Dusty Old MP3s

When did my MP3s start looking like Compact Discs?

After a jollily tipsy holiday season packed with family gatherings, Christmas parties, and Wii Sports Resort Frisbee Golf drinking sessions (aka: the most addictive game you’ve never played), two teeth gritting realities proved inescapable:

A. Heads are broker than ever
B. Pandora has replaced personalized playlists

Not so long ago, people found pleasure in downloading, sequencing, arranging playlists for specific occasions. There was the party playlist. There was the work out playlist. There was the road trip playlist. There was (The Company Man’s always reliable) Mack-Mode playlist. Scores and scores of customized playlists lined iPods across the world, ready to rock at the click of a button. Could it get anymore convenient?

CONTINUE READING ARTICLE AT WWW.BROOKLYNBODEGA.COM

A Quotable Rant: Sean P's Throw Some D's on Dat?????

Fresh from the high of Sean P, The Quotable presents:

THROW SOME D’S ON DAT????????

Lord Black people, Black people, when are we going to do better?

And if we're not going to do better, lets at least "talk" about doing better.

In one of my most recent reprieves from my New Year's resolution, I stumbled upon BET (Blacks Ending Television) where I see (for the first time in its entirety) the "Solja Boy Toldja" video (I refuse to look up how to spell his name and therefore will only spell it as his terrible talkin ass speaks it). The video begins with Souless Boy in class disrespecting his teacher. By the end of the video (after stumbling through several second-grade-level sentences, singlehandedly setting Black people back another 12-15 years) I actually witnessed Martin Luther King Jr. sit up in his grave and say "N**** what the FUCK you just say?"

'Why?' you ask? Well let me tell you.

During this trashy-ass-track, Solja Boy (yeah - the nigga with Whiteout on his fuckin' shades. That nigga. Him) says this shit:

"I got my report card had all "F"s and I told the teacher throw some "D"s on that Bitch"

OK? So now we as Black folks are requesting D's on our report cards? Thats whats poppin' in 2008????

This is what MLK died for?

Hearing some second-rate rapper rockin' a second-grade vocabulary glorify D's - as if earning them is some kind of achievement - really pisses me off! I mean, do you even earn a D??? Don't you just get those for showing up??? In my day, I was embarrassed to get D's (was "my day" really that long ago?). And when I did, I definitely wasn't proud enough brag about it. Shouldn't there be a stigma associated with getting shitty grades?? I wish someone would "Supaman that hoe"!!

(Mental Note: I can't type that fast and am slowly coming back toward the ground)

Thank you for your time, Quotable Nation. I appreciate your attention. But before I go...I want to leave you with this one homework assignment: read the Wille Lynch Letters and Lets Make a Slave. If you haven't read either before, I promise it will leave you shocked as to how something created in the 1700's is still in affecting Black people today. Willie Lynch even states that the cycle will be perpetuated for at least 300 years!!!!

Ok I am off my soap box for now. But who knows...my class got cancelled because of the snow here in D.C., so I might just grow my wings back.

SNH P.

The Company Man's Resolutions: 2008 in High Definition

(in my best Leon Phelps lisp)...and I read:

- Deliver at least 1 Quotable each week. 2007 flew by in a blink and by years end I only had 26 posts. Piss poor. I mean, its not like I didn't have anything to say...its just that sometimes I get stuck on that n**** ish (procrastinating 'til its time to worry) and productivity suffers. Daily posts seems a bit much for a non-writer like myself. Weekly posts feels like the right number so I'm going with that.

- Attend at least 3 services at my roommate DJ WillsofSteel's church. Just about every sunday morning I migrate from my bed to the living room couch, catch a solid 90 minutes of VH1 re-runs/Sportscenter highlights, fall back asleep only to be re-awakened by my homeboy getting ready to go receive the good word. And every Sunday morning I have the same exact thought: 'Maybe I should go with him...' Then like clockwork, I get off the living room couch, migrate onto the office couch, and proceed to have a smokin' good time wasting the day watching OVGuide. It never fails. Its not that I feel guilty for spending my Sunday's the way I do (I honestly believe the Lord doesn't judge me by the way I use HIS day), its just that Will's church seems like a lot of fun. Everyone I've met from their is hella cool and its another avenue to meet new peeps. Gotta expand my network in '08.

- Write more Top 'Whatever' Lists. I always read Top 'Whatever' lists online, in magazines, wherever - regardless of whether or not I'm actually interested in the subject. The Quotable should have a few too.

- "Smoke and Drink Less" I jacked this one from my boy Sean P. The beauty is in its vagueness. Truthfully I like smoking and drinking and don't feel its a problem in my life. But since neither is exactly healthy, dialing it back a bit is probably a decent idea. But seeing as there is no true measure for success here, I'll just have to go with how I feel. I'm not drinking right now as I write this...so it feels like I'm off to a promising start.

- Read at least 1 book each month. To me, reading is like exercising...I hate doing it, but I love how I feel at the end. Gotta do more of it.

- Follow up on 'Writers Wanted' ads. My homegirl MM has been great about keeping in the loop on various industry happenings, and writing opportunities. I've checked out several events, but have yet to follow up on any of the 'Writers Wanted' opportunities. I guess inside I've doubted my skills and never wanted to put myself out there like that. Fear of rejection is so 2007.

- Be impeccable with my word. "Why shoot the breeze about it when you can be about it" - Nas

- Work out at least 1 time each week. To me, excercising is like reading...I hate doing it, but I love how I feel at the end. Gotta do more of it before end up looking like Larry Holms - flabby and sick.

- Take an NYC vacation. I can't front, I'm blessed to have the job I have...in the industry I'm in...in the city in which I live. NYC is a dope dope place, but I get so caught up in my own routines that I fail to appreciate it often enough. Therefore, in 2008, I'm going to take at least 1 week long vacation and stay in The City. It'll give me a chance to catch up on the world I've been missing.

- Buy a condo/co-op...or at least come closer to it. I started saving in early 2007 and can actually accomplish this one (in certain neighborhoods) now, but not the way I want to. All the fly spots are just outside of my range. Rather than settle...I'll just keep saving.

- Interview at least 1 MC, 1 DJ, 1 Graphiti artist who makes their living in The Culture.

- Do something BIG for my parents. My mom's been talking about turning the deck into a sun room...maybe thats a good place to start. Gotta give back to the people who gave me everything.

- Make at least 1 Youtube video. I dunno...this just looks like something fun to do.

- Go to a New Orleans Hornets game. Chris Paul is doing some amazing things on the hardwood these days. Homie looks like a young Isaiah Thomas (the baller...not the team/league wrecker) out there and his stats are on par with best point guards in NBA history! I haven't been this intrigued by a player since I hung up my kicks. Which brings me to my next resolution...

- Start hoopin' again. I haven't played ball consistently since '06. Thats the longest hiatus I've taken from my first true love. Its time to end the streak in '08. Enough time has passed.

- Stop comparing other rappers to Lupe Fiasco. Cornell Westside is waaaay too far ahead of the game...Its just not fair to the rest of 'em.

- Carpet the stairs and get a front door for the apartment. It seems like my landlord is constantly renovating this brownstone. His last makeover has gone on for 6 months! No doubt that the place will be off the chain when he's finished, but right now we don't have a door to our floor and no carpet on the stairs. How do you keep a spot looking fresh if you track saw dust inside everytime you walk in?

On second thought, maybe that should be my Landlord's resolution.

Carry on...

Ignant on 60 Minutes

"Even in our finest hour we got a crack-head on stage!"
- Chris Rock

To be fair, Cam'ron is not an actual crack-head (and this certainly isn't Hip Hop's finest hour) - he just makes crackish comments far too frequently (my homie Sean P's personal fav: "Call the girl poultry cause she smells like fish").

Here's his latest (courtesy of cbsnews.com). Good lookin' Khalilah.

(CBS) Rap star Cam'ron says there's no situation — including a serial killer
living next door — that would cause him to help police in any way, because to do
so would hurt his music sales and violate his "code of ethics."

Cam'ron,
whose real name is Cameron Giles, talks to Anderson Cooper for a report on how
the hip-hop culture's message to shun the police has undermined efforts to solve
murders across the country.

Cooper's report will be broadcast on 60
Minutes this Sunday, April 22, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

"If I knew the serial
killer was living next door to me?" Giles responds to a hypothetical question
posed by Cooper. "I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him — but I'd probably
move. But I'm not going to call and be like, 'The serial killer's in 4E.' "

Giles' "code of ethics" also extends to crimes committed against him.
After being shot and wounded by gunmen, Giles refused to cooperate with police.
Why?

"Because … it would definitely hurt my business, and the way I was
raised, I just don't do that," says Giles.

Pressed by Cooper, who says
had he been the victim, he would want his attacker to be caught, Giles explains
further: "But then again, you're not going to be on the stage tonight in the
middle of, say, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, with people with gold and
platinum teeth and dreadlocks jumping up and down singing your songs, either.
We're in two different lines of business."

"So for you, it's really
about business?" Cooper asks.

"It's about business," Giles says, "but
it's still also a code of ethics."

Read full article here.

Wow...I didn't realize "Stop Snitching" protected "serial killers" as well. How much more ignant can things get? This muttaskutta is seriously saying that if he lived next door to a dude who eats peoples faces for fun - all he'd do is move??? He wouldn't tell the authorities???? Worst off, he'd still sell his place to someone else KNOWING that dude next door neighbor eats faces for fun???? Attention Quotable Nation: Cam'ron Giles has officially failed as a human being.

And another thing...

First, Don Imus blames Hip Hop for his 'nappy-headed hoe' comment. Then, Oprah hosts a Hip Hop Townhall meeting to discuss b*tches and hoes and everything else wrong with rap music. And now Cam'ron (of all MCs) is representing Hip Hop on 60 Minutes?!

Sign of the apocalypse?

Speak on it...