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(12/05/01 6:00am)
It's finals time again, one of the worst times of the year. We
all have our own escapes. Some of us take study breaks. Some of us
choose to nip the stress in the bud and we don't study at all.
Whether you work out more this time of year or just do less work,
it's only logical to find a way to let off some steam. When I'm
looking over all the material for the past semester and trying to
learn it all again, I listen to music. When I do almost anything, I
listen to music. You've got to be careful, though. It's easy to
select the wrong music to play. Before you know it you end up at
the bottom of the page and have no idea what words are on it.
(11/28/01 6:00am)
When I was back in grade school in Milwaukee (God bless The
Brew), we used to trace our hands to draw pictures of turkeys. We
used to use squash, gourds and construction paper to create scenes
that were supposed to be typical of Thanksgiving. My private
Catholic grade school taught me that Thanksgiving was the day that
we observe to commemorate the coming together of Native Americans
and Pilgrims. The two cultures, according to history books,
gathered to share food and smiles. Let's be smarter than that. We
ourselves were to gather and share our common and not-so-common
experiences in the spirit of good will.
(11/14/01 6:00am)
We all know that the old-school beef-on-record phenomenon has
never died. The media blew up the east-west thing until it was all
that people could think of to explain the Pac-Big tragedy. I'm not
going to call that one beef; it was simply a misunderstanding
between friends that could not be resolved before time ran out. Who
knows who was really winding the clock? Marley and Shan made \The
Bridge,"" and then Chris and BDP made "" The Bridge is Over."" Cool
J and Mo Dee, of course, had their storied episodes, and then LL
played the punk role and wrote his dis verse after Canibus' was
already laid down. The shame is that Can-I-bus' career has been
minimal at best (good thing he studied computer science), and as a
result garners little credit for his immense gift with words.
(11/07/01 6:00am)
(10/31/01 6:00am)
BET had some \Where Are They Now"" countdown, and that got me to
thinking. What happened to some of those acts that had you wanting
their next album as soon as their last one came out? Why do some of
the best acts in hip-hop take such a long time off? Here is a short
list of hip-hop's Most Wanted.
(10/24/01 6:00am)
I took a year and a half off from school before I came to this
university. In that time I worked in Milwaukee at Burlington Coat
Factory during the day and kicked it with my boys at night. It just
so happened that my boys stayed off Locust, some on 33rd and some
on 24th. As a result, I heard a lot of the underground gangsta rap
that Milwaukeeans love to this day. In the early to mid '90s, a
truly underground movement began to surface out of the South and
West, and Milwaukee loved it. Percy Miller's West Coast Bad Boyz,
Down South Hustlers and their N.O. counterparts, The Hot Boyz, as
well as UGK and Suave House heated up the streets of Milwaukee.
They had beats the likes of which no one had heard, and they were
screaming things to which Ice Mone fans could relate. That's what I
remember as the beginning of the new south movement. I say new
south because Rap-A-Lot and Luke were always around, especially in
The Brew.
(10/17/01 6:00am)
It's midterm time again, and everyone's stressed. I like to
think that I don't allow myself to be overworked, but at times I
do. I'm taking a break from studying business law, and I wonder if
commercially successful hip hop artists (musical) have any
equivalent experiences.
(10/10/01 6:00am)
It dawned on me that I hadn't bought a CD since came out, and I
really don't even know how long ago that was. It's not that I feel
guilty about burning CDs'a third of my collection is probably
burned. There have been a couple of releases lately that deserve to
be bought, though. People make their livings off what we listen to.
Even though the wrong person gets paid most of the time, the
artists deserve to get the 15 percent that many of them are
contracted to receive. Recent albums like Coo Coo Cal's major
debut, Pete Rock's , Rasco's recent release, T.I.'s debut, Mack's
and, of course, The Blueprint should generate revenue for their
creators. These are people who should be paid; they help us. So in
consideration of that fact, I purchased two albums today.
(10/05/01 6:00am)
I was watching videos on BET earlier today, and of course I
noticed something. When Eric B. and Rakim made videos, most of us
watched what The R did in the video as opposed to Eric B. When NWA
made videos we saw Dre in the video because he was a full-fledged
member of the immediate group. There was great production in these
and many other old school instances, but the question was always,
'Who's that rhyming'? These days the question is, 'Who's beat is
that'? How many times has Bubba Sparxxx been referred to as 'That
white dude with Timbaland'? I remember once referring to Philly's
Most Wanted as 'those scrubs with all those Neptunes beats.' In
recent years, an artist's supposed worth can be gauged by the
number of popular producers employed in the recording of said
artist's album. I remember when Marley Marl was tight because of
all the talent around him. There are now people getting by with no
one truly examining their abilities because they have the right
friends or business associates. Mac 10 sounds soooooo much better
over Mannie's beats than he has over anyone else's. Don't get me
wrong. Timbo made a good choice with that country boy, but when did
hip hop become so producer driven? Let's See??
(09/28/01 6:00am)
You know how we all experience those, 'No way, I'm that old!'
moments? Well, I have just realized that I have witnessed the
entire careers of some of my favorite hip-hop artists. I've been
hooked on my Walkman since middle school. Before that, my older
brother played The Skinny Boys, Low Profile, The Disco Three and
the Beat Street soundtrack in the room we had to share. When he
drove me to school, N.W.A. rhymed about running the streets and
Craig G. dropped science. I remember all those old P.E., Ice T,
Tung Twista, and P.R.T. videos (when they first came out). Who else
does? I run down the list of my favorite emcees, and I'm surprised
that I have seen many of them from their first guest appearances to
their long solo careers.
(09/19/01 6:00am)
-What is the greatest remix of all time? How do you even go
about answering the question? Is there more merit assigned to a
creatively reproduced song than an unexpected guest appearance?
Should all of the lyrics be different from the original, and what
a
(09/07/01 6:00am)
I'm sitting here in my homie's dorm room listening to The
Blueprint and thinking about some of the things that passed through
my mind over the course of the summer. It's amazing how hip-hop has
gone from what was supposed to be a fad that ended in less than
five years to one of the United States' most lucrative money-making
machines. The music is only 25 or 30 years old, depending on who
you ask. Nowadays, your music isn't pop unless you have visible
elements of hip-hop in it. A truly gifted hip-hop artist can make
it into constant rotation on the mutually owned MTV or BET, and
'true hip-hoppers' refuse to give respect to the artist. Even
worse, they refuse to respect the music. What's that? Comedy,
that's what that is. Another thing, what's the deal with all the
emcees and rappers we are losing to R&B and soul? As you can
see, my mind wandered a lot this summer. So let's talk about some
of this.
(01/26/01 6:00am)
When I was a little boy, I shared a room in a cramped apartment
on the north side of Milwaukee with my brother, Byron. One night in
the mid '80s, he brought home a record player and snuck downstairs
to snatch up the few records that my parents had. Among those
records were The Wiz, Another One Bites the Dust, Lionel Richie's
You are the Sun You are the Rain and assorted Popeye and \Star
Wars"" 45s.