I promised my son that I would listen to Take Care…I think my ears are bleeding. Aubrey is not fooling me with this soft-ass “I’m all in my feelings” and “I hurt too” shit. I am not drinking the kool-aid…sorry.
Anyway, my favorite CD # 5 is a direct contrast to Aubrey. Maybe I need to stop here and explain something. I like my Hip-Hop raw and rough, full of bravado and lies, disguised in hot beats. At the base of it, Hip-Hop was (I don’t really know if it still is) poetry. Poetry moves you. It is not a facade nor is it weak. It punches you in the gut and seeps inside of you…it remains with you long after that last beat drops in the song.
OK, back to the favorite CD. It is by the anti-Aubrey (I refuse to call him Drake)…the one and only Jay-Z. Miss me, please, with all the illuminati crap; all I know is the music is fire. No one since Biggie tells a story quite like Jay. No one since Pac delivers with such conviction. My favorite CD #5 is none other than The Black Album.
If you have listened to Jay since Reasonable Doubt, then you have witnessed the evolution of the man. From
Put this on in your car and take a ride around the city. I would bet money that you end your ride feeling like your life has been changed. the streets to being “a business, man”, Jay carries on what Hip-Hop was before Biggie and Pac were killed. Jay is a poet, like Biggie and Pac were, and his life makes for great music. I choose the Black Album because I believe this CD was where I first appreciated him fully. I felt his grown man status on these tracks. There is a royal hierarchy in Hip-Hop; Jay happens to be king. Now, he’s got a few people nipping at his heels, but for now, he is still the one leading the race. Those lyrics? That flow? No one even comes close.
As a lover of hip-hop, I cringe at the state it is currently in. Hip-hop for me use to be the way that Black America saw the world. The music infused the struggles and challenges of growing up in this country that we love, but sometimes does not give that love in return. Hip-Hop has now become full of songs about strippers and money; there is little to no depth left.
I divorced Hip-Hop about two years ago. I was just fed up with being inundated with nonsensical words and the decrease of artistic expression. But like many divorcees, I often returned to check what Hip-Hop was up to…I needed it to still be okay after my exit. The interludes were brief, the conversation short, the listening sporadic. Yet I still held out hope that one day, it would return to the form I fell in love with.
Watch the Throne embraces everything I love about Hip-Hop. It is brash and witty, consistent and engaging, and the words enter your brain begging you to hear it. It is not loose rhymes over tight beats; Watch the Throne is an experience from beginning to end. Do I even have to say that I am a fan of Jay and Kanye? Even as a fan, or because of it, I am most critical of these two artists. I expect excellence, and when they don’t deliver it, I am disappointed. ‘Ye redeemed himself with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the CD that was my favorite of last year. I’ve been relying, however, on old Jay-Z CDs to keep him inside my circle of favorites. I get the whole “I’m retired” thing; but if you are going to continue to rhyme, make it good. That’s all I ask as a fan.
Listening to Watch the Throne, I realized something: Jay and Kanye don’t have to be what we want them to be. They are quite fine just the way they are. Two very rich and very big Hip-Hop stars who hold the world in their hands. The argument that they do not introduce ideas and situations that the every day person can relate to is bullshit. If your dream is not bigger than you, then you need to get another dream…I think Deion Sanders said this during his Hall of Fame induction. And that is the absolute truth. Watch the Throne is about a life that we may not know, but it is so interesting, so compelling, that we should want to know what that life is like. Watch the Throne is about dreams, and achieving them, and dealing with the repercussions of that achievement.
My only gripe with Watch the Throne is the song New Day. Nina Simone should never be auto-tuned…ever. I don’t care if the world was ending and the only way to save it was to put that beautiful voice on auto-tune to sing to the world. It is blasphemous to wreck Ms. Nina’s voice with a vocoder that takes away from the sheer beauty of hearing her honey around the words she sings. New Day has an excellent idea and the words are poignant; I wish they would’ve just left Ms. Nina alone.
All in all, Watch the Throne meets my expectations, even exceeds them. It won’t get me and Hip-Hop back together again, but maybe it will push me to stay in touch more often.
I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. I have two finals today, so my weekend is pretty much in the toilet. I will lay in my bed afterward in silent prayer that I didn’t completely flub them both.
Anywho, 5 Things Saturday is something new. There are a lot of things that I see or hear that seem to linger in my brain. This is my way of exorcising those things. Let’s begin, shall we?
5 – Does R & B now stand for Raunchy & Butt-Naked?
OK…the whole “Barbie” thing, the whole “let’s see who can have the raunchiest video” thing, the whole “head between legs and crotch in camera” thing is bothering me to no end. Where is the imagination? Where is the creativity? Apparently, it seems that the train to success passes through Trampville and Hoetown. But let me back up a minute; this does not happen to be just the chicks. The dudes are getting in their share as well. Partake, will you, of these two examples:
All I know is this: there is nothing wrong with using your imagination. It actually can be better than Ms. Keri-Baa-beytelling me she has that p*ssy that will keep you at home (I don’t need to know all that!), or observing Raheem trimming the hedges. I don’t like soft porn, and that is exactly what this shit right here is. But um, Raheem’s song is kinda tight. Keri’s…not so much.
4 – No Job For You!
Now that the politicians have decided that unemployment benefits will not be extended, what are they prepared to do with desperate people resorting to desperate measures? Surely they are aware that a 9.8% unemployment rate, with about 1 job for every 6 unemployed persons, is going to lead to some serious shit. And while those politicians are relaxing in their big ass houses and enjoying their excellent health care (don’t even get me started on this one), the public will be bending over and getting screwed. Without the benefit of lubrication, mind you.
3 – Drink of the Week
I’ve discovered this new wine called ChocoVine. It is a mixture of Cabernet and chocolate, and it is a chocolate martini in a wine bottle. Yummy!
2 – Mike Vick
There is an article written on ESPN by Nils Lofgren, member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band (you can read the article here). Basically, he expresses his disappointment in the “…collective, lopsided praise of Michael Vick due to his recent spectacular on-field performance.” He goes on to dust off the same argument that we’ve heard before Vick started playing ball again: he doesn’t deserve to be in the NFL, what he did was atrocious, waa-waa-waa.
Look, it is not for us to decide who gets to play football or not. I would think people would be excited that he is using the platform he has to tell kids he made a mistake. But instead, the public wants to continue to hang this noose around his neck (and yes, I mean that exactly). I do agree with Mr. Lofgren on one point: we cannot forget what Vick did that led to his imprisonment and suspension from the NFL. We also cannot restrict him from going back to the career that he had.
In other words, get over yourselves and view this as what it is: a man who has paid the price for his terrible acts and is trying to rebuild his life.
Plus, he’s my fantasy football QB (my other is Tom Brady…I. Cannot. Lose!!!). I could give a damn what he did in the past if his life now shows purpose. And it does.
1 – Teach Me How to Dougie
This fascinates me. I’m a little too old to be dougie-ing, but it is still a kick to watch others do it. Especially John Wall of the Washington Wizards. Being the mother of a teenager, I’ve seen the Dougie more than I care to admit. But no one, and I mean no one, hits that Dougie as hard as John Wall. Watch:
video credit: originally uploaded to YouTube on November 2, 2010 by blazersedgeben
Bonus: Happy Birthday Jay!
Today is Jay-Z’s 41st birthday.Wiggle that thang to some Blue Magic!
video credit: originally uploaded to YouTube on June 16, 2009 by JayZVEVO
If you have listened to Jay since Reasonable Doubt, then you have witnessed the evolution of the man. From
