Somewhere, after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost for the last time to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals, David Stern was quietly weeping. The league’s new superman, Dwight Howard, with the help of his sharpshooting teammates, had thwarted David Stern’s dream matchup between Kobe and Lebron in the NBA Finals. It was stunning. The Cavaliers had the league’s best record and easily swept their first two round opponents yet they couldn’t stop Orlando’s onslaught of threes and the explosive play of Dwight Howard. What makes things worse was that around midseason, most of the NBA’s fans, players, coaches, water boys, you name it, felt that the finals were already predetermined: LA versus Cleveland. Even Nike felt so sure that the two poster Childs of their basketball division would go head to head on the NBA’s grandest stage that they released a commercial series of Lebron and Kobe as puppets living together and going through the trials of both of them having a huge competitive spirit. However, Lebron is at home and the rumor mill is churning once again. Was this the last straw for Lebron? Will 2010 be more realistic for teams in the hunt for Lebron than was once thought? It’s tough to say now, Bron-Bron still has another year in a Cavs jersey but Lebon’s deflating loss in the eastern Conference Finals is disappointing.
Stern should dry his eyes however. The NBA is looking grand. Why, with so many young stars making amazing things happen on the hard-court, there is no need to fret. This is a breath of fresh air about five years in the making. The league has just been getting better and better and the youth talent keeps flying in. Carmelo, Lebron, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Dwanye Wade, Rajon Rondo and many more have dazzled NBA fans with great displays of talent and on a consistent basis as well. Stern probably did dry his eyes, cracked open a beer, and smiled. I love this game and this year was magnificent. Classic even. I mean the first round series between the Bulls and Celtics had me biting my nails for sure, and I’m a Knicks fan! Speaking of the Knicks, how about the Lebron-Kobe MSG invasion. Those were two games for the ages. The whole season was just grand.
So, all you NBA fans out there pouting about Lebron being at home on the couch now, be quiet and enjoy the Finals. The Magic earned their spot in the finals and they do not deserve to be written off automatically.
The Above the Clouds Official Prediction: Magic win 4-3.
Analysis after each game will be done. Can’t Wait!
"You don't know my name. I swear... It feels like OooOoOoOoOooOooOooo... You don't know my name. ('Round and 'round and 'round we go. Will you ever know?) Oh! "
God, I love this woman. She is beautiful, intelligent, talented, gorgeous, caring, beautiful, successful and did I say beautiful? She has become quite the fashionista as well, and is regarded as one of the best-dressed women in all of show business. The funny thing is that, when she first hit the scene, we all remember the braids, hats, and clothes less revealing than Laura Bush's. Then, seemingly overnight, this all changed. She unleashed that sexy beast that was within her and just left everyone with their collective jaws open. It was one of those things where you would be shooting the breeze with friends and you would go, "Man, Alicia Keys would look way hotter if she embraced her femininity” and when she actually did, she blew your mind and took it way further than you could have imagined.
She is quite the philanthropist as well with her most notable effort seen in her own organization, Keep a Child Alive. As far as her music goes, all of it has been nothing less than great. Her work ethnic is seldom found with other R&B artist of today’s day and age and her unique edge with the piano proved to be more than a gimmick. All of her albums have gone multi-platinum and her acting career is progressing quite nicely. I adore this woman for so many different reasons but the reason that is paramount is her being such a great person. The one after that is her being so damn sexy.
I don't know about you but Miss Bria Myles here has just sparked my interest in body management. I can stand to lose a few pounds and seeing her in such good shape makes me feel epic amounts of shame. I'll try to hit the treadmill tomorrow.
In every decade of musical history, there has been some sort of prevalent dance music both underground and mainstream. Take the 20th century for instance. The 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s saw the rise of swing, bigband and bebop music. Bebop was considered a musical abomination at the time of its inception. Great artists such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were being disdained as much as they were being praised. The 1950’s brought Rock & Roll and Motown music into the mix while jazz moved into its “cool” phase. The 1960’s saw the continuation of Rock’s popularity and the British Invasion which later shifted into the psychedelic sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Beatles, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. The 1970’s saw the birth of the foundation of modern day dance music, Disco. Towards the end of the decade, Disco became extensively materialized and commercialized and the listening communal got tired and moved on. At the same time Disco was going out the door, funk, punk, and hip hop started to gain cult followings in the underground circuits of major cities. At about the same time Disco was starting to fall from its climax in popularity (and worth), and DJs were assembling the sounds to recapture the true, original essence of the dance music before it was tainted by the mainstream. These DJs created what we call house music. The 1990’s saw the expansion of the genre with a new presence from artists overseas influenced by the sounds of early house pioneers such as Mr. Fingers, Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan, and David Mancuso. From there house has taken on many different sounds and subgenres such as deep house, electro (house), hard house, and acid house.
From my knowledge, the origin of house stems from two separate epicenters, Chicago and New York. House music was created in Chicago and naturally, quickly found its way to what once was the Disco capital of the world, New York.Each city had its own pioneers but it seemed that the patrons of groundbreaking house clubs like the Garage, Loft, and the Gallery were all the same, young Black, Hispanic, and/or gay men.Indeed, the connection between house music and the LGBT community is one that is commonly known by the general public. At the time, openly gay people were, like other “counter-cultures” of the era such as punks and b-boys, despised by the general population. African-Americans were obviously being discriminated against as well even after the monumental civil rights movement. Combine this with the demise of Disco and you have a large group of stressed, angry, young men, that were being told by society that they were objects of hate, needing an affordable outlet to vent whether they were gay or straight, black or white. Enter house, the musical savior of countless youth.
The stance people took on the mixing of sexual orientations in the house scene was not uniform across the board. At some clubs, there was tension between the straight and gay clientele. At others, such as The Loft, these tensions did not exist. Some clubs were practically if not designed to be all LGBT and some clubs were the exact opposite. The idea that all people, no matter what their orientation or race, partying together to the soulful house sound was not shared by everyone in the house music scene during its early days.It seems to me that the general public feels that most house listeners some how must connect with the LGBT community by default especially if they listen to and enjoy classic house. This can be frustrating at times for me when I discuss house music with friends or family. I’m not gay in any way, nor is house music, so that generalization supported by many is asinine.
At the end of the day, when you throw out the sexuality, exclusivity, and politics of the music, house is really just about losing yourself in the music. Connecting your soul to the beat and having your heart move your body and not your brain. My love for house music stems from this idea of love for all. Every house listener is different house we accepts them all. Republican or Democrat, foreign or domestic, right handed or left handed, brown eyes and blue. House accepts them all with open arms with no hate between them. Mr. Finger’s “Can You Feel It” sums this up through song.
“I am, you see,
I am the creator, and this is my house!
And, in my house there is only house music. But, I am not so
selfish because once you enter my house it then becomes OUR house and
OUR house music!" And, you see, no one can own house because
house music is a universal language, spoken and understood by all.
You see, house is a feeling that no one can understand really unless
you're deep into the vibe of house. House is an uncontrollable
desire to jack your body. And, as I told you before, this is
our house and our house music."
Like any musical genre that you truly enjoy and love, your knowledge about that genre grows over time effortlessly. This knowledge includes exposure to subgenres. My favorite genre of house right now is electro but I enjoy it all. It’s the feeling that I get when I hear it that really captivates me. It is also the dedication and the love that the DJs and artists put into their craft, for us, the listener to enjoy, that makes me love house that much more. As time marched on and the 80's and 90's came and went people tried to move house in different directions but every movement had its roots deep in the original sounds of pioneers like Levan and Knuckles. The house community has kept the music going through the decades since its inception and will continue to do so. House is the greatest dance music on the planet and it will live forever.
Below I have a nine-part documentary (only have eight parts though) about the early days of the house DJ and scene that primarily focuses on Larry Levan and the gay house going community but covers other aspects as well. Youtube is full with docs like these that cover the genre from all different aspects. Enjoy the Docs and look out for a “You Should Listen” post house style in the near future (and that DOOM part II is still being worked on!).
Parts 5-8
Sorry can't find part nine! I'll try to find it ASAP.
Killa Cam’s not running with the same “set” these days but he’s back to dropping hot tracks for all of the hip hop collective to enjoy. His latest album “Crime Pays” dropped not to long ago matter of fact so you know that Cam is on his grind these days. The whole Dipset thing is unfortunate and I’m not going to front like I know the whole story, because I don’t, but the bottom line is that the fragmentation of Dipset is very ill fated for Dipset fans. My understanding of the story is that Jim said something that made Cam question his integrity and Juelz was on some of that “Sizzurp” stuff that many people in the South enjoy in copious amounts (or so I’m told). The combination of Juelz’s Sizzurp infatuation and Jone’s strange moves seemed to have pushed the Diplomats apart and Cam is where he’s at and Jim and Juelz are where they at. That is my understanding of the story. Below I have a couple of interviews with Cam himself discussing the issues just in case you want the full story from the man involved.
I still haven’t copped “Crime Pays” (brother is broke) but once I get this job I have lined up, I’m going to dedicate a fraction of my paycheck to purchase the album from Target. The songs I’ve heard so far are “Cookies and Apple Juice”, “I Hate My Job”, “I Used to Get It in Ohio”, “Let’s Talk About It” featuring Jadakiss and “Silky (no homo)”. All of the songs go hard. Cam’ron’s flow is very clean and composed. He has a noticeable amount of poise on the songs I’ve heard that I don’t know I’ve heard from him before. I’m definitely looking forward to spinning this in the system ASAP.
Speaking of songs from Cam I’ve heard, one of my favorites is “Cookies and Apple Juice” with one of Cam’s new artist, Da Byrd Lady. Apparently, Da Byrd Lady is another Harlem native and she can flow very well. It looks like her and Nicki Minaj are the new face of females in hip hop which isn’t such a bad thing. I mean, when you get past their obvious play on sex appeal, they both can rap well. Her verse in “C&AJ” was good and I’m looking forward to hearing her in the future. Go cop that “Crime Pays”fam.
Harlem World stand up (cause I'm kinda from Harlem but that's another story)! There is nothing like NYC hip hop. Peep the Byrd Lady interview, "Silky", and "Let's Talk About it"
No, long essay or anything like that now, just a sick ass throwback featuring Too $hort. This song bumps so hard and the video is dripping with ill steez. One of my top ten videos of all time. Enjoy.
I peeped this De La Soul "3 Feet High and Rising" press kit on Cocaine Blunts like three weeks ago.
De La is so dope to me. They are pure hip hop technicians with a style that is completely inimitable. Everything they do is ridiculously clean and their lines are so byzantine that most of the stuff they spit won’t get caught until the third or fourth time you spin that ish. The whole Plug thing they had and the D.A.I.S.Y. age jumpoff were innovative and inspired and showcased how much knowledge was stored up in these young men. Posdnus and Trugoy’s lyric ability is among the best in hip hop history and despite this, De La has continued to be underrated especially by the knuckleheads of my generation whose only exposure to the Native Tongues and its affiliates is Tribe.
What made De La really magnificent though was Prince Paul. Even when Prince Paul and De La parted separate ways on “Stakes is High”, Maseo and crew had gotten the idea from Paul on what makes a great beat. I think that Paul’s greatest work with De La was done during the recording of “De La Soul is Dead”. That whole album is remarkable. “Bitties in the BK Lounge” was hilarious, “A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturday” made you want to hit the dance floor, “Peas Porridge” rattled my brain, "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa" was explicitly real and “Pass the Plugs” captured the essence of hip hop. Those are just my favorite tracks but the whole album is just exceptionally dope.
The first De La Soul song I heard was “The Bizness” featuring Common on what would soon become my favorite De La album, “Stakes is High”. I had taped it one week off the weekly Friday afternoon throwback hour that aired on 93.9 WKYS. I kept playing that tape and wondering what that song was and one day I finally found out by typing in “The engine to my comprehension is too complex” into google. As I look back, me typing in Trugoy’s sick rhyme into that google search box strikes me as an epic moment in my relationship with hip hop. I followed the bread trail of information and found out what album the song came from which was of course “Stakes is High”. I bought the album about two weeks later. The first time I listened to it, I hated it. I didn’t get any of the lines and the beats were peculiar sounding to me. Then one day, I had to write a paper for some class and I needed some music to blast on the stereo. I gave “Stakes is High” another chance. I never doubted De La ever again after that.
Just like me with DOOM over time I have become a loyal De La Soul fan accumulating album after album. The coolest thing about De La to me though was how damn down to earth they are. I’ve watched and read like every interview you can find on the Internet featuring them and they always put hip hop first. Everything they do is out of their love for hip hop. Whenever I need inspiration or a pick up, I can just throw on the trio of the Plugs and unwind. They blazed the trail for anything loosely related to the words “alternative hip hop” and have released great material consistently (even the AOI series. I don’t care what anyone says). De La Soul is from the soul yall and one of the best to ever do this hip hop shit.
Around my freshmen year in high school I started to become a true sneakerhead. I became infatuated with Nike SBs and over the course of the year I learned to identify every single shoe released under the line. My sneaker knowledge as a whole tripled in the course of about four months.Also around this time, my friend Daniel started skateboarding again. With my newfound love for Nike SBs it seemed only right that I started skating too. Daniel urged me to become what my favorite shoes were supposed to service: a skater. I pushed around on his board for a while until I saw my first skate video (even though it was truly a promo), Nike SB’s “On Tap”. I was blown away by Shimizu’s style and Danny Supa’s technicality. I was introduced to skateboarding on a whole other level. The next day I bought my first skateboard.
It’s safe to say that that video introduced me to skateboarding that changed my life. It also introduced me to music that changed my life. The one song I’m talking about specifically is “All Caps” by rapper MF DOOM played during P-Rod’s segment in the video. MF DOOM’s flow was heavy and lumbering. The beat was grimy yet intricate. It was a sound of hip hop I’ve never heard before and I was instantly hooked. I ran to my computer as soon as I plucked the song name and artist from the credits and downloaded the song. From there, my journey to find out who DOOM really was began. I found his biography on the Internet and learned everything about the man behind the mask, Daniel Dumile. I learned about the early days with KMD, the death of his brother, Subroc, and his retreat into the shadows of NYC. I discovered his other aliases like King Geedorah and Viktor Vaughn. But during the early days, all I cared about was the character DOOM. I downloaded DOOM’s first two albums one track at a time (don’t worry, I ended up buying the re-releases later) and burned them to two CDs. I played those CDs all the time, nonstop. He became my idol, DOOM that is, because he allowed me to escape to a world of superheroes and super villains but with gripping lyricism.
The first DOOM album I actually bought was “Madvillainy”, a collaboration DOOM did with producer Madlib (Madlib would later become one of my favorite producers after I purchased the album). The cover image is epic and I had the case propped up on my stereo for at least three months. The booklet inside contained all of DOOM’s lyrics in written form, which made me marvel even more at his skill and technique after I was able to read the passages I might not have caught while listening. Soon, I could recite DOOM’s verses like an old church going grandmother could quote the bible. He was my favorite rapper no matter what.
Now years later, I’ve heard and own everything DOOM’s put out. I also own all the albums of the people DOOM introduced me to like Madlib and Count Bass D. So, this post is in honor of my idol, DOOM, and his new album “Born Like This”. Keep trying to take over the world my brother and keep lacing us with this hip hop gold.
This is part one of my DOOM post. Above this is one song from each one of DOOM's albums. Part two will focus on Dumile's other aliases.
After a two-year hiatus, I am back. My original blog, birthed in '07, had two posts and probably two readers. It was my inaugural attempt at blogging before I shut it down to use Myspace blogging instead. The reason for this was readership. To be honest, this is just another ripple in the ocean of personal opinion showcased by the Internet. On Myspace, I could post a bulletin and get at least three or four people to each post. With this blogger thing, all I can do is throw the link up in my forum signatures and hope that people are bored enough to read it. I don’t have a Facebook and I deleted my Myspace a long time ago. I lost my taste for Myspace over time and Facebook never fascinated me the way it did others. I found the whole thing silly quite frankly. Now, however, I feel a need to speak from the comfort of my computer on life to whoever wants to listen. I’ve been getting into a lot of arguments lately, but not angry, squalid ones. They were actually satisfactory, healthy, balanced arguments about interesting topics. I wanted to share my outlook on certain issues with the whole world as well and so, I resurrect my blog from the ashes.
I am currently transitioning in life from high school to college. My four years in high school have been excellent. I’ve had a ton of fun and met some really cool people as well. I can say that I have no enemies, although I have burned bridges, but I feel that these instances were necessary in the progress of my life and my subsequent maturation. Sometimes in life you must move on and leave things in the past no matter how much it hurts. However, you also must learn to forgive people and rally behind them no matter what they’ve done to you (or to others). The thing I’ve learned though, is that forgiveness or elimination of a person from your life should be determined on a case-by-case basis. You cannot use the same policy for every person.
I’ve decided to cut off a person I really cared about from my life recently. Her offense wasn’t atrocious to warrant my ignoring her until she did the same to me but it just came at the wrong time. My dating history after my second girlfriend has been a disaster. I’ve come across girls with emotional baggage, doubted myself and failed to speak up, had to confront a few girls about love that was unrequited on my part, dated a girl unsure about dating me and had to deal with the churning of the rumor mill. The fault lies with me. The fault lies with them. Everyone and everything has been wrong. I’ve moved too fast, I’ve moved too slowly. I’ve waited too long, or I didn’t act fast enough. Nothing felt right for the past two and a half years. So, around February, after two failed relationships that year alone (complete utter catastrophes), I devised a plan to mount a last stand. I was going to cultivate a successful relationship before school ended no matter what.
I had three candidates, all with their own advantages and disadvantages. One was an old flame, one an introvert redbone, and one a spunky, dark-skinned enigma. The old flame was, upon further thought, a horrible idea and the shy redbone would have been too awkward. That left me with the ebony enigma. I had some past history with her. My freshmen year she seemed to fancy me a bit, but, if I remembered correctly, I was currently in a relationship at the time. Ironically, when I set my plan in action, she was currently in a relationship. The bond was cracking between her and her “man” however and I continued to make moves as if the boyfriend didn’t exist. Time went on and countless texts were exchanged. I let my intentions out the bag the first time I texted her and from there things went smoothly. I walked her to class every now and then and I felt the most comfortable relationship wise since my only good relationship which was in middle school (and briefly spilled into high school). So, one night, I grabbed my phone and ordered my troops to execute the final surge. I asked her out. I was so nervous I didn’t even call. She refused my proposal and claimed that she wasn’t ready for a relationship. “Awesome” I thought. Time to wave the white flag it seemed but things got better after this incident.
After she shot me down, I found myself liking her more and more. Best of all, I was taking things slow, something I was notoriously bad at doing. Even better was that when I was around her I felt no pressure. I was never nervous; I didn’t care what people thought. I was just with her. It was just she and I no matter where we were. At least that’s how I felt. She was the chief object of my affection and I found her physically beautiful and picturesque in essence. The ebony enigma was being slowly solved. I felt great, better than I ever have and even though I couldn’t go to prom with her like I wanted to, I didn’t fess. I was beat to the break but she knew how I felt about her. Then the bomb dropped.
I was walking home with pretty much one of my best friends, if not the best, and I had that nervous feeling in my stomach. She had given me one of those “I have something important to tell you “ quips in the hallway and all day I knew it was about her and I had a horrific feeling that it was negative. So, we (me and my friend) walk about to blocks and I say to her, “What is it?” She relays the news to me like a surgeon talking to the family of a father who, no matter what the surgery team cuts, replaces, or removes, will be no more in a matter of minutes. Apparently, the object of my affection was quite promiscuous. My friend told me the small list of her exploits and most of the populace on the list I knew personally on different levels. I can’t say I was angry, at least not at first. This same rumor was told to me before about an ex-girlfriend (while I was with her) and I let it slide. Saw no reason to bring it up with my then girlfriend and predictably, my relationship with her ended shortly after I learned of my then girlfriend’s exploits. In my current case, I wasn’t angry but I did feel disappointment. She was the best opportunity for a good relationship I’ve had in a long time and she was the item of others mindless lust! The bowl for which multiple others could fill up with their watery eroticism! The participant in multiples of weightless sexual experiences! Her excuse? Human need. The carnal thirst for sex.
I was tired. Tired of being disappointed, tired of being told over and over that I’ve made the wrongs choices. The situation made me sick. I felt that I had been duped. That I was the poor sap who inherited the remains of everyone else’s juvenile pleasure. But she seemed more substantial than that, so, what was the issue? I didn’t bother to answer my own question. I was done. My troops had advanced, slaughtered the enemy and paused briefly to revel in victory until the reinforcements charged up the hill on the horizon carrying the promise of death and defeat in their hands. My troops could have rallied once more and tried to fight them off, but they were tired, tired of the cycle. They had no more left. I had no more left.
So, I eliminated her from my life. I don’t regret what I’ve done even though I felt that she was a critical part of my life. The outing of anything her was not personal. It was done to preserve my sanity. I needed to wave the white flag and look towards the future.
High school is over, and so is my involvement with its female patrons. The beacon of college is shinning even though I know damn well the same thing is liable to happen. But by then my batteries will be recharged and I will be ready to deal with such conundrums. For now, I’m running on reserve power.
As for her, she is just the ebony enigma that I thought she was when I first met her and that’s what makes her beautiful.
