Brett Favre: Easy Money!

Good Manny. We'll miss you!

What I'm Bumpin' Today! (Hot Shit 001)

Ludameister! Barack O'Drama! GANGSTA GRILLZ YOU BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!!

"Sho' Nuff Revisited" is gonna be on repeat for a while

...They are neither, yet they are both!

Biracial people that is...
Rock The Dub drew my attention to this Black In America reaction from Lynn Whitfield's teenage daughter, Grace Gibson. I've jacked it word for word from Anderson Cooper's blog. It's really worth your four minutes...

Although I found this segment of “Black in America” to be highly informative for the general public, I was disappointed that the interviews in the section on what it is like to be biracial in America seemed to focus only on the more negative aspects. With the eyes of the world now on Barack Obama, I had hoped for a more balanced discussion on what a positive symbol a mixed race person can project.

Obama’s candidacy embodies change and hope for so many in this country of all generations, genders, races and cultures. His message of bringing us all together as Americans is enhanced by his mixed heritage. The biracial person personifies the breaking down of racial barriers that so many fought and died for in the civil rights movement. It is what Dr. Martin Luther King stood for and what his legacy of equality imparts to us today. So one should feel nothing but pride to be mixed in America.

If parents of biracial children are too concerned about what race their children identify and associate with, the only outcome will be confusion. They should rear their children to have enough self-esteem and self-confidence to be their own persons — encouraging them to be strong children who can grow up to be strong biracial adults.

There should be no need for them to say “I am black” or “I am white” because they are neither, yet they are both. Trying to force a choice is often done just to accommodate the people around them. Why should it be so difficult to understand that a person can be and take pride in two races, ethnically and culturally? Those who cannot accept this are perpetuating the kind of ignorance that would only resegregate society by taking away a positive symbol of integration, the mixed child, and restricting him or her to an either-or status.

In a world where a biracial man may well become the next President of the United States, all that a parent should be trying to instill in a child is pride in his or her race or races.

I am proud to be a child born to two loving, talented, creative people – a mother and father who happened to be of African-American and English descent, respectively. I do not feel confused at all nor do I have an identity crisis. I do not feel lost in society nor rejected by any race because I am all races in one.

I am the melting pot, and in our global society, soon all the children of the world will be a mixture of races as well. So why should we try to pick and choose what we want and don’t want our children to be? Why can’t we just accept our common humanity and try to refocus our energies on more pressing matters such as Hurricane Dolly in Texas, infected children in flooded Burmese streets, earthquake victims in China, AIDS patients in Sub-Saharan Africa or those here in Washington, D.C.?

As the world confronts these and other serious challenges to survival, why add more complications by trying to reduce a living symbol of racial harmony to a checked-box identity?

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/25/i-am-neither-black-nor-white-im-both/

On vit en marge, mais on ne lâche rien

Marginal dans vos stats, sages et dans vos stades
Mets-moi sur un piédestal, y'a-t-il un coin d'paradis pour les squales
Viens pas rater dans nos squats
En moyenne y'a autant d'caille dans nos poches que de cailleras dans des
Porsches Cayennes
Ma boite crânienne abrite mes cauchemars
Tu vois c'est pas ma carrière qui va effacer mes fautes man
Trop de fois on s'acharne à se poignarder
Stop la mascarade c'est entre camarades qu'on aime se canarder
Ca va barder, nouveau projet, tu vois qu'on fait des progrès
On veut tenir les objectifs qu'on promet
Mais sans se compromettre, dans le game on se promène
Le geste tu le connais : plus de money, plus de problèmes
On oublie pas ce proverbe, les frères qui le profèrent
Se traînent entre les procès, get c'est ainsi que l'on procède
Aucun de nous n'est prophète et seul Dieu nous protège
La route est longue Insh'Allah on se verra à la prochaine
On brille sur les pochettes, le biz nous intérèsse
Mais difficile de repérer le paradis avec un GPS
En despi mes respects à S-PI
Ice Criminel et Prim's, malsain de corps et sain d'esprit

Soulja Boy == HILARIOUS

Here's an idea: Listmania

In my previous entry, I alluded to a new feature about lists on my site. I'm still fine-tuning it but in doing so, I'll be using the blog as a test bed of sorts. So this here is a firm candidate for the FOH (Fuck Outta Here) list -- right along with Omar Bongo giving the Zimbabwe sham election the thumbs up!

Play These II: Red Light

A few days back I was running this idea about lists for my site by man DJ Hyphen. He gave me a few list ideas, one of which was "Top 5 Female Emcees Right Now". We could only agree on Jean Grae and Invincible. I wish I could have brought up Jack Davey of J*Davey for consideration. J*Davey's Dilla tribute "Red Light" is the inspiration for this playlist. It's a party vibe to it with a chill-down session by the end. You will enjoy this!

01. Ryan Leslie ::: Addiction (Remix feat. Cassie & Fabolous)
02. J*Davey ::: Lil' Big Heads
03. J*Davey ::: Red Light
04. Kidz In The Hall ::: Drivin' Down The Block (West Coast Remix feat. Pacific Division, Tyga, Glasses Malone & Mistah F.A.B.)
05. T.I. ::: Swing Your Rag
06. Nas ::: Hero (feat. Keri Hilson)
07. Flo Rida ::: Roll (feat. Sean Kingston)
08. Bun B ::: If I Die II Night (feat. Young Buck & Lyfe Jennings)
09. Lil' Wayne ::: Mr. Carter (feat. Jay-Z)
10. Kurupt ::: Yessir

Red Sox & Yankees

YAY!

NAY!

The Wackness

In New York Press, Armond White says of The Wackness:

Hip-Hop appreciation is also at the heart of Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness. Set in 1994 Giuliani-era New York, its nostalgia for adolescence is made moving by Levine’s unabashed appropriation of hip-hop. His alter-ego protagonist Luke (Josh Peck) is obsessed with hip-hop as an alternative to Kurt Cobain. For a friendless, pot-selling, romantic Jewish kid from the Upper East Side, black pop becomes the ultimate expression of his alienation.

The soundtrack is sublime, peep:

Le parcours...

Back in high school, it seemed like everybody was a rapper. As time went by, some of us persevered. Others slowly let it go. The last rap I wrote was three years ago. The last vocals I laid..that was in 2003 (and I don't even know where they at!)

I got some friends who keep doin'. Google Hopiho or stay tuned because I'll be plugging him every now and then. Then there's Morack who seemed headed for retirement. I hope he isn't because that'd be a great lost. I just found a rap he wrote after much "coercion." I'll campaign to get it recorded but here are the lyrics

Ma life est faite de tragédies
Regarde mon trajet du
Sénégal au Canada, il est très agité
Mon passé tacheté
Mais je me suis racheté
Et quelques faux pas viennent s’y rajouter

Fais couler des gouttes de sang sur du mouchoir à jeter
Il y a eu des coups de feu, personne sait qui a shooté
N’ont pas pu m’acheter
Connais pas la lâcheté
Mais j’hésiterais pas une seule fois si tu comptes m’achever

Je saigne
J’ai le cœur fendu
J’étais
Le moins attendu
Je reste
L’inattendu
Personne
M’a attendu
J’ai crié
M’ont pas entendu
Prié
Mais m’ont pas entendu
Y a pas pire sourd que celui qui veut pas entendre

Agressé
Je me suis fais
Quand j’étais plus jeune
J’étais tout seul
Ils étaient plusieurs
Maintenant chui plus vieux
Et j’ai plus peur
Meme si les jours se font plus longs et pluvieux


Du real talk pour les miens comme les tiens
Chui pas un tragédien, non chui pas un comédien
Chui né la où les gosses naissent condamnés
Prêts à tout, se présente une opportunité et ils sont spontanés

Qui aurait cru que je finirais en occident
Que je retournerai au bled, mais par accident
Mon passé est si lourd, je trimbale un énorme excédent
Mon avenir fluorescent, et si excitant

Mais tu dois garder en tête que j’ai grandi en Afrique
Où les politiques sont prolifiques rien que pour leur fric
La seule loi c’est qu’il n’y a pas de loi, rien n’est illégal
On dirait que Dieu nous a quitté, putain le monde est inégal

Mais la misère fais que nous endurcir
Surtout lorsqu’on marche le ventre vide avec un sourire
Certains préfèrent mourir pour plus souffrir

Play These I: Not so random

"Play These..." (PT if you want) will be short sets that I feel like sharing. I like coherent playlist that have a flow to them. For the inaugural, I chose a playlist that doesn't have any hip-hop -- just so you know, I listen to other shit too!

I can't front, I was playing my iPod on random some time back, and this is what it came up with:

01. Coldplay ::: White Shadows
02. The Beatles ::: Penny Lane
03. Eric Clapton ::: Tears In Heaven
04. Tina Turner ::: Look Me In The Heart
05. Blackjack ::: Maybe It's The Power of Love
06. Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell ::: You're All I Need To Get By
07. Oasis ::: Don't Look Back In Anger
08. Mary J. Blige ::: We Ride (I See The Future)
09. Eric Benét ::: Love of My Own
10. Christina Aguilera ::: Without You
11. Phil Collins ::: A Groovy Kind of Love

Sweet, isn't it?