I'm a little late...but I said I'd write a blog about this website, GlobalGrind.com and here it is. This website, which is co-signed by Russell Simmons, uses RSS Feeds to put all of your favorites sites onto one page. I didn't know what an RSS feed was before I started using this....its that little orange symbol you see sometimes when you go to websites. Its hard to explain, but it basically updates whatever you plug the "feed" into automatically. So, if you clicked on my blog, and clicked the link that says "rss" on the top, it would give you a url and then you copy and paste it, and then you can add it to your GlobalGrind page and you can have my blog updates come right to you! I had to use that example, haha. I didn't do the RSS feed for a while, because its kind of confusing, but whats great about GlobalGrind.com is that when you go to the site, they ask what you're interested in, whether it be, music, news, gossip, movies, sports, politics, spirituality, whatever it is, you check those boxes, and it creates a page for you that has different tabs for all these categories. Every day, they post up a new video of the day, and a new blog of the day. Its great because it brings the news to YOU, rather than you going out to find it (this goes out to all ya'll who can't stand searching for info but love to read it when its been brought to u!). I just saw an article on it in Business Week, so this site is really picking up, so I figured it was about time I let ya'll know about it. Check it out and tell me what you thought, the site is really addicting once you give it a chance.

Saw this really quick and thought I'd post a quick blog about it....Chris Rock was quoted saying to Rolling Stone:

"Music kind of sucks. Nobody's into being a musician. Everybody's getting their mogul on. You've been so infiltrated by this corporate mentality that all the time you'd spend getting great songs together, you're busy doing nine other things that have nothing to do with art. You know how shitty Stevie Wonder's songs would have been if he had to run a fuckin' clothing company and a cologne line? Rap sucks, for the most part. Not all rap, but as an art form it's just not at its best moment."

I see his point. How are we supposed to make good music if we concentrating on designing clothes, creating liquor, doing movies, endorsement deals with all kinds of companies, AND trying to record a solid album??? Sadly, this is how rap has been surviving, and more importantly, this is the only way to keep up with the trends other rappers have started. Consumers won't think you're successful if you don't have an endorsement deal with somebody, or have your own brand of something. Thats what we've gotten used to, and now its become a standard, not an exception. Its too bad, because rap has produced some amazing music in the past three decades, and I think Chris Rock has a great point, lets get back to the music instead of trying to tackle 101 things.

Has anyone seen American Gangster yet?? I'm going this weekend (I'm bout to get paaaiddd) and I can't wait. I'm bout to buy the CD tomorrow too. I heard Jay-Z auditioned for American Gangster and didn't get the part, and then offered to dot he soundtrack and they wouldn't let him, which is why he is releasing his own CD around the same time as the movie. Crazy right? Hov is going to be on Sirius with his own radio show all week. It starts today (Nov. 5) and, you all know the album drops tomorrow. The show will feature Jay-Z's performance at the House of Blues in Chicago (which sold out in less than 60 seconds, some mixtapes, and a top 20 countdown all hosted by Jigga himself. Sounds pretty cool right? Its still not enough to get me to play for satellite radio, lmao

Hope everyone had a safe Halloween, and a fun one of course. If you guys went out what'd you dress up? I went as a b-girl with a couple of my girls..it was fun. I found a couple of ridiculous celebrity costumes that I had to post...please forgive me if these pictures are old, I did the best I could to find recent ones. Who's was the worst? I pick Heidi and Spencer. And the best? I can't choose haha.


Ice T & CoCo




Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from "The Hills"





Audrina Patridge from "The Hills"




Lauren Conrad from "The Hills"




Christina Millian





Christina Aguilera




.........And I saved the worst for last..........




Britney Spears (what if she even supposed to be?!)


Anyone have any more???

Hey everyone, rushing out of work to hit up some clubs for Halloween...just wanted to wish you all a safe and happy night.....one love to my hoooomieeesss lol

More Graphics at pYzam.com

In case you didn't know before....Talib Kweli has filmed 10 episodes for Blacksmith TV that follow him on tour and at the Rock The Bells tour. The first episode was posted last night (and below courtesy of your favorite DJ), its called "Brooklyn's Changing" I don't know about you..but he looks kind of awkward in it don't you think? This is great for Talib though, I'm glad he's doing promo like this and more and more people know who he is than ever. Keep doin your thing TK, we love you. What do you guys think of Episode 1? If you like it, let me know and I'll try to post all the episodes.

A little somethin' for everybody, since I didn't blog yesterday:

I want to start by saying I hope the people who vandalized Tupac's statue get caught, although it probably won't happen. I was going to blog about it but I found a blog that is written better than I ever could, so please check out this blog Tupac Amaru Shakur's Statue. R.I.P. Pac, we miss you.

Prodigy is serving 3 1/2 years after his car was searched and an unlicensed .22 caliber pistol was found. He did an interview with DJ Whoo Kid, saying that he's going to hold off releasing his album HNIC 2, that was set to be out early 2008. He wants mixtapes to drop while he serves time, and to release the album once he's out. He also said the police offered him a shorter sentence if he would plant evidence in 50's car. Prodigy turned them down...I hate 50 Cent and what he stands for...but Prodigy...thats a real dude right there. Here's the link to the interview Whoo Kid interviews Prodigy

Pharrell is talking new N.E.R.D. album, and he promises something a little different this time around. He said last album, "Fly or Die" (2004), they were TOO consistent, and we all know we love N.E.R.D. because we never know what to expect, so keep an eye out for that, its called N*R*3*D*. Skateboard P says its "Red Bull on growth hormones" Check out the interview here


And, here's some crazy news. Diddy has inked a 50/50 deal one of Diageo PLC's superpremium products, Ciroc Vodka (yea, I said 50/50!). He's going to oversee building the brand from scratch, and promises something crazy. Don't hate sayin' he's going to be sitting on his ass test tasting vodka...he's going to be developing marketing plans for the liquor, deciding where to sell it, and who to sell it to. If the brand is successful, this could be a multimillion dollar deal for Diddy. Heyyy, pass the....Ciroc???? I love Diddy as a businessman, he's a tastemaker in the industry and has a lot of people's respect. Diddy says marketing the Ciroc Vodka line will have his daily attention...congrats Diddy, and thank God he probably won't have time to release another album anytime soon lmao. And, just a little rumor for you reality TV junkies...I'm hearing Diddy is set to have a reality show on VH1 that follows him as he interviews tons of people to be his new assistant...I can't even be mad at that, you know that's gonna be CRAZY!

I decided to do something a little different today...I was talking with someone earlier today about an article they had seen on globalgrind.com about ring tone rappers who come out with that one hott song that makes a great ring tone and then disappears. Some label heads even have artists approaching them saying, "I got a song that would make a GREAT ring tone!" Even Jermaine Dupri, who we all love, admits to signing Dem Franchise Boys because he knew they'd make a great ring tone hit. That's kind of sad, don't you think? What do these rappers do once they make that one hit. Look at Soulja Boy who is having some crazy success lately, but who really thinks he'll sell albums? He says he went into the studio knowing every song he recorded had to have single potential, but isn't that the point of selling albums in the first place? Does he think that Mims didn't do that, after he had a platinum ring tone with "This is Why I'm Hot" but then only sold 290,000 copies of his album "Music is My Savior." Or, who remembers Young Dro and his song "Shoulder Lean" which told more than two million copies of ring tones, but hasn't had a top 10 hit since then. Even I forgot about him until his song randomly popped up on my iPod yesterday. Rich Boy's "Throw Some D's" went platinum, he was the hottest thing out earlier this spring, but his album only sold 345,000. Of course, album sales are slipping in general, but these are some pretty low numbers for people who are having platinum or multi platinum singles! So, I posted some pictures of some one hit wonders we've had recently (at least within the past year or two) and I want to see if you know who's who. Most people can recognize the song but don't know one from the other because they don't stay around long enough! Post your answers as a comment and I'll post the right answers tomorrow night. Good luck ;-) DON'T CHEAT!!



A) B) C) D) E) F)
G)

Alright ya'll, if you had mixed feelings about Nas wanting to relese an album called "Nigga," read this and see how you feel after. He's atleast gotten me to understand why he is choosing to name his album this, even through all the controversy over it. First, and most importantly, Nas claimed in an interview with MTV, that Def Jam didn't say that he didn't have an album coming out, that this was a rumor. But, after his greatest hits album drops November 6, he plans to release a single off the new album which drops December 11. One more important piece of information...Nas is changing the name to "Nigger," from "Nigga." Why? In Nas' own words:

"I wanna make the word easy on mutha----as' ears," he explained. "You see how white boys ain't mad at 'cracker' 'cause it don't have the same [sting] as 'nigger'? I want 'nigger' to have less meaning [than] 'cracker.' With all the bullsh-- that's going on in the world, racism is at its peak. I wanna do the sh-- that's not being done. I wanna be the artist who ain't out. I wanna make the music I wanna hear.

"We're taking power [away] from the word," he added. "No disrespect to none of them who were part of the civil-rights movement, but some of my n---as in the streets don't know who [civil-rights activist] Medgar Evers was...but...they know who Nas is. And to my older people who don't now who Nas is and who don't know what a street disciple is, stay outta this mutha----in' conversation. We'll talk to you when we're ready. Right now, we're on a whole new movement. We're taking power [away] from that word."

I feel him on that...we need to stop making ourselves victim to a word, but if we're going to do it, I think we need to do it as one. With the NAACP and Jesse Jackson in particular calling Nas out, we are divided. I'm glad we have someone like Nas who's been around for a while now, and that is growing with us, rhyming about politics that matter to us. The whole article is on GlobalGrind.com in their "Welcome" tab, check it out....What does everyone think?

wtf else is new, right? C-Murder will be on trial February 11 to be tried a second time for second-degree murder. As you all know, on January 12, 2002, the rapper was accused of shooting 16 year old Steve Thomas at a Louisiana nightclub (even thought he club was 18+ for women and 21+ for men). Originally he was tried for first degree murder but that was thrown out because there was no way to determine that it was premeditated. His 2003 conviction of second degree murder was tossed in March 06 after prosecutors withheld criminal background information of the witnesses. If C-Murder is found guilty of second-degree murder on Feb. 11 he faces a life sentence without parole. Lets pray this thing gets settled and C-Murder stops getting tossed back and forth. Whether he is guilty or not, no man deserves to be sent back and forth like that.