The musings of a madman...

This has to be among the most brilliant programming I have seen in MONTHS, if not years... I know this is not "new" per se, in that it debuted October 6th of last year, but was on hiatus from December until next weekend... That and they were on the third installment before they got to a topic that piqued my interest, but BOY did they once they did. Perhaps one of my readers who is not a sports fan didn't turn and fucking run when they saw "ESPN" in the title up there and will now be greeted with what it is I am talking about... For the uninitialized, those who do not have cable, have been living under a rock or watching Lifetime and Oxygen for the past 4 months, ESPN's 30 for 30 is, of all things, a documentary series. As a nerd, anything combining the words "documentary" and "series" will have my interest piqued enough to investigate further, and I did. As a SPORTS nerd, adding "sports" to the 2 words mentioned above, and you

This was actually supposed to be the post that became my mixtapes post ... As I typed and got off on a tangent, I realized that my conversation was far off of where I intended to take it. Instead of scrapping and coming back to the initial task at hand, I finished to where I took it and came back to this as a new post... What sparked it is artists' apparent rush to inundate the public with as much music as possible as quickly as possible, compared to making a long career with the lasting impression of, gee... making good music? Since I am a student of music in general, not only hip hop, this post will cover many different directions in music, not just rap. Once in an interview that I cannot find around the time that Lover's Rock came out (which was in 2000), Sade was asked why, if she is so wildly talented and popular, does she not release more music than she does. Her response was to the effect of her doing it out of respect for artistic integrity... As a writer and performer

This is a result of a grouping of conversations beginning on Facebook from a good friend of mine, which expanded to include my mother... From there, it went over onto my own profile, then a couple of other friends, but the major conversation took place right on my page. I knew when I responded to Derek on the first one that there would be an exchange to be featured right here on the blog. Yes, I know that this will make like 4 posts in 2-3 days, but damned if I have it in me to care. I stalled on presenting a "question of the day," so I will go right in on something else born of a Facebook conversation. It boiled down to what became a status update from me, which read " Skinny jeans and all that come with them are the undoing of the American male... No more bass in the boys' voices,has been tuned out by way of being raised without fathers, and skinny jeans. Emasculation has created a zesty future, the human race is FUCKED! If I catch any of my nephews with skinn

I have been critical of Tracy McGrady for as far back as I care to remember... For that record, that would be about the time when he and Grant Hill got to Orlando, McGrady scored a ton of points and got an enormous contract which ignored that he was a huge softy who didn't seemed to be terribly interested in playing defense if it would take away his energy to score, and then he started getting injured left and fucking right while Grant Hill continued to do the same. $21+ million a year and you don't commit to the requisite conditioning and medical attention that helps you to preserve your livelihood? Or were you planning to take this fatty contract and call it a life? Riiiiiiiight... Orlando apparently comes to grips with the fact that he can't (or won't, which serves to my opinion of it) get and stay in shape to be worth the money he is making, so he is shoved off to Houston, where he COULD have served as one half of the second coming of Shaq and Kobe, pla

We know that record labels aren't actually RELEASING albums these days, not even from the big-draw artists unless said artists are the ones in charge of the release of their own shit. In combat of this, it seems that lesser known and surely less talented artists are going the way of the "mixtape/street album" to get their "art" to the masses. [ Phlip note - quotation marks on the former for definition, and for ridicule on the latter] I come from a different time, where a "Mix Tape" was exactly that - a 60 (or 90 if you could up a couple more bucks) minute cassette tape of songs you sat by the radio and recorded from the recorder set and left on pause for that moment... Extra points if you could catch the Friday and Saturday night mix shows, where they ONLY played the shit you waited all week to come on the radio... Then put in your walkman to impress people on the school bus until either... The tape broke. Some new shit came out and you recorded over

Single again? Didn't want to be single? Were you recently, prior to your current state, anything other than single? Have you stopped for a moment to take into consideration what it was that tore what you had apart? When you did that, were you fully objective, or did you cast all the blame as far from you as you could place it? [ Phlip note - the fact that the question exists lends itself to the fact that we know how this story usually goes] As I stop and think back to things I have done and reacted to personally, and observed/heard/read from others, I decided that this MIGHT be something worth expanding upon. Think with me, for a minute, as we delve into the minds of those in our pasts from various angles and reasons... ***Item #1 - Your Friends*** Guys: Your "boys" are just that -- boys... Somewhere along the line, the idea of growing the fuck up was lost on them. In such, they're weed head drunkards who laugh at shit that ain't funny. They live with their moth

"Invented sex," huh? Did anyone stop to think about how in the HELL that could POSSIBLY be a good thing? Before I proceed, please don't think for a minute that I actually spend time listening to this sorry excuse for "R&B music" coming out this day. R&B has been a sadder state of being than hip hop has been for a longer period of time. The very careers of Trey Songz and those of his ilk speak to this fact. I happened upon the song a while ago and attempted to ignore it, but the song is similar to a bad rash, the more you try to brush it off, the worse it becomes. Now back to business... When we think of someone who "invented" anything, we think of an individual who did a rag-tag job of putting something together that would be terribly in need of improvement. Need examples? Fire - how many of the cavemen died following the invention of, at the hands of fire? I bet it felt like a horrible idea until properly grasped. The wheel - how many caveme

With the success of last week's QOTD, I decided that I would probably make a point of dropping one of those on Facebook, email and yaddayaddayadda about every time I can think of one. Today's comes in the wake of Tiger Woods' epic bitch move in apologizing in the face of not having actually broken any laws. [ Phlip note - more on that in a later post] The question presented was " in the wake of all this tiger talk... would you rather your significant other cheat on you or just leave? " Of course, as with anything, when I am soliciting the opinions of others on these things, I asked people to be as specific as possible when answering. As usual, I emailed the question to some people who might not have access to my Facebook as well to get a full and well-rounded group of answers. Diversity, if you will. My first respondent this time was the homie Tony Grands via email, with: "I'd rather she leave. I'm selfish, & don't generally play well wit

NBA trade deadline was yesterday and some teams made some moves. Highest profile was the deal between the Wizards, Cavaliers and Clippers: Cavs get: Antawn Jamison, Sebastian Telfair Wizards get: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Al Thornton, Brian Skinner, Cleveland's first-round pick in 2010 Clippers get: Drew Gooden Sebastian Telfair was a throw-in and will fester on the bench and not return next season. Zydrunas will geta 30-day vacation, bought out by the Wizards and go right back to the Cavaliers, the rest of them were throw-ins to ease the blow of their having to deal with the Gilbert Arenas situation. Drew Gooden gets another sticker for his suitcase, 9 teams in 9 years... Next year will be 10 when Blake Griffin returns. This is the one that kinda worries me as a Lakers fan for our chances of a repeat. It furthers the exodus of anything from Washington, and I am quite sure that even Washingtonians don't care. It strengthens the Cavs, though, giving LeBron a new sidekick who can actu

This is a question I just kinda had to ask myself... It is well documented how Jay-Z spent the prime of his career discussing his retirement plans. If anyone remembers it right, it was supposed to be Volumes 1-3 and ride off into the sunset. Vol 3 failed to best 2 in the quality department, so he had to make The Blueprint, which bit him with that "classic album" flu, then he piggybacked with a horrible Blueprint 2 and even horribler 2.1. We all know what happened from there, one more great album since (The Black Album, for the record) and 2 "retirements" in the meantime. Now how he speaks non-specifically about how long he will do this, almost as if threatening to retire is some kind of a game. This game was so fun that lesser rappers had to get on the bandwagon. Nerd rapper Lupe Fiasco decided that he would do the same, amidst his not-THAT-great releases with 12 fucking minute outros thanking people who had nothing to do with any fucking thing in the universe, poor