Words of Intelligent Ignorance

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With Jordan Peele’s “Us” release this weekend, the comparison to so many is happening yet again.  In the horror space, he has been called the next Stephen King and the next Alfred Hitchcock.  In the tradition of great black writers and directors, names like Melvin Van Peebles and Spike Lee have been thrown around.  Why can’t we simple enjoy him as the first Jordan Peele?

With Stephen King, his books have been turned into great movies and relatively recently “It” has been remade for a new generation.  I would call Stephen King an author and writer of books.  If I had to make a comparison, I personally think Alfred Hitchcock is likely the best.

Among black films, there have been different time periods.  The beginnings of what we now call Black Exploitation (or blaxploitation) there was Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song (1971).  The Blaxploitation era was often about power to the people and strength in the black community and finding heros in the culture based on what the black community wanted to see.  The anti-establishment plots were seen in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song and others like Shaft and Foxy Brown as well.  It didn’t have to have an anti-establishment theme.  Movies like Super Fly and The Mack also helped define the era.

Spike Lee helped define what Hollywood wanted from African-American film in the 80’s and 90’s.  What he did was bring in great indie films that had a great message and showed that the community could be entertained and educated at the same time.  I often think Spike Lee is the creator of the term “STAY WOKE” with the ending of School Daze and the Laurence Fishburne and Spike Lee himself screaming WAKE UP at the end of the movie.  To bring it back to the reason of this, Spike was part of the progression to what we have now in Jordan Peele.  

The 90’s went into a boom of great movies going in different directions.  In the early part of the decade, we had Mario Van Peebles directing New Jack City, and John Singleton with Boyz in the Hood, and the Hughes Brothers’ Menace II Society.  We also had Boomerang and then Love Jones showing black love.  Those moves generated other great movies like Love & Basketball and Brown Sugar.  

Cardi B has had fans since her early days.  Her time on Love & Hip Hop was spent getting the attention of the right people.  That being said, there have been people, like myself, that were stubborn and didn’t want to come around.  I was very critical and didn’t give her a chance.  Her desire to pay homage to the old school while putting her own spin on what she has to offer this thing we call music is growing on me and many others for that matter.  Rocking Cross Colors in the Finesse video as she collabs with Bruno Mars made many stand up and pay attention.  Even if you thought that was a ploy just to grab some fans that were nostalgic about the early 90’s, she didn’t worry.  She just kept putting out music and kicking in the door with creativity.  The “Money” video is what made me take notice (if they hadn’t already).  Even before stopping to notice the lyrics, it was all about the video.  Before you think it was about how sexy Cardi B is (and she is and she knows it), it was about the creativity and the cinematography and the colors and how the video keeps your attention.  Watching the video enough, you will listen.  But she definitely doesn’t stop there, her grammy performance of Money was also hot.  The piano woman and her doing her, on the piano continued to grab the music world by storm (not to mention she won a Grammy for Best Rap Album).  And then there is “Please Me” as she collaborates with Bruno Mars again.  The nostalgic button was pressed again as the beat is reminiscent of Jodeci and they even reference the 90’s group in the record.  

There have been deals upon deals upon deals going around the NFL like transactions at your nearest corner store.  Big trades and free agent acquisitions as well.  Football fans all over are already wondering will the big deals mean more for their teams or will the tweaks have the right impacts.  Some teams deciding not to re-sign certain players and the teams that have picked up those same players.  The obvious deals people have talked about most include Antonio Brown to the Raiders and and OBJ to the Browns.  Let’s stop and pause and talk about those two first. 

Antonio Brown to the Raiders has made a few of us scratch our heads over that deal.  They had already traded away the younger Amari Cooper to Dallas midseason only to go get the older Antonio Brown.  Amari Cooper usually is the type of player and at the age that you go get him when you are thinking win now.  With Gruden having 9 years left on his deal, you often don’t think win now.  Now to the flip-side of it all, you can’t be mad at it.  The Raiders went and got arguably the best wide-out in football and only spent a 3rd and 5th round pick for it.  The reality is, Brown may have helped in this deal by being the person he is and made the Buffalo deal go away.  Whether the Raiders keep Carr or go with another QB, they have a weapon to work with.

Now to talk about Odell Beckham, Jr to the Browns.  On paper, this has become the best Browns team in my lifetime.  Now that isn’t hyperbole either.  Isn’t really hard considering they haven’t been good in a long time.  Heck, they haven’t made the playoffs since 2002.  This Browns team now has Mayfield, Hunt (even with the 8 game suspension), Nick Chubb (heck of a one-two punch), Jarvis Landry and OBJ reconnect (and with Landry as a #2 and OBJ as the #1, that is going to reek havoc on secondary defenses in the AFC North).  Baker Mayfield may just have the type of swagger needed to corral this offense.  This doesn’t ignore the defense they are building with Miles Garret being the cornerstone as well.  

The Jets haven’t been quiet either.  I know you didn’t think we weren’t going to talk about Le’Veon Bell signing for 4 years at $52.5 million (with $35 million guaranteed).  Their big offseason may have begun with the coaching hires.  Head coaching hire of Adam Gase was only the beginning.  We have seen that he can work with QB’s.  Not to mention coordinator hires of Gregg Williams for DC, and Dowell Loggins at OC.  The offseason has clearly been about giving Sam Darnold some weapons.  Going to pick up Jamison Crowder and Josh Bellamy and obviously culminating in the signing of Le’Veon Bell is another NFL team giving young QB’s great weapons.  

Some teams have been all about the tweak.  The Bears had a formidable defense in 2018.  They weren’t going to be able to keep everyone.  Some of it was going to be about teams raiding the Bears cupboard and other things were going to be salary cap casualties.  No one in their right mind thought the Bears were going to be able to keep Vic Fangio (especially when we found out Denver was interested).  Also Adrian Amos and Bryce Callahan (salary cap likely was part of it for Callahan along with injury history for the Bears not over-spending) had earned bigger paydays.  Bears seem to have gotten a good DC in Chuck Pagano and he is going to have a lot to work with.  Many Bears fans, felt the Bears should have drafted Ha Ha Clinton-Dix some years ago instead of drafting Kyle Fuller.  Well with the assisted help of recruiting by other Alabama Alum Eddie Jackson, Ha Ha Clinton Dix is now a member of the Bears secondary.  The Bears are working to build a defense that has no holes in the “at all category!” Now we know the release of Mr. Double-doink, Cody Parkey was obvious (Pepsi foreshadowed Parkey moments in the “Ice the Kicker” commercial that Bears fans had to hate).  Will be be saying the Bears “Blewitt” with the signing of Chris Blewitt (his name scares many with so many games being determined by kicks).  Will the Bears draft a kicker in the later rounds, or continue looking on the free agent market.  Oh and for those that wonder why the Bears released Robbie Gould some time ago… well all you have to do is look at the contract he had in Chicago ($15 million with $9 million guaranteed).  He was a salary cap issue that the new GM didn’t want to have to see as an albatross.  The 49ers were smart to franchise him, because Chicago likely would have done whatever it took to get him back to Soldier Field.  

In the words about Chicago, We must talk about were some people ended up.  The Broncos definitely wanted want to enjoy and imagine what Vic Fangio will do with having Von Miller.  Vic Fangio also reunites with Bryce Callahan as he signed with Denver as of Friday (3/15).  The Packers scoop up a former Chicago Bears as well.  With Amos, the Packers picked up a hard worker and a potential coach on the field in him.  Green Bay tried to grab Kyle Fuller last offseason, but will have to settle for Amos.  Will he turn out to be to consolation prize or will the Bears regret letting him go.  Longtime Packers Clay Matthews and Nick Perry will no longer suit up with the team in 2019.  The Packers signed Preston and Za’Darius Smith as replacements.  Oh and they are finally working to get some protection for Aaron Rodgers in signing Billy Turner who had a breakout season with the Broncos in 2018.  Rodgers was already hard enough to get a hold of, and they are working to make it harder. 

Hip Hop got a shot in the arm from an art-form of "the battle rap" and diss record yesterday (Saturday 02/25/2017).  Remy Ma sent out a tweet of her with a link to a SoundCloud track with excellent artwork of her diss track ShETHER that is aimed at Nicki Minaj.  Before I go into just talking about that one, the art of the diss goes all the way back to Busy Bee and Kool Moe Dee.  Many remember the long standing battle between Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J.  While some felt LL won with Jack The Ripper, he did “Knock” out Kool Moe Dee with Momma Said Knock you out.  We can never forget Ice Cube ripping NWA along with Jerry Heller on No Vaseline (on Death Certificate).  One of my favorite battles/beefs features the South Side of Chicago’s own Lonnie Rashid Lynn, better known as, Common, and the West Coast Royalty, Ice Cube.  After taking a line in “I Used To Lover H.E.R.” a little too personally, Cube’s Wack 10 MC (or a .22 to quote the record), released Westside Slaughterhouse.  Common’s “The Bitch in Yoo” was the response, and he let the world know his bars are ready and even performed the joint in the House Of Blues in LA.  To talk about diss records, I can’t leave out Tupac’s “Hit ‘Em Up” which could only be purchased as a B-Side (vinyl) or bonus track on CD, when you bought a copy of “How Do You Want It”.  The battle between Nas & Jay-Z felt like it came out of no-where, but you knew it was real when you heard Jay-Z’s “TAKEOVER” and the line “You made it a hot line/I made it a hot song and challenge his sales and credibility of Nas’ catalogue.  Nas didn’t just sit back, he answered with ETHER.  Many knew he couldn’t end Jay, but felt the battle was won by Nas with that track.  The beef was over when Jay brought Nas out on stage and announced he had signed him to Def Jam (with agreement with Columbia Records obviously).  Back in the day, diss records took a long time to come out because they were actual album cuts or release only as white label vinyl for DJ’s as promos only.  In recent years, the battle game is a lot quicker.  Twitter and Instagram beef is sped up by the internet.  We got a taste of that on “Stay Schemin” in the beef between Common and Drake.  The back and forth via the internet and videos and concert clips was played out via Drake and Meek Mill and fans got to benefit from it.  Our entertainment made our thumbs tired as we clicked through on our phones as we wanted to know more.  

Now back to Remy Ma and Nicki Minaj.  As hip hop fans know, Minaj came to prominence during a time that Remy was behind bars (and one can only imagine the bars she wrote, and hell even spit in battles).  When Gucci Mane released “Make Love” feat. Nicki Minaj, the words, “Oh you the qu-e-e-the queen of this here? One Platinum Plaque, album flopped, b*tch, where?” there was wonder into who that was about.  There was an alleged response on PHreshers “Wait a Minute,” but Remy Ma wasn’t finished.  

I must say, I woke up from a nap seeing the hashtag #ShETHER everywhere and what had Remy Ma really said.  A quick Google search sent me to Remy Ma’s official twitter account and seeing she had a track ready for us with a link to her SoundCloud.  I wanted to click on that link instead of borrowed tracks from DJ’s and other options like YouTube.  When I did click on it, I kept playing it over and over.  I was already loving the title ShETHER and using the play on words referencing the closing record’s title “Ether” from the infamous back and forth between Jay-Z and Nas.  There has been debate over is this the best diss by some.  I don’t personally think so, but the best part is that we get to listen to it all.  With Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, MixCloud, YouTube and many other online options, the release is quick.  I have also seen Apple Music talking about come listen to the track there, so don’t think Remy isn’t going to get a few dollars from this too. Now the real question is when is Nicki Minaj going to clap back. We don’t want to wait.  Oh, and we do see all of the jokes and memes of people suggesting that Nicki Minaj is just waiting for Drake and Lil Wayne to email it to her.  That is a whole different debate.

Why do iOS fans vs Android fans argue over which one is better?

Let me give full disclosure.  I have an iPhone. I have had an Android phone for work in the past.  I run many of the Google products on my iOS devices and computer.  Now let me start off by saying, I personally believe neither one is better than the other.  It really is all about the person and what fits that person.  To put things in its simplest terms (and I realize it is more complicated than this), iOS has everything primarily on the device and is backed up in the cloud.  Android runs everything primarily in the cloud (or online) and is backed up the device.  I actually was a Blackberry user and considered myself a BB loyalist.  When I finally switched, I was one who had made a conscious decision to buy an iPhone because i was going to always carry an iPod for music.  I actually still liked the Blackberry, but was finally tired of carrying two devices.  The funny part was, when i got a new job, they gave me an Android phone and I was back to carrying multiple devices.  I had even asked could i just use my device and just get a stipend and they chose no.

With summer coming very soon and the weather starting to consistently be warm, the Chicago crime is increasing over the weekends.  With that in mind, many people talk about how bad Chicago crime has gotten and how bad the murder numbers are. Well I am already going to tell you that something that many people don’t know.  2013 and 2014 are the lowest murder numbers in Chicago since 1964.  No matter how bad you think it has gotten, it has been worse. The decade of the 1990’s was probably the worst (especially the first half of the decade).  1974 actually had the highest number of murders in recorded history.  I do recommend the Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Chicago and yes I do know the nature of Wikipedia. That particular page has some very reputable references including the Chicago Police Annual Report, the Chicago Tribune, the Huffington Post, CNN, Gawker.com just to name a few.

With many in my age group (I was in high school during the early 1990’s), we are making different observations.  I have often said there are two things that affect how we see crime. One is the fact that we have access to the news in a way that we never did.  We used to have to wait until the evening news or actually read the newspaper.  Another is the reality that many now have children and that definitely affects how you pay attention to these kinds of things.  Now I do know my opinion isn’t the only opinion out there, especially on an issue like this.  One thought that should be considered that was said to me was, “The socialization of crime through social media and kids thinking it's cool is a huge problem.”

Another controversial statement that I read on Facebook was, “This will be unpopular but... I miss the strength gangs had back in the day... Organized violence and street justice... This is just the Wild West right now.”

There are those that believe with the smaller gang groups without “leadership” has made things crazier and less “organized”.  Also there are much younger girls and boys committing the crimes as well.  Many of them aren’t even 18.

Another, outlook based on the previous mentioned Facebook status and subsequent comments was, “Are there less drugs now? Are gangs destroying the community now??? No one is praising gangs.. But there was a rhyme.. Reason.. And repercussions to actions that do not exist now.”

Another difference in why we notice the crime is there was a time that the bulk of the crime was confined to the housing projects.  With many of them coming down, the crime has spilled into the other neighborhoods . Almost the thought that people didn’t care until it affected them.

Let’s start off by saying there is no wrong answer.  It had so much going on that there was a likely dip at the box office for Avengers: Age of Ultron (as much of dip you can take even making $191.3 million in your first weekend).  Thursday, April 30th and Saturday, May 2nd are the two days most will remember in those days.  Thursday included (but not limited to) two NBA game 6’s and the first day of the NFL draft. Saturday included final day of the NFL draft, the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby, the classic rivalry of the Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees with A-Rod hitting his 660th home run, the Clippers vs Spurs game 7 in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, and lastly the Mayweather vs Pacquiao. In some of the sports there are decided winners like the Clippers over the Spurs in round 1, Mayweather over Pacquiao (fans of Pac-Man would say otherwise, especially after the shoulder injury news), American Pharaoh in the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby. The NFL draft’s winners won’t be decided for probably 3-5 years.  Baseball and Hockey aren’t forgotten on this guy.  Baseball is at the beginning of its season and with 162 games, the national appeal of each series hasn’t grabbed everyone just yet. The luster of A-Rod’s accomplishment on this weekend just isn’t what it would have been without the PED scandal and year-long suspension.  Now your local teams still matter and winners are often made early.  Hockey has some of the best playoff series’ every year, but without the major game seven’s being on network television, it is lost on the casual fans.

 Now let’s get into my opinions here.  The “May-Pac” fight was billed as the fight to bring boxing back to the forefront. Well that probably would have had a bigger punch if it happened 5 years ago, but to be honest with ourselves it never should have had such a mantra.  Mayweather fights aren’t ever really exciting due to him being an excellent defensive fighter. Not that he isn’t a great fighter (easily the best defensive fighter of his time), but his style doesn’t breed excitement.  As stated earlier, the NFL Draft doesn’t show its winners this early. It is fun for debates and it generates optimism.  I have already also gone into my thoughts on the NHL and MLB.  We must add that the weekend did see a split in the second round between the NY Rangers and the Washington Capitals.  It also saw the Chicago Blackhawks go up 2-0 on the Minnesota Wild.  The Kentucky Derby is exciting every year due to it being event based.  This particular Derby could be remembered if American Pharaoh becomes the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed (it’s been 37 years since Affirmed last won the Triple Crown).  I haven’t left out what many considered to be the best event of the weekend (especially in hindsight).  The Game 7 of the Clippers vs Spurs in the first round series of the NBA Western Conference playoffs.  Even with Chris Paul having an early hamstring injury, he came out and was spectacular.  It took such a performance for many not to even notice Blake Griffith’s great game and triple-double.  Some feel that this weekend and this particular game may be remembered for the end of an era with the Spurs “Big Three” of Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili and Coach Popovich at the helm (now some say we don’t know what they will do in the offseason and they could reload with more players too).  Regardless of what happens with the Spurs, I would like to think I would remember the great game 7 that was had and how spectacular it was, but I also know, we remember singular events based on how history remembers the things around them.  

With the recent boost of Tidal getting a bump in buzz in the last few weeks and Jay-Z recent twitter rant, many are taking sides.  People need to slow down.  I will agree with Jay saying give them some time.  Whether they become one of the top services or not, the others do have a head start.  Ironically, one of the competitors in the “streaming wars” in Apple/Beats, Apple knows the pain of educating the world.  When the iTunes store opened, and legal downloads really began to be the norm, Apple had to show why it was the best service.  There are some that feel that the exclusive offerings that Tidal will be offering is enough to win the streaming war for them.  While I do feel it is a good offering, it can’t be something that will be enough to win.  When Beyonce offered her last album via iTunes exclusively, Android lovers didn't rush out and buy iPhones.  When Jay-Z offered Magna Carta... Holy Grail for free to those that owned a Samsung Galaxy phone, iPhone users didn't rush out in droves.  While I am sure there are those that did for those examples.  What will be the factor in deciding are the points that prove it is a good service. Multi-BILLION dollar brands also have huge marketing budgets that Tidal shouldn't try to compete with as well.  Google Music and Samsung’s MILK service shouldn't be discounted as well.  Also there are different types of services within the streaming competitors as well.  Your Pandora Radio and iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, and Milk are essentially radio services. Spotify, Rdio, Beats Music, and Tidal are music libraries.  Now the different services do blur the lines of what type of service they want to be at times.  Then the free vs premium options also are good equalizer in some of these as well.  Now one thing that has made this interesting in my eyes is the different music brands like Billboard.com and different terrestrial radio stations linking songs to Spotify.  Also Facebook has an arrangement with the Spotify brand as well. .There have been debates about rank in app stores.  There have also been debates about being featured in the iTunes store as well.