Interests:Partying, midnight basketball, hip-hop, r&b, reading, poetry, anime, drawing, PS2, Nintendo DS, movie analysis, texas hold'em, football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, and last but not least...bacon Expertise:Attracting beautiful Asian women to come my way. Please, ladies. One at a time. Not all at once now. There's plenty of me to go around. Occupation:Executive Industry:Business
After giving Kanye West's new album, "Graduation" several spins, I would like to say that everybody's favorite producer-turned-rapper has reinvented himself once again with some of the illest tracks heard this year. Going head to head against 50 Cent's newest album "Curtis" on the same day is no easy task Although the two artists aren't "beefing" over record sales, the two albums are in competition with each other. Thankfully, Kanye's record is the overall stronger of the two. Speaking of which, the only two lead singles -- "Stronger" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing" are good examples of Kanye's musical diversity on the album. "Stronger" -- an unorthodox track at first-- uses a looping sample from Daft Punk's electronica dance hit, "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and yet somehow Kanye turns it into a nice hip-hop club banger. This is one of my favorite songs that play in the club right now. I seriously love dancing to it. Thanks, Kanye! Props for that. Other favorite tracks of mine include the feel-good track, "Good Life" featuring T-Pain, "Barry Bonds" with Lil' Wayne (the self proclaimed "Best Rapper Alive"), "Homecoming" with Coldplay's Chris Martin and "Big Brother," an ode to Jay-Z.
Despite all these good things, there are a few mishaps here. "Drunk and Hot Girls" with Mos Def should've been a much, much better song than what it is. The only reason why I say that is because Mos doesn't rap on it! He sings! Here you have one of the best lyrical rappers ever -- and you have him sing? I didn't understand the move in that. Blemishes aside, the song really doesn't sound half-bad. Also, another nit-pick I have to make is that DJ Premier (my all-time favorite producer) only gets a minor production credit on the track "Everything I am" where he only scratches the hook, while Kanye provides the beat. I personally think that Premo -- and his trademark gritty, rough sounds -- would have certainly lifted the track to newer heights. I don't think I've ever heard a bad sounding instrumental from this guy. But again, the song isn't ruined. Just the potential that was there.
Bottom Line: Top notch production, good lyrical content, no skits and a balance between both the mainstream and conscious worlds of hip-hop should help propel Kanye once again to reach the top of the charts. Compared to his other records, "Graduation" is better than "Late Registration" but not better than his debut "College Dropout." And oh yeah, "Graduation" is indeed better than 50's album. Bank on it!
Rating: 4.75 / 5
Tracklisting :
1. Good Morning
2. Champion
3. Stronger
4. I Wonder
5. Good Life - featuring T-Pain
6. Can't Tell Me Nothing
7. Barry Bonds - featuring Lil Wayne
8. Drunk and Hot Girls - featuring Mos Def
9. Flashing Lights - featuring Dwele
10. Everything I Am - co-produced by DJ Premier
11. Glory
12. Homecoming - featuring Chris Martin (from Coldplay)
It's down to this
I've got to make this life make sense
Can anyone do what I've done
I missed life
I missed the colors of the world
Can anyone go where I am
'Cause now again I've found myself
So far down, away from the sun
That shines into the darkest place
I'm so far down, away from the sun again
Away from the sun again
I'm over this
I'm tired of living in the dark
Can anyone see me down here
The feeling's gone
There's nothing left to lift me up
Back into the world I've known
'Cause now again I've found myself
So far down, away from the sun
That shines into the darkest place
I'm so far down, away from the sun
That shines the life away from me
To find my way back into the arms
That care about the ones like me
I'm so far down, away from the sun again
Now, before i get scrutinized and possibly made fun of (ha!) for this post, I just wanted share a little known fact about me -- I am a fan of J-pop and to some extent, Korean music (mostly for their hip-hop). Taiwanese music is alright with me as well. That is not to say Chinese (Cantonese) music isn't that great, but for whatever reason I just don't find today's Canto-pop appealing at all. Oldschool C-Pop is fine by me, but the new stuff just ain't that great.
Also, in no way am i discrediting my preference to Western music, but sometimes I just love listening to Asian music and comparing it to our own (especially rap). I know it's weird and all, but my taste is very diverse. One day, i can be listening to some real deep conscious hip-hop and the next, i could be on some sappy love crap. But hey, that's just me.
Here's some songs I've been really feeling right now:
- LeeHom Wang ft. Rain & Jeong Hee Lim (J-Lim)- "Perfect Interaction"
I love the video for this song. This is such a great collaboration between Taiwan's most talented music artist -- LeeHom Wang, (a songwriter, producer, rapper, piano-player and guitarist rolled into one) and two of the hottest stars in Korea -- Rain & J-Lim. (Although Rain is absent from the music video, due to scheduling conflicts) What makes this song unique is the diversity displayed on the track. We have English, Korean & Mandarin vocals on a Spanish guitar. How hot is that?
- Yuna Ito - "Endless Story"
Here's Hawaiian hottie Yuna Ito in her breakout single from the hugely popular NANA movie. It's a great song, very powerful and emotional. It was played during a very sad part of the movie.
- Yuna Ito ft. Micro (from Def Tech) - "Mahaloha"
New single off her next album. Yuna is looking hot as usual... ohhh yeah!
- Ayumi Hamasaki - "Glitter"
This is Ayumi Hamasaki's newest song, which was filmed in HK, co-starring actor Shawn Yue. After selling more than 45 million records with 8 chart-topping albums, there's no doubt that Ayumi is the 'Empress of J-pop'. It's also no coincidence that she's my favorite. I would say that 99% of her music is very catchy and enjoyable to listen to even if you don't understand what she's saying. Her modesty, hard work, creative songwriting and loyalty to her fans is proof that she deserves to be on top. Go Ayu!
- Just came back from a weekend of fun in the Poconos with a group of friends. We rented a beautiful 2 floor, 3 bedroom summer house for 2 full days and 3 nights. It was awesome! A total of 12 people went, including myself. (Johnny, Stef, Tina, Calvin, Bonnie, Tony, Jason, Julia, Edwin, Jing and Carol). We originally intended for 15+ heads, but the house may have been more crowded. I feel especially bad that Billy, Vinny, Eddie, Linda, Ducky, Salena, etc. missed out. Major highlights from this trip included our epic 4 hour "water-war" rafting (ie. think more along the lines of - waterbucket shots to opposing rafts, bucket stealing and raft hijacking, haha..), BBQing, football, texas hold'em, watching dvds, group games, and etc. It's been a long time since i had a weekend getaway like this one.
- I notice lately i've been bumping into old friends/classmates at all these parties I go to. More often than not, it's just people from high school. Not to mention, they're usually acquainted with someone i already know. What can i say, i know quite alot of people...but i'm far from popular. Of course, i'll be looking forward to all the upcoming birthdays that need to be celebrated in the next upcoming months! Save the spots on the guestlists, yall know i'll be down.
- My Talib Kweli album collection (4 mixtapes and 3 LPs) is almost complete. I'm just missing the Black Star album he did with Mos Def. Unless someone is willing to lend me their copy of the cd to burn. My iPod has been on heavy rotation lately with Kweli's music. The new album, Ear Drum is out July 24th. Support this guy! Real hip hop forever! Leave that dirty south bullshit in the clubs.
- July 23-28: Florida. That's only two weeks from now...been saving up my vacation & personal days for this. Work hasn't been too crazy either. Maybe that's because i don't really do much, so i doubt my absence will have an impact on the rest of the department.
- Speaking of work, i'm currently at 6th place in my Fantasy Baseball (money) league with my co-workers and 2nd place in the league with my college friends. Time to take some of their money!!! We may be only halfway through the baseball season, but i'm feeling fairly confident that i got this shit!
So there you go, people.. this is only part of what goes on in my so-called life. Hope that wasn't so hard to read. I know my thoughts can get cluttered easily in one blog entry. But in any case, i wish everyone the best and hope yall are doing good on your sides of the fence. We're all growing up so quick...i feel like i'm 33 already. No kidding. Now's the best time to make the most of everything while we still can...and live it up.
What a piece of shit loser. The guy had no life, so he had to take the lives of others? Sounds like a jealous fuck. How dare he compare himself to Christ. How dare he. This kid was no messiah. Who the fuck does he think he is? That kid was just a waste of air. A pussy and a disgrace to being human. That son of a bitch. This motherfucker probably only wanted attention... damn, what a fuckin retard...
Again, RIP to those lost in this tragedy. My condolences. I apologize for the hateful rant.
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It makes me both sad and angry how the Virginia Tech shooter, was an obvious nutcase. The guy rarely spoke (and when he did, he only uttered one word answers), had no friends, always sat in the back of the room, wrote sick, twisted and disturbing plays for English, and was known as the "question-mark kid" by classmates due to an anti-social impression he gave during the first day of a class last year. Clearly many signs have shown that he fitted the exact stereotype of a school shooter. Yet i am not blaming the school for their lack of action. I mean, who can see shit like this coming? This person had issues that were hard to address. What would compell him to take the lives of 32 people, including his own cowardly self?
The fuck. I don't even know what else to say about this.
