Stuff of hilarity: Twin babies talkin

I don't know why this is amusing to me but it is...these twins are having a full conversation in a language only they can understand...peep it...

holla,
(4o)ur

Spreadin the Real: The Game is caring

Game is a solid artist (like him or not)...peep the article where he talks about how he's one of the last artists that cares about hip hop...interesting read...peep it

West Coast rapper Game has dished out his thoughts on the rap game and why he may be the last of a dying breed of emcees who still maintains a strong passion for hip-hop.

From Game's perspective, too many artists have become consumed with the luxurious aspects of having a rap career.

"I just think that every now and then in hip hop, there's a dead space so we need some substance," he tells Billboard.com's The Juice. "I think that I just might be one of the last artists that really cares about hip hop and not rap, not the culture, not poppin' bottles, not the cars, chains, broads, I just actually care about nurturing and giving back to this sort of foundation on which I grew up on, which is real hip-hop." (Billboard)

The Black Wall Street leader also provided an update on his long-awaited R.E.D. Album release.

"The 'R.E.D.' album is going to remind everybody of what hip-hop is supposed to be in its prime," says Game. "The 'R.E.D.' album will be the best album this year hands down. There's nobody putting out an album this year that will even be able to compete with the skill level-- the bar is gonna be set after this album drops. I guarantee it now from start to finish." (Billboard)

Last summer, Game questioned the authenticity of rappers portraying a gangster lifestyle.

"All these people thinking they're gangsta. And after the Rick Ross song ["B.M.F."] everybody thinking they're Big Meech again, Larry Hoover," Game explained in an interview. "Nobody really should wanna be that or aspire to be that 'cause you're gonna end up in a coffin. And trust me, man, most of these rappers, outside of me, 50 [Cent], and maybe Waka Flocka and some other muthaf*ckas, ain't never felt bullets man, ain't never had a brush with really actually having your life erased. So a lot of these rappers out here playing, man; that's just not the message I'm trying to send across no more." (Complex)

Earlier this month, Game debuted his "Red Nation" album single.

Red alert! Game paints the town red with "Red Nation," the first single from his oft-delayed R.E.D. Album. The Cool & Dre-produced banger samples ZombieNation's techno hit "Kernkraft 400" and features none other than Lil Wayne. "N*ggas would trade their soul to be Drake or J. Cole/Live and die for this sh*t, word to Tupac Shakur's halo," raps the Compton MC before the recognizable chorus kicks in. (Rap-Up)

A release date for R.E.D. has not yet been announced.

holla,

(4o)ur

Spreadin the Real: D Rose in High School

D. Rose this season is by far the MVP of the league...the Bulls are no. 1 in the East and he's carried the team through tough moments this season (Boozer being out the beginning in the season and Noah being out a ton of games in the middle of the season)...peep how ill the kid was in high school...he probably could have gone to the NBA out of high school (if the 1 year rule wasn't instituted)...peep it

holla,
(4o)ur

Spreadin the Real: 12 yr old beer pong master

This dude is ridiculous (wonder how long it took to film these shots)...but when this guy gets to college he will NEVER lose in beer pong...check the vid...



holla,
(4o)ur

Spreadin the Real: Impressive soccer-style dunk

Impressive highly skilled dunk...peep it

holla,
(4o)ur

Stuff of hilarity/Spreadin the Real: Black man can't get a cab in NYC

This is hilarious and so sad at the same time...watch how this man can not get a cab for 45 min and then see the flip side...funny and entertaining while being an enlightening video to show proof that cabbies aren't giving damn near any rides to black folk in NYC...peep it

You heard the news reports of cab drivers intentionally not picking up black people and you see the truth on video...

holla,
(4o)ur

Stuff of hilarity: Charles on Letterman

Keeping up with the basketball themed posts I've been posting the past few days, here's Charles Barkley on Letterman...peep it

holla,
(40)ur

Random Rant vol. 36: The fab 5

Back in the early 90's college basketball witnessed and was impacted greatly by a revolution of epic proportions...the revolution came by way of 5 black talented ball players that were part of the hip hop culture, The Fab 5 (Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson)...on Sunday, March 13, 2011 ESPN debuted the documentary about the five freshman Michigan Wolverine basketball players that "shocked the world" (to borrow a line from Juwan Howard who borrowed that famous quote from Muhammad Ali)...it was a great documentary (though Chris Webber didn't participate in the film) that took me back to when college basketball had more of an impact on the sports landscape than it does now...

I remember when I was 10 or 11 years old becoming a Michigan fan (due to the influence of my older cousin puttin' me on to the Fab 5)...everything about em was so dope, to the black socks (hard to believe now that was a so odd. I wear black socks often whether i'm playing basketball or not), to the Nike Huarache's & Nike Air Force Max (charles barkley's) and baggy shorts...back in '92 and '93 NO college hoops team had baggy shorts...everybody rocked shorts the John Stockton style (ie. nuthuggers)...to this day the reason I like the Nike Air Force Max so much is because the Fab 5 rocked em...

the impact the Fab 5 had on sports is incredible...they made people either hate or love em there was no in between...I definitely loved em and was hurt when they lost twice in the national championship to Duke and UNC (btw the ACC is still great. UNC '09 champs & Duke '10 champs [though I hate Duke])...when you look at the documentary you'll see the struggles and problems they had to go through, things I didn't know and I've seen about every documentary and story about the Fab 5...if you get a chance look it up, download it, stream it or something because its a good watch...

the thing that pissed me off though is how Michigan had to take the banners down because of the scandal that happened with Chris Webber...it had to do with a man in Detroit giving Chris some money when Chris was at Michigan while the university cashed in on merchandising revenue off of the Fab 5...Michigan didn't back the Fab 5 up they basically shunned them and do what every university/college caught up in a NCAA violation does, turn your back on players/coaches, vacate wins but still gets to keep the cash it earned from the backs of the players/coaches (a rant about NCAA rules especially when it comes to money is coming soon)....

holla,

(4o)ur

Spreadin the real: ATCQ gettin screwed over

A Tribe called Quest is one of my fav groups of all time in hip hop...well Michael Rappaport (actor/producer) filmed a documentary about ATCQ a while ago and is pushing to release it...I've been reading about this development of tension between the producers (Rappaport included) and ATCQ...its seems that the producers are trying to slant/edit the documentary a certain way (most likely showing more negative aspects of the group in present day) and it looks like they are trying to screw ATCQ over as producers on the film also....peep the clip they had with Sway on MTV.com...

MTV Shows

P.S. - here's Q-Tip talking more about that documentary on Shade45

http://rapradar.com/2010/12/07/q-tip-explains-gripe-with-documentary/

holla,
(4o)ur

Stuff of hilarity: Charles Barkley gets at Billy Packer

This year the March Madness will be broadcast on 4 channels CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV (all the stations CBS owns)...Billy Packer used to do the Final Four broadcasts until he retired a year or two ago...i must admit I like a lot of broadcasters and they're really aren't any I don't like except for Billy Packer...don't get me wrong he wasn't a bad broadcaster it just I don't like his demeanor and tone during telecasts...anyway, Charles Barkley has a mini rant talking about Billy Packer and his comments...peep the hilarity....

holla,
(4o)ur

Spreadin the Real: Guy Dupuy jumps over whip

Blake Griffin's dunk over the car was exciting and nice but I gotta admit this dunk by Guy Dupuy is ridiculous...the level of difficulty is insane...peep the insanity...



holla,
(4o)ur

Kemba Walker's buzzer beater

LeBron needs to hit clutch buckets like this...Kemba Walker is a beast for UConn...peep it

holla,
(4o)ur

Tip of the week #18: Text/write clearer

This is gonna be short and to the point...if you have a full QWERTY keyboard on your cell phone do NOT text me with damn near undecipherable text messages...i can understand if you had a phone that only had the normal 12 key keypad with each key sharing 3 characters...ok, shorten up the words so you won't have to hit one key 3 times to get the letter C....but if you have full keyboard don't shorten the 3 letter words with 1 letter or create some shortened words that don't make sense...one time someone texted me and it took me 4 minutes to figure out what the hell they were trying to say...

This tip also applies to writing emails, writing posts on facebook (no character limit there, its not Twitter)...I should not have to decipher simple english comments like its hieroglyphics...

p.s. - learn how to use the word "lose" correctly too...."loose" is not "lose", "loose" means not tight...cotdamn illiterate internet bamas

holla,

(4o)ur

Stuff of hilarity: more fake rumps

Though one or two of these fake rumps looks good, you know which one by now looks incredibly ridiculous...here's some new pics

holla,

(4o)ur

Cheap promotion: Ratchet Boys newest mixtape/street album

I gotta admit this is the best mixtape the Ratchet Boys have dropped in the past 2 years...just in case you don't know this is a 2-man group out of my hometown of Camden, SC that my boy is managing...i do all of their artwork and online promotion...so with that said check out the new mixtape (to stream or download)...peep it....

holla,
(4o)ur

Spreadin the real: Tyler the creator on Jimmy Fallon

I've never heard of OFWGKTA (look it up on wikipedia to get what it stands for and the background) but KanYe West, Mos Def and Skyzoo are vouchin for em so I peeped them...the first time I saw Tyler the creator's video was on youtube, the video is Yonkers (must admit is kinda disturbing but I like the music and creative direction of the video)...well here's Tyler the creator and Hodgy Beats on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon incredibly hype performance...peep it ...

holla,
(4o)ur

Spreadin the Real: Lupe's ordeal about Lasers release

Lupe Fiasco is a dope ass MC, hands down...I loved the first 2 albums (especially liked the inventive, double entendre laced track "Gotta Eat" off the The Cool album) so I was expecting the 3rd album (Lasers) to be released shortly after "The Cool"...unfortunately it didn't end up that way (finally out now though)...read the article about the ordeal to get "Lasers" finally out to the public...peep the article:

The Cool" was released Dec. 18, 2007, and by Jan. 9, 2008, it had sold 198,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It eventually went gold. The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's rap chart and stayed there for nine weeks. At the next Grammys, "The Cool" won best rap album, along with best rap/sung collaboration and best rap song ("Superstar" with local singer Matthew Santos) and best rap solo performance ("Paris, Tokyo").

The successes capped a steady crescendo of acclaim. Fiasco -- born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, raised around the South Side's Madison Terrace housing projects, a devout Muslim who abstains from alcohol and drugs -- had been signed to another major (Epic Records) at age 19 as a member of a gangsta rap group called Da Pak. With the assistance of Jay-Z (who calls Fiasco a "genius writer"), Fiasco moved to Atlantic, debuting with "Food & Liquor" in 2006, which featured production by friend and champion Kanye West and received critical raves for its bold sounds and intelligent wordplay.

So when Fiasco met with Atlantic to talk terms for his third album, he felt he was on pretty great footing.

"If 'The Cool' was a success, I was supposed to get a bump in the budget for my next record," Fiasco said. "When I went in to cash in on that, I was told 'The Cool' wasn't a success. I said, 'Well, how do you gauge that? Even if you leave off the multiple Grammys, the accolades up the ass, the platinum singles, take out the subjective stuff. How many records actually sold?' They said it wasn't a success and we're changing the game, we don't go by that anymore. So I said, 'Let's not have any more meetings until we figure out what rules we're playing by.'"

A stalemate began, and Fiasco started to squirm. At a 2008 performance in Chicago, he suggested he would retire, promising one final record to be titled "LupE.N.D." -- a three-CD concept album, with discs representing "everywhere," "nowhere" and "down here." He told Billboard that year: "My next record might be my last one." By June 2009, he promised an audience at the Chicago Theatre that a single disc, now called "The Great American Rap Album," would be out by December.

Meanwhile, Atlantic had frozen his budget, and Fiasco was asking to be let go. The label refused. Jay-Z was offering to mediate negotiations. Darrale Jones, Fiasco's A&R rep at Atlantic and the man who'd signed him, has told other publications that the music Fiasco continued to deliver "wasn't commercial enough." (Jones and other label execs were asked to comment for this story. After much deliberation, Atlantic Records on Wednesday released a prepared statement instead. It reads, in its entirety: "We fully support Lupe and the release of 'Lasers.'")

"I was specifically told" -- Fiasco chuckled -- "'Don't rap too deep on this record.'" He laughed some more. "That was a specific order from the top. 'You're rapping too fast or too slow, or it's too complex.' ... There are consequences and combat that comes from that process and the eventual compromise. With me, though, I'm not writing about someone else. I'm writing about me. This is my life. It's very personal for me. So for somebody to kind of put their fingers in that and play with that, it becomes more damaging."

Fiasco said he spiraled into real depression, even contemplating suicide -- but he kept writing. He documents his struggles, in a general way, throughout the song "Beautiful Lasers": "Sometimes livin' in a word like this / it's pretty hard not to go insane," he raps, later considering bailing back to the South Side ("Go home, sh--'s far too gone") and then peering into the abyss while hearing contradicting internal voices:

All you see is all my rights
All I see is all my wrongs
Door keep telling me to fight
Gun on my table telling me to come home
Telling me to to put him inside my hand
Then put it up right next to my dome
Door keep telling me to find a reason
Anything to keep me from squeezing
Simplest things, yeah, you really like summer
You really like music, you really like reading, love
I can't win if it's me against me
One of us ain't gonna survive

"He started doing that record on stage, and I was shocked," said Jason Evans, a k a JROC, Fiasco's cousin who works A&R for Fiasco's Chicago-based independent label, First & 15th Productions. "He would introduce it, he'd say, 'I wrote this record when I was at a real down point in my life.' It was like a confession. That's how I found out, and we talked throughout that tour. It was shocking that he'd come so low because he's so mentally strong. ... He's 100 percent Muslim, very religious, and his father instilled all kinds of moral strength into his upbringing. It had to be bad if it came to that."


Doing his duty

Fiasco's fans tried to have his back. When summer of 2010 rolled around and still no news of the new album, two protest marches were scheduled in New York and Chicago. Dan Winchester, a local video producer, organized the Oct. 15 ("Fiasco Friday") event here. Even though the release date was announced a few days before, about 200 fans still showed up at Buckingham Fountain that afternoon and marched north along Michigan Avenue, carrying signs of support.

"Instead of an outright protest, it became a statement march," Winchester said. "We definitely made a statement -- that we support positive music, that we're not going to stand for corporations watering down music to be all pop and all sound the same. Once you sign a contract like that, they control everything about it. That's what they've been doing with Lupe, and we wanted to stand with him and against that corporate meddling."

Fiasco heard about the planned protest online. "Somebody kept spamming my Twitter page about it, the same guy, over and over," he said. "I was like, all right, chill out. But they really meant it. It was a full-on, full-blown angry protest. Then we had the meeting with Atlantic and they set a date, so it became a celebration. They still had 250 kids out there [in New York]. ... I went. I had to see it with my own two eyes."

Fiasco said the confluence of collective action and movement at Atlantic helped bring him around.

"I'm OK now. I'm happy, I'm stable," he said. "I've distanced myself from the situation emotionally and spiritually. It doesn't affect me. I found a nice balance to navigate through it without it leading to me killing myself, literally."

The process of finishing "Lasers" he described with words one hates to hear from a creative artist. He "hunkered down" and "got through it." He "went along," he "acquiesced." He "found some emotional distance from the music." He "lost those aspirations."

"I am a hostage," Fiasco said. "I gave them what they wanted. If I didn't, at the end of the day the album wasn't coming out."

"The Great American Rap Album" was recorded simultaneously with "Lasers." It's a "different sound" and should be released by the end of this year, he said. After that, maybe a greatest hits.

Meanwhile, Fiasco talks like a bored cubicle worker watching the clock, waiting for quitting time.

"There are certain expectations I don't have anymore. There are certain things I'll keep for myself now until they can be received the way I want them to be received. You'll still get albums, and they'll be good."

holla,

(4o)ur

Spreadin the real: Mortal Kombat (MK 9) Challenge tower

I'm very excited to see this is coming out soon..the trailers i've seen are incredible and the features look dope...i'm glad it looks appealing because I was not pleased with MK vs DC (didn't like the gameplay at all)....check this vid talking about the new feature on the new Mortal Kombat called "Challenge Tower"...peep it

this game is a definite cop

holla,
(4o)ur