I’ve been a very bad blogger. *hides head in shame* Rest assured that I have been keeping busy. I got a new camera (Canon HV30) and have been obsessively researching all of the components to complete my rig. I wrote a review for the new movie, The Wackness. I did a phoner with Fonzworth Bentley today and I’ve been getting my visa and vaccines on point for a very exciting upcoming trip but I think I’ll keep it under wraps for now.

A while ago my former co-worker and all around inspiration Kevin R. Scott tagged me to share my seven songs of the moment so here goes:

Ben Harper - She’s Only Happy In the Sun
A summer classic which brings back a lot of memories.

Gym Class Heroes ft. The Dream - Cookie Jar
LOVE!

Jay-Z - Beach Chair
“I’m not afriad of dying, I’m afraid of not trying. Everyday hit every wave like I’m Hawaiian.”

David Banner ft. Yung Joc & Chris Brown - Get Like Me
Stuntin’ is a habit, what can I say?

ByrdGang - Splash
So ignorant yet hard.

Katy Perry - I’m Still Breathing
I love the entire album but if I had to pick one song…

N.E.R.D. - Spazz
Soundtrack for letting one’s hair down.

A few weeks ago your homegirl appeared on the BET show, Evolution: Jay-Z. I taped it awhile ago and didn’t even know if they would use my footage or when the show would debut. Then one day, I started hearing, “I saw you on BET,” and “She’s on TV!” from co-workers and friends. So, I DVRed the show and roughly edited together my segments for my archives. Though I was only on for less than one minute of the two hour show, this is a big accomplishment for me and it shows that my hard work is really helping me achieve my dreams. Check it out:

I know I said this isn’t a hip-hop blog but I have to get this off my chest. Today at work we ended up having a rather enlightening discussion about rappers and accountability. It was sparked by Martin Luther King Jr’s ability to rally the troops to bring about social change and our (the young, hip-hop generation’s) lack of a leader.

Naturally, people look to trendsetters like Jay-Z or P. Diddy to devote their time (and possibly their money) to an issue, be it healthcare or politics, but that is problematic in my eyes for two reasons. First of all, the only things these guys are experts in are making music and making themselves moguls. Admirable? Absolutely. But that does not mean that these people are inclined or equipped to lead a generation of young people.

We need leaders that want to be leaders, not guys that desired to dance around in shiny suits. We need leaders that possess the knowledge and speaking ability to move 200,000 people with one speech.

Secondly, anytime a hip-hop personality gets behind an issue it comes across as contrived. Russell Simmons only cared about censorship in the weeks following the Don Imus controversy. Diddy only thought voting was important enough to die for last election. This time around he is nowhere to be found. And that’s cool because I would much rather hear Diddy telling me why I should drink Ciroc and Jay could tell me which color blue I should rock (powder blue Rocawear suit, white Nikes or perhaps Jay-Z blue?).

These guys are masters at gauging what’s hot and hopping aboard for the ride. They also have a knack for making things hot simply because they have a financial interest in the company. I hate to break it to ya but Jay doesn’t promote Budweiser, Ace of Spades or HP out of the goodness of his hip-hop heart. Dude is getting paid and that’s great. But let’s take these guys for what they are, opportunists who are good at entertaining and making moolah. Let’s not put the future in their hands just yet.

If, by chance, a hip-hop celebrity decided to actually commit himself (or herself) to an issue and ride with it until policies are changed or new officials are elected I’m totally down. But in until then, excuse my French, but F a fair-weather leader.

Lupe Fiasco “Gold Watch” teaser

Last night some co-workers and I headed over to Atlantic Records for an exclusive listen to Lupe Fiasco’s new album, The Cool, which hits stores 12/18. I was really looking forward to hearing Lupe’s new offering until I discovered that our listening session overlapped with the opening of the first US Billionaire Boys Club / Ice Cream flagship store. Now, I might as well go ahead and admit it. I have a thing for skateboarding rappers. I was definitely torn between Lupe Fiasco and Skateboard P. I figured I could hear all of the tracks and then race downtown to catch the last hour of the store opening… until I discovered that Lupe had 19 tracks on his album. Yes! 19 tracks (minus and intro and intrumental). Here are the highlights upon first listen:

3. GO GO GADGET FLOW - Great high energy start to the album with a crazy Twista-style flow where Lupe rhymes “My tank on full, your tank on E”
4. THE COOLEST - This is the street single which is burning up the net as I type. To me Lupe sounded a little like Lil Wayne at the beginning of this track. I LOVE the hook “Lord please give your sympathy and forgive my young cool history.”
5. SUPERSTAR - First single, blah blah
6. PARIS, TOKYO - This one would be my pic for second single. Great line: “Walk it out like DJ Unk in my John Lennon dunks.”
8. GOLD WATCH - I love any song where a dude can say “I like goyard bags and green Now & Laters.”
9. HIP-HOP SAVED MY LIFE (FEAT. NIKKI JEAN) - Clever song told in the 3rd person about a how hip-hop changes the life of a myspace rapper with a song called “stack that cheese.”
10. INTRUDER ALERT (FEAT. SARAH GREEN) - Definitely a little weird, but I admire the fact that Lupe was willing to attack original subject matter. It’s about a girl that has been raped who gets involved with a guy who is fighting his own deamons.
11. STREETS ON FIRE - Pure poetry “Death is at the tip of her tongue and danger’s at the tip of her fingers.”
12. LITTLE WEAPON (FEAT. BISHOP G AND NIKKI JEAN) produced by Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy. It’s about school shootings. Lupe has a dope flow on this one.
13. GOTTA EAT - This is the infamous song where Lupe raps from the perspective of a cheeseburger. The song is actually about health in the hood. “My man said life aint easy streets be all like feed me feed me. Niggas gotta eat that’s when shit get greasy”
14. DUMB IT DOWN (FEAT. GEMSTONES AND GRAHAM BURRIS) I already blogged about this song. I love it.
15. HELLO/GOODBYE (UNCOOL) (FEAT. UNKLE) This joint reminds me of Linkin Park for some reason. The lyrics are “Hello darkness, hello sunshine, hello not at all, hello all the time, hello nowhere, hello oblivion, hello goodbye.”

Last night, I stopped by the Parish showroom to take a look at their Spring 2008 line. The stuff was looked pretty good and the soul food (Soul Fixins) and martinis were definitely appreciated.

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So, I’ve been up on YouTube since the beginning (I watched videos, religiously followed the genius that was LonelyGirl etc.) but I never got into uploading videos. About a month ago, on a whim, I uploaded some old digital camera footage I had of J Records artist Emily King performing at a bar downtown. Surprisingly, it has racked up over 1,400 views. While I understand that’s nothing in the scheme of things this took about 5 minutes of my time, max. I didn’t send one e-mail, embed it on any website or link to it anywhere. I figure I might as well keep it up. I have some great ideas that I’m going to be implementing for this site so… stay tuned.

Here’s the original EK video:

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I just read Chloe A. Hilliard’s article in the Village Voice entitled “Shooting Star Taking aim at Remy Ma.” It’s a little lengthy but a good read indeed. Despite concerns that she might get popped in the abdomen, Chloe throws caution to the wind, in the name of journalism, and agrees to “follow Remy around for a few days. And be careful about offering to hold her purse.”

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0745,hilliard,78291,22.html/full

When cellphone cameras were first invented I was a nonbeliever. I had a camera and I had a cellphone and I did NOT need the two to be combined. The picture quality wasn’t up to par as far as I was concerned. I just didn’t get it. Gradually, over the years I have changed my mind but I didn’t become an active cellphone picture snapper until a few months ago. It started gradually with concert pictures, when I didn’t want to bother smuggling my big camera into the venue and sort of evolved into a poloraid type thing to chronical the little moments in my life that would otherwise go uncaptured. Recently I’ve snapped pics of cupcakes at Sugar Sweet Sunshine, Koi in a pond on the Lower East Side, my dirty converse and Louis Vuitton bag on a NJ Transit train and a sausage vendor at the San Gennaro festival.

Lately, however I decided to start taking cellphone pictures before or during the video shoots that I go on for work. I think they’re visually interesting and they tell a different story than the posed photographs that I normally take with celebs (which I will definitely blog about later). Check em out:

Wyclef hopped on the piano while we were waiting for the crew that shot before us to break down their cameras and lights.

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“Dumb It Down” is one of the dopest songs/videos I’ve seen in a minute. In it, Lupe Fiasco uses a sterotypical hood dude and a stereotypical white guy (cardigan tied over the shoulders and all) to represent the various people who ask him to dumb down his music.

The black guy encourages Lupe to dumb it down in order to pop in the streets with lines like “we ain’t graduate from school n!&&a/ them big words ain’t cool n!&&a.” He encourages him to “make it rain for the chicks/ pour champagne on a b!tch,” while the white character reveals the ill effects that Lupe’s positive and insightful lyrics are having on his listeners. “They’re gettin’ self esteems lup/ these girls want to be queens lup,” he rhymes with disbelief.

Of course, in the end Lupe reveals that he’s never going to dumb down for anyone. But it kind of makes me wonder what is it about intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics that makes hip-hop listeners avoid them like the plague. Why would we rather sing a bunch of nonsense like “Soulja Boy up in this h*e/ watch me crank it/ watch me roll/ watch me crank dat Soulja Boy/ den superman dat h*e/ now watch me yoooouuuu,” then lyrics that actually… umm… mean something and might empower us as a people? Are there white people out there that watch our dumba$$es supermaning that h*e and let out a sigh of relief?

she says in her best Ice Cube voice. My career has been providing me with the some pretty incredible opportunites as of late. But, as a wise woman once said, “I won’t be blogging about [my job] because that’s how a fool gets fired.” So, the recaps will be vague and brief but last week might have been one of the most eventful weeks ever. Here’s how it went down:

Monday: I actually stayed in the office all day. Went home and watched Prison Break.

Tuesday: Interviewed Diddy about his new perfume “Unforgiveable Woman” at the Sean John offices.

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