2 much 2 soon

There's a quote in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that I love where Jim says, "Why do I fall in love with every woman who shows me the slightest bit of attention?" I once was at that place when I was younger, but now that I have a lil experience, I've realized something that stems from the same feeling. I know a guy in this situation. Fell hard for somebody, in his mind had made her out to be everything he wanted and I told him to take it slow, realize everything about her, that chemicals work fast, but he was confident that she was the one. Now he has doubts, not that he's told me, rather he asks questions about how a relationship should be: how different can she be from me, do I want someone to be just like me or just someone I can relate to, am I comparing her to my ex too much. For all those out there, don't show your cards too soon like my man and wait until the endorphines wear off and truly see what she can offer you and what you can offer her. Now, he has to deal with having her heart and he's not completely sure if he wants the responsiblity. There's an African proverb: Before marriage, keep both eyes open, after marriage, keep one eye closed. Leave it to the motherland to bring true wisdom. Peace..........

I used to love H.E.R. .......

I had every intention of doing another subject earlier today that was one of my true GMG subject. However, after reading the wonderful okayplayer.com (free advertising) and the subject of hip hop being dead, brought me back to my favorite hip hop song of all time, hence the title of the post.

"I met this girl when I was ten years old...."

One of the greatest movies ever started with the greatest line ever, " So when did you fall in love with hip-hop?" Hmmm, a difficult question. I unfortunately did not get into hip hop until after the corporate world got a strangle hold on H.E.R. when they saw fit to curse the world with Hammer pants and Ice Ice Baby. Originally, Baby Got Back and Oochie Coochie La La (10 bucks for the one who tells me who did the second song) were the songs of the day, but true hip-hop, I fell in love with H.E.R. from hearing Digital Underground, my first exposure to true hip hop. Then the affection grew to obsession, I began catching stronger feelings as I searched through the history, immersed myself in the four tenets, researched the innovators, and most importantly soaked up every note of LL, Run-DMC, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, UTFO, KRS-One, MC Shan, Beastie Boys, Kool Moe Dee, Rakim, Fat Boys, Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, and so many others.

"About my people she was teaching me, but not preaching to me, but speaking to me in a method that leisurely...."


Arrested Development dropped, my first album that I bought, before it was listening to my freind's tapes. But I bought there's, it spoke to me, taught me about the culture and the world, gave me a conscience and inspired me to write for the number one reasons all lyricists and poets should write, to change the world throught written word. Never condescending, just matter of factly telling me why I should make the most of my life, find the purpose why God put me here....

" But then she broke to the west coast and that was cool cause the same time I went away to school..."

When I was in my first year of high school, the Chronic dropped. Changed the whole scene, the anger of black folks came out, it was talking about living a life that despite the parties, weed and booze, life was always about to end the next minute from a bullet in the back and all with the some of the best beats produced to this day. NWA had already stomped on the scene talking about sawed offs and Ice T had already mentioned his displeasure with the local authorities and how he'd like to change their living status, but this was different. This was a switch of power from the land of orginators to the land of innovators. Was something gained? Definitely. Was something lost? Definitely. S.H.E. lost innocence, S.H.E. grew up, S.H.E. got bitter. I hadn't realized it at the time, but I'd never have H.E.R. back the same way as before, but like your childhood sweetheart, S.H.E. left me with sweet memories but with an uncertain future.

"Talkin' about poppin' glocks, servin' rocks, and hittin' switches, Now she's a gangsta, rollin' with gangsta bitches...."


We all wanted to roll and throw dubs and talk about shootin' when we had no guns. Then, S.H.E. got repetitive, a one track mind, nothing new was coming. It was easier to market killing each other because that's all we'd seen for 300 years, violence against us by others and ourselves. There were a few out there dropping knowledge: Tribe, De La, Outkast, Common was on the scene reppin' the Chi, Nas showed great promise, 2Pac was telling about the problems without glory or praise just the sad facts, and a young cat named Chris Wallace was spitting like he was born to spit. However, the innovators and the originators would soon become insecure and jealous of the other, like a marriage built with no foundation.

"Stressing how hardcore and real she is, She was really the realest, before she got into showbiz I did her, not just to say that I did it, But I'm committed, but so many ni**as hit it"

S.H.E. became a whore, had been with too many cats who had no respect nor any knowledge of how to treat H.E.R. They pimped H.E.R. out to make money, instead of treating H.E.R. like the queen S.H.E. was entitled to be. Whoo bangin' was in effect, Suge Knight, satan himself, grasped his cold claws on it and strangled the life and poured in death and so many drank. (RIP Pac and Big...) On top of that, others decided to throw money around in videos and tell us that all of life came down to money, power and respect. To hell with love life and happiness. S.H.E. had met with some rough johns that worked H.E.R. over something terrible and S.H.E. was on life support. S.H.E. was taken in and kept alive by those such as Mos Def and Talib, but at a loss as groups like the Tribe soon stepped off the scene. And the dirty south came on the scene with clowns with no origination except they had a different sound in the music, but the rhymes were elementary at best. But for every Master P, a Goodie Mob was showing that all in the south were not lost and were bringing amazing creations to the table.

"That she's just not the same letting all these groupies do her, I see ni**as slammin' her, and takin' her to the sewer, But I'm a take her back hoping that the sh** stop, Cause who I'm talking bout y'all is Hip Hop"

Now there are alot of clowns out there "In Da Club" and "Leanin' wit it" and making dances to go with rhymes. There was a time for that when S.H.E. was innocent, but now that's gone, at most S.H.E. is a female who has been rode hard and put away wet, but has shown a glimmer of wisdom from learning from the mistakes. Despite hearing that Nelly continues to make music, there is the comfort in knowing that the Roots are dropping one next month. Everytime I hear someone "Ridin' Dirty" , it's nice to know that Common will soon be dropping a new knowledge. When I hear "Snap Yo Fingas" is at the top of the charts, a sharp pain hits me that is only soothed by the hope I put into the rumor that Black Star will be droppin another one. I will always take H.E.R. back. Is Hip Hop Dead? No, S.H.E.'s on life support. I used to love H.E.R..... still do....and always will...... Peace and love.....

Generation X vs. Generation Y

What is up, GMG fans? Hope this blog finds you well. What's been rolling around in my mind? Hmmm, my generation. Why has this come up? Well it rolled in sometime ago at a time when I was trying to determine the difference between those who love Mary J.'s "My Life" album or even "What's the 411" and those who love "Share My World". Being the science nerd that I am (thank God for good genes so I can hide it somewhat) I started to see a difference in those who chose between the three albums, mainly age. So, I thought hmm, it's my generation that loves the "My Life" then I thought, what is my generation? So I checked the WWW and found that my gen. is the Gen. X. For those who don't know, that's those born between 1961 and 1981. What's the genius label for those born from '82-03? Why Gen. Y of course. Gen x'ers are the "latchkey generation" which is so true, many of us came home to empty houses, the first generation to do so so we're "skeptical and non-committal" when it comes to jobs. Hmm, I've had many jobs, one career and starting a new one....maybe non-comittal? However, we were the first with home video games and PC's so that means we're technologically savvy. Might I add to there description that we invented hip hop, the most bestest (yes English whizzes, I know that's not no good grammar) invention in the past thirty years. We grew up on Facts of Life, Cosby Show, Gimme a Break, Who's the Boss, Three's Company, Good Times, What's happenin' now, Family Ties, need I go on? We saw the Berlin wall fall, end of communism, The Americans beat the Russians in the best upset in sports history, not just hockey history. We're responsible for the internet boom ( so it didn't last, at least it started), breakdancing, new wave, grunge, yuppies (well, actually they were bad), gangsta rap, and some of the best cartoons of all time. Need I say more why we're the greatest generation of all time.

Now to Gen Y, hmmm, what have you done..... you've kind of had everything handed to you, in all honesty, I haven't seen any innovation in music from your group, more of the return to crappy pop (thank you N'Sync, Brittany Spears and Destiny's Child) and I haven't seen anything really that your gen can claim. I'm not a gen warrior or tryin' to come down on the Y'ers, I mean my sister is one, many of my favorite students, and the love of my life are all Y'ers. So, I hold out, but I find it disturbing the lack of knowledge that their generation contains, old school to them is the early 90's. Why is there a general lack of knowledge by today's rappers about the early cats, the ones who laid the foundation. Why do they know nothing that happened in the 80's, it was only 20 years ago for God sakes! I guess, this comes down to me sounding a tad preachy, but Generation Y, to make your mark, know what's already been done so that you can do something that's never been done before, make yourself memorable...... peace and love.......

Faithful to the end (nothing but love for Common)

Hmm, GMG moment that also involves a lil praise for my main man, Common and those of you taking care of home. The GMG moment comes in to play with a reading of today's article. Being a physics nerd, gotta give props to Einstein, if you ask any random homeless man on the street clutching a botttle of ripple, who was the greatest physicist ever and he'll surely answer Einstein or he'll say he has to go to the circus to feed the monkeys, depending on his mental stability. So the article described letters released my his daughter at his university, well post mortem anyway. In them, he basically described his relationship with the women around him when he traveled lecturing in Europe, describing them as "freinds." It has been confirmed that they were mistresses while he was married twice, the second time to his cousin for convenience. Besides the obvious gross incest factor, the fidelity factor is disappointing. Is it me, or does it take alot from a man's accomplishments once you find out he couldn't remain faithful to the woman he pledged his life? I mean the man won a nobel prize for the photoelectric effect (big deal in physics world quantized energy....woohoo....God, where is my pocket protector) and the theory of relativity and yet he can't decide that hey, I'm gonna keep my little brain in my pants and think with the big one and decide that I'll only love my wife. So now it's been decided that the ultimate accomplishment of any man on this planet to take care of his wife and love her, love his kids and raise them how to be a contributor to society, and to make the world a better place in some way, shape, form or fashion. Peace and blessings.....

It's been a while, I know, not a great deal has been grinding my gears as of late. Finished my first year of grad school, almost done with an internship that was a great experience, and have someone back in my life that is very special and makes me immensely happy. So I know, to my GMG fans, sounds perfect, perfectly boring. Well, shut up and be happy for me. If you do, I'll lay out my latest GMG subject: men. Now I don't want to pull an Oprah moment and bash all my fellow brothers, there are many taking care of home, my boy the Reverend a classic example. However, there's still too many who can't get it together. I grow tired of hearing stories of men who commit after they lose a good thing when they did nothing but dirt during they're time at bat. Sometimes we have to realize that we've struck out, we did a half-ass job at making something work, and we failed. It's difficult in a nation full of average people, B and C students, to realize that average effort doesn't get the results we desire. Wake up out there fellas, there's always someone who can love them better, so make sure you're on point, otherwise you may the immortal words of LL from another: "when you hit it tonight, I hope she scream my name right...." Cherish her love. Peace....