new places, new faces, new music....

Wassup people! Hope this finds you well as always. Now that the hectic summer has finally died down for a week, I know have the chance to do a little writing. I'm glad to say I finished my master's thesis and completed my degree so I'm happy about that and I'm now attending East Carolina U. to pursue my PhD. Why? I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, but the PC answer is I love what I do.

On the music front, rumors of a new project have got me geeked. Apparently, Lupe, Kanye and Pharrell are planning to make an album under the name CRS (Child Rebel Soldiers (no relation to D.R.S. of the Gangsta Lean fame)). This sounds like a collabo that's right on the money if there ever was one, so I patiently wait for the outcome. The new Common album......wow, let's just say there is a reason it's his first #1 album. It's like a breath of fresh air in a cramped closet. I've determined that grown man hip-hop has a template on how to speak to my generation, the ones who were there from its infancy. Good news is that apparently D'Angelo is cleaning up, slimming down and tightening up the braids for a new album. If he sounds like he does on Com's album, it should be all good.

One thing disturbing right now, this T-Pain craze. Am I the only one realizing that this guy is simply copying Teddy Riley and Zapp and Roger? How many people can synthesize the vocals and still be called a genius in music? If we judged quality music based on catchy tunes, then "Who dat is? Tha'd just my Baby daddy" is right up there with Let's get it On and September. Come on people, we gotta do better. On that note, check BET's " We Gotta Do better" with Charlie Murphy. Scary how there are still black folk that don't know what HBCU or NAACP stands for or how many black Supreme Court Justices (only 1 btw) there are. As far as the one lady who said unemployment rates among AA being 80-95%, I guess she never sees black people working. C'mon, people we gotta do better. Peace and hair grease......