I've started a series of posts lately and couldn't complete any of them because they were all fractured thoughts. But I feel they are relevant thoughts, especially since I feel so passionately about them all. So, in no particular order of importance or chronology, and in a nod to Kanye West pissing the world off at the Grammy's this week, here are a few of the things I've been on lately:
The Fall of The Wu: It finally happened, even though I may be the last Wu-Tang Clan fan to admit it (probably not). With the December 2014 release of A Better Tomorrow, which I was uber late on listening to, the Iron Flag brothers showed their fans that 8 Diagrams wasn't an anomaly. It was a testament of things to come. The RZA has outgrown his brothers from Shaolin and Raekwon is no longer interested in being part of a dated collective if that means softening the identity of "the hardest group in the game". Ghostface just seems bored with the whole thing. Method Man seems engaged, if only to prove to himself that he can still spit like it's '94. GZA's subject matter and intellect seems to have transcended Earth, so much so that every line he spits on the album seems to have been steeped in scientific research like he's searching for the cure to what ails the Clan. Masta Killa and Inspectah Deck seemed to have peaked and U-God, although sounding more refreshed and refined than he has since his featured verses on the first Only Built for Cuban Linx album, is, well U-God. Cappadonna seemed oddly out of place. The only thing that seemed right about A Better Tomorrow was the places where RZA inserted voice clips of ODB. Those seemed to be as perfectly timed as the album was imperfect, which is quite a shame. I feel like the demise of the Wu could have been totally avoided, especially since they've recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of their landmark album Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers), if RZA had just stuck to the formulas that made the Clan iconic in the first place. So what if it sounded dated or came across as an attempt to recapture those glory days from back then? For the last hurrah, I think that would have been the perfect way to go out as a group that we will never, ever see the likes of again. But maybe that 20 year run was way too much to be sustained anyway and they just lucked up being able to do it. It just feels like they went out like Rocky did in Rocky V, a broken down shell of a once glorious fighter. Let's just hope that if they decide to right this wrong, they do as well as Sylvester Stallone did with Rocky Balboa, which was filmed as if Rocky V never happened. It really makes me wish the secret album that the Clan only released one copy of, Once Upon A Time in Shaolin which was said to be auctioned online, was available to the general public. I heard a clip of one song here ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/05/06/wu-tangs-secret-album-hear-51-seconds-of-once-upon-a-time-in-shaolin/) and that was better than the entire ABT album. Listen, I'll forever be a Wu-Tang fan, regardless if they never make anymore music together. I'm just hoping that they do, and that it is that Wu-Tang shit!!!!
Kobe Bryant a.k.a Grumpy Old Black Mamba: Only Kobe Bryant can make being stubborn and delusional so entertaining. I don't think anyone who loves or hates the way Kobe plays ever thought he could return from two severe leg injuries at his age and be very competitive. But we all loved watching him try. His insane shot selection along with his volume of shots this season has made an in his prime Allen Iverson look like a conservative shooter. Watching the likes of Byron Scott dare to challenge him was awesome, if only because we all knew Byron Scott knew he couldn't tell Kobe shit back when they played together, let alone now. Watching Kobe tell Jeremey Lin to "get the fuck out of the way, I got this" with the game tied at 86 all with 15 seconds left against the Denver Nuggets was classic. Watching Nick "Swaggy P" Young's reaction (*deadpan look* Really, mu'fucka? Really???) was awesome. Kobe missing the shot? Not so much. But when you've got a guy like Kobe (even an old broken down Kobe) on a Laker's team like they currently have assembled in Los Angeles, you don't have a choice. What, you expected the Black Mamba to go silently into the retirement night on a team he thinks he can beat all by himself? You live with that kid of theatre because the team is not winning, it isn't KB8's fault, you're paying him $24 mil per for this season and next AND you don't really know how much he's got left in that 'ol cloned Michael Jordan tank of his. So you let him Brett Farve the last two seasons of his illustrious career because you know he's going to do it anyway, regardless if it's in Laker's purple and gold or (gasp!) Knicks' cobalt and orange. And you'd hate for him to end up telling you "I told you so!" on national television playing for New York (or the Clippers).
Oscar Snubs: So Selma deserves more than a nomination for Best Song and Best Picture. David Oyelowo deserves a Best Actor nod for not just being MLK Jr. but for being that MLK Jr., the Selma, Alabama version. There isn't another character in the field that was recognized that represents what Martin Luther King, Jr. represented in and to this country. We're talking about recognizing that. We're not talking about winning the Oscar because the actual win is a popularity contest or a facsimile of a lifetime achievement award. To not even be nominated is more of a snub than not winning. I can make the same argument for the Best Director snub. Now, I'm not taking anything away from Bradley Cooper and his Best Actor nod. It just doesn't seem right when you've got an actor playing a soldier in a controversial role as an American sniper in a war regarded around the world as morally wrong get the consideration but an era crossing portrayal of the leader of the Civil Rights movement and the winner of a Nobel Peace Prize doesn't. Seems ass backwards to me, amongst other things. But whatever. I hope Michael Keaton wins for Birdman so we can see how ridiculous this shit really is.
The 2015 Grammys: Beck wasn't the only person whose win should've been questioned. I guess when your nominees are Wiz Khalifa, Schoolboy Q, Iggy Azalea Common, along with the kid from Community who raps now and an over the hill Slim Shady, you gotta go with Slim. I guess record sales drove that win because I was as underwhelmed by MM2 as I was by ABT. Common's Nobody Is Smiling was a solid effort and Schoolboy Q's Oxymoron was better than expected, at least by me. And Wiz wasn't winning anyway. I guess the people who determine these sort of things figured they couldn't screw Kendrick Lamar twice and give a phonograph to his lesser talented crewmate. So Marshall wins by default. But it tells me that the up and coming crop of top notch MC's better get used to watching their less talented peers or throwback relics win. Or the next gimmick single driven non-Black performer who wins by surprising the shit out of everyone by their marketing machine.
*in my extremely loud and annoying DJ Khaled voice* KANYE WEST!!!!!: Speaking of the Grammy's, I'm with 'Ye 24/7. I was last time when he cold dissed Taylor Swift (and subsequently launched her star into the stratosphere, she's welcome!) and I am with him semi-dissing Beck this year. I mean, frickin' Beck??? I remember Where It's At and it was a dope record...back in 1996!!!! Name Beck's last hit record. Go ahead, I'll wait. Can you name a song off of the album he just won Album of the Year for? No seriously, I'll wait, I literally have nothing better to do at this particular moment. You can't. You know why? BECAUSE NOBODY CAN!!! Beck probably can't and he showed how shocked he was by trying to get Mr. West to come back on stage after Kanye decided it wasn't worth it to give him the Taylor Swift treatment. Think about that. Everyone thinks it was a joke but Kanye, who loves shit like this, CHANGED HIS MIND. Beck's last album was in 2008 and I had to Wikipedia that to find out. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of music that I am not up on. I'm not really up on Sam Smith but I know he had one of the biggest hits this year, I actually know and like the song and if he could win 4 Grammy's (he did get best pop album) then I would have rather seen him win a fifth for Album of the Year than see Beck win. Or as a nice consolation prize, Beyonce'. At least one of them winning would have had merit and then Kanye could've done something else crazy that we all could have appreciated later.
And last but not least The New York Knicks: 'Melo. Shut it down. Go have the surgery on that gimpy old knee, go rehab with old man winter, Kobe-yahshi Maru, (get it, Trekkies?) and get ready for next season and the 2016 season. And forget about wining that ring. Unless you join your buddies J.R. and Shump in Cleveland or a West Coast team, the only rings you'll ever see are Phil Jackson's. If he hangs around long enough.
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