|
Enspire |
 There is no denying Barack Obama's abilities as a speaker. His poise and presence is yet another welcomed change to former President Bush's lyrical Nyquil. Throw him in some workout gear and you would swear he was doing neck exercises with the number of times he looks down at his speech paper...down, up, speak, down, up speak, down, down again, speak...you get the point. But perhaps we give too much credit to the man who only has to deliver the speech. Behind the draft of our new President's addresses is a 27 year old from New Hampshire. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
 MUSINA, South Africa — They bear the look of street urchins, their eyes on the prowl for useful scraps of garbage and their bodies covered in clothes no cleaner than a mechanic’s rags.
Near midnight, these Zimbabwean children can be found sleeping outside almost anywhere in this border city. A 12-year-old girl named No Matter Hungwe, hunched beneath the reassuring exterior light of the post office, said it was hunger that had pushed her across the border alone. |
|
Read more...
|
|
 I had dreams when I was 10. They were the NBA, be an astronaut, be a race car driver. In Cambodia, the list for a 10 year old garbage picker begins with find a factory job. Thats a nicer way to say work in a sweatshop. How ignorant of us to assume that a living made by 18 hours a day in a crowded factory with uninspected machinery and procedures is the worst that happens. It was all a dream... |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
Features |
 Watching the Lakers in the NBA playoffs these days, it is hard to imagine that Kobe Bryant has been in the league for 13 years already. It was 1996 when the seventeen year old was drafted, about the same time that Ali Vegas was chilling with Lamar Odom in Jamaica, Queens. Yes, the same Lamar Odom doing for Kobe what Pippen used to do for Jordan. Now let’s take it full circle and ask Ali Vegas how he defines his style of music. “I don’t know, it’s kinda weird because it’s unorthodox. It embodies all aspects of music. It’s not backpack, it’s not trendy, it’s like all of that in one. I made my style to be like my favorite basketball player, Scottie Pippen. He could shoot the three, put the ball on the floor, go to the rack… basically do it all, so that’s how my style of rap is. I really can do it all. It’s nothing in music that I can’t do.” |
|
 Asher Roth is a little different from the rappers you see on TV. He goes to (or went to) college, he doesn’t rock transformer chains and he is very light skinned. Ten years ago, this combination probably would not fly with A&Rs and label executives but this is 2009…and there are no more recipes for guaranteed success. For years, the industry has relied on deceit and mystery to sell records but as all the Rick Ross in hip hop get exposed by regular schmucks on the internet, we feel a little cheated for the tall tales we paid $12.99 for in the past. And though we all wanted to be a rapper for all the glory and riches, we can’t help but doubt how much are our idols are really caking when the rap industry and NBA are having flopping contests. |
|
 Hip hop fans are unforgiving listeners with a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately-approach. So all rappers accelerating in a fast ride, take note and drive towards that finish line before you run out of gas. It’s easy for a talented lyricist to gain a buzz (and non talented ones these days), just ask Papoose, ask Crooked I and nearly every emcee that has attained some sort of success over the last 3 decades. Some of them achieved hood fame with a debut album only to never be heard from again while others shined under international stardom with multiple platinum records. Joe Budden falls somewhere in the middle of this range. |
|
|
|
