Image: John Leyba, The Denver Post

-Michael Phelps is now the all-time most-medaled Olympian in the history of the Olympics. With a gold medal performance during the men’s 200-meter freestyle relay race, Phelps earned his 19th medal, surpassing a Societ gymnast, Larisa Latynina, who’d held the record for more than four decades. The Fab Five, America’s women’s gymnastics team, also earned gold, the first time since 1996. And, in some controversy, four sets of badminton doubles teams, two from South Korea, and one each from China and Indonesia were disqualified for purposely throwing matches in order to get more favorable matches in the following rounds. For shame!

-Hilarious. Pitbull fell victim to Internet trolls who took advantage of a Facebook marketing campaign, hosted by Walmart, that promised to send the (bad) musician to whatever Walmart store got the most “likes.” With some manipulation and the hashtag #ExilePitbull, that store was the Kodiak, AK location. But , Pitbull took it in stride, got the keys to the city and some bear repellent, and then went on his merry way.

-In much more serious news, President Obama is edging out Mitt Romney in three key states, according to the most recent Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News polls. Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania favor Obama, in part because there’s still some suspicion over Mitt Romney’s business background and refusal to disclose more of his tax returns. Women prefer President Obama in all three states.

-People like small businesses better than big corporations.

-Snoop Dogg is now Snoop Lion. The rapper went to Jamaica, became a Rastafarian, changed his name and filmed a documentary called Reincarnated. Now he’s moving into reggae music. We’ve got a trailer from the film below, which will be at the Toronto Film Festival. Looks pretty good to us.

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itsbongoboy.com

Junior year of high school I refused to buy “Doggystyle,” the revolutionary Snoop Dogg album that set my school abuzz. It was an informal boycott based on the album’s ethos and subject matter – a seemingly nonstop celebration of decadence, violence and promiscuity. My stance lasted for about a month. Then I caved and bought the CD, listened to it faithfully for the rest of the year and kept it in regular rotation thereafter. Musically, it was near-perfect, and even if I disagreed with what Snoop was saying, I couldn’t bring myself to dislike the way he was saying it.

And so we come to my central dilemma with hip-hop, a complicated love/hate relationship that finds me scolding myself for enjoying music – on the surface, at least – that often clashes with my personal values.

Case in point: Last year, I bought the ringtone to Waka Flocka Flame’s “No Hands” against my own better judgment. The song concentrates exclusively on watching a stripper remove her panties — sans hands. At one point in the song, he even talks about running a train on a female.

But there’s that monstrous, gargantuan beat from Drumma Boy, and that captivating chorus from Roscoe Dash that turns women into sex objects but manages to entrance a self-respecting woman who should know better. I would be appalled by the excitement I feel when this song comes on in the club if I wasn’t so busy dancing. It’s only afterwards that I’m left feeling guilty and ashamed, like I just ate a carton of ice cream while watching “Jersey Shore” reruns.

It’s a similar situation with Lil Jon’s “Get Low.” Although the entirety of the song deals with females bending over and shaking their asses while Lil Jon and his posse of Eastside Boyz spew vulgarities and implore women to drop it to the floor, I essentially become a woman possessed when I hear this in the club; I’m liable to burn off my entire daily caloric intake before the song is over.

And then there’s Weezy. I appreciate Lil Wayne’s wordplay, but I often feel the need to shower after listening to his songs, which typically involve lewd descriptions of random sexual relations with some female, somewhere. “Now jump up on that d— and do a full split” Weezy instructs on “She Will.” Thanks, but she won’t be doing that anytime soon.

In spite of myself, I love Young Jeezy’s “I Luv It,” a song that revolves around drug dealing and its so-called financial rewards. I also love Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin.” I don’t want to ever not love it. I don’t want to overthink it to the point that I can’t enjoy the song. But at what point do I draw the line, say enough is enough, and decide not to sing along while rappers call us b—–s and h—s, glorify destructive lifestyles and turn the very real social ill of pimping into a punchline?

Am I supposed to excuse, for example, Clipse’s morally bankrupt tales of cocaine-slinging because they’re lyrically brilliant, and because I personally understand the conditions that leave black men feeling like drug dealing is their only escape from poverty?

Hip-hop is my favorite genre of music. Always has been, and probably always will be. While R&B from the late ‘60s and ‘70s spoke to the promise of a post-Civil Rights culture enjoying new freedoms, hip-hop was the outgrowth of broken promises, of crack-infested inner cities realizing that while old forms of oppression had fallen away, new ones had taken their place, and they often came from within: the pimp, the pusher, the player, seemingly inescapable cycles of violence and poverty.

I have defended hip-hop early and often, spouting its virtues to relatives who only know hip-hop as a Nelly song, or jazz music professors who deem it universally “aggressive” and don’t understand that rap music is, in fact, a direct outgrowth of jazz, and aggressive content is only one aspect of a much larger, more nuanced picture. I’ve spent hours explaining, educating and making and listening  to suggestions of those who think hip-hop is comprised entirely of promiscuous criminals and weed-smoking thugs.

But I’m tired of having to defend hip-hop. Tired of having to serve as a rap-to-real world translator for people who simply don’t understand the culture and see only its top layer. Tired of realizing that more and more, mainstream hip-hop is becoming that one-dimensional portrait of a black criminal or a self-absorbed hedonist, a misogynistic caricature that record companies and radio stations seem all too happy to depict and rappers seem all too willing to embody in exchange for a paycheck.

I love what hip-hop stands for in its essence: freedom, self-expression, the will to fight and overcome oppression. It emerged as the culture of the forgotten and the disenfranchised, the voice of a people that previously had none. It is the purest form of urban journalism: Chuck D of Public Enemy once called it the Black CNN.

I love hip-hop’s rhythm and its cadence, its wit and its charm, its anger and its defiance, its boldness and its swagger. I will continue to blast “Doggystyle” from my car speakers as I glide down the highway and rap gleefully along with every word. I just wish I didn’t have to temporarily stash my values on a shelf in the process.

Ladies, do you have a love/hate relationship with hip-hop? Let us know in the comments.

Lauren Carter is a writer, blogger and hip-hop head from Boston. Follow her on Twitter @ByLaurenCarter.

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Another day, more cute kids to showcase! With the help of Black Celeb Kids, we’ve compiled photos of some cuties and their celeb parents.

Let’s get started with Chris Bosh! Despite what his ex and baby mother Allison Mathis says, Bosh wants folks to know that his kids are his number one priority and that he’s a good dad. While making his media rounds last week, the newly minted NBA champion shared his excitement over his new son, Jackson, and raising his little girl, Trinity (3). On “Live! With Kelly,” according to BCK, he said the following about baby Jackson showing up at the championship game and his daughter’s first championship parade:

“He was absolutely a good-luck charm. That was actually his first game. I knew I had to do something special because he was in the building. My daughter got to be in the parade. [She and Jackson] were both there, so it was great.”

Source: grownfolksmusic.com

Throwback!

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By Justin Ray

There are important elements to a hit song like a beat that will bring you out of your seat and a bass line that will cause you to make a funky face. However one of the most important parts of a song is the vocals. Sometimes a song that should have been a hit will lose its thunder because of a singer who can’t match the flavor. The beat can be Hot as hell but paired with the wrong singer the whole track can become a dud. Take a look at these songs that would sound better if someone else recorded the vocals.

Source: thebestofblack.blogspot.com

More and more it seems like Coachella is the place to be. As if performances from some of the biggest names in music weren’t enough, they are proving that they’re on the cutting edge of technology. Last night, rappers from different generations, including Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Eminem, Wiz Khalifa and Kendrick Lamar performed a “new school meets old school” set. And you can’t honor old school hip hop without talking about Tupac. But they didn’t just talk about Pac last night at Coachella, they brought him back, in the form of a hologram.

Check out the video of a portion of the performance below.

**Warning, this is unedited and may be NSFW**

So after watching, what do you think? Is it awesome that we can convincingly watch “Tupac” perform again? Or is it a bit too real…and creepy? Mark my words, once people find a way to make the cost of producing holograms cheaper, there will be “Gone But Not Forgotten” tours featuring greats like Michael and Whitney. Technology is a trip.

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As much as folks like to make fun of “Black” names, we here at MadameNoire can appreciate a mother’s creative approach to naming her seeds. How else can you define your offspring from the pack? In any case, this slideshow is not about the most creative first names, but the most surprising middle names of celebrities. For example, who would’ve thunk that Martin Lawrence would have such a haughty-sounding French-British name? And Ashanti…let’s just say her mom chose right when she picked a historical African tribe to name her daughter after rather than using the name she selected as her middle name. Check out other celebs with interesting and surprising middle names.

photo credit: hollywood.com

Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence

Fitzgerald just doesn’t match his image, does it?

The Hip Hop game is male-dominated, so it comes as no surprise that there are more songs about women than there those made “for the ladies.” But it’s always surprising when women love music that’s blatantly chauvinistic and disrespectful. In this day and age, women demand respect and men that don’t deliver are shunned in civil environments.

That is, unless it’s a song at play. Apparently, a good beat and a catchy hook goes a long way, because the moment the bass drops women everywhere are crowding dance floors, singing and claiming, “that’s my song!”

After the jump: A list of songs women love at the demise of decency.

Some of us have had a significant other that we just couldn’t shake for some reason. We would break up, get back together and continue the cycle until we either get too tired and get off the merry-go-round or we would work it out for the better. Celebrities are no different, except we see their love woes on a larger screen.

Here are a few couples who can’t get enough of each other, even though they’ve broken up numerous of times.  While some of them have pushed through (which may or may not be a good thing), others have finally called it quits….

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m always [pleasantly] surprised to see how Snoop Dogg, former gangsta rapper from the west coast, has been able to transition so seamlessly into mainstream media. I know you’ve seen it before now; but the most recent example of this came when Snoop showed up to guest host “The Price is Right.” Yes, “The Price is Right” a show who’s primary demographic is old, retired women and the unemployed.

Check out a clip of Snoop helping out one of the contestants below. It’s pretty funny.

You can watch the rest of Snoop’s Price is Right appearance here.

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Most celebrities enjoy their time on the red carpet, but what you might not know is that some of our favorite actors and performers have spent some time in the pen too.

Check out this list of celebs who have done hard time, before reaching stardom….

Read the rest of this entry »