Just a little post :)

Life is pretty cool right now. I am still catching up from missing the first week or so, and on top of that carrying on regular life. I get to play watchdog today and our edit board is grilling UK's president Lee T. Todd today. I think I'm going to take it easy... Ha. Anyways, it's Tuesday which makes me think of music. So here you go:

First, Kanye has a new version of Love Lockdown! It has been mastered and is now on point.

Next up, ATM(Cory Gunz, Smoke DZA, Numbers) ft. Mickey Factz - Swagger Like Us . Mickey Factz, Cory Gunz and two random dudes rap over the Swagger Like Us beat and its a decent effort. Now I normally don't do in depth commenting but here's what I got. Mickey Factz is quickly becoming one of my favorite people to listen to, simply cause he gets it. He isn't on Wikipedia, most people don't know who he is... and when he gets on a track he definitely let's you know he is above and beyond what you normally hear. The second guy used the auto-tune and I didn't even mind it. Actually his verse was pretty hot, but I can't say that he gets it 'cause I have no idea who he is just like the last guy on the track. Cory Gunz did a good job of showing why the vocoder needs to be destroyed and why the auto-tune only should be used by no one.


Rick Ross also jumped on Swagger Like Us. I guess its the new A Millie. Ricky Ross the rent-a-cop really did a nice job on this track, better than most can. Still, I am hoping that Fabolous destroys that track here soon, but even more so that when Joe Budden releases his next mixtape (where he will finally go back to jackin' beats) he will get on beats like this and show people how much better he is than 99% of the game.

Speaking of Tuesday, Royce 5'9 has a new mixtape. Royce's intro on his first album was called It's Tuesday and that track/album was sick. His new mixtape, "The Bar Exam 2", just popped out and I will stake my rep on its hotness.

Below is the Cool Kids new video Delivery Man. Last year they did that song Black Mags, and they definitely have a good sound.


Cool Kids Delivery Man

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Jadakiss is about to drop a new album... so he can call himself top 5 dead or a live off three LP's. The first single is called By My Side and it features my least favorite Neyo.

Finally, I will link you to the best mixtape of the year There is No Competition by Fabolous. If only he were consistent and spit as hard as he does on mixtapes when he makes albums :(

Just because this was all music I may post another one today, if not....

Salute

Officially a fan of an 0-2 team

The Seahawks are now 0-2 which sucks. The sad thing is once they get healthy, they will probably win the division... it's that bad in the NFC West. I will just be glad when we can get a play in the offense that goes for over 20 yards in the playbook. If you don't believe me watch the Hawks play--quite ugly.


Since a lot of people aren't political I'll be a little light today. Here's some good humorous political commentary that anybody can enjoy from Jon Stewart, the video below characterizes the flipity floppity floop nature of the Republican Party these days.




Here is also a story of the McCain marriage that you probably don't know about. CNN did a report on this when they exposed the "real" John McCain and Barack Obama during a special back in August. John McCain was a jerk based on that CNN report. Basically this story exposed that he was dealing with some "issues" and his ex-wife had to deal with all of his antics.

From this report he is an inhumane scumbag, to say that lightly. Thanks to Tarik Pain for finding this. I don't think it is morally acceptable for someone to put another person through that situation especially knowing she has an unconditional love that will not tear you down. Drawing from a similar situation, former President Clinton was scum for extramarital affairs that occurred while he was in office. Right now, we know about extremely dirty misdealings and have the opportunity to prevent such a man going into office. I vividly remember the attacks President Clinton's character took while the sex scandal went on... but I doubt there will be similar actions taken.

In music stuff F-150 face Curtis Jackson bka 50 Cent dissed Kanye, video below. I am by no means a Kanye fan but this is just lame. The fact that people still 50 is a sign the world is coming to an end. Really we need to get it together America.


Ramadan is going well and I am developing the spiritual connection that is essential to growth and development during such a time.

OH! And the San Diego Chargers lost a game today because of a rule... I am thinking we should make sports rule books like the constitution or the Bible and interpret them as living documents. Ed Hochuli (Mr. Man of sports referees) knew he blew the call but because of the rulebook he couldn't make it right. Now the Denver Broncos are 2-0 and the San Diego Chargers are 0-2. What did we learn today? Politics are screwed, music is screwed and sports is screwed... good luck out there in this cold, cold world!

Salute

Labor Day: No Work=Music

It's now Labor Day and I have an extra day off to blog. YAY!

On a serious note, please be praying for New Orleans. Hopefully, all the evacuation and precaution doesn't equal Gustav being as devastating as Katrina. I was watching CNN Friday night and one of the commentators said that the levees are only about 20% to where they need to be... I also hope that the Republicans and the RNC don't have to deal with such a disaster during their convention.

Moving on to lighter business, College football started this weekend and the NFL starts next weekend. I started to do a serious in-depth comprehensive breakdown of both, but I don't get paid to do it so I'll just stick to predictions. The two best teams in college football are USC and Florida. I would like to see them both play in the BCS title game so I'm gonna pick Tim Tebow, the first three Heisman winner, and the USC Trojans, with NFL talent up and down their roster. A team like Oklahoma, Missouri, or Ohio State (whom the BCS seems to love) could stop that matchup because Florida will most likely not go undefeated and one of those teams, in weaker conferences has a better opportunity. USC ain't losing though, watch what they do to Ohio State next week. They are incredible.

Likewise are the New England Patriots. My roommate will tell you that the second the Pats got my man Randy Moss, I said they weren’t going to lose a game... I was almost right and this year I think I will be totally right. Actually, I’m lying—I have no idea what they will do. That defense got really old really fast last year, and aside from being a little healthier the only thing that happened was getting older. That said I hope they do it, but I don’t think they will. They’ll get that Superbowl though. Why? Because they are Incredible too.

Speaking of incredible Mickey Factz has a song called, guess what? Incredible. The beat is hot especially during the chorus and already the likes of Skyzoo, Cory Gunz, Tyga, Travis McCoy (of Gym Class Heroes), and a few others have already hit this beat which will probably get a lot of play. As far as Mr. Factz goes, I’ll say he’s pretty good. I found this track about 5 weeks ago and have been on a quest to find more and more of his music.

A few other people to check out are Wale, Charles Hamilton and Grafh. I have listened to Grafh for a while and I can say without a doubt the man is really nice lyrically. He has more of a hard, raw style, but is still prolific with the words. I’m not going to link any of his music, ‘cause Grafh is a little more explicit than most (but if you want to find him you know who he is now).

Wale and Charles Hamilton are listening byproducts of listening to Mickey Factz and the people he says know that he is incredible. Charles Hamilton’s style is nice and I really like that he’s a Sega nerd. He will drop all kinds of references to the 16 bit Genesis a lot, and if you visit his blog you’ll see what makes him tick.

Wale’s “The Mixtape About Nothing” is kinda hot, I’m not gonna lie. It’s also kinda big so if you download it have a few minutes to download the .zip file and unpack it. I’m feeling kinda lazy so I won’t critique it either… just know it has my stamp of approval, whatever that’s worth.

In completely unrelated music, go get Coldplay's new album. Chris Martin is a genius, he has the rare talent of putting together good sounds in a way that a black man can enjoy "white" music LOL. Really though go buy "Viva La Vida", it's good. Since they are mainstream artists I'm gonna say go buy it, in fact I may drop something in the Kernel about buying music... hmm

Happy Labor Day, pray for New Orleans, and tell a friend!

Salute

Ending the week on a high note!

First week of school for me, but I had no classes... kinda nice to run around all rogue like. I am actually looking forward to this upcoming year and getting to meet the other half of campus I don't know.

As far as music goes it's been an ok week so all I got is The Dream-Put On Remix. He isn't the most talented, but he hustles hard, keeps it real and has a knack for making hot music, kinda like Jeezy.




The reason I like the Dreams, Jeezy's, Ludacris' and people of that ilk is because they work hard and make it because of their hard work. And that work ethic, combined with some luck has brought them to the top to some extent. It seems like every other week I hear somebody dissin Jay-Z from the outside and from within his circles. Some of it is justified and other disses seem to be like hmm stfu. Ive got 4 examples for you of the varying spectrum. You have Game who is dissing Jay just cause. You had Dame Dash and Jay feuding, which apparently is squashed, you have Joe Budden dissing Jay, and then you have Teairra Marie mad at Jay.

The Game is pretty obvious no analysis necessary. Dame dash is interesting because they know each other and built that empire together, but like I said apparently they cool so that's not an issue because even the best of friends fight. Joe Budden and Teairra Marie are the interesting comparisions. Both "whine" about how they were done by Jay and how he hasn't reached out and helped them. Because I am a Budden fan I can say that man has been working and put out music that showcases his immense talent. Teairra Marie on the other hand I have no idea. It came totally out of left field. Personally, I dont think she is that good and there are others like her(Peedi Crack, Omillio Sparks, Foxy Brown, etc.) who suck and keep blaming Jay for their lack of success.

I know in my own life I am around a lot of people that "work hard", but leave very little evidence of what they do. Basically, they complain a lot, run their mouths, and are always "busy" but never have anything done. Not saying I am the model of success and/or getting things done, but I try. So I tend to root for people who's work can be seen through their efforts, energy and the quality in the result. I will say this till I die, Jeezy is the worst rapper ever, but you have to love him.

Moving on to the DNC which was pretty great....

I enjoyed the full line up of speakers, but I still need to go back and catch Wednesday, with Biden and Billy J. Clinton. Unfortunately, I was at the Kernel copy editing and falling asleep on the couch, so I missed their speeches, which I am sure were great.

Barack made a great speech to bring the convention to a close, and so far the criticisms I have seen from that of the Republicans, the Cornel West types, and Patrick Nally's is that missed/lacked something. Let me assure you, the acceptance speech for the presidency and the inauguration will be the two best speeches you've ever heard. In fact, since I'm like the 4th grade girls on South Park, lets rank Barack's big speeches to date from 5 to 1 (feel free to disagree):

5. The close of primary speech.

4. The speech on race.

3. The DNC nomination acceptance speech '08.

2. The '04 DNC Keynote speech.

1. The inauguration & acceptance speeches.

I had a hard time ranking these because the number 1 speeches haven't happened, but they will be so great. There will be so much that goes into these speeches I can't even imagine what that will do for America. I am going to say that this list is very flawed, because there are at least 3 speeches I can think of that belong on this list, but I don't think they are mainstream familiar speeches.

Finally, if you are reading this, and you are a UK student, pick up the Kernel. I am doing a lot more with the paper hopefully this year and I want to hear people's critique of the paper. I want i to be the best and the only way for that to happen is to get feedback. And those of you who are not in Lexington, don't fret... we have a great newly redesigned website at the Kernel webpage.

Salute

A little disappointed

I'm not gonna lie. I signed up for that special text message to see who the future VP is going to be and it broke at like 10 pm PST (1 am where I'm at). That was really wack. The whole idea behind it was to keep the supporters in the same loop as the media, but the media still had the upper hand and had to break the story. I mean I guess I get the point of why it leaks or gets out, but still I wanted to have a breaking story as it happen. It really cheapens the process, thank goodness I haven't gotten any of the other texts they sent out otherwise I would be pissed.

This is one of my problems with the campaign. There is an effort to be cutting edge and groundbreaking, but in a lot of ways it will go to traditional political norms when it comes to things. I don't want to go too in depth and get cynical, but it is one of those things....

EDIT: I got the text at 12:15 PST (3:15 am where I'm at) Obama/Biden '08!

Edit 2: I just checked hiphopgame.com one of the sites I frequent and Barack Obama selected Joe Biden as his "runnin" mate. I dont think its a typo. How are people supposed to learn if they are taught improperly?

Anyways, to take my mind off of the slight betrayal heres some music for you all to hear:

"SLU (Swagger Like Us)"--TI f/ Kanye West, Jay-Z & Lil' Wayne aka The Little SwaggerMonster that could
Line of the track: I'm Christopher Columbus, y'all just the pilgrims" Mr. West


http://www.zshare.net/audio/1748577144739ae1/


"My President is black" Young Jeezy f/Nas
Line of the track: "Y'all touch him we ridin'" ...gotta love Jeezy (talking at the end of the track btw)

http://www.mediafire.com/?dt1g0weprif

Salute (and tell a friend)

Where has the orignality gone?

This is gonna be a difficult post cause two of my favorite rappers are guilty of this, or I guess followers of this terrible evil plague of rap..... Rapping over another dudes beat. (I want to say the n-word as they would say in the streets, but after what happened to Jesse Jackson, I doubt any negro with sense will have the n-word be heard out of their mouth).

Anyways, I saw the 30th free over the little creature feature's track Let the Beat Build today and I thought to myself: "this is what is wrong with hip hop." The new school, including two of my favorites, Joe Budden and Fabolous, make their names off of getting on somebody else's track, and in their case doing it better. But very few make a name for themselves on their own original work, so what happens? Rappers flock to get on a beat and outshine the next emcee and you have the A Millie Wars, the Show Me What You Got Struggles, and the Grindin' games. Its sad.

Spanky, my hurt little cousin said that is what is good about hip hop. Granted, it was in a different and nonsensical context. But whatever, its Spanky aka Marty Mcfly (if he has pissed you off or you want to get at the bum cause for some strange reason you think he is smart thats how to find him. I think he's going to start blogging soon btw). Anyways, I think its terrible what hip hop has become because it's replacing sports as the new crack (the method by which urban youth seek to "make it"). Everybody thinks they can get rich off of it, the people who are good at it make it clear that they put no effort into it, and if you don't succeed, to be quite frank, your f*cked. So you have a bunch of little wanna be "God MC's" running around trying to be the best rapper alive while making it rain, either dropping tracks in minutes without working on them, and wasting their other assumed talents on rap. Sad I know.

But more importantly the art is dying because all of the skilled aspects of rapping have given way to the subjective aspects of the craft. So wordplay, structure, bar quality, blah blah blah, have given way to flow, beats and whatever the hell else that ru(i)ns hip hop. Again I am not a hater. I listen to the Lil' Creature of the Su woo gang, the Jeezy's, and all the new school rappers and I like them a lot, they have brought a lot to the game. I guess I'll say hip hop needs a few organ transplants.

What if your lungs forgot to breathe or your brain let your thought processes be redundant. It's getting bad y'all.

When will it stop Pt. 2

OK. Before you read listen to this:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/1543021720034390/

This is what should be the last freestyle over the A Millie Beat ever. I have heard way to many rappers get on this beat and try to kill it worse that it was allegedly killed in the beginning so it’s done.

But again this blog is about love and positivity so let’s talk about the real story here which is this little white boy Asher Roth, the author of this freestyle. I have no idea why I decided to click on the link to this freestyle, because I am extremely sick of the redundancy of hip hop and the entire industry from Lil' Mama, to Neyo, even R. Kelly getting on this beat. But I did. Anyways it was worth it cause the dude has a little flow and his message is on point. If you didn't listen to the track he talks about what good is having "A millie" if you ain't helpin' nobody with it. Really? What good is it. While the Wayne's walk around with a millie and the Jay's walk around with near billie what do they do?

Now those two help out a lot so it probably wasn't pointed at them, but a lot of the music industry gets, gets and gets some more, but you rarely hear of their philanthropy. Now I understand that the media portrays blacks in a certain light already and human interest stories don't get covered. But, Plies (the idiot with the name that makes no sense) has been on the scene for 12 minutes and he is already making a name for himself giving back and helping the less fortunate through giveaways, scholarships, and promotions (it sounds bad but it’s better than most).

Back to the where I was going though. It is rare I stumble across something and don't investigate. An example would be the the French, I guess electronica, band JUSTICE. I heard their song D.A.N.C.E. from that guy Sol P who doesn't update his blog and after a little bit of investigation got just about everything they have put out. Another example would be Joe Budden. A friend, who till this day denies he liked Pump it Up, told me to download the song. I thought it sounded cool and decided to hear more... 5 years later I have a second favorite rapper (to Redman).

Again I got sidetracked geez I need some meds. So research. Yeah. I looked up this Asher Roth character and didn't find too much info. Thank goodness I didn't cause I found his mixtape.... cosigned by DJ Don Cannon and DJ Drama. I think I am a little late, so in order to break this story I haven't actually even listened to it yet but I am going to throw my little inconsequential co-signature on that b cause based on what he said over A Millie, his freestyle over Cannon, and the fact that he has a mixtape called the "Greenhouse Effect" cosigned by DJ Drama and Don Cannon is enough for me. I guess we can learn at the same time. So here you go:

http://anonym.to/?http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/or9pgf

Its about 100MB and is a zip file, but I bet its worth it.

Salute

Jay-Z at Glastonbury/Music in general

I am muy late on this.... but Jay killed Glastonbury. I wasn't there and I haven't read too many reports about it, so I won't say he stole the show. But he definitely proved that good music is good music and that's that. If Jay wasn't Jay that is.

Jay-Z is a lot of things, but nothing more than clever. When he took the stage for the show he proceeded to "cover" an Oasis hit single Wonderwall. The significance of this is comes from the comments of the lead guitarist and vocalist of Oasis, Noel Gallagher, making the comment that Jay-Z didn't belong at the traditionally rock/guitar/not hip-hop festival. On a side note, the festival has had many hip-hop acts perform within its confines, just never headlining with so big of a name. Anyways, this action of "performing" a mega-hit of his major detractor was extremely witty on its own showing Jay's knowledge and the crossover effect of music. But if you consider Jay followed up the clearly sarcastic performance with his own hit 99 Problems (but a b*tch a'int one). Priceless.

But thats not the issue. The issue is why its not ok to listen to music that is different from your culture. My roommates will tell you I listen to whatever and whenever, but I know very few people that have this musical outlook. Occasionally you'll find a song or two that transcends ethnic, racial, cultural blah blah blah divides, but its rare. It's just music.

Now I know when I was younger I felt that in order to represent, I had to listen to black music. I remember when my little brother started listening to System of a Down and I made fun of him. The funny thing is SOAD is like my top 5 musical entities I listen to overall. Up there with Joe Budden, Jeezy, Redman, Jay and Fab. But, but because I was so influenced by what was going on around me I fell victim to the laugh at what’s different syndrome. Luckily I was individual enough to take the cd and listen to it myself after I ripped my brother for having it.

But that isn't the only reason such a thing occurs. Music is set up segregated to where if you're a fan of punk, you know where to get punk and punk only. You won't accidentally hear any pop, R & B, or soul. It's just your comfort zone. Every now and then you'll find a station with absolutely minimal crossover play. Record companies push the same sounds and same package with every new act. Until this is fixed we will continue to have Glastonbury incidents.

By the way Jay-Z has allegedly reached out to Noel Gallagher and Oasis to collaborate. Thats a start.... This crossover collab is precisely what music needs.

Salute

When will it stop....

I haven't posted in a while so I am gonna drop a few today, hoping you all have as much time to read as I do to write.

Between Tuesday and Saturday I worked a little over 45 hours, but the killer part of all that was the "fun having" I did in between. Luckily, I don't get out of control, well maybe a little bit ;).

Anyways, Friday night was a friend’s party and at every party you have music. At the party I was so focused on having a good time and mingling with the folk I didn't have time to really analyze the music, it was just background noise to my sporadic conversations I guess. Well I got up today to do my usual internet browse and I came across a free(style) by Cam'ron. You know that rapper that wears, raps about high fashion, and was the first big name saying no homo (hmmm), over the Lil' Wayne Let the Beat Build track.

Then I remembered hearing the original track on Friday and actually waiting for the beat to build which took like 20 mins…. actually only like a minute and some seconds, but still much longer than any beat needs to build. Back to the point. Why? I don't need to wait for the beat to build. That is a dumb a$$ concept for a song anyways. What? You gonna rap about building a beat and then what happens after it drops? Start again. Am I the only person who sees through this crap? I mean seriously. When will this man go away?

I am so sick of Wayne right now. Don't get me wrong. He's hot. BUT:

1. He isn't good (he doesn't do anything well except simple punchlines and metaphors with a hellified swag.
2. He has very limited talent (he can rap yes, but he can't work within the constructs of an album well. Those are two different things)
3. He is ugly, short, and does dumb stuff like sip sizzurp (an alcoholic drink with cough syrup)
4. He kisses boys (can you no homo that?).
5. He has a 1 hot album every 10 years average (Carter 2. He kills random tracks on mixtapes but is no where near consistent.)
6. He bites everybody's flow (for all you dummies that get on Jay for being a biter Wayne is much worse.)

I could probably go on but then I would be called a hater....and I'm not. Wayne is in like the top 20 people I listen too... the thing is he is everything people hate about other rappers rolled into one rapper and everybody loves him. He says some of the wackest lines, bites the most flows, has some of the lamest songs, does that gayest things, and so on and so on... yet he is loved.

Trust me no hate here. I wanna see most all black people make it, as long it isn't to the detriment to other black people (like MJ and Jordans, or Bob Johnson and BET., you know people whose careers feed off of the exploitation of black people). Wayne is fast approaching that status because everybody and their momma (probably literally now) thinks they can rap.

Sadly, I must say Jay-Z is probably to blame for Wayne.... them damn Carters and their refusal to write lyrics. If only Wayne was good at going off the top of the head.

OHHHHHHHHHHHH.....in completely unrelated and irrelevant news Amil (All Money Is Legal) formerly of Rocafella records has a freestyle over the A Milli beat. So now everybody and somebody's momma has rapped over it.

Check it out: http://www.zshare.net/audio/150887202a379180/

Swagger and flow are the steroids of rap, beats the B12 shot that keeps you going

I am a big hip hop fan. And my biggest problem with the genre isn't necessarily the artists, but the listeners.

Why do I say this? Because Weezy F baby is allowed to say he is the best rapper alive and get away with it. Admittedly, I am a fan. But I listen to, and a fan of a variety of other rappers ranging from talentless and celebrated (Jeezy) to extremely talented and grossly underrated (Joe Budden) which gives me a lot of insight. Wayne is talented yes, but it’s only marginally better than other above average rappers. Case and point Barry Bonds off of Kanye West's Graduation.
Here's his lyrics (edited):

And me I'm Mr Weezy baby...yea I'm so bright not shady, my teeth and my ice so white like shady, ice in my teeth so refrigerated, I'm so **** in good like I'm sleepin' with Megan, I'm all about my Franklin's.. Lincolns and Regan's
Whenever they make them..i shall hayve (Not at typo) them, oops I meant have them, im so crazy, but if u play crazy you'll be sleepin' with daises, its such a habeet (again not a typo just bad lyrics), oops I meant habit, and my drink still pinker than the Easter rabbit, and I'm still cole(cold) like Keiyshia's family, stole on my waist turn beef to patties, and I ate it cuz I'm so at it, and I don't front, and I don't go backwards, and I don't practice, and I don't lack it, and u can get buried ****

Decent. But not great. Basically the story of Wayne's career. Like I can figure that out the first time I hear it.... there's not really anything of substance or is even above the wit you can find on the street. And half of it is swagger and flow nothing actually lyrically based.

Its super annoying that he lets it be known that he doesn't practice because clearly he should, and his influence on all of these wanna be d-boys/rappers is going to be the death of the game. And the theme of the song is another hit....the saddest thing about it is that it takes a hot beat and 15 minutes in the studio and a little swagger to make another hit....Barry Bonds. Swagger is the steroids of rap! Well its one kind. Pump your raps with swagger, flow, "style" and spit it over a good beat and you've got one of these new school steroid rappers who outshines the traditional emcees doing it the right way with lyrical content, wordplay, varied structure, multi-syllabic rhymes, creativity, etc.

It must be said that the reason I made this post was because on this Fabolous mixtape of DJ Drama's there is this posse cut with Freck Billionaire, Paul Cain, and Red Cafe where Fab makes a reference to the four rappers as the 4 Horsemen of wrestling fame. I was trying to verify the lyrics that connected the metaphor to the punchline so I could quote it to a friend who said that Fab has fallen off. When I Googled the lyrics, EVERY single site that had the lyrics screwed up the reference. The original 4 Horsemen were Are and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard and of course Ric Flair, but whoever got the lyrics must not have known that and had some ridiculous combination of words that made no sense....but was probably hot to their stupid little mind.

What does that have to do with anything?

Well one, it shows people aren't listening and two it proves the whole rap being non-lyrically based. That wasn't the only lyric that was messed up in that track, which is considered one of the best on the mixtape and if people don't know what they are hearing then they really aren't respecting the lyrics and two the flow and swagger (combined with the beat) carry the song to where people actually like it.

I know when you go to the club, you would rather hear about lollipops than how blacks have been oppressed and forgotten achievements like some of Nas' lyrics suggest. Even something a metaphor calling you people Clinton, HillBilly mofos (get it Hillary Bill Clinton lol), isn't something you want to hear at the club. But let's not call the rapper with the most commercial appeal or the easiest, slightly clever lyrics to decipher the best rapper alive. Please. I beg you!

Jay-Z at Glastonbury

I was browsing Hiphopgame.com today in the audio section where I go to find the good, the bad and the ugly of national, underground and regional hip hop/rap. Well I listened to an interview Jay-Z did with popular British DJ and hip hop everything figure Tim Westwood and I must say it was pretty good. They talked about the love of the game, performing, life...typical interview stuff. But one of the topics they touched on was the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing arts in Pilton, England.

Jay has been selected to perform at this festival which has caused some controversy, as Glastonbury traditionally is a rock based gathering. Considering the fact that its a three day outdoor hippie fest of sorts, it doesn't come as a surprise to me that people feel Jay will be out of his element. Heres the actual interview its worth a listen:

http://nahright.com/news/2008/06/25/jay-z-interview-with-tim-westwood/

So Jay talks about listening to different types of music and how its like the old slave like mentality that wants to keep him out of the show. And to a point I agree. But being unfamiliar with the whole Glastonbury mess I did a quick Google search and came across some nme.com. The site had bunch of the news stories related to the controversy and there was a forum for commenting.

Mixed in between the typical ignorant, racist, culturally insensitive posts and the optimistic, was open-minded and embracing gem of a post. It said "Imagine if Radiohead was headlining a hip hop/rap festival... Do you think people would 'embrace' them? No chance. I'm not sure why he's 'taken aback' and acting so surprised."

Now me I literally listen to everything. So when I read Radiohead, I was like shoot, I have been at least a casual fan since I was a kid and they had those crazy animated videos. (Now I am a fan of Thom Yorke the lead singer, his album is called Eraser and its pretty nice and they make pretty entertaining music in general). But then I thought that post is right on.

But whose fault is it that there is such a controversy with the music?

This is not rhetorical. Please respond and I'll give my thoughts a little later on.