Reviews

This page is self explanatory. I will be posting reviews here. If you want me to review your work, please send me a link   with the subject title as "Reviews" and I will be more than happy to give you a constructive review on your work. I will include links to check out your work as well (no matter if the review is good, bad or mediocre), simply because I am only reviewing based on my taste. Who knows, I might give a favorable review on something you might think is crap, and vice versa. The link would provide the chance for others to check out your stuff and make a judgement call on their own.  That being said, my rating scale is as follows:

5 stars:  No skippable tracks, great beats,flow, sound quality, and high replay value.
4 stars:  Two or three skippable tracks, mostly good flow, beats, etc.  Mostly skip proof.
3 stars:  Half of the cd is good and the rest skippable. It has to be to the point where I wouldn't mind playing it on occasion.
2 stars:  Mostly skippable to the point where I can't listen to a full song.
1 star:  Basically a frisbee.

Every so often, I'll watch a movie. And when I watch a movie as a music fan in general, I have to hear the soundtracks. For me, a great soundtrack could make or break a movie.  As predicted, a bad soundtrack, could really piss me off and make me become highly uninterested in a movie or show no matter how good it might be.

For example, Check out this trailer for The Interview:

This trailer is laced with Black music, and so is the entire movie. But the context of the songs is so very wrong. What does EnVogue's "Free Your Mind" have to do with anything in the movie? I saw this film and all I came away with was, what does Syl Johnson's "Is It Because I'm Black" have to do with the main characters walking up to the fortress?  That song is a very heavy song that was done unjustly by inserting it into a movie that falls into a comedy genre.  This had some great potential, but all of the misplacement of Black music, and the fake Black slang was a huge turnoff for me. I had to give it one star in hopes nothing like that would show up in my Netflix feed ever again. 

Another instance is the Deadpool trailers. Here's the first one

Here's the second one:

What does Salt N Peppa's "Shoop" have to do with the trailer? Does he sex somebody down in the movie?  In this case, I 'd have to see the movie to find out, but I suspect it doesn't fit in the entire movie. That placement of Shoop really turned me off. 

It's like the people who use Black music in their movies have no concept of context. It's like they go, "Dude! Here is a really cool Black song to put riiiight here! It'll be, like sooo awesome!"  Except with The Interview, they decided to create something of a White Blaxploitation film sprinkled with horrible slang.  It's like they don't really know anybody whose Black for real, and they had no Black writers, but somebody told them to "Black it up and make it feel more, ummm urban, ya know? Kay, thanks guys!" And a lot of the films have just one Black person in them. I don't remember if there were any Black faces in The Interview, and I probably won't see Deadpool because I'm an asshole like that when it comes to soundtracks. 

All I ask is for some accurate context for the placement of Black music in these films, especially if the show has no Black people in them and has Black music recklessly strewn throughout the entire thing. 

Am I asking too much?  Knowing the history of this sort of thing, I probably am. 

Here's a good example of what kind of reviews I'll put up:

Has-Lo: In Case I Don't Make It (2011)

This was me back in the day minus the academic misadventures. There was a point in my life where I would not be able to speak on the quality of my existence back then for fear of shame and bringing back the old feelings. Today, I can own it and say yeah, that was me, and still is a part of me in some aspects.  The great thing about my existence during those hard times was that I learned so much about myself, the people around me (for better or for worse), and I was able to learn how to use critical thinking skills in an effective manner. I admit that I 'm still a bit troubled in other areas of my life however I can say this, I am quite a bit stronger than I used to be and I'm assertive, direct, and very precise when necessary. The ability to acquire those skills has been the greatest gift of all.  That being said, this rapper named Has-Lo gets it. His 2011 album titled, "In Case I Don't Make It" was an eloquent piece of work that spoke on mental wellness, his experiences with religion and spirituality, rap music, as well as shared personal experiences in general.  Yesterday, I decided I'd revisit his album, and I'm really glad I did. I needed that. 

5 stars