I Bought Some Swag From Wal-Mart

Last night/this morning ya'll almost got another random 2AM YouTube vid. I was in WalMart last night picking some stuff up. I went in to get some Power Steering Fluid for my dear Claudine, deodorant, soap, cereal and orange juice. In case you're wondering, no, I did not fall victim to Wal-Martosis...although I did get a sausage biscuit from the in-store McDonalds.

Anyways, I usually buy the same simple unscented deodorant. It works great but I've noticed that it uses up pretty fast. I felt like trying something new so I went to the part of the aisle where they sell all that crazy ass deodorant that supposedly drives women wild or gets you a good ass job. You know, the ones with names like POLAR BLAST! ARTIC FREEZE! ELECTRIC BOOGALOO! (that last one don't really exist).

As I was looking I stumbled across one that said "Swagger."



Immediately, I laughed loud enough to make the other folks in the area turn their heads. Swagger shawty? I couldn't believe it. I could buy swagger now...in a bottle at that. Of course, I had no intention of buying it, too much comic relief. So I just grabbed a bar of POLAR BLAST...so I thought.

When I got home I went straight to sleep so I didn't take anything thing out of my bags. But when I woke up this morning to shower, I emptied my bags onto my bed and noticed that a bar of Swag came out.



Damn, I done effed around and bought some Swag by mistake. Damn.

I tell you this though, hahhaa...that shit smell kinda good, hahah. I mean I was 'bout ready to clown on the Swag deodorant, that's why I took pics of it with my camera phone. But I'll be damned if it don't smell good.

Ironically, a commercial for Swagger featuring LL Cool J just dropped on the net. I saw it for the first time this morning...after putting on my Swagger. I may have to stop using it though, I'm not absolutely sure I want to be like LL when I get his age. Nothing wrong with buddy...just, eh, not me.


[clip spotted at Nah Right]

Smoking With Ice Cube

The fellas over at The Smoking Section scored a 8:51 second interview with Ice Cube and I must say its better than some 2-page articles I've seen written on him. Video works wonders for journalism. I remember at my first gig it was common for them to want you to randomly interview someone for 8-10 minutes and build a story out of that, covers even. Yeah, it made me more effective in certain situations, but damn!

With video, you can skip past trying to paint a picture with your words and just get to it. All of the quotes are direct and need no attributions. Plus, it makes the viewer feel like you are sitting right there with the subject, which is what most writers try to accomplish anyway.

But yeah, peep the video as Cube speaks on how Bill Clinton's years in office helped dilute the power of rap music and why independent is the way to go.

Its So OLD In the D

It speaks for itself. D...whats up with your city brah?

Young Jeezy @ The Tabernacle

Shouts out to 5WPR and R.E. for getting a playa into the Young Jeezy show at The Tabernacle last night.

I know I'm guilty of taking little jabs at Jeezy here and there (who isn't) and never professed to being his biggest fan, but dude "puts on" one hell of a show. He's come a long way from the Trap Or Die days when a Jeezy show was pretty much a swordfight occupied by those illegal alphabet boys. But, when I saw dude last year for a show I was covering in North Carolina I had to give credit where credit was due. Dude has some hits!

In what seems to be the latest trend in Hip Hop shows (a good one at that) Jeezy came out with a live band donning black bandanas and those "My President Is Black" tshirts. They did their thing and really breathed new life into the songs that they did.


[vid courtesy of Bem Joiner]

But for some reason, even with all of that going on, the person I kept noticing on stage was this older guy who kept walking back and forth.



What he was doing, I have no clue, but by the end of the night, I just assumed that Jeezy now had his own version of Farnsworth Bentley. Except, this dude doesn't dance or hold Jeezy's umbrella. Instead, he pre-puffs his blunts, swirls his drinks and holds his sunglasses for him. Weird. But hey, like he said, its a Recession and people need work. Kudos for subtracting from the unemployment rate.

Halfway through the set though, I was getting kinda antsy. Dude was doing all of his "hits" he hadn't touched any of the Trap Or Die material. I could feel others feeling the same way when cats in the back (the "suburban" kids took up most of the space up front) started sucking their teeth and yelling "got damn, do some street shit, you bullshittin'." Seemingly right after that was said..."I'm the realest nigga in it..."



As you can see, during this part of the show Jeezy brought out Olympic Medalists Walter Dix and Angelo Taylor to show them "niggas" some love. Being as how Jeezy never called them cats by name, he probably had no clue who they were. He probably wasn't the only one. Seems like if your name wasn't Michael Phelps or you didn't play on the Basketball team, you were a nobody.



I had some more video of the show, but apparently my camera and computer don't want to get along right now (my bad R.E.). So I'm borrowing some footage from the homie Bem Joiner (you don't mind do ya brah?).





I also wanted to share some pics I took and get your feedback on them (Shannon that means you, haha).

Drake feat. Lil Wayne-"Ransom"

New track from Toronto MC and Young Money signee Drake featuring his new boss. Both guys have pretty good performances on the song, but, its Wayne who steals the show (its up to you to determine if that's a good or bad thing) when he literally spells out why he thinks he is the "best rapper alive." Webbie ain't got nothing on this one. Forget an Ozone Award, Wayne should win the Scripps National Spelling Bee after this verse.

I tried hooking this cat up with my nig Shondrae, not sure if they ever worked together. But the way this beat sounds...looks like somebody got inspired...a milli a milli a milli.

Drake feat. Lil Wayne-"Ransom"

Spotted @ Writer's Block Media

Blind Leading The...

You'll be surprised what you'll find out about reading the back of Marta buses. Usually, the only thing I find about is how to save money bailing family members out of jail...but today, while stuck in traffic, I read the back of a Marta bus and found out about what looks to be a dope exhibition.



Atlantic Station is playing host to Dialog In The Dark, an exhibition where you walk in complete darkness with a blind person leading you along the way to show what its like to live in their world. DITD was initially created for corporations hoping to strip their managers of their egos by showing them what its like to have to depend on others. The exhibition is making its first stop in the states at Atlantic Station right here in the A. It started last Sunday and will be going on until March 2009. I think I'ma check this out, maybe more than once.

The tickets are $25 each but they have discounts for seniors, students and veterans as well as group packages.

Boss Hogg Outlawz Is Jammin'

I get a gazillion CDs in the mail, on top of another gazillion getting handed to me daily...I can't say I look forward to hearing all of them. But one artist who rarely lets me down is Slim Thug and the Boss Hogg Outlawz. So when I wound up with this album yesterday, I was anxious to hear it. The last one that came out was pretty dope by and large even though it kinda trailed off at the end. But it was still good enough for me to be mad when a rental car I had tore the CD up. This new one Back By Blockular Demand: Serve & Collect II kinda does the same but overall this shit is jammin'.

I was kinda cautious at first though because over the last year or so, Slim Thugga was letting me down a little. He was still rapping over dope beats, but some of his flows and rhymes sounded very lazy. You could really tell that dude had absolutely no interest in doing anymore music for Interscope Records.

But after leaking that song with Devin and Dr. Dre a couple weeks ago and then dropping this album, I think I can say he's back on course. Anyways, I just wanted to share one of my favorite songs on the album with ya'll. Its called "Living Without" produced by Mr. Lee. My favorite quote in the song comes from Killa Kyleon when he says "im trying to get it to where my millions and my age match." Hell yeah.

Which brings me to another thing...can it be argued that BHO is one of the better crews in Southern Hip Hop right now? These dudes are making authentic Houston lifestyle/riding music. When it comes to crews affiliated with a nationally recognized artist, most times they aren't dope collectively. For the most part each one of the BHO's bring their own style and personality to the tracks. I know Killa Kyleon gets most of the attention outside of Slim Thug, but I really like this dude J-Dawg. I don't know why, but I find this dude very entertaining, he raps like he's talking. I really liked the solo song "Ride On 4s" he had on the last album:



"No destination...n*gga just ridin"

Then on the new album, he got this line on the first single "Ride Wit No Ceiling" when he said something like "my momma proud of me, I'm proud of me too!" It was the way he said it I guess.



But yeah, that's pretty much it, I know some of the readers here are Slim Thug fans so I was just putting yall up on some new new. The album came out yesterday, go cop if you can.