I'll Show You Mine, If You Show Me Yours

Throughout the last few days I've been thinking a lot about guilty pleasures. We all have them, regardless if there in the form of men, music or paint on pants. For the purposes of this blog though I'll stick to music.

I recently had a lecture on authenticity in popular music and how it really doesn't exist. Yet, it continues to cast a shadow over the artistic medium. You see, authenticity in music and perhaps in general, is a social construction. We, as fans, ascribe authenticity to specific genres of music, making it a cultural construct infused with blatant fluidity.

And this is why I'm so fascinated by musical guilty pleasures, as there guilty insofar as our ascribed musical personalities tell us they are. So in the sake of eliminating musical elitism, here are my current guilty pleasures....not that you should care.

Kelly Rowland - Commander

Whatta Night - Ricky J

Mr. Immature - Stef Lang

Like a G6 - Far East Movement

Taio Cruz - Dynamite

Nelly - Just a Dream

And if you're judging me right now, ask yourself this question....where does your authenticity come from? (Too deep, I know.)

"From Underground to Uptown"

Here's a sneak peek of paper on Street Art, minus my Hegelian analysis of "Exit Through the Gift Shop"...which is a must see documentary.

Throughout the past decade a new artistic movement has blossomed in the backyards of cities near and far. Street art, whose beginnings date back to the late 1970’s, is a predecessor of graffiti writing and uses stickers, stenches, posters and sculptures to make their mark by whatever means necessary. Graffiti writing, which is separate from graffiti, is the movement generally associated with hip-hop culture. Although there is a great deal of crossover between the two artistic genres, street art has broken away from graffiti writings emphasis on the tag, or rather the signature of the author. The tag becomes an aestheticised form of vandalism that sees its author writing the same word over and over again. Street art no longer has the intention of creating a brand through the continual usage of this tag, as it isolates meaning to a particular community or culture. Instead, street art is about interacting with the masses and reflecting on the place in which it was installed. In essence, graffiti writing and street art differ in terms of form, content and intention. With its focus on visual symbols rather than the written word, as well as its ability to embrace a much wider range of media than graffiti, street art is able to create pieces that possesses universal meaning.

These are my personal fav's

JR (From France)

Eduardo Relero

3D Street Art

Miss Van (From France)

If you like Miss Van also check out Fafi

And of course, Banksy

Thursday Special

I love this dude, you should too.

http://www.tylershields.com/

He Say's It Best...

Here's a toast to all that's good

And here's a toast to hate

And here's a toast to toasting

And I'm not boasting

When I say I'm getting Straight

Lou Reed

"The Last Shot"

Just Like You...

Its that time of the year again. If its not midterms and/or term paper proposals, your ten chapters behind in every class and you have two assignments due next week. The weather is getting colder and classroom crushes are becoming full blown infatuations. You may be lonely or just alone, but don't worry, because Drake is feeling the same way too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13LRJR0mE1s

This song has been on repeat for the past five days, its actually playing right now. Drake takes the brilliance of TLC's intro on "Fan Mail" to a whole new level. Yes, its whiny, its repetitive, its cheesy. Essence, it's everything a mid fall song should be. With winter comes frequent all nighters, 20 page papers that aren't going anywhere and those September romances are now losing their allure. Drake is just preparing you for what's to come and letting you know that he gets lonely too. So when your 100 words deep, living off black coffee and sleepless nights, play this track and remember its almost over.

ps - this track is off Drake's upcoming mixtape "It's Never Enough", its set to drop in the next month or so.

There's a First Time For Everything

Lately I haven't felt the need to write. Frankly, some individuals have just been taking what I have to say and placing it in such an arrangement that even Klosterman would be proud. However, I am the ruler of my domain when it comes to defending myself. I recently made a claim that I believe Talib Kweli's new album has the potential to alter or perhaps even transform my life. And yes, I understand the magnitude of this statement, just let me explain.

I discovered Kweli in eleventh grade. This was the year that I not only uncovered my own humanity but once again became whole as a person. I was hormonal, angry and in love with Jimmy Eat World, MSN was my escape from a society that could not comprehend my profound knowledge of the English vocabulary. (I’m almost positive that at this exact moment you are picturing an ‘emo’ kid with an unfortunate hair who brags about having a livejournal, and your right.) I don’t remember how I stumbled upon Kweli’s “Never Been In Love”, off his 2004 release The Beautiful Struggle, but I do know that it was on repeat for two weeks following my first listen. Although I could not understand his lyrics byway of experience at the time, his talent encapsulated me. He made words feel as if they belonged together while simultaneously making everything rhyme. For Instance,

“You running back to the kid like this was home base

Or a marathon I let you set your own pace

Your own space and the beautiful struggle

Now baby tell what's it gonna take to prove that I love you”

This is what music was supposed to be about, or at least it was in my opinion. His lyrics plagued my MSN names for weeks, as I hoped that I could impress a dude that was way more fiction than he ever was real. Still to this day I play the track at least once a week and I can spit every line by memory.

The Beautiful Struggle is one of my favorite albums of all time and while it doesn’t sit at the top, it has great significance in my life. In 2004 a lot changed, almost all for the better and Talib was along for the whole ride. He saw my life change then and I’m almost positive he’s going to see my life change again when he drops “Gutter Rainbows” later this year.

The defense now rests.

Sleezy Swizz Is About to Ruin a Classic

Not to long along hip hop producer and A.Keys baby daddy, Swizz Beats provided everyone’s favorite Silm Shady with beats for a proposed sequel to his 2000 smash hit ‘Stan’.

Eminem however, turned down the idea on the basis of sheer insanity.

Instead, Swizz is putting it on his own album with Weezy providing the lyrics.

Talking to MTV Swizz said “taking something that people remember and putting them in that time and taking it to the next level, the way that Wayne tells Anne he’s sorry what happened to Stan. The album is crazy.”