On behalf of the shotthen massive, Merry Christmas to you and yours. This vid was the first thing that came to mind for a post, it’s a good reminder of what’s important round this time of year. Show love to your family/friends, enjoy your time off, and stay safe over this holiday season.
Looking at the clock it’s about that time. Everyone’s going into end-of-year list mania at the moment, and being that I always struggle to fill any sort of best-of list beyond the first 4 entries, I’m gonna do my 2008 summaries by writing about select things I feel warranted attention/recognition in the 08.
Music is a funny game, the formula to having a hit song seems dead simple. Write something great, people like it – hit. This is true in the simplest sense, however as we all know, many good songs come and go without making the impact of say Lil Wayne “Lollipop”. Sometimes the reason for a songs failure to crack it is easily traceable, other times not so much. Here’s two songs which I thought would have been bigger in the 08.
John Legend feat. Andre 3000 – Greenlight
This seemed like a bit of a no-brainer. I wasn’t expecting #1 status, due to John Legend not being “youth” enough for the Chris Brown, Rihanna generation. But I still figured it’d hit bigger than it did. Dope hook, nice upbeat production, sounds and tempo are all very current, and it has a great feature from 3000 who for my money takes guest verse of the year honours (again). It’s all there… yet I’ve still only heard it on radio a handful of times. Perhaps people felt this upbeat stuff was too much of a reach for him ? Or perhaps the fact that I can’t embed the actual video from YouTube indicates that his promo was fucked up ?
Ryan Leslie – Addiction
Damn, I thought this one would do it for him. After giving a smash hit to Cassie and building up some loyal stans on YouTube, it seemed like Leslie just needed that one song to push him over the edge. Upon hearing this I felt he had it – great hook, really mean beat, and he even managed to make Cassie sound good. Plus you figured her name on it would help get him onto those playlists which his name alone wouldn’t. Again tho, I heard this on radio a handful of times then… gone.
Admittedly he did fail on the videos though. He did 2 of them, both were hella late, and neither featured Cassie. Wierd for 3 reasons:
Ahh well, 2 great songs in my opinion. What are you fullas thoughts/picks for slept on hits this year ?
Back in my high school days I had a part time job at a department store, at Christmas time I’d end up working full-time as the permanent staff would take their holidays around this time. They had one Christmas music CD that they’d play instore over and over again every year for about six weeks prior to Christmas, it drove me up the fucking wall, it was torture. The pay was shit, the customer were assholes, and I had to spend hours on end listening to some of the worst music ever created ughhh. The only time I was ever happy during that time was when Run DMC’s ‘Christmas In Hollis’ would come on, it was the only shit on that entire CD that resembled shit that I actually liked. I’d look forward to the moment that that song would come on every hour, trouble was some old bitch in the office seemed to take offence to the song so I never heard more than half of the song before she hit the skip button. Grrr, that bitch took away my one happy moment at work, if she’s still alive, “FUCK YOU!” This ones for you…
It’s a rare occurence when you come across a movie premise that makes you think “fuck.. i wanna see that” strictly off the premise alone. I’m a bit of a tightarse when it comes to cinema, i.e I’ll read up on reviews, suss if i like the directors past work etc before giving a flick the time of day. Every now and then though, something comes along where I don’t give a fuck about any of that and am dead-set on watching it. Such is the case with these 2 gems:
Slum Dog Millionaire
The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”
Soon as I saw the words “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” combined with “India” – sold. How can she slap.
JCVD
Jean Claude Van Damme plays himself in this crime comedy that opens with the aging action star on the low end of his career, fighting a drug habit, his daughter’s custody case and now a major P.R. problem — for he’s soon to find himself in the middle of a bank heist, with the world looking on and the Muscles From Brussels as the number one suspect.
Being that I spent the majority of my formative years watching Bloodsport and Kickboxer the concept of Van Damme possibly not doing his “splits – punch in the nuts” move in a film is mindblowing. Drug habit, daughter being ashamed of him.. this is top notch stuff.
Anyone who’s got the hook ups for either of these flicks link us up A.S.A.P
The Charles Hamilton vs Soulja Boy “beef” had distracted me so much I didn’t realise that Hamilton’s video for “Brooklyn Girls” had dropped. Classic N.Y hip hop steez in the video, I’m feelin it. This one’s for Slick and anyone who got hooked on this after episode 3 of Entourage this season.
As a sidenote, Soulja Boy really is fucken hilarious. He already bodied Ice T at this youtube shit, and Charles seemed to be faring no better till he dropped this T-Pain parody today. It was rather dece, but I still had more LOL moments just watching Soulja talk shit in his vid. I can’t wait to see his response to Charles latest antics.
Yup, this Thursday ABC will be holding their Brothers exhibition which will feature artwork from the following mean dudes: Phat1, Lee Ralph, Rakai Karaitana, Glenn Smith, Levi Hawken, and Chey Ataria. There’s sneak peeks up here at the ABC website and it’s looking pretty mean bradas. If you’re into artwork or into being cool, this is probably the place you wanna be at.
ALSO they’ll be premiering Ninja vs Warrior the ABC/Expertise tour video at 9:30pm. It’s gonna be mental, I can’t fucken wait. I had a sneak peek of some of Joe Whaanga’s footy and it was beyond good.
Catch you’s up there.
Ha, this shit is funny. Anyone think it was inspired by Flight Of The Conchords?
Man, Dawnraid are coming through with all the catchy singles at the mo. This time it’s Big Rex with “Them Eyes” which also features J Williams. This shit reminds me of Mr Smith era LL, which is personally my favourite era of LL. I know some hardcore hip hop fans are probably scoffing at that statement, but whatevs. Slick song.
