Big Sean released his new album, Twenty88 today on April Fools' Day. It seems a lot of people were surprised that this is a collaboration album with Jhene Aiko, but if you know the history between the two, they have a pretty good chemistry when it comes to music. With songs like “I Know” and “Beware” in the past, you knew this album would be nothing short of great. The eight songs on this album, its full of love, sex and lust, starting off with a pretty strong opening, “Déjà Vu”. This song is one we can all relate to, talking about going back-and-forth with that one person you always catch yourself being in the same situation with over and over again. As the album continues, it keeps the sexy vibe going, which is why I really like when they collab. The music these two make independently, is kind of different but they both have a chill vibe to them; matching up perfectly when they come together. The recently married Jhene Aiko was definitely on here letting people know a different side of her rather than her normal hippie, soulful self. The California native, shows us more of her sexy, thug-life. This album did show me a little more range in Jhene's vocals which I really liked. On her independent projects, you don't get to really hear her range, she’s a little more soulful, so I’m loving this different sound. To me, everything Jhene touches turns to gold. This album does focus on love & sex as a collab album from a male & a female, but don't get it twisted, every song has a different vibe to it & a different message. In one song, they actually go back-and-forth as a male and a female that seem to be on a television show, trying figure their relationship out. I like that they knew they couldn't do too much with this type of album, there are only so many topics that a man & woman collab album can speak on, so eight songs was the perfect amount. Most of the songs are led by Big Sean with Jhene Aiko doing background vocals or they share the song by both having verses. This isn't a turn up album as you probably know; this is the perfect album for the cute date night if you're just chilling & cooking dinner with your girl. Or if you just wanted to chill & vibe out, you can out this on. Overall I can definitely say I enjoyed this album, perfect for when I’m driving too.
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This weekend Michel'le, the baby mama of Dr. Dre and Suge Knight, released a lifetime movie on her side of Surviving Compton. This biopic showed her personal story intertwined with the NWA biopic, Straight Out of Compton. "Surviving Compton" allowed us to see NWA, Dr. Dre and Suge Knight from a different point of view. A view that was there the whole time but never talked about. The main problem when it came to releasing this movie was that Dre did not want his character depicted in a negative or bad way. He threatened to sue if that was the case. But it seems like Michel'le did not let that stop her from telling her truth. She held nothing back in this behind the scenes look at her life. Many scenes from the movie were hard to watch, especially the first time Dre put his hands on her. Coming home drunk late one night and beat her as she woke up to greet him. There was even scene in the studio, in front of everyone, where he choked her and called her out of her name because a song was not done. In the scene, he even threatening to beat her when she got home. We saw the evolution of how Dre and Michel’le went from a young couple surviving in Compton together, growing through music, to Dre having a complete drinking problem and turning on her. This abuse her caused her to turn to drugs & alcohol to numb the pain physically and mentally. When she found out she was pregnant with Dre’s baby, it was at the beginning of her career. She was on tour, opening up for MC Hammer, album had just gone gold & then the news broke. Dre threatened, "If you weren’t pregnant with my child, I would kick your ass" for trying to abort the baby during such a huge point in her career. The crazy part about all of this: the abuse wasn’t a secret. The violence he had towards her would be in front of people in the studio, at video shoots, anywhere. Eazy and Jerry Heller would try to protect her and minimize the violence when then could but in the end, she decided to stay and take it. Michel'le's story went simultaneously with the NWA story. She was there for it all; when Ruthless Records was started, the fall out of the group, when Ice Cube decided to go solo, when Suge Knight and Dre collabed for Death Row, the start of Tupac, and even the beginning of Dr. Dre’s label, Aftermath. Her relationship with Suge Knight began when Dre started slacking. The light bill wasn’t paid, no food was in the house and she had no means of transportation. Suge was there to pay the bills and support. He even sent her to rehab for her prescription drug addiction. When she got out, Suge was right there, while Dre was getting married to another woman. Mind you, Suge Knight, himself, was married through all of this. When he was convicted of parole violation and send to jail, he paid her $30,000 to take of things in the outside world, but really he was using her for her name. To put fraud information and business deals under her name, which is how the fake marriage came about (She later found of the marriage was fake). Eventually, she gave birth Suge Knight’s daughter, Bailei Knight. Throughout the movie, she narrated, walking us through her internal thoughts. She mentioned how people asked if she got with Suge to get back at Dre, but she denied it. She even weighed out the pros and cons of both men and explained why she decide to deal with Suge even with the evil attached to his name and image. Others thought this movie was her opportunity to take shots and get back at Dre, but she denies that as well. On her end, she says this was to speak out for women, putting a spotlight on an issue that is ongoing in our community and showing her personal fight. Dre has made recent statements apologizing to the women that he has hurt in his life. In a letter to Sony - who he threatened to sue if the movie was released - Dre wrote that Michel’le has never spoken publicly on these abuse accusations until recently; accusations that he has denied. Dre’s lawyer pointed out that Michel’le never sought medial attention or called the cops throughout the couple’s time together. But this has become the debate, was this movie for enlightenment and prevention or was it for her own pettiness? On top of that, will Dre be suing Sony based of the negative spotlight he was put in from the movie? Let me start by saying, Passengers is a love story. From the previews you may get this message or you may not (I know I didn’t). The previews made it seem like there would be more action than anything, but they kind of sold us the wrong dream. Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) wakes up 90 years too early after the ship heading from Earth to Homestead II begins to malfunction. Realizing that he is the only passenger awake of 5,000, he begins to panic, trying to figure out ways he could go back to sleep or wake up the flight crew. After exhausting all options, he decided to live a little. His only friend being an android (robot) bartender named Arthur. As time goes by, Jim find himself exploring more and more. Using his mechanical skills to make cosmetic improvements to the ship he now calls home. Everyday ending it with a drink and talk with Arthur. One day he stumbled upon a woman named Aurora Lane’s (Jennifer Lawrence) hibernation pod. He decide to look deeper into this woman and falls in love with her as a person. He wants to wake her as well, to spend the rest of his time with her on the ship, but knows that would be equivalent to a death sentence for her with 90 years left on the ship and no way back to sleep. After one year alone on the ship, he decides to wake her. They begin to fall in love as the ship around them is slowly malfunctioning more. Now, the question is what to do next. I was told before seeing the movie that it was whack and stupid, but that came from a man’s point of view. The story is a love story with a little action thrown in. It was the perfect amount of love, action and anxiety to keep you wonder what would happen next. The main question in my mind was: will they be able to go back to sleep? And if not, what will they do? The concept of the movie was different. There could have been a tad bit more action but I personally enjoyed it. The acting was well and was able to carried the movie. Laurence Fishburne even made an appearance. I do think the ending the could have been better. It ended sort of abrupt. The movie gave so much detail and story, it finally gets to the end where we figure out their fate and it just says, “here you go. bye.” Like, sheesh lol Great date night movie or a netflix date night in. Either way, I think you’ll enjoy this movie! After NC got so much backlash for passing House Bill 2 aka the Bathroom Law, you would think other states would run far away from having the same bad fate as us, but nope. Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas and Virginia are states currently discussing transgender rights. While Alabama, South Carolina and Washington have already filed their versions of a bathroom bill. According to CNN, at least 24 states are thinking hard about restricting access to restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities on the basis of biological sex, since 2013. Mississippi has something called a religious freedom law known as the HB 1523, that people say will discriminate against gay and transgender people. Allowing employers and school administrators to dictate access to bathrooms, spas, locker rooms “or other intimate facilities and settings.” But North Carolina is still the only state to actually have a law that forces people to only use the public bathrooms of the sex they were born. By passing the HB 2 law, the state missed out on new jobs as companies decided to expand in the state. Many concerts were cancelled this past summer as a result of the law discriminating the LGTB community. And on top of that, we lost the NBA All Star game along with the NCAA and ACC relocating their events. |
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January 2019
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