LeBron James & The Cavs Spoof The Heineken Commercial

Hahahahaha! I gotta say, that dude is hilarious. Gotta be the kid in him. I can hang with dude. He's a clown.

THE BRIEFING: K'naan Response

K'naan responded to the recent South Park episode via Twitter. Pretty dope response to what's going on, so we felt the need to repost here. We featured his point of view on the site before (A Different Point of View). 

If you're on Twitter follow K'naan at twitter.com/Iamknaan. Here's what K'naan had to say.

Just a few days ago, I was cracking up, laughing about the hilarious episode South Park did on Kanye. I often hold the creators of this show with a certain regard, for I believe, good comedy will from time to time, hold a mirror up to society's collective face. So that we may look at ourselves and burst out in laughter, even if the frowns of self examination follow. I gotta say though, Kanye handled it well. The homie and I have some mutual friends and I don't remember ever making a remark to anyone about his personal choices. Even when his presentation of his own ego swallowed him whole, I always found the honesty in his music more of an appealing focus. Now, what I wanted to write about isn't really Fishsticks, but honestly, who would have thought South Park would be the first major American TV program to do a real piece on the Somali piracy crisis?

First of all, they used real Somali voices, which is always a point of charm for the Somali people. We DON'T LIKE NOBODY PLAYIN ON OUR LANGUAGE!! Black Hawk Down was unbearable in that, it was like being told you were watching a true portrayal of the Bronx's early days of Hip Hop, except Cool Herc and em spoke with a German accent. 

The F*&#!! 

Secondly, they touched on the supreme lawlessness, poverty and humanitarian crisis facing the country. Cartman says "In Somalia, people have no laws, they have no rules and they never grow old" The response? The golden truth of the Somali tragedy: "They never grown old because they die before they're 30!"

They talked about the toxic waste issue which I have been quite vocal about. "Even the fish here are radio active" says Kyle. Could 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper or any of the supposably serious outlets not have looked into this issue? Should it take a witty jewish cartoon boy to make this statement? Well, I think the answer is: When fear grips the rest, comedy is where the truth is left. It happens everywhere. In Somalia, when political theatre was being suppressed, and serious poetry could not be composed to criticize oppression and inequality, the poets would use comedians to get the word out. 

So while we all find relief in laughter, I would argue that there is more to the chuckles than meets the ear. Because even pain is funny, so long as we're not laughing at it, but about it. 

South Park is not without its imperfections though. It seems the clever creators can also be guilty of the African stereotypes. If you look at the emotional moment of the episode, presenting the young Somali pirate's puzzlement over the American's fascination with lawlessness and piracy, he explains "my mother is dying of AIDS". Now while the disease is a major issue in some African countries, it's about the same of an issue in Somalia as it is in Greece. The reason for the comparison is that the two countries, Greece and Somalia, are roughly around the same in their population. The HIV prevalence rate for Greece is 0.2, while in Somalia it's at 0.5. Unicef estimates that in 2007, the number of people in Somalia living with HIV is 24, 000, Out of an estimated 11 and a half million people.

 

It's a relatively low number considering most of the new cases stem from high border crossing and mass internal movement. For greece, it's at 19, 000 out of its 11 million population. 

So Clearly the problem of AIDS in Somalia, isn't comparable to say that of Botswana, with its heart aching 23.9 prevalence rate for its meager population 

of 1.8 million. And while it's important to say something about the HIV problem in Africa, Somalia is the wrong country to profile it through. I suppose it would strike us all as odd, if some American sitcom, (during the warm and fuzzy parts where we all get our life lessons) made a remark about Greece's "AIDS problem". So is it acceptable to do so about Somalia because it's in Africa?

All in all, while a part of me wants to resist being vocal  about Everything Somalia, I can't help but speak on what I am most passionate about. One blogger said it best, "FatBeard is to K'naan like Fishsticks is to Kanye". 

We can all complain about the imperfections of major media outlets, but I wanna take a moment, to thank God for Jon Stewart, thank God for Dave Chappelle and thank God for South Park. 

Peace.

K'naan

Click to watch the full episode

THE BRIEFING: Terrence Still Upset

Your boy Terrence Howard is still a bit upset about being replaced by Don Cheadle in "Iron Man 2".

He said in a recent interview, "Marvel made a choice, and it was a very, very bad choice. They didn't keep their word. They didn't honor my contract. They produced a great bounty with the first one but they put it all in the storehouse and you were not allowed in. They did the same thing with Gwyneth Paltrow, from what I've been told. They did it with almost everyone except Robert Downey [Jr.]. One of the things that actors need to learn to do is always stick together, one for all and all for one."

Wait, did he say "One for all and all for one"? Oh, guess dude thought he was going for the Three Musketeers movie. Nah Terrence, this is Iron Man. Good thing he has that blockbuster Fighting out right now! (riiiight). Terrence is falling into that Cuba Gooding boat and just taking whatever roles (both of these guys are talented but after doing some good movies, seems like they just accept any role that their agents sends over).

After reading about this interview, reminded me of that interview with Jamie Foxx about Terrence Howard.

A Second Listen... Shad

Shad, Canadian hip-hop musician, has been featured on the site before. After our interview with DJ Hyphen we were reminded of him. If you haven't heard of dude, give him a listen.

More info: www.myspace.com/shad

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

With All Due Respect...

I'm really feeling that new KRS and Buckshot joint, Robot. I wondered how other heads were reacting to it, so I scanned a few blogs and checked out comments. For the most part, heads were really excited about the single and the KRS-One and Buckshot project overall. I did come across one comment that I just couldn't agree with.

"KRS and Buckshot make an entire song about the state of the industry, and we are supposed to bob our heads and dance to this? Where is the rhythm, the groove, the swing in the music? Even their spoken parts sound like a lot of dry talk that happens to end up with rhyming words, but the soul of the poetry itself (if that's what they call this) is buried in this boring press-conference and history lesson. It's not entertaining anymore to make music about the industry. It's old. These MC's are old. This song is old. This press conference has been delivered over and over and over again. Let's make fresh and new music and move the people"

The dope thing about opinions, is that you can counter it with one of your own. With this comment it's just clear that the point of the song obviously went over the head of this listener. It's obvious dude is probably more interested in buying, listening and supporting crap. These MCs are old?! Woooow. KRS-One is a pioneer and is much hotter lyrically than a lot of the cats running around with a record deal.

Guess this guy loves auto-tune copy cat tracks. I mean, a little bit is okay. But every song it seems has a bit of that damn auto-tune. All of a sudden real singers don't get bought in and paid to do a hook anymore - not when the rapper can just auto-tune the chorus them self. I'll listen to this "press conference". I'll listen to them go after unoriginal heads.

You know how I realized dude just didn't get it? "...we are supposed to bob our heads and dance to this? Where is the rhythm, the groove, the swing in the music?" Yeah, because all tracks are suppose to be that instructional dance trash that fills the radio airwaves. Come on man.

What's your thoughts?

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Hi, I'm Bill Burr and I Just Don't Give A F***!

You know what happens when you decide to make it a stay at home night on a Friday? You start channel surfing, finding out that there's absolutely not much going on in tv land. Hundreds of channels for some and still nothing. Then......out of nowhere comes Comedy Central to save your evening. Man, they do find them. I don't know about you but when I saw Bill Burr's Why Do I Do This? stand up special, I was so upset that I was watching it solo. Why? Because. You ever crack up so hard that you want to ask the person you're watching it with if they heard what you just heard so both of you can die laughing? Yeah. Bill Burr's a (bleeping) nut job. Insanely funny. Says things you only think. I must've watched this about 6 times. Hilarious each time. Go get it. Seriously. Haha. Here's a clip of him from his DVD special on pedophiles...









Purchase here at Amazon: Bill Burr - Why Do I Do This?

Dope Contest

Common is looking for producers to enter the remix contest for his track Gladiator, off that Universal Mind Control Album. Check the link. Dope contest.

Check out more info on the contest:
www.okayplayer.com/news/Commons-Gladiator-Remix-Contest

Q&A with Melissa Czarnik

Three years ago we launched The Mad Bloggers as a way to vent about the way we saw thing in the world. Then we began to morph and push music. Twenty-four days ago, we re-launched The Mad Bloggers, with a bit of our old sarcastic edge coupled with a desire to share real music and talented artists.

It’s because of commercial radio, MTV, BET and other commercial outlets that our site and other sites like ours can exist. I turned off the radio a few months ago because every time it was on, there was some new instructional dance garbage passing itself off as real music. Because of our discontent with mainstream music, we constantly comb the Internet for good, unheard of and mostly underground music. We then share it here with you.

Melissa Czarnik is one of those finds. She is one of the first heads that we spotlighted on our revamped blog in early April. I was immediately impressed with the emcee out of Milwaukee. To me, she has content and a lyrical delivery to back it up. Her music has something a lot of music on the radio is missing – passion. I’m happy to support real music. Melissa has an album out, Strawberry Cadillac, which is available on iTunes. Get that! Only $9.99.

Like I said, we’ve featured her music in the past but wanted to take an opportunity to do a Q&A and hear from the woman behind the music. Check out what she had to say.

The Mad Bloggers: How do you describe what you do? Like, would you consider yourself an emcee, poet, etc?

Melissa Czarnik: I consider myself a poet/emcee. I read a lot of poetry. I work at a destination poetry bookstore, Woodland Pattern Book Center, which brings in poets from across the nation and so I’m constantly surrounded by inspiring wordsmiths. I also grew up on hip-hop. Some of my favorites are Talib Kweli and right now I’m bumping that Diamond District like crazy. I mix the two together sort of naturally. I think the one thing that defines me, as poet/emcee, is that I don’t pay any attention to the rules of hip-hop (per say). That whole verse, chorus, verse, chorus thing ain’t really my thing. If I want to have a 24 bar poem that leads into a 16 bar verse that exits back into a 24 bar poem then that’s what I’ll do.

TMB: I know you're pushing the Spooky Love project right now for Eric Mire but what's the next project coming up for just you? How much time do you spend per week dedicated to music?

MC: I am working on my next album right now. I’m setting a deadline for late 2009, but I don’t want to rush it if it’s not ready but that’s what I’m aiming for. In terms of time spent working on music, I feel like all my free time goes towards working on music. Because when I’m reading, I’m furthering my vocabulary and my knowledge, which eventually ends up in my rhymes. When I’m listening to music, I’m constantly analyzing, “OK, what did I like about this, what can I borrow from to make my music better.” And in terms of writing, I’m always writing. Now whether it ends up in a song or not is one thing but like I always say a “line of rhyme a day, keeps the haters at bay!”

TMB: Shows, events that are upcoming and exciting?

MC: Actually yes! I have very exciting news, The Eric Mire Band, a jazzy, hip-hop, folk group that backs me up at my live show is releasing their first group album, “Spooky Love” on May 9th. I’m featured on a couple of the tracks so I’m extra hype on that. And Eric Mire, who is also my producer and guitar player, is coming with me to Europe at the end of May for about 10 days to try and do some international promotion and performing.

TMB: You're a female ... how does that play in hip-hop for you? (Woman in mainstream music often had to come off more sexual than talented for example) Do you see it as an issue in presenting who you are?

MC: I see it as an issue for women in general, more than just for me. I mean women in music often use their bodies to sell themselves. The problem starts with mainstream record labels putting a pretty face before talent. The next thing you know you got little girls growing up thinking all I got to do is look sexy, play dumb and I’ll get ahead in life. I think that’s why I look up to women like Ani Difranco, india.arie, and Lauryn Hill. Cause these are women who are talented, intelligent, and naturally sexy. I mean Lauryn Hill could rock a mini-skirt and some combat boots and be sexy as all hell, and yet kill whatever Pras or Clef were spittin next to her. Which actually brings me to your first question about being a female in hip-hop. I feel that I constantly have to watch my back cause it’s a male dominated game. I want to be strong, taken seriously, but at the same time I don’t want to hide my sexiness. I also want to make sure people like me for my talent and not for my body. So at one show I might be rocking a dress and the next show I’m in dickies, timbs, and a hoodie. But, I usually always got some sneakers on or some boots, cause you never know when you’re gonna have to take off running!

TMB: If there was one thing you could change about that state of hip-hop right now, what would it be?

MC: I would like to change the fact that most of the hip-hop you hear on the radio today is garbage, degrading, and mindless. I would like to make it so that in order to get on the radio, young emcees had to aspire to be uplifting and have heart.


Check it out:
Rue Lafeyette is one of my favorite joints. It’s a love song about Paris (not Hilton). It’s inspired by a trip Melissa took to Paris in 2004.



More on Melissa Czarnik, www.myspace.com/melissaczarnik

Sneaker Documentary

Found this sneaker documentary by Justin Black. I thought it was a pretty cool feature. If you have a bit of time, you should check it out. It's an interesting look at the sneaker phenomenon.


Sneaker Documentary from Justin Black on Vimeo.

TELL 'EM WHY YOU MAD: Stuck in a Dumb Box

Question... to the designers of those new boxed looking cars, did you like playing with cardboard boxes as kids? I mean, that Scion was running things for a while with that box look (by running, I mean no one else had the nerve to do such an ugly design). Then it seems like an influx of boxed looking cars hitting the market - enter the Honda Element, that new Kia Soul (I'm still trying to figure out the use of hamsters in their commercial by the way), Ford has one and I recently saw a commercial for a new Nissan. All with that box looking design. They all seriously look like cardboard boxes with engines, wheels and windows. What an imagination. I would say, nice way to think outside the box but based on the recent designs, that's not really appropriate.

What I'm Listening to Right Now... Mr. Lif

Check out Mr. Lif (www.myspace.com/mrlif). Album is also available on iTunes.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

I'm Lovin It

I don’t know if I’m just in the right spot when crazy things go down or maybe I’m always just paying attention and looking for wild stuff (so I can write about it later). Today while going through some pictures, I was reminded of this bizarre experience I had at a McDonalds.

A few months back I went to this McDonalds in a semi sketch area. It was one of the smallest McDonalds I had been to in my life. When we get in the spot we notice that they are attempting to shut down for the night. Kind of threw us off because the sign on the door said that they closed at 9pm and it was only 7:30, but whatever I suppose. Girl behind the counter is wearing a t-shirt (with no McDonalds logo) and a pair of jeans. Threw me off a little bit because I didn’t know that McDonalds had plain clothed employees. Perhaps she was undercover.

I proceed to order first. Everything seems cool after the second guy I’m with orders too. Well, this is until she starts telling us that they don’t have certain things anymore. Like, they are out of fries and you can only order certain types of burgers, there are no more Mc Nuggets and so on (I guess that’s why they were shutting down early). So the dude in the back that’s making up the orders yelled out to the girl to come to the back. They begin to argue. We can’t quite make out everything they are saying, but he’s pretty upset and said over and over, “you don’t listen.”

Dude finally walks to the front of the store. “Who ordered the quarter pounder with cheese?” My man who ordered after me, replied with, “I did.”

The guy begins to explain how they don’t have any more quarter pounder meat. Well, they do have quarter pounder meat but he doesn’t want to fire the grill back up and that takes a lot of effort, especially because he had just cleaned it he goes on to explain. Then he goes on with, “you can order like a fish sandwich or something.” Yeah, nothing about this spot said that you wanted to order the fish sandwich at all! So, my man said, “I don’t really want to do that.”

There’s a moment of silence. Then the dude said, “I have some regular meat that’s cooked up. I figure I put like three or four patties of those on there and that has got to equal like a quarter pounder.”

There is another pause. My man being ridiculous said, “then do it.”

This is what happens when you order food at a sketchy McDonalds. He put four between those two pieces of bread. He had to put it in a double quarter box.