The chick Buckwild from Charm School is playing the game “Know The Negro”. Is this funny? It doesn’t seem like those charm school lessons did any good. Sorry Monique!!!
Archive for July, 2007
Is This Funny? Potential Negro?
July 26th, 2007The Beyonce Fall…
July 25th, 2007I’m over here crying laughing!!
B. you my girl, but this is funny. I wasn’t going to post this at first because of respect for the artists, but uh, if she can joke about it then so can I!
Chickenhawks??
July 20th, 2007“Raise a child in the way that he should go and when he is older he will not depart from it” – Proverbs 22:6
Check out this video
AFAR ALBUM RELEASE PARTY
July 19th, 2007Come holla at ya folk!!!
Another Interesting Pic…
July 19th, 2007Monique is at it again – in body paint. I don’t know the where or why of this pic, but uh, you make your own caption.
Is That Oprah?
July 18th, 2007And The Winner of the I Really Look Like Oprah but I Call It My Eclectic Artist Look Contest is: Lauren Hill!!!!!
Only one song comes to mind… Common’s “I Used to Love H.E.R.”
I’ve heard that people have been booing her during the shows that she’s been doing lately. What happened Op…(sorry)… Lauren? Are you now one of the “Lost Ones” that you used to sing about???
READ A BOOK…
July 17th, 2007So uh, I ran across this video on YouTube. Supposedly, it was aired on BET (I wouldn’t know cause I refuse to watch that channel). It seems to be “positive”, although I think gratuitous use of the “N” word wasn’t necessary for the message to be effective. Anyways… check it out and tell me what you think.
Not a Good Look…
July 16th, 2007I can’t help but laugh when stuff like this happens. My mom and my aunt always taught me that actions truly speak louder than words. Presidential candidates everywhere are pontificating to would be constituents on how they really care and can make the world better a better place by trying to “right” some of the wrongs by the current administration. We haven’t begun to see the commercials that are often full of the sound bytes that eventually prove to be empty promises made by the candidates (because they often only appeal to the emotional and contemporary needs of the voters) but a lot of what we hear about a candidate’s platform comes from the speeches and debates given to universities and organizations throughout the US. That leads me to this:
Recently the NAACP offered an opportunity for Republican presidential candidates to debate issues and present their platforms to a major sector of Black America. The result – only one candidate, Tom Tancredo, showed up. In contrast, no Democratic presidential hopeful was missing from their debate also sponsored by NAACP.
There are a lot of people that question the socio-political relevance of today’s NAACP, but even with the cloud of doubt this is a historical organization that is still deeply rooted in communities across the United States. It has a name that has become a “brand” that much of Black America still identifies with. The election next year is one of the strongest chances ever to get a minority elected as the leader of the free world and I don’t think that the Republicans should take this lightly. There is already an uphill battle in place due to the highly popular mistrust in the current Republican administration. A lot of people are eager for a radical shift in control and the potential of either Obama or Clinton having the opportunity to be the force behind the change in reigns is exciting a lot of people. So many people are interested in the Democratic ticket to the point that if I were a Republican candidate I would not take lightly any opportunity to address a large sector of any American community.
I didn’t see this on the news. Did you? Don’t you think this was news worthy?
(Background information and photos are from: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/56903/)
Thanks World!!!
July 13th, 2007You Did It!!! You’ve used the term “crunk” so much that it’s now an official word in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. This is a ginormous honor. Congratulations to all of the southern rappers that made this possible. To everyone else out there, this is just an example of how you too can refuse to speak proper English so long that the rest of the world gives in to slang just so that they too can understand you. At least now we can all come to an agreement of how to spell and say the word (i.e., crunk, krunk, krump, etc.).
*(Note: Ginormous has also been included in the dictionary)
Good Southern Hip Hop
July 9th, 2007About 10 years ago, I was a die hard southern music fan. The music we now call “crunk music” was in it’s humble beginnings and a fellow by the name of Lil’ John had this high energy, infectious track on the radio featuring hip hop’s favorite pimp Too Short telling the world “You couldn’t be a better playa than me….”. You had “Two Dope Boys in a Cadillac” riding “Elevators”, confusing the world and making people think they were trippin off some weed. The truth is that these “ATLiens” were just inspired by a star formation that we now call “Aquemini” and they were taking us all to a mystical, yet real place called “Stankonia”. And even if you weren’t caught up in the extra terrestrial pimp music and were left “Still Standing” in “The Dirty South”, you could always just look in your “Goodie Bag” and get some “Soul Food”. When it was all said and done, you and your crew could pile up in the car “Front Back Side To Side” go to Greenbriar Mall and try to convince your favorite shawty to “Let Me See It”.
To me, this is what good southern hip hop was all about. Poisoning beats, lyrics full of unique imagery and memorable skits and interludes made each CD worth the $15 you paid at Peppermint Records and Tapes (yeah, I said Tapes). The art work was amazing and you would read the credits cover to cover – just to get to the thank you’s just and get a glimpse of the artist’s personality. The great albums were the ones that you had to buy three or four times because you would play them so much that they would get scratched up and become unreadable by your CD player.
We loved these artists because they all seemed like cool people that you would love to kick it with. They were a group of people that were very expressive, easy to be understood in the music, and very articulate in interview sessions. Representation of themselves and their craft was always above par.
I know that music, like anything else, has to evolve so that it will continue to live. I just don’t know if I’m a fan of the current state of southern hip hop. I stopped listening to the radio for a while and decided to revisit it recently. To my dismay, I heard a lot of music that was just not any good to me. Every track had 808′s in the same place, finger snaps loitering everywhere, 16th notes in every hi hat pattern, and a hook about a dance that took me at least 32 times to understand what the heck they were saying. I would even ask my high school aged cousins what they were saying, and they didn’t even have a clue… but they own almost all of the music by these artists.
I just feel like the quality of music from the south has diminished. Being a musician in a hip hop band, we run into artists all of the time that are making really good music but cannot get a good grip on the industry because of the kinds of music that dominates radio and other media. It’s very easy to see why there are so many musical clones. I don’t have any stats available, but I’m sure that they’ll show that the number of one hit wonders have increased dramatically. It just seems like it’s not about the craft or longevity anymore. It’s just about making money. I could be wrong.
At any rate, check out this video. I haven’t seen a video this great in a minute.
