Jay-Z Catches "Post-Racial" Musical Influenza, Hard-Heads Cry Foul

It's going around.

From SOHH.com:

Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z has reportedly shared his post-concert thoughts on fused music genres after a performance at the University of Arizona earlier this week alongside Kelly Clarkson and Third Eye Blind.

More after the jump.

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Michael Steele Goes A-Hip, A-Hop, A-Hip, To-the-Hippity-Hop, You Don't Stop!

From The New York Times:

The public relations campaign Mr. Steele has planned is going to be “off the hook,” he told the Washington Times in an interview published on Thursday.

“We want to convey that the modern-day G.O.P. looks like the conservative party that stands on principles,” Mr. Steele said. “But we want to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

And Mr. Steele, isn’t leaving anyone out, including, he joked, “one-armed midgets.”

Though the newspaper reported that Mr. Steele declined to offer specifics, he plans to put together a public relations team to give the Republican Party the equivalent of an extreme makeover. It’s part of a larger overhaul of the committee that he set in motion several weeks ago.

The new re-branding effort he said, “will be avant garde, technically. It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone — off the hook.”

OMG! Be still my heart! I think I just found comedy heaven!

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T.I. + Justin Timberlake = Pop Apologies

OK. So rapper T.I. kind of messed up in 2008. He got busted with a lot of gun charges and spent most of his house arrest writing "Paper Trail," his current album. This single "Dead and Gone," a track he did with the eponymous J. Timberlake, leaves the usually scattered ass that litters rap videos in the dust bin for some cold, wind-blown Canadian imagery, a burning piano and Justin Timberlake trying to emote the shit out of black, lower class struggle.

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Russell Simmons Calls Bill O'Reilly Out For A Duel ... of Blogs

News flash: Bill O'Reilly doesn't like rappers. A lot of people don't. But O'Reilly, like a lot of people who don't like rappers, tends to paint them in a nice, broad brush of ignorance and dickishness, avoiding any "annoying" nuance like a Mos Def, Lyrics Born or Jean Grae record.

Recently, Bill and his wingman, Dennis Miller got to play the "Good Negro/Bad Negro" game, mocking and poo-pooing the antics of Jay-Z and some character called "Young Jeezy," who were really, really excited about Barack Obama being president and celebrated it with lots of profanity. Who wasn't? So they got their Bush Bash on before rocking the mic. O'Reilly and Miller apparently thought this was shameful and not becoming of the new, "Good Negro" Administration of Barack Obama.

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Freak Convergences In Pop Culture: Framing Hanley Versus Lil Wayne

This will surprise no one but The Snob hates Lil Wayne with a passion. Not personally of course. I'm sure he's a swell sort of gross looking dude. Nice by the bundles, but I can't say I'm a fan. I loathe the overuse of Autotune on nearly every rap/R&B single right now and since Lil Wayne is a chronic offender I am chronically offended by his alleged "music."

But, this doesn't mean The Snob is a music snob. I'm a snob about a lot of things, but my music collection pretty much runs the gamut from "look how sophisticated and astute I am" Nina Simone to a "What are you? Twelve?" 99 cent download of the Jonas Brothers "Burnin' Up." I can enjoy crappy pop music with the best of them, I just have my limits and Lil Wayne's ode to fellatio is one of those limits. Not only is the thought of Lil Wayne singing about his ding-a-ling on "Lollipop" gross to me, the whole song gives me a bad case of the Linda Blairs, complete with pea soup spitting action and colorful cursing. But imagine my confusion when I cursed the net and found this cover one evening.

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The Retro Kids Do Have Day Jobs

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

I've regularly posted befuddlement at The Retro Kids wondering what they did for a living (besides go to NYC parties) and if their high top fades and braided gold chains were meant as a homage to the Hip Hop style that existed before the industry started pumping millions into the Rap Industrial Complex. Or if they were making fun of folks of my generation (teens and preteens of the late 80s through the 1990s).

Where they making fun of The Snob and my long hair, fully curly and crunchy to the side (with a banana clip -- of course, circa 1990, wearing a vertical stripped dress* to my sixth grade banquet where I was one of the two keynote speakers. Where I unveiled my hard earned dancing skills (I practiced in the basement for weeks with my more agile little sister, Deidre the Baby Snob, who went on to be a theater and dance major.) There at the banquet I busted a mean Roger Rabbit to some Bobby Brown after the award's dinner at Hazelwood East High School. Because I can't tell if the Retro Kids are making fun of that. That night was not funny to me.

Since kindergarten I'd been teased mercilessly for being different. By sixth grade everyone had calmed down and accepted me for who I was. I'd sat on my "cute" pair of glasses the night before the banquet and rather that wear my old hideous pink/purple plastic old lady specs from the fourth grade I went to the thing blind and specs-less. To my shock, everyone responded to me like I was the hottest chick in the room. I was "that girl" from the cheesy movies where you take off the glasses (and develop somewhat of a figure) and suddenly I was hot. That begot four years of bitching to my mom to get me contact lenses. So that night of 90s tackiness is a night of wonderfulness for me. Don't mock it, Retro Kids. Other than that -- Rock on. (From kanYe West Blog, via reader Whitty)

*I have got to dig up that picture. I swear to God. I was the hottest 12 year old in the game that night. I wouldn't feel that way again until college in my sorority days. (Left: My seventh grade ID from the former Kirby Junior High School in St. Louis County. Check them bangs. I was the hotness and no one even knew it.)

Also, scary. I can still do all those dances in the video. I made Baby Snob teach me all of them. Baby Snob has crazy skills. She had the Janet Jackson "If" video dance down pat. It was incredible, but she's always been awesome in that way. She's the official "Hot Chick" of the Snob sisters.

Trailer for Biggie Biopic "Notorious"

This movie has a January 2009 release which isn't always the best sign. (Although a February release date is a death knell.) The movie features Angela Bassett as Voletta Wallace, Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace's mother and Derek Luke as Sean "Diddy" Combs. Newcomer Jamal Woolard plays Biggie. I still have a bad "trainwreck" feeling about this and the trailer does not squash that feeling. The director is George Tillman Jr. who helmed both "Barbershop" films, "Soul Food" and "Roll Bounce." He might be able to pull it off. Maybe they'll cut together a better trailer that will make me less skeptical. Although, to be honest, I don't know why this movie is being made. Bad Boy is one of the producers so this isn't going to be an objective piece of art by any stretch. Any Biggie fans out there planning to watch this? (Black Voices)

Nas For Obama: Good Thing? Bad Thing? WTF Thing?

It seems rapper Nas has joined with black progressive activist group Color of Change in their campaign to challenge FOX News for their habitual Negromongering over Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. Sometimes it feels like 1952 on there -- the way we never were. Someone had to launch a counter-attack.

From MTV.com:

You don’t have to be invited onto Nas’ tour bus to know that the big screen in the back lounge isn’t tuned to Fox News. Ever.

If the track “Sly Fox” (”Watch what you watchin’, Fox keeps feeding us toxins/ Stop sleeping, start thinking”) on Untitled didn’t already tip you off that the MC isn’t a fan, then his position at the front of the pack at a press conference held outside the “fair and balanced” news network’s Manhattan headquarters should seal the deal.

At 2:30 p.m. tomorrow, Nas is joining the Web sites ColorOfChange.org and MoveOn.org to deliver a petition with more than 620,000 signatures demanding that the network end what the organizations call a “pattern of racist attacks against black Americans including presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.”

“Fox poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news,” Nas said in a statement. A spokesperson for Fox News could not be reached for comment at press time.

But Nas? As one poster on Jack & Jill Politics opined, "Wasn't Will Smith available?"

Will Smith, like Obama, is not prone to gaffes, is tightly in control of his press and career and knows how to behave in polite circles. He's friendly enough for the white folks, yet down enough for the blacks. He's your basic "Blackness Ambassador." It's a title you get when you bridge two worlds semi-successfully. I'm a Blackness Ambassador. So is Oprah and Gwen Ifil. It's a pain in the ass explaining what a pressing comb is to white people, but someone has to do it.

Nas is not the sort of guy who bridges that gap with a Coke and a smile. Yet that's who we got. Nas, a guy who tried to release his latest album under the title "Nigger," including wearing gear with the world "Nigger" printed on it at the Grammys. He changed the title. (Did people learn nothing from Ol' Dirty Bastard's "N*gger Please" album? MTV VJ's can't exactly drop that title on TRL.) But Nas is also a talented rapper with a great pro-Obama song. He's more conscious than say, Jay-Z, and other than sometimes sounding like an idiot (as rappers are prone to do when they discuss things outside of their sphere of influence -- no one asked your opinion on "Jesse can't keep shit in the family"-gate). He's no T-Pain. If T-Pain or Lil' Weezy were repping for Color of Change's anti-FOX protest I'd be concerned.

And I'd be saying, was Puffy not available? I'm sure he could have pulled out some of those old "vote or die" T-shirts.

Jokes aside, I guess I'm glad Nas is taking an active role in getting Obama elected. I would have preferred him being polite on the sidelines, writing good pro-Obama rap songs like "Black President," then registering to vote and later actually showing up at the polls to vote for Obama, but that's me. Also, I don't know if Obama wants most rappers' help -- donations? YES. Obama takes cash. But I'm sure he also has a naughty and nice list for rapper fans.

Mos Def, good.
will.i.am, perfect.
Queen Latifa, good.
Lupe Fiasco, has potential.
Snoop Dogg, bad.
Yung Berg, bad.
50 Cent, bad.
Kanye, risky.

But pro-rapper love or not, Barack is getting his help. Nas, Move On and Color of Change to the rescue.

It's great when we all work together.

But Jack & Jill Politics commenter "Town" sums up my true cynicism about this endeavor.

Publicity stunt on Nas' part, IMO.

I'll bet a box of Krispy Kreme donuts that Bill O'Reilly will call ColorofChange a racist hate organization and he'll talk about how the gangsta rapper NAS loves the n-word so much that he wanted to name his album that but the good folks at Walmart took a stand against such racist filth.

Yeah ... that feels about right. And he'll work George Soros in there too. And Jesse Jackson. That's the FOX I know. Just let the bigotry wash over you like a bath of battery acid. So warm and stinging.

Name That Rapper Solved!

The jury has spoken!

Wednesday Isonprize sent The Snob a clip from The Today Show where they threw up a picture of rapper they said was Jay-Z but who clearly was not Jay-Z, largely due to the fact he did not look like Camel Joe. He actually looked, dare I say it, handsome. Who on earth could NBC offend by not being to tell the difference between him and Jay-Z?

Joe Budden! You're that rapper! Be offended! NBC thinks you and Jay are one in the same!

I, who hasn't paid attention to hip hop since the Shiny Suit Era, only recognized Budden for his hit "Pump It Up," but had never seen the video or a picture of him. But after doing a little research (re: Googling), I learned that Budden should be offended by this snafu on so many levels, as Budden dissed Jay and told him he needed to retire already last December.

“It was disrespectful, but it was a diss with a point: Stop rapping. Hang it up,” Budden said as he explained the reason for the dis. “You’re getting paid to be a president. Be a president. We loved you as a rapper. One of the best to ever do it. Now it’s time to do some other things.”

“Everybody is calling American Gangster a concept album. It’s a Jay-Z album,” he continues. “He’s talking about the same exact sh*t he’s talking about on Reasonable Doubt. Where’s the concepts? He just needed something to attach it to, which he did. He needs to be a president and start putting out some fucking artists.”

Um ... I agree! I've been saying this since "Hard Knock Life." Since Jay "retired" a few years back. But then, I'm not a Jay-Z fan. I'm one of those individuals who thinks Jay would rank a lot lower on the NYC rapper list if Biggie hadn't died and Mace, who I also don't like, hadn't found Jesus. But that's just me. What do I know?

I do know one thing though ... Joe Budden should diss NBC on an underground mixtape. That's just unforgivable. Dude isn't no where near has hideous as Mr. Hawaiian Sophie.

Thank you all for playing the "Name That Rapper" game!