The Fearless Freaks

A favorite band of mine, The Flaming Lips. A friend of theirs put out a doc film about the bands unlikely story of success and failures. Any Lips fans, or fans of unique rock might appreciate...

Kanye West: The Bi-Con

Let's give Mr. West a round of applause for never failing to give us something to laugh about. Way to keep your name in the papers, Slick.

Kanye is once again talking about himself in a recent interview where he dropped this little tidbit:

"I know people will find that as another thing to hate me on, but fuck it. I'm open to doing porn. Hell, I'll even do bisexual scenes - myself, another man and a woman, or just me and two women. I know people will find that as some weird shit, but I am who I am."

First of all, why a porn, Kanye?? A PORN?? That's not exploitative, that's just trashy and desperate. I can understand if he wants to take the Heath Ledger/Jake Gyllenhaal path and go to the extreme for an Oscar award winning part, but a PORN? Where is that going to get you? And who cares if you mess with another guy, every one is well aware that your a closeted bottom, so I doubt anyone would be surprised. I think it's totally disgusting when people (men or women) exploit the gay/lesbian lifestyle simply to gain attention. If your gay, your gay...if your an actor, your an actor. But to just be in a porno with another dude to, what, promote your album???

West wasn't finished there, though, he continued to say:

"I'm an artist. Artist expand; they don't contract. What do I look like staying confined in one space with all my talent? I'm an icon."

Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley.... These are ICONS, people who have shaped entire generations and left their mark on the music world forever....NONE of them sold out for a sit com deal, or walked around spouting off at the mouth about how iconic they are (Miss Franklin not included in that last one...)

Kanye, being an icon is like telling a good joke. If you have to explain it....

Kanye West....WTF?!

Not to take anything away from Mr. West here... I mean he IS an amazing artist. His energy is high, releasing an album every year since 2004 and producing countless singles and albums for other artists since 2001; and his music is far from ordinary. He takes hip hop to another level and much like Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams (of N.E.R.D.) and Mos Def (my personal fave) he has raised the bar for urban music to a level that few can reach. Having said THAT....

...WTF, Kanye??

After his win at the MTV EMA's (European Music Awards) this past week , West was quoted saying, "I won nothing last year and I'd brought out Stronger. Then this year, just because I was there, I won best urban act. This was Lil Wayne's year." But the gush of appreciation didn't end there...he went on to say, "Britney Spears over Rihanna? Are you serious? I mean fucking Jared Leto? He's my boy but he shouldn't have won over some of those other artists."

Well, I'll admit that Jared Leto might be far from America's favorite list of artists and I'm DEFINITELY not a fan of the whole "blood bath" scenario at 30 Seconds to Mars' concerts; but they're concepts are one of a kind, the music is sincere and their videos are something to take note of, not to mention it's EUROPEAN music awards, and their taste is usually far different that that of the US. As far as Britney over Rihanna is concerned...I can't argue, that was an entirely unfounded choice and obviously a corporate decision given her embarrassingly wobbly (and by wobbly I mean the 'fat-jiggle') performance she gave at the VMA's last year. Kanye should be thankful he got an award and graciously accept. Shut up, count your millions and stop complaining about all the love your getting that you probably deserved last year; better late than never.

BUT....it doesn't stop there, folks.

West was also quoted as saying, ‘‘I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice... It’s me settling into that position of just really accepting that it’s one thing to say you want to do it and it’s another thing to really end up being like Michael Jordan.’’

So how does Kanye get this honor of being dubbed "the voice of this generation"? A Michael Jordan reference? Was their a 1/8 of a lifetime achievement award he received that I've somehow missed?? He undoubtedly is a large influence in hip hop music today, but lets not forget that the world does not revolve around hip hop music. He's not an actor, a painter, an activist, a diplomat or anything much more than an, albeit amazing, producer and lyricist. Although his music touches people of all preferences, it's still soundly considered Urban Hip Hop. Being "the voice" of a generation, at least in my humble opinion requires more than just that. I mean, he's really dumbing down the potential of this generation by naming himself the King.

With all of the musical influences of the past decade, Kanye has definitely ruled the commercial music scene for the last 4 years, but his place is hardly in same halls of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley or Elvis Presley (pick your era)... I think he's still got some proving to do. And if he thinks his job is done after 4 or 5 short years of being a household name, his light will end up burning out quicker than he can imagine.

Sorry Kanye, but as far as being the voice of my generation....

you gotta speak up a little louder to speak for me.

I ♥ Awesome Music

I ♥ The Bird and the Bee

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I ♥ Tegan and Sara
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I ♥ Algebra
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I ♥ Peter Bjorn and John
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Introducing FUX!!!

I've started a new blog with my good friend Roscoe, y'all!! Imagine Perez Hilton, now add Wendy Williams....throw in a dash of street fashion and NYC events reviews and you've got FUXfashion. FUX stands for Fashion Under Xamination. It's me and my girl Roscoe attending NYC events (concerts, museum openings, indie film premiers, sample sales...so on) and giving you the scene. And not just the "brought to you by" and "featuring" with cute little pictures accompanying well thought out and polite comentary. The REAL scene. The who, and why-the-hell-did-she-wear-that scene. That's right, celebrities aren't the only one's with interesting lives. We believe in a new kind of celebrity. The celebu-not! We've got our ear to the ground and we're snapping pics along the way. If you live in the NYC area and are prone to attend events in NYC, New Jersey and even Philly....you just might see your face (and ya bizzness) on our page!

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