(Verb.) is Verdant in the game yet Visceral in Lyricism.

Verb. It's what you do! And what you should do is cop this album by Philadelphia rapper, Verbatum Jones. The debut EP, titled (verb.), focuses on the life and background of a fresh young voice on the up and up in Philly, a city which has become my Paris, but that's a story for another time.

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(verb.) has a nice pace to it, beginning with an instrumental track, "Canus Lupis", which I would guess is derived from the Latin term for the wolf, a hungry and ambitious animal. Though wolves are wild, the beat on this track is calming, perhaps it is a wolf in sheep's clothing. I'll save the rest of my analysis for English class and tell you that this track is just perfect for setting the mood for a real cool and easy listen to the whole album without really jumping from song to song. Jones' laid back tone and delivery style really complement that sentiment. The one thing that rubbed me the wrong way, however, is that I did have to skip over "Crave You". I absolutely love the sample from Flight Facilities, but I just find this arrangement to be kind of weighty with all of the echoes.
Overall, this album is a nice escape from the usual braggadocio of rappers such as Childish Gambino; no disrespect of course. Verbatum Jones is in a similar vein, but he seems to be aware of his imperfections; it's endearing. This is a solid introduction to who he is as an artist, and I'm looking forward to getting to know him better as he grows in music. My top three tracks from this EP are "Memories" (totally sounds like it was influenced by Blu and Exile's Below the Heavens), "Hillcrest Park" and "24 Bars." Oh! and "Look Around". I would play that at a party.

                   

DAMMIT GOOGLE!

YOU ARE GOING TO CRY WHEN YOU SEE THIS:

This commercial brought me to tears. I don't know what it was, maybe the spirit of being self sufficient and then spreading what you know to the people around you. it encapsulated what the internet is essentially about, then tied it with the natural Kenyan community feeling, then this dude's genuineness just f**kin pushed me over the edge.

I feel you Raphael, I feel you.

Is this going to be a post about relationships? Yes, naturally. This song is about that level you get to in a cohabitating relationship where it's like. "You're mine. Forever. That's it. I know everything about you and I'm still not sick of you. I'm never gonna get tired of you." (This is a template for my wedding vows. I'm still spit balling ideas.)

Real Talk, Keke; Real Talk

I heard this on Degrassi the other night when Keke and Sav had a little thing going on. Who else laughed when Sav got on stage and danced with a little too much arm action? I think this is gonna be a good season. Let's hope Drew survives the wrath of thugnificent and his boys. And I'm counting down until KC leaves Jenna alone with that baby. I'm mad they named him Tyson too lol.  And Eli? Goddamn. I feel sorry for him. and Anya needs to get her act together.

Oh yeah this song has been stuck in my head since Monday so uh.... I wish I was 14 again so I could do these moves and show off on the playground. I'm too old for that now, but not too old for these lyrics. I can relate... kinda. I wouldn't wait up for some guy to call me just because he was tired of his girl. If he misses me, he already missed his chance. I feel you, Keke.

I can't be the only one who feels this way.

I ABSOLUTELY love Beyoncé. I defended her choice back in the day  to give Farrah, Latavia and Letoya the sparkly, animal- print Mama Tina boot. I supported her when she left DC and learned all the words to Dangerously in Love and still butcher it in the shower from time to time. She's everything I kinda want to be but I know that I would never try because I'd hate myself for it because no one can ever be her. That's without a doubt. And I thought I'd give a biased positive review of her latest album 4 because of it, but c'mon, son, I can't even deny how crappy it sounds!
To me, it's like her producer said "Hey Beyoncé, I got a whole bunch of beats for your album, you don't have to listen to them, trust me. They're good. Just write the songs, you know what,  Don't even write any songs, just sing what you feel when you get in the booth." This music lacks melody, and the lyrics sound under arranged.Take "Countdown" for example. It's a mess of horns  and then this snare just comes out of nowhere in the hook, at least I think the part where she is counting down is the hook. And then "End of Time," I think she ran out of lyrics and decided to just keep saying "Say you'll never let me go/Say you'll never let me go/Say you'll never let me go" Seriously? What inspired this album? It makes me sad. Especially since I am positive they will get major airplay and no one will even question the weakness of this album. As long as Beyoncé keeps making good videos and having great performances.
Honestly, I respect Beyoncé in all aspects; her image, her performance quality, her voice- everything but her weak lyrics and her continual decline in production choices. After B'day things have gone downhill. Sasha Fierce had decent beats and catchiness, so I enjoyed Sweet Dreams, Put a Ring on it, Diva, etc. (the I Am... part was another story. I hated it.) But 4 seriously needs help. I can't even name one song I like. There are lesser evils, like "Party" ft. Kanye West & Andre 3000, "Best Thing I Never Had"and "I Was Here". But that's all I can say. I probably wouldn't like those songs if they had better songs surrounding them. This album was subpar at best. What happened Beyoncé? Is it the new management? Mathew, for the love of pop music please come get your daughter!

This album gets 2 stars to Sasha Fierce's 3.5 and B'day's 5.

The Theophilus London Concert

Photo by Nathan Bajar

was pretty cool the other night. Brooklyn Museum however, is not the place for concerts. It was tight and hot, the acoustics were crap, and the level of the ground made seeing the low ass stage very difficult. Not to mention whoever was in charge of audio should have turned Theophilus's mic way up. There was a live band doing instrumentals for his songs, which made his performance of "Flying Overseas" sound amazing with the guitar. The bass sounded so dope for "Why Even Try"also. And when he performed "GIRLS, GIRLS $" the crowd went WILD turkey.

He gave out a bunch of free T-shirts and Hats, they even made it rain on the audience with real money. Theophilus came out in a sparkly hat and jacket looking like a smoother version of Flavor Flav. And one girl said "He is so sexy to me," The things a flashy suit and some swag can do for a man. I'm tellin' ya. And the audience seemed to share his level of style. All the boys were intermittently chanting "SWAG,SWAG,SWAG!"  Someone said every girl in there was a 10. He was right. The guys looked good, but the girls looked great. As a whole, Brooklyn sure knows how to do it.

***

Photo by Nathan Bajar

So my sister and I were in the audience trying to figure out how I could give him the "Lovers" bracelet I had made him. We were in the back of the room contemplating when these girls near us said, "just go up there, he's mad cool about it." We pushed our way to the front, along with a bunch of other girls rushing the stage,  and we finally made our way up and got to go on stage :). We were dancing and then I pulled the black bracelet out and yelled " I made this for you!" I shoved it in his hand and he put it in his pocket. Then I jumped off stage and ran back to the girls who encouraged me to go up there. They were on a platform dancing. I joined them and gave one of them the white "lovers" bracelet. 
The next day my sister tweeted Theophilus about the bracelet and he replied:

Feels good, man.

Kanye West- See Me Now (feat. Beyoncé "Nigga" Knowles + Charlie Wilson)

"If you fall on the concrete, that's yo asphalt..."

I QUITE LIKE THIS song. I do have a love/hate thing going on with Kanye, however. Ever since that Taylor Swift thing I've been having to defend him quite often and I'm growing to resent that. Plus, I didn't really like POWER besides that amazing beat, for which Mr. West is not responsible. Talk about letdown. I like RUNAWAY, and by the looks of his performances of that song, the red-suited devil motif juxtaposed with delicate ballerinas is really interesting. (By the way, is Pusha T of the Clipse no longer with his broham? Is he a part of G.O.O.D. now?) 

Anyway this song, SEE ME NOW, has been on the radio for the past couple of weeks and is one of the current few songs I don't mind hearing. And of course, Beyoncé's blatant "Nigga" is bleeped out. I for one am not really against using the word. In fact, every morning I climb up to my roof and repeatedly yell nigga at the top of my voice. It really clears my esophageal tract, and reminds my neighbors of who is black on our street.

But is it just me or does this remind you of JLo's nigga incident of 2001 in I'm Real? For some reason it was okay for Big Pun [RIP] to say it, but when JLo did it the record scratched to a pause and everyone stopped dancing. By the same token, we are aware that Beyoncé is a black girl from Houston, and yet it feels so scandalous when she says it. To me it sounds like she deliberately requested say it really loud right smack dab in the chorus like "Yeah, take that! Niggas!!" Maybe there's a political reason why she did it. Maybe she was doing it for JLo? 

Then again, I feel like I should also cite that she said nigga in the song Irreplaceable; only then it was hidden deep in the lyrics and is barely audible unless you listen closely. "If I bought it nigga please don't touch..."  Maybe since we didn't hear her that time, she wanted to make sure we hear it this time. 

So, by the will of Queen Beyoncé, let the word Nigga be heard loudly and clearly, amidst the rest of this great tune.