Category Archives: Popular Culture

Popular Culture: Style, Swag, Trends

Hip-Hop, Logic, Popular Culture

Ironies in Hip-Hop

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Image source by: http://godelite.deviantart.com/

Ironies in Hip-Hop

An ‘Irony‘ is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood. Irony is a mode of expression that calls attention to the character’s knowledge and that of the audience; it can be said that hip-hop music uses many literary devices as rappers use vivid and colorful language to paint a canvas; the brush used is a combination of blunt dialogue, metaphors, simile’s, syllabic rhyming, and cross textuality references.  However, the culture itself – the artists behind the music, and the lifestyle, presents some interesting irony; everything from lines in songs, to certain artists making business decisions, to events that have transpired.  Hip-Hop definitely presents some interesting ironies such as:

Tupac dying while being signed to Death Row Records


Notorious B.I.G. making a song on his last album called ‘Going back to Cali’


Lil Wayne being the biggest artist in the game

50 Cent being very rich


Eminem being White (there are no white M&M’s)


OutKast having commercial success

T.I. (really T.I.P.) got arrested and convicted because of a tip to the authorities

.:: LiBM ::.

Media, politics, videos

Jeezy goes hard @ O’Reilly and Miller

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Young Jeezy ft. Jay-z – President is Black (remix)

Young Jeezy goes at Fox News pundits Bill O’Reilly & Dennis Miller.  Jay-Z steals the show though, as he spits a few lines that really have to make you run the track back a couple of times – I am not hating though, because that is what HIP-HOP should make you do …

Oh yeah, here is what ignited Jeezy’s response, getting past the arrogance and the hate, they do have somewhat of a point, but in show business, you gotta play to your audience.

Seems like the leaders of the right are still trying to rally their base.

.:: LiBM ::.

Cre8ive Abstract, Popular Culture

Abstract Art of President Obama

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Abstract Art of President Obama

Yes, its good that I got to get used to saying ‘President Obama’, no more longer of this ‘President Elect’ stuff.  Many people have been inspired regading Obama and the election, and the subsequent innaugaration.  The message of hope & change has inspired many to create posters, flyers, and other artwork of Obama.  Thus, I have compiled some examples of the best of the best:

obama___08_by_hequalstohenry

obama_color_by_timmywheeler

obama_art___obama_batman_by_alegionpng

obama_by_spacecoyote

.:: LiBM ::.

Entertainment, Style, videos

Michelle Williams “It Doesn’t Matter”

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Michelle Williams TV

Michelle Williams is 1/3 of that group known as Destiny’s Child. Now, Michelle was the addition to the group comprised of Beyonce and Kelly Williams, so in the public eye, she always had a difficult matter of ‘fitting in’ and/or ‘finding her lane’. Personally, I always thought of her as ‘filler’ to the group, but I gave her some credibility when she was the first one out of the group (I believe) to go and release an independent album – a gospel album too, that was critically praised. However, that was several years ago, and since then her group members have put out multiple independent albums with moderate to great success.

Beyonce can be defined as the diva – the Single Ladies video booty poppin’ diva (drool), and Kelly can be described as the Nubian Chocolate sister that ‘lives next door’, and to me, Michelle was always the one that lacked character; lacked personality – and of course, in the R&B pop arena, personality is everything. Anyhow, jumping forward, MichelleWilliams TV is I guess her way of remaining relevant in this social media, and in this episode, she calls out a fan for attacking the way she dresses. She is actually quite funny; in a sarcastic, condescending manner, and it is another example of how harder recording artists must work from Hip-Hop to R&B to Rock, to remain relevant and connect with their audience.

.:: LiBM ::.

Hip-Hop, Social, Swag, videos

Joe Budden says “F**k’ NY”

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Joe Budden says “F**k’ NY”

Hometown love, where has it gone?

Now, I get what Joe Budden is saying in this video – he has a qualm with cities not supporting homegrown talent.  Apparently after a show that he was performing at with other New York artists, Joey felt that the crowd didn’t show love for their artists.  Now the reason for that, could be varied (i.e. the artists did not perform well, etc.), but Joey concludes that the local fans does not support their artists; especially now, New York is in a transitional phase in hip-hop music where they are trying to reclaim that crown from the South.  And being up here in the T Dot (Toronto), we are known for having the most haters per capita – we never show our own talent love & support; we always support the American acts when they come to our city to perform, and buy their CD’s when they drop, but when it comes to supporting our own, we never do.  I see it all the time, as an event promoter putting on live music events, its very difficult to get people to come out to support their own; up here, we would rather go to a redundant club than go experience our peers performing. 

However, it seems like in the South, they got it.  From the mid 90’s, they have been supporting their own local acts – from Master P and his No Limit empire, to Baby and his Cash Money Records empire, for local shows in the South, hundreds of people would go and support their local acts; everything from clothing to CD’s.  And now, the South pretty much runs hip-hop, some of it is not wanted though, but regardless they still run it.  And I guess that Joey is looking for that Southern affection and behavior to seep up north – as it is logical to suggest that especially when New York is ‘down’, the city should rally around its promising talent to support it, nurture it, and aide in its growth (flower-like). 

However, I guess on this cold, winter night, Joey felt New York didn’t represent like the days in the Boogie Down when hundreds would come out to the park, after dark, for two turntables, a mic, and a dope MC. 

I feel ya pain bro.

.:: LiBM ::.

Popular Culture, videos

Not to be attempted

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TK ‘Whatever you like’

I thought that we were done with fan renditions of their favorite artists’ songs, but this guy named ‘TK’ is building a buzz with his wack ass singing abilities (or lack thereof).  In this video he takes on T.I.’s ‘Whatever You Like’, and TK butches it terribly – off beat, off key, just plain off … but funny.  What is interesting about this guy, is that he asks for donations for his talent.  I guess people will do anything for a buck …

.:: LiBM::.

Entertainment, Logic, Popular Culture

Homeric Logic, pt1

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Some Homer Simpson Logic:

Though sometimes misjudged as a complete moron, Homer is actually a deft manipulator of the oxymoron: “Oh Bart, don’t worry, people die all the time. In fact, you could wake up dead tomorrow.” And our favorite figure of ridicule is actually quite handy with figures of speech. To explain human behavior, for instance, he relies on personification:

The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor, and it’s time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!

Chiasmus guides Homer to new levels of self-understanding:

All right, brain, I don’t like you and you don’t like me–so let’s just do this, and I’ll get back to killing you with beer.

And here, in just five words, he manages to combine apostrophe and tricolon in a heartfelt encomium: “Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover.”

Hip-Hop, Style, Swag

From Ashy to Classy

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Ashy to Classy
Jay-Z makes it into Vogue magazine

The August issue of Vogue magazine will feature black models and entertainers as the popular Italian magazine has came under fire in recent years for not representing black models in their magazines. Jay-Z is one of the feature articles in the magazine and it is really big that Jay-Z from the Marcy projects in Brooklyn New York can rise from the gutter to the pages of the exquisite Italian vogue magazine. Looking at the pictures, Jay-Z can be the poster child for what ‘mature hip-hop’ looks like ….

The Vogue magazine should drop sometime in July 2008 and will not only featuring Jay-Z, but Naomi Campbell, Tyson Beckford, Toccara, and other black models. Vogue gets a ‘kudos’ for at least attempting to open its doors to black models in their magazines, but lets see if they can keep it up.

.:: d.b ::.

Entertainment, Popular Culture

Any correlations to Hip-Hop?? A rock perspective.

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The Demise of Classic Rock from ‘Dwight K. Shrute’
When the Establishment gets involved with the music

First off, If y’all don’t know about the hit NBC show ‘The Office’, it is one of the better shows on television that is clever and witty. The U.S. version of the The Office is an adaptation of a British version with the same name. Now, Dwight K. Shrute is one of the show’s staple characters that has a funny personality; he can be described as the loyal office employee who is the ultra geek and has the brownest nose in the office. His real name is Rainn Wilson, and he provided an interesting comment on the decline of rock, and its current state …

“I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock. I loved AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but as soon as it started to get girly, as soon as they were wearing women’s blouses, mascara and eyeliner – guy-liner I call it – as soon as it went there then it kind of lost me.”

I don’t know about you, but basically Rainn is saying that when rock music got commercialized with other elements, the music was no longer the focus, and the image become more important than the actual musical content. Relating this to hip-hop, I think that many of the older hip-hop generation (anyone 25 and older or so) can identify when hip-hop’s focus was no longer on the music, but on the actual image. Once it got commercialized, and corporations got more involved, and big music video budgets, many of the devoted hip-hop heads got turned off. In my reminiscing, this happened during the ‘Diddy years’, when P. Diddy came in with his flamboyant style and kinda changed the face of Hip-Hop as we know it … and it really has not looked back since. Remember P. Diddy and the L.O.X. with the shiny suits, the bling bling of Cash Money, the foreign cars in the videos? All this was spawned in the mid 90’s, and now in 2008, the formula is still the same, and the content in the music has gotten even dumber.

But I guess, as with Rock, Jazz, R&B, and other black-created music, once the establishment (corporations) get involved with a musical genre, the artform — the essence of the music loses something that is really, really, really hard to get back.

.:: d.b ::.

P.S. And just in case you don’t know who Rainn Wilson is, here are some clips: