IT'S MONEY TIME. I NEED IT. I WANT IT. I GOT TO HAVE IT. THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT.
TIME TO MAN UP. THE BOY MUST DIE. THE MAN MUST LIVE ON WITH THE BOY'S HEART INSIDE...

Vince Lombardi - "Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."

Josh Billings - "Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there."

~~~

A link to the new Cadence Weapon song, yahoo! This guy is my Canadian rap hero:

www.pitchforkmedia.com is where you will find it... for some reason it don't work no' mo'. I want to promote my boy Cadence, he's the future of Canada like K'Naan... and Mindbender Supreme!

~~~

RZA speaks on Raekwon's difference of opinion:



Brothers gotta work it out! And go buy that Wu-Tang Clan album when it drops!! I'm not giving you any links until after December 11th! :)

~~~

Fox Boogie Brown has apparently been let out of 'solitary confinement, for Good Behaviour'. LOL, HOLY CRAPSTER, BATMAN! Can Inga be learning her lessons? Did you ever think you'd hear the words "Foxy Brown" and "good behavior" in the same sentence? Stranger things have happened:

Well, here goes: TMZ has learned that rapperista Foxy Brown has been let out of "punitive segregation" early -- for -- yes -- "good behavior" while in solitary. She was supposed to do 76 days in the unit, but only did 40 days. We're told that she was one of four female inmates given early release among the 20-plus in the unit, and our source stressed that she received neither celebrity nor holiday treatment.

Foxy (real name: Inga Marchand) got herself thrown into solitary for shoving another inmate and refusing to give a urine sample, but we're told that she was compliant and cooperative. Do you believe in miracles?

www.tmz.com

~~~

Ha ha, he's right! Jay-Z talks about the generation of shitty songwriters that he's inspired with his Mnemonic Songwriting. Not everyone is a Hova, Shawn!

NEW YORK — Jay-Z, whose "Rain Man" recording process finds him mumbling words to himself in the studio before stepping into the booth to spit out a complete song, definitely has the corner locked when it comes to rappers composing full songs in their heads. Young tikes like Chris Brown and Sean Kingston even cite Hov as an inspiration for their own songwriting processes.

"I've inspired a generation of bad writers," Jay joked to MTV News last week.

But the Def Jam president and iconic rapper obviously wrote down lyrics at one point in time. In fact, he revealed the last time he actually did so was for "Can I Live," a standout track on his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt.

"What happened was, I was doing that song with someone else, and they heard the first verse and they was like, 'Man, you take that song. Finish it, 'cause it sounds like you got a lot more to say,' " Jay explained in a lengthy interview in which he discussed lyrics and songwriting. "You know, that type of thing. So I just wanted to get it down quick, I didn't want to keep going over it. It was like [the album] mastering time, so I just sat down in the booth and wrote that [verse]."

The verse contains multiple gems over the woozy, horn-laden production, like the lines: "I stepped it up another level, meditated like a Buddhist/ Recruited lieutenants with ludicrous dreams of getting cream/ Let's do this, it gets te-di-ous/ So I keep one eye open like, C-B-S, you see me stressed, right?"

According to Irv Gotti, who produced the track, the song was supposed to be a collaboration between Jay and a member of the rap group Original Flavor. Gotti mentioned he believed Nas was also set to appear on the track, too. But after the OF member passed on the guest appearance, Jay got to work finishing the song.

"From what I remember, he actually didn't write the full verse," Gotti wrote in an e-mail to MTV News. "But since the verse was so long, he wrote a few words down, and that made him remember the whole verse."

Although Jay has since long given up writing down lyrics himself, his advice for one of his nephews, who's an aspiring MC in his own right, is to write as much as possible. Repetition is the key to perfection, according to Jay.

"Why I tell him to write every day is because iit's like anything else: [You have to] practice," he said. "Basketball players play basketball their whole life, they practice every day. It only makes sense. You can only get better. The repetition. The more you do it, the better you do."

Jay has long since removed himself from the writing process, however he admitted the notion of actually penning lyrics does still appeal to him. So much so that he wanted to write down lyrics for The Black Album, which he believed was going to be his last album. But he couldn't shake the process that he's made so famous.

"It just felt better [the way I do it now]," Jay said. "In my mind, I said, 'OK, I'm gonna sit down and I'mma just write it and really do this thing a certain way.' But your natural process is your process. It's difficult to go back to what you was doing when you was 15, 16 years old. My process is different now. It sounds great on paper, like 'I'mma sit down, I'm going to write the entire album like I did before.' But once you get back in the studio and you've been doing this process for years and years now, so it just felt natural to do it the way I've been doing it: no paper, no pen, just listen to the music."

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1574995/20071126/jay_z.jhtml

~~~

This is FUCKED UP:

Behemoth record label Universal Music Group must change the name of rapper Nas’s new album, “Nigger,” or risk losing $84 million in state investments, a Fort Greene assemblyman said this week.

“[They are] profiting from a racial slur that has been used to dehumanize people of color for centuries,” said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D–Fort Greene), a former entertainment industry big-wig.

“It is time for Nas and other hip-hop artists to clean up their act and stop flooding the airwaves with the N-word.”

Jeffries called on Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to withdraw the $84 million that the state pension fund has invested in Universal and its parent company, Vivendi.

“It’s a staggering amount of money, which at least justifies a review of the appropriateness of the content that is flooding the public,” said Jeffries.
Naomi Village: In the heart of the Poconos

Clinton Miller, of Brown Memorial Baptist Church, and Jill Merritt, a founder of the Abolish the N-Word Project, joined Jeffries in his condemnation of the word.

A recent report by state Sen. Antoine Thompson (D–Buffalo) revealed that the New York State Pension Fund has $2.8 billion invested in 16 major entertainment companies, including Time Warner and Disney. That number did not include the state’s investment in Vivendi.

Universal did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for DiNapoli, who manages the pension fund, said that the comptroller “is concerned about this issue and is intending to contact the company and urge them not to release the album.”

The fight to quell the use of the controversial term has been gaining ground lately. In February, the Council passed legislation urging people not to use the repugnant racial slur.

Jeffries, who was an assistant general counsel at CBS and a lawyer at Viacom before he was elected last year, is intent on hitting the industry where it hurts.

“The [Council made] an important symbolic step, but I’m more interested in the substantive approach of reviewing the multi-billion-dollar investment that the New York State pension fund makes in the entertainment industry.”

Whatever happened to 'freedom of speech'? Guess it's still 'watch what you say', right, Ice-T?

~~~

Remy Ma aka Reminsce Martin (word? that's a fresh name, yo)

Shooting Star
Taking aim at Remy Ma
www.villagevoice.com

by Chloé A. Hilliard
November 6th, 2007 7:22 PM

Remy Ma—the new Remy, the one who's ditched the two-tone hairdo that was her trademark so that she presents a more intelligent, grown-up image to the world—leaves a restaurant, and it's immediately apparent that her new look isn't working.

"That's Remy Ma!" a teenage girl says to her friend in disbelief.

The friend responds with a nudge: "Follow her!"

"Hell, no! She just shot her friend!" the first onlooker says, staying right where she is.

Well, perhaps just is unfair: It's been more than three months now since the 26-year-old Bronx rapper (born Reminisce Smith, variously known as Remy Smith, Remy Martin, Remy Ma, and now "the accused") was arrested for putting a bullet into the abdomen of her good friend, Makeda Barnes-Joseph, after a July night at the Pizza Bar, a hot spot in the meatpacking district, that ended in an altercation over Remy's purse, or the $2,000 that went missing from it, or whatever was bugging Remy that night—it's not really clear. These days, after a not-guilty plea, $250,000 in bail, and a new dye job, Remy is on her best behavior, avoiding conversation about her legal troubles and the prospect of spending up to 25 years in prison for first-degree assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and tampering with a witness.

Barnes-Joseph herself—still recovering from three surgeries (the bullet passed through her, damaging her intestines and exiting from her buttocks)—isn't talking about the incident. But her attorney, Lauren Raysor, expresses some exasperation that press reports haven't put the shooting in the context of Remy's past behavior. "I'm not clear as to why no one realizes this didn't happen in a vacuum," Raysor says. There was an altercation between the rapper and video vixen Gloria Velez in 2004, and Raysor also alludes to reports of Remy pulling a gun on someone in the Bronx (something the Voice was unable to confirm). But Raysor claims that the music press has been too thrilled by the idea of a rapper backing up her tough lyrics with felonious behavior to take the case seriously. Prosecutors have already reduced the charges from attempted murder to assault, suggesting that they have doubts Remy intended to shoot the weapon. Remy's extended network of friends and backers, meanwhile, have questioned Makeda's role.

"Once my client testifies, the jury will be convinced that [Makeda] played no part in the shooting, that she didn't take anyone's money. Remy got into my client's car with a loaded firearm and felt [Makeda] took some money, and [Makeda] didn't. My client was shot," Raysor says.

Remy, meanwhile, is watching what she says about the shooting, perhaps not only because there's a reporter hovering, but also because of the videographer that is an ever-present part of her life, taping for a possible reality-TV show that has yet to find a buyer.

If she's staying mum about the July incident, Remy isn't holding back on other subjects. In a wide-ranging discussion, for example, she happened to be asked if she had an opinion about who the next woman selected with the usual slate of nearly all-male VH-1 Hip Hop Honors winners should be.

"I don't give a fuck," she replied. "The politically correct answer would be, 'Of course we need more women; we need to stick together.' I don't care. Everyone is my competition, not just the women. . . . I don't care who's the next dude they're going to honor, let alone the next chick. When are they going to honor me? Everyone dwells on having something for the ladies. Fuck outta here! They always want their own shit, but then they want to be treated equally. Which is it? I don't need something for the ladies. Get with the program. Do what the niggas are doing."

After years of doing what the niggas have been doing—first as a protégée of Big Pun, then, after his death in 2000, gaining notoriety as the lone female member of Fat Joe's Terror Squad—Remy has always held her own in a field with very few successful women. Before the July incident, however, Remy's career was stalling. It had taken her six years to get out a solo album, There's Something About Remy, after Big Pun's death. And acrimonious accusations about how that album was promoted led to a split with Fat Joe and Universal records.

So Remy's looking for a new deal, and it may be too early to judge whether facing 25 years in prison was the smartest way to attract a new contract. On the other hand, she didn't need to pull a trigger to prove her credentials. For years, she's been a fiery performer who can leave a room of hardened hip-hop heads breaking into a sweat. "She's attractive and she can rhyme," says Chuck Creekmur of AllHip Hop.com with measured restraint. "She's so headstrong—really a strong-willed woman. A lot of guys can respect that, as opposed to the more docile women that are presented in the culture."

Remy's voice is hard, raspy, commanding, not melodic. When she belittled a man by singing, " You know I look way too good to be stuck with you," on her album track "Conceited," there was no doubt, listening to her voice, that it was simple fact. (And it didn't hurt that she did look good, and that she has always carried herself in a way that was as much a woman in control as sex symbol.)

"I don't really think too many people want to mess with Remy," says Creekmur. But, he suggests, there's more to Remy Ma than comes across in her music. "By the same token," he adds, "she seems to have a vulnerable side that she buries. Sometimes it's behind a smile or behind the lyrics."

Perhaps. But to find that out, we're going to have to do what that young fan didn't dare, and that's follow Remy around for a few days. And be careful about offering to hold her purse.

Although born in the Bronx, Remy Ma spent much of her childhood in Astoria, Queens ("That's off the record!" she says, laughing), helping her mother, Amanda Smith, raise younger siblings. The family had little, and she characterized her mother as "strict," meaning that Remy had little freedom and resented it.

"Do you remember how I couldn't come outside? I had to take my little sisters everywhere, and my little brother," she says to childhood friend Mo, who is with her as this conversation in a restaurant takes place (and didn't want to give her last name to the Voice). Remy also had an older brother. And one of her most painful childhood memories, she says, is the neighborhood reggae party, which her mother banned her from going to.

"Do you remember how I cried?" she asks Mo, whom she's known since she was 11. "I hear the music from my house and couldn't go. I sat in the window!" Mo's uncle was a DJ and threw house parties on the weekend. "This was the thing that got me so pissed. Why couldn't I go?"

"Because you had to baby-sit," Mo says.

"That was the worst day of my fucking childhood. It was! I was so stressed."

Remy was 13. And soon things got even worse: Her mother was locked up, and the family faced homelessness. That's when, Remy says, everything changed.

"I found out the man I thought was my father my whole life—we weren't biologically related!" The man she had called "Daddy" left New York with his son, her younger brother. Her little sisters went to live with their father, another man, and her older brother was on his own. Remy was alone.

"I don't know what my other choice was than to live with Mo—either that or go to a home somewhere. I ended up living in her bedroom, on the floor. Moved in when I was 13 and moved out right before my 18th birthday. Seemed like my whole fucking life. I swear, those were the years that mattered. That's when everything went crazy. Everything I learned that makes me who I am today I learned at that point in my life."

Three years after the man who turned out to be her stepfather had left, Remy and her mother went to visit him in North Carolina. "We had a family discussion," she says. And Remy got aggressive. "He really couldn't take it. Long story short, he told me to shut up. I wouldn't. He punched me in my face."

To make matters worse, she says, her mother and stepfather told her she wasn't going back to New York. "I think they were scared I was going to tell the cops or something," she says. To make sure she didn't leave, they took her suitcase and bus ticket. "They were talking about how I was living there now. What? Operation: I'm Outta Here!" she says. "I broke out somehow." Her younger brother recruited a friend's mother to drive Remy to the bus station. "I never spoke to that nigga since that day," she says of her stepfather. "That was in 1996. I used to call that nigga my daddy. That was like my father. I had his last name at one point."

She came back to town with a black eye. "You remember that trip?" she asks Mo. "Tell them what I came back wearing, so they'll believe me."

"I remember," Mo says with a laugh.

"My shit was black for like two or three months. That was when Aaliyah was wearing her eye patch. I was wearing mad eye patches," Remy says. "I would say, 'I'm on my Aaliyah shit.' "

The incident, she realized later, would have a direct result on what would later make her famous: her ability with words.

"Especially after I got smacked and felt my face swelling, oh, I was going to say everything. Now I'm cursing. And after that, I just got worse. Somewhere along the way, I realized how powerful my words are. I could come up with something to really crush someone. I stab people a lot with my words."

Remy's biological father didn't surface until she was 18. Then, as her career was beginning to take off, he started coming around more. He also began coming up with schemes to cash in on her success.

"He wanted to sell 'Remy Ma' baseball caps," she remembers. "Not the fitted kind that were in style, but the snap-adjustable ones. Then he would ask for posters of me to prove to people that he was my father." She'd tell him: "I'm mad that you're telling people you're my father!"

She didn't need much more than her two best friends, Mo and another girl named Monica, she says. "We were raising ourselves. In our minds, we were like, 'Fuck it, we'll manage.' Looking back, we were out of fucking control and had no guidance. No one could stop us."

Today, she has attained that familiar hallmark of Big Apple success: a house in New Jersey. And a nice car. Her chocolate-colored two-story lies on a modest, tree-lined suburban block. She's just minutes from the George Washington Bridge, and from the outside there's nothing to advertise that the occupant is anything but a typical bridge- and-tunnel resident.

Inside, however, posters of Remy adorn the walls, and in the dining room there's a throne—red velvet, bejeweled, and with her initials embroidered on the backrest. The majestic prop is a leftover from the art production for her album. She was calling herself the Queen of New York, and in a way, she's looking to be a new sort of monarch over the other women of rap: Lil' Kim, after all, recently served a year for perjury, and Foxy Brown, relic of the '90s, is serving a measly year for violating probation.

Downstairs, Remy's basement serves as a gym, studio, and bar. Martini glasses hang from a rack. The room is decorated in wood paneling that says "hunting lodge" or " '70s porno shack." The studio portion of the space is padded in soundproofing from floor to ceiling and features a microphone stand and a Mac laptop. She cues up some tracks from her new unreleased album, PunisHER. Singing along to her own voice, she is oblivious to the video camera, still taping.

The place is a sanctuary, a reminder that, until recently, things have been going very well for the girl from the Bronx. But, she says, there's a part of her still grappling with the past. "There are a lot of things I'll never forget and never forgive. But I'm not dwelling on that shit every day."

The cameras and red carpet are gone by the time Remy pulls up to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the Entertainers 4 Education Alliance "Stay in School" concert. At five-foot-10 (six-foot-one with her heels on), Remy is hard to miss in her denim cat suit with plenty of cleavage showing, red boots, and jet black hair that falls to the middle of her back. The event will be a rare performance for her: Since the July shooting, promoters have canceled her shows for fear of the police showing up. "During her guest performance with 50 Cent at Rum Jungle in Jamaica, Queens [September 16], plainclothes cops were on the stage with a video camera," says someone who was backstage at the performance. "I mean, they weren't trying to hide it, either."

To avoid the Hip-Hop Cops, some promoters have taken to not advertising Remy at all. Tonight, the hundreds of kids in the audience don't know that she's coming. Security guards usher her inside. Soon she's backstage, navigating past male rappers Papoose, Juelz Santana, Jim Jones, and their entourages. Most appear affected by her looks. She poses for a photographer with her thumbs in her pockets and a half-smile on her glossy lips.

"She's gorgeous," says a crew member.

In the press room, reporters ask softball questions about her stance on education. "Education is very important," Remy finds herself repeating throughout the night. (She doesn't have a high-school diploma. When the Voice had asked what high school she attended, she answered, "I went to every high school. I kept getting kicked out and switching up schools." She insists that she was actually an excellent student, but never stayed in one place long enough to finish.)

"Just me coming from the bottom, from the 'hood—the more education you have, the more intelligence you have, the better plan you have for the future," she tells the reporters.

"Can we talk about the case?"

"No!" her publicist Duran Brown blurts out.

"Definitely not," says Remy.

After the abbreviated Q&A session, she goes to a dressing room to kill an hour. Then, minutes before she's to go on, Jenn Turner, her manager, reminds her that she's been asked to do a short interview for the kids in the audience.

"Why me?" she asks, referring to the other artists on the bill.

"The kids love you, and they want to hear what you have to say," says Jenn.

"I'm not the only one here with a case," says Remy, who is growing frustrated with all the special attention her legal woes are drawing. She turns to her DJ, Bed Tyme. "When I say, 'Drop my shit . . . ' "

"It's kids out there, Remy," interrupts Jenn.

"I mean my stuff." Everyone laughs. And they get the message: If she doesn't like the line of questioning, she'll cue Bed Tyme to start her music.

There's a knock on the door and she's off to the stage, unfazed by the men lining the walls trying to get a look at her. The emcee hushes the restless students (after all, it's hard to think about stay-in-school messages when all the kids really want is to see rappers perform).

"Next, we have a special young lady who is going through a lot right now. . . . "

Suddenly, Jenn is nowhere to be found. Remy looks around for someone to take her purse—and gestures to the Voice reporter who's been tagging along. Moment of serious indecision. Ah, what the hell . . .

Remy steps out, and the kids erupt into cheers and rush the stage, pulling out cell phones to take pictures. A boy in a wheelchair is so taken that he can't keep his mouth closed.

"Can you tell us what's going on with your case?" asks the host.

"No, but I can tell you how important it is to stay in school," says Remy, not missing a step.

She makes it through the rest of the questions and breaks into her three-song set. The kids sing along to every word, even the ones not really appropriate for school. Her signature song "Conceited," especially, seems to resonate with the young girls in the audience:

Dip it low, pick it up, slow-poke it out, now roll with it

My thong is showing, but it's cool, my shoes go with it

Now all I need is a room with a pole in it

See, I look good and I'm knowing it

But I was never too proud to be showing it.

After the performance, Remy takes back her purse and pauses to reflect. "I know people are going to read this article and say, 'I like her.' Or they'll say, 'She's a stupid bitch.' "

If Remy won't talk about what put her in jail, she's got plenty to say about the several hours she stayed there before making bail.

"First of all, it wasn't my first time. It was my first time as Remy Ma. Big difference. First of all, I saw this chick I grew up with when I was in there. I'm in a cell next to this bitch I hate my whole fucking life. She asked me, 'What are you doing in here?'

"Me: 'Same thing you're doing here.'

"Then this other chick was talking mad shit: 'You're supposed to be a fucking role model. You should be ashamed of yourself.'

"Me: 'Where's your kids?'

"Woman: 'My fucking kids look up to you.'

"Me: 'Your fucking daughter should look up to you! What fucking type of role model are you?'

"The guard was like, 'Remy, don't listen to them. They just want to be able to say they spoke to you.' After that, the [officers] wanted autographs. The chick that was cleaning up, she wants to be a rapper. She brought me a book to read. . . . A lot of the girls were really humble and nice."

Not her first time in jail?

"I got community service because a chick ran over my foot with her car. I went crazy on her. We got into a fight. She called the cops." Remy says the incident happened when she was still a minor, but doesn't specify an age. She says that when she didn't complete the sentence, she was remanded and had to serve nine days on Rikers. "The first day I get there, they have a raid. They took my sneakers. I never felt so violated in my life."

Well, at least until it was time to be released after the July shooting. "Oh, God," Remy says. "I'm already pissed, and after court they put me on the bus to Rikers Island. Another three or four hours [in jail]—I'm getting out at 1 a.m. I'm positive the newspapers paid the bus driver. I know where the bus stops when you come from Rikers, because I used to live out there. But the bus goes past that stop and to this little corner. I get out and there are mad paparazzi, like it was their home base. I can't even walk. This dude is like, 'Yeah, go ahead and touch this camera. Your ass will be right back on Rikers Island.' [They're saying things like,] 'That's how you treat your friends?' . . . things purposely to get you to react."

At least, she says, she was spared worse press by an unlikely event: the explosion in midtown that shoved her off the front page of the tabs. "The steam-pipe explosion, that's what saved me," she says.

She also caught a break when prosecutors knocked down the charges from attempted murder to first-degree assault. But Remy then apparently made things much worse for herself: Prosecutors allege that she tried to intimidate a friend to keep her from being a witness in the upcoming trial. Remy reportedly ran into the boyfriend of the witness at the Players' Club in the Bronx and complained that the friend had changed her cell-phone number. "Your girlfriend is changing her number on me. People are talking on the stand," Remy is accused of saying.

Later, members of Remy's entourage allegedly beat the boyfriend and another man badly.

Remy is scheduled to be in court November 11 for a pretrial hearing. Her attorney, Ivan Fischer, is hopeful that Remy will receive a fair trial. "So far, her being a rapper has not affected the case," he says. "There are people who have a high regard for rap and her music."

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0745,hilliard,78291,22.html/4

and the statusainthood homie gives a more detailed version of the Freeway album review than me, but says the exact same thing I said (as in the 50 Cent song sucks and the Rick Ross song's beat sucks and those are the only 2 bad things about the album. Great minds think alike.):

If onstage body-language is any indication, Jay-Z loves Freeway. The two times I've seen Free make guest-appearances at Jay's shows, Jay's made the same faces during Free's "What We Do" verse that he made when Free did the song in Fade to Black: a sort of enthralled disbelief, a fan's reaction. But even if Jay loves Free, that doesn't mean he has a whole lot of commercial faith in the guy. Free At Last, the new Freeway album, is coming out into an absurdly crowded third quarter, and it's coming with absolutely zero Def Jam marketing muscle. Three cheap made-for-YouTube videos of Free At Last tracks hit the internet this week, and they're all pretty good, but I haven't seen a single one of them on TV yet, and I still DVR Rap City every day for some reason. "Step Back," the track Free did with Lil Wayne, which Free played during the album's listening party a couple of weeks back, is nowhere to be found. Free At Last comes out two weeks after Jay's American Gangster and two weeks before Beanie Sigel's The Solution, which effectively forces Free to compete in the marketplace with both his mentor and his mentor's mentor, along with every single end-of-year Def Jam tax writeoff. The purported 50 Cent exec-producer credit is nowhere in the album's liner notes. And as Free complains on "It's Over," there's not a single Kanye West or Just Blaze track anywhere on the album. Back when Free released Philadelphia Freeway a billion years ago, there were a few indications that Jay actually thought he might make a star out of Freeway; it had guest-spots from Nelly and Mariah Carey, and Just Blaze produced virtually every track. But as Kelefa Sanneh points out here, the idea that Freeway might ever become a major star were always sort of ridiculous: he's a raspy-voiced sparkplug with a giant beard and no crossover appeal whatsoever. So it's not even especially sad to see Def Jam treating this guy like a B-lister. After all, he makes a great B-lister.

The first track on Free At Last is "This Can't Be Real," a warm and jazzy track with no real chorus, Free making like Bun B on "The Story" and sinking into a deep reminiscing section about how he first came into rap, still sounding pissed at himself about getting locked up right after he first met Jay. The second track, "It's Over," is on some great hammering runaway locomotive shit, horns blasting royally while Free comes hungry and heated, venting about all the disrespect he's forced to endure. And the third, "Still Got Love," is a pretty, happy track with a busy synthed-up Bink beat where Free growls thankfully about everyone who supports him. So in the first three tracks, we've got Free in three distinct modes: pensive, angry, and contented. The thing is his delivery doesn't really change when he switches from one mood to the next; it's the same guttural drawn-out yammering whine throughout. With virtually any other rapper, that would be a profound liability. With Free, it's almost a saving grace; his voice never really gets old over the course of the record, though Free was probably smart to keep the thing to a quick 50 minutes.

Even though Free switches moods throughout the album, he doesn't play the pandering connect-the-dots game where every song is a concession to some potential audience. Only two songs really leap out of the sequencing: "Take It to the Top," the putrid and ill-advised loverman track with the zero-chemistry 50 Cent chorus, and "Lights Get Low," the synthed-up Cool & Dre car-chase track with the unbelievably cheesy club-pop chorus and the surprisingly decent Rick Ross guest-spot. Free never really connects on "Take It to the Top," but he's plenty comfortable on "Lights Get Low"; the only real problem with the track is that it fucks up the album's flow a bit. Pretty much every other track is stormy, soulful East Coast street-rap with busy drums and screaming R&B samples. Freeway isn't an especially quotable rapper, but his urgent vein-popping delivery more than makes up for any unremarkable lyrics. It's probably no surprise that the album doesn't sound as exciting on headphones as it did in S.O.B.'s at the listening session, where Free stayed at the front of the stage, rapping along with his recorded voice. Some of the beats are too flat and trebly make the best use out of Free's raging yowl, and there's barely a hook to be found on the whole album. But tracks like "Baby Don't Do It," where Free and Scarface trade verses over a well-worn Willie Hutch sample, are a big part of the reason I get out of bed every day.

In interviews, Free's been talking about how annoyed he was that Philadelphia Freeway stalled out after going gold, how he thinks this album will put him where he needs to be. That's standard rap-interview talk, and I'm really happy to discover that Free At Last is a real niche-audience product, a gift to the tiny sliver of the pop-music audience that wants to hear furiously passionate roars of pride over big drums and bittersweet Vietnam-era samples. Rap sales have gone all to hell this year, but now that most rappers have accepted that they aren't going to be pop stars anytime soon, they've readjusted their expectations and started working to keep their core audiences happy. Looking back, this has actually been a pretty good year for full-length albums from mid-level rappers. If albums like Free At Last keep coming out, maybe the whole sales-dive phenomenon will turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

~~~

It's All About The Canadian Benjamins:

Living spiritually requires both intention and action. As you click through our How to Make Your Spending Spiritual gallery, consider these next steps for applying our nuggets of financial wisdom.

#1: How to Pay for Your Future

Advisers recommend saving at least 10% of your salary. If that is too hard, try saving 1% (or less) of each paycheck, then increasing by 1% every month until you've met your goal. Whatever you save, be sure to open an account (like those offered at ING or HSBC) that makes automatic withdrawals on the same day you are paid. In time, you won't even notice the savings. But you will notice greater comfort about your future.

#2: How to Reduce and Recalibrate

You can't reduce spending without knowing how you spend, so the first step in recalibration is to track your spending. Gather all your receipts for a month, or better yet, keep a notepad with you and jot down every purchase you make. Once you have this short history, you will see clearly where your dollars and cents go. Then you can ask yourself: What do I really value? Cut expenses that are not necessary or important—you can add them back later if need be, but at least give yourself a trial period of simplicity.

#3: How to Love Yourself

It's not selfish to spend on yourself—it's wise. Especially if you do it as part of your overall financial plan. Strike that balance between being a miser and a glutton by scheduling regular indulgences. Choose something that will feel truly rewarding. Maybe it's a vanilla latte on Mondays and Fridays, a massage once a month, or a weekend getaway. Make it part of your spiritual spending strategy by having a savings account or petty cash jar reserved for your fun, and reap the rewards of your efforts.

#4: How to Perform Random Acts of Kindness

To make generosity both spiritually and financially sound, it'll need to be part of your planned spending. (The "random" part is for them, not you!) Create a Random Kindness Budget that you give a few dollars to each month. Make a note when you hear a loved one mention an item that's on their Wish List, and save for it for them.

#5: How to Love Your Enemy

As with Random Kindness, loving your enemy could be a part of your planned spending. Then, simply take note when you encounter a discomfiting situation with someone at work, home, church, or anywhere else. In many cases, your willingness to overlook someone's faults will be met with an opportunity to do something for that person. Wait for it, and you'll have a chance to love your enemy.

#6: How to Teach Your Children

Think about your values and your hopes for your children. Do you want to help pay for college? Would you like to help them start a small business someday? Do you want to help them purchase their first home? You can create special accounts for all these purposes, including a tax-friendly 529 Education Savings Plan for college expenses. As imporant as these financial details are, your chidren will benefit most from time spent in conversation with you as you coach them about what money is and how it works. Plan regular times to talk with your kids, or make money an open subject of discussion in your home.

#7: How to Serve the World

Many charities and non-profit organizations offer automatic giving through a bank or credit card account; just call your organization or visit their web site. If you want to diversity your giving, open a separate savings account, put money into it regularly, and make withdrawals when you find a cause worth serving. Be sure to tally your giving—not only will you have a tax write-off in most cases, but you'll have a record of how you've improved the world.

~~~

The Secret About 'The Secret' and why MINDBENDER needs to practice the First Law of the Universe (All Things Must Be In Motion to Grow) before he will manifest any of his magnificent destiny:

Hardly a Secret
There's a big secret out there--"The Secret"--waiting to be discovered by all of us who want a better, easier life.

Rhonda Byrne, an Australian filmmaker, has repackaged the ancient philosophy of the "law of attraction" and the power of positive thinking into a mysterious, enticing product for anyone stuck with a hardship (i.e. humanity).

She appeared on "Oprah" this month to discuss "The Secret," a 90-minute film combining cinematic imagery and sit-down interviews with several writers, philosophers, and scientists, that can be viewed through online streaming video, or purchased as a DVD. Since last April's release, "The Secret" has sold more than a half a million DVDs and more than 100,000 online views.

The law of attraction goes like this: when you think good thoughts, good things happen, and when you think bad thoughts, bad things happen. (That's my preschool version.) A person's thoughts and mental images are like magnets, bringing her either success (for positive thoughts) or failure and misery (for negative thoughts). According to Byrne and similar thinkers, every one of us can determine the quality of her life with her thoughts.

This philosophy has always been a tough sell for me because I'm so practical in nature (if you do a, b, and c, you get d) and because I watched my father sweat his way to prosperity (as a manufacturer's sales rep. in the automobile industry). For him, nothing dictated success more than perseverance. And he ingrained that conviction in his four daughters.

However, I definitely find some truth in the law of attraction (and quantum physics), especially in explaining how so many coincidences--like hearing from a friend right as you were thinking about her--happen in our lives. And positive thinking surely beats a "victim" approach to life: a woe-is-me, the-world-has-wronged-me type of mentality that I have, no doubt, adopted at times.

Here's my take: there is smart visualization and lazy visualization.

Take my (somewhat shallow) dream of appearing on "Oprah" (as an author, not as a lady who has no sense of style and desperately needs a makeover, say her husband and best friends). A friend of mine (who eats, breathes, showers, and pees by the law of attraction) once told me if I wanted to be on "Oprah," all I had to do was visualize myself on Oprah. I could do it from the couch eating a box of Thin Mints.

So for about a year, whenever I thought about it, I pictured myself in my favorite blue blouse (without the breast-milk stains) and shiny black pants shaking the hand of this media queen.

"I'm so glad you liked my book, Oprah." I said. "And of course I'll let you know when the next one's released." We giggled and chatted. And the crowds went crazy. So did my book sales. Which meant a hardy advance for the next book I was going to write poolside in the Bahamas with the help of a full-time nanny.

In that year, plenty of telemarketers called. But no producers from Harpo Productions (Oprah's company). Or if they did call, they didn't leave a message. (How rude.)

"If you want to be on 'Oprah,'" Eric said, "I suggest you get off your butt and write a juicy book (that isn't too Catholic)."

Now there's a smart guy.

"Analyze the books she has on her show. Write one. Keep on calling the producers until you speak to someone with a pulse. Then use those savvy sales skills your dad taught you, and work your magic."

Bingo. Three steps to my dream: write the book, talk to a producer, and charm her.

Come to think of it, that's exactly what my dad did to accomplish his dream: to become a buddy of Frank's (Sinatra). Or at least to be on a first-name basis with him.

Any visualization my father did, I suspect, was done on the golf course a minute before he teed off (and then again on the putting green). I don't know, maybe he did fantasize, while drinking his nightly martinis, about his evening with Frank: the two of them smoking expensive Cuban cigars on one of those designer yachts featured on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" (his favorite show).

But he didn't stay there for too long. Because he had too much homework to do.

Step one. He researched which charities Frank supported.

Step two: He donated oodles of cash to the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center.

Step three. He became a good enough golfer to compete in the Frank Sinatra Golf Invitational (in Palm Springs, California).

Step four. He won it. Plus an evening with Frank and Barbara.

Step five. Dazzling Frank with his smart wit and charisma, he arranged a few more meetings with him.

Dream accomplished: At my dad's funeral, friends and relatives crowded around one bouquet. On the card was written: "Our sincere condolences, Frank and Barbara." No last name.

Ok, back to my Oprah dream.

To say that all I have to do is imagine myself in a blouse free of breast-milk stains on Oprah's set is lazy visualization. Because if that were true, I could run my whole life from the couch: visualizing my tax returns filed, the dishwasher emptied, our laundry folded, and Katherine's diaper filled with daisies.

This chemically-imbalanced (and possibly cell-damaged) brain thinks mental pictures are useless without hard work and steps of action to support them. I don't buy the simplistic way to happiness--via one good thought after another, with a nice image thrown in. There's too much war and famine and rape and suffering in the world to wrap my arms around that secret, magical gateway.

Maybe this is my dad's doing, but I'd have to agree with Colin Powell, who once wrote, "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

~~~

I love these RZA samples. If you didn't peep them the first time, peep them now:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/15-11/pl_music



~~~

Ten Ways To Heal Toxic Energy:

10 Ways to Transform Toxic Thoughts

If you've ever felt the way anger or fear can electrify the atmosphere in a room, you'll know what Sandra Ingerman means by "toxic thoughts." The author, a family therapist and shaman practitioner, believes our thoughts and emotions transmit an invisible but palpable energy that can affect our mental and physical well-being. "Psychic punches," she writes, are as real as physical violence.

Click below for ten simple ways to protect yourself from negative thoughts and learn to radiate positive energy.

Look in a Mirror

Before reacting to a challenging situation, try emoting as you watch your reflection in a mirror. No one wants to see herself acting out in a toxic way. You may feel silly, but don't let this stop you. Taking ourselves too seriously is one of the causes of negative thoughts.

Express; Don't Send

Stress can make us act in ways we might regret later on. It is OK to have problematic emotions, and it's important to acknowledge your feelings. Just be careful not to send the energy as a "poison dart" to yourself, others, or into the world.

Think of a Favorite Face

The energy behind your emotions goes to all living beings. If confronted by someone who triggers problematic emotions for you, think of a loved one and impose his or her image on the face of the person challenging you. For example, you might work with the face of a baby, kitten, puppy, or your favorite flower.

Watch Your Words

Your words, like thoughts and emotions, have the power to change your experience and the world we live in. This applies to both the words we say out loud to others as well as self-talk. If you tell yourself that you're not a good person, you begin to manifest this reality. Fill your mind with positive words and this is how your life will unfold.

See the Divinity in Others

Never pity others who you perceive as suffering--this only pushes them deeper into a hole. When you see people in their divine light and perfection you help give them the strength they need to deal with their troubles. Remember that your perception creates your reality.

Connect With Nature

We are a part of nature. When we are in a state of stress we are cut off from the nurturing we receive from the elements -- earth, air, water, and fire (the sun) -- and we can actually become ill. Nature is a great healer. Take time out and connect with the natural world whenever you can.

Work With Water

The life-force of water can wash away your pain, and the simplest activities can have a healing effect. As you wash your hands, take a shower, or stand in the rain, visualize negative energy flowing from you and being transformed into light.

Protect Yourself With Light

If you feel someone is psychically attacking you or being energetically hostile toward you, imagine a protective light surrounding you. Some people think of a white energy field; I imagine being enclosed in a translucent blue egg. Find a color that works for you. This will protect you from any harmful energies being sent your way.

Respond With Love

You do not have to be the receiver of negative and toxic energy from others. You can return the energy you don't wish to receive with love. Responding with love will prevent you from moving into attack position and creating more negative energy. It is only love that heals.

Let's continue:

Wayne Dyer's 10 Ways to Go with the Flow

In the following excerpts, best-selling author Wayne Dyer delves into the ancient book the "Tao Te Ching" and gives timeless advice for easing struggle and letting go.

Dyer offers verses from the Tao along with practical, spiritual advice for applying that wisdom to your everyday life.

Relax into Paradox

...The difficult is born in the easy.
Long is defined by short,
the high by the low.
Before and after go along
with each other...
So the sage lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity.
(Verse 2)


Do the Tao Now
Do the Tao today by noticing an opportunity to defend or explain yourself and choosing not to. Instead, turn within and sense the texture of misunderstanding, feeling it all the way through your physical system. Just be with what is, instead of opting to ease it by traversing the outer-world path of explaining and defending. Don't get caught up in the apparent duality of being right or wrong. Congratulate yourself for making a choice to be in paradoxical unity, a oneness where all of the spectrum simply is. Silently appreciate the opportunity, along with your willingness to practice your sageness!

Buy Consciously

Putting a value on status
will create contentiousness.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.
By not displaying what is desirable, you will
cause the people's hearts to remain undisturbed.
(Verse 3)


Do the Tao Now
Watch for an opportunity today to notice that you're planning on buying something. Choose to do the Tao and listen for guidance. Be grateful that you have the choice to make the purchase, then practice listening to yourself and not doing. Through your feelings, the Tao will reveal the way for you in that moment. Trust it. You might be guided to buy the item and savor it with gratitude, donate it, procure one for you and one for someone else, give the money to a charity instead of getting the item, or refrain from obtaining it altogether. Practice doing the Tao in everyday situations and you'll know contentment in a deeper sense. As this verse continues, "When action is pure and selfless, everything settles into its own perfect place." Now that's my definition of contentment!

Practice Being Impartial

...The sage is like heaven and earth:
To him none are especially dear,
nor is there anyone he disfavors.
He gives and gives, without condition,
offering his treasures to everyone....
(Verse 5)


Do the Tao Now
As many times as possible today, decide to approach interactions or situations involving other people with a completely fair mind-set, which you allow and trust to guide your responses. Do this as often as you can for an entire day with individuals, groups, friends, family members, or strangers. Create a short sentence that you silently repeat to continually remind yourself that you're approaching this situation with an unbiased attitude, such as Guide me right now, Tao; Holy Spirit, guide me now; or Holy Spirit, help us now. Keeping this brief sentence on a loop in your mind will prevent judgment from habitually surfacing--but even more appealing is the feeling of relaxation and openness to whatever wants to happen in those moments of impartiality.

Open to the Feminine

The spirit that never dies
is called the mysterious feminine.
Although she becomes
the whole universe,
her immaculate purity is never lost.
Although she assumes
countless forms,
her true identity remains intact.
The gateway to the mysterious female is called the root of creation.
(Verse 6)


Do the Tao Now
Today, notice babies and small children. Look for the mysterious feminine nature in little boys and girls who haven't yet become so attuned to cultural and societal demands that their true selves are hidden. Can you see some whose inherent nature is intact? Notice what seems to be their natural character, or their gift from the Tao. Then try to recall yourself as a child, when the natural, Tao-given self was unaware of the ego-self-the time before you believed that acquisitions or power were important. Who were you? Who are you? Yes, today spend a few moments with a young child and contemplate his or her connection to the Tao and how it unfolds perfectly without any interference.

Meditate on Water

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It flows to low places
loathed by all men.
Therefore it is like the Tao.
Live in accordance with
the nature of things...
(Verse 8)


Do the Tao Now
Drink water silently today, while reminding yourself with each sip to nourish others in the same life-flourishing way that streams give to the animals and rain delivers to the plants.

Eat Just Enough

To keep on filling
is not as good as stopping.
Overfilled, the cupped hands drip,
better to stop pouring.
(Verse 9)


Do the Tao Now
At your next meal, practice portion control by asking yourself after several bites if you're still famished. If not, just stop and wait. If no hunger appears, call it complete. At this one meal, you'll have practiced the last sentence of the 9th verse of the Tao Te Ching: "Retire when the [eating] is done; this is the way of heaven."

See All as One

Carrying body and soul
and embracing the one,
can you avoid separation?....
(Verse 10)


Do the Tao Now
Today, practice seeing oneness where you've previously seen "twoness" (separation). Feel the invisible energy that beats your heart, and then notice it beating the heart of every living creature all at once. Now feel the invisible energy that allows you to think, and sense it doing the same for every being currently alive.

Contemplate these words from the Gospel of Thomas: "His disciples said to him, 'When will the Kingdom come?' Jesus said, 'It will not come by looking outward. It will not say 'Behold, this side' or 'Behold, that one.' Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it. Today, know that practicing oneness thinking will help you see that Kingdom.

Notice Life's Transitions

Become totally empty.
Let your heart be at peace.
Amidst the rush of worldly comings and goings,
observe how endings become beginnings.
(Verse 16)


Do the Tao Now
Dedicate a day to consciously seeking situations to practice impartially observing endings as beginnings, challenging yourself to find a specific number by noon. Begin in the morning by being aware that the end of asleep is the beginning of awake. Break your waking time into sections, noticing without judging the endings that make space for beginnings. Start to consciously live with constancy by opening your mind to the fact that change is the only certain thing. Remember to include all of your feelings in its cycle--impartially observing sadness, for instance, permits its natural ending to transform to a beginning. You're doing the Tao!

Invite a Different Point of View

The flexible are preserved unbroken.
The bent become straight.
The empty are filled.
The exhausted become renewed.
The poor are enriched.
The rich are confounded...
(Verse 22)


Do the Tao Now
Listen to someone express an opinion that's the opposite of yours today. It could be on any of a variety of topics, such as politics, the environment, religion, drugs, war, the death penalty, or what have you. Refuse to impose your position, and instead remark, "I've never considered that point of view. Thank you for sharing your ideas with me." By allowing a contrary position to be heard, you'll dismiss ego's attitude and welcome the Tao.

Embrace Your Greatness

There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born...
Thus, to know humanity,
understand earth.
To know earth,
understand heaven.
To know heaven,
understand the Way.
To know the Way,
understand the great within yourself.
(Verse 25)


Do the Tao Now
Copy the following words and apply them to yourself: I came from greatness. I must be like what I came from. I will never abandon my belief in my greatness and the greatness of others. Read these words daily, perhaps by posting them conspicuously where you can see them. They will serve to remind you of the truth of your own greatness.

~~~

I made it 24 hours without putting tobacco in me. I wanted it. I almost went outside and got some more. But I made it! Yay! One down, a million more to go.

Peace to the Aboriginal man that was stabbed to death today in Northside Toronto. He fought with his drug addiction every day, they said.

Fuck. Yes Diane, you're right. It IS Government-sponsored poison. I don't need it. Fuck. The taste is so horrible. Yet the body craves it. Get over yourself, Addi!

Love, Mindbender Supreme (sometimes)