2008 Year in Review

2008 has been a crazy year. I graduated from college. My wife and I moved into a new apartment (which is nice but we're now trying to get out of it). My wife got a great job and I got hired by a professional sports team.

Here is my list of favorites of 2008:

Favorite New Artist: Wale - This dude is incredible. I love his lyrics and his style. I really enjoyed his Seinfeld-themed mixtape called "The Mixtape About Nothing." I'm really looking forward to his first official album release in March 09.

Favorite Album: Rising Down by The Roots - The Roots are seriously the only group that consistently lives up to my expectations. As I stated in my review of the album, Rising Down was the perfect continuation of 2007's Game Theory and restored my faith in hip-hop.

Favorite Athlete: Kevin Garnett - The way that he willed the Boston Celtics to their 17th NBA Title was so fun to watch. KG is one of those guys who deserves to win more than anyone else because he cares more than anyone else. He has been the leader of the Celtics' Title Defense this season as well. I love his intensity.

Favorite Team: Alabama Crimson Tide Football - I've always been a big Crimson Tide fan. This year was a dream season until the SEC title game. I know everyone on this planet except for me hates Nick Saban but I think he's done a great job guiding Alabama back into the national spotlight.

Favorite Movie: Traitor - I LOVED this movie. Great acting by Don Cheadle. This movie was also extremely relevant to our current events. I know everyone else is going to scream that Dark Knight was way better but Traitor gets my vote. My dad calls it "The Black Bourne."

Favorite TV Show: The Office - Still the best sitcom on TV. I can't wait to see how the rest of Season 5 plays out. What a great cast! A close second was ESPN's E:60 which had some great stories this year.

Post some of your favorites in the comments section.

Sooner or Later - Behind the Scenes

This video is behind the scenes footage from N*E*R*D's new video for "Sooner or Later."  The song is one of my favorites off "Seeing Sounds."  Normally, I love Pharrell's style but I'm not feeling those camo pants he's wearing at the end.  

Sooner Or Later - Behind The Scenes

Kanye West Samples

I saw this video at hypetrak.com (great website by the way) and it is so interesting.  It will play a couple of seconds of an old song and then a couple of seconds of the Kanye West song that samples that particular song.  If you're a Kanye fan or hip-hop fan in general, it's an interesting listen.  Sampling plays a huge role in hip-hop music.  A lot of people use that to discredit hip-hop value as a genre, but if you listen to the creativity behind these sample, it's incredible.  I listened to a lecture by The Roots drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and 9th Wonder (from Little Brother) that they did at Duke University.  It was unbelievable to hear how much skill is actually involved in sampling a song and making it into a new song by looping just one part of the original over and over again.  Anyway, enough of my hip-hop nerd ranting.  Here's the video:

This is so awesome!

This is a video that demo's the new "Google Mobile App" for the iPhone.  I'm a huge fan of the iPhone even though I don't have one yet (that was a huge hint!!!).  This app alone makes the iPhone worth buying.  Check it out:

Plaxico Burress

Here's breaking footage of the Plaxico Burress incident:




Okay so that's not Plax, but it is hilarious and kinda disturbing at the same time.

Nike Boots Video

Most of y'all know I'm a huge fan of DC rapper, Wale (pronounced wah-lay). His last two mixtapes, 100 Miles and Running & the Mixtape About Nothing, are better than most hip-hop albums. Here is his new video for the song that made him famous. It's called Nike Boots and it might sound like your typical rap song about a popular shoe, but listen to the lyrics, especially the last verse. He is talking about some really deep stuff. Insecurities and whatnot.