What Does a Radical Listen To?

I haven't posted in a good minute and I'm sorry! I've been busy! Things pile up one after the other until one day you think, "Oh man, I have a blog?"

Well, as a re-introductory post, I'll be talking about music. I've been on a big grassroots kick this past weekend and it's become more and more apparent that music has been an important part of the conversation for previous organizations and for me personally. In celebration of music, I've decided to post the music I've been listening to lately. So, here is what a radical listens to:

In no particular order

1. DJ Shadow and Dan the Automator - Bombay the Hard Way
2. John Legend ft. Andre 3000 - Green Light (MSTRKRFT Remix)
3. WONDER GIRLS!!!
4. Handsome Boy Modeling School - So, How's Your Girl?
5. MGMT - Kids
6. The Coup - We Are the Ones
7. Gorillaz - D-Sides
8. Wale - W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.
9. John Lennon - Imagine
10. Matisyahu - Jerusalem

Wu-Tang

just using this as a dump spot for the CNN article about the Wu-tang Clan

(CNN) -- The Wu-Tang Clan -- the New York hip-hop supergroup that spawned millions of album sales, nine solo acts and a few acting careers -- almost never was.

If RZA, left, had been jailed or Method Man killed, Wu-Tang may have never formed, RZA says.

Method Man, the group's most recognizable voice, was nearly killed before the band formed, Wu-Tang's chief producer, RZA, writes in his forthcoming memoir.

Meth was walking to buy marijuana at 160 Park Hill Avenue in Staten Island -- the house in Wu-Tang's "Protect Ya Neck" video -- when RZA saw him across the street, he writes in the book.

"Come over here, yo!" RZA beckoned, according to "The Tao of Wu" (Riverhead). "He stopped and came running over. A few seconds later -- pow-pow-pow-pow-pow! -- a guy started shooting up the front of 160. A buddy of ours, Poppy, an innocent, school-going, nice guy -- he was shot and killed right there." Interactive: Where's the Wu been? »

It wasn't the only close call RZA said could have snuffed the band that rewrote the rule book for hip-hop acts. The year before the group formed in 1993, RZA was acquitted on an attempted murder charge that could have put him behind bars for eight years, he writes in "The Tao of Wu," out Thursday.

Expanding on the book's anecdotes in an interview with CNN, RZA explained that if he had been imprisoned or if Method Man, aka Clifford Smith, had been killed, the band never would have come to fruition.

RZA, whose real name is Robert Diggs and whose stage name is pronounced "Rizza," also talked about his role in the death of his cousin, Russell Jones, better known as Ol' Dirty Bastard or ODB. Two days before his 36th birthday in 2004, ODB died in a New York recording studio from an overdose of cocaine and painkillers.

RZA writes in the book that he once witnessed ODB force his own son to watch him do drugs. RZA tried to leave, he writes, but ODB wouldn't let him. Now, RZA told CNN, he wishes he would've been tougher with ODB about his drug problem.

The History of Wu

RZA formed the Wu-Tang Clan in 1993 with his cousins and friends from Staten Island, New York.

The band -- consisting of Method Man, RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa -- quickly made a name for itself with its spastic break beats blended with samples from kung fu movies.

The group's debut, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," went platinum and several Wu-Tang members' solo albums went gold. Method Man and Ghostface Killah saw solo efforts go platinum.

The band commanded the hip-hop scene in the 1990s and racked up millions of album sales. It even started a clothing line called Wu Wear.

Today, Wu-Tang and its members can still be found on the marquees of hip-hop venues. They also make appearances on the silver screen: RZA appeared in "Funny People" and "American Gangster," while Method Man has appeared in numerous movie roles and on HBO's "The Wire."

Following are excerpts from the interview, which has been edited for language, flow and length:

CNN: Could your imprisonment or Method Man's death have derailed Wu-Tang's formation?

RZA: Either one of those incidents could definitely have derailed it. Of course, myself being the abbot, the one who came with the idea, if I wouldn't have made it out of that tumultuous time -- it seemed like I wasn't going to make it out of it; there was a lot of odds against me -- but we stood strong, and self-defense made sense to the jury. We beat that ...

It was the victory over that incident that made me change my whole direction. In a way, it's double-edged in that incident. One, if I would've lost that, yeah, Wu-Tang wouldn't have happened, but also it's the victory of it that inspired me and gave me the drive also to go and really get serious about Wu-Tang and the things I was dealing with.

Same thing with Meth, he always brings it up ... that that day saved his life. He actually said, if it was anybody else calling him, he wouldn't have came.

CNN: In the book, you cite lessons from Eastern religions, Christianity, Islam, [Nation of Islam offshoot] Five Percent, numerology, comic books, kung fu, chess. What would you say to someone who says it's difficult to reconcile these dogmas?

RZA: Like it says in the Bible, "In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh" -- if we go to the root of the word, we will find that, yeah, everything is similar. Everything is teaching us all the same path.

It's just that one religion was good for these people because of their living conditions. In the Quran, they mention paradise being filled with wells, wells of water, and if you're in the desert and you've got a chance to get water and gardens -- as they describe paradise in the holy Quran -- if you're going to get gardens, that's the paradise that fits your situation. ... Everything they're saying relates to the people they're talking to. ...

You remove the messenger and take the message.

CNN: You say in the book that your penchant for violent lyrics in your younger years "was a product of my history and environment" and that it no longer represents you. But you also say you won't repudiate violence. Why not?

RZA: One reason I haven't repudiated it is because when it's necessary, it's necessary. [The Bible's] Ecclesiastes tell us there's a time for everything -- a time for war, a time for peace -- so in times for war, there's time for violence.

Then in [the Hindu scripture] Bhagavad Gita, it says Arjuna was talking, Arjuna didn't want to commit violent acts against an army that was attacking him. He couldn't find it in his heart to do it. It was people he loved. He didn't want to get into violence, but Krishna had to point out to him, "Your duty is your duty." ...

So, to me, violence in the light of justice is still violent, but I don't see it the same. It's because of justice that I don't repudiate violence because justice must be served somehow.

CNN: ODB was a product of his environment as well. To what degree were you and other Wu-Tang members responsible for his death?

RZA: The guys would say it's more me than them because they say that's my cousin and I was right there. If you let a man that you love or anybody -- man, woman or child that you love -- sit there and destroy themselves in front of you, you're neglecting them ...

Everybody let him do what he wanted to do. ... There were times when I took his drugs and threw them down the toilet. When I do that, he would get so pissed off I don't see him for weeks after that. ...

So it got to a point, I was like, "[expletive] it, let him do his drugs" just to have him around me, just to keep him there. ... But it's still neglect, yo.

CNN: You say you ran Wu-Tang like a dictatorship in its first five years. I know you and Raekwon have had creative differences and Ghostface Killah is suing you over royalties. Ever regret the dictatorship approach?

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RZA: I don't regret it because it got us to the power we are. ...

To me, in the beginning, the dictatorship led us to such a strong foundation that even though Wu-Tang seemed to be crumbling, it didn't fall because of the root foundation of one man's idea. But now as it's coming back together -- we're living in the twilight age of it right now -- it's still surviving because of the democracy of it.

CNN: Wu-Tang is still around, but nothing like the heyday of the 1990s. Will we ever see a renaissance?

RZA: Well, to me, Wu-Tang is beyond Wu-Tang Clan. ... It's just like hip-hop is beyond Grandmaster Flash, but Grandmaster Flash was one of the first guys to hit those turntables like that. ...

The same thing with Wu-Tang. You'll see the difference in hip-hop from the moment we came in to before we came in. We changed it. We changed the whole structure.

CNN: Have you accomplished everything you've set out to accomplish?

RZA: I'm me and the me that's me is me and is going to continue to be me, and it's always reaching and growing. I'm grateful for what I've accomplished. I'm grateful for anyone who thinks I accomplished something and says, "Well he did this; he did that." I'm proud to be accepted, but I feel like I've just scratched the surface for some weird reason.

Macro Evolution

As has been said often, macroevolution is microevolution plus time. Even better put by one of my friends, macroevolution equals microevolution plus microevolution plus microevolution...

Many people though still don't believe in macroevolution. This is for a variety of reasons. Much of the doubt is cast on a lack of sufficient time. Some believe the earth is only 10,000 years old. This is preposterous, so we'll leave this section be. Some just don't think that 4 billion years is long enough to produce what we see now. This can be dispelled with some ease.

Of all the species of dog we know now, the single ancestor is the wolf. From the Great Dane to the Pomeranian, there is but one ancestor. This transition, guided by humans, took only a few centuries. 4-5 at the most. Most people don't perceive the amount of time that is 4 billion years because it is just too wieldy. I can break down 4 billion years into 40 million centuries. This is still a bit unwieldy and many people cannot fathom that either, but work with me here. If a wolf can turn into a Pomeranian in 4-5 centuries, think of what the world could do with 40 million of them. Or even, if we can progress so much in one millenia,think of the progress we could have made with 4 million mellenia.

These numbers are still far too wieldy, as previously mentioned. Many people can't fathom a thousand, let alone a million. But take the dog example again. We could do that over 8 million times given 40 million centuries.

So obviously, the ability for macroevolution to happen is overwhelmingly easy. Many people when faced with this number though, just cannot fathom it to understand the possibility.

English Only?

So, I kinda got into it with some people in class today over whether the US should make English its official language. I was completely against this idea. Some of my classmates did not share my point of view. Needless to say, it got heated. So, as a calm down mode for me, I'm going to explain the pros and cons of making English THE official language of the US.

Cons:

-If you were to make English the official language, what you would be doing is institutionalizing essentially a separate but equal policy. I mean this by saying that the government would be saying that, although all languages are equal essentially, any language that is not English holds no weight in the country. This would essentially ostracize those who do not speak English and make the children of those people abandon the culture completely. This is already happening in the first place, this would just institutionalize it.

-Also, benefits for those who do not speak English would be diminished greatly. All official forms would be printed in English, making ballots, fliers, or even school letters printed in English. This would bar those who do not speak English from participating in many things.

-This might also bar non-English speakers from getting jobs.


Pros:

-English Speaking Privilege would be institutionalized.


Honestly, that is the only advantage to this proposition. There is nothing else, substantially that would happen other than English speakers would be able to institutionalize their bigotry.

So really, do you want to help others or gain no real material benefit?

At the Desk

I'm blogging on the job! Yeah, that's right. I have an infinitely better job than you have. I may not get paid much but it buys me books. So there.

I only have 18 more minutes on the desk, so this blog won't be very planned.

I'm sick and tired. Both in the physical sense and the emotional sense. I've been coughing since two weeks ago and I haven't gotten adequate sleep since school started. One of the reasons for the latter is that I work at 8 in the morning. Hey, it pays.

I'm also sick and tired of Baylor. I hate it from the very core of my being. I can't stand the way people don't acknowledge their privilege or work towards the equality of others on campus. I hate the apathy. I hate the administration for making people who pay tuition outcasts and unwanted.

I need to leave this place. I keep telling myself, 2 more years, two more years. But I don't know if my sanity will hold out that long. My health doesn't seem to be able to.

Kanye West

So, Kanyizee has been getting a bit of bad press in the news lately. Something about snatching the microphone out of Taylor Swift's hands and telling the crowd at the VMAs that Beyonce had the better music video. Everybody's gone and caught feelings because Kanye told her that she sucked in comparison to Beyonce.

I just watched Taylor Swift's video. It sucked. Actually, I didn't even watch the whole thing; it's still playing. I just switched windows. Seriously, it's unwatchable. The song itself is almost unlistenable, but that's neither here nor there.

I'm not sure how it happened, but Beyonce somehow won best video, yet lost best female video. To Taylor Swift's violent assault of art. How exactly?

The audience. The audience somehow had some type of brain lapse and forgot how to function correctly. Somehow they gave an award to a young upstart who is a pretty voiced, beautiful but cheesy and lame singer. The only thing going for her is her ok voice, a humanized auto-tune, and her looks. That's how she won. Which is unfortunate because there are great female artists out there whose looks don't conform to the Aryan standard America wants them to conform to so we never here about them. But those nice little blond, blue-eyed girls get all the votes. Yay!

Who should have really won? Keri Hilson. Her "Knock You Down" video was amazing. Some of you are going to say, "Wait. That wasn't even nominated." I know and it's a freaking travesty. That video was nothing short of genius.

MTV is bull. It's been said for years, but it's true. The people who watch it are idiots and they wouldn't know good video direction if it walked up, kicked them in the face, and left their calling card.

Now, I started off this post talking about Kanye. I'm sure a couple people were starting to get antsy wondering if I was ever going to bring Mr. West back up. Well here he is. I don't understand the problem. Taylor Swift sucked. It's true. She didn't deserve the award. He was correcting what he saw as a malfeasance in the voting. So he did it in a way that was pretty mean. SHE. DID. NOT. DESERVE. THAT. AWARD.

Though, I don't know why it was such a big deal in the first place. MTV sucks. They don't know real talent and their award shows are only based on commercial selling power. It's basically a long commercial for music artists.

Either way, Kanye did the right thing. And I stand by his genius.

More on that Later

I'm stressed. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the semester. I have too much on my plate.

But, one thing that will help me through are great youtube videos like this one:



Thank my sanity for youtube!