Under The Crown (A K1ng Eljay Blogsite)

I’ve been blessed with the time and the opportunities to listen, watch and experience a lot of things.

Admittedly, there’s a lot of things I didn’t get a chance to hear or watch (Never heard Tupac – “All Eyez On Me”) but for everything I haven’t seen, there’s a few that I have. This is just the section I’m going to do to talk about a few of the things I’ve loved/enjoyed over the years…

…Or things I might’ve been late discovering. I’ll admit it. Haha. Anyway, take it for what it is. Enjoy the throwbacks…

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Nice....pic?

Good music is hard to find. I literally all but stumbled across this as I was starting to branch out onto other music. At the time, I was really feeling the Jay-Z/Linkin Park mashup cd they did, and then I started to realize every Linkin Park single that played on TV, I kind of liked. So I went to find more of them, and I stumbled across Fort Minor’s debut cd “The Rising Tied”.

If you don’t know, that’s Mike Shinoda, aka the rapper for Linkin Park.

Anyway, I remember the song “Remember The Name” and I figured that I’d cop it at the very LEAST for that one song. How shocked was I when I actually began to listen to the album… It’s by far, to date, one of the best hip-hop albums I’ve ever heard.

From the lyrics, to the cameos, to the original topics and concerns, everything about the album impressed me. And it’s crazy, because the more I listen to the album, the more it all but mirrors my life a LOT at certain times.

Seriously, I was literally at work TONIGHT and listened to the song “Believe Me” and it all but made me stop walking because the situation they were describing is a situation I’m going through RIGHT NOW as far as needing to cut off a person before they bring me down with them.

That’s why I love hip-hop albums like this…it’s timeless. It didn’t matter if it just came out or if it was ten years ago. If it’s true hip-hop, it’s able to connect regardless or the time change.

Only a few albums are like that…I’m glad to say that for me, this is one of them.

Check my highlights below, and check the album out…if you can still find it…

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Album Highlights

Seriously, the whole album. But I’ll just pick three or four…

1) “Right Now” – featuring Styles of Beyond and Black Thought

Look, there are some songs which are cool, and some which slap you in the face. The first time I heard this song, I was slapped in the face for several reasons… 1) The BEAT is NASTY…  2) The message caught me off guard, but it’s a real message. Too much do people complain about their life when in all actuality, right now there’s someone way worse off than them. Black Thought sums it up perfectly with the last lines:

“I guess one man’s trash is the next man’s treasure /
One man’s pain is the next man’s pleasure /
One say infinity, the next say forever /
But right now, everybody got to to get it together…”

(Saw this video someone did online, Brings the song to life PERFECTLY)

2) Cigarettes

Fort Minor makes the errily similar comparision of “negative rap music” and cigarettes…and it makes too much sense. You have to listen to this one…it can make you feel guilty if you’re a true hip-hop head that’s been settling for less.

3) Kenji

By the way… Fort’s Japanese. So when he begins to talk about how World War II and Pearl Harbor affected his life, it’s nothing really like what you may have heard, considering his family were Americans at the time. This one’s deep… Racism’s still going strong after all of these years too. Sad…

4) Slip Out The Back

You ever just felt like just LEAVING a situation for whatever reason? This song makes you think about it in a bigger perspective. I can’t describe how well thought out these songs are. It’s just amazing to see this album is so slept on, and every song on the album is QUALITY. Rare.

Time for a second album Mr. Fort Minor….

Later.

King Eljay

Funny how money change a situation...miscommunication leads to complications... Lauryn Hill fits here.

So in theory, this looks like another typical urban drug-dealing movie with a pot/dope-fueled plot and a predictable ending, with maybe a few corny comedic lines thrown in for good measure. It’s a safe stereotype for these type of movies… However, I’m a little pleased to say this one’s a little different than the traditional “urban” movies you see… Kind of.

The Good: Every actor in this movie is great. They ALL do their parts well and extremely well. Although it pains me inside to see Darius McCray go back to doing roles like this since his acting in the movie “Something To Sing About”, the characters in this movie are literally LOL funny, even when they’re not meaning to be. That’s also due to the clever interactive writing in the story. The plot is semi-strong (you can predict the first 75 percent of the movie easily and maybe a part of the ending), but the characters are so fun and easy to follow because of the simplified storyline (which all comes to a head at the end in an “OH-SNAP, PEOPLE-ARE-ABOUT-TO-DIE-NAMELESS” type of way). Personally, I also like the “real-life” ending…

The Bad: It’s predictable to a point. Some people won’t like the fact that you can kind of figure out how the movie’s going to go for a large majority of the it. Also, it’s R-Rated in every way, including a cameo and “performance” by Charles Hamilton’s late-night crush, Lacey Duvalle (don’t Google her if you don’t want to see anything explicit….trust me on this). The language is strong, and the movie definitely isn’t for kids in any way. Also, the “real life” open ending might throw some people off a little bit.

The “I Wish He Had More Parts in the Movie”: Mos Def had the best cameo in the whole movie. In the previews, it made it seem like he was a main character, but in all actuality he’s only in two scenes. This wouldn’t be such a problem is Mos Def’s character WASN’T SO HILARIOUS in this movie. Unfortunately, two scenes are all we get.

Bottom Line: The movie was somewhat predictable. The movie was highly enjoyable. The movie also was short, sweet, R-Rated, and to the point. And to top it off, it had a real life open ending which could EASILY be sequeled into a just-as-funny part two. I would love to see a part two to this. Overall, this movie is worth a view if you want some genuine laughs at the expense of the lifestyle revolving “the quick come-up.”

Final Rating: —–> 4 /5 <—–

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Randomness: Rapper Cassidy makes a cameo in the movie…The movie is short and sweet, topping out at about 90 minutes…There should be a sequel… Lauren London also has a small role in the movie (yay)…Don’t get attached to any character in the movie, because it’s possible they could be dead by the end of the movie…I was the only person in the theater watching the movie…I almost got kicked out because I was on my cell phone…BUT I WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE MOVIE THEATER…