The Last One!!

Wow....it's the last blog.

Or the last one required for MED 381.

I wasn't sure how I felt about doing this blog at first; I wasn't sure what I would consistently find to write about that would be interesting.

I've really enjoyed it though. Some weeks it was harder than others to find a topic, but I started learning to look at sites like Rolling Stone, BET, or other music sites. I loved coming up with ideas to make these blogs interesting.

I might keep this blog up actually. It really depends on how busy I am, but I enjoy having something to write about and it gives me an excuse to look up music news. I guess excuse isn't the best word, more like an  incentive to keep updated with the entertainment world.

This is going to be a short and sweet blog post. I just wanted to wrap this blog up in case I do not continue writing it.

I hope you've enjoyed it!

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent” 

- Victor Hugo     

"Live for today. Plan for tomorrow. Party tonight."

Those words were tweeted by rapper/singer Drake on Nov. 6.

The problem with this phrase is the emphasis which so many entertainers place on the first and last part. A good example would be Drake's mentor - Lil Wayne - who was just recently released on Nov. 4 from his eight-month sentence at Riker's Island.

The article "Lil Wayne is Out of Prison. Now What?" had some interesting paths that Lil Wayne could take now that he is out of jail.

The positive paths that previous rappers have went down as they continue their path through hip hop have been turning into producers or actors and creating a name for themself outside of a performer. Jay Z, Diddy, and Ice Cube are all well-known for expanding their careers beyond the stage.

But, there are also rappers who have found a more tragic path, like 2Pac Shakur, who was breaking into film, but after being in prison, was plagued by unsavory characters and tragically ended up dying at a young age. T.I., arrested in 2007 for gun possession, was convicted and sentenced to jail. His life looked promising up to that point - he had been in the film "ATL" and had numerous albums out. He was even using his conviction in a positive manner by having a show on MTV where he helped kids learn about mistakes. However, just recently, he violated his probation by possessing narcotics.

Entertainers can take so many paths, good or bad, and the world will watch and judge regardless. But maybe if entertainers want to be known for being the best in hip hop, they should emphasize the middle part of Drake's tweet, "Plan for tomorrow," before they end up ruining their own lives.

Can Women Truly Break into Rap Without Using their Sexuality?

That's the question that popped into my mind when I started reading the editorial posted on AllHipHop.com entitled "Jasmine Mans Explains 'The Mis-Education of a Barbie Doll.'"


Jasmine Mans is a spoken word poet who released a poem entitled "Nicki Minaj" or referred to as "The Mis-Education of a Barbie Doll" - referring to Nicki Minaj's habit of calling herself Barbie. She targets Nicki Minaj in her poem and editorial, she says, "because I am a long time fan and follower of her work. I recognize and applaud her lyrical abilities and the affect she has on women older and younger than myself. If we, as an audience, do not hold up a mirror to our artists, then who will?"


Nicki Minaj has been one of the breakout artists of the year, winning such awards as the BET New Artist of 2010 and the Best Female Hip Hop Artist. She is also the first female artist to top the Rap Songs chart unaccompanied since 2002.


It is not hard to see where Jasmine Mans is going with her criticism of Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj is a role model for many young girls and Jasmine Mans is recognizing this fact. She says in her editorial that she wants Nicki Minaj to provide a less shallow basis for her lyrics. She also questions Nicki Minaj's use of calling herself "Barbie," saying, "How can we expect our male rappers to pay homage and respect to women when the voice that is representing us is tainted with sexual innuendos and “child’s play?”


While I agree that Nicki Minaj should have a less shallow base to her lyrics, I do not have an objection to her using Barbie as a nickname for herself. To me, Barbies can be looked at as more than an anti-feminist  plaything, based solely on looks and sex appeal. When I was a kid, the Barbie dolls of my play were pretty - yes - but they were also highly successful because of what they did. I think it is perfectly okay for Nicki Minaj to use the idea that, like Barbie, a woman can be beautiful and sexually appealing and also carry weight in her skills and personality beyond that.


As for Nicki Minaj's lyrics, I do agree that some are much too shallow. So far, Nicki Minaj has only released mixtapes, or been featured in songs with other artists or the Young Money family. Her debut album, Pink Friday, will not be released until November 22, 2010. I'm looking forward to listening to it and seeing if she has matured in her lyrics.


Nicki Minaj's past lyrics have sometimes bordered on the vulgarity that Lil Kim was famous for, using such lines as:


Maybe It's Time To Put This P**** On Ya Sideburns,
He Say I’m Bad, He Problly Right,
He Pressing Me Like Button Downs On A Friday Night
 -From "Bedrock," a Young Money song


As seen by those lyrics, she could be more into empowering women as opposed to speaking merely about sex.


Here's a link to Nicki Minaj's first single - Your Love.  And I hope you read the poem linked at the top (it's included at the end of the article). I found the flow to be quite beautiful and I appreciate where Jasmine Mans is going with her proclaimed dare to Nicki Minaj:


"I dare Nicki Minaj to be a PHENOMENAL WOMAN and not a phenomenal 'Barbie.'"
-Jasmine Mans

Tim Burton!!

Halloween movies. Creepy movies. Ridiculously creative and off-the-wall movies.

Those all describe how I feel about Tim Burton and the movies he creates. Ok, so Halloween is not an accurate word to describe all of his movies...Alice in Wonderland for example.

Tim Burton's productions are beyond normal description. His movies often have almost a form of irony to them. It's almost as if you think they are going to be terrifying but then they are not. Creepy, yes. Scary, no. For example, I thought Sleepy Hollow was going to be decently scary, but then I watched it and Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane was ridiculous. His acting was wonderful and I loved the portrayal of Ichabod Crane as somewhat a sissy, but it was not what I was originally expecting.

Speaking of Johnny Depp in a Tim Burton production, they have worked together a large amount of times. Here's a list of their collaborations:

• Edward Scissorhands
• Ed Wood
• Sleepy Hollow
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (remake)
• Corpse Bride (I'm watching this on Family Channel right now!)
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Alice in Wonderland

Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Burton's wife since 2001, also appears in a lot of his movies, including:

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (remake)
• Corpse Bride
• Big Fish
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I found a website of Tim Burton poems with illustrations. They're quite funny. Here's the link! HERE

Also, here's one of the poems that really made me laugh.

The Boy With Nails in His Eyes

The Boy with Nails in his Eyes
put up his aluminium tree.
It looked pretty strange
because he couldn't really see






Sorry this blog is all over the place today. I was just watching Corpse Bride and I really wanted to talk about the fact that Tim Burton is basically a genius....or at least I think so.

Have a great Halloween! Watch a Tim Burton movie!

Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne is a fabulous artist. He was recently voted the second greatest rapper for the 2000-2010 years - second only to Eminem. He has released seven studio albums, twenty-three singles, and twelve mixtapes. It's not hard to debate that he is a hard-working individual.

Beyond his own music releases, he often collaborates with many different artists. A few include:

• Weezer
• Birdman
• Jay Sean
• Amerie

And quite a few more. Quite, quite a few more.

I like a lot of different things about Lil Wayne, but there are three things that make me respect him the most.

1. His work ethic
• As stated above, Lil Wayne seems to always be in the studio. Besides his own multiple releases, he also is the head of Young Money Entertainment, which includes such artists as Drake, Nikki Minaj, Tyga, Shanell, and a few more.
2. His lyricism
• The raps he comes up with have ridiculous rhymes I could never even imagine coming up with. Besides that, they just have a certain poet feel to them. Here's an example from "Runnin'" from his album Rebirth.
• "But if I fall, I fall up and let the clouds hug me.
• And if I fall down, I bet I hit the ground runnin'
• Bet you searched and found nothin', lookin' for the finish line
• Stop short cuttin', you're f***in' up your finish time
• Here's a link to the video if you want to listen to the whole song - Runnin'
3. His dedication to his fans
• Lil Wayne is currently in jail for having a loaded gun in his possession. Despite the fact that he's in jail he answers his fan mail and continues to thank them for his support. 
• He writes overall letters to his fans when possible, which are published on the website Weezythanxyou.com.
• I was reading the letters and I noticed that at the end of a lot of his letters, he went through and personally thanked people by name for sending him letters.

I hope you take the time to consider listening to a Lil Wayne song or if you already like him, yay!!

BET Hip Hop Awards

At 7 p.m. this evening the BET (Black Entertainment Television) Hip Hop Awards, hosted by Mike Epps, will air on channel 78 (if you have Mediacom Cable, that is).

Bah! I'm excited. I love hip hop and I think that awards shows are always exciting to watch.



Tonight Salt-N-Pepa will be honored.
This dynamic duo debuted in 1985 with their record "Showstopper." In 1987, they received a Grammy for their song "Push It," which is my personal favorite. That song never fails to have me jump to my feet and start dancing like a maniac.



Something interesting about the awards is that there is a "Best Hip Hop Blog Site" category. The nominees (links included) are as follows:

• AllHipHop.com
• Nahright.com
• Rapradar.com
• Thisis50.com
• Worldstarhiphop.com

All the categories for awards and the nominees for this evening's show can be found HERE.

The performers for the evening include:

B.o.B. 

Yelawolf and Big Boi

Digital Underground

Waka Flocka Flame

Rick Ross

Antoine Dodson

Soulja Boy

J Cole

Gucci Mane

MC Hammer

Cali Swag District

Now, the website does not list him, but my Trey Songz Facebook fan page says that Trey Songz will be performing tonight....so.....I am definitely going to watch and see if he does!

DeStorm Power - A YouTube Musical Genius

DeStorm Power is my favorite Youtuber.

I don't even know if that's the correct term or even a word, but it should be if only to describe this fabulous man.

I stumbled across him while I was searching for new YouTube videos to watch and automatically fell in love with his videos.

What DeStorm Power does is take challenges from comments on his posted YouTube videos and his Facebook page (probably other places as well) and makes songs.

For example, one of my favorite videos is called 20 Voices and it consists of him making a video using 20 different versions of his own voice. It is absolutely amazing. You should watch it by clicking HERE.


Your life just might be changed. I know mine was. Now I spend endless amounts of time during which I should be doing homework watching his YouTube videos instead. Whoops.

So watch that video! And please leave a link for your favorite YouTube video!

Bon Jovi and My Dad

Bon Jovi will forever remind me of my father.

Not because my dad looks like Jon Bon Jovi (in fact, he looks more Bob Villa, but that's another story) or because he sounds like Bon Jovi, but because:

Every time Livin' on a Prayer comes on, my dad cranks the radio.
Every wedding we go to, he requests it. Literally. Every one.
He has a particular dance that goes with it. I can imagine exactly what it looks like in my mind right now.

I love my dad. :)

The point is that my dad instilled my love for classic rock in me because we always listened to it together when I was a kid. It was a game to ask him who sang the song because he always seemed to know. He always had a story to go with the songs too.

If you have a story about a person who influenced your music decisions, leave a comment about it!

And here's the link for the Livin' on a Prayer music video. Enjoy!

We Heart Lists

Pixie sticks + coffee + friend drama + papers for class = Too much awakeness and a blog post.

You're welcome.

As I mentioned earlier, I had already decided to make this week's post about my radio show. It comes on at 10:00 p.m. every Monday. You really should listen. Here's the link again: HERE!

Tonight's show was about lists - hence the title of this blog.

I really do love lists. I love sitting down and making thoughts align with a theme.

Erin and I love having themes for our show. We like to make our songs match the theme, so it becomes a game for us to decide what songs to play. Erin was particularly good at helping me think of list songs this week to play that coincided with my musical preference. However, if we're ever stumped for ideas, we do cheat and use Google. :)

Our show tonight combined a multitude of various forms of media: we talked about books (my Listography book!), websites, and music. We found a surprisingly large amount of great websites and at the end I'll list them for you (Ha! List!).

I do encourage you to listen to our show. We have a great time doing it and if you're interested in being on the radio yourself, leave me a comment. I'll give you some information.

And give me a list you've made! I make life lists all the time...perhaps I'll put one I find amusing on here later this week. If I can find where I put it!

Great List Websites for Your Amusement

• Listography (The website based off the books!)
• Brick games (An amusing list of things to do with a brick)
• Top 10 Lists (I swear it's amusing)

Fa'sho!!

Fa'sho is mine and Erin's radio show and I actually planned to make my next blog about tonight's show! Soooo.....you should listen. By clicking on this link....right here.


Tonight is about lists and it's at 10:00 p.m.!

If you want to call-in, the number is 417-836-3299!

Hope you listen!

I Love New Albums!

"Here We Go Again"

It's the first track on the new Trey Songz album Passion, Pain, and Pleasure and also how my friends react to my obsessions to new albums.

I admit - it can become an obsession with me - but doesn't everyone get excited when an artist they like puts out new music? And I love Trey Songz. A lot.

Okay, so he's a relatively new obsession, but I really enjoy his music. It has a nice smooth beat to it. By the way, if you like R&B music, you should listen to his new album. The newest song with a video (I love music videos! But that's another obsession to talk about a different time.) to it is "Can't Be Friends." 

It's great how media and music tie together, isn't it? I cannot imagine life without Youtube. 

Let me explain my obsession with new albums for you real quick - every time I hear an artist that I like is dropping a new album or mixtape, I get ridiculously excited. This excitement has been known to last as long as five months, hence why my friends get tired of it. It doesn't end there though. After the album finally hits the public, I feel as if I should listen to it all the time. 

Here is my top new album/mixtape list for the year:

1. Thank Me Later - Drake
2. Rebirth - Lil Wayne
3. Daddy's Home - Usher
4. B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray - B.o.B.
5. Lazarus - Travie McCoy
6. The Script - The Script
7. Fan of a Fan - Chris Brown and Tyga

Now I have the Trey Songz album to listen to! I'm sure I'll add it to my list of best albums. 

Drop me a comment and tell me what your favorite new artist or album is! I'm always looking to expand my music vocabulary. 

Movie day

Ever just feel like spending the day, sitting in your living room with your best friend, and watching movies?

Those are some of my favorite days - what I'm doing right now actually. It's a Saturday and neither my best friend Erin, (you will see her referenced a lot, so remembering her name will be helpful) nor I, have particular plans.

Should we be doing homework?

Yes, probably. This is my excuse for doing homework and technically, I just wanted to write on here regardless of any homework assignments.

We decided that delving into the world of cinema was a better idea than reading German or writing reports on future careers. Sometimes you just need to put a good thriller in the DVD player and forget school exists.

Besides, we can always do homework tomorrow. :)

Books..............................................

""What's your favorite book?"


It's a good question to ponder and one that I always have trouble answering. This past week, when I was supposed to be picking out my favorite book for my media class, I had no idea what I would pick.

Do you ever feel pressured to pick out an intellectual book when someone asks you what your favorite book is? Or to pick a movie which makes a contraversial statement about life when conversing about cinema? I do.

It even comes to, when discussing music, sometimes I feel obligated to name every obscure band I've ever listened to. It becomes a contest of sorts to me, one which I feel like I never win.

I understand that my basic need to pick out an intellectual book as my "favorite" stems from the desire to seem smart and worldly, but I like books for their escapism too. I like trashy romance novels - even when they are completely unrealistic.

The type of writing in books we - my class - like is what my professor was trying to point out to us this past Monday. He pointed out that if we were interested in the types of writing we had chosen, then there was a good chance others liked it as well and we should use it as a jumpoff for our writing.

So for me, the girl who chose Catcher in the Rye (by J.D. Salinger. I highly recommend it.), the inspiration for my future writing will be completely off-the-wall and all over the place. Just warning you.

Please tell me what your favorite book is! Or how you feel about the pressure to pick weird, obscure books, songs, and movies.



Rachel

This blog and hey! It's the first post!

Hey! Welcome to my blog! I'm pretty excited about doing this blog; I hope everyone who reads it is also excited after reading. 

I plan on sharing my thoughts about media (obviously) and I will always try to say a little about music. I really enjoy music and it ties into my radio show I have on The Growl - Missouri State's student e-radio. My best friend, Erin Hanson and I, are the hosts of Fa'Sho. Don't worry. I'll put the link on here so you can listen before next Monday, which is the day our show will hopefully start.

Anyway, that is all I have for now! I hope to post later this week about some ideas I had from class about books and music.

Later,

Rachel