Career Update: The Commish

I'm currently wasting away in Buffalo, hoping to be back in NYC full-time by late spring. That means my social life is about as robust as an old man, in a wheel-chair, whose wife just died.

My writing, however, is really hoppin' right now. I'm a columnist with SLAM Magazine. The columns occur weekly online. We named the column The Commish and you can go here whenever and check anything new that I've written. And most of my previous columns have been archived. I also have feature in the newest issue that's on stands. It's a nice piece on Danny Granger.

I've also been appearing on a few radio shows here and there. I'll try to shoot a quick note when it happens in the future.

There's also some other things I'm proactively trying to pursue that could be some big moves. But everything is a process and niggas gotta be patient. So stay with me as I keep risin to the top.

The Great Mary J Blige

I do a lot of reading on Sunday mornings. This particular morning, I was fumbling around The New Yorker and came across an incredible article on Mary J Blige. It's written by Sista Souljah and it's sort of a personal oral history of Mary J Blige's rise to fame and why it happened, what made her special. It's old, published in 1999. I guess, at this point, that's considered Mary's mid-career. It was during the time where she was coming out of her destructive phase and just about to launch her Oprah phase.

That's what I call Mary, at this point. She's music's Oprah. It's all self-help, betterment, you-go-girl rhetoric with her these days. And, to be quite honest, she doesn't make very good music any longer. Well, let me rephrase -- she undoubtedly makes "good" music, it is well crafted, professional music. But it's not vibrant and it definitely aint hip. But I dont think that's what she's after. She's an Oprah, making music for women -- of all ethnicities and socioeconomic levels -- ages 25-50. And I'm sure she makes music to "teach" or guide younger women. My Mom, who is 53, can dig on Mary...and I assume that my little cousin Kedara might do well to throw on some new Mary, too.

But this article, written with great poignancy and perspective by Sista Souljah, describes the greatness of young Mary -- the What's the 411, My Life Mary. The Mary that helped revolutionize a segment of black music. Archetype Mary. Paradigm Mary.

I believe that Mary J Blige is one of the 10 most important music figures of the past 20 years, right up there with Cobain, Dre, Radiohead, Nas, Cube and anyone else. This article reinforces that.