Hey Everybody,
It’s Matt Jones, Who? No, but seriously as I reflect on everything we have done this year, I take away an in-depth understanding of a unique culture that I really had not been too familiar with before this class. I want to talk about some of the topics that I did not get a chance to really voice my opinion in our class.
Firstly, the other month in class we were discussing the subject of how modern rappers were destroying hip-hop by only spitting about killing and misogyny. I believe that this point is a very true aspect of some of hip-hop, but no one in our class mentioned that there were rappers out there that are changing how they spit and how they display their image to the public through their rhymes. One of these rappers, the famous rapper out of Houston, Texas is your main mayne, Chamillionaire. Chamillionaire is one of the forerunners in the web mixtape wave, with millions of his albums and tracks being released for free on wedsites such as youtube and datpiff.com. One quote from Chamillionaire off his website states that, "I won't do anything just for a dollar. Money will make people do crazy things and I’m not one of those people." He also sold a platinum plus record in a time when record sales were slumming and has several other business ventures. One of the main reasons I enjoy Chamillionaire so much is simple, because he spits the truth and doesn’t BS anything. The Mixtape Messiah as Chamillionaire is known as online has decided to stop cursing and degrading women in all of his new music that he has released. He also has stop using the dreaded N word that many rappers sling around way, way too much sometimes. Chamillionaire also stated that, "Behind the scenes, a lot of artists talk about everything that they think is wrong with the world, but when it comes time to address the issues through their music, they don't," he explains. "I decided I couldn't sit back and needed to be the one to say something." I believe this makes him a rapper with a future in preserving the endangered culture that is hip-hop. The hit song that really spoke to me was Hip Hop Police, I will let you be the judge.

Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If8e1x-6Uds

Secondly, I want to discuss the subject of, yes, I’m going there, lil Weezy F. Baby Baby. What do you guys and girls think about his new Rebirth album? In the interview taken by Rolling Stone Magazine Lil Wayne said that he would have over 50 tracks to choose from to put on his new album. I personally love the guy and everything he puts out just seems to be gold, even though I didn’t really think the Carter III was all that great when I first bought it. But of course the new tracks featuring auto-tune wore on me like everything else the guy makes. So my question to you class is, do you think this new Rebirth rock album will sell one trillion copies like all his other records did? The answer is a tough one, but I do have some leakage to inform some of that haven’t already heard the second new rock song that Lil Weezy has come out with called Hot Revolver.
Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4bODGNIwcI&feature=related
Finally, I want to talk about a subject that was brought up about the African American films stars that were mentioned in the presentation during class today. It was stated in the video that no-one was really even close to Will Smith in and that he was the only face of African-American acting in general. I may have taken this out of context because it was stated that the group was mainly focusing on the most financially successful African American actors. And Will Smith is the most successful because he earned over 80 million dollars not just making him the highest paid African American actor but, the highest paid actor. But this does not overshadow the fact that some other actors/actresses were left out of the picture that well deservingly need to make the film. To start, I’m going to say that one of my favorite actors is Denzel Washington because of his role in films such as Man on Fire and Training Day which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001. The funny thing about that stat is that one of the actors that Denzel beat out for the award was actually Will Smith for his role in Ali. Another actress that got left out was Halley Berry who was one of the highest paid African American actresses in the movie business. Halley also won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her role in Monster’s Ball. These actors were just the start of the list, I mean I could go Jamie Foxx, who won Best Actor two years after Denzel, or Samuel L. Jackson, Forrest Whittaker, Wesley Snipes, and Chris Rock all deserved to make that film in some kind of way.
I had a great time this year and enjoyed everything that I have learned about the African American culture along the way. I come out of this class with a new outlook on many of the ways that different groups of people perceive certain aspects of life. Thanks for some great times. I’m out! Everybody good luck on exams.
Word of mouth,
Matthew Felker