Last night I had the great honor of interviewing two thirds of the legendary Brand Nubian – Lord Jamar and Grand Puba! It all kinda makes sense actually considering Sadat X recently came into play in this column right? Totally coincidentally I’m working with the homies at Frank151 on their De La Soul issue (more on this soon) and doing a story on Calliope studios, the famous NYC studio that birthed the careers of De La, Stetsasonic, and Tribe to name a few, and Brand Nubian figure heavily into the Calliope story, so there it is. Sick that the homie Dante had so much to do with all of this. Shouts to Mingo!

Every year in March, I make a pilgrimage to Vermont for the last great weekend of the East Coast season: The US Open and World Quarters. Its an almost Groundhog Day-esque affair, each year the snow is sparse, the sun is shining and everybody is in the mood to wile out. Ok every now and then the weather gets wack but the wile out part, that’s always true. This year was no different. Actually, this year was off the hook. Uncle Craig (Frank151), Michael (Shut NYC), Tracy (ESPN) and I packed up a brolic Toyota Tundra LTD Crew Max and headed up to Stratton on the Wednesday before the Open so we could get entrenched before the madness. For the next 6 days the entire shred world dropped in and did it right: Danny Kass won his fifth US Open halfpipe, Louie Vito turned 21 and the World Quarters pushed the boundaries of competitive riding from rad to literally fucking insane. Check out the full trip photo gallery courtesy of Craig Wetherby after the jump.

I had to rep this one for my Frank151 fam. You already know I’m a Wu Banger for life, and Baby U aka Golden Arms aka U-God has always been the under-appreciated voice of the clan. Well homie’s got a new push with a new mixtape and a new album and now an ill collabo fitted with Major Threat. This joint is limited to only 144 pieces, so you better get to the Frank store quick to grab one. Also, cop U-God’s mixtape here. Wu Tang son.