New York, NY (November 11, 2008) – We caught up with the homie Serius Jones last month at SRC and spent some time getting to know a little more about the dude MOST people only know from the battle scene. In his Full Volume segment, duke spits a verse from “Long Time Coming” and a verse off of “The Greatest.” He also gives details of his new short film, “Life Is Serius” and why you should care about his story. Be on the look for the “Serius Bizness” mixtape due out around Thanksgiving, too. Cheah.
In his interview, Serius talks about his new album “Greatness” that he was recently recording in Atlanta that features Needlez and Malay (“Green Light”) as well as the oft-talked about “Life Is Serius,” now liberated from DTP and preparing for the many battles earlier in his career. His analogy to why the DTP situation soured is especially interesting.
Check out the trailer for his short film, “Live Is Serius” here:
New York, NY (October 21, 2008) – We met Vlad at the E-40 listening party a little bit ago, and we caught up with him the next day over at his office (location is a secret!) for a four-part interview that spans the above-mentioned topics, as well as his directorial efforts and some other exclusives. Check out the rest of the series later this week.
New York, NY (October 4, 2008) – Reviews of Spike Lee’s latest have not been too kind, but often times, you can never really tell how the movie will affect you until you see it yourself. As a fan of war movies in general, I plan on seeing this, but it’s tough for me to depend on Spike Lee to deliver. It seems his underlying message is always at the forefront of his movies, and prohibits his characters from ever really delivering on the actual plot. We’ll see, though. From AHH.com:
…Spike Lee has reached into his arsenal of heavy hitters with yet another story of Black Americans enforcing truth and justice on the powers that be in Miracle at St. Anna. This time, it’s a fictional story based on a novel and screenplay written by James McBride about a small group of Buffalo Soldiers from the infamous all-black 92nd Infantry Division, headed by Derek Luke (Sergeant Aubrey Stamps) with Michael Ealy (Bishop Cummings), Omar Benson Miller (Sam Train) and Laz Alonso (Hector Negron) in World War II.
Stationed in Tuscany Italy, the infantry of twenty or more start to cross a seemingly softly rippling river when a parade of deadly bullets engulfs them. The four survivors who feverishly escape the Nazi attack are left to their own defenses with little help from their white commander, who shouts to them over the radio to stop lying about making it over the river. This is where the story begins.
New York, NY (September 12, 2008) – Eh. I mean, “Heat” is one of the best movies of all time. If you’re going to put DeNiro and Pacino together, you’re going to have to top that. By all accounts, this movie does not. Curtis (aka Spider/Spyder – wtf?) with the cameo:
New York, NY (August 27, 2008) - This is good shit! I spotted this trolling through the NY Times today. Somehow it’s gone under the radar for the last few days. Allow me to bring it to light:
… AS an actor in films like “Hustle & Flow,” “Crash” and “Iron Man,” Terrence Howard has played characters whose calm demeanor conceals a suppressed rage that is the result of dreams deferred, denied or realized on only barely acceptable terms. That he is African-American inevitably introduces race into his portrayals, but not because of anything he does, at least overtly. Whether it’s in the script or not, Mr. Howard not only doesn’t play the race card, he buries it in subtleties. So if, as a viewer, you find yourself searching for it … well, that’s the point, and the problem.
That complex dynamic extends into Mr. Howard’s music, or to people’s expectations of what it will be. He said his own record company assumed that he would make a hip-hop album after the song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” which Mr. Howard performed as the pimp and aspiring rapper DJay in “Hustle & Flow,” won an Academy Award for best original song for its composers, the rap group Three 6 Mafia, in 2006.
But Mr. Howard, 39, refused to perform the song at the Oscars because of its language and content, and his own musical tastes lie in a decidedly different direction.
Indeed. The title track seems like a smooth fusion of Jack Johnson’s surfer/lament, mixed with some 70’s funk and a touch of R&B. “Love Makes You Beautiful” starts out like a Broadway anthem and then transitions into a Motown-sounding mash of gospel and pop. Get an opinion on the third track for yourself! It’s excellent stuff and definitely doesn’t sound like ANYTHING that’s out right now. Definitely worth the few minutes to listen.
New York, NY (August 15, 2008) – Tony Starks meets the Wally Champ in this deleted scene. I was wondering how this particular scene would have fit into the movie, but the last three seconds make sense. The previous three minutes, though: Potts > groupies?
