Jason Toney

Oh No, Let's Go: Conversations at a Prince Show

"Listen to the pouring rain, listen to it pour" - Bruce Ruffin, Rain (Trojan Box Set - UK Hits) Girl #1: I hope he plays Sexy M.F. Me: I don't think so. He's a Jehovah's Witness now. Girl #1: So, No Cream? My mom loves that song. Me: No Erotic City. No Darlin' Nikki. Girl #1: No Dirty Diana? Me: ...

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The comic: So, he's a Jehovah's Witness, huh. Me: I'm hoping it's the Jehovah's Witness Protection Program. The comic: Why? Me: I heard Vanity has a direct line to the lord now and I'm sure she's got an APB out for his soul.

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Girls 1, 2, and 3 (at varying points throughout the song): Isn't this a Sinead O'Connor song? Me: Yes, originally written and performed by Prince. Girl #2: Are you sure? Me: Yes, I could be mistaken but I think Prince was performing it on the 1999 album or earlier. Girl #2: 1999? Oh no, the Sinead O'Connor version came out in '90. Me: ...

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Me: Prince won. The comic: Wait, doesn't Chris Rock do this bit? Me: The Who's Better?: Prince or Michael Jackson thing? The comic: Yeah. Me: Yes. But this is no joke. Prince won. The comic: Yeah.

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Me: Maybe Appolonia will be a special guest. Girl #3: Who is Appolonia? Me: She's the love interest in Purple Rain. Girl #3: I wasn't allowed to see Purple Rain when I was little. Me: Probably because of Appolonia's boobs. She was also on Falcon Crest, though. Girl #3: Oooh, I love Lorenzo Lamas. Me: ...

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The comic: Prince is god. Me: No. Remember, he's in the Jehovah's Witness Protection Program. The comic: He must know god, though, right? Me: Oh yeah. He's got her number and I bet he's made her come up out them panties. The comic: Damn.

Culture Log Jam

"What would I do if we were perfect/Where would I go for dissapointment?" - Van Hunt, Down Here in Hell (Van Hunt) I haven't thought about Trent Lott since December of 2002 but apparently he's been thinking about cable. I spend more a month on cable than I do electricity but it's worth every penny. The call for cheaper cable likely means a decrease in it's technological advances and the shrinking of a market that is already dominated by two companies. While this article starts with some annoying condescension, I plan on watching Lakers Living Room on Tuesday. A varied women's perspective on sports is always welcome. I always appreciate Cheryl Miller's commentary and interview work on TNT's broadcasts and love when ladies like Michele Tafoya get the opportunity to take a critical look at men's sports on ESPN. While I doubt we'll hear any thoughts on what it's like for these women to watch an accused rapist play, It should be interesting. I thought I had given up friendster-like social networking services for lent but George invited me to Ryze and I joined. Who else is there? I am also on Tribe (which has proven to be my favorite of those kinds of sites). I'm quitting Friendster and Orkut, though. They are so over. Orkut, in my estimation, was over before it started.

Culture Jamming is my current artistic obsession.

Cargo: is it a gay magazine, is it a straight magazine, is it gay passing for straight, is it perhaps bisexual? Is this where we are in the cultural landscape now? We're attempting to determine the sexuality of a style monthly? I haven't peeped Cargo yet. I'm too busy flipping through the pages of Complex. Mark Ecko's urban consumer culture rag might be a little too obsessed with sneakers and a little too New York-centric but a lot of their fashion tips actually make sense for a non-style focused person like myself. Maybe, though, with sexually ambiguous men's fashion rags we'll hear more conversations between men like this: guy: Does this shirt make me look gay? dude: Yeah, it kinda does. guy: Great! And, finally, seeing The Sopranos and Dawn of the Dead this week has done nothing to help my rampant fear of chainsaws and unruly mobs. Update: related article: social networking is broken (also found via mr. kelly)

Cuz this DJ be Jason T.

“For all us caught up in the hatrix and not trying to practice love we can get away, get away, get away” – Daft Punk, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Neptunes Remix (Daft Club) “What kind of stuff do you spin,” she asked. It was the finest compliment I could think to receive. I walked into a diner with my geometrically shaped glasses, my soul kane tee, my messenger bag and my aura and the hostess was sure I was a DJ. So sure that she doesn’t ask, “Are you a DJ?” or “You’re a DJ, aren’t you?” No, she jumped directly to the second inquiry. I loved that. “I’m not a DJ,” I said, “but if I was, I’d probably be a hip hop/rare grooves kind of cat. Do you listen to KCRW?” She nodded. Her pale green eyes are distracting. They are similar in shade to my mother’s. “My sets would be like Chocolate City with random rock & pop records thrown in. I’d just want to spin a bunch of everything but mostly I’m a groove head with a tendency to want to hear bass when I’m on the dance floor.” “I love D n’ B,” she said. An elderly couple walked in. She eyed them and then turned back to me, “I’ll take you to your table.” “Go ahead and seat them,” I replied, “the rest of my party isn’t even here yet.” She did and returned. “What I really need to hear, though,” she continued, “is some real soulful house. I can’t deal with all that techno stuff. Do you know any good places to go hear some and dance to some?” I pointed her in the right direction. We talked about break-dancing and pop locking and how girls tend to get good at footwork because their lower center of gravity makes back and floor spins difficult. My lunch partner arrived. The green-eyed girl who’s mistaken me for a turntablist seats us. After lunch, I made my way back to the hostess stand. “Hey, we talked for like 15 minutes and I don’t even know your name.” She shared it. We shook hands. I passed her my card. “Drop me a line when you’re ready to pop-lock again. We can hang out.” Regulators. Mount up.

digital hollywood

"Redefine tomorrow by rejoicing in today/Let the celebration ignite the flame of hope/Surrender your soul to the music and believe" - Intense & Voice of 6th Avenue, You Gotta Believe (Marquess Wyatt: Horizons) Two great tastes that hopefully will taste great together. G4 needs an infusion of the 'it's hip to be square' vibe from Techtv and needs to move away from catering to kids. When the average age of a gamer is 28, you've got to have more edge. I wonder, though, how non-comcast cable providers are going to deal with the eventual merging of two channels into one. I've been downloading tracks that are unavailable but, other than that, I'm not doing any music file sharing. Somebody is, though. Is it you? I do get frustrated (like Usher's complete Confessions album not being available on itunes so I can't buy 'Yeah!' without buying the whole joint in the store). I've changed my buying patterns so that I go out to buy albums of artists I really care about or who I want to see do well in soundscan so they get more buzz. I buy individual tracks, replacement albums, and new artists I'm testing out on itunes. I like doing it this way and it's become very natural for me to think about music purchasing in this way. And, personally, I feel better not having the illegal shit. I have a DVR from Time Warner Cable so my experience is different but Kottke wants to know your Tivo gripes. My general DVR gripe is the deletion process (it could be simpler). I'd also love it even more if it broke shows into sections or acts (particularly network and basic cable programs that have the same basic act/commercial break format) so that I could jump to the end of a show (like American Idol Wednesdays where I just want to know who got voted off and don't care about any of the other BS*). I'd also like to be able to organize my shows into folders so that I don't have to look at a long list of Chappelle's Show episodes and unwatched Screen Savers programs when I'm trying to find the show I recorded today that I want to watch today. Other than that, DVR be the illest gizmo. Convergence and integration are still the buzzwords for content development wonks like myself. I'll be trying to learn where people think we're headed in this regard at the Digital Hollywood conference on Monday. Are you going? I'm also interested in how products like DVRs and HDTV will affect the way reality tv is done. Or at least how people think it will. There's some music related industry stuff too. Hopefully it's not going to be the stuffed shirt crowd all damn day. Maybe I'll show up rockin' a mohawk just to let these fools know how real I am. And, finally, our shows have been showing gay people being "gay" for 11 years. Why ignore us in this article entirely? Shouldn't good criticism have a counterpoint to the argument you're putting forth?

Stick and Move

"I'm goan keep dippin'/i'm goan keep switchin' lanes/i'm goan keep ridin'/and you know ain't a damn thing changed/you pop lock/we pop glocks/i just came to have some fun/and get drunk in the club/i came to party/born and raised/that's why i love LA" - Knoc-turnal, Love LA (The Way I Am) It's not just me, right? This album cover does look like Janet Jackson's nipple accessory. This notion that you've got to be "connected" at all times is just plain crazy and other words to live by for time-challenged folks like myself. Darby Conley's an NPR nerd. I love it. Tom's right. Even though everybody likes to say "fuck" all the time, the dialogue on Deadwood is taut and enjoyable. I know I have no cool chips with which to say anything because I'm loving Britney Spears' Toxic right now but are people really digging that Mario Winans track that has a weak vocal performance over the nice Fugees sample? Why not just break out that old Fugees record. It's still hot. I've been humming How Many Mics on the daily. And, finally, it's a good week to go to the record store. While you're picking up Usher and N.E.R.D. might you consider picking up Jem's first full length and Knoc-turnal's new release? Headz of all kinds are likely to sleep on both of these.

Hangin' in a Jorry...Good Times

"Climbing out this hole with a frown on my face in the place to be" - Outkast, Ghettomusick (Speakerboxxx) 

"That show is so ghetto." 

We were discussing reality TV, as people who work in reality TV are want to do. I had mentioned earlier in the week that the only two reality TV shows that I'm watching that I'm not paid to view were American Idol and Making the Band 2. "I'm not ashamed to watch A. I. this year but MTB2 is terrible. That said, I can't look away," I had explained. 

"I watched part of Making the Band," she said later in the week, "and that one girl, Babs. Oh My God! You're right, that show is so ghetto." 

Now, I knew exactly what she meant. Outside of Ness, and Miss Stokes on occasion, these fools run around like they ain't got no sense. In the first episode, the men in the group all leave Babs at the venue while they run off with some groupies. Their manager, Jason, who at the start of the season looks early 20s but by the end of this tour will probably look 50 having to coral these fools, just wants the guys to apologize so that Babs can feel like people care about her but they aren't willing to do it. 

Not willing to apologize for some stupid shit is pretty ghetto. 

In the second episode, the band members split Dylaun's tour money because he refuses to leave New York claiming it's a probation violation (and we won't even talk about how ghetto that is) and what do we see them all doing? Going into clothing stores to buy throwback jerseys and visiting jewelers to get iced out. 

Ghetto ass motherfuckers. 

And finally, in the most recent episode, after Sara Stokes goes on some real diva shit for a minute, these negroids run around a park avenue apartment like it's the local miniature golf park jumping around and breaking shit. As Teck Money said to Ruthie, "We livin' in this beautiful house. It's beautiful! We gotta keep it nice. What if we have company?" But this person, this white person, says to me, "That show is so ghetto" and for the next 30 or so seconds my head is spinning like the carousels of a Vegas slot machine. She doesn't mean anything prejudicial by it, at least not specifically. I can't really disagree. Da Band is mad ghetto. But. But what?

Bitches Ain't Shit but Hoes and Tricks: Sexism, Feminism and Denial in hip hop

“Never lettin’ ya leave, never lettin’ ya go.” – Amerie, Can’t Let Go (All I Have) Early in Chris Rock’s Black Ambition Tour set, he jokes about his uncomfortable relationship with hip hop. Especially now that he has a daughter, he thinks more about the words. He notes, however, that women are always the people that seem to get the most amped when those misogynistic songs blare through the speakers. The lyrics could be Stick it in her ass Stick it in her ass Hoes always love it When you stick it in they ass and what is seemingly every woman in the club saying as they grind up on their man or dance with their girls? “That nigga ain’t talkin’ about me. Shiiiit. Holla!” In LA, it’s pretty much standard that you must rock something from the Snoop Dogg/Dr. Dre Chronic era in your old school set at the hip hop club. Probably the most misogynistic song on either the Doggystyle or Chronic albums is Ain’t No Fun (If My Homies Can’t Have None). Nate Dogg sings the smoothed out chorus over a silky 70s style soul loop on a song about passing a woman around like she was a joint. The girls go wild. Every damn time. They laugh. They joke. They high five. “That nigga ain’t talkin’ about me. Shiiiit. Wesst Side bitches. What?!” The key women in hip hop seem to only broach the subject of this rampant sexism by suggesting their own sexual dominance. Missy Elliot’s most recent hits all deal with her demands of men in the bedroom. On Ghostface Killah’s Tush she says, I really like you baby Do you know how to wife this lady? Give me what I want don’t talk don’t touch Unless you got a bank account to make my face blush Now shush Eat my bush And I can give you what you want Make a wush The implication being that she’s as sexually aggressive as the men and, unless you’ve got the money to back up your bravado, you better do what she asks. That’s great and all and I love a strong, sexually aware person but shouldn’t women be demanding that same respect outside the bedroom? Li'l Kim and Foxy Brown have never gotten past the sex as a weapon ideology either. According to them, the only power women have is in the pussy. Jean Grae and Ms. Dynamite aside, is the most accessible feminist voice in hip hop a man? Talib Kweli regularly broaches the subjects on his records. He consistently looks at the plight of black women in the world, if not in hip hop specifically, and rarely, if ever, makes sweeping generalizations about women in his word choice and metaphor. Is there anyone else out there challenging hip hop, challenging young black minds to consider women as something other than hoes, tricks, chickenheads, your baby’s mamma, or big mamma? Maybe it’s Erykah Badu whose Worldwide Underground album might be the preamble to the future of hip hop anyway. From the outset, she has been a soul singer intricately tied to her love of hip hop. She challenges the hip hop generation to always re-evaluate what is accepted as true. On the single from Worldwide Underground, Danger, she looks at a common archetype in hip hop, the drug dealer, and showcases what the woman at home is doing while he’s away or on lockdown. No hoes or tricks here just a strong woman taking similar risks as her partner whether she gets acknowledged for what she does or not. But, perhaps, the truest commentary on where women in hip hop are takes place later on her album on the Love of My Life Worldwide remix. The guests on the track are Bahamadia, Queen Latifah, and Angie Stone - 3 powerful female MCs who haven’t put out relevant commercial hip hop releases in 5, 10, and 20 years respectively. But the ladies in the club are dancing and cheering. “That nigga ain’t talkin’ ‘bout me.” Who is that nigga talking about then? “Excuse me, miss. What’s your name?”

You Don't Never Talk. It's Always Just Jive

“Places and spaces that I’ve been to mean so much to me.” – Jazzanova featuring Vikter Duplaix, Soon *P Smoovah Remix* (Remixed) One day into what will become my 30th year and we’re off to an inauspicious start. This was going on this afternoon. However, instead of being a member of the crowd adorned in my flag shorts with some nubile neo-hippie drawing peace signs on my face with finger paints, I was that nigger* in parking lot style traffic annoyed to all hell because I couldn’t get to my birthday lunch and a movie with the HSW (who in 3 months or so will get a new acronym – TTJ – for Time Travelin’ Jen. She’s heading into the future dontcha’ know?). This after spending the night of my birthday proper sleeping rather than dancing my ass off at Boardners or Joseph’s or Vermont or any of the other hot places I could’ve been. Crashing on my bed rather than crashing a party was necessary, though. It’s been an eventful week. So I’m in the middle of these shit-storms (well, on the fringe of these shit-storms but still getting splattered all the same) while also putting the finishing tweaks on my new baby** and trying to maintain some sense of sanity here. Plus, I’m attempting to develop some new projects in both the lands of web and television and sometimes an integration of the two. Just thinking about it all is making me tired again. But, it is the start of a New Year in my life so it’s time to make some commitments and re-commitments to myself.

1. I’m committing to taking the web content I produce, both professionally and personally, to the next level.
2. I’m committing to taking more advantage of the cultural, historical, and educational resources available to me in this wonderful city known as Los Angeles.
3. I’m committing to going dancing more.
4. I’m committing to touching more. And kissing more.
5. I’m committing to travel.
6. I’m committing to happiness. As Ricardo Villalobos said, “I have plenty of time to be sad when I’m dead.”

And also, as Cee-Lo Green and Timbaland say on I’ll Be Around (on what is rapidly becoming my favorite album of 2004) [Verse 1 - Cee-Lo] How can I possibly, be inconspicuous When my flow is fuckin' ridiculous? That's right an accent, see I’m from the south Where some of the most beautiful things come out my mouth And I’m on stage just as soon as I come out the house So I might as well give them somethin' to talk about I bust a rap to make a blind man believe in the boogey And if you came here to move then Cee’s in the boogey (holla) [Verse 2 - Timbaland] Here comes Timbaland, I’m also from the south I like them girls with big butts, and golds in they mouth I come from the back road, and a dirty house If you leave the door open, mama'll cuss ya' out I got a big dog in the front yard Best buh-lieve that bitch bite hard I gotta grand daddy who think he Joe Clark And that's how we do it 'round these parts I'm 29, bitches. Enjoy yourselves.

The Last Nigger on Hiatus

“Who is the cat with the 100 dollar bill, they gotta send it to the lab to make sure the shit is real. Mr. Nigga. Nigga. Nigga.” – Mos Def featuring Q-Tip The Abstract, Mr. Nigga (Black on Both Sides) Life is like a box when you're chocolate. – Forrest Gump…if he was black. “Yeah! What? O.K!” – Dave Chappelle as Lil' Jon Irreverence. That's what's special about Chappelle's Show. In this second season of the series, there hasn't been a single bit that was self-conscious. In the moments when doubt creeps in about the accessibility of the comedy, Dave Chappelle and his writing staff just say, “Fuck it. It's funny to us and we don't care what people think.” Not white people. Not black people. Not anyone. It has been brilliant television. After every episode, I'm so angry with myself. I can barely remember it but there was a point in the life of this site that I had that same attitude. My humor has never been that tight, smart or challenging but for a while I was in that “I just don't give a fuck…” zone. You know there's an end to that sentence right? The complete phrase is really: I just don't give a fuck about what you think because I've got some shit to say. Where has that gone? And it's not just that I've lost my devil may care posture. I've fallen on the easy crutch of lists and superficial critiques of music because my writing has been horrible of late. This isn't what negroplease.com was supposed to be. It's not where I want it to be going. I love the outlet that this virtual space all my own gives me. I can say what I want when I want without filters, edits, or reprimand. But without those checks and balances, the improving writer I hoped to become has turned into the lazy writer of the past 6 months and maybe more. I want my words to burst off the screen with the life and laughter they once had. I want what I say to matter to me again. It hasn't for a long time. And Chappelle's Show is making it look easy every week. Fuckers.

Music while on Hiatus - February Faves

"She said, 'I'm grown, I ain't gotta do what you say'" - Floetry & Mos Def, Wanna Be Where U R (Thisizzaluvsong) (Barbershop 2) The February 2004 Mix CD is:

1. Public Service Announcement - Jay-Z - DJ Danger Mouse presents The Grey Album
2. Dust- Van Hunt - Van Hunt
3. Genevieve- Greyboy - Rewind! 3
4. Mystery of Iniquity- Lauryn Hill - MTV Unplugged 2.0
5. All Falls Down- Kanye West - The College Dropout
6. Che Che Colo- Antibalas - Rewind! 3
7. She Wants to Move- N*E*R*D* - Promo Single
8. Tush (Featuring Missy Elliot)- Ghostface Killah - Promo Single
9. Get Em High (featuring Talib Kweli & Common)- Kanye West - The College Dropout
10. So Many Rappers in Love- Westside Connection - Terrorist Threats
11. Maps- The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
12. Creepin' In (with Dolly Parton)- Norah Jones - Feels Like Home
13. Rock the Casbah- The Clash - The Clash: The Singles
14. Don't Forget to Set the House on Fire Before You Crawl into Bed- The Junior Varsity - The Great Compromise
15. There's No Home for You Here- The White Stripes - Elephant
16. Space is the Place- Spaceboys - Rewind! 3
17. Universal Traveler- AIR - Walkie Talkie