I don’t care how Corny or wack this show may end up being. I’m just amazed that this concept of a Primetime action drama spearheaded by 2 Black leads was greenlighted. By NBC at that. Not MY9, Not BET, Not TVOne.
Let’s just hope that this breaks new ground by crushing the color veil and amassing a diverse prexisting NBC audience with an appetite for spy TV, while avoiding the classification of being a ‘Black show’.
If that can be done, then this show will be a victory and success, no matter how long it runs.
Of course, that’s a bit much to put on the shoulders of Boris Kodjoe and British newcomer Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Who’s sure to end up in a Crush Alot post just because of what she is and her name alone). I know Blacks tend to do that alot and make every Negro responsible for representing us, But this stands a good chance. A show created and directed by the golden boy behind the hits Lost and Fringe, J.J. Abrams, adds validation and maybe can draw enough people who wouldn’t normally tune in.
I’m excited a little. It’s like a Black Mr. & Mrs. Smith without the trying to kill each other. And thank God, cause Lords knows that Black men and women do enough of that in REAL life. Glad at the prospect of seeing some Grown Black love on national screens. And even though I’m not a T.V. show watcher, I’ll look at an episode or 2 and hope that it doesn’t get nipped. Hope you will 2. It airs on Wednesday, September 22nd. How fitting that that’s the start of LIBRA season?? The Takeover, The Break’s over!
I’m just surprised that somebody not Black knew who Boris was and gave him some work. And how bad is this chic??! I have a NEW Ideal woman. She’s like Kerry Washington meets Stacey Dash! Yes!!!
We met on the second Saturday of July during a Miller Lite photoshoot.
It was me, you, the crew, and a bunch of my friends.
I’d like to say that you are responsible for the break-up of me and my girlfriend…
But that ship had sailed a while ago.
Having her there was beneficial and miscalculated at the same time. It stopped me from being able to really talk to you, although I don’t know what that would have equated to in either case. Admittedly so, I did flirt with you alot. Pretty blatantly at that – in front of my girl. To my credit (if you want to call it that or even give me that much), I did forewarn her by giving her a disclaimer that my eyes would certainly wander in your presence. Jerk. I know. But an honest one. She laughed it off, but continuously shot me glances everytime you and I interacted.
When I first noticed you walk into the trailer I kept feeling your eyes on me as the stylist ran me thru wardrobe. I wondered what that was about, and I was determined to find out. That mission became much more mild once I noticed every one of my male friends had almost taken turns picking your brain when I wasn’t.
We had clever repartee, we shared insults and snide remarks interlaced with smiles and observations. One such observation was a wise moment when I asked you to take your feet off of the table and sat next to you and we both motioned for you to rest your legs across me. Then in that split second, you came to your senses and backed all the way up. You said noooo! citing that my girlfriend was around and that you didn’t want to be apart of any drama because you know the procedure all too well. That was followed by a great moment of enlightenment where you made note of our dispositions throughout the day and how far hers and mine were from each other. You couldn’t have been more on point.
See, for as much as I kept checking on her to make sure that she was okay, You weren’t the problem. Our problems began on January 18th, and we’d been slow dancing in a burning room ever since. She was so clouded by whatever was the stirring in her mind that she couldn’t afford to be jealous like the average woman. You were a miniscule threat to her that day. No outside threat could be greater than the threat of what we were doing to ourselves. And Iwould be jealous of you if I were a chic. Make no mistake, my girl was bad. Not in a Melyssa Ford kind of way, but in a Eva Marcille meets Denise Huxtable kind of way – personality wise and physically….what TDJ would call one of my Sexy “Granola Girls”…. Pretty, stylish, and I’m sure if she wasn’t my girl then all of my boys would’ve been picking her brain and giving her as much attention as they gave you.
But you Ms. Ortega, are especially attractive to a guy named Malik because of the mixed bag that you are. I didn’t see the worldliness, Passion, quick wit, entertainment preferences and seductiveness coming. Especially not in one Down to Earth package. You’re an upscale video girl. Video girls aren’t supposed to have that much going on. Add that to the fact that Iam a sucker for anything exotic, and you, ms. Half Venezuelan/Half Dominican who loves to cook are the shit to me!
And I would watch your weekly show that you host on TEMPO, but it’s just horrible.
What you represent is an epiphany of sorts for me. Or at least a confirmation on that day to me. It made me remember that I want that video girl with the nerd inside. The chic who rolls her tongue across her teeth when she speaks and flips her hair, but can talk to me about science and geography while telling me the name of the thing that Iam eating when I had no idea what it was. I made a promise to myself last year to only go for model types after the previous girl, and as shallow as that is, I think I deserve it. I’ve given the Round The Way Girls and Sexy Granola Girls nuff love in my time, but ever since I wifed up that ex pageant winning, ex model Ivy leager, I’ve been spoiled a bit. It will never change how much I love women in general, because Iam addicted to chics. Nor will it affect my ability to be satisfied by a lady who has never carried a comp card. Right now, it is just simply a preference.
When things were going all fine and dandy with me and the girl, I’d never turn my head twice to spot your dimensions or catch your gaze and wonder what it meant. But the fact that I was damn near gawking and actually acting on my attraction (not to mention getting your number – thanks for playing me by the way), was an indicator to me that my relationship was in fact dead. And the next chic better be able to bring out the same response from me as you did.
You are a symbol of an end, and a beginning.
You weren’t put in front of me for me to ever date or smash.
Last week I wrote a post entitled “Do you KNOW who Iam?”
I stated how my team wanted me to make changes to both of my sites based on their idea that the lack of consistent information and definition would cause confusion to a new visitor.
I also stated that I disagree.
I guess the way I worded things in the post had a slant towards making them seem like some kind of machine that stood between you and I.
I used alot of “They” language in reference to them…I see how that can make them appear to be this outside antagonist instead of a support system.
So for that, I apologize.
This is MY team. The only ones who came to me when nobody else has. They have taken on the arduous task of getting me to the next level, and in knowing this, Iam truly appreciative and grateful.
Sometimes, I know I am pretty tongue-in-cheek and cynical, but most of the time, there’s a humorous element involved. I’m waaayy less malicious than one would imagine. Especially when compared to most bloggers, who tend to be snarky and have a big sense of self-importance.
I still want to give you guys who follow the blog more credit and believe that you really do know that Iam an artist with a campaign to be Your New Favorite Rapper and that you are very aware that I have an official website that exists anytime you want to go and learn the backstory on the kid. But Just in case, I have honored the compromise agreed to by me and my team to make that and my music more accessible. Ironically enough, this all came up as I was preparing to make those adjustments for this week anyway. I needed to make sure I had one place where you can get all of my music first.
So shout out to Mike Gordon and Naima, who’s relationship with me almost mirrors the relationship between me and my older siblings. I swear sometimes it’s as if I had my Sister Sheedie making career suggestions for me along with a more animated version of my brother Khalid. It’s scary. And that means that we’re not always gonna see eye to eye. I don’t know if that means we’re too close for comfort or what, but it’s Love there nonetheless.
Now can ya’ll Please focus the rest of this year on trying to get me famous???! Thanks in advance guys.
It’s no secret my disdain for the poser who parades around borrowing the namesake of other grown men. Mostly, failed men who are notorious for all the wrong reasons. Note to rappers, if you’re gonna name yourself after a real street legend, try to name yourself after niggas who don’t get busted and lose it all. Also, try not to name yourself after actors who play such characters. They are just actors.
And how funny that we should talk about actors. In a recent review of This guy’s album Teflon Don (yet another borrowed moniker that I hear he’s getting flack for from the Gotti family), The site
“Rick Ross is the Al Pacino of rap. No one believes that Pacino actually was a Miami drug lord, but his acting in Scarface was so dynamic that Tony Montana seemed completely real. Similarly, only the incredibly naïve think Rick Ross is an actual Don; as a general rule, real drug kingpins wouldn’t dream of carrying kilos of coke in their cars, let alone embark on international media campaigns to announce the details of their massive drug distribution operation. But somewhere between the time Ross’ heavyweight Hustlin’ first hit our eardrums and now, the Bawse has embodied the larger than life characteristics of the actual gangsters he names himself after (Freeway Rick Ross, Albert Anastasia) so entertainingly that rants about his “realness” have become as pointless as complaining that Al Pacino didn’t “actually” engage in gun battles with Columbian hitmen.”
I hesitate to call him a rapper. I cringe to refer to him as an entertainer.
Many of you probably don’t even notice the picture of him X’d out in his corrections Officer uniform that’s in the banner for this site above, but my respect level is nil for mr. Rozay. Besides the lame identity crisis gimmick, and I won’t even get into the cop past for a gangster rapper thing, I just am not a fan of repetetive rhymes about nothing but ignorance and glorfying of shit that there is no glory to. Alot of you have seemed to fall into the co-sign trap where if something is getting pushed hard enough and enough people seem to overlook something very wrong, then it’s okay to lean in that direction. Having some of the hottest beats around doesn’t hurt that effect either.
In one song, this guy encapsulates all 3 of those flaws almost unabashedly and unapologetically. Almost like he knows that ever since he’s got Diddy behind him, he can say damn near anything and niggas will eat it up because he’s filling a void left for street-oriented rap. Much like Biggie had this seeming immunity that made the general public look at you crazy when you questioned his more…questionable lines and statements.
The song I’m talking about is Called “B.M.F”. or “Blowing Money Fast”. How he convinced a rapper like Styles P to jump on a song with a hook that starts off, “I think I’m Big Meech…” I don’t know, but this track is one big fuckery fest of fantasy and fabrication that promotes drug money and everything surrounding it like it’s 1985.
There has been a Jeezy track called, “The Real Blowing Money Fast” that actually features a recorded statement by the actual Big Meech – the man behind the real cartel B.M.F., who’s serving a federal sentence. In it, he’s saying that he has no ties to Ross and has never met him, but doesn’t appreciate the use of his name. I’m not a Jeezy fan because he’s not too far from this guy in his approach, but he does have his moments. In any case, I was hoping this started a battle so someone that people really respect on both a street and rap level would break the hypnosis you’ve seen to have been put under in the last year. Sorry 50.
I guess this is better. What my boy Mr. Fred Hawkins has done has turned a negative to a positive. Kind of like what me and Brandon did with “Pack Of Niggers”, Fred uses Ross’ own shit to his advantage and flips his beat and cadence in a display of Self-motivation, Black Pride and Intelligence. It’s conscious without being corny so it doesn’t lose it’s street appeal and flare. Dare I say, it’s Revolutionary But Gangster.
There couldn’t have been a better way, Fred’s half husky, commanding voice is like listening to Ross’ good twin, who did everything right. He flips the hook saying, “I think I’m Malcolm X, Martin Luther, Marcus Garvey…Hallelujah!”, with lines like “You don’t need that White, You need that Black, we gave the system wealth…we need that back!” This version is more of an anthem for true manhood and responsibility.
Dopeness in it’s true form. Coalition is still alive and kicking.
And because it just dropped and Obvioulsy great minds think alike cause he went the same lane and started his hook the same way, I’m adding my new favorite rapper, Lupe Fiasco‘s version as well, with a link to my new favorite hip-hop website http://www.refinedhype.com/hyped/entry/lupe-fiasco-b.m.f/
Shout outs to Fred. I’ll jump on that remix if needed.
It seems like just yesterday, our renaissance woman was gracing our tuesdays with date tips and first-hand forewarnings. Or least it feels like 4 months ago…
Well, now our very own Bunny has flown the coup, or hopped along to greener pastures at http://writeinbk.com/
Iam so proud of TDJ. She has tried this before, with a blog named after herself (not quite sure what happened there, but I’ll get to the bottom of it) She didn’t think she had the patience or time management to pull it off, but she always kinda knew she did. She grew tired of being a relationship/dating advice giver and wanted to flex her writing muscle a bit more. She has officially retired from guest blogging here, and with that, Sex & The Chocolate City is officially done. There is no that without her.
So this is the ultimate farewell and welcome to the old and the new. ‘Grand opening, grand closing, Gotdamn your girl T cracked the can open again!’
Check out her many writing and film endeavors, including the goings on with her writing group, and her movie that she wrote, produced and directed; The Field Trip.
Now that I think of it, maybe I should squeeze this picture of her in the header next to the other chics blowing out candles…hmmnn. Or at least next to the big booties…hmmnnn. Apropro?
This was supposed to be a surprise song that wasn’t gonna drop until tomorrow when we perform together at Santos, but Somebody wanted to be an eager beaver *ahem*. And as Drake so eloquently pointed out, that “can be the collapse of a dam”.
Good thing we’re just that Dam good at this parody game.
This time we brought Mel Gibson along for the ride to enlighten you Niggers (Yeah, ER). And yeah I name-dropped Clayton Bigsby in there. And Brandon produced the beat, with a little of my input, but he always mixes my verses wack when I record with him…I smell sabotage….what do you guys think?
My team doesn’t seem to think that you guys know who I am.
They think you’ve been to 16’s Candles but never to Malik-16.com.
They think you’ve been to Malik-16.com but never to 16’s Candles.
They think my layout is too spastic here, and too plain there.
They think I confuse you.
They think you know me as a blogger, but not as the rapper which is the purpose why this blog exists in the first place. But that would mean that you all didn’t read the Why 16? page now wouldn’t it?
And perhaps there is some truth to this, but I’d rather hear that from you – the people who actually read this blog. I thought I was doing quite a good job, but admittedly so, I could have been making a better effort to let you know that Iam consistently working on music and telling you where to find it. Please take into consideration that I made the conscious decison earlier this year to eliminate as much confusion as possible by turning my home site, http://www.malik-16.com/ into a stationary site with a static page that refers you here for all things New and Fresh with me. THERE is my hub, my namesake. It’s where you go to learn about me and introduce yourself to this guy with a number in his name that you probably still don’t understand. It’s where you can see where I made history on BET, see my first full bio, my first EPK and download my very first solo projects that I put out into the world. The co-signs by some of your favorite Bloggers and underground rappers in the beginning doesn’t hurt either (Although, somehow my team thinks it is in whatever way, calling it “distracting”).
HERE, is where you come to get to know me; The Man, The Artist, The Writer, The Lover, The flawed human being who says ridiculous things and no, doesn’t like everybody and sometimes has typos because he does everything alone.
Something to remember.
I’ve been doing everything myself for my career up to this point. That includes halfway designing every layout from my Myspace page to my website. I’ve secured any connects I have so far and any collabs, friendships etc., and I’d like to believe that you come here truly out of interest, curiosity and the results of that hardwork that I’ve put in. I haven’t been a blog-darling, so I started my own. And thanks to the good words of my homegirl, Starrene, I chose to make it more literary and editorialist based. Meaning yeah, you should be ready to READ when you come here! I don’t have anybody’s exclusives but my own. I’m not a fashionista and I don’t have gossip – unless you count…
And yes, I’ve addressed the whole thing of where to find my music. Depending on what kind of browser you have, check the right side of this site or the bottom and click on any of those mixtape covers to go to a place where you can hear my catalogue (except for the first 2 mixtapes – you STILL gotta go to http://www.malik-16.com/ to get those in full). Also, there’s a nice little tab on top of the header (you know, the one with the round Black woman asses on the right?) and it says what? Music. Click on either.
And Of Course, I also put my website logo all over the place so you can go there and see what’s up.
And now, just in case that’s not enough, don’t forget I got a show tomorrow and a whole freestyle series going on with a hip-hop website. Click this pic in case you missed it.
Yep! Once again, I’ll be rocking alongside everyone’s favorite Madman, Mr. Brandon Carter.
This time, it’s at the place of my brightest moments and biggest fail, Santos Party House.
Come thru if you can on Thursday night. I don’t even care if you only come to see us and leave after us! Sheeeiiittt! I don’t know those other fools…
But seriously, Brandon will be rocking songs from his album, Never Give A Fuck, which dropped this spring, and I’ll be doing a few joints, as well as a NEW EXCLUSIVE song from us. We know how you love those!
I wrote this as the pilot episode of Avatar – The Last Airbender plays on television, ironically. It was weeks ago when the movie adaptation of this great show opened domestically, and I’ve been wanting to write a review for a while, but there have been so many, and I was so caught in my thoughts that I didn’t know if I really would. Just bear in mind that I write this, not because this site serves as any forum on film critique, or that I posture myself to be any authority on film, but just as my personal take. I just felt that strongly about it.
Can you guys remember the feeling of being fanatically enamored by a fantasy work or fictional series as a kid? whether it be a book, show or game, most of us had something that we latched onto and would spend our moments pretending to be apart of or imagining life as so. There was a wonderment, an unwavering concentration and true fondness that made us happy, and even though we would dare not take our attention off of this thing, we were still antsy as we sat focused. THAT’s the feeling, that as a grown ass man, I felt when I started getting into the animated Epic known as Avatar (Yeah, the real Avatar – not the biggest movie ever).
Now I’m a huge conossuier of cartoons with sophisticated and compelling storylines that speak to more mature issues and ideologies. I especially have a knack for following animated series that win Emmy awards. Slapstick Looney Toonsand Spongebob kinds of programming always bored me and even irritated me a bit, even as a young kid. I was much more a Thundercats, and The Real Ghostbusters kind of child.
I was first put on to Avatar by my oldest nephew, as it used to come on Nickelodeon and I had little to no interest, because unlike most guys, I can’t stand anime and manga. The emotionless, overexagerrated characters, speed-talking and stiffness of that style is the opposite of what I go for. However, it was my nephew Winnie, that brought it to my attention again one day this Winter, that made me finally tune in. I always have the television on some kind of children’s programming when I spend time with him. I prefer educational over entertaining, but this day, I was too busy to discriminate. It was an all day Avatar marathon, and I got sucked in. It was well worth it. This cartoon had all the combinations of great cartoons put together… it was charming, serious, humorous, deep, poetic and compelling all at the same time. It’s setting is in a fictional, post-Pangea kind of old world with an Asian slant. What I found is that the series isn’t exactly anime…a far cry from the Yugi-Oh! and Naruto card challenge crap that I was likening it to. No, this was more Anime influenced, Americanized stuff like The Thundercats and G.I. Joe that I grew up with, or like The Boondocks that all of you seem to love so much (which I think is super-wack and try-hard by the way). This explains the difference in the feel of the cartoon…the relatable quality, the overall tone that draws in even all of the grown ups, including my dad, who I’ve since introduced to it. It really feels like Crouching Tiger meets Lord Of The Rings meets some Disney film.
Now take all of that into account, and imagine a movie that has 3 volumes of descriptive and carefully paced source material, and barely comes up with something on par with The Pagemaster.
M. Knight Shymalan was named as the director, producer and writer of this film adaptation waay before I ever had any vested interest in this title. Once I got into it tho, I understood the fanboys’ concerns with a guy with such a shaky reputation in Hollywood taking on such a task. I thought to myself, ‘Unbreakable is one of my favorite movies, Signs was decent, and people hailed The 6th Sense. How bad could The Village have been? I made it through half of Lady In The Water, and The Happening was ehh…
But in this case, I was assured that he couldn’t make any wrong turns because it’s all spelled out for him. Then I saw the teaser trailer. I should have known then. In fact. I think I did. Once I saw a kid who only vaguely looked like the main character flipping around doing melodramatic martial arts movements, I was a little skeptical. As it got closer to the release of the movie, more details came to surface that were unnerving…little quirky changes that would affect the groove of things that M. Knight just felt he had to make to put his own spin on things. Things like pronouncing names of main characters totally differently to reflect the cultural accuracy. This would make sense if we were dealing with real Asia and not a fictional world where people shoot lightning from their feet! Just because it’s Asian-inspired doesn’t mean it’s so literal. This also brought up lots of controversy when the news of his casting choices came up, how he took it upon himself to cast the 3 protagonist as Caucasians, and reshape the look of all the villains to be casted as Indian/South Asian and Middle Eastern. I kind of understood Shymalan’s want to cast people more like himself, seeing as to how in all of his previous work, he hasn’t really gotten to do it, why not take advantage here and give a group of actors that don’t get as much mainstream attention some shine? This inevitably would change the feel of everything involved with the familiarity of the characters, but I didn’t see the bigger debate coming. The old argument about the Hollywood machine being at play again came up, and accusations of stereotyping abounded, claiming that by making the villains darker, as well as making the surrounding characters people of color, and making the heroes White…well, you could imagine…
It’s difficult to point out all of the gripes I have with this film, if you’re not already familiar with the series. Just know that M. Knight, who deemed himself as a fan, insulted all true fans by coming out with a work that seemed rushed, dry and dumbed waaay down. As one review I read stated, it seemed like his 2 daughters were telling him the plot points of season one, AS he was shooting the film. The fact that this movie is based on season one of the cartoon, a 21 episode span, with hopes of continuing a trilogy, is key. There are at least 5 of those episodes that were filler as far as the main story goes. The movie could have easily survived without incorporating any of those episodes’ material, but then there are the 16 other episode plot points that absolutely needed to to be included to have a cohesive movie. What M. knight did, was use about 8 episodes worth of material, and attempt to sculpt an epic out of that. Not only did he skip over parts, omit and use unemotional narration to explain parts that needed to be acted out, he also took the liberty of adding information and plot points and scenes that don’t come to light in the series until much later. Why add when there’s stuff that hasn’t even been touched on? To his defense, M. Knight stated that it’s force of habit in his movie-making style to minimize and keep things short. His penchant is for 90 minute movies. That doesn’t translate well to something that’s supposed to be an epic along the lines of Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. Unlike those films, which make a respectable effort to engage both it’s kid and adult audiences, M. Knight insults both with overly simplistic dialogue that points out the obvious, and leaves plenty of gaps…sometimes over-dramatic, and sometimes not dramatic enough delivery.
I guess some of that can be attributed to the conscious choice to hire inexperienced actors. This would work, if the script wasn’t so horrible. But novice acting, coupled with shotty writing is never a good mix. SlumDog Millionaire‘s star, Dev Patel is the only young actor here with any chops, and it shows. It seems M. Knights biggest fault is his desire to have helmed the project, almost entirely. He’s so Spike Lee in the sense that he needs to direct, produce and write all of his works. That’s not such a great formula when this is not an idea from your own mind, but an adaptation with a large following hoping for the person in charge of bringing it to life NOT to fuck it up.
In other words, Shymalan needed to chill.
I truly believe this was all one big set-up for him to get his name back into the limelight and safely re-emerge to put out his new “Thriller”.
In respect for them being the ones who put me on to my favorite cartoon series of all time now, I took both nephews to see this movie, and watched their faces as they were let down by scenes that confused them. My oldest nephew Amari laughed at things, and Winnie had to keep asking me why they were saying the Avatar’s name wrong and who certain character’s were supposed to be. We all left feeling a little slighted. This was far from the reaction I got out of Winnie after seeing The Karate Kid. And that was just karate. This was supposed to be even more awesome, this wasn’t just karate, this was fire and water and wind all crashing into each other!! Instead what we got was ballet like Tai-Chi dances and 10 minutes of special effects scattered throughout. The only good thing about this film was the look of it. So much great attention was paid to the scenery and the landscape – it actually did look like the cartoon. Now if only it felt like it…
I really would put it out there, and encourage all of you to check out Avatar – The Last Airbender, whether you like animation or not. Catch it on Nicktoons, buy the dvd sets, or watch episodes here at this link
My boy Sol-leks got himself a show tomorrow! Sure it’s with a few other guys, but still…
I’m proud of the kid. If you remember, I’ve stated before that Sol-Leks is my favorite rapper that I know. His music is always refreshing, thought-provoking and melodic.
Perhaps I’m a bit biased, because he’s like my little bro since High school and the leader of our fabled Balance crew.
But in any case, a Sol-Leks performance is a rarity. I actually have no idea what the the kid is gonna perform, but I’ll be in the crowd shouting out Spanglish phrases via my honorary Dominican status. Get familiar with the kid.
16's Candles 