a bit more open to my suggestions, and loves anything with magic and the fantastic, and she happily displays my gifts of Pop! figures of strong female characters on her shelf. However, she scares very, very easily, so attempts to watch Star Wars movies, for example, are interrupted by frequents runs out of the room or outright refusals, no matter how much likes likes the characters.

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