Worst Product Name Ever!

I wonder why this product is not around anymore? That said, how were they supposed to know? I am actually old enough to remember seeing this commercial back in the day during The Price Is Right. You could also get it in peanut butter flavor.

10 Random Songs Wednesday

This is the 4th time I have don this, I should not have to explain what is going on here.

Superwoman by Stevie Wonder
I don't write songs but I wish I wrote this one. I can't really put into words how great this song is, so I'm not even going to try.

Public Service Announcement by Jay-Z
If you are out DJ'ing and you are about to lose the crowd this track will almost always buy you a couple of minutes. I saw Jay-Z in concert last year and when he dropped this, the roof almost came off of the stadium.

Pat Your Weave by UCB feat Wale
This is one of those songs I thought was going to work on some level, but I guess it was just a little too Washington DC. Actually I don't know if DC was feeling this track, but I liked it as soon as I saw it on VH-1 Soul.

Black by Pearl Jam
This was not even a single off their first album, but the Alt. Rock station 105.7 in St. Louis played it like it was. "Jeremy" was cool but I bought this album on the strength of this one song. It spoke to me more than most Hip-Hop in 91-92 but remember I was was growing up in the suburbs.

Champion by Kanye West
I always feel like I should run a couple of laps when I hear this song. After Graduation came out, it felt like they played the Steely Dan song that he sampled for this track a lot in random places.

Skybourne by Curren$y
I remember when people started talking about this guy, and I just blew it off because I remember when he was a 3rd stringer for both No Limit & Cash Money records. This just shows how an artist can really do his thing when he is not worried about pleasing the heads of major labels who are only concerned with something they can push onto radio. This song along with several others off of his album "Pilot Talk" are really good.

The Sly, The Slick, And The Wicked by The Lost Generation
A lot of times the songs that are sampled to make a lot of my favorite Hip-Hop songs wind up being songs I play all of the time. Nas used this loop for the intro to "It Was Written". I dig almost any song from the 70's that breaks down the game to young ladies.

Body by The Jacksons
This is off of the Victory album that Michael had to record with his brothers so they would stop asking him for money after Thriller blew up. Marlon wrote and sang lead on this song. It is probably one of the best songs they did that did not have Michael on it. Strangely, even though they called their American tour The Victory Tour, they did not include one song from the Victory album on the set list. I remember during Jackson mania there was a digital watch you could send away for that played this song. It was 20 bucks and I knew better than to even ask my mom or dad for it considering it had no educational value.

Fireworks by Drake feat. Alicia Keyes
I am still not sure why people hate on this kid so hard, especially when he makes songs like this. This is the kind of deeply personal song about finding your place in the world I would take over tales of drug dealing anyday.

Different Times by Raphael Saddiq feat. T-Boz
This was one of my favorite songs off of Instant Vintage, an album which I had a lot of favorite songs off of. Instant Vintage was not a huge chart success for Interscope so they dropped him from the label, a week later the record was nominated for 5 Grammys. I wish T-Boz would have had more opportunities to do soulful stuff like this apart from TLC.

Royalty

The Pittsburgh Steelers will be contending for their 7th Super Bowl title in 2 weeks against the Green Bay Packers. It would be 8 if it were not for Niel O'Donnell thinking that Larry Brown was one of his receivers back in 1996. As excited as I am about the Steelers going back to the big game, it kind of pisses me off that Steelers fans are going around singing "Black & Yellow" by Wiz Khalifa when the Steelers colors are black, white, & GOLD. The song is probably about weed or something anyway.

That said, I think I may just let this one go considering Pittsburgh has been waiting for someone to blow up in the rap game since Sam Sneed put out "Think You Better Recognize" off of the Murder Was The Case Soundtrack.

Blaster Vs. Soundwave

I am a huge Transformers nerd. Much to my delight I found out several years ago that after the TV show was canceled in America, it ran for 3 more seasons in Japan. The only season I could get into was Headmasters because it tries to mimic the animation style and story telling of the American show, the other 2 are are plain damn weird.

Anyway since the show was written and produced in Japan they had no problem killing off characters(toys) to make way for new characters(toys), in fact they Kill Optimus Prime again in this series after only 4 episodes making bitch ass Rodimus Prime the leader again. Galvatron also curses a lot for some reason. I guess having robots yell "shit" 3 or 4 times during a cartoon is not that big of a deal for a children's show in the land of the rising sun.

This is just a really cool duel to the death between Broadcast(Blaster) & Soundwave. Don't worry they both get resurrected later in the series. This clip is actually better than the entire Revenge Of The Fallen movie.

10 Random Songs Wednesday

If you have not been paying attention, every Wednesday I put my MP3 player on random, see what pops up, and I write about why I have it on there.

Do You Feel Me (Remix) by Anthony Hamilton & Ghostface Killa
This song is from the American Gangster original soundtrack and it sounds like a soul song from the 70's. I'm pretty sure Ghost jumped on this, the same way he jumped on Beyonce's Summertime several years back.

Definition by Black Star
How the hell does it happen that in the 11 years since the release of their self titled debut that there has been no follow up record. This record is a Hip-Hop staple, and if you don't have it in your Serato, you need to get it together.

Borderline by Madonna
This song has one of the best melodies of any 80's pop song. I'm not really a fan of much of her stuff that came out after she stopped working with Nile Rodgers, but this is a great song.

Devil In A New Dress by Kanye West feat. Rick Ross
This one of the only songs on his new record that he did not produce. Bink! pimped the hell of a Smokey Robinson sample to make this beat. Even people who hate Rick Ross like his verse on this track.

I Got a Love by Pete Rock & CL Smooth
This was the first single off of their second LP The Main Ingredient. Pete Rock built most of this beat around The Ambassadors "Ain't Got The Love" which is an incredible song in it's own right. CL Smooth was always dope as emcee to me because he could always show love to the ladies in his rhymes on some grown man shit without being corny.

Slow Down (original) by David Banner & 9th Wonder
I bought Their new record Death Of The Popstar and I really dig it, except that they changed the arrangement of "Slow Down" for the album version. Either they could not clear the vocal sample or they decided it would be cheaper to have someone re sing it. Either way I dislike the the album version enough that I always skip it.

Somebody For Me by Heavy D & The Boyz feat. Al B Sure
I can't stress to people enough how under rated Heavy D is. This was the second single from their second album Big Tyme. This is when Hip-Hop was still so much fun. Shortly after this single came out you, light skinned dudes were not in style anymore and you could not have two of them on one song.

Everyday Struggle by The Notorious BIG
This is my favorite song by Biggie. It is easily his most honest record because it makes selling crack seem like the most miserable thing in the world. What he accomplished in this song seems to be lost on the current generation of Hip-Hop artists who rap about the street life. My friend DJ 2 Deep has the record by Dave Grusin where the sample for this song comes, and it is incredible how such a hard core beat can come out of a smooth jazz song.

Good by Ghostface Killa
Most of the time, I am not quite sure what Ghost is talking about. This doesn't stop me from putting him at the top of my favorite emcees list. This song is off of the More Fish. I really wish I had an instrumental for this.

My Secret by New Edition
This song was on the same album as "Mr. Telephone Man". I saw the video a little while ago and I can see why the rest of the group did not eff with Ralph from time to time. The plot of the video involves New Edition going to a Los Angeles Lakers game and with the game on the line, Pat Reilly sees Ralph in the stands and puts him in the game. Ralph's street clothes turn into a Laker uniform, he gets an ally-oop pass from Magic Johnson and the Lakers win the game. This actually turns out to be some sort of daydream, but while Ralph is outside the stadium walking away looking all dejected, Magic Johnson comes up to him outside of the stadium and gives him a high five like that shit happened for real completely ignoring Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike. Aside from all of this what really bothered me is that the whole group is from Boston. They must have caught hell for this video when they went home because the Lakers & Celtics were fighting wars on the court when this song was out. This is the last New Edition video Bobby Brown was in until 1995.

Here is some useless trivia, the actress that played Ricky and Doughboy's mother in Boyz N' The Hood is in this video. She is one of the girls on the street watching New Edition dance before they go to the Lakers' game.

On This Day

Just like last year, I have to work on the day when we honor Martin Luther King's birthday. Last year to to honor his legacy, I donated that days salary to Doctors Without Boarders. This year I will be donating my day's salary to the Innocence Project. This organization has helped to exonerate 265 people who have been wrongly convicted due to false confessions, government misconduct, and, or bad eyewitness identifications.

If you would like to know more about The Innocence Project or would like to donate to this cause, check out the website. http://www.innocenceproject.org/

Peace Out Michael Steele!

Let me first say, I think Michael Steele is probably a pretty good guy but I don't feel sorry for him in any way shape or form. When he backed down and bowed down to Rush Limbaugh back in March of 2009, I realized he had no real power in the RNC and ironically was nothing more than an affirmative action hire. That said, leave it to the RNC to get rid of their first African-American chairman during the 25th Anniversary of the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.

Red Meat Is My Heroin

In an attempt to be healthier, I've tried to cut red meat and pork out of my diet. I have to do something because I am damn sure not giving up whiskey & cigars. Now, I said tried because I’m not yet strong enough to turn down a good barbecue or the occasional pepperoni pizza. (Sidenote: Turkey pepperoni is really good, but no one uses it.) I can usually ease my red meat & pork meat fix by making myself turkey burgers and grilled chicken, but just like the crack did to Pookie sometimes real hamburgers be calling me. Today was one of those days. I was out and about minding my own business when one of the most notorious pushers in the game Rally's made me an offer I could not refuse, 2 double cheese burgers for 3 dollars! I started remembering all of the good times we had together back in the day when I was on that red heavy, and Rally's used to know how to make me feel so good, so I gave Rally’s my money and quickly came home so I have my fix. I told myself that I was going to only eat one of the burgers and save the other one for later, but it got so good to me that I ate both of them.

Shortly after my high wore off, I remembered why I had been avoiding the blocks where Rally's and his peoples slang their product. I was all of the sudden real sleepy, my stomach began to hurt, there was a dull pain in my shoulder, and I developed a headache. Despite all of this I kind of wish I had another burger.

This is a post from the blog I let die a couple of years ago. I still have no red meat or pork in my house and I have not had Rally's in I don't know how long. That said, I could not leave that Christmas brisket alone last month when I was at my mom & dad's house!

Black Monopoly

This is funny, not racist because I am black and have been to jail several times.

10 Random Songs Wednesday

It's that time again to see what I am listening to when I am not listening to you.

Baby I'm Scared Of You by Womack & Womack
My good friend Leslie and I always dance to this song even if no one else is into it.

Gz Up Hoes Down by Snoop Doggy Dogg
I remember buying Doggystyle on cassette from Sound Revolution and driving around until I listened to the whole thing from front to back. The only time I interrupted that first play through was to rewind this song so I could listen t it 3 times in a row. Later that night I went to youth group at my church.

Enjoy Yourself by The Jacksons
Like a lot of people my age I heard the Dana Dane song that samples this before I heard the original. The original song is better.

I Wanna Know by The Foriegn Exchange
If you get a chance to see them in concert it is worth it. I actually got to meet Phonte last year and he is the only person who sweats more than I do standing still on stage.

Crown Royal by Jill Scott
This song is just nasty, but in a really good way. It is too damn short though.

Long Kiss Goodnight by The Notorious BIG
I am glad some of BIG's inner circle came out a couple of years ago and finally admitted what everybody in my dorm knew when we heard it back in 1997. This is a dis aimed at an already dead Tupac Shakur.

Smiling by The Alchemist feat Twista & Maxwell
On paper this looks terrible, but this was one of my favorite songs of 2009. This may be one of Twista's best verses.

Automatic by The Pointer Sisters
I used to really like this song when I was young, but I had forgotten about it until I heard it being played in Grand Theft Auto Vice City.

Smart Went Crazy by Atmosphere
This song makes me want to shove people.

I'm In Love With Money by Plies feat. T.I.
I am not above liking really ignorant shit from time to time especially if it is put together well. I can't even remember where I got this song because it is not on any of his albums.

I Just Need One!

SNL was pretty wack this week, but Jim Carey's part in the Worst Of Soul Train skit made me laugh out loud. He is clearly channeling El DeBarge from the "Who Is Johnny" portion of his career.

Republicans Please Don't Try To Defend This

I hope the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona had nothing to do with political rhetoric, but it would be nice if the intellectual right would stop being quiet when people like Sarah Palin put stuff like this out there. George Will and Meghan McCain can't do it by themselves.

UPDATE:Guess which tweet Sarah Palin just deleted? Hint it's the one below. You can't run from the internet Sarah!

Marsha Ambrosius

Masha Ambrosius has been one of my favorite female voices since I heard Floetry's "Headache" on a Suite 903 mixtape. I am really glad her first Solo album, Late Nights & Early Mornings is being released soon, especially since she was signed at one time to Aftermath a.k.a. the label where promising music careers go to die. (see Bishop Lamont & The Last Emperor)

The song "Far Away" is the second single from her new project and the video that goes with the song is really worth serious discussion. For a second I was not sure if I was going to post this video because of it's content, but then I remembered that what makes this blog fun to read and write is that I really don't give a shit if people like what I post or not.

On a less serious note. I don't know if Marsha got on the P90X program or what, but damn! I had no problem with how she looked before because I like em' thick & yellow. (yeah I said it!) If she put out a deluxe package of her album with a CD that just includes her workout program, Late Nights & Early Mornings is going platinum. I follow her on Twitter @MarshaAmbrosius and I know it is not just playing the Michael Jackson game for Wii becuase the joint just came out.

Ted Williams, I'm Not Impressed

I know the country is all wrapped up in the feel good story of a the panhandler with the golden voice but I am more annoyed at this than anything else. I am happy that this guy is off the street, but damn! Do you know how many out of work radio announcers there are out there who are not working people's nerves on street corners right now? No one is going to interview them. Do you know why? It's because they are somewhere working a job they hate, checking Clear Channel, Emmis, and Radio One's websites on their lunch breaks praying that a weekend board operator position opens up. Now, a lot of what I write here comes to me late at night after binge drinking but I used to work in commercial radio and I know a lot of hard working people personally who are are more talented than this guy who are looking for a break. If I did not actually like my job, I might have been one of them.

The worst thing about this is just like anything else in America that makes people instantly famous there are going to be copy cats. This may not be a big deal to many of you, but I work in an area where there is about a 50% chance that I will have an interaction with someone asking for money when I go get gas, go to the drug store, or get some food. Now they are going to want to share "God's gifts" with people whenever they can. I am not looking forward to these monologues and tap dance routines at all.

My take on this may come off as bitter and a little cold hearted, but I have heard a lot of great voices. When I saw the picture of the guy before I saw the video, I was just surprised that he did not start growling or sound like Ol' Dirty Bastard. Mr. Williams I am glad you are not bothering the hard working people of your community anymore, but I am not impressed.

10 Random Songs Wednesday

Sometimes, I marvel at the randomness of the music on my MP3 player, so I am going play the first 10 songs and write something about why each song is on my player. I am pretty sure Humanity Critic did something similar to this a while ago but in the spirit of Hip-Hop I am not stealing his idea, I am just sampling.

Strong Enough by 50 Cent

This was one of my favorite songs off of Before I Self Destruct. The Gladys Knight and the Pips sample make this joint both soulful and brutal at the same time.

Where It All Started From by New Edition

This the first track off of NE Heartbreak. I love this track because it was an R&B diss track directed towards New Kids On The Block & Troop. I don't think anyone in New Edition would say it was, but if you listen to the song it is pretty clear.

The Ghost Of Christopher Wallace by Jay Electronica

This song is incredible until it ends with 2 minutes of Diddy talking.

Ason Jones by Raekwon

A dedication to the memory of Ol' Dirty Bastard from Only Built From Cuban Linx 2 produced by J. Dilla. I love this song.

Same Ole G by Ginuwine

There was a time when Timberland's production was reserved for his friends only. I'm not sure if Timberland even returns Ginuwine's phone calls now.

Appreciate by Pete Rock & CL Smooth

It makes me happy to know that these two are actually working together and touring again because at one point we were lucky to get a song out of them every 5 or 6 years. This is a track we got from them back in 2004 from the Soul Survivor 2 album.

Maybach Music 3 by Rick Ross feat. T.I., Jadakiss, & Erykah Badu

I know a lot of people have issues with this dude, but he really knows how to pick beats that will make people who can't stand his subject mater listen to his records. This is just a flat out great song.

Shake You Down by Gregory Abbot

This song is one of those non threatening 80's crossover soul songs that you just can't help but to like. I don't know if he did anything else after this.

Get You Roll On by The Big Tymers

Cash Money came out a time when I hated almost all new Hip-Hop from the south but Mannie Fresh's production was so crisp and hit so hard it was undeniable.

Don't Say Goodbye Again by The Jackson 5

This is a lesser known J5 single that I would not even know if I did not hear DJ Chase play it one Tuesday night at Coaches Tavern in Indianapolis. This song was off of the Get It Together album and it was probably over looked because of another little song on the album called Dancing Machine.

The East Flatbush Project

If I ever wind up killing somebody, I am pretty sure this will be playing in the background. Happy new year!

Kyle Barker Is Not Broke!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have randomly seen posts on Facebook and Twitter about Kyle from Living Single being in a TJ Maxx or Marshall's Christmas commercial, and that he is either desperate or broke to be doing commercials at all. Well if you have kids or a husband who ignores you to play video games you should know that this is not true.

Terrence T.C. Carson is doing quite well for himself doing voice overs for video games and animation. He has been the voice of Mase Windu in every Star Wars game since 2002 and is now providing his voice for the television series. One of the most popular projects he has done recently is The God Of War Trilogy for the PlayStation 2 & 3 in which he is the voice of the lead character Kratos.

Now I realize that Denzel Washington is in no hurry to trade places with this guy but he probably makes well into the 6 figures by sitting on his ass reading off of a piece of paper for a few hours at a time. I know this post is extremely random, but this guy is living my dream by making money for no other reason that his voice is recordable.

On one last random note, my mother was never a fan of the show Friends because she felt like that show was a rip off of Living Single. I may have to break this down later.

A New Christmas Classic

Sensual Santa (main)

When my homie P is not searching for fine leisure suits like the one he has on in the picture above, he is crafting beats like this for those who want to do some Christmas day pimping. Download this now!!!

1995 BMW csi

If I was selling dope in 1995, this would have been my ride of choice. Now I know it sounds really negative to say the only way I could have bought this car is if I was selling drugs but all of the adults I knew who were making what I considered a lot of money in 1995 went to work everyday. This car retailed for around $90,000 15 years ago, and unless you sold crack rock or had a wicked jumpshot you were not seeing one of these.

I like this car so much because unlike the other BMWs at the time or even now, it was intentional flashy and loud. If the other Beamers were Brooks Bros. suits, the 850 is something Steve Harvey would wear. This model had a V-12 engine which was so ridiculous that the the end of 1996 the csi could not be sold in the United States because it did not comply with new emission regulations without substantial re-engineering. It was actually electronically limited to a top speed of 155 mph.

Even though this car only got about 12 miles per gallon, I would drive around town all day blasting "Warning" by the Notorious BIG for no reason but to let the suckas know I am not putting up with any foolishness. I would switch it up at night when I pull up to the club, I'd play "I'll Take Her" by Ill & Al Scratch. I hated that group but Brian Mcknight was on the hook of that song to smooth it out, and it just seems like something you should play before you step into the club with the sole intent of stealing some fool's woman!

A Christmas Story

Christmas was always really great at my house when my younger sister and I were kids, actually it is still really good now that we are both in our 30s. My father put up lights like Clark Griswald and filled our house with the sounds of his many soulful Christmas mixtapes. My mom filled our house with black Santa Clauses and since she taught at a mostly white school, her students would always hook her up with all kinds of Christmas baked goods and candy. She was also trying to raise good Christian children so there was always a really fly Nativity scene in the house with a black baby Jesus. I know this is all heart warming but I am about to write about the meanest thing I ever did at Christmas or ever for that matter.

It was Christmas 1986 and in my house we always asked for one big thing. That year, I asked for Metroplex a.k.a. Autobot City and my sister wanted a Rainbow Bright doll. These were pretty easy requests because they were popular toys that would be easy to find and relatively inexpensive. Well the price and availability was not the problem, at least with Metroplex. The problem was with Rainbow Bright. You see, every major toymaker that makes dolls makes an African American version of it's most popular dolls. Ironically Rainbow Bright was the exception so despite my sister's pleadings, that doll was not coming into our household. Now I know that seems a bit extreme, especially when it comes to a little girl's happiness at Christmas but before you new school parents flip out about it let me explain. Understand my sister and I were barely a generation removed from state sponsored segregation. My mother and father made that stand because they wanted to make sure that they were raising proud black children in the suburbs and if a toy company was not into acknowledging our culture they could not have any of my parent's hard earned money.

Well, Christmas morning rolls around and I am the first person in the house up. I see Metroplex all shiny and new under the tree. I pick him up and run into my sisters room and say "look Erin I got Metroplex and you got Rainbow Bright"! She ran up to the living room to look under the tree to see Rainbow Bright was nowhere to be found. I laughed like a little 9 year old douchebag for minute before I saw the dissapointment in my little sisters face and realized what I did was really foul. Some years passed and this became a story my sister and I could laugh at but the laughter never made it right.

A few of years ago my friend Jaime was cleaning out her basement and one of the things she was about to give away was a Rainbow Bright doll in almost perfect condition. I asked her if I could have it and she said "sure". Fast forward to Christmas day 2007, my family is taking turns opening gifts and my sister opens a gift that has a note on it that says "I hope this makes up for Christmas 1987". When my sister saw Rainbow Bright it elicited a jubilant reaction that I had never seen out of her during any other Christmas and when I saw her tear up a little over it, I knew that Rainbow Bright doll meant more to her than I could have ever understood. Now I am not usually in the business of going over my parent's heads, but my sister is a strong, proud, HBCU graduate who is making a good living for herself in Atlanta. I think they did their job well enough that having Rainbow Bright in the house was not going to undo any of this. I don't remember to much more about that Christmas but It was the best Christmas ever.

While I was writing this a random thought popped into my head. What did the parents of little Asian girls do?

Good Riddance

It finally looks like Brett Farve is going to be put out to pasture and I could not be happier. I am convinced that the Metrodome roof did not colapse on Sunday because of a blizzard but because it could not stand to see Brett Farve throw one more interception. For all of his good ole boy appeal, this guy is deep down is one of the biggest phonies in the NFL. If the mainstream media could have stayed off of his nuts for half of a news cycle they would be able to see it like I see it. This year he got a 2 million dollar raise and did not go to training camp. Anybody else they would be considered lazy & greedy, but when it is Farve, he just doesn't need as much practice as everybody else. Maybe he would have been in a little better shape for this season if he had gone to traing camp instead of throwing the ball around with high school kids in Mississippi. If Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning can show up for training camp and lead thier teams with Super Bowl rings earned in this THIS decade, who the hell is Brett Farve to skip training camp?

For all 507 touchdowns he has thrown, this guy has not won been to or won a Super Bowl since the Playstation 1 was the shit, and everyone still talks about how great he is. I'm not saying 507 touchdowns is not impressive but if you are going to bring that up you also have to bring up that he is the all time leader in interceptions as well with 334. I am almost convinced he has hung around these last few years not to solidify his legacy, but to put all of numbers out of reach of the only active player who could break all of his records, Peyton Manning. The only record Manning has no chance of breaking is Farve's record number of interceptions. He would have to throw almost 28 a year for he next five years to do that.

Watching Brett Farve play football this year has been like watching Muhammad Ali fight Larry Holmes in 1980. After 20 years, there have been flashes of past brilliance but the ability to be effective as an elite quarterback has been beaten out of him. If he has any class or sense he will not put that uniform again and save himself the embarrasment of getting knocked out of another game. For all of my hate, I acknowledge the guy is a first ballot shoe in for the Hall Of Fame but since I saw him crying like a bitch at the after a win over the Bears at the end of the 2006 season he has also been a hall of fame drama queen.

The Best Man = Boyz N' The Hood 2

The 1990's was quite a time in African American Cinema. The Early 90's were defined by the rise of the the "hood movie" which would have you believe all that every black person in America lived somewhere near south central Los Angeles, substituted malt liquor for one of the basic food groups and had some sort of daddy issues. By the end of the 90's the pendulum had swung completely in the other direction with the "Jack & Jill movie" these films revolved around all of the beautiful, educated, and successful black people who's biggest problems stemmed from being beautiful, educated, and successful. The movie that defined the "hood" era was John Singleton's Boyz N The Hood. The movie that kicked it off for the "Jack & Jill" was Malcolm Lee's The Best Man. The thing is black Hollywood is so small that many of the actors that were in "hood" movies at the start of the decade wound up being in "Jack & Jill" movies at the end of the decade.

Now because I often daydream when I am supposed to be working, I realized that these movies are linked because The Best Man is what would have happened if Ricky had he not been shot and killed at the end of Boyz N The Hood. If Ricky had gone on to play college football at USC he would have met people like the characters in The Best Man who wound up being his closest friends, and he would have gone on to be drafted by the New York Giants as a running back therefore providing him with the means to finance the lavish wedding in The Best Man. Lance Sullivan is the evolution of Ricky Baker. I will take it a step further because not only was Morris Chesnut in both films, so was Nia Long. Her character in Boyz N The Hood followed mark ass(loser) Trey down to Atlanta to attend Spelman. Atlanta is a long way from LA, so she probably would have become home sick and enrolled in USC to be closer to her mother. That is how Ricky/Lance & Brandi's/Jordan's friends all know each so well and are all happy and smiling in the picture above.

What point about black life and and the portrayal of African Americans in cinema can be drawn from this analysis? I'm not really sure I just know that I really like both of these movies and I should probably stop daydreaming so much at work.

They Meant Well

In my infinite time wasting during the day, I stumbled across something on the internet so funny and at the same time so representative of mainstream America's lack of understanding of some of the subtleties of African-American culture, I had to share it.

For those of you without sisters every toy company issues a black version of it's most popular dolls, except for Rainbow Bright. (I'll explain how I know that later) If you don't already know by looking at this picture why you were never able to find Oreo Fun Barbie at your local Toys R Us, here is the official reason why this doll was recalled.

This doll was originally made by Mattel in a caucasian edition in partnership with Nabisco. Then Mattel decided to do an African American Edition. No one in their R&D department realized that the word "OREO" is a derogatory term for a black person that associates primarilly with white people, an African American person who acts like, sympathizes with, or dates and marries whites. The term is derived from an Oreo cookie, which is black on the outside and white on the inside. Someone who calls an African American an "Oreo" is calling him an Uncle Tom.

This is an example of how much time and money that can be wasted when no one in the R&D department has any black friends. Even if this did doll stayed on store shelves, I am not sure how many people would have actually become angry. I was called an Oreo more than a few times as a youth, and I laughed out loud at this. What's really funny is that during the time in my life when I was called an Oreo my father was an executive for Nabisco, and guess what was the preferred sandwhich cookie in our household was? You guessed it, Hydrox.

J. MOORE'S Super Soulful Christmas

J. MOORE'S Super Soulful Christmas <=Click Here To Download!!!

A couple of years ago my good friend DJ 2 Deep was telling me about how he could not stand Christmas music. I found out it was because despite his extensive knowledge of soul & Hip-Hop, the only Christmas music he knew about was stuff like Peggy Lee's Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree & The Chipmunk Christmas Album which are cool, but that is not what was on the Christmas mixtapes my dad played around the house when I was growing up. So I hooked him up with with some of my favorite Christmas joints from James Brown, The Jackson 5, The Temptations, Etta James, & Donny Hathaway. Now he loves Christmas music, specifically this mix of songs. Burn it to CD or put it on your I-Pod. Sorry there is nothing from The Dipset or Deathrow Christmas albums, maybe next year.

Remember That Mixtape I Told You About Where I Dissed De La Soul?

The College Graduate Mixtape <-Click Here To Download!!!

I made this mixtape sometime in 2004 at a time when I was really into anything that was produced by 9th Wonder & Kanye West (not much has changed). If you dig Little Brother, Nas, De La Soul, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Jay-Z, Ghostface Killa and Common you will enjoy this. If you are not into those artists we will probably never be friends. Much love to my good friend Stacia who had to gove me a copy of my own mixtape because I did not have one.