It’s been a pretty long, boring kinda week Between it being the end of the summer, all the weather problems in ,the South and in the Caribbean, politicians like Alan Keyes and Dick Cheneytalking shyt, instability in Iraq (1,000 soldiers dead, 30,000 Iraqis dead), Chechenya, and Indonesia, and everybody’s 9/11 obsession, these days are just dreary, miserable even. Anyways, last Friday I was so curious about the MOP heavy metal album, having been into heavy metal at various points in my life. So, I brought it , but didn’t really get around to opening it. However, that was the only album that would really peak my interest, as I would find out.
THAT MOVIE “COLLATERAL”
Last Saturday I saw that movie Collateral. It was interesting, somewhat fast paced, Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox did well, and I appreciated some of the symbolism sprinkled in, and I grew up appreciating gratuitous violence, so there was plenty to hold my interest. The story is about a taxi driver and the hit man who holds him hostage for a whole night, and there are plenty of music video style effects, as the movie takes you through the cool underworld nightlife of Los Angeles. Jamie Fox plays a nerdy guy in the movie who doesn’t have much of a life; he just rides his taxi, doing that extra shift so he can one day live out his “dream” which he hasn’t managed to accomplish in like 12 years. We learn that if it wasn’t for this adventure, he would just be driving his taxi and visiting his Mommy, who is in the hospital. Throughout this movie, the taxi driver goes to all these cool spots, and learns what it is to be more than a spineless jellyfish and confront evil. Not to get too political, but this could be indirectly the perfect post 9/11 morality tale; because the taxi driver’s spinelessness and lack of assertiveness is in every American. However, what finally makes the resolution of the movie is the taxi driver’s standing up for himself. It’s cool, but this could be one of those movies you could wait to see on video.
WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT WAS!
At the Borders book store next to the movie theater I brought the video collection “What it is, what it was”.This is a collection of 10 blackspoitation movies. So far I have watched three. The movie “The Black Six” is about some well mannered black bikers. What I was really expecting was like the 70’s version of the movie “Torque” with Ice Cube. The story went like this; some well mannered black bikers who only cause trouble for rednecks (right on!) go to the home town of the leader of the bikers, who finds out that his brother was killed by some redneck bikers. The leader biker and his buddies get into the ultimate rumble; I mean, who would’ve thought, six bikers could beat down 100 bikers? The next movie I saw was “The Black Gestapo”; a campy movie which likens groups like the Panthers to Nazis. It does make some relevant points throughout the movie. At first, the black militants drive out some mafia syndicate from the Los Angeles streets. However, all the drug and prostitution rackets are taken over by one of the leaders who guides the group to corruption! In the end, one of the brothers who is the good guy ends up confronting the group and pulls one of those Rambo moves. Sadly, the movie does seem to reflect the sad reality that power struggles and corruption bring these groups down, even though some of us wish that black radical groups could be an alternative to this whole Bush/Cheney nonsense. So sad. The movie "The Final Comedown" is so good you just have to see it. This movie is very real, low budget, but very real. That's all I can say about that one.
SHOPPING FOR MUSIC!
Anyways, I logged on to the site www.emusic.com, which I have a subscription to, and found that they have MOP’s album, ready for downloading! So, I went back to the store to exchange for another CD. What was I going to get? Lil’Scrappy? Soulja Slim? Young Buck? I would consider all these; I like that grimy ghetto type stuff. However, I pinch my pennies, and I am betting I could get all three of these for the price of one off Half.com. Matter of fact, when I get my next check, I’m going to try that. I couldn’t get Lil Scrappy, because that was summer music; that was cool in like before Labor day but now? Played out. Plus, I feared that I’d like only one song, and the rest of the CD would stink. That package comes with two CD’s; Triville and Lil Scrappy, so I don’t trust that, cuz that’d be equal to one CD, because you’d have filler, skits, and songs I don’t like. With Soulja Slim, I couldn’t go for that, despite the griminess and the fact that the song “Heater on Me” is fire, its just creepy to me buying dead rappers. Plus, they got a song called “Magnolia”, and I’m just not super into the whole New Orleans thug persona. I know I could get that for much cheaper. Then there is Young Buck, and the whole 106th and Park crowd is crazy about that! I could get into it two; he got those grimy southern styled beats, but I heard that there were too many guest appearances, plus Young Buck doesn’t really have much in the way of skills and lyrics; I get the feeling its all about persona. With me, when it comes to rap, I mostly buy mix CD’s anyway. I’d much rather get the variety of the songs hand picked by Kay Slay, Whoo Kid, or Cutmaster C. There are very few artists I’d invest in to the point of paying $20.00 for a CD! So, I found after looking for a little while an unusual mix CD. This CD was crazy; it was called “Kill All DJ’s”! Produced by “Hypnotic Recordings”(at www.HypnoticRecordings.com), the DJ’s called BP and Effcee had KRS-One rapping over “We Will Rock You” and “Bette Davis” eyes, and they mix punk rock, glam rock, new wave, jazz, pop and R&B in much the same way that hip hop DJ’s do it! At first, I thought I wasted my choice, but it has grown on me. Plus, when I opened the CD and looked inside, they had a coupon where you could buy 5 mix CD’s for $10. In the end, I made the right choice! Plus, I like to hear stuff that’s different, I like variety, and I like stuff that is new. If you like stuff like The Ramones, Nico, Iggy and the Stooges, Duran Duran, Bow Wow Wow, and Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles mixed with some electronic type stuff, this is for you. I could imagine this music would really rock the kind of party that has white suburban college kids. This CD is supposed to be how DJ’s in Los Angeles rock it, but probably in the white boy punk rock clubs where the guys got those Mohawks and tattoos painted all over their body. Me, I’d much rather hang out wherever I could find some big booty half nude brown cuties; Im not going to be in no club dancing to Iggy and the Stooges, but I will listen to them in my walkman.
Too much rap is based on the same old tired clichés and that whole thug persona thing is what drives rap today; there isn’t enough creativity in rap and why I liked the idea of MOP rapping to heavy metal was that it was different. As much as I love Southern rap, clichés and all, I’d rather buy a $10 mix CD off the street containing different groups and get the CD’s used for $5; Im not spending $20 on a CD, that’s crazy! Anyways, that’s how it goes. This weekend is the Congressional Black Cuacus and Black Family Reunion in Washington DC. Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend is a bunch of black democrats partying and a bunch of people crowding all the streets and clubs of DC, but in between all the partying there are informative forums and discussions. Its an annual thing, and usually its at the end of September. The Black Family Reunion is a big ol’ festival on the mall in Washington DC (funny yet confusing how they’d plan to have it on 9/11, being that it usually is the last weekend in August or the first weekend in September!) Will the cops be trippen’, looking for “terrorists” in the crowds? At Black Family Reunion, whatever acts are in town (in the past I’ve seen Boyz II Men and Herbie Hancock) perform, and there is food, and many honeys to check out, some dressed in very titillating ways. However, I’m probably staying in this weekend. Still gotta listen to those MOP downloads!
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