You captured my heart as a rebellious teen when I was finding art in a hopeless place. Since stumbling upon you in “À bout de souffle”, you’ve continued to leave me “Breathless”! Must be that “je ne sais quoi” of your French heritage!

You were grimey in “KIDS”, but I was still smitten. Something about your British-born and Bronx-bred self made you irresistible. Maybe you added to my obsession with New York City. My only regret was not moving here soon enough to meet you. Despite having all the same friends in common, you’re no longer here. Gone too soon, but never forgotten.

It’s also an EFF YOU to the male dominated blogs that are all about displaying women as objects and since I am no feminist, but rather an equivalist (I made that up just now), I decided that I can also sell meat! Take that!

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SAUL WILLIAMS! Poet, Writer, Singer, Actor and Game Changer. I first noticed your hypnotic voice on LYRICIST LOUNGE (VOL. 1) in the late 90′s. After that, you dazzled me on the TV screen as I watched you in “SLAM” and even “DEF POETRY JAM”. Since then, you raised the bar for the kind of DREAM MAN I had envisioned…or rather, what a REAL MAN could be.

You had me at “AMETHYST ROCK”:

“STEALING US WAS THE SMARTEST THING THEY EVER DID.
Too bad they don’t teach the truth to their kids.
Our influece on them is the reflection they see
When they look into their menstural mirror and talk about “THEIR” culture
“THEIR” existence is that of a schizophrenic vulture
Yeah, there’s no repentence
They are bound to live an infinite consecutive executive life sentence
So what are you bound to live Nigga?!”

I hope this upcoming generation can herald and appreciate our contemporary prophets like you…

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SAUL WILLIAMS cover of U2′s “SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY” from the album “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust” produced by TRENT REZNOR. Peep a young LEO FITZPATRICK in there. Although, U2′s version depicts the actual event of the same name where Northern Irish Civil Rights Marchers were killed by British Troops, Williams version has a different twist with the same pain and urgency.

Swoon! He’s an author, poet, musician and more. He had opinions and made powerful statements about politics, drug abuse, poverty, racism, and more…

He had his rough patches in life, but who hasn’t!!! When I imagine what kind of life I would have led in the 60′s; I imagine being the female counterpart to a genius revolutionary, which would have meant I had to stay home and change diapers while making occasional appearances next to my man. Thank goodness I live in 2011 and I get to be the revolutionary!!!

Read more about him here, WIKI: GIL SCOTT-HERON

I will also say this; His daddy was Jamaican. BULLET!!!

*Performing “WHITEY ON THE MOON”

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Jeffrey Scott “Jeff” Buckley (Scotty Moorhead) was born in Anaheim, California, United States on November 17, 1966 to musicians Tim Buckley and Mary Guibert.

He had emerged in New York City’s avant-garde club scene in the 1990s as one of the most remarkable musical artists of his generation, acclaimed by audiences, critics, and fellow musicians alike. His first commercial recording, the four-song EP Live at Sin-é, was released in December 1993 on Columbia Records. The EP captured Buckley, accompanying himself on electric guitar, in a tiny coffeehouse in New York’s East Village, the neighborhood he’d made his home…

…Buckley passed away in a drowning accident in the Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, on May 29th, 1997.

(according to LAST.FM)

“LAST GOODBYE” performed by JEFF BUCKLEY

Having grown up in such a diverse area of Canada as a kid, he blended dancehall and reggae into his own style. His sound had all the elements of a Jamaican crooner in the body of (to put it bluntly) a WHITE BOY. I’m sure the combination created a lot of hate, but it also proved to be deadly – making him a HUGE HIT!

His rise to fame started in 1993 with the release of his song “INFORMER” which candidly talks about his prison time served for assault charges and also tells the story of his music career (he also mentions his long-time love and wife who recently passed to cancer in 2009, TAMEI EDBERG). The song reached number 1 on the U.S. BILLBOARD HOT 100.

He later followed up with other smooth reggae jams; “LONELY MONDAY MORNING”, “GIRL I BEEN HURT”, “RUNWAY”, “LADY WITH THE RED DRESS” and “ANYTHING FOR YOU” THE REMIX where he teamed up with the legendary likes of BUJU BANTON, NADINE SUTHERLAND, BEENIE MAN, TERROR FABULOUS and more.

*peep the stance and the shirt. monster!

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when you look back to the things you liked as a kid, it’s hard to tell whether they had such a great impact because you were young and impressionable or if they were really that rad…BUT after having a SNOW flashback and getting into all his jams all over again, I’ve come to the realization that the man made timeless classics that will live forever.

“INFORMER” performed by SNOW

“RUNWAY” performed by SNOW

“GIRL I’VE BEEN HURT” performed by SNOW (in the snow)

“ANYTHING FOR YOU” performed by SNOW and NADINE SUTHERLAND

“ANYTHING FOR YOU” REMIX performed by SNOW, NADINE SUTHERLAND, BEENIE MAN, BUJU BANTON, TERROR FABULOUS, and more…

…UNBREAK MY HEART!

okay, if you’re not familiar SCHOOL GIRL CRUSH is a post i do on the crushes my friends and i had as adolescents. usually, if it’s an actor i like to highlight the character they played that made us fall in love with them.

mister OMAR EPPS is tough. none of my friends can decide if it was when he played “Q” in “JUICE”, “MALIK” in “HIGHER LEARNING” or “QUINCY” in “LOVE AND BASKETBALL”. either way, he was too cool for school…

recently OMAR made a VIOLETTE purchase (yes you heard me!) and when i found out i mentioned it to ELLE and KARL. they immediately reverted back to their young selves.

KARL (my FILIPINO/GERMAN friend) said the funniest thing that made me choke on the water i was drinking at the time he sent me this message…

“O-M-G! You know I used to french kiss my pillow and pretend it was him and I was Tyra Banks which was easy since every time I looked in the mirror, I saw a black girl.”

when i saw this BLACK STREET video for “BEFORE I LET YOU GO”, it was like a harpoon going through my middle school heart. maybe because it was the rumor that he had married the lead in that video, SHARI HEADLEY (“Lisa McDowell” in “COMING TO AMERICA”).

ELLE just mentioned to me that he married KEISHA from TOTAL (also known as “the hot one”) and that they have a lovely family. how perfect is that! the guy we all had a crush on married to the girl we all wanted to be like! i love that.

(thanks for the support OMAR!)

first of all, his dapper style and west indian accent murdered it! in hindsight, he kind of looked like one of my uncles (with that “IND-YAN” mix) and attracted/scared me like every old school WEST INDIAN man does. he just had that look of crazy in his blood shot eyes. cool as a cucumber, but after one too many rum and cokes and a domino game gone wrong — he wouldn’t be afraid to pull out a “cut lass” and cut that ass or break a guinness bottle on someone’s unsuspecting skull. it’s just the curry in his blood…

his reign was great and proper.

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*SUPERCAT – “Ghetto Red Hot”

*SUPERCAT feat. HEAVY D – “Dem No Worry Me”

*SUPERCAT – “Don Da Dada”

i dedicate this one to ELLE and all the other ladies who can pick up what i’m putting down

*JUICE crew (RAHEEM on the end right)

*PEGLEG-INGS 20 years ago…