The Farthest Reach

"You Dream Too Much"
-Lazy Dumb Ass Friend With No Ambition

Ok…what does that mean? Actually I know what he was trying to say and I get it. I talk a lot about the future. What I don't do is talk a lot about the future and wake up the next day and not do shit about it.

I love a good fucking deadline. I love creating things and making things happen. I love the feeling of being alive to talk shit about what life's going to be like five years from now.

I share my goals and plans with a select view and this mutherfucker just got taken off the guest list. Not because he dared to contradict my vision for the future or my goals, but because well…the mutherfucker has no clue of what the fuck I'm saying.


Off topic, mutherfucker is the greatest word ever.

Moving on, this little rant is more about how many of us have grown accustomed to not expecting to do shit with our lives.

And in the middle of your plans of not really doing shit, you expect other mutherfuckers (love that word) to never do shit. And when you see somebody trying to do shit, you accuse them of dreaming too much.

Ok, I get it. But know this there is some truth to the idea that you are who you surround yourself with. And somebody who is not a old-school friend/potential groomsman/long-term homeboy/ hell…somebody I've even known for three years can definitely be cut from my personal roster by playing the anchor card. See you when I see you…

Dream On Bitch…
XILBUP

Mike Vick Is Free. Now What?

Mike Vick is enjoying the good life as we speak. A good bed, a hot meal that he doesn't have to fight some Ving Rhames looking mutherfucker for, his family and the knowledge that when he closes his eyes tonight some other grown ass man won't scream ' lights out!'

I'm not taking shots at him. The world and the justice system swatted a fly with a sledgehammer. He fucked up yes but he didn't deserve what he got. He stood by the same mutherfuckers that turned on him and they GOT LESS THAN A YEAR but he didn't deserve what he got. So now with his crazy ass penance paid, its time for the redemption part of his story.

The part where some lovable collie gets to share some precious screen time with Starship 7 as he urges kids to never bet on a pit-bull named 'Bad Mutherfucker.' The part where led by his spiritual guide Tony Dungy , Vick gets snapped up by The Seattle Seahawks as their second string QB.

The part where fragile QB Matt Hasslebeck cracks his back again and Ron Mexico trots out onto the field to save the day. The part where the human highlight reel leads the Seahawks and his former Atlanta Falcons coach Jim Mora to Superbowl glory. I can see it now. This will be better than the Jerome Bettis ending. You know, The Bus winning the Lombardi Trophy in his hometown of Detroit effectively sending his career out on the highest of notes.

Seems like I am biased? There could be some truth to that. I've seen Vick play in every pro game he's participated in. I gone from hating him to hating owner Atlanta Falcons Arthur Blank for screwing the season ticket owners in regards to his availability to being just plain frustrated.

New team savior Matt Ryan didn't give me the opportunity to root for him to succeed somewhere else as it did many other Falcons fans; common sense did.

How can a first offender for ANYTHING lose what Vick lost? Somebody, somewhere, right now is in court with the worst of public defenders as his/her sole means of defense getting probation for fucking up a human being.

I've owned three dogs in my life. Yes they are defenseless against big men with weapons. It was despicable what happened. But the system is the system and it should work the same for everybody. We have to question whether or not we value animal life over human life.

Because this situation says a multiple-time arrestee Adam "Pacman" Jones and his people can fire off rounds in a crowded strip club and paralyze a human being while a first time dog fighting offender goes to Leavenworth.

But let the past be the past. Starship 7 I trust that out of them all the pro sports fuck-ups, the loss of so much has given him the wisdom to value the opportunities he receives in the future unless NFL commish Roger Goodell is a dick about things which is a very good possibility.

You know after all the NFL can sell fully licensed hunting bows and shit but the idea of giving Vick another chance could be a controversial lightning rod. I mean the deer doesn't feel any pain from that huge object sticking out of its skull does it?

Xilbup

Confusion In The Game

Hip hop is not dead. The people that buy the records are just confused. It's not our fault either and there is a lot of reasons why. We need a better definition for what is going on. That is a good a place to start as any.

As a fan of music (that's right I said fan), I need to have my shit set up better than it's been for a hot minute. These are hard times and just like people weigh their pine flavored baggies to ensure it's not light, folks won't buy a fucking thing if the music and the presentation doesn't connect on every level.

It's been said that the south is killing the art-form but that's a huge source of debate. It doesn't what state you wake up in, if your career is based on a gimmick you're a singles artist. You have to know if people like the gimmick song, or love to do the gimmick dance that your album is going to a hard sell.

Why? Because they are not album artists; and that's cool. In the pop world, it's always been about the single and to see hip-hop grow to that magnitude is the shit. However, the problems show up when the A&R folks involved with these acts decide that it’s a better idea to grab a bag full of beats and rush an album out that they know sucks.

So now the set-up is all fucked up. The kids are all about the single and instead of working the gimmick song until its run is over, the attention is diverted into putting together an entire album of re-hashed shit that is not nearly as clever as the song that got them to that point to begin with.

Now, if said artist comes up with another chant/dance combo that is born of true inspiration… come with it, but to push a product that that is disorganized fucks the whole show up…period.

Now as for the album artist, the artists that get into this because they can create albums that can bang from start to finish, I feel for them right now.

But under no set of circumstances should these people be forced to go outside of what they do to put out a whack-ass single. Let's take David Banner for example. Banner is the fucking truth in every way, shape or form.

His ability to speak and most importantly lead the new consciousness of hip-hop needs to be his thing and yet dude has admittedly been forced to scale down his point of view to sell more records (which btw…doesn't seem to work).

Where would rap be right now if Chuck D was forced to do "Funky Cold Medina" knock-offs? That's not a diss to Tone Loc, but It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back defined that segment of hip hop for its time.

Now Banner is a grown ass man that makes his own choices. But it's really fucked up that the venom he spits in his interviews can't make it to his first singles.

All this shit has gone downhill because it is assumed that people want it that way. No, people want the truth. So if you dance fine do your dance. Be the best snap, crackle and pop ass mutherfucker that you can possibly be. Get your publishing money for that hit song, play as many shows as you can, get that song title on some t-shirts. Stick to what you are and know your limitations.

If you have an album that is worthy of the term album, then step up and work out every single detail that follows through on your vision.

Both situations have their place. To me, Jay-Z's Kingdom Come record barring a few really bad moments was really underrated. But if you think I want to hear "Beach Chair" when I'm at the bar scheming, you are fucking crazy. That track is too deep and somber to find out if she's more Lil Kim or India Arie. And no hell no, would I ever drop a need on that fucking Huey record " Stop, Drop, and Roll" or whatever that shit is called in my house.

And as for the people who poison the process because they are afraid f losing their expense accounts and their invites to Puffy's latest party, I have a question for you all.

Would you rather take huge trend chasing risks or would you rather put together projects the right way? If it was me, I'd rather be seen as the person who breaks a higher percentage of projects that I sign because they are set-up and marketed the right way and the public connects to them. I would hate to wake-up today knowing I was responsible for bullshit….

Xilbup