Snoop Dogg vs. T. Pain

Wassup, Y'all!

I caught Snoop's new 'Sexual Seduction' video this morning and had to share that joint to brighten up your Friday morning. That brother's a trip! It's a concept video that looks like it came straight out of the 80's - y'all know how cheesy those joints were... Snoop doesn't even get to rappin' until the final 1/4 of that joint. During the first part he's channeling Roger Troutman/T. Pain by using a 'Talk Box'. Can't say that brother ain't creative and funny...and still skinny. I don't think that dude has put on a half ounce (of weight) since '91 (think I'm lying? Check his 'Nothin But a G Thang' video with his boy Dr. Dre) . The track is from his upcoming album (his 9th!) called 'Ego Trippin''. Check the 'Sexual Seduction' video after the jump...

Snoop Dogg - Sensual Seduction

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Rodney King Get Dick Cheney Treatment

Wassup, Y'all!

Our boy Rodney is back! Yes, the man who made the corner of Florence and Normandy famous apparently caught a little buckshot in the a$$ while biking home. There some good news and some bad news here. The bad news is that Rodney was apparently drunk at the time (like he was when he got pulled over back in 1991). The good news is that Rodney's now ridin' a bike. It's a little hard to hit 90 on the freeway with that joint...

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Hitch in the Giddy up

Wassup, Y'all!

Back from my sunny F-L holiday! Got to admit, though ol Ty's never been the biggest fan of the 'Hurricane Sunshine State', that joint was hittin' and holdin' this go 'round. Weather was tight, eatin', drinkin' and merry-makin - all good. So I'm rested and relaxed and ready to get back to business. Over the weeks and months to come I plan to gradually make over the Malone Zone. Rest assured you'll still be getting the same tight commentary you've become accustom to here in the basement, but I plan to start mixin' in more 'micro posts' with my longer posts to help keep the blog updated more frequently, the news a little fresher and to free up a little 'Ty' time as I focus on my million other endeavors.

So what's a 'micro post' you ask? It's more of a typical blog post style - actual factuals served up in bite-sized portions. Want some examples? Hit me after the jump...

For the last few days, I've been hearin' about Tyra 'Lil Oprah' Banks complaining about how she's 'insecure' about her hair, so a micro post on that would go a little something like this:

Tyra Gettin' Wiggy With It: After tellin' everyone who criticized her about her weight to 'kiss her fat a$$', Oprah understudy Tyra Banks confessed that because of all the wigs and extensions she's been kickin', she's scurred to show interested homeys her real hair. What she needs is a Stedman cuz we've seen Big O out of her hair and make up [insert blood curdling scream here], but homeboy still loves her right down to her eleven figure bank account....

See? Less can be more (although y'all know this ruckus begs for a full sized post about my southside sisters and their hair!) :-) Stay tuned for more frequent updates as I reconnect to the grid...

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Tyra Doin' The Nasty

Wassup, Y'all!

You didn't think I was done with Lil Oprah did you? That same post points out that Lil O only drinks wine to 'look sexy', but only takes a couple sips because it 'tastes kinda nasty'. Hmmm, First, ol girl still seems all caught up in the image thing despite her protests otherwise (and encouragement to other women not to be), second, perhaps her refined sense of taste is what's keeping homeys away from her bedroom (y'all will need to connect the dots on that one - this is a PG-13 site...) and third, if she keeps bashing wine like that she may end up on the end of a lawsuit like her idol Oprah and the Texas Cattlemen...

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Black on Black : The real crime

Wassup, Y'all!

Two weeks ago today, I posted on Ty Grey-El's extremely well done 'A Black Woman's Smile' video. In that time, it's become my most popular post to date - happily outpacing my American Gangster material 2-1. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you check it out as it will set the context for the difficult discussion to follow.

Northside Shorty passed on a well timed article, given the recent Pew Research Center poll showing only 20% of southsiders saying that things are no better for them now than five years ago, a roughly 20% drop from 1984 and the 'Jena Six' march on the Justice Department headquarters in D.C. While the march is well intentioned and the poll not surprising, both, in my opinion, miss much larger issues within the community...

The article NS Shorty pointed out outlined a 'counter' march organized to coincide with the Justice Department protest. Normally, you'd think it was the Klan coming to rabble rouse but, instead this one featured a 'modest band of supporters' trying to call attention to the gang rape and sexual assault of a 35-year old Haitian mother and son by southsiders in the Dunbar Village Projects Public Housing Complex. The group argues persuasively that such rallies as the one for the the Jena Six 'come at the expense of female victims of black-on-black crime'.

I have to admit, y'all that if I was in D.C. that day, I'd be with the smaller group protesting because our internal issues are so much larger than our external issues at this point. It's been pointed out many times that our self appointed, national civil rights leaders are quick to jump into the public spotlight when there's northside / soutside injustice going on but rarely anywhere to be found when there's rampant southside / southside heinousness going on. And I do mean heinousness. The actual factuals of the Dubar Village crime go beyond horrific. The perpetrators ages ranged from 14-18, straight stick up kidz looking for money who, when finding none, ended up perpetrating a crime so debased and inhuman it almost defies description. But that's just one housing project of many. This is just one, albeit spectacularly cruel, crime of thousands that get no spotlight, no civil rights leader standing outside and no press but are just as crippling and devastating to the well-being of the community as any Jena Six ruckus - I think more so.

We're 15% of the national population but 'account for nearly half of it's murder victims'. The majority of those? 93% killed by another southsider... 93%. Y'all see what I'm getting at? To paraphrase a famous quote - I've seen the enemy and it's us. Although I'm not a fan of the N-word (y'all should know that by now), I'm with Chris Rock on the clear dividing line in the community. We need to stop viewing inter-community crime as a non issue. Clearly we have work to do and most of it needs to be done far from the glamorous steps of the Justice Department headquarters.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Untouchable Nicky Barnes endorses Hillary!

Wassup, Y'all!

Man, what's the world coming to when even the southside drug dealers are pickin' Hillary over Smooth Barack? Dang! Noted southside Gangsterologist Lady E. hipped ol Ty to yet another tight Mark Jacobson New York Times Magazine article called the 'Lords of Dopetown', which features a very entertaining interview with both Frank Lucas (American Gangster) and his dope selling, Harlem rival, Nicky Barnes (Mr. Untouchable). That's Nick on the left and Frank on the right in the glossy. Both homeys are far cries from the brothers who portrayed them (Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Denzel respectively) in the recently released film 'American Gangster'. Not to be outdone, Nick is featured in his own documentary, Mr. Untouchable, which actually 'opened' a week before American Gangster (October 26th). Who knew? More on that and the interview after the jump...

First, big props to Mark Jacobson (his site includes a cool Charlie Rose interview with Mark, Frank, Richie Roberts and Nicholas Pileggi) for not only penning two tight articles on these characters - his original story, 'The Return of Superfly', was the basis for the movie - but for getting Nicky and Frank together in the same room to talk about their 'glory days'. Some interesting facts from the article aside from their thoughts on Hillary vs. Barack, Rudi Giuliani was the NYC DA while they were up to their shenanigans, Nicky was bold enough to appear on the cover of The New Yorker Magazine under the title 'Mr. Untouchable', Nicky is into the hip-hop culture that reveres he and Frank, Frank has no love for hip-hop but interestingly both men give much love to Sean 'Diddy' Combs pops, Melvin Combs...what's that about!?

I knew when I saw Cuba's portrayal of Nicky that his story was just as interesting as Frank's. Too bad, 'Mr. Untouchable' was a documentary or Cuba could have jumped on that as well. As it is, I hear that, after reading my post on his poor career choices of late (excluding American Gangster, of course), he finally seems to have things turned around. I also see that Forest Whitaker likes the Nicky Barnes story so much that he's executive producing a new Showtime series also called 'Mr Untouchable'.

Man, how'd two low a$$, old school dope dealers get so big? That's pretty sad actually, but my understanding is that both have repented somewhat, but still it seems to ol Ty that there's a long list of folks who should be getting (and are more deserving of) this level of attention - Dr. Ben Carson, Dr. Mae Jemison, - you know, regular folk. I guess it's like Prince said, it's a (sad) sign of the times...

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Strike Rat takes out Jack Bauer!

Wassup, Y'all!

Man, this Writer's Guild strike is just a couple days old and it's already causing a brother pain! My boyz and I were out lunchin' (literally - don't try to be funny) the other day and cracked up when we saw one of these inflatable rats at a local building construction site. Fast forward a couple hours and ol Ty is reading some nonsense about the WGA crew poppin' that same yang in NYC. Picket signs and an inflatable rat! Wait a minute - aren't these talented, gifted writers who get paid tall cheddar to write some of our favorite entertainment. How is it that even they can't be original? Whatever. The part that distresses me is that now that the strike in on, studios and networks are scaling back their broadcast plans and it sounds like an upcoming casualty from this ruckus may be 24's Day 7! What kind of bull#hit is this? Check me out after the jump to see a trailer of what you may be missing...

It's Day 7 y'all. CTU has been dismantled and Jack is up on Capitol Hill facing some tough questions about his shenanigans. When out of the blue, who should pop up to start some major clownin'? Ahhh, forget it. Just watch the trailer. I'm too hot about this to go on. A brother needs a hot toddy, a back rub and some work on his pressure points! Wooo saaaa, Woooo saaaaa.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

A Black Woman's Smile

Wassup, Y'all!

I had planned on posting a follow up on my boy Cuba Gooding, Jr. tonight but a TIGHT video came across the basement news desk that ol Ty just had to share. It's a spoken word joint by Ty Grey-El - a southside homey I hadn't heard about til now but who is now firmly lit up on the basement radar. Ordinarily I'm not a 'spoken word' poetry kind of homey but clearly I'll have to reevaluate that short sighted thinking. As the post subject notes, his topic addresses the difficulty of making southside shortys smile. While we homeboys are quick to chalk the reason up to high maintenance, perpetual anger or something else just as triflin', Grey-El breaks down the actual factuals and left me feeling like a dope for such thoughts...

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

American Gangster: What Happened?

Wassup, Y'all!

Man, after all the yappin' I did about this flick y'all know I wanted to like it and I did - somewhat - but a brother has to say that after reading that tight New York Magazine article about the real Frank Lucas, this joint should have been so much better. What I saw seemed LONG and disconnected. If you go in with that article as background you can follow the story pretty well, but if not - good luck understanding the subtle influences around Lucas that made him the refined sociopath he turned out to be....

Don't get ol Ty wrong - Denzel did his thing, Russell Crowe did his thing but they completely misused my boy Cuba Gooding, Jr. in a role that seemed more of a tacked on cameo than anything else. Nickey Barnes could have been a juicy character, but... Sadly, I can only recommend 2.5 Spinners on this one, y'all. After this weekend, I don't expect this joint to have any legs (particularly 1) since it runs so long, which means less showings and 2) it stars a major southside actor, which means my southside homeys will be imitating Frank by engaging in the bootleg DVD trade - now I ain't naming names but I know a few of my boyz who were watchin' this joint *last week*!)

I'm sure your views may swerve my curb and that's cool, but I'm calling it as I see it. I plan to have my boy Peabo hold all calls from Denzel for a few weeks. Next joint I'm holding out hope for is Big Willy Style's 'I Am Legend'. That joint looks tiiiiiight (but we know how that works sometimes, don't we??) Don't leave me hanging Big Willy!

Peace@Least,

Tyrone