r.i.p. soul music?

Last night, I was blessed with a show from the most guerrilla artist in the game today. Bilal has not released an album since his debut, 1st Born Second, which came out in 2001. How can he still sell out venues and have the audience singing along vehemently to songs that have never seen an official release? Ponder on that for a second. We have had a two-term president serve his tenure and leave office before having heard another Bilal album, and he can still sell out places and headline. how is this possible you ask?

1st Born Second dropped during the Soulquarian era, which coincided with releases such as D'Angelo's Voodoo, The Roots's Things Fall Apart, Common's Like Water For Chocolate, Badu's Mama's Gun and the like. Black music was very well represented at that time. Every album under the Soulquarian umbrella had deep roots in soul music: music for the soul. When that period ended, it left a large void in the music scene. Common's creative career died and went to the Mainstream Afterlife. Erykah's music always dabbled around the soul moniker but she began her electronic movement afterwards. The Roots kept evolving their brand of hip-hop and one of the backbones of the Soulquarians, J Dilla, succumbed to a bout with Lupus in '06. D'Angelo pretty much faded into obscurity after Voodoo with thinly spread cameos...which leads me to Bilal.

Bilal's music has always had a unique hold on its listeners. His first album was a collage of styles and Bilal shined on Dr. Dre production with a Jadakiss cameo just as well as he did with Jay Dee, Mos Def & Common. He was truly a raw talent that hadn't quite yet been focused. That focus came on 2006's Love For Sale, which was shelved by his record label after being bootlegged heavily. He performs songs from this album and is often accompanied verbatim by the fans at shows.

Love For Sale was the album that fans of soul music have been waiting for ever since it was apparent that Badu, D'Angelo, nor Lauryn Hill was ever going to travel that route again, and is more than likely the reason that he remains as relevant as he is today to the scene. His music is beyond genre, but above all it is something you feel. Something that speaks to your soul. He is the last of a dying breed and is the sole filler of a large void left by the Soulquarian family. That is how he can sell out crowds without an album.

Plus...who else do you know can rock a show without background singers?
The destiny of soul music rests on the vocal chords of Bilal. get familiar.


make me over


all for love

(both from the unreleased: Love For Sale)

The Tiger/Barack Phenomenon.

Tiger Woods and Barack Obama have a very crucial factoid in common: People will NOT hop off their respective dicks. At all. Maybe there's something about being a creamy caramel successful "black" man that makes everything you do exponentially more important or acceptable.

Am I being retarded, or was one of Obama's primary goals as president to get us out of the middle east (I will refrain from naming specific country names for fear of being absolutely wrong)? +34,000 is a far cry from our full-fledged exeunt. Everyone on the news: "It's disappointing, but Obama says it's what has to be done..." He's on our bra strap, we're on his dick. I personally think this is not so discretely his first big sign of being a puppet. We were so swept up in his rhetoric and profligate use of the word "hope" that perhaps we didn't see a wolf in sheep's clothing. Just a hunch. Obama garners support from supporters and non-supporters alike. I doubt there's a straight man in this country who wouldn't bop him off if he asked. Just a hunch.

So, in the case of Tiger Woods, he hasn't lost a single sponsorship in light of his more than two year affair with some bunny. I'm not saying he should, but celebrity affairs seem to be a big deal. And the massive amount of news coverage for Woods' "transgressions" are surprisingly not negative. I guess we're on some shit like "Fuck his wife. She can't golf like ol' Tiger. She don't matter."

They got friends with money, and they got money too. Swinging golf clubs and shit. Giving national addresses and shit. Dollars and success seem to be a pass for virtually anything. Infidelity and dishonesty mean nothing when you're (cue the "grr") Tiger, or (drumroll please) Barack Obama.

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?

---

*?*

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