Earthquakes and Hurricanes and Power Outages OH MY!

From lasts weeks 5.8 (some say 5.9) Earthquake, to this weeks "Hurricane" (Tropical Depression" and power outages. There have been a lot of disturbances in the force. Some people's power is still out over this wimpy storm. For a Category one storm, it sure left many without Energy, and caused lots of flooding in Vermont. The masses of people that filled the markets worried about being stuck in the house (because of rain??) didn't take in account that they wouldn't have power to refrigerate the stuff they were buying. Sales of generators went up as the rain came down and days went by and thousands were and still are out of power. I'm sure glad this want a Category 2 or higher storm. The whole city might have been pitch black. But this is the beginning of Hurricane season so until October its all fair game. Be Safe

Auntie Em Auntie Em It's a Twister

DRAG

The Next Three Days

This movie started off pretty good. Wife gets locked up forever for killing her boss, her husband concocts a plan to free her and move to somewhere safe. The planning of the escape was great. Everything was going well until the Police got involved. Movies & Television always make up these "Super Police" that are brilliant and know all and find out everything. The way they even started getting the ball rolling on knowing something was ridiculous. And the movie got more far fetched from there. I had high hopes from this movie, but it just went all the way down hill. And its LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! The first hour (yeah the first hour) is cool, the second hour...complete bullshit.

The Next Three Hours

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Baltimore Grand Prix

The sad thing is, Sheila Dixon as much as people didn't like her for whatever their reasons were brought a lot of business to the city. The Orange, Purple and Green shuttle buses that travel through the city are a hit and people are excited about The Baltimore Grand Prix. Unfortunately she got kicked out of office before she could see these things come to life. Anyway, crews have been working for over about 8 months on the streets downtown and they are still pretty horrible. They have even fixed some streets and have repave a lot of them over.
This race is supposed to draw a huge crowd and bring in big money. The course looks a little treacherous to me but I'm just a guy. The race is in about 2 weeks, bleachers are up, guard rails are up lets see what happens.

Start Your Engines

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BURIED

If you want to watch this guy suffer for an hour and a half boy is this the movie for you. This is one of thee most FUCKED UP FILM ENDING EVER. The movie gets a little boring because of the pitch black screen for long periods some times. The thing is your roped into, how is he going to survive. You are intrigued by the steps that he takes knowing that he is buried somewhere in Iraq. I thought the ending to The Mist was fucked up. This is WAYYYYYY MORE FUCKED UP. I'm not really endorsing watching this movie, but the ending is just sooooooo damn FUCKED UP!

Dig Dug -- Trust No One

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WATCH THE THRONE

Man I kinda remember when the talks started circulating that Jay and Ye were making a CD together. It seemed to happen pretty fast from inception to completion. Then the revealed marketing plan made retailers very upset and perked the interests of other music industry. I understand the retailers who feel like they are getting slighted by the deal but you have to look at it this way. EVERYTHING IS DIGITAL NOW! I understand that the digital copy being available on a separate day interrupts sales but there are lots of ppl that still want physical copies so Best Buy/Target/Wal-Mart chill out! Evolve and move on. Jay and Kanye avoided the album being leaked probably the first high profile rap album not to be leaked in about 10 years.

No Church In The Wild --- Frank Ocean delivers a killer hook and perfect opening for the CD. Jay-Z paints a vivid picture of chaos and death then the Dream auto tunes it up for a great bridge and Seal does some wild background vocals chanting. Kanye talks about misadventures with women, love and lust. (Great)

Lift Off --- I hated this song at first. It was too much Beyonce not enough Ye & HOV. Then it grew on me. Just knowing all the elements that make that song is pretty impressive. Q-Tip/The Neptunes/Beyonce. 5 4 3 2 we need fuel. (Production Quality makes this Great)

Niggas In Paris --- This has got to be a single. The energy on the record is just crazy! Jay kills it and Ye goes crazy. "You gotta crawl before you balllll." And the sampling of Jay saying "Ball so hard" within the song itself as the line is actually in his verse. That takes care and attention. If you make music you know that's a added little sparkle that you notice and say to yourself that was a genius moment. (Ultra Great)

Otis --- I still say the version where Funk Master Flex premiered on his show is the best. But Otis is a great song that keeps the energy moving and the bravado as well. Cataloging their achievements in their verses Jay and Ye have a lot of fun on this and it shows in the video as well. Plus, nobody has ever used that Otis Redding sample in that way before. (Great)

Gotta Have It --- Neptunes and others on the beat (that SYNTH is CRAZZZY) Jay and Ye's word play on this is just immaculate. The back and forth rapping is incredible. It's short and sweet. "Planking on a Million"!!!! (Awesome)

New Day ---- RZA on the production flipping a sample that he has flipped a thousand times but this one seems the most important. Ye spits real verses about if he had a child, the things he would shield the kid away from. He touches on losing his Mother, the "George Bush Hates Black People," thing and a little Amber Rose. Jay expresses to his unborn child values and morals and apologizes in advance for the life that the child would be born into. Very deep song. (Great)

That's My Bitch --- This sounds like an OutKast song. Laroux and Connie from Sneaky Sound System on the background vox!!!!! Which is awesome. The break beat in the song is so driving and energetic. Jay questions America's icons. "Why all the pretty Icon's always all White?" He throws in Halle Berry, Selma Hayek and Penelope Cruz for a discussion of beautiful woman. (Excellent)

Welcome To The Jungle --- SWIZZ on the beat! More Social commentary. Jay and Ye go back and forth trading bars about how things are messed up and how people cope. "Where the fuck is the press? Where the Fuck is the Pres? Either they know or don't care I'm fucking depressed." DEEP!! Jay kills this! (REAL SHIT)

Who Gon Stop Me --- More social commentary mixed with bravado. Beat is CRAZY RIDICULOUS. "This is something like the Holocaust, millions of our ppl lost." Then the beat changes and Jay goes nuts! (Incredible)

Murder To Excellence --- Great Song! MORE SOCIAL COMMENTARY! This song details the countless deaths that occur in America. More so black on black crime. Kanye makes a numerical stat that states more ppl died in Chicago than US soldiers in Iraq. The crazy thing is if White people were dying/killing each other at the rate that black ppl do everything would change within a matter of 2 to 3 years. This is actually two songs Murder and Excellence. On Excellence the 2 display the greatness that can come from the people that make it out of these situations and go on to make great success. (Beyond Great)

Made In America --- This reminds me of a beat that I would make and nobody would rap to and look and me crazy. And the crazy thing is Ye has a few lines that basically say he rapped over his beats that people were supposed to buy. Thus making hits to his music that other people were supposed to have. Frank Ocean doesn't do it for me on this one. The "Sweet Baby Jesus" part is too funny! I don't know how he did this without cracking up. This might sound audibly like a misstep on the album be its a guaranteed hit and probably we be a single. Although Frank's runs (when he is singing none words) are pretty good. (HIT)

Why I Love You --- I thought Mr. Hudson was a sample. That's what I'm saying though to the attention to detail they put in this album. It really is a musical masterpiece. This is basically Jay addressing everyone that has taken shots at him from the old ROC days. Ye and Jay trade a few bars on this one too. (Put together Well)

Illest MF'er Alive --- SYNTH IS CRAZY! Kanye goes in on this. This one is all about balling out of control. Bragging on accomplishments. Nothing wrong with that! "The ROC is in the building you shoulda stayed in the house." "This is what the ending of Scarface should feel like." I agree I never liked Scarface. It was too bullshit for me. Them Indian ppl would been chopped Tony's ass up in that bathroom and the movie woulda been over. Plus the movie was too damn long and the first 40 minutes of the movie was like a documentary on immigrants. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! Plus he got shot the fuck to pieces . No Thanks! (DOPE)

H.A.M. --- This was the first indication that these two were putting out a collaborative effort. Bottom line Ye shouldn't rap fast. Jay kills this. Ye says some stuff but Jay kills it. But! The extras that Ye adds at the end are amazing. The choir!! Oh man. Just great. (Museum Quality)

Primetime --- If No I.D. isn't in your top ten for producers you suck! This is currently my favorite beat on the album. This is just a crazy. I wasn't that excited with this song at first, but it grew on me. It just has that rap from the essence feel to it. (Classic)

The Joy --- Pete Rock kills the beat. This actually sounds like something from Kanye's second album. Jay talks about growing up in Brooklyn and Ye is talking about h ow some black ppl name their kids and other black related things such as Egyptians and what have you. (Boom Bap)

To me this is definitely ALBUM OF THE YEAR. I don't even remember what else came out this year rap wise. It has as much bravado as it does social commentary. I love that no one else is rapping on the album only these two. Great! This album is about Black excellence, opulence, greatness, sorrow, over coming the odds, loss and gain. Some people love it, some people don't. Some people plain just don't get it. To me it seems like some people just don't want to like this album for whatever crazy reason they can think up. It's the only album I have been playing for a week! And that is saying a lot coming from me. And the art work is by Givenchy. High quality, high class. The bar has been raised.

I Invented Swag

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I Am Hip Hop presents - Fly Unversity

Darryl McCreedy aka D-Lo runs the site IAMHIPHOP.com he recently put together a mixtape entitled Fly University. The mixtape features music from Lenwood, Street Scott, Rickie Jacobs, Ase, Hunnit Proof, Skarr Akbar and more. Oh and I'm on it a few times.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

Masters Degree

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Planet of The Apes (Saga)

Parts in yellow are parts that are linked to the other films or A Bathing Ape/Bape references.


This past weekend I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes (I'll get to that in a second) and it made me want to check out the original 1968 version. Upon downloading the original I found that there were several sequels. I watched Planet of the Apes, Beneath The Planet of the Apes, Escape From The Planet of the Apes and Conquest of The Planet of The Apes. I still have one more to watch Battle for the Planet of the Apes. The movies alone by today's standards are pretty laughable. The costumes were pretty good and the music is cool.

Planet of the Apes --- This starts off with Charlton Heston's character Taylor navigating a ship in space preparing for hyper sleep and a return to Earth. They say that they were gone 6 months their time but 700 years our Earth Time. When they land they discover that they have actually been gone 2000 years and one of the crew mates (the woman) died in hyper sleep. Upon exploring this seemingly strange new planet ( I still don't understand why they didn't think they were on Earth. They could breath the air, the sky was blue regular clouds etc.) They run across primitive humans and then get captured by Apes on horses. Interestingly enough the black guy gets killed, and later the other guy gets his brain meat cut out. Taylor was shot in the throat in the field chase and was not able to talk for a few days. The first word he shouted was "NO," when they tried to hurt his new cave girl friend Nova. Taylor is befriended by two scientist Apes Zira and Cornelius. He is then set free and learns that he was on Earth thee whole time.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes --- In this sequel a space crew is sent out to find Taylor's group on a rescue mission of sorts. It was only two of them and the one guy died as soon as they landed. The main guys name is Brent (which is very odd for the charcters to be named Brent and Taylor in these movies it really bugged me out). Brent acts just like Taylor its like the same movie as the original for a while. Taylor gets lost in a way and Nova is just kinda roaming around on this damn horse when Brent finds her. He tells her to take him to Taylor but since she is like thee dumbest person of all time she takes him back to the Ape village. Insert Zira and Cornelius... insert rescue. Now this is where the movie takes a turn. Brent learns that under the village in the "Forbidden Zone" are the ruins of New York City. He has his moment of "what has the world I know come to" blah blah. He then follows this weird humming noise and discovers a race of Super Humans with telepathic (pathetic) powers. They are a defenseless people but they have a huge Doomsday Atomic Bomb that they pray too. (Yeah this one gets wacky) The problem with this part is that they have telepathic powers and can make you see visions but they didn't use them on the Apes??? Plus the Apes found where they were very easily and based on no information. Taylor and Brent finally meet up in a cell in the Super Humans quarters. They are made to fight each other but they manage to get out of that situation. Unfortunately Nova dies during this part I think she managed to mumble something before she died. *Shrug* So the Apes are pillaging the Super (dumb) Humans lair and the leader is about to fire off the Doomsday missile. He gets shot. Brent gets shot to hell and Taylor gets blasted too. Upon his last breath Taylor pushes the button to release the Bomb thus destroying the entire Planet. Which then becomes ironic by the way the first one ended and Taylor thinking that we (humans) ruined the planet, b/c now sir you have blown it to shit. Also the styling of the General Gorilla's uniform is used again in the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes. And the General Gorilla says the line "Ape Shall Never Kill Ape" that is used in A Bathing Ape t-shirt designs.

Escape From The Planet of the Apes --- Zira, Cornelius and Milo escape the Planet in what seemed to be the ship that Taylor used to get there. They follow his flight pattern back and they end up in 1973. They are apprehended by the military and taken to the Zoo. There they are put through tests and the base for the Ape house keeper character in Rise of the Planet of the Apes is seen antagonizing them while in there Cages. Milo was killed by a Gorilla in the cell next to them. When they were found to be harmless and intelligent they were put in front of a hearing for press and the world to ask them questions. When questioned what happened to the original humans Zira says a virus wiped us out. After the world sees that they are harmless and intelligent they become celebrities. (this ones kinda wacky). They say they escaped the planet because the Gorillas and Orangutangs were at war. Which was a lie b/c the Humans and Gorillas were at war. They said that they saw a bright flash and that the world was destroyed. Which was the effect of Taylor pressing the button for the Doomsday Bomb. Turns out Zira is pregnant and the bad guy in this one Dr. such and such says he wants the child killed and the parents too. For fear that they will one day rule this world knowing that 2000 years in the future they come to rule the Earth. The President says that the parents should live be the child should not. Insert chase scene. Zira names the baby Milo....which is wear Bape gets Baby Milo. She throws a fake baby in the water and both of them are killed.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes --- in this we find that Baby Milo has been saved by Ricardo Montalban and renamed Caesar. The setting is 1991. A virus kills all the worlds pet type creatures so humans use apes as the new pets, because they are so smart as they learned from Zira and Cornelius 20 years ago. The thing is humans started using the apes as slaves. Training them to be waiters, janitors and lowly workers. Caesar gets separated from Ricardo. Ricardo then gets questioned by the government about him knowing the whereabouts of the "talking ape." He passes one test then refuses to take another and jumps out of the window for some reason. Caesar left alone to fend for himself gets bought by the Governor. He is sort of befriended by the Governors assistant and is helped to be freed. Caesar puts together an army of Ape slaves to over throw the human captors thus giving you how the Planet became ruled by Apes.

Battle For the Planet of the Apes ---- DIDN'T WATCH IT YET

Rise of the Planet of the Apes --- James Franco stars as a scientist that thinks that he has discover the cure for Alzheimer's. And as with most things we test this drug on animals, Apes in specific. During a sort of show and tell session the Ape named Bright Eyes (which is what Zira called Taylor) flipped the hell out and was killed. Turns out she was just trying to protect her baby. The program is shut down and Franco takes the baby Ape named Caesar. He cares for Caesar and he becomes part of the family and grows smarter and smarter. Franco gives the drug to his father who then gets better. After learning that the human body starts to fight the drug and that his father condition worsens Franco makes another version of the drug. Caesar gets into an altercation with the neighbor and is court ordered to be placed in a Ape Shelter. After Caesar feels abandoned (Franco didn't really do a good job of acting like he wanted him when he bribed the dude to release him) he settles in and stages a revolt. He steals more of the drug from the lab and exposes the other Apes to it. Somewhere in here Caesar yells "No" as his first words to the shelter keeper guy. Somewhere in between they make sure they let you know that a Space Shuttle was launched for a deep space program, hopefully for a (good) Planet of the Apes remake. Eventually Caesar and his new friends end up in the woods of Southern California where he tells Franco that he "is home." The drug that was developed turns out to be deadly to humans thus wiping us all off the planet!

I think these movies tie in very well with the new one. I like how they took parts from each film and incorporated it in the prequel. The space exploration, time factors and virus concepts are all very interesting. The idea that the two Apes that had compassion and helped a stranded astronaut and that astronaut destroyed their Planet and then their baby basically destroyed ours is pretty fucking DEEP if you ask me. Had the President listened to the Dr. in Escape ... and killed the baby the planet would still be run by humans. Had Taylor would have died the Gorillas would have never searched the "Forbidden Zone" and the Earth as a whole would still be in existence. There are many if's and then's to this story and that's what I enjoy. I like how linear it is as well. Unlike Star Trek or Star Wars' Sagas this is just about Apes and Humans nothing more. And for films that were made from 1968 - 1973 they aren't that bad production wise.

Damn Dirty Ape

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Fast Five

I have never seen any of the Fast and The Furious films so maybe starting at the end wasn't a good idea. This movie was crazy over the top and did things that real cars could never ever do. BUT I'll be damned if this wasn't a hell of an entertaining movie. The fight scene between The Rock and Vin Diesel was great. All the characters were cool (not as cool as the Ocean's 11 group though). And it was just plain entertaining. If you're looking for movies that make sense this isn't for you. If you're looking for action this is definitely you're film.

Reggaton

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