GREATEST VIDEO OF ALL TIME!! part ONE

As a film director, on of my most frequently asked question I get from folks is:

What's your most favorite music video of all time?? The answer is...ALL OF MINE!! LOL!! Just playin'...not really...

But nahhh...truthfully, there are several music videos that I would say are my FAVORITE. That's right...SEVERAL. I think music videos is such a fascinating form of visual arts because:

Number One: I LOVE MUSIC!!

Number Two: I LOVE FILM and PHOTOGRAPHY!!

Put 'em together and what do you have?? That's Right...Music Videos...
I also have a great love for Motion Pictures (that's the ultimate goal). but i KNOW that a movie is NOT a movie without its score and soundtrack. Try watching a horror flick with the sound on mute...it's not scarry at all.

Anyway...I don't mean to ramble so much, BUT I'll leave you with one of the Greatest Videos Of All Time.

The group is Public Enemy and the song is "Night Of The Living Baseheads". The year is '89 and the epidemic of crack cocaine was reaching its zenith. Of course this vid had a good message, but foremost, i applaud it for it's creativity and originality. THEY HAD A FUCKIN' COMMERCIAL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE VIDEO for cryin' out loud!! Nobody dares to do such a thing nowadays...

Anyhow...without futher ado...here's P.E. "Night of the Living Baseheads"



Public Enemy - Night of the Living Baseheads

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BAMMM
And you say, Goddamn
This is the dope jam
But lets define the term called dope
And you think it mean funky now, no
Here is a true tale
Of the ones that deal
Are the ones that fail
Yeah
You can move if you wanna move
What it prove
It's here like the groove
The problem is this - we gotta' fix it
Check out the justice - and how they run it
Sellin', smellin'
Sniffin', riffin'
And brothers try to get swift an'
Sell to their own, rob a home
While some shrivel to bone
Like comatose walkin' around
Please don't confuse this with the sound
I'm talking about...BASS

I put this together to...
Rock the bells of those that
Boost the dose
Of lack a lack
And those that sell to Black
Shame on a brother when he dealin'
The same block where my 98 be wheelin'
And everybody know
Another kilo
From a corner from a brother to keep another -
Below
Stop illin' and killin'
Stop grillin'
Yo, black, yo (we are willin')
4, 5 o'clock in the mornin'
Wait a minute y'all
The fiends are fiendin'
Day to day they say no other way
This stuff...
Is really bad
I'm talkin' 'bout...BASS

Yo, listen
I see it on their faces
(First come first serve basis)
Standin' in line
Checkin' the time
Homeboys playin' the curb
The same ones that used to do herb
Now they're gone
Passin' it on
Poison attack - the Black word bond
Daddy-O
Once said to me
He knew a brother who stayed all day in his jeep
And at night he went to sleep
And in the mornin' all he had was
The sneakers on his feet
The culprit used to jam and rock the mike, yo
He stripped the jeep to fill his pipe
And wander around to find a place
Where they rocked to a different kind of...BASS


I just wanted to put the lyrics in there to let y'all see how drugs have REALLY ripped at the core of our community. The shyt that Chuck D spit back in '88-'89 STILL has a grasp on society.

I can go on and on about how the law is set up to crash down on the nigga in the hood hustling as oppose to the muafuckas who's getting the shyt in...but that's an other post.

Either They Don't Know...Don't Show...

"or don't care about what goes on in the hood" - Doughboy (1991).

On February 5th, 2008, I received a shocking reality check. We were on the tech scout for our music video, Shawty Lo's "Dunn Dunn", and one of the locations was off of Simpson Rd.. For those not familiar, Simpson Rd. and the rest of this west side Atlanta community is infamous for low poverty living, drug-infestation, and poor living conditions.



The location was AMAZING (Visually)...being that it matched the hardcore look we were going for. However, I had no idea that people actually LIVE there. It looks like condemned apartments that are just waiting for a bulldozer to come through and tear it down. So imagine my disbelief when I seen a little girl who was maybe 6 years old coming home from school dragging her backpack through the pissy terrain smitten with empty liquor bottles, trashed food, and used condom wrappers. The shyt is sick.

The imagery really left an impression on me so I went back yesterday just to chop it up with the people who were still living there. I talked to a young woman who is raising her 12 year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. She told me that basically, they've been left to rot there. Some of the units are still occupied because they have no place to go. Meanwhile, the furnaces and water heaters have been ripped out of other units causing flooding in some of the apartments. And I do mean FLOODING!! And the water is constantly running. It makes me think about all this talk that's been going on about this drought that we're having and they have water constantly flowing over here and no one from the City of Atlanta is doing shyt about it.



She also told me that the city's sanitary workers haven't picked up the trash in almost four months. FOUR. FREAKIN'. MONTHS. Wow!! I don't know about y'all, but I can easily fill up a few trash bags within a week's time before the garbage man comes to get it. Can you imagine living in an area where you have trash from an entire complex that hasn't been picked up in 16 weeks??

The woman did tell me that they will be tearing the place down in the months to come...thus leaving these people with no where to go. And just keep in mind, it's not just adults living here, but KIDS also. It seems like Katrina in Atlanta and the government isn't doing a damn thing about it because it's not affecting the more affluent Atlantans.

Anyway, I just felt the need to say something and share that...here are some more photos I took while I was there:



In the railing above, you can see that some of the wooden posts are missing, making it VERY easy for a small child to fall through...*smh*



No place for children to be playing at...



Flooded Apartments...



And please believe that places like this exist all over the country...
Are you willing to do anything about it??

Tricks Up, Pimps Down??

It seems like just yesterday.



I had just left school on a chilly November afternoon. It's 1993. I remember vividly the brisk Detroit wind shaking my hooptie as I drove down the freeway. I was a senior in high school so as usual, I couldn't wait to get as far as I could away from that eight-story prison called Cass Technical High School. On a typical day, I would head straight home so I can change clothes and go to work. But this was no typical day.

I was FEENIN''. I mean, like, Really Jonesin'. So I was on a mission to get to Damon's Record Center, who was my reliable supplier whenever I needed my frequent fix for dope lyrics and intoxicating beats. I just wanted to get hiiiigggghhhhh.... Keep in mind, this was 15 years ago when the shyt we used to intake into our ears was much more potent than the watered-down shyt they sell on the streets nowadays.

Long story short...

I got there...got my shyt...and raced to the car so I can take a hit. I ripped off the packaging and popped the tape into the deck. I just sat there in the parking lot soaking it in. It was DOPE!! It was Snoop Doggy Dogg's (before he dropped the 'Doggy') first tape - "DoggyStyle".



When I got home, I locked myself in my room and indulged.

Snoop's lazy yet acrobatic drawl was the perfect match to Dre's rhythmic symphonies. The lyrics were raw and crass, unapologetic to a degree where it was almost a fault. I really knew that when Snoop said, "I don't love dem hoes," he really meant it. I can't fault him for that. Even though the infamous way he exclaimed "Be-yotch!!" was derived from the great poet Too Short, it just seemed so much cooler when Snoop said it.

This was an era in rap music where it was cool to be a pimp. No Doubt. This post is not about the many morality issues surrounding pimps, hoes, squares, and tricks, but moreso a question to the young brothers who were supposedly influenced by these iconic hip hop tunes that some classify as "Gangster Rap". WHEN DID IT BECOME COOL TO BE A FUCKIN' TRICK????

I ask this question with a great deal of sincerity and seriousness because I really don't understand. I don't know, maybe I'm stuck in a different era, but I didn't think we were suppose to love these hoes. Remember Big Daddy Kane and Nice & Smooth's "Pimpin' Ain't Easy"? Ice-Cube's "I Ain't The 1"?? Geto Boys' "Gangster Of Love"??? Hello...Anyone???? Not once in any of these songs did niggas make it rain on dem hoes!! Why is it so "cool" nowadays to throw money in the air and watch it fall on broads' heads and then to the floor? No matter how you look at it, THAT'S TRICKIN'!!

You say, "It ain't trickin' if you got it." I say, BULLSHYT!! Regardless of how much you have, if you trick off your money, you's a fuckin' trick, TRICK!! Case close.

What's the deal with young folks these days? They're makin' songs about buying broads drinks, being in love with strippers, even lacing bitches up with jewlery, clothes, and all types of Burken bags and shyt. What The Fuck!?!? A Birkin bag is like 12K. If you spending that much, it's obvious you love the hoe. When does the simpin' cease? You're sending all types of mixed messages to the youth by saying that you're a pimp or mack or you're swagger is so undenible, the girls just flock to you. No Nigga...their flocking to you cause you're a trick ass nigga throwin' money in the air. It's not your swag, homie. Sorry.

The music I was raised on taught me that you suppose to spit game to a girl and get her with your mouthpiece. And in reality, any decent woman worth talking to should like you for YOU and not your net worth anyway.

Let's cut to the chase. C'mon dog, be real...you're spending money and making it rain cause you want to hit it OR you're an attention whore yourself. That's it. If that's what you're doing, hey, to each his own, but don't deny the fact that you're a trick. Bottom line is, you's a trick, she's a hoe (if she's fuckin' you for cash or "gifts"), and 9 times out of 10, she's probably paying another dude...we'll just call him "the pimp".

Now, don't get me wrong. I've been known to go to a strip club or two in my day and by no means am I saying that I am tricking-exempt. BUT, I've never claimed to be a pimp either and I damn sure don't make it rain.

I'm just sayin', let's call a spade a spade and stop the frontin', Trick.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by Concerned Citizens For The Betterment Of Dilusional Rappers and of course my2cents-sense.blogspot.com.