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!

This one's for Mike

I think I am kind of in silent shock about Michael Jackson. In a way, I had forgotten about him. Within the last few years with all of the accusations and court cases, he had become a bit of an outcast of sorts and I started to wonder what had happened. How I asked myself as I look at his album covers on my iPod did all of what he had and was as an artist (meaning his look, style etc)change so dramatically. As I pulled into my apartment complex listening to Human Nature almost 24 hours before he died I said...I miss black Mike. Weird statement I know, but i said it jokingly. But then last week, sitting in a bar having been really busy at work I hadn't heard he was hospitalized. I don't think anyone but God knew what was to happen next but we now all know that he is gone.

The very next day I went to a cookout and all of the music that was played for a majority of the evening was Michael Jackson and just like everyone else, it took me back! I knew where I was when I fell in love with hip-hop, but Michael Jackson is timeless in so many ways. His style and music did change dramatically but one thing was certain, when MJ was involved you were going to get a show. The question was "how would he amaze me this time?" The most memorable MJ moment for me was his performance of Billie Jean on the Motown 25 special in 1983. Everyone you knew was watching and they were all watching to catch his performance. And if you remember it like I do, it was one for the ages. My biggest question is this: After all of this news coverage slows down and we do learn what was the final determination of his death, will we REALLY know the whole story? I would bet no simply to preserve his memory, legacy as well as to minimize additional pain that can be caused.

As my partner in crime Uniqpoet said: "God must be having a concert, he has James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Barry White and now Michael Jackson...he's jammin!!!!" Thanks Michael Jackson, RIP.

Doing fine in 09!

Hey all, just a short post to let you know I am still alive in the 09. What a week huh, President Obama!!! WHOOOOO!!! Just keep the brotha in prayer as he begins a most difficult journey. I may have mentioned before that I have found myself actually writing poetry. I think I can actually write something decent. My partner in crime UniqPoet has been having poetry sets and a group of us have been sharing our work. I hadnt written anything in a while until last week. So here is the first work of 2009, hopefully there will be more (we shall see) as the spirit moves me. Comments please and more in-depth blogging to come in the 09!

Turn to your Neighbor

(An ode to Black Unity)

 

Turn to your neighbor

and make a fist

and bump them together

like Barack and Michelle

Say “Neighbor,

I wish you well

The Best of health,

prosperity and peace to you.

Neighbor, lets put down

the guns, the drugs

the hatred, jealousy

Lets shoot each other

with smiles, instead of 9s.

Lets stand up together

For our schools

our 40 acres

and a mule.

Lets stand up for our children

and their future

Stop ending each others futures

and start loving each other

in the present.

Neighbor, I don’t know you

But I turn to you

and ask for your forgiveness

The stress and strain

of 400 years of oppression

has turned me

away from you.

But here we are

face to face.

Lets turn back

away from one another

and stand together

united

For one another

 

WKG © 2009

 

Want more? Visit www.thesepoemssuck.com

The Real Men Council

You may or may not have noticed that I am co-writing a new blog with my good friend Uniqpoet. Unfortunately, blogger has temporarily shut us down because their system thought our blog was a spam blog. I have requested twice for a review and I hope we will be back at you shortly. And we were about to get into another interesting conversation! The Real Men Council came about from our conversations that we would have amongst the guys on "Real Men Mondays". Well since it is moving about, "Real Men Mondays" are just now Real Men "fill in the blank with the day". It is a cool outing, just the fellas getting together for laughs and real talk about being single, involved or married brothas in Central Virginia. I hope as does Uniqpoet that our blog hopes to ask funny and stimulating questions about life and all of it's ups and downs. I just wanted to get that out in case you have tried to look at the blog or saw it and didnt want to touch it. When it gets back going, please touch it...we would greatly appreciate it. Meanwhile I am trying to get some stuff together in my head for a new blog...hopefully the debate tonight wont piss me off and you get yet another political blog but stay tuned. Hope your Tuesday is going smooth...I like to call it Tepid Tuesday. On to Wildin' out Wednesday! I'll holla!!!