It all started with the passings of pop culture icons David Carradine, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and Michael Jackson this June. And over the past week, we've seen the passings of three more icons: former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung (today, aged 85), conservative columnist and Valerie Plame leaker Robert Novak, and rock musician and electric guitar pioneer Les Paul (August 13, 94).
Speaking of Kim, when I was researching about Kim, I came upon this 1998 CNN article covering his presidential inauguration. That article reported that among his dignitaries were Jackson and former Philippines president Corazon Aquino, both of whom died this summer.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
18 August 2009
03 August 2009
Movie review: "Notorious" (2009)
On Sunday night, I watched a Netflix-rented DVD of the 2009 film Notorious, which was originally released to theaters on Jan. 16 this year and on DVD on April 21. This is a biopic of the life of rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (born Christopher George Latore Wallace), who was murdered in March 1997 at the age of 24. To this day, his murder is still unsolved. The movie focuses mostly on Biggie's music career; the first quarter of the film centers on his childhood and high school years.
Of course, because we all know that The Notorious B.I.G. is no longer with us, the movie opens with the "ending"...with a scene where B.I.G. exits a Los Angeles party that fateful late night of March 8, 1997. Shortly after midnight, he is shot dead. Then the movie flashes back to Biggie's childhood. This effect is similar to the episode structure of the CBS/CTV police drama Flashpoint.
Biggie's son, Christopher Jordan (CJ) Wallace, plays a young Christopher Wallace before he was B.I.G. Even as a student at a Catholic middle school, the young Chris knew about the hip-hop sound. He and a friend are rapping to Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks" at the schoolyard. At home, young Chris's mother Voletta Wallace (played by Angela Lansbury) introduces Chris to his father, George Latore, who had been absent from Chris's life since Chris was a toddler. Voletta and George get into an argument while Chris is upstairs in his bedroom. George storms out of the Wallaces' apartment. Volette tells Chris that his father will never come back again.
As Chris enters high school (according to Wikipedia, after graduating from middle school he attended a magnet school), he gets involved in the 1980s crack epidemic. Rapper Jamal "Gravy" Woolard plays a maturing Chris. In one scene, the high school-age Chris hides a plate of crack cocaine under his bed as he hears his mother coming. Because of the drugs and the street life in general, Chris loses his "good boy" status, as he exhibits during an algebra class one day as he insults his teacher during class. The teacher evicts Chris from the classroom, so Chris goes out to the city to socialize with his fellow gangsters the rest of the day. Chris comes home with a "corny" (in his opinion) country music record for his mother in the hopes of making her happy, but an angry Voletta raises up a letter from Chris's school stating that Chris missed 20 days in one month. Chris argues that he'd been attending school for three consecutive weeks. Then, Voletta angrily asks why she came all the way to the U.S. from Jamaica, only to have raised a bad son. Next, she alleges that Chris hid mashed potatoes under his bed, but Chris admitted that he'd been involved in the local drug trade. Chris's mother throws him out of home.
With all the freedom a bad boy could ask for, Chris gets deeper in the street culture of Brooklyn. He is shown winning a freestyle rap battle, with his playful rhymes, stable flow, and craftful grasp of language evoking cheers from the crowd. But being involved in the less desirable side of life makes him face the music. At home, Voletta is looking over paperwork when she gets a "collect call" from her son out of the county jail. Voletta sternly tells her son to take responsibility for himself. While incarcerated, Chris thinks over all the bad things he's encountered in life and converts them into poetry. He jots down rhymes and ideas in a composition book.
After getting out of jail, Voletta hugs Chris for a warm welcome home, and Chris meets his baby daughter, T'yanna (Taylor Dior), who was born by his girlfriend Jan (Julia Pace Mitchell). To support his new daughter, Chris finds a way to make a living: rapping. With friends Damion "D-Roc" Butler (Dennis White) and Jason "Lil' Cease" Lloyd (Marc John Jeffries), Chris records a demo tape, "Microphone Murderer". Chris then meets producer Sean "Puffy" Combs (Derek Luke) from Uptown Records. Combs seems hostile to Chris's lifestyle: Combs would sign Chris only if Chris gave up drug dealing. Chris disobeys; he and D-Roc go out to the street again. Chris sells a man crack vials that he hid in his mouth; however, an unmarked police vehicle blasts its sirens and takes the duo by surprise. The plainclothes police officers chase Chris and D-Roc down the street and into an alley and take them into custody. Chris tries to discard his illegal gun, but the police find it anyway. Because he wants and believes that Chris can succeed as a rapper, D-Roc takes the blame for the gun and crack. D-Roc knows well that Chris could be locked up for nearly a decade for this.
More disadvantages come for Chris's life: Uptown lays off Combs, and Chris's mother has breast cancer. Chris suffers from depression until Combs establishes his own label Bad Boy Records. Chris begins performing as "The Notorious B.I.G.". He makes his debut at the 1992 Howard University Homecoming concert. The crowd appreciates his song "Party and Bullshit", but for some reason a fight breaks out on stage. Luckily, Biggie's rhymes save the crowd from erupting into a riot. He then begins recording his debut album Ready to Die, to be released in 1994. Combs and other producers criticize him for being "too street" and assert that the record will tank if the mainstream can't handle it. This leads to Biggie recording "Juicy", which samples old-school R&B single "Juicy Fruit" by Mtume. While recording Ready to Die, Biggie meets Kimberly Jones, the rapper known as Lil' Kim and played here by former 3LW singer Naturi Naughton. He ends up having a relationship with Kim but dislikes her style of rapping. Tensions between the two rappers lead to Biggie assaulting Kim in studio.
Ready to Die becomes a bestselling album, and the movie shifts into a slideshow of various images of Biggie's success. In August 1994, Biggie marries singer Faith Evans while ignoring Jan and T'yanna in the process. Tensions arise when Jan calls Faith, who confronts Biggie in a hotel. Another woman was in the room, and the two women get in a catfight. Faith and Biggie reconcile despite the incident.
It's 1995, the year after Ready to Die was released. The tides turn against Biggie's favor, as the East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry has begun. Initially, Biggie befriended West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur (Anthony Mackie). However, Tupac gets shot in a recording studio and blames Biggie and crew. At the Source Awards ceremony that year, Suge (pronounced "shoog") Knight, CEO of Tupac's label Death Row Records, makes a speech dising Bad Boy Records. This sentiment has spread nationwide; the movie cuts from the regular plot to showcase various news reports and "citizen on the street" interviews where average hip-hop fans takes sides and obscenely defame the East or West coasts. Back in the regular plot, Biggie takes the stage one time with the audience booing him, and some people get into fights in the stands. However, they cheer his new track, "Who Shot Ya?" (released on Biggie's 1999 posthumous Born Again and 2006 remaster of Ready to Die). Tupac responds harshly to that track with his own "Hit 'Em Up" (a B-side to the "How Do U Want It" single; the track was released to Pac's posthumous Greatest Hits CD). Then the media gets involved with this mess with a smear of its own. A friend of Big's shows Biggie a magazine cover with Tupac and Faith Evans together. In yet another allegation of infidelty (this time on Faith's part), Biggie confronts Faith, only to realize it was indeed the magazine's fault. Tupac is shot dead in Las Vegas on September 13, 1996. Biggie and his mother talk about it. To deal with his ongoing woman issues, Biggie and Faith visit Jan and T'yanna; during the visit, Biggie teaches T'yanna to be strong and never let a man call her a bitch.
Despite his mother's warning, Biggie goes to Los Angeles to promote his latest effort, Life After Death. After the promo party, Biggie and crew ride to the hotel. At a stoplight, Biggie's life ends when a gang member from a neighboring Chevy Impala shoots Biggie four times. The crowd of fans who came to greet Biggie scatter around the sidewalks like crazy. Biggie's crew rushes him to the hospital, but it's too late. Biggie's funeral is held, and during the funeral procession, fans mourn and celebrate his music. Life After Death was released on March 22, 1997, two weeks after Biggie's death.
Despite a budget only half of that of the Eminem biopic 8 Mile (Notorious ~ $20 million; 8 Mile ~ $41 million), Notorious still effectively narrates the short yet powerful life of The Notorious B.I.G. from childhood to rap star to death. Jamal Woodward applies his background as a mixtape rapper to portray one of the most talented MC's to have graced the music industry. The film also depicts the street culture articulately and realistically, especially in one instance where Biggie's friends encourage him to be beyond the "mixtape rapper" and the NYPD's unmarked patrol vehicle that caught Biggie and D-Roc in the act. For anyone who's dissatisified over the East Coast/West Coast beef, the film puts it out for what it really was: nothing but a media-hyped smear campaign, not really a measure of MC talent.
In this era where hip-hop has shifted from the streets to the dance floors and nightclubs, when "crunk"/"snap music" nonsense like "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" and "Stanky Legg" dominate the airwaves, cable music video networks, and YouTube, is it any wonder why this film made a mere $36 million in the U.S. beyond its January not summer release? And there were critics who derided this film as "Biggie's Wikipedia page reformatted for the big screen" and "half pop fable, half naturalistic docudrama". Overall, critical views were mixed.
Director: George Tillman, Jr.
Writers: Reggie Rock Bythewood, Cheo Hodari Coker
Rated: R (profanity, sexual dialogue, nudity, drugs)
Run time: 2 hours, 2 mins. (theater version); 2 hours, 8 mins (director's cut, which I watched)
24 August 2008
The state of modern American hip-hop: Part 1: Morality
With just two days left before The Last Year of High School, I'm desperately trying to spend time as dutifully as possible. I woke up this morning to watch Sunday morning news coverage of the upcoming Democratic National Convention and Barack Obama's pick of Joe Biden as VP. I later went to Barnes & Noble to buy Chris Matthews' book Hardball: How Politics Is Played--Told By One Who Knows the Game, which supposedly inspired his current cable TV news/talk show Hardball. I read a library copy of the book already and liked it; for AP U.S. Government & Politics class I'll be referencing that book. When I got home, I just watched the documentary California Schools: America's Future and later the movie Prom Night that I rented from Netflix. That film was one of the oddest films I've seen: a crime drama merged with high school story, as it's about a serial killer who wreaks havoc on a high school prom. It's odd how so many critics disliked it. Was it because that concept was too stupid? Maybe. I must be a maverick in thought...(and I love Brittany Snow, the lead actress of the film; I don't know why there aren't any girls as cute as her who go to my high school) In a striking conincidence, there was a character named "Howard K. Ramsey" who was murdered in Prom Night, while the man arrested for sending threatening letters to a John McCain campaign office in Denver was Marc Harold Ramsey.
Now to the main topic that I promised to my readers from Friday night's report: the Parents Television Council's The Rap on Rap, its April 2008 report on "adult content" on rap music videos shown during daytime hours on cable programs Sucker Free (MTV), Rap City (BET), and 106 & Park (BET). The Rev. Delman Coates, organizer of the Enough is Enough Campaign, requested that PTC organize this report. Among its core claims: those programs are so much raunchier than even the worst prime-time TV shows! Why? In their own words:
"The PTC documented 1,647 instances of offensive/adult content in the 27.5 hours of programming analyzed during the December 2007 study period, for an average of 59.9 instances per hour, or nearly one instance every minute.
"In March 2008, there were 1,342 instances of offensive/adult content in a mere 14 hours of programming, or 95.8 instances per hour, 1.6 instances per minute, or one instance of adult content every 38 seconds.
"To put this data in perspective, in the PTC’s most recent analysis of prime time broadcast TV Family Hour programming, the data revealed an average 12.5 instances of violent, profane and sexual content per hour. This is equivalent to one instance every 4.8 minutes."
Next, the press release drones on over the excess amounts of sex/violence/drugs/lack of morality just like Lois Griffin puts in on the theme song to Fox's cartoon sitcom Family Guy: "It seems to me that all you see is violence in movies and sex on TV..." But now here's some more amazing findings:
"All episodes of Sucker Free on MTV included in this analysis were rated TV-14. By contrast, almost every episode of 106 & Park and Rap City on BET carried only a TV-PG rating. An exception was found with one show that aired in December, which was rated TV-14 and included descriptors for suggestive dialogue, foul language, and sex.
"During the two-week December 2007 study period, children under 18 made up approximately 40% of the viewing audience for 106 & Park, 41% of the audience for Rap City and 39% of the audience for Sucker Free on MTV. Because all of these programs re-air throughout the day, study results underestimate the percentage of unique children who are exposed or have been exposed to these programs in total."
Oh noes! MTV and BET deliberately mis-rate their programs in an effort to brainwash our children into thug life! And their schemes have actually worked!
But let's get a bit more serious now. Again I shall emphasize that PTC asserts: "Because all of these programs re-air throughout the day, study results underestimate the percentage of unique children who are exposed or have been exposed to these programs in total." How does it back up this claim? For the time periods included in its study here were the timeslots of each program: (times are Eastern & Pacific time zones; adjust back one hour for everywhere else in the US)
- 106 & Park (BET) (TV-PG): Mon-Fri 11AM-12:30PM & 6PM-7:30PM; Saturdays 11AM-12:30PM
- Rap City (BET) (TV-PG): Mon-Sat 5-6PM (but for some reason PTC says that RC "airs each Saturday" on BET yet quickly points out there exists a weekday broadcast, without having asserted so previously)
- Sucker Free (MTV) (TV-14): Tues-Thu 8AM-8:30AM (an example of MTV's odd, arbitrary scheduling: This show used to be shown 7PM, then 3PM, 8AM, 4:30PM, then was pulled from the MTV schedule around early June but is still shown on MTV's [more competent] sister channel MTV2)
So given that PTC freely suggests that some of the shows were shown during school hours, "unique children who are exposed or have been exposed to these programs in total" might mean kids who cut class to watch these shows, who happen to be able to watch cable TV at school, or unsupervised kindergarteners who are flipping through their cable-equipped TV set before afternoon session.
As noted here, PTC has claimed to have found numerous dirty words in these programs - which would give a sailor a heart attack perhaps? But how honest is their ability to view things through the perspective of the average viewer of these programs? On page 8 of the PDF: (I had to type this out since the whole darn PDF apparantly was printed off a scanner rather than converted from something like Microsoft Office, so I can't cut & paste text)
"Each episode was viewed by a trained analyst who conducted a detailed analysis of both visual and verbal content. Programs were analyzed in their entirety...
"For all categories of offensive content the analysis was determined by what aired in the video. This is significant given many instances in which a song's lyrics are changed from what is heard on the album to what is heard on the music video. In the event of a muted profanity or reference, the word was verified either by reviewing lyrics from a third-party webpage or listening to an uncensored version of a song.
"Language was coded for specific words uttered throughout programming and certain related euphemisms - such as the word 'screw' when used as a euphemism for 'fuck.' Also coded were cases of bleeped and otherwise obscured language. This included words that were partially obscured but identifiable, as well as obscene gestures."
Wow...they freely admit that they had to look beyond the program just to uncover the sleaze with which BET and MTV are planning to indoctrinate the innocent children of America! This is getting ridiculous now; I've seen enough "edited" rap music videos in my adolescence to know that I, the hip-hop fan, need to do my own verification before I can know what Standards & Practices wanted to block from my ears. It's true that kids can go on the Internet and find out what got censored - but parents have the ability to filter kids' Internet access given all the filtering software out there, thus putting PTC's profanity argument into scrutiny. But next PTC claims that in March 2008 some expletives that were censored from Dec. 2007 were not censored. The words in question? (VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED) "ass" and "hell" Ironically PTC fails to point out that in March 2008 there were no unedited uses of (VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED) "bitch" while in December 2007 there were 5 logged uses of "bitch" on Rap City...making the network standards stricter than NBC Universal Television Distribution's standards for the Jerry Springer, Maury, and Steve Wilkos daytime tabloid talk shows (whose uncensored B-words outnumber those from the rap music shows by a truckload, based on my viewing experiences this summer, I'll get to those shows later). And in December 2007, PTC couldn't find any use of "hell" (censored or not), so their claim is pure puffery.
Off with the swear words now; other issues that PTC evaluated included illegal and sexual and violent activities, including the usual suspects as drugs & drinking. But I was surprised to find out that some rap videos promoted "underage drinking"...I thought that was the stuff of other of the PTC's "bete noire" shows The O.C. and Gossip Girl! I've never seen a rap video that promotes "u can drank b4 age 21"...indeed a lot of rap songs do promote drinking but I doubt that they promote blatantly underage drinking. Seems that PTC wants to argue that no media aimed towards minors should ever depict drinking in a positive light.
And finally there comes the list of videos that PTC used for the report, which also brings up insight about which videos were popular during 12/07 and 3/08. The top two "full-length" videos played (only Rap City plays full-length videos, according to the report) were "Superstar" by Lupe Fiasco and "Playas Rock" by Hurricane Chris. But third in line is "100 Million" by Birdman, one of the more "gangsta/edgier" types that Rev. Delman Coates (who was an advisor to the study) discussed on NPR back in May. And then is "Speedin'" by Rick Ross. Both videos play out like CSI: Miami, only told more from the criminals' (rappers') point of view. At least they show the "police" portion of the story as well but obscure them in a "Fuck tha Police" tone with all the cash-throwing and escapism. As I go down the list, I find that some videos that get a lot of "full-length" plays get few "excerpted" plays, and vice versa. Which means that a video like "Speedin'" or "100 Million" would've been played a lot on Rap City but few times on 106 or SF. So it can possibly assert that Rap City plays out videos for a certain amount of time, and voting on 106 & Park (which is BET's version of MTV's Total Request Live, a top-10 countdown show voted on by viewers) can increase airtime on television.
It should be noted that 106 and SF show both rap and R&B videos, while Rap City plays only rap videos (hence the title), something PTC won't point out, thus putting the report further into question. So that means that the R&B videos in the PTC's study could be seen only on BET if a viewer were to watch all three of the said programs habitually. Now I'm seeing that BET gave R&B videos "Just Fine" by Mary J. Blige and "Suffocate" by J. Holiday were shown only once in full length and about ten times in excerpt - apparantly I guess that is how 106 & Park makes a point when showing newer videos.
So this is ironic. Turns out that although the "cleaner" R&B videos are given more rotation than "dirty" rap videos, overall there are more rap videos in the "rap fan habitual pattern" that I shall refer a viewer who watches all three said programs.
Rap music, ever since the late 80s when some rappers like 2 Live Crew and N.W.A began using profanity and other explicit content in their lyrics than other rappers had, has always been controversial for that content. So have other genres of music: for example some 80s heavy metal music that came under criticism by the Parents Music Resource Center - which the PTC might as well be paying tribute to with The Rap on Rap. Indeed, it seems that the networks are taking PTC more seriously, as MTV isn't showing Sucker Free for the time being this summer (but still shows some rap videos within other general programs Friday Night MTV (FNMTV) and Total Request Live, and BET did rate the July 11 episode of 106 & Park "TV-PG-DLS". I've tried looking up specific, descriptor ratings for other BET programming but can't seem to find any. Finally, BET had this to say after NPR hosted Rev. Coates and PTC president Tim Winter:
"BET Networks takes our responsibility to our viewers seriously, and that's why we voluntarily established a standards process that reviews all the programming we air, including music videos. We routinely reject videos that do not meet our programming guidelines, and we have an ongoing dialogue with the labels and artists to find a balance between free and responsible expression. We encourage the Enough is Enough Campaign and the Parents Television Council to do the same."
So BET appears to accept that it's been accused of hurting our generation and gives a thumbs up to PTC.
As more people come to realize that "Enough is Enough" indeed, they'll probably stop accepting gratuitous sexual and "gangsta values" and start demanding more positive, competent hip-hop. I'm glad that at least BET chooses to side some more positive artists like Lupe Fiasco and Alicia Keys and Chris Brown besides the other junk and has approved PTC's complaints. Back before NWA/2 Live Crew most rap was less profane/vulgar than the PTC's worst nightmares; examples straight out of my MP3 player include Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, LL Cool J (before 2000, his newer stuff sucks), Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West (who cares if he once said "George Bush doesn't care about black people?"), Eric B & Rakim, Talib Kweli, and Mos Def. Some of the mentioned artists fall under the "socially concious hip hop" banner. I hope that someday you'll join us and unite as one against excess sleaze - yes I admit I do listen to some gangsta rap but it's not to be enlisted in the vast corporate conspiracy, it's to open my mind to see "the other America".
Next time on "The state of modern American hip-hop", I'll look at how there's way too many cliches and "copyright infringement" in some of the newer rap songs...I thought that us music fans had more trouble for illegal downloading! Stay tuned...
Now to the main topic that I promised to my readers from Friday night's report: the Parents Television Council's The Rap on Rap, its April 2008 report on "adult content" on rap music videos shown during daytime hours on cable programs Sucker Free (MTV), Rap City (BET), and 106 & Park (BET). The Rev. Delman Coates, organizer of the Enough is Enough Campaign, requested that PTC organize this report. Among its core claims: those programs are so much raunchier than even the worst prime-time TV shows! Why? In their own words:
"The PTC documented 1,647 instances of offensive/adult content in the 27.5 hours of programming analyzed during the December 2007 study period, for an average of 59.9 instances per hour, or nearly one instance every minute.
"In March 2008, there were 1,342 instances of offensive/adult content in a mere 14 hours of programming, or 95.8 instances per hour, 1.6 instances per minute, or one instance of adult content every 38 seconds.
"To put this data in perspective, in the PTC’s most recent analysis of prime time broadcast TV Family Hour programming, the data revealed an average 12.5 instances of violent, profane and sexual content per hour. This is equivalent to one instance every 4.8 minutes."
Next, the press release drones on over the excess amounts of sex/violence/drugs/lack of morality just like Lois Griffin puts in on the theme song to Fox's cartoon sitcom Family Guy: "It seems to me that all you see is violence in movies and sex on TV..." But now here's some more amazing findings:
"All episodes of Sucker Free on MTV included in this analysis were rated TV-14. By contrast, almost every episode of 106 & Park and Rap City on BET carried only a TV-PG rating. An exception was found with one show that aired in December, which was rated TV-14 and included descriptors for suggestive dialogue, foul language, and sex.
"During the two-week December 2007 study period, children under 18 made up approximately 40% of the viewing audience for 106 & Park, 41% of the audience for Rap City and 39% of the audience for Sucker Free on MTV. Because all of these programs re-air throughout the day, study results underestimate the percentage of unique children who are exposed or have been exposed to these programs in total."
Oh noes! MTV and BET deliberately mis-rate their programs in an effort to brainwash our children into thug life! And their schemes have actually worked!
But let's get a bit more serious now. Again I shall emphasize that PTC asserts: "Because all of these programs re-air throughout the day, study results underestimate the percentage of unique children who are exposed or have been exposed to these programs in total." How does it back up this claim? For the time periods included in its study here were the timeslots of each program: (times are Eastern & Pacific time zones; adjust back one hour for everywhere else in the US)
- 106 & Park (BET) (TV-PG): Mon-Fri 11AM-12:30PM & 6PM-7:30PM; Saturdays 11AM-12:30PM
- Rap City (BET) (TV-PG): Mon-Sat 5-6PM (but for some reason PTC says that RC "airs each Saturday" on BET yet quickly points out there exists a weekday broadcast, without having asserted so previously)
- Sucker Free (MTV) (TV-14): Tues-Thu 8AM-8:30AM (an example of MTV's odd, arbitrary scheduling: This show used to be shown 7PM, then 3PM, 8AM, 4:30PM, then was pulled from the MTV schedule around early June but is still shown on MTV's [more competent] sister channel MTV2)
So given that PTC freely suggests that some of the shows were shown during school hours, "unique children who are exposed or have been exposed to these programs in total" might mean kids who cut class to watch these shows, who happen to be able to watch cable TV at school, or unsupervised kindergarteners who are flipping through their cable-equipped TV set before afternoon session.
As noted here, PTC has claimed to have found numerous dirty words in these programs - which would give a sailor a heart attack perhaps? But how honest is their ability to view things through the perspective of the average viewer of these programs? On page 8 of the PDF: (I had to type this out since the whole darn PDF apparantly was printed off a scanner rather than converted from something like Microsoft Office, so I can't cut & paste text)
"Each episode was viewed by a trained analyst who conducted a detailed analysis of both visual and verbal content. Programs were analyzed in their entirety...
"For all categories of offensive content the analysis was determined by what aired in the video. This is significant given many instances in which a song's lyrics are changed from what is heard on the album to what is heard on the music video. In the event of a muted profanity or reference, the word was verified either by reviewing lyrics from a third-party webpage or listening to an uncensored version of a song.
"Language was coded for specific words uttered throughout programming and certain related euphemisms - such as the word 'screw' when used as a euphemism for 'fuck.' Also coded were cases of bleeped and otherwise obscured language. This included words that were partially obscured but identifiable, as well as obscene gestures."
Wow...they freely admit that they had to look beyond the program just to uncover the sleaze with which BET and MTV are planning to indoctrinate the innocent children of America! This is getting ridiculous now; I've seen enough "edited" rap music videos in my adolescence to know that I, the hip-hop fan, need to do my own verification before I can know what Standards & Practices wanted to block from my ears. It's true that kids can go on the Internet and find out what got censored - but parents have the ability to filter kids' Internet access given all the filtering software out there, thus putting PTC's profanity argument into scrutiny. But next PTC claims that in March 2008 some expletives that were censored from Dec. 2007 were not censored. The words in question? (VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED) "ass" and "hell" Ironically PTC fails to point out that in March 2008 there were no unedited uses of (VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED) "bitch" while in December 2007 there were 5 logged uses of "bitch" on Rap City...making the network standards stricter than NBC Universal Television Distribution's standards for the Jerry Springer, Maury, and Steve Wilkos daytime tabloid talk shows (whose uncensored B-words outnumber those from the rap music shows by a truckload, based on my viewing experiences this summer, I'll get to those shows later). And in December 2007, PTC couldn't find any use of "hell" (censored or not), so their claim is pure puffery.
Off with the swear words now; other issues that PTC evaluated included illegal and sexual and violent activities, including the usual suspects as drugs & drinking. But I was surprised to find out that some rap videos promoted "underage drinking"...I thought that was the stuff of other of the PTC's "bete noire" shows The O.C. and Gossip Girl! I've never seen a rap video that promotes "u can drank b4 age 21"...indeed a lot of rap songs do promote drinking but I doubt that they promote blatantly underage drinking. Seems that PTC wants to argue that no media aimed towards minors should ever depict drinking in a positive light.
And finally there comes the list of videos that PTC used for the report, which also brings up insight about which videos were popular during 12/07 and 3/08. The top two "full-length" videos played (only Rap City plays full-length videos, according to the report) were "Superstar" by Lupe Fiasco and "Playas Rock" by Hurricane Chris. But third in line is "100 Million" by Birdman, one of the more "gangsta/edgier" types that Rev. Delman Coates (who was an advisor to the study) discussed on NPR back in May. And then is "Speedin'" by Rick Ross. Both videos play out like CSI: Miami, only told more from the criminals' (rappers') point of view. At least they show the "police" portion of the story as well but obscure them in a "Fuck tha Police" tone with all the cash-throwing and escapism. As I go down the list, I find that some videos that get a lot of "full-length" plays get few "excerpted" plays, and vice versa. Which means that a video like "Speedin'" or "100 Million" would've been played a lot on Rap City but few times on 106 or SF. So it can possibly assert that Rap City plays out videos for a certain amount of time, and voting on 106 & Park (which is BET's version of MTV's Total Request Live, a top-10 countdown show voted on by viewers) can increase airtime on television.
It should be noted that 106 and SF show both rap and R&B videos, while Rap City plays only rap videos (hence the title), something PTC won't point out, thus putting the report further into question. So that means that the R&B videos in the PTC's study could be seen only on BET if a viewer were to watch all three of the said programs habitually. Now I'm seeing that BET gave R&B videos "Just Fine" by Mary J. Blige and "Suffocate" by J. Holiday were shown only once in full length and about ten times in excerpt - apparantly I guess that is how 106 & Park makes a point when showing newer videos.
So this is ironic. Turns out that although the "cleaner" R&B videos are given more rotation than "dirty" rap videos, overall there are more rap videos in the "rap fan habitual pattern" that I shall refer a viewer who watches all three said programs.
Rap music, ever since the late 80s when some rappers like 2 Live Crew and N.W.A began using profanity and other explicit content in their lyrics than other rappers had, has always been controversial for that content. So have other genres of music: for example some 80s heavy metal music that came under criticism by the Parents Music Resource Center - which the PTC might as well be paying tribute to with The Rap on Rap. Indeed, it seems that the networks are taking PTC more seriously, as MTV isn't showing Sucker Free for the time being this summer (but still shows some rap videos within other general programs Friday Night MTV (FNMTV) and Total Request Live, and BET did rate the July 11 episode of 106 & Park "TV-PG-DLS". I've tried looking up specific, descriptor ratings for other BET programming but can't seem to find any. Finally, BET had this to say after NPR hosted Rev. Coates and PTC president Tim Winter:
"BET Networks takes our responsibility to our viewers seriously, and that's why we voluntarily established a standards process that reviews all the programming we air, including music videos. We routinely reject videos that do not meet our programming guidelines, and we have an ongoing dialogue with the labels and artists to find a balance between free and responsible expression. We encourage the Enough is Enough Campaign and the Parents Television Council to do the same."
So BET appears to accept that it's been accused of hurting our generation and gives a thumbs up to PTC.
As more people come to realize that "Enough is Enough" indeed, they'll probably stop accepting gratuitous sexual and "gangsta values" and start demanding more positive, competent hip-hop. I'm glad that at least BET chooses to side some more positive artists like Lupe Fiasco and Alicia Keys and Chris Brown besides the other junk and has approved PTC's complaints. Back before NWA/2 Live Crew most rap was less profane/vulgar than the PTC's worst nightmares; examples straight out of my MP3 player include Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, LL Cool J (before 2000, his newer stuff sucks), Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West (who cares if he once said "George Bush doesn't care about black people?"), Eric B & Rakim, Talib Kweli, and Mos Def. Some of the mentioned artists fall under the "socially concious hip hop" banner. I hope that someday you'll join us and unite as one against excess sleaze - yes I admit I do listen to some gangsta rap but it's not to be enlisted in the vast corporate conspiracy, it's to open my mind to see "the other America".
Next time on "The state of modern American hip-hop", I'll look at how there's way too many cliches and "copyright infringement" in some of the newer rap songs...I thought that us music fans had more trouble for illegal downloading! Stay tuned...
23 June 2007
Summer so far
So far, summer has been relaxing, but the relaxation will slowly wear away as I proceed to do the following activities this summer, among others:
1. From now until 7/27 I take summer math classes at Evergreen Valley College- Precalculus and Trigonometry - to advance to AP Calculus AB in my junior year. Passing those courses means another AP exam to study for in junior year.
2. For AP English Literature class, I will have to do analyses on selections from the Chrisitian Holy Bible and Aristotle's Poetics, as well as the novels Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. This will take up the majority of my summer work. All those works look pretty darn hard to me.
3. On Monday, July 2, I will go to the school bookroom to pick up my AP United States History textbook. I don't see why we didn't get to pick it up before the last day of school. That will be also the day I'll start U.S. History notings.
4. Other things to do in summer include piano, basketball, fitness, voluntterring, SAT, college research, and other stuff to enhance my college transcript.
The last week of school was a blast. I got a lot of signatures in my yearbook, especially from the class of 2007, Ruby, and Tina. Also, I had photos taken with Ruby and Tina! Now, lately I've been asking around for those photos, and I'm not gonna be so cynical as to think they've been destroyed. Oh well, there's always next year & the dances & junior prom. But schoolwork & my brain come first.
In addition, I'm enjoying summer math classes so far, but I predict they'll get harder every day. But I had gotten A's in both semester of Algebra II last year, so I predict I will not "bomb" the class, but I'll at least get grades acceptable enough to advance to APCAB in September if I study hard enough and pay attention. So far, I've been paying attention and taking notes everyday. My clases take place Monday-Thursday, with the Trigonometry course from 8:15-10:15AM and Precalculus 10:25AM-12:25PM - those two classes combined equal one year of Math Analysis @ EVHS, so I advance to AP Calculus AB passing those two classes.
I've almost finished my weekend math assignments. In the meantime, today, I had piano lessons, then came home for math, the computer, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, West Side Story, Mobb Deep, and Depeche Mode.
Tomorrow: Finish math assignments, study math, practice piano, watch Steamboy, analyse the Bible for AP English, and more.
1. From now until 7/27 I take summer math classes at Evergreen Valley College- Precalculus and Trigonometry - to advance to AP Calculus AB in my junior year. Passing those courses means another AP exam to study for in junior year.
2. For AP English Literature class, I will have to do analyses on selections from the Chrisitian Holy Bible and Aristotle's Poetics, as well as the novels Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. This will take up the majority of my summer work. All those works look pretty darn hard to me.
3. On Monday, July 2, I will go to the school bookroom to pick up my AP United States History textbook. I don't see why we didn't get to pick it up before the last day of school. That will be also the day I'll start U.S. History notings.
4. Other things to do in summer include piano, basketball, fitness, voluntterring, SAT, college research, and other stuff to enhance my college transcript.
The last week of school was a blast. I got a lot of signatures in my yearbook, especially from the class of 2007, Ruby, and Tina. Also, I had photos taken with Ruby and Tina! Now, lately I've been asking around for those photos, and I'm not gonna be so cynical as to think they've been destroyed. Oh well, there's always next year & the dances & junior prom. But schoolwork & my brain come first.
In addition, I'm enjoying summer math classes so far, but I predict they'll get harder every day. But I had gotten A's in both semester of Algebra II last year, so I predict I will not "bomb" the class, but I'll at least get grades acceptable enough to advance to APCAB in September if I study hard enough and pay attention. So far, I've been paying attention and taking notes everyday. My clases take place Monday-Thursday, with the Trigonometry course from 8:15-10:15AM and Precalculus 10:25AM-12:25PM - those two classes combined equal one year of Math Analysis @ EVHS, so I advance to AP Calculus AB passing those two classes.
I've almost finished my weekend math assignments. In the meantime, today, I had piano lessons, then came home for math, the computer, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, West Side Story, Mobb Deep, and Depeche Mode.
Tomorrow: Finish math assignments, study math, practice piano, watch Steamboy, analyse the Bible for AP English, and more.
26 May 2007
Remaining school & Summer Plans
With Memorial Day weekend approaching, many of you may be thinking of summer now, as there are only 14 days of school remaining. Indeed, I have a lot of cool stuff to do over the summer. They include:
1. I will take Math Analysis at Evergreen Valley College this summer, a combination of their courses "Math 21" (Precalculus) and "Math 22" (Trigonometry). If I get at least a B in both these courses, then I can take AP Calculus AB in my junior year.
2. The summer will also introduce at least two concert tours coming locally in the SF Bay Area. (Screw you, Jokin' Timberfake.) The concerts that I am especially looking forward to include, as I know right now: On Thursday 7/19 in the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View will be the FREE OzzFest 2007, the 12th annual installment of the heavy metal music tour founded by lead singer of founding heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne. Hopefully, I can keep my grades up this year and in summer school so I can go there. However, this will technically be considered a "school night" given that summer school will end on 7/27, so I hope maybe a delay might let me go there. If I can't go to Ozzfest, then I can attend the Rock the Bells hip-hop concert, headlined by reunited rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine and hardcore rap group Wu-Tang Clan. It will be held in the parking lot at McCovey Cove on Saturday 8/18 at noon. The focus of the concert will be on hip-hop, as most of the other headliners are alternative hip-hop acts, and the headliners are hip-hop in some way. The guests include Immortal Technique, The Roots, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Nas, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and many other true MC's who you might've never heard of from Wild 94.9, BET, or MTV. (106 KMEL does play mostly mainstream hip-hop, but dedicates weekend evenings to the obscure but juicier stuff) That is at least gonna keep me happy this summer if I can't go to ozzfest.
3. I should start going out more often, including for working/community service. I'm considering working for the Lunardi's at Evergreen Village Squre, and volunteering at the Evergreen Library and other places.
4. I recently read in the San Francisco Chronicle about the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love" of 1967 being celebrated by the "hippies" there. Thus, maybe I wanna create my own "Summer of Love", maybe i should find a girl before the end of the year and do all sortsa crazy stuff with her in the summer of 2007, 40 years after masses of young people in SF and elsewhere began freedom of social lives.
But remember, I did say there were 14 days of school left, so I need to work on my AP World History presentation where I act as Harry Truman giving a "farewell" speech to American tv viewers, and study for finals for Chemistry, Algebra 2, and Spanish. Indeed, I'm not sure if Mr West will give us an English final exam, but I will expect a final project
1. I will take Math Analysis at Evergreen Valley College this summer, a combination of their courses "Math 21" (Precalculus) and "Math 22" (Trigonometry). If I get at least a B in both these courses, then I can take AP Calculus AB in my junior year.
2. The summer will also introduce at least two concert tours coming locally in the SF Bay Area. (Screw you, Jokin' Timberfake.) The concerts that I am especially looking forward to include, as I know right now: On Thursday 7/19 in the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View will be the FREE OzzFest 2007, the 12th annual installment of the heavy metal music tour founded by lead singer of founding heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne. Hopefully, I can keep my grades up this year and in summer school so I can go there. However, this will technically be considered a "school night" given that summer school will end on 7/27, so I hope maybe a delay might let me go there. If I can't go to Ozzfest, then I can attend the Rock the Bells hip-hop concert, headlined by reunited rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine and hardcore rap group Wu-Tang Clan. It will be held in the parking lot at McCovey Cove on Saturday 8/18 at noon. The focus of the concert will be on hip-hop, as most of the other headliners are alternative hip-hop acts, and the headliners are hip-hop in some way. The guests include Immortal Technique, The Roots, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Nas, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and many other true MC's who you might've never heard of from Wild 94.9, BET, or MTV. (106 KMEL does play mostly mainstream hip-hop, but dedicates weekend evenings to the obscure but juicier stuff) That is at least gonna keep me happy this summer if I can't go to ozzfest.
3. I should start going out more often, including for working/community service. I'm considering working for the Lunardi's at Evergreen Village Squre, and volunteering at the Evergreen Library and other places.
4. I recently read in the San Francisco Chronicle about the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love" of 1967 being celebrated by the "hippies" there. Thus, maybe I wanna create my own "Summer of Love", maybe i should find a girl before the end of the year and do all sortsa crazy stuff with her in the summer of 2007, 40 years after masses of young people in SF and elsewhere began freedom of social lives.
But remember, I did say there were 14 days of school left, so I need to work on my AP World History presentation where I act as Harry Truman giving a "farewell" speech to American tv viewers, and study for finals for Chemistry, Algebra 2, and Spanish. Indeed, I'm not sure if Mr West will give us an English final exam, but I will expect a final project
05 May 2007
Don Imus sues CBS Radio; Spider-Man 3; Warriors advance to Second Round; Conan O'Brien in SF
Don Imus Sues CBS Radio Over Contractual Dispute
It was announced a few days ago that radio host Don Imus, famous for his racist remarks insulting the Rutgers University women's basketball team, has sued CBS Radio, which owned the rights to his program Imus in the Morning, as CBS's contract with Imus allowed his program to be controversial and off-color. So I suppose CBS Radio deliberately wanted Imus to utter those three nasty little words just so that they could fire him? That's one of the theories behind the Imus controversy. And just recently, it was discovered that the censors at MSNBC (which used to simulcast the radio program on TV) and the radio stations had the options to BLEEP OUT those nasty words, but chose not to because of the contract! Oh geez. If Imus is still not fired, then I guess we should still deal with all those gangsta rappers whose music is even more offensive than just Imus's comments alone, with all their B-, F-, H-, and N-words!
Spider-Man 3
So far as I've read the critical reviews for the film, they seem pretty mediocre, so I might as well just wait until the DVD comes out. I might see it in theatres given these conditions:
1. The Warriors play the Utah Jazz, not the Houston Rockets, as I would go to Game 1 (Friday, 11 May) to watch Yao Ming play locally, in addition to our GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS :)
2. Regardless of #1 applying, if the Warriors get ELIMINATED from the Playoffs...
3. A significant # of my friends claim they've reasonably enjoyed it
4. I have taken both the AP World History exam and Summer Math Analysis placement exam
Golden State Warriors advanced to Second Round of the NBA Playoffs
Finally I'd like to thank the Warriors for beating the #1 team in the Western Conference, Dallas Mavericks. Depending on who wins the Rockets-Jazz game today, and as I'm typing, the score at the end of the 3rd quarter is Utah Jazz 75, Houston Rockets 67, GSW will face either the Houston Rockets or Utah Jazz. It'd definitely be worth it to go to Game 3 of the Warriors' 2nd round series if it is to be against the Rockets, as I'd be able to see Yao Ming play locally, and Yao is the greatest Chinese basketball player in the nation.
Late Night with Conan O'Brien in San Francisco
All this week, I've been taping NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien and watching them after school, as for the week of 30 April-4 May, O'brien has been basing his shows from the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, CA. All the shows have been locally themed, with O'Brien's monologue focusing on Bay area stuff (like the Bay Bridge collapse and Golden State Warriors), as well as tours of SF and vicinity. They have all been very enjoyable. "LNWCOB" has gotta be the best late-night TV show around, with "Jay Leno" and "Jimmy Kimmel" trailing. O'Brien makes the funniest monologues and skits, especially this week from SF.
It was announced a few days ago that radio host Don Imus, famous for his racist remarks insulting the Rutgers University women's basketball team, has sued CBS Radio, which owned the rights to his program Imus in the Morning, as CBS's contract with Imus allowed his program to be controversial and off-color. So I suppose CBS Radio deliberately wanted Imus to utter those three nasty little words just so that they could fire him? That's one of the theories behind the Imus controversy. And just recently, it was discovered that the censors at MSNBC (which used to simulcast the radio program on TV) and the radio stations had the options to BLEEP OUT those nasty words, but chose not to because of the contract! Oh geez. If Imus is still not fired, then I guess we should still deal with all those gangsta rappers whose music is even more offensive than just Imus's comments alone, with all their B-, F-, H-, and N-words!
Spider-Man 3
So far as I've read the critical reviews for the film, they seem pretty mediocre, so I might as well just wait until the DVD comes out. I might see it in theatres given these conditions:
1. The Warriors play the Utah Jazz, not the Houston Rockets, as I would go to Game 1 (Friday, 11 May) to watch Yao Ming play locally, in addition to our GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS :)
2. Regardless of #1 applying, if the Warriors get ELIMINATED from the Playoffs...
3. A significant # of my friends claim they've reasonably enjoyed it
4. I have taken both the AP World History exam and Summer Math Analysis placement exam
Golden State Warriors advanced to Second Round of the NBA Playoffs
Finally I'd like to thank the Warriors for beating the #1 team in the Western Conference, Dallas Mavericks. Depending on who wins the Rockets-Jazz game today, and as I'm typing, the score at the end of the 3rd quarter is Utah Jazz 75, Houston Rockets 67, GSW will face either the Houston Rockets or Utah Jazz. It'd definitely be worth it to go to Game 3 of the Warriors' 2nd round series if it is to be against the Rockets, as I'd be able to see Yao Ming play locally, and Yao is the greatest Chinese basketball player in the nation.
Late Night with Conan O'Brien in San Francisco
All this week, I've been taping NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien and watching them after school, as for the week of 30 April-4 May, O'brien has been basing his shows from the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, CA. All the shows have been locally themed, with O'Brien's monologue focusing on Bay area stuff (like the Bay Bridge collapse and Golden State Warriors), as well as tours of SF and vicinity. They have all been very enjoyable. "LNWCOB" has gotta be the best late-night TV show around, with "Jay Leno" and "Jimmy Kimmel" trailing. O'Brien makes the funniest monologues and skits, especially this week from SF.
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