10 Random Songs Wednesday

NE Heartbreak by New Edition The album version of this song is cool, but the version that everyone remembers is the one that they used in the video that was only put out on vinyl. When you go back and listen to this song, you can hear that Bell Biv DeVoe basically took the vibe from this remix, ran with it and made their first album Poison. LL Cool J ghost wrote Michael Bivins' rap verse. I know this because I have the this hard to find 12 inch in my personal collection.

Get The Fuck Out My House by The 2 Live Crew This is actually a really funny record off of As Nasty As They Wanna Be where Luke tells a woman she isn't shit for 5 solid minutes over a Hip-House beat. As much as this song makes me laugh I am glad Hip-House is just a footnote in music history. I listened to the whole album recently and it is amazing that this is what people were trying to ban as obscene in 1990. Some of the songs on this record are almost PG-13 compared to some of the music that is out now.

Gravity by Da Bush Babies This is one of those east coast groups that I feel got lost in the shuffle during the jiggy era. Gravity is a great album which featured a very un famous at the time Mos Def on a couple of songs.

Big Timer by Fiend I hated No Limit when it was popular. I am proud to say Master P did not get one dime out of me when he was dumping all of those garbage albums in record stores in the late 90's. That said, I would hear a song No Limit song every once and a while that did not make me want to punch the first person I saw with gold teeth. This was one of them.

Beat The Clock by Ghostface Killa No one else could do this song, or most Ghostface Killa songs for that matter. The Pretty Tony Album was so dope.

Bring It On by N'Dea Davenport I'm the only person I know who bought her solo album. If the name seems familiar she is also the lead singer for The Brand New Heavies. There is also a DJ Premier remix of this track.

It's Trick by Run D.M.C. As much as I like Run D.M.C., I HATE this record. It is one of those corny songs that white people who don't know anything about Hip-Hop get excited about whenever they hear it. I know that sounded racist, but I go out a lot and have seen this first hand too many times to count.

December 4th by Jay-Z The Black Album still sounds as fresh today as when it came out. I know a lot of people who like to argue about it being a classic or not. In my opinion it is. This song which features Jay-Z's mom is liked by even the biggest of Nas apologists.

Royalty by Gang Starr feat. K.C. & JoJo On paper this looked like a terrible collaboration. K.C. & JoJo were fresh off of pop star success with "All My Life" and we had not heard from Gang Starr in about 4 years, but it worked. I listened to this album front to back about a month ago and it is a problem that no one ever brings up Moment Of Truth when classic albums are discussed.

Let It Go by Little Brother feat. Mos Def This was off of the Seperate But Equal Mixtape that they did with DJ Drama. Luckily there was a a Drama free edition of this mixtape that you could listen to like a regular album without all of the yelling and gunshot. As much as I love the work Phonte is doing with Foreign Exchange, I would love another album with all 3 members of Little Brother working together again.

First Gentleman

I don't care if you are the leader of the free world. When your lady is cold, you come off that tuxedo jacket.

It's Not The Same!!!

Add This To Your Queue

I pretty much get my weekly drinking quota knocked out between Tuesday and Thursday nights, so the weekend is when I try to just chill out and watch some Netflix through my Xbox 360. I remember reading a good review of this film Night Catches Us in Rolling Stone last year, but it never hit theaters anywhere near me so I was really happy when Netflix recommended this film and it was available for streaming. It is a dramatic period piece surrounding The Black Panther movement, set in Philadelphia, starring Kerry Washington and Anthony Mackie, with a score done by The Roots. After reading the last sentence I typed, I guess I should not be surprised that more people don't know about this this film. Anyway, unless Madea Goes To Jail is one of your favorite movies you should enjoy this.

Why Tupac Is Better Than Your Favorite Rapper

Several days ago Tupac Shakur would have turned 40 years old. While I never thought Pac was the best rapper when he was alive. I always admired his passion even if it was sometimes misdirected, I also respected his ability to expose the flaws in his own humanity. These are the things that make Tupac an enduring icon to so many people. I still enjoy reading and watching some of his old interviews, and the personal stories from the regular people who's lives he touched. Below are two stories that will soften the heart of even the biggest Tupac hater.


In 1993, Tupac received a letter from the parents of a dying boy, named Joshua. They said it was Joshua’s last wish to meet Tupac. Tupac flew to Maryland to meet Joshua and took him to a basketball game. Soon after Joshua’s death Tupac renamed his publishing company from Ghetto Gospel Music to Joshua’s Dream.

"I had written a letter saying how much I loved his music to his fan club. At the end I made a joke saying that if he ever read this letter to please take me to my prom since my boyfriend had just broken up with me. About a month later there was a knock at my door and it was him! He was by himself. No reporters no homies just Tupac Shakur at my doorstep. He came in and talked to me and my mom and my brother for about fifteen minutes and asked me if I had gotten a dress yet. I said no and he said he would take care of it and gave me $1500 in all hundred dollar bills and told me to get something pretty. Prom day came and he called and said to be ready. A limo showed up with Tupac in it and went straight to my prom. Everyone was going crazy taking pictures but we hung out there for about thirty minutes. We danced to about five songs then he said he had business to take care of kissed me on the cheek and left. I think the world lost a great person when Tupac was killed and I will always remember his kindness"

Most rappers, including many of the ones that I like are so full of shit as people. Other than David Banner who I know for a fact was giving people the clothes off of his back when Katrina hit, I coudn't imagine any of today's so called icons doing anything like this unless it was an 8 episode reality show on MTV or VH-1 in it for them. We miss you Tupac, happy birthday.

Cartoon Racial Draft

When I get drunk I tend to talk loudly and extensively about things that no one gives a shit about. On one particular morning I decided to take issue with the some of the ethnic representation in some old school cartoons.

Hotwing from The Silverhawks: I really was not a huge fan of this show but even as a 9 year old, I remember wondering why the only black character on the show was named Hotwing. The other characters were scientists and pilots. Hotwing was a cotdamn magician! In a random piece of trivia, Adolf Caesar was the voice of Hotwing. If that name does not ring a bell. He played Sarge in A Soldiers Story and Mister's daddy in the film The Color Purple.

Every Ethnic Character On The Superfriends: In an attempt to make it seem like white folks were not the only ones capable of saving the world, the Superfriends introduced Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, Samurai, and El Dorado who is not pictured here but if you could not tell by the name, he was Hispanic super hero who drove a gold low riding Cadillac. Black Vulcan wasn't too bad but why couldn't they just call him Vulcan? They never gave El Dorado anything important to do so I can't really go in on him. I really feel for my Asian & Native American brothers and sisters who had to put up with Samurai and Apache Chief. What makes these characters so out of pocket that their super powers and their names were based on them being ethnic minorities. It would be like if they had an Italian female super hero who got her strength from a magical tanning bed and she was named Pasta Girl. The worst thing about the inclusion of these characters is that they do not actually exist in the DC comic universe. They ignored the few ethnic characters that were in their actual comic books and made these guys up just for this show. By the way El Dorado did not actually drive a gold Caddy. That was a joke, but it did not seem that far fetched did it?
Roadblock from G.I. Joe: I had no problem with the fact that everything he said rhymed. It did bother me that every once and a while he would have to cook dinner for all of the other G.I. Joes at the end of an episode. To G.I. Joe's credit they had a lot of black characters who did nothing even remotely stereotypical, including Alpine their mountain climbing expert and Iceberg their skiing expert.

Destro from G.I. Joe: I know he is supposed to be a Scottish arms dealer but if you did not read the comics and only watched the TV show, you know Destro was black all day long. Not only did he dress like a pimp. He had the only female member of Cobra in check for most of the series. The Baroness understood that a pimps love is much different from a squares love, and the rest of the Cobra organization was full of squares. He also lived by one of legendary west coast pimp Rosebud's biggest rules for pimping success which is, if you want to be respected in the game you must stay deep with white hoes. Note: I made a mistake, it was pointed out to me that I mispelled Rosebudd's name. It is actually spelled with two d's for a double dose of this pimpin'.
Blaster from The Transformers: Transformers was my show. I am still a Tranformers fan to this day. I remember saving up 17 bucks so I could buy this toy back in the day. The thing is Blaster did not get his name because he was good at blasting the Decepticons, but because he transformed into a giant orange portable stereo. For those of you who did not grow up in the 80's these radios were affectionately referred to by many as a ghetto blasters. There was actually an episode during season 2 where he pissed off all of the Autobots by playing his music too loud. He was voiced by Buster Jones, the same guy who voiced Black Vulcan. Panthro from The Thundercats: I can't front, Panthro was the man. He was the best fighter among the the Thundercats and he was their engineer. On top of all that he had a nose like KRS-One just in case suckas on 3rd Earth tried to get it confused. The whole time I watched Thundercats as a kid I never put it together that Panthro's voice was provided by Earle Hyman a.k.a. Grandpa Huxtable from The Cosby Show.
Black Manta from The Superfriends: I know he wore a mask whenever he was on screen but under the wet suit was a very angry brother from Baltimore who hated white people because of how they treated black people on land. He wanted to create a strong black nation under the sea, and bitch ass Aquaman was the only person standing is his way. For obvious reasons they never went to deep into Black Manta's criminal motivation on the show. He had been fighting Aquaman for almost 10 years before he even revealed he was black. That said his first comic book appearance was 1967, so it was probably a good idea to keep that under wraps.

BAPE Optimus Prime

Does anyone in America still wear BAPE? It seems like as soon as Souljah Boy co-signed that shit, everyone else ditched it. Despite all that, I do think this special BAPE edition of Optimus Prime is pretty cool.

Bill & Camille

If you have not figured it out, I am borderline obsessed with Bill Cosby. Especially the old school Bill Cosby who really was the original king of comedy.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

I don't know who the woman in the picture is, but this is the meanest and funniest thing I have seen in a while.

Bell Biv DeVoe

I'm not even front I bought the cassette singles for "Above The Rim" and "Gangsta" and I got this album day one even though Deathrow came along and made the stuff BBD was doing look like well....."Candy Girl". In fact the song "Gangsta" was so poorly recieved that it did not even make the final tracklist for the album. "Something In Your Eyes" did make it on a couple of my slow jam tapes back in 93'.

These Are The Breaks

Soul Searching Vol. 3

This is the latest offering from my homie DJ Needles. Do yourself a favor and add this to your Summer playlist. For more good music check out his blog http://www.ghettoblastic.com/

Laughing At Your Plans

I have seen Foreign Exchange twice and I will be buying this day one.

One More Time For Mya!

I should have checked out Dancing With The Stars when she was on it, because I don't think she has done anything since.

Check These Shits Out!

I don't care how many Miracle At St. Annas he makes, Spike made Do The Right Thing. It still angers me that Best Picture that year went to Driving Miss Daisy.

Kenan & Kel

While I was supposed to be doing something important at work, I found myself wondering if these guys are still friends? I have seen Kenan in several movies and he is a featured performer on Saturday Night Live. On the flip side, the only thing I've seen Kel in was some shitty movie on the Syfy network with Howard Hewitt's ex-wife and and former Party Machine host Nia Peeples. Oh well, there was always Good Burger.

Wear Condoms!

If you don't have insurance and you don't have the money for at least a 3 series BMW, strap up everytime!

Bill And Quincy

Like I said before I am too lazy to maintain a blog and a tumblr. This picture is so cool because of the conversations that was probably took place while they were hanging out. Check out how Cos is holding his drink and cigar in the same hand so effortlessly. Trust me it is not as easy as it looks.

Every Day I'm Hustlin'

Both of you who read this blog know I can't stand people begging on the street, mostly because I have to put up with it so often but this sign is clever enough that I would have broke this guy off 4 quarters.

Four Walls Won't Hold Me Tonight

Michael Jackson's music is responsible for saving so many DJs lives. If you don't believe me think about the times you have been out and the DJ put on "PYT" or "Don't Stop Til' You Get Enough" and they quickly regained the faith of the dancefloor. With that said, I found it very puzzling that so many people had jokes on Twitter and Facebook when Michael passed but when Osama Bin Laden was killed some of these same people were somber and expressed sympathy for his family. I know it's random, but it just did not sit well with me at all.

RBI Baseball & The New Mariah Carey CD

He probably thought he was living it up when this picture was taken, and when I first saw it back in the day I thought he was to. Who knew?

This Pretty Much Sums It Up

I think the celebrations were a bit much last night but if Osama Bin Laden killed someone in my family and bragged about it for 10 years on VHS mixtapes, I would have broke out my beach ball and American Flag to.

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?