2010 Beef????

Cruising YouTube is like going to the supermarket. Your intent is to go to the store for 5 minutes to pick up one or two things and you end up leaving an hour later with a cart of crap you would never use in life. So I took a YouTube trip one night late looking for who knows what and ended up finding my intended video and everything else in between. This was interesting though, I ran across a chick from Baltimore named Keys who decided to lyrically take a swipe at Nicki Minaj and taped it. If you haven't seen it, let's look at the video tape shall we?

I saw this and I was like ok, you got skills and yeah you can rhyme but the comments were interesting to me. I would say from just glancing at what folks had to say, it was about 50/50 Keys/Minaj. In essence you had folks saying that Keys has skills and Nicki is garbage and vice versa. One of the other prevailing comments was Why is this chick going after her? She won't get discovered doing videos and dissing someone who is already famous. Some even went as far to use the H-word. Yep, our favorite black person word, hater. Once again, I don't in any way, shape or form see this as Keys hating on Nicki. What I do see is a gritty MC who is challenging the current state of the genre and showing that she doesn't like what is going on and that there is diversity of styles in the rap game. I see Hip-Hop becoming more and more divided among lines of those who can spit and the more commercialized type hip-hop of Nicki Minaj.

I will say it again for the record, I REALLY tried to like Nicki. I listened to one of her mixtapes and she had maybe one halfway decent track but for the most part, it was the most disjointed album I have ever heard by ANY artist. However, she has appeal to alot of folks for reasons I can't understand but that is why she is a star. But why when someone comes hard like Keys or keeps it real like Talib Kweli, it is classified as "alternative" or "underground" hip-hop. Hip-hop represents a wide variety of musical and lyrical styles. You can classify a particular hip-hop style by say the origin of the group or artist but to me it appears that we are denigrating some artists because they choose to remain true to the origins of hip-hop.

Not too long after this came out, Nicki responded. Initially I tried to watch this at work but damn this video is PAINFUL to watch. I finally watched it a couple of nights ago at 3am...I knew I had no place to go and at worse I would just fall asleep watching her form a sentence. If you have to go to the bathroom, choose any part of this video. Her sentences are so choppy, you can probably see 30 seconds and get the idea of what she is saying (or not saying).

A mind is a terrible thing to develop without help. I say it over and over and over again!!! Watching this video you can't help but think that. There are really no words, I have nothing to say about this train wreck. And so the back and forth continues as Keys pops up in response:

I shared this with my partner and crime Uniqpoet and we had a very interesting discussion about all of this. He did make a good point, what do folks want to hear these days: Another rapper from the streets talking about stacking chips and doing dirt or a rapper who delivers lighhearted, party-themed lyrics? Why, he adds does every "hungry" emcee have to be gutter and hood? I think this shows the wide divide in hip-hop as emcees from both sides battle for the soul of hip-hop.

At this point I am thinking, is this the next rap beef? Fat chance on that but it sure makes things very, very interesting! I wonder if Keys is going to get in the black trucks and ride on Nicki? Ha, ha...Stay Tuned!

Where in the World is Queen Pen?

You know a party ain't a party till it's run all through! Queen Pen brought us this jam back in 1997 after doing a hook on BlackStreet's "No Diggity" and the signing to Teddy Riley's Lil Man label. She had a few songs, dare I call them hits and she fades into oblivion until last year when she confronted Rocsi over her alleged affair with the husband of best friend LisaRaye. What I am trying to understand is why is Queen Pen fighting on behalf of her girl? I could understand if they were in a fight together but fighting a battle on behalf of her friend? That has got to be a woman thing cause i'll be damned if i beef with another dude on behalf of my friend! So now other than coming out of pure obscurity to have beef with another chick (which I am sure Rocsi had a chuckle about, probably looking at Queen Pen like "and you are?") Queen Pen is also a novelist. Yeah...look for her book: "Tales of a one-time Grammy Winner Has-Been" at a Barnes and Noble near you.

Hot or Not? Nicki Minaj (Exhibit A)

Ok...I'm not sure how to feel about this. Can it get better or am I making too much of this?

I know her album isn't supposed to drop for a minute but can I get some original material? I'll keep hunting and get back to you and when I do...We'll do it LIVE!!!!! On the East Coast...enjoy your snow day!!!

P.S., Nicki you got me lustin...could this be love?

This is the second time I have followed up a blog with a entry about someone in the previous blog. I have been hearing alot about Ms. Minaj and yes I am a bit curious if she has skills. I will find out later today as I have found a few sites with some of her tracks. I did happen to see her on 106 and Park performing with Robin Thicke. That was eye opening to say the least, cause she got hips and ASS for days! I love how Aries Spears breaks it down about hips v. ass (Sounds like a Supreme Court case? Justice Sotomayor...what is your decision?)

I guess in my mind I so want to see a hip-hop artist succeed in stead of falling into the crap hole and maybe her more so because she looks the way she does. Yeah, that is shallow as hell but I said it! Besides that, if she has the skills shouldn't we want her to succeed? Never mind the reports that her ass may be "fake" but the way it moves, hell I have a few doubts myself! Can she move into the pantheon of Women I Love? Stay tuned, she has to pass the Professor's test for non-wackness! When you step to me...be ready! I think my former students can attest to that! Be easy, I'll holla! We made it, it's Friday!!!!!

The Professor

The Spectrum of Nasty

So now there is a new kid on the block, Nicki Minaj. Just heard about her this weekend and I may have seen her on BET but wouldn't have known her from a hole in the ground. Yeah, I must be getting old because I don't know half of any of these celebrities nor so called MCs anymore. Maybe if any of them did anything that DIDN'T SUCK, maybe I would give a shit who they are! I did a web search for her today and then started to look at her pictures. Similar searches included Trina (aka The Baddest Bitch) and Lil Kim. Interesting similar searches as what I read has made comparisions of Nicki Minaj to Lil Kim. Funny, to me her body is more similar to that of Trina which leads me to call Minaj "Trina lite".

Now I don't know what kind of MC Minaj will be, but one thing is pretty certain is that her sexuality will be an asset as well as a major part of her emceeing. As I thought about this and the comparision I made to Trina, I was thinking where would Ms. Minaj fall on a list of the raunchiest female MCs? I thought of 3 MCs and one R&B singer who has a bit of a rep in her music to be raw in her sexuality. The contenders are:

Trina: Miami's own, famous for such hits as "The Baddest Bitch" and of course my all time favorie her duet with Trick Daddy on Nann N*gga,

Lil Kim: The Queen B, admiring her shoes from Gucci, eatin sushi playin with her p*ssy! (Classic line amongst many from the Lil one)

And the R&B "star" Adina Howard: You remember when "A Freak Like Me" came out. Seems like all the freaks got a bit freakier when that dropped. Since then, she fell into obscurity for a few years but has had moderate success with songs like "Nasty Grind", "(Freak) And U Know It" and "T-Shirt & Panties" played in the film Woo.

So my spectrum would be from top (freak of the decade) to bottom (up and coming freak):

1. Adina Howard: Gotta love those song titles. I mean yeah she is half remembered but more forgotten but her s*it is raw. This is beyond baby making music, this is "put on this construction helmet so I won't kill you whilst I bang you to this nasty ass song" music. I think her next album she may start singing about Cincinnati Bowties, Dirty Sanchez's and Rusty Trombones.

2. Lil Kim: A close second, Lil Kim has some lines where I wanted to J*zz in my pants. And her videos...well don't get up and go anywhere in public for about 15-20 minutes.

3 Trina: Never trust a big butt and smile...

4. Nicki Minaj: As I said, it will remain to be seen what kind of nasty, freaky ass s*it she will be throwing on a track. I just hope she's decent, try to not fall into the mold of the current state of hip-hop. Or at least don't get booed off stage a la OJ the Juiceman.

What an age we live in!!! All the sex you can stand and all you have to do is have iTunes!!!

Class dismissed....