While pondering what it’s gonna be like to host my first party since…well, I don’t really think I hosted that party in Portland, so that would take me back to the basement on Highgate in Allston…
- I think Redman looked at the music scene today and…
No, let me start over.
I think the last album I purchased was Fiona Apple’s “When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight And He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand And Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights And If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land And If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right”
On the cover, it just lists “When the Pawn Hits….” and I got it because I had a copy on casette when I lived in Portland. I really like a couple of the songs and when given the choice of either downloading a copy on iTunes or buying a used copy on Amazon for about 6 bucks, I chose the latter.
What does this have to do with Redman and “Red Gone Wild”? I think the lack of acutal album sales has forced artists to do things differently. Mix tapes and selling out the back of the car trunk was the way to be discovered about a decade ago. Now it’s different and the entire game has changed up.
If you’ve noticed, I’m not saying anything specific because as deep into Hip Hop that I was when I grew up.
As I said before, I grew up on Funk Doctor Spot and I think, at least I’m hoping this is the case, I think he’s gotten older, gotten lazier and seen things like Mobb Deep go from one of the hungriest duos, one of the best all time to a shadow of their former selfs…
Before I get to that, let me finish with Doc…
OK, here’s my thought. The landscape of today’s hip hop scene doesn’t have a place for the former Reggie Noble. An album like Doc’s the Name 2000 wouldn’t sell much. He’s not a guy that makes many videos, nor does he write songs with catchy hooks and little else…Although lyrically, he is slipping a bit, sticking with methaphors and similies and little else.
Not that he had tons of topics to deal with, but there was always something more. How to Roll a Blunt and another track on What!?!? the Album that dealt with him and Erick Sermon sexing up the same girl and one catching Aids because he didnt’ wear a hat. Wrongful arrest on Doc’s the Name…
Like I said, it wasn’t much but it was something and on this, it’s not much.
I haven’t even reached Supaman Luva yet, but after learning of Hurricane G’s presence, i’m nervous to the point I don’t want to deal with it at all.
I’m saddened by this album, just like Joan of Arcadia is saddened to start the second season that her visions of God in human form are actually real.
Makes me yearn for the days when Def Squad and Hit Squad were facing off…
I listen to various genres of music, as shown by a quick glance of references or my iTunes library.
(By the way, it wasn’t Taylor Dane who sung “Finally”. My thanks to >half)
Anyway, if I get permission, I’ll try to tease the couple of sites that were sent to me to download free music, and isn’t that America’s newest pasttime.
But in the meantime, I’ll harp on a couple of the most recent downloads…
Evidence - The Weatherman
I really wish I could talk educated about this West Coast cat, but I think he was part of Dialated People, another West Coast group that I just missed the boat on.
I mean, I’ve heard a couple of their tracks, but I’ve never listened to an entire album and don’t think I will.
Nothing against them, but that’s just the way I am.
As for Evidence, or Mr. Slow-Flow, this is a quality album. Mr. Slow-Flow, I guess, is the first single and it’s got quality production and like the title says, his flow is slow.
It doesn’t pick up or anthing like that, but it’s refreshing to hear.
I’ve caught myself stopping on “Down in New York City”, but since I listen to a whole bunch of music, usually on random, that’s about all I can tell you about this…
Mos Def - True Magic
I loved Black on Both Sides, his first album in 1999. I tolerated The New Danger, dropped in 2004. I'm truly disappointed with True Magic.
I read somewhere that Mos wanted to be an actor, like studied and everything, but despite a role on "Cosby", not the The Cosby Show but the CBS retred that lasted because it was Cosby, he figured out that working as a rapper would open the door to Hollywood.
He's a pretty good overall artist. Lyrically, he's got some flair (I'm talking in previous albums). He's an OK singer, I mean he's not Anita Baker, but it doesn't sound like cats scratching a black board. And this just in, he's a pretty good actor.
Not like Ice Cube or Ice T good, like Emmy-nominated for "Something the Lord Made" and starring in Off-Broadway and Broadway shows and hosting Def Poetry on HBO.
He's really talented, but anyone can tell a lazy album and True Magic is a lazy album.
Redman - Red Gone Wild
Ip-oz linked me up to Redman’s Gillahouse mixtapes and reminded me that when I first started listening and really following this thing called Hip Hop, it was Redman who kept me alive.
What!?!? The Album is still a classic. Dare is a Darkside was dismissed, but did you know that Reggie Noble did a lot of his own production? I got Muddy Waters as a Christmas/birthday gift from Snicka after he gave me a ride from Boston to NYC.
Doc’s the Name 2000 is probably the most successful commericial album he’s dropped and Malpractice was sloppy, but still fun because the one thing that’s consistent with Red is the flow of the album.
There were tracks that bumped with Red’s extremely impressive flow, then funny skits like random places like a bus, an airplane and the Jerry Springer Show getting robbed. The Chicken Head Convention and other just comedy left the “Bhudda heads bugging”, especially since I haven’t even mentioned the sagas of Supaman Luva.
Well, I’m 11 tracks deep with 12 more to go and I’m sad to say, I’ve yet to hear a legit skit.
Red can still spit great, but it’s almost like he’s gone away from what made me anticipate his albums. The whole Gillahouse thing is another post altogether, but for now, I’ll just say that if you’re eager for new Red, find any of the three mixtape albums before buying Red Gone Wild…
“Sitting on the toilet, waiting for my bowels to move…”
One of the major selling points of my house was the backyard. The elevated ceilings are nice, but the first time i went outside and saw the former owners built a fence 20-25 feet away from the home just for their youngins’ and there was still another ACRE of land left, it was just a matter of time before it was mine.
I’m a big fan of land because they’re not making any more of it and if you own it, you have some form of wealth and a pretty cool asset.
However it’s not like we’ve done much with our land. It’s enough space to build a duplicate of the house I’m currently in and most of the time, the complaint is about having to cut the grass (of which there’s a ton).
Most of the landscapers that frequent our neighborhood will charge me $40 for my front yard and the enclosed backyard space, but they want $60 just to cut the extended back yard.
Needless to say, it looked like a forrest out there most of last summer and when fall swung around, it was left alone to fester…
Did I mention that during a rain storm, a tree limb (cause there’s no other way to describe it) fell from one of the many large trees back there.
Since it was too heavy to move all at once and I don’t have many friends, not nearly enough to gather them all together and move a branch to the street. Then again, even if we did, I don’t think they would have carried away what they couldn’t pick up.
So with all that running through my mind, the limb stayed and quickly and surely, it left my thoughts as a necessary point on the To-Do list.
Days turned to weeks, weeks to months and for 300 days, the limb stayed hidden within the quick growning weeds in the deep.
Until one day, the limb betrayed…
Sorry, too much Frodo and not enough sunlight.
OK, the house next door was filled by a friendly couple from Philadelphia. Some of you are probably thinking like I was at first, that they hailed from the City of Brotherly Love that booed Santa Claus.
Instead, they were from the rural city northeast of Jackson, stating they were moving to the “big city”.
We met when I noticed them moving a sofa into their place and I helped out. Shannon helped me out when we both stepped out back and he mentioned how he liked to keep his yard nice and was building a fence and would be more than happy to help move the cut tree parts on the side of my house with his front-end loader and use his chainsaw to cut the limb into moveable pieces and would be using his Riding Mower to cut his grass and wouldn’t mind doing ours as well…
He’s so kind that he let me borrow the Mower and this afternoon, I took it out for a spin in my back yard.
(Yes, I purchased gas at $2.45 and filled the tank when I was done, thank you very much)
When we moved here, I told my wife that I hate garden work (Thanks, Mom) and really didn’t want to do anything. She said she would take care of it, but that was before I had access to a riding mower.
I mean, it’s like a go-kart, except you’re acutally doing something productive…
Unlike i’m doing right now, but needless to say, it was fun. I was grateful and hope I can find a way to correctly repay the favor my new next-door neighbors have shown me…
OK, here’s one of the things i really wanted my own blog for. I have tons of written works that I want to push harder on the public and I’ll start with this column, written for the Delta Democrat Times on July 3, 2004
To be a New York Mets fan in the Mississippi Delta forces a requisite of following games on the Internet and listening to updates via an 800-phone service.
When the Subway Series with the Yankess started last week, I fully expected to catch the Saturday game on Fox. Imagine my disgust when the Red Sox and Phillies appeared on my tube. But I buried my pain, willing to wait until the rematch this past Saturday.
The game started at noon, but I had to cover the Delta Shootout in Shaw. My plan was to get there early, get my interviews and head back home to catch the final five innings.
I don’t get phone service until I reach Leland. The first thing I did was check the score. The Mets trailed 3-1 in the bottom of the second inning but, more importantly, I had messages.
While I was on assignment, burglars had broken into my apartment and walked off with what little I have, including the television I was racing home to watch.
The next few moments were filled with anger about missing the game. I called the police and met Officer James Stewart at the door.
As I did a quick inventory of what was missing, I smiled inside when I saw my checkbooks and rent money remained untouched, then laughed when I realized they left my more expensive clothes and took my T-shirts.
Although it’s my usual attire, I can’t imagine the resale value of a maroon South Carolina basketball shirt.
Once the officer left, I checked the score and seethed a bit upon hearing the game was tied at 6-6 in the fifth inning. I, then, contacted my insurance company to take advantage of premiums paid in full.
While on the phone, I was interrupted by my landlady, who said the same car that drove off with my television was just seen in the complex.
After thanking the neighbor that initially saw the crime take place, I retreated to inspect the vehicle she spoke of.
Inside the trunk was a bag taken from my closet with DVD’s taken from my entertainment center inside. There was also a TV, but upon further inspection, it belonged to someone else.
When I called to check the score this time, the Mets were in front 9-8 going into the eighth inning. I thought about leaving the scene and finding someplace to watch the final innings, but instead, I followed my reporter’s nose to the Greenville Police Department.
I ended up giving a statement and thought about checking the score, but forgot my phone in the car. When I finally came out, without the interview I was hoping for, I learned that the score was now tied at 9-9 going into the ninth.
Hunger pushed me away from a TV, so my hopes to feed my face with the final outs were dashed when I walked into the office.
Fox had already switched to Wildest Police Chases, so I went to my editor to tell her about my day. Before I left her desk, she showed me the box score that brought a smile to my face after a hectic day.
Mets 10, Yankees 9 and that’s the truth.
I gravitated towards composition books, the black and white bounded pads, when I was a college freshman. At first, I thought I would use them for class, but that idea died quickly when I stopped caring about class as much.
Slowly, it became a thought pad. I would use it to calculate my bills, then my schedule and finally, it was where I would write sophmoric rhymes, mostly because I was a sophomore at the time…
From all of that, when I finally started writing to just be writing, it would go into the compostion books.
There are a few that have seen inside, Ip-oz actually has hard copies of all of them somewhere…
Anyway, the problem with the new techno-gadget age of aquaris that we’re in is my comp books are in long hand and I’m way too lazy to transcribe them to digital…
Except I did for a couple of stories and they were on a website, a site I would write music reviews for (Shout out to www.Snicka.com. SNK 4Eva!).
Anyway, thanks to the power of the web, I was able to find them and will provide them a new home on this site.
Starting Monday and every one thereafter, a new thread will appear in a category called From the Composition Book.
This is different from The Past is always Present how, you ask? Well, the Past is previous published works, from my days at any of the four newspapers and such that I’ve written for.
Comp Book is a different beast entirely. Some of it is true, some of it fiction and others are fiction-based.
It’s not up yet but I can tell you this, whenever I get to “Millie”, just remember that…
Well, just remember to keep an open mind and your friends will follow or stop short, not truly telling you who your true friends are, but providing a point of reference for the future…
And other such ramblings will always be available.
I’ve tagged this for sports, but it speaks to a much larger point.
I cover high school sports and have the luck to see both sides of the tracks, painfully on display Tuesday night at Grove Park, located directly next to the train tracks.
By the way, who knew the train ran that much. My old place in Tampa was near the tracks and you could hear them, but I didnt’ expect to watch it go by four, five times during a 3-hour game.
And the game is the point of this post. I watched Canton vs. Lanier, two predominatly black schools.
I’m willing to bet if you played this same game 20 years ago, some of the best baseball players in the Metro, if not the state, would have been on display.
The game I watched was played between young players on each side who were going mostly off raw talent. Maybe they play Little League and maybe some of the blame can go to a lack of proper youth coaches, teaching fundamentals and a love of the game of baseball at a young age, but…
But the main point came from the random students at the game (remember, the park isn’t next to the school). These were kids who came, knowing they were going to watch a baseball game AND THEY HAD LITTLE TO NO CLUE ABOUT THE SPORT.
I find something wrong with this because it was baseball that was the true medium that led to segregation and the so-called racial harmony we live with today.
I don’t read much, but may I suggest “40 Million Dollas Slaves” by William Rhoden, a columnist for the New York Times. It talks about the fact that the black athlete has been abused, manipulated and lost his place forever.
But it can’t deny that baseball was the barrier breaker. It’s the one sport where you actually have the best chance to get a college scholarship, especially in the Magnolia State where a junior college will give you a two-year ride to play just about any sport.
Yet, time and time again, the best athletes gravitate towards basketball and the 12-man roster. They play football, but at some point someone will realize the size of the modern athlete, do studies about work out regiments and the harmful effects and then connect the dots to ‘performance-enhancing drugs’.
But if you think about it, isn’t coffee a performance-enhancer? How about that co-worker who needs a Coke (or Pepsi)? That I don’t feel at ease without the availability of gum at my office, but don’t even think about chewing when I’m at home, what can be made from that?
I had a point about the black athlete, but since I lost my train of thought, I’ll let it take me to my next stop - Bed.
It doesn’t appear on my diploma, but I took enough credits to have a minor in history.
The majority of those classes were based in ancient Greek history, one of my favorite things growing up. I think the entire mythology of Zeus and his offspring, of Athena (oh, Athena) was very interesting.
Roman history is right up there, mostly because they did all the cool things the gods did, but it was actual human beings. Hence, my love of HBO’s ‘Rome’ is clear.
Titus Pullo carried the show from the opening scenes on the battlefields of Gaul till the finale, walking into the crowded Roman streets with his son, born from Cleopatra (Yes, that Cleopatra, not the localized one once associated with The Boy).
Dave Chappelle and others make fun of HBO, but it really is the best thing going for television today. When the simpletons at Fox cancelled “Arrested Development”, I really hoped the premier premium cable network would pick it up.
Alas, they tried and failed with Lucky Louie, although Louis CK is a funny cat on his own right, and were able to bring back Extras, another BBC production by one of the funniest men going, Ricky Gervias.
i think
will take you, to quote Mr. Burns, a Hi-Larious, moment from the creator of The Office for the British version of Comic Relief for Kenya.
Before I forget, I must thank Mr. Tony for the original reference.
But back to Rome…
So the series finale was Sunday night and as sad as I am to see it go, it had to end because, well, the producers followed the history of the event. So once Antony let for Egypt, eventually he would join the Queen, fight and lose to Cesear and that would be that.
But the beauty of this show was how they intertwined fictional characters like Pullo and Lucius Vorenus with historical people like Antony, Octavian Cesear and my favorite female character of all time,
I’m saddened to see it go, but it does help because I need to stop watching so much TV, work more, pay attention to my wife and my weight and work on a book…
Either way, I’m sure I can relive all the violence, nudity, shocking twists and absolutely memorable items like someone cursing Atia on her doorstep, then committing suicide in front of her. (So Gangsta, So Gully, SO HOOD!!!)
I could bore the masses with my NCAA tournament brackets, but that’s played out like the Running Man.
I know I’m a sports writer, but that doesn’t make me an expert about anything, yet alone college basketball teams.
It does, however, make me somewhat knowledgeable about Georgetown basketball.
Why, you ask? Well, here’s the quick answer…
I grew up outside the “Greatest City in the World”, one dominated by professional teams. That means while people in Portland, Oregon were getting the Pac-10 feed and the masses in the Mid-West (which is another thing altogether) were watching the Big 10 and the Big 12, I was getting either the national game of the week decided by the networks or Big East Basketball.
In the mid-1980s, Big East meant Georgetown, St. John’s and Syracuse. I choose Town and have never looked back…
Flash forward to Sunday night.
(I don’t have the ability for cool special effects, but how about a picture?)
Any major sporting event on TV involving a team I follow, I try to record to my DVR to watch sans commercials.
Such was the case with Georgetown’s Elite Eight matchup with North Carolina.
Any sporting event usually gets an additional hour at the back end by system default, so a game scheduled for two hours will record for three.
I expected the same on Sunday, and when I went to the playground with my daughter with about 4 minutes remaining in the first half, I totally expected to watch the remainder of the game when I came home.
When I returned, the game was already over. At least, the recording had stopped, and of course, it stopped after two hours.
i sat down and started watching the game, skipping forward and pausing to see just how much time was left before I started to cry inside.
Notes on the game — UNC is deep and extremely talented. Like scary good with the numbers of cats off the bench.
But the two things I noticed as the Tar Heels led by 11 and consistently stayed in front.
1. Roy Hibbert was still in the game, despite foul trouble, and looked to be avoided dumb fouls
2. I never get scared with this Hoya team depsite large deficits. whether they’re up 10 or down 10, they play the same game and that’s what makes them special.
So when they started to cut into a 10-point NC lead with 7 minutes remaining, I realized it would be close and I wouldn’t get a chance to watch the ending on my recording.
The last thing I saw before my two hours were up was Hibbert picking up his fourth foul and Town down by 5 with just under four minutes left.
Initially, I thought I would put Deianeira in her bath, then come back and turn to ESPNews for the final score. But with the late comeback, I couldn’t help myself…
The minute the video feed stopped, I deleted it and changed the channel to 142.
There, in the bottom right corner, it said “Final Four set: G’Town vs. OSU…
that was all I needed to see. I lifted the 45 pound child to the ceiling, repeating over and over again
“They won? They won! We won!? We won?!”
Lifted high towards the elevated ceiling, my daughter lifted one arm in the air, pointing one finger to the sky (forced), then was carried to the doorway and using mythical scissors, she cut the nets before ending up in the bathroom for her evening bath.
I still don’t believe they won, but I’ve got a week to digest it and hear about how great Greg Oden and Mike Connley Jr. are while I wear my insignificant lucky Georgetown shirts, hoping for a similar feeling come Saturday night/Sunday morning when I return from work…
Sorry for the Taylor Dane reference, but just like losing your virginity, the first time is rough and awkward…
There’s a lot of times I want to say something, to get my voice, my altered opinion of the world out to the masses for the consumption of my few friends, my many hidden enemies and the rest of the free world.
But before today, before I joined the rest of the ‘blogging universe’, I didn’t have an outlet.
I would kill space on other people’s sites (Sorry, White Me). I would burn the ears of work associates and my loving wife and child with useless things they could care less about…like who decided what countries are first-world and third-world, what counties are second-world and why any baseball player would slide into first base instead of running through the bag?
Well, here it is and I’ll get to more thoughts and randomness like that at a later time, but for now, smack on that and when I return, it will be the story that is the most asked question since my move to the M-I-double S
