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NBC Busted for Sampling

I usually don’t watch Saturday Night Live, but last Saturday night I found myself in a hotel room in Columbia, SC watching it because honestly there wasn’t anything else better on TV. Anyway, the show featured LeBron James and Kanye West and for the most part proved to me that SNL still isn’t worth my time. The only thing that’s actually good on SNL lately have been the Digital Shorts produced by Andy Samberg. The one last Saturday was mildly funny and the song was actually pretty good, but the beat used was actually sampled from a British group by the name of Aphex Twin and NBC didn’t clear the sample, forcing them to pull all references to the skit from NBC.com, YouTube, and future broadcasts.

Compare the two YouTube videos:

SNL - Iran So Far

Aphex Twin - Avril 14th (sampled loop comes in at 1:27)

Hip-Hop sampling at its finest. But this time the sampler is NBC/Universal, who spends millions of dollars and hundreds of lawyers to stop the very same thing from happening. Karma is a bitch.

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Hot Ghetto Mess = The Paris Hilton of Black Outrage

So I don’t tend to get political on this site, but a couple of people have asked my opinion about the new BET show Hot Ghetto Mess and where shocked when I told them I was indifferent to the whole situation.

Why? Here’s the deal. I live in a city that has recorded its 96th murder of the year. Our schools are crumbling and don’t even have textbooks for kids, and over 20% of our children live in poverty. Meanwhile the Black unemployment rate is well over 10% in some cities and let’s not even go over the whole Hurricane Katrina thing.

But I ask….where’s the outrage??

Is Hot Ghetto Mess a disgusting and outrageous show? Probably. But I wouldn’t know because I stopped watching BET years ago and I don’t even know what channel it is on my cable box. But ish like this and Don Imus are distractions from the real outrage that is going on our community, just like cable news outlets use Paris Hilton and Anna Nichole Smith distract us the fact that 3600 US soldiers have died for an illegal war. Real talk.

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Dad Got HOSED People. Not Hos, Hosed

Has anyone seen that new Verizon commercial with Isiah Whitlock Jr from the Wire? It goes a little something like this:

Anyway, I was searching for the video on the Internet to send to a friend and came across message boards with questions like this:

Ok iz it me (probably) or in that new Verizon commercial when the kids ask what dad got did her really say “Dad got hoes” I mean what the hell is that supposed to mean?

No people. Dad got “hosed.” Not ho’s. Hosed. It seems like the Internets are about to erupt into a mini uproar about the whole situation. I can’t be too surprised. The term “hosed,” which the Urban Dictonary descrbies as “To deceive or trick somebody,” ain’t really a part of the black vernacular.

But what takes the cake is this tread on the Cocoa Lounge forum.:

That comment didn’t sit very well with me at all …. I over heard it on TV and when I looked back I didn’t see any socks in the Black man’s hand.. he looked at his children and begin walking away ..

This is very disrespectful … what is this commercial implying .. even if this commercial showed some socks in the black man’s hand .. I still believe it was not appropriate…

I guess that is why those who have childern need to monitor the shows they watch and what is viewed on television..

I will be sending a letter to verizon ….

But what, there’s more.

So the commercial could be saying in essence..that Black Men got Hoes..

Although I know it’s nothing new for the media to put the black man or race down but this is just to much .. what about the children that watch tv… when parents are not home .. umm single family house holds.. and they hear this .. what do they do .. take it to the streets and repeat…

Negro please. If the dude got ho’s for Christmas he would be jumping for joy like any respectable straight man would. Like I said before. Hosed, not ho’s. Say it out loud and repeat over and over again. Hosed, not ho’s. Sounds like an abstinence PSA, doesn’t it?

I would’ve personally wanted to see Whitlock bust out in his trademark “Sheeeeeeeeeeeeit,” at the end. That would’ve made me sign another two year contract with Verizon.

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Hip-Hop, Mixtapes, Music News, New Music

Baltimore is Having the Best Year Ever

Diablo - Round My Hood

powered by ODEO

Baltimore gets a lot of crap from people in DC, but the city as a whole is blowin’ up. First, there’s The Wire, one of the best shows on television, bringing the plights of inner-city B-more into homes around the world. Then, there’s Baltimore club, which is blowin’ up this year, thanks much in part to hipsters (but they are making the best music in 2006, so you can’t really front on them at all). You know that you’ve blown up when you have Baltimore Club parties in London and Stockhom.

In DC, we should be jealous. No one cares about go-go north of Laurel.

Of course, the New York Times, in their quest for hipness, has gotten on the train and written their own article about Baltimore. And non-Baltimore club hip-hop is set to blow up. I’ve been feelin’ Baltimore Club ever since I heard “There’s Some Ho’s In This House,” when I was living in North Carolina, but I’m definitely going to check Baltimore hip-hop. Diablo, who’s mentioned in the article is gonna be on the names of all the New York hipters now. I’m feelin’ his tracks but don’t know much about him. This particular track is from the Hampsterdam to Hollywood mixtape. If you don’t know about Hampsterdam, then you havn’t been watching The Wire.

Speaking of The Wire, my bad for not posting about The Wire screening and Q-and-A session with David Chase (series creator/producer) tonight in DC. Unfortunately at this point all the RSVP’s are taken, but they have a wait list that I suggest you get on. I’m pissed because I haven’t finished watching season 3 on DVD, so watching an episode from Season 4 is going to mess me up, but the Q-and-A will make up for that.

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Exclusive Flavor of Love Clip

Exclusive Flavor of Love Video (Quicktime)
Right click, and select save as for better results.

So yeah, the Couch Sessions is supposed to be about alternative culture, new music, anti-Clear Channel, and yada, yada yada. But even though I roll with what the people at XXL might call a pseudo-backpacker mentality, I gotta admit that I’m a fan of Flavor of Love.

Flav, is at it again. And VH1, seeing that they were pulling Chappelle’s show numbers with the show was happy to make it happen. The following clip is supposedly unedited video from an interracial lovefest (also known as a postfight argument) with two of the Flav’s new girls, “Htown” & “Saaphyr.” It looks like the ish is about to get rough. The second season of Flavor of Love premieres this Sunday at 10PM and I’m definitely tuning in. (Much thanks to JD for the clip.)

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I Watched Chappelle’s Show

So I watched The “Lost Episodes” of Dave Chappelle, episode 2. On bootleg of course,, just like Dave intended. For those who are waiting until Sunday, I’ll put my thoughts after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Neal Brennan disses Chappelle

Hot off the presses. Maxim magazine has an exclusive interview with Chappelle’s show co-writer Neal Brennan where he just straight up says that he would never work with Chappelle again.

Was it the insensitive laugh of a Chappelle’s Show crew member that caused beleaguered comedian Dave Chappelle to quit his hit Comedy Central show and bolt for a mental facility in South Africa last May? Apparently so. Neal Brennan, Chappelle’s writing partner of 10 years, tells the July issue of Maxim that a crew member’s hard laugh during a racially insensitive skit might have caused Chappelle to fly off the handle: “Well, this particular crew member had a condescending laugh- but that’s just the way he laughs,” Brennan tells Maxim. “But, yeah, that was Dave’s feeling, and you can't change someone’s feeling. ”

Although the lost Chapelle’s Show episodes will air on Comedy Central on July 9, Brennan tells Maxim that since the comedians bizarre departure, things were never the same. “What happened in the last year is the weirdest thing I can remember happening in TV, movies, or music. There’s no parallel,” Brennan says. “These lost episodes are the weirdest thing since Geraldo opened Al Capone’s vault. The audience likes them. The crew likes them. One of the people who wrote them likes them. But the guy who’s in them somehow didn't. I don't know what to make of it.”

And don't bet on a lovey-dovey reunion between the two ex-pals anytime soon. When asked if Brennan would ever work with Chappelle again, the response was crystal clear: “No. There’s no chance.”

I'm sure that Brennan has a right to be pissed. He’s out of work. But damn, I'm sure that there is more to this whole saga than originally thought. Charlie Murphy still has kind words to say to the dude though.

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Chappelle’s Show with no Chappelle?

Nah Right reports that Comedy Central is currently shooting the live studio audience segments of the “new season” of Chappelle’s show this week. Instead of Chappelle, co-writer Neal Brennan will host, along with Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings.

I don’tknow exactly how this is all gonna work. Neil and Dave fell out when Dave left the show. I remember Charlie saying something about how he was pissed that Dave left as well. Are they going to act as if nothing happened, or are they going to address the whole incident directly? I wonder.

I’m not gonna diss Chappelle or Comedy Central. Chappelle wanted creative freedom. Comedy Central wanted to make sure that they invested their $50 million wisely. Something had to give.

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The Boondocks Takes a Break

Aaron McGruder, creator of the beloved Boondocks comic is taking a six month break from the highly syndicated strip, starting in March.

“Every well needs occasional refreshing,” he wrote in a letter to be sent to editors of newspapers carrying the strip. “I hope that this fall you will agree that the time away from the demands of deadlines has served the strip, your readers and me.”

McGruder offered no further explanation and declined interviews. His editor at Universal Press Syndicate, Greg Melvin, said McGruder simply needed a break.

The last comic before the hiatus will be printed on March 26th and after that, newspapers will either print older Boondocks comments or a replacement comic.

(I actually got word of this late last night, cause I wasn’tpaying attention during the day. Actually, the exact words from my source were “McGruder is pulling a Chappelle.”)

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Dave Chappelle on Oprah

Like a lot of other people, I missed seeing Dave Chappelle on Oprah today. But I heard it was a really really good interview. Best Week Ever posted some clips on YouTube.com. Here they are:

Clip 1
Clip 2
Clip 3

Thanks to ConcreteLoop for the heads up.

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