WEEZY'S INTERVIEW

Bishop The Greek - Angel Witta Dirty Face

Welcome Bishop The Greek to the Rapmullet review section. Bynoe from the Riot Squad is hosting, shout to him. The Kaos laced cover says "Music Inspired by the Motion Picture" and for an artist mixtape, you need to find that inspiration in any and everything you can. Bishop goes by the name "The Black James Cagney", the young bucks might not know who that is but it's an ill moniker nonetheless.
Off the first listen, Bishop got the most unique voice I've heard all year so far. He's on that g'd up shit which is always a welcome thing on the Mullet. "Without My Grip" is that gangsta shit and the first joint that really caught my ear. To be honest Bishop sounded a little bored on the first couple of tracks but this beat def complimented his sound and he rode the beat well too. "Foolin Me" was dope and that Andy Dufrain line was potent too. I'm fucking with that shit. The title track featuring Akon was smooth. Bishop spits that struggle and cats can relate. One of Bishops strong points is his hook game, as shown on "Lost Innocence". Not only that the sped up flow works for him too. I'm diggin' the message in "Fuck the World" with Lyfe Jennings. The audio was mad low on the CD tho. Bishop said on "King of the Town"...."finger poppin' on her period is the only time I'm caught red handed."...lol classic.

It's a solid mixtape. I still think Bishop needs some polish. He's got bars and a whole lot to say that's for sure. The production was average and most tracks Bishop sounds like he's trying to rip the booth apart. Gotta control that aggression and make it work for you in the flow more. He's def been through some shit and his music is honest so I can appreciate what he's trying to do.

katie couric with weezy f.

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The Curious Case of Lil Wayne

A few days after Tha Carter III leaked, Lil Wayne ambled onstage at Giants Stadium looking like he only had the vaguest sense of where he was, half-consciously staring at his feet while "A Milli" thudded and a few tens of thousands of teenagers lost their minds. This was Hot 97's annual Summer Jam, the show where the nation's biggest rappers attempt to out-dazzle each other. Wayne's set defied convention. No medleys. No big guest stars except Kanye West, who everyone knew was on the bill anyway. Only a couple of hits. A whole lot of time devoted to "Pussy Monster," an endless, über-graphic ode to cunnilingus, which Wayne delivered while humping the stage and shoving his hand down his pants, daring the crowd to turn on him. Girls squealed; dudes stared ashen-faced. As the set ended, someone threw a bathrobe over Wayne's shoulders while Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" blared over the stadium speakers. Kanye's own set had fireworks and a robot-suited backing band and a Young Jeezy cameo, but he knew he didn't stand a chance. "This the Carter's night," he dejectedly muttered between songs. "I'm-a take this L like a man."

Six months later, Wayne returned to the Meadowlands, this time at the smaller, indoor Izod Arena for another radio station show. Tha Carter III had already sold upward of two million copies, a truly absurd figure in these new economic end-times. He had nothing to prove by then, and he proved nothing. Co-headliner Jay-Z refused to take the stage with Wayne for their planned "Mr. Carter" moment, reportedly disgusted with him for no-showing their Boston show together the night before. Wayne's new backing band of session-musician hacks cluelessly soloed all over the skeletal boom of the backing tracks, inexplicably squeedling "A Milli" into stomp-rock anonymity; the rapper himself looked listless and slurry, as though he'd rehearsed his set enough to leach out all the unstable electricity of his Summer Jam appearance, but not enough that it'd actually be any good. When Jay took the stage later that night, he mopped the floor with Wayne.

Still, Wayne had a big 2008: He pretended to play guitar behind Kid Rock at the Country Music Awards. He brushed chalk off his shoe in Mark Romanek's mini-masterpiece of a LeBron Nike commercial. He had a son. He sold more copies of one record than anyone else, in any genre. And he became the most divisive figure in recent rap memory. Wayne does not carry himself in a manner befitting a rap star. His delivery isn't an ice-grilled snarl—it's a freewheeling back-of-the-throat gibber. He doesn't hammer away methodically at his subjects—he slides haphazardly between them, chasing down digressions and vividly distracting himself. He scored his biggest-ever hit with a miasmic robo-trance ode to head (that'd be "Lollipop") and his biggest car-radio banger with an unhinged chorus-free rant over a beat that's all maddening, world-swallowing repetition (that'd be "A Milli"). He was all rupture, no control. And no matter how thrilling his best moments were, even vocal admirers had to contend with scores of clanging dud moments like that Izod Arena show.

Even Tha Carter III, the album at the center of this whole mess, is a work of staggering heights and maddening inconsistencies. Wayne spent upward of two years putting the thing together, recording tracks at a frantic rate and then letting them slip out into the world, seemingly scrapping everything and starting over whenever a fresh batch "leaked" to the Internet. All the while, he churned out a constant stream of guest appearances and mixtapes, frying his brains over hundreds of all-night weed-and-codeine-driven recording sessions. By the time the album hit shelves, a few interviews indicated that Wayne wasn't entirely certain which songs were actually on it.

And yet the album's best moments still boast a ferocious sort of psychedelic clarity. On paper, this is a textbook focus-grouped major-label hodgepodge, replete with girl songs and club songs and street songs. But every facet of the album comes animated and atomized by Wayne's absurdist drug-gobbling persona. The bit on "Playing With Fire" where a baby Wayne wields a cleaver and stares down his mother's abusive boyfriend raises goosebumps every time; add to that the manic free-association of "A Milli," the wounded empathy of "Tie My Hands," the antic goofiness of "Dr. Carter," and the glorious swells of "Let the Beat Build."

But there's also plenty of bullshit. Like, for instance, "Mrs. Officer," a one-joke track that gets old immediately, thanks to that indefensible wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee hook. Or the gleefully obnoxious circus-music beat for "La La." Or the seven-minute spoken-word rant that ends "Don't Get It." My favorite moment of the album doesn't even come from Wayne himself: It's the masterfully dead-eyed verse from B-list guest Fabolous on "You Ain't Got Nuthin." When Wayne shows up later in the song, his stammering croak falls flat. Tha Carter III is a sprawling mess, and it clangs nearly as often as it clicks. Anyone defending Wayne in 2008 had to contend with a cavalcade of bad ideas.

But those bad ideas were always inextricable from the whole. The album revealed Wayne as a restless mind, rifling through concepts and subgenres with ADD frequency, ending up with something powerful more often than we had any right to expect. And the amazing part of it is that the masses followed him down all these different rabbit holes, turning the album into the sort of hotly discussed blockbuster moment that music never, ever produces anymore. In 2008, the only people who rivaled Wayne in terms of widespread water-cooler fascination were political candidates, Heath Ledger, and maybe, maybe, Michael Phelps. That's a beautiful thing.


And ultimately, the real legacy of Tha Carter III might not even be the album itself; it'll be the challenge it presents to anyone attempting rap stardom in the future. We'll get plenty of shallow attempts to duplicate its success, of course. Chumps like Yung Berg are already ruining their voices attempting to replicate Wayne's distinctive raspy yip, and producer Bangladesh is already ripping off his own "A Milli" beat for clients like Beyoncé and Busta Rhymes. But I can't wait to see who responds to the album's challenge on a basic, fundamental level. The old model doesn't work anymore. You can't just hire a phalanx of superstar producers, cobble together a few singles and a bunch of filler tracks, and call it a day. Old-model stars like 50 Cent and Nelly already seem helplessly, hopelessly out of date; any rapper hoping for Carter III–level success is going to have to let himself be weird. And so Kanye's icy electro lament, 808s & Heartbreak, ranks as the first real post–Carter III rap album, a sideways bugout move that would've been unthinkable a year ago and still seems pretty bizarre today. If we're lucky, we'll get a few more of those.

As for Wayne himself, it is my great hope that he'll live to see the end of 2009.

MY NEW PHONE...NOW JUST WAITIN FOR IT TO COME OUT

Android T-Mobile G2: Leaked Photos and Facts

JR Raphael, PC World

Jan 21, 2009 4:53 pm

T-Mobile G1? That's so yesterday. The second-generation "G2" Android phone is now said to be nearing its debut -- and today, we're getting a first glimpse at some photos said to show the still-top-secret device.

T-Mobile G2, Is That You?

The photos, obtained by the aces at gadget blog Gizmodo, show a blurry, white HTC phone believed to be the T-Mobile G2. (Side note: Why are leaked photos of new tech devices always blurry? Shouldn't the people who have access to these cutting-edge creations also have the technological know-how to take a decent digital picture?)

Focus issues aside, the photos depict a thinner phone with one conspicuous omission: the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. If the pictures are accurate, the G2 would offer only an iPhone-style virtual keypad -- a sharp change from the full keyboard engineers proudly showed off at the G1's launch last September. The shift would, of course, match rumors swirling around since December of the keyboard's looming demise.

While the G1's keyboard left fingers feeling less than satisfied, I must say that I'm a bit disappointed to see HTC abandon it altogether. I'm one of those weirdos who finds a virtual keypad more irritating than Kathy Griffin after caffeine, so having the slide-out option was a plus that set the device apart from the iPhone for me. But I disgress.

Other key features of the T-Mobile G2, according to our fuzzy photo-taking friends, include a 3.2-megapixel camera and a touchscreen interface similar to its predecessor's. The unnamed (and unwilling to focus) sources also claim the G2 will come out in mid-May.

Android Timeline

Thus far, T-Mobile's G1 is still the only Android player out there. If the suspected G2 timing proves to be true, T-Mobile may be releasing its second attempt at Android around the same time other companies are just getting up to bat. Samsung is one of several manufacturers expected to have an Android phone out somewhere around the middle of 2009. Blurry photos of that device, I assume, should be popping up any day now.

(Image credit: Gizmodo)

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WASHINGTON — Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday afternoon, banishing forever more than 200 years of history during

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday afternoon, banishing forever more than 200 years of history during which the office passed from white hands to white hands and promising a new era of “hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”

Under the Constitution, Obama became president at noon ET, even though he had not formally been sworn in with the inaugural ceremonies running behind schedule. Using his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, the new president took the oath of office at 12:05 p.m. from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, whose nomination to the court he opposed as the junior Democratic senator from Illinois.

Clasping hands with his wife, Michelle, Obama smiled and waved to the crowd of as many as 2 million people who jammed the National Mall.

As the crowd chanted “Obama, Obama,” the president thanked his predecessor, George W. Bush, and said he was “humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.”

Obama acknowkledged that “we are in the midst of crisis.”

“Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred,” he said. “Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.”

Saying ”the time has come to set aside childish things,” Obama declared: “Today, I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.

“But know this, America — they will be met.”

OK HOW DO U KNOW WHICH GUITAR U WANT?? I THINK THIS MAKES IT ALOT BETTER

Learning Guitar - Acoustic or Electric?

Part 2: Choosing a Guitar - Which one is right for me?

By Dan Cross, About.com

Filed In:

1. Beginners
2. > Common Beginner Questions

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Probably the most important consideration, when choosing what type of guitar to learn on, is what type of music will be played on the instrument. If you're a fan of rock music, and want to learn to play rock guitar, starting on electric guitar is a logical choice. If, however, you're a fan of acoustic music, and want to learn to strum your favorite songs, an acoustic guitar is probably best for you. The importance of the above philosophy can't be stressed enough. If you get stuck with the wrong type of guitar, you're going to have much less motivation to pick it up and play it regularly.
Note to parents: this same principle applies when picking out a guitar for your child. Try to realistically assess what they'dlike best, as opposed to what you'dlike them to play. Their progress will be noticably better when playing a guitar they like.

Ease of Learning

Depending on your personality type, this might either play a major factor in deciding which guitar to start on, or might be irrelevant. Some people find if they don't see results quickly, they get discouraged, and lose interest in playing guitar altogether. If you think you (or the person you're buying for) are one of those people, an electric guitar is probably the instrument to start on. Electric guitars have smaller bodies, smaller necks, and it's much easier to press down the strings. Essentially, you can start playing the *basics* of guitar much more quickly and easily on an electric guitar, than you can on an acoustic. Having said that, there are a few knobs and buttons on an electric guitar that can complicate using it somewhat.

Budget Considerations

Understandably, paying a whole lot for a first guitar isn't very desirable, especially if you're not even sure if playing guitar is something you (or whomever you're buying for) will stick with. For this reason, acoustic guitars are more often the choice for a first instrument, since they tend to be slightly less expensive. Electric guitars require the purchase of an amplifier, and a guitar cable, so they can end up costing a little more. If you want to learn on an electric guitar, but budget is a serious issue, many guitar stores offer starter electric guitar/amp packages at very reasonable prices.

Making the Decision

Now I've given you some things to consider, it's time for you to decide which type of guitar is best suited for you, or for whomever you're buying for. Let's summarize - if the person in question frustrates easily, or listens to and wants to play "hard rock" music, definitely think electric guitar. If, however, the person in question wants to learn songs to sing along to, and can handle a slightly steeper learning curve, then an acoustic guitar might be in order.
Once you've made a decision, take a look at the following page for a few recommendations on specific guitars to buy.

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