[E]lemental KC

For all you music lovers out there, the talented Erick Richardson (eRich) will be performing at The Locker Room Sport Bar, 609 N Rolla Street, Rolla, MO and will be opening for Corduroy Sunrise.

The show begins at 9:00 PM and going till midnight.

Look for eRich’s cd on iTunes here and be sure to check out his MySpace, too.

Stuck in label limbo since his 2003 self-titled debut, Joe Budden brings his sophomore release six years later in Padded Room. After his Def Jam debut did not get the expected sales, Budden was forced to keep his buzz high putting out multiple mixtapes and singles that never came to fruition because the label thought many of his songs did not have the feel good records that people wanted to hear.  Even though many regarded his mixtape Mood Muzik 2 (which was supposed to be most of his second album) as one of the greatest mixtapes of all time, Def Jam would not allow the songs to be on his supposed second album The Growth because Def Jam felt it was too depressing.  At the same time, Joe was never willing to sell out and make so called club bangers and dance friendly tracks to become a more commercial rapper.

The album begins with “Now I Lay” where his only number one single “Pump It Up” leaves off.  With melodic horns bringing a high energy to the intro track, Joey welcomes listeners new and old to his premiere flow to get them ready for a lyrical ride.  On the track “I Couldn’t Help It” Joey tells a story of getting his “psycho” baby mother pregnant, He speaks of regretting it and ”thinking of having an abortion like a savage” because he didn’t want to have a child by a woman he wasn’t ready to spend the rest of his life with.  But after seeing his “little him” he regrets ever wishing that, apologizing to his son telling him how much he loves him.  The second verse goes into Joe sleeping with a high profiled rap artist’s wife, trying to avoid her because of his conscious bothering him with Karma.  However, his lust overcomes him as he takes her back to his room spitting “He (the rapper) have her on TV with their kids, I have her on the TV in her ribs” portraying a story that anyone with an imagination can see almost as if it was playing on the big screen.  But the best song on this album comes in “Pray For Me”.  In his conversation with God he lists his mistakes to God talking about how “he was once suicidal never read the Bible” but he still wants God’s favor.  Then he goes on blaming God for all of his problems, blaming God for a terrible baby mother and starvation and AIDS in the world.  It is reminiscent of two of DMX’s  best tracks “Ready to Meet Him” and “The Convo” where DMX also talks to God.  Joe Budden rhymes on this track as if he is having a personal conversation with God and we are his audience on the outside looking in.

However, as with any album, this one has its flaws.  The biggest flaw with the album that any listener will notice is the production is weak on a great deal of tracks.  Budden always outshines his production with his lyrical genius.  The producers just cannot keep the pace to match his ability.  Also, Joey still tries to crossover on some tracks on this album, trying to gain casual fans. That is not his skill and on songs like “The Future” and “Exxxes” it feels forced, not genuine, which is what makes him so popular to his fans.

So if you listen to Joe Budden regularly and are looking to continue from his nice Halfway House digital album, enjoy this album for Joey’s brilliance.  Listeners looking for lyrics can easily get past the production to enjoy this album and reminiscence of his self titled debut and Mood Muzik days.  Even though, this album will not sell the records it deserves, we can always go back to “Three Sides of a Story”, “Walk Wit Me” and “So Long Goodbye” to argue how popular he is not, but should be.

-N.Juan Chapman - Don Juan

When I heard that Zack Synder, director of 300, was going to make film of another comic classic, Watchmen (**Warning: Spoilers**) I was thrilled. I’ve heard about Watchmen for a very long time. For some reason, I never took the opportunity to read it till just recently, of which I’m glad I did because the novel is very deep, profound, and intense.

The graphic novel (or comics for the rest of you) was written by Alan Moore who is also the mastermind behind League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. All of which have been made into movies. All of which Moore has shunned. I’ve read excerpts from interviews he’s given and he is really  devoted to art in it original form. He believes that Watchmen and his others are meant to be read, not adapted into screenplays.

Anyway, without giving too much away, Watchmen tells the story about the recent murder of a superhero and how Rorschach, one of the other heroes in the novel, goes about finding the truth. Now I know this is not a lot of info on this but I assure you that there’s much more to it.

The title comes from a Latin phrase from an ancient Roman poet, Juvenal. It translates to “who watches the watchmen?” Or you could say, who guards the guards themselves or whatever along those lines. It’s a powerful question that this novel purposely does not answer, leaving the reader to answer the question, who watches the watchmen?

So tonight, I went to the Voodoo Lounge in Harrah’s Casino in North Kansas City to watch Solange and Estelle in concert. I must admit, I had my reservations about seeing Solange in concert, but after tonight, I’m a proud fan of hers. To start, the girl looks good. Really good. Secondly, she’s kind of hood. After her first song she says to one of the technicians, loud in the microphone, “Can you get that fucking light out of my face? It’s blinding me.” Seriously.

The venue was nice and big enough to hold about 400-500 +/- 100 and at times it seemed that the performers weren’t going to have a crowd to sing to, but people eventually flooded the aisles and stage to sing and dance with them.

Towards the end of her set, she came down off stage and into the audience singing. Cats were acting a fool just trying to touch her and dance with her. One girl damn near passed out as she walked by them. I was really impressed with Solange’s singing ability and talent for dancing in some crazy shoes but she definitely got the party started right.

When Estelle came on stage, the whole room shook with cheers and screams and “I love you’s.” Now I’ve been a fan of her music for a long time now so this was really a treat for me. She came out in jeans that looked painted on and a low-cut blue shirt. Estelle made it very clear at the beginning of her set that she can see the crowd and will point you out to get up and dance. It worked. Now I need a foot rub.

Estelle continued her set of music singing all her Grammy Award winning songs. Then she really made people dance. At the end of one of her songs, she had the band keep playing while she got people on stage. It’s funny how people loose their minds around celebrities. Estelle asked this one girl to come up on stage and instead of going to the side where the stairs were, she tried climbing up. When that didn’t work, some of the stage hands and even back up singers tried, but no luck. Finally, Estelle had picked another girl standing close by, who was wearing a green top and about 80 pounds lighter. She got up on stage quick, but I think Estelle regretted it by the end of the night.

After a couple minutes of grabbing and pulling people on stage, the three male backup singers paired up with the three girls brought on stage. Estelle looked in the crowd for a couple guys to work her out, too, and two LUCKY guys made it on stage. Anyway, the first girl in the green top was either drunk or just an idiot. Shit, maybe both. She was really trying to show out in front of her friends by acting crazy. Estelle, at one point was visibly irritated and kind of shifted away from her because she was dancing all wild and not to the beat. Honestly, that girl almost spoiled it for me. She would not shut up and just listen for a sec. Oh well…

Estelle ended the concert with American Boy which she said for beforehand that she was really tired of singing. When she left the stage, her DJ came back out and said make some noise if you want Estelle back. Well…again the room was small and there weren’t too many people that were into the screaming and what not. He kept saying “Make some noise, make some noise” when, finally, he says that Estelle has already left the building. No encore. I think some people were mad because they thought they were going to get another song or two. Well guess what? It doesn’t even matter. I got to see Solange and Estelle, live!!

I was going through my phone for pictures I took tonight and I saw this. LOL!! This was from this past weekend. Some idiot busted Ky’s door one night and I just had to collect some proof. So the following morning, me and N.Juan got our cameras and started taking pictures left and right. As we’re taking pictures of the broken door frame, Ky goes, “You guys don’t respect my shit…” Which to me, made it even funnier. I know he was upset about it but you can’t help but laugh at the situation.

Ha HA!

So Ky sent me a link today of this online magazine by The Cool Kids (<—click, Enjoy!) called Progressive Life & Style (more on this later). In one of the magazines, they had a section about this website called, Shriiimp. It’s an interesting site where graffiti and graphic artists go to display and share their work. What makes it unique is that their work canvases are naked or near naked women.

Now don’t get me wrong. This is not pornographic but artistic nudes, and in many cases the women cover up. However, it does take art to another level by incorporating the female body into the image or design. Careful, this is not a site you want to look through at work, but if you appreciate street art and women, Shriiimp is what you need.

Shriiimp – www.shriiimp.com

[UPDATE] – I misread the email I got about the PLS magazine. It wasn’t started by The Cool Kids, however they did have spread in one of their issues. A guy by the name Jeremey Hodges is the editor of the magazine.

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President Obama made his inaugural speech to Congress last night that some critics say wasn’t uplifting enough, but I think he was being honest and not trying to cloud the situation with false hope. In his speech, he spoke about foreign relations, the military and it’s veterans, and, of course, the economic struggles facing our country.

Over the past few years, I’ve been more and more in tuned with politics of today. I think even more so when I was in Hungary and news was the only thing I watch in English. The reason why I mentioned that is because I think as citizens of this nation, now more than ever, we need to back each other and our government. It’s scary to think that economic conditions are so bad that companies are cutting jobs by the tens of thousands.

If you had an opportunity to watch the speech, do a little research on your own and find out more information for yourself. Try looking at other foreign press and see their view on the situation and how it affects them.

Here are some of my favorite places to go:

BBC

France 24

All Africa

Reuters

CNN Money

So this post is probably one of my favorites so far. I am a member of the Iota Omega chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and while I was in school there, our chapter basically developed our own slang. Some of it came about out fun and others terms came into existence just so we can have a form of code if we were talking around others.

The title of this post comes from Kanye’s song, Good Morning. It’s funny because everyone that contributed, including myself, has graduated with a well respected science, engineering or business degree, yet we still talk like this. The picture doesn’t really have anything to do with the post, but he is one of my best friends who happens to date a light-skinned B.U.M. (See definition below)

Getcha Shit – phrase. When you smash a bussdown and wake up in the morning and all your shit is gone.

Word On The Street- Prepositional phrase. Is a lie formed by MAD Med to redirect, modify or over embellish a story about an individual, where in all actuality he is the one stating the rumors.

Pipe Down- phrase. an immediate and quick response to another person in order to humiliate and silence them

Snaking -The art of diverting your homeboy’s attention to steal a hoe he is all ready on and planning to cut. (Example, LG getting Mick to DJ in order to snake his bussdown)

Strugg – short for ‘struggle’ , adj. to negatively describe an act or individual lacking in popular appeal. Ex. Did you know that he kissed that girl with the bumps around her mouth? Yeah, man. That’s strugg.

Sus -  short for ‘suspicious’ or ‘suspect’, adj. to describe an act or individual having suspicious or strugg qualities

Slizzard – adj.  to be intoxicated to the point where you are “dead” on your feet (See Weekend at Bernie’s) and or extremely memorable events are not recollected.  “Man I got slizzard last night and woke up with a knot on my forehead and I can’t find my phone.”

Yamps -adj. young women/girls whom have the potential of committing acts of “looseness”.  Derived from the combination of young tramps.  Sentence: “You got yo yamp for this weekend?”  “Yeah you know I got mine.”

Buss Down – adj.  a young woman who has a history or potential to perform sexual acts with partners that are not necessarily familiar. v. to have sex with a female that you only value for sex.  One does not buss down their girlfriend or wife.

Tater Head – adj.  a woman usually unknown by the user of the term.  The woman is not necessarily negatively thought of yet the possibilities are endless.

Rethickulous – adj. a woman who has thick, round physical features that are almost cartoonish in appearance (See Lola Luv, Buffie the Body)

Denamug – adj. Used to express extreme feeling. Usually preceeded by another adjective in a sentence that would otherwise lack the intenseness communicated by the facial expression of the user. Derived from the words “then a motherf#@!$”. Ex – “Dawg, I’m so glad you not talking to that chick anymore, she was ugly denamug!”

Bodied-Up-Monster (B.U.M.) ­- noun. A woman with incredible beauty and physical features. Often used to describe exotic women of mixed race or origin

I wanted to share these two sites with you Vice and VBS.tv (which is a part of the Vice company). Vice is a free indie magazine with some funny, thought provoking, and often controversial content. VBS.tv is online network counterpart of Vice with collection of journalistic videos.

Be forewarned. I would NOT read this at work. Though the style is journalistic, it’s not Good Morning America. They do show nudity, use foul language, and post other crazy images. BUT, I believe this is all in the name of artistic expression and is meant to give you a jolt.

Check out the websites and enjoy!

Vice - http://www.viceland.com/index_int.php

VBS.tv  – www.vbs.tv

United States of Tara is a brand new comedy on Showtime. The show, written by Academy Award winner, Diablo Cody from a idea from Academy Award winner, Steven Spielberg, is about a mother, played by Toni Collete, with dissociative identity disorder. Basically multiple personalities. In my opinion, US of Tara really deals with Tara’s (Collete) family and how the cope with her.

The also stars John Corbett, Brie Larson and a few others that I’m not too familiar with. Either way, I think this show has the right blend of humor and drama to keep anyone hooked.

One of my only issues with the show is that it’s based in an inaccurate representation of Overland Park, KS. Not too many shows are based in Kansas City or the surrounding suburbs, which I understand. The Kansas City area is not a cultural hub and everything is so spread out. I picked up on the inaccuracies when some of the characters were talking about jumping on highway 13 or some odd number like that. I’m pretty sure there’s no highway 13 around here. Then children in the show go to some highschool I’ve never heard of in OP either. Oh well. I guess the real schools couldn’t cut it.

Despite the fake Overland Park, I still think it’s a good show. Check it out!