In what might be an all-time low for Washington political journalism in terms of understanding cultural context, CBS News lumps PSY (he of “Gangnam Style”) in with “rappers” who have caused controversy at the White House, despite a) The situation touching upon clear cultural differences between the U.S. and South Korea during a particularly poor time for relations between the two countries and b) PSY being nothing like Kanye West, who Obama once jokingly called a “jackass.” This article also refers to a controversy involving Cee-Lo Green, who raps but is far better known to the public as a risk-taking R&B artist, and a song (“Fuck You”) in which he doesn’t actually rap. Lumping PSY, who apologized for the incident and noted the incident was a product of its time, into the same boat as some stupid made-up incident with the rapper Common, is totally a misrepresentation of the situation — and an attempt to taint the president with bad press over something that happened at a time when Obama wasn’t even a senator. Leave the pop culture to Tumblr, guys.
@boonepickens just stunted on me heavy.
Via Gizmodo:
There has never before been a point in history when a young black guy rich off of Canadian soap operas and luxury super-rap could exchange words with a quasi-eccentric super-rich octogenarian who loves wind power. Now they can—in public. And that, simply, is awesome.
Twitter: where world’s collide, and that’s a good thing.
This somehow feels related to our last post. This would never happen on Facebook.
In case you were wondering what Coolio was up to these days. There’s a man who hasn’t changed much since 1995.
Outside, you don’t meet guys like this every day. This place is amazing.Rapper Ja Rule • Discussing his time in prison, where he’s in the middle of a two-year prison sentence for gun possession and tax evasion. The “guys like this” he’s referring to are disgraced Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and Alan Hevesi, a New York state politician who went to jail over a “pay to play” scheme involving the New York state pension system. Ja Rule, who will be releasing an album later this month despite his prison sentence, has been working on taking college-level courses behind bars after getting encouragement from Hevesi and Kozlowski to pursue higher education. “It’s funny,” the rapper said. “We’re from totally different walks of life. But when you’re here, you’re here.” source (via • follow)
It’s not an unheard-of thing, either. Heavy D, born Dwight Arrington Myers, already had a heart condition and suffered from longstanding weight issues, making him more susceptible to such an ailment, and the deep leg vein thrombosis became much worse as a piece of the clot traveled to his lung, killing him. Doctors say that the best way to avoid such an ailment on a long flight or train ride is to get up and move around a little bit — which is at times easier said than done, even on a flight like the one Heavy D took.
Which leads to the obvious question: Should we buy it from the people liquidating it? Does “Young Buck” sound like a great name for a news blog?
Looks like the TMZ article reports that he’s recovered, however, according to his DC-bred protege Wale.
I screwed up big time and I am sorry. I am sincerely sorry. I am scared that you will send me to prison.Rapper T.I. • Making a plea to the court to keep him out of jail. It didn’t work, and he was sentenced to 11 more months in the wake of drug charges in California. The rapper claims that he got re-addicted in the wake of a grueling tour schedule. He started taking cough syrup just to get by. It got him back on the harder stuff and eventually led to his latest arrest. This is bad: Part of his plea agreement involved him telling kids to stay off drugs. Still though, this is a pretty disappointing turn for a rapper who already lost a good chunk of his life to jail. source (via)
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