Usually when I endorse a project, it’s because it came from someone I know who’s doing their thing. Nothing like free marketing on the hook-up. That being said, regardless of whether I know someone or not, I never endorse wack sh*t. I saw a film this weekend called Medicine For Melancholy which at first didn’t seem like anything I would be interested in…kind of a romance, kind of emo, very indie. My wife got it on Netflix and I said why not? The more I watched it, however, I realized that this film and others like it are what Black America needs to be supporting. Period.
While we love to b*tch and moan about how there are no positive Black characters on TV or in movies, yet we feel that the easiest way to go about acting upon that preference is to boycott BET or talk about how Tyler Perry movies ain’t worth a damn (come on…at least give my man a half a damn). Sorry, geniuses, but all that does is tell the mainstream media that Black viewers do not support shows that feature them or projects by their own and inform the Hollywood bigwigs that investing in Black projects may not be profitable. The reason so many projects do not get made is because no studio is willing to take the risk to back them financially. Thus, we have to support our indie projects in addition to everything else.
I’m glad director and writer Barry Jenkins took a chance and got this film made. Medicine for Melancholy had beautiful cinematography, a very realistic premise and script, and a pair of capable actors (Wyatt Cenac of The Daily Show fame and Tracey Heggins) with palpable chemistry who actually seemed like people I might actually know and hang out with, not just people I might run into at the local check cashing spot, whom I love just the same but I could use a change of pace on occasion. I will not steer you wrong, folks…SUPPORT THIS FILM! And once you see it, if you appreciated it, pass it or news of it along to someone else who will appreciate it too.
So this…this is what they want, huh? “Have a baby by me, baby, be a millionaire”? This is your hook? Thanks, Fif. The community definitely needed that. Sidenote…how many tubes of lip balm do you think need to be present to please Ne-Yo on a video set? Just sayin’…
No doubt in my mind that this BBQ spot (Mr. Spriggs) is the sh*t in Oklahoma City, solely based on the song. I love this! Now I want a styrofoam box with some beef brisket, links, ‘tater salad, and that delicious wheat bread that comes with any real BBQ meal…you know, half-soggy from barbecue sauce and what-not. Shout-out to Everett & Jones BBQ in the Bay Area, CA, Kenny’s BBQ in D.C. and Virgil’s in NYC. Y’all can front if you like, but if I die from eating BBQ, then I’ll go out with a smile on my face.
Something that jumped out at me: in looking for Kenny’s BBQ in DC online, I found a review site which included the following review:
“The food is great and quick. If you live on the NE side of Capitol Hil it’s the perfect place to pick up dinner on the way home. Absent perfect weather (during which you can avail yourself of the patio) I would recommend eating at home as there is not much space and some of the patrons coming through might best be described as ‘rough around the edges’ and may not make the best dinner companions.”
This was from somebody named “Bill”. Interesting. I can’t get totally mad because there are some rough folks in DC in general. But like they say, if you’re scared, go to church. We don’t need your business. The spot itself is a little rough and I’d rather eat in the comfort of my own home as opposed to most places, but personally, if I can’t feel safe around my own people, who can I feel safe around? Oh, that’s right…yuppies. To Bill, if you want BBQ and soul food without the Negroes, you need to be trying to track down Paula Deen.
Damn, I miss the Bay. Everett & Jones BBQ...no talking, just eating.
I completely understand and sympathize with all of the hoopla surrounding our first African-American president, believe me. I was wildin’ out on U Street in DC with everyone else on Election Night too. I also understand some people’s need to wear their political affiliations and ideas proudly on the clothes they wear. No beef there. The beef is that some of this stuff is getting a little bit worse for wear. It’s been a year! There’s a reason you only see those Essence Festival ‘98 T-shirts when it’s time to mow the lawn or wax the car…these items have a shelf life that is considerably shorter than anything you would buy in your local department store…or for that matter, anything you would buy indoors.
Oh yes...yes they did.
Mitchell Rose is a former professional boxer known for knocking out Butterbean at Madison Square back in ‘95. He’s also known for a brawl with Mike Tyson at a club called Sugarhill in Brooklyn which resulted in a $66M lawsuit (what is Mike’s issue with dudes named “Mitch”?). In 2001, he tried to sue Jay-Z for stealing his rap style after handing Hova his demo tape. Mitch also wrote an autobiography entitled Mike Tyson Tried To Kill My Daddy. You get the picture. Now apparently the brotha is back with the Obama sneaker. These joints would be guaranteed to get you laughed out of your borough. On his popular YouTube series, hip-hop personality Ed Lover ridiculed the shoe and even brought in Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah to comment on these patent leather Air Debacles. Mitch apparently felt some kind of way about it. Actually, he saw fit to make not one but two videos. Be prepared for absolute lunacy.
I’m always proud to see my fellow Howard University Bison out there making moves and doing what they love, but when what they do is excellent, I get amped. Nicholas Ryan Gant is a Howard alum who’s killing it right now on the independent music scene. Nick’s been at this thing for a minute and the work shows. His new project entitled “Border Breaker” is available now on iTunes, so go cop that and get familiar!!! Seriously, like right now. Support good music by turning off the radio, attending live shows and spreading the word about talented artists who are really putting in work to provide classic, quality music.
Classic...the crying Native American (that means "injun") commercial made you think twice before dumping that bag of dirty syringes into that meadow.
OK, so if I need to turn in my Timberlands or something for this, you all just let me know. Though we as men act like the last time we cried was in 1984, humans have emotions, regardless of gender or how tough you think you are. Maybe you didn’t outright cry during the wedding episode of A Different World, but you probably caught that little lump in your th’oat when Dwayne basically Kanye Wested Whitley’s wedding. Or what about when James died in Good Times? Or during Ghostface Killah’s All That I Got Iz U video (see below)? You ain’t that damn gangsta. I won’t say what would actually get me to bawl like a little girl, but here are a few songs and onscreen moments that got to me.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – Ty Pennington is determined to coerce grown men into crying. I think it’s just common knowledge that it’s hard not to get a little emotional when they do the final reveal of the house they’re working on, especially when they do stuff like take a 1-room shanty that housed 8 blind kids and make it into a blind-friendly McMansion with kind words written on the kids’ bedroom walls in braile. What’s also awesome is when they do it for a Black family and the grandmother or somebody catches the Holy Ghost at the reveal. You would think Ty was Abraham Lincoln and had just freed the slaves. I get it, though. I like “free”, too.
Radioooooooooooooo!!!! – Radio Raheem dies in Do The Right Thing. Over a boombox. And he didn’t even get his slice of pizza. ‘Nuff said.
If you truly love something, MUST you let it go?
The Notebook – Put your judgment stick away. I went a long time ago on a date. There was nothing funnier than coming out of the theatre and watching other dudes come out of the theater all glassy-eyed and sh*t. Unless you were smoking a joint in the theater (which, given the story, would kinda defeat the purpose of itself), your a** was CRYING! If you didn’t at least squint and put your hand over your mouth toward the end, you just might have that Grinch-heart situation going on.
Old people reading...here come the waterworks.
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle – OK, hear me out. The end [spoiler alert]…when they leave that giant bag of green inside of the car and hang-glide down to White Castle. They could have found a way to keep it…just saying. Heart-breaking.
The Color Purple – I have never liked this movie. I really only see Black women really being able to appreciate this movie, but you can’t front on its influence. People can really quote every line from this movie. Who didn’t at some point hear “you sho iz ugly” in school, either directed at you or somebody else? That patty-cake scene where Captain Raspy Danny Glover is throwing big-a** rocks at the girls while they’re playing patty-cake or whatever is so over the top. Rocks? Really? Mista was as extreme and inherently evil as an antagonist in a Tyler Perry movie.
“It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye” by Boyz II Men – Some of you definitely have heard this played or performed at somebody’s funeral/wake/funeral afterparty or pre-party/in a stolen El Dorado on the way to do a revenge driveby for your fallen homie or you just remember it from Cooley High (G.C. Cameron sung the original version from the movie). Either way, this joint pulls on the heartstrings not because of the lyrics, but because the song was made for one reason…can’t be reinterpreted or re-used for anything else…just says people are gettin’ buried today. Definitely a song you have to sing a capella while sitting on stools with matching vests on. Boyz II Men tried to do this again with “One Sweet Day” with Mariah Carey, but then they got lazy with the video…you’re singing about meeting somebody who died in heaven and the video is just basically Mariah in the studio while Wanya ‘n’em play with her little purse-dog.
Nothing happy about these feet.
Happy Feet – I think the title of this movie is misleading. Should be called Kinda-Sad Feet. I happened to see parts of this masterpiece when I was strangley enough at a house party full of grown-a** people. After 2 hours of Rock Band and a collective 163 beers were consumed, somehow nobody thought it would be a buzzkill to throw this one on. I think we were all blown away at how sad this one was for kids. First you got killer whale and leopard seal (!…sidenote, if this is what baby seals grow up to be, I might wanna club me one or two if I ever get to the Arctic) attacks, then the main penguin gets captured and put in a zoo, he goes all Hurricane Carter while stuck in the zoo and then they release him on house arrest…I don’t remember animated flicks being this deep back in the day. Nothing could top Lion King though, when Simba loses his pops to the game. His uncle wasn’t worth a damn…Scar was like the biggest hater in animated film history.
Rickyyyyyyyy!!! – Ricky from Boyz N Da Hood’s death scene is just a no-brainer. I almost wanna get up and run for him when I know the scene is coming up. “Forget that lottery scratcher, just go! They never send winning tickets to the hood anyway!” And then afterward, you found out he had scored well enough on his test to go to college? I think I would have rolled with Doughboy at the end ’cause that was messed up…how dare you eat a cheeseburger with your friends after you just shot college-bound Morris Chestnut in the back?
Brian’s Song – This is the one movie that I think all men can honestly say they cried or at least got misty while watching. Why? Because it involved football. Gale Sayers was one of the greatest running backs of all time, for God’s sakes. Didn’t mean the man didn’t have feelings though, and seeing Billy Dee Williams (wearing a natural…no S-curl!) acceptance speech toward the end (see it here) and hearing that damn Henry Mancini song is guaranteed to hit you in the heart, especially when you realize it’s a true story.
"It's so haaaaaard to say goodbyeeee...."
The Transformers: The Movie – This was a lot as a kid. According to Wikipedia, seven or more Autobots died in the animated movie released in 1986, including Optimus Prime. I remember kids really being distraught. Seeing his eyes jsut flicker and black out was too much like a real death scene…I think kids were more upset about seeing Optimus Prime die in that movie than they would be if their dad had died right next to them in the theater while watching it. Almost as sad as this is the fact that none of the recent adaptations of the Transformers even compare to the cartoon or the animated film. Megan Fox just isn’t quite skanky enough and Shia Lebouf just isn’t quite witty enough to make up for this shortcoming.
Remember back when R&B videos actually looked like R&B videos? It seems like in recent years, too many R&B singers are trying to be rappers when they grow up, while the cats back in the 90s were trying to be Donnie Hathaway, The Dells, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, etc. Even in the lyrics, you hear references to playerhatin’, Cristal, American Express black cards, and all manner of nonsense you usually jsut expect to hear in a Yung Berg song or something. While art imitates life, this trend just succeeds at instantly diminishing a song’s ability to be timeless. No one’s going to know or care what “swagger” is in twenty years and a lot of these disposable songs are just going to be forgotten about…not that many of them shouldn’t be. I just really don’t want to see any more jewelry or Bentleys in any more R&B videos. What happened to…
Singing in the rain/snow/sleet/drizzle?
Singing on the stoop of a Sesame Street/Huxtables Brooklyn brownstone with your homies?
Singing in the wind with a silk shirt?
Singing with like two super-strength Duke texturizer kits in your hair?
Singing in an abandoned (but surprisingly well lit) museum/concert hall/cathedral, etc?
Singing on the yard of a Black college amongst a group of people while looking at girl/guy of interest and nobody else seems to hear or see you singing?
These all worked for my generation. You didn’t need a concept to the video, there didn’t have to be a story, and the video didn’t ever have a damn thing to do with the song. And I know damn well Tevin Campbell never picked up a football…the theme of the video was always random because the song was good enough to stand on its own. Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky, but I miss the old R&B. Not to say that I don’t like R&B now, because I do. I just wonder if I’ll feel the same way about today’s R&B that I feel about R&B in the 90s.
Anybody remember Az Yet? Anyone? This one came out in ‘97. Note typical 90s R&B staple: all-white outfits in one scene. Goes without saying that they killed this Peter Cetera/Chicago cover. This song made you feel like if you had enough buddies together all harmonizing together a cappella, it would eventually have to sound good.
Subway & 702 gave us this classic in 1995. Nothing says 90s R&B like singing in front of abandoned project housing and being (sort of) grown in matching outfits.
And because the 90s R&B wasn’t all ballads, Allure f/ nas “Head Over Heels” from 1997…wonder what happened to Allure, like how do you go from videos and a decent debut album to working at BCBG or sitting behind a desk all day? I liked Allure though…can we get a TV One special on some of these groups?
So last night, I downloaded Kid Cudi’s new album Man On The Moon: The End Of Day (and actually waited for the real release date…see, I’m getting better…baby steps though). This post is in no way, shape, form or fashion represents any type of album review, as I haven’t given it the obligatory three attempts necessary to really get a feel for a hip-hop album. Knowing in advance from reading reviews on the album, I got in the proper frame of mind, so to speak, that you need to be in to listen to most music from Cudi and proceeded to listen. I’m feeling some kind of way. Granted, it took me about a month to warm up to Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreaks and I still am not completely sold on the rap-Phil-Collins thing…it just had several undeniably good tracks and rock-solid production quality, as is to be expected. Like 808s, I at least expected to hear at least one song where Cudi just raps…not so much. Cudi is clearly channeling Pink Floyd on a lot of the tracks, which I’m not mad at because I love Floyd, but yo…Cudi’s not Floyd. To be fair, I’ll give it a few more listens and give you a final verdict on it at some point.
Listening to this album made me think of how people tend ot automatically give people props just for doing “something different”…like giving School of Fine Arts students fashion cred for wearing aubergine, Cal-Trans orange, hot pink, and Nickelodeon-slime-green in the same outfit just for wearing something no one else would…sometimes there’s a reason for that. Now don’t get me wrong, there are definitely cases where people do something different and it turns out to be fresh. In many cases, though, when you get the feeling that someone deliberately thought “oh, nobody’s doing this, son” before they do it, it comes out lame. Any you can think of? Post it in the comments section.
Different = Good
Bilal – As I’ve said before, if you’ve never seen Bilal live, get your life together. I’ve seen him twice and think homeboy’s a genius…one of many reasons it would be rare for me to ever pay to see a rapper live. The man’s band is kickin’ and his onstage antics almost make you think he’s having a seizure, but what’s a live show without energy and originality?
Ol’ Dirty Bastard – The video for “Brooklyn Zoo” disturbed me at first (the last place it seems you’d want to be is in that hallway…dude was on one, not to mention Method Man lurking in the background looking like he’d eat your firstborn), but now it’s one of my favorite songs of all time. Definitely top 20. The late great ODB took strange to a whole other inebriated level. Method Man once explained ODB’s name best: “bastard” as in “he had no father to his style”. Nobody was like him before and no one has tried since. Oh and nothing says crazy like a pair of shades with one lens out.
Andre 3000 – Even back in the ATLiens days when you saw him in the Foot Locker referee shirt and his grandmama’s silk church-turban (you know, for when the wig was too itchy to wear on Sunday), Andre Benjamin has been on some other. Long before Kanye was pseudo-crooning, Andre dropped The Love Below on that a** and changed the game up. I don’t recall anybody (successfully) switching up their style that drastically.
Holly Weerd – A kinda trip-hop band from ATL that I could only find one song for, but that song (“Weerdo“) is dope.
Grace Jones – Stran-jay! People didn’t know what to do with themselves when Grace Jones showed up in Boomerang (or in Conan or in that Bond movie) looking like a gender-bending dominatrix, but Grace was on her own planet and you really couldn’t tell her sh*t…and wouldn’t risk it.
Christopher Walken – His little monologue in Pulp Fiction about the watch was enough to convince me that Christopher Walken might be a biscuit short of a snackbox.
Different = Yeah, Not So Much
Bjork – Sorry, I just do not get it…
Pink’s flying trapeze performance at the MTV VMAs – Just because nobody else has done it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for you to do it. And the one-breast-out outfit? Yeah, that’s been done and much better (Li’l Kim). The girl can sing, but singing while swinging off of a trapeze isn’t conducive to a good performance. The VMAs were enough of a circus as it was.
Anything Li’l Mama has ever worn to anything - What, I’m wrong? Look to the right. Yes, that’s a pacifier. Voice of the young people or voice of the wardrobe-impaired? No further explanation needed.
Dennis Rodman – This was just unnecessary wierd but thank God, a wierd we haven’t had to look at in the pas ten years. It was always like “could you please jsut play ball? Please?”
90% of the entire inventory at any Urban Outfitters – Way to re-produce and distribute a 40-year-old cotton T-shirt and sell it for $28, awesome. And the pounds and pounds of useless crap marketed toward college students who think they’re being original not knowing there’s 8 million dorm rooms decorated the exacct same way? More awesome. Can’t knock the hustle but buying cool, unique stuff from a chain store immediately makes it not unique and not particularly cool at all.
Brooklyn Zoo…Shame on you for frontin’ or being young and not knowing about this classic.
A prime example of very different & very terrible. Caution: Extremely Gay. Also be warned about Blackface. Thanks to Fancie for sharing this one and making me want to give myself a home lobotomy for the purpose of removing this memory from my brain.
And because this vaguely (not at all really) relates to the topic and I love the song, one more video for you: ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly” by Consequence f/ Kanye West.
I just want to clear some things up in addition to addressing the Kanye apology on Jay Leno. Some people took offense at my post yesterday regarding the Kanye West/Taylor Swift incident, mostly due to their failure to read the material I wrote. This is a blog…I am not a journalist…I’m not here to just tell you what happened or to give some diplomatic response that doesn’t represent how I really feel. Life’s too short to mince words. At no point did I deny the fact that Yeezy’s actions were (in my own words) “rude as hell“. The point of me writing it was to get people to lighten up about it. It’s the bloody VMA’s for Pete (Wentz)’s sake…nobody won a Nobel Peace Prize. If you were deeply upset about it in your heart of hearts, I suggest re-evaluating what’s important to you in life…seriously. It’s not that deep. Taylor Swift, Kanye, and of course, MTV will be eating mighty healthy off of this for the next several years, so take entertainment for what it is and save the emotion for real life.
That being said, Kanye isn’t a dude known to be insincere. He says what’s on his mind generally, much to others’ dismay, but he still kicks the real regardless. Beyonce is a better artist in my opinion, but the VMAs is based on the fans and I think ‘Ye may have lost sight of that in the moment as he was channeling hte late ODB (while just kind of making a “dirty b*stard” of himself). It’s not a BET award…and MTV’s core following is a little younger than Kanye or I could relate to. And clearly there are those in middle America and beyond who relate more to Taylor Swift than to Beyonce. I get it and I think ’Ye does as well. I’ve never seen a Kanye apology, though, and I don’t know if we ever will again, but I can’t do anything but respect it. You don’t win any street cred in the hip-hop community by getting choked up, so I don’t think there was anything to gain from Kanye just apologizing for the sake of doing it. Chances are his audience isn’t tuning into Leno on the regular, nor would they stop buying his albums because of this, so I can only categorize this as a real-a** moment for West.
As for Leno, I’d be remiss not to mention that the “what would your mama think” question at the end of the interview was a low blow, as a particularly astute friend of mine was wise enough to point out (thanks tpp). This was nowhere near that serious that anyone but Kanye needs to ask himself that question. Clearly a ploy for ratings and Leno should be ashamed of himself. Let’s keep it on the level here.
If only this were true. While many will remember the late Patrick Swayze for critically-acclaimed films like Ghost or Dirty Dancing, neither of which I cared for personally, I will forever remember my man for his action roles like Red Dawn, Point Break and of course, the B-movie masterpiece Roadhouse. If you are not familiar, this movie is the epitome of late 80s/early 90s a**-kickery. So in memory of Swayze, I found this re-worked trailer for Roadhouse created on YouTube, here for your enjoyment. Rest in peace, Patrick Swayze.
