A “House of Cards” is bound to fall at some point, but the route that dude takes in the video is never the answer. Did I mention that I like the video? So far they’re 2 for 2. I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again…Get Familiar. The Group: The Foreign Exchange The Album: Leave It All Behind
Just in case you never saw it, or you did and just want to see it again, here’s the video for “Take Off The Blues / Valediction”.
In the upcoming October issue of XXL magazine Mr. Carter discusses his reign as President of Def Jam records, compares himself to The Beatles and also talks about how he’d beat Jesus in an arm wrestling match because he’s God MC Jay-Hova. Oh yeah, he also responds to the criticism he’s received in regards to his first single off of The Blueprint 3, “D.O.A.“….
“I’m not hating on young people. Like, when people say that, I’m like, What are you talking about? It’s just stupid. I’m not hating on young people… I’m not Bill Russell, [saying] Michael Jordan ain’t shit. I’m saying Lil Wayne and Kanye are like LeBron and Kobe. My job as someone at the forefront of the game is to leave it in a better position than when I came in. Same way that Russell [Simmons] left it to me. ’Cause this thing saved my life. Literally. So I have a responsibility to it karmically. And after that it’s on you. I did my part. I made ‘D.O.A.’ I said it. I made the statement. I made the push. Here, y’all take it from here.”
I never felt like Jay was hating on young people in “D.O.A.”, I actually think he was hating on one person in particular….but I’ll go more into that in an upcoming post. Anywho, to read more excerpts from the interview go to XXLmag.com.
….sounds just like this to me.
Okay, I lied…he sounds like that damn near every time I hear him. I haven’t really been a fan of John Legend’s music since his first CD…which I think happens to be his best.
Bonus:
Here are a few songs that I have in my iTunes library that weren’t on any of his albums…at least I think they weren’t.
John Legend – Selfish
John Legend – Just In Time
Okay, so about a month ago Kelis was awarded $55,000 per month in child and spousal support from Nas. Remember how everybody thought that was just ridiculous? Well in the words of Sticky Fingaz “But, but, but, but wait it gets worse!” Last week it was revealed that court documents were recently filed by Kelis’ team of lawyers, in which they reviewed the earnings of both Nas and Kelis and decided that Nas should just remove his balls and hand them over to Kelis.
Oh yeah, they also pulled a ton of numbers out of their ass and determined the following…
1.) Nas pulls in $244,826 a month.
How I don’t know…tour money must be the ish. Btw he sucked at the Rocked The Bells tour here in Chicago…I literally fell asleep for a few minutes during his performance.
2.) Kelis pulls in $13,744 a month.
How I don’t know…no seriously…..I’m really trying to figure out how.
3.) Kelis should get child support totaling $17,225 a month.
Huh!?! It’s a fuckin’ baby! I’m a grown ass man and I don’t need that much money per month to survive…if I did I would’ve been dead a long time ago because I damn sure don’t make it.
4.) Kelis should get spousal support totaling $72,728.
No, Kelis should get a fuckin’ job. You greedy low down dirty stank ass B!#ch. That is all.
5.) Nas should pay retro child support totaling $29,522.
Okay this is just getting stupid. The child was just born a few months ago…he doesn’t even eat solid food yet!! His diet consist of milk. Fuckin’ milk…maybe some apple sauce or other saucy form of baby food.
6.) Nas should pay retro spousal support totaling $281,571.
Now at this point she needs to hire some serious security. She’s just crossed into the “I might as well kill this B!#ch” zone. I’m sure Nas is pricing out hitman right now. Damn near $300,000 in retro spousal support!?! He could have her professionally killed 3 times for that amount of money….not that I would support that.
Oh well, I guess you can add this to Kelis’ playlist…
Calloway – I Wanna Be Rich
I’m sure this is the song that plays when her alarm clock goes off every morning.
Apathy – True Love Ft. Phonte
I’ve never heard of Apathy before this, but I’ll give anything a listen if it involves anybody from the Little Brother/Foreign Exchange/J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League crew. This features Phonte so it was a must listen for me. I’m glad I checked this out because the shit is pretty dope. Apathy’s upcoming album is titled Wanna Snuggle?, that’s hilarious….to me.
Birdman aka Baby – Money To Blow Ft. Drake & Lil’ Wayne
Ummm this song is old. The original version came out over a year ago…before everybody set up permanent residency on Drizzy’s balls. Anywho, the original was made by some guy named Jerz Y.A. and it featured Drake ——> Jerz Y.A. – Money To Blow Ft. Drake
Estelle – All Nite Long Ft. John Legend & Ludacris
I don’t know what to say about this song….okay, yes I do. This song sucks. Estelle is sing-rapping, John Legend sings the tired ass chorus and Ludacris’ verse just seems out of place and unnecessary. Btw I hate when people spell ‘night’ this way —> nite.
Drake – Killer Ft. Nipsey Hussle
I fux wit this. I’ve never listened to anything with Nipsey Hussle on it before this….I just couldn’t get pass the name.
Shawty Lo – A Town Ft. Ludacris, Gucci Mane & The-Dream
This is obviously supposed to be an Atlanta rap anthem….I think they could’ve went harder.
…featuring Kanye West and Rihanna.
After 3 completely unnecessary previews, the video for Jay-Z’s “California Love” “Run This Town” is finally here. I thought there would’ve been more hype surrounding the release of the video for “D.O.A.“, but everybody’s been salivating over the premiere of this video…I don’t get it. But just in case you’re wondering, I actually like the song…and the video.
Bonus:
You should already have these…
Jay-Z – D.O.A. (Death of Auto-tune)
Jay-Z – Jockin’ Jay-Z
The album cover, official tracklist and my thoughts (so far) on The Blueprint 3 can be found after the jump.
1.) I REALLY like the cover for this album. It’s a complete departure from the standard “Hey I’m Jay-Z, here’s a random head shot or pose” album cover he’s used for the last 10 albums.
2.) I HATE that he named this album The Blueprint 3. I figured he would’ve left well enough alone after The Blueprint 2, but I guess not. Am I the only one that feels like there shouldn’t be any sequels to classic albums?
3.) Out of the 15 tracks on this album, 11 of them have guest appearances. Go back and look at Jay’s discography…his best albums, Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint and The Black Album, which are considered classics, had a very small number of songs with guest appearances. The albums that were flooded with guest appearances were good…but they weren’t great. More Jay + Less Guests = Better Album
4.) Track number 5 is titled, “Empire State of Mind” and it features Alicia Keys….where in the hell is Nas?
…so what in the hell makes him think that he can sell sneakers?
You probably heard about Fat Joe’s plan to release a pair of cheap ass ‘recession friendly’ sneakers a while back and thought they’d never see the light of day. Well, it appears that the gym shoe formerly known as The Recession has been renamed The Blackout and will be available exclusively through Sears and K-Mart.
Thanks Joe, this is just what the people have been waiting for…a rapper to release a pair of ‘budget friendly’ sneakers. Underprivileged children across America are rejoicing because now they don’t have to wear a pair of cheap ass, ugly, no-name gym shoes from K-mart. Instead, they can wear a pair of cheap ass, ugly, Fat Joe gym shoes from K-mart. All of the ridicule from children with name brand shoes will come to an end now. This is truly heaven sent. That little ‘TS’ symbol, which I’m assuming stands for ‘Terror Squad’, will without a doubt garner the same amount of respect as the Jordan logo, the Nike swoosh, the 3 stripes, The Puma, etc.
Fat Joe needs to get a clue…and a personal trainer (I could use a personal trainer too…but at least I have a clue). Hey Joe, I’m not sure if you know this, but this whole “I’m a rapper so I should drop a shoe” idea has been done before and the results haven’t always been the greatest….
The Disciples (310 Motoring) – Nas
I’m pretty sure you forgot about these. Well, that’s if you ever heard of them in the first place. *begin sarcasm* After making billions of dollars from his involvement with the Willie Esco clothing line, Nasir decided to venture off into the realm of footwear. The shoes were named after his hit single “Disciple” off of the multi-platinum album, Street’s Disciple, which garnered critical praise and is considered a classic.*end sarcasm* Okay, so needless to say the album and the shoes were a complete failure. Word of advice to Nas and other rappers: Don’t name your shoes after a song…especially if it wasn’t even a popular one to begin with.
The Hurricane (310 Motoring) – The Game
You already know how I feel about this guy. He’s such a lame, leave it up to Jayceon to design a pair of shoes in 2005 that look like they came out in 1985. It would be different if that was the look he was going for, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the case. These basically look like a pair of generic British Knights. Just like his albums after The Documentary, he should’ve included 50 Cent in the creative/design process….they would’ve sold more.
Birdman (Lugz) – Baby
I really don’t have much to say about these…I mean look at em. They look like those orthopedic shoes that old people wear…except these have a fuckin’ bird on them. Hell, he might as well have added Velcro straps, a pair of Dr. Scholl’s foot cushions (Are you gellin’?) and a coupon for a discount on over the counter medication.
P. Miller Sneakers – Master P
I know what your thinking….*sings softly in Vanessa William’s voice* “You go and save the best for last”.
As ugly as these shoes are, this is just one model from the infamous line of Master P sneakers. The fact that Percy thought that anybody wanted to wear a pair of sneakers designed by him baffles me. I guess it had something to do with the fact that he was quite influential on urban fashion in the mid to late 90’s. Don’t think so? Did you forget that he is solely responsible for making fatigues (camouflage) a staple in the ghetto. Remember when fatigues were mostly worn by “hip-hop” people and “backpackers”? Then Percy came along and that all changed. It got to the point where you’d see a 25yr old mother of 7, named Mercedes Maserati Jenkins, standing at the bus stop with her kids and a fresh head of finger waves….and all of them would have on fatigues. Then to add injury to insult, Percy decided that when it came to fatigues, every color was fair game and as a result we started seeing fatigues in black and well, pick a color: Red, Pink, Purple, Orange, Lime Green, etc.
*sigh*
See Fat Joe, does that sound like a club that you want to be a member of? Well, I guarantee that if you release those shoes you’ll gain membership quicker than you can say “AARP”. I know, I know….you also have the other club. The one where rappers have been fairly successful with their venture into the world of sneakers…
50 Cent – G-Unit Sneakers (Reebok)
Jay-Z – S. Carters (Reebok)
Kanye West – Air Yeezys (Nike) & his line of Louis Voutton Sneakers
…but then again, they’re 100x more popular than you will ever be, so you make the call.
…was unveiled yesterday during Sony’s press conference at GamesCom.
The new slimmer version of the PS3 is scheduled to be released September 1st in North America and Europe and will retail for $300. The new version is smaller and lighter, has a 120GB HDD and has all of the same features of its chunkier conterpart all while consuming 34% less power and taking up 32% less space.
This version of the PS3 has a few new features including BRAVIA Sync, which allows you to control the PS3 XMB over HDMI through your Sony BRAVIA TV remote, and System Standby to shut off the PS3 when the BRAVIA TV is off. Sony also claims this new machine will run more quietly than existing PS3 systems.
Specifications, comparison pic and link to additional information after the jump.
Specifications:
* Product name: PlayStation 3
* Product code: CECH-2000A (Charcoal Black)
* CPU: Cell Broadband Engine™
* GPU: RSX
* Audio output: LPCM 7.1ch, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD, AAC.
* Memory: 256MB XDR Main RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
* Hard disk: 120GB 2.5″ Serial ATA
* USB 2.0 ports: 2
* Networking: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T), IEEE 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 (+EDR)
* Controller: Wireless Controller (Bluetooth) x 1
* AV outputs: HDMI x 1, AV MULTI OUT x 1, Digital out (optical) x 1
* Resolutions: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i (for PAL 576p, 576i)
* BD / DVD / CD drive (read only): BD × 2 (BD-ROM), DVD × 8 (DVD-ROM), CD × 24 (CD-ROM)
* Power: AC 220 – 240, 50/60Hz
* Power consumption: Approx. 250W
* External dimensions (excluding maximum projecting part): Approx. 290 × 65 × 290 mm (width × height × length)
* Mass: Approx. 3.2kg
* Included in box: PlayStation 3 system × 1, Wireless Controller (DUALSHOCK 3) × 1, AC power cord × 1, AV cable × 1, USB cable × 1
For more information and pictures head over to Engadget.com.
Off of Villa Manifesto, which is scheduled to drop September 22nd.
R.I.P. Baatin
Bonus:
Slum Village – Cloud 9 Ft. Marsha Ambrosius
Just in case you don’t have it already.
Sooo it’s been a minute since the first Maker’s Mark Music post. Well, it’s actually been a while since I’ve been bloggin’ consistently. But lately I’ve been enjoying the somewhat nice weather simply because it doesn’t last long here in Chicago, so you have to take advantage of it while you can.
Lastly, I’ve been trying to get some things together, doing a lot of thinking and figuring out what it is I’m doing with this life of mine.
One of the things that I’ve come to realize is that I like this whole bloggin’ thing more than I ever thought I would. With that said I’m seriously going to dedicate a lot more time to the site.
So there’s no background story to this Maker’s Mark Music post. The song in itself is pretty simple and straight to the point….I’ve got work to do….a lot of work to do.
This verse was always hilarious to me….
“Well I’m out here tryin’ to make it woman can’t you see
It takes a lot of money to make it lets talk truthfully
Keep yo love lights burning and a little food hot in my plate
You might as well get used to me coming home a little late”
Damn right Ron!….sounds like some shit one of my uncles would say. Yall better listen to Uncle Ron, this goes for anybody in a relationship…regardless of how hard you’re out here grindin’ to be successful, make sure you keep yo partner’s love lights burnin’ or somebody else will light that candle. Random Thought: This song should’ve been on the soundtrack for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Doza said 
