The Prescription

So I'm on vacation staycation this week so maybe I can get 1 post in a day...there are a lot of things to talk about...

Aight, so I love music. The actual music, notes and what not, as well as the lyrics. This is especially true for Hip-Hop/Rap music. I like listening to rappers who tell stories so well I feel like I'm watching them unfold. I like listening to songs and saying "damn that was crazy," either because the lyrics are crazy or because they make me think so hard. Naturally some of my favorite rappers are Jay-Z, Nas, Lupe and Fabolous (very long list) all of whom are capable of doing those things. The "new guard" of rappers is pretty adept too. J. Cole, Drake and Wale are very ill lyrically, something I really appreciate.

I was put onto Wale by my roommate in college (#shoutout @dueordie). He told me to listen to The Mixtape About Nothing and see if I liked the guy. I did and have been following ever since. After the success of that mixtape, and Back to the Feature, there were great expectations for his debut album Attention Deficit. It didn't really live up to the hype though. Although it received mostly great reviews it didn't sell well, only going gold. It was also easily forgotten amongst the other rap albums that dropped that year (BP 3, Deeper Than Rap, Man on the Moon, Loso's Way, Relapse). Recently I re-listened to Attention Deficit in preparation for finally listening to More About Nothing (#latepass). I just have to say that the album was indeed overlooked but Wale did warn us that that would happen, and even gave us something to prevent it: The Prescription.

The title of the CD let us know how Wale felt, and what I think ultimately happened, people wouldn't be able to pay attention well enough to enjoy the CD. The decline of hip-hop/rap over the past few years has been well known. It has been going away from the lyrical prowess that it was once known for, to the dance friendly, catchy beats/hooks, lets make something for the club era. Wale, aware of this, takes pride in his lyrics and dubs himself the prescription to the ills of the rap game. Proclaiming yourself as the "House" that's been needed to solve the rap game's rubic is bold and something that everyone has been doing of late, but Wale made a great claim on the track.

Pay Attention!

Don't let the pain getcha

I swear my lane will provide as a painkiller

A painkiller, a 16 of Percoset

Just let it chill Joe

That lil' burn that you feel, feel good don't it?

Just sit back and relax and take it easy

And let the beat play

Close your eyes, whoever uninspired

Pay me no mind, I put Adderol in ya eyes

Riddle them with Ritalin, attention deficit

Niggas start listenin', and what I'm givin' them

The drug that they brain need

Them niggas sick of hip-hop so they appointed me

And I invened but the IV inside of me

And ignorance was drug of choice but they OD'd

Couldn't alone leave 'em

I am the sole leader

The young soul that the OG's still believe in

And if you not convinced keep on promotin' them

I breathe life in the game, they are Kevorkian

They provokin' suicide but as soon as signed

I drew designs from consumer's minds so in time

I do it for all y'all, do it for all y'all

Don't gotta wait long

The doctor has arrived just be patient

please, please

Sly Fox (News) at it again....

Much has been made of how trbl #sayitlikebarkley Fox News is. The channel is indeed horrible but it has come up with some of my favorite media memories over the past few years. There was the "You Mad" interview on the O'Reilly factor. Additionally, several rappers have spit lines/songs about Bill O'Reilly, most notably Snoop Dogg and Ludacris. My boy Nas even dedicated a whole song to describing how bad Fox's news coverage is (Sly Fox). Well, Fox strikes again with more bullshit:




Seriously, how long can Fox News continue being on TV?

Success = Pressure = ?

Last week we watched 3 premiere athletes crumble under pressure. Tiger Woods, Sidney Crosby, then of course LeBron James in game 5. He posted a triple double in game 6 but still had the apathetic/defeatist attitude of game 5 and his team was eliminated.

Its shocking that these guys weren't able to deliver under pressure. They're arguably the best at their respective sports, have built successful track records and have succeeded under pressure many times. Perhaps more shocking then them not succeeding was they way way they were vilified for it. Fans and media people consistently blasted them out, with LeBron getting the worst of it. A little uncalled for if you ask me. What people fail to realize/acknowledge is that there is a such thing as Too Much Pressure.

This was certainly the case for LeBron. He's been a phenom since age 13. Back then up to now he has dealt with Jordan comparisons (this doesn't help). He was drafted by his hometown team and expected to be the savior of a city with no championships since 1964 and several sports heartbreak since then. Then there's the media fueled duel with Kobe. This was the year, his 7th season (just like MJ,) he has the best team of his his career, a team many felt was the "best" in the league, the overwhelming favorite to win it all. The back to back MVPs Awards. His pending free agency. A lot of pressure.

Perhaps the most pressure causing thing for LeBron, as well as the other two, was their Success. Their success led to our expectations, adding more pressure. That's how its goes though. If you are successful at something people then expect you to continue to be successful at it. However its never enough to simply be successful. When your successful the exceptions become greater: greater success. The result of these greater expectations are sometimes greater success but always more pressure for the individual expected to perform. What happens if they don't?

We saw last week with these guys that failure under pressure is not taken lightly. As I mentioned earlier they were vilified by media and fans. This worries me, because in all actuality they are just athletes. Their successes or lack there of are not matters of life and death. If they were treated so badly how does that translate to us? I have career aspirations that will indirectly and in some case directly impact people's lives (or deaths). The same can be said for almost all of my friends. In addition to that pressure we also have to deal with several other levels. Were black. We may be the only ones from our families/communities to have gone to school. We are being counted on to make a difference, to change the world. That's a lot of pressure.

Is all funny because one of my favorite songs is "Pressure" by Lupe Fiasco (ft Jay-Z). The chorus talks about doing everything for someone else to take the pressure of of them. This is certainly how I live my life, which as you can read is problematic, but I do nonetheless. Another one of my favorite songs is "Success" by Jay-Z (ft Nas.) This song is all about the pressures that comes with certain levels of success. These two tracks (featuring 3 of my favorite artists) really help put this idea of Success = Pressure into perspective for me. Of course I plan to be successful despite the pressure, very successful in fact. As do all of my friends. My only worry is will it be enough? How much success is needed to eliminate pressure? The truth is that at some point there will be Too Much Pressure. So what do we do? What will go in the equation in place of the question mark: SUCCESS = PRESSURE = ?