bigted

I noticed that MC Hammer has his own blog site, he mentions that he's working on releasing an album called "Look, Look, Look" and even posts lyrics to one of his songs called "History", it's some deep stuff, check out his site at the link here to look at many more blogs he posted: http://mchammer.blogspot.com/ History (I Won't Give Up) I had a horrible dream last night. It was 1968 and I was somewhere in the South, it was a hot humid and sticky day the sweat just kind of stood still on my skin and my mouth was as dry as the California desert in the dog days of the summer. I was down to my last two bucks and it was hard for me as a black man to get any meaningful work. I saw a sign that said that the local sheriff's office was hiring new officers. I always hated the way the police treated my people so I decided the best way to change things would be to get in and assert my views an offer some balance. I walked into the sheriff's office and immediately all eyes were on me. The room went silent and you could hear a rat pissin' on cotton. My dark chocolate skin and my bold jaw line complimented my broad nose and my full lips. I opened my mouth and simply said, "I'm here to apply for a job as an officer." Reluctantly I was given an application and I quickly filled it out and returned it to the officer on duty. One week later I was a cadet at the sheriff's camp. I don't know why they accepted me because it was clear from day one that they didn't want me here. Nothing I did was right. They tried everything they could to make my life and drills a living hell and have me quit but they could not break me. Then one morning we were out on the field for physical training drills. I knew I didn't feel well but of course I had to act as if I was fine. Try as I may to keep up, the more drills we did the sicker I got. I don't know what was wrong with me, it's all a blur now. All I remember is that on one of my laps that I was running I was suddenly surrounded by my superiors. They began to berate me, brow beat me and push and shove on me. I can't recall exactly how many it was because I was so sick. At that point that I could barely stand but I do know it was at least five men. They begin to enjoy the pain they were inflicted on me as if every blow represented the resentment of me and my people. As if I had somehow harmed them in my past life. Remember they never wanted me here anyway. It's 1968 in the South and I'm a progressive black man surrounded by five racist, oppressive white men. My breathing is becoming labored and my arms and legs have gone limp. The only thing holding me up is the barrage of stinging, pounding punches to my flesh from my fellow officers and their collective hands around my neck that are choking the breath of life out of me. Finally someone has mercy and allows my body to fall to the ground. Then to my chagrin I begin to feel excruciating pain in my kidneys and my spleen. The pain is coming from the soles of their boots as they continuously kick me closer into the arms of death. Suddenly I think it's over as I'm picked up and held in the arms of a man whom I hoped one day to work along side as a partner and then he too punches me and I begin my descent towards the ground and into the arms of Jesus. In death I am hurting more than in life because this hold incident was recorded on video tape and people are watching me die over and over again and are denying the truth of what they are witnessing. Please allow me the dignity to rest in peace. Allow my family to mourn. Allow my People the justice they demand here in the land of the free. Allow my soul to sing the praises of God. For this is not 1968 and this is not a dream but my reality in the year 2006. I'm fourteen years old and I have been murdered by the hands of authority at the sheriff's camp. These are the lyrics from my song, History ( I won't give up), from my upcoming album "Look Look Look" (Look3x). The evil that men do they make moves like voodoo/ sittin' on the sidelines hoping and praying that somebody do you/ Never contemplating that somebody would school you/ Fuse melody rhythm and flow and work wit it like a tool/ You should know by now the oppressed man is not a fool/ Sign of the times evident from Elvis to Eminem don't be cruel/ It's a sham/ a scam /an old boy flim flam No matter how you twist it up I know who I am/ I refuse to be a product of everything you feeding me/ Cause all you makin' available is smoke drank and the illusion of ecstasy/ It's ecstasy when I sit back with my eyes shut tight/ Soarin' through a world full of freedom like shooting stars in the night/ My spirit will not be broken/ my faith will not be shakin'/ Give it how you give it man I won't give up I gots to make it/ Chorus I won't give up on my life I won't give up it's my life I won't give up on my life I won't give up it's my life It's something bout the way I post up and I walk/ It leaves you flabbergasted tongue tied and you can't talk/ you intimidated by the way miss Missy keep peeping at me/ You wanna put me in a cell with no bail and lock me away for a quarter century/ My first mistake was I didn't stay awake/ I should have paid attention when you fed me the crumbs up off your plate/ Honestly I did not understand/ I was still trying to comprehend the implications of that long trip man/ It was so complex with disrespect that I didn't know what I should feel/ I was a king in my village but now I'm serving you your meals/ That was so devastating and yet is so ironic/ I'm geographically isolated to the point I want to vomit/ But I won't and I don't cause now I'm feeling alright/ You can't comprehend the light/ my eternal sight/ mind so bright/ I'm focused and walking in the light/ And I won't give up/ I won't give up Chorus I won't give up on my life I won't give up it's my life I won't give up on my life I won't give up it's my life From my transgressions and indiscretion I've learned many lessons/ A wife children and family are multiple blessings/ History is his story repeated/ I'ma put it down and y'all make show that you read it/ The criminal minded lawyers have control of the switch/ I'm scientifically inclined but to eat I gots to dig a ditch/ I got mandatory witnesses of the these mandatory sentences/ This is genocide as a law and it's mandatory we end this/ How low will you go below yo ego before you know/ If you keep on doin' this to ours we gone end up doin' it to yours/ Where is the rehabilitation in a nation full of accusations?/ Twentyfive wit an L and three strikes is equivalent to strangulation/ My astonishment is for the punishment as a curse upon my people/ The crime plus the time the punishment must be equal/ Mandatory lies/ mandatory lies/ mandatory sentences/ mandatories die/ I won't give up Chorus I won't give up on my life I won't give up it's my life I won't give up on my life I won't give up it's my life --Hammertime From my sidekick

I was just watching ESPN and I heard that the Lakers are talking to Penny Hardaway and Jim Jackson

They had a 25 point lead earlier in the game so if they lost, that'd been devasting

Well with the popularity of "FPOBA" and "6 Degrees...", how could "Code Red" not sell 5 million and win a Grammy award? Especially coming off the major success on "Homebase" you figured it'd be even bigger, that's as puzzling as seeing the mega success of "Hitch" last year and seeing "Lost and Found" not have that kind of success, those 2 albums should've sold as much if not more than "Big Willie Style"...

Didn't we do a podcast on this topic before though? I remember Jim ranting about how he wanted Will to quit doing films :kekeke: I could understand though that artistic expression can't be rushed, as a songwriter myself, I take more time now in writing songs than I used to 'cause I don't wanna sound repetitive, so I could understand Will coming from that point of view, I wouldn't mind though if he posted songs he works on in between on his website like Jazzy Jeff does though, it might take a lil' longer to come up with something new but I'm sure not 3 years? He writes random verses in between I'm sure, I don't care if he releases short one minute freestyles in between but I wanna hear something, lol... He was recording stuff for "Lost and Found" a couple years ago, he coulda leaked some of that on mixtapes or through mp3 that way the real fans don't have to wait 3 years just to hear a song, you say that Will's movie fans shouldn't have to wait so long for a new movie but why do the music fans have to just for a new song? The man has sold over 30 million albums in his career, it's not like he don't have any music fans...

Isn't this the same 50 Cent who disses people to draw attention who's now saying that Spike Lee dissed him for attention? It's about time that tables turn and he gets criticism, maybe if more speak up he won't be in the game anymore :stickpoke: After what 50 said about Dre I'm surprised Dre still wants to with him, that shows you how out of touch he became 'cause back in the day Dre'd "slap the taste out your mouth" if you dissed him...

Yeah a lot of the chart rappers come and go and only the quality artists stand the test of time, you can't really see anybody who's selling millions being around 10-15 years from now, probably not even next year, it's a revolving door where record labels sign them one year then drop them the next for a new act, hopefully some new innovative artists could get a chance soon though, like I hope somebody like Kel Spencer gets a nice deal and shakes up the industry, but the way it usually is though is that you have to search what's not getting airplay if you want some good music, I feel your point it was always sorta like that but you used to able to listen to the radio and find some good songs in between but it's at the point now where they play the same annoying song all day and nothing else, like you hear Franchise Boys, G Unit, and DFL with nothing else when you turn on the radio, I never hear Talib Kweli but at least back in the day you had Vanilla Ice on the radio but you also had Tribe Called Quest on the radio...

Hip-hop is more like hip-pop now 'cause it's packaged and formulated for the teeny boppers to love it

Who the hell does this 50 Cent think to respond to Spike Lee this way? Spike Lee's movies are more classic than anything 50'll ever do... btw,With Dre rolling with G Unit that ain't gonna happen :bat:

We're starting to sound like our parents by saying that the older music is the best, but it's true :kekeke: Basically it seems that all the lyrics and all the beats on the radio are generic sounding and people love it, all the videos have the same cars, it looks like the same hoes in the videos too, there's nothing great about them, people are robots and call anything that sounds different wack like Will says, have Will mumble a bunch of curse words over generic beats and I bet they wouldn't call him wack,lol... I think I remember DJ Johnny Juice of Public Enemy say that a lot of these rap artists today seem to put on their uniforms when it's time to go on camera rather than dress the way they want to which is like what Will said: "following everybody when it's time to rap"...Even a lot of that underground rappers try sounding generic so they could get on major labels...btw, Vipa I dig quite a bit of the blends you do, you need to send a demo to Will so you could produce on his next album, lol...

Some team might sign Penny down the stretch for the playoff run but I think those other guys that got cut'd get signed before he would at this point, he did say he wanted to still play in the NBA though after he got released so he might try out for a team next year... btw anybody see that Bulls-Cavs game? That was a great 4th quarter finish

Yeah I watch basically every episode, I heard Season 1'll be released on DVD soon, can't wait to get that

Well even with the greatest production in the world, I don't think Will's gonna really sell that much more, the music industry has been resistant to Will 'cause of his image more than anything, "Code Red" didn't sell 'cause people wanted the gangsta rap image but the production on that album was better than most of theirs, it was right up there with "The Chronic"... And basically now you'd have to have a lot of ice, rims, and half naked chicks in the videos to go along with the catchy beat to get a huge hit, sadly a lot of those like 50 Cent could get away with mumbling throwaway lyrics throughout the songs and still get hits...

The Bulls cut Tim Thomas and the Suns're expected to pick him up, there's quite a bit of other players that got cut recently like Jim Jackson from the Suns, Byron Russell by the Sonics, and Derek Anderson by the Heat, playoff contendors'll probably pick them up soon

Like dkny2kx and maxfly have said, at this point Will can't save hip-hop alone, he's only one person and he don't have much influence anymore that he used to but he has a lot of money, so why can't he sign a group of young positive hip-hop artists over to Overbrook? That'd help out his credability by providing a platform for positive artists to display their message, there are a lot out there that Will could sign... He should balance it out and have music artists there, not only movie artists.... That way while Will's off shooting films we'll have other positive artists out there to hold us hip-hop fans over, hopefully this is what this compilation might have in mind...

Well that's why Bow Wow went platinum 'cause Jermaine Dupri laced him up with hot beats but he ain't saying **** on the songs, these big name producers need to work with dope mcs... But the one thing that pisses me off is that those kids who loved "Big Willie Style" say that thought "Willenium" was a boring dissapointment 'cause of tracks like "Afro Angel" and "The Rain" and I don't get that, they just wanna shake their ass, they like their lyrics and even beats on the mostpart dumbed down....

i love the reggae too 8 10

Honestly if he just did more performances, guest appearances, radio interviews in between where he drops an occasional freestyle I wouldn't mind if it took him 3 years to come up with another album but just seeing him just doing a bunch of things film related and nothing music related is what's puzzling coming from somebody who loves music, but hopefully he works on balancing it out properly so he won't let down his music fans so much... If Will was concerned with his sales he could've made sure that it wouldn't take so long for "Party Starter" to come out, you can't expect the album to sell so much milking the weakest track, maybe if he done a few more shows and actually performed album cuts instead of greatest hits that'd help sales too, there's things he could've done where it'd help that album make a strong impact, I bet if he releases the singles himself it'd do better than just sitting back waiting for Interscope to do so, he has the star power to do that if he really wanted to, if Kanye West puts money out of his own pockets to distribute videos, why can't Will? btw, He wouldn't have had to look for a label in the 1st place if he didn't go shoot a film a month after he dropped "Born To Reign", that'd even had gone platinum if he put in a lil' more effort in the promotion of the album, then again looking back at that it'd been best to delay that album a lil' bit and just release "Black Suits Comin" as a single for the soundtrack then release the album a lil' after shooting "Bad Boys II" where he'd have time to go out and promote it, just the lil' things he could do in between that'd help his image as a music artist...

Well this quote right here refers to the beats: "If your drums don't sound like everyone's....you don't fit in according to the industry", I really don't have a problem with the beats on "Lost and Found", it ain't a classic sound like "Code Red" or "Willenium" production, but I think it's a step above most generic commercial rap production out now that's on the radio that sounds repetitive, btw we talk about how great production helps albums sell but then why is "Code Red" the least selling JJFP album since it's one of the best produced albums of all time? :stickpoke: I think image sells more than anything, if 50 Cent had "Lost and Found" beats for his album, he'd still sell millions 'cause of his image...

Well I think there is some ol' school hip-hop artists like Afrika Bambattaa and Grandmaster Flash that're in their 50's now still performing, there was hip-hop artists a decade before LL and JJFP that came on the scene that're in their 50s now,so it's a possibility that there might be a handful of ol' school artists still going for a while...

it seems that jazzy and will ain't that tight anymore like they used to 'cause you figure with jeff's influence will'd wanna do music more often...

The point that upsets me is that from that quote I get the impression that he's putting music on the backburner 'cause it ain't as popular as his movies but to be real a lot of that is his fault doing albums every 3 years you can't expect to sell 5 million each time, you have to release something in between if you're a music artist, even a lil' guest appearance in between would hold fans over, but doing nothing in music for 3 years and just films is not a good look for him Could you imagine 50 Cent or Kanye West taking a break for 3 years and being just as popular? He shouldn't complain about his albums sales if he don't put in the work.... Believe me I don't mind he does some movies but I think it'd be better though if he put a lil' more work into doing more shows with Jazzy Jeff/guest appearances in between then he could be as popular in his music just as his movies which he's worked so hard at over the last 15 years with no music tours but hey there are a lot of artists who came out the same time as JJFP that don't do much now but a lot of that though is not under their own power, they don't get record contracts so they can't release anything, but you can't say that for Will, he's in a position that most artists could only dream of at this point, doing a lot of movie projects after saying that your first love is music is what upsets us music fans Jazzy Jeff is probably the more credible artist from JJFP 'cause he's worked more to please the few fans he has, they don't have to wait forever to see him, Will's one of the richest men in America at this point so he could do whatever the **** he wants, if he wanted to do more music he could do it, it's not like he's a broke ol' school artist that can't afford to record....

Remember what Will said: "Why should I try to sound like y'all sound?": Meanwhile, the potent title cut's constructive critiques of his beloved art form begins with Will Smith reciting Webster's definition of "original" over an arrangement of terse strings. He explains, "If you don't dress like everybody in all the other videos dresses, or your drums don't sound like everyone's, or your rhyme scheme isn't like everyone else's, you don't fit in according to the industry. So originality isn't necessarily nurtured. As far as defining it at the beginning of the record, I did that to say, let's clear up what originality means and figure out how that could be a bad thing." Running to Dr. Dre for beats would look like he's just trying to get hits like other pop rappers, that don't help his credability, I'd rather see DJ Quik produce for Will than Dr. Dre, he got some dope ****, he could call up KRS-ONE, Paris, DJ Johnny Juice, RZA, Pete Rock, Wyclef, and Teddy Riley if he wants producers besides Jazzy to give him great beats, even though they ain't that popular now, it's unfortunate that Will never got to work with J. Dilla either 'cause he was dope as hell too, a track with Swizz Beatz and Neptunes would be aight too 'cause they're the best mainstream producers out at the moment, even Jermaine Dupri is better than Dre now, I think Will'd have great chemistry with them, I want quality ****, not just pop hits, I don't want Will riding the G Unit bandwagon

Didn't critics call production on JJFP albums popcorn too? It seems like they always hate on Will 'cause he don't make hardcore rap, I do remember "Party Starter" getting dissed and Luda produced that, his music easily stacks up against all the parental advisory artists but they diss his music 'cause it don't have a PA sticker...

Dr. Dre's album's gonna suck if 50 Cent helps him with it :shakehead: BR: Are you going to be on your mentor Dr. Dre’s album, Detox? 50: Well, Detox, when it actually comes out, I’ll be on it. People have been anticipating this record for a long time, and I feel like Dre always comes through. It’s going to be something special, but he takes his time with it. More than normal, you know, because he’s such a perfectionist. You know what it is? The saying, 'there’s a shadow of doubt cast over every artist in between projects.' Because, when you deal with the general public you deal with the world people. And a lot of people aren’t successful because they don’t believe in themselves. And if they don’t believe in themselves, how could [they] expect anyone to believe in [them] as an artist? After a while they [don’t] start going, ‘do you think 50 Cent can make a good record,’ but ‘do you think he can do it again? Do you think he can make an album that does as well as his first one again?’ And I went through that going into The Massacre. I couldn’t understand it at first because I had so much consistency with the other material that I released; having everybody that I released through my record label scan over a million records. I sat around and I kind of thought about it, and said things to him and he just goes, ‘well, they gonna do that anyway.’ And I felt like they was doubting that I would do it again when I got ready to do my second record. But Dre, I think he feels that pressure because he has to beat the last thing that he’s done. And while we might be thinking about The Chronic, he might be thinking about Get Rich or Die Tryin', and “In Da Club.” So he feels like his record has to be bigger than that last record that he made. It’s difficult. I’ll hear music and I’ll be like, ‘look … I need this beat.’ Like, how we do all of these out-of-control records? We do the records in the studio. And he’ll be making new records because he’ll be like, ‘yeah, that was cool, but…’ And he’ll move on to something else. And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. This one. Give me this! I know what to do with this. You can stay in the studio and make records if that’s what you want to do. Let me go to Bangkok with this one.’ [Laughs] It’s a process for him, so you just kind of got to be patient with Detox and Dre’s records. But, I’m looking forward to it.