Author Archives: Cal Cee

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe….

Golden Era: 20th Anniversary of Mary J. Blige’s My Life

We here at South Shore Ave are gassing up the DeLorean & taking you back to the musical Golden Era of 90’s music to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of one of the Greatest albums in R&B history. Twenty years from tomorrow, coming off the success of What’s the 411?, Mary J Blige gave us the gift that was My Life, an album that solidified her as the R&B voice for her generation. As we celebrate My Life, we’ll review some of our favorite songs from the classic LP. I know you can hear me now…..

**DISCLAIMER — This is not a Top 5 list. You could make a honest argument for 10 songs from this album being in the Top 5. This is strictly a review a collection of songs from the album.**

I Love You

“All those pretty memories / I know you can hear me now / For the record / I love you / I love you“

I shine…… you shine (shine)…….. I shine……. you shine (shine)……. I shine…….. you shine (shine)…….. I shine……. you shine (shine)…….. I shine…….. you shine……. and this day and time / we maintain / the same frame of mind / elevation / spark it up / Yo Start the circulation / 360 degrees of rotation……

…… so I can’t just recite the whole first verse of the remix? Would this be considered as a crime of laziness? Ok, fine. So I won’t do that, but I will say this: you’ll be hard pressed to find another album with so much legendary remixes off the singles. This is no knock whatsoever on the original version of the record. If there weren’t a remix, this song would be incredible anyway with the piano loops & that hard bass line that came from the mind of Chucky Thompson (well, sort of). It’s a beautiful record in every which way. BUT when they threw in Smif-N-Wessun (who were an hot up & coming duo from the Boot Camp Click, that was about to release their own debut album Dah Shinin’) on the beginning of the remix, it metamorphosed into the perfect marriage between R&B and Hip Hop. It’s something that Mary J mastered throughout her entire career, singing over hip hop beats & working with rappers so seamlessly. You couldn’t find anyone who didn’t love that record. Even the hardcore hip hop heads who never listened to R&B unless their sister was playing it in the house, had to add this single to the collection.

When I’m 80 years old, and this song comes over whatever speaker device will be around by then, I will get up & do the Puffy dance until I pop my hip out of place. I can’t stress this enough, play this remix to any Montrealer between the ages of 30 – 45 years old, & they’ll lose themselves in that “I Shine, You shine” call-and-response. This is arguably one of the best remixes she was ever a part of, & she had a whole damn album specifically for remixes. It’s hard to separate the remix from the original because they both use the same beat, but you can’t discuss the original without discussing the remix. It’s impossible.

I’m Goin‘ Down

Singing cover songs for artists are tricky. Depending on the kind of song that’s being selected by the artists as well as their vocal range, they can either do a song justice, or just ruin the record to shit. When I was younger, I didn’t have a problem with Michael Bolton, I really didn’t. Then again, I thought those were his songs. Once I heard the originals to them, it made me wanna shave a bald spot into his curls. On the flip side, Luther Vandross did a lot of cover songs & more often that not, killed the original to the point where you pretended he created it himself. In the 90’s, Jodeci annihilated Stevie Wonder’s “Lately” in one of the more memorable cover performances & for this album, Mary J made Rose Royce’s, “I’m Going Down“ into her own song. If she were a gymnast, her artistry on this track would be equivalent to a quadruple cartwheel, where she does a crazy flip & sticks the landing on the corner of the mat. Not only did you feel the talent in the song, you felt her pain so much so that, if she started sobbing towards the end of the song, you wouldn’t have been surprised.

This song was probably the best representation of her life at the time & not just because of the song title. As reported at the time, she was going through depression and battling with drugs and alcohol. I have this depressing theory about some musicians that the more chaotic their lives are, the better their art form. I wish it wasn’t the case, but I’ve seen this example too many times in history. The best example was Marvin Gaye back in the 70s when he made the, “I Want You“ album. He was high most of the time. Gaye then made, “Hear, My Dear“ after going through his divorce with his first wife. It’s like their pain becomes our listening pleasure through their work. It’s not a surprise that for all the accolades & the career she’s built, her albums after this were never better than My Life, because My Life was made during her darkest moments; which is completely unfortunate for her….. as a person. However, as an artist, with her pain channeled through her work, My Life became a gift to us as her fans and R&B in general.

Sidenote: Was there a remix for this? You bet your ass there was! Change up the lyrics, jack “The What” beat from Biggie Smalls, sprinkle in some Mr. Cheeks, and voila! You got a sweet remix that serves everyone well.

You Bring Me Joy

To keep with the theme of jacking beats and songs, we follow Sean “Puffy” Combs & the Hitmen in the getaway car while they load up the shotguns and prepare to jack poor Barry White for his production. I’m telling you, there wasn’t a more blatant beat stealer in the mid 90’s than Puffy. And unlike some producers who may take a piece here or there of a song, Puffy would just take every damn thing. If the original production was a chicken thigh, he ate everything off the bone, sucked out the bone marrow, & then chewed on the bone until the bone was collected into a small pile in the corner of his plate. He never shied away from that fact either. His theory was that once you heard those beats, it would automatically grab your attention. Plus, the original production worked before, so why wouldn’t it work again, right? It was a smart way to market his artists, it was almost admirable. To me, 90’s Puffy will always be a cross between Robin Hood and Omar from the Wire. He came around in a trenchcoat & jacked 70’s & 80’s beats to provide musical pleasure to the masses. The only thing that was missing was the whistling before the start of every song.

To throw credit back to Puffy though, this particular beat and some of the other ones chosen for this album helped to make the songs timeless. When it comes to Mary, as depressed as she may have been during these times, she was also able to swing the emotion pendulum in the opposite direction. You may feel her pain in some of these songs, but you also felt her happiness, which is a hard thing to convey as a singer. Really hard. But you felt her joy in this song, and you can’t help but feel upbeat. On top of that, it was a staple on radio mixshows back then, and you can still play this song in the club right now to get the ladies feeling great.

K. Murray Interlude

Interludes & skits are a 90’s thing that everyone used on their albums. Usually it’s a space filler to get enough material to make an album. Most are forgettable, others like Redman and Wu-Tang were classics. Bad Boy took it to another level by introducing the world to Biggie’s stroke game, Biggie’s sex stories (about how he um, “drops waste” on a chick), and the legendary Mad Rapper. Even though Mary wasn’t a part of Bad Boy, Puffy still provided the interlude influence anyway. No one remembers what the hell Keith Murray was saying, but most people I know wonder, what the hell beat is that?!?!? A few months later, we found out with “Who Shot Ya?“, which at the time might have been one of the most ridiculous hip hop beats we ever heard. Who the hell would have thought that this beat eventually would be the start of one of the worst beefs in the history of music, a beef that led two A-level rappers (Biggie & Tupac) to die right before they reached the prime of their careers & altered many others? And again, this beat came from a R&B album?? That’s one hell of a 24-second warning shot.

Be Happy

Quick story: I’ll take you back to the summer of 2006. Mary J was performing at the Molson Amphitheatre here in Toronto. I was meeting some family members at the concert & was flying down the highway trying to get to the start of the concert so I wouldn’t miss out on her Be Happy performance. I ran into a crazy amount of traffic near the Lake Shore area due to construction. I started getting annoyed because even though I had no idea what the listings of her songs were gonna be, I just knew she was gonna perform that song early. After doing enough things on the road that would have gotten me pistol-whipped by police, I finally made it into the parking lot. As I met up with my family members who had my tickets, and we’re walking up the steps to the outdoor arena, I hear the long intro coming in, “DUH-DUH Dun-Nuh-Duh” over the speakers as the crowd starts going apeshit. SMH. I’m stuck in line waiting for security to tear my tickets, praying that Mary feels like a Reggae DJ at a soundclash & rewinds the song back ten times with the air horns. Nope. By the time I walked into the place, she was on to another song. Even though I enjoyed the rest of the concert, it still burns me that I missed her perform that song, especially considering that I’ve seen her live again since then & she didn’t perform Be Happy. F***.

I also wanted to see her perform that song because to be honest, it’s my favorite Mary song ever. Considering how many songs you can choose from her catalogue, that’s saying a lot. Some others on this list (“My Life” for starters) I put almost as high. Almost. You remember that old episode of Seinfeld where the guy Elaine’s dating goes into a trance and he can’t be disturbed by anyone (not even her) until his favorite song is finished? Well… okay, it’s not nearly that bad but it’s probably within the ballpark. If I’m by myself & that song comes on, there’s a pretty good chance I just zone out until the first chorus is over, I won’t even lie to you. The video itself was memorable only because of Mary standing on that rock overlooking the mountains. Unless it really was her stunt double doing it all this time and if so….. it’s understandable. What R&B singer is risking their lives for the sake of that song?

Sidenote: Was their a remix for this song? Why hell yes of course. New beat, same lyrics, throw Keith Murray in there to rap his 16 bars, and another hot remix is created. What artist is even dedicating this many remixes to their albums anymore??? Seriously? I’m asking.

My Life

“Life can be only what you make it / When you’re feelin down you should never fake it / Say what’s on your mind / And you’ll find in time / That all the negative energy / It would all cease”

The album title track is the realest song on the album. It’s relateable to every and anyone going through hard times. To keep fighting, to keep believing in yourself, and to keep believing in God to get yourself through it. When you’re younger, sometimes you don’t appreciate the positive messages as much as you would when you get older, and as an adult, it rings truer to you. I never paid as much attention to it as I probably should have admittedly, just because I was lost in the melodic production of Roy Ayers…. I mean Puffy and Chucky Thompson. However, appreciating the song now, it stands as a stance against your obstacles taking you under. In 2014, we are still fighting against the mental issues as a society, although I think there is a better awareness about it now, as opposed to the mentality we had 20 years ago in terms of sweeping those problems under the rug. On this record, you can see that advice Mary was giving to others and even herself, to basically keep fighting. In fact, I’ll let her tell it…

“I was ready to just check out,” she says now. “It was a moment—I can’t get into it—but I saw my life going and I was grabbing for it. I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ That’s when I realized that I don’t want to die. And I switched, and I started praying and crying, and my life shifted right there.”

– Mary J to Billboard Magazine

The scary part of her situation is, not only do millions of people suffer through those same demons, but sometimes it’s the person right beside you that’s spiraling out of control and you have no idea. This is why it’s always important to communicate and to discuss your problems with someone when things are rocky. You never want to wait until it’s too late because when it gets too far, it’s almost impossible to come back from it. In some cases, you don’t. Which is why 20 years later a song like this can still register and resonate with many people.

Closing Thoughts

In my last post about TLC’s CrazySexyCool, I stated that they were the most relevant group of the 90s. Well, let’s just say that Mary is the most relevant R&B artist of an entire generation. I mean, Mary J is still selling out concerts & putting out quality music right now (see Think Like a Man Too Soundtrack). She may not go triple platinum whenever her album drops anymore like she did with My Life, but she has a loyal and huge fanbase that still allows her to put out material that they will respect. My Life wasn’t just an album that helped Mary J really break out as an artist, but as a listener, you literally felt it. It’s the greatest LP she ever made. Most great artists always have that one album that is their Picasso. Marvin Gaye had it with, “What’s Going On?” and “I Want You“; Stevie Wonder had, “Songs In The Key of Life”; Michael Jackson had, “Thriller“; his sister Janet had, “Rhythm Nation“; and “Janet“, the list goes on and on. Some of those artists have that “It” album a few years into the game after they find their voice. Some others like Mary find that classic early into their careers. It’s scary to think she was only 23 when My Life was made. However, it never matters what age or at what point of your career it happens. Once it comes, you have to embrace it because very few artists ever achieve classic album status. It’s even harder to create another classic album once you get one under your belt.

Part of Mary’s legacy will be how she successfully connected Hip Hop & R&B together. The perfect example of this is when she hooked up with Method Man on the “I‘ll Be There For You/You’re All I Need To Get By“ remixes in the Spring of ’95. Both versions of that remix were instant classics, and it catapulted Method Man further into the superstar stratosphere. After that, it has become a “Mama, I made it!” moment when rappers had a chance to not only work with her, but get a feature from her on their album. This My Life period was probably the highest peak of great R&B music as a whole. As the Hip Hop & R&B worlds blended together more and more since that album, the R&B industry became a little harder, and more edgier in some ways. It lost a lot of its soul and because of it, the R&B game overall has suffered. In no way does Mary carry any blame. Even if her production had a Hip Hop feel to it (especially early in her career), you always felt her soul no matter what. If the Golden Era of R&B was a mountain, My Life was the flag that was planted at its peak. We should celebrate that feat and then realize that we could only have come down from there. My question is, When is that renaissance period of R&B coming back? Two years from now? Five? Ten? Will I even like R&B anymore by then? I’ll say this: If more artists can capture the magic that this album had, I think you’ll know what my answer will be….

Cal Cee // South Shore Ave

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Golden Era: 20th Anniversary of TLC’s CrazySexyCool

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We here at South Shore Ave are gassing up the DeLorean & taking you back to the musical Golden Era of 90’s music to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of one of the Greatest albums in R&B history. Twenty years from tomorrow, TLC fresh off the success of their debut album, released CrazySexyCool to the masses. Not only did it help raise the profile for R&B female groups as well as artists going forward, it became one of the highest selling albums in music history. As we celebrate CrazySexyCool, we break down the album and what it meant to the R&B genre. And so we Creep….

If It Wasn’t For That House Fire…..

I’m about to get my Sophia Petrillo on right now for the ones who don’t remember this story. Or Sophia Petrillo…..

Picture it. Atlanta, 1994. Back when the clay was red (well, still is), when Outkast was still the local act on their way up, when the Hawks decided to trade Dominique Wilkins for a bowl of grits and hamhocks (or in other words, for Danny Manning who left for Phoenix four months later) and where a weekend called Freaknik was as wild as you can even think of. The music was bumping, the rumps were shakened, & the sex was as wild and as free as it could get. It was like Black Woodstock, except they shut down the city and you could have sex just about anywhere. Either way, a lot of sperm lost, just a lot of sperm lost…..but I digress. Anyway, a young NFL player named Andre Rison & a young artist from an R&B group named, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, lived in Rison’s huge mansion together as a couple. One day after a huge physical fight between the two, Left Eye decided to get back at Rison by burning his sneakers in a bathtub. Only, the fire sparked out of control & before she could blink, the whole house was on fire. Almost like a deleted scene from Waiting To Exhale, Left Eye literally burned her man’s house down in anger. To make this story even crazier, Rison still declared his love for her even after all his childhood mementos & personal belongings were burned to a crisp. Even though their love remained, that same love couldn’t shake the fact that she burned a house down & well, insurance companies and police departments are not so forgiving to people who make the decision to add arson to their portfolio.

I know what you’re thinking right now. What the f*** does this have to do with this album??? Well, A LOT actually!!!!!! Considering the legal ramifications of burning down a house that was started wilfully, Left Eye was sentenced to 5 years probation and was placed under house arrest. Well, not that house, but someone else’s house I’m sure. For that reason, she missed out on the opportunity to record the bulk of CrazySexyCool. In turn, because they didn’t have to accommodate the space for her verses for large chunks of the album, T-Boz & Chilli had to fill in her gaps. With them coming into their own as R&B artists, & as woman for that matter since the debut of their first album “Ooooooh…..On the TLC Tip”, by happenstance the album had a more mature & smoother feel than their previous work. It had enough cool & swagger that catered to the younger generation (like mine at the time), but with songs like “Red Light Special”, and “If I was Your Girlfriend”, it was also able to appease their older audience and get the Quiet Storm radio love. Who knows what would have happened if Left Eye never set fire to some Nikes or doused the flames shortly after she set the blaze & walked away from the house. Would the album have been able to have that same feel with her rapping on 80% of the songs? Who knows? Honestly we’ll never know that for certain. What we do know for sure is due to the Left Eye-Rison argument/fight/fire & everything that ensued afterwards, it helped to create the most popular album the group has ever created, & cemented their status in the music industry as trailblazing superstars. No pun intended of course.

CrazySexyCool helped TLC to become the most relevant R&B Group of the 90s.

Think of how great their run was. They debuted in 1992 with their first album, sporting cross colored clothes and literally attaching condoms to themselves. I was a young teen when they came out & to this day, I still remember Chilli flirting & rubbing up on Arsenio Hall during their “Baby Baby Baby” performance. Boy did I want a piece of her back then……sorry, where was I? Oh yes. They had a major impact when they first jumped on the scene, then two years later releasing “Creep”, which completely took over the airwaves. By the time “Waterfalls” released & cratered the music industry a few months later, they were the biggest group in music, period. They were on every award show imaginable. They rode for the ladies & dominated the teenage girls demographic. Not only were the guys into their music, but it was a running conversation as to who you would sleep with between T-Boz, Chilli (mine), and Left Eye, kind of similar to the “Would you bone Rachel (mine) or Monica?” questions men had around that time. TLC locked down the clubs, the streets, most, if not all radio stations, and mainstream media. Considering they were the first female group to go Diamond (10 million+ albums sold) in the US alone, which is unheard of for most artists much less a black female group from Atlanta, the previous sentence shouldn’t be a surprise. The album was so huge they took a 4 1/2 year break between albums, & were still hot enough to end the decade making sure every lady wanted “No Scrubs” (and the men conversely yelling back “No Pigeons”) & that they loved themselves with “Unpretty” off of their Fanmail album. They left the 90’s as hot as they entered it by staying relevant with a whole generation that grew up with them from young teens to adults.

The only group that probably comes closest to them through the whole decade is Boyz II Men in terms of relevancy. They were powerhouses too, especially once they crossed over into the mainstream world with their ballads. Jodeci was an incredible group during the time that they were together, but by the end of the 90’s, K-Ci & JoJo Hailey had their own two-man group, singing songs that weren’t on the level of their Jodeci days.* SWV was hot for a good while, but they weren’t making any more material by the end of the decade. En Vogue had a long run as well starting from their “Hold On” debut song back in 1990, but definitely weren’t around by 1999. All these groups had classic material, but none of these groups had that one album that was as defining and as popular as CrazySexyCool. I’m not saying the albums from the other groups I mentioned weren’t as good. In fact, I’ll put Jodeci’s, Diary of a Mad Band, up against any R&B album that came out in the 90’s. This album helped TLC to sell more albums (40 million sold between their 3 albums worldwide, 23 million from CrazySexyCool alone) than any R&B group from their generation, & it wasn’t close.

* Have to mention this, but casting T-Boz as the fiancee/wife to Mr. Dalvin in the “Love You For Life” video was pure genius. It’s probably one of Jodeci’s most underappreciated classic songs, but having her play that role in the video gave the video & song an extra 25% in the coolness/swagger category (even if the group didn’t need it) and gave the video an official stamp of approval (again, even if the group didn’t need it). Even with the large, almost irrational amounts of hip hop my friends and I listened to &/or watched, you still watched that video from beginning to end. Well, that…. & let’s face it, it wasn’t like T-Boz was hard to look at either. Even if I still voted for Chilli.

The Top 5 songs from CrazySexyCool

5. Something Wicked This Way Comes

“Remember back in time when the only sign we had was pickets / But now in ’94 it be this way, something come wicked / G-angs killin’ others for colors / Thanks that we wear for fashion / Other brothers take it for a reason to be blastin’ / What the f*** is goin’ on?”

– Andre 3000

Why is this song in the top 5? Andre 3000 drops his verses on this track. Isn’t that enough? No? Ok, well I’ll also add that this is the most underrated song on the album. It’s the last song off of the album and quite frankly it’s also a great track to end the album with. Andre & T-Boz goes through the trials, tribulations, and obstacles of life, while Organize Noise produced a smooth song & lays the guitars down to give it that little bit of edge. This song normally isn’t discussed as much, because the remaining four songs on this list just eclipses this one in terms of popularity.

4. Diggin’ On You

Written and produced by the legendary Babyface, this song was made for radio. Can’t you imagine hearing this song while in your car around 1:30PM on some afternoon ride show, or better yet, the one black song that gets played every three hours on your local contemporary/easy rock station? It kinda fits the characteristics of one, with the song being about the beginnings of a relationship and having feelings for that person. The style of the song is easy & smooth, the chorus is melodic, it’s light on the bass, what more do you need? I can imagine the radio shock jock cutting into this song partway through the final chorus…..

“……….annnnnnnnnnnnd that was DIGGING-ON-YOU by T-L-C from their 1994 classic album Crazaaay Sexaaay AND Cool. Comingupnext with the Song of the Hour is Debbie Gibson with “Only In My Dreams“. Currently, it’s four degrees with flurries in the air, you better bundle up and dress warm while you ride with us ON 105.7FM Easy Riiiiiiiide….”

3. Red Light Special

This album’s official Quiet Storm-y song. This song was really made for guys in terms of letting us know what they wanted us to do to them & helping fulfill their “wants” & “needs”. At least that’s the interpretation that I got from it. So now when it comes to the video, why the hell do I see a bunch of dudes trying to rub up on Chili by a poker table and some dude with S-Curl juice sucking on T-Boz’s toes??? And worse, we have Left Eye dressed as a pimp & flipping over the poker table at the end? And why the hell are they even playing poker in the first place?? What does this have to do with a Red Light Special??? This is the definition of false advertising, or to keep in terms with this sexually suggestive song, a straight up cocktease. I’m sure the ladies would strongly disagree especially because Boris Kodjoe also plays the role of one of the male hoes (yes, I’m calling them that), but the last thing I was expecting to see when I heard this song was a bunch of glistening, oiled up dudes in boxer briefs trying to grind on T-Boz’s shoulders. It should have been more for us to watch than just Chilli dancing with the guitar player bottomless & her silk pajama top during the bridge. If there was any way to teleport TLC into 2014 & remake this video so that it could be “Worldstar Approved”, I would have flicked that switch yesterday.

2. Creep

The best record off of CrazySexyCool, plain and simple. As soon as you hear that trumpet come in, it’s a wrap. It’s the funkiest record that they have, and can still play in clubs today. This was a hot, hot record, and the video added more to the song. Looking back at it, the video wasn’t controversial or anything but back then, having them all dancing in silk pajamas for some reason was huge, and I know a lot of women who thought that video was iconic. Back then, the only thing my friends & I wanted to see was if one of their breasts would pop up from under those pajama tops. Hey, I didn’t say we weren’t morons.

As I said, this is the best song from this project in my mind. However, sometimes “the best” has to take a back seat to what is the “most important”…..

1. “Don’t go chasing waterfalls / Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to / I know that you’re gonna have it your way or nothing at all / But I think you’re moving too fast”

– Waterfalls

……. & this song is the most important song not only for this album, but of their entire career. It took the group to a level that no one could fathom. The album was doing wonderful in terms of popularity and sales, but when this single was released, it took another life of its own. The song not only told a story from the eyes of a mother who tried to rein in & then eventually lose her son from the street life, but it had a message that spoke to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was dominating our culture and society in the mid 90’s. The latter part of the song is what we all gravitated to the most.

We forget now just how large the epidemic was, but it was extremely polarizing to say the least. Most people were still so ignorant to the symptoms, how it was contracted, there was a general fear that people had about the disease. So when the video was released back in the summer of 1995, the second half of the song was as raw as it could get at the time without being graphic. It was groundbreaking not just in the fact that it was very socially conscious, but with TLC turning from water into themselves like superheroes and the Waterfall-choreographed dance routine, the whole five minutes looked like something that Michael Jackson or Janet Jackson would have done. The only songs that were as big as this was MJ’s “You Are Not Alone” and especially Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”. You can argue that it was my generation’s version of “What’s Going On?” or at the very least, it fell into that category with possibly a couple of others. There’s no question it was one of the biggest songs of that decade.

I personally think Creep is a better record musically, but it’s nowhere close to being as important, which is why Waterfalls gets the top spot.

Which Female Group in 2014 Can Be The Next TLC?

Hold on, lemme take a look and see……..

****searching****

Hold on, I’m still searching ya’ll……….gimma a minute………..

……………..I think I found one……I think………..hold on……….

***still searching***

……….. F***. No one I guess. Well damn….

Let me take a nose dive into why we won’t see another TLC again, & honestly, it doesn’t have as much to do with the lack of talent out there. The game overall has changed in the music business & it doesn’t have to do with obvious signs like the talent pool that was overflowing in 1994, compared to the shallowness of it nowadays. The internet, and more specifically, social media has changed everything for better and for worse. It’s a lot easier to obtain music now as compared previously. With all the various websites, you can obtain everything for free with just the click of a button. It has also transformed regular people into stars, who normally may not have gotten a look and/or glance from a record label. The bad part of it, is most labels are not developing artists anymore, but instead are looking for artists who have already established a movement on their own. So if someone has some songs on Youtube with a catchy dance, & has about 500,000 followers on their account, a label will be quicker to scoop them up & ride that gravy train instead of putting in the time and money to developing an artist. It’s the same decision that TV networks use in choosing to develop a reality show rather than actually creating a real show. It’s cheaper & cost effective. Moreover, dealing with female groups can be expensive. Not only do you have to deal with booking studio time & nurturing the talent, you have to deal with make-up, wardrobe, dance choreographers (depending on what kind of group it is), etc. For record labels these days, it’s easier to just avoid that unless the talent knocks their socks off.

As for the artists, albums don’t sell like they did 20 years ago. As I mentioned before, TLC sold 23 million copies of CrazySexyCool, but even a group like Boyz II Men, sold 9 million & 12 million from their first two albums respectively. Our generation bought product. We would rush down to the local HMV or Tower Records to buy the albums of our favorite artists, & the pre-buzz before an album was released was amazing, as you would have to anticipate the release of said album. Once the album matched the pre-buzz hype, you became a superstar in a lot of cases. In 2014, we consume music different. If our favourite artist is dropping an album, if it’s not being downloaded on something like iTunes, you’re just getting it bootlegged. Gone is that pre-buzz feeling of buying an album, which in a lot of ways had its value. Album sales in general have nose dived across the industry in the last 10 years. Few artists are selling platinum albums these days, & no one is going Diamond. It’s just not happening. So if you’re an aspiring musician, in the land of dwindling sales and 360-recording deals, does it make sense to join a group and split the profits 3-4 ways anymore? You may as well get all the money you can get if you have the talent, and there’s a better chance you’d accomplish more on your own.

So in 2014, would TLC even be around? There’s a better chance that T-Boz & Chilli would have their own solo careers, while Left Eye would be trading bars & hooks with Rick Ross and Meek Mill on MMG (Maybach Music Group) than there would be of TLC joining together to influence a generation. The only way I can see a female group be as huge as TLC was, is if Rihanna, Nick Minaj, and Elle Varner were to make a female super group and put a couple of albums out. They are all attractive & talented artists (& even if Varner isn’t as known as RiRi or Nicki, she can definitely sing) & at their ages right now, they could possibly have that kind of impact on today’s generation if that were to happen. But that’s a well thought out pipedream. Good luck trying to recreate this group. TLC will remain the most popular female group in R&B history, & this album will forever be at the center of their success.

Cal Cee // South Shore Ave

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South Shore Ave’s NBA Season Preview: The East

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Welcome to Part Deux of our South Shore Ave’s NBA Preview where we tackle the improving Eastern conference. Click here if you missed Part 1. Please enjoy…..

Does Derrick Rose need to drink Holy Water before the season officially starts?

Not only do I think he needs to guzzle it by the litre, but I would nominate Rose for a Holy Water Bucket Challenge if said challenge existed. I won’t even rehash the knee troubles that Rose has gone endured. You already know he’s missed the last two seasons due to his injuries. It’s robbed him of some of his prime years, & as a basketball fan, it’s disheartening. As it stands, coming off his participation at the World Championships this summer, this is the healthiest that Rose has been in a few years. With that said, it once again vaults Chicago to championship contending status, which for Bulls fans must scare you enough to stunt your breathing. I think Chicago management knows that the future isn’t promised because between Rose’s injury history, and with LeBron heading back to Cleveland with Kevin Love & company in tow, boy did it load this summer to win. They added Paul Gasol, along with rookies Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott, to last year’s Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah, and 6th Man runner up Taj Gibson to form the best frontcourt in the NBA. Between Gasol & Noah, they also have the two best passing big men in the league, and honestly, the offensive sets need to go through those two guys as much, or even a little more so than through Rose.

Chicago’s biggest problem since 2011, is they don’t score easily. Having two big men that can pass from both the low block and high post, and you can run screens & cuts off of them open things up for a team more than people think. They need to score easier, & for now, they have to lessen the load for Rose & get his legs ready for the second half of the season. If they can do this on offense, coupled with the defensive intensity they usually bring every night, they will be the best team in the East, no matter what Cleveland has in store. They have to take advantage now because in 2016, Cleveland may also be ready to take over the East once Kyrie Irving & Kevin Love pop their playoff cherries. The Bulls can’t wait for the future. They have to go for it all now. Sometimes ‘later’ can become ‘never’.

LeCavs

For the second time in four years, LeBron James completely dominated the offseason like no NBA player ever. His move to Cleveland not only shocked the NBA, and all its fans alike, but its ripple effect set off change across the league. Except for San Antonio who probably looked at LeBron’s move and laughed amongst themselves.

Let’s break it down in a few ways:

By returning to Cleveland, LeBron gained as much control as any NBA player has wielded since Michael Jordan during his 1st retirement comeback. The way his contract is laid out, he will be receiving max money for the foreseeable future. By signing a 2-year deal, he not only gave himself flexibility, with the new TV deal set to begin in 2016, but he ensured that he is no longer leaving any money on the table. Quite frankly, he shouldn’t due to the salary cap almost tripling in two years, LeBron can, & will make much more per year than the $21M he’ll be making in the next two years. Going into his 12th season, this will only be the 4th time he is actually the highest paid player on his own team, which quite frankly is ridiculous considering he is only the 4th player in NBA history (Russell, Abdul-Jabbar, & Jordan) to win 4 MVPs. Let’s face it, LeBron is still far and away the best player in the world. He is still in his prime, and will probably win at least one more MVP if not two. The value of the Cavalier franchise in itself has been raised at least by $100M with his return & the regular season camp hasn’t started yet. He probably sees that he’s sacrificed enough financially given what he is worth for the NBA as a whole, & will get his Carmelo on* from here on out. He reaped the benefits of coming home by appearing humbled, & more endearing than ever before. Now everyone will root for Cleveland if and when they finally get to have a championship. Taking Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Shawn Marion, along with incumbent Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, and Anderson Varajeo, the likelihood of that happening will be very high. Basically, LeBron left the wife he was with (“Heat”) for the younger, hotter version of her (“Cavs”). Speaking of which…..

Was the Miami move really THAT successful? It’s not a crazy question to ask, right? Yes, LeBron joining Dwyane Wade & Chris Bosh four years ago at the peak of their prime was viewed as almost unfair in some eyes. No matter how people looked at LeBron with disdain for leaving his home and joining a super team, he wanted to be in a position to win titles every single year, and he had a chance to do that in Miami. He went against the conventional ways, took over the power of player free agency, in ways that had never been done before or experienced by the NBA, & set his destiny. And for that, I give him a lot of respect…… but here’s the thing: With that move, the Big 3 set the bar extremely high for themselves, the organization & everyone watching (& I’m not talking about their infamous “Not one, not two, not three…” rally). After four years, didn’t you expect them to win more than two titles? Weren’t you expecting at least three by 2014? In the annals of the NBA’s greatest champions, would you even put this Heat run in the Top 5? Think about this for a second: If Ray Allen clangs his three off the rim instead of swishing it at the end of Game 6, the Heat literally walk away with ONE title after everything’s said and done. I mean, it’s literally that close. They don’t come close to the MJ Bulls run, Magic’s Lakers or Bird’s Celtics. Shit, they don’t even reach the Shaq/Kobe Lakers (3-peated, 4 Finals in 5 years). This run, in retrospect, falls in the tier with the Bad Boy Pistons of the late 80s (Back-To-Back titles, 3 straight Finals appearances) which isn’t fine when you put together three Hall of Famers (yes, Bosh is one too. Face the facts people!) entering their prime years together. This was something that was supposed to last until the latter part of the decade, not end before Year 5. We will remember the run as probably the most polarizing sports team of the digital/social media era. LeBron/Wade/Bosh all became more popular (especially Bosh), made more money, & raised their brand profiles higher than it would have reached if they remained carrying a team by themselves, but the collaboration wasn’t fully completed. The run was similar to the Watch The Throne collaboration from Kanye & Hova: Good, but not great.

* The term “Carmelo On” means that under no circumstances do you leave any money on the table when signing an NBA contract, no matter how much it might hurt your team from being able to afford to build a championship team around you. Unless of course you leave $4M short of the $129M contract you sign to show everyone publicly that you can in actuality sacrifice money for the good of the team.

Who should be the happiest player in the NBA right now?

Who else can it be but Chris Bosh? Think of where he was as a player four months ago. He was perfecting his role as the 3rd option of the Miami Heat. Once the Heat got demolished by the Spurs in the Finals, and the Big 3 all opted out of their contracts, Bosh was hoping that the ride would continue as normal. Once LeBron decided he was heading back home, Bosh figured he would head back to his home state of Texas, fall into the 3rd option role behind James Harden and Dwight Howard in Houston, while getting paid max money of course. At the last minute, Pat Riley rides the waves on his desperation surfboard and throws the max contract for Bosh to stay. Now he gets to wear the real superhero costume? He can now sit in the cabin of the Bat-mobile and not hop in the trunk like he’s been used to doing since 2010? I mean, how can he not sign that deal?? He got a max deal to be at worst the #2 option most nights, and didn’t even have to leave his beachfront mansion. He should have been sending LeBron roses, boxes of After Eight chocolate mints, and Twerk-a-grams on a weekly basis as an appropriate thank you this summer.

Instead, we find out that he didn’t even talk to LeBron this whole summer outside of Wade’s wedding. He’s giving advice to Kevin Love stating that he’s going to have trouble sacrificing his game to LeBron & more or less sticking his chest out. Is that the way you say thank you??? LeBron saved him from 3rd wheel status forever with this move, and with Wade’s health over the last couple of years, he gets to be the man on South Beach! Does he not understand this?!?! And now he seem like he don’t even care if LeBron is gone. The audacity….

With that said, the Heat are still a playoff team, scooping up Luol Deng in free agency this summer, adding Josh McRoberts, and signing Danny Granger (ok, pretend I didn’t type that last name) to a team that has championship pride and pedigree. In addition, Wade looks pretty loose and limber this preseason, cutting his weight down from last year, we’ll get to see how good of a coach Erik Spoelstra is, which was taken for granted these last few years, and we also really can’t count out a team led by Riley, can we? They will still play hard, tenacious, and efficient every night. If there’s one thing we can count on, those fairweather Heat fans will be showing up by halftime to these games if at all now. If they showed up late when LeBron was there, what are they gonna do when he only comes once a year?

We The North!! (Hollup Hollup Hollup) #WizKhalifavoice

I have to say, I have been wrong about the direction of where the Raptors needed to be in. About this time last year, I had them pegged to win around 35 games, not make the playoffs & secure a high draft pick. After they traded off Rudy Gay, I celebrated like they won the championship, figuring that they were headed to #TankCity for Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, or Jabari Parker. However, the way the Raps played from that point on was what basketball fans want to see: hard working, intelligent, efficient play where the team leaves everything they have out on the floor. This is exactly what they accomplished right until the last second of their Game 7 loss vs. Brooklyn. Going forward, I believe that not only can they get better this season, but I feel most people are sleeping on Toronto.

It all starts with the resigning of Kyle Lowry. With him coming back & teaming up with DeMar DeRozan to form one of the best backcourts in the NBA, they give the Raps stability at both spots that they haven’t had since Alvin Williams and Vince Carter were on the floor together 10+ years ago. DeRozan is the team’s best player and their hardest worker, but Lowry is the heart and soul. My only concern that I have is that last year was a contract year, & you hope that he doesn’t start the process of shutting things down now that he’s got his money. While I don’t believe that this will happen, I thought the same thing when Antonio Davis signed his $60M deal after making the All-Star team & helping the Raps come within one win of the Eastern Conference Finals back in 2001. He was the team’s heart and soul too. By 2003, he was falling into the “Thanks guys, it’s been fun…but I’m gonna shut this things down….nnnnnnow” mode & was never the same player. Contract year runs are funny to predict with players sometimes. It can wake a player up, & help him reach his potential from that point on, or that player can rest on his laurels once he gets his cash. Again, I don’t think that will be Lowry in this case, but stranger things has happened, especially with this franchise. Which leads me to my next point….

We know Toronto is a hockey town, and most likely will never change. But the way Tim Lieweke came in bringing energy and light to this franchise as part of running MLSE is so important. This is why I feel losing him, is a huge & underrated story moving forward this season. He made basketball a priority for the corporation and even for this city in 2014, and with him scheduled to leave at the end of the season (or possibly before that), I’m afraid that his successor will be a hockey guy that will throw the Raps on the backburner again like in years past. Lieweke is a basketball guy at heart, and having him run MLSE I felt gave the feeling like the Raptors won’t be ignored anymore. They can start setting championship goals and not be laughed out of the room for saying it. From getting the All-Star game here next season (finally!!), getting Drake as the Global Ambassador (& let’s face it, secret recruiter), upgrading its practice facility, getting Masai Ujiri as a GM, the possibility of an MLSE nightclub, he’s put steps in place to be recognized as a prominent franchise in the sports world. Will the next person that steps in keep that train moving and take things further? It remains to be seen. Another year of improvement from Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross, a deep bench (resiging Grevis Vasquez and Patrick Patterson, trading for Lou Williams, picking up former Raptor James Johnson from the Grizzlies), another year under the belt for Dwayne Casey, the confidence that both DeMar and Jonas bring back from their respective World Championship teams is all very important going into this season. In fact, I believe they will win 50+ games for the first time in the franchise’s history. The short term views look promising to show everyone in the NBA that last season was not a fluke. But the long term vision of where this franchise will be headed post-Lieweke & if the goals will remain high, is what worries me more than anything else. I’ll tell you one thing: if the new MLSE head honcho doesn’t get along with Ujiri and forces him to explore his options (which happens sometimes when the new guy wants to bring in his own people), I think the “We The North” mantra will change to “We Be Done” in Raps Nation. Stay tuned…

Biggest Sleeper

I’m very tempted to say Charlotte will make some moves up the standings (and they will), but don’t sleep on the Atlanta Hawks. Even if there’s a possibility that Hawks GM Danny Ferry has a little passive-aggressive racism in him, getting back Al Horford from injury, picking up Thabo Sefolosha, and drafting rookie Adreian Payne to this team will hopefully continue to mask the uncertainty in the front office. For Ferry’s sake, he better hope I’m right and that the on-court production masks his unresolved problems. This team has a chance to still make some noise in what will be the toughest division in the conference. With Washington finally tasting some playoff success, Charlotte adding Lance Stephenson, and having a great draft in grabbing Noah Vonleh and P.J. Hairston, and all the chipped shoulders residing in Miami, this division will be really tough to deal with most nights. With that said, Atlanta can possibly be that team people don’t want to deal with come playoff time.

Regular Season Standings

Chicago – As long as Rose, Gasol, and Noah (offseason knee surgery this summer) stay healthy, this is the best team in the conference. Built to win now.
Cleveland – If the Bulls falter in any way, Team LeBron will take advantage in what will be a two-team race all season.
Toronto – Surprised??? You shouldn’t be. I’m going to predict 53 wins this season. #WeTheNorth
Charlotte – Surprised??? Hornets coach Steve Clifford had them playing hard last season, now Stephenson brings more attitude to a team that needs it.
Atlanta – Sefelosha signing is underrated. What he brings on defense will be needed for the SGs he’ll have to go against in the division (Wade, Beal, Stephenson….Oladipo???)
Washington – Beat a depleted Bulls roster in Round 1, then got wiped out by a Pacer team who decided to flick it’s “On” switch halfway through Round 2. With Nene and Bradley Beal’s health, Randy Wittman on the sidelines, old Paul Pierce….I need to see more.
Brooklyn – I love the signing of Lionel Hollins. Don’t love that Nets GM Billy King is still making decisions in the front office. Also, I like my franchise center Brook Lopez to average more than 7 boards for his career. Is that too much to ask?
Miami – Too much pride for them to miss the playoffs. Would be great if they can meet Team LeBron in Round 1.
Detroit – Stan Van Gundy will have to move a couple of contracts around before this team gets better. Which players (Brandon Jennings, Greg Monroe, Josh Smith) will remain to be seen. Will have them playing better.
New York – Carmelo Anthony will have the most efficient season he’ll ever have in this offense. But still, no playoffs here.
Milwaukee – Now THIS is the kind of team Jason Kidd should be coaching to start off his career. Let him have fun and experiment with Jabari Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Indiana – “We take any and all applications here at #TankCity. Fill out these forms please…”
Boston – Just counting down the days until Rajon Rondo is traded. The question is, “Where”?
Orlando – Still 2 years away from making any kind of noise. Good thing they have Nikola Vucevic locked up for the next four years.
Philadelphia – I won’t watch a game of theirs until Embiid steps on the court. See you in 2016.

Cal Cee // South Shore Ave

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South Shore Ave’s NBA Season Preview: The West

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Welcome to South Shore Ave’s NBA Season Preview. Today on Part 1 we are going to tackle the Western Conference, while tomorrow we’ll discuss the Eastern Conference. Simple enough right? Well, let’s get into it then…

Can The Spurs 3-Peat this season?

I know, I know, they didn’t repeat last year, but if not for Ray Allen at the end of Game 6 in 2013, you wouldn’t have been looking at this question like it had a typo in it. Honestly though, we should be talking about a 3-Peat scenario & not a repeat one. This has been the best team in the NBA the last two years regardless of Miami basically stealing a title from them two seasons ago, & nothing has changed now. The Spurs came into the season with the best chance to repeat in comparison to the other four titles. In Gregg Popovich, they have the best culture in the NBA (& possibly team sports in North America) that gets the very best out of its young players & veterans. Like Manu Ginobli & Tony Parker before him, I expect Kawhi Leonard to officially take the mantle as the best player on the Spurs. After the performance he put on during the last three Finals games last season which ended with him being one of the youngest players in NBA history to win Finals MVP, you can say he’s ready. Let’s hope he can bring it on a consistent basis every night, because if he does, it’ll be even harder to bring the Spurs down. Add rookie Kyle Anderson to the mix with his skill level & IQ (as well as his young legs), I can see the Spurs winning yet another 60+ games in the regular season. It almost isn’t fair.

As far as Tim Duncan is concerned, I can actually see him playing for two more seasons. The fire that he played with in the playoffs the last two years is one reason, but here’s another. He has never won back-to-back titles in his career. I mean, who’s he to complain? He’s got 5! Between 2003 – 2007 he won 3 of those titles, but Derek Fisher’s “0.4 jumper” in the 2nd round of the 2004 playoffs & Dirk Nowitzi’s “And-1” in the same round two years later, halted a legitimate chance for him & the Spurs to 3-peat. It would be sweet to close the chapter on his career with a chance to repeat or possibly 3-peat by 2016; and the way the team is set up barring injuries, he has a real chance. We haven’t seen the last of Duncan yet.

“Pass It to Russ”

No one loves that classic episode of Will Smith leading Bel Air Prep to glory more than me, especially when the coach keeps telling the players, “Pass it to Smith. You know what to do” & doling out laps & push ups to any of his players questioning his method of said success. I can’t even say that this offense without Kevin Durant is going to be in the same scenario with Russell Westbrook, because who’s going to pass the ball to Westbrook when he’s the point guard handling the ball 80% of the time anyway??? He’ll only be passing to the basket. Potentially, Westbrook could be the first 6’3″ & under guard to lead the league in field goal attempts since Allen Iverson. My only question is at what point in the season will Serge Ibaka pull a Carlton & literally rip the ball out of Westbrook’s hands to get off his own shot? Nov 8th? 15th?

Seriously though, without Durant, it’s gonna be some bumpy times on Oklahoma City trusting Westbrook to make others better until KD gets back. I still expect them to get around the neighborhood of 55 wins but in the West, that could result in a 4th or 5th seed. I’m actually on the side that they will not win a title before Durant becomes a free agent for two reasons:

The Thunder has not done a good enough job developing the young talent surrounding Durant & Westbrook since they traded James Harden. The pieces that they have picked up in Perry Jones III & Jeremy Lamb haven’t done anything up to par. Yeah, they might be young, but watching them in the pre-season thus far, it still looks like not much has changed. On the flip side, Steven Adams needs to start immediately. Kendrick Perkins got brought in for his veteran presence & championship know-how at a time that OKC needed it, but that was almost 4 years ago. That KD/Russ/Ibaka core are becoming vets now, it’s not as needed. He can still provide guidance without, you know, actually being on the floor. Outside of his size, he’s starting to hold the team back. Give him 10-15 mins/night, let him use his 6 fouls, and teach Adams how to be more asshole-y in practice. Enough already!

The Thunder can’t win a title with Scott Brooks coaching any more. I don’t think he sucks, in fact, I feel he is a good coach. But my complaint with the Thunder is that against the elite teams, they work too hard to score baskets. It gets masked a lot of times by Durant’s scoring talents but they do most of their damage on the perimeter. They don’t have plays to get them easier baskets or have anyone with a post up game that can either collapse the paint (by drawing double teams or getting fouled) or get an easy basket. The playoffs is all about controlling the paint on both sides of the ball. Because of Ibaka, they do a wonderful job of doing that on the defensive end, but on offense at the end of games, it always bogs down to tough 20-footers. That can work against Sacramento in February, but that’s a small margin for error to work with in June. Three years after losing to the Heat in the Finals, Scott Brooks still hasn’t quite worked that out yet. I’d keep someone like George Karl on speed dial if Brooks can’t get over that hump. Too much at stake with Durant being a UFA in 2016, you can’t keep waiting for him to figure that out past this season.

Are James Harden & Dwight Howard the new Stockton and Malone?

If that means that they are destined to be ringless, then yes. I’m sorry, I will never be sold on this duo contending for titles as long as they don’t have a proper point guard that gets them into their sweet spots to take advantage of teams. I’ve said this before about Dwight, offensively he is what he is at this point. He’s a physical specimen, an athletic freak, someone who’s built to dominate on defense, but also one who’s game isn’t built to dominate the paint offensively. He’s strong as hell, can & will bully other bigs at times, but he doesn’t have that extra gear to go nuts scoring-wise like LaMarcus Aldridge did to his team last spring, dropping 40 pts at will. He doesn’t have that kind of feel or scoring touch, & he’s now in Year 12. That ship has sailed.

As far as Harden goes, he is one of the best one-on-one players in the NBA, & he’s young enough where he can still make his teammates better, but there’s something about when a player gets the green light to score or to shoot three’s, they just follow the glow of the basket. No different than a Moth to a porch light. You start leaving things behind (like defense). For example, I used to love Dan Marjele back in the day, tough two-guard with an all around game. Once he started getting the knack for shooting threes, the three point line might as well have became a cliff because he rarely went past it. Even when Tracy McGrady was with the Raptors, he was becoming a really good all-around player who took pride in locking dudes up on defense. Once he left the T-dot & started winning scoring titles, the defensive intensity dropped considerably. A similar thing has happened to Harden, where he was actually one of the better defenders in OKC, & now in Houston he plays defense like he’s intentionally point shaving. Apparently, he played better on defense in the World Championships this summer so let’s see if it translates over now. Something tells me he’s going to need Rosetta Stone to re-learn this concept.

As far as the offseason moves, I know having three superstars to play on a team is supposed to give you a better chance to win. I agree…..but it has to be the right three superstars/stars, it can’t just be any collection. Chasing down Carmelo Anthony was a foolish move because he doesn’t share the ball, it’ll be three players jacking shots & mostly likely Dwight Howard would be the one bitching & complaining because he’s getting the least out of the pie. As my friend Luugi would say, it’s a trainwreck waiting to happen. The big move that makes the most sense is acquiring Rajon Rondo. He’s a star guard who plays on both ends of the ball, has championship pedigree, & unlike most stars, he lives to make others better with his passing. Someone will have to sacrifice or be the one to share the basketball. If he ends up on the Rockets somehow, then they’ll truly be a threat to win it all. Until then, they’ll have to keep playing the field.

Did Steve Ballmer overpay to purchase the Clippers?

I will say yes and no. Yes, obviously because paying TWO BILLION dollars in a league where maybe one team was worth $1B is ridiculous. But then you start to think of all the opportunities you get when you wipe the slate clean from the Donald T. Sterling era if you’re Ballmer. You can come in on a horse like a hero and provide stability to a franchise that never had it before. You have Doc Rivers here for the next 5+ years on the bench and running your front office. You have exciting assets in Chris Paul, Blake Griffin that are not only among the best players in the league, but also among the most marketable, especially Griffin who’s on TV way more these days than any player with maybe the exception of LeBron James. The Clippers lost some sponsors during the Sterling/V.Stiviano fiasco, not only will you get those ones back, but with the new energy that’s provided, you’ll get even more sponsors. I’m not just talking locally, but nationally & possibly globally. With the new TV Deal the NBA signed with Turner Sports & ESPN/ABC, which almost tripled the current deal, you just guaranteed a rapid increase in profits, while your team hasn’t even played a real NBA game yet.

Looking at the decline of the Lakers with management that’s losing credibility points with every major free agent that shoots them down; Kobe Bryant on his last legs & no one in sight to take the mantle of being the next great Laker; the Clippers can make a real dent as the kings of L.A. sports scene for the foreseeable future. It’ll never truly be a Clippers town just like New York can never truly be a Mets town as long as the Yankees reside in the Bronx. But in the 2nd largest TV market in America, making a dent in popularity here holds real value and weight. Now, say you continue to make deep playoff runs (which the team is currently built to do for the short and long term) that ends in the conference finals, or better yet a championship or two, & you look over at the Lakers situation which is floundering in comparison to yours but have their own lucrative local TV deal…..well……. then why can’t you get your own television network? There’s a reason why there was a crazy bidding war for this franchise, because the wealth groups & bidders like Ballmer see the same things I just laid out for you, plus other scenarios down the line that we don’t even see coming. So for now, yes, Ballmer did overpay, but considering what the possibilities are, the franchise will be worth that $2B price tag much sooner than you & I think.

As far as basketball side of things, the Clippers will be the Western Conference’s best answer this season to stop the Spurs from getting back to the Finals for a third straight season. I don’t think it will happen, as long as the Spurs stay healthy. If not, the Clippers will head to their first NBA Finals ever with great chance to win it, whoever they meet on the other side of the bracket.

Biggest Sleeper

Hard to predict any of the playoff teams creeping up on anyone, as all of them are determined to beat their brains in every night, so I’ll pick a non-playoff team…..and it’s not Phoenix. I can see the Denver Nuggets flirting with 50 wins this season & fighting for that 8th seed all season long. This team was deep last year, but also unhealthy. Getting back Danilo Gallinari to fill that SF spot is beyond huge. They basically stole Aaron Afflalo from the Orlando Magic. Getting back Nate Robinson & JaVale McGee from their injuries, & having Kenneth Faried fresh off his impact he had on Team USA during the World Championships this summer (& his freshly-minted 4 year/$50M deal), don’t be surprised if by January you see all the “Nuggets on the Rise!” & “Where did this team come from?!?!” stories popping out from everywhere.

Regular Season Power Rankings

1. San Antonio – Best team in the NBA, signed all their free agents back, & is working on Kawhi Leonard’s extension. Best chance to repeat out of all their title defenses.

2. L.A Clippers – It feels like it was so long ago that V. Stiviano was a part of our lives, huh?

3. Oklahoma City – “That’ll be 20 laps chowderhead! Pass it to ~~Will~~ Russ!”

4. Portland – I feel a monster season from Damian Lillard coming. And a mixtape.

5. Dallas – Quietly had a solid off-season. Getting back Tyson Chandler & grabbing Chandler Parsons and Jameer Nelson from free agency.

6. Golden St. – If Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, and Draymond Green can step their games up this offseason, this team will be really dangerous.

7. Houston – Will feel the loss of “that role player” Parsons more than they think. When I say “they”, I meant James Harden & Dwight Howard. Smh.

8. Memphis – Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I like the signing of Vincent Lamar Carter to the team. Gonna go take a shower now, I felt really dirty typing that.

9. Denver – Will be the best non-playoff team in the NBA this season. Will probably win 50 games too.

10. Phoenix – Like that they resigned Eric Bledsoe. Don’t understand why they have four PGs on the roster (Blesdoe, Goran Dragic, Isaiah Thomas & Tyler Ennis). I smell a trade package coming.

11. New Orleans – The Unibrow will take one step further to superstardom. It won’t mean anything in the West, but still.

12. Sacramento – DeMarcus Cousins wanted to limit his technicals this season. He has 4 techs in the preseason so far. Sigh. Another long season coming.

13. L.A. Lakers – Remember when Kobe carried that shitty Laker team in 2006 & 2007 to playoff seeds? Well that Kobe was in his prime & he had Phil Jackson on the bench. Old Kobe & Byron Scott? 30 wins max.

14. Minnesota – Potentially the most exciting team in the NBA. Will lose plenty. Also, I predict Andrew Wiggins & Zach LaVine will combine to own the dunk contest this year like VC & TMac did in 2000. Without the earth-shattering impact of course.

15. Utah – The Western Conference version of a dumpster fire.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PART TWO: THE EASTERN CONFERENCE

Cal Cee // South Shore Ave

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Golden Era: 20th Anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G’s Ready To Die

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We here at South Shore Ave are gassing up the DeLorean & taking you back to the musical Golden Era of 90’s music to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of one of the Greatest Times in Hip Hop history. On September 13, 1994, right in the middle of the Golden Age of 90s Hip Hop, Bad Boy Records officially dropped the debut album The Notorious BIG “Ready To Die“. This album went on to become one of the most iconic and influential albums of the genre, simultaneously making Bad Boy an industry super power and launching Biggie into superduperstar status. As we celebrate the anniversary of Ready To Die, with the help of my friend Shawn Adonis, we break down the top four songs from the album. If you don’t know, now you know….

UNBELIEVABLE

“Breeze through in the Q-45 by my side, lyrical high / and those that rushes my clutches get put on crutches / get smoke like dutches from the master / hate to blast ya but I have to / you see I smoke a lot, your life is played out like Kwamé / and them fu**ing polka dots…”

Cee: I don’t wanna add any more hyperbole to this song as great as it is already, but I could have honestly quoted the whole first verse of the song. When Biggie’s name was buzzing back in the summer of ’93 with his Party and Bullshit track, as much as I liked him and all the remixes he was on (i.e. see Mary J. Blige’s “Real Love“ remix), I would have never thought he would have reached the lyrical levels that he brought to the song. I’ll admit, I just didn’t see the other levels coming. Before anything else that was released from him off of Ready To Die, this was actually the first cut I heard from the album. You can tell the difference in his voice from this song compared to the previously released tracks. It always sounded like he was yelling &/or too hyped up when he was rapping, as great as the songs were.

On “Unbelievable”, he appeared to be more relaxed, the confidence in his abilities had fully grown, & the swagger was completely swollen. But the lyrics….the lyrics….the lyrics though. In retrospect, what he did to that DJ Premier beat almost wasn’t fair. How he set up the metaphors (i.e. “Breeze through in the Q-45 by my side…”), intersects the humor (i.e. “Wear boxers so my dick can breathe“), ended the remaining potential of rappers careers (i.e. The Kwamé shot), this wasn’t just lyrical gymnastics, it was a verbal P90X session. Again, I’m only speaking about the first verse. Do you know how difficult it was to stand out like that lyrically in ’94 when people like Nas, Snoop, Jeru, Redman, Wu-Tang, Scarface, Keith Murray, Buckshot & everyone else were roaming the streets? And yet, he was so ridiculously talented that he made major room at the table anyway. The song title actually says it all to be honest.

Shawn: Very well said Cee. I’ve gotta say, you brought up some very interesting points that I’ve never really considered. And that I fully intend to steal like a burglar, while I head to the nearest barber shop to pass them off as my own original & enlightened thoughts so that I can be showered with praise.

I had heard a few tracks from Mr. Biggie Smalls before hearing “Unbelievable”, but they never captivated me enough to really keep my attention. The hyped up yelling flow that you mentioned just didn’t do anything for me, but this song changed all of that. Just like you Cal, this was also the first track that I heard from Ready to Die. It was back in the days before you could go online and hear any song you wanted with the click of a mouse. If you wanted to make yourself a hip hop mixtape (which back then was actually literally a tape), you had to sit by the radio with your fingers hovering over the ‘play’ & ‘record’ buttons waiting to hear something that was worthy to make the cut, and you were afraid to leave the room, cause as soon as you did, that’s when they’d play a song you wanted. As soon as I heard that Primo beat come in, I started recording with the quickness. After trying to figure out who “Sticky Smalls” was (I can’t be the only one who thought, and still thinks, that the hook sounds like he’s saying “Sticky, Sticky, Sticky Smalls is the illest”…. Perhaps this was some intentional brilliance that I just wasn’t cool enough to understand. Why not just emphasize the B?). I heard him spit that first bar and I knew I made a wise recording decision.

No one can debate that Big was given a heater of a beat. Back in those days Premier could have used a sample of himself passing a bowel movement, and as long as he mixed it right and added a baseline to it, it would be an instant classic. But the “Unbelievable” beat stands out to me because it could have went either way depending on who laid down the verses over it, and the Notorious one’s style, flow, and energy is what made you take heed to the beat. Any other rapper on that beat would have been like someone wearing a fly outfit with a beat up and bummy pair of sneakers. It would have just ruined the whole thing.

What separated this song from others at that time, was that other rappers often used two bars to complete a thought, however, Biggie laced every bar with entirely new subject matter, and kept it up for line after insanely lyrical line. You hardly had a chance to process everything he was coming at you with.

And one last thing, that senseless unprovoked jab at Kwame was totally uncalled for. That poor bastard was probably somewhere plotting his comeback, when out of nowhere he was blindsided by the most relevant thing in rap saying he was now irrelevant. I can’t help but to think that he was probably in a dark room somewhere pouring gasoline on his polka-dotted memorabilia, with tears streaming from his sleepy eyes. To avoid the public backlash he was probably forced to change his identity……. which would have pretty much consisted of him dying that bleached swirl in his hair black. Without that or the polka-dots, no one could have picked him out of a line up.

JUICY

“It was all a dream / I used to read Word Up! magazine / Salt-N-Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine / Hanging’ pictures on the wall / Every Saturday Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl.”

“Stereotypes of a black male misunderstood / And it’s still all good / Uh… and if you don’t know, now you know, ni**a.”

Cee: It’s safe to say this is the most popular song Biggie ever made, right? I mean, we could make an honest case for that, can’t we? I don’t believe it was his best work, but it did its job, which was introducing him to the masses. And it worked in a major way. People can rip him all they want, but much praise goes out to Puff Daddy (I’m using his original name dammit!) for coming up with the idea of using Biggie’s talents over an old, classic 80s record. Sure, he almost ended up literally overkilling hip hop a few years later with that same “Just use the whole beat, don’t bother sampling it. No one will care!” formula, but for this song & some of the other Biggie songs & collabos down the line (i.e. “Sky’s The Limit” and, “I Love The Dough”), it always worked to perfection. It was perfect actually. It allowed Biggie to stay street & gutter talking about his rags-to-riches story, but having the melodic nostalgia to play on major radio stations & still suck you in. In fact, the remakes Puffy created would bring new life to a whole new generation. Think about it Shawn, in 1994, what teenager even knew who the hell Mtume was?

To me, what made this song more of a classic than anything else is the video & the fact that it actually matches the lyrics. This is probably one of the more true to life videos we’ve seen, especially back then. It shows the progression from him hustling on the corner; getting arrested; his boys running after someone for doing something that violated crew standards; getting interviewed by the pool; his boys playing Street Fighter with either a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis on a 50-inch screen while Big, Puff & from the looks of the older token white man sitting beside him, his accountant handling business on the money green leather couches. Shit, he even had his Moms in the video holding the Source Magazine with a smile on her face. This was almost as authentic as you can get. A feel good story that matched the wordplay letter for letter.

If this song drops in 2014, there would be girl-on-girl kissing in the pool while guys pour Peach Ciroc on them; everyone holding red cups sipping on that lean & blowing weed smoke into the camera; & the reporter would have dropped the mic, stripped down to her bra & thong, to then start twerking on Big to the point of muscle spasming. But in 1994, everyone just waved their hands in the air & partied by the pool. It was almost wholesome.

Sidenote: Did you ever look at a street light & wanna do pull ups on it too Shawn or was it just me?

Shawn: Most definitely Cal, not only did those pull ups and dips on the street lights make those guys look like ghetto superheroes to me (cause as I’m sure you remember, I had what one might describe as a stick figure physique back then), but it inspired me to climb lamp posts to get my strength up. Unfortunately, they’re 30 feet high around here, so my fear of death deterred me a bit.

Now, I know that what I’m about to say is going to be considered the highest form of Hip Hop blasphemy known to man, and that the ground may open up and swallow me whole as soon as I finish typing this……..but…….. I’ve never really liked Juicy. * insert Gasp here *

Ok, now don’t get me wrong, I definitely understand the allure of the song and why so many people like it. How can you not enjoy the story of a young downtrodden kid from the hood, single parent home, mother that struggled to put food on the table, took to the streets to make money, experienced the ups and downs of hustling, went to prison, pursued music to finally become one of the top rappers in the game, living a lavish life and finally being able to take care of his Mom. I get it completely. It’s just not my cup of tea musically. So let me defend my opinion here.

First of all, like you said Cal, this wasn’t Big’s most lyrical contribution to the Album, and back then I was a lyrical fiend, I would live for those “I can’t believe he said that, I have to rewind it 30 times” moments, and this song had zero of these moments. Secondly, that beat never did anything for me. It was so simple, so boring. I’ve never been tempted to so much as nod my head to, or even tap my foot to this song. When it comes on in the club, that’s my cue to take a trip to the bathroom. When it comes on the radio, that’s when I switch to the news station to get caught up on current events. It’s one of those songs that you hear once and that’s enough.

It’s a great story that would make a great movie (which ironically was poorly casted years later, and made a mediocre movie at best), and like you said Cal it made a great video. Sure, parts of it that looked cool to me back then, look a bit cornier and outdated now, but that’s only because people took this video’s blueprint and improved upon it throughout the years, which is why all the classics look a bit corny. From what I remember too, this was the first video of that era where a rapper stepped out that “grimey” persona, and made it look cool to throw on some linens and hard-bottoms. In a rap climate where Wu Tang, Nas, Boot Camp, and others made sure they were dressed in clothes that would make them “fit the description” of a perpetrator, Biggie made it look cool to be classy.

Even though we only got little glimpses of it in this video, how cool were Puff’s diddy bop scenes? We had no idea at the time that Puff’s smooth two step/shoulder jerk/arm wave/neck bob/spin-around dance moves would end up playing Robin to Biggie’s Batman in his future videos and performances. Or who would have imagined back then that this shirtless dancing champagne sipper would become one of the biggest music moguls in history?

By the way, not only did I not know who Mtume was in 1994, I don’t know who they are in 2014 either. But thanks to my pal Google, I’m fully caught up now. Those dudes look disco-rific. And sadly a lot of people would hear the original song today and think they stole Biggie’s ‘Juicy‘ beat.

Hey….um…. that 2014 version of the video you described, would you happen to have a link to that video that I could check out for some….. Uh…. research?

Cee: I’m sure we can find that version on Youtube somewhere. ***Searching***

BIG POPPA

“To all the ladies in the place with style and grace / Allow me to lace these lyrical douches in your bushes / Who rocks grooves and make moves with all the mommies / The back of the club sipping Moet is where you’ll find me / The back of the club, mackin’ hoes, my crew’s behind me / Mad question asking, blunt passing, music blasting / But I just can’t quit/Because one of these honeys Biggie gots to creep with”

“I love it when they call me Big Poppa / Throw your hands in the air if you’s a true playa”

Cee: This song is the blueprint and the reason why Rick Ross can take his shirt off, let his tatted man boobs swing freely into the air today & nobody bats an eye. In Hip Hop, The Fat Boys made being big funny and comical as well as stereotypical. I mean, we understood they were fat, but did they really have to talk about their love of food & gorge on pizzas in interviews too? Even as a little kid, I never took them seriously. Heavy D made the big man dynamic into something cool and fun. Not only were his songs on par with some of the best Hip Hop & R&B material during the late 80s & early 90s, but he kept up with everyone & them some on the dance floor in the era where you danced until you sweat through your clothes. He wore the suits, had his dancers behind him doing all the innovative dance moves (one of his dancers Trouble T. Roy died unfortunately during an accident at one of his shows, and was forever remembered on the T.R.O.Y classic by Pete Rock & CL Smooth), and even introduced Monifah to the game. I will never, ever be mad at him for that one. With that said, as great as he was, he never gave off the image to women that they wanted to get with him. They wanted to party with him, and maybe afterwards give him a great big hug when the night was done.

Here’s where Biggie changed things. You know how you can speak things into existence? Meaning that if you keep making affirmations to groups of people after a while, the affirmation starts to become believable. Well, with songs like these and “One More Chance” (both the original & the Remix) off the album, Biggie gave the affirmation that he was a ladies man & gave all big boys a chance to prove they can also play the field. You kept seeing it in his videos. He started moving differently, performing in concerts in dress shirts, slacks & suits. He started looking more like the head of a crime family instead of a rapper. The bigger his star power got, the hotter the music got, the more women just started flocking to him. A year after this album dropped, this dude was married to one of the most popular R&B artists in the game on his own label (Faith Evans), & had a mistress on the side that we all pretty much knew wasn’t a real secret (Lil’ Kim). He converted this supposed weakness into strength and power.

The allure of power. It can make you look more appealing than you really are, funnier to your peers than you can ever imagine, and look more appealing than you really are. There’s a reason why I wrote that twice….it’s because it’s true. Some of your favorite athletes & entertainers are not the best looking guys, let’s face facts here. Also, the fact is, Biggie was not an appealing looking guy. Heavy-set, heavy-tongued, labored breathing when he spoke, & had an eye that was lazier than the least motivated couch potato. Not only did he know that, he effin’ told us this & rapped it so ridiculously most times, that it no longer became a focus. He turned his rap skills into a persona and his persona into superstardom. This song is living proof. Even in the video, he’s leaving with two chicks. I know it’s only a video & they said “Cut!” when he walked offscreen, but the images from that & the lyrics he spat made you think that this was at least possible to believe.

Most importantly, Big Poppa is a classic anthem that can still rock radio and clubs in 2014. The flow, cockiness & swagger was ahead of its time. Throw in The Isley Brothers “Between the Sheets“ sampling, he raised the bar for “I’m gonna take you home. Here’s why and you’re gonna love it” records & almost made it mandatory for rappers to have at least one record on their album like this if they wanted to go major. All this from a man who self-described himself as black and ugly.

One more thing: In the video, is there any reason why he couldn’t be in the whirlpool with the video chicks too? Puffy’s in the thing with all these woman wearing next to nothing, pouring champagne, basically about to get it in….. & Biggie’s rapping outside the lip of the pool like he’s providing them elevator music. The song’s called Big Poppa, shouldn’t he reap the benefits 100%? Instead he only got 80% like a work dental plan. Smh.

Shawn: You hit the nail on the obese head there my brotha. Big rapped with an arrogance and confidence that made it seem like if you were a woman, and weren’t craving him in all of his big, black, fat glory….then there was something wrong with you. But something tells me, if he were Chris Wallace the grocery clerk, he may not have had that affect on the ladies. It’s amazing how money and power seem to sexify a man in a woman’s eyes. But then again who knows. They say he was a really charming dude, so maybe he would have dropped a line like, “Would you like paper, plastic, or latex?”, and he would still have the women fighting over his large physique.

I’ve never really been a huge fan of these cassanova tracks, where rappers act like their lives are a never-ending Axe commercial. But Big Poppa had to be the best of its genre, not only offering you ladies-man braggadocio, but clever wordplay such as:

“Really honey listen I’m askin / most of the fellas think they be mackin’ / but they be actin’ / who they attractin’ with that line what’s your name what’s your sign / soon as he buy that wine I just creep up from behind…”

Gotta respect a man that lets another dude buy the drinks before he comes in and snatches the woman right from under him, and quite aggressively too. In the video Biggie moved the dude aside by palming his face like Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Talk about adding insult to injury. I hope that dude went home after that. There’s no respectable way to dance and try look cool in the club after another man no-look passes your face.

I have one question: Who was that chick that played the main love interested related too??? She had to be the director’s sister or something, cause she straight up looked like snaggle puss in the face. Not only is she not the prettiest chick in the video, she wasn’t even the prettiest of the three people in that scene with her, Big and Busta. I mean, maybe she had a killer body, but you couldn’t really tell cause they didn’t pan down. Didn’t this chick look like Ludacris from the “Word of Mouf” album cover? Google that pic and tell me that’s not the same person.

I hear what you’re saying Cee about that hot tub scene, they got Biggie up there rapping, steam from the hot tub probably got him dripping sweat under that leather jersey, leather sticking to his skin, all uncomfortable. They couldn’t even invite a brotha to roll up his pant legs and let his feet dangle in the water, with the hot water bubbles massaging his feet? Honestly, it’s only cause Big played it so cool, making it look like he gets so much ass, that it didn’t even phase him to let his peoples enjoy moments like that. Most men, myself included, would have taken a running start into a canon ball in that tub. But I guess that’s what separates Big Poppa from the rest.

It’s all good Baby Baabeehh…..

THE WHAT ft. Method Man

“(Assume the position) / Stop, look and listen / I spit on your grave then I grab my Charles Dickens, bitch” – Method Man

Shawn: Cal my good man, the first time I heard Method Man, my favorite rapper at the time, spit that line, I thought my head was going to explode into my Wu Tang scully (actually, I was never cool enough to have a Wu Tang scully, and by the time I finally had two pennies to rub together and bought a Wu Tang t-shirt, it shrunk after one wash and was unwearable. Very traumatizing. I try to repress those painful memories). Not that it was necessarily the best line in the song, cause Meth and Big went back and forth with with so many hot lines that to borrow (steal) your phrase from earlier, I could have quoted the entire song, but something about this line stood out from the rest for me.

For the only feature on Ready to Die, Biggie employed the services of one of the games most captivating characters, the most recognizable member of the famed Wu Tang Clan, the “M-e-t-h-o-d Man”. Remember Cee, back then features happened about as rarely as a solar eclipse. Nowadays, rappers are feature whores, hopping on tracks with every other rapper, every time the wind changes direction. It’s so bad now, that some rappers have more songs featuring other artists than they even have by themselves, and truth be told, it’s because a lot of them aren’t talented enough to hold your attention for a whole 3 minutes. Some songs have so many different people featured on them, that by the time the song is over, you don’t remember who the song originally belonged to. But this wasn’t the case with “The What“. They were two rappers in their prime that could have easily commanded an entire song by themselves. What they offered their listeners was a rare gift. Back then, cross-crew collabos were so rare that when you heard that two rappers you liked were hopping on a track together, you were actually excited, cause you knew you were in for some musical magic that probably wouldn’t be repeated any time soon by the pairing, if ever.

This song was very necessary for the album, it struck a balance between songs that real hip hop head’s would love (most men), and the more commercial snoozefest tracks like ‘Juicy’ that catered to a different demographic (mostly women, and we know that men like what women like).

I’m sure that Big spitting that opening line about throwing “Shield’s on the dick” was probably the last time a rapper claimed to use anything but Magnums, wouldn’t you say? These days every rapper claims to be packing an Anaconda. You have dudes that are 5’2″, 100 pounds, looking like they haven’t gone through puberty, yet claiming to be suffering from Ron Jeremy syndrome (I may have dated myself with that reference, and inadvertently revealed to my parents that those nights that I said I was watching “wrestling” in the basement, the blonde and brunette weren’t Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper) . And then of course, in the next bar they use the word “magnum” as a double entendre in reference to a handgun. Man, hip hop is depressingly predictable these days.

Cee: Before I jump on this song, I wanna pour out a lil’ liquor for the career of producer Easy Mo Bee. Seriously speaking, this dude had a major hand musically for the first two projects for Bad Boy Records. I’ll never, ever take anything away from the talents of Biggie or Craig Mack, but think of how different life would be for those guys coming into the game without his production. I actually forgot just how much work he did for these guys. From “Party & Bullshit” to “Flava in Ya Ear” (AND the Remix!) to Get Down, I mean, I especially remember just how hot those records were back then. Shit, the “Flava in Ya Ear Remix” still shuts down parties now. By all accounts this is supposed to be one of the greatest albums that ever came across the Hip Hop genre & this man literally produced 1/3 of all the songs on it. A third! Yet, by the time this album (and to a lesser extent, Craig Mack’s album) exploded, Biggie was a superstar, Puff was a superstar, Craig Mack was at his peak of screaming “Haaaa buoy!” everywhere with his Philly Afro-cutting ass, but where was Easy Mo Bee’s name in flashing neon lights??? Poor dude got left at the docks with his knapsack & suitcase while the party boat departed without him. He’s been properly credited for his work on “Gimme the Loot”, “Machine Gun Funk”, “Warning” (undisputed classic), and the album title track (Ready to Die), so I’m hoping he was properly paid for his services, however, I still can’t help but feel a little sorry for him. He’s THE forgotten entity off this classic & one of the most overlooked producers in hip hop history. I mean Shawn, did you know that he even produced this?!?!?!

Outside of DJ Premier with “Unbelievable”, Easy Mo Bee quite possibly produced the hottest beat on Ready to Die with “The What”. It might sound simple, but it’s a perfect combination of eerie and funkiness. Also, if you’re gonna bring someone like Method Man in the studio to rap, wouldn’t it be to something like this? This beat was made for him. In fact, Easy Mo Bee created the perfect backdrop for both these rappers to come out with their best lyrics. If this was a boxing match, it would have been Method Man in a split decision, IF Biggie didn’t drop that last verse to make it a solid draw. Both guys are firing haymakers in this song, but these bars right here….

“I used to do stick ups, cause hoes is irritating like the **hiccups** / Excuse me, flows just grow through me / Like trees to branches / cliffs to avalanches / It’s the praying mantis….”

…..it showed another example of Biggie as the brightest of stars. Back in 1994, before Tical came out, Method Man was arguably the hottest rapper in hip hop. If he featured on your song, you had to perform first because once he got on, you had to do like those safe sex commercials & wrap it up. Nobody cared about you after he performed. Just sing the hook & get the hell out of Dodge. Make no mistake about it, Method Man came for the jugular here. So for Biggie not to only fight that off buzzsaw, but to drop lyrics like the ones I just quoted with almost effortless flair, it should have shown anyone who wasn’t aware that he was going to be major. And he was. By the beginning of ’95, he was the biggest hip hop star alive. You couldn’t touch him. The only ones that was on his stratosphere lyrically &/or star power-wise was Nas, Meth (and Wu Tang as a whole), Snoop & probably Tupac before he got shot and went to jail. He was not only the King of New York, but was basically the King of everything. Like Nas with Illmatic, he dropped a Mona Lisa. Unlike Nas, he eventually changed the game from how we looked to what we wore & what liquor to drink.

Looking back at it now, my generation was so spoiled because we had such groundbreaking legends from the rappers to producers who were creating at such a high level that we almost took it for granted. Almost. As a huge lover of music, I kind of wish that today’s generation experienced what mine did because we got fed. If hip hop was a restaurant, it was a five-star restaurant in the mid-90s. We were eating filet mignon & caviar, & washing it down with some Autumn Reisling wine and champagne often. As the times went along, the prices got more expensive and some of the superb dishes that we got to eat were taken off the menu. Now in 2014, a five-star meal mostly consists of spaghetti and meatballs with Allen’s Apple juice, & it’s being eaten up by everyone under the age of 25. I don’t want to knock it & say it’s not a good meal, but the palate of my generation was forever affected. Some of us decided to close our eyes and dig in, while others decided to try different restaurants altogether. And some like myself, want to try these new dishes, but when I look back at albums like Ready to Die & remember how well off I was, I end up walking out of the establishment shaking my head. Maybe that makes me a snob. Maybe so…. & it might be better that way. Damn, I hope I didn’t make you get hungry…..

Cal Cee // South Shore Ave

To subscribe to The Baseline Blog, click onto the Follow button. Very special thanks to Shawn Adonis for his contributions to this posting.

Golden Era: 20th Anniversary of New York Undercover, Part 2

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We here at South Shore Ave are gassing up the DeLorean & taking you back to 1994 where we bore witness to a groundbreaking show that influenced a generation. Twenty years ago this week Executive Producer Dick Wolf and FOX Network launched the first episode of New York Undercover, which starred Malik Yoba and Michael DeLorenzo as Detectives J.C. Williams and Eduardo Torres. In Part 2, myself & Headley Bent wonder if this show can work in 2014, our favorite episodes, and the one and only……. Danny Cort.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1.

Danny “Danny Up” Cort

Cee: The 90s version to Avon Barksdale. Safe to say this was the best villain in the history of the show. They had some pretty good ones too. John Santucci & his mafia, Adolfo Guzman and his gang who beat Torres up when he kept messing with his Dad. Those were just small tremors compared to the contempt Cort & JC had for each other. Their relationship was the definition of a blood feud. Quick rundown of the beef: In one of the earlier episodes from Season 1, Cort ran an elaborate CAT drug lab that communicated through ghost emails & pagers (as high end as technology got back then). Torres helps break up the operation being undercover & puts Cort behind bars. Once Cort got out, he tried to run another operation again that ended up being foiled by JC & Torres in a wild shootout. JC ends up killing Cort’s younger brother with the monster afro. Oh & let’s remind you, this whole shootout all happens a couple of days before JC gets married to his fiancee Sandy. This is where everything flips on its head.

Normally with these network shows, maybe the villain would try to exact revenge by maybe holding the cop’s loved one hostage or something, but usually the good guys prevail at the end no worse for wear. By having Cort run up in JC’s apartment (after his right hand man Big Dawg tracks down JC’s address), impersonating someone making a delivery to Sandy & then shooting the living daylights out of her with a machine gun…. I’m not even sure if mind blowing is the right term to describe it. Anyone who watched that episode remembers, you were left stuck in your chair with the air completely sucked out of you. Like someone sucker ~~punching~~ kicking you hard in the stomach right when you’re swallowing some food. Outside of Dwayne Wayne breaking up Whitley’s wedding in A Different World, & Optimus Prime actually dying in the Transformers movie, I can’t remember a time when a TV show threw me for a loop like that, but this was so brutal, you felt for JC like it was your brother. Right then & there, I became a fan of Ice-T.

Listen, as a rapper, I really wasn’t the biggest fan of Ice-T. I know I’m supposed to hold Colors in high regard, but maybe I was too young to fully appreciate it or it just sailed over my head back then. To be honest, I’m still not crazy about his songs. But Ice-T the actor? Two thumbs up. His start in New Jack City was great, but I’ll always associate that movie with Wesley Snipes, who in this movie was at the height of his powers with his charismatic forceful personality & his dark-skinnededness. He was raising the flag for dark-skinned brothers everywhere at the time, and of course I had to ride for that! Not to say whenever I think of this show I think of Ice-T, but he had a major impact on the show that you couldn’t shake. It forever changed JC’s character on the show, even made him slightly crazy after Sandy’s death (which was amazing by the way). Ice-T was ruthless, relentless, & was one of the most underrated & overlooked villains of our time.

Headley:

Torres: “Listen, you’ve gotta take this kid with you. He’s gonna die if he doesn’t get to a hospital!”

Cort: “Look, I would if this was a ‘saving the kid’ kind of a day, maybe. But unfortunately, today’s turning into a ‘save my ass’ kind of day.” – Quote from Season 1, episode #19 “CATS”.

This was the kinda guy Danny Cort aka DannyUp was. To put it lightly, he was a drug kingpin, but accurately, he was a psychopath. Like Cal, I’m not the biggest fan of Ice-T’s rap career, but I give due where due is deserved, and he’s a pioneer. Even Ice T admits he wasn’t the best rapper but he was Tupac before Tupac. He put out tracks we only thought about. If Ice T was indicative to what kind of music that Danny Up would be listening to, I’m sure Original Gangster, New Jack Hustler, Midnight and Cort’s favorite Cop Killer would get so much play it would cause his yellow Discman to smoke. DannyUp was only in three or four episodes?!?!?! I swear I thought he was in more. I remember him like he was a pivotal part of the plot. That goes to show how his small role was impactful. I’ll say this much: had they spread that storyline the whole series, it would have been on par (okay not on par) of drug lord Gus Fring in Breaking Bad season 2-3-4. Fring and Cort did their business completely different, all I am saying is that Cort could have had his own Wikipedia page had it developed more. But as it stands, nothing touches Gustova. NOTHING! That’s for another time. But I find it timely to mention the actor that played him in Breaking Bad (Giancarlo Esposito) also guest starred in New York Undercover as Adolfo Guzman. He was an associate to the John Santucci mafia you mentioned Cal. Well it was Guzman’s character that had a long brewing feud with Det Torres and temporarily took over Natalie’s from Eddie’s pops!!! I’m telling you, this series was the catalyst to a lot of great acting. We just had no idea what we were watching. As we know, Ice-T also became better known as Det. Fin on Law & Order: Special Crime Unit from 2000 to the this very day.

Interesting Note: Ice-T also won the NAACP Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1996 for his Danny Cort role. See, it wasn’t just hyperbole, he really did knock that role out of the ball park. Not sure who he competed with that year but let’s not pay any attention to that.

Favorite Episodes

Cee: The aforementioned Danny Cort one where he kills Sandy is really close to being my favorite. My favorite one personally is the episode when Cort comes back out of jail & terrorizes JC until they meet to the death. Sending JC two human middle fingers by way of his son Gregory aka G., leaving a dead body in his car, having Naomi Campbell (who played JC’s new woman in the show) help kidnap his son & Chantal (Mother of JC’s child). I’m not sure if you can hit the mountaintop of the blood feud any higher than Cort playing Russian Roulette with JC’s son and laughing. I’m sure some people turned the other way in real life when they saw Ice-T coming. He played that shit a little too good.

Underrated favorites are the first 4-5 episodes of Season 2 when JC comes back on the force after Sandy’s murder/JC-Cort Round 1 & was mad at the world. He snapped on everyone, beat up criminals way too aggressively, even smacked around Torres at one point. Every time he flipped out, my cousin Brian would call me & we’d freak out about it like Jordan came down the lane & dunked on somebody. And vice versa. If you’re thinking it, you’re right: we were idiots.

Headley: I’m going to simplify this and bring it down to one episode. This might not even be my favourite episode but it’s the most memorable. What’s reminiscent is the scene with Det JC Williams chasing down Danny Cort by the docks. It’s the one singular scene which captures a genie in a bottle. For those playing at home that haven’t caught on yet, it’s the same episode that Cal mentioned earlier about Danny Cort cocking his gun to G’s head.

Before I get into it. Let me give you some interesting facts which we never realized before the lineage that was forming. We always talk about the heavy hip hop influence on the show. Reggie Rock Bythewood who wrote the episode and one of the main writers of the series went on to write the biopic Notorious on the acclaimed life of Notorious B.I.G. Also Cal, you make a reference to legendary villain Avon Randolph Barksdale of the infamous The Wire series.

Get this: Actor Steve Harris who plays Terry Ellers which has a longtime fued with JC. Ellers early on in this episode walks into the precinct accusing JC of harassment, and later on ends up dead with his finger cut off. Danny Cort has his finger gift wrapped to JC delivered by his own son G, Cort is nuts. Well, Steve Harris became a larger star in the American legal drama The Practice , playing lawyer Eugene Young. To this day, that acting is one of the best played out characters I have seen on the small screen, and Steve Harris has the awards to back it up. One of my all-time favorite dramas too. We were privy to a preview of his discovery on New York Undercover. And Cal, guess who Steve Harris kid brother is? You give up? None other than Wood Harris. Yes, the same Wood Harris that would later on bring Avon Barksdale to life on The Wire. He actually had a cameo in season four on New York Undercover too. Okay, school is out.

The reason why I love this series is because the storyline of Danny Cort was finally coming to a climax. The build-up was intense, like I’mma ‘bout to pop that…. lid (trying to keep it PG people). As Cal said, Danny Cort had already solidified himself as a maniac, you just wanted to see him and JC finally square off. And nothing becomes more apparent with Danny Cort’s mindset then when he explains the mental torture he wants to put JC through when he’s in the car with his right-hand-man, CoCo. And the twist of finding out that JC’s girlfriend played by the lovely Naomi Campbell is a double agent who is really in Danny Cort’s camp. You knew something was up when she accused Torres of hitting her. You realize Danny Cort is one sick, but smart ass dude. Finally, when JC is praying for his family’s life and Danny’s yukking it up, you forget Danny Cort is just a character and start to think Ice-T might be nuts. But when JC get’s the upper hand and the foot race is on…. I swear to you, I watched the scene on my feet when it first happened. You’d a thought I was watching 90s playoff basketball…. I WAS AMPED. I had been waiting for this showdown to finally happen like prize fighters, the time for talk was over. And when JC catches him, and Cort goes on that rant from his back saying:

“Listen, this thing ain’t neva gonna end, not until you’re dead, not until Chantal’s dead, and not until I kill your kid. I’ll be back before you know I’m gone. PULL THE TRIGGER YOU LITTLE BITCH!!”

J.C’s eyes bugged out. Episode just ends with a single gunshot heard. You could have heard a pin drop in my basement. Oh yeah, and to top it all off….Al Green was the musical guest at Natalie’s. **drops mic**

(** But I have to say watching the episode again, it’s not as nearly at mind blowing as I first remembered but neither are eye candies in old 2 Live Crew videos either. It’s the times. **)

Can this show be remade in 2014?

Cee: I don’t even see how that’s possible. Seriously. First of all, on the musical side, the music has changed so much since 1994, that hip hop today mostly sounds the same. Meaning that it doesn’t matter what region you’re from, most of it has that same trap music sound. The best part of New York Undercover musically was that with the distinctive New York flavor (where most of the rappers rarely sounded alike even though they lived in the same city), the show just felt like a New York city show. Right now the show would have to be called Miami Undercover or Atlanta Undercover or even Louisiana Undercover. But not New York.

Secondly, who would even play the role of JC & Torres? Who pulls that off? Or do they just come with different characters altogether, like Detectives Ronde Jenkins & Benito Santiago? Most importantly, they have to not only be female eye candy, but also have enough swagger and sense of style that the guys want to follow as well. In the social media world & all the distractions and avenues that it can take you on, I’m not quite sure how that happens. Unless…..

….you put this show on HBO. This show would have to be darker, sexier, more violent, and whoever plays Nina Moreno or her equivalent has to be hot & willing to be naked. A lot. So much so that I’m tweeting about it, posting her pics on Instagram, and definitely talking about it non-stop with my peoples on WhatsApp. That will pique my interest for starters. Overall however, the show would have to become even more grittier than its predecessor. This may be fine, but then you kind of lose its coolness factor of the show too, & that kind of defeats the purpose. You know how some songs are sung so well that they should just be left alone? Some songs are meant for that time, in that era, & to be sung only by those original artists. Well, this show might fall into the same category. Yoba & DeLorenzo had a natural chemistry that’s not easily repeated. That’s the thing about chemistry with regards to any kind of relationship. It’s not something that happens often, but when it does, you know it right away. Sometimes it lasts forever, and there are times it doesn’t, but when it does, you always know for certain that recreating that feeling is impossible once the elements change. That’s why Season 4 never worked once Torres & Lt. Cooper were gone & all the new castmates replaced them. The chemistry died once the JC & Torres dynamic was altered. It couldn’t be done in 1998 & it’ll be hard to do now. That memory needs to remain in our minds & on segmented Youtube clips forever….

…..unlike Season 4 because we’ll always pretend like that shit never existed.

Headley: I disagree with some of your points. The chemistry between Torres and JC isn’t something that was made in a lab and is now buried in a time capsule. It can happen again. The problem is when they killed off Torres, we couldn’t fathom seeing anyone else as JC’s partner. This isn’t Chicago PD or Game of Thrones, or The Wire era. We weren’t use to main characters being off’d. Almost like the series was better off with them both dead and starting two fresh lead characters. Although the series still didn’t do any better, but could you imagine if Derwin and/or Melanie started messing with someone else while their other character moved away in The Game?!?! Those two were corny but their corniness worked together. And I never knew about Malik Yoba or Michael DeLorenzo before New York Undercover, so for a remake, it doesn’t need named actors, the history of the show, and not the actors, is what will draw past viewers, and attract new ones.

With all that said… my simple answer to this question is still “NO”. Lol. Not with how attention spans are now, and to the great lengths shows have to go for originality and plot development. This show would get swallowed up. You’d need a Danny Cort-type character in every season or it wouldn’t have the same impact. Just like RUN-DMC not being able to duplicate its run in the 80s if they came out now. But the same way I would love to see them in concert, I’m not sure I want to hear a comeback album. There’s a meaning to “the right place at the right time”. I won’t say it would have been impossible but DeLorenzo destroyed that.

The rumors were that DeLorenzo got into a contract dispute with the Executive Producers/FOX and completely annihilated the show after only three seasons. I understand him wanting to cash in on the popularity but when they wrote him off, this series went right off the cliff. We talk about this series and it was on only three seasons (the last season like the Arsenio Hall and MJ returns are so unmemorable, I try to block it out my memory). And the worst thing is, you never saw Michael DeLorenzo again, this was his apex. At least when David Caruso walked away from NYPD Blue after one season, he resurfaced again with CSI Miami. I have literally never seen DeLorenzo again!! Is he doing community production stage plays of New York Undercover now?!??! The joke is, he left because of cash and the royalties they could have made if he had stayed was probably more than he would have ever made afterwards. His bluff got called and he didn’t even have a pair of twos. He’s no better than Shereè leaving RHOA (from what I am told. I don’t watch that… ummm… ever. Really. Really). But let me digress, I know this wasn’t the question but if this series would have gone eight plus seasons strong, it would have had a Miami Vice rep and we’d be talking about big budget movie options like they had (which was horrible by the way). Point being right now with a short-lived series and over saturation of cop dramas, it won’t happen.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Just recently a few years ago, a New York cop series premiered with a Jay Z song “Heart of the City / Ain’t No Love” as the opening jingle. I had the show PVR’d before you could spell out PVR. I had the memories of New York Undercover spinning in my head like your HS sweetheart when I saw the commercial. Show looked to have some potential swag, following rookie cops in the Upper Manhattan side of NYC. The show lasted one season and it was one season too long. Can’t be duplicated.

Cee: That DeLorenzo holdout point you made was very depressing. He single handily may have killed the long-term potential of the show. I think I actually saw him as a dance instructor teaching Duane Martin to dance on the show All of Us about 10 years ago. Maybe that was his way of taking it back to his Fame roots, who knows? Either way, that was a sobering way to end this blog. Thanks for killing my buzz.

Cal Cee // South Shore Ave

To subscribe to The Baseline Blog, click onto the Follow button. Very special thanks to Headley Bent for his contributions to this posting.

Golden Era: 20th Anniversary of New York Undercover

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We here at South Shore Ave are gassing up the DeLorean & taking you back to 1994, where we bore witness to a groundbreaking show that influenced a generation. Twenty years ago this week, Executive Producer Dick Wolf and FOX Network launched the first episode of New York Undercover, which starred Malik Yoba and Michael DeLorenzo, as Detectives J.C. Williams and Eduardo Torres. By the end of its first season, it garnered critical acclaim & helped influence the musical and fashion decisions of youth everywhere. With the help of my friend Headley Bent, we will break down those influences plus discuss all things that New York Undercover impacted in the mid 90s. Yup, we’re on the case….

How did you first come across the show?

Cee: Sounds like a weird question until you realize that back in 1994, I lived in the South Shore & did not have any access to FOX. We only got it a few months later during the holidays. No more waiting for Headley’s sister to mail us** videotapes of Martin & all the other black shows we didn’t get in Montreal. I could watch it on my own now! Before FOX came into our lives, we had to depend on local stations to carry those shows, which of course, they never did. So one night as I was getting ready for bed, I had the TV on CFCF 12 (CH. 12) in the background as the news was ending. While I’m changing my clothes, I hear Coolio’s “Fantastic Voyage“ being played out of nowhere. I pulled that “180 slo-mo” turn toward the TV with that WTF look on my face. I’m seeing this guy running away from two goons before eventually falling to his death. I didn’t understand what has happening. I only had two channels in my room: CBC & CFCF 12. Ok, & sometimes if there were no clouds in the sky & the antennae was tilted juuust right, I’d get to watch Bleu Nuit on CH. 4 too on Saturday nights….but that’s another story for another time. Basically though, how the hell would CFCF even know about Hip Hop, much less playing it?? And why was it being played for this segment? What was so fantastic about this voyage???

Eventually, I realized it was the first scene of New York Undercover, & I’m seeing the Spanish dude from Fame & one of the Black Bobsledders from Cool Runnings as the two stars. Ok, lemme kick back & watch! As the show continued on, it immediately roped me in. Detectives J.C. Williams & Eduardo Torres looked like us, spoke like us, and dressed like us. In most cases, they dressed waaaay better than us. Everything came to a climax when they showed Torres rocking the Ottawa Senators hockey jersey with the Jordan IIIs running around New York city chasing a lead. IT WAS OVER. DONE. If the show was a cult, I would have thrown on a robe & started following the leader. I just couldn’t comprehend what the fu** was happening. On a random Wednesday past midnight, I’m watching a cop show whose detectives are wearing all the latest apparel & other stuff we didn’t even realize was hot yet, and spoke just like I did, while playing all the hottest hip hop & R&B tracks in the background. Oh yeah, & I’m watching all this in my bed on a local channel where the only black people that were on there was Oprah & one of the Montreal Expos players (probably Marquis Grissom) on the news. What the hell was happening here?!??

** Also Headley, notice I said “Us“? I don’t care, I benefitted from those videotapes too. So really, it was like both of ours…. you just kept it at your house.

Headley: Lol, The other show was Living Single. What’s sad is you’d think my sister lived in the heart of the States, in the Big Apple, or somewhere easily accessible to these shows. She lived in Pickering?!?!?! And yet she had to feed me sitcoms like it was classified. But we ate it up. New videotapes was like putting on a new pair of kicks.

But back to your question. This is actually a haze to me. Like trying to recollect your first steps, but you know it happened seeing as you’re running today. All I know is the show debuted on CFCF 12 at midnight, and I just stumbled upon it. I think I was watching the news (yes I watched the news back then) and sports segment came at the end of the broadcast. There was no all-day sports channel in English for us Anglophones in Montreal. RDS (a French Sports station) didn’t get much play in our house. Plus I was lazy & we had no remote to just signal off right away, I had to work the energy to get up and physically turn the dial. Yes, I didn’t stutter…. I SAID TURN THE DIAL. So before I could conjure up the energy to turn off the TV, I heard the music from the opening scene, and the perplexed look on my face had to have been priceless. I froze for a second like I heard footsteps in the attic. My face was in the pillow and I said to myself, “that sounds like Video Music Box”. I now turn around to face the TV, and I’m seeing a scene that looks like a video I’d often record with my VHS tape on SLP, when I visit my fam in NYC. I’m like “what am I watching?!?!?” Nothing like this ever came across my TV set unless it was controlled by my VCR. Needless to say, I watched the entire episode like I was watching Santa from behind the door on Christmas Eve. I was hooked before the beginning credits were finished, and all sleep had left my body. By the time it ended with a scene at Natalie’s, I’d already convinced myself I’d see no rest before 1 a.m., whenever this show was on in the immediate future. That was a guarantee.

Cal, did we talk about it in school the next day? I felt like I had a story to share. Like it only came on my TV. Hadn’t been that geeked up to talk about a show since watching an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, where Lois had a running slow-mo scene and the bounce…. ***daydreaming***

Cee: AHHHH yes. There were few things more resourceful & valued back in the early to mid 90’s than Teri Hatcher & her breasts. For God’s sake, they even created a whole Seinfeld episode around them. I’m sure there were many faculty members of school boards across the country who wondered why their male teenagers kept showing up every Monday morning with one of their forearms looking like Popeye’s.

But yes, I’m sure we had healthy conversations about the beginnings of New York Undercover back then. I mean, how can you not have??? Especially when most people in our city only heard of Martin & the other black shows that did not air on NBC or ABC. The girls were in love with the sex appeal of the two stars (especially when J.C. took off his shirt). The guys loved the overall swagger of the show, the really horny guys wanted a piece of Lt. Cooper for whatever reason (trust me, I knew a couple), and the show among black people & anyone else who embraced hip hop & urban culture grew a cult following almost overnight. You wouldn’t dare miss an episode afterwards.

What kind of impact did New York Undercover have?

Cee: I would say it without knowing the data or statistics of the demographic groups back then, but judging from my eyes, on a scale from small to MAJOR, it probably had as much impact as a Tsunami crashing onto a small island. At least to anyone 25 and under at the time. You have to remember, this show came smack in the sweet spot of the best time in Hip Hop, back when all the new major artists were pumping out some of the best work we had ever heard. East coast, more specifically, New York’s hip hop scene was going through a renaissance period, that was dominating the airwaves around us. Simply put, hip hop artist were becoming superstars & affecting the culture around them. Their music itself blended perfectly with the main characters & storylines from the show. We weren’t used to seeing a Hispanic and a black male being the main leads on a TV show, much less for a major network. The music that was played in the show was extremely relatable & realistic to how they carried themselves.

Let’s get into the fashion sway that NYU had over my generation for a moment. I said earlier that they dressed way better than us. I’ll take it a step further, that show was our motivation on how to look and dress. It’s not an exaggeration. Whatever JC & Torres wore, after a while was studied down to a science. A lot of it was borrowed from the hip hop artists, movers & shakers during those times without question. In fact, it was an explosion in urban fashion where wearing name brands became something you had to do. But the show gave it further validation when we kept seeing it on a weekly basis with consistency. From the hockey jerseys, the winter skullies with the beak, the black university tees and sweaters, the army fatigue pants with the drawstrings in the cuffs, it was like a how-to on how to look fly. Quick story: I’ll never forget the first time I saw a bubble goosedown winter coat, it was when JC rocked it. My cousin from New York was coming up to see us, & I basically told him don’t enter my house without that bubble goose (I would pay him back of course). He got me a black South Pole bubble goose down 3/4 length with the matching skully. NOBODY had that yet. They didn’t even sell the jacket in stores yet much less the 3/4 length one. When I went to school the following week with that on, plus the mustard Timberlands I got from my older brother, with my Franchise Athletics black & yellow hockey jersey… simply put, I felt like a pimp. The only thing I was missing was a gold cane, but the way I strutted through the front doors, it was like I had an invisible one anyway. At that moment, I was Kanye before Kanye. Everyone was looking at me & I was looking back at them like, “Excuse me, was you saying something? Uh uh, you can’t tell me….NOTHING!!” The impact on us was unreal. I don’t think any show influenced me like that before or ever since.

Headley: Cal, you sound like when I bought my first pair of name brand sneakers entering High School. We’ve shared stories for years about the dreaded visit to Pitt/Yellow shoe store off Tashereau in Greenfield Park. Last I remember, those stores are still there today. Buying cheap sneaks which would disintegrate on your feet while wearing them was the norm. But our parents were sucked in by cheap prices (even though you had to replace them monthly). When I went to NYC on Labour Day weekend in 1989, and got my first pair of legit sneaks, you couldn’t say nothing to me. I walked the halls with pointed feet. And get this… THEY WERE AVIA’s!!! Back to the question at hand….

Let’s just forget the series for a moment. I’m going to ignore everything you just said. Not because it’s not valid, but because I cannot explain it any better. That impact was undeniable. But I’m going to touch on another aspect that gets lost but was profound to Montreal specifically. This series, this show changed the way we advertised for parties in Montreal. Up until that point, it was purely pushing flyers, basically old school. Still to this day, it’s the most grassroots marketing for parties. With all the technology out in the world, pushing flyers is still effective. As we’ve gone from LP to CD to MP3, you can still expect to get flyers on your windshield on a hot weekend. Well, back then that was the only way you got parties promoted. I didn’t get my first email address until 1996 when the series was well underway. But it was during New York Undercover programming that we started seeing commercials for parties. This was epic! No such thing as PVR, yes you could set your VCR to record, but most people watched the episodes live. You couldn’t bear to wait longer than the necessary week, from one episode to the next, so everyone into urban culture was glued to the set and having to endure the commercial breaks. It was a savvy move to drop a commercial ad because the time slot would be relatively cheap and everyone in your niche market being catered to would be watching. I think it was either a Rickey D & Shaheed or the Keith & Karen ads I first saw, and soon became routine to see the low budget commercial on the reel during New York Undercover. The sophistication on advertising parties had arrived in Montreal’s urban scene. It was the shift to new school marketing in our party scene.

Interesting Fact: Malik Yoba (J.C. Williams) and Michael DeLorenzo (Eduardo Torres) were the first two people of color to be in the starring roles of a police drama on US Television.

Natalie’s

Headley: I referred a bit to Natalie’s in the first question. The fictional café jazz lounge featuring live band performances. I think the concept of Natalie’s clubhouse probably originated as a humble story line to encompass the music culture into the show and morphed into being as intriguing as the program itself. Natalie’s was owned by Natalie herself, then later in Season 2, by Detective Eddie Torres’ father, Mike Torres, a musician and recovering drug addict. You could argue that the acts and anticipation of the performances covered on the show, were as big as the musical guests on The Arsenio Hall show. Yes, I said it. Again, seeing black acts on TV wasn’t regular as it is today. We didn’t have BET, or any of those specialty channels in Montreal, so it was Arsenio’s show that we relied on. Arsenio coincidentally ended his stint (I don’t acknowledge his return back to TV like I try to forget MJ wore Wizards colors once) right around the time New York Undercover debuted. So you looked forward to those five minutes of the Natalie scene at the end of episodes because they had star studded performances everywhere from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to The Temptations. While I get that Arsenio was more revered because in addition to singing, there were interviews that allowed a voice to a muzzled, somewhat controversial, culture which was hip-hop back in it’s early infancy… but the acts weren’t any bigger. New York Undercover brought in top acts. I also willfully enjoyed the throwback artists such as The O’jays, Chaka Khan and George Clinton, to name a few. Not saying that Arsenio didn’t support these type of artists, but watching them perform in a jazz band was very reminiscent of how their career started. My sister was a collector of LP’s (we have several years difference) so I would play a lot of records growing up, and was familiar with some acts, but watching a performance, although short, was still riveting. Natalie’s brought back sounds of yesteryear that we all lost some appreciation for. They brought divas and legends back to life. My appreciation for rhythm and blues / soul / jazz / whatever you want to call it was reinforced because of this lounge. Between Natalie’s at the end of the episode, and the music played in the opening scenes, it was a great way for infusing musical content in a show which really hadn’t been done as smoothly unless the show was about the type of music you heard on Glee. The music content just seem so relevant but never overpowering. Cal, do you remember who played Natalie, the lounge it was named after? Hint, she’s a diva!

Cee: “Was it………um……Gladys Knight??”

“Survey say….**DING!** Gladys Knight everyone!! Gladys Knight was the #1 answer!” #SteveHarveyvoice

Knight was the original Natalie, which I found weird because she was only featured in a few episodes in the first season. Shouldn’t she have been featured in more episodes considering the club was named after her? In real life, can you imagine night after night all these superstars & upcoming artists just rolling up on stage? What was the cover charge?? Was it on some exclusive, VIP-type levels where you needed to be on the list & give up a vial of your own blood?? Think about it: you’re chilling with your date nursing a drink or two & up walks Luther Vandross on stage & he starts singing “Here and Now”. You supposed to sit there all cool & calm like a karaoke singer just walked on? Is that the rule when you’re sitting in Natalie’s, don’t over-cheer? I can never understand how you’re supposed to remain cool with all these heavy hitters performing on a regular basis. Anyhow, if I owned the club, I’d charge $75 a pop & who would say no? You could see Mary J. Blige, you could see Aretha Franklin, who knows. But you gonna pay that $75 though & smile while you’re doing it.

Think about how cool this concept was for a TV show. It didn’t have just one, but it had two different soundtracks which included some of the hot R&B tracks of the time plus the performed songs from the show. You’re right Bent, it was a great concept. I’ll take it a step further and I want you to think about this. This was one of the few shows in TV history that produced an original song that ended up being a classic. Don’t remember? I’ll give you a hint….

“Tell me what you like, baby“….

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, the legendary Guy!! The show was so popular that it brought a group together who was broken up at the time, to make one more classic. That song dropped on the show, everyone flipped out as it was so unexpected and it departed from the norm of artist doing cover songs or something that we knew. AND IT WAS FIRE. A couple of months later, the song was literally everywhere & we all thought Guy was coming back together. The hype was for nothing as that was literally the last song that they ever made & Teddy Riley continued on making a new future with Blackstreet.** It happened so fast, the reunion thought was gone before it can even marinate in your mind. Sad really, but was grateful for Natalie’s because even in fictional terms, it was able to produce a real life classic. How many shows can you say did that?

Headley: Cal, if you recalled I always said if I ever owned a lounge club, I’d call it Natalie’s. Not because of your sister (I love you Nat!!) but because of this show. I loved it that much. I’ll leave it at that. How many TV shows had soundtracks back then? Could you fathom buying a Friends or Frazier soundtrack? Case close.

Interesting note: Back in the early 90s, this concept was tried in Toronto by R&B star Keith Washington, who had opened a lounge here with performers & everything. Almost like Natalie’s. After a couple of months, a few people decided to have weekly & impromptu MMA street sessions (aka wild fights) that sent people scattering for their lives. Needless to say, the club closed down before it made its real mark.

** Also, Guy did actually come back with an album in 2000 called Guy III. But much like Wayne Gretzky in a St. Louis Blues uniform, we try to forget that actually happened. Let’s move on before we start remembering again.

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Cal Cee // South Shore Ave

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