BIG Screen

I'm always so late when it comes to blogging, but what else is new. I saw Notorious last week. What kind of hip-hop fan would I be if I didn't see a film based on the life of one of the most iconic figures in hip-hop culture?



The hype surrounding the movie was everywhere and I couldn't deny the bait. The TV commercials, articles and interviews I read combined with curiosity drew me in. But what sparked real interest is how much attention was made to the movie. It wasn't just some sloppy attempt to tell the Notorious B.I.G's story without the real input from those who were closest to him.

Any movie, no matter how much it's based on someone's life is going to cut corners and glamorize or exaggerate certain situations to make it appeal to a movie-going audience and Notorious really didn't differ much in that aspect. I liked the movie and I think that it showed different aspects of his life from being the artist we all know and loved, but it also captured some vulnerabilities in his life such as his relationship with his mother and children, and romantic relationships. It was very nostalgic if you were around at the time or just remember the music scene during the mid-late 90s'. Yes, I was a youngin', but I always had a predisposition for good music.

The character choice was good in my opinion, even though I'm still not sold though on Derek Luke as Diddy. But Lil' Kim's reaction to the film I didn't quite get until I saw it. Despite her somewhat delusional preferences of who would play her (Christina Milian to or as I've heard also, an Asian), she did have a point as to how she was portrayed.

Obviously, Faith Evans was Big's wife. Although they had a rocky relationship at some points it's always been an understanding of their relationship as husband and wife. Whereas, Lil' Kim's relationship with Biggie has always been kind of reduced to her being the mistress/sidepiece. Of course, no one ever truly knows or can comprehend the relationship between two people except for those involved, so I'm sure there's lots we don't know.

Naturi Naughton, (as Lil Kim) did a phenomenal job of the role as the rough street girl with raw talent we saw when Kim first emerged on the scene. However, in the movie she gets naked more than once in some pretty racy scenes. Now, the first time she's au natural is the scene where her and Big flirt for awhile and he invites her to eat and the next scene is them having sex. I was like what? Already? Not sure if that' s fact or fiction. Lil' Kim's always been known for brash sexual lyrics and for dressing scantily, so they got that right. But what struck me as odd she was the only character to bare anything in the film. There are no shots of any groupies or anyone else showing off body parts. Just Lil' Kim.


On another note, I'm glad they portrayed Tupac in Notorious. Of course I am a Tupac fan until the end. I like Bigge's music and understand his influence and legacy, but I always felt I connected more with Tupac, musically. Anthony Mackie was a nice fit for the role. I think he channeled the charisma, spontaneous, and overall appeal Tupac had in the few scenes he was in. I realize the film was about Biggie and Tupac did play a small role in his early career at some point but the complexity of him was not really touched on except for one scene where Biggie talks about the different sides of Tupac. Again, understood. This was not a biopic of Tupac's life (although I'd be interested to see a film of it, no offense to Tupac Ressurection, but a non-documentary would be interesting as well.)

All in all, it's what I expected and I think most people who like it, unless they're bent on being super critical about the specifics. On another note, if Lil' Kim really does want to release some tell all book to set her record straight as is rumored, I'd be interested to see her side of the story. I'm also interested to see where this exposure takes Jamal "Gravy" Woolard in his future.

A B1tch Please Moment 1

From time to time, my seemingly monotonous life has a few funny, random, and ridiculous scenarios. Many of which I'm simply a casualty of while MMODB (minding my own damn business). A b1tch please moment is when someone offends, annoys, or antagonizes me or just stuns me by their excess stupidity or audacity.



Today on my way from work, I hear a guy say to this woman, "oh you're going on the train".
(he tries to help her out saying he'd heard her mention something about getting on the train)
Old woman with roll along bag in toe: "No I didn't say anything about the train. I'm on my way to Jersey, I've got unfinished business". She acts as if she's offended he even bothered speaking to her and looks all spastic.

Already, I'm chuckling silently at unfinished business. What does someone owe her 30Gs for some kilos of cocaine?

The guy: Jersey? (note: we're already in Jersey).

He stays quiet. I assume he feels he's done his civic duty by trying to be nice, but notices she's off her rocker.

She repeats, "I've got unfinished business".

Then goes on to say how her house was torn down/torn up, and the cops did it. She also says, "I'm going to have a warrant put out for John Corzine's arrest", and blabs about how he is letting them do what they want and she sat in his office all day at some point. Yah, okay.

She rants about how her house along the Jersey shore was ran through by cops. (yes, alert me if this makes sense by now because I didn't get it).

The guy is just nodding quietly I guess cursing himself out for even trying to be nice.

Then she says, "there's going to be a civil war. With the whites. All whites". (note she's white, and note half the people around her were probably minorities of some sort

"They all come over here and get things for free". (I guess she means foreigners).

It's funny though. I snicker as I walk behind them and feel bad for the poor guy who has no response (he's white as well...I think or she thought he was).

Sheer ridiculousness. Any lessons from this: 1. Don't try to be nice to everyone because crazy people can look just like you and I and 2. old people get away with saying anything (unless no one else heard her but me)

And another b1tch please moment....(drumroll)
I get a MySpace friend request from some 20 year old kid with a message tagged in it, "Can i be ya groupie since your my SUPERSTARRR********"...........I have no words. Just none.

Here He Stands

I certainly overlooked Usher's latest album although I did have select songs from it, I neglected to listen to it all the way through. Part of that may have been it doesn't seem as much hype followed the release of Here I Stand. I loved loved his 2004 release of Confessions. Every song off of it was fresh, talked about real life issues in love, deception, and lust. I was impressed that he had grown up from the days of 8701 and before that when he was only touching the iceberg of relationships.

However, as far as grown man status goes Confessions has nothing on Here I Stand. I still like Confessions probably better, but there's a new sense of maturity in his latest release. Usher's grown as a man in general, he put away his player card and got married and had a son. That definitely shows in his music ; not that he doesn't have a few songs that are made for a dance floor. "Love in this Club"is certainly no ballad or anything deep. However, "Trading Places", "Here I Stand", "Moving Mountains", and the like have shown he's here to make some grown man music carrying on a position that Babyface once had when he expressed vulnerability, passion, and understanding of relationships in music.

I hate when I've slept on an album for a month or almost a year only to discover it's really on point, but better late than never.

Jazmine Sullivan Busting Out your Speakers

Jazmine Sullivan is a vocal beast. I saw her perform last night, along with Maxwell. There's always a chance seeing a singer live you find their vocals are doctored up by production, and they don't sound as powerful. Maxwell, the headliner of course won with his performance, but in voice power Jazmine genuinely impressed me, but shoot, I was already a fan.

Although, it's hard for a new artist to really capture my attention these days, I definitely feel her style, voice, and the subject matter in her songs. It's mature, real, vulnerable, and has a touch of old-fashioned soul, (let's hope she stays that way). Of course I could try to compare her to some other singers (past and present) like we have a tendency to do with new artists new artists, but I won't.

While we were just shooting the breeze about music, a male friend of mine pointed out the obvious regarding Jazmine's single "Bust Your Windows". The obvious? Well, that as emotional and as good of a song as it may be, it's kinda crazy. He said women need to stop being delusional and blasting the song like it's cool (to be busting people's windows out).

Forget the alluring soulful voice, the catchy hook, and the angst in the song many of us chicas can probably relate to - let's delve deeper. Sure, we may have felt the urge to get revenge before. And wrecking something as adored by men as their whip may seem to be the perfect punishment for being betrayed or mistreated. However, let's be real. It's an object and while we can fantasize or actually think of busting windows, slashing tires, or whatever the trendy thing for a psycho girl to do is; that car can get repaired, while you're feelings or heart won't heal or be fixed as easily. Jazmine even admits that in her song, but still revels in that busting those windows felt so good.

My friend mentioned above said one of his female friends actually wanted him to take her to her boyfriend or ex-boyfrend's car to do some damage. I doubt she was soley inspired by Jazmine, but just inspired by crazy. Now, I've seen enough Judge Mathis episodes with jilted girlfriends and scumbag boyfriends to know things like this do happen everyday. Emotions are a mother....But again, while temporarily you feel satisfied at the shattered pieces of glass, it won't put back together your heart. However, when you can't hurt someone back the way they hurt you, you feel powerless, so you do something negative to something of their's you have access to.

It is a double standard because women can sing songs about getting revenge on a man and get away with it. What would it look like if a man was singing about cruising by his ex-lady's house and slashing her tires or carving the word bitch into her driver's side door. Pretty lame. Obviously, although Jazmine admitted to (really) busting a dude's windows out once, we know this has been sung before whether in a hook a verse or just implied.

But I guess we have to pay homage to the original scorned woman's club, such as Terry McMillan's book to movie, Waiting to Exhale where Angela Bassett's character torches Michael Beach's clothes in Waiting to Exhale (that movie made man hating cool again), or the real life story of Mary Woodson throwing hot grits on Al Green (although the ending of that story is terribly tragic). There's a million more examples I don't care to drudge up.


All in all, whethere she's busting windows or bust speakers Jazmine is the future of R&B. I love the Beyonces and Ciaras, but right now she's definitely one of my favorites in the game.

Do You Remember the Time?

Do You Remember the Time? 07/23/2008
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Following the course of Hip-Hop is no easy task, yet completely necessary to see where we've been and where we're headed. Looking back two things were evident even though I'm an 80s' baby it was a lot easier for me to retieve certain events or classic rap albums that came out in the early to mid 90s than the 00s' oddly enough. Not to say I wasn't up on what's happened in the past couple of years or I didn't do a lot of extensive research, but there was just something about the 90s'.


Be prepared to get nostalgic or have to dust off a CD or two.


http://allhiphop.com/stories/features/archive/2008/06/12/20087901.aspx
http://allhiphop.com/stories/features/archive/2008/06/16/20127331.aspx
http://allhiphop.com/stories/features/archive/2008/06/25/20208086.aspx
http://allhiphop.com/stories/features/archive/2008/06/30/20244298.aspx

Kanye Saves Hip Hop?

Yesterday, arrival at the Susequehanna Center for the Glow in the Dark Tour lead to the instant usual suspects. An overwhelming, slightly annoying myriad of young high schoolers at a concert(sometimes I think these venues should be 18 and older) tailgating in the parking lot and enthused fans buying $30 Kanye sunglasses. Now I must proceed with caution because I know that Kanye was miffed that Entertainment Weekly gave him a B+ which is impossible because when he tries he either passes or fails, lol.

Anyways I saw this video of Diddy bigging up the Glow in the Dark Tour and Kanye giving him back his appreciation of hip hop. Some may question that term as a poster on AllHipHop.com did showing Kanye acknowledgement but claiming he's much more "backpacker/other genre" than hip hop, but many would beg to differ, who's to say what's hip hop anymore.

Now next time I'll splurge for better seats, but the distance didn't take away from the dynamics of the impressive concert. Now, Lupe performed first with new talent muse, Nikki Jean who appeared on his "Hip Hop Saved Me" song(she also lended background vocals and filled in for Jill Scott on "Daydream" during the concert). Although I wish he would of performed more, unlike some rap acts his voice is clear, strong and amped up when he rhymes over the mic. There was no loss of movement as he hyped up the crowd with his gems like, "Superstar", "Paris Tokyo", etc. But the grand finale was his suprising performance of "Daydream" where he gave more life to the song than was ever present in the radio/album version, complete with strutting across stage and all. If you were daydreaming at that point that performance sure woke you up.

Next up was N.E.R.D, of course they know how to rock a concert doing their throwbacks, "She Likes to Move", "Lapdance", and the song that never fails, "Rockstar". And those little "hipsters" definitely can invoke energy with their sound full of swagger and genuine love for the music, it was great. And they did some of their new songs like, "Everybody Nose" and "Spaz".

I admit I didn't go to the concert for Rihanna, but I enjoyed her performance when she belted out hits like, "Pon de replay", "S.O.S", "Breakin' Dishes","Umbrella",and more. Although unfortunately, Kanye West claims Chris Brown was at the show, however unlike the Madison Square Garden performance where he went on stage the crowd at Camden got no glimpse of C. Breezy.

Last but better not be least! Was Kanye's act as hip hop thriving as Diddy claims? Well, it was pretty darn good besides featuring a great roster of acts that fit in with Kanye he brought his energy to the stage. The visuals, the scenery that took more than 30 minutes to set up was all work it. His act was a virtual/robotic/cinematic type of arrangement when his "robotic companion" cleverly setting up the mood for his next song performance with dialogue from the Chicago rapper. He did his recent songs off Graduation, and tons of throwbacks as well. His effort, his genuine desire to give the fans what they want was a refreshing diversion from the usual concerts rappers perform. Of course no Kanye concert would be one without several references to his greatness but he definitely inspired the audience with his success at giving everyone the show they paid for. He gave thanks, mad love to the crowd and leaves a lingering question of "Can Kanye ever top this tour".

Chris Brown Takes It Down

Remember Chris Brown when the most bold line in his first single "Run It!" was, "I know you heard about me but guess what's goin down if we leave"? But could it be that the 18 yr old R&B prince has finally been inducted into the baby making music category with his first adult slow jam, "Take You Down"? It's safe to say while we could relate to his other singles they still had a hint of puppy love to them. "Take you Down" puts C. Breezy in the same realm as R&B slow jam kings like R. Kelly, Bobby Brown, Usher, Ginuwine and the like.

In the music video he proves not only is he serious - but that he can play the part as he seductively uses Bobby Brown-esque circa 1989 moves on stage. He uses a familar scene for the slow jam video song which includes singing to a crowd of screaming female fans while making suggestive moves on stage (think, Usher "Bedtime", Bobby Brown, "Tenderoni" or any of Jodeci's early '90s videos). And of course in the video the inevitable shirtless cuts only excite the audience even more.