Redbone Of The Month February

Being Redbone of the month is an honor that opens the door to so much. Last months honoree is on the cover of Essence and in a hit movie, so the future looks very bright for Hoopz. She has gained her fame from the VH-1 show The Flavor Of Love. Members of my selection committee met her during All Star weekend and let me know she was cool in person, and that is what put her over the top.

We Could All Be Reading A Book

Like most people I have many guilty pleasures. These are things that I enjoy which are a complete waste of time and have little to no redeeming value. Here are few examples of things I enjoy that perhaps will lower your opinion of me.

THE FLAVOR OF LOVE

For those of you who have never seen this show, it is a variation on "The Bachelor". Only on this show most of the women have more serious self esteem problems and even less shame. A sign of the coming of the rapture is seeing women fight over one of the ugliest/luckiest men on the planet. As much as I enjoy this foolishness I catch the replay, because I'll be damned if I miss Grey's Anatomy to watch Flav take a bath with a stripper.

THE MAURY POVICH SHOW

This guy has had a show for while now, but in the last few years he has really hit his stride with the paternity show. This is where a woman will get on stage and claim that the only man that she has ever slept got her pregnant and refuses to claim the baby. She then proceeds to yell at the man and the audience until Maury opens the envelope with the results. This is where the magic happens because most of the time Maury tells the young lady that the guy is not the father. The woman then usually proceeds to get several more free trips to New York by bringing the other seven or so men who were her first on the show. There are variations of the paternity show such as "I cheated the baby may not be yours" and "Your uncle may really be your daddy. On paper this sounds even more trifling than it looks on TV, and sadly I can't get enough.

THE AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE

I can't even explain the concept of this show. I have tried and only get strange looks from even my closest friends. If catch the right episode you will be hooked, because it is wickedly funny.

LET'S GET IT:THUG MOTIVATION 101

Young Jeezy embodies almost everything that is wrong with modern Hip-Hop. His lyrics are one dimensional and celebrate the worst things about about my people and the culture. That said this was one of my favorite albums of 2005, and was in the changer next to Common's Be and Little Brother's The Minstrel Show. A friend of mine put it best when he said "even though I eat healthy I sometimes enjoy junkfood and musically Young Jezzy was the best junkfood that came out last year. On a serious note those snow man t-shirts are the most ignorant thing to be born out of the culture. Big Pooh of LB put is best when he said "did crack need a mascot"?

Touch The Sky

Yesterday was a very sad day for real Hip-Hop fans when James Yancey a.k.a Jay Dee a.k.a. J Dilla passed away in LA from kidney failure. Many of you are unaware of his importance because his music was not a proper backdrop for the foolishness that is passed off as our culture on the radio everyday. I decided to go into my vault and pull out some remixes and intrumentals and share Dilla's legacy. I'm only going to leave them up for a week so get them now. Tommorow really is not promised.
Jay Dee-Think Twice
Slum Village-Fall In Love (Remix)
JayLib-Follow Me (Outtake)
Maxwell-Ascension (Remix)
Common-Thelonius
Ahmad Jamal-Swahililand (De La Soul Stakes Is High Sample)
JayLib-Starz
Vivian Green-Fanatic (Remix)
Common feat. Erykah Badu-The Light (Remix)

A Free Mixtape!!!

I have been doing mixtapes for a while now. Not all of them see the light of day, but Soulternative 4 is probably my favorite, which is why I am sharing it with the world. Well perhaps not the world but the people who check out my new blog. For those of you who have never heard one of my mixes, Soulternative is a mix of soul and Hip-Hop for those who are not into what is passed off on the radio as soul and Hip-Hop. I created a radio show based on the mixtapes which can still be heard today. I call the music Soulternative because I always felt neo-soul was a stupid term that does not mean anything used by people who don't know anything about music, kind of like gangsta rap.

Everything is set up perfectly to work with I-Tunes and your I-Pod. If you have a half way decent broadband connection the download should take about 13 min.

Download, enjoy, and share:
SOULTERNATIVE 4 Rapidshare

SOULTERNATIVE 4 Yousendit new

A President My Generation Can Get Behind

Happy Black History Month everyone, I watched the State of The Union address last night, and I thought it was a nice gesture that President Bush opened by honoring Coretta Scott King considering he does not like black people. When I watch politicians on TV I listen between the words so for those of you who missed the entire affair here is the Cleland Notes breakdown of what the President said.

1. We are going to be in Iraq get used to it.
2. I’m still cool with Saudi Arabia
3. Iran, don’t make me get a switch.
4. Gas is going to stay at or above 2$ a gallon, get used to it.
5. Left wing pundits, watch your mouths.
6. I wire tapped once and I’ll do it again. (Stop Snitchin’)
7. Things are not as bad as they seem. (Stop Bitchin')

I also like to watch how the camera moves in correlation with what President Bush says. Example: During his kind words in tribute to Mrs. King the camera happens to focus on John Conyers, then Jesse Jackson Jr. and top of with a Shot of Secretary Rice. I don’t blame the President for this because everyone in television does it. In fact, I expect to be sick of Jerome Bettis’ family by the end of the Super Bowl. That said, the Super Bowl is supposed to be entertainment. When this happens too many times during an event such as a Presidential Address, it borders on well-choreographed propaganda. Now I don’t know if every network did this. I watched the Fox News feed because it had American Idol as a lead in. For those of you who don’t know, Fox News is a network specifically for those with a red state of mind. They were the also the only network I observed to have a two second delay on the President’s address. I don’t want to say there is anything suspicious about that. I will leave that to other more cynical minds, but I’m sure it was not for fear of G.W. dropping F-bombs, which actually would have been pretty cool.