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12 Takeaways From Michael Jackson’s Thriller

(DISCLAIMER:This is a bit of a read.If you enjoy reading and music,I think you’ll like this.)

1982 was a year in music where a telephone number could function as a catchy rock song chorus (Tommy Tutone's "867-5309/Jenny"),where continents could get mad love or representation via Billboard-worthy singles (Toto's "Africa" and Men At Work's "Down Under"),and where "the number of the beast" was less a harbinger of earth's impending apocalypse and more a heavy metal masterwork (Iron Maiden's album and song of the same name.) It was a year that announced the arrival and breaking through of two artists that,together with Michael Jackson,would form the trinity of Eighties musical titans (Madonna and Prince,respectively.) As a rapper,it would be shameful if I didn't mention that 1982 was also a year where hip-hop was given a good,hard,from-behind shove into the mainstream courtesy of Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five's seven-minute long rap treatise of ghetto life that was "The Message" and Afrika Bambaataa And The Soul Sonic Force's Kraftwerk-inspired piece of rap/electro bliss that was "Planet Rock." (The latter song also spawned the freestyle subgenre of electronic music due to its Roland TR-808 generated drum track that became freestyle's default rhythm setting.)

With 1982 having already served up more than a generous helping of killer tunes (enough to make for an extensive and excellent playlist in today's terms),a nice portion of tasty albums (Roxy Music's Avalon,Duran Duran's Rio,and the aforementioned Iron Maiden offering of Number Of The Beast,to name a few),and a few watershed moments for burgeoning styles of music,it was only appropriate that the King Of Pop enter into the arena and throw his hat in the ring.On November 30th of that year,Thriller was released and the album would go on to not only be a monster smash but a game-changer in the music industry.

As a kindergarten-age pup at the time of Thriller's release,I had no awareness or understanding of the significance of that moment in recorded music history.My concerns were not of the transpirations within pop music as they were with having fun with die-cast dinky cars.Fortunately,given that Thriller was a mammoth pop record and there was some adroit promotion of it,it was still scorching hot product nearly two years after its coming-out and,as such,ties into a few of my childhood memories that were made when the buzz about Thriller was at its loudest.After undergoing the lengthy transition from being a young boy who enjoyed looking through his father's collection of 45-rpm vinyl records and playing around with a Casio keyboard to a grown adult that had a fiery passion for music and who immersed himself in the making of it,Thriller became more than just something I listened to for pleasure and entertainment.Having become cognizant of how big Thriller was in terms of sales,production,impact on popular culture,and influence on future music acts,the album was an object of thorough and serious study as it provided me with valuable education on how to make great music.

All that aside,it's mind blowing that three-and-a-half decades have elapsed since Michael Jackson dropped the highest selling album of all-time on the world like a large nuclear warhead.On the anniversary of its release,I offer my twelve takeaways from what I deem to be the GOAT of all albums.

12."BRUUUUUCE!"  

Rarely,if ever,does a major-label recording artist or band make an album completely on their own.Looking at the personnel listing of Thriller,Michael Jackson had a small army of talented musicians to help him make the record.Among all of the names were three men whom-along with Jackson-formed an indomitable foursome.There was super-producer Quincy Jones (whom I'll get to later on),British songwriter extraordinaire Rod Temperton,and Bruce Swedien.

The mention of "Bruce Swedien" to your average Joe (or JoAnne) would probably get a "who's that?" in reply.If they ever saw him,they might think Swedien played in the movie Cocoon and did commercials for Quaker Oats and Liberty Medical (diabeetis!) In the music producer community,however,Swedien is something of an engineering O.G.that has probably forgotten more about recording and mixing than most people would ever come to know.When the man speaks,you listen because you might damn well end up learning something that will make you a better producer.But I digress.

Thriller was an ambitious project.Included within its lofty goals was-in Quincy Jones' words-to "save the music industry" and for the album to represent the gold standard of sound and production.With production credentials dating all the way back to Count Freakin' Basie,Swedien's experience and expertise made him the right man for a big job.And,boy,did Swedien ever deliver as the production value on Thriller is quite high.The uptempo tracks on the album have a Sugar Ray Leonard-type punch to them and it's that punch which makes them exciting and exuberant pieces of pop music.There's a clarity of elements in every cut off Thriller and good use of the stereo panorama where Michael Jackson's vocals are almost hugged by the backing instrumentation in a way that isn't suffocating.And something should be said about the convergence of Hollywood and pop music via the creepy and cinematic sound effects on Thriller's titular track.In short,Thriller is a fine example of what a pop record should sound like but rarely,if ever,does nowadays with loudness being prioritized over the preservation of dynamic range or the maintenance of good mixing work. Though the time that Thriller was made and vinyl records still being an absolutely necessary medium of music distribution played a large role in the album's production quality,Swedien's work enabled the record to hold up nicely against those of the future that would be combatants in "the loudness wars." It's pretty safe to say that Thriller might very well not be the album it is or possess the sound that it does without Bruce Swedien's miking and mixing prowess.That said,we should all give him the props that he deserves.

11.Getting sued sucks.But sometimes it isn't always so bad.

I know,it's easy to say when you've never been litigated against.I'm sure that no one in human history that has been made a defendant in a legal matter was overjoyed by the possibility of having to fork over some coin due to some allegation of negligence or infringement.That includes Michael Jackson,who was made subject to a lawsuit by Cameroonian artist Manu Dibango for the use of  "mama say,mama sa,ma ma coosa" in "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."

One can't fault Dibango for filing suit against Jackson.After all,recording artists tend to get anal if one of their contemporaries pilfer or appropriate material that was borne from their creativity without so much as a request for permission of use and pursue legal action in response.Though Jackson had to compensate Dibango with more than just a few Cameroonian francs in an out-of-court settlement,it was more of a gain than a loss.For starters,the moolah that Jackson gave Dibango was a drop in the bucket to the haul that Jackson would eventually receive from sales of Thriller.It was not a bank-breaker for Jackson by any means.If anything,it was an investment into what has to be the best part of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." Though there may not be a direct connection between the song's subject matter and the "mama say,mama sa,ma ma coosa" which is repeated several times near the song's ending,it's easy to overlook.This is mainly due to the fact that it's so damn catchy.If the chorus hook with its "yeah,yeah" doesn't embed the song in your grey matter for some time after hearing it,the inclusion of the "Soul Makossa" chant is insurance that it will.It's triumphant,joyous,and it's a stroke of genius that isn't restricted to achieving maximum catchiness to the song.In the something-for-everybody approach that Thriller seemed to take premeditatively,the borrowing of "Soul Makossa" for its opening jam infused a world music flavor-specifically of the West African variety-into a Western pop song and it may also be a young black artist's musical acknowledgement of his mother continent.That said,it was worth every franc that Jackson doled out.

10.Eddie Van Halen was a bowse.

Before 1978,there was no shortage of guitarists that axe enthusiasts could revere or be influenced by.Page,Clapton,Blackmore,Iommi,Hendrix,Richards,Gilmour,and Beck were just a few names within the pantheon of string-plucking deities.Then along came a Dutch guy with a bad ass last name whose incendiary and almost futuristic guitar playing put him atop Olympus.Edward Van Halen was on a whole 'nother level and no one,save for the equally gifted Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osborne's guitarist),was in the same tier.Sadly,Rhoads' young life was cut short in a March 1982 plane crash and his death left Van Halen alone at the top.Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones needed a guitar solo for the pop-rock combo of "Beat It" and "VH" was the most logical guy to go to first.

Right from the get-go,Van Halen was in bowse mode.He hung up the phone on Quincy Jones assuming that it was a prank call.Then he defied the "no doing anything outside of the band" rule that he and his Van Halen bandmates had by going down to Westlake Studios in L.A. and contributing to "Beat It." Then he set one of the monitor speakers in the studio's control room on fire in the process of laying down a seventeen-bar guitar solo for the ages that he didn't even ask a dime for! However,the bowse didn't stop there.When his Van Halen mates found out about their guitarist's breaking of band rules and told him that he was foolish for doing pro bono work on someone else's project,Eddie fluffed it off and stated that he knew what he was doing and he wouldn't have done it if he didn't want to.

Behind the dazzling and superhuman guitar shredding is a real dude that does whatever the hell he wants and doesn't care.Bowse.

9."The Girl Is Mine" was a significant moment in music history.

Perhaps rightfully so to an extent,"The Girl Is Mine" deserved the flak that it got from music critics.Though not a terrible piece of music,it likely was a wasting of potential that a Paul McCartney-Michael Jackson duet could have otherwise yielded and it does require a suspension of disbelief to listen to (although that potential ended up being better met the following year on McCartney's "Say Say Say.") Two guys fighting over a girl often get violent with each other and don't use words like "doggone" in their exchange (maybe "goddamn" but not "doggone.") Furthermore,if you're going to make a song based upon that concept,it's better to give it the  crunchy,heavy,aggressive,and hard-edged sound of "Beat It" than it is to make it an ultra-sugary soft rock number.Nonetheless,it was a hit and probably so because it was aimed squarely at the older crowd,many whom indubitably met ex-Beatle McCartney and his fellow invaders from the British Isles with anything but resistance and rancor. 

When you look beyond the saccharine character of "The Girl Is Mine" and examine the whole of the song,the significance of it becomes more visible.Macca and MJ teaming up to do a song was not only significant in that it was a pairing of legends on the same track but that it was a symbolic "coming together" (Beatle pun intended) of two major pieces of twentieth century music history:The British Invasion and Motown.

8.If it wasn't for Peggy Lipton...

Let's first establish who Peggy Lipton is before I proceed.Lipton is an actress who's perhaps best known for serving up coffee and cherry pie as Norma Jennings on the iconic television series Twin Peaks.At the time of Thriller,Lipton was Quincy Jones' wifey-poo and,as such,her lingerie and Hollywood connections would result in her making a contribution to parts of the album.

Yes,Peggy Lipton's intimate wear did indeed contribute to Thriller.Jones noticed that the lingerie said "pretty young things" on them which,in turn,caused a light bulb to appear over his head.His spouse inadvertently gave him at the very least a title to a song that could go on a Michael Jackson album and eventually did with the James Ingram-penned "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)." Aside from being a bouncy,relatively funky tune that perhaps gave a passing nod to the electro genre that was gaining steam at the time (with its vocoder elements),"P.Y.T." exists as a musical testament to artistic inspiration sometimes coming from the most unlikely or unexpected things.

Probably of more importance than her lingerie being the origin of "P.Y.T." was Lipton's role in having a big-named movie star do a feature on "Thriller." The song was already a danceable number that,at its surface,seemed like a celebration of the scary and horrific but there was something missing:A chilling spoken-word rap that gradually brought the song to its conclusion.Quincy Jones could envision horror-flick legend Vincent Price reciting this rap and Lipton did her part in making that a reality.Nowhere does Lipton's name show up on the Thriller personnel listing or in the songwriting credits but she helped in more than a small capacity,whether she intended to or not.

Speaking of Price...

7.Vincent Price sorta got shafted.

One would think that Price's evil,reverb-drenched laughter at the end of "Thriller" alone would have had the ducats coming into his estate even now never mind the rest of his masterful recitation of Rod Temperton's Edgar Allan Poe-like spoken-word rap.Nope.Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones paid a rather low "price" for Vincent's feature on "Thriller." $1,000 was what it cost to get the horror film star to be at his most creepy over top haunting and ominous pipe organ chords that have "Baroque period" written all over them.Obviously,the one-off deal was great for Jackson because he got a Hollywood icon on his record for cheap.The deal worked the other way around for Price whom,after seeing "Thriller" blow up the way it did,got salty about getting a measly grand for his feature.He attempted to reach out to Jackson with the intentions of appealing for a more generous compensation and was ignored.

On one hand,Price had no right to seek out more money for his cameo on "Thriller." After all,if he wanted a handsome sum of dolla,dolla bills,he could have used his celebrity and legacy to negotiate something with Jackson and Jones that was fair for all parties instead of agreeing to a one-off that would put only ten "benjamins" in his pocket.Price made the regrettable mistake of undervaluing his own talent and,rather than let it be a live-and-learn experience,he wanted to renegotiate a done deal.

However,it's hard to be devoid of sympathy for Price.He put down perhaps the most epic poetry reading ever through his magnificent voice-acting and gave "Thriller" the piece it needed to complete its spooky picture.The fact that neither Jackson or Jones revisited their deal with Price when the song had proven to be a hit and offered him more on the basis of it being the morally right thing to do was something of a douchebag move.It certainly wasn't one of Jackson's or Jones' shining moments,to say the least. 

6.It's a good thing that Quincy Jones let one particular demo casette play.

Toto guitarist Steve Lukather,drummer Jeff Porcaro,and keyboardists David Paich and Steve Porcaro were making contributions to Thriller while concurrently working on their own band's 1982 project Toto IV.En route to the recording studio,Steve Porcaro had gone to visit his young daughter that had been living with his "baby mama." After arriving,he'd been informed about his little girl's terrible day at school,one that saw her being pushed off a slide by a boy.When asked by his daughter "why" this boy would do that to her,Porcaro told her that the boy probably liked her and that it was "human nature." In trying to explain to the best of his ability to his emotional young child why a boy could be so mean to her,it inspired Porcaro to later come up with a song called "Human Nature." He recorded a demo of the song on a casette tape.

David Paich was working on some keyboard grooves for Quincy Jones in this time frame.Knowing that Jones' assistant was going to stop by,Paich asked Porcaro-whom was staying at Paich's house-if he could make a casette with what Paich had been working on for Jones.Realizing that they had run out of tapes,Porcaro recorded Paich's material on the A-side of the casette that he had put the "Human Nature" demo on and eventually gave it to Jones' assistant.Jones was listening to Paich's grooves and ended up becoming preoccupied with something in his office,which allowed the A-side to play all the way through and for the auto-reverse feature on Jones' casette player to run the B-side of the tape.Porcaro's demo caught Jones' attention and he asked Porcaro if "Human Nature" could be used on Thriller.After being given the green light from Porcaro,Jones enlisted songwriter John Bettis to replace Porcaro's original lyrics as Jones wasn't too keen on them (save for the "why,why" and "tell them that it's human nature" stuff.) The inclusion of "Human Nature" to Thriller gave a song called "Carousel" the swift boot off the album.Though "Carousel" (later released as a bonus track on a re-issue of Thriller) was a fairly decent track that was so wonderfully early-Eighties in its sound,"Human Nature" was leagues above it.Being my favorite cut off Thriller,there's so much right about "Human Nature." Jackson's vocal delivery is breathy and from a place deep in his soul.The song's lyrics,with its clever metaphors and its underlying meaning,are well-written.The synth melodies are aural candy and sound like they were composed in heaven.All in all,the song is a smooth R&B track that is perfect for something like a night drive in the city.

Quincy Jones was of the belief that a higher power had a hand in making Thriller the successful pop masterpiece that it is."Human Nature" making it on to the album could very well be an attestation that divine forces were at play.Had Jones not been involved in something,he may have stopped the tape after hearing Paich's music and "Human Nature" wouldn't have seen the light of day.Fortunately,things happened the way they did and a little girl's lousy day at school was turned into something great.

5."Billie Jean" was all types of crazy

According to Jackson,Billie Jean was purely a fictitious female that was MJ's composite of all the groupies that he and his Jackson 5 brothers had to deal with.However,according to Jackson's biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli,the song may have been inspired by an obsessed female fan that had taken her obsession with Jackson to great lengths.In 1981 (the year before Thriller),Jackson had been in receipt of a few letters from a chick claiming that he had been a father to one of her twins.In response to her paternity claims and her expressions of love for Jackson and her desire to have a family with him being ignored,she got angry and sent Jackson a parcel containing her photo,another letter,and a gun.In the letter,she instructed Jackson to commit suicide on a certain date and that she would do the same after murdering the baby that Jackson had supposedly impregnated her with.If Taraborrelli's theory was correct that "Billie Jean" derived from something so chilling as to induce goosebumps and cause the tiny hairs on the back of the neck to rise,the song was already crazy in the literal sense by who and what inspired it.

In the process of writing "Billie Jean," Jackson's life could have ended more prematurely than it did with his June 25,2009 death at the age of fifty.Being so absorbed in this song that he was working on,he was completely oblivious that the vehicle he was driving in had a fire going in it and he had to be made aware of the situation by an alert and concerned motorcyclist.Add another layer of crazy to the mix.

Then there was the song itself,which was a smash hit that went deep in the upper deck.Though "Human Nature" is my favorite MJ tune and personal bias could compel me to say that it's the finest work in Jackson's catalog,"Billie Jean" was perhaps Jackson's magnum opus.From a musical standpoint,it had all the necessary ingredients for it to be a high-charting pop joint.The rhythm could implore one to get on the dance floor the very instant that the solo drum break starting "Billie Jean" off sounds.The bassline-a rather simple repetitive eight note sequence-grooves and can lodge itself in the listener's head.The pre-chorus alone is hook-ish never mind the chorus itself,which is hook perfection.There's the gradual introduction of funky synth,punctuated guitar,and dramatic string elements that keep the song interesting.And,yet,for all of the sheer pop goodness that "Billie Jean" offers,it just might be more frightening than "Thriller" because the subject fare of the song is far more real than zombies could ever be."Billie Jean" may well be as much a song about paranoia as it is about what could result from being famous and messing with a girl that has "schemes and plans" behind her feminine wiles.Adding to the stark nature of the song is the conflict that Jackson seems to have within himself.On one hand,he declares with conviction that "Billie Jean is not my lover" and that her "kid is not my son." On the other hand,his vocal delivery when he speaks of looking at a photo of the little boy and realizing "his eyes look like mine" is one of shock,fear,and resignation.It arouses wonderment whether Jackson's repeating of "Billie Jean is not my lover" a number of times late in the song is an emphatic proclamation of his innocence or a convincing of everyone including himself that the truth is really a lie.It all makes "Billie Jean" a crazy good song.

If things weren't crazy enough,the video for "Billie Jean"-deserving of its own exegesis-helped the fledgling MTV to soar into the mainstream.Furthermore,it was also the song to which Jackson-at the Motown 25 television special watched by an estimated 50-million people-created a craze by performing his famed "moonwalk" dance move for the first time."Billie Jean" had every crazy base covered.

4.Thriller was almost as much Quincy Jones' project as it was Michael Jackson's

Michael Jackson is the only name that shows up on the cover of Thriller.And rightfully so,as he is the performer that's front and center on the album.When all the other musicians and producers were finished with their work on the album,it was Jackson that took the songs from out of the studio and brought them to concert venues around the world.However,Thriller could have easily borne both Jackson and Jones' names and it would have been fair.

Jones was in possession of some incredibly keen ears.One could have dropped a nickel on the ground from half a block away and Q would've likely heard it.Jones had an amazing acuity for sound that went to its deepest level.Maybe of greater importance was Jones' encyclopedic knowledge of music.From that,Q's instincts were more often than not trustworthy when it came to chasing down a hit song.He could discern what would make a musical work fly and what could cause it to flop.Michael Jackson wanted to make a killer album and he knew that Q would make the odds of him doing so quite favorable.It likely took no arm-twisting for Jones to get on board with Jackson's vision and become as invested in it as Jackson was.Part of Jones' investment may have been spurred by what he would stand to gain if this album had succeeded in meeting all of its goals:A boatload of money and a larger-than-life addition to his CV.But it's hard not to get the sense that Thriller was a labor of love for Q,one that not only involved a love for good music and the making of such but a love that he felt for the artist with whom he was working.The relationship between Jackson and Jones wasn't solely a professional one,which meant that Jones had a more deeply personal interest in making Thriller a big-time record and giving the young pop singer he had been mentor to with the needed fuel to be a superstar.In so doing,Jones-along with Jackson-had went through approximately 700 demo recordings and only committed what was felt to be the creme de la creme to the album.

It was Jones who,inspired by The Knack's "My Sharona," came up with the idea of having Jackson foray into rock territory and who could visualize Eddie Van Halen performing a guitar solo in the instrumental midbreak of what became "Beat It." It was Jones who felt that a recitation of a spoken-word rap in the outro of "Thriller" was needed and he could hear Vincent Price doing it.And,when the initial finished product of Thriller revealed a falling short of the desired goal for its sound upon play through,it was Jones who rallied the dejected troops to do what needed to be done to correct things with the deadline fast approaching.It was Jones who willingly took on the rigor and exhaustion that came with the production of a highly aspiring album.It's beyond difficult to fathom Thriller being as magical or scintillating without "Q" as its executive producer.

3.Even the non-singles on Thriller were great tunes.

Though it's a given that Thriller is a hit-laden,solid from first-to-last track album,saying that 77.8 percent of its songs were singles really illustrates how insanely good it is.(It bears a resemblance to a greatest hits compilation.) However,the other two cuts-or 22.2 percent-that weren't singles are by no means filler material."Baby Be Mine" is a danceable love tune that seemed to be a continuation of the Off The Wall sound,albeit in a punchy post-disco vein where synthesizers replaced the orchestral element (usually string sections) that was present in scads of disco tunes like Jackson's own "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." With "Baby Be Mine," Jackson's pre-Thriller fan base were able to enjoy some degree of consistency in Jackson's sound while tweaks were made to it to veer away from disco and warmly embrace the Eighties.Then there's "The Lady Of My Life," a gorgeous love ballad that closes out Thriller.With Jackson's soulful vocals,its heartfelt lyrics,and its warm R&B-meets-smooth jazz character,it might just be the perfect song for a newlywed man to put on and do his bride to.

"Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady Of My Life" could have probably been hits in themselves had they been on someone else's album or not pitted against stiff competition on its own.However,despite being overshadowed by the more behemoth songs on Thriller,these two cuts were sparkling necessities for the whole of the record.

2.There is an irony in Thriller. 

If it's not an irony,maybe it's a paradox.If it's neither,I don't know what you would call it.

Prior to Thriller,Michael Jackson-inspired by Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" suite-wanted to make a colossal album that was the highest selling of all time and would launch him into the stratosphere of superstardom.And yet,something of a leitmotif is established on Thriller in the subject matter of 3 of the album's nine tracks:Jackson's dealings with the negative aspects of being a pop music luminary.Wasting no time,"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"-the lead off track on Thriller-is Jackson's ebullient counterstrike on media and their propensity for sensationalism and gossip.Long before Jackson had faced scrutiny for the lightening of his skin color and the surgical alterations to his face as well as allegations of sexual misconduct toward children,he had an issue with bad press and the spreading of rumors.He likens being a celebrity to being a vegetable that "they"-most likely the media but not limited to-will feed off for their own survival or gain.Then there was "Billie Jean," which I have already addressed in my fifth takeaway from Thriller. "Billie Jean" calls to mind Jackson's earlier celebrity/vegetable analogy from "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (Jackson does mention the name "Billie Jean" on that song) but,on this occasion,the one trying to do the feeding is a girl claiming Jackson's paternity to her young child.Finally,on "Human Nature," Jackson touches on his longing to step out into the city night and walk around like an average person instead of being cooped up in his room and insulated from the world which he was known all over.Part of Thriller in essence was Jackson expressing the discontentment he had with life in the spotlight and letting his listeners know that fame and fortune wasn't all glitz and glamour.However,having been thrust into the spotlight as a young boy and being someone with an artistic soul,the possibility of giving up the life he'd known since his formative years and denying himself further opportunity to be creative wasn't realistic.Perhaps resigning himself to the notion that fame was inescapable,Jackson decided to embrace it to the best of his ability and make himself as huge a star as a human could be.

1.Thriller established why Michael Jackson was (and still is) the King Of Pop

If Jackson's fabulous 1979 effort Off The Wall wasn't his coronation as pop music royalty,Thriller saw the diadem placed atop his jheri curls.Jackson raised the bar so high with Thriller that he made it near impossible for anyone,including himself,to elevate.Though his death forced him to abdicate his throne,he was buried with his crown.

One only needs to reference Thriller to understand why Jackson is pop music's kingly figure.He was his harshest critic and a staunch perfectionist who never rested on his laurels.Though Off The Wall was a critically acclaimed album,he wasn't entirely happy with it.It was like he was constantly nagged by the thought do more,do better.He set huge goals and then pushed himself hard to accomplish them.He had the right people working with him to make his vision a reality.Jackson embodied indefatigable work and relentless drive.

Whereas we might refer to all pop music stars as being "artists," such a description of Jackson wasn't given to be polite but rather because it was befitting.He had such an appreciation for art.As previously mentioned,Jackson's inspiration for Thriller was Tchaikovsky,who had written suites like "The Nutcracker" filled with great music.He had instructed the musicians who had worked with him on Thriller to "think of Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel" and to do what they felt was necessary to provide the right "colors" for his songs.Jackson's art was transcendent of the audio medium.The videos for songs from Thriller were iconic as the songs were themselves.

Michael Jackson made pop music that was palatable.Jackson's brand of pop was so much different.It was pop that sounded like pop but yet didn't.Though,like all popular music,Jackson's material had the largest possible listening audience in its crosshairs,it frequently didn't come off as being kitschy and that was especially the case with the cuts off Thriller.Jackson's music reached into the handy-dandy grab bag of tried-and-true musical devices without conveying the impression that it was trying too hard to be a hit pop song.It didn't need to encourage people through chorus hooks to get on the dance floor or shake what their mothers bestowed upon them.People just got on the dance floor.Most importantly,Jackson's pop was staunchly avoidant of placing a best-before date on itself.Though Thriller may be very Eighties in its sound and its premeditation to be humungous (because everything had to be big in the "decade of decadence"),it contained the necessary preservatives to keep itself fresh over a lengthy span of time and there's an awfully high probability that it will never grow stale or become a relic of the period in which it came out.A sizeable quantity of pop music simply isn't in Jackson's league.As such,it doesn't stand out from its ilk but rather sounds like simulacra of it.It tends to be corny and irritating instead of stylish and agreeable.It makes itself easily replaceable by future music that will inevitably use the same recipe from the musical cookbook to whip up something for the Hot 100.

Perhaps the only way that someone can take the King Of Pop distinction away from Michael Jackson is if Jackson's soul is reincarnated in someone else's body.Otherwise,Jackson continues to reign and it's due in large part to Thriller.Happy 35th!

[prime-one-blog]

Really,Em?!:Sentiments Of An Unenthused “Stan”

After seeing Eminem’s “The Storm” freestyle from last week’s BET Awards cypher,I was initially tempted to respond in a video with a freestyle of my own in which I would have excoriated him for parroting the same aspersions that the biased,lying mainstream media cast upon U.S. President Donald Trump on almost a daily basis.In addition,I was going to pick apart just about everything that Em said in his freestyle as well as to take him to task for giving those that are both Trump supporters and fans of Slim Shady (such as myself) the ultimatum of choosing one over the other.But I decided that I would save my bars and instead react to “The Storm” here.

The only thing that was even cool about the freestyle was the golden cable chain that Em was wearing,which calls back to the bling of Eighties-era rappers.Otherwise,this was about as disastrous as a magnitude-eight temblor.Aside from the fact that he was regurgitating the same rhetoric that everyone on the far left side of the political spectrum does,Em’s technical form was very hit-and-miss.There were moments where Em showed flashes of vintage Shady but that was juxtaposed with forced punchlines (the whole “fantastic for”/Fantastic Four bit) and the eyebrow-raising,head-scratching attempted rhyming of “for”/”orange” and “ball up a fist”/”Donald the bitch.” I could almost picture a younger Slim Shady with arms folded and eyebrows lowered,shaking his head in disapproval of his future self’s falling below of standards.Then there were the points where Eminem sounded about as winded as a 350-pound roly-poly or three-pack-a-day smoker trying to run a 100-meter sprint as he shouted out his anti-Trump vitriol (okay,maybe dude had a chest cold or something.) Topping it all off was Em’s flipping of the bird to perhaps millions of his fans he had placed in a tough position with his “it’s either Shady or Trump!” ultimatum. This was about as lame and pathetic as Marshall Mathers had ever gotten.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Marshall,one could get the feeling that Eminem was the latest celebrity in a line of them that the far left establishment had trotted out to be a mouthpiece,perhaps figuring that they couldn’t fail this time with a middle-aged rapper that had inarguable GOAT status in hip-hop and was incidentally Caucasian.And,seeing that Em has a new album coming out next month,doubling down on political rhetoric that he gave us glimpses of on songs like “Mosh” off his 2004 Encore CD could a great way of promoting his upcoming record in advance.It’s actually kind of surprising that Eminem would hop aboard the anti-Trump train when there’s a huge commonality between the legendary rapper and “The Don.” Both of these individuals have had no qualms with using their freedom of speech to say things that poke some beehive or wasp’s nest.Eminem certainly knows what it’s like to be “protested and demonstrated against” and to be labeled as misogynistic and homophobic (as well as perhaps a racist when a rap that he’d recorded about a black girl he had been involved with once upon a time was leaked.)  The only difference between Eminem and Donald Trump is that the latter doesn’t talk about things that people “joke with their friends inside their living room” about or say things with no other purpose than to make people mad.Trump puts people off with his unfiltered statements that accurately reflect what a lot of Americans think and feel but have been made afraid to say due to the societal scourge that is political correctness.What underlies the hatred for Trump is not that he’s a “racist,” a “bigot,” or a “sexist,” but rather that he’s an enemy of globalism and cultural Marxism..ERR!..”progressive values.”  From the looks of it,Eminem has decided to become at least somewhat P.C. and “The Storm” freestyle smacks of hip-hop’s biggest ever troll/villain saddling up on a high horse.It’s a horse upon which he has no business being.

I know that it’s unfair to make someone a prisoner of their own history and it’s unreasonable to think that a person can’t (or shouldn’t) change over time.But is it right for Eminem to speak of “gun reform in Nevada”-in response to the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas-when he has had run-ins with the law for firearms? Does anyone think that Em doesn’t own a gun himself,that he doesn’t have armed guards,or that the guys standing behind him during his freestyle weren’t packing? Is it meritorious to allege Donald Trump of “tormenting” Hillary Clinton (pffffft!) when Em has tormented his ex-wife and mother via his music? While Eminem was perhaps at his finest and most entertaining when he allowed his Slim Shady alter ego to be as rancid and rancorous as possible,he put himself in position of looking like a hypocrite if he ever turned over a new leaf and assumed some kind of moral high ground.Like it or not,fair or unfair,he’s going to get called out for it.Perhaps especially so by those within his fan base that he alienated by his drawing of “the line in the sand” and his subsequent “fuck you very much.”

To those that feel that Eminem was making “statements of fact” or speaking “the truth,” they’ll see a nobility in his risking of losing Stans to make a stand.To those that Eminem gave the middle finger too,we see it as a selling-out or a betrayal.Why shouldn’t we? Many of us were responsible for making him a multi-millionaire rap artist.He wouldn’t have many of the accolades that he does without us.We loved him when he was the most hated rapper on the planet.We warmly embraced him back in the rap game after he retired and kicked his pill addiction.If we’re no longer good enough to be his fans as a result of supporting the current leader of the free world,we were never good enough to begin with.It’s not like we will ever be refunded of every dollar and cent that we invested in his product,though. Speaking as an artist myself,it should be immaterial to Eminem what the political leanings are of those that butter his bread.Being monetarily compensated for the art one creates is a business transaction.It comes across as dictatorial and childish to tell your clients that you don’t want their business if they support the POTUS.It’s like seeing a kid telling one of their friends that they’re not going to be their friend anymore if they’re going to be cool with another kid that the one having the tantrum doesn’t like. Difference is that Em’s a grown-ass man that’s almost halfway to 50 and he’s not in the playground but in the music business.Henceforth,his immaturity is going to be costly.I have a hunch that this will be the end of the road for Eminem’s rap career and we can cite “The Storm” freestyle as a catalyst for Em’s last hurrah.Unless he reveals that this was an epic Shady-esque troll job and that he had to add a percentage of his Stan base to the number of people that he’s pissed off over the years,it’s sad that things ended this way.He could’ve left it alone and not get in the way of those that want to be both fans of his and supporters of Donald J.Trump.

I could always end this entry by calling for a boycott of Eminem’s new album.But I’ve got something better.I am imploring those Stans that were given the bird by Em to acquire his next record.However,don’t pay a red cent for the thing.Find a good torrent site on the Interweb,download it,and enjoy Em’s new joint on the house.If we could somehow make this a trend on Twitter that could get Em’s attention and make him mad,he can #KissOurWhiteNakedAss. (#TrollingEminem or #DearSlim could work as a hashtag as well.)

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In Honor Of Michael Jackson On The Anniversary Of His Passing

The following is what I had written about Michael Jackson in one of my journals on June 25,2009.I titled the entry “Some Words About A Legend.” In remembrance of the late King Of Pop on the eighth anniversary of his death,I thought that I would copy that journal entry out here.

“This must have been what it was like in August of 1977 when news surfaced that Elvis Presley had passed away.Today-June 25,2009-the world says goodbye to another "King." Michael Jackson was to pop music as Elvis Presley was to rock'n'roll.Jackson passed away this afternoon and I can't help but feel shocked and saddened by his death.Like Presley,Jackson died young.What Jackson did in his life was nothing short of amazing.Jackson is a legend and an icon whose contribution to modern popular music was such that the music scene would have been much different if he had not been a part of it.Those who have been around for a while saw Jackson grow up.From his days in the Jackson 5 as a young singing sensation to the days when he topped the charts with the blockbuster album Thriller as a 24-year old superstar solo artist,Jackson spent most of his life in the spotlight,primarily as an artist and entertainer.It is surreal that Michael Jackson is no longer with us.He was a very popular figure and what stands out most about him in my mind was his acute attunement to artistry.Not only did Jackson possess a good voice and a wide vocal range,his music was well-performed and produced,his videos (especially the John Landis-directed "Thriller" video) were epic and cinematic,and his dance moves...Jackson could step and move with the best of them.How many tried to copy the Moonwalk with limited success? Jackson made it look easy,like it was a natural movement for him.The rest...well,suffice to say that they couldn't quit their day jobs.Growing up in the 1980's,Jackson was one of the biggest stars in the world.After the release of Thriller in 1982,he had the globe in the palm of his hand.A solid album from start to finish,it was the release that sent Jackson's career and his popularity to another level.Over twenty-six years later,Thriller remains the highest-selling records ever with over a hundred million units sold.Michael Jackson is the only recording artist to have an album sell over 100-million copies.Even Jackson's chief competition in the Eighties-Madonna and Prince-could not crack the 100-million mark in spite of their massive successes during that time or after.And if people thought that Jackson could not possibly follow up Thriller with his next album,he surprised with 1987's Bad,which turned out to be a very good release,yielding almost as many hit singles as he did with Thriller.There was a time when Jackson had the Midas touch and,as a result,he boasted one of the largest and most loyal fan bases that loved him and his music.Tonight many of his fans mourn.Many gathered outside of the UCLA medical facility that he was rushed to and eventually pronounced dead in.I can imagine that the scene is almost similar to that when Elvis Presley had passed or even when John Lennon was gunned down,his fans flocking to the Dakota and Central Park to grieve the fallen ex-Beatle.Tonight,the Michael Jackson that I remember is the one pictured in the white dress suit or the red leather jacket with what seemed to be a thousand zippers on it.While he was no stranger to controversy,a courtroom,or being the butt of many jokes,all of the bad press and tabloid material can not completely smudge or scuff Jackson's legacy,influence,and popularity.Yes,Michael Jackson had been the subject of very serious allegations regarding sexual abuse.Even I didn't want to believe that he was responsible for perpetrating such terrible acts.We will never know the truth of what really happened.It is pointless to dig for it.Michael Jackson is gone,at the relatively young age of 50.It will be strange to listen to the music that has immortalized Michael Jackson.Maybe down the road,that strange feeling will dissipate.Maybe it never will.Today may well be what Don McLean said in his classic track "American Pie." "The day the music died." Today,a part of pop music has passed on,joining the likes of Buddy Holly and other greats that have come and gone.All of his quirkiness and eccentricity aside,there was only one Michael Jackson and the world would not have been the same without him.”

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Put this one out on YouTube today.This is what hip-hop is really all about.Fuck the wack rappers and the mumblers.

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Tell ‘Em,LL

I love it when the legends and asphalt layers of hip-hop music opt for unfiltered candor instead of masking their true feelings under a patina of tolerance as it relates to the new school mainstream rap scene.It was great when Ice-T cocked his verbal 12-gauge and sent a couple of shells in the direction of Soulja Boy back in 2009.Equally so was when Pete Rock gave Lil’ Yachty the business last year.Now it’s one James Todd Smith,a.k.a. LL Cool J,who is pulling down the sagged pants and skinny jeans of all the young “meatballs” and giving them the spankings they needed long ago but never got.

LL became a trending topic on Twitter.Considering the slew of celebrity deaths in 2016,including a number of music luminaries,some were concerned that Mr.Smith was the latest to be tapped on the shoulder by that dark cloak-clad,scythe wielding reaper of souls and brought over to “the other side.” Fortunately,LL was trending while being very much alive because of the following tweet:

“ If I hear one more terrible rap record I'm gonna have to do it to these meatballs “

If I may hazard a guess as to whom LL was referring to as “meatballs,” it’s the entirety of these young “artists” that are either spitting sub-par rhymes about the same subject fare (riches and pussy) or mumbling barely intelligible English over trap and drill beats.I may be wrong but I find it excruciatingly difficult to imagine that LL had the likes of Kendrick Lamar or J.Cole in mind when he fired his shot.My money goes on LL taking aim and clapping at the surplus of talentless and insufferable young brats that offer nothing but lousy music,fuckshit,and brazen disrespect both for the art of rap and those that long ago paved the road that they’re fortunate to be on.If I’m right,then they deserve to be taken to task repeatedly by the old school until they stop making crap records and turning rap into an emaciated,unrecognizable shell of its former self.Fuck the feelings of these meatballs and their dumbed-down fanbase.

I expect that LL is going to experience some backlash for going on the attack and some of it will resemble that which Ice-T and Pete Rock faced for their comments.LL will be that “old ass rapper” who is “irrelevant” and should keep his remarks to himself.He will likely be accused of being stuck in the golden days of hip-hop past and unwilling to accept that hip-hop/rap music no longer has to be as lyrical as it was in his day because times change.While LL has cemented his status as legend to older hip-hop fans and the young ‘heads,he’ll be disrespected and vilified for his remarks by those who get ‘turnt’ by mumble music and have no connection to the history of hip-hop/rap (yet somehow expect old-schoolers to adapt to this new and “evolved” incarnation of rap when they should actually be copping records like Radio or Paid In Full.) 

I really hope that LL hears one more terrible rap record and it puts enough of a flame under his ass to go into the studio and crank out the most ferocious poetic assault and battery of these “meatballs,” complete with name-drops of those who he deems to be such.I think he should and send the message that he’s not going to allow a genre of music that he was instrumental in making a part of our popular culture to be disrespected or defaced by a bunch of young cornballs. 

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Freedom Of Expression:A Privilege Only Afforded To Those Whose Expressions Toe The Leftist Line

So,I finally checked out Snoop Dogg’s highly controversial video for his song “Lavender.” It’s interesting to say the least and there are a number of angles that I could’ve taken in my reaction to the video.Let me begin this by saying that I’m something of a fan of Snoop Dogg.While his lyricism certainly isn’t in the same league as a Rakim or a Nas,he’s almost like 50 Cent in that he brings a certain personality and appeal to the mic.As Source magazine once said about “Uncle Snoop,” he is one of the few rappers that your grandmother has heard of and can probably recognize.For me,Snoop was practically my summer of 1993.It was all about G-Funk and Snoop’s now classic Doggystyle album then.Aside from the memories that some of his music is a soundtrack to for me,I liked Snoop for his unapologetic bashing of Bill O’Reilly and that he wasn’t so gangsta or stuck in a box to not do a cameo on a show like One Life To Live or the theme song for the series’ reboot online after ABC gave the long-running serial the axe.As such,I’m not going to let “Lavender” make sour some good memories of mine or change my view on some of the classic hip-hop jams he brought to the fold.Snoop is a legend and “Lavender” doesn’t change that.

Now,I do believe that some of the reaction was overblown.In the video,Snoop used one of those prank guns with the “BANG!” flag on the depiction of Donald Trump.By the end of the video,”Trump” was indeed still alive,albeit chained up between Snoop and someone else as they puffed,puffed,and passed a fat joint.However,I could understand why the current president would have something of an issue with Snoop about it.What’s really stood out to me in some of the reaction to the “Lavender” video were the lefties and Trump haters that stated Snoop was only using his freedom of expression.

As an artist myself,I can surely appreciate freedom of expression.While this provision in any democratic nation’s constitution or bill of rights can be a bitch in that it enables people with differing views or beliefs than yours to give expression to them,the pros of free speech and expression are greater than the cons.So far be it for me to call for a fellow hip-hop artist like Snoop Dogg to have his freedoms stripped away from him for something that I may not personally agree with in one of his music videos.However,I can’t help but notice that some of those who are defending Snoop and his freedom of expression are the same people who will reach into their grab bag of labels and toss out “racist” or “bigot” at someone who uses their freedom of expression to voice dissent to liberals and their destructive agenda.I can only imagine the furore and outrage that would have ensued if a white rapper had pointed a gun at the head of someone that depicted Barack Obama in one of their videos.The snowflakes and SJW’s would have been yelling “RACIST!” from the rooftops and calling for that rapper to be shut down and silenced.But,seeing that Snoop is black and Trump is that big mean whitey in the White House,this is just a music artist using his freedom of expression.There’s no need to infringe upon Snoop’s freedoms like a fascists because his song and video is one that the lefties and Trump haters approve of.

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Hold This L,Nicki:5 Takeaways From “No Frauds”

I’d be remiss if I didn’t begin this post without a mention of the late,great,and influential Notorious B.I.G..Hard to believe that it’s been twenty years since Big Poppa left us.The one thing that will always stand out to me about Biggie was his uncanny ability to create songs that were just as lyrical and legendary as they were radio-friendly.It makes me think that a lot of today’s rappers could help both themselves and the game as a whole by following the Christopher Wallace model.

On the anniversary of Biggie’s premature passing,Nicki Minaj issued her long awaited response to a pair of diss tracks that Remy Ma had dropped on her.Among a trio of tracks-two being teasers for Nicki’s upcoming album NM4-was “No Frauds.” These are my takeaways from it:

5.Nicki tried to make her rebuttal hip-pop

I have to admit that I thought the backing track for “No Frauds” was fairly decent and that Nicki’s hook was melodic and catchy.That might be sufficient to the listeners that belong in the “the song’s dope because it has a good beat and it’s catchy” crowd.As a hip-hop veteran who listens to a song on a deeper level,it’s not enough for me.In my takeaways from Remy’s “shETHER,” I made mention of the rap game being akin to chess.Perhaps Nicki’s strategy was one where she would respond to Remy and then make Remy look silly by having that response making the Billboard or getting heavy rotation.While I get it as an artist that we want all of our material to be smash hits,it doesn’t always happen and it isn’t hard to tell when someone is trying to chart.I would have liked it better if Nicki stepped out of her pop box and dealt with Remy on a hip-hop level.Her “Barbz” would have co-signed it and the ‘heads would have likely given her props.As it often goes,making some kind of statement in rap entails the sacrificing of commercial success.This just goes to show how entrenched Nicki is in her pop-ish ways.

4.One verse? That’s it?! 

I’ll credit Nicki for (her ass aside) not thinking she was too big for her britches to give Remy a response.I’m sure that she was aware of the general tone of the rap-interested public following “shETHER” and knew that she couldn’t afford to look at Remy as being an “irrelevant” rapper that was unworthy to acknowledge.But,in all the time that Nicki (or her ghostwriters) had to launch a counterattack,one would think that she would have had a lengthier rebuttal.Nicki did get off a couple of good shots in her verse,among which was her lines about Remy being willing to shoot her friend and not be a mother to her son while incarcerated over $3,000.But it’s impossible to reply to a near seven-minute long crucifixion with a single verse.Nicki had a chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and doing just enough to reply to Remy’s fierce verbal beatdown of her makes it now official that Remy won this battle convincingly.

3.The rebuttal was too late

Nicki pointed out in an Instagram post that the rap greats took their time to reply to diss records.I certainly can’t disagree with her because Nas and his ultimate diss standard of “Ether” wasn’t dropped on Jay-Z some 24-48 hours after ‘Hov launched “Supa Ugly” and “The Takeover” on him.However,if Nicki believes that she’s in the same league as Nas,she needs a psych assessment.Now,personally,the timing of a rebuttal to a diss track isn’t some big deal to me.But,seeing that we live in a world that moves faster and people have become attention deficit and hungrier for instant gratification,taking a week or two to respond to a diss is like taking three months.Hey,I don’t make the rules.Perhaps if my fifth and fourth takeaway from “No Frauds” weren’t a factor,people might have been more inclined to forgive Nicki for her lack of punctuality.Given the general weakness of Nicki’s reply,it indeed came too late.She may have hit back,which is something I had said in my takeaways from “shETHER” that Nicki had to do,but the waiting time for a few cat scratches just can’t be overlooked.

2.Nicki should have fought this fight on her own

This is precisely the point where I go off like a Roman candle.While I haven’t ruled out the possibility that Nicki was trying the old “two birds,one stone” approach by replying to Remy and telling the world that Young Money was more reunited than Peaches and Herb,enlisting help from her once and present YM comrades makes Nicki look weaker than a sickle-cell anemic.It reminds me of an experience I had when I was walking down the street and minding my own business and got approached by a group of about ten guys.While not all of them wanted to be part of a street assault,the macho ‘butch’ of the bunch felt tough enough to throw a few punches to my face knowing he had reinforcements to stomp me out had I thrown hands.Nothing quite screams out “COWARD!” or “PUSSY!” like someone who needs help,or the presence of prospective assistance,to beat someone down.Nicki picked the fight with Remy in the first place and,after getting a couple of haymakers to her pretty face,Nicki decided that mano y mano wasn’t in her best interests and called on Drake and Lil’ Wayne to help her out.This makes “No Frauds” an epic fail on all fronts.It really makes me miss the Pink Friday and “Monster” Nicki Minaj.The present Nicki isn’t a desirable product to me.Numbers don’t matter if you’re a pop star that lacks heart.

1.Old school > New school

If it wasn’t already well established by now,Remy Ma clinched it.And that’s the way that it’s going to stay until the majority of new school rappers pull their heads out of their asses and put the fuckshit to rest.Today,the closest that most mainstream rappers come to being an MC is being machine created.Those that are “winning” in the rap game are doing so not because they have the bars and the ability to withstand competition.So it isn’t surprising that Remy made easy work out of Nicki.It’s like watching a battle-tested MMAer beating up on someone with no fight training.Nicki spent most of her career as the reigning diva’s champ by default.The minute she had real competition in the division,the reign was over.But by no means is Nicki Minaj a unique case.This would happen to just about any new schooler if challenged by a rapper from a previous era.

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We Done Lost Our Way

I’d like to make something abundantly clear.I’m not trying to give Danielle Bregoli-a.k.a.,”Cash Me Ousside” girl-any additional attention than she’s already received.As far as I’m concerned,she doesn’t deserve any.Her story is only of interest to me because it casts a light on some of that which is wrong with modern society and it affords me the opportunity to finally channel into my inner Dennis Miller and rant about it.

Not to come across like a cantankerous old geezer but,back in my day,bad behavior got a good lot of us youth the palm to posterior treatment.That was getting off lucky because it could’ve easily been the dreaded leather belt or wooden spoon.Sure,there were rotten kids in the 1980s who took a shine to bullying or just being foul and rancid little creatures.But that usually came about due to parents who genuinely abused their children.Either that or they just didn’t give a fuck what their brats did or said.I remember elementary school teachers being able to spank children in the early years of my grade school stint.I got it from parents,teachers,and friends of my parents because it took a village to raise a child.The Danielle Bregolis of today’s world wouldn’t be able to survive in my era.One would have to be incredibly brave yet immensely stupid to challenge our elders to a physical dust-up out in the street.Chances are then that she would’ve been “caught outside” and had the insufferable attitude and fake accent knocked out of her without an ounce of sympathy or an attempt at protection from anyone else who may have witnessed it.

Somewhere between then and the present,the “progressives” came along to fix what wasn’t broken and they gradually imposed a soft style of parenting on to the populace that thumbed its nose at the old “spare the rod” proverb.As if that wasn’t enough to screw up the next generation,they saw fit to damage it further through awarding children for their mere participation in an activity.That created the conditions which has given us the “snowflake” millenials and a surplus of teens that are spoiled,disrespectful,and/or act all ratchet.Which in turn has given talk show hosts like Maury Povich and Dr.Phil McGraw a countless amount of “my teenager is wild and out of control” episodes.So,while Danielle’s mother surely hasn’t helped with the monster that is her daughter,we might not see as many Danielles on talk shows if we hadn’t allowed the “progressives” to fuck with things in the first place.Because we did,Dr.Phil had Danielle on his show and she made sure that the rebellion and mouthiness was dialed up high for the studio and the national television audience,complete with a phony accent that sounded like she was trying to imitate a black girl but instead came off like a white wannabe hoodrat from Low-ville,Kentucky (excuse me,Louisville).She uttered her now infamous catchphrase and,curiously,got catapulted to a degree of stardom by becoming a meme.

I’m cool with memes.In a way,I’m fascinated by them.It’s almost a mystery wrapped around an enigma as to what constitutes as meme wheat and chaff.Apparently,Danielle’s fight invitation to the Dr.Phil audience that found her and her calling them all hoes ridiculous enough to snicker at her was the most golden of wheat.Realistically,it shouldn’t have been.For one,it rewards a pubescent brat for her antics and gives her everything except the cuff upside the cranium that she really needs.Following from that,it gives encouragement to the obnoxious and obstreperous souls of Danielle’s ilk that they too can become something of celebrities if they get rowdy on the right stage.Dr.Phil’s show couldn’t be any better a launch pad unless the pop psychologist decides that out of control teenagers is no longer show fodder.Finally,don’t we already have enough people that are famous for absolutely no good reason?

It’s almost ironic that,in the headlines Danielle Bregoli has made since Dr.Phil and the meme-obsessed propelled her to fame,she put Kylie Jenner on blast.While I won’t rail against Kardashian-Jenner bashing,Danielle needs to shut her big mouth about them.They’re all nobodies that have a spotlight.Why? Because renaissances and enlightenments aren’t as cool or nouveau as a culture of stupid that celebrates the fake and vapid is.Much like the Kardashians,Danielle is a beneficiary of this culture.What contributions do they make to society? In the case of the former,there’s a sex tape,bad reality TV,and oodles of selfies.As for the latter’s contribution,an attitude problem,a catchphrase delivered in an artificial drawl,and Instagram livestreams of her showing off the gold fronts in her mouth or twerking like Miley Cyrus and every girl in a trap music video has never done it before.How...fucking...revolutionary.(Rolls eyes.)

One shouldn’t have to wonder if they’re in possession of an actual talent and getting limited exposure for it if they’ve been doing things all wrong.There could be one of a million that could take a Kardashian’s or a Danielle Bregoli’s place and offer much more to their fellow human beings than the aforementioned could in the wildest images their subconscious minds could produce as they lie dormant.Yet here we are in a giant battle royal,all in a fierce competition with one another for precious YouTube views,Soundcloud plays,and Facebook likes while people with barely a small fraction of our talent steal away a limelight that should be reserved for those with a gift that’s better not to be shrouded in a veil of anonymity.

As much as we modern humans might like to look smugly at our predecessors and think that we are somehow more evolved than they,how can we? For all the blemishes in our history,previous generations placed a higher value on intelligence than many of us today do.We might have the smart cars and the smart phones and yet we’re in ways dumber than those that lived in the world where none of that existed.I can only imagine what they’d think of us if they had a crystal ball to see into the future.They would surely be astounded by our technology but then look at the rampant retardation within this society and become confused at how we even made the advances that we have.How is it possible that our world isn’t teeming with Platos,da Vincis,Newtons,and Mozarts when our advances in so many fields have given it a chance t be.There’s no excuse for us making the ridiculous the sublime.

But we have and there’s no time like the present to right the ship before we sink it.

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5 Takeaways From “Shether”

The Queen Of Rap-a.k.a.,Remy Ma-has made headlines for dropping a diss track on Nicki Minaj.”THE BRUTAL BLUDGEONING OF BARBIE” is what they should read.”Shether” is a near seven-minute long song and Remy gets downright disrespectful over the same beat Nas used to eviscerate then-rival Jay-Z fifteen years ago on what was perhaps the most savage diss track of all time,”Ether.” I just listened to "Shether” and I must say that it was like watching Worldstar videos where people are getting punched out.On one hand,you almost cringe at how vicious the punches are and how hurt the victim is going to be when they come to.On the other,it’s kind of enjoyable to watch because some of those punches are thrown on people who had it coming.

For a while,I dug Nicki.Her feature on Kanye West’s “Monster” was one of the most impressive verses I had heard in a while.Then Pink Friday was released and I felt that it was peppered with good songs.I believed that Nicki,had she kept pace,could be in a league with legendary female MCs like Lauryn Hill.But then she went into pop tart mode and came out with repugnant,don’t-belong-on-Billboard songs like “Anaconda.” It had me almost singing ‘Dear Old Nicki” because I missed the chick who was spitting bars while alternating between British accents,cartoonish voice treatments,and the occasional gruff tones.Since,Nicki’s sold out and she’s been unapologetically fake.Hearing Remy flagellate her mercilessly on a song elicited some schadenfreude inside of me.These are my five takeaways from listening to “Shether:” They’re not in any particular order.

5.Nicki has to step it up now

When you think about it,Nicki’s been the diva’s champ for a while because she hasn’t had a challenger in her division.Remy Ma’s release from prison meant that Nicki was in danger of losing her belt.Sure,Nicki had her beef with Lil’ Kim but Kim was nowhere near her “It’s All About The Benjamins” or collaborating with Fiddy form.(No disrespect to Lil’ Kim.She could rhyme and she’s quite attractive.Just haven’t heard much from her in recent years.) Remy Ma is to hip-hop what Chyna was to WWE:A bad bitch able to clobber her female competition and probably able to give a male rapper a good from-behind uppercut to the family jewels if she wanted.That said,not only does Nicki need to drop the pop nonsense and get back to what she was doing (assuming that Remy’s allegations that Nicki’s had ghostwriters aren’t true) for a chance to win the belt back but she can’t counter Remy’s shot in similar fashion to her ex Meek Mill after Drake dropped “Charged Up” and “Back 2 Back” on him.Retorting via a social networking platform isn’t going to cut it.Rap,especially these days,is like one big chess match and rappers almost always have reasons for why they make moves.Nicki made the first move by firing subliminals at Remy on a couple of her recent features,which perhaps was Nicki knowing she now had competition in her division and letting Remy know that she planned on defending her title.Remy responded by powerbombing her through a flaming table and getting the three-count.Nicki has to hit the studio with something in return for Remy as well as to start coming strong with the bars again.

4.Remy Ma is officially back and her comeback was made with a stroke of genius

I just spoke about rap being like a big chess match.For Remy,she had to make some really good moves.Being incarcerated for a few years took her out of the game and allowed someone like Nicki Minaj to fill the vacuum.Knowing personally what it’s like to be under conditions where you can’t put music out for a lengthy period (as I am working on a mixtape that will come out over seven years following my last record),this can put your whole career in jeopardy.With the human attention span now being something in need of a Ritalin shot,a prolonged absence means the possibility that people forget about you and move on to the next big thing,and the one after that,and the one after the one after that,and....my what a fluffy Pomeranian that someone outside is walking.Cute little thing. 

If one is going to make a comeback to the rap game after what is by today’s standards an eternity,an almost spectacular re-entrance is necessary.Remy and Fat Joe recently released a collaboration album,which was probably done to give both of their careers a boost.But “Shether” was the clincher.Considering that,despite my displeasure with Nicki Minaj turning into a plastic and unlistenable pop star,Nicki’s got a big name.As such,that’s a huge mark for Remy to take out.By going at her the way that she did,Remy became a trending topic.That may very well mean a new audience for her.By Remy using the concept and the beat of “Ether,” she had to bring it on a level that Nas (one of the hip-hop GOATs) did.She delivered something that was on par with Nas,maybe even better.That’s going to get her nothing but respect from the hip-hop heads.This segue ways to the next takeaway.

3.Remy kept it hip-hop

It’s no secret that rap-at least in the mainstream-looks dramatically different than it did both in its nascent form and in its golden adolescence.The unwritten rules of hip-hop stopped being enforced,the competitive aspect of it ceased to exist,and lyricism was replaced with dumbed-down bars and unintelligible mumbling.Furthermore,if there was beef,shots were almost entirely fired subliminally.Remy wasn’t about to adopt the new-school method of dealing with an adversary.The world was going to know who she was putting on a meat hook.Not only did she name-drop Nicki,she even went on a series of clever Nicky/Nick name plays at one point.I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Remy name-checked a bunch of others whom Nicky has had associations with,from Drake and Lil’ Wayne to Gucci Mane and Meek Mill.Remy’s shout out to the man who was instrumental in her rise to fame-the late,great Big Pun-was a nice finishing touch to all the names that came out of her mouth during her blistering assault.While “Shether” was aimed specifically at Nicki,it feels to me like another case this year of a veteran rapper,or more appropriately an MC,making a statement that hip-hop is not only alive and well but at war with what’s presently mainstream.First case was Royce Da 5′9″ last month dropping some unbelievable freestyles over trap beats and clowning the likes of Migos and French Montana. Remy came in and scored another win for hip-hop and I for one can’t be grateful enough.

2.Jay-Z should feel a bit better about himself now   

Not that ‘Hov is someone who experiences issues with self-esteem but he did take one of the worst beatdowns in the history of hip-hop beef.I’m sure that the sting of Nas’ hard blows have mostly subsided but he has to feel somewhat good that there exists “Shether.” I’m sure that Jay was feeling Nicki’s pain if he heard that song but now the “Ether” beat has a second victim to it.It’s no longer solely associated as the track that nearly put Jay in a metaphorical coffin.If anything,Jay should be thinking or saying “Chea! I got it bad on that beat but Nicki got it real bad.YEP!” It might be savage when a rapper says you have dick sucking lips that have Notorious B.I.G.’s lines coming from them,that you’re a “tae bo ho,” or that you’ve named your record company after a man who died from AIDS.By virtue of Jay not having a surgically enhanced posterior or a brother on his way to prison for raping a minor,he got off relatively easy compared to the flogging that Nicki received from Remy.

1.”Shether” will go down as one of the best rap songs of 2017

The year may be only entering its third month and other albums and songs are going to drop.However,I just don’t see this song with it being the most scathing diss track that’s come out in some time (perhaps since “Ether”) not being spoken about at the year’s end when all the year-in-review stuff comes out.If it isn’t,something is wrong.

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Finally got my two videos of my Top 10 rappers in hip-hop history done.

https://youtu.be/HZpJBDp5wiU

This is actually the second part,from 5 to 1.10 to 6 is also on my YouTube channel.

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I had to chime in on this whole Pizzagate thing.

https://youtu.be/h2548CdeZy4

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The witnessing of history

Ordinarily,I use this platform as a means of promoting myself as a hip-hop artist and to give wordy takes on rap-related matters.However,though rhymes and beats may assume a great degree of my attention and energy,sports runs a fairly close second.

There’s a number of reasons that I’m a sports nut.Much like music,watching sports has been something that can get my mind at least partly out of the dark and depressing places that it can go in at times.It’s a chance to see mortal beings do almost godlike things in athletic ways.It reinforces life lessons and gives illustrations to this thing we reside in called reality.It caters to my quirky fascinations for statistics and strategy and it never fails to provide me with opinions.It’s something that I draw inspiration from.Perhaps above all that,watching sports gives me one opportunity after another to witness history. I’ve seen athletes that future generations will only read about or see on archived footage dominate their sports as they did it,be it Wayne Gretzky on the ice or Michael Jordan on the hardwood. I’ve been lucky to witness great team performances like the ultra-fun “greatest show on turf” St.Louis Rams to the “evil empire” New York Yankee dynasty of the late Nineties/early Oughts. (Okay,the latter case is more one I say begrudgingly.As much as I loathe the Yankees,those teams were pretty damn good.) 

There was one piece of history,however,that I was waiting to witness but concurrently wondered if I ever would.It was a matter of when the Chicago Cubs would snap their century long streak of futility and frustration but the $64,000 question was whether I’d be alive to see it happen or if the Cubs would tack on a few more decades of title-less seasons on to their hundred-plus years of misery. Fortunately,or more appropriately mercifully,that would not be the case.The baseball gods decided not to smite or pour their cup of wrath upon the Cubs and their long-suffering faithful fans this time around,perhaps as a result of some intercession from this man:

For the record,it’s the Old English ‘D’ of the Tigers that’s tatted on my heart.But I’ve long had a soft spot for the Cubs.I almost feel bad that it was my team that stopped the Cubs from ending their drought when it was 37-years long.I know,it happened before I was born and no one at the time had foreseen the Cubs going a whopping 71 seasons without a Fall Classic appearance from that point.But,still.As much as I love all my teams and want to see them hoist the ultimate prize on a perennial basis,I’m not so chauvinistic a fan to feel apathy toward teams that spend literally a lifetime pursuing glory in vain while their fans agonize.

It’s not just crazy thinking about how many world wars,U.S. presidents,et cetera there has been since the Cubs last won a World Series.It’s crazy to think how many lives began and ended in the window of time between Cub championships,especially Chicagoans who rooted for their north-side ball club.If that wasn’t painful or cruel enough,their rival St.Louis Cardinals won 11 pennants during the Cubs drought.While the Cubs faithful waited,the Brooklyn Dodgers,Philadelphia Athletics,and New York Giants made an exodus out west and won titles as their Los Angeles,Oakland,and San Francisco incarnations.While they waited,Major League Baseball put two franchises in Canada,one of which (Toronto) won back-to-back titles.While they waited,the Miami Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks clinched pennants a respective four and three years after their inceptions as MLB teams.For a while,Cub fans weren’t alone in their suffering.Until Mike Schmidt and the Philadelphia Phillies gave the City of Brotherly Love a cause to celebrate in 1980,Phillie fans had been waiting 98 seasons for their first title.There were many in Boston who could feel the pain of Cub fans,until their Red Sox said “Curse of the Bambino this!!” in 2004.For 88 years,the Cubs south-side rival White Sox were hard-pressed to bring any hardware to the Windy City baseball scene until they got over the hump in 2005.With three teams erasing a combined 272 seasons sans championship in a 25 year span,that left the Cubs and their fans with little company.

If anyone so much as bemoaned their own teams’ trophy-less streaks,the Cubs were the ultimate reference in the context of “could be worse...” I mean,my Tigers haven’t won since 1984.My Edmonton Oilers in hockey haven’t won since 1990.Prior to last February,my Denver Broncos hadn’t won since 1998.Could I really complain when the total number of seasons that my teams have gone without the prize doesn’t even come close to the Cubs’ slump? In a way,I couldn’t. Not until today,anyway.

It was both an honor and a privilege to see the Cubs finally get that monkey off their back.I use neither italicized word loosely.When the feisty Cleveland Indians took a 3-1 series lead,a part of me thought that the Tribe would end their title drought at the expense of prolonging the Cubs’ for at least another season.It’s not that I wanted to see my Tigers’ AL Central foes lose neither.Matter of fact,I can think of three reasons why the Indians deserved to win the World Series:They overcame a lot of adversity to get there,their pitching and Terry Francona’s management was phenomenal,and they never quit even despite allowing the Cubs to rally back into the series and jump to a lead in its decisive seventh game.It just would have been way too cruel if the Cubs lost their first World Series after a 71-year absence from it,though.The curse had to be broken,the Commissioner’s Trophy had to make Wrigleyville its destination,and the fans outside of Wrigley Field or watching their Cubs at home or in a bar had to erupt.Enough was damn well enough.With the Cubs in a do-or die Game 5,they started to claw and scratch their way out of a deep hole.I posted this on Twitter:

I could have very well been wrong but I sensed that the momentum in the series had shifted to Chicago when Bryant homered in the fourth inning of that tilt.The Cubs needed one of their comrades to go yard with the stitched sphere and inject optimism and confidence back into their side.Once it happened,the Indians’ pitching gradually stopped looking like a difficult-to-solve puzzle.The bats,mostly in the dangerous middle of the Cubs’ order,were heating up and producing runs.They began to resemble the Cubs that finished with 100-plus wins on the regular season and the highest overall win percentage.As such,they whittled away at the 3-1 deficit and made the series a best-of-one.

I can’t recall watching any sporting event that felt as long and torturous to get through as last night’s game.Not because it was a terrible one but more so because the suspense was damn well killing me! If my ticker was going a few extra beats-per-minute and my stomach was more in knots than tightly tied shoelaces,I can only imagine how much more pronounced it was for those that were of the die hard Cubbie persuasion.If I was saying “Oh,shit” after Rajai Davis belted the home run into left field that wiped out a 6-4 Cubs lead,I can only imagine how much of an emotional roller coaster it was for Cub fans.If the Tribe being in a position to snag all the marbles in walk-off fashion had every nerve in my body going like a Geiger counter near Chernobyl,Cubbie fans surely had to be on the verge of having a full-blown panic attack.

If the baseball gods heard the intercessions of Harry Caray and decided to be nice to the Cubs and their fans for a change,they were going to be mean in the process of being nice.It was like they were saying,”Yeah,we know you’ve been waiting 108 years for this,but you’re not going to have it in an easy four games.No,you’re going to stare in the face of elimination,rally back and force a seventh game,get within four outs of having your celebration,lose the lead you have,spend the bottom of the ninth dreading a walk-off run by the other team,and have your gratification delayed by rain and an extra inning.” The rain delay had me thinking “you’ve got to be shitting me.” I couldn’t help but think during the suspension of play that the baseball gods may have enlisted the help of Mother Nature to put the finishing touches on what was a mean-spirited prank to tease the Cubs and their supporters into hoping and thinking that a title was finally theirs,only to give them a Nelson from The Simpsons “ha ha” when play resumed and the wet field conditions caused a Cubs outfielder to slip on a play resulting in Cleveland scoring three runs to take the series.While the Cubs reassumed the lead in the top of the tenth frame,I must have breathed sparingly for the bottom of that inning.Yogi Berra once said “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over” and it wasn’t until Kris Bryant’s throw landed safely in the glove of Anthony Rizzo for the final out of the World Series that I resumed breathing normally.The curse would cease to exist.The drought ended after the rain came through.For Cleveland,the divine council of sport gaveth and tooketh away.The Cavaliers brought the first pro sports championship to the city in fifty-plus years by overcoming a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Golden State Warriors.Then the Indians lost a chance at bringing “the Land” its second title in one year by squandering a 3-1 lead.This is more the stuff for wild hypothetical scenarios than it is the stuff of reality.

Without a doubt,the four-hour marathon of stress and suspense that was Game 7 of the 2016 World Series was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had as a sports fan.I know that for the Cleveland Indians and their pennant-hungry fans,the result was heartbreaking and the sting is at its most fresh and painful.The Indians put it all out on the field and they have nothing to be ashamed of.They may not have won the trophy,but they sure as hell earned a ton of respect for the fight and character they showed.Their moment will come too and I hope I get to witness it.I will be as happy for them as I am for the Chicago Cubs.

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Has Aubrey gone too far?

Yesterday was Drake’s thirtieth birthday.Perhaps his gift to himself was to hit two birds with one stone.It’s more than obvious by now that whatever Drake says or does is going to create some degree of buzz (which was very much apparent when his appearance at a wedding over the weekend in my city made the front page of the Windsor Star and had people talking.) His latest release,slated to be on his next album More Life,is titled “Two Birds,One Stone” and that’s created quite a stir.The song’s ambiguity suggests that Drake-or whoever’s writing for him-is trying to vanquish a number of adversaries in one move,most notably Pusha T and Kid Cudi.

In the case of the latter,Cudi is presently indisposed after checking into a rehabilitation center for mental illness issues.And yet there’s Drake targeting Cudi and making light of his situation.Exhibits A and B:

“You were the man on the moon/Now you just go through your phases/Life of the angry and famous.”

“Still never been on hiatus/You stay Xanned and Perc’ed up/So when reality set in you don’t gotta face it.”

Talk about booting someone in the ribcage when they’re down.Drake has gotten some flak for doing so and the $64,000 question is whether Drake went too far this time.I say it’s both a “yes” and “no.” Let’s focus on the “Yes” to start.As a sufferer of depression and anxiety issues myself,it’s not only a torturous experience but it makes it extremely difficult,if not impossible,to function well in a dog-eat-dog world and under pressure situations.I can empathize with Kid Cudi and his situation and shout out to him for getting help for it.If I were in Kid Cudi’s shoes,I wouldn’t appreciate anyone treating my condition lightly let alone a rival rapper who’s advantageous of my unfavorable circumstances.Let’s be honest,Drake landed a sucker punch on Cudi and if someone has to resort to throwing blows behind you or to hit you with a blindside haymaker,chances are that they’re too cowardly to try it to your face.If Drake is looking for style points or a win in his feud with Cudi with “Two Birds,One Stone,” hitting someone while they’re unable to defend themselves will get him neither.This is not a good look for Drake and shit like this is only going to give his critics more in the way of ammunition.

Now,just to be clear,I am somewhat a fan of Drake’s but,unlike his millions of adoring fans (mostly women and men who wear sandals),I am more objective about Aubrey and I don’t co-sign everything that comes from him. I’ve suspected for some time that Drake is very selective in who he becomes embroiled in feuds with.Out of all the rappers that Drake has beefed with,only Common and Pusha T have a higher-tier pen game.Meek Mill established himself to be an easy mark,although he does deserve credit for bringing to light that Drake wasn’t writing all of his own material.However,Drake has avoided responding to Joe Budden’s slew of diss tracks like the plague and he doesn’t seem to want any piece of Kendrick Lamar. Back to Kid Cudi,his only crime in this matter was not hiding his disgust with rappers that have others writing their material for them. Cudi took to Twitter and only said what a lot of people think about the ghostwriting in rap thing.Drake got offended by it and then sucker-punched Cudi while Cudi was trying to get his own ducks in a row.

However,this is rap music and rap is very much a product of the environment it was born in.Political correctness and hypersensitivity wasn’t in the 1970′s-era South Bronx like burned-out tenements,graffiti-laced walls,and violent crime was.Rap,much like its birthplace,is where sensitivity goes to die.It’s a genre of music where words like “faggot” and “bitch” are still used,regardless of whether homosexuals and feminists get offended by it or not.Rap went to court once upon a time and fought for its right to be blunt,abrasive,profane,and brutally honest.There were no rules of engagement when it came to beefs that rappers had with each other,aside from keeping the beef on wax.When we begin to set out when one rapper should go after another and how they do so,then we have truly forgotten what rap is all about.If we’re going to rebuke Drake for what he did,we should chastize the likes of Jay-Z for going after Nas when the latter was indisposed due to his mother dying.We should put every battle rapper on blast for being all types of personal and disrespectful.

As much as we can (rightfully so) get on Drake for being emo,for not writing all of his own material,or for singing too much,he very much kept it rap in this case.For all we know,the chess-playing Aubrey Graham may have committed a blunder with this move.Once Kid Cudi is in a better place with the state of his mental health and he’s able to make a return to the music scene,he’ll be able to give Drake a hard punch in the mouth if he plays his cards right.And I think that Cudi will have plenty on his side in this feud after getting dissed by Drake while he was in rehab. And should Cudi counter with a vicious strike,Drake can’t realistically do his bit of martyr-playing when it happens.He’ll have to take it on the chin.

[prime-one-blog]

This hip-hop head is stoked..

I’m trying to savor the feeling of excitement that I’m having as of present.As a rapper and a fan of hip-hop music,moments like these are not as oft-occurring as they were once upon a time.To put it to you this way,the last time I felt like this was when it was reported that The Game and 50 Cent had squashed their decade-plus long beef and that they may have been set to do a record together.That was a few months back.But this time around,we have a couple of really big things coming out of the hip-hop/rap scene.

Let’s start with Eminem. Never mind that he dropped one hell of a verse on Skylar Grey’s “Kill For You” that was released not too long ago,Em just put out a new track called “Campaign Speech.” The track,said to be a freestyle,runs over seven minutes and comes close in number of words used as his “Rap God” joint from Marshall Mathers LP 2.Em just came out of nowhere with this track.It’s been a pattern of Eminem’s to drop a freestyle leading up to the release of an album and he wasn’t about to leave his many fans to speculate on whether there would be one following “Campaign Speech.” Em posted on his Twitter account that he was working on a new album.That is a fantastic bit of news indeed.Though I haven’t heard “Campaign Speech” as of yet,I read through most of the lyrics on RapGenius and Marshall is still showing no signs of a declining pen game. (I’ll probably listen to the track soon and give my personal breakdown on here.)

However,Slim Shady wasn’t the only one giving me that feeling of excitement as it pertains to hip-hop music.

One of the more recent trending topics that was on Facebook was the reunion of legendary hip-hop DJ-MC duo Eric B. and Rakim.For a number of years,Rakim was putting out solo records as he and Eric B. seemed kind of distant from one another.But now they’re back and a tour is planned.Whether this tour coincides with their record Paid In Full hitting the big 3-0 is not known to me as of yet.Nonetheless,it is great to hear of these two reuniting and getting ready to hit the road.We need real hip-hop back in the fold and for these younger fans to get educated on it.I’m sure a lot of the crowds Eric B. and Rakim draw will be old-schoolers but hopefully some younger people do show up.As far as I’m concerned,it’d be great if we could drag some of these Young Thug Stans out to the shows and make them see what rap music’s really about.

If only Eric B. and Rakim would drop a new album.Hey,one can wish.Either way,hip-hop is back!!

[prime-one-blog]

Did Wyclef actually say that?!

I came across something rather disturbing the other day that made me wonder whether I should be disappointed in one Wyclef Jean or questioning this guy’s state of mental health and/or possible drug use.Here is someone that made up one-third of The Fugees,a group that cemented its place in hip-hop history with their 1996 classic The Score,going on record saying that Young Thug reminds him of a “modern day 2 Pac.”

SERIOUSLY,DUDE?!

To be fair,Wyclef wasn’t making comparisons between Thugger and ‘Pac in the context of rapping.His parallel was drawn from Thug’s connection to Haiti and an understanding of the nation’s history.But even to say that Thug is a “revolutionary” like ‘Pac is absurd to the point of being almost comical.I’m sure that wherever ‘Pac may be out there in the ether,he’s wishing that he could reassume corporeal form if for no other reason than to slap Wyclef silly and say “don’t you ever mention my name in the same sentence as that wack motherfucker’s again!”

I’m not disputing Young Thug’s love for and knowledge of Haiti.I wasn’t privy to the dialogue between he and Wyclef as they were in the collaborative process for a track on Thug’s Jeffrey album.But if Thug is indeed some “revolutionary” soul looking to affect change,he’s doing an exemplary job of concealing that beneath a patina of idiocy and fruitiness. Thugger is doing more to kill hip-hop at the mainstream level than he is using it as a platform to edu-tain the listeners.While ‘Pac was no saint,he was certainly unafraid to display the conscious and caring hues of his character.He stood for much more than just thug life.And,when he conveyed his messages,he did so in a way that didn’t mince words let alone sound like indecipherable gibberish.’Pac’s contribution to hip-hop continues to live on and it is impossible to concisely summarize the man,the music he made,and his impact on the culture.

If Young Thug were a “modern day 2Pac,” he wouldn’t have given a stupid “we iced out over here” response to an interviewer who wanted to know what his thoughts were about the Mike Brown killing in Ferguson,Missouri.’Pac would have had plenty to say about an unarmed black man being murdered by a trigger-happy white cop.Hell,’Pac may have gone to Ferguson to be a party to the demonstrations and maybe even the riots.There is absolutely no way that ‘Pac,with his Black Panther roots,would have sat idly by and let the Ferguson situation or any of the others in the recent wave of culpable homicides by white police officers on black citizens go by without offering his pair of pennies.“We iced out over here” isn’t ‘Pac-like whatsoever.It is not a response that a true blue revolutionary would even think to give.

Now,I’m about as anti-P.C. as a person can get.I understand that not everyone is comfortable speaking about matters that are controversial or divisive.And,while it’s sad that our world is mired in chaos,I get that we can’t take every problem of the world on our shoulders lest we want to go crazy and disrupt the course of our own lives.But when some high-profile celebrity answers an interviewer by saying that he and his team are sporting those shiny stones that are tokens of monetary wealth when the question has to do with the senseless murder of someone who was a young black man like Thugger is,that would be construed as him being on some “ignant shit” There’s already enough questionable about Young Thug-from his cheap imitations of rapping and his occasional wearing of dresses to him sounding barely coherent when he speaks-and his not-so-revolutionary “we iced out over here” should make everyone,including Wyclef,ask if this cornball cares about anything beyond making money from making really bad music and looking queer.

If Lauryn Hill’s somewhat racist “I don’t want white people listening to my music” statement a number of years ago wasn’t enough impetus for me to scrap my copy of The Score,Wyclef’s far-reaching and numbskulled ‘Pac/Young Thug comparison should have me pitching the disc in the trash,stat.I probably won’t because it’s a brilliant record and it’s nonsense for me to allow eyebrow-raising comments from ex-Fugees members to overshadow a project that strongly showcased their artistry and talent.Two decades after its release,I find it mind-boggling how Wyclef (and L-Boogie) can have the intellectual wherewithal to create potentially classic music and yet can say things that should have them sitting in a corner wearing a dunce cap.

Maybe it’s just me but the timing of Wyclef’s comments and those made by that nobody Lil’ Yachty (”I don’t know any ‘Pac songs”) don’t seem to be coincidental. The twentieth anniversary of 2Pac’s slaying passed just last month and the disrespect to ‘Pac between late-August when mumble-rapper Yachty opened his yap to early this month when Wyclef uttered what many deemed to be a blasphemy couldn’t be more apparent. I guess there was no better time to defecate on the memory of one of the greatest rappers of all-time than around the two-decade mark of that rapper’s premature demise.

‘Clef...you should really be ashamed of yourself.

[prime-one-blog]

MY FIRST TUMBLR POST

Hey,everyone out there in cyberspace.Prime-One is officially on Tumblr.I heard about this place but I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.As an artist,you want as many possible social networking options that you can get for promo and just keeping a line of communication open to those that like your shit.I just tried signing up for Instagram a few minutes ago and I must have an antiquated cellie because I couldn’t get the fuckin’ app for it.I guess there are just certain platforms you can’t get on if you don’t have the loot to upgrade from the dino tech you got.But this place looks like it’s cool and perhaps a suitable home for me.At least I don’t have to condense my often large thoughts to 140 characters or less here.I’m going to try and post as often as I can here and make this my home base of sorts so stay tuned.