Kobe for MVP

Kobe Bryant has had to carry the Lakers on his back all season. He's played through injuries, criticism, rumors and speculation. The most common criteria looked at when evaluating a most valuable player is the kidnap scenario. In other words, if you took Kobe out, how would his team do. Of course the same argument can be made if you f you took Steve Nash away from the Phoenix Suns, LeBron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dirk Nowitzki from the Dallas Mavericks, Hornets' Chris Paul, and many more. But if you were to take those stars out of the line up, their team would at least survive. In the case of each of them, their teams would have enough left over to make a run at a playoff berth, at the very least. Without Bryant, the Lakers would not be a playoff team. Not even close. My MVP vote for this year is Kobe - with Chris Paul a nose hair behind, and my favorite player in the league; LeBron James, just behind him.

Commercial music.

STOP HATING ON COMMERCIAL MUSIC

I’m still trying to understand why there is so much backlash and hatred thrown at commercial music; especially from artists themselves. The reality is that anyone making music would want to make 'pop' (popular) music so that as many people as possible can hear their music. I highly doubt that any artist is paying money for studio time or buying equipment to record songs for albums so that a few of his friends can hear it; if this is you, then this music thing is merely a hobby. Any artist that is taking this music thing seriously enough, should not chastise commercial music.

On my last album I did a song called “Gotta Be” featuring Jenna (a pop female vocalist that is doing her thing - from Canada). At the listening session; I was a bit uncomfortable of how the song came out; mainly because I really dumbed down the lyrics and with her catchy chorus, the song sounded very commercial…almost a little too "poppy". I told her what I thought and she then said to me: do you know how many artists that I’ve worked with that would LOVE to create songs like this. So many of the artists that I work with can’t make a commercial song. They can't come up with a catchy hook, popular chorus or find a way to make it relate to everyone in the simplest way. From there on out, I started to think and analyze what she had told me. And I realizes that majority of the artists would probably LOVE to hear their shit on the radio or in the club with people chanting along the lyrics. Creating a commercial song is not an easy task to accomplish! That's why artists pay a lot of money to popular producers (it could be in the beat), to song writers (it could be in the lyrics), etc. So much money is being spent on creating commercial music; because it reality it is not easy to make a popular song. Commercial rap helps bring Hip Hop to the main stage - so we need people like the Jay Z's, Eminem's, Fabolous', Kanye Wests', 50 Cent's, etc...doing it the way they are. They are the reason why Hip Hop today is the number 1 selling genre of music.

For anyone reading this saying “Nah! Fuck that! It ain’t hard to come up with some shit that they would play on the radio, bump in the club or have people chanting along with” – then I challenge you to try it. Come up with that next catchy hook, that hot chorus. Fuck the 16s. As important as they are to fellow artists; the majority of the listeners are going to remember the beat first, a few listens after that they will pick up the chorus, and maybe – if they give the song 10-20 listens after that, they will start picking up the lyrics. What I’m trying to say is that even conscious artists are putting catchy/poppy hooks/choruses on their tracks. Nothing wrong with that. The only wrong in this scenario comes from the bullshit artists, that CANT make a catchy song and so they call out, trash talk and criticize the shit out of the people that can. The underground scene is dope! But not so many of these acts can make a safe enough living off of it - to financially secure the rest of their lives and their family. Atmosphere should be a prime example of this – BUT they work so hard at what they do. 90% of the artists I know are underground/conscious but are LAZY as hell! Even though they should be working/grinding/hustling twice as hard to make it. And in the midst of all this, we are going at the rappers like that guy sucks. Stop hating on popular music just because you can’t make it. Do you even know how much pressure is on half of these artists to put out that commercial/pop song/single. Music goes with the times. In its lyrical stage, Hip Hop was blessed by young Nasir Jones - Illmatic. In its bling bling/party era - Soulja Boy created the new Hip Hop 2-step and he was only 16. That shit might be wack - but it's hard to create a track that is widely accepted. What did you with your music at 16? What are you doing with your music at 20? What will you with your music at 25? Hater!

A New Earth and Jesse James

The book that I'm currently reading and half way through.
You NEED this book in your life!!!

"A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle


I just saw that Assassination of Jesse James movie. Damn this shit was sloooow!! At the end I enjoyed the movie and the way it was done/its message. But majority of it was story-telling and dialog that I was falling asleep to half of the time. The ending it starts to make sense and it turns out to be a decent flick. I recommend it still - if you have the patience.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Americas Best Dance Crew

Damn - they just did a whole show tribute to MJ!!! This show is becoming addictive! I was digging the Fish n Chicks performance though I don't know why they got kicked off the show. Eitherway - those JabbaWockeeZ and the Kaba Modern crews are killing it right now! Off the hook with some of the dancing and entertainment.

This shit is dooooope!!

JabbaWockeeZ


Kaba Modern

Webster’s 2008 (ABCs)

Acknowledging apologies; abolishing anomalies
Apostle’s apparition are awaking all autonomies
Arranging alphabet accordingly; avoid atrocities
Always aim at arteries; addressing animosities
Anxiously awaiting; an astronomical arrival;
Annotated abbreviated an archeologist’s archival;
Bad being beautiful; beautiful being bible
Biased bibliographies; blood baths by burning bridal
Bitches bumping Burgundy bags;
Bullets burn; body buried; badge-bearing bully brags
Crooked cops; cook crack; cut coke; count cash
Caliber click clack; continuously cliques clash
Coalitions clinically condition competition; (CanCon)
Cautiously concocting continuous composition
Destroy defenses; detonating demolitions
Definitely dope; despite degenerate definitions
Evil eradicated; emotional exorcism
Enslavement especially exempts existentialism
Exotic entertainers entertain erotic entities;
Essentially; everything envelops energy
Foot fetish; Freaks; finger fuck fantasies
Female Fondling; fuck facing felonies
Figure four figures for four figures; fatally
Four fours furnished; forever firing favorably
Good God; Gangsters grip gats; generate G’s
Go gettas; gotta get going; g g g Guarantee
Guelph Graduate; girls go gossip
Genomes generate genetics; get Gothic
Heavy hi-hats hit hardest
Handsome hooligan harnessing harvest
Hands high; holding heat; honor heroics
Heathens hold hostages; Hiroshima historic
Idiots ignore it; isolate ignorance;
I is infinite; inducing illiterates
Intricate; Introspect is into it
Inciting Idiomatic; I intercept
Idiosyncratic; I inject intuition
Into incapable indecisions
...

I can't give you the whole thing - you might have to wait till the song is done