The C.Y.N.I.C.A.L Side of: The Black- Eyed Peas

Like everybody was doing yesterday, I was watching the Super Bowl, loving the commercials (s/o to Em for his Chrysler commercial showing Detroit, it is much needed in this day in America), and eating lots of food. Unlike many of the Super Bowl fanatics, I just could not stand watching Bill O’Reilly given his no-spin zone to Barack Obama because Bill O’Reilly love going after people he know he can control and get away with it (try that with those protesters in Egypt then I will give you some type of credit.), nor did I watch the Super Bowl halftime show with the Black Eyed Peas because I have a disdain for people who sold out on hip-hop. Here is my gripe on “The Black-Eyed Peas.”

Me and my blogger brother in the N.C, Citizen Ojo, was having a nice conversation about this during the Chicago Bears- Seattle Seahawks NFC Divisional Playoff Game. Decades ago, I really thought that the Black-Eyed Peas were going to be the West Coast version of my favorite group “A Tribe Called Quest.” Not because the elements that was similar,(Will.I.Am being the next Q-Tip, Taboo and Apl.de.ap being the next Ali Muhammed and Phife Dog) but because they were different in their own way of race (one black, one Filipino, and one Hispanic). I remember the first album called Behind the Front due to their hit “Joints and Jam” with artist Kim Hill.

It is still to me a bonafide hip-hop classic in many cases. In 2000, they collab with singer Macy Gray on “Request Line”. It was a pretty nice song that it hit 2 on the Rap Single. Yes the same time the Hot Boyz (Juvenile, B.G., Turk, and some lil knucklehead name Lil Wayne) was blazing the whole U.S. The same year Bad Boy was at their peak. So the question to me from 2000 to 2001 what happen.

Well development at Interscope came. Dumped Kim Hill because she wasn’t black enough and got a singer that was not black at all to coincide with the Rainbow Coalition that was already happening. Fergie did so much up and down to this group. She gave them international appeal and killed the once coined “one of the last few rap crew in the game.” What happened is that they became more pop than hip-hop. Sometimes I really think the Black-Eyed Peas played a part of the “Who killed the hip-hop group?” theory. It was a big….and quick decision to either get back into hip-hop or go pop. Well, three double platinum LPs, a song (and parody thanks to Aaron MacGruder) for our nation’s president , and many tour around the world, we see where this group went.

Now I am sitting here thinking three things. “Was it worth it,” “Would I still think of Joints & Jam the same way I think of Imma Be,” “Are they the expanded version of A Tribe Called Quest?”

….Well I don’t know, but I tell you my friends. That playing College Football 2010 on PS3 was worth playing than the halftime show.

--Stay Chiefin My Friends

-SA.

The C.Y.N.I.C.A.L Side of: Percys

After all this Lebron hoopla and Oscar Grant injustice that swirm me for the past week, today I am going all left field on everybody and talk about a first name that really intrigues me in a funny way. The reason I don’t know why but it always makes me think of laughing or thinking about entertainment. I always said if I can change my name and make a stage name, the first name will always be Percy. Only thing I could think of is that name sounds like an entertainer that do James Brown moves, singing will emphasis, and have ladies throwing their panties. So to whatever no avail…. I bring to you famous Percys

Percy Jackson – In his movie “Percy Jackson & the Olympians,” he is the protagonist. He is good-natured, friendly, brave, and often willing to risk his life to save his friends, strangers, and even his enemies, has a sarcastic sense of humor, and dislike titles being given to him, as he always tells horses, which his father is said to have created, not to call him "boss" or "lord" whenever they talk to him. He also has a strong sense of loyalty and fairness. He is played by Logan Lerman. Honestly, I thought he was a guy that had a singing crew and come on stage doing some James Brown moves with four guys singing background and kills greek gods by after 2am in the morning. I also thought the character of Percy was played by Bradon Jackson, seriously.

Percy Sledge – Come to think about it, he look like Uncle Curtis from “House of Payne.” Well he can sing and women were throwing their panties at him in the 60s, so that goes with the stereotype of a Percy.

Percy Weasley – He kills the stereotype Percy just with his last name alone. Plus he was in the Harry Potter movies. That did it for me.

Percy Watson – This guy is the perfect Percy. The name, the moniker, and everything just have my version of Percy written all over him. The WWE needed to stamp that name because he portray the Percy that I always thought except for the singing part. Plus I think if the WWE wasn’t so PG, ladies would be throwing their panties at him. Besides, dude really reminds me of a partied-up, sugar-jacking, bigger version of Steve Urkel.

Percy from “Talking Dirty After Dark” (Daryl Sivad) – I swear for a guy that had lame jokes and everything in this movies, that made him funny to me plus Deebo ready to pound him in for Deebo thinking he was messing with his woman. This Percy did not have panties thrown at him but he did catch a George Bush by Joe Torrey.

What name do have stereotypes of? Do you know any famous Percys?

The Worst You Ever Had With "The Best You Ever Had."

Being a blogger, I like to read so many of other bloggers. It is like they are family to me. One of my favorite bloggers, is my man AverageBro (check him out if you have time. He has some of the most sense-worthy posts I have ever read). I always check out Average’s “Name That Sample” post because of my love for the digging in crates of old school music that I have checked out on a hit that either I recognized and at times never heard until he throws it in there. Today, he hipped me on three things, a top 10 hit that I haven’t heard in a while, the thought of the sample being a jump start to a Rapper career, and…………..

……the fact that some record companies still did not get the memo from MC Hammer and Rick James about jacking beats without paying royalties.

Canadian rapper Drake is being sued for copyright infringement by Playboy Enterprises over allegations that his breakout smash "Best I Ever Had" samples a '70s hit owned by the company.

In a lawsuit filed June 24, Playboy alleges that Drake's mixtape hit contains Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds' 1975 soft-rock tune, "Fallin' in Love."

The suit names Drake -- whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham -- as well as Cash Money Records and Universal Music Group.

Okay the parties involved have a partially and full responsibility about this issue.

For Drake: He is the man with the name on the track, and he does not know better about people jacking beat without paying royalties. Just because you did a mixtape with 9^th Wonder hitting a serious rendition sample of Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love,” does not mean you can just go all out and do it mainstream without permission. Still, when you are in the game, you should not follow the mistakes of other artist who started big. Examples include Robbie Van Winkle aka Vanilla Ice song “Ice Ice Baby” ties toward popular rock group Queen and their song “Under Pressure.”

For Cash Money Records: This is good example of cheating your way in the game can catch up to you. You can rob some people for royalties and sorts but not everybody. Brian “Baby” Williams have been cheating producers and original song artists for a long time. There are many producers who either complained, don’t want to deal with them, and are suing the record company for money.

For Universal Records: Plain and simple, they don’t care. People and sub-record companies like Drake and Cash Records are like buses, they come and go.

Track records about artists who have got caught sampling without permission and lost the settlement have not really came back from their career fiasco. Let’s hope Drake can learn a lesson from that.

What do you think about Drake getting sued by Playboy. Do you think Cash Money Recods was bullying their way in the industry and now just got a taste of their own medicine?

Playboy is suing Drake for copyright infringement. SMH!

Black Stations Are Singing A New Tune

When it comes to driving, I only listen to possibly two radio stations. One is ESPN the radio, and the other is NPR. I guess since 21, I realized that most of the black radio shows don’t play anything that is new and fresh. Most of the times it is a song, either done by Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Trey Songz, or somebody from the south rapping about a minstrel dance, saying how much they got, or something that is just downright ignorant. I looked at a bill today from Rep. John Conyers (Yeah, that dude whose wife really Eff’ up Detroit) and saw that some people just don’t want to hear and if they want to hear it, they rather let the stations pay for what we hear.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) President Roberta Reardon and American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) President Thomas Lee joined with members of Congress today to announce a strong push by the union movement to pass legislation that supports the fundamental right of American musical artists to be paid for their work.

The Performance Rights Act, H.R. 848 would close a loophole in copyright law that allows AM and FM stations to duck royalty payments to performing artists. The United States is one of a handful of countries that do not provide fair performance rights on radio. The others include Qatar, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and China.

Hold up!!!

Big Radio has launched a propaganda campaign against the legislation led by Cathy Hughes, owner of the African American mega-company Radio One, which claims the legislation would hurt African American and small radio stations.

Last year, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) and the NAACP endorsed the legislation saying it would not hurt black radio and that musicians, like all workers, deserve to be paid a fair wage.

Radio One is a classic example of corporate greed, Trumka pointed out. In the middle of the recession, Radio One executives fired workers, cut salaries and slashed benefits while setting themselves up with millions of dollars in bonuses.

Personally I don’t have a Radio One or do I care about Clear Channel, so if these guys want to play nonsense on the airwaves, let them have it. It doesn’t matter what you play when you know that you don’t have to give a dime to the person who you play. If this bill past, you will be seeing radio execs catching a selective view of what artist they play. It will have to be super hot for execs to play and last time I checked, I never saw a radio executive say “Gucci Mane is my No. 1 fan.” Well there is always getting in line with doing talk shows, but who wants to hear comedians try to reincarnate Petey Greene, because they can’t. I say let it ride because Black Radio needs to be taught a lesson.

Sorry, I just call this one BS like everything else. Maybe killing off BET as a whole is next?

What do you feel about this bill? Should radio stations pay for the good or crap music that they put on the airwaves? Do you feel like Cathy Hughes just got shafted in her own game?

Time Start Paying Musicians

The Performance Rights Act Threatens Black Radio -- Or Does It?

Kelis, Why They Hate You So Much Right Now?

("I don't have to worry about what people are thinking and what's going on in the industry. I don't want that stuff to influence what I'm doing. Because I think it stifles you creatively. I don't want to have to care too much about that. All I care about is what the fans think. It's really all I care about, honestly.)

-Shania Twain

("What good are fans? You can't eat applause for breakfast. You can't sleep with it.")

- Bob Dylan

(An Ace's thought: That is my Angel vs. Devil quotes for this post.)

I remember December 9, 2002, I wrote a post about Kelis channeling back 1997-2002. That was pretty much the first time I really got some pretty shaky reponses (I am a Kelis fan, but wow, they made me look like I wasn’t. Sorry, just didn’t like her third and fourth album. Seriously, they are not too hot.) Well after all the courts, paychecks, and looking like this……..

and

…….articles are out that she is going to do a fifth album. This time she is collaborating with Black Eye Peas’ Will.I.Am which is pretty cool seeming that both are creative. To tell you the truth, I am glad she left Jive records. They really made her sound crappy after the second album. I been telling people that Kelis is “poetry in motion,” and Will.I.Am is going to polish the jewel (please, no pun).

But not everybody is happy with her working on a new album.

Cochise313 said...

fuck this money hungry bitch stickin my nigga Nas for his paper

Q!

"i am home"

03/23/2010 at 06:11 PM

Camron قاتل للأقم;iشmhةp ال ^^^^^3 said in reply to Cochise313...

when this bitches album flops and she gets eggs thrown at her during her release party maybe shell give it up and go back to sucking the kids out of the tip of pharells penis no homo

03/23/2010 at 07:22 PM

Blackchag said...

*****DAMN****** THAT'S ALL I GOTTA SAY BOUT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

03/23/2010 at 06:33 PM

cease said...

yeah for real, i got no kind words for this chic. she really disgusts me for what shes doing to nas. i dont even wish her shit flops because in that case she can stll fall back on nas and rape him for the 645K shes now going to be getting on a yearly basis. I hope she does well enough so she can get her support decreased. I hope this dude wins joint custody of his son, i hate gold diggers, with a passion. shit is wrong and way too many women do this.

03/23/2010 at 07:34 PM

Scott. said...

This is the first article i read about this bitch that aint about her stealing all nas money shit man, i hope she does well so Nas can get some money lmao... and flash back moment this chick use to be hot, now she ugly

03/23/2010 at 07:41 PM

HPtizen said in reply to Scott....

Yeah I know especially on her first which is a classic. After that, she became greedy and began to wear the flops.

03/24/2010 at 12:36 AM

London!! said...

Truthfully Kelis is gone to flop but she will have a one hit with Acapella! And by the way if you guys think that Kelis is going to be receiving alimony from Nas for 18 years...you need to know the law of CA! Nas was not married to her for 10 years or more...she will only get alimony for a limited time most likely a year. That is why she was back to work so soon after giving birth! If Kelis could be a stay at home mother she would! Kelis has no choice but to work because she will be paying 50% percent of that child support and her alimony will be voided if it is not already! Why would Nas have to pay her alimony for 18 years he was only married to her for 3 years? But that excessive amount that she has already received is totally unwarranted for this non-talented SKANK who also had a career before Nas...this woman is WHACK!!

03/23/2010 at 08:13 PM

RicHie RicH said...

She shouldn't have gotten none of his money Whack bitch Skank bitch hoe slut

Flesh N Bone aint the Best rapper around he would probably benefit from her

being on his album. But I hope she goes Double Wood with a Silver bullet

and I crucifix Through The Heart

03/23/2010 at 08:38 PM

NNL said...

I don't even need to write anything because every comment said it all.

03/23/2010 at 11:16 PM

KG said...

There will never be another topic on SOHH where dudes will come together like this. LOL the power of undeniable, unquestionable, hoes.

03/24/2010 at 12:15 AM

Big Mac aka The Messiah said...

BROKE BEOTCH GET OUT OF NAS ASS AND GET A FUCKING JOB, YOU NO TALENT NO JOB SKILLS HAVING PORN VIDEO UGLY ASS HOE!!!!!!!!!!! NI99AS HATE BITCHES EVEN MORE CUZ OF YOU. YOUR STANK PUSSY AINT WORTH $55,000 PER MONTH PER MF'ING MONTH!! DEATH TO ALL HOES LIKE KELIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

03/24/2010 at 05:05 AM

JohnnyACE♠ GRAND MASTER SEN$Ei {{-_-}}™ said...

Can't wait to sleep on this album.

{{-_-}}

03/24/2010 at 06:39 AM

(Source: SOHH.com

Now this is under a 18-hour span. Though she has many fans (myself included), what she pull off with Nas was illmatic (definitely, no pun intended) and left so many people to question her greed. I think Kelis need to listen to a song called “Don’t Let it Go To Your Head” by either Jean Carne or rap Group Brand Nubian because if she flop out on this one, she will get a reality check that “your past actions can come back and haunt you.”

Being that Will.i.am is working with her on the fifth LP “Flesh Bone,” how do you feel Kelis is going to do? Do you still have love for Kelis, or do you feel that she is a pain in the…. After the fiasco with Nas?”

KELIS ON WORKING WITH WILL.I.AM FOR "FLESH BONE" LP