You rock!

theroot.com- Rock is Black Music, Too

Great article that I came across this morning. What Rob Fields is basically saying is in previous generations Black musicians were they innovative ones. Pushing the envelope musically and creating music genred such as Rock and Roll, Jazz and the Blues which our Caucasian counter-parts used to influence their own sound. Fields complains that today's hip hop generation has become unoriginal and uninspiring and that it is now the musicians of other races that are changing the game.

I couldn't agree more with this article especially being that I grew up in a time when Hip Hop was still fresh and new. Sadly that innovation has given way to the rise of a slew of sub-par MC carbon copies desperately trying to re-create the creative flames of the likes of Notorious BIG, Big Daddy Kane, NWA and A Tribe Called Quest. Hip Hop artists of today are more concerned with being the next (insert rapper here) instead of being the 1st them. This is painfully evident when listening to mainstream urban radio. My co-worker is always asking me. "who sings this song?" She can't tell the difference between one artist and another. This didn't happen 20 years ago. When an Eric B and Rahkim song came on you KNEW it was Eric B and Rahkim.

All is not lost though, there are plenty of MC's with bonafide talent waiting for a brave soul in the music industry to break out of the "gangsta-pimp-ho triumvirate" and take a chance on something original. It takes a little work to find these artist as their songs aren't being played on the radio or in the clubs. They are being pumped from the headphones of that kid on the train with the extra large bookbag or that computer science major that everyone thinks acts "too white" because his jeans fit, he rarely uses slang and never owned a pair of Air Jordans.

Hip Hop isn't dead people, but its got a mean case of swine flu.

What's In A Name?

Tha King didn't feel like talking about this last week when it happened but its a new day and I'm honestly not bothered by it any more. So I'm at work last week and its a typical day. Around 2pm an older man walks in. If I had to guess I would say mid to late 60's. Its quite obvious that he's not all there but was am polite nonetheless. To make along story short the Old man called me a nigger. Yes nigg-er. It didn't even register in my head at 1st but when it hit tha King I had to summon all my will power in order to control myself from hitting this crazy old bastard with the stone cold stunner.

After composing myself enough to finish dealing with the old nut job Tha King sat down and reflected on the days events and the n-word in general. For years other races have used this word to belittle Blacks. Even though we've tried our best to embrace the word as a term of endearment in an attempt to change its negative connotation it still stings when used as a racial slur. Tha King believes that we as black are the ones empowering the negative use of the word by allowing ourselves to become enraged by it. If a white person was to walk up to you and yell "NIGGER!!" and you smiled and said "thank you." they would be pissed off because they couldn't get the reaction that they wanted by using the word. "Nigger" is only as powerful as "niggas" make it. Agree? Of course you do.

Dropping some Knowledge.

Switching it up today. Blessing you with some knowledge that you can use to get you mind right and live a slightly more regal life, such as myself. I think we are all in agreement that there are two general types of people in the world.(Three actually but in order to explain the 3rd I would have to write a freakin book.) The powerful and the powerless. The strong and the weak. The strong work to stay strong and the weak working to get strong. While tha King can't give you a manual on how to be like him, what I can do is put you on to some rules you can use to become more powerful in your everyday life as I did. So below is the link to the 48 Laws of power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers. Read them, remember them, live by them. Enjoy and give me your thoughts on them.

48 laws of power

Popeye the drug dealer.

At least that what people make it seem he is. Unless you were living under a rock I'm sure you heard about Popeye's chicken offering 8 pieces of chicken for "fo Ninny nine" for one day only yesterday. Don't front like you didn't know. So I'm on my way home from work and I decide to take the route home that passes by Popeye's. I figure I'm broke, and I like chicken so its a win-win situation right? Wrong. So I'm bopping down the street filled with glee at the thought of an extra crispy breast and as soon as I turn the corner onto the block Popeye's is on....BAM! The line is out the door and to the end of the block. I walk down to the entrance of the Popeye's thinking to myself all these damn people can't be on line waiting for some chicken buy to my horror they were. A line damn near 100 deep full of Blacks and Hispanics on line for fried chicken. This was quite possibly the 1st time I was had ashamed to be affiliated with the black community. Are times really that hard that every Popeye's from Manhattan to Malibu was packed to capacity with brown skinded chicken lovers? To make matters worse not only were you on line for fried chicken, you had the nerve to be complaining about the other people online. "Why yall mutha fu*kas couldn't go home and cook?" You on the line too fool?! All we needed was a watermelon stand and a pitcher of grape kool-aid and we got ourselves and old fashion coon shindig

Not that it was any surprise to me, but black people love them some fried chicken. The stereotype is sad but true. Then I got to thinking, there are a lot of stereotypes that are true and although the word "stereotype'' has a negative connotation we all use stereotypes to our advantage. I often use the violent black man act to get what I want. Am I going to hit you if you don't give me an extra BBQ sauce for free? Of course not, do they know that? No. As that Spanish chick and you class really going to sleep with you just cause you drove her home? No, but you drove her didn't you? What other stereotypes do you use to you advantage?

I didn't get any chicken that day. Instead I went home and made a Philly cheese steak.

Bitches and Sisters.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I finally fixed the problem that was preventing people from commenting without a user name. Now you can comment anonymously without a user name. You can include you name inside your comment if you want me to know who you are. That is all.

DISCLAIMER: The following blog post is not referring to ALL women. Tha King knows plenty of women who are the exact opposite of this, he happens to be dating one. Do not be offended if the following applies to you. Its not Tha Kings fault. You need to get your mind right.

"Sisters hold you down, bitches hold you up. Sisters help your progress bitches will slow you up." Jay-Z

It's no secret that Tha King knows a lot of women. The majority of the people that read this blog are of the fairer sex. I work with all women and Tha Royal Family consists of mostly females. So I would venture to say I know women pretty well, if a statement like that can even be made given the complete and utter randomness that most of them exhibit. One thing that has always bothered me is when women complain that "there are no good men out there." This statement pisses me off. For starters even though Tha King is no longer "out there" I was for sometime and was a pretty good guy until I was corrupted by a bit-uhhh young woman who claimed she was looking a good guy but played him for the opposite, a loser. If women are always looking for a good dude then why are the drug-dealing, women beating, high school dropouts getting so much love? Why is it while the good dudes are busting their asses at work, school etc. The women that claim to love them a good dude are spreading their legs for the dude that stands on the corner for 12 hrs a day? That's sure to give the good dude tons of motivation to continue doing good. If behind every good man is a women then isn't it the women's fault for lack of good men? Make sense? Of course it does, Tha King said it.

"Sisters do they dirt outside of where they live, Bitches have niggas all up in ya crib."

Women's first defense is likely to be that they were done wrong by a man in the past. 100% bullshit. Are you implying that's since you were done wrong its OK for you to continue the cycle of wrong doing? So does that mean Chris Brown was justified in going WWF on Rihanna since he witnessed domestic abuse as a child? I didn't think so. You know what they say about two wrongs.

"Sisters give up tha ass, bitches give up tha ass. Sisters do it slow, bitches do it fast."

The point I'm tyring to make it is, don't complain about the quality of men unless your going to also examine the quality of the women. If your a piece of shit don't go running around justifying your piece of shit-ness by saying their aren't any good men. If your a piece of shit and you were lucky enough to trap a good man I would HOPE that you wouldn't just throw it all away being as fast ass. I've got work to do so until next time folks.

Blame it on the.......

We all know the damn song so I not gonna start singing it, well...yes I am. BLAME IT ON THE GOOSE, GOTCHA FEELING LOOSE! Sorry couldn't help it. Now on to business,

I was at the club this Saturday celebrating my birthday(Bday post coming soon.) and I'm shaking my tail feather like I normally do when I noticed this short chick, eyes half closed grinding on some Tpain looking dude by the bar. He really did look like Tpain, dreds and all. I thought nothing of it at the time, there a drink chicks in the club all the time, but as the night went on, ole girl was getting more and more twisted and Tpain had now been joined by his crew. Taking turns doing things to the chick that I'm sure she wouldn't approve of had her been sober. While I've never been that captain save a hoe type I felt bad for the girl, she couldn't have been more than 25 and these dudes were pushing 30 and pretty goonish if you ask me......of course, I'm not looking at dudes in the club. HAHA. Now I know most of you are saying to yourselves, "So what? This happens all the time." Just because young chicks getting twisted and slutted out by old heads is common practice doesn't make it right. Guys you need to step ya game up. If thats how you getting chicks then your a loser. Also, if you got a chick drunk at the club and smashed what do you think she was doing last weekend? Getting drunk and slutted out by someone else, that's what. STDs are real people.

The fellas are not the only ones at fault here. Ladies, do you enjoy waking up and not knowing how you got to where you are? At the end of the day dudes are gonna be dudes and some dudes are foul. You need to use your common sense. Also, if you came to the spot with your homegirls and they let you get drunk outta your mind then you need to seriously reevaluate who your calling your homegirls. I don't wanna get too preachy so I just say fellas step you game up and get a sober chick and ladies, just get your shit together.

Lookin at the game....

....Its about that time I air these fools out because it's starting to piss me off. Props to my boy Ace for suggesting I blog about it. Is blog a verb or a noun? Doesn't matter.

So I'm sitting at work @ the computer trying to find a store that's going to be selling a particular pair of kicks(sneakers, catch up if you didn't know) that I wanted. For those who don't know I have a completely healthy obsession with sneakers. Sure wifey has threatened to break up with me and my mother to disown me if I bought another pair but who's mom and girl hasn't said that? So I go to one of the many sneaker sites I have bookmarked on my computer and I see, much to my disgust, that the hypebeasts have already started lining up in front of the stores an entire day before the shoes are going to go on sale! In the pouring rain no less!! Why would you do such a thing? Before I continue I feel I should define the term "hypebeast."


Hypebeast: Noun, A person who must buy the latest and most "hyped" clothing, shoes, etc; Someone who has no real style but thinks they look good because everything they have on is limited edition.






Fool like these line up outside stores days before the release for any sneaker that says limited on it. Making them almost impossible for normal people like myself to get it pair. As seen clearly in the picture this is the highlight of their meager existence, which is why they are decked out with there finest "limited edition"clothes on to wait on a line for hours. If I didn't have a job, or a girl, or any remnants of a social life I'd probably be down there lined up too. I'm seriously considering going down there and robbing these dudes as the come out the store with their new purchased limited edition sneakers in hand. The ones that should be MINE! lil bastards.