Here, again, are a few things that are spooling through my mind right now. After my last rant post, I have come to the conclusion that this is the only way to get a few of my points (opinions) across when they aren't worth much as a entire blog post, but still important enough to me to warrant that they MUST BE HEARD!!! (insert apology for text yelling here, lol!!!). Ok, ON WITH IT!!!
Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp A Butterfly and D'Angelo's 'Black Messiah' were AWESOME!!!: Yes, I know I am months and months behind weighing in on these two titan-esque artists dropping titan-esque albums but so many folks were blogging about these guys, I figured I'd wait until you got all bloggy-dreary eyed until I hit you I the face with my take. So, BOOM!, here it is:
Kendrick Lamar just showed all of those young cats pretending to be MC's what a real MC sounds like. The lack of lyricism in the Hip-Hop landscape as a whole is quite depressing and Lamar's offering came across as not just another good Hip-Hop album but a classic piece of art. After seeing his performance of the untitled track that I think everyone who heard the song hoped would be on the album, just so we could listen to it everyday and turn the phrase "WHAT DID THE BLACK MAN SAAAY?" into the new catchphrase of 2015, I realized Kendrick was on the path greatness. Not just Hip-Hop greatness, but greatness, period. While many recording artists often come back a little flat on their sophomore albums, King Kendrick took it up a notch and brought back some Cali funk to sprinkle over his conscious lyrics and impeccable delivery. Given what has transpired over the last two years in Black communities across the US, the thoughts conveyed on this album (with 'The Blacker the Berry' being the most revelatory track of these incidents, at least to me) were right in tune with the social climate we find ourselves in at the moment. This album was everything that has been missing from music for a few years and it may be the standard bearer for music for years to come, especially in Hip-Hop. I crown 'To Pimp A Butterfly' this generation's 'Illmatic' (seriously. No other artist of this generation's current crop of MC's has delivered as powerful a record as Kendrick did with his second album. Bring on the ensuing debate!!!!).
With 'Black Messiah', D'Angelo surprised all of us with a midnight online release of his third album. After keeping us waiting for just short of 15 years since the release of 'Voodoo', this highly anticipated did not disappoint. In fact, it reappointed the man, who we once felt would maybe never release another album, as the god of funk/ soul/ jazz/ blues/ Hip-Hop fusion. While 'Black Messiah' is a complete detachment of what 'Voodoo' was, it is nonetheless a powerful album from a even more powerful voice/ man. Yes, the years and life itself may have taken a toll on D'Angelo's once iconic vocals, but he more than makes up for that with his lyrical content and instrumentation. Riding with his band, the Vanguard (anybody who rolls with a group of cats called the Vanguard is the shit, hands down), D has added playing the guitar to his repertoire and the Vanguard backs him up impeccably. With The Roots drummer ?uestlove holding it down, you can't listen to 'Black Messiah' and feel like this is album is not the coming of a savior for us all. Ok, maybe you can. But if you do then I feel sorry for you. I can't help but feel sorry for you. And I will pray for your musical soul, in the hopes that you don't end up in musical hell listening to an endless loop of Michael Bolton's greatest hits. Or maybe that would be just what you deserve (insert evil, sinister laugh here).
SN: Is it me or does it sound like whatever creative teams were behind these two albums actually worked on both these albums? There is a very similar vibe to both offerings, refreshingly so...just sayin'....
This year's NBA Playoffs: Ok, anyone who thought the Atlanta Hawks were the real deal needs to seriously get help for their obvious substance abuse problem. Sure, they were the second best team in the NBA (60-22, 2nd only to the Golden State Warriors who compiled a 67-15 record, leaving them and Atlanta as the only 60 win teams I the league this season) but for God's sake, who on that team is a legitimate star? When your starting five gets named 'Player of the Month', that isn't an indicator of a superb team, it's an indicator of a glaring weakness. Beating The Brooklyn Nets in 6 games is worthy of a firm handshake. Beating the upstart Washington Wizards in a fairly close series showed a little bit of grit and grind. But getting swept by a hobbled and handicapped LeBron James led Cleveland Cavaliers team that had just gutted out a six games series against the Chicago Bulls? Losing the final elimination game by 30 points!!!??? Come oooonnnnn!!!!! Listen, LeBron has been just short of unstoppable in these playoffs, but the Hawks had a chance to show the league that they could hang with the big dogs and they laid a goose egg. The early NBA Finals predictions had Atlanta and Golden State in the championship round, which is crazy talk when you consider LeBron has led his teams to the Finals for the past four years and now is making his fifth Finals appearance. Even if the Cavs had crashed and burned early on in the playoffs, the Hawks still may have had to face the Bulls. Bulls vs. Hawks for a chance to go to the Finals? I'd pick the Bulls, even though Thibs would've been on the same hot seat he was on during the Bulls/ Cavs series. No way they would've lost to a Hawks team with not one legitimate star, not when they have Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Paul Gasol. No way, no how. Not to the Hawks. To beat a team with stars like James and Rose, you need another star to carry your team. James put the Cavs on his back after Kevin Love went down with that shoulder injury and after Kyrie's knee and ankle started giving him problems. He also is playing through his own injuries, not shooting too great but making guys like J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert (thanks, Phil!!! The Knicks gave you $60 million to deliver a championship and you may have delivered one all right, just to two Knicks instead of all 12-14 of them!!!) and TIMOFEY MOZGOV (another former Knick lost via the 'Melo trade) look like killers. James might not be better than Jordan, but if he's not, he is the closest one. The Hawks, obviously were never going to get to the Finals....
...BUT THE WARRIORS DID!!! And here is where I lose my shit...F*@K STEVE KERR!!!!! I don't say that because he spurned Phil and the Knicks for a better gig with the Warriors. I mean, that was a no-brainer. Ready made squad versus the Zen Master all in your shit? I'd challenge anybody to not make that choice, and that is why I'm not all on his nuts. Steve Kerr walked into a perfect situation. The Warriors were going to the Finals with Kerr or without him. Mark Jackson built this teams identity and they were primed and ready to take out the West's best before Steve "MJ Once Punched Me In The Face During Practice" Kerr got there. I doubt if the discord between Jackson and the Warriors front office would have played out like things did between Tom Thibodeau and the Bulls front office. I believe the offense did flow better under Kerr, but that was already growing under Jackson. The Warriors didn't have any growing pains transitioning to a new coach, which shows their was not a whole lot to change. Kerr played alongside the greatest player of all time (in Chicago with Michael Jordan), on the best team of all time (the 72-10, 1995-'96 Bulls) and alongside other greats on other teams (with Tim Duncan nd David Robinson in San Antonio) and under two of the greatest coaches of all time (Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich). I am sure all of that rubbed off on him and gave him the best nuggets of coaching intuition that maybe Mark Jackson didn't get during his playing career. Kerr knew what he had, knew that the machine wasn't broke so there really wasn't anything to fix and knew to get the hell out of the way and let the team that Mark Jackson grew just go out there and play ball. When a first year coach (Kerr has never coached on any level vs. David Blatt of Cleveland having coached and won championships in Europe) goes to the Finals straight out the gate, it isn't so much him as it is the team he is coaching. Sure, he had something to do with it. It's just that Mark Jackson had much more to do with it. MJax got screwed and Kerr reaped the benefits. Deep down inside, I know Steph Curry wants to win a championship for Mark Jackson. Here's to hoping that if the Dubs do beat the Cavs (and I am really hoping the Cavs can pull it out just so that I get a chance to say F*@K STEVE KERR, again), Steph and the Warriors figure out a way to personally thank Jackson because he really deserves a lions share of the coaching credit for that team. Steve Kerr should thank him, too.
The Chicago Bulls: Well, they sure know how to keep things interesting. After watching Tom Thibodeau hold together a ragtag group of scrappy players during the absences of Derrick Rose due to his injuries, they decide to part ways with the second winingest coach I team history. Their reason? They want to change "the culture" of the team. WTF??? Let's see, before Thibs got there, the culture was losing. It became a winning culture under him, even in the face of multiple serious injuries to its franchise player and core players like Joakim Noah. They did lay down in Game 6 against Cleveland, but maybe that was because they just ran out of gas. Tom Thibodeau is an old school coach and maybe he did play his guys too many minutes. But he knew how to win and the players accepted the tough practices and the long minutes because of that. Of course, there probably are other factors that led to Jerry "I Don't Care Who You Are" Reinsdorf and Gar "Jerry's Always Right" Forman's decision to fire Coach Thibs. But it reeked of bitterness and the statement they put out was just petty. Their collective attitude was consistent to what the Bulls front office executives have been since they broke up the Bulls in the late 90' by letting Phil Jackson walk. MJ retied and Pippen went on to Portland, all while Jerry and Co. spouted ridiculous edicts like "Players and coaches don't win championships, organizations do". Uhhh, maybe that's some team building crap, but you don't see suit and tie executives hitting three point shots, free throws, making game saving steals or blocking shots. Those are the players. They have to perform. The coaches have to manage players, matchups and make sure the team is prepared every game. The executives make the moves and sign the checks. Players win championships. 'Nuff said.
The New York Knicks: Well, I can't say that I really believed the Knicks would get one of the top two picks in the draft. Ok, I'm lying, I did think they would land in the top two but, in true Knicks fashion, they dropped out of the top three to the fourth pick. This just seems like a prelude to disaster. The Knicks, over the years, have blown worse picks than #4. It gets real murky after the #3 pick and the Knicks need a franchise altering player, or at least some decent trade bait. I am not as confident now as I was when the Knicks first hired Phil "Eleven Rings" Jackson because he hasn't made any good moves at all during his first season. Sure, he freed up significant cap space, but the Knicks were already going to have cap space. He shipped Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to Cleveland for pretty much nothing in return and now those guys are playing in the Finals. Early on in the season, he traded Tyson Chandler back to Dallas just to get rid of Raymond Felton. If you would have told me that this is how it would have all turned out after re-signing Carmelo Anthony, that he would have season ending knee surgery and sit out half of the season to watch his team be the worst in franchise history, I would have preferred Phil let Anthony walk in free agency. The Knicks will most likely NOT win a championship with Carmelo leading the team, and that is not a knock on him but a knock on time. He just turned 31 years old and has a balky knee. He plays in the Eastern Conference with a locked and loaded LeBron James led Cavs team that is only going to get better. As good a player as he is, he's a scorer and that's it. He needs a point guard that can get him the ball but can also create for others. He's not the leader type, so you need some vets that can play but also add leadership. And they need a better coach than Derrick Fisher. But since Phil is running the show and Phil is dead set on implementing some variation of the triangle offense into the Knicks system, Fisher is the guy. All of these factors play into pretty much a nightmare for Anthony and Knicks fans. With a gutted roster, the Knicks played without a lot of heart and Fisher sounded like a motivational speaker more than a coach throughout the season. And with the number four pick, it's going to take either a ton of luck that one of the top two falls to four or some wheeling and dealing by Phil Jackson to obtain some decent assets to put around Anthony. I just don't see either happening. Looks like it's going to be another long season at the Garden. At least Carmelo's getting paid well to languish in mediocrity for the last few years of his playing career.
And last but not least, LeBron James and the 2015 NBA Finals: To say that LeBron James winning his 3rd NBA championship is going to be a tough task is probably the biggest understatement of the year. Even with Kevin Love and a healthy Kyrie Irving, facing the Warriors was never going to be a formality on the Cavs' way to a ring. But you have to give them a bit more than a puncher's chance if for only this reason: LeBron has excelled even when he hasn't been at his best this postseason. His supporting cast may be the weakest he's played with since his first trip to the Finals with the Cavs but he's a better player and a better leader than he was then. He showed his ability to "rhino up" against the Bulls and Hawks when he noticed some clear advantages against those teams and we can expect more of the same against the Dubs. Yes, the Warriors can and will shoot the lights out and yes, LeBron's boys (i.e., Kyrie, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, hell, let's just say EVERYBODY!!!!) will have to step up big time and yes, even that might still not be good enough against the Splash Brothers and the rest of the Warriors. But we've seen King James reign supreme over nearly everybody in these playoffs. Not once did we see James not come through when the Cavs needed him to, and you know what else? The rest of the team didn't wilt under pressure when it counted. There are some major differences between the 2015 Finals LeBron James and the LeBron James' of Finals' past but the most notable ones are as follows: A) This is his team! In Miami, Bosh and Wade conceded alpha dog status to him only because his talents couldn't be denied and they both knew that with LeBron at the helm, they had the best chance to win. Ego's aside, LeBron led but they lost 2 out of 4 times in the Finals. B) LeBron is a much better leader than he was during his Miami years and especially better than he was during his first Cleveland run. I mentioned that earlier and it is worth mentioning again. LeBron really had some growing to do during his first stint with the Cavs and he did that when he went to Miami. Trying to get guys to buy in to letting you be the man is tough and he was able to get that done while winning two rings in South Beach. Now he's back in Cleveland with another chance to show why he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the G.O.A.T, Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Shaq said he'd pick Kobe over the King because he feels that LeBron doesn't have the same killer instincts as the Black Mamba. While Shaq, in theory, may be sort of right about that, LeBron's instincts may be slightly deadlier. Kobe in his prime could kill you with his will but LeBron, currently in his prime, can kill you with his basketball IQ, his deft passing, his deceptive footwork and, if all else fails, (*in my Stephen A. Smith voice*)YOUR OWN FEAR OF GETTING RUN OVER BY A FREIGHT TRAIN THE SIZE OF LEBRON JAMES!!! (see: Kyle Korver, Hawks series). And C) He's got a lot to play for. Cleveland, as a city, hasn't won a major championship in anything since the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship in 1965. That was so long ago, the championship game wasn't even called the Super Bowl yet. Trust me, LeBron will give everything he has and maybe even Anderson Varejao fully healed Achilles to win one for the city that once burned his jersey in effigy. Sure, the Warriors last won an NBA Championship in 1975 but the Warriors shocked everyone this season by being as good as they are. This is LeBron's 5th (FIF!) straight Finals appearance and he knows that the time for etching his legacy in the annals of NBA history is running out. Steph Curry and Co. can wait one more year. I'm going with LBJ and the Cavs in 7.
