Lamont's Lists

As usual at this time of year, I begin to suffer from the pain of too much winter weather. After a while, it just gets the best of me. It’s so omnipresent, so relentless. Day after day it’s there, waiting to pounce on me every time I leave the house. I can’t take it anymore. I’m crying uncle. I’m sick of snow, especially the dirty, icy snow that lingers forever. I’m sick of coats, scarves, gloves, hats and hat hair. I’m sick of removing layers of clothing every time I enter overly warm office buildings, commuter trains and residences. I’m sick of scraping ice off the windshields of frozen cars. I’m sick of tingly fingers. I'm sick of blowing my runny nose. I’m sick of the loud, ancient, inconsistent radiator heaters in my house. And I’m sick of enduring a blast of arctic air every time I step out of the shower. Don’t get me wrong; winter has not been all bad. I’ve squeezed every bit of enjoyment out of the Winter Olympics. That Shaun White kid is amazing. Even Lindsay Vonn and Bodi...

The older I get, the more I prefer Salsa to Catsup. There is nothing that can be made better, that cannot be made better with a few drops of Texas Pete Hot Sauce. Please, take it easy with the mayo. It’s actually comical how much cream cheese bagel shops tend to slather on bagels, even when you only ask for a “smear.” My local shop tends to add enough to feed a family of 4 for a week. I’ve never tried a tuna melt. It just doesn’t make sense. Butter. Use sparingly. Margarine. Not at all. I’ve learned to tolerate wheat bread. But white still makes me happy. The best ice cream in the world is called Seventh Heaven. It comes from a dairy in Trenton, NJ called Halo Farms. This is not up for debate. If you’re going to eat a cheeseburger, make it a good one (say Five Guys). And you’ve already crossed the line, so you might as well go ahead and get the fries and Coke along with it. McDonald’s French fries. Competition is none. Best fast food sandwich. Chick-fil-A. I wish I had one right now. B...

via youtube.com Jay Electronica, Mos Def and Talib Kweli. This makes me want to push myself to go out and see more live hip hop. Posted via web from lswittenberg's posterous

via youtube.com Posted via web from lswittenberg's posterous

via nolongerempty.com Posted via web from lswittenberg's posterous

The Annoying Use Of “Dropping” As A Self-Branding Technique Let’s face it, nobody likes a name dropper. These people have been around since the beginning of time and they’ve always been a nuisance. The good news is that most of us are quick to spot name droppers and to call them out on it. Sometimes we do it to their faces: “Do you have to mention how you and Steve Jobs go way back every time someone pulls out an iphone?” And even if we are too polite to embarrass them in public, we never forfeit an opportunity to ridicule these idiots behind their backs. However, I’m struck by the fact that we too often let other “Droppers” off the hook. These individuals can be just as grating, but for some reason we put up with their blatant attempts to impress us. Like Name Droppers, these folks are opportunistic, and none-too-subtle in seeking opportunities to remind us of the places they’ve gone, the things they’ve seen, the degrees they’ve attained, and so on. In fairness, Dropping is just anoth...

via youtube.com This kid is the real deal. Posted via web from lswittenberg's posterous

via mtvmusic.com Real Hip Hop. Posted via web from lswittenberg's posterous

--> -->--> --> -->Is this the week Google (NSDQ: GOOG ) drops Nexus One, its supposedly game-changing Android mobile device? If all goes according to plan -- and by "plan," we mean endless, unconfirmed speculation -- Google will introduce Nexus One at a press conference in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday. Google hasn't confirmed as much but has told various media outlets, including ChannelWeb.com, to expect a "significant announcement." Most expect that to be the official arrival of the Nexus One, which since the rumor mill began to heat up two months ago has been touted as Google's Apple iPhone killer. The device, though manufactured by HTC, will be branded as a Google phone and run version 2.1 of Google Android. From there the actual details of the Nexus One get dicey. A number of tech news sites, including Engadget and Gizmodo, posted what appear to be leaked pictures of the Nexus One. According to those and previously leaked sp...

via 2dopeboyz.okayplayer.com Get yours while it's hot! Posted via web from lswittenberg's posterous

via gather.com "MJ at Summer Jam / Obama on the text / Yall should be afraid of what I'm gon' do next." Posted via web from lswittenberg's posterous

via youtube.com Still loving those MVPuppets. Posted via web from lswittenberg's posterous

It’s one thing to attempt to do something different, it’s another thing to succeed wildly at it. From the moment I first heard “Hey Ya” I knew we were in for a roller coaster ride. Andre 3000 crooning’ and playing guitar? Crazy right? For the rest of his side of the album, Andre kept pushing further and further off the deep end, channeling Prince, Cameo and Rick James, and pursuing whatever inspiration that hit him at the moment. He did all of this while having a blast, rarely rapping but never losing his profound sense of rhythm. It was a complicated balancing act to say the least. But Andre threaded the needle brilliantly. While Andre was emerging as the Golden Boy -- collecting glamorous friends, winning “best dressed awards” and generally staking his claim to the moniker of “coolest person on the planet” -- Big Boi was serving up his usual offering of top-shelf, dirty south crunk music. While he couldn’t outdo Andre, he certainly outdid himself. He doubled down on the stankiness o...

I have a lot of patience for talent and talent is something Kanye West has a lot of. For “Graduation”, it’s critical to strip away the artist in order to appreciate the artistry. Nobody composes big, celebratory hip hop tracks like Kanye. And on “Graduation” he was firing on all cylinders, improving on his impressive first two albums with inventive samples, lush instrumentation and pulsating drum patterns. Listen to the run of amazing tracks. “Stronger”, “Flashing Lights”, “Homecoming”, “Good Life”, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”; these records weren’t just good, they were special. Give them another spin right now and they'll sound better than they did two years ago. That's the hallmark of a true classic. Say what you want about what a jackass he is, but no artist did more to write the soundtrack of our lives in the 2000’s than Mr. West and “Graduation” was his greatest triumph. Being the best in the world at what you do is no excuse for bad behavior but that shouldn’t stop us from ...

The 50 Cent character we know today, the part-time rapper, full-time brand manager, hawking everything from Vitamin Water to cologne, is nothing like the guy from 2003’s “Get Rich Or Die Tryin’”. That 50 Cent delivered one of the greatest pieces of gangsta pop music you’re ever going to hear. “Get Rich” was a brilliant collection of menacing club tracks, laced with sweet hooks and phat baselines. Dr. Dre’s impeccable production work, dark, ominous and synthesized into eerie perfection, provided a perfect canvas for 50 to unleash hell on an unsuspecting public. He started modestly with “Wanksta”, a nifty little put down on wannabe neighborhood big shots. Then he exploded with “In Da Club”, a song with a groove so deep and punch lines so crisp that hearing it a million and one times couldn’t diminish its appeal. What made the album truly special however was the fact that 50 Cent was never overshadowed by all those astounding beats. As a front man he proved to be charismatic and engagin...

When Jay-Z announced that “The Black Album” would be his last he put self-imposed pressure on himself to deliver something over-the-top for his grand finale. I don’t know if it was the renewed sense of urgency or the rush of attempting the impossible, but it’s obvious the incentive worked. Hov delivered in spades, “The Black Album” was indeed a tour de force. It helped that Jay-Z was able to demand the best production work imaginable from the world’s most worthy producers.  His assembled team of luminaries, including Kanye, Timbaland, The Neptunes, Just Blaze, and Rick Rubin, all contributed stellar tracks. But Jay-Z never let you forget that he was the true star of the show. For the entire album, he was transcendent. His gifts for bedazzling word play, finger-on-the-pulse culture references and showmanship were all on display. Appropriately however, this was one of the few times where he decided to temper his legendary boasting to offer more introspection, reflecting on a c...

For some Lil Wayne is the second coming. For others his madcap rhymes are nothing more than a garbled mess, cleverly packaged as new millennial avant-garde hip hop. For Me “Tha Carter III” was validation of something I already knew but didn’t want to admit. Wayne was a thrilling emcee whose talents could no longer be denied or contained. “Tha Carter III” was the culmination of a five year run that saw Wayne transform from also-ran Hot Boy to pop music icon. The statement was bold, fearless and indelible. “Lollipop” was the album’s fire starter, a jittery, Auto-Tuned, fantastic voyage of a record that found its way into every crevice of our collective existence. Then came the succession of world-beating singles that set the summer of ‘08 ablaze. There was “Get Money” for the clubs, “A Milli” for the streets, “Mrs. Officer” for the radio and “Mr. Carter” for the non-believers. Wayne was everywhere. At the height of his ubiquity he seemed to be the only MC available for hire. You might st...

“The Eminem Show”, the third album from Eminem’s remarkable trilogy, was to me his finest. At 8x platinum, it was definitely his most successful. Much more than commercial accolades however, Em wanted respect; recognition from hip hop aficionados that he deserved to be mentioned on rap’s short list of elites. The record was his all-out attempt to leave his mark on the genre. I’d say: mission accomplished. Compared to “Slim Shady” and “Marshall Mathers” this record was much more understated, Em dialed down his desire for shock value in search of flawless song crafting and intense soul searching. On tracks like “Sing For the Moment” and “Till I Collapse” he rapped with unabashed earnestness. He even broke into song on several occasions, wailing convincingly on “Hailey’s Song” and “Cleaning Out My Closet”. Throughout the entire, largely self-produced effort his lyrics were razor sharp. The head-spinningly complex rhymes were by now taken for granted (re-listen to “Business” and “Square Da...

#7 Food And Liquor (2006) - Lupe Fiasco From the start it was apparent that Lupe was not going to be your average knucklehead rapper. “Kick Push”, his effervescent debut single was the tip off that he was seeking higher ground. The sublime shout out to skate culture was contagious, coasting along on a jazzy mid-tempo groove and sweeping horns. For the full-length album, Lupe proved he had much more in store. Across a diverse set of intellectually demanding tracks, Lupe demonstrated a remarkably high degree of bookish creativity. Pushing boundaries musically and thinking outside of the box conceptually. It was a thoroughly refreshing take on what contemporary hip hop could sound like in the hands of an artist hell-bent on elevating the art form regardless of the commercial implications. From “Daydreaming”, a subtle indictment on those who perpetuate hip hop stereotypes to “He Say She Say”, his lament on absentee fathers, Lupe was enthralling. And his politically charged tracks like “A...

#8 The Fix (2002) - Scarface We all knew from his Geto Boys days that Scarface was a standout rhyme slayer. The cagey veteran has seen a few things in his day. Plus with a voice fantastically suited for gritty storytelling, he’s always been capable of spinning a compelling narrative. But few of us knew that he had “The Fix” in him so deep into his critically acclaimed yet modest solo career. What we got with this album was a first-rate collection of his most absorbing tales, dripping with street wisdom and astute observations; a dead-on survival guide for life in the urban jungle. Rather than feeling like manufactured menace, Scarface’s rhymes rung true. He didn’t have to remind us that he was “keeping it real”; we believed it based on his past deeds and current choices. There’s also a wonderful thread of spirituality and grace that runs through the album. And Scarface goes out of his way to remind us that while life in the ghetto can be bleak, there is much joy in coming of age ther...