"The People"

Common - The People



This is street ra-dio, for unsung heroes
Ridin in they Regal, tryin to stay legal
My daughter found Nemo, I found the new primo
Yeah you know how we do, we do it for the people
And the struggle of the brothas and the folks
With lovers under dope, experiment to discover hopes
Scuffle for notes, the rougher I wrote, times were harder
Went from rocky starter to the voice of a martyr
While white folks focus on dogs and yoga
My people on the low end try to ball and get over
Lyrics are like liquor for the fallen soldiers
From the bounce to the ounce, its all our culture
Everyday we hustlin, tryna get them custom rims
Law we ain’t trusting them, thick broads we lust in them
Sick and tired of punchin' in, I look on the bus at them
When I see them struggling, I think how I’m touchin them
The People

The day, has come
Now we, are one
Just take, your time
And then, you’ll find

This is street ra-dio, for unsung heroes
Ridin in they Regal, tryin to stay legal
My daughter found Nemo, I found the new primo
Yeah you know how we do, we do it for the people
The people said that I was sharp on TV
At the Grammy’s, though they tried to India.Arie me
Got back stage, and I bumped into Stevie
He said no matter what, the people gone see me
Can’t leave rap alone the streets need me
Hunger in they eyes, is what seems to feed me
Inside peace mixed with beast seem to breed me
Nobody believed, until I believed me
Now I’m on the rise doin business with my guys
Visions realize, music affecting lives
A gift from the skies, to be recognize
I’m keeping my eyes on the people, that’s the prize

The day, has come
Now we, are one
Just take, your time
And then, you’ll find

This is street ra-dio, for unsung heroes
Ridin in they regal, tryin to stay legal
My daughter found Nemo, I found the new primo
Yeah you know how we do, we do it for the people
From Inglewood to a single hood in Botswana
I see the I in We my nigga, yours is my drama
Standin in front of the judge with no honor
My raps ignite the people like Obama
The karma of the streets is needs and takes
Sometimes we find peace in beats and breaks
Put the bang in the back so the seats can shake
Rebel Cadillac music for the people sake
The People

The day, has come
Now we, are one
Just take, your time
And then, you’ll find

PIMP C is stupid? Ehhh, not so much...

I have yet to figure out why so many people have denounced his radio interview with an Atlanta radio station as ludicrous, unintelligent/stupid, or downright dismissable. The only thing I can see the man being guilty of is being hilarious. But even while laughing at his comments during this interview, I couldn't help but feel him on a lot of the points that he made.

I have ran across a lot of blogposts that lead me to think that people feel what he said wasn't worthwhile, but I beg to differ. I think Pimp C said a lot of things that others wouldn't have the guts to say and a lot of things that were just brutally honest. The man obviously expresses himself in a hilarious vernacular that may hinder him actually getting his point across. But yet-and-still, a dummy can listen/read between the lines to figure out the points he's trying to make if they just tried.

It's a lot easier to just dismiss him as a loudmouth, old, angry southern rapper than it is to actually think about what he said and whether or not it makes sense. At least that seems to be the case. I won't sit here and say that everything he said in that interview made sense (the time zone thing for example), but I will say that the majority of it definitely made sense to me. Just because he says funny stuff like "feelings is like booty-holes", "a fight go with that", and "get off the boo-boo" does not mean that he isn't making some good points.

Think about some of the stuff he said in the radio interview:

• "On these records everybody lying. Everybody is these d-boys, every body these hardcore gangsters...Truth be told, we too blessed and we having too much money is this rap game to be going to war with each other."
• "If we don't clean it up, we gon' lose everything we fought to get...At the end of these records we listen to, we don't get nothing out of 'em no more...We don't get no social commentary. We ain't getting no kind of knowledge."
• "If you gon' talk about some squares and talk about the drug game, you need to talk about the bad side of it too!"
• "It ain't no need to embarrass nobody that ain't done nothing to us...Everything done in the dark is gon' come to light...If you ain't proud of what you do, then don't do it! And if anything you're ashamed of, you shouldn't be doing!"
• "And I was not going to leave my family on the side of the road...If you don't like that and you don't understand that, then you don't have no understanding about life! And anybody who that put this rap game or they job or anything ahead of their family or God, well shame on you!"
• "We need to stop doing all this negative stuff!"

Pimp C said a LOT of real/true stuff in that radio interview. If you can't see through all the funny statements and slang that you aren't used to, then that's on you for not paying attention. He is speaking on integrity among artists' relationships, artistic integrity in general, and he shows that he really cares about the southern hip-hop movement. Hell, he's one of the pioneers of that movement so who better to speak on it? I hope ATL folks/rappers don't get all worked up about this because the man was telling the TRUTH! For the most part.

Pimp C might not have been right in everything he said, but he's definitely thinking the right way. And I bet you won't hear other artists challenging what he said. The original O-Zone article is to the left and is a bit more scathing and seems more off-the-cuff and reckless. But I think that he cleared up everything in that article while doing the radio interview.

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NOTE: Funny how the bleeped "fa**ot" in the interview, but they don't bleep ni**er

Pimp C - Knockin Doorz Down

Miscellaneous Randomness....

Don Imus is looking for a nappy headed ho! To co-host his show, that is.

It appears that Blacks have some issues staying out of jail in Iowa. Either that, or Iowa just likes to lock Black folks up. Hmmmnnn? Nevertheless, it's been posed that "the state's disproportionately high black arrest rates are likely linked to high poverty rates among blacks and lower educational achievement." I'd have to agree with that to some extent without even doing a smidgeon of research since I've been saying for a minute now that "education, financial empowerment, and family values are the key to rebuilding/uplifting Black communities."

Stupidity has apparently caught up to Ron Mexico Mike Vick. Even if he was not at the house, I am pretty sure he at least had an idea of what was going on. When large sums of money are being bet at your residence or dogs are being shot, electrocuted, and mated on your property you've probably got a slight idea that something just ain't right.

17-year old in Arnold, Maryland "gave birth on a toilet and dumped the baby in a trash can". And the following day she was straight chilling: "The next day, she showed off her slimmed figure, watched a movie at home with a friend and went out to dinner with family and friends."

A dog (pitbull) sodomizes a two-year old. Where were the parents? This is quite possibly one of the most stomach-turning things I've read in a while. WHO (exclamation, comma, period) leaves a toddler alone around a pitbull?

HIP-HOP LIVES. Even when...

It appears that T.I. is back on his T.I.P. stuff. TI, fan, blood. Guess who was on the bloody end?

Google can search better than you can. And by "you", I mean the programmers at your job. Is this really new news though?

One way or another, Remy Ma cannot refrain from being straight ghetto fabulous. If it isn't the hair, it's the alleged murder attempt. "I need a gangsta chick." NOT!

Miss Jones, thicker than 3 Snickers (and not in a good way). How do you go from this...to this? Talk about "letting yourself go". Jeez! And getting her Supa-Dupa-Head on too!

I always thought that whole "Shoot the Rapper" ad situation was pretty effed up to begin with. But it seems that 50 didn't like them using his image as the rapper to shoot. He's already been shot at enough, hasn't he?

Random Question

How many psychology degrees have been earned based on assessments of Mike Tyson's soundbytes?



Mike is probably one of the most mentally disturbed celebrities ever. R. Kelly's not even this bad. Or Stephon Marbury for that matter. Iron Mike is simultaneously entertaining, hilarious, scary, pathetic, and disgusting. How does he do it?

Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain: The Black Ron Jeremy, sorta

And you thought they called him "The Stilt" because he was tall. And if you don't know who Ron Jeremy is, Google him.

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I recently had the unfortunate thought of trying to figure out whether Wilt Chamberlain could have possibly pulled off sleeping with 20,000 women. Why you ask? I dunno. But when I thought about it I realized that 1) that's a lot of daggon women, 2) that's a lot of daggon sex, and 3) there was no Viagra back then, right?

Anyway, after soliciting K for some interWeb research help, I found out the following...

When Wilt made the statement his biography "A View From Above" in 1991 that he'd slept with 20,000 women, he really set himself up. Wilt was born in 1936. Let's assume he started having intercourse in 1948 at the age of 12 (this may or may not seem reasonable to you but if he slept with even half that many women he had to get a jump on his peers you'd think). And he actually stated that he started at 15, but I'm going to give him 3 extra years just to prove my point.

He made the claim in 1991 (or sometime within a year before since it's a book that has to go through the publishing process) so any "action" he got after that is not being taken into account. So, taking 1991 as the date he made the statement, that gives him from 1948 till 1991 to have sex with 20,000 women. That is 43 years. Seems like it might be doable (no pun intended) over such a long stretch of years. That is, until you really break down the numbers.

43 years means that he'd have to have sex with...

465 women/year
1.27 women/day

...for 43 straight years. Granted, 1.27 women per day doesn't really seem that difficult (I guess, if you have little self-respect and lots of sexual urges) but to maintain that consistency is probably beyond physically possible. 465 women per year does seem a bit unrealistic when you consider that lots of men try their best to get a phone number per day and can't even do that! Did they have Viagra back then? Cialis? I think NOT!

And assuming that Wilt didn't start getting regular lovin till he was A-list famous in his twenties, that's 8 years (from age 12 to 20) for him to be a regular Joe Schmoe just like the rest of us guys. You know, aside from the fact that he was tall as hell and had a full mustache in the 6th grade. LOL.

Now after he became famous we have to consider that he played basketball from (presumably) November till April that would mean that for at least 3 hours on most days during that time he wasn't having sex so that would force him to have sex with mor than 1.27 women per day during the off-season which seems a lot less plausible.

Even if he had sex with 10,000 women, that's 233 women/year which when speaking relative to 20,000 women in 43 years seems a little more realistic. Wilt was obviously not the average human being in terms of physicality so perhaps he could have bedded 233 women/year, but I doubt it very seriously.

There are several points to this story as I am sure some of you must be wondering why I wrote this. The first is that Wilt should have invested some of his basketball money into companies that produced the prophylactics he was using. He either stayed "strapped", was "shooting blanks" or forced a lot of women to have abortions because he didn't have any children. Second, HIV/AIDS must be man-made if Wilt did not contract that shyt. Third, too much sex can kill you. Wilt died at age 63 because of heart failure. Perhaps all that sexin' caught up with the "Big Dipper". LOL, I could not resist. Too much of anything is not a good thing. Fourth and most important, all you guys who think that having sex with as many women as you can is a bragging right can pretty much take the fact that even if Wilt only slept with a quarter of 20,000 women, you will never (and should never want to) eclipse that mark. On top of that, he died alone and lonely with two cats named Zip and Zap. A grown azz man with a sexual resume longer than the Nile River and two cats as companions? Seriously?

I believe Wilt said it best himself (albeit shortly before his death):

"Having a thousand different ladies is pretty cool, I have learned in my life I've found out that having one woman a thousand different times is much more satisfying."

Amen brother, Amen!

Satirically speaking, this joint is FIRE!

If you say positive stuff in a way people presumably *want* to hear it, they'll listen. You know, since Lil Jon's style of music is/was popular, maybe if we yell some positive ish at you with a [retired] ni99a in there or an expletive, maybe it'll stick.

Satire at it's best....



I'm wondering how many of you actually watched the entire thing. It isn't easy. LOL.

ATL Shawty!

I will be on sabbatical in HOTlanta till Tuesday.

"PEACE UP! A-TOWN DOWWWWNNNNN!"

You naGGars are missing the point!

Yesterday I received an email from my boy Sei about the NAACP's burial of the word "nigger". In case you haven't read/heard, the NAACP kicked-off their 98^th Annual Convention in Detroit by "burying" the word "nigger".

Obviously the burial was symbolic and done in an effort to get people (Black and otherwise) to stop using the word that "is the most vicious of all racial insults and the most well known example of racist language and self-hatred by African Americans." At first I laughed because the "symbolism" of burying the N-word seemed like a waste of time. To me, the idea of burying a word was silly. Really, what does burying a word mean to the average Joe Schmoe like myself? Not much at all. Not only does it not inspire me to want to stop using the word, it appears to be another futile attempt by a seemingly disconnected (to Black youth) organization to create a discussion/initiative around the N-word. Or is it? Isn't discussion of the use of the N-Word a good thing? Don't we need to bring this topic up more often to educate people about the long history of the N-word and to give reasons for no longer using it?

I discussed the concept of the burial of the N-word with K because I think she's very astute when it comes to these matters and has lots of very thought-provoking things to say. Here's the gist of what she had to say:

"There are words that have long been used in such a manner that no matter what you try to do to them they still mean the same thing...There are words that nobody uses anymore in the english language because they have become antiquated and no longer apply to today's society. It is not an outlandish concept to no longer use the [N-] word. I still think the whole burying thing is 'out there', but like I said before I understand why they feel the need to do it and it's only symbolistic of a larger campaign. I really don't get why people feel SO strongly to keep the word around. It's like fighting hard to legalize heroine, or something."

After doing some research on the burial of the N-word by the NAACP, I discovered that the burial is simply part of a larger campaign that seems worthwhile.

The NAACP STOP Campaign is described as "an initiative of the NAACP Youth & College Division that seeks to "STOP" the demeaning images of African Americans in the media, particularly with respect to the portrayal of African American women. These images are also reflected in songs and music videos that show half-dressed women being objectified by men. The NAACP, through its STOP Campaign calls on those outside and especially those within the Black community to Stop Defaming our Women, Degrading our Community, and Denigrating our History. No word defames, degrades and denigrates like the N-Word and we want to STOP it!"

The "mock funeral" of the N-word was simply a part of this broader campaign. After having read this, everything made more sense to me. The STOP Campaign sounds like an initiative that we all can/should support because it has the goal of changing the way African Americans are viewed by mainstream society. I think that's a goal that most of us can agree needs to be achieved. I think we need constant reminders of how the images of Blacks on television can ultimately lead to the stereotyping and prejudice that we ALL hate to be subjected to.

In the end, I think a lot of the people dismissing the burial of the N-word (like I did initially) are missing the point or perhaps just not doing our their research on what the NAACP is really trying to accomplish. In other words, we're doing exactly what some dumb-azz naGGars would do - remaining ignorant and indifferent to the things that can potentially have a positive impact on the way they're viewed and treated.

If you really don't have any intentions on at least trying to stop using the N-word, maybe the link below will give you the impetus you need:

Ni99er Jokes

It's not so easy to dismiss the NAACP's burial as trivial after reading that...

WorkLife: Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament --> Round 1

Today my co-worker Paul suggested that we have a rock-paper-scissors tournament. Many of you probably think that the idea is so lame that we wouldn't even think twice about trying it and dismiss it as well, lame. You are sadly mistaken. There's an official bracket for this thing that includes 8 players (which includes my boss).

We just finished the first round of the tournament (best 3 of 5) and in a shocking upset I beat Paul who came up with the concept after playing the game with his son all night last night. Needless to say, I didn't take it too seriously and expected to lose but shockingly came out the winner.

My next opponent is my co-worker Todd who's a scrappy Ohioan that took out his opponent in the first round in an awesome display of dexterity. I figure I'm bound to lose to Todd because he's from no-mans-land Ohio and really there's not much to do there except shoot animals and play rock-paper-scissors. But maybe my luck will continue through round two. I'll keep you posted! As if you care, right?

PS - YES, I do actually work during the day as well.

This is your brain on drugs

This has to be one of the best non-Mike Tyson sports interviews EVER. ENJOY!



My favorite quotes:

"We got a guy that can play 94 feet. Anytime you got a guy that can take a lay-up, could shoot a free throw, make a college three, and make an NBA three."

Yeah, that college three is really important in the NBA.

"I think Imma average like 10 points, 12-13 dimes, like 2-3 assists, and about 4-5 rebounds..."

Last time I checked, dimes and assists are THE SAME THING.

"I can't give them what they need if they don't have it."

Oh really?

"This is my better ho...my better HALF, my wife!"

LOL. I wonder how your wife felt about that one???

And the part about his sister is simply classic:

"She been praying for this day for forever. And it finally happened yesterday when I kissed her. And I felt her body and I felt her soul. I was DELIGHTED to be kissing her!... You only really cry when they really bad stuff."

ROTFLMAO!

In addition to all of these Marbury quotables, the last minute of this video seriously makes me think he's smoking the same stuff Bobby and Whitney are. I don't know about you but I've never told a man (or woman for that matter) "I want to see the spit on your mouth!"

What are YOUR favorite parts? There are so many to choose from, I know.

Miscellaneous Randomness....

The iPhone

My co-worker's girlfriend copped an iPhone. You know the iPhone release date is a big deal when your co-worker comes to work and announces that his girlfriend bought one and he "got to try it out". You would have thought they were pregnant. According to him though, it's a great device. Word has it that AT&T had issues signing up all those new subscribers they got over the weekend vis-à-vis the iPhone's release. But aside from that, he said it pretty much operates as advertised. One thing he noted was that surprisingly, there's no way to purchase a song from iTunes directly from the phone's interface. It seems kind of weird to me that Apple didn't incorporate that into the functionality of the phone since it's an Apple product. But I'm sure there must be good reasons for it. Also, my co-worker said that the touch screen operates very smoothly and is easy to learn. It'll be interesting to read all the reviews that will hit the InterWeb over the next week (or already have).

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Our (the U.S.'s) BFF London got lucky. Glasgow, eh, not so much

While most of us were busy thinking about the NBA Draft, figuring out what Paris Hilton did in her first few days home from jail, Beyoncé being called a "roboho", or getting ready to buy our iPhones, a plot was discovered in London to use two cars as explosive devices at a London airport. Also, a car WAS USED as an explosive device at Glasgow Airport in Scotland. After watching "Munich" for the first time this weekend, I have a refreshed outlook on international relations.

When you respond to violence with violence, you're no better than the person who initiated the violence. As the old adage says, "two wrongs don't make a right".

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Thought Provocation: True Lies by Taalam Acey



Even if you don't agree with what he's saying, you have to admit that it makes you think.

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Pretty daggon cool: Musicovery (Interactive WebRadio)

K sent me this earlier today and I think it's pretty cool. The site allows you to listen to music based on the genre, mood of the music, timeframe in which the music was released, etc. And I'm sure there are other cool ways to use all this functionality that I have yet to discover. Try this though:

1. Visit http://www.musicovery.com/
2. Click in the matrix of moods (Energetic, Dark, etc.)
3. See how long it takes you hit a hip-hop song and what area of the matrix you are in

After that:

1. Unclick the "All genres" checkbox right under the mood matrix
2. Click the "rap" checkbox"
3. Use the matrix to check out the different hip-hop music by "mood"

Very cool stuff! THANKS K!

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Joost: The New Way of Watching TV



"Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping."

More importantly though:

"You get great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the Joost software – so you find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like – as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection."

Unfortunately, at this point you can only get Joost by being invited by someone else. Hopefully I meet one of those "innovators" so I can get an invite.

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Just for laughs: Ja Rule featuring Bobby Brown

Bobby Brown's dance moves alone make this a classic video to me. And if you pay attention to his ad-libbing in the background you realize that it is classically CRAP-TASTIC! It's one of those songs that's so ridiculously funny/crappy that you are ashamed to admit you actually enjoy hearing it. LOL. At least that's how I feel. For some reason this song pleases me :-/