Some things have to be seen to be believed, like five dorks in blackface (and one in “whiteface”) doing a “tribute” to the Jackson 5 as the Jackson Jive. I…
So Mariah “Sparkle Pony” Carey’s “Obsessed” is about Eminem, right? Right? What prize do I win for the sheer obviousness of Mariah’s summer pop ode to her ego? A bootleg copy of The Real Slim Shady? A DVD collectors edition of Wild’n Out?
There’s nothing like a pop song that’s about someone you don’t like any more. A diss track. Rappers do it so much it’s pointless, but they normally don’t try to hide who the object of their ire is. I mean, we all know of the great Kool Moe Dee/LL Cool J wars. Those were awesome. But I’m specifically talking about songs that “aren’t about you.” The greatest diss jams are the kind that are thinly vieled hate Valentines to assholes. Like one of the greatest songs ever written, the original who is she singing about jam, Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain.”
The New York Times recently published a story about Michelle Obama’s slavery ancestry, chronicling the story of a slave girl named Melvinia who was the mother to Mrs. Obama’s great-great grandfather. The tale is a harrowing, but familiar one of a former black slave giving birth to a “mulatto” child a short time after emancipation.
Today I have turned 32. Feels like 31 … only with about 30 less pounds and three inches more hair.