Okay soo this isn’t actually a rap album, but as the curator of #RushHourRap it’s my duty to tell you that a pretty well known rapper has pivoted and dropped one of the best punk albums I’ve heard in a long, long time. This is wildly impressive from a rapper that is known by most people as the guy that picked a fight with and got a fiery diss track response from Eminem.
While 2020 continues to be one of the shittiest years on record, MGK is riding a hot streak like no other. Pairing up with arguably the best drummer on the planet in Travis Barker he dropped a legit album in an entirely different genre, performed at the VMAs, oh and he landed Megan Fox too.
Not a bad year for Colson Baker.
You’ve probably at least heard about the music video for “bloody valentine” because it essentially announced his relationship with Megan Fox, who was still married to Brian Austin Green at the time.
But the entire album is awesome and angsty in a way that all your favorite CDs from high school were. I wouldn’t be shocked to hear a few of these on the Top 100 whether it’s concert for aliens, forget me too (ft. Halsey), all i know (ft. Trippie Redd), my ex’s best friend (ft. Blackbear). Point is, the album bangs. Check it out below.
And just like that the Boston Celtics are one game away from elimination in the Eastern Conference Finals. One more underwhelming performance and the Celtics will be on the wrong end of a gentleman’s sweep. It’s infuriating to watch because before Game 4 the Celtics led for the large majority of minutes played only to blow leads late. Game 4 itself was just a sloppy game for Boston all around despite the near miracle comeback in the closing seconds.
Jayson Tatum was AWFUL in the first half going 0-6 including four three pointers to go into the half with zero points, which was the first time he’s done that all season. He must have found a bottle of Michael Jordan’s Secret Stuff from Space Jam in the locker room though as he dropped 28 points in the final 24 minutes of the game.
His explosion in the second half just made Tatum’s first half struggles look even worse by comparison though. He is arguably the most talented player in this series and he was constantly dribbling out the shot clock and settling for shitty fadeaway threes. So much so that the studio analysts at halftime wondered aloud if he was injured. Why is a 6’8″ career 83% free throw shooter not attacking the rim if his shot isn’t falling? That is something that Tatum needs to understand better if he is going to take the next jump to superstardom.
This team still struggles mightily against the zone defense that my high school team used to play. Marcus Smart seemed to be the only player capable of driving and effectively kicking the ball out to shooters. It was something that Van Gundy pointed out during the game as Smart was the only player that was looking at the rim as he drives before kicking it out. Otherwise the defenders are just waiting for the outlet pass. The Celtics have been rendered completely helpless against the most basic defense for long stretches of this series. The broadcast team even suggested this may be the longest a team has ever stuck with a zone defense in any playoff series ever. Ay caramba.
If not for Gordon Hayward this team would have already been en route to their offseason vacations. While he didn’t light up the stat sheet in Game 3 he was a tangible force moving the ball and making a couple clutch shots. In Game 4 he was much more comfortable shooting the ball as he finished with 14 points. Hayward is the only player the Celtics can bring off the bench to consistently get buckets at this point, which is killing them. The rest of the bench had 8 combined points on Wednesday night. In Game 3 the bench scored a combined 11 points outside of Hayward, a respectable 16 (9 from Kanter) in Game 2, and 18 in Game 1 with 11 from Brad Wanamaker.
Tyler Herro is a goddamn baller, plain and simple. To be honest, we probably should have expected this dude to become an assassin based solely on his Draft Night fit.
Allegedly Danny Ainge was set to take the Kentucky shooter at No. 14 in last year’s draft before Pat Riley snatched him up right before the Celtics at No. 13 overall. I don’t know if I believe that as Danny tends to draft project athletes with high ceilings more than shooters, but goddamnit has Herro made it hurt to watch what could have been. He absolutely crushed the Celtics in Game 4 with a cool 37 points and was generally unstoppable with a clean look.
Marcus Smart continues to be the ultimate enigma making incredible and boneheaded plays within seconds of each other. Like when he laid out onto the floor to knock a loose ball to Jaylen Brown, who was then fouled. The Celtics then inbounds the ball at half court and Smart gets the ball only to immediately lose his handle and turn the ball over.
The No. 1 most hated play of the night goes to the C’s doubling the ball handler late in the 4th and leaving Goran Dragic wide fucking open for a 3 on a night where he scored 22 points. And you could see on the replay that Smart thought Jaylen Brown was going to rotate and cover the shooter as he was visibly upset and clapping at the young forward.
The officiating was generally awful both ways, but hey Tony Brothers was on the court so did we expect anything less? I also don’t get the Hayward foul call on this three pointer from Goran. I know he is technically “in the shooter’s space” but jesus christ what’s he supposed to do there?
The final play of the game was also a disaster. Down 3 with 1 second remaining the Celtics were out of timeouts so it was kind of a fire drill hail mary play, but I still hated what they came up with. Needing a TB12-esque picture perfect throw the Celtics opt for center Daniel Theis to make the inbounds pass. I understand Theis isn’t really a 3 point threat there, but he’s also the worst passer on the floor being asked to make a pinpoint cross court pass with 1 second remaining. Not surprisingly he heaved one into traffic that never had a chance.
Is Bam Adebayo hurt? He was holding his wrist constantly in the last few minutes of the game after a collision with I believe Jaylen Brown under the hoop. He stayed in the game, but even the broadcast made note of how he was constantly waiving off the athletic trainers despite being in obvious pain. If Adebayo is injured that would be a huge factor in a do or die Game 5 as the Celtics have had no answers for the big man.
So the Celtics have an off night before Game 5 on Friday night to consider whether they have the fortitude required to push this series to the brink. They’ll need to win three straight against a Heat team that has been tough to beat when it comes to neck stepping time in the 4th quarter. If the Celtics bow out in five it would be a huge letdown, especially in a season where the path was seemingly cleared for them to reach the Finals. No Giannis, no Kawhi or LeBron in the East, just a scrappy Heat team led by a guy in Jimmy Butler that is on his fourth team in four years. After some serious collapses down the stretch and the much publicized blowout in the locker room after Game 2, if this team doesn’t make a series out of this I would not be surprised to see Danny make some tough decisions with the construction of this roster.
Until the final buzzer sounds though I’ll hold out hope just because we’ve seen crazier things happen. In times like this I like to think back to that infamous Kevin Millar quote back in 2004. “Don’t let us win today.”
While it may not have been the way he pictured it, Bryson DeChambeau won his first career major, dominating the field to win the US Open at a Winged Foot course that crushed most of his peers.
DeChambeau is one of the most polarizing figures in all of golf as people seem to either love him or hate him. I for one don’t understand the hate for a young American challenging the status quo in a sport full of stuffy unwritten rules. I fully admit that he is an interesting cat and has a way of rocking the boat (bitching and moaning to officials) that probably rubs some people the wrong way, but golf is a sport that has been begging for some novelty. Bring on the guy who goes out of his way to do things differently like just randomly deciding to put on 40 pounds
Or a guy that is custom designing his irons so they are all the same exact length. Odd, but hey it works. It’s not like Bryson is showing up in jorts and giving people the DX suck it sign after bombing one off the tee like he’s Kenny Powers. He’s just looking at the way things have always been done and said well what if I do it differently?
Bryson has been criticized a ton because he always tries to just overpower courses like he’s Happy Gilmore.
That criticism was especially loud this past weekend as the US Open took place on a ruthlessly tight and unforgiving course like Winged Foot, but it worked for DeChambeau in a huge way as he dominated the field. He was the only player to finish under par and finished a full 6 strokes ahead of Matthew Wolff who melted down on Sunday to finish in second place. Bryson basically punted on accuracy and figured if I can just bomb it as far as possible, the course is set up in a way that I can recover from most roughs.
The front of every green is open and allows for a run up shot which is why WF can be played from the rough if you can get close enough to the green and other sites which are blocked, don’t allow you to play from the rough.
You know, assuming your ball doesn’t end up with a lie like the grass in a public park that hasn’t been mowed in six months because the entire landscaping crew got furloughed.
DeChambeau’s percentage of fairways hit was ugly at 41%, but because of that extra 20-30 yards he was getting off the tee, he was able to pick up a legit advantage like grabbing an eagle on a long Par 5 on Sunday.
If you watch golf every weekend you’re well aware of DeChambeau’s “Scientist” nickname, but if you’re even a casual fan this isn’t stuff that you would automatically know. I feel like I’ve heard it 20 times, but it doesn’t make it any less insane that DeChambeau uses a driver with a 5 degree loft. That is absolutely bananas. Most guys are using 9.5-10.5 degree drivers and DeChambeau figured out if he swings at a fast enough speed he can maximize his distance off the tee by basically swinging with a frying pan for a club. I mean his putter has more loft than his driver for christ’s sake.
Does he fairly get criticized for pissing and moaning to the officials more than your average bear? Yup, the fire ants complaint was a Hall of Fame moment of unintentional comedy.
— Stu Motown #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) July 30, 2020
But even yesterday he knew the rule where he was close enough to a sprinkler head in the rough just off the green that it warranted a drop in any direction within a club’s length. Granted he was up a handful of shots at the time, but knowing that rule allowed him to move his ball from the rough onto the green. Cannot hate on that awareness.
While the celebratory zoom call with his parents got a little awkward as a crowd surrounded and millions at home watched the private convo, but it was hard to not get choked up witnessing his initial reaction to seeing his parents.
So Bryson’s an unconventional guy, but with Tiger and Phil at the tail ends of their careers we could use some more unconventional guys and personalities on tour to keep this game growing beyond its core audience.
If you’ve been watching the NBA playoffs at all then you’ve been hearing a lot of Big Sean lately as they’ve been using tracks off his new Detroit 2 album over game highlights. (The NBA does this every year and plays one artist ad nauseam, it was Logic last year and it was Kendrick the year before that). D2 is a return to form for Big Sean and it’s peak features a collab with the late Nipsey Hussle on “Deep Reverence.” Not to be a rap hipster, but I wanted to throw it back to 2010 for a minute when Big Sean was ready to blow but still grinding on the mixtape game. The Don Cannon produced “High Rise” is one of the first Big Sean tracks I heard and is still one of my favorites. It just embodies everything about him as Big Sean has always exuded youth, charm, and an effortless cool. Tracks like this remind you what its like to be 20 years old again. Just as he predicted in his music, not long after this Big Sean was Finally Famous.
I didn't get to ask Ben Affleck about his Dunkin' Donuts order, but he went deep with me on the making of THE TOWN. With input from Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Chris Cooper, Titus Welliver, and more. https://t.co/PynjK5Z4N6
There are two sides to the coin of being from the Boston area. On one side you have the small city, one-for-all, all-for-one camaraderie, the fact that we win sports a ton, and I don’t know, leaves changing? Sure. On the other side, for almost the same reasons as previously stated as a positive, you are naturally inclined to become almost violently territorial and also protective of your city, it’s culture, and, in this case, it’s many, many portrayals.
So needless to say when I signed onto the bird app today and not only stumbled upon some disagreement with “The Town” being the “ultimate Boston movie” based solely on a few extremely questionable alternatives, but actually found people hating on the movie, I was ripshit. No clever wordplay. No exposition. I was pissed. Work is really busy. We can’t find a tee time within 100 miles of our general area without waking up to make it 5am Monday morning. The Celtics can’t close out a game even with adorable Deuce Tatum practically BEGGING them to from the sidelines. I don’t. Need. This. Shit. Right. Now. But this is my job. I take this seriously. I’ve sacrificed too much to be at this keyboard to let this asinine debate rage on without me yelling at clouds about it.
First of all lets get some bias out of the way: To summarize things a bit I would not be here if it was not for “The Town.” As stated before Red and I met working the door at a bar in town and spent many an early morning/late night after our shift getting hammered watching “The Town.” It arguably could be called one of the catalysts to this very blog. We like “The Town,” ok?
But let’s start there in earnest. After all there are two parts to this debate: 1.) Is “The Town” good? 2.) What is The Ultimate “Boston Movie”?
Addressing number one, with my bias dragging me down like Randy Marsh’s engorged ballsack, it’s honestly hard to find a ton of flaws in the Chahlestown-based caper. The easiest thing to point out would be the bad Boston accents, particularly in the case of Blake Lively and Jon Hamm’s number two – you could also add Hamm simply leaving his out to that list. However that is the risk of any “Boston” movie so I don’t think you can really even judge such a movie based on the accents anymore. It’s not quantifiable enough. Everyone is going to have different opinions. Plot-wise, to oversimplify things, “The Town” took a classically conflicted character (Ben Affleck, a bank robber), who is waking up to the possibility of better things in life, including a love interest (who happens to be one of his latest robbery victims) but is trapped by his past (literally the guy running his robbery gang threatens to kill the girl if he leaves). Add in some time and location-sensitive details (the opioid epidemic) and you really do have a great story. There is a fantastic car chase scene, a couple of “The Italian Job”-esque misdirections, and some great acting. What the fuck is the issue? I’ll tell you what the issue is.
::Clears throat::
People who are either FROM (as in born/raised inside the area codes of) this city or think they know it best find some sort of validation in hating on its portrayals. Its like when people come out of the woodwork defending celebrity, athlete, or just random defendant XYZ when they are charged with a crime. “I knew them in high school they wouldn’t do that.” O you mean your buddy saw him at 7/11 once? Fuck off. No one is impressed. But that’s the thing. Every time a new Boston movie comes out you get eye rolls, not always without reason, from its citizens because that is not the EXACT Boston they have experienced, which would be an IMPOSSIBLE thing to portray. Sheesh.
Now onto our second topic.
What IS the ultimate Boston movie? What, as Sean McGuire would put it, encapsulates the city that invented America? What are even the criterion? I guess I could name a few, not to pass myself off as the expert, but just to set some sort of parameters when evaluating our options. These don’t make or break a movie’s chances mind you, as shitty movies can contain all of the below. But it can help us to validate our choices.
-Some amount of smug, dry, and/or dark humor. Have to have it. We are a miserable people and we are proud of it. -Fisticuffs. Whoever said fighting solves nothing never left Oregon. -A difficult friendship. Whether it involves growing apart or the inability to do so, there are people we’d throw down for that we wish we wouldn’t. -Coffee/beer. This one seems dumb but if I don’t see someone getting their morning Joe or after work beverage on in a Boston movie it’s weird. -An implication of local pride. There are a couple of good movies based here that don’t really mention it and quite frankly, could be set anywhere. “Boston” movies have to have characters that bleed boycotted tea. -At least one reference to different classes. Nothing says 617, from when the Orange Line was elevated through now, when Seaport apartments cost more than two Brockton houses, than people from different income brackets being at odds.
So there we are. Cool? Cool.
One movie I am going to address riiiight the fuck away because I saw it nominated for the top spot was “Spotlight.” “Spotlight” was a well made movie featuring a terrific cast that told the story of the Boston Globes’ uncovering of the catholic church sex abuse scandal, arguably the most important local story of our time this side of the marathon bombing. With that said, it’s, well, predictable. And I’m sorry but true stories just don’t do it for me because, ya know, you know what happens? “Spotlight” also is INCREDIBLY boring. And again, I hate to say that about such a well made movie, but it’s literally two hours of people doing research and conducting interviews. Nope, not for me. So if you think “Spotlight” is the ultimate Boston movie you simply lack enough excitement in your life.
“The Town” indeed should be again mentioned as a contender. It’s up there. It has all the criteria as listed above. It really doesn’t have a ton of holes. I guess being such a “genre” movie (bank robbery/heist) sort of pigeon holes it and does not allow it to explore other elements (addiction, etc.) but that’s just fine.
“Fever Pitch” was god awful. Shut up. Next.
“Good Will Hunting” is an obvious choice for the top spot. Looking back at our categories, there are fisticuffs aplenty, including a notably avoided scrap with some rich kid Hahvid students that checks another box. There’s a probably unhealthy loyalty to South Boston. Will has a complicated friendship/relationship with just about everyone. There’s a pervasive dark humor about never rising above the status quo, except maybe to be a shepherd of all things. Almost every scene features one of the guys handing another either a coffee or more commonly, a beer. Including a lunch break on a demolition job which I always found odd.
Beyond that, well, I refer to “Good Will Hunting” as God’s movie. I watch it every other month. It brings you all the way down and build you back up to a peak of optimism on the back of an incredible performance by Robin Williams.
“The Departed” is another movie to give serious thought to. Which is to say, you have to give serious thought to a Boston movie centered around organized crime, moreso one that includes a loose portrayal of Whitey Bulger. For as much as we don’t talk or think about it much organized crime, be it Irish, Italian or a mix of the two, has been woven into the fabric of our fair city for probably forever. That is however, as we agreed, bonus points. In “The Departed” we know Billy (Leo) skews booze in favor of cranberry juice but we saw other characters imbibe. Billy Costigan also drank a fateful cup of coffee before finally sleeping with his shrink. Fisticuffs? Of course. Local pride? Well the dark, self-deprecating humor we’ve alluded to allows the characters to hate where they are from while also loving it. Also featured are possibly the two most complicated friendships of all, where Billy and Colin both love and loathe Frank Costello, the Whitey Bulger stand-in played by Jack (no last name needed).
It’s become en vogue to hate on The Departed’s flaws (HOW DID THEY NOT KNOW THE NEW GUY WAS THE RAT?!). And I can get that, to a point (hey fuckos he was supposed to be undercover for like, years.) But overall it holds up as a solid mob movie and a riveting tale of betrayal, deceit, and loyalty.
“My Best Friend’s Girl” is an underrated comedy but could have literally been set in any city that hosts a marathon and allows Dane Cook within its city limits.
“Mystic River” is another entry, albeit another that has been criticized in hindsight. I for one long considered Clint Eastwood’s saga of love, loss, and revenge as my favorite movie. It checks the boxes of all our categories, including a quintuple check in the “complicated friendship” box. There maybe not be a more fucked up group of friends than Dave, Sean, and Jimmy, as much as it was none of their fault.
“Gone Baby, Gone” is a personal favorite but one I can’t consider because a lot of people hate it. It again checks all the boxes but I guess was considered forced when it came to the actual “Boston movie” category.
“Boondock Saints” is a fun shoot-em-up that one would think was made by aliens after a brief explanation of the Irish/Irish-American experience in Boston. There is literally nothing complicated about it. Sorry.
“Southie” is a solid, old Donnie Wahlberg outing that never quite delivers on its promise. Same goes for “Bluehill Avenue”.
Finally, “Black Irish” is a truly great movie I again can’t push for the top spot because not enough people have seen it, which does matter. That and a couple of details that don’t make sense time-period wise (a girl getting sent away to have an abortion and a guy shining shoes for a living in modern South Boston) make this a non-factor. You should still ABSOLUTELY see this one.
The Verdict: “Good Will Hunting”
Penned by then-up and comers Affleck and Damon and directed by Gus Van Sant, the emotional tale of aimless, brawling, but genius Will finding some purpose in life with the help of a shrink (Williams) that shares some of the same pain is about as Boston as it gets.
SNL returns from its coronavirus hiatus and kicks off a new season October 3, and with the election only a month later we all expected to see a lot of politics on the show this October. We got a clue of what to expect today, as the show announced that Jim Carrey will be playing Joe Biden this fall.
Just like he did with Trump four years ago, Lorne Michaels is pulling in a ringer to play Joe Biden this season. While it’s always a bit disappointing to see a big role like this go to a guest and not a cast member, this could work. About 6’2, 180 pounds, big teeth, kinda gangly? Yeah, this could definitely work.
Even with last season cut short due to coronavirus, Joe Biden was still able to make quite a few appearances. “Joe Biden” appeared on six of SNL’s 15 live shows last year. The role was a bit up in the air, though, as three men played Biden over the course of about five months. Woody Harrelson made three appearances as Biden and gave us this all-time line.
John Mulaeny took his memorable turn as Biden on Leap Day:
And Jason Sudeikis, who played Biden on the show when he was veep, made two cameo appearances as Biden last season.
With Carrey in place, it looks like the show won’t be forced to go with Biden-by-committee again this year. With two old pros as the candidates, the SNL debates this fall should be some of the best in the show’s history.
#Bucs coach Bruce Arians on Tom Brady: "He looked like Tom Brady in practice all the time so it’s kind of unusual to see that in a ballgame because they didn’t do things that we didn’t get ready for. Everything they did we thought we were ready for.''
Bruce Arians came out of the gates FIRING on Sunday after losing the first game of the Tom Brady era and if I were Brady I would be bullshit for getting thrown under the bus in Week ONE. I’m half expecting Brady and Gronk to drop a Hit Em Up remix dissing Arians before next weekend.
Its been widely reported that one of the reasons Tom Brady left New England, other than it was just time for a change of scenery, is that his relationship with Belichick had started to grate on him. Belichick treated Brady like a first year player (or Fucking Johnny Foxboro according to Giselle) and gave him just as much criticism as the next guy in the locker room. Except Belichick did it privately. You never heard a word about this in press conferences even if Brady played like garbage, which he rarely did. Welp, if getting criticized privately bothered Brady he must love whats going on in Tampa Bay right now.
Arians went out of his way to very publicly blame both interceptions on Brady. Now I’m no film geek so I’m not sitting here watching the All-22, but I would bet my non-existent house on the fact that Tom Brady is reading coverages better than Mike Evans.
To paraphrase the great Katt Williams “…maybe we should stop beating our kids……publicly.”
Even if it was TB12’s fault, you just overhauled your entire team and moved heaven and earth to bring the greatest player of all time to a city known for nothing but strip clubs and you immediately rip the guy the first chance you get? Now that he has a real QB in the room, Arians is like Kelly Kapoor in a blazer.
Granted, Brady isn’t going to just go into the tank and pout because his coach criticized him on TV, but uhhh this ain’t exactly helpful. I had this discussion with Big Z the other day, but this is literally the worst offseason ever for a 43-year-old QB to change teams. As Big Z put it, meetings were outlawed and preseason games cancelled.
Some people thought it came off as Arians yet again throwing his QB under the bus, most notably Emmanuel Acho was chirping the Bucs coach.
But I thought it was all Jameis’ fault??
Bruce Arians QB’s ALWAYS have career high interceptions.
The problems went far beyond the QB for Tampa though as they were an undisciplined mess on Sunday with tons of penalties, miscommunications, and ugly plays like the muffed kickoff return that two Bucs had to legit work together to somehow pull off.
If, and this is a gigantic if, the Bucs can get their shit together they are obviously a very talented team and can do some damage in the NFC. I have never doubted Tom Brady once in my life, so I’m certainly not going to start now, but they better get organized.
I woke up to the news that old friend and former Patriot Stephen Gostkowski missed FOUR kicks last night, including an extra point, and I just cringed. Granted one of them was tipped at the line, but holy hell what a disaster for the former Patriots place kicker.
Gostkowski missed 3 Field Goals and 1 Extra Point to leave 10 (!!) points off the board for the Titans (-3)
Now to be fair Stephen Gostkowski was statistically one of the best kickers in the league when he was with the Patriots. And it says a lot that the Pats started just their third kicker in a season opener in the last 20 years on Sunday. However, I never felt 100% comfortable with him kicking in late game situations. I wondered if maybe that was just be me remembering some isolated incidents, but then I went and actually looked it up. Nope, completely justified.
Missed extra point in SB LI
Missed FG AND missed extra point in SB LII
Missed 46 yarder in SB LIII
Missed extra point in the 2015 AFC Championship
Missed game winning FG to lose to Arizona in 2012
Belichick not trusting him and going for it on 4th and 13 at the 32 in SB XLII
Granted he didn’t finish the season due to injury, but he also missed four extra points in 2019.
So best of luck to Gostkowski in Tennessee, love ya, mean it, but Titans fans you are in for a wild ride. Now excuse me while I return to my team as they flip flop between a career journeyman in Nick Folk and a kicker the Pats drafted in the 5th round before cutting!
With last week marking the two year anniversary of Mac Miller’s death I randomly heard one of his best songs on my shuffle: PA Nights. After years spent building buzz through mixtapes and YouTube music videos, Mac dropped his debut album Blue Slide Park in 2011. The album received mixed reviews, but PA Nights was a gem that offered a glimpse into the more insightful tracks he would become known for later.
Music taste is subjective so I understand people that like, love, or loathe Mac, but this was an artist that I listened to a ton in my formative years of college. He also had yet to hit mainstream so it was one of those artists that you feel sort of “in the club” with when they do finally hit it big. Then he released Blue Slide Park when I was living on my own after graduating from college and working a shit job in a state that I’d never spent more than a few hours at a time. I think thats how people form connections with music; some song or album becomes the soundtrack for a moment in your life and the two are forever fused together.
A lot of Blue Slide Park was Mac Miller appeasing the masses with the party music that was expected of him at the time. But it also sounded like a kid just trying to deal with all the changes in his life as a result of growing up.
Mac eventually got away from the frat rap that he became known for on K.I.D.S. and Best Day Ever as he made more experimental and at times depressing works like Watching Movies With the Sound Off and his legitimately soulful Swimming. And if you’re still not feeling misty eyed remembering Mac, his last album Circles was released posthumously by his family along with this note.
I heard “Tie My Hands” for the first time in a minute and it really has aged incredibly well as a biting political commentary. With everything going on in this country right now it feels just as relevant today as it did in 2008 when Weezy released his post-Katrina anthem to New Orleans.
They try to tell me keep my eyes open My whole city under water, some people still floatin’ Then they wonder why black people still voting, Cause your presidents still chokin’
Take away the football team, the basketball team Now all we got is me to represent New Orleans No governor, no help from the mayor Just a steady beatin’ heart, and a wish and a prayer
But the song isn’t meant solely to look back and mourn whats already happened. With the help of Robin Thicke’s silky vocals, Weezy turns it into an optimistic ode; something for people still reeling from a tragedy to look forward to.
And if you come from under the water then there’s fresh air Just breathe baby, gods got a blessing to spare Yes, I know the process has so much stress But its the progress that feels the best Cause I came from the projects straight to success And your next, so try they can’t steal your pride its inside Then find it and keep on grinding Cause in every dark cloud there’s a silver lining
With that we’re left with one of Lil Wayne’s more underrated tracks, which is easy to forget in an album like Tha Carter III that’s littered with monster hits.
The 300s 