....on whatever crosses my mind

Hip-Hop Dopeness: LL Cool J on Keith Murray's Incredible

Before Tupac and Lord Jamar, LL Cool J was the emcee I wanted to be like.  I went through a stupid number of cassette tapes of Bigger and Deffer before I finally got a CD and treated it like the Holy damn Grail.

As we all know, over time LL's attention was split and he fell off hard, releasing shitty album after shitty album.  But there was a brief period in the late 90s -- you know, around the time he was beefin wit Canibus -- when I thought LL was going to reassert his dominance and become the longest running great rapper alive.

This verse is one of the main reasons why:

I'm incredible I mix up shit like cake mix
Keep it blazin hot, rhymes burn to keep you frost bit
MC's is assed out cause they lost it
Peep my foundation, the way I reinforce it
I monitor movements precisely
Makin niggas hit high notes like the Isleys
Finally some asses I can touch up
Tie em to the grill of my Six pop the clutch up
Hush up I rush up, inside your cut
Make you puss up, then bust up, cause my shit bumps
This Don's Trumps, kill straight cats and all chumps
Cause "Life is like a box of chocolate," Mr. Gump
Uh, the ultimatum, lets abbreviate em
LL platinum again, don't you hate 'im?
A thin line between darkness and sunshine
Five Percenters that was raised on swine
Known to be wise, and you wise to understand
Bringin me drama's a handstand in quicksand
I've been hot so long, I'm immune
Your rap career get cut short like Poom-Pooms

Simply - economy of phrasing.  There are no extra words in this verse.  Every word hits hard.

I miss LL....*sigh*

Enjoy the crazy-ass video:

Crushin VII

Black is most certainly beautiful, people.

Lance Gross, ladies and gentleman.  More after the jump...

Quote of the Day - October 5, 2009

Roger Cohen's op-ed in today's issue of The New York Times, which dissects the fundamental different way that the U.S. and Europe view health care, is a beautiful, subtly persuasive bit of writing.

To wit:

One fundamental reason a public option — yes, “option,” not single-payer monopoly — is needed in the United States is to jump-start the idea that basic health care is a moral obligation rather than a financial opportunity.

And:

A public commitment to universal coverage is not character-sapping but character-affirming. Medicare did not make America less American. Individualism is more “rugged” when housed in a healthy body.

Indeed.

Quote of the Day - September 17, 2009

Taking on liberal and black cowardice on racism, Brotherpeacemaker drops profound:

The black community has lost the will to even control the conversation of racism. Racism is now defined by people like Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Beck who earn multi million dollar salaries by catering to people who belong to a political party void of any real racial inclusion.

Indeed.

On Politics and the Sorry State of Affairs (or, you know, the Democrats)

(x-posted at Forbes Avenue)

I've been having a hard time figuring out what to say about politics of late.

Part of it is that life gets in the way and a brotha ain't always got time to sit down and take stock of everything that is happening. And part of it is that I'm losing faith that we liberals always taking to the innanets is even effective.

But this was a big week, folks. Big education speech. Big health care speech. White folks still freakin' out about the fact that the president got some melanin. And one of the tried and true liberal visionaries lost his job, leaving Obama with pretty much no one on the Left with which to work.

Time to say something.

But what do I say that I haven't said already? I wrote a few months ago about my frustration with the Democrats? But I wanna take it a step further:

I do not believe there is a progressive movement in this country, which is why I think the Democrats are so ineffectual.

To wit: Brilliant reporting on how the Democrats fucked up health care from jump.

To wit: