*MJ rocking the 45 for his comeback, kanYe West has a basement full of 45’s that he takes samples from*
kanYe West is the real Michael Jordan of the rap recordings. People like to give Jay-Z that acknowledgment since he was the first person to say that in rhyme verse but just because you rap about it doesn’t necessarily mean its true. *cue Rick Ross*
Just like Michael Jordan, kanYe West has been through trials and tribulations to find himself in the pop culture position he now claims. No all time great player was berated as much as Michael Jordan was for his lack of long range jump shot, non-existent defense skills or his non-desire for team play. Jordan rose up above his detractors by showing he had all of those talents.
kanYe’s ‘College Dropout’ was like Jordan’s first title win over the Lakers. The Bulls had to overcome their nemesis, the Pistons before they could defeat the aging Lakers in what was Michael Jordan’s official coronation. This victory was the first of three straight championship titles for the Chicago player. I’m talking about ‘The College Dropout’, ‘Late Registration’ and ‘Graduation’.
But then tragedy struck a star-crossed career. The person who was the closest and most confided in was taken from the emerging superstar. At that moment they had to question everything they had achieved in the game. So they switched their pitch up, literally. KanYe West dropped the widely panned yet slept on classic ‘808s’ while Michael Jordan took a swing at playing major league baseball.
The critics of MJ said he couldn’t hit the off speed pitches well enough while kanYe took a knock for not hitting the right notes. In both cases these efforts were personal tributes to the people in their lives they loved the most (James Jordan, Donda West) as well as purges of their old selves whether the public realized this or not. The comebacks that these ballers made from their darkest days have been nothing less than mindboggling. kanYe is back to dominating rap records from the producer’s standpoint while often supplying verses that merc’k other artists on they own shit.
Nike produced sneakers for both MJ and kanYe that reached astronomical levels of hype. The Yeezy even incorporated elements of early Air Jordans. MJ was an icon of achievement for any kid who grew up in Chicago during the late 80s and 90s. kanYe West has gone deeper into pop culture than even Michael Jordan could have hoped to. The most glaring difference I can note is that Michael Jordan would never represent anyone other than himself in the public eye like KanYe has done during the Katrina telethon or the 2009 VMAs.
But to further cement my claim that ‘Ye Tudda is the real Michael Jordan of the rap recordings I submit this picture.
Michael Jordan hangs out with Charles Oakley and his technicolor pimpsuits while KanYe West has his crew of fishsticks
Tomorrow may never come
For you or me
Life is not promised
Tomorrow may never show up
For you and me
This life is not promised
I ain’t no perfect man
I’m trying to do, the best that I can,
With what it is I have
Dear Internets…
Dear friends of the inter-connected networks. The Twitterers, the FaceBookers, the folks that have this page as part of their RSS feed, everyone still on my Hotmail e-mail blast list… How the hell are you?! Have you gone to any of the free concerts being held all around the city. I was able to catch Gil Scott-Heron at Central Park’s Summerstage. I will definitely be in the park on Sunday, August 15th for Public Enemy as they commemorate the 20th anniversary of their greatest album – ‘Fear Of A Black Planet‘.
Gil gave us some blues that makes me recall the oil spill in the Gulf.
How has the summer been treating you so far otherwise? Excellent, you look well. Me, not so much.
If you have recently looked at my face when I didn’t know you were watching me you have seen that I don’t smile as often. It isn’t anything that you have done per se. You’ve actually done your best to keep me in good spirits. You watch the videos that are produced by the ICs collectively and singularly, you also read the blog posts that we all generate in various online locations. You’ve done your part to keep us together on the web, but I still got the blues.
This could be that male menstruation thing that I read about somewhere and maybe I’m cycling thru that right now. Actually to be honest with all of you I know why I have the blues. I received an eviction notice from my home for the last almost 40 years. Not my co-operative apartment that acts as a warehouse for all my shit from action figures, to hundreds of pairs of sneakers and over twenty years of Polo Ralph Lauren clothing. Not my mother’s basement (which incidentally is now located in an Atlanta suburb called Marietta).
The home I’m referring to is Never-Never Land. I’ve been the steward of this place for as long as I can remember. Everyone that has come thru here during that time has pretty much deferred to me. They’ve allowed me to guide them on adventures that have been delightful, daring and sometimes deadly. Each year I welcome the next group of adventurers and we fly thru this land making our own rules and avoiding Captain Hook and his henchmen as best we can.
But then Tinkerbell came to me with the message that NeverLand was being developed as a resort island. There is no way I’m going to be able to avoid the bulldozers that will uproot all my favorite treehouses and cubbyholes. It’s finally time for me to grow up. Growing up isn’t about just paying bills on time, altho’ that is definitely something I will need to work on. Growing up is living your life in service of others. Family, friends and even total strangers. I’ve been a solo act all of my life. Even when I had a younger brother I was on my own shit. Even with a girlfriend I still went in my own direction at my own whims.
My life changed a bit when my father died, but my mother was still independent despite contracting multiple sclerosis. As she has become elderly and now invalid I am asked to assume the responsibility of the leader of my family unit. I have been a leader of the Lost Boys, but that isn’t how you lead a family. Leading the Lost Boys was still an exercise in selfishness. The boys that couldn’t keep up with my madness were cast off from NeverLand. If you didn’t have the courage to follow me into the mouth of the volcano I called you a coward and mocked you. I had no patience for those with fear.
I was like that because I had so much fear. I used to afraid of being alone. My mother left me alone a lot when I was young. I was raised by her grandmother. My mother was young and pretty and she had many suitors. I’m sure she loved my father because she married him and gave me his name, but his drug abuse demons drove her away. So as a young single mother trying to get by in New York City she had to leave me. For days and weeks and months my great-grandmother did her best to replace her granddaughter. And she did a wonderful job. My great-grandmother was a Scottish goddess named Beryl O’Loughlin.
I just returned to NYC from visiting my mother in Atlanta. Her condition is deteriorating after falling and breaking her hip last year. She isn’t able to walk any longer and the MS is stripping her nervous system of control of her life. I suppose I should start looking for a place in NYC that offers assisted living because she isn’t going to be able to remain in Atlanta for much longer when the family that is living with her has to go their own way. This is the sound of the bulldozers and excavators entering Never Land.
I brought my nephew with me to see his grandmother. He is the middle child of my kid brother’s 3 x 3 litter. 3 sons by 3 different mothers. This child is the only one of the three that I know. For various reasons of the American story that is how shit goes. I haven’t seen the child for over a year. He reminds me of my brother too. I have to make sure that my nephew doesn’t end up a Lost Boy. Not too many kids can get thru that period without gaining horrible scars or worse. I was lucky that I was smart and emotionally unavailable. He needs my help and I see this.
Now Peter Pan has to become a parent or dare I say a patriarch. I didn’t want this day to come because I never wanted to be responsible for anyone other than myself. So this is why I’ve got the blues. But the good thing about my blues is that it isn’t the song of defeat or humiliation. My blues is the song of redemption. My blues is the phoenix that rises from the ashes to spread its beautiful wings to the sky.
This is my favorite track off the new Roots album. The drum x voice hits hard like Colossus from the X-Men. I had to do a polysyllabic word count on Black Thought’s verses to see how he matches up with some of the greats…
Black Thought uses a total of 298 words for his verses and the number of polysyllabic words is 20. Thought’s average is 1 polysyllabic word every 14.9 words. That average is better than Eminem on the ‘Forever’ track where Em merc’ks Drake on his own shit along with KanYe West and Lil’ Wayne.
I timestamped this drop at 20 minutes after 8pm EST which in military time is 20:20 for those of you niggas what can’t see straight.
[Chorus: John Legend]
I keep it doin’ it again
Oh, I’m doin’ it again
Yes, I’m doin’ it again
I said it would end
[Black Thought]
Uh, remix, rising up out of the flames like a Phoenix
Straining to carry the weight of my brain like a genius
Knowing I’m sowing seeds, let’s see whose thumb is the greenest
If I said I mean it, I did it because I need it
Eat, sleep it or bleed it, write it down and then read it
Asphalt to the cement, your trash talk, delete it
I blast off then lay ’em out like a Tempur-Pedic
It’s Black Thought, for certain I’ma win eventually
This unsung, underrated, under-appreciated
The one them underachievers had underestimated
Finally graduated, I’m one of the most hated
Something that’s so sacred, nobody gon’ take it
Face it, I keep doin’ it well
Doin’ it sans assistance, just do it yourself
Doin’ it below the radar, we doin’ it stealth
Doin’ it again for Illadelph, yo who else?
We gon’ do it again!
[Chorus]
[Black Thought]
Yeah, aiyyo I’m on a job, see my eyes focused where the prize be
Even though they tried to rob me and sabotage the spot
Just like ‘Pac when they got him in the lobby
Try to tax and fine me like Ronald Isley
I is a changed man, hanging with fans are probablies
Niggas used to know me, they don’t even recognise me
Yep, the P-5-D is who the repertoire be
Doin’ it again just like Poitier and Cosby
I’m like Martin Luther King, you like Rodney
The difference is I give it everything inside me
Dear diary, the fans still swear by me
Even though I’m Late Night now like “Here’s Johnny”
Swimming with them Great Whites now, that’s where to find me
Funny how it break right down, but never mind me
Forever grimy, I guess it’s just Philly shining
Rock roller, bi-polar like Phyllis Hyman
Don’t be fooled by their promo pic. Activator will punch you and your mother in the mouf. In the ‘last of a dying breed’ category we have one of the most hardcore punk bands since Minor Threat.
Activator was on the Def Jux roster until the label imploded. The band still remains and the boys still rock. Activator will be one of the legendary bands performing on the Afro-Punk stage at Commodore Barry Park outside of the Brooklyn Navy Yard this Saturday.
Activator – ‘Shackle’
Activator – ‘Unfortunate Lovely’
Activator will bring their hardcore punk steez to the people at the 2010 Afro-Punk Festival this Saturday, June 26. Also on the bill: Game Rebellion, Ninjasonik, The Bots, P.O.S., BAD BRAINS!
