3 And A Half Mics!!!

I hate when a really good album or movie comes out and people declare it a classic because there is a chance in 5 years people may watch and listen just to realize that they were just caught up in the hype. Sometimes when a piece of art hits it is not fully appreciated until later on. That is how a lot of people including myself feel about Resurrection, Common's second album. There are people who have been disapointed with every album he has done since Resurrection because it was not Resurrection 2.

Now in retrospect it may seem outrageous that this album only received 3 and a half mics, but this is during an era when the mic rating system really meant something. Reasonable Doubt, Doggystyle, and The Score only received 4 mics.

10 Random Songs Wednesday

Distant Lover by Marvin Gaye
What can I really say about Marvin Gaye that has already not been said. I just know that he could probably sing the hoe out of damn near any woman better than any man who has ever walked the earth. If you don't believe me, listen to the live version of this song.

Black Hand Side by Pharoahe Monch feat. Styles P & Phonte
I have made it pretty clear to anyone who will listen how much I love Pharoahe Monch's new album W.A.R. This song is in the same vein of a criminally slept on joint by Styles P from a several years ago called "I'm Black". If you were hoping like I was that this was going to be Phonte from Little Brother, pump your brakes it is Foreign Exchange Phonte.

Second Childhood by Nas
I am probably the only person who thinks God's Son was a better album than Stillmatic. That said Stillmaticc had this song on it which was better than anything out at the time. 10 years later the lyrics are still very relevant. This is one of my favorite DJ Premier beats.

She Ought To Know by Eric Roberson feat. Marsha Ambrosius
I already dig Eric's music, but I will buy damn near anything with Marsha's voice on it. This is the the kind of joint you put on your grown man slow jam tape.

Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down by Brand Nubian
I always think of the episode of Martin when he challenges Tommy Hearns to a fight after winning a charity boxing championship. It's a very funny episode and a great song.

If I were Your Woman by Gladys Knight & The Pips
This is one of those classic songs I have to listen over and over when it comes up. The way her vocals become more intense as the song goes on makes this feel like more than just some lyrics that were written on a sheet of paper. Alicia Keyes tried to remake this song a few years ago and failed horribly. It also makes me feel some kind of way to hear Alicia sing this song now considering she stole a married man from his pregnant wife in front of the entire world.

When The Money Goes by Jay-Z
I can't remember exactly where I got this version of the song because the only version that was officially released was the one that was on Fabolous' last album with Jay-Z only doing the hook. This version is better, trust me.

I'm Still Waiting by Jodeci
I took this girl I really liked to see the Lion King on our first date and after the movie was over we drove back to her parent's house, not wanting the date to end the two of us just talked in my Hyundai hatchback for a couple of hours before I walked her to her door. This song was the first song on cassette tape of R&B songs that was the soundtrack to a conversation that I will never forget. I know Boyz II Men sold way more records, but from '91 to '96 NOBODY was effin' with Jodeci!

Vocab (Remix) by The Fugees
A lot of people including some of you reading this thought The Score was The Fugees first album because their first album Blunted On Reality was a flop on all levels. I will be honest when I first heard and saw the Fugees, I thought that they were a dark skinned, less talented version of Digable Planets. Luckily there was somebody at the label who had enough faith in this group to keep the project alive by releasing remixes to a couple of the stronger tracks on the album and the remix to Vocab banged hard.

Faithful by Common
I actually got to meet Common when this album was out. I told him one of my favorites on the album was "Faithful" because it was a perfect follow up to "Go". He told me that it was going to be the fourth single after "Testify". It wound up never happening. I still like Be from front to back except that they put the live version of "The Food" on the retail album while the studio version was on the bootleg.

Madden '12

I am a Michael Vick fan. He paid his debt to society and was put up incredible numbers on the field last year. That is why I am glad Peyton Hillis is on the cover of the next John Madden Football game. The curse is real. I thought Drew Brees was going to break the curse last year until I watched the Saints lose to a 7-9 Seahawks team that snuck into the playoffs. I don't think we can blame whatever happens this year on the curse because Hillis plays for the Cleavland Browns, a team that is already cursed. Hillis is the first cover athelete from a team that had a losing record from the previous season.

A Gold Chain & Some Jordans

I'm pretty sure when he took this picture, he thought he was living it up. Hey, who knew?

Happy Monday

I don't know why this is so funny to me, but I laughed out loud when I saw it for the first time.

The Huxtables

I am not going to go into detail about how important The Cosby show was to American television because that has been done to death. I will tell you that the show still resinates with me today because my family was a lot more like the Huxtables than the Evans'.

On another note, why is Lisa Bonet not in this picture? I know she was fired from the show but that was almost 20 years ago.

Jordan & Pippen

There is some kid out there who has only seen these two on the court together in the context of this picture, which is really sad.

On another note if you are waiting until the second round to get into the NBA playoffs this year, you need to get off of that bullshit. Every series including Atlanta Hawks versus Orlando Magic is fun to watch.

I Hope She Knows What She Is Doing

I know most of you just know her a Beyonce's sister, but Solange makes pretty good records that more people should know about. I'm not doubting her DJ skills because she is a woman but because she is a celebrity and that Rane TTM 57SL mixer is no joke.

Deal With It.

I have not really felt like writing about one thing lately, but my ADD still makes me want to share my random thoughts and opinions about things no one asks me about.

PBS & NPR do NOT receive 5% of the United States budget. That would equal just over 178 billion dollars, and make me the most successful person that any of you know.

I have no idea who Rebbecca Black or Earl Sweatshirt are, and they don't even seem worthy of me clicking a link to find out. If you are a "Hip-Hop Fan" and you want to have a conversation about them and you have not listened to the new album W.A.R. by Pharohe Monch we don't have anything to talk about.

The 2011-2012 NBA Season could very well be cancelled because NBA owners are horrible business people. Unlike the NFL, there is a rookie salary cap so teams don't throw away 50 million dollars on a player who had a good Final Four or McDonald's All American Game. If the Atlanta Hawks want to give Joe Johnson 119 million dollars when the only time people in Atlanta want to pay top dollar to see him play is when Kobe of LeBron come to town, that is not his fault. The NBA also needs to stop subsidizing a money losing product that no one cares about in the WNBA. I'm not worried about women being mad at me for saying that because women by in large don't give a shit about the WNBA either. Lifetime would rather rerun a Nancy Mckeon move than air an L.A. Sparks game.

I am disappointed that President Obama has not reduced the size of the United State's military industrial complex during his term. We have a Cold War military that fights armies that don't have uniforms much less an opposing air force. That said, The President still has my vote for 2012. Watching potential GOP candidates jockey to be the front runner to represent The Republicans is like watching people try to be valedictorian at a clown college. The fact that Donald Trump is even in the conversation is a problem. I would much rather see John McCain run again than any of these weirdos. Now when I say that, I mean the John McCain who hosted SNL and was trying to posthumously pardon Jack Johnson, not the guy who tried to sell us on Sarah Palin.

Alicia Keys is grimmey as hell. The first single on her next album needs to be a remake of Shirley Murdock's "As We Lay".

If you were not sure if America was moving closer to the movie Idiocracy, something called a Snooki was paid the equivalent to a public school teachers yearly salary to speak at Rutgers University. I have only seen one episode of Jersey Shore from start to finish, and from what I can gather she is famous because she a drunk, loud, and tacky degenerate. Something tells me that if I watched more episodes my observations would probably be validated. It's not really a big deal that someone who is not smart, talented or athletic has become famous in America. Kim Kardashian has already done that, but at least Kim is rich, good looking and related to people who are smart, talented and athletic.

It's worth it to be on Twitter just to see which famous people cannot spell.

I used to have Bill Cosby's comedy album Wonderfulness completely memorized. As good as Right with the Noah trilogy is. I always thought this album was funnier. I know a lot of people think that Richard Pryor is the G.O.A.T. but when Richard started out he was trying to be Bill Cosby.

When times get bad the first things people let go of are flat screen televisions and video game systems. That is why pawn shops are full of them. I know this because I love looking for deals at pawn shops. The last time I was there a guy outside the shop tried to sell me a a Nintendo Wii with no cords, controllers, or sensor bar. For those of you who had not already figured it out, this guy had stolen this Wii and was trying to sell it for money to by drugs. If you are wondering, no I did not buy it.

Tonight On MTV True Life

This seems to be what half of the episodes are about anyway.

Mya

She has no record out, no movie or TV projects to speak of, and I don't care.

The Originator

Gerald A. "Jerry" Lawson (December 1940 – April 9, 2011)

Jerry Lawson was the the chief hardware engineer for a largely forgotten video game system called the Fairchild Channel F VES which was released in 1976. What makes the Channel F so important to consumer electronics is that it was the first home video game system that supported interchangeable programmable ROM game cartridges two years before Atari released the VCS a.k.a The Atari 2600. Before this innovation, video game systems were sold with the games already built into the motherboard and most of the time they were just variations of Pong. In short this brother created the blueprint for modern console gaming.

Here is a LINK to an interview he did in 2009 where he goes into detail about his life growing up in Queens, being an African-American engineer in the 1960's, how he was not that impressed with Steve Wozniak, and what he thinks of today's video games. This is really good stuff. Rest in peace sir.

Bob's Burgers

Bob's Burgers is a really funny show that comes on after The Simpsons on Sunday nights. I was pretty much sure that it was going to be canceled because the only other person who seems to watch it other than me is my co-worker Coby. I got good news a couple of days ago when I heard that Fox had officially announced a second season.

He Put The Team On His Back!

I really hope they get this labor deal taken care of so this is not the only way to enjoy NFL Football next season. I actually like this guy more than I like Chris Collinsworth.