Rated R, Graded D.

The rocketship to superstardom seemed to be propelled by a mod haircut atop an islander's Frankenstein dome. Now, Rihanna is something like an icon. "Brilliant. Resilient. Fanmail - 27 million."

But, question existing: can the bitch sing?

Her voice is strange, Always Infinity pad thin, and flatter than a teenage Kim Kardashian's butt. It has a shaky quality along the lines of Amerie's or Mya's - two lovely ladies I supported and listened to, but knew would not succeed beyond a certain point. Not nearly enough strength in that voice to warrant such success.

Rihanna seems best suited to being a fixture. Something to look at and admire, but not to sport on your iPod. Her latest CD, Rated R, seems like nothing more than a sad attempt to finalize her image as an "R&B badass." I don't like hearing four-letter words coming out of her mouth. It sounds funny. And it feels funny. She's deleted the "Pon de Replay" Rihanna entirely.

"We don't play that shit/Nigga, we don't play, no/Everybody quiet when you did your dirt/Actin' like a bitch finna get you hurt" ("G4L")...what?

There are certainly some tracks that are danceable or blastable. I actually really like "Cold Case Love." But it's mostly the instrumentals that salvage each song's listenability.

Dedication to Medication.

Today, in my Googling adventures, I learned that antidepressants may increase the risk of suicide in persons under 25.

What constitutes depression? When do the blues transcend moodiness to venture into the realm of "clinical disorder"? How do you know whether you need Jesus (figuratively speaking) or Cymbalta? How does an intelligent, logical person living an ordinary (by most standards, at least) life contemplate suicide? I know I'd never have the balls. I can get pretty, pretty sad sometimes. Ignorance is...you know the rest. With heightened awareness and knowledge comes an increased sense of melancholy helplessness. Who is going to feed starving kids around the world? When is whatever war we're fighting going to end? Why does my boyfriend act like an asshole sometimes? Who is going to do my fucking Physics homework tonight so that I don't fail this damn class? Why doesn't Shoppers have green grapes?! There are so many different degrees of sadness that can be caused by any and everything, really.

How did society reach a point where the "cure" could be more detrimental than the illness it was intended to alleviate or eradicate? Chemotherapy for cancer, antidepressants for depression...next thing you know, Proactiv may cause acne, Slim Fast may cause weight gain, and daily usage of Orthotricyclen may result in pregnancy.

I think we are programmed as a society to diagnose. This is an E.R. nation where we rush to the hospital every time we slip, fall, and bruise our knee. This is the era of paranoia and WebMD. We Google our symptoms and believe every Yahoo! Answer about our health that any idiot in America has written. We get doctors to sign off on papers allowing us to go through life medicated. In this day and age, sobriety gives us the worst hangover. And the meds prescribed for THAT may increase the risk of suicide in persons under 25.

no ceilings and shit

just now, i asked my brother what the appeal was in lil' wayne. he had walked in playing whatever wayne did to the d.o.a. (def of autotune) and i figured he'd be a prime candidate to explain to me why he thought wayne was tight. apparently i took something for granted. he snapped at me like i was being condescending when i was seriously just asking for some sort of explanation. how do you feel something that sounds like effortlessly forced regurgitation? he raps on beats you already heard, with light verbal jabs that come rapidly THEN he brings out his young niggas who almost always sound like cold ass and wayne clones...and i guess that can be a bit overwhelming for someone who doesn't really expect anything from their music, or even (dare i say) enlightening.



so can someone explain? i can dig some of the stuff wayne does. the first two carters were pretty damn good for albums, but this mixtape messiah that the nigga universe prays to? ...not quite. but these prolly the same niggas who get drunk off cheap liquor & blow dirt weed daily, and repeatedly come up short for a dime and then wanna ask for nicks & shit...smh. cheap ass niggas. excuse the digression, but it really bothers me that the majority of people don't give a shit about anything, especially quality. at least if you're going to indulge in some things without quality can you tell me any reason why its a good choice? hold your fire and wait for a better shot niggas.

They got my man Muhammad.

Pardon if I offend anyone. I am highly disturbed not only that John Allen Muhammad was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday night, but that people are celebrating.

Capital punishment is, in itself, a perverse and hypocritical route of exacting justice. Does "an eye for an eye" really give the victims' families a sense of peace? Does killing someone to prove that killing is wrong make sense? Is it justified or moral in any way?

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*?*

au contraire, Mr. Muhammad (no Ali Shaheed) had participated in a series of shootings that could not be logically linked. His acts had multiple police chiefs losing sleep, and I believe the FBI got on this at the end (correct me if i'm wrong). I'm against capital punishment, but I believe the the punishments you receive correlate with the crimes you commit. A killer with remorse and evident REASONING behind murder(s) would be treated with a lot more sense than someone without the reasoning. There is no understandable reason to shoot random people with no link all across the DMV, INCLUDING a teenage boy at a middle school...and be Black. This is why his defense team tried to argue that he wanted to kill his ex-wife and regain custody of his children. That could've been a reason to get life in jail over death but what he did defied any type of twisted logic.

Lee Malvo, who was his cooperative assailant, received life in jail without parole for the role he played in the mass murders. Why? He cooperated and told police about Muhammad's plan (which included killing 6 white people a day for a whole month), he showed regret, and he also was about 17 at the time of the sniping spree. John Allen Muhammad? He lost as soon as he killed someone in Virginia. Capital punishment isn't even a question in that state.

I don't agree with niggas celebrating and making light of legal murder, but his actions warranted the penalty. Maybe if Maryland or D.C. had convicted him first, he would be living right now. But still...

he fucked up something serious.

fuck 140.

getting on twitter and saying "i'm bored...what are the trending topics?"
is like walking somewhere and trying to figure what everyone else is doing before you start to be yourself.
#weoffthat

WTFt. Hood?

Call me a conspiracy theorist.

No, really. Do it.

I do NOT believe the moon landing, the 9/11 "attacks," the sniper shootings, and countless other things really played out the way the news portrayed. The government has massive amounts of tricks up its hypothetical sleeve, in an attempt to keep us Americans in a perpetual state of fear and naivete. The other day, when I first heard about the Ft. Hood shootings, what was my initial thought?

"Watch them blame it on Joe Muhammad."

Five minutes later. The suspect is identified as Nidal Malik Hasan. Close the fuck enough. I have no ties with the Muslim faith, nor do I know anything about Hasan, besides what the news is telling me (which essentially equals nothing anyway). But why do I feel like he is innocent? Even this explanation paints a picture of a ploy intended to wipe minimal blame off the shoulders of the "Army peers" in question - okay, they harassed him, but he SHOT THEIR ASSES UP:

"Hasan, whose job it was to counsel physically and psychologically wounded soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was described by those who knew him as a calm, gentle person, but one whose anger was stoked by alleged harassment from some of his Army peers over his Muslim faith."

Why must all violent massacres occur at the hands of "foreigners"? Am I the only one who smells the salmon? It's fishy as shit that our country is roughly 70% Caucasian, with the majority of deviants being minorities. Is this a set-up? Selective reporting? Or are minorities truly guilty, and just fucked the hell up from years and years (and years) of disrespect, mistreatment, injustice, and big boots in the ass from "the man"? If this is the case, does their wack ass behavior (i.e. the V-Tech shootings, suicide bombings, etc.) stand excused? Of course not. I just refuse to take what the already-problematic U.S. news media dishes me at face value.

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*questionmark edit

update yourself here.