2008 is Done, Time for 2009

Skillz’ annual rap up:

2008 Rap Up-clean – Skillz
This year has been pretty crazy. I mean this is going to go down in history as a year to remember! Anything that could have happened probably happened this year. I know you’ll probably see all kinds of 2008 reviews but these are the stories that meant something to me. Enjoy;
(In no Particular order)

The most important and #1 event that took place this year was Nov 4th 2008. You all know what I’m talking about. That was the night that  Barrack Hussein Obama won the presidential election! This was something that no one ever expected to happen. I truly never thought that I would see it in my lifetime, maybe Boogie’s but not mine. History in the making. A change we can believe in!!!

The AIG bailout- This was crazy because this was the first time something like this hit so close to home. You always think ‘ that’s messed up what’s happening to them‘, never realizing that you could be them. You know?

The price of gas goes through the roof- Remeber when gas was like $1 something? Yeah the good old days… This year we saw gas as high as over $5 in my area. It was crazy, and then after hurricane Ike hit Texas, while the rest of the country’s gas prices were going down, Atlanta had the nerve to have a shortage on gas! Something about the grade of gas being higher than the rest of the country or some other foolishness.

The $700 billion bailout – Crazy!! No one was safe!! first Bear Sterns, then Lehman Brothers, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and a host of other banks and institutions fell, were bought out by others (Bank of America racked up!) or the Feds took control of them. Everybody’s money was funny.

A metrolink train in California collides head on with another because one of the drivers was *allegedly* texting while driving and missed the signals to stop.

 The Olympics – Micheal Phelps won a gang of gold medals. Not really a swim fan but it’s still an incredible feat to get gold in every event you participate in. Usain Bolt of Jamaica set fire to the track! He also took the gold in every event he participated in, but was overshadowed by his ‘so called’ lack of sportmanship by basically jogging the last 30 meters of the record breaking 9.65 sec 100 meter dash. They say he could have done at least 9.5 or maybe even 9.4 had he gone full out. I really don’t care because he does what he does. When you’re the best you do this. * sidenote: whatever happened to sportsmanship in pro sports period? No one follows through or plays the fundamentals that were embedded in them as kids. taking off on defense, not shaking hands at the end of game w/ opponent etc..* Dude from America came in second to Usain in the 200 but stepped on the line and was disqualified. That had to suck to know that you’re the second fastest but technically some other dude gets the award.

Lil Wayne sells a milli in a week- Whether you’re a weezy fan or not or even if you’re not a fan of hip hop/rap music you have to respect someone that sells that many records in one week. Especially in this economy and with the music industry’s troubles selling records. Now whether cash money bought 900,000 of those is unknown. The jury is still out on that one. Still think Jeezy’s Recession > Weezy’s Carter 3. It was cool but that’s just my opinion.

We lost some great ones this year as well – Heath Ledger, Bobby Fischer, Yves Saint Laurent, Bo Diddly, George Carlin, Jesse Helms, Eartha Kitt, Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes,  and Betty Page. I’m sure I missed somebody because I just thought of those names off the dome. Oh yeah, and Paul Newman.

There has been some wack music to come out this year, but some good music as well. I’ll just talk about the good… Here’s my list of artists that got heavy rotation from me in ’08 (google them):
Wale
Marky
The Cool Kids
Kid Cudi
Charles Hamilton
Young Jeezy
Black Milk
Talib Kweli
Jay Z
Nas
Jazmine Sullivan
Santogold
Kanye West
Lil Wayne
The Game
Ludacris
The Insomniaks
Kidz In The Hall
Lyriciss
Michael Jackson
N.E.R.D.
Raheem DeVaughnn
Robin Thicke
Shontelle
X.O.
Theo
Ra The MC
UCB
Chuck Brown
Trey Songz
New Edition
Joy Denalane
John Legend
Anthony Hamilton
Jamie Foxx
Frankie J
Scarface
The list could literally go on and on, but those were the ones that came to mind. As you can see I mixed in some ‘underground’ with ‘mainstream’ along with some ‘new school’ matched up against ‘old school’.

So those were my highlights and lowlights of 2008. Well those were the ones that mattered to me. I’m sure there were more I mean it was a leap year so 366 days plus an extra second so I know someone else may have your favorite moment out there if it’s not here.

Oh yeah, in ’09 can we please bury the word or term ‘swagger, swagga, swag’ or any interpolation of the word? I mean it has been so overused this year it’s ridiculous! When Old Spice comes out with a whole line (Body spray, body wash and deodorant) named ‘Swagger’ you know it’s a wrap! once mainstream gets ahold of it, it’s over!

Okay I’m out. See you in ’09!!!

Sincere