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  • AMERICAN IDOL CONSPIRACY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I am not a person who is big into formulating or believing conspiracy theories. I do believe we actually landed on the moon. I do believe that September 11th was the work of crazed terrorists and not of our own government. I do believe that the connection between Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and The Wizard of OZ is just a coincidence. I am a skeptic, but not a fanatic. However, after witnessing what I saw tonight, I do believe in one conspiracy, American Idol is rigged.

    If you are not a fan of American Idol or are tone deaf, then let me just inform you of something, Chris Daughtry makes no sense as being the latest person voted off American Idol. However, at the same time he does. He doesn’t make sense because he’s been easily one of the most popular contestants since the competition started. He doesn’t make sense because he has clearly been one of the top two or three best singers in the competition every week. He doesn’t make sense because anyone I talk to seems to think this guy is a superstar. However, for all these reasons it does make sense he was the last one voted off.

    Before you right me off as another psycho music fan with too much time on his hands consider this: If you are at the height of your popularity, isn’t that the best time to start selling records. Chris has been in my opinion the most popular contestant in this competition since day one. Why take a chance of him getting out sung in one of the show’s very final episodes and losing some of his juice? It makes much more sense if you were a record executive to have this guy put out a record A.S.A.P. As you may know, American Idol contestants have an obligation to put out a record with the show’s Producer Simon Fuller’s music label.

    Now consider the following, Katherine McPhee had an off night last episode due in part to the fact the theme was Elvis songs and she is a female. It would serve a popular contestant who may have taken a hit like that to stay on the show a couple more weeks to try and build back some of the fan base she may have lost. If you have Katherine win the competition, she will become a star. Chris Daughtry is already a star. Why have one star when you can play your cards right and have two?

    This conspiracy theory is helped by the fact that American Idol’s voting process is not published. How does the American viewer have any way of knowing who really got voted off? How do we know they even count the votes at all? If they published the results (which could easily be faked, by the way) it would take a lot of this theory’s firepower away.

    Call me crazy, tell me I have too much time on my hands, but the fix is on, and American Idol viewers are the victims.

  • Chinese Democracy, i’ll belive it when i see it!

    Every once and a while a new story comes long that is only true to certain people. If you are the kind of person that believes a person’s character is what it is and have no time to give second chances, please stop reading right now. However, if you are one of those people that believe in redemption and that people can change keep reading. I offer you this one caution; don’t believe a word that Axl Rose says until there is action to support those words.

    For Guns n’ Roses fans, the term Chinese Democracy has great meaning. Broken Dreams, false hope and frustration are just a few of the meanings that come to mind when someone says Chinese Democracy to me. Chinese Democracy is the name of the next Guns n’ Roses album. However in this case, next is a timeless expression. It has been years since the album has been rumored to be released by the newest version of Guns n’ Roses. There comes a point at which people stop waiting for something and start praying for it. However, rock fans prayers may have finally been answered (before reading the rest of this blog, refer to the first paragraph’s caution statement).

    According to an AP report, on Saturday night, radio host Eddy Trunk’s weekly classic rock talk show was co-hosted by Skid Row frontman Sebastin Bach. The discussion between the two turned to Guns n’ Roses. That’s when Bach jumped into action and placed a call to fellow frontman Axl Rose’s cell phone. Axl picked up and the call went live on the air. For shits and giggles, Bach asked Rose about the long awaited Chinese Democracy album. Axl responded by saying the album will come out “Sometime this fall or late fall…It will be out this year.”

    On the surface, it would be easy to get excited over Rose’s comments. The comments should be reason to believe that the decade long rumors of Chinese Democracy being released were finally coming true. However, this is Axl Rose talking, which means lies, bullshit and more bullshit. We have been down this road again, and each time it has lead to more disappointment and frustration. If the man could only be as honest as well as he could sing and do his famous snake-like moves on stage then I might actually take his comments seriously. However, once a liar, always can be a liar.

    Upon further thought, if you think about the title of the album (Chinese Democracy), maybe this album will never come out. Will there ever be democracy in China, probably not. Is this Axl Rose’s idea of a sick joke? Possibly. What makes this new fuel on the fire worse is their are also rumors circulating that former Gn’R guitarist Slash may rejoin the band.

    I as well as many other rock fans have been jerked around too many times by Axl Rose to believe him. The boy who cried wolf eventually got eaten, and what comes around goes around, so I can’t even be angry. I’m confident that if Axl is jerking us around again, that I won’t be the chain he’s pulling. But how awesome would it be to hear a new Guns n’ Roses album?

  • MIXTAPE MONDAY vol. 4

    This week’s Mixtape up for review, DJ Whoo Kid’s “POW Radio Vol. 1”.

    When I talk to rap fans about mixtapes, a very common complaint is that the annoying shout-outs that seemed to be laced in every song like a batch of bad drugs, take away from the music. Mixtape music for my sake is a way of listening to music I would never have access to outside of a mixtape in a raw form. While I understand the reasoning behind a DJ wanting to insert random sounds or sayings that authenticate a song as being produced by them, you can’t deny the presence of these annoyances in mixtape music and their negative effect. DJ Whoo Kid’s newest mixtape “POW Radio Vol. 1” is guilty of using the shout-out to a point where the music gets compromised. It’s sad to think that the energy, soul and lyrical excellence rappers put into their music gets ruined when all of a sudden a classic rap track gets hit with “WHOOOOOOOO KIDDD….” or a gun shot or any other of a plethora of annoyances that fall under the umbrella of being a shout-out.

    “POW Radio” is a mixtape full of very commercial, pop sounding, radio friendly music. The names on the mixtape are huge whether it be 50 Cent, Jay-Z or T.I. The lead track of the mixtape is T.I.’s “Hands in the Air”. The first part of the song isn’t incredible, but T.I. kills it on the song’s final verse: “I don’t want to make it seem like I’m bragging to you/ ‘Cause I don’t think that’s one of the things a rapper should do/ but if I happen to forget I’ll be back in a few/ I got a Phantom, leather truck, Cadillac and a Coupe”.

    Lloyd Banks has a few appearances on the mixtape including a 70 bar long freestyle. Banks, as he has since he came on the mixtape scene a few years ago, improves any mixtape he raps on including this one. In the freestyle, Banks has a clever rhyme scheme rapping about “having a bitch for every letter in the alphabet”. In a very Pappose-ish “Alphabetical Slaughter” style, Banks rhymes names of woman for every letter in the alphabet (well at least up to the point where he gets stuck on the letter J), while still rhyming. Freeway also has a hot freestyle on the mixtape to the beat of Lil’ Wayne’s “Hustler Muzik”.

    There are a couple of interesting appearances by Jay-Z on this mixtape, but not Jay-Z the rapper, Jay-Z the businessman. In an interlude between tracks, there is audio of an interview with Jay-Z by an unnamed interviewer in which Jay talks briefly about how he is focusing on the business side of rap for right now, essentially squashing any rumors of a lyrical comeback. The two-minute interview then turned toward the subject of Cam’Ron. When asked what he was going to do about the beef that Cam has with him, Jay responded simply “I’m really trying to doing the boardroom thing right now”. Later in the mixtape, on a track called “Talent Search” we hear Jay-Z the comedian come out. In an unnamed radio appearance, Jay addresses a caller trying to rap for him by simply telling him his lyrics are “hot” after the caller only spoke one word. The conversation between the two is funny, and Jay-Z has a couple of hilarious lines.

    Kanye West gets on the mixtape with a track a few seconds longer than a minute called “Murder She Wrote”. In addition there are tracks by Jae Millz and a hot track from Peedi Crack. With a fast flow and constant rhymes Peedi’s song “Bury Niggas” serves the mixtape as a hot song from a lesser-known artists. One of the hottest beats on the album is from a Lloyd Banks and Avant collaboration called “Xclusive”. Papoose has a hot verse on the song “Throw Yo Guns in the Air” which also features a rapper named Riz.

    Overall this mixtape has some quality to it. There are some hot freestyles and a couple of tracks you won’t find on the radio. However, the shout-outs are way to frequent and disrupt the flow of the mixtape. Additionally, this is a very mainstream sounding mixtape, which will definitely dissuade some hardcore rap fans from picking this one up.

    OVERALL SCORE: 7 out of 10