Shot out to AB...

For this...Hip Hop is Dead...and this...Maya Angelou's Benediction.

You aren't going to want to admit it, but that Maya Angelou joint is funny.

Again, shot out to AB.

Rest In Peace Ant'

For what seems to be like the 100th time now, I have lost another friend (in this case, more than a friend) to violence in the neighborhood I grew up in.

Since about 1995 I have seen more than 5 people I grew up with die from the gun.

I have known at least 3 times that many people that died from the hands of a gun.

I have seen several of my friends survive gunshot wounds.

I have been shot at.

I have gone to way too many funerals for people my age.

Even after all that I have pondered whether or not I wanted to own a gun myself. For "protection". The truth of the matter is the only protection you need is the man up above. Nothing good comes from owning a gun. Even if you're protecting yourself you may have to take someone's life to save your own. Or you may provoke someone that just wanted to scare you with their gun/weapon to kill you.

NOTHING good comes from owning/having a gun. They are meant to hurt/harm people!

My cousin Antwain and spent a lot of time together when I was younger. We played football together at the local boys and girls club. We played basketball together there too. We went on vacations together and tried to holla at all the girls, LOL. I lost my daggon virginity (on vacation at that, LOL...Is that personal enough JAC?) because he hooked me up with a friend of a friend. Memories I'll never forget and all that I will have from this point on. It hurts!

I had lost touch in the past few years and now I get to learn how to live with the regrets of not having been able to tell him "ayight joe" or "peace" or "I'll holla at you later" before we got off the phone. I never got the chance to have that conversation I wanted to have with him about where his life was headed. I had to have those conversations on my knees last night. I know he heard me.

Rest in Peace Antwain Simpson.

Larry Johnson: Coward

I can't bite my tongue anymore on this pathetic loser, Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs. Dude has a long history of (allegedly) beating women or intimidating them with the hint of violence. Larry appears to be in a rut in terms of his NFL career and maybe that's taking its toll on him off the field as well. But that's no excuse to be out here Ike-ing these women. Not to mention this fool has a girlfriend.

It's bad enough his girlfriend is one of my celebrity sleeper bun buns, Julissa (formerly) of BET's 106 & Park. Ya'll might hate, but you know she is a cutie. Anyway, at least once per year it seems like Jay-Z's roommate has an issue with keeping his hands to himself.

I can't fathom what kind of self-hate, self-esteem, and control issues this guy has that make him feel like he has to intimidate and/or hit women. It's cowardly. Especially when you're like 6 feet tall and more than 200 pounds. If anything he should realize that he is an NFL player, a grown-azz man, and enough of a celebrity that anything remotely violent that he's involved in will get him in big trouble with the law and potentially the league that employs him.

I hope that the NFL is finally going to enforce some punishment on this guy because what he's been accused of doing over the years is cowardly and disgraceful. For all the dumb stuff Adam Jones (ne pas Pacman) has done, I'd argue that what Larry Johnson has been accused of doing is worse. Pacman has been destroying himself and hurting himself whereas Larry is not only hurting himself but leaving these women as collateral damage in the process. Maybe instead of throwing the diamond up all the time he needs to have his hands cuffed in a diamond behind his back. I hope that either the laws in Kansas City or Roger Goodell punish this dude seriously. There have been too many accusations of this type of behavior which leads me to believe that at least one is true. Something's going to have to give sooner or later.

For the full story on this clown and his history of putting the "big hand" on women, check out this ESPN.com article. Or this one...

WebNerd Alert: Somewhere out there...

...there's a Flash developer with way too much time on his hands... LOL

Video of the Day: Wow

Spotted at Bol's.

Music: Eddie Kendricks

Intimate Friends



Soul.Music.

The REAL Video of the Day: Obama Barbeques McCain

Obama goes in roasting McCain. By the way, what a time for an event where Obama gets to roast McCain? This is just too easy...



I KNOW McCain had to be a little salty about this. I know swag doesn't account for that much when it boils down to the issues but...

Obama's swag > McCain's platform, POW story

UPDATE: Posterity people, posterity...

Video of the Day: Start watching at 2:40....

....then watch the whole thing from the beginning....



What goes up, must come down.

I couldn't even laugh at that one, I ain't gonna lie. I'm assuming it was all staged.

This is what happens when my mother starts getting comfortable on YouTube...

Aside from the hilarity I find in my mother wandering around on YouTube this video also gives a great example of why I love older Black women so much. You know the kind that treat you like you're their niece/nephew even if you don't know 'em from a can of paint. And I mean "love" as in, enjoy their personalities.

This Obama Hustle is something my grandmother would jump right into and learn if she was in Detroit at the Grendadier Club. No introductions necessary. Just some music, a bunch of other women doing a line dance, and BAM! She's right up there joining in like she's known these women all her life. Same with my mother. Maybe this is why I almost always feel obligated to get up and do the cupid shuffle at every wedding I attend. It's in my blood.

And I can't finish this post without say that we (Black folks) stay coming up with some daggon dances, I swear!

This is DEEP! Discussion of Manhood

Vis-á-vis a comparison between Barack Obama and 50 Cent.


Short documentary film by Byron Hurt.

This is a topic my buddies and I tend to touch on directly or indirectly during most of our conversations about hip-hop and/or the plight of the Black man. This is very thought-provoking and interesting.

Spotted at NahRight.com.

Sarah Silverman Obama PSA

By the way, I'm starting to wonder if Sarah Silverman is hot in that Tina Fey way?

HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I needed this laugh. Shot out to Dane for sending this to me.

Blinded by Politics???

Video: Usher - Trading Places

Soft core pR0n anyone???

Usher - Trading Places




Been a fan of the song since day one and the video is ... not getting any complaints from moi. Only one question, who is the leading lady in the video?

Video Thoughts: Yung L.A. (feat. Young Dro and Tippord) - Ain't I (Remix)

Mr. PineyApple Suckers (Dro) stays showing us all how to rock colorful clothing. Not that his attire is flyy, but just off the strength of him not caring about his affinity for pastel I have to give Dro some respect. It's almost like when Kanye hit the scene.

But my real point in this post is to say how much I enjoy and am entertained by Dro's swag, how much I respect Tippord's swag, and how lame Yung L.A. appears to be. Is it because I'm older now and I refuse to rock tight jeans with skull belts and colorful sneakers that I just don't get it? Is it because my head is beginning to bald and I can't grow a true mohawk that I am hating? Is it because I truly believe that Yung L.A. thinks he's Pharrell? Maybe I'm the problem. Maybe I just don't get it. But you know what, if this what I should expect in the future, I don't want any part of it.

Seriously dude dresses like Pharrell and raps like an older Soulja Boy! How is that HOT? Secondly, why on God's green earth is TIP affiliated with this dude? I could understand Drizzle being affiliated with him because Dro just seems a bit off like that, but TI? I even think Yung L.A. is on Grand Hustle for crying out loud! Not that that means much because we saw what happened with the P$C and Big Kuntry KANG albums. At least Dro went gold. I guess my point is that while I love this song, seeing the video made me immediately think "who is this BAMA muffuga".

And overall....TIP verse > Dro swag > the entire video > Yung L.A.'s presence at the video shoot for the remix to his own song.

I'd prefer more Young Dro lines that include things like sour-apple colors, pineyapplesuckers, and other colorful stuff than to have to listen to another half of a bar from Yung L.A.

Weird Al channels TIPPORD

Whatever You Like

Not as good as these though....

White & Nerdy

I'm Fat

Then again, he hasn't shot a video for this one yet. LOL.

I'm Just Saying....

I thought I was the only one that noticed this. I also noticed how disrespectful it was to call Obama "that one". I also noticed how disrespectful it was to not even look at Obama in the first debate.

I'M.JUST.SAYING!

WebNerd Alert: Google thinking for you

Two random thoughts first...I haven't done one of these webnert alerts in a minute. And I think most of these have been about Google.

This post is about Google thinking for you. Google has come up with this feature called Mail Goggles which is basically a way of trying to keep people from sending emails they don't really want to send. And I quote...

"Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?"

Personally, I can see the use for this but I think there's much more of a need for this feature on cellphones. How many of you have been drunk-dialed late at night by somebody on some dumb ish? Or not even drunk-dialed but just called because someone is in a ridiculous emotional state? I'm not gonna run to my Google account to send a drunken email. I'm more likely to do this over a phone call or a text message. Perhaps this Mail Goggles feature is just a bit ahead of its time and since I don't use the web browser on my phone I'm just not getting it. Nevertheless, I think it'll help mostly people who sit in the house at 1am on a weekend night getting drunk while watching pRon on their computers.

Meanwhile, most folks will be out drunk-dialing and drunk-texting while leaving whatever soireé they happen to be attending.

Relax yourself, breath easy 'cause we like the way you do.

If you don't know, you better learn.

Ok Kanye, so where's the real video?

The first video ever by Kanye that leaves me speechless for all the wrong reasons.

I understand dude is very artistic and abstract and he's into his videos and all that. But he went completely over my head with this one, I can't lie.

Why would you even kick to this guy ONCE?

First major television and film studio owned by an African-American producer

I have never been to the theater to see any of his movies (yeah go ahead and revoke my black card, whatever) but I have to admit that Tyler Perry is that dude.




Learn more...

SNL is so on point

Don't Vote PSA

This PSA is totally overkill but Halle Berry (with her fine self) makes me want to vote, that's for sure.

Oh yeah, this just made me realize that Jonah Hill > Seth Rogen. Sorry Seth.