So heres IGN's review of Fallout 3.5 er... A brand new entry into the post-apocalyptic free roaming RPG series.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Rick Ross x Drake x Chrisette Michele - Aston Martin Music
New vid from the best track off of "Teflon Don". Outside of "MC Hammer" that is...
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
G.O.O.D. Music BET Awards Cypher
I'd review the BET awards, but well, 100 Ways to Die was on... If I wanted to to watch "1 way to kill Black people" I would have watched that whole God-forsaken "awards" show.
Monday, April 19, 2010
New Boondocks Season 3 Clip: Wil.I.Am feat Thugnificent - "Dick Riding Obama"
This shit is HILARIOUS!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Tracy Morgan on Jay Leno
This guy's the best, and most difficult, interview ever. Greatness.
tmorgan leno int
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tmorgan leno int
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
New Kat Stacks Video
FYI - I don't believe a word out her mouth, whether it's the truth or not. Homies over hoes! Pause.
Mixtape Review: DJ Nappi/ King Mike - RAMBIS
The first thing I want to say about this mixtape is that, for all intents and purposes, it isn't one. This is a true compilation album that does a great job of showcasing much of the local talent in San Antonio. Rambis, names after after the LA Lakers' workhorse with the John Holmes 'stache and the short shorts, plays alot like it's namesake. Hard and to the point. Pause. If I had to choose two things that make Rambis stand out from alot of albums as of late, it would be this: First, it succeeds at being diverse without being random. Two, it allows the Trendsetters, specifically King Mike, to promote their premier artist, Greg G, who has a legit shot at stardom with his progression over the last few years.
Cool Kids aficionados will immediately grab the sample on the lead-in track "Hustle Hard Like". It's a fitting lead in, heavy on rhymes and light on choruses or a whole lot of exposition, each rapper touches and the subject matter and rolls into their verse with their respective styles. The simple, yet poignant production is a win here. "You Can't Stop Me Now" may be the most radio ready 210 song to date, and nice rap/r&b collab from 3rd Degree Mainstay Kyle Lee and local songbird KiiKii Star. Yung Fyngas' Production is damn near perfect, in the vein of "I Need a Girl pt. 2" Street cuts like "Real Ish" "Slow Down" and "Deuce Dime" succeed at being believable, whereas alot of "hard" songs I've heard locally tend to border on cartoon comedy.
One song that really worked was "Big Man". Chop, an artist I'm not too familiar with, exudes confidence to the point that what would be an average song tends to be fun and catchy. As far as club anthems go, "Hit The Flo" is a song that delivers, with Noe spitting a great verse in terms of both intensity and delivery.
Rambis benefits from only being a rap platform, but fully embracing San Antonio's R&B singers. The Aforementioned KiiKii Star is also featured on "He Likes It" along with Xavier. The AJ Hernz assisted "Aye" is a show stealer, with Gab (who will tell you he doesn't sound like Rick Ross) and Hernz doing a great "Best of Both Worlds" homage to the ladies.
The Best Moments on Rambis come from familiar faces. Greg G Technically pulls triple duty on the album, rapping, signing and producing. His best verse comes on "My Own Lane" where producer Da New Kid cleverly flips the sample from Jay-Z's "Encore" and uses a Kayne sample to boot. Every artist on the song seems to be at least part acronym, with Greg G riding alongside MOC, LD and H.I.G (say that three times fast!) Griffin's production on "Believe" one of the last records features local favorite B. Smith, along with D-Cypher and Gab, on a song that is probably what "All the Above would've sounded like if Maino could rap (I'm just sayin'.)
Start to finish, this was a great listen, where many different artists from similar territory got a change to work together and to really test their skills against the best. Even the songs that aren't exactly my style ("Ridin Boy", "Boys Talkin Down") weren't bad songs, they just weren't really my thing. But the beauty of Rambis is that it appeals to a very broad audience, so everyone can find something to latch on to. Greg G. is the best all around talent in San Antonio, with his complete skill set being unmatched. The Trendsetters hung their hat on a winner. What to take away from this is that the city has alot of talent, and that DJ's looking to put out mixtapes, THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT.
Rating: 8.9/10
Rating: 8.9/10
Monday, April 5, 2010
Mixtape Review: Tony Jones - Grindtime
Let me start off by saying I’m a bit biased. It’s difficult to write about music coming from people you know outside of music, for fear of seeming either too enthusiastic or too critical. I took a Sunday afternoon to listen to Grindtime start to finish, and also listened to a few things Tony Jones had to say in relation to this project. On the Mel Finest Show (shameless plug), Jones was asked what his goal was in the music industry. One thing he stressed was “I’m not trying to be the best rapper, I wanna make music.” What seemed like a cop out really helped to answer some of the questions I had about what I was listening to. Heavy on boasting, light on introspection, Grindtime serves as a proper introduction for an artist geared towards making exciting and action packed anthems.
What jumped out to me at first was the subject matter. Tony Jones is a concise artist, in that he doesn’t waste a lot of time getting to what’s important. There’s a lot to be said about an artist being blunt about what they desire. “Jockin” is a standout track, lifting it’s hook from a Gorilla Zoe line in “Hood Nigga.” Here Jones makes it clear he’s familiar with the response he gets from the opposite sex. Tracks like “No Drama” and “You a Hater” reinforce the idea that being critical of his style is a waste, because he’s in it more for the fortune and less for the fame.
What I really appreciated is something I’ve been seeing out of San Antonio Artists as of late: Their willingness to appear on each others albums and mixtapes. “Uptown”, lifting one of the great beats from Drake’s So Far Gone mixtape, is an excellent showcase for artists Shaun Anthony, GAB and Krookz. B. Smith, Infamy and Yung Mavrick help Jones craft a nice track on the bass heavy “Posted on the Block.” Jones includes seven tracks from other artists, giving them a chance to return the favor at a later point.
In some ways, this mixtape's greatest strength can also serve to be it’s greatest weakness. The production at times can take away from whats being said. Many of the beats use the same “Screwed Hook” template, and seem to run together, making what would be good standalone tracks sound like they go on much longer than they should. More tracks like the aforementioned “Uptown” would have been beneficial, in that the weight of a four to five minute song would have more staying power without it sounding a lot like the track right before it. In the future, to create something that would stand the test of time, Jones should use more diverse beats to separate song from one another. All in all, this is a solid effort from a new artist, and with some tweaking here or there, this will be someone to keep an eye on for a long time.
Rating: 7.4/10
Download Tony Jones Grindtime at Datpiff.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Growing up fatherless
Let me start by saying I know my father, and I speak to him on a pretty consistent basis. With that being said, it took me a long time to understand that for one reason or another he was not in my life like he could have been. To make this less about me and more about a lifestyle, my parents divorced at an early age because of my father’s lack of drive. He was intelligent and charming, almost to a fault. He never followed through with plans or aspirations, which is why all of his brothers and sisters are engineers and government officials, and he well, isn’t.
We moved away at an early age, so seeing my father wasn’t something that happened often. The problem was that when I did come around, there would always be another obligation he had, whether it was working this job or that job. Isn’t that what vacation times for? But I digress. The hardest thing about growing up without a father is watching the strain it puts on everyone else. My paternal grandparents and my mother did everything they could to make up for his absence, almost to a fault. My stepfather and I didn’t get along till, well, I graduated college, and when I finally asked him what our problem was, he explained that he thought it was affront to him that he had to go through so many channels to communicate with me, and that the relationship I had with my fathers side of the family made me coddled and pampered. Well, that’s bullshit, but again, let’s focus.
In most situations where a father is absent, as it was in mine, mothers have to assume the role of mother and father, usually to strange results. Women can try their damndest, but it does take a man to raise a man properly. There are things that women don’t understand about how we work, and without that knowledge we cannot be complete. I’ve got the war wounds to prove it. The biggest problem this creates is how we respond to other women. There is a certain amount of control we all need, and when those boundaries are tested by the opposite sex, those of us who never had that man around to temper our behavior don't respond well. To paraphrase the modern classic “Fight Club”, “we’re men raised by a generation of women. Why would we want to grow up to repeat that cycle?” (NHJIC). When fathers are absent, it leads to the same situation repeating over and over. I mean, we all think we turned out ok, right?
We moved away at an early age, so seeing my father wasn’t something that happened often. The problem was that when I did come around, there would always be another obligation he had, whether it was working this job or that job. Isn’t that what vacation times for? But I digress. The hardest thing about growing up without a father is watching the strain it puts on everyone else. My paternal grandparents and my mother did everything they could to make up for his absence, almost to a fault. My stepfather and I didn’t get along till, well, I graduated college, and when I finally asked him what our problem was, he explained that he thought it was affront to him that he had to go through so many channels to communicate with me, and that the relationship I had with my fathers side of the family made me coddled and pampered. Well, that’s bullshit, but again, let’s focus.
In most situations where a father is absent, as it was in mine, mothers have to assume the role of mother and father, usually to strange results. Women can try their damndest, but it does take a man to raise a man properly. There are things that women don’t understand about how we work, and without that knowledge we cannot be complete. I’ve got the war wounds to prove it. The biggest problem this creates is how we respond to other women. There is a certain amount of control we all need, and when those boundaries are tested by the opposite sex, those of us who never had that man around to temper our behavior don't respond well. To paraphrase the modern classic “Fight Club”, “we’re men raised by a generation of women. Why would we want to grow up to repeat that cycle?” (NHJIC). When fathers are absent, it leads to the same situation repeating over and over. I mean, we all think we turned out ok, right?
Growing up fatherless
Let me start by saying I know my father, and I speak to him on a pretty consistent basis. With that being said, it took me a long time to understand that for one reason or another he was not in my life like he could have been. To make this less about me and more about a lifestyle, my parents divorced at an early age because of my father’s lack of drive. He was intelligent and charming, almost to a fault. He never followed through with plans or aspirations, which is why all of his brothers and sisters are engineers and government officials, and he well, isn’t.
We moved away at an early age, so seeing my father wasn’t something that happened often. The problem was that when I did come around, there would always be another obligation he had, whether it was working this job or that job. Isn’t that what vacation times for? But I digress. The hardest thing about growing up without a father is watching the strain it puts on everyone else. My paternal grandparents and my mother did everything they could to make up for his absence, almost to a fault. My stepfather and I didn’t get along till, well, I graduated college, and when I finally asked him what our problem was, he explained that he thought it was affront to him that he had to go through so many channels to communicate with me, and that the relationship I had with my fathers side of the family made me coddled and pampered. Well, that’s bullshit, but again, let’s focus.
In most situations where a father is absent, as it was in mine, mothers have to assume the role of mother and father, usually to strange results. Women can try their damndest, but it does take a man to raise a man properly. There are things that women don’t understand about how we work, and without that knowledge we cannot be complete. I’ve got the war wounds to prove it. The biggest problem this creates is how we respond to other women. There is a certain amount of control we all need, and when those boundaries are tested by the opposite sex, those of us who never had that man around to temper our behavior don't respond well. To paraphrase the modern classic “Fight Club”, “we’re men raised by a generation of women. Why would we want to grow up to repeat that cycle?” (NHJIC). When fathers are absent, it leads to the same situation repeating over and over. I mean, we all think we turned out ok, right?
We moved away at an early age, so seeing my father wasn’t something that happened often. The problem was that when I did come around, there would always be another obligation he had, whether it was working this job or that job. Isn’t that what vacation times for? But I digress. The hardest thing about growing up without a father is watching the strain it puts on everyone else. My paternal grandparents and my mother did everything they could to make up for his absence, almost to a fault. My stepfather and I didn’t get along till, well, I graduated college, and when I finally asked him what our problem was, he explained that he thought it was affront to him that he had to go through so many channels to communicate with me, and that the relationship I had with my fathers side of the family made me coddled and pampered. Well, that’s bullshit, but again, let’s focus.
In most situations where a father is absent, as it was in mine, mothers have to assume the role of mother and father, usually to strange results. Women can try their damndest, but it does take a man to raise a man properly. There are things that women don’t understand about how we work, and without that knowledge we cannot be complete. I’ve got the war wounds to prove it. The biggest problem this creates is how we respond to other women. There is a certain amount of control we all need, and when those boundaries are tested by the opposite sex, those of us who never had that man around to temper our behavior don't respond well. To paraphrase the modern classic “Fight Club”, “we’re men raised by a generation of women. Why would we want to grow up to repeat that cycle?” (NHJIC). When fathers are absent, it leads to the same situation repeating over and over. I mean, we all think we turned out ok, right?
Internet Dating... huh?
Without being vulgar, everything we do is influenced by our desire to be with others, i.e. sex (or whatever it is were calling it this week. Beating cakes anyone?). The way we dress, the things we say, the very way we move, is meant to draw others toward us. Why would our presence on the internets be any different? Since it’s inception into the mainstream, the internet has been heavy on personal communication. Which of us in the web 2.0 era can say we’ve never been in an AOL chat room? In 2011, online dating will become a near 1 billion dollar a year business, because of its ability to simplify the awkwardness of dating. The idea of someone paying to meet people is well, no different from what the majority of us do week in and week out. When you go to a bar, a club, a restaurant or any gathering place, you are in essence paying to meet people. You are just more willing to deal with direct rejection, whether you are the victim or assailant.
Internet dating is pretty basic. You build a profile, stating your sex, age range, location and interests. You let other people on the service you use know what you’re into, and they do the same. If your information matches up with someone, you begin to talk privately, in hopes of building something over time. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Like dating out here in the real world, you can have all the things in common with a person, but not be attracted to them. The difference here is that you all are both looking, and presenting interest beforehand. There’s a big difference in meeting someone over the internet at 3 in the afternoon on a Sunday and meeting someone when you pissy drunk on a Friday night. Trust me, I've been there. The key difference is that rejection over the internet is both more humiliating and easier to accept at the same time.
Let’s say you find someone whose online profile matches your own. You talk, laugh, share stories and really hit it off. Then they realize the first four pictures in your profile were oh, thirty pounds ago, and they’re no longer interested. You put yourself out there, and you were shot down. It sucks. More than likely However, there are likely more people you have things in common with than the one you clicked with, and you aren’t dealing with someone you have to see on a regular basis, so getting over it is less of a task.
Where internet dating reaches its apex of strangeness is on web 2.0’s social networking sites. I remember watching the MySpace Exodus of 2009, thinking, “did so many lames hit on girls that they all up and left?” But in many ways, when internet dating isn’t restricted, or at least given some structure, the awkwardness reaches a new level. In an open world that doesn’t require a monthly fee, strange messages and “friend requests” from people you never met are the norm. This coupled with fake profiles and spam accounts do nothing but frustrate those expecting to meet real people, thus making them less socially integrated and created even more strange situations.
Online dating works for some, those us of too busy to leave relationships to much chance, and those of us more specific about what we want. The issue is that it eliminates the flair, and the intrigue from going out into the world and proving one’s self, showing that we can excel where others have failed. If I had to choose between going out and meeting people, or staying in and doing the same, I would almost always choose the latter, if for no other reason than the sense of satisfaction it brings. To those in the know, the internet (dating) is for geeks anyway. And who wants that label on top of being anti-social and creepy?
Internet dating is pretty basic. You build a profile, stating your sex, age range, location and interests. You let other people on the service you use know what you’re into, and they do the same. If your information matches up with someone, you begin to talk privately, in hopes of building something over time. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Like dating out here in the real world, you can have all the things in common with a person, but not be attracted to them. The difference here is that you all are both looking, and presenting interest beforehand. There’s a big difference in meeting someone over the internet at 3 in the afternoon on a Sunday and meeting someone when you pissy drunk on a Friday night. Trust me, I've been there. The key difference is that rejection over the internet is both more humiliating and easier to accept at the same time.
Let’s say you find someone whose online profile matches your own. You talk, laugh, share stories and really hit it off. Then they realize the first four pictures in your profile were oh, thirty pounds ago, and they’re no longer interested. You put yourself out there, and you were shot down. It sucks. More than likely However, there are likely more people you have things in common with than the one you clicked with, and you aren’t dealing with someone you have to see on a regular basis, so getting over it is less of a task.
Where internet dating reaches its apex of strangeness is on web 2.0’s social networking sites. I remember watching the MySpace Exodus of 2009, thinking, “did so many lames hit on girls that they all up and left?” But in many ways, when internet dating isn’t restricted, or at least given some structure, the awkwardness reaches a new level. In an open world that doesn’t require a monthly fee, strange messages and “friend requests” from people you never met are the norm. This coupled with fake profiles and spam accounts do nothing but frustrate those expecting to meet real people, thus making them less socially integrated and created even more strange situations.
Online dating works for some, those us of too busy to leave relationships to much chance, and those of us more specific about what we want. The issue is that it eliminates the flair, and the intrigue from going out into the world and proving one’s self, showing that we can excel where others have failed. If I had to choose between going out and meeting people, or staying in and doing the same, I would almost always choose the latter, if for no other reason than the sense of satisfaction it brings. To those in the know, the internet (dating) is for geeks anyway. And who wants that label on top of being anti-social and creepy?
Friday, January 15, 2010
MTV doesn’t love you like it used to.
You know I’m telling you the truth. MTV hasn’t cared about you since Carson Daly left for a real job at NBC. Want proof? The Hills. Need more? Bromance. Nail in the Coffin? Jersey GODDAMN Shore. How many times have you been with a group on friends, filled to MTV, and hit the old man preface, “I remember when..” and finished with “MTV used to show videos…” What the hell happened? Did I wake up and become an old hater one day, or did they decide we were getting enough free music on the internet? Whatever the case may be, the shift in programming, and aside from the family Simmons the general lack of originality and quality seemed to spit in the face on the people that made MTV huge. What’s worse, I cant log onto Facebook without someone referencing the bad programming as if it had any type on redeeming value. “You won’t believe what the situation did tonight..” WHAT? Get outta here. The reason MTV continues to produce bad television is that we (aka ya’ll) continue to support it. Take a stand! Turn off the reality whoring that is Viacom programming and, shit I dunno, but switch that shit up… you are doing us all a disservice.
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