(image by Nicholas Babaian via flickr)

Be the first kid on your block to drop some serious white boy knowledge. Who else can they turn to so they don't confuse the Black Kids with the Cool Kids?

Black Kids

Album: Partie Traumatic

Sounds like: The love child of The Killers and The Go! Team. And The Cure. A little.
0

Cool Kids

Album: The Bake Sale

Sounds like: Golden age rappers EPMD trapped in a giant bong listening to chopped & screwed hip hop.

Cut Copy

Album: In Ghost Colours

Sounds like: Synth-heavy new wave like New Order and Pet Shop Boys. But less gay. A little less gay.

Foals

Album: Antidotes

Sounds like: A new wave take on Battles. Or disco punk meets math rock. But sensitive.

Girl Talk

Album: Feed the Animals

Sounds like: Hundreds of rap and rock samples thrown into a blender. Served on the rocks.

Kidz In The Hall

Album: The In Crowd

Sounds like: The Clipse, if they worshipped Jay-Z and Kanye instead of Scarface.

MGMT

Album: Oracular Spectacular

Sounds like: Classic rock. Now with drum machines and synthesizers. And sass.

My Morning Jacket

Album: Evil Urges

Sounds like: A '70s country rock band frozen and then thawed out in 2008 to destroy dance rock.

Ratatat

Album: LP3

Sounds like: Music from a '90s video game re-recorded with guitars and synths.

Wale

Album: The Mixtape About Nothing

Sounds like: A laid-back Kanye West mixed with a brainy Lil Wayne.

Lil Wayne isn't the only one with money on his mind. The top issue this election is the economy – and how to fix it. While senators McCain and Obama don't agree on the best response, no one disputes the U.S. economy is in deep trouble.

Feeling Yucky.

If our economy was a person, it would have a fever, aches and pains, some weird-looking spots and, depending on who you ask, either a really bad cold or a life-threatening illness. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the basic things we buy in stores are getting more expensive more quickly. That inflation is being caused by higher oil and food costs. But not only are things more expensive, today's consumers have less money to spend.

The number of unemployed people looking for work is now the highest it's been in six years. When there are more people looking for jobs than there are jobs, companies don't need to raise wages to attract workers. So everyone – unemployed and employed – ends up with less income.

Less income means less spending and less spending doesn't just hurt the families who are skipping a trip to the mall. Our national economy is powered by consumer spending. This summer the consumer confidence index is the second lowest it's been in 28 years. When consumers stop consuming, companies lose money and there are even less jobs and less shoppers.

When our economy had these symptoms in the past, we just took a pill and felt better in the morning. That pill was credit or borrowed money. Guess what: we've overdosed.

High times.

In 1998, the average household debt was $70,220. Last year it was $121,650 – it nearly doubled in less than 10 years. While much of that debt is in increasingly painful credit cards, most of it is money Americans borrowed against their homes.

When Internet company stocks went bust in 2000, people started to invest in real estate. For the next five years, housing prices nearly doubled in many major cities. This meant that someone could borrow money to buy a house, wait a few months, sell the house and make a profit. It was like magic money and soon everyone wanted a piece of the action.

Wall Street investors backed banks who were lending money. Companies started borrowing money to build more homes. People with no money – and sometimes, no jobs – were borrowing ridiculous money to buy homes. And people who already had one mortgage borrowed more money – just to spend it. All of them thought they could eventually sell their home for more than they borrowed. Until last year.

Where's my money at?

For the last 22 months straight, home prices have dropped in 20 key cities across the country. In some cities, prices have dropped 25 to 30 percent. There are too many homes and too few people with the money to buy them.

An estimated 9 million homeowners now owe more money for their homes than those homes are worth. Banks and investors around the world are owed as much as $1 trillion they may never get back. Some institutions don't even know how much money they're owed.

When lenders began to realize they were losing money, they panicked and stopped making new loans. For a minute, it looked like much of the global economy was close to collapsing until the U.S. and European governments had to put some of their money in the mix.

The mornings after.

As American consumers, companies and banks recover from six years of bad choices — President Bush describes it as "Wall Street got drunk" – the U.S. economy is struggling to crawl forward. (Latinos are among the worst off.) Europe, Asia and Latin America are now catching what we've got. There may be no one left standing to help us up.

If you're over 18, register to vote. If not, help register someone who is. Get invested. It's your future.

A press release from RBD has confirmed that the Mexican pop group will disband. According to the announcement on RBD's official website, the members of the group will go their separate ways after they perform in farewell tours in Europe, Latin America and the United States.

A todos nuestros fans y medios de comunicación en el mundo:

Hemos realizado juntos un sueño que jamás imaginamos podríamos lograr, cantamos, lloramos y reímos con nuestras canciones a lo largo del mundo y ante millones de personas.

Hemos dejado una huella imborrable en las vidas de millones de personas... ¡Nuestros queridos fans!

Ustedes han marcado nuestra vida de una manera inigualable; los llevaremos en nuestro corazón por siempre.

Todo gran proyecto necesita transformarse para trascender y hoy nosotros estamos iniciando ese proceso.

Les comunicamos que nuestros próximos conciertos que ofreceremos el 21, 23 y 25 en Madrid, Santiago de Compostela y Barcelona, marcarán el principio de esta etapa final.

Por ahora los próximos shows confirmados son Serbia, Eslovenia, Rumania, Venezuela, Argentina, Perú, Brasil un concierto muy especial en Los Ángeles CA, y por supuesto nuestro querido México.

Esperamos poder reunirnos pronto en cada uno de nuestros shows y sentir esa magia que nos ha acompañado durante estos cuatro años.

Alfonso, Any, Christian, Christopher, Dulce María y Maite.

The telenovela-stars-turned-pop-stars have sold over 10 million records worldwide and once sold out the L.A. Coliseum (cap. 92,000) in only 30 minutes.

Los Angeles rap veteran Murs, member of the Living Legends collective and founder of the Paid Dues Festival, has one of the most recognizable names – and styles – in underground hip hop. His recent work with producer 9th Wonder on two albums, Murs 3:16 and Murray's Revenge, has earned him critical acclaim and die-hard fans. As he prepares to drop his latest, Murs for President, the dreadlocked MC talks to us about being a nerd, his love for skateboarding and how he met Chingo Bling.

You call your style "sitcom rap." You've also said you're a "nerd from the hood." Can you explain what makes your style so unique?

I don't know, that's just my life. I was fortunate enough to have my mom marry a not-so-good guy in order to get us out of the neighborhood where I grew up. Then we moved to a place where it was all white kids. That's when I really got into comic books.

But she divorced him 'cause he was an asshole and then we had to move back to the black neighborhood. So when I got there, I was into different things.

But I was also just happy to be around black people. But I didn't want to fight black people about being in gangs or whatever else – it's like, we're all black! I used to get in fights [in the white neighborhood] because I was black, and now you want to fight me, too? I didn't understand it. So, I got more into music because I didn't share the same experience that everybody else shared.

I can only be honest, so that's how it translates into my music, because I was never "cool," I was never "hardcore." The kids I went to elementary school with, when I moved back to the neighborhood, they didn't want to be my friend anymore because I was "weird" and they were "cool." But now, they all want to give me beats and they want me to work with their artists. The times I was getting chased and getting shot at, they never had my back. Now they're like "I have this new artist, you should come and do 16 bars with them." I'm like, "Fuck that."

How do you feel about artists like Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell, who are the ones mainly associated with skateboard culture, when you were one of the first rappers to show your love for skateboarding?

I was a little, what's the word, "perturbed" at first – you know what I mean? But you know, I wasn't really mad, because if I get mad, that means I have to punch you in the face, and I don't want to punch anybody in the face. And they don't know who I am, they're too busy, like, being rich and stuff like that. When I go to places like skateshops, the kids know, the skaters know. I know pro skaters and they don't respect [Lupe and Pharrell]. There are guys who make shirts dissin' them. They think those guys are jokes.

I think it's cool because they're influencing more black kids to skate. Like when I'm in South Central, I see all the kids with skateboards. Before, they didn't have em, because it was just "nerds" and "weirdos." They didn't want to be like me, but they'll be like Pharrell, because Pharrell doesn't get made fun of. I got made fun of, so no one wants to skate because of me. I think it's cool, it doesn't matter who does it first, skateboarding is a great sport and the more people that get directed to it, the better.

So you don't think they're taking advantage of its popularity?

I mean, yeah, they're trying to take advantage of it, but the truth will shine through, you know what I mean? The real kids know who's real and everyone knows I made [a skateboarding] song first, so there's no need for me to get mad about it. And it made it in Tony Hawk's Underground, that's all I care about. They can have all the money and the diamonds.

You've also spent time in Oakland – you've said it's where you learned to really hustle, can you talk about your days in the Bay Area?

I learned in Oakland that everyone is black. Even the Mexicans are black! Even the guys with the Sinaloa hats or the Oaxaca hats with the Mexican flag would be like "Ey, blood." You dress how you dress, but everyone sounds the same: white people, Phillipino people, Chinese people. That's the first thing I learned about Oakland.

Then I realized the difference in weed prices and I realized I should really focus on my rap career, because selling weed was not as easy. I was selling weed and tapes on the streets. I was selling more weed than tapes at first, but the more shows I did, the more tapes I sold, which is good, because you could buy a hundred [blank cassette] tapes for $100.

L.A. is really divided, but in the Bay Area, everybody is just about making money and having fun, so it's a lot easier whether you're in the dope game or the rap game or going to school. It's just easier when people are unified and respect each other as humans.

When you wrote the song "L.A.," you said everyone who has made songs about Los Angeles aren't really from L.A.

Yeah, Xzibit isn't from L.A., 2Pac isn't from L.A.

So what was your mindset when you wrote "L.A."?

There's a beat that 9th Wonder – he picks all the beats – made me rap to, and he kept saying, "This has to go on Murray's Revenge." And I was like, "I don't know what to rap to this shit," because it was a slow reggae sample. The sample says "No matter what the future may bring." So whenever I go to North Carolina (9th Wonder's hometown), we sit up for hours and they'll tell us gang stories they hear about L.A. Wherever I go, people are always like "You're just so L.A." So I was like, wherever I end up, if I move to North Carolina, I'm always gonna be from L.A. I'll always stand out.

I've lived all over. I've had hella Latino friends, hella white friends, Phillipino friends, I've had the most complete L.A. experience and I don't think anyone's ever translated that into anything decent. So I felt like I owed it to my city to make a song – even though [Los Angeles radio DJ] Julio G dissed me by saying "My friends made songs about L.A. that are even better." I'd like him to show me. Most of his friends probably made songs about gang banging, and L.A. is way more than that. We have porn stars, we have palm trees, we have beaches, it's not all about gang banging and bloods and crips. So I think I've made the most complete L.A. song, except for maybe "How To Survive South Central" by Ice Cube. That's pretty great. But it's just about South Central.

You've worked with Chingo Bling a few times, he's appeared in the Paid Dues festival and your "Hustle" remix with E-40 and John Cena. How'd you meet?

I lived in South Tucson, Arizona for a while, where's it's all Mexican people. So all my friends were Mexican. My Spanish is a little bit better than most black people's. So I was listening to Chingo Bling, and if you don't speak Spanglish, you won't understand it. Like he said, "My rhymes are like a female illegal, they're mo hotta (mojada)." And I was like, "Oh, that's funny, you're hilarious, dude."

So somebody called him and he called me and then we talked. He's a dynamic businessman, he's really smart and really into hip hop. And he's a really good rapper. So I paid him to be on the "Hustle" remix and he did his verse, so I was just honored to be on the song with him. Because I had all [his] mixtapes and Chingo Bling for President and all that other stuff. I was waiting on Tamale Kingpin and everything, like it was a big deal to me.

Then he called me one day and he was just like: "Man, I didn't know you had so many fans. I'm out here in Puerto Rico and kids are like 'You did a song with Murs, that's dope.'" He told them, "I didn't even know who Murs is, I just did the song." So then he was like, "Man, if I could, I would just give you your money back." I was like, "It's cool, just come down to the Paid Dues festival and I'll pay you to come out and do the show."

The Latino fan base is a majority of my fan base, but it's so rare that they're represented on stage, so I try to be conscious of that. So anyone I can incorporate – whether [the fans] like it or not – I'm gonna try to have Psycho Realm, 2Mex and F.I.L.T.H.E.E. IMMIGRANTS, somebody that represents what's in the crowd. For [Latinos] to just be looking at a bunch of black people all day, it's OK, but I'm sure you feel there's something missing. Anytime I find anyone who's dope and speaks Spanish, I try to expose my fan base to them, 'cause most of my fans, at least in L.A., are Mexican and Salvadoran. Latino kids, you know.

So Chingo performed, he got booed. They didn't get it. So he started battling fools outside. He still walked around and was like: "Thank you Murs, I'll come back next year, thank you for having me." Then I went to one of his shows in South Gate, which was way different. And you know, with the whole brown and black thing in L.A., I stuck really close to him. I was like "I'm not trying to get caught up in here by myself."

It was dope working with him and I hope to work with him again, but he's so famous, it's hard to catch him. He has all those chains and all those chickens. He still owes me some boots, though.

Chingo, I want my boots, fool!

So as you prepare to release Murs For President, what's your take on the current state of hip hop?

It's really sad. It's just sad. It's fun but it's sad at the same time. There's just a lot of negativity, people promoting the wrong things. People promoting misogyny – I'm all about promoting sex, that's how we make more humans, you know what I mean? But there's proper ways to promote it. You don't always have to degrade women and stuff like that. You don't have to talk about killing people and selling drugs, I think it's wrong. And it's lame and stupid. And if you say any different, then you're a liar.

All these rappers who say they know better should be ashamed of themselves. All these rappers j**k off a lot, you know, I'm sure they do. But they don't get on stage and talk about that. That would be "keeping it real," that's telling what's really going on in your life, but you're kind of ashamed of that, that's something you keep it to yourself. And so should you selling crack and going to jail, keep that to yourself.

American people have no shame. That's why we're not respected around the world, because we come out and do the most ludicrous things on television, and we look like idiots. Our clothes are too big and too gaudy. There's people starving and you're gonna wear diamonds? We don't have any perspective. American people have lost perspective and I'm here to provide a little perspective for the hip hop generation or anyone else who's willing to listen. We can still have fun, just keep things in perspective. We're out of control.

Why should people vote Murs for president?

I'm more fun that the other rappers. Period. More fun. More positive. When you're positive you can have more fun. When everybody's not fighting and shooting each other, you tend to have more fun. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Watching this video [points to TV displaying Lil Wayne's "Lollipop"] is slightly disturbing, though. Why does everybody have to have their shirt off? Why does everyone have to have a chain?

It's time for a change, we've had 10 years of some real bullshit. It's been fun, everybody likes to dance, but it's my turn now. Because it's my turn, that's why you should vote Murs for president. You know if somebody's been on the playground swings for hella long? Now it's my turn, like, "You can't be on the swings forever! Let me try." [Points at Lil Wayne on TV] He smiled!

You may have wondered: are they? A little?
Well, yes. Yes, they are.

Frank Shamrock

Age: 35

MMA fighter known for successfully defending the UFC Middleweight title five times before eventually retiring in 1999.

Halfsie or Fullsie?

Fullsie: Mexican-American.

Earl Watson

Age: 29

Point guard for the NBA's yet-to-be-named Oklahoma City team. Plans on attending law school after he retires.

Halfsie or Fullsie?

Halfsie: African-American father and Mexican mother.

Carmelo Anthony

Age: 24

Small forward for the NBA's Denver Nuggets. Nicknamed "Melo." Married to TV personality Alani "LaLa" Vasquez.

Halfsie or Fullsie?

Halfsie: Puerto Rican father and African-American mother.

Jonathan Bornstein

Age: 23

Defender for MLS's Chivas USA and the U.S. national team. Named Rookie of the Year in 2006.

Halfsie or Fullsie?

Halfsie: Mexican mother.

Tito Oritz

Age: 33

Former UFC Light Heavyweight champion. Fired on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice. Dating adult film star Jenna Jameson.

Halfsie or Fullsie?

Halfsie: Mexican-American father.