Actual Proof The Talented Tenth Album Review

 

                                                           
Conceptual, Smooth, Educating, Mind boggling are all words you can use to describe Actual Proof's album The Talented Tenth. The album talented tenth is based upon two leaders of the African American community, Malcolm x and Martin Luther King Jr. The idea of the Talented Tenth was first brought to us by W.E.b Dubois. He wrote a piece of literature for all to see. In the essay he said that in the black community, there are ten percent of blacks who will rise up and lead the rest of the entire black community. Actual Proof took this idea and ran with it, the album is split into two separate parts the Martin side and the Malcolm X side. Actual Proof uses great lyrical techniques and metaphors to  pay homage to both the great leaders in both sides of the album.

            

                                                         
The album opens up with the song Dream, which is also the first song for the Martin side of the Album. "Socrates of all hypothesis, the talented tenth they pretend we don't exist like ghost in the wind." This is a quote taken from this song which showcases a great metaphor used by the artist and was one of the main points in the essay W.E.B Dubois wrote. He said that the talented tenth of black people are extremely smart and good human beings, but some people pretend like they don't exist. Another stand out song from the Martin side was Peace Zulu ft Halo. "True grit, from the flip now they turned ten into five percent." This was a quote taken from this song, this quote is saying that with true grit some black people were able to take some of the founding ideas of the Talented Tenth and make it into a religion called the five percenters. Probably the most important song on the Martin side of the album is the last song on it which is Talented Tenth. This song offers a synopsis of Martins whole side of the album. "Portions of complex lyrics but keep the rhythm simple." Super Genius the first song on the Malcolm side offers a collaboration with artist such as Kendrick Lamar, Cutlass, and many other artist. This song is the most hard hitting part of the album up to its point, different artist offer there own style on this song which makes it a pretty smooth piece of work. A stand out track from the Malcolm side was Breathe, the song offered a little change up with a faster paced beat but still had witty punch lines such as "fade of the plate put the pinch in them." The final song on the whole album the x factor sums up the whole album with conceptual lyrics and a smooth beat. The producers for this great album were 9th wonder, Khrysis, AMP, Ka$h, and Eric G.

In an age of hip hop were conceptual rappers who actually take time to create an album is at a minimum, it is refreshing to see a rap group who actually did that. Actual Proof could have took the easy route and made a regular album that would have just soothed the radio and its listeners, but no they didn't and for that i tip my hat off to them for making a great album that bothers the mind of people in a good way.


http://www.kevinnottingham.com/2011/01/15/actual-proof-the-talented-tenth/
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=174

Kendrick Lamar Good Kid M.A.AD City Album Review

Kendrick Lamar's latest album Good Kid M.A.AD City has been dubbed by many rap enthusiast and experts as one of the best albums since the golden age of hip hop/slash rap in the 90's. GKMC is being mentioned and compared in the same name as great albums such as Nas's Illmatic and Tupac All eyez on me. Kendrick Lamar uses great metaphors, beautiful imagery, and colorful skits to to tell a whole story through this entire album.



GKMC starts of with the song Sherane, in the beginning of the song you hear a group of young man offering up a prayer to god asking him for forgiveness, then the song makes a smooth transition to Kendrick rapping about a female named Sherane. Sherane ends with the first skit of the album where his mother and father are leaving a message on his voicemail. The next song B*****, don't kill my vibe is a smooth song with a well paced beat. Kendrick Lamar uses extremely witty wordplay to entice the  listener to listen on. The next few songs Backstreet Freestyle, The Art of peer pressure and Money Trees deepens the plot. The next song Poetic Justice uses a sample from Janet Jackson's anytime anyplace. This song features Drake on it. The collaboration on this song between the two artist gives the listener a cosy feeling when listening.The song Good Kid offers a foreshadowing through literary devices of what you will hear while hearing M.A.A.D City. M.A.A.D City takes the listener to the hard pounding beat of a 90 west coast rap. This song featuring Mc Eiht shines a light on what life is like in Compton through Kendrick's eyes while growing up. The next three songs "Swimming Pools," "Sing About me, I'm dying of thirst," and the "Real" are the most important song on the album to telling his story. Swimming Pools offers a us some deep thinking on a problem that affects a lot of people, drinking. Kendrick uses this song to show how alcohol has affected the minds and thoughts of us all. At the end of this song a skit comes up and it tells us that the girl Sherane set Kendrick up and he got beat up. The next song Sing about me,I'm dying of thirst goes into the way of life he has seen growing up in Compton. " A demon whispering get em, i got em and i ain't give a f***" "In actuality its a trip how we trip over colors." These are two lines taken from Sing about me,I'm dying of thirst. This song is the most powerful song on the album, it makes an attempt at analyzing how the Compton life affected the people around and how it shaped him. The end of the song you hear the same prayer you heard at the beginning of the album. The song Compton is the final song on the album and it gives a salute to his hometown Compton.

I honestly believe if someone takes the time and listens to this album it can be life changing experience for them. The amount of wisdom dropped on this album rivals Tupac. Overall GKMC was a great album that can change lives.

The New Illuminati

CBS, McDonald's, Apple, Google, Time Warner, Walt Disney, GE, Viacom, News Corp, do all these companies ring a bell in your mind? If they don't then it should. these companies own almost everything we watch and use. All of them have managed to create a monopoly of the earth. You can not turn on your t.v and not see a program sponsored by on of these big companies, you can't walk down the street and not see a building that does not have ties with one of these companies.

From growing up as a little child we have all seen Disney movies, and our children will probably see Disney movies. through all the channels that Disney owns such as ABC and ESPN we can be bombarded with all of the mess they want us to hear and now. Google spends over 10 million on government lobbying outspending all tech companies. They can contribute to putting someone in power more that we can. McDonald's operates other restaurants such as Piles cafe, Boston Market, and owns part of Chipotle and also owns a part of Redbox. General Electric company you might of thought just manufactured appliances, but no they have more ventures than that. They own Comcast, NBC, and Universal Pictures.
Instead of believing in a secret group of one percent of elite people who supposedly is pulling all of the strings, i would pay more attention to these group of big companies because they are quickly taking over everything. Soon we won't be able to see a restaurant that is not affiliated with McDonald's, or see a channel that is not affiliated with viacom. A scary thought would be if all these groups merged to create this big giant of a corporation. They would be able to feed us all the mess they wanted to literally and figuratively and we almost couldn't do a thing about it.
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
http://soshable.com/what-does-google-own/

Sunshine Through Darkness

 Through my sixteen years on this planet life has decitetfully taught me a lot of lessons. Some lessons less more impactful than others but they all have helped shape me to be the person i am today When life give you lemons you make beef stew. Life will always throw you curve balls its on us to determine how we swing on it.

Back in elementary school there was this incident that that was a foreshadowing to what high school has taught me. In elementary school in fourth grade i hung with mainly two people who will remain unnamed. These two people did not like this other boy for a reason i believe was silly. So like how most problems were handled we planed out how we were going to jump him while on his way home. The opportunity presented itself and we pounced on, my two "friends" ran after him and began to assault the other young you man. Now me being raised by a Jamaican mother with strong morals, I began to think about what would happen to me if I joined in to beat this young man. Now still being young and dumb instead of going home, or trying to break the fight up I stayed and watch him get beat. The next day the young man and his mother came to the school picking out who did this to her son. The school counselor eventually found me and the other two boys and brought us into his office. When the interrigation began the two boys had made it up in their mind that they weren't going to take the fall for what happened, so they began to lie and say that i was the one that planed it and began to beat the young man up. Due to the good nature of the young man he told the counselor and his mother that i did'tn lay a finger on him. I tell you this story because in life you should be careful of who you call your friends, because those friends are the same ones who will run you up a tree to protect their hides as soon as the oppurtunity presents itself.

Life will not always be nice toward you and go the way you want it to go, but its on us to bounce back from whatever life throws at us and not let it keep us down. This is something I learned while on vacation in Jamaica with my family a couple years ago. I was walking around in some water that was at my shoulder level and then boom i lost my footing on slippery rock, and the water quickly rose pass my head. My whole body was submerged under water, in a few moments a felt the want for oxygen increase, then someone  came and shot me up out of the water. I never told that person thank you for what he did, but believe me it was greatly appreciated. Now right after that trip my mother had planed for us to go to the beach. I could have said i don't want to go to the beach, but i wast'n going to let what had happened to me keep me down from enjoying life and all it has to offer. Just because something bad has happened to you does not mean that your life is over, get out and try to enjoy life to the fullest.    

http://friendship.about.com/od/Toxic_Friends/a/Are-Your-Friends-A-Good-Influence.htm