Supernova - Mr. Hudson and Kanye West

I really like something about this song.

Also Deserving of More of My Time

Veteran Journalist Gary Washburn has a blog and has a truly terrific take on Kanye West and Michael Jordan.

In case you missed Jordan's HOF Induction speech, it was a little confusing. And, as the critics keep referring to it, petty. Mainly because he took shots at all the dudes that opposed him. From Byron Russell, to Jeff Van Gundy, to Isaiah (somewhat), Iceman George Gervin, DEAN SMITH....It was pretty bad. Jordan apologists found somewhat to validate such behavior, but I didn't think it was all that great. Maybe it was honesty, maybe it was a look into the man who Jordan has been and always will be. More importantly, that's really what makes Jordan, Jordan: a guy who always wanted to prove he was better, down to the last minute. It was just long-winded. And pointless. We all know you were better than everyone else. Hence the six rings dude. And the multi-million dollar brand. And the legacy. And the retired number.

But I digress. Gary Washburn has some great . Here are the highlights.

Jordan treated his basketball Hall of Fame speech like Martin Lawrence in the infamous "Pretty Ricky" episode of the 90s series "Martin". If you didn't catch that classic segment, Martin attends to his 10-year high school reunion with a checklist of people he plans to avenge for their mistreatment a decade ago. After winning "Man of the Year" from his classmates, Martin essentially disses the award because he admits he never liked any of his classmates, especially arch rival Ricky Fontaine, or "Pretty Ricky," who took his prom date.

Isiah Thomas revived the role of "Pretty Ricky" as Jordan recalled when Thomas and several other all-stars decided to "freeze" him out of the 1985 All-Star Game because they were jealous of Jordan's new-found stardom and felt the rookie hadn't paid his dues. He then added rivals to the list as if he were shopping for a Super Bowl party. Dean Smith for not inviting him to pose for a Sports Illustrated cover, check. Pat Riley for not allowing the Knicks players to fraternize with Jordan before playoff games, check. Leroy Smith for the heinous act of accepting an invitation to join the varsity team at Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C. while Jordan didn't receive one, check.

Less than 48 hours later, West jumps on stage (where is the security here?) at the MTV Video Awards grabs the microphone out country singer Taylor Swift's hands and proclaims Beyonce as the real winner of the best female video. He then hands the microphone back to the shell shocked Swift and then walks off the stage, as if he just solved the health care debate.

But people have spent the weekend complaining about both acts, and honestly neither Jordan nor West would have been successful with strictly humility. Jordan told friends he would become a shoe icon while he was at North Carolina.

West complained when his "College Dropout" CD was not given prestiguous five-star rating by Rolling Stone magazine and threatened to never to grant a cover story again. We didn't complain then. We kept buying his CDs, calling his stunning acts of pompousness a mere personality trait, not a concern that needed to be addressed.

It starts with young people judging each other for their material goods and looks, and it ends, unfortunately, with talented artists and athletes unable to control their own emotions because they have been allowed to fester and smoulder too long. It may be too late to save MJ and Kanye West, but this should serve as a lesson for all of us to stop encouraging such behavor and excusing it as genius.

Check the whole thing here.

Kanye? A Jerk? *Gasp*

I'm absolutely annoyed with all of these people who seemingly discovered that, *gasp* Kanye is a raging douchebag. As if all of the other outbursts didn't confirm that. I could care less what he does. The "George Bush doesn't care about black people," various stunts he's pulled in Europe, Grammy fiascos...oh and the whole Kanye Being Crucified Rolling Stone cover that was outright blasphemy?

hmmmm and the most outrage comes from a stunt he pulls on the VMAs????

This is a sad indication of where our society is. He upstages Taylor Swift (who I didn't know about until this moment - I actually thought they were talking about that gray haired dude Taylor that won American Idol a while back; we will not get into the failed logic behind this assumption) and suddenly the world and celebs everywhere are outraged. And then my twitter and facebook are flooded with said outrage. And the news. Even the president was outraged. But I don't recall such outrage for Kanye's blaspheme.

What's almost as funny is the fact that this was apparently the MTV VMAs. You know, MTV, the show that used to play music videos but is focused on reality TV and stupid, mindless crap. So this award has all of the prestige that comes with a music video channel that pretends to play music videos, but doesn't. So who cares if Beyonce should have won, but Taylor Swift won instead. This makes: (a) Kanye West an idiot for feeling some type of validity or prestige was being bestowed by this award; and (b) everyone else an idiot for caring about what Kanye did at some less-than-legitimate award show. If this was the Grammy's maybe I'd care. But lets face facts, Kanye has-been/is/will-always-be a raging douchebag. This was not the icing on the cake, not the cherry on top, nor the first indication, or the last time this will happen.

And despite all that, despite being in the golden era of the decline of music purchases, he'll still go platinum with his next album. Mark my words.

Colbert vs. Kanye

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Operation Humble Kanye

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Kanye West

I didn't really know how to feel about 808's and Hearbreak, especially considering I hate the Auto-Tune movement (see Akon, T-Pain, Lil Wayne + T-Pain = T Wayne, that song that Snoop Dogg did, that was funny but kind of got old fast).

I heard a few of the songs a while back, both the first and second version of Heartless, and a few others.

Then I got the album. And I was still confused.

And then Kanye came out with the "I'm the voice of this generation" comment.

Stephen Colbert said it best the other day

"With all the auto-tuning on your records, you're barely the voice of your own albums," Colbert explained. "You want to be the voice of a generation? Get in line. It goes me, Obama Girl, the freecreditreport.com guys - then it's a tie between you and Crocs."

Hilarious. But after a few whirls, it's grown on me. I'll say this, if it wasn't Kanye making this album, no one would be listening to it. It's like he gets a creative pass. But songs like "Paranoid," "Robocop," (yes Annabeth, I attribute this song to you) and "Street Lights" are amazing.

The album has a lot of low-points in my opinion. It's not his best work, but it is art nonetheless, which Kanye said was his intention.

Pitchfork has a good review on it. What was the point of this post? I dunno. Listen to the album and judge it for yourself, I'm too lazy to write anything else.

(5) Songs to Listen To - 11/24/08

My mp3 player is working. So I'll do the all Kanye addition since his album dropped today.

1) School Spirit - The College Dropout
2) Flashing Lights f/ Dwele - Graduation
3) Gone f/ Cam'Ron and Consequence - Late Registration
4) Grammy Family f/ Consequence and John Legend - Some Compilation I Forget the Name to
5) I See Now f/ Little Brother - Some CD I can't remember the name to

Jockin Jay-Z

BLUEPRINT 3 from kwest on Vimeo.

At Rock the Bells, Kanye premiered a new beat. And then out comes Jay-Z.

Also, hints at Blueprint 3.

The beat is actually pretty dope, albeit stripped down, and really minimal. But Kanye keeps making hits. I think it's been about 6 or 7 years since College Dropout dropped.....and he has yet to really disappoint.

We'll keep an eye out.