You’ve got to be kidding. No way. You’re not serious. A giant free-for-all broke out at a rap music awards ceremony? Didn’t see that one coming.
You’ve got to be kidding. No way. You’re not serious. A giant free-for-all broke out at a rap music awards ceremony? Didn’t see that one coming.
MyFoxDC.com has the fisticuffular facts:
Arlington police say a brawl broke out during the DMV music awards ceremony, sending one person to a local hospital.
Police say five people were treated Saturday night at the scene of the awards ceremony, which honors local rap, hip-hop and R&B performers.
About 1,500 people attended the ceremony at the Crystal City Hyatt, and witnesses said more than 20 police vehicles responded to deal with a half dozen fights that broke out.
An Indiana school district that told a black teenager to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a “traditional way” after receiving complaints about her performance is drawing questions now about whether the complaints and directive were racially motivated.
Let us say right up front that we don’t get it. Yeah, she added a few flourishes here and there that vary from the original, but jeez, we’ve heard a lot of singers do a lot worse things to the National Anthem. Roseanne Barr comes to mind.
Here’s the story from Yahoo News:
An Indiana school district that told a black teenager to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a “traditional way” after receiving complaints about her performance is drawing questions now about whether the complaints and directive were racially motivated.
Shai Warfield-Cross, 16, has performed the national anthem at sports events at Bloomington High School North over the last year without incident. But school officials said they received complaints about her performance during a game in Martinsville.
Principal Jeff Henderson told The Herald-Times in a statement that people had complained that while the words to the anthem were the same, the tune was unrecognizable. He declined to comment to The Associated Press.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KVQUjxrgrM
Here the part we really hate. Note that the first paragraph of the story pointed out that Shai is black. And this following paragraph will point out that the complaint came from a town that is “predominately white.”
Some who complained after the game in Martinsville – a predominantly white community about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis – also said they felt the rendition was disrespectful to current and former members of the military, Henderson said.
It doesn’t say that the complaint came from a white person. It doesn’t say that the complaint said that Shai’s rendition was “black.” In fact, there’s nothing in the story to suggest that the complaints had anything to do with race except that Shai is black and the complaint came from the ominously-categorized “predominately white” town.
Well, you know what that means. The complaint must be raaaacist!
Warfield-Cross’ family says athletics director Jen Hollars told the teen last Friday that she would not be allowed to sing the anthem unless she modified her version and sang in a more traditional way. Hollars declined to comment and referred questions to Henderson, who said school officials told Warfield-Cross the performances should be more “traditional” to ensure the song’s tune is recognizable.
Our take: Whoever complained is a horses’s ass. The principal is a horse’s ass. The athletic director is a horse’s ass. And whoever wrote Yahoo story and inserted the racial angle is a horse’s ass.
We’re also horses’ asses, but that a completely different story.
Thought control runs rampant in the Great White North. Canada’s Broadcast Standards Council has banned “Money For Nothing,” a 25-year old song by Dire Straits.
Thought control runs rampant in the Great White North. Canada’s Broadcast Standards Council has banned “Money For Nothing,” a 25-year old song by Dire Straits.
Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits back in the day
In its supreme wisdom, the Council has decided that the song’s lyrics are unacceptable for sensitive Canadian ears because the word “faggot” is used repeatedly.
Here are the lyrics that are now scandalizing our northern neighbor twenty-five years after the song was a number one hit:
The little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy, that’s his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he’s a millionaire
There is, however, one small problem with the Thought Control Council banning “Money For Nothing.” That is, the song is a parody specifically written to put down people who express such unenlightened opinions.
Mark Knoopfler, Dire Straits’ lead singer and co-writer of the song, describes his inspiration in Wikipedia:
“The lead character in “Money for Nothing” is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He’s singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real….”
In 2000, Knopfler appeared on Michael Parkinson’s interview program and explained again where the lyrics originated. According to Knopfler, he was in New York and stopped by an appliance store. At the back of the store, they had a wall of TVs which were all tuned to MTV. Knopfler said there was a man working there dressed in a baseball cap, work boots, and a checkered shirt delivering boxes who was standing next to him watching. As they were standing there watching MTV, Knopfler remembers the man coming up with classic lines such as “what are those, Hawaiian noises?…that ain’t workin” etc. Knopfler asked for a pen to write some of these lines down and then eventually put those words to music.
So the song is actually a brilliant parody of redneck ignorance, something that the Royal Canadian Mounted Thought Police should celebrate, not ban.
But comprehending that concept would require actual thought, something that was banned in Canada at about the same time that “Money For Nothing” was a hit.
It really is a great song. Here’s the original video. Crank up the volume and enjoy it while you still can, because it won’t be long until the American thought police decide it’s unacceptable here, too.
Phu Nguyen, a candidate for the California State Assembly, decided that it would be a good idea to record his own hip hop masterpiece called “Phu the Phu the best.”
Wow. Just wow. Phu Nguyen, a candidate for the California State Assembly, decided that it would be a good idea to record his own hip hop masterpiece called “Phu the Phu the best.”
Yes, of course, he’s a Democrat.
Nguyen’s lyrical masterpiece includes this catchy refrain:
I say Phu the Phu the best,
Phu the Phu the best
IHateTheMedia.com’s resident music expert (the Administrator’s 22-year old son) tells us it’s a parody of a hip hop song by Drake called “Best I Ever Had.”
Where’s American Idol’s William Hung when we need him?
Back in February, 2009, we posted a story about Neil Young’s new CD and called it the worst CD ever recorded. But New York Times environmental blogger Andrew C. Revkin has just recorded a new song that gives Young some stiff competition.
Back in February, 2009, we posted a story about Neil Young’s new CD and called it the worst CD ever recorded. But New York Times environmental blogger Andrew C. Revkin has just recorded a new song that gives Young some stiff competition.
Revkin, it turns out, is no mere reporter. He is a singer/songwriter extraordinaire. And when we say extraordinaire, we mean shitty.
Read Revkin’s own words from his New York Times Dot Earth blog:
With music in mind, and reflecting on the unrelenting gulf gusher, I’ve decided it’s time for my first musical Dot Earth post. I’ve written a number of posts about music’s role in exploring the human relationship with the environment, but I haven’t sung a post — until now at least.
A few years ago, I wrote a song called “Liberated Carbon,” about humanity’s long love affair with fossil fuels and our climb up what Loren Eiseley once called the heat ladder. The unrelenting leak in the Gulf of Mexico is liberated carbon at its worst.
On Thursday, I stopped by the Bronxville, N.Y., recording studio of my Uncle Wade bandmate Al Hemberger and his brother, Ted, and we recorded a slightly updated version of the song, inserting BP where OPEC once was mentioned.
Unfortunately, Revkin’s fancy, new studio version of the song isn’t embeddable, so if you want to hear it instead of the older, poor quallty video version embedded with this story, you’ll have to go to the source link at the bottom of this story.
Should you choose to listen to neither version, here’s the first verse and chorus just to give you a little flavor of Mr. Revkin’s lyrical stylings:
Liberated carbon, it’ll spin your wheels.
Liberated carbon it’ll nuke your meals.
Liberated carbon, it’ll turn your night to day.
Come on and liberate some carbon, babe, it’s the American way.
How strange is this video from Afghanistan? Don’t ask, don’t tell. Here is the story of America’s elite troops in action. Dance action, that is.
How strange is this video from Afghanistan? Don’t ask, don’t tell.
TheSmokingGun.com has the story of America’s elite troops in action. Dance action, that is:
In what may be the most entertaining music video homage ever shot in a war zone, a group of American soldiers stationed at a military base in southwest Afghanistan star in a lip-synced version of Lady Gaga’s hit “Telephone.” The video, which yesterday began to spread online, was filmed recently inside what appears to be a garage at the Forward Operating Base in Farah Province. Posted to YouTube a week ago, the 3:45 production–complete with props, signs, and costumes–features an all-male cast from the 82nd Airborne Division. The video, which can be viewed above, was the brainchild of Aaron Melcher, a married 24-year-old soldier who graduated in 2004 from North Carolina’s Gramercy Christian School. Melcher opens the video in a pas de deux, of sorts, with fellow enlistee Justin Baker, who is not nearly as enthusiastic a dancer as the gyrating Melcher, who incorporated elements of the original video’s choreography in his desert remake.
Yeah, we know this video has become an internet sensation. But we prefer the ones where lots of bad guys get blown up.
But then, we don’t like Dancing With The Stars since Chuck Liddel got voted off, either.
If you harbor dreams of becoming a white, conservative rap star, please take our advice. Don’t. This is Hayward, California rapper Brian Bergondy setting the conservative movement back about 30 years in the inner city.
If you harbor dreams of becoming a white, conservative rap star, please take our advice. Don’t.
This is Hayward, California rapper Brian Bergondy setting the conservative movement back about 30 years in the inner city.
God works in mysterious ways, as is proven by the fact that Pope just named his top ten albums of all time.
They include the Beatles (Revolver), Santana (Supernatural), Oasis (Morning Glory), Michael Jackson (Thriller), Paul Simon (Graceland), U2 (Achtung Babuy), Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon), Donald Fagen (Nightfly), David Crosby (If I Could Only Remember My Name) and Fleetwood Mac (Rumours).
God works in mysterious ways, as is proven by the fact that Pope just named his top ten albums of all time.
They include the Beatles (Revolver), Santana (Supernatural), Oasis (Morning Glory), Michael Jackson (Thriller), Paul Simon (Graceland), U2 (Achtung Babuy), Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon), Donald Fagen (Nightfly), David Crosby (If I Could Only Remember My Name) and Fleetwood Mac (Rumours).
In order to be absolutely impartial, we asked Satan (aka Beelzebub, the Prince of Darkness, Lucifer, the Archfiend, the Evil One) to name his top ten songs of all time.
“The Pope’s taste in music sucks,” a Satan spokesman said. “Here’s a top ten list that kicks ass.”
The IHateTheMedia.com Administrator prefers the Pope’s choices, but the Editor goes with Beelzebub.
Friggin’ brilliant music video: Obama sings the Beatles’ “Tax Man.” Someone, somewhere is a brilliant editor. Whoever put this together is an editing genius. ‘Nuff said.
Someone, somewhere is a brilliant editor. Whoever put this together is an editing genius. ‘Nuff said.
A musical about Barack Obama just premiered in Der Faderland this weekend. 30 German singers, actors and dancers will perform in the musical “Hope — the Obama Musical Story”. The songs, believe it or not, are based on quotes from speeches made during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.
That Barack Obama surely can sing and dance
A musical about Barack Obama just premiered in Der Faderland this weekend. 30 German singers, actors and dancers will perform in the musical “Hope — the Obama Musical Story”. The songs, believe it or not, are based on quotes from speeches made during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.
We say this dog is destined to open and close in one night.
If the producers really want their musical to be a hit, we say rethink the whole thing. Make it more like Mamma Mia! and build it around new arrangements of old rock ‘n roll hits.
We’re talking gold, baby, gold.
So here’s IHateTheMedia.com’s idea of what would make a Hope: The Obama Musical Story a huge international hit.
Ahh, those wacky guys at Minnesotans For Global Warming have done it again. They’ve just released a new Christmas Album called “It’s A Climate Gate Christmas”.
Ahh, those wacky guys at Minnesotans For Global Warming have done it again. They’ve just released a new Christmas Album called “It’s A ClimateGate Christmas”.
In all the talk about the MTV Music Awards, everyone seems to have forgotten the video for which Taylor Swift won the award that put idiot Kanye West over the top.
So here it is. “You Belong To Me,” a sweet, innocent country song and heartwarming video from a very talented 17-year old.
Blah, blah, blah, Kanya West blah, blah, blah.
In all the talk about the MTV Music Awards, everyone seems to have forgotten the video for which Taylor Swift won the award that put idiot Kanye West over the top.
So here it is. “You Belong To Me,” a sweet, innocent country song and heartwarming video from a very talented 17-year old.
“Boyfriend With Health Benefits” tells the touching story of a young woman who’s searching for true love. Well, true love and a healthcare plan that covers lasik eye surgery. And shiatsu massage. And prescription drugs. And acupuncture. And podiatry.
“Boyfriend With Health Benefits” tells the touching story of a young woman who’s searching for true love. Well, true love and a healthcare plan that covers lasik eye surgery. And shiatsu massage. And prescription drugs. And acupuncture. And podiatry.
As the song says, “If you really wanna be my man, boy, you gotta put me on your health care plan.”
This is 2009, honey. You don’t need a boyfriend, you need ObamaCare.
“Barack Obama” by Blakk Rasta, a reggae song was palyed over and over in Accra, Ghana Africa. Is it pro-Obama or ant-Obama?
One song was played over and over when President Obama arrived in Accra, Ghana last week. It was a reggae hit called “Barack Obama” by Blakk Rasta.
We’re not big reggae fans. Sorry. We like it, but it’s just waaaaay to repetitive. It all sounds the same to us. Maybe we just have tin ears.
The Obama fans at the New York Times seem to think the song is a paean to The Greatest President In History. They called it a proud celebration of the first African-American president. And at first listen, it seems to be.
But as one HuffingtonPost.com comment said, “It a rebuke and a plea for action. It suggests that a black man as president is a sign that we’re in the end times. It’s critical of Obama’s views on social issues and America’s use of bombs. He calls Obama ‘idiot bwoy’ for using the words, ‘God bless America,’ and warns him that there are two-faced people ready to destroy him. It urges him to use his power to lift Africa out of poverty instead of joining with the people with the ‘fake’ smiles.”
Thought we also heard a line condemning Obama for “legalizing unnecessary abortions in America.”
We actually Googled the lyrics, but we’re just not fluent enough in rasta patois to comprehend them any better in written form than in audio form.
Listen to it. What do you think? Is the message pro-Obama? Anti-Obama?
Here are our favorite tax songs and tax protest songs, at least those with audio and video.
Love may have inspired more songs than any other subject, but the subject of taxes inspires tax songs that are just as heartfelt. Singers and songwriters seem to be just like the rest of us – you work hard, you do the best you can, and pow! The better you do, the deeper the IRS digs into your pocket.
Just weeks after that grand Hollywood delegation visited Iran on a “cultural” exchange, they’ve received bad news from neighboring Saudi Arabia. Movies are now taboo.
As AsiaNews/Agency in Riyadh explained it:
Cinema and theatre are “against Sharia” because they distract people from work and weaken their efforts in achieving progress, said Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Shaikh Abdul Aziz Alu Al Sheikh during a conference on leisure, visual arts and literature attended by students at King Saud University. “Theatrical performance, whether it is a cinema or a song, would generally make an impression that is against Sharia. People need only those (art forms) that are useful to them to change their way of life (in an Islamic manner),” he decreed.
They continued. And so did the nutcase Mufti:
In his address to students at King Saud University, the grand mufti warned against playing chess because it “causes a man to lose his wealth and waste his time.”
Conversely “photography is one of the necessities of life” because it helps in “lectures, [. . .] religious activities [. . .] while maintaining public security.”
“Only the photography of sculptures and models is prohibited,” he said.
Remuneration for poets who attend festivals and cultural events is permissible if their words are good, faultless, without “abusive words or references.”
Finally, the mufti urged students to stay away from cigarettes and avoid reckless driving, especially at night or early morning.
Hold on. He didn’t mention cable TV, did he? Can they watch cable TV Saudi Arabia? If so, we highly recommend Entourage to the Grand Mufti. We’re pretty he’ll like it.
But he might want to watch it with the blinds pulled down.
Tough to imagine anything more moronic than MTV nor anything more oxymoronic than the term “Arabic MTV.”
Walk down the street in any Arab capital and you’ll see burkah-covered women. Yet turn on the TV in any Arab living room and you’ll find a dozen music video channels filled with bared flesh.
Enter Ahmed Abu Haiba, the founder of 4Shbab TV, which calls itself “Islam’s own MTV.”
The idea behind 4Shbab is simple, he says. Mainstream music videos are “lewd” and do not represent the Arab world’s cultural values. He says they are haram, or forbidden and sinful in Islam.
4Shbab TV is Abu Haiba’s attempt to put young people back on the right path, he says, in a way that is fun and entertaining. Music videos from around the world – not just “Islamic videos,” but anything that’s positive, he says – air alongside call-in shows and contests like “Who wants to be an Islamic pop star?”
“Ask people in the street and they will tell you that these channels are something strange in our culture,” he says. “They smash our identity and confuse people, especially the younger generation. They give them a misunderstanding about their own lives.
Arabic MTV. We can’t wait to see Madonna in a burkah singing “Like 72 Virgins.” al-Vis Presley singing “Jailhouse Rocket Grenade Launcher.” And purple caftan-clad Prince with his rendition of “Party Like It’s 1399.”
Michael Jackson is still remarkably popular in London. In the same freakish way, we assume, that the Elephant Man would still be popular in London.
Jackson scheduled a series of “final” concerts in the English capital. Demented Englishmen snapped them up so quickly that more concerts were hastily scheduled. Fifty of them. And they sold out. 750,000 tickets in all.
That’s an average of 40,000 tickets an hour. More than 650 per minute. More than 11 per second. Fans from Japan, Belgium and Dubai lined up to to buy the tickets. One lunatic stood in line for two days. According to Radio & Records:
Chris Edmonds, managing director of Ticketmaster UK, said, “We often talk about unprecedented demand, but this week we have witnessed a live entertainment phenomenon. We have seen a truly amazing level of interest and demand for tickets from fans from across the world for the Michael Jackson shows at The O2 over the last 3 days. The success of the general on-sale today has led to Michael Jackson and AEG Live adding even more dates, taking the total amount of performances to 50. Today, we saw well over 250,000 fans hitting the Ticketmaster site at 7 a.m. for the general sale tickets. This was undoubtedly the busiest demand for tickets for an event which we have ever experienced.”
Jackson is expected to perform his hit song “Black or White,” except this time he will perform both roles.
They say Barack Obama inspired millions around the world. But the inspiration doesn’t stop there. No siree, bob.
“Obama on My Mind,” an Obama-inspired musical, opens at in London in March. Teddy Hayes, a U.S.-born writer, wrote the music and lyrics.
The “humorous romp” takes place in an Obama campaign office, complete with songs that mix pop, gospel, jazz, Motown, and even tango.
Luckily, the producers don’t have to find a singing Commander In Chief look-alike, because the Obama character never appears onstage. “Nobody can really impersonate Obama, can they?” Hayes quipped. “He’s a one-off.”
Our toes are tappin’ already. Oh, wait, that’s just the nervous tic we developed since we heard the details of the “stimulus” plan.
Я люблю ТКАНЬ ИЗ ВЕРБЛЮЖЬЕЙ ШЕРСТИ. Они заставляют меня чувствовать себя настолько сладким и веселым!
In case you haven’t noticed, Russian pseudo-czar Vladimir Putin one very strange dude. As if his obviously-staged shirtless photos weren’t enough, there’s this story.
Bjorn Again, an act that has imitated the Swedish pop group ABBA for years, says they were flown to Russia to perform the strangest concert of their careers.
The band’s manager said they were driven nine hours through snowy countryside to a military base where the group was housed in barracks and ate with Russian soldiers. Later they were taken to a tiny theatre where the Russian strongman and a handful of guests watched the performance through a gauze curtain intended to obscure Putin’s identity.
Putin’s representatives say the story is a complete fabrication. But seriously, wouldn’t you say the same thing.
Good lord, man, Vladimir Putin likes ABBA. He’s an even more hideous monster than we ever suspected.
