Tom Cable The Same Pictures that Lane Kiffin Has

You know, the ones where USC's AD is having sex with that monkey.

Seriously, though, how in the hell does this guy still have a job? He's not just bad, he's unqualified to be a NFL head coach. Completely and utterly unqualified. I guess that 5-11 season Oakland had really convinced Al Davis.

Then again, Davis is a goddamned moron at this stage in his life. Him drafting Darius Heyward-Bey over Michael freakin' Crabtree confirmed that shit. Him taking JaFatAss Russell first overall int he draft confirmed that shit, too.

Back to Cable for a bit. I'm a bit loathe to ask, but would he still have a job if he were black? Holy hell, people would be screaming about affirmative action if Davis decided to keep Tyrone Cable after his first losing season. Cable's had two, and it's probably safe to bet on the Raiders sucking next year, too. Given this, scratch the beginning of this paragraph; Oakland's problem is its owner, not the coach. Doesn't change the fact that Cable should've never been offered the HC position-- and has no business keeping it for breaking an assistant's jaw earlier this year--but Al Davis is the worst owner in the NFL, even worse than William Clay Ford.

Stardust's One and Only Hit

House Music FTW:

Mos Def on the "Blackstar" Album

It's still the best album of 1998. Period.

On a more specific note, there aren't too many emcee who could touch Kweli lyrically back in the day, but Mos Def (also back in the day) was one of them. For me, there are two specific instances on this album that make me believe that Mos > Kweli during that period. One is his long verse on "RE: Definition," and the other is his even longer verse on "Thieves in the Night." Saying that he murders it on both would be an understatement here, particularly on the latter track. The "Thieves" verse is probably the best example of Mos' blend of technical skill and raw emotion. The "Long barrel automatics released in short bursts/
The length of black life is treated with short worth" couplet is especially poignant. Anyways, that's all I got.

"Yo, I'm sure that everbody out listenin agree

That everything you see ain't really how it be
A lot of jokers out runnin in place, chasin the style
Be a lot goin on beneath the empty smile
Most cats in my area be lovin the hysteria
Synthesized surface conceals the interior
America, land of opportunity, mirages and camoflauges
More than usually -- speakin loudly, sayin nothin
You confusin me, you losin me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted -- in your usary
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the lookin glass
Walkin the street, wonderin who they be lookin past
Lookin gassed with them imported designer shades on
Stars shine bright, but the light -- rarely stays on
Same song, just remixed, different arrangement
Put you on a yacht but they won't call it a slaveship
Strangeness, you don't control this, you barely hold this
Screamin brand new, when they just sanitized the old shit
Suppose it's, just another clever Jedi mind trick
That they been runnin across stars through all the time with
I find it's distressin, there's never no in-between
We either niggaz or Kings
We either bitches or Queens
The deadly ritual seems immersed, in the perverse
Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts
Long barrel automatics released in short bursts
The length of black life is treated with short worth
Get yours first, them other niggaz secondary
That type of illin that be fillin up the cemetary
This life is temporary but the soul is eternal
Separate the real from the lie, let me learn you
Not strong, only aggressive, cause the power ain't directed
That's why, we are subjected to the will of the oppressive
Not free, we only licensed
Not live, we just excitin
Cause the captors.. own the masters.. to what we writin
Not compassionate, only polite, we well trained
Our sincerity's rehearsed in stage, it's just a game
Not good, but well behaved cause the ca-me-ra survey
most of the things that we think, do, or say
We chasin after death just to call ourselves brave
But everyday, next man meet with the grave
I give a damn if any fan recall my legacy
I'm tryin to live life in the sight of God's memory
Like that y'all"

MC Murder: Jae Millz Destroys E. Ness

Diddy's bullshit pontificating aside, anyone with a brain knows that E. Ness got killed in this battle. After toying with him for the first few rounds (which Millz also won), Jae finally takes on the gloves and makes a chalk outline out of Ness. Even Diddy has his face buried in his hands after a while; it's that fucking bad. Anyone wonder no one knows who in the hell Da Band is anymore? Jae Millz killed all of those cats.

Quotables

Consequence's verse from Kanye West's "Gone". He almost manages to steal the show from West's sheer brilliance behind the boards. Almost.

"I been pourin out some liquor for the fact that my pal's gone
And tryin to help his momma with the fact that her child gone
And since we used to bubble like a tub full of Calgon
Guess it's only right that I should help her from now on
But since they got a foul on, what coulda gone wrong
Now they askin Cons, how long has this gone on
And maybe all this money mighta gone to my head
Cause they got me thinkin money mighta gone to the feds
So I ain't goin to the dread, but he'll go on up to bed
And when I came the next mornin he was gone with my bread
And with that bein said, I had gone on my instincts
And gone to the spots where they go to get mixed drinks
But lookin back now shoulda gone to the crib
And rented "Gone With the Wind," cause I'da gone about 10
But I had gone with my friend, and we had gone to the bar
And heard a nigga talkin shit so I had gone to the car
And now the judge is tellin me that I had gone too far
And now we gone for 20 years, doin time behind bars
And since I gone to a cell for some petty crimes
I guess I gone to the well one too many times, cause I'm gone"

Michael Jackson's "A Place With No Name"

You know, I was going to make a post about The Game's first album, but I stopped giving a damn.

Listening to the snippet of the unreleased--and presumably unfinished--song "A Place With No Name" makes me a bit sad inside. It's absolutely beautiful to listen to, featuring a great sample of America's "Horse With No Name." Mike's vocals are on point, and the hook is addictive. I'd venture to say that it's the best he's sounded to me in years. His death is sad for reasons for beyond the fact that he couldn't finish this song (no doubt he'd have had to had the sampled cleared before releasing it), but still, what could have been........

DMX's "X Is Coming"

I've been pretty adamant in saying that DMX is a Tupac clone. I still think he is. However, that doesn't mean that he isn't--or wasn't, as the case may be--a good emcee. 1998's "It's Dark and Hell Is Hot" may not be classic, but it's damn close. Not only is it a defining album of the post-Pac Era, but it showed that the tortured thug persona that Pac had adopted later in his life would live on, for better or worse. The album is DMX at his best: sometimes brutal, sometimes reflective, all the time menacing. No track epitomizes this better than "X is Coming." Dame Grease lays the foundation for the song, first by interpolating Freddie Kreuger's "1, 2, Freddie's Coming For You" at the beginning of the track, and second by giving X an appropriately dark beat to spit over. (Listening to this song and most of "It's Dark," it's odd that Swizz Beatz is the producer most associated with X given that it was Dame who was responsible for most of the album's production.) Make no mistake, though: DMX is the star of this show, and his rhymes are chilling in their brutality, complete with a straightforward, no-nonsense delivery. For X, it's kill or be killed, and he intends to kill you; the second verse, featuring a bonechilling reference to rape, is especially shocking. As brutal as the song is, it's definitely one of the better ones in a catalog filled with commercial hits. Without the gift of hindsight, one would have to consider "It's Dark and Hell is Hot" to be the first step in a long and successful journey for DMX. With hindsight, it still stands as that; however, it also stands as a constant reminder that it never got better (qualitatively) for Earl Simmons.