I would like to start this review with a bit of honesty – keeping it completely one hundred, as they say – I do not really understand the platform/content of the site I am about to review. Not all of it anyway. And more important, I don’t like some of it either. But what I do like, I love, and all of it is something that I appreciate and find refreshing. But I am getting ahead of myself, so let me start with the basics.

Creative Control is a website co-founded by music video directors Coodie and Chike, the creative minds behind Kanye West’s first video “Through the Wire” along with Erykah Badu’s controversial 2010 video “Window Seat.” The site is a part of the DD172’s portfolio, Damon Dash’s umbrella entertainment company.
The site itself is a network of sorts, consisting of music videos from independent artists-of-color along with online television shows and odd ends, videos that are neither music videos nor television show, but one-off content pieces that are distinctive regarding the subject. One considerably great find is a video showcasing a young Kanye West receiving a new Mercedes Benz jeep and asking the dealer about the Maybach before it hits the U.S. market. Irony is not dead. (For those of you completely out of the loop, he rides around in a deconstructed one with Jay-Z years later in the “Otis” music video off of the album, Watch the Throne.)
The site itself is visually disarming and beautiful. Occupied by mainly black and white video, the video stills are housed against a smooth white, expertly simplified visual interface making it easy to navigate and get lost in. The only thing more encompassing than the stills exhibited like a well-edited photo essay are the subjects that offer snippets of their life and art. Uniquely defiant, enthralling, young, extravagant in their presentation and openly experimental, the subjects are that new black. Or maybe that old black that hadn’t found its place in the stream of current culture or was escorted out of it? (You see Mobb Deep’s Prodigy promote his newest album in one of the Odds and Ends videos along with other familiar faces from the annals of hip hop and pop culture.)
What I love about the site is simple – it showcases black artists being artists. I don’t like some of the things on the site, because some of the work just does not appeal to me. But that is a taste issue. For example, there is a video with Chanel Iman titled “Chanel in Run a Way” that I find to be a limp attempt at art; reminiscent of a perfume commercial, pretty with low impact. I do love that it has a format where it can exist and I respect the bravery it takes to put it out there. But it isn’t really about anything, so I moved on next.
There are extreme highlights to the site as well. I stumbled onto the site after getting hooked on a series called “The Menthol Show,” which is co-produced by a friend. Hosted by Ren Jett, a graduate of FIT, the premise of the show is to have one assumed tastemaker introduce you to other tastemakers based in New York. Ren makes a natural and easy connection with each episode’s subject by starting off with the “Or” segment. “Or” serves in a place of a traditional teaser trailer, where Ren asks the subject to choose between two seemingly random things, such as Janet Jackson or Regina King. (She chooses Janet of course, but I have a soft spot for Regina because she is a brown actress that STAYS working.)
Another favorite is the “Gatekeepers,” which humanizes the men that sometimes won’t let you pass go at some of NYC’s hottest spots. Sam Sneed, and his friend The Chad, offer up hilarious stories and insights into the less than human condition of NYC party goers. Attractive and dapper, these men detail the serious dangers of their profession along with the human follies that come up when people dress to impress… and miss. In one show segment, they talk about women’s fashion faux pas and proper dress etiquette. In another video, they describe a man sniffing coke in the middle of a crowd and to be fair, scenes like that are what make living in a city – this city – great. The show is best when highlighting the crazy that exists on the sidewalks and pathways leading into the club. These stories, no matter how foul, make you want to be the gatekeepers.
And that is what I love about this site. Whether the content appeals to you or not, it compels you to invest more than a slight glance at the work being showcased (even if they only offer that much per video). You gorge on the views and appetites of each subject…perhaps envious of the artistically slanted and wonderfully rambunctious (you assume) lives that they must be leading; only to realize that there is no need. Not because their life and opinions are more beautiful than your own, but that they too are a work in progress.

Check it out: http://www.creativecontrol.tv/www/

Back to the original point of this article – I believe now is the era of the black video mixtape. Distribute to your homies!

First up is The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, a web series about an intelligent, witty, passive aggressive and self-described awkward girl that speaks my truth from the opening credits.

The series comedically articulates the inner monologue of a woman who is agonizingly meandering her way through her 20s, one painfully self-conscious moment after another. The show follows lead character, “J”, played by writer and director Issa Rae, as she endures some of the most fundamental aspects of any young adult’s lackluster life post-college. [SPOILER ALERT] My favorite episode is the fifth one, “The Dance,” where J attends the party of her at-work crush. The episode starts with her “bestie” at work needing to talk her into going to the party, and it ends with her crush kissing her at-work nemesis.

Now, I recognize the description may make the show seem cliché circa John Hughes, but what makes the series so good are J’s accurate internal observations. From her recognition of the competition among women layered into any party to her awkward grasps at interacting with people that she doesn’t know, this web-series is a comedy, but considering how accurately her insights zing home, it feels autobiographical (though I believe the biography is my own). The cinematography and production design is pretty basic, but from what I gather on her website, her work seems to be independent of any outside sponsors or donors. Also, as an independent comedy series on the web, the purpose of this show really isn’t about special effects or high-value visuals. The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl is about the thoughtful and frequently hilarious representation of a young black woman in the world… if you like that sort of thing. And if you don’t, check out the first episode when J writes violent rap lyrics to help her get over a break-up with an ex-boyfriend; that was just good TV.

There is a new episode every month. Check it out and let me know what you think.

*To all of our readers, please note that I make reference to both A.O. Scott and Manhola Dargis, the two chief movie critics for the New York Times, as if we were friends. I have never met either, but I know I will eventually and they will be damn pleased.

SHORT VERSION:
Sadly, Lupe’s mainstream crossover will succeed mainly because anything promoted at a certain level will; e.g. Rebecca Black. On top of that he is actually talented, so the flash-in-the-pan pitfalls should be beyond his team’s concerns. Additionally, he has a legion of fans who essentially have liitle-to-no other choice; not a lot of emcees of his caliber for this generation. So though Atlantic Records is bafflingly horrible at business; Lasers will not usher in a new movement of commercial appeal AND talent. Atlantic’s turn at the helm did not fail. In fact, even if it had tanked, the label would blame Lupe. Fortunately for them, short of complete career suicide, nothing he did on/after this release would have caused its demise. Evident in the fact that he, hereto, has been highly antagonistic of the album and the process through which it came to be, yet Lasers continues to succeed.
The opposition makes sense though, successful corporations don’t take a brand that built itself on quality and spend more money to cheapen that quality. Fail. Unfortunately, Atlantic won’t suffer the capitalist punishment of losing the return on a bad investment because all of Lupe and his team’s work from the previous albums and self-promotion leading up to the album that Lasers was originally intended to be is finally paying off. Nothing that can be done about that now; Lupe already kicked and pushed so now he’s just going to coast.

“If The Cool was a success, I was supposed to get a bump in the budget for my next record,” Fiasco said. “When I went in to cash in on that, I was told The Cool wasn’t a success. I said, ‘Well, how do you gauge that? Even if you leave off the multiple Grammys, the accolades up the ass, the platinum singles, take out the subjective stuff. How many records actually sold?’ They said it wasn’t a success and we’re changing the game, we don’t go by that anymore. So I said, ‘Let’s not have any more meetings until we figure out what rules we’re playing by.”

“I was specifically told” — Fiasco chuckled — “‘Don’t rap too deep on this record.’” He laughed some more. “That was a specific order from the top. ‘You’re rapping too fast or too slow, or it’s too complex.’ … There are consequences and combat that comes from that process and the eventual compromise. With me, though, I’m not writing about someone else. I’m writing about me. This is my life. It’s very personal for me. So for somebody to kind of put their fingers in that and play with that, it becomes more damaging. I am a hostage. I gave them what they wanted. If I didn’t, at the end of the day, the album wasn’t coming out.”

Tell ‘Em Why You Mad

I wish I could say that I was thrilled that Lasers debuted at #1. I am a huge fan of Lupe Fiasco (something I rarely say about other artists). I have always wanted an album of his to achieve this type of success for a long time. In fact, I wanted Lasers to have this success, until I dug a little deeper. I picked it up expecting the same quality Lupe of which I have become a fan over the past two albums, only to find… a distinct difference.

This album was noticeably… underwhelming; seemingly intentionally so. Aside from “All Black Everything” there were no memorable tracks. Seriously, I can’t remember the name of any other track from the album that I would say “you need to hear this” or even “you should check this track out.” These are the things a champion of good music emphatically pressures on to his peers as adolescents would a misdeed. It seemed as if the “I flatly refused, I ain’t dumb down nothing” Lupe of The Cool abandoned his stance. When the emcee previously known as Lupe Fiasco was taking it easy, he still gave you “Paris, Tokyo”. When he phoned it in, you still jammed to “Gold Watch”. So listening (as in, actually paying attention) to Lasers, a fan couldn’t help but ask “what gives?”

The word going around is that Atlantic Records strong-armed Lupe into making Lasers vastly more commercial. Our friends at ICantBeFamous.com asked, “Under what circumstance would Lupe ever do a song with Trey Songz?” Specifically, a song in which Trey could ever utter the disgustingly cookie-cutter “girl, I want you to [blank]” phrase. You may not see a problem with that, but keep mind that Lupe is the cat that built millions of followers on the foundation that he is NOT the mainstream cut-and-paste artist. He is the outsider with major support. He was (and when Atlantic stops meddling will again be) great. We finally had an inside man. A representative that could bring our ideals and culture to the table with the intellect, finesse and wordplay befitting a master emcee. Remember, this guy shot to fame for a song about a skateboarder. Then won a Grammy on the same album for a song about a robot project building. A ROBOT PROJECT BUILDING!! And Atlantic thought it was a good business move to alienate his audience and go commercial.

To reiterate, what really sucks about this album debuting at #1 is that the success it’s achieving is actually the result of Lupe’s (team’s) grind and all the credibility he (with his team) has built up over the last two albums, promotions, interviews and overall artistry.

I mean I COULD argue that he could have put out anything and it would have gone to #1 but unfortunately Atlantic DID just that. Lasers sounds like an amalgamation of “anything Lupe” or, even worse, their idea of what he should be doing. So now the executives there can say “See, we were right. Don’t question us again,” when, in theory, he could have released something more uniquely Lupe (“Shining Down” and “I’m Beamin’” included) for the same result.

Granted, it is likely Atlantic wouldn’t have released the album but a convenient leak would still bless the fans. Who knows? Maybe Lupe is planning on doing what many do; put out the real content on mixtapes and just acquiesce to label demands on the official releases. That’s what all these mixtapes are, right? That’s why so many exist, correct? They aren’t just a hustle to siphon every last dollar from their fans hungry for artistic sustanance, or am I wrong? Else what is the actual meaning?

Alas, the success of Lasers was inevitable. I’m just mad that the two songs I listen to most from the album… didn’t make the album. Atlantic Fail.

Okay, I think we are all familiar with G.O.O.D. Music… now add Mos Def!!
I’ll give you a minute to collect the pieces of your cranium and recompose yourself because, like mine, your head might have just exploded. Take a few seconds to look for gray matter.

If you don’t know why you should be hopeful for the future of music consider the following. The three current stars of G.O.O.D. Music are Common, Kanye West and John Legend.

We would like to thank a YouTube patron fond of reflection for the following phrase that sums up the signing:

“Mos Def just signed to G.O.O.D. Music? They’re starting to be something like Young Money, except the rappers on G.O.O.D. Music can actually rap.” © iceberggrebeci

Source:Mos Def signs to G.O.O.D. Music

“You know you done f*cked up, right?” When you can’t even get a cameo in a farce, you know you’ve gone too far. That means you’ve officially fallen off of the movie level. Oh, sure you have some straight-to-DVD drops coming in the next year or more, but you have definitely maxed out your A-list credit. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

We can’t even say you are a habitual line stepper, that would mean we grew accustomed to your outlandish behavior. From here, you might as well club baby seals, go whaling, become the Simon Cowell of a reality show, etc. Your comeback ante has just been upped to a daunting degree. Granted, I await what PR miracle your team cooks up for you to meander your way back into celebrity’s good graces but still you have major penance to make.

Maybe it was the gradual decline starting with Apocalypto. Maybe it was the anti-Semetic remarks. Maybe it was the male chauvinism. Maybe it was when you went Chris Brown on your jump off. Honestly, I’m not sure what the tipping point was, but you’re star-power needs some Viagra.

Actually, that might not be a bad idea. Be one of those middle-aged guys on the medical ads. Perhaps you should start smaller, take a cue from David Hasselhoff and make a YouTube video that is just embarrassingly lovable enough that America gives you a pass. Trust me, there is a LOT that we will let slide if you entertain us. Ask Kanye West fans.

Sincerely,

Misses Pre Crazy Mel

Source: Mel Gibson dropped from The Hangover sequel

I know a lot of words. Really, I do. I write; I read; words are sort of my thing. My favorite game is Quiddler. There is nothing I love more than Jeopardy‘s “Crossword Clues Q” (or J or X or…) category. Sometimes I pick up Macbeth and start re-reading it, just for fun.

And yet, the number of words I don’t know still seems as large and limitless as it did when I was three years old, and the only word I recognized when my mother would read The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover to me, was “strength.”

For instance, I have just finished reading Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen. This was an absolutely (as they say) whip-smart book, featuring a man who believes his wife has been replaced with a simulacrum, a cosmic conflict between the Royal Academy of Meteorology and the 49 Quantum Fathers, a quixotic quest, and a flawlessly executed unreliable first-person narration. Now up there with I, Lucifer, this novel has made it onto the short list of my favorite books. (Incidentally, I came across it, as I do so many of the best books, by randomly browsing the shelves of my local library.)

The point I am slowly meandering toward is that this novel—aside from provoking me into envying Rivka Galcehn‘s intelligence, command of language, and ability to produce an engaging plot—taught me a lot of new words (see below). And when I think back upon the countless number of books I have read over the course of my life, it frightens me to imagine how much less knowledgeable I would now be without having done so. What I’m saying is this: Please read.

Note: definitions gathered from Merriam-Webster, The Oxford English Dictionary, Dictionary.com, and Wikipedia

Dear Rappers,

1. How am I supposed to believe you are as rich as you say you are when you can’t afford a singer. Do-it-yourself projects never scream affluence. In fact the wealthiest people show off by doing as little for themselves as possible. Think Hakeem in Zamunda from Coming to America.

2. Auto-tune came and went so if u couldn’t do it then, what delusion are you espousing now? Why are you making that $3000 microphone sound like a drive thru order box? Hopefully you have the gift of gab because melody definitely illuded you.

3. There’s nothing gangster about singing. It directly contradicts the machismo rap boasts. Not only that, since you can’t actually hold a note you just sound even more emasculated. You might as well attempt your own back up dancing in your videos. Singing is a talent and a fine art. It requires the same finesse and care that a skilled lover would have but when you attempt to hold a note it seems, as Bruce Leroy would say, you ‘don’t even own a paintbrush.’

4. R&B is already a dying genre. So much so that I can’t even find a proper link to point to helping to define the style i’m talking about. Add on to that the rappers and weaker vocalists autotuning themselves and there is no room for a great voice. Essentially vocalists like Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, even Tank, Javier and Carl Thomas are regretfully a thing of the past. There are possibly two cats with the capacity to pull off a viable ballad and/or respectable vocal runs still heard in heavy rotation on the radio. (I’m stretching, it seems Trey Songz is the only cat even trying to carry the R&B flag still. Though some of us give him the Prince look at times.) Fortunately the soul singers don’t give much of a care about the spotlight, hence their promotion tactics (or lack thereof), so they’ll continue to mark their little niche. A small oasis for those who get tired of the mainstream to go hang out. As I’ve said before, Nas may have claimed Hip-Hop is dead, but really R&B kicked the bucket.

That said, aside from that lonely island of soul and the ever-increasing gentrification of R&B to manifest as pop music. There aren’t many places left for a R&B singer to do his/her thing. Maybe they should turn to rock music; the results could be interesting. I think I will go listen to some Jimi Hendrix and I feel a blues binge coming on.

I used to always think about how tragic it was that my generation never really had some revolutionary superstar martial artist that was featured on primetime television doing an interview on the philosophical aspects to martial arts.  Moreover, I would like to see something like that done on the topic of peace, tranquility, and Enlightenment as well.  I guess that’s why we document stuff and put it out on the web.  So people never really forget it.  Hell, to be perfectly honest I sometimes get jealous that we (the generation X’ers) didn’t get the opportunity to know what it felt like to even watch CBS news in entirely black and white.  Anyways, moving on.

I wrote a paper one time on an aspect or type of philosophy titled, “Existentialism”.  In it I tried to describe how an individual can overcome adversity simply by using the power of one’s mind.  The idea was simple, “to exist, persevere, and to never stop questioning.”  I feel like I’m supposed to cite that sentence to the left but I’m too lazy today.  Unfortunately, I feel like the father of existentialism Soren Kierkegaard never really answered the real questions of why obstacles are put in front of us.  He merely described them.  Martial arts on the other hand I feel answers those questions.  It does however not by training you how to fight, but rather training you how NOT to fight.  There is a mental application to the arts that I feel never really gets any credit.   What does this mean?!  Here is an example.  You’ll need a pen and pad for this experiment.

With your pen in your hand and your pad in front of you, take a long hard look at your surroundings.  Try and become the room around you.  Every infinitesimal grain of sand or dust, every bookshelf, the tree in the corner, try and memorize it all.  Now slowly close your eyes.  Breathe.  In….out….in…and out.  Try and ingrain into your mind all of the things you had seen.  Now with your pen and pad handy and your eyes still closed write a list of the things you had seen.  Write it all down.  Do this for about one solid minute because anything longer would be strange.

Now open your eyes.  Take a look at your settings.  Your list I’m sure is more comprehensive than mine but why are we not fascinated that despite its length, it’s just…not…enough.  What did you miss?  A whole lot I’m sure.  I know, you’re wondering Virtuoso, where are you going with this?  What does this have to do with martial arts?

The notepad and pen experiment shows us our fragility.  Putting it another way, our inability to fathom control.  You see the fact of the matter is no matter how hard we train or practice at something we never really get it right. That is of course until the very end, when we understand the value of nothingness vis a vie, death. That is the beauty behind living, there never really is a shortage of things to do but at times it can get extremely overbearing.  Your mind shows you that in any fight, the outcome will be how you think it should be.  This is important.

I mean….isn’t it amazing that we have options and potentials that are all around us.  In an ENDLESS sea of potentials we are truly and honestly limitless in our abilities.

I have to quote someone here to make my point.

“The brain processes 400 billion bits of information a second, but we’re only aware of 2000 of those.”  -Dr. Joseph Dispenza

I took that quote from two wonderful movies titled, What the Bleep Do We Know and Down the Rabbit Hole.  Both movies deal with the wonders of quantum mechanics.  Now imagine that, 400 billion bits.  400 billion pieces of information!  All that information floating around you, everyday, consistently without you even realizing it.   400 BILLION pieces of information.  The sheer fact that we are able to process 2000 isn’t just radical, it shows us that we border upon the abilities of gods.  With practice of course.  You see, like  a good intense workout the human destroys his or her’s muscle tissue in order to build larger and more powerful tissue.  The brain works the same way.

Everytime you close your eyes, everytime you need to get in your car and just drive to think, or not think, you are going through one of the most beneficial workouts of your entire life.  I believe the martial arts version of this comes in the form of meditation.  People tend to be really skeptical when you tell them stuff like this but after the world’s most intelligent human being Stephen Hawking alerted ABC News that he believed in aliens, I don’t think these ideas are too far-fetched.

What does the understanding of our limitations have to do with anything?  Besides the fact that it levels the playing field for us as a race it teaches us of our LIMITLESS potential.  The fact that we know means we can practice and get close to perfection.  It all comes down to choice.  It is important that I mention that the purpose to this article is not to have everyone jump out of their chairs and slap people around just because they KNOW they can or FEEL they can.  No, on the contrary the KNOWING should actually give you more of a reason not to.

What it SHOULD do however is make you feel more inclined to practice and work on not just your physical attributes and abilities but also your MENTAL ones as well.  Because one day you WILL want to close your eyes for a solid minute, open them and actually be able to write every single thing around you…in perfection.  Why?  Because it is only then when you have tasted sheer bliss.  It is only then when you can master control.  The Dalai Lama in his book Illuminating The Path To Englightenment illustrates on how exactly to do this.  Currently, I’m still trying to finish the book (100 pages in) but I should mention that it is an amazing read.  As a writer he touched on some fascinating research, particularly with regards to words.  Apparently, there was research done that said that those individuals who were prone to use the word “I” in any form of it had a greater risk of dying from heart disease.  It was as if only words of possession were our lifeline as Hominids on this planet.  Truly fascinating stuff.

Anyways, that’s all for now.

Casa Bey!!

The Mighty Mos Def rocks Japan, tours the country, catches a Sumo tournament, rides the Bullet Train, shops the freshest fashion boutiques and stops in at a Tokyo Giants game.

Watch Mos Def aka Flaco Bey aka Black Danté perform hits from his latest album The Ecstatic as well as jams from previous LPs. As well, listen as he issues commentary on Music, Japan, Fashion, Hip-Hop Culture, the Black experience, History, Performance, etc.