Jingle Jam '07 Biggest Ever? Guess not...

So I hear earlier today that CT's radio station's Jingle Jam still had tickets. Still wasn't sold out. Even had some discounted. Really? Not sold out hours before showtime?

Expert from the radio station's website:(Year after year HOT 93.7 Hartford’s #1 for Hip Hop & R&B has brought you the biggest names in the game like Jay-Z, Nas, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Akon, Ciara, Ludacris & more and THIS YEAR THE GIFTS ARE COMING A LITTLE EARLY WITH THE RETURN OF THE HOTTEST CONCERT OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON...HOT 93.7’S "JINGLE JAM 07" AND IT WILL BE even BIGGER THAN EVER - LIVE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH AT THE HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER!!!)

Bigger than ever? You kidding me?

B5, T-Pain, Hurricane Chris, Bow Wow, Trey Songz, The Dream, Cassidy, Mr. Vegas and last but not least Souljah Boy....

Now I don't dislike every single person in that line up. But........I can see why that show didn't sell out. Amazing considering how much of their music I'm force fed by "alledged" radio and tv requests. Makes me wonder if the artists' labels are just involved in the payola routine. Jay-Z can sell out a show in minutes just him alone. 9 artists plus surprise guests according to the radio station, over a month of promoting and still.......tickets available.

Some on that list can actually sing. Some...can't. Some can actually rap. Most on that list.....can't. Don't see many classics from those artists. But I can admit, I see some one hit wonder puppets on there. Goes to show you that not even hollering at A Bay Bay, falling in love with Bartenders, or Super Soaking that Hoe is enough to sell tickets. You got fans who aren't even that committed to spend $3 an artist, according to the radio station. Seriously? These are fans. Not even good ones. LOL!

Come on people. Get with the program. Cut the bullshit. Ban the wack cats. Stop supporting stupid music that just puts your brain cells to sleep. I can't, at 29, honestly like some shit that sounds like it was written by Dr. Suess nor can I listen to songs sung by what sounds like some kareoke 3rd place winner. Stop settling. I need quality music. I want quality music. I demand that shit. Cause yes...I still buy cds. I'm not making wack "rhymers" (cause most of them can't rap) and greedy money grubbing labels rich like I'm some ignorant, can't think for self, uneducated, middle school drop out who takes what they give me. Too smart for that. Music means too much to me to let that happen. Real music is out there. Just gotta wake your hinbernated brain up to look for it. I mean, it ain't like you don't spend 19 outta 24 hours online anyway. Be useful. Be proactive. Be in love with real music again!

I'm out..........

Cosby Speaks

This piece was sent to me by a friend and I thought it was important to share. Bill Cosby has spent the last few years creating quite a stir in the black community. Many have called America's favorite dad a bit reckless with his statements about black males in particular. Some claim that Bill Cosby hates black people. Does he really? What's wrong with saying that they control their own destiny? What's wrong with saying that they shouldn't blame others for their misfortune when there are opportunities available? What's wrong with saying that minorities have very little role models to look up to except for rappers and athletes? The article, but more importantly the book he has co-written, may make you think.

Tough, Sad and Smart

By BOB HERBERT

Published: October 16, 2007

They are a longtime odd couple, Bill Cosby and Harvard’s Dr. Alvin Poussaint, and their latest campaign is nothing less than an effort to save the soul of black America.

Mr. Cosby, of course, is the boisterous veteran comedian who has spent the last few years hammering home some brutal truths about self-destructive behavior within the African-American community.

“A word to the wise ain’t necessary,” Mr. Cosby likes to say. “It’s the stupid ones who need the advice.”

Dr. Poussaint is a quiet, elegant professor of psychiatry who, in public at least, is in no way funny. He teaches at the Harvard Medical School and is a staff member at the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, where he sees kids struggling in some of the toughest circumstances imaginable.

I always wonder, whenever I talk to Dr. Poussaint, why he isn’t better known. He’s one of the smartest individuals in the country on issues of race, class and justice.

For three years, Mr. Cosby and Dr. Poussaint have been traveling the country, meeting with as many people as possible to explore the problems facing the black community.

There is a sense of deep sadness and loss — grief — evident in both men over the tragedy that has befallen so many blacks in America. They were on “Meet the Press” for the entire hour Sunday, talking about their new book, a cri de coeur against the forces of self-sabotage titled, “Come On, People: On the Path From Victims to Victors.”

There weren’t many laughs over the course of the hour. Speaking about the epidemic of fatherlessness in black families, Mr. Cosby imagined a young fatherless child thinking: “Somewhere in my life a person called my father has not shown up, and I feel very sad about this because I don’t know if I’m ugly — I don’t know what the reason is.”

Dr. Poussaint, referring to boys who get into trouble, added: “I think a lot of these males kind of have a father hunger and actually grieve that they don’t have a father. And I think later a lot of that turns into anger. ‘Why aren’t you with me? Why don’t you care about me?’ ”

The absence of fathers, and the resultant feelings of abandonment felt by boys and girls, inevitably affect the children’s sense of self-worth, he said.

The book lays out the difficult route black people will have to take to free the many who are still trapped in prisons of extreme violence, poverty, degradation and depression.

It’s a work with a palpable undercurrent of love throughout. And yet it pulls no punches. In a chapter titled “What’s Going on With Black Men?,” the authors (in a voice that sounds remarkably like Mr. Cosby’s) note:

“You can’t land a plane in Rome saying, ‘Whassup?’ to the control tower. You can’t be a doctor telling your nurse, ‘Dat tumor be nasty.’ ”

Racism is still a plague and neither Mr. Cosby nor Dr. Poussaint give it short shrift. But they also note that in past years blacks were able to progress despite the most malignant forms of racism and that many are succeeding today.

“Blaming white people,” they write, “can be a way for some black people to feel better about themselves, but it doesn’t pay the electric bills. There are more doors of opportunity open for black people today than ever before in the history of America.”

I couldn’t agree more. Racism disgusts me, and I think it should be fought with much greater ferocity than we see today. But that’s no reason to drop out of school, or take drugs, or refuse to care for one’s children, or shoot somebody.

The most important step toward ending the tragic cycles of violence and poverty among African-Americans also happens to be the heaviest lift — reconnecting black fathers to their children.

In an interview yesterday, Dr. Poussaint said: “You go into whole neighborhoods and there are no fathers there. What you find is apathy in a lot of the males who don’t even know that they are supposed to be a father.”

The book covers a great deal that has been talked about incessantly — the importance of family and education and hard work and mentoring and civic participation. But hand in hand with its practical advice and the undercurrent of deep love for one’s community is a stress on the absolute importance of maintaining one’s personal dignity and self-respect.

It’s a tough book. Victimhood is cast as the enemy. Defeat, failure and hopelessness are not to be tolerated.

Hard times and rough circumstances are not excuses for degrading others or allowing oneself to be degraded. In fact, they’re not excuses for anything, except to try harder.

Video of the Week

MTV Video of the Year?
Talib Kweli provides real lyrical content. Talib took that creativity a step further by creating an amazing video to compliment the lyrical content. Would MTV dare nominate it as the Video of the Year? I guess only time will tell.

Real lyrical content and creativity has no place in society, well at least that's what these commercial suckers want you to think. Support real hip hop, bootleg wack rappers!

TELL 'EM WHY YOU MAD: Poor Customer Service

I was recently having an everyday convo with a friend of mine about customer service and how bad its gotten. We pretty much agreed that saying it's gone downhill would be an extreme understatement. Customer service is one of those skills that any human being should be able to have. It's not Rocket Science. Geez, it's not even simple Add and Subtract kind of math. But it is required when going for a position in a supermarket, mall or any kind of retail store. I haven't applied for a position in years where customer service is required but I'm sure the applications ask if you have any experience in it. So how are people getting these jobs but aren't qualified leaving us, the customers, feeling berated and confused. Therae's the saying that The Customer Is Always Right. Now, I won't whole heartedly agree with that statement but I will say that the statement there is so far from the truth nowadays that I'm afraid of having to deal with the employees for fear that I might actually have a question or need help.

My feeling is this: Customer service is dead! R.I.P.! Gone Fishing! On Vacation!

Now my question is this: Where did it go? Why aren't we fighting to get it back? What are we doing to reverse this epidemic?

Here's a paraphrased excerpt from my friend's email conversation:

"...Dude, mention how (expletive) annoying the (Retail Chain Store) in Waterbury is.. that we still ride out to Naugatuck and Wallingford instead of going to the one in our own town...because the people they got working there SUCK. You ask them a question and you want to say "I'm sorry. Am I interrupting your day by making you work? Yeah, my bad for not letting you finish your conversation with your homegirl (who, by the way, works there too) about how stank your baby daddy is and about the party you went to the night before...which everyone in the freakin' store knows thanks to your loud, rude, no work ethic having self." I'm saying, just making minorities look bad daaaaaaaaaamn!..."

Don't give me attitude, make angry facial expressions, or get mad at me because I need help. I didn't tell you to get that job. I didn't make you come to work. Leave all that negativity at home!

To put the question into a form that "most" young kids (who are the core of our customer service problem), WHAT'S REALLY GOOD?!?!

A COMMERCIAL MC?

Saturday afternoon text session. In the mind of O & Q. This is exhibit 200 your honor in the case of Hip Hop v. Fake Shit

Text From Q to O:
Looking at iTunes. They have Yung Joc listed under pop. Ha! What's that say about him?

The Response from O to Q
Pop is short for popular music. He's popular. With the same kids who can't pass a simple aptitude test and adults who can't name more than three presidents, but can tell you every American Idol winner and runner up.

Text back from Q to O
Meet me at the gap, it's going down...

Categorize This

This whole blog thing started as a series of emails back and forth between the two of us over the years. We’ve been complaining about several things as mentioned in the ‘about us’ section. They’re very silly things that are out there that frustrate us. Music is at the forefront of that frustration (Please look forward to the boycott on American radio). The following allows you to witness the process.

Recently, while watching the Video Music Awards (VMA) – on an unnamed music station that gives out a moon man as the award – I received a text from a friend. I’ve had several conversations with him about music and such, and he was generally disappointed about the direction of the show. There were artists winning in categories they shouldn’t have been in, beating more deserving artists. The following is the back and forth email after the text, sharing it with O.

----Original Message Follows----

O,

So, I'm watching the VMAs and I get this text from a friend...

"The VMAs are close to being irrelevant if the wrong people keep winning these awards. Pink? Pussycat Dolls? Black Eye Peas? Ridiculous. I hate music."

Yeah, some of the categories that they won, they shouldn't have even been in. "My Humps" is not a hip-hop song and should not have beaten Kanye West for example. "My Humps" couldn't be more of a pop song. The Black Eye Peas sold out their hip-hop roots a long time ago, and crossed over to the more lucrative pop game. Good for them. I’m not hating at all, I’m just saying please put them in the appropriate category. Pussycat Dolls "Buttons" best dance video? Yeah right. Not when Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" video is nominated in the same category. Shakira may not be the best singer, but the category was “best dance video”, maybe I’m mistaken, but her hips don’t lie at all. It’s all bullshit.


----Original Message Follows----
Q,

It just reminds me of a time I read a newspaper section that mentioned "Sisqo, the MTV rapper...." Well 1, I didn't know he singed to MTV Records. And 2, I didn't know he was a rapper.

Same shit happened yesterday when I saw "My Sweet 16" (channel surfing purposes) on MTV, which for argument's sake isn't Music TeleVision but Mostly TeleVision (side bar: When they debuted they started with the video “Video Killed the radio star.” Well, frankly reality TV is going to kill the video star) some young ass 15 year old told her mother she wanted to get someone to perform. Surfed the net and showed her who. She says, "I want Bobby Valentino to perform. He's a hot rapper out now."

So ummm yeah, it got me wondering – Who's advising who? Is it the kids to the adults that shouldn't have anything to do with music? Or perhaps it’s the adults to the kids who shouldn't have anything to do with music? Either way, they are both f**king clueless as to what real music is, regardless of category.

P.S. Who do I contact about getting someone in charge of the Award Shows' categorizing? Rocket Science? Hardly....

TELL 'EM WHY YOU MAD: Looked Better on MySpace

What's up with the pics displayed on your MySpace with nothing but headshots and tattoos? What's really going on? What are you hiding? I heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words and with that said, you've said enough. I mean, I get the picture, no pun intended. I know what you're trying to say. "Hey, I'm decent/attractive/sexy (yeah, maybe in the face) so, umm, you don't need to worry about the rest of me. Check out my tattoos. They're hot right? It says sexy!" But honestly, what does that really mean? In this day in age, America is looking at an epidemic. An unhealthy one. But I'm not here to post and blog about that right now. Gotta deal with the smaller issues first before I even think about tackling something major like that. Back to the topic.... What happens when all people see is the face? How much of a percentage can your face have when judging your entire physical attributes as a whole? Not trying to sound superficial but we are living in a world where pictures are taking with any and every form of technological equipment invented in a matter of seconds and displaying it to the world in minutes. So who's fault is that? I don't mind getting judged myself. It's cool. Be a critic. It's healthy. As long as you can take what you dish out. And I have a big appetite. So to sum up what I've been blabbering about here, I wouldn't purchase a car I saw online without checking it out in person. Not unless I can get a full money back guarantee.

EVER HEARD OF CONTROL?

As a parent, if you have to tell your child "you better start listening to me..." chances are they've stopped a long time ago, and don't plan on changing that any time soon. Far too often walking through the mall, grocery store and restaurants, I've noticed kids just doing their own thing and completely ignoring their parents. Get some control, grow some balls and let your kids know who's in charge.

This wasn’t a problem for my mom when she was raising me. I never talked back; interrupted 'grown folk' talk or came out of pocket. Parents just haven't set the standard for their kids. Too much freedom, and way too much allowing them to make their own decisions is just reckless. They will grow up and not respect anyone or anything. They’ll always think it’s their way.

My word of advice - lay the smack down, or your kids will be running over you forever! If you see someone out and it's noticeable that they've lost control, give that parent the head nod, shake the shit out of them and then say, "hey, grow some balls and lay the smack down!"

Retired Strippers

Found this sign outside of a strip joint. First thing I thought - really? New girls inside? With a sign like this it raises the question, what happens to the old girls? Do strippers retire? Is there a 401K plan to buy into? Did they get laid off? I want to know.

Not sure if you've ever been in this spot (no name to protect the innocent). But I can admit I have been in a brief moment of poor judgement. One night pretty fired up, I needed a place to chill and sober up. Didn't want to do the typical diner thing. Yep, my boys and I picked a strip joint. Rolled in and it must have been geriatric night. Old and sloppy looking chicks. One stripper came out with a walker. She had a spot in the floor that she could attach the walker, and instead of dancing on the pole, she grinded out on the legs of her walker. Another chick was poorly put together. She was moving about on the stage in some thrift store outfit, with unsexy holes in the costume. Then she pulled on a string that revealed her stomach. Yeah, I'm not going to go into to many details on that. I still have nightmares. Some dudes give strippers money so that they can reveal more, I gave her $20 to cover up and get off stage. I was sober about 15 minutes after walking in the door, and proceeded home.

So, when I saw this sign today - I was happy to know that they had acquired new girls. I'm just curious to know what happen to their old ones.