More old hip-hop commercials

Dr. Dre's St. Ides commercialSt. Ides radio spot featuring the WuBobby Brown Budweiser commercialNew Edition Coke commercialIce Cube for St. IdesKriss Kross commercialSnoop and Lee iaccoca for Chrysler

what is swag?

This one phrase has been killing me since people have started saying it. Everyone has "swag" now, you even have "swagger rappers" and "swagger jackers", yet I don't have a clear idea of what you all find swagger is. See to me there aren't but two or three people who have what I would consider swagger.That's the first man who comes to mind. I mean Puff isn't a rapper, he's a sort of entertainer,

Hip-Hop Marketing

Rappers and hip-hop celebrities today are huge cash cows. They hawk everything from pre-paid credit cards to soda, shoes, and snacks. For a long time however marketers didn't believe in the power of the urban pitchman. The first prominent pitchman was MC Hammer, just look at this old pepsi commercial:Lol @ "Proper".Here is Hammer hawking chicken:and who can forget hammer endorsing BK's.Man those

Finding My Lane

Now I have been perusing other hip-hop blogs recently to check out the competition and to share love when it is deserving. Most of the blogs I have seen have'nt seen as much original commentary and/or ideas that I would like.Seeing that and looking at some of my opinions/criticisms of hip-hop culture and music would leave people to see me as some sort of new-age hipster or overtly conscious type

Award Shows

It's funny, I wrote this post before the grammys and I know people are salivating over the "sweagger like us" performance because of the people who were in the performance and the lack of standards that perceive today's hip-hop fans have. But on tot he post.What happened to award shows? they used to be so hot, now they are afterthoughts. The last "BET" awards were hot garbage. The production

I am not alone...

Now sometimes when it comes to certain feelings about today's hip-hop I feel alone. I mean the young generation is taking over, fine. I feel bad because I wasn't able to pass down hip-hop history to anyone but my sister yet and she doesn't like most of the older stuff I force her to listen to. I can't wait until my son is old enough for me to really show him how this all got started.However, a

Speaking of female rappers

Here goes this chick again. I didn't know she was from the DC area cause I don't follow video hoes like that, but she is terrible. Following in the footsteps of Salt N pepa and Queen Latifah she is not. Once again I see someone making a mockery of hip-hop all for the love of money. Why can't she just get to the porn career and get it over with. Angie baby, no one wnats you to open ya mouth unless

Where did the women go?

Yooooooo, huge revelation here, not many women are doing it big in rap right now. I can't name anyone out who is a woman who actually raps. The last one with a single was who, Trina? That shit was lame for real. Just three years ago we had some promising new women with Shawnna, Remy, Jackie-O, and Jean Grae all getting a buzz. Then what happened? they have all basically disappeared except for

Hip-hop and Health, can Nore make a difference?

One of the biggest issues in the urban community is health. Especially amongst us black folks in the hood. Diabetes runs rampant as well as hypertension and other miscellaneous diseases. We are overweight, and unhealthy. Looking at things, can hip-hop make a difference? Can we be influenced by artists to take our bodies more seriously? I recently blogged about the loss of Big Pun due to his

Memorial For Big Pun

Now I feel bad. We always remember Biggie and Pac as hip-hop icons. It always seems like we miss out on and forget about Big Pun. I know Pac always gets thug love and the rumors of his imminent return from faking his death as well as the many verses he recorded to keep him in our thoughts. As for Biggie, well he just had a movie and there is always Puffy to remind us of B.I.G. .But who holds it

Just when you were cool with new beef...

You have Etta James throwing shots at Barack Obama and Beyonce, along with a willing crowd. I wonder who the hell was egging her on. Then some dude who was in a cheesy Lady luck video decides to snake ambush her and drop his own Youtube video getting on her. But the thing that tops it off comes from the mouth of Ne-yo.Now I don't really care about the fighting and all the other "homo" nonsense

Rhymefest doesn't like Charles Hamilton?

Why is Charles Hamilton the becoming the hipster version of Young Berg? No one is punching him...yet anyway. What is up with the beef now? I know it's been a way to promote yourself for years but right now it's just getting downright crazy. It must be the recession or something. We got Rick Ross and 50 Cent (my money is on 50), you got Charles Hamilton and Soulja Boy which is laughable, Joe

Letter to B.I.G.

Now this has to be the best Jadakiss song ever. I mean of all the songs and raps he has ever done. It shows what he can do when he is focused on something and actually making an attempt. I cannot understand who would put Jada in their top 5 off of what he has done but if he can ever manage to put out more material like this he could actually get to be there. Until then I guess its more raps about

My new favorite Hip-hop personality is....

Charlamagne tha God. Now here is a guy who has been producing for a minute. I remember a profile of him in Blaze magazine years back when we had three hip-hop magazines. You may or may not have seen my link to his post about Lil' Wayne,(read it here) but I agree with the way he writes, thinks, and speaks so far at least. So my eyes and ears perked up when I saw that he had called in to Shade 45

Jazmine Sullivan rocks

Look three songs and videos in and she has had a different feel on each one. I thought the album was cool but I have been told it is still a lot of the same type of generic r and b. However, I like this video and I have liked all three of her videos. Looks like a solid career so far.

Where did the Gritty go?

Back in 1994 there were many different hip-hop acts. Nas and Jay-z were hitting the scene as hustlers with ambition. Jay especially captured the mob mentality. Biggie and Craig Mack had ushered in Bad Boy with harsh lyrics and rawness smoothed over by Puffy's business savvy. Then you still had artists who didn't really fit one mold like Naughty by Nature. Hip-hop was at a cross-roads with one