REFLECTION & REASON

Back in 1991, Madonna was everything innovative and exciting to young girls. Especially young impressionable girls who took in that year's super-scandalous tour documentary: Madonna: Truth or Dare . And a scandal it was ! There was homosexual kissing, simulated sexual acts on dinnerware, and of course the ever-popular masturbation scene during "Like A Virgin" and Madonna's subsequent threat of arrest while performing it in Toronto. Her relationships with Warren Beatty, arguing with her manager Freddy DeMann, and lusting after Antonio Banderas. Reflecting on Sean Penn, flirting with her dancer Oliver, and nursing a sore throat. The movie was a hit that year, and took in $29 million in box office sales. The Blond Ambition Tour was quite possibly the height of her career , relevance, and stardom. She had figured out the formula for pop success. From time. I know this movie like the back of my hand, because I watched it religiously as an adolescent. Not only ...

Don't believe the hype. Mariah Carey. Chris Brown. Souljah Boy. Donald Trump. Discuss. No? Tired of discussing these people that are highly irritating and have nothing to do with you trying to pay your mortgage and Christmas credit card bills this month? Well, as far fetched as they are, they are prime examples of just how money can turn you fool . I'm as die hard a Mariah Carey fan as they come , but I can't help but feel that sense of superficial celebrity fear when you start to see someone talented go in the direction of Whitney or countless other drug-and-fame abusers before her. It's the saddest sight imaginable, because what MOST of us would do and accomplish with ONE million dollars...we sit and observe these ridiculous "public figures" squander and exploit with many, many multiples of that. And have the nerve to be unhappy and unfulfilled. But clearly. They are unhappy, and unfulfilled. The alcohol, the drugs, the spotlight, and the...

Better late than never. So, there's 6 rappers I'm finally interested in listening to this year. I've taken in their music before: mainly the hits. Not to the mixtape level, or to the downloading-their-music level...just on an extremely surface in-the-club, or livestreaming-Atlanta-radio level. But it's finally time for me to really see what the "kids" out there are hyping up about. All of the year-end hip hop music reviews have left me feeling like an old auntie in the dance . I started to realize that I had no idea who the majority of the new rappers were by face, or by voice recognition. While I've "heard" of dudes like Yachty, and Migos, 21 Savage, and Party Next Door... I really and truly couldn't identify them if I saw them walk by me at Scarborough Town Centre. I definitely wouldn't know their voice different from say a Drake, Kanye, Common, Nas, Q-Tip, or other age-appropriate favourites from my era/city. But someh...