Thank Me Later

Drake album is, has, and will be on repeat. Stone cold classic. Similar to the best of the classics - Ridin' Dirty, Illmatic, Enter The 36 Chambers, Blueprint 1, Graduation, Carter III, Paper Trail - it gives you everything; the ups, the downs, the regrets, the shocking admissions, the unhealthy self-medication via spending and drugging, the real r. kelly truth of rags-to-riches madness the bullshit road to big capitol and the resulting suffering of the soul in spite of the euphoria of the moment. And it does so over top of the most mind-bogglingly perfect instrumental tracks the year 2010 can offer anyone. If Hov is supposed to be Sinatra then who the fuck is Drake? Someone more promising. After all, it took Jay 5 albums to put out something perfect, and lightning hasn't struck since. Drake is 1 for 1, big time. Keep that yuppie-rap throne warm, Jigga.

Thank Me Later

The Drake album leaked yesterday, and it is better than both The Carter III and Graduation, which are in my consideration the 2 milestones of pop music quality in the last 3 years. One of the best pop albums I have ever heard. I take back anything I ever said about Drake.

Another Underground Rap Clip And Some Ranting

Pill killing an old Big Pun classic. I just recently found out Big Pun was a wife-beating asshole, I try to separate politics from entertainment as much as possible... it's not like I care about the background of the people who sell me snacks at a 7-11 or make my burgers at a fast food joint; I am actually happy to see ex-cons taking a stab at the straight life and glad somebody isn't too high up on their horse to provide these people jobs, even if it is a notoriously terrible corporation like mcdonald's. So why should I concern myself with the personal lives of the people who prepare my entertainment. That being said, sometimes there is an unavoidable effect...For instance, when the last Chris Brown song Transformer came out with Lil Wayne on it I thought it was clever and catchy as all hell and played it a lot. This doesn't mean I respect Brown as a person, but denying myself the entertainment value of what little he does have to offer the earth isn't going to change shit. So fuck it. But it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I feel similarly about James Brown and Miles Davis. They were pricks. I wouldn't have liked them as people. But their musical legacy cannot be reduced by their social misanthropies. They just leave behind a terrible history for the gossip and biography crowds to mull over. I swear some people who claim to be so shocked by this stuff get off on reading about it all the time, it's pretty stupid. The guy made records, and sucked as a person, are you really that intense that you have to justify the kind of entertainment that makes you happy by investigating the purity of the source? Probably a lot of the people you listen to and think are probably really good people because they really seem like they are on record...some of these people most likely have a more passive aggressive history of emotional abuse to their spouse or any other number of fucked up things that haven't become public knowledge. It's not worth driving yourself crazy about it. People suck in general. We surround ourselves with ridiculous pop entertainment so we don't have to think about shit like that, that's the whole point.

It's all about the budget, man

I have recently stepped into the realm of blu ray. I don't own a player or an HD TV (like probably a slight-to-decent majority of media-buying americans at this point in time), but never the less, I have began picking the cheap ones up. Well, the cheap GOOD ones. And they are weirdly easy to find gems at say, your local target. I first picked up Robocop for $12, which is a steal for an incredible sci-fi/action movie... one of the best ever, even. Granted, that movie looks pretty shoddy in any form because of the type of film used, but as an owner of the OOP criterion that many so called film geeks claim to prefer (bullshit, you're just trying to justify your purchase of $35 now that a superior version is available for under $15) I can say without a doubt this is the best looking version available for purchase. Today I got a similar deal on Commando, the 1985 Schwarzenegger action movie with a weirdly high 71% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and Out For Justice only gets 26%?). Perhaps it is not weirdly though, as it is an early script by genius comic book writer/tv executive Jeph Loeb (Smallville, Heroes, LOST). He had just come off of writing Teen Wolf, so before I even knew who this dude was he had provided me with some pretty good childhood memories. Commando rules, though. Straight up. You only consider this pleasure a guilty one if you have your head up your own ass. People need to learn to admit that a good action movie has some pretty awesome logistics within certain action segments, and an addictive over-the-top low brow aesthetic that certainly breeds cult fandom as much as any old blaxploitation flick or sci-fi or western genre films. The cheese is inherent, but in its own way this genre tends to deliver the goods (as far as the movies that are actually on point.)

That's all.

Young Dudes Holding It Down

Some dudes putting out underground mixtapes that are straight killing it:

SparkDawg:


Whiz Khalifa:

Just saw somebody post under the funniest handle on an Ain't It Cool News talkback... RosemarysBabyDaddy. I always loved Before & After on Wheel Of Fortune and find myself always coming up with these things in my head.