April 22, 2025

First Album I Bought

Most days I only check Bluesky and Mastodon for a few minutes while I’m in between sets at the gym. When I happened to have loaded up Bluesky recently I saw a variant on those old email chains that seem to reappear on each new social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc). This one was asking people to post the first album they ever bought. Thinking back to my first ever CDs, I knew the first 3 or 4 were birthday gifts. Eventually I figured it was most likely Going Public by The Newsboys. When I had both a CD player and enough money to buy my own music I was basically only listening to oldies (thanks to my parents) or Contemporary Christian Music (thanks to my faith and the fact that it was the only rap or rock that my parents approved of). But then I thought a bit more and I realized I bought an album before that…only I bought it on cassette tape.

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It seems this always happens in rap....

This article on AV Club considers how A Tribe Called Quest’s most critically acclaimed album is their worst artistically. I felt the same thing happened with GRITS - I LOVE their first two albums, but hate everything after that - which is when they started to pick up steam and be featured on MTV. It’s not some kind of hipster hate of the popular - I kept buying the albums hoping they’re return to a sound more like The Roots. Eventually I gave up. I feel like the same happened with Childish Gambino - I really don’t like his first commercial release, but I loved his mixtapes. I hear the same said of Lupe Fiasco.

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Colbert v Steele in a Rap Battle

It’s been pretty ridiculous recently with Steele claiming to bring Urban cred to the Republican party. I think they feel like they have to have a black guy too. It’s just odd that suddenly after Obama’s President, they have a black chairman.

Well, I know that eventually Hulu will pull this clip. But until they do, enjoy the extremely creative editing of the The Colbert Report’s team in this rap battle between Colbert and Republican Chairman Michael Steele.

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Crank That is the new Mashup Sensation

This annoyingly catchy rap song with crazy dance moves (there’s even a video online by the rapper to show you how to do the dance) is being put into all kinds of mashups. For some reason, these all seem to involve kiddie movies and Tv shows. Anyway, this gave me a pretty good laugh for a while. So, even though I hate linking to youtube videos (since they have an annoying tendency to be taken off), check these out while they last. First, check out the original, so you know what they’re parodying.

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life is good

Life always good - today it was better than usual. Can’t talk about it right now because of professional reasons, but I just have to thank God for being in control and also giving me a little to chew on here and there so I don’t get too impatient.

Also, later today, the big slope day expose. Tune in for nudity, Snoop Dogg, and more drunken college students than you can shake a stick at.

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Snoop for Slope Day

Every year we have a celebration on the final day of the school year on Cornell’s Libe Slope. It used to be a drunken orgy but it has morphed, in recent years into a concert with over-priced food and an ugly orange fence which makes getting to classes very hard. A couple of years ago Fat Joe was the lead act. Last year Kanye West was the headliner, although I didn’t get to see him because they weren’t allowing video cameras in and it was too much of a hassle to get back to the apartment. This year we’re getting Snoop Dogg along with some no name rapper. What’s interesting to me is the fact that a school as white as Cornell has had rap acts for the past three years. I’m not being naive or racist, saying that white people can’t listen to rap. I know they listen to rap.