MTV VMA's 2009....The Kanye Edition

I almost thought about not watching the VMAs after that excellent MJ tribute and performance from janet. I mean how could they top it?............

Enter Kanye West: Instant Controversy, providing the nights biggest moment and and one of the VMAs biggest moments of all time. After Taylor Swift questionably won Female artist of the year, Yeezy proved that he wasnt just concerned about himself like everybody thought. He throws temper tantrums for other artist that get screwed out of awards too. This nigga ye' like da the award show police or sum shit. Smack dab in the middle of her award acceptance speech the Hennessy filled rap superstar stormed the stage,stole the mic, and made his case for Beyonce....."Beyonce made one of the best videos of all time," The disapproval from the crowd and the look on the face of young Taylor Swift made that moment infamous and will go down as one the greatest Ye' moments of all time(hmm new post anyone?) After ye was booted from the show theshow took order the rest of the way thru.

There were some good performances by the stuned taylor swift, the absolutely fuckin weird but talented Lady Gaga, and Mrs. Beyonce " Damn she look even better than before" Knowles. When Beyonce won her award for best video she gave Taylor her speech time that Kanye stole in a very classy move by Mrs.Carter. All in all with Wale keeping the mood up with the UCB from DC throughout the night and Lady Gaga freakin people out an watnot the whole show, it was a good ceremony. Jay-Z closed the show with Alicia Keyes doing "Empire State Of Mind" in his hometown of NY. That one was cool but also kinda awkward with Jay-Z sounding like he was choking the whole time and Lil Mama jumping on stage for no reason but i guess she was just in the moment.

Mixtape Extra: Triple C's White Sand

Before we begin Mixtape Mondays im gonna get us started off with the first upload.

Click on mixtape cover to download.

Chris Brown Larry King Interview

I only have one word.......Bowtie

Blueprint 3 Album Review

In 2003, rapper Jay-z announced his retirement from the rap game and left us with the Jay-z classic known as The Black Album. As expected the retirement was short term and in 2006 jigga dropped the dud known as Kingdom Come, the album which he hailed to be "Grown Up Rap". With only 2 or 3 true quality tracks, the album is easily his worst but at that point the only album of his which strayed, for the most part, off the topic of drugs. In 2007 Jay went the themed route returning to his former comfort zone, capitalizing off of the success of the movie of the same name, and adding another positive notch to his legacy with American Gangster. No one really knew what to expect when Hov announced his next album Blueprint 3, even with the leaks of tracks like "Jockin Jay-Z", Brooklyn Go Hard"and "History". With a album called

Blueprint he couldn't possibly be delivering Kingdom Come 2.....or could he?

From the jump Hov lets us know what he's talking about and u can See the direction of the album is heading towards the Grown Up Rap thing again. "Now that that's that lets talk about the future/we have just seen the dream as predicted by Martin Luther/and you could choose ta/sit in front of your computer shootin youtube up/ or you could come with me to the whitehouse get ya suit up/ You stuck on bein hardcore, I chuck the deuce up." Jay spends a lot of time discussing the trends in which he helped create, kill, or trying to create or kill current trends. Subject matter however is not a problem for me on this album. The biggest problem i have is Jays flow not being the monster that it once was and realizing the fact that it probably never will be. With that said there are a few other problems with this albums i would like to address.

Those problems are titled "Off That" and "Reminder", the first two tracks to leak from the album and both produced by Timberland. "Off That" doesn't even sound like it belongs on the album at all and the Drake feature seems a bit forced. Reminder, though lyrically on point has one of the worst hooks I've heard in recent memory. When those songs leaked they bought the albums anticipation and expectations lower and lower. Then Venus vs Mars leaked and was much better than the previous two Tim tracks and saved some hope.

Little did we know Hov would make a Rivera like save with the rest of the album. Songs, "Thank You" "So Ambitious"and "Real As It Gets" immediately add a nice vibe to the album. Hov is able to make the Swizz Beats produced "On To The Next One" work for the album but the true gems on this album come in the form of tracks featuring freshmen Kid Cudi (Already Home) and J.Cole(A Star Is Born). Jay addresses the rappers who say he is in the way of their progress and the progress of the genre on "Already Home". "They want me to disappear/ like it's gon shift for them/ They say that I'm in the way/they want me to sit for them/but what they admitting is/ they ain't got shit for him" Then Jay in a brilliant move passes the torch to the first artist on Roc Nation, first by rhyming about the artist he watched blow up in his tenure in the game, ten Jay goes in about his own reign before giving J.Cole the fourth and BEST verse on Blueprint 3. J.Cole shows the hunger of a talented youngster and delivers a verse which will surely move him closer to the public eye "The flow cold as the shoulders of gold diggin hoes when a broke nigga approaches/Told ya I'm focused man/ I let u muthafuckas soak it in" The third true gem comes from the Alicia Keys assisted "Empire State Of Mind". For the 4:37 that the song plays I wish i was from NY as jay paints a Reasonable Doubt-Esque vivid picture about the big apple as Keys delivers a flawless hook with flawless vocals. This song has the potential to not only go down as an all time great Jay song but a theme song for New York as well.

Songs like "Hate" and "Forever Young" are OK depending on your mood. Feel like clownin then throw on Hate and listen to Kanye's useless but entertaining babbling. Kanye doesn't do the album a complete disservice, I mean after all he did produce a bulk of the album, gave jigga the idea for single "D.O.A" and the possibly the best verse for second single "Run This Town". Overall this album is not jays best by a long shot but certainly not his worst. I think BP3 actually accomplished what KC didn't, delivering the "Grown Rap" all the while making good music. So Kingdom Come 2? Maybe. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Great High School Football States

By: Donald Kavanaugh 09/02/09

How you doing America! I'm here for my first blog of Sounds of the Game and I was thinking about great high school football states. Now there are a few that i can think of off the top of my head. States like Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Louisiana, and California(not in that particular order) seem to be the power houses that jump out of my head at the time. Texas comes off with its legendary status of the Permian Panthers that was made so famous in "Friday Night Lights". You have states like Louisiana and Florida known for there speed and there recruits that stay down south and make the NCAA's SEC conference so powerful, and usually create great pro prospects. You also have states like Pennsylvania and Ohio who produce the greatest lineman (just ask Jim Tressel). Ohio and Pennsylvania also has great tradition in there college teams Ohio State and Pennsylvania(BIG TEN POWER!!!) but let me get back on subject to the high schools. Ohio and Pennsylvania recruits are always big and husky. Then u have a state like California. Now Cali is kinda a cheat because its pretty much the size of the 13 colonies so pretty much the size of the 13 states! so you know they have to produce great high school teams and College prospects. Here are some links that I found about high school football states. www.maxpreps.com/national/football.htm

To me I think the most powerful state in high school football would have to be Ohio. I say Ohio because of a few reasons. One reason that strikes me is ESPN does a series every year of Ohio against America, Ohio against America! and Ohio is currently dominating the series. Its called the "Kirk Herbstreit Classic", where Ohio teams play teams from all across Ohio. In 2007 Ohio went a dominating 8-1 against America in the "KHC". But what I think really separates Ohio from the rest of the states is the domination of one city. Now this hasn't really experienced much success in Pro Football, and there College Football Team is just now getting into the national scene(even though ESPN gives them no love). That city is Cincinnati. Cincinnati has some the greatest teams in high school history, and seem to always have several teams in the http://www.espnrise.com/ top 50. Teams like St.Xavier, Moeller, Princeton, Elder, Colerain, Wyoming, Winton Woods, Lakota West and Middletown just to name a few. Those teams right there can compete with any high school team in the country, and probably some college teams lol(Michigan and Notre Dame) I'm just playing goodness. But this is up for argument, so let me know what you think. I'll be back soon.