For Myself and Others

9:19:11 AM EST Well, this is me last post.  It's been fun interacting with you, and I appreciate you listening to my ridiculous ramblings for the last eight months or so.  Again, if you liked what you've seen here, you can keep up with my work at www.bomanijones.com.

And now, my list.  It's definitely not scientific, and I'm limiting it to what white folks call "urban" music (or jungle music, depending on what circles are having the discussion).  These are mostly songs that got radio play, but album tracks that were absolutely untouchable are on here, too.

And fair warning--if you don't like Southern rap, this ain't the list for you.  This is what FMO likes, not the rest of the world.

Feel free to use the comments to tell me where I went wrong.

1.  Three 6 Mafia - Stay Fly
2.  Ying Yang Twins - Wait (The Whisper Song)
3.  Kanye West f/Jay-Z - Diamonds from Sierra Leone (rmx)
4.  Young Jeezy f/Jay-Z - Go Crazy (rmx)
5.  Purple Ribbon All-Stars - Kryptonite
6.  Bun B f/Pimp C., Young Jeezy, and Jay-Z- Get Throwed
7.  Damian Marley - Welcome to Jamrock
8.  The Game - Westside Story
9.  Nelly f/Paul Wall, Big Gipp, and Ali - Grillz
10.  Dem Franchise Boyz f/JD, Da Brat, and Bow Wow - I Think They Like Me
11.  Mike Jones - Back Then
12.  Lil Wayne - Fireman
13.  Common - Testify
14.  P$C - I'm a King
15.  Little Brother - Slow It Down
16.  Ludacris f/Field Mob - Georgia
17.  Webbie - Gimme Dat
18.  Youngbloodz - Presidential
19.  Jamie Foxx f/Ludacris - Unpredictable
20.  R. Kelly - The Trapped in the Closet Debacle

The only choice I'll explain is #1, "Stay Fly."  That wins for a simple reason--nothing this year jumped otu of the speaker like the 808's and guitar licks at three different parts of that song.  That excitement, the way I pump my fist with those kicks every time I hear them, gets that on top of the list.

Happy New Year.  Be easy.


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4:11:57 PM EST After about four years behind bars, UGK's Pimp C is out of jail.

But let's hold off on the celebration, unless you know him.

As a Texan, Pimp C is nothing short of legendary to me.  Aside from having the single most recognizable voice in rap music, his production work stands as some of the greatest ever.  Just ask Bun B how important the Pimp was to building the UGK sound.

But the "Free Pimp C" stuff should have been treated as little more than a marketing campaign.  While I believe that his punishment didn't truly fit the crime--all those years for showin someone a pistol--he did break the law.  We're not dealing with a political prisoner here.  We're dealing with a man that made a stupid mistake.

But that mistake is done.  Somebody just tell me when the next UGK record's coming out.


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1:56:24 PM EST

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2:32:50 PM EST Okay, you have no idea how slow it's been the last few days in the music world.  Everybody in the game seems to take off work at Christmas like regular folks, making my job really, really difficult.  Well, apparently Patrick Swayze heard I was having a hard time and decided to help me out.

Just click here.  You need do nothing more.

If he starts pop-locking in 'Dirty Dancin' 2,' I'll retire from all this.


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11:29:29 AM EST Minister Benjamin Chavis, the former director of the NAACP that then took a position with the Nation of Islam, has come forward to defend Foxy Brown against accusations that she was disrespectful of the judge during cour proceedings.

Chavis now has a prominent role in Russell Simmons' Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, giving him good reason to attend the trial.  The most interesting thing about this issue is how ignorant the judge appeared to be of Foxy's hearing loss, something that has made big news in hip hop circles.

How can a judge in a case not know the defendant is dealing with deafness?  What lawyer wouldn't make it known that her client couldn't hear?

Basically, which of the two of them makes too much money to make such a serious oversight?


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7:42:14 AM EST
Hearing Common - Testify Hip Hop rules...sorta.

Check Billboard's year-end singles chart.  Now check the magazine's year-end albums chart.

A couple of years ago, much was made about hip hop artists owning each of the top ten spots on the singles chart.  I even wrote a piece for a paper in Florida warning folks not to take that as anything more than an interesting factoid.  It surely didn't represent any high point of hip hop's quality.  That only measured acceptance.

Now, I wonder if it even measure acceptance.  Think about it--rap rules the singles charts, but that isn't nearly as strong on the albums chart.  What's that mean?  The masses still like hip hop in doses, but rarely enough to listen to albums and discover the depth of any given artist.

That's not quite something to celebrate.

So, again, the masses love hip hop for three minutes at a time.  Whether white folks really wanna sit down and appreciate an hour of the experience is debatable.


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10:39:26 AM EST Voletta Wallace, mother of Christopher, The Notorious B.I.G., gave an interesting interview to the folks at sohh.com.  Give it a look here.  Pretty interesting stuff.

Most interesting to me is how she covered her tracks about her incendiary statement in her book that Puffy loved her son "after he was dead."  Now, she's saying that she only came to realize that Puffy loved Biggie after death.  Big difference.

Small problem here.  That quote wound up being the one that pushed promotion of the book.  That was the quote that the publishing house and, I presume, the book's publicist saw and used to generate a buzz from the book.  If anyone took that quote out of context, I'd guess it was her folks.  And since it was her folks, she was in a position to shut that down if she felt the inclination.

But she didn't.  You can do the math on why she did that.

But I've listened to the Biggie duets.  Yawn.  First, Big just didn't have the swollen catalog that allows for all these posthumous releases.  In fact, let's just call them what they are--remixes.  All of these things are diluted by the inclusion of people that would never have worked with Big.  Puff's got records to sell, but this sort of release doesn't have to follow commercial trends and include who's "hot" right now.

Second, very little on here is amazingly dope.  It's just average fare, and that's such a problem.  Considering there are 12 year olds now trying to find out the big deal about this Biggie character, I demand that the posthumous stuff be stronger.  This is the sorta stuff that'll stop someone from copping 'Ready to Die.'

Solution to the problem--Bad Boy needs to launch someone's career.  Then, Puff'll have something else to eat off of.  If that happens, we won' thave to deal with more stuff like this.


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10:45:42 AM EST Man, it's a seriously slow week in the music world.  Perhaps people are too busy buying gifts to do anything interesting.  Or they've already started drinking for New Year's.  Or just don't care if I have a job to do.  Either way, I'm not winning.

On that note, check out Mary J. Blige.  Her new record, 'My Breakthrough,' is featured here on AOL so give it a gander.  How do I feel about it?  It's a tough call.  There have been times when I've listened to it and found it to be a solid effort--which is what I've said about each of her albums since the groundbreaking 'What's the 411?'  Other times, I just get tired of hearing her voice.

Granted, I'm not the biggest Mary fan, but that ain't exactly a good sign.  But at least there are no complaints about her hairline this go 'round.

Thoughts?


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9:19:35 AM EST
Hearing Sly and the Family Stone - Babies Making Babies (I know I'm a week behind on this, but it was a slow news weekend.)

So what's the difference between a fork and a knife?  A few years in jail, if you ask Young Buck.

Buck was under suspicion of attempted murder after planting something sharp in a man's chest during the Vibe Awards last year.  A man tried to rough up Dr. Dre, and Buck intervened.  At the time of the attack, it was widely reported that Buck stabbed the man with a steak knife.  But a knife found on the scene contanined DNA that didn't match Buck's.  Then, video showed that Buck was holding a fork instead of a knife.

Since it's pretty hard to kill someone by stabbing him or her in the chest with a knife, charges were reduced to assault and probation was issued.

That's actually the law doing what it should, but I have a secret--the man that starts swinging a fork around when the ruckus jumps off is looking for trouble.  What would he really do with a fork?  That was just the first thing he picked up as he went to his default reaction to a rumble--settin' it off.

Can you imagine what you'd do if someone tried to rob you with a fork?  Would you laugh?

And that, my friends, is that.

P.S.  These are the last two weeks of FMO.  I will be moving on to other opportunities in 2006, but I thank you all for reading.  For some of my other work, check out www.bomanijones.com.


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7:47:12 AM EST Word that Foxy Brown was experiencing hearing loss has circulated through the industry for months.  Finally, Foxy has spoken on the issue herself.  Though she broke down crying at different points, Foxy was able to tell the world that she has been totally without hearing for six months.

The sad thing is that I once joked to someone that her sorta offbeat flow on 112's "U Already Know" sounded like she was deaf or just not listening to the beat.  Who knew then how true that statement was?

I can't imagine what it would be like to not have one of the five major senses, particularly sight and hearing.  And to do that while trying to maintain a music career?  Amazing.

But how on earth were people able to let her know what sort of flow to take on a beat?  How could she even pretend to ride a beat?  Basically, how in the world has she managed to pull it off this far.

That she can even pretend to be on beat is absolutely amazing.  Here's wishing her the best in her recovery.


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