On Repeat: "Yes" by Li'l Wayne featuring Pharrell Williams (or vice versa, I'm not sure...)

While blog-surfing, I stumbled across a post talking about the song "Yes" by Li'l Wayne and Pharrell, at which point I immediately fired up my Limewire to download it.  The beat has that same aliens-in-Africa energy you heard on "A Milli", but this song's a whole new animal.  Every now and then comes a song that just makes you want to slap the next person who says anything out of pocket to you (while screaming "Do you know who I am?"), I mean, just pumps you up to the point of no return.  This is that joint.  The arrogance involved with Pharrell and Wayne exchanging stunt-tastic verses over this space-age track and Pharrell on the hook is just mind-blowing...

"...get a stack in each hand/ and hold it like ya fresh/ they say 'man it's like that?'/ say 'YEEES n***a YEEES n***a..."

You get the picture...obtain this any way you can!

Rhythm & Blues 2009

For a while, I was giving up on R&B.  I can't stomach R. Kelly anymore and the rest of the upstarts on the scene just weren't putting it down in a real way.  Lyrics were lacking and creativity had become a thing of the past.  Recently, however, a few artists have breathed new life into the genre and I think the future of R&B is looking brighter.

• Jazmine Sullivan - seeming to almost come out of nowhere, Jazmine Sullivan hit us with the Missy-assisted "Need U Bad" and followed up with the vindictive "Bust Your Windows".  She reminds me of Mary J. Blige with a little neo-soul mixed in.  Great vocals and original songwriting.  Favorite Tracks: "Music" (featuring Floetry...20 minutes of music for the sheets) & "Lions, Tigers & Bears"
• The Dream - He's been out for a while, but everything that came out this year had a tinge of what the Dream brought to the game: somethin' new.  "Shawty Is A Ten" was a true banger and his self-proclaimed title of "radio-killer" held true as he released "Falsetto" and "I Luv Your Girl".  The Dream came out with a sound that could be appreciated by brothas that aren't normally into R&B by adding a little bit of street and a sound that's unmistakably futuristic.  Favorite Tracks: "All I Need" (a Sterling Simms track featuring Jadakiss...listen for his trademark "Ay, ay")
• T-Pain - Say what you want about my man's vocals and the ever-present auto-tunes, but Pain created his own lane in the music game, blending old-school Roger Troutman vocals with new-school R&B and something that's (don't know if I should use this twice) futuristic.  And now look at all of the imitators...Favorite little-knowns: "Superbad" (a Sophia Fresh track featuring Cee-lo...a club banger) & "Studio Love" (featuring Li'l Wayne croaking out a verse on this smoothed-out baby-maker)
• Keri Hilson - I don't know how anyone could front on "The Way I Are", Timbaland's genre-blending hit with Keri Hilson on vocals.  Her single "Energy" was next up and then came "Turnin' Me On" a jam featuring the eponymous Li'l Wayne.
• Marsha Ambrosius - Aside from her work with Floetry, Marsha has been putting in solo work for a minute.  A recent mixtape called "Neo Soul Is Dead" hints at a possible solo project.  Her voice is incredibly ranged and she's not afraid to get a little gangsta, as evidenced by tracks with Nas and the Game ("Why You Hate The Game" and "Hustlers") and Freeway ("This Can't Be Real").  Favorite Little-Knowns: "Murda" (solo featuring The Game) & "Freakin' Me" (a Jamie Foxx track featuring Ms. Ambrosius)
• Jamie Foxx - The new album "Intuition" is crazy!!!  'Nuff said!  Favorite tracks: "Digital Girl"(featuring Kanye) & "Blame It"(featuring T-Pain)
• Sterling Simms - A new artist who you may remember from a feature on Jay-Z's Kingdom Come album.  He's got some good lyrics and some serious production that may keep him around for a while and judging by the homie's Facebook status, he's working on a second album.  Check out "Jumpoff" featuring Sean Paul of the Youngbloodz, that good take-you-home banger for the late night club crawl.
• Ryan Leslie - Major buzz has been generated about this cat recently.  He's been putting out some quality work!  Check out the hypnotic "Addiction" featuring Fabolous and Cassie and "Kiss Me" featuring Cassie.
• More to come, but let me know who you think is doin' it right now...

Let's Get Back to Us Loving Us.

I'm a judgmental person as you might be able to determine, but I'm usually right. Stereotypes don't really upset me, because there's some truth to most of them. I also believe that the way one presents themselves is the way they would like to be perceived. That being said, as a reality TV junkie, I had to catch the first episode of the new season of Real World, set in Brooklyn. They had all the usual archetypical cast members: the gay guy, the redneck, the tatted up hipster, etc.
One castmate grabbed my interest, of course, because she was the only Black cast member (you know they can't have more than one or the whole place would smell like burnt hair and there would be sunflower seed shells everywhere). However, the first time they showed her onscreen, I immediately told A.: "She looks like the type to go out of her way to say she doesn't date Black men". Her look and mannerisms (I'm all for bourgie Black and speaking properly, but you can tell when somebody likes to swim in the other end of the pool) just seemed to spark my prejudice. She never confirmed this suspicion, but when castmate Scott walked in, a blond, bodybuilder type, it cut to a scene of her gushing about how amazing she thought he was. In another scene, some of the cast members are shown in a room doing various things and she was laying on the bed looking up at him like he was Jesus resurrected. I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
I once worked with a white girl who told me that her Black friend did not date Black men at all, claiming we were all "disrespectful" and some other BS. Shaka being Shaka, I told her that her friend was a disgrace and should be ashamed of herself. The white girl had a Black boyfriend, so she hit me with: "Well, my boyfriend says the same thing about not dating Black women, so you're saying he's a disgrace too?" Of course, Shaka being Shaka, I said "Yes". She didn't talk to me for like a month.
Given the irreparable damage done to the Black community for over 400 years in this country both by ourselves (can't point fingers with dirty hands) and American media and pop culture, there is an epidemic among Black people that causes some of us to have a poor self-image. I have no problem with people choosing to date whites, I do take issue with those who can't acknowledge the beauty of their own people and culture. To exclude members of the opposite sex as far as datign and relationships is to exclude your own ancestors, relatives, and parents. I was raised surrounded by beautiful, strong Black women, which is why I can't consider anything but.
I salute any Black couple who are in a functional relationship. It can be difficult dependent upon the circumstance, but there is nothing like seeing yourself in your significant other. Chuuurch!

TV Gold: Operation Repo

I spent the better part of tonight watching a show on Tru TV called Operation Repo, a reality show that follows a crew of reposession agents around San Fernando Valley retrieving various vehicles from all kinds of delinquent owners for the finance companies that hire them. The boss is Lou Pizarro and he works with his sister, Sonia, her ex-husband Froy, and occassionally Lou's daughter Lyndah. Matt Burch is the muscle of the crew and is the most confrontational of all of the agents, frequently shoving and instigating fights with the car owners. The scenes are so outrageous that you think it could be staged, but they couldn't get people to do this good an acting job for such a low-budget show.
On one episode, Froy and Matt enter the backyard of a property with a person who says that they are going to give them their car. People rarely ever give up their car on the show, so it seemed sketchy, especially since the guy had just pushed Matt (who is a bald, tattooed muscle-bound Stone Cold Steve Austin type and not the guy to be pushing). Suddenly you hear one of the guys yell "GUN! RUN!" and the two agents and a herd of cameramen are racing for the cars, but not before the cameramen get a few shots of the car owner with two other guys we hadn't seen before, one carrying a .45 and the other two carryign assault rifles. On another episode, they run into a mentally disturbed preacher who claims that the Lord has paid his car note and that the devil has sent Lou and the guys to pick up his car. Priceless.
At the end of the season, Matt is apparently fired for flipping a car he was towing while a cameraman was riding in it. To his defense, Matt had to take a dump really bad and the cameraman was told a few times by both Matt and Froy not to ride in the car. I don't see how the show can continue without Matt, who was responsible for many scuffles that took place on the show, including the guys (and a surprisingly useful Sonia) going up unarmed against two men armed with a 2x4 and a crowbar. Regardless of whether this was the first and last season, I want physical copies of the show in-house and on-shelf!!! Nothing is safe as the crew reposesses ice cream trucks, tractors, forklifts, motorcycles, and luxury cars (one was even reposessed from the set of a porno). Matt is offered a 3-foot tall marijuana plant on one episode from a delinquent, immensely baked owner in exchange for allowing him to keep the car, which Matt rejects. Each episode, you're inches away from deciding that the people they come in contact with but then you think: how would you act if these guys showed up at your house and were trying to take your car? Probably something worthy of fifteen minutes on Tru TV.