The Audacity of Dope

Abel continues his ascent to stardom with the official visuals for “Rolling Stone,” which serve as a bit of a metaphor for his growing popularity since taking the net by storm last year and signing to Universal a few months ago.  It’s an interesting evolution to watch, especially for someone who started his online promotion by purposely hiding his image and shrouding himself in mystery.  I never realized these lyrics work so well for both the base level relationship concepts he’s singing about and the pressures of maintaining a fan base as he crosses over to a major label.

The video wasn’t the most exciting, but the song itself is still a great record.

On last week’s SNSS, we started talking about our favorite MC’s of all time and my answer for the last decade plus has always been the late, great Big L.  I did mention that there might be another artist overtaking L in my personal list, and I think it’s actually already happened.  Kanye is hands down my favorite artist of all time, throughout any genre.  The music has been dope from day one and the man is absolutely hilarious with everything he does.  If you haven’t seen Aziz Ansari’s bit about ‘Ye, he nails it perfectly.  Dude is just so excited about everything, it’s comedy.

With the new album finished (and no longer called Good Ass Job), ‘Ye has started making the rounds to media outlets to get the buzz going.  While the above trip to the Rolling Stone office was great, the highlight of the week has clearly been his entry to the Twitterverse.  You have to follow this dude…it’s incredible.  Peep it – @kanyewest.

Be prepared for a lot of Kanye talk on TAOD.  You’ve been warned.

Oh sorry, not Lauryn…Ms. Hill.  *shakes head*.  Since it’s the 10 year anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill dropping, Rolling Stone spoke to many of the people involved in making the record, including John Legend, D’Angelo, Pras, her husband Rohan Marley, and Hill herself.  If you’re as big a fan of this album as I am (top 5 dead or alive), you’ll enjoy a lot of the behind the scenes stories.  You’ll also be saddened by the outcome.  I really hope we get a legit sophomore record from Lauryn, but that still seems unlikely.  Having interviewed Clef a few times in the last year, that Fugee record doesn’t seem plausible either.  It all depends on L-Boogie and she’s just not at the right place to do this again.

Check out the article here…highly recommended.  Thanks to Eskay for the heads up.

Chyea, you know how we do.

The media studies major in me instantly noticed that they have him smiling at his much talked about flag pin.  I’m sure the haters will (incorrectly) try to twist that into some sort of “he’s LOL’ing at America!!!!” criticism, but I think it represents something else.  Even though he “gave in” and donned the pin, he’s smiling at how silly politics are in our country.  The fact that whether or not you wear a pin dominates headlines for months, while America turns into the Titanic says a whole lot about our society.  If we continue to concern ourselves with trivial ish, we’re gonna sink.  It’s time to educate ourselves, study the issues, and vote for the candidate we believe in.  Aight?