Funny Ish

I can't stand Lil' Jon, but this video/song is pretty damn funny. Ooooookaaaaaaaayyyyy...

With A Sad Heart I Say Goodbye To You And Wave

For those who haven't heard the news yet, Q's outstanding midday personality is leaving us. Sterling is heading to Sacramento, California to fulfill not only a career move, but to fulfill a personal move as well.

Sterling was part of the original staff here at Q, holding down the prime time night shift for over three years. She was the only person I saw on an everyday basis when I came in to do the overnights. For anyone who listened to our nightly, sometimes off the wall hand-offs, you could probably tell that we had a pretty good friendship about us. Sterling not only became my favorite person to work with, but one of my very best friends in general.

We kind of became each others support systems. Some good things and a lot of bad, but we were always there for each other. She may not know this, but there were a few times that she actually talked me in to staying in radio. Time will only tell if that was the right move on my part, but since then I have discovered just how good I can be at this radio thing. Plus, it made for several more interesting years here at Q98 Five, and more time to grow into my friendship with my friend, Sterling.

I am sad to see her go, but only for the usual selfish reasons. I'm gonna miss her one of a kind personality, our unique conversations, working together, but most of all I'm going to miss my friend. There probably wasn't too many other people as happy as I was to hear that she finally landed the job she's been waiting for. For anyone who has ever met or listened to Sterling, we all know that this is something long overdue for her. Sterling is an amazing, one of a kind talent that is rare in this business and for those who don't recognize it is just ignorant to that fact. If you can't recognize it then all you need to do is look at her numbers and see how well she does. Not to mention that whenever we have a live broadcast, Sterling is always our listener's favorite; and rightly so. A few weeks ago Sterling said to me that she was going to learn so much from all these pros in California. I told her the people in California will learn more from her. Plus, they won't have that "it" factor that makes Sterling who she is; a one of a kind!

Sterling's last day on-air will be this Friday, March 7. On Thursday there will be a going away party for her at Muldoon's Pub on 122nd & Center. Sterling held down No Worries Wednesdays at Muldoon's for many months and did a great job at it. Make sure you take the time this week to wish her well on her new and exciting adventure. I don't think there are enough kind words I can say about her. One thing I do know is that she will be missed by many, that is for sure.

Your Friend,

SMALLS

Super Lame Ads

Seriously, those were the commercials that businesses spent millions of dollars on to air during the Super Bowl? Many people watch the Super Bowl specifically for the commercials. They could care less about the game. Honestly, this year I was actually more excited to see the commercials as opposed to the game for the simple fact I HATE the Patriots and could care less about the Giants. What I saw Sunday night was the opposite of what I was expecting. The Giants upset the undefeated Patriots in a very exciting and entertaining game. Meanwhile those commercials I was waiting to see were very disappointing. Did the writer's strike affect these commercials?

There were a few clever, original commercials that aired. The Sobe Life Water ad with the lizards dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was probably the highlight for me. Not necessarily laugh out loud (or LOL for you computer folk) funny, but very creative and original. And thank goodness they kept Michael Jackson from appearing in the commercial. The cars.com commercials were kinda funny and of course Budweiser had their usual feel good ads mixed in with their comedic ones. Nothing that really blew me away though. We had to wait until the second half for the E-Trade baby commercials. Cute, adorable and funny, but I think would have been more of a success if they had aired one in each quarter as opposed to just the third and fourth. Pretty much the rest of the commercials were just flat out lame. What a waste of ad money. This goes back to my last blog about businesses making stupid decisions with their money.

So all in all I would say that the commercials this year were probably the worst I have seen in years. Maybe ever! It wasn't all bad though as I was entertained very much by the thing that was the most important of all, the game. In a back and forth, up and down game, the hated Patriots (I only hate the Cowboys more) were upset 17-14 and their perfect little season came to an end. Congratulations to the New York Giants for their monumental and historic victory. And it was also great to see their coach, Bill Belichick, leave the field with time on the clock showing the world how much of a sore loser he really is. Keep it classy, Billy! I guess in the end cheaters never do prosper. Spygate came back and bit you right in the ass!

Patriots still suck...and so do the Cowboys! (had to throw that in there)

2009...the 49ers make their return to the Super Bowl!!!

Corporate Stupidity

People always wonder why some businesses fail when they should be succeeding. I'll tell you why. Most of the time it's a lack of basic common sense and horribly wrong decision making. Instead of hiring people to do the work, businesses would rather hire computers to do it. In many cases computers and machines can do the work faster and more efficiently, but in other cases you need a real human being to do the work. Computers and machines can only do so much. And when a computer or machine breaks down, who has to fix it? A real person. Quite the irony if you ask me.

Another mind boggling issue is how businesses choose to invest their money. Another benefit about having computers and machines do the work is that you don't have to give raises, health benefits or vacation time. Of course you do have to pay for computer upgrades and have to fix broken down machines from time to time, which can also get pricey at times. Sometimes corporations have an umbrella of businesses that they run. Of course not all of those businesses are going to succeed. When you have businesses that are lagging and losing money, what do you do with them? Well of course you take away money from your most successful businesses and keep pumping it in to those lagging, failing businesses. That doesn't make much sense to me.

If you have business "A" that is making record breaking amounts of money for your company and business "B" is lagging or losing money, why should profits made from all the hard work by the people from business "A " go to help business "B"? That doesn't seem fair to me. It makes all the hard work and effort that the workers of business "A" did seem in vain. Why take away from all the work that they did because business "B" isn't as good? I think if business "B" can't hold it's own then the company should just cut its losses and move on. If not that, then try a new strategy or different approach on the way you do things.

Big business and conglomarates are destroying the world. Everyday people and blue collar workers are the ones who eventually suffer. These big corporations got to be big and successful, but early on they too were a small and growing company. They obviously made a lot of right decisions early on, but after some point it seems like a lot of businesses lost their basic decision making sense. Now all of their decisions are based on how much money they can make at any cost. Jobs are eliminated because of computers and wages. Quality of service goes down because you don't have real people around all the time to do things. When there are real people they are usually underpaid and inexperienced. You don't want to keep somebody that's been working with you for 10 years because they are starting to make too much money. No, businesses would rather hire someone they know they can pay a lot less to do a lot more. The local appeal is lost because a lot of these companies move their headquarters away from the city it started in and now all the business decisions are made from a corporate office 500 miles away. None of that matters to them any more. Bottom line is, how much money can we make and how fast can we make it? Even if it means making the worst business decisions EVER!

Word.

This Is How Real Rap/Hip-Hop Music Is Suppose To Sound

LUPE FIASCO - THE COOL

Buy this album on Tuesday, December 18th!!!

Twenty years. That's how long I've been listening to rap music, if not longer. And believe me when I say I have heard it all when it comes to rap music. I'm a fan of all music genres, but for most of my life rap music has always been the music of preference. There has always been something about it that has always moved me. Whether it be the heavy bass drums thumping through my speakers or the art of a rhyme slayer spitting out metaphors that make my head spin and make me have to stop and think about what I had just heard. I've always been enamored by it. But Satan must be investing in some snow boots right now because my thoughts on rap music has changed dramatically over the last few years and there are a few reasons why.

First and foremost, I was fortunate enough to meet someone very special a few years ago. She helped me shape my views on what a lot of these rappers were really saying. At first I wasn't having any of it because to me it was all entertainment. It didn't matter what a rapper said on the mic because I knew in real life that these guys didn't actually believe what they were saying. They just said things in their songs that they would never get away with saying or doing in real life. What is the big deal? The big deal is, is that it hurts people.

When rappers spew out venom about disrespecting our women it sets a very bad example for our youth. Rappers see nothing wrong with portraying our women as nothing more than sex objects as opposed to respecting them with the highest regards like they should be. Would Lil' Jon get upset if I went up to his mom and said "come on skeet skeet, mother fuckin' ass hoe, do dat come on, skeet skeet more now" or would he be okay with it? I think he would wanna have his posse kick my ass. Yet these are the things being heard on just about every rap album that gets put out. I'm sick of hearing about bitches, hoes and stripper poles. And kids these days think it's the normal to degrade and disrespect our women. They think there's nothing wrong with calling a female a bitch or a ho. There in lies the problem.

Listening to rap since I was at least seven, you would think that I would have zero respect for women, but I was a lucky one. I actually had someone there to tell me right from wrong and how to respect people. And if there was a time that I didn't do what I was taught, you can rest assured that I paid the price for not listening. So I had someone there. A lot of kids today don't have that. More and more households have single parents who can't always be around to remind their children how to treat people. Instead the radio and television are raising our youth. And if it's not radio or television, it's their peers at school or on the streets.

Rappers don't have a responsibility to raise our children. The thing is kids often imitate what they are seeing on t.v. or hearing in music. These rappers have a choice on whether or not to be a positive or negative role model. I've heard many rap songs talking about coming from broken homes and families so, if we are to believe their struggles then why aren't they trying to be positive about it? They say art imitates life. They just rap about what they saw and went through growing up. I can understand that. What I don't understand is why they would continue to be so negative in their music. If it was that bad wouldn't you want to make a difference so that your kids and loved ones wouldn't have to go through the same struggles you did?

It's not just disrespecting women either. It's the narcissism, jealousy, envy and ego driven personalities that go along with it. It's the "I'm a bigger man" attitude and I'll prove it because my chain is bigger than yours. I have more bling than you and it shines brighter. I got more hoes in different area codes. My cars are more expensive, faster and have bigger rims. Really? Who the hell cares what you have? Why don't you take more time and pay attention to what you are saying in your rhymes. How about you go out and do something positive in your community. Na, because then it would make you look weak. And you don't wanna look weak.

When did it become so cool to sell drugs? As a kid growing up, did anyone have the dream to grow up and want to sell crack? Is it really that cool to talk about wanting to kill somebody? We just lost eight wonderful people in a horrendous, tragic, cowardly, senseless act. Ask the families of those victims how cool it is to kill somebody. I can answer that real quick. Not cool! And if it really was all that cool then what's with all the sadness when another rapper dies from being shot? You rapped about it. I guess you reap what you sew.

Every new rap song that comes out today is basically garbage. It has no substance or meaning, trash! When your lyrics are so simple that a third grader can understand them you definitely have some work to do. Of course maybe a lot of these rappers have a third grade education and that's the reason many of them act like they're 10. Even though many rappers are in their mid 20's or earlier 30's. It's time for you to grow up. Be a man and make a difference in the world. If you are that gifted use your talents in a positive way. Don't continue to be a part of the problem. And to the younger rappers, stop and think about what you're putting out there. I guess you wouldn't understand because you are just imitating what you're use to seeing.

There are some great rappers out there, but very few of them garner mainstream success. Chamillionaire, Common and Talib Kweli are just a few. And now I give you Lupe Fiasco. Fresh off his critically acclaimed debut, "Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor" Lupe strikes back with his sophomore set "Lupe Fiasco's The Cool." I have not stopped listening to this album since I first got a hold of it last Wednesday. To me it's better than his first album and one of the best rap albums I've heard in a very long time. From beginning to end I can listen to the whole album and just vibe out. Although there are a few favorites such as "Intruder Alert" and "Hip-Hop Saved My Life", the album as a whole is just incredible. The Cool is a well rounded album, touching on current events, the issues we face as a society and the problem with rap music.

If you have never been a fan of rap music or had been a fan but grew out of it, give "The Cool" a listen. When rap music is done right it is incredible and amazing. I can not find enough words to describe how much I love this album. I just wish more rappers would stop and think about what they are saying and try to do something positive in their songs instead of always being so negative. I'm glad that Lupe has stuck to his morals and beliefs and didn't cave in to mainstream pressure. Thank you, Lupe!

For you, Kelley!