Shaking It Off - Chris 'Preach' Smith

Webstar & Young B


So the latest ‘discovered’ craze is now the Harlem Shake. I’m sitting here
in utter amazement for two reasons. One, because I thought that died out
around 2006 to make way for the ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’ dance that dropped
then, courtesy of DJ Webstar & Young B (remember them?). And two, ‘cause
it has spread like wildfire to the point where ad agencies by 4 P.M. TODAY
are trying to come up with ways to work that into their clients’ campaigns,
which means there will be some serious lunches ordered in from Hale and
Hearty Soups. You’ve got colleges and various others blowing up YouTube
with their renditions, forever putting it on the ‘catchy’ shelf with Carly Rae
Jepsen and PSY and even the Macarena. Baauer, the producer who made
the track that revived the dance again is probably counting his chips right
now.

But you gotta marvel at the way the mainstream media & culture apparatus
will take something random and make it a hit. It’s basically like culture
antiquing. The ‘hood bigs something up, runs it into the ground for all that
it’s worth and then leaves it be only to get found by someone who crosses
it over to the mainstream white culture. The Harlem Shake’s been around
since Bernard King rocked Ponys on the Madison Square Garden hardwood,
even saw a little bit of resurgence with Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs’ getdown in
G.Dep’s ‘Special Delivery’ video. And you know you used to crack the hell up
every time you saw him bust that move out in the late 1990’s. But now, it
feels like all of these Harlem Shake renditions are nothing more than the
reclamations of thrift-store wandering hipster types. The same ones that
you’ll see in your newest Whole Foods on 125th Street uptown, a few doors
down from A Taste of Seafood, where I used to see cats bust the move out
in the summertime to the newest mixtapes being doled out from long tables.

 
Even B-list rappers are trying to get into the act. (We see you Azealia.) And with all
of this, I always wonder when it will die out, and how. Look at ‘Gangnam Style’. That
was all over the place, so much that the dude performed it at a Presidential Christmas
concert last year. The only thing that slowed it was the discovery of remarks that 
he made at a concert in 2004 that were against American involvement in Iraq. But
with the Harlem Shake, we know that it’s just another appropriation. One that says
that a dance that started way back in the golden years of the Rucker is now going to
be associated with random women sloppy drunk off Corona bulldogs during a happy
hour. Let’s just hope the Cha Cha slide won’t be next.

Oh, wait. 

L.A.'s Little Big Man - Chris 'Preach" Smith

Dwight Howard is finding that the bright lights of L.A. are attached to an
oncoming train more and more these days.

Here we are, a couple of days away from the All-Star Break in Houston, Texas
and the Los Angeles Lakers are floundering. This was a team built not only to
destroy the Miami Heat and get Kobe Bryant his sixth NBA title so he can match
Michael Jordan, but possibly more rings. But we’ve seen injuries and infighting hurt
the team, with D-12 at the epicenter of it all. And the sports world is waiting for
that final blow, much like Angelenos keep talking about ‘The Big One’, the violent
earthquake that would tear the city apart one day. The Lakers are mathmatically
alive to make the playoffs, but it seems unlikely what with D-12 battling a torn
labrum and now recurring issues from the same back injury he had surgery for in
the offseason AND Pau Gasol out up to six more weeks with a torn plantar faschitis
muscle. And all eyes now are on Dwight, who has come up short so often that we
may have to start calling him ‘Little Big Man’.

It seems like light-years away from when D-12 was considered the best center in
an era where there aren’t really many legit centers left. Dwight has now become
one of the most disliked people in the NBA. A far cry from the happy, go-lucky cat
who entered the NBA out of high school with braces, and a Christian zeal so potent
he got into hot water for saying he wanted to change the Jerry West logo to a man
with a cross. Orlando embraced him as their hero for seven years. Howard became
larger than life, and even became Superman, with a climax in the 2008 Slam Dunk
Contest in Las Vegas. Of course, such skill and athleticism led to comparisons with
Shaquille O’Neal. And Shaq hasn’t let him forget it, even outright inferring that D-12
is a shark biter. He may have a point. Dwight has played well enough to be one of
the stars of the NBA, even getting a gold medal for the USA in the 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games. But his Orlando teams have come up short, getting to the Finals
once where they almost got swept by Kobe & the Lakers. Then he got antsy and
wanted that trade to the Nets to link up with Deron Williams, but didn’t want to be
the bad guy. Which blew up in his face with Stan Van Gundy, who told the world
how Dwight wanted him fired and made for some awkward television. The whole
drama made him look so bad some folks can forgive Lebron James’ joining the Heat.
Outside of Ohio that is. Then Dwight, who could’ve gone anywhere else, goes to the
Lakers on a one-year extension deal in a trade. So Shaq will snap on this dude until
he wins a chip.

 
Now Dwight is on a team that is struggling. It’s 2004 all over again in L.A., the last
time the franchise tried to superteam their way to a title with Gary Payton and Karl
Malone, only to fall to the Detroit Pistons. Howard’s play and even his heart is now 
in question. Steve Nash publicly ripped into D-12 during their last game against the
Heat, the second time he’s done so. Which NEVER happens with Nash. Kobe has even
called Howard out in a way that would earn him a busted eyesocket with others. 
Dwight has gotten tired of it all, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he bolted after this 
year. But it would show yet again that he may not be the big man every one wants.
He is fighting injury. But his decision making, his growing reluctance to get involved
in the offense and wayward comments to the press has eroded his appeal. Take his 
wanting to play in the All-Star Game. It’s a nice gesture, but one you can’t make 
after you were reluctant to play through the torn labrum to help your team out up
to the break. The Lakers’ struggles aren’t all on Dwight; firing Mike Brown 10 games
in and hiring Mike D’Antoni over Phil Jackson is a huge thing. But having a big man 
at a crossroads will hurt any team. And if the Lakers don’t make the playoffs, watch
the drama intensify. Howard is being regarded with disgust by Lakers fans, and word
is he’s hurting his own endorsement potential. But it’s his own decision-making that
makes his big man status so small at this point. The question is, can he rise above it?
Will he get healthy and get his game clicking to a point where Kobe doesn’t need to 
go assist crazy just to get his team a W like he’s done a couple of times already this 
season? D-12 needs to get back to letting his game speak for him instead of his fame.
Being the best big man doesn’t guarantee you anything. Ask the great Wilt Chamberlain,
who with all of his awesome ability, won two titles over his long career marked by the
battles against the great Bill Russell and one painful loss to the 1969-1970 New York
Knicks. It’s time for Dwight to get his game bigger than his fame once again. Because
being the best team on NBA 2K13 doesn’t win you the Larry O’Brien trophy in real life.

The Last Sermon of Dilla - Chris 'Preach' Smith

Guilty Simpson.

We praise James ‘J Dilla’ Yancey today as a musical genius. And rightly so, 
based on the body of his work. But one part of that genius that I think gets
overlooked from time to time is the fact that another Detroit native and MC,
Guilty Simpson, is in effect Dilla’s vision of an MC that the city - and hip-hop 
as well - needs for these days and times.

Putting this idea forth shouldn’t be perceived as a backhanded compliment.
Not when you look at the fact that Guilty has been a key part of Detroit’s 
hip-hop scene for years along with other notables like Eminem, Obie Trice,
Royce Da 5’9. Not when you find out that Guilty’s been down with Dilla since
2001, the fact being that House Shoes, another Detroit icon made Dilla and
Guilty’s bond possible back then. Before Dilla passed in 2006 he recommended
that Peanut Butter Wolf and Stones Throw Records sign Simpson. Dilla saw
that Guilty Simspson could be a voice from the ‘hood that would resonate.
Think about 2006 on your hip-hop landscape for a second. It was a turbulent
year to say the least. You had artists drop hot albums that year, crap rappers
get huge success and established MC’s put out disappointing efforts. Flux
that represented the outside world very well, with the U.S. being in the midst
of a second George W.Bush presidency and economic crisis looming. Dilla, in
his last days before succumbing to lupus, may have seen just how funky the
s—t was going to get. Guilty Simpson sees it too and details all the hardships
and hopes in every rhyme he writes. Listen to a Guilty Simpson track and you
find yourself immersed in a fine blend of ‘hood talk, impassioned reflection and
at the heart of it, the feeling that this struggle is a shared one. Listen to ‘Cali
Hills’ and you don’t hear a rap song, but a eulogy.




A eulogy of how things used to be. Look at Detroit, an American heartland city.
I’ve written about it before, the way it’s been ravaged and belittled. Especially
when it comes to the communities of color. Dilla, for as much as his lyrics and 
musical output could deal with the bottle-popping and loose-women chasing
side of hip-hop, also had a soulful and political side to him. Best example being
‘F—k The Police’. Guilty’s lyrics are more refined, and carry more heft than a
.22 in a pair of Northlakes. But, Guilty also defines a rising legacy of Dilla and
that is what elevates them both. True artists let their craft select those that
will carry on for them. When people try to play down Dilla’s influence in the
perspective of jazz, look at his relationship with Guilty Simpson. It is a passing
of the torch and a collaboration much like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.
It’s one of those pairings that people throw out in ‘what if’ discussions, much
like some do with NBA icons. But one that we may hear soon enough, given
that we really haven’t heard the entirety of Dilla’s beat discography even with
all that’s leaked. Cats like Guilty, and even Black Milk and Karriem Riggins, are
that last sermon of Dilla. Say amen for those blessings to music. 

Speaking of A Girl Named Molly - Chris 'Preach' Smith

I sit back sometimes and marvel at how fast people will flip things
that we straight up avoided back in the day into new and exciting things
one must try. Part of my disdain for some up and coming trap rappers, is
the prevalence of ‘molly’ in their music. They turn it into a catchphrase
because it anchors the rest of their dime-store rhymes. And you’ve got 
people using it and repeating it without really understanding what it means.
So, let’s do a quick breakdown.

‘Molly’ is pure MDMA, or commonly known as ecstasy. It used to be called
‘X’. I remember hearing about it as far back as 1997, from friends of mine
who’d hit raves and drum and bass parties out in the Lower East Side. One
of  the cats I’d see at parties used to rag on it, saying ‘that’s that white people
s—-t! Straight hippie s—t!’ And as far as the time was concerned, he was 
right. I remember one girl I was close to in college at that time, who was 
going to take X with another friend for Valentine’s Day. Drop a tab, kick
back and enjoy all the sensations. ‘X’ soon hit the hp-hop world, and in so
doing exacerbated a lot of issues. You had a few MC’s drop references to
it here and there. I remember Sadat X speaking on it and being a bit floored.
You’d go to a spot and there’d be one cat posted up by the bar, or on the
wall who you could approach about getting some. I knew a stripper who
paid off a car note by being the hookup for her fellow dancers, especially on
‘celebrity night’. It got so heavy we started referring to those folks as the
‘rock and rollers’.

Then the horror stories started. You started hearing about rapes of women
AND men. Deaths because people took X and mixed it with everything else.
Then talk shows started in on it. Oprah even had one girl come on with a
doctor and they showed her ‘holes’ in her brain scan. Now ‘X’ was looked at
warily. But with hip-hop, it never really faded away as far as usage. Using 
it for some meant in their mind that they could avoid getting hooked and
that they ‘made it’. I still remember the infamous video of a certain producer
and rapper getting caught on cellphone cam footage in a club in Ibiza copping
about a grand’s worth. Because the thing to note here, is that in the realm 
of hip-hop these days, people will forget and forgive things real quick.


Look at cocaine for example. I came up during the time where ‘White Lines’
was still precautionary, and I saw the devastation brought about by crack rock.
But, when you got to 2007, you saw a resurgence of coke use by the generation
after us who saw that as the ‘in thing’ along with peroxide streaks in their 
hair and Nintendo gamepad belt buckles. Especially in the ‘hood. Now you
have ‘molly’ making ecstasy resurgent once again with some young dummies
out here who in a sense are birthed in the same era as ‘strawberries’ and 
when Chris Rock was best known as ‘Pookie’ taking it. Even mixing it with 
their Optimo blunts. But that is one of the unfortunate parts of contemporary
hip-hop. Those part of that machine don’t do their due diligence and it all turns
into a case of ‘everything new’. Hell, if the club ‘Speed’ in NYC can change its 
name to ‘Rokk City’ and no one blinks, why wouldn’t ‘molly’ be in the limelight
like it is? New things are sometimes old problems repackaged. 

5 Things To Watch For With Super Bowl XLVII - Chris "Preach" Smith

Super Bowl Sunday is almost upon us, and it is the penultimate game of the 
2013 NFL season as well as almost being a national holiday of sorts. Before you go
crazy with your game day preparations, here’s 10 things about this Super Bowl to
keep in mind:



1)Chicken Wings Shortage.

Hot wings are a centerpiece of sports viewing normally, but no other game demands
their presence more than the Super Bowl. Now, we’re in the second straight year of
a shortage of chicken wings. Something which makes me look at this as if it’s the new
H1N1 but they’re now being priced at $2.11 a pound, an all-time high. It’s so crazy
that two dudes down in Doraville, Georgia got busted after making off with a haul of
frozen Tyson’s chicken wings worth $65,000. So bear in mind if you can’t get your 
hands on wings for Sunday, you might want to look up a good nachos recipe.


2)Beyonce and the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

With all of the half-cocked outrage over Bey lip-synching her rendition of the
National Anthem at President Barack Obama’s inauguration last month, there
were a bunch of folks calling for her removal from the halftime show. You even had 
some in the Republican party calling for her removal, politicizing something so 
trivial. And what does Beyonce do at the press conference? Go out and sing the
National Anthem LIVE. Then ask, ‘any questions?’ Pure smackdown. She’ll be a
highlight just because it will be the first halftime show without aging rockers in
a few years. Maybe then the NFL will stop thinking about Nipplegate.


3)The Ascendance of Colin Kaepernick.

The San Francisco 49ers have one man to thank for this Super Bowl run, and that is 
second year quarterback Colin Kaepernick out of the University of Nevada. Kaepernick’s
rise to fame is remarkable enough when you consider this is his 12th start
as an NFL QB on Sunday. But he stands ready to be the first Black quarterback
to win a Super Bowl since Doug Williams did it with the Washington Redskins
in 1987. Colin hasn’t gotten a lot of heat outside of criticism of his numerous
tattoos, and speculation over whether he would ever meet his biological mother
(Kaepernick was adopted at a young age). But his athleticism combined with
an ability to perform great under pressure makes him one QB who may bring
the renaissance we’ve been seeing at the position in the past couple years to
full fruition. 

 
4)The Last Stand of Ray Lewis.

The heart and soul of the Baltimore Ravens takes the field for the very last time in his
career this Sunday. Push aside your misgivings and your thoughts on what happened in
2000 for a minute and consider this: Lewis has been with the Ravens since their inception
in 1996. That’s almost unheard of in sports these days. Already a Super Bowl champion,
Ray seems to have infused this team with a hunger beyond compare. Now, there are reports
that deer antler spray was used to help him recover from a torn triceps injury in October.
Whether or not it worked or is the modern day equivalent to Spanish Fly isn’t the issue
here. In a game already chock full of stories, you can bet that Ray isn’t walking off that
field unless he leaves it all on the field. Which could make for some legendary football.

 
5)The City of New Orleans.

Granted, the folks from the Crescent City as always, are gracious hosts. But you can’t help but
feel that they’re going to be real salty because of the commissioner Roger Goddell’s mishandling
of ‘Bounty-Gate’ that effectively derailed the Saints’ season this year. A season which could have
seen them right in the thick of it for the playoffs. I expect Goddell may see a few stale beignets
chucked at him over this weekend. The Super Bowl being in New Orleans though has a special
kind of excitement to it. Look at the past Bowl games played there. They know how to do it RIGHT.
New York City is going to be looking at this intently seeing as how it’s their turn to host next year.
And one thing that should be on everyone’s mind once this game is played? Bring it back in 2018.
Why? That’s the 300th anniversary of the city’s founding. And it would be one jewel in the crown
of resurgent triumph for this city since Katrina hit its shores seven years ago.