It's Time for a Change America.

I know it's been a while since you got a gem from the vault...but I'm reopening the doors so the treasures can flow.

Are there any voters out there? This presidential election is both exciting and scary. It's exciting to see two democratic candidates that feel very passionately about the issues they are supporting, but it's also scary to know that the nation could possibly vote another Republican into office. With so many problems that need to be addressed in the United States, there is a lot of talk about continued spending in the war on terror. These hundreds of billions of dollars and prescious lives that are at risk fighting a "threat" could possibly add relief to the millions of underpriveledged Americans who would use these funds to maintain a family environment in our own country.

It's time for a change, and I urge everyone reading to vote....voice your opinion.

There are many topics being discussed that directly affect the well-being of most lower to middle class Americans. Listen to what our presidential candidates intend to do to better our country and the welfare of everyone in our country. It is your job to educate yourself through any media available, to fight for what you believe in.

This country is at an economic low, and the only way to rise out of this deficit is to promote change. Given the opportunity, George W. Bush increased military spending, cut federal money to college students and proposed tax cuts for the upper class. What does this mean for you? Well if you're a middle class American, and you want to go to school, there is little to no federal grant money available, which means you would need to take out student loans to pay for school, or ask you rich Uncle Scrooge. This degree will hopefully land you in a career in your field where you will earn a moderate wage with atleast health benefits. After you graduate, you must begin to repay the $30,000 you borrowed to go to school, with additional interest. This will end up costing you significantly more than you borrowed, and will also raise a red flag on your credit report. This can prevent you from taking out home loans, auto loans, and many other sources of money that you may need to survive.

With the election coming up, the democratic candidates are fighting hard to level the playing field for advancing in society. Under the presidency of Barack Obama, every American will have the opportunity to get $4,000 a year towards tuition to a college or university, every American will have health care, and we will begin to see an end to the war against terror.

It's our country, as a people, and it's time we took it back.

Thanks for reading, comments are welcomed. Don't forget to vote!

Do you remember...

Good Afternoon Blogosphere....
As I brush the dust off of my broken-in Mr. Rogers sweater, take off my Air Force's and do a Michael Jackson spin and kick, I smile to myself listening to "Goodtimes" by Juelz Santana on his second album "From me to you". You can't help but to think about the good times you remember from your childhood, and even the not-so-good times that don't seem all that bad now. The song is now stuck in my head.

"I look around like where the good times at? I'm just tryin to bring the good times back..."

"Do you remember..."

Cross Colours jean outfits
Bucket Hats
Malcolm X hats and necklaces
Doc Martin boots
Starter Hats and Coats
High top fades
Pig tails
Fanny packs
Lunchboxes
Saturday Morning Cartoons
Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt combo with the Gun
Big Trouble in Little China
Michael Jordan playing
Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Million Dollar Man, Coco B. Ware, Jake the Snake and all the original wrestlers who made wrestling famous...
pagers...

Memories like those help me appreciate the '80's and '90's. Youth today have no idea about the "good times". Times are changing. They don't have the simple stuff like I did, they get the advanced technology germ. For instance...

reality shows
cell-phones (as early as 9 yrs old)
xbox 360
Fake wrestling
Violence
George Bush
Underage pregnancy
"No Snitching"
Trap stars
Diamonds....and zirconiums
pimps and hoes
34" rims

but.....atleast they get to Crank That!

I wouldn't trade in my childhood for any amount of money.


Any amount of money under 100 Bill-yen doll-ers....

BLACK PEOPLE RISE!!!!

These people are so adamant about rebuilding our culture I couldn't help but pass this along. These "def poets" are intriguing with their thoughts and views on our culture, and the way they express it is profound. If we, as a people, can understand that we are our own suppressers, and that we don't have to fit into this stereotype that society has given us. We as a people must rise above the negativity that is naturally associated with us in mainstream America. A few things that we can all do is:

1. Call each others brothers and sisters instead of niggas and bitches
2. Stop letting the "harsh realities" in our music guide our actions
3. Put the guns down
4. Support positive artists as well
5. Promote change within yourself, others will follow
6. Spread the message amongst your peers
7. Educate yourself, read more

Without further ado...check this out
http://www.kaseclosed.blogspot.com/

You Can't Tell Me Nothin...

What's up hip hop heads and the general public? I know you've been waitin a whole week to get another gem from the vault; good things are worth waiting for. Now I go to hip hop sites such as xxlmag.com, and allhiphop.com and the likes, and generally read the blogs that are posted on there as well. One thing that strikes me as interesting is the amount of hate the hip hop culture has to deal with. When I read these blogs on sites like xxlmag.com, they sometimes have insight, but it's the readers' comments that attract me more than the post itself. The posts are usually cliche' or fragmented opinions from the author that tend to highlight his/her arrogance/ignorance. These posts are nothing more than celebrity gossip complete with all the backwash that none of us want to digest, but somehow manage to consume it anyway.

Bol, a blogger for xxlmag.com has taken his title and position, and uses it for his own flurry of nonsense and customized vocabulary; not to mention the random barrage of attacks that are expelled daily upon the different cultures that culminate into hip hop. I personally read blogs on hip hop sites to see what others opinions are on certain topics, stay current, and to learn more through openly expressive views. Sadly and entertainingly, I find much more hate and comedy than I do insight and knowledge.

This all came in the wake of the Kanye and 50 battle...who will sell more records. As you all know, they both will release their third solo album on 9-11, and the hype that's surrounding the release date is "who's gonna sell more records?" Kanye, who has a political and vocal standpoint on current, relevant issues, represents the lesser of two evils. Everyone knows 50's M.O. - get money (drink VitaminWater). In the corporate world, this means dollar signs on the release date, but for the hip hop world this is a competition unlike any in recent times.

As this release date approaches, Kanye and 50 stans alike take their stance, not by encouraging others to support their favorite artist, but by downgrading the other artist. This form of hate in the hip hop community is a like a plague. What if 50 bought Kanye's album to help promote his music, and vice versa? Do you think their stans would follow suit? I do. But due to the competition that is involved, this will never happen. Kanye is the real people's champ based on his creativity, originality, and his passion, while 50 is the champ we love to hate. Kanye actually welcomes this competition and says for him it's not about the record sales, it' s about the fact that people are actually excited about music again. Amen to that.

With the bubblegum rap that is available now, these two releases should prove to be very good albums. Kanye is the proven artist, and both of his albums to me are classics. 50, on the other hand, is the most popular artist in hip hop today. With the decline of record sales and the incline in ringtones, artists like these two should set the bar for a "great album"

Remy on Rap City 7-18-07

Did any of you catch the drama hour on BET's Rap City yesterday??? Talk about drama, whoa! Remy Ma was in the building-Castle Hill Projects in the BX where she's from-kickin it with Q-45 and brought the pain. As you all know, Remy is a suspect in an attempted murder lawsuit against her friend, whom alleges Remy shot her twice this past Saturday. Remy was released on bail and was on Rap City Wednesday clearin up all the rumors (except the shooting). Apparently Fat Joe released her from her Terror Squad contract as long as she doesn't do any ventures associated with 50 or G-Unit. She aired Terror Squad out, basically saying Fat Joe is Terror Squad and that he was actin petty for adding the stipulations about who she can record with and what not adding "who else you don' t want me to record with? Jay-Z?" She also stated that she was a free agent looking for a new home and that she wouldn't entertain offers less than 1.5 million. With the little-to-no buzz she was garnering with her Shesus Khryst mixtape, and the pushback of her collaborative effort with Shawnna and Jacki-O, this little incident sent her buzz through the roof. This leads me to wonder, with Remy Ma gaining so much notoriety as of late, will you be checkin for her next album?.....say for instance, if it were on G-Unit Records?

No Homo...I think

With the addition of the phrase "no homo" the Diplomats are leading the way when it comes to trendsetters. whether it's Cam's pink passion, the whole chain-gang-rockstar mentality, or the "ballin" chant, Dipset mixes originality with their swagger to create their movement. I'm a bit confused however, as a dipset fan, why they say "no homo" so much, but still do homo things. For instance, I'm sure by now everyone has seen the youtube video of Cam in his draws responding to 50 Cent's comments. This can be viewed as homo. Any normal person would've thrown a pair of jeans on..atleast. But it doesn't stop there. Jim Jones apparently took a few weedcarriers and bodyguards on a vacation to Florida, and he makes his own I-just-woke-up-and-was-too-lazy-to-get-dressed youtube video that is nothing more than a sausage party out of town. Before the footage of Jim in his undies, he gets a close up of one of the fattest asses I've ever seen (pause for viewing pleasure) and then she gets in the van with him. The very next clip is Jim waking up to a grizzly bear rolling a joint, and the big booty vixen is nowhere in sight, but there is a room full of men. All of this to say, what's up with the Dips.

There have been a lot of questions as of late about their sexuality....so, what do you think?

Lemme get a Zebra sandwich....

Have any of you seen Man -vs- Wild on the Discovery channel? There's this guy named Bear Grylls, and he is reminiscent of the late Steve Irwin. The biggest difference between the two is Steve Irwin caught Crocs, and Bear...he takes on the wild. They are both highly educated on the wilderness, but Bear shows how to survive in the roughest conditions this world has to offer. He shows valuable insight on survival techniques, and how important knowledge of your surroundings are.

They drop him off in a random area for seven days and he must survive with what nature provides for him, which means he eats what he catches. This includes: snakes, maggots, fresh fish, fresh zebra, rabbit,a live frog, and pretty much anything else he can catch that won't kill him. This is borderline cannibalistic, but survival of the fittest.

The worst part of it all is probably the cameraman. He follows Bear on his journey, but he's allowed to eat regular food. So while Bear is eating Bear (no pun intended) and drinking creek water, the cameraman just finished a ham and turkey sandwich, a mountain dew, half a snicker bar, a bag of barbecue chips, a swiss cake roll...and an after lunch cigarette.

Atleast sometimes he cooks the meat first.

We Takin Over This Rap Ish...

What's good peoples??? To all my hip-hop fans out there I have some exciting news. There is a hip-hop fantasy league that was formed a while back and it's generating a nice buzz. The object of the game is to create a team consisting of 8 artists (6 rappers, 1 female MC, 1 R&B person) and the team that is in the headlines the most, songs get played the most, wins awards, etc. in a certain quarter wins a prize. It may not sound like much to some of you, but I'm sure there's a handful out there that can't wait to sign up. Registration is locked this quarter (7-1-07/9-30-07) and I didn't make it in time. If you send him an email, he'll let you know how to get registered next quarter. Peace.

Rules, regulations, questions, and signup can be found here:

http://www.dallaspenn.com/weblog

Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike...

"Cool it now, you better cool it down, ooooh watch out! You're gonna lose control". After watching an episode of Making the Band 4 (don't ask me why i was watching it) and seeing Michael Bivins as one of the talent scouts, it made me reminisce on the classic sound of New Edition. About 2 decades ago they were literally the ish. They were a group comprised of BBD (Ronnie Devoe, Ricky Bell, and Michael Bivins) Ralph Tresvant, Bobby Brown, and added Johnny Gill later on. They were the r&b supergroup of that era, and ultimately opened the doors for groups such as Jodeci, Boyz 2 Men, Troop, B2K, the list goes on and on. So I'm not the only guy that enjoyed hits like "If it isn't love", "Can you stand the rain" and "Cool it now", because apparently Diddy is combining individual male singers to form a modern-day "new edition". With the direction "hip-hop" is going, I can stand to hear some good soulful, mellow, rhythm and blues. Not only will this group sing, but they will also do the Kid 'n Play dance before every show. Now from the two episodes that I've seen, it looks like there are plenty talented soulful male singers. Diddy is on the prowl, with the help of Biv, Joe, and Diddy's "super" panel, we should have a new addition to the R&B charts after the season is over.

Dark Days for all Celebrities

Good morning people. Entertainment would not be what it is today without its cast of players. Whether they are actors, rappers, writers, directors, athletes, or models, celebrities make their mark in this world by displaying their talents. They invite us into aspects of their lives, and we want to know more about who are favorite celebrities are in real life. What makes their lives more interesting than ours? The fact that they put their lives on display. When you are nationally (sometimes worldwide) recognized, the price of fame is high. Privacy is an afterthought and the rest of the normal world wants to know all of your personal details. We want to know about the baby-mama drama, the fights, the arguments, the beefs.....but why don't we want to hear about the positive things that these celebrities are doing? Partly because the media thrives on negativity, but mostly because we crave it. Why don't we hear about Luda donating $2 million to charity? Is it because we don't care, or is it because the media doesn't think that it will get good enough ratings? The answer is both.


See, we as consumers would much rather hear that Jay is having problems with Beyonce because he got some video vixen pregnant 5 years ago and a paternity test (shoutout to Maury) proved that he is the father than to hear that he opened up a shelter in Brooklyn for homeless people. The truth is controversy, altercations, and sex sells. period. This could be the reason of the lackluster lyrics, and half-assed songs that make it into regular radio rotation. Do you think the reason we as consumers don't get the positive information as much as the negative is because we don't crave it as much, or because the media doesn't feed it to us? Let me know....