1. The Breakfast Club: I have no idea why I looked up The Breakfast Club. I'm not from New York nor have I ever been to New York. I had never heard of Charlamagne The God, Angela Yee or DJ Envy, but I remembered this joke Charlamagne made on Twitter about how folks better not mess with Chris Brown at an awards show because he showed up in jean shorts. I thought that was kinda funny and from the amount of followers, I figured he was probably popular but I had no clue why. For whatever reason I still can't recall, I looked up
The Breakfast Club on Power 105.1 Monday and I've been listening to this show at work everyday. They are hilarious, and I usually can't stand to hear people talk on the radio. I like these personalities though.
2. Hood State of the Union: I found out about this while listening to Charlamagne talk to T-Pain. He said something about T-Pain and Kevin Hart stealing an idea of his, and I looked him and Lil Duval. Although I didn't find the rap they were talking about, I did luck up on all of these
ridiculous videos about their views on entertainment. I laughed through almost all of them.
Four years ago, I saw a hip-hop group perform all of these positive songs at the start of a football game. I hear hip-hop all the time and I don't always stop to watch everybody perform, but what caught my attention was the look of all of the guys was much edgier than the lyrics they were speaking. I ended up interviewing them because I wanted to know what made them go the route in music that they did when it seems like negative (read: ignorant as hell) music seems to pay more. All of them had some dark tales to tell, but one guy said he never got the love he's getting now until he started rapping about more positive topics. Now grandmothers can walk up and hug him and not just his guys. I liked that idea. But I did notice a pattern with all of them. Although the music was happier, they all looked aggressive. Like if a fight broke out, they'd be ready to tear some s**t up. Did that make me scared to interview them? Not at all. It's not the smartest decision to be the only woman in a basement studio full of guys, but similar to them, I've observed so much as a kid that it takes a little bit more to actually scare me. I'm easily disappointed and still haven't quite mastered my quick temper (I'm far better as a 30-year-old than I was as a teen and definitely in my early 20s). But scared? There are only two things that scare me, and neither of them are human. One of the two does breathe but neither is human.
Anyway, one question that I asked them at the end of the interview was very impromptu, and the reason I asked was because the guys looked so serious. I asked, "What makes you happy?" and then I smiled. And when I smiled, every last one of them smiled, too. And I don't mean polite tight smiles. I mean teeth-showing smiles right before they went into memories of what makes them genuinely happy. It was a great way to end an interview and before I left, a couple of them stopped me and said, "Wait a minute. We didn't hear what makes you smile?" A genuine smile is contagious. A good laugh is even better. I like to hear what makes people happy because we all have so much to complain about. I'm interested in what gets through the cracks and makes somebody laugh so hard her shoulders shake or what makes him laugh so hard that I can see where he had cavities.
When my maternal grandmother passed away in 1995 right before I graduated from elementary school, I took a sign from her doorway that said, "Keep smiling. It makes everyone wonder what you have been up to." She was always laughing about something, too.
I said I was done with "Five things I'm digging right now" blogs although that was fun to do in 2011. This time around though, I'm going to blog about five things that made me smile/laugh" and I'll call it "What are you smiling about?":
After hearing a slew of terrible hip-hop albums at the end of 2011, I came to the realization that maybe I'm getting too old for hip-hop. That, or I've turned into the "I remember when hip-hop" old head that I used to roll my eyes at. Either way it goes, I can't ignore the "bitches" and the "hoes" and the killing and threats in music. This is on top of the paranoia that everybody is out to kill you or the homage to haters and golddiggers. Does that pretty much cover almost all of the content coming from recent artists (outside of the ones going against the grain like Drake). After
reviewing Royce Da 5'9 and Eminem's duo album and hearing a laundry list of insults to women, I said, "That's it. I'm done. I can't listen to this garbage anymore, and I'm definitely not buying it." I'm still trying to figure out why people turn a blind eye to Eminem's threats to women but Chris Brown is taking punches on every turn. Hell, at least Chris Brown apologized, Rihanna forgave him and was put on probation all while folks are just snapping their fingers to Eminem crooning about choking ladies.
But nevertheless, lately hip-hop is pushing out some good stuff and making me rethink abandoning it.
I know people shouldn't wait for a new year to have goals, but why not use it as a little push to get the show on the road? So here are my seven new years resolutions for 2012.
1) Stop checking work e-mail from home: Unless it's something personal or for fun, I'm going to stop working from home. I've had two bosses plus my boss's boss tell me to enjoy the weekend. I'm a bit of a workaholic (and get it from my mother), but I'm going to make a point to enjoy myself 100% off the clock.
2) Eat out at fast food restaurants less: Vegetarian or not, I eat too many fatty, greasy foods (like French Fries) from fast food places. My wallet and my body will thank me. My goal is to only eat out twice per month. That's reasonable and realistic instead of once or twice a week like I've been doing.
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