New Hip Hop and Webber

I've heard two very important songs recently -- surprisingly on the radio down here in Orlando.

Styles "I'm Black"
Common (featuring the Last Poets) "Corner"

The Styles joint is not just a banger, it's a message. A message in the true sense of the word. I see it becoming the noveau "I'm Black and I'm Proud", except less of a social-political mantra likes James' was and more of an embrace of culture.

If radios don't put that in heavy rotation then shame on them, because the beat is hot -- similar to "I Get High", only in this case its a beat that triumphant, the tempo and the arrangement keep your head noddin the way you do when you nod in approvement -- and the song content is so sincere. Leave it to Styles...for all his gangsta talk, he always had this social awareness too. Like, he was really the one that should've made "Why", instead of Kiss. When you couple his social knowledge with his irreverence, you get seminal tracks like this one.

Common's track features the Last Poets (read that again). How astute is that? Common ceases to amaze. I can think of only three other emcees who would do that. Definitely Nas and Mos, and perhaps Jay-Z...but in a calculated way, not a natural way.
After Electric Circus, which is a classic album (maybe not for strictly hiphop heads, but definitely for music dudes and anyone that can appreciate more than a drum and bass), Common apparently got some backlash and supposedly set out to get his grind back.
This track with the Poets is a masterpiece. Kanye is at his best...knowing that, unlike Kweli, Common is every bit the artist he is.
The arrangement of the song is sick. With Common spittin', then a Poet coming in and doing their thing and then Kanye spittin' in that Chicago twang I like. What's also i'll is to peep the difference between the 'corners' Common describes and the 'corners' the Poets refer to.
Common's album will be lethal. I'm sure of it.

also: new singing chick (i'm not gonna differentiate singing music anymore...not when it comes to R&B vs soul...useless...music heads will know the difference). Anyways...Teedra Moses. Get up on that.


...real quick NBA tidbit...

I woke up this morning with crust still in my eyes and fog still clouding my brain. I got my coffee, and snatched the sports section and went back to my room. Then I turned on the TV and switched it to ESPN. That's when I saw a graphic in the paper about Webber being traded to the Sixers. I almost pissed on myself.
Mark my words...Philly will be playing in June. They have AI and Webb, plus a slew of young athletes and a goofy caucasian with a wet stroke from range. The team's so healthy they're sick.

LA will always be my squad and the Wizards have become a close second. But ever since AI's been in the league I've rooted for Philly almost as much as LA. Now that they added Webb I may have to bump them back up to No. 2...2A at least.

Comments

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NBA All-Star weekend

Like I said in my first blog, sometimes I'll post something long and rambling about random subjects. This one is about the NBA All-Star weekend and a host of other things. Its long, so browse and skim as you please.

I was working Friday night covering a high school basketball state tournament, so I didn't get a chance to see the Rookie vs. Sophomore game.


What I did miss Friday was Kevin Frazier in the celebrity game. Back when he was on Fox Sports, my mother, whose maiden name is Frazier, used to think he was related to us. I believe she sees a resemblance from his eye's up. Anyways, he was always a favorite of mine. The anti-Stuart Scott. Kev was professional with his, not sounding or acting too stiff, but never an over-the-top shoe-shuffling cartoon like Stu. Kev also ran an ill NBA show for ESPN and me and my boys were miffed when he disappeared this year and John Saunders took over. We had our theories, but no one knew for sure.

I remember him talking about playing pick-up ball with Tim Hardaway back when Tim was speaking incomprehensible 'glish for the NBA show. I always wondered if Kev was a baller. Reports said he was goin hard at it in the celeb game, like it was a showcase...Probably was hilarious.

Saturday I was supposed to catch the dunk contest and 3-point shootout with a co-worker; and I would've, if I wasn't drugged earlier that evening...

To make a short story long: I'm currently working on a piece about this rugby team in Orlando. I guess the interesting thing about rugby is that both teams beat each other like savages all game -- sometimes actually coming to blows -- and then, after all is said and done, they get together after the game, go to a pub, eat, drink and kick it. Rugby is almost more of a social club than sport, but not really.

Anyways, I decided to spend the day with the squad to see how they get down.

The game is indeed brutal. No one leaves the field without bruises, many are bloody.

(Also, interesting was the skinny southern black-man playing in the game. He was the only black man. There were plenty Latin Americans, because of it's free-flowing resemblance to soccer. And, of course the expected amount of elitist white men and northern European-transplants. Everyone called this black-man El Negro, which I found both sad, telling and comical. And naturally, homeboy had a motor-mouth on him. He never stopped talking and offered everyone "one of them ice-colds I got in my cooler". He was an Omega, aka Q, and looked to be about 40-years-old, still in good shape. For the last 20 minutes of the second game, he sat in the driver-side seat of his pick-up trunk with his left leg dangling out the window having a business conversation -- walkie-talkie style -- on his Nextel. Also amusing was the way he walked, which resembled a horse's two front legs when in a slow trot. He was an affable man, probably wealthy and admirably balanced, being somewhat cultured, but keeping his "down-homeness". Nevertheless, and more importantly for this blog, he was a side-show.)

Back to getting drugged...

Afterwards, I accompanied the squads to Maui Jacks, a small pub in downtown Orlando. They were a rowdy bunch and it was the first time I ever saw a keg at a real establishment. It was right at the entrance.

The fellas implored me to partake of the keg and I did...On an empty stomach. Now mind you, I've drank hard liquor on an empty stomach more times than I care to admit, so a couple cups of light-beer shouldn't have been a problem. But after I said my farewells and headed back to my car I felt strange -- strange as in, "I've never felt this way before in my life". I could walk fine, think fine, all my essential functions seemed to be operating cool, but my head felt weird. Not like the room was spinning, but like you feel when you stretch for too long and your head didn't get enough oxygen.

By the time I got home, that feeling turned into a headache. Then the headache became a body-ache. By the time All-Star Weekend was set to begin I had excruciating stomach cramps. Although, I never felt like I had to vomit. It was the craziest procession of discomfort ever. There were several times when I wondered if those crazy rugby dudes laced the keg with some wild drug. I even called a player from the team the next day to see if anyone else felt weird the next day, but apparently they all partied till 3 am Saturday night.

Needless to say, I missed the dunk contest and heard that Josh Smith was incredible. The highlights didn't seem INCREDIBLE, but highlights never do justice to real-time magnificence. I'm hating that I missed it. Plus Q took the 3-point contest with a clutch performance in the last round. I was up on Q by December of his freshman year at DePaul. What people don't remember is that he basically played as an undersized 4 in college and averaged 11, 12 boards his first two years. Now he's droppin treys and doin the delight with Brandy. Q stepped his game up. I'm a fan.

I also missed Shaq continuing his streak of atrociously geechie getups. About three years ago I was watching an All-Star game with my boys from DC when Shaq appeared on screen in some fantastically ridiculous get up. It was ghastly and spawned one of the greatest lines ever dropped by one of my cohorts when my man Tony Knight looked at Shaq's duds and said, "One question Shaq: Are you serious?" We all started dying laughing. Ever since then, when something either downright stupid, absolutely foolish, or just truly perplexing is said, done or worn we hit each other with that lug. I'm sure if we were watching All-star Saturday in DC somebody would've hit us with it. Because that's what I was thinking.

Thankfully by Sunday evening, I was well enough to catch the All-Star game.

The game was cool. Vince's off-the-backboard hammer was exceptional, but it was one of the few All-Star games that didn't really have me riveted.

However, there were several things worth mentioning:

Kobe...Now don't get me wrong, that's my nigga because he plays for my squad and I still think he's the best player in the league.

But his beard is downright ludicrous as is his receding hairline. Putting those two together, I think his whole game from the neck-up is pretty much rude.

I laugh because, I know he wants to distance himself from the clown he was for most of his career that wanted to mimic Jordan to a tee. So he's waiting as long as he can before he shaves his head bald. But he's gotta do it. In a sec, he'll be rocking the Sherman Hemsley.

His beard is also his latest attempt to not look clean-cut, which is not gangsta. He went at that clean image so hard when he was younger that his latest attempt to reverse that or embrace his public enemy status, or at least parlay that into some respect on the streets, is just corny.

The halftime show was not only ridiculous but a seminal moment in comedic history...

With Puff, Jay-Z, Nelly, Denzel, Spike, Sandler, Ashton Kutcher and all these "cool" people in the audience, the NBA chooses to trot out Big & Rich like this is the Dayton 500. If you want to pander to your white audience then bring out Maroon 5, Alicia Keys, U2 -- whoever. But Big & Rich? Like Tony said, "One question..."

Regardless, it was a satisfying performance to say the least.

First of all, they had a handicap midget in a Mavericks jersey convulsing on stage in a fur hat. Homeboy had the walkers like Tucker in Something About Mary, and he was hitting us with this jig reminiscent of Flavor Flav (and you better believe one of these days we will get to Flav's Strange Love performances). But what warmed my heart is how when the astute cameramen, recognizing that this midget was The Show, would give us a nice close-up; the midge would hit us with an ice-grill that could freeze a flame. Homeboy was serious as cancer.

My sister text'd me not more than 5 seconds after he first appeared on the screen.

But nothing prepared me for the rapping cowboy.

Black hillbillies kill me. The type that drive pick-up trucks with confederate flag stickers.

Well, this dude was a self-proclaimed Black Rappin' Cowboy and his rhyme was amazingly wack -- especially when he would flip-the-script and started spittin' in spanglish. Although his rhymes were tragic, I was still paying rapt attention. Not only because it was the proverbial car-wreck attention where you are fixated on the subject because it is curiously horrific, but I was anticipating what he would do after he finished his mangled verse.

Would he fade to the background? Would he pull out a confederate flag and drape it over his shoulders? Would he play the harmonica?

Well he out-did himself...

He started crip-walking.

It was so bad that it was profane.

(Mind you he had on sand-blasted straight leg jeans, probably Levi 501 Blues, that buckled at the knees and bunched ontop of his cowboy boots.)

It was also the way he began.

Literally AS SOON as he stopped rapping he abruptly began crip-walking -- not to mention with his hands high in the air. And it was real showy too, like he was saying "Watch this world." Plus he was staring at his feet as if to say, "Boy I got them jokers moving don't I yall?"

Classic. Haven't laughed that hard since I watched Napoleon Dynamite.

On another note, did anyone think it was odd that AI referred to Shaq as the "greatest player to ever play this game"? I think it was a slip of the tongue. But just in case you wondered, the list is like this:

1. Jordan
2. Magic
3. Wilt
4. Kareem
5. Bird
6. Bill Russell
7. Shaq
8. Dr. J
9. Oscar Robertson
10. Hakeem Olajuwon

However, by the end of their careers, Kobe, Duncan and Lebron will displace three of those players. Shaq may move up. And KG may get in their too.

In a future blog I'll do a top-ten based on Influence and Impact that will look much different and is probably much more interesting.

In the meantime, that's it for me.

All this week I'm watching every movie nominated for an Oscar and any movie in which an actor or actress was nominated. So far I've done Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I'm about to watch Ray for the first time (sad right). Maybe I'll find time to slip in a movie blog before Sunday's Oscars.

checking in...

I know I said that I'd post something every Sunday and then, in a classic Vince Move, I failed to post something last Sunday. But, you'll have to forgive me. I had my lil sis Priscilla in town so I was doing the host-thing.

Outside of that; work has been ridiculously busy. I've been averaging about one story per day -- literally.

My productivity is cool and definitely impresses the editors, but I get the feeling that I'm getting played.

But more on my job hunt in an upcoming blog.

Right now it's close to midnight and I have about four pressing things that I absolutely need to do (cover letters to newspapers with openings, finish this story about a women's football league, respond to some emails, read the bible), but being me I'm going to sit back and finish the second season of 24, with an understanding that I'll wake up early tomorrow and get things done. We'll see.

Anyways in the event that some of you were actually periodically checking the blog, I just wanted to get something new up and let you know my next real submission will be this Sunday.

while your at it, check out this site:
www.gizoogle.com

I'd like to know what you think. I want to get upset, thinking it's some schmuck making fun of black people, but another part of me just takes it as light humor.

What do you think?

Oh...and to post a comment, just click on the comment link at the end of the blog. I think that's pretty much how it works.

Welcome to my World

Check it out people...

You know I try to stay hip for the kids and I love to see myself type, so I thought I'd set up a blog.

This is the first time I've been in a new city, with LITERALLY no acquaintances. When I moved from Buffalo to DC in 2000, I had a crew of old classmates there to welcome me and some distant family if push came to shove. When I stayed in Atlanta last summer I had a slew of friends to check. But here, I'm truly on my own...So it's a fairly new experience.

Which brings me to the reasons I set this up:

1) It's a way to keep in touch with everyone and let you know what's good with me.

2) At least one time per week I get myself into a situation or eyewitness an encounter that I find either hilarious or outrageous. Now I can recount these stories to everyone. And since my job sends me to peculiar places and I meet so many different characters, I should never run out stories.
Or they could be stories as mundane as recounting a nice restuarant I went to; or salacious, such as revealing that I saw Steve Francis french-kissing his coach in the Orlando Magic shower (that did not happen).
3) I also want this to be somewhat of an inside look at a young writer's first couple years in the industry: the editors, the assignments, the quest to move up to bigger markets or the years spent in small market purgatory, the people you meet, mistakes you make and the triumphs as well.
I want to be an author at some point, so maybe someday I'll turn these next couple years into my first book.

4) And finally this will be a space where I can pontificate on anything from sports to social issues to entertainment to family to friends.
Some of the submissions may even entail some personal introspection (Did I just make that word up? It sounds like a word that a wannabe-smart dumb person would spit out).
Or I may just be writing to vent.
Speaking of venting...

There is this young girl, maybe 18-20-years-old, that works at the Hollywood Video in Winter Park -- a wealthy suburb just northeast of downtown Orlando. I go there a lot lately because I'm catchin up on two television series, 24 and Arrested Development, so I rent their season DVDs. However, I usually kop a movie when I go there too.
Well, this bimbo (sorry for the misogyny ladies) makes it her habit to comment on my DVD selections all the time. Mind you this the type of young "lady" that will file her nails while you wait at the register for at least 30 seconds. Plus she belches and she's dumb loud...'ignant' I suppose. She's type of broad that would probably stand in front of a mirror butt-naked and start doing the Tootsie Roll.
Back to her hair-brained critiques...I go to kop Ray and they're all out, so granted, I'm a little upset...but I keep it cool.
But she has to go and say, "I don't know why you wanna see that dumb movie anyway."I'm like, "Do you know who Ray Charles is?"She says, "Yeah that blind piano-man. He dead though" (only she says 'dough' instead of 'though', because of course she refuses to pronounce her TH's)
I say, "Well you know your boy Foxx has won and been nominated for a bunch of awards. It's supposed to be a good movie and Ray is a legend...you should get up on that."
She says, "Yeah whatever, I'm just tryin to get out of here so I can get me some Steak-n-Shake." I guess she thought she was being cute.
This, however, was after last week when she was trying to clown me for kopping Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; which was probably the fourth time she had some slick comment about my movie-tastes.So minding my own b.i. I picked up the Star Wars DVD pack -- the one with Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I checked it out for a second and then set it back on the counter...Here she goes again..."I know right?" she says.
I'm thinking to myself "No...What do you know."
Then she says, "I don't know who they think they foolin' chargin' folk $50 for them stupid movies."
At this point, I've had close to enough. So I say, "These are classic movies. I can't believe you don't like Star Wars. Do you at least like the prequels?"
She says, "Nope. Them stupid too...All that space and ships and stuff...that's stupid."So I just asked her, "If you could see one movie in this place, what would it be?"...
She says, "'The Cookout'".
I was spent after that comment.
This week I'm just gonna kop "Soul Plane" or "Scream 3" and wait for her kudos.

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Meanwhile:I'm not too familiar with the blog setup yet, but I'm hoping I will be able to manipulate an area for people to post comments.

I'm not the most punctual or conscientious dude on the planet, but my every intention is to post a submission every Sunday and send out an email to everyone alerting them. I also may post random submissions throughout the week.

With that said, welcome to my blog.