I’ve been following this Michael Crabtree fiasco pretty closely since he was drafted. I first learned about him in that epic Texas Tech/Texas game in which I saw him single handedly bring his team from behind to win that game. I will repeat, he single handedly did that.
I know football is THEE team sport and it takes 22 blah blah blah. But if you witnessed the game you know what I’m talking about*.
And with that, I was an immediate fan. Fast forward about 6 months and I had to ask myself, is this guy being an asshole? For those of you who dont know, Crabtree was selected 10th overall in this year’s draft despite being named by many as the draft’s best player. He wasn’t even the first WR selected, Terrapin Darius Heyward-Bey was at pick 7.
Crabtree, according to the media, thinks he deserves first recievers money. Now this post isn’t going to turn into ‘the NFL needs a rookie cap system’ post, but man if your picked 10th, you get 10th money. I remember a couple years ago when Reggie Bush tried that crap after Mario Williams was selected ahead of him even though the whole world thought Bush was the second coming of Marshall Faulk **.
He isnt. But that’s besides the point, you take the money slotted to where you were drafted not where you could have been drafted. Now there are reports that Crabtree’s agent is saying his client is the one holding up negotiations. This would be a perfect time for him to adress the media and 49ers fans. We are hearing from everyone except the person in the middle of this controversy. Speak up Michael, tell the people whats going on. Maybe they wont hate you so much***.
*Single Handedly
**He’s been a pretty big bust based on his pre-draft hype
So me and my man E* were having a convo on the train about the hardest rap verses ever. Just the most gangster ish that made you get the stank face and say “damn, my man was angry when he recorded this shit”. While his blog post about this can be found here, he has a selection that while hard, has nothing on my choice. Beanie Sigel – Get Low feat Rock City.
The song was off his first post-prison album, the Solution. Beans has been known for some hard verses previously but this joint takes the cake. The song starts off with this mission statement:
“Yea, Its the Broad Street Bully back ready to lock in/ My hand on my twins underneath where my cock ends/ Niggas got cute once they heard I was locked in/ But heres where all the bullshit bout the Roc ends”
Now with the 808 thundering the boom-pap you know your in for some gangsta shit.
Fresh over the barbwire its the livewire/Disrespectful ignorant niggas/ you can suck my dick/ Drink my piss/ Could eat my shit/ Strictly raw dog when I enter you niggas/ No pause no homo/ No vaseline when I enter niggas slow mo with that broom stick nigga
Ouch**. This nigga is crazy. He talking bout raping some dude with a broomstick NYPD style***.
You niggas dont want it with fat boy/ You’d rather get your hair permed and pulled/ Hit with a strap on/ Im a grown ass man I dont play no games/ Death could be your destiny child/ Just say my name.
And with that the hardest verse of all time is ended with a great play on words and a shout to Destiny’s Child lol. Long live the Broad Street Bully.
Btw Beans new song is absolutely AMAZING. The Broad Street Bully drops Sept 1, please go cop that.
I was watching the Phillies-Cubs game tonight in which Pedro Martinez made his return to baseball for the visiting Phillies. The game was a 12-2 blow out for the visitors heading into the bottom of the 5th inning when IT happened. With the bases loaded and Pedro Martinez on the ropes the Cubs hitter belts a pop fly to center field, Victorino ranges back and….. Splash. Some drunken idiot throws his beer all over Victorino.
The fans in the midwest seem to have a problem with keeping their drinks in their hands. This unfortunate incident gave me an opportunity to revisit one of the greatest moments of television I’ve ever seen.
I remember watching this game five years ago. It was a Friday night game on ESPN that had pretty big playoff implications as the Pacers and Pistons were battling for position in the Central Division. I was just about to go turn the game off when Ben Wallace shoved Artest. Like any air-breathing male I wanted to see a fight, and man did Artest oblige.
I never blamed Artest for going in the stands. Theres a line you dont cross and the idiot (turned out to be the guy holding Artest back and punching him in the head not the dweeb with the glasses) who threw the beer should have been beat down for being such an ass.
Now Stephen Jackson on the other hand, smh. He went crazy, punching anything that moved. My favorite parts of the video are A) Bill Walton “This is a disgrace”
B) Mike Breen “Ron Artest has a look in his eye that is very scary”
C) The cop threatening to pepper spray Ron Artest after he is already under control, smh.*
D) The chair being thrown.**
And the absolute best part of the fight was Jermaine O’Neal’s slide punch taking out that fat guy on the court. Fans have a right to heckle but when you throw things on the court you have crossed the line and you deserve a crazy dude like Artest in your face. You wouldn’t throw a beer on him on the street, what makes you think its ok to do it in this setting? Hopefully the fan who threw the beer on Victorino tonight got what was coming to him.
*I guess his training just took over. When in doubt, mace the angry black man
**Seriously who throws a chair into a crowd of people. Thats gets two lol’s and one smh..
Sorry about the silence over the last few days but I have been caught up in some stuff. For the morning we get our Wednesday News Roundup, with some music that I will be playing today. And then later on I will have another post. Onto the news!
-C-Murder was found guilty of, you guessed it, Second Degree Murder. All I have to say is that if the details of this story are true, may he rot in jail.
-Drake and Trey Songz are currently shooting the vid for Drizzy Drake’s next single Successful. For his sake I hope its better than his last video. By better I mean even more T&A of course. “Take that D”
-Slaughterhouse’s Album dropped yesterday so pick up a copy if your into them. I dunno, their first single could have been better.
Lol some one get Joel Ortiz a stylist ASAP. That newspaper boy hat is just wrong on so many levels.
Well I didnt get back from the movie until about 4 this morning so thats why this review is this late. But better late than never, right? G.I. Joe follows the story* of Duke and Ripchord, two special ops soldiers in the “not too distant future” (movies words not mine) who are commisioned to help with the delivery of a new weapon that eats metal. Their convoy is hijacked and the weapon is almost stolen. Most of their convoy is killed but they are saved by a team of elite paratroopers named the G.I. Joes.
The Joes are a supersecret team of super soldiers with super weapons and super armor. Their mission is to guard the weapon and not allow it to fall into the hands of a mysterious bad guy or something. Listen this movie is very hard to explain. I think Ive given the gist of the story so lets just get into the critique.
What a horrible, horrible movie. I mean the story is forgivable because it is a cartoon-turned-movie. You have to give it a little leeway in the believability department a la Transformers. But the level of acting in the movie is simply unforgivable. This isnt just bad acting, its terrible acting. Channing Tatum, of Rise Up fame, is in the lead role as Duke. Now I had never seen a Tatum film before so I did not know what to expect, but how does he still have a job in Hollywood? Like im not trying to be a hater, but he cant act. If I got up on stage and started singing I would expect to be booed off. It wouldnt be hate, itd just be reality. Why hasnt anybody booed this guy off stage yet?
My second biggest problem with the movie is the level of cheese. This has to be one of the corniest movies I’ve seen in a while. I thought Transformers 2 laid it on thick, but that movie looks like Saving Private Ryan compared to this. I found myself slapping my forehead repeatedly at the lines that were thrown out in this movie.
The next issue with the movie was that Ive seen it before, done better, and a lot funnier. Team America was hillarious because you could actually see a movie made in the same way. Team America is G.I. Joe. The same ridiculous dialogue. The same wanton destruction of Paris. The same exact story**. This movie is a huge credit to the vision of Trey Parker***.
On to the good stuff in the movie****. It’s good to see Marlon Wayans working lol. I’m glad he’s getting work outside of his own satirical comedy lane. Huge fan since the Wayans Bros tv show, so thats good. The effects werent bad. They were kind of cartooney but in the end most of it was fairly impressive.
And thats about it. I gave it a 3 out of 5 when I left the theater yesterday. I guess that holds today. So see it if your not going to pay for it, otherwise save your money*****.
A new post is coming later tonight. Im about to go see GI Joe*. Ill have a movie review later on tonight. To hold you fiends over heres some video heat.
*Dont judge me! lol It looks dumb as shit but Im going with some friends so….
So apparently when I said I was going to New York for “a week or so” last year what I really meant was that I would be gone for 364 days. A lot has happened over the last year. We elected our first black president*. Most of our financial markets have damn near collapsed**. Kobe won another ring. Young Jeezy dropped a classic album***. I graduated****. And now Im back blogging.
I have been reading my previous work and Ive noticed two things. First, despite the occasional run on and sentence structure problem, my writing was entertaining. To me at least. So I think with just a few tweaks in my editing this thing could be something really great. The other thing I noticed is that I would almost never deliver on a promise I made during a post. “I will be posting tonight”, “I’ll post a review tomorrow” and “Ill get to it” were just a few of the the things I would say before not delivering. This time around that will not be the case*****.
With that said there will probably be a post later today about a real topic. This post was just to let you guys****** know that I’m back. Im going to go scour the internet to find something to bitch about, so until later.
*And have gone on to question his citizenship, whether he’s a communist, whether he is a socialist, whether he is a racist etc etc. About what I expected
Im going to be on vacation for a week or so, so I wont be posting. One note though, if your in the DC area this weekend, the Stone Soul Picnic is this Saturday. So if your not doing anything head over there and enjoy free food and music and everything else that goes with the Stone Soul Picnic.
“You guys dont want it with Hov/ Ask Nas, He dont want it with Hov/ NO”
And thus was set up one one Jay-Z’s best verses ever spit. The year was 2001. The place: Hot 97’s Summer Jam. After Ethering Prodigy of Mobb Deep* during his song The Takeover, Jay hinted to the crowd that it would indeed be a hot summer. The masses however would have to wait for the album, The Blueprint, slated to drop later that year to hear exactly why Nas did not want it with Hov. Now I dont know if Jay already had the verse ready and just wanted to make the fans wait, or if he went back to the lab to concoct the next verse, but whatever the case may be, rap fans everywhere were buzzing about Jay’s Summer Jam Takeover of the New York Hip-Hop crown from Nas.
I know you missin all the – FAAAAAAAME!
But along with celebrity comes bout seventy shots to your frame
Nigga; you a – LAAAAAAAME!
Youse the fag model for Karl Kani/Esco ads
Went from, Nasty Nas to Esco’s trash
Had a spark when you started but now you’re just garbage
Fell from top ten to not mentioned at all
to your bodyguard’s “Oochie Wally” verse better than yours
Matter fact you had the worst flow on the whole fuckin song
but I know – the sun don’t shine, then son don’t shine
That’s why your – LAAAAAAAME!
Coming off the heels of the success Hard Knock Life: Vol. 2, Roc La Familia and Life and Times of Sean Carter: Vol 3, Jay was feeling himself. He was the commercial king of rap, consistently dropping successful albums for 3 summers straight, and was also well respected in the game as a lyricist, ghost writing for everyone from Dr. Dre (Still Dre) to Will Smith (Men In Black), but he still wasn’t considered the best in NY. That title had long belonged to Queensbridge’s native son in the wake of Biggie Smalls untimely death. Thus was set up Hip-Hop’s greatest beef. Not for publicity or record sales or anything other than pride and bragging rights, Jay shot off the first salvo in this lyrical war of words with Nas that did not relent for the next 24 bars.
career come to a end
There’s only so long fake thugs can pretend
Nigga; you ain’t live it you witnessed it from your folks pad
You scribbled in your notepad and created your life
I showed you your first tec on tour with Large Professor
(Me, that’s who!) Then I heard your album bout your tec on the dresser
So yeah I sampled your voice, you was usin it wrong
You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song
And you ain’t get a coin nigga you was gettin fucked and
I know who I paid God, Serchlite Publishing
Use your – BRAAAAAAAIN!
After pointing out Nas’ downward career turn – going from one of the greatest albums, rap or otherwise, ever in Illmatic, to the dreadful Trackmasters produced Nastradamus- Jay then went in on what has become a staple of rap beefs, pulling Nas’ street cred card**. Jay claims in this verse to have shown Nas his first tec***, and goes on to claim that Nas is only reciting what he saw from his window and not what he was involved in in his native Queensbridge. Jay then references his hit, Dead Presidents, off of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, which contains a Nas sample in the chorus. He insinuates that there had been legal troubles concerning the clearance of the sample but states unequivocally that his business game is tight and that , “I know who I paid God, Searchlight Publishing“. This segment was also responsible for the now oft repeated lin, “You made it a hot line/ I made it a hot song”.
You said you been in this ten
I’ve been in it five – smarten up Nas
Four albums in ten years nigga? I can divide
That’s one every let’s say two, two of them shits was due
One was – NAHHH, the other was “Illmatic”
That’s a one hot album every ten year average
And that’s so – LAAAAAAAME! Nigga switch up your flow
Your shit is garbage, but you try and kick knowledge?
(Get the fuck outta here) You niggaz gon’ learn to respect the king
Don’t be the next contestant on that Summer Jam screen
Because you know who (who) did you know what (what)
with you know who (yeah) but just keep that between me and you for now
And with that closing, Jay forever seared his image into the annals of Hip-Hop history. This was the ‘Clash of the Titans’ that fands were clamoring for. Everyone’s favorite newer, but established, rapper against the whily old vet.
In our next episode: Nas responds in kind with a song that has become so legendary as to be a verb in the rap lexicon when he Ethers Jay-Z.
*Prodigy has since been ethered by Nas (twice), Jay (again), Keith Murrey (Actually beat his ass), Saigon (Also beat his ass), and most recently the NYPD (currently serving a 3 year bid for weapons possesion), in other words, damn
If i had an assistant, this is what this morning would look like
Im kind of swamped this morning so I wont be doing a post during the day. I may be doing something later on tonight, depending on when I get home. What I will have for you today – cus I know you need your fix – is videos, including Nas featuring Jay @ Rock the Bells!
