ROC Boys in Da Building Tonight!!!

If you missed the USA Men's Basketball Team take on China in the 2008 Beijing Olympics two days ago, then you missed a ridiculous dunk by LeBron James off an alley-oop from Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately, NBC is really stingy and all the Olympic highlight videos are copyright protected. I was inspired by the LeBron Dunk though, so here's a great highlight video of his best plays from the past year. The song is one of my favorites too, Jay-Z's "Roc Boys." A fitting track since Jay-Z and LeBron are tight friends.

And speaking of Jay-Z... there's been a ton of rumors floating around the internet about him working on a new album to be called "The Blueprint 3." At first, hip-hop/pop producer Timbaland said in an MTV article that he was producing the entire album. Then Jay-Z came out and said that wasn't entirely true. Recently, Kanye West brought out Jay-Z as a guest for the last show of the Glow in the Dark Tour and the two performed a song entitled "Jockin' Jay-Z" produced by Kanye that is rumored to be the lead single for the new album. The latest rumor is that Kanye West will be producing the entire album. That would basically be my dream album but I'm not getting my hopes up just yet. To tide us all over though, here's an clip of "Jockin' Jay-Z" was aired on Funk Master Flex's radio show this morning. Just click the link below and then click "free user". This will start your download. Your Welcome!!!!

Jay-Z "Jockin' Jay-Z" (produced by Kanye West)

2008 Honda Civic Si

I have an awesome Dad. He decided long ago that upon graduation of college he would buy me and my sisters cars so that we wouldn't have to start out with a car payment right out of college. He held good on his end of the deal last May when my sister, Lindsay graduated from ECU. I graduate from NC State in December so I was expecting to get a new car sometime around the new year but about a month ago Dad came up to me and said it would be better to go ahead and do it now. You see, the 2009 models all come out in September so you can usually get a better deal on the 2008 models in July and August.

I did a lot of research on what kind of car I wanted. My beautiful wife, Ashley drives a 2006 Honda Accord that her parents helped us get when she graduated from ECU back in December. We've really enjoyed her car, so getting a Honda was definitely in the forefront of my mind. I've had an SUV (see below) for the past 3 years and with the current gas prices, I was sure I wanted a car. I also knew that I wanted something with 4 doors because Ashley and I hope to have kids in the future. I also wanted something that was a little bit sporty though. I wanted to have fun while I drive. This led me to 3 cars: Lexus IS 350, Volkswagon GLI, and Honda Civic Si Sedan.

I've loved the Lexus IS for years but it was out of my price range. A lot out of my price range. So it was down to the GLI and the Civic Si. I test drove both. I read a ton of reviews and consumer reports. I decided to go with the Honda for several reasons. First, I heard a lot of people had problems with the GLI's engine, mainly that the fan makes too much noise and can cause problems. Second, I liked that the Civic was a manual transmission. My dad drives a Wrangler with a manual transmission and I always had fun driving his car. Finally, the Civic had a sportier look to it that I really fell in love with.

So I got the Civic Si. Here's a history of the car courtesy Wikipedia. I've really enjoyed it so far. It has racing style pedals and seats, 17" rims with low profile tires, navigation system (awesome!!!!), digital speedometer, "Si" detailing in the seats and on the grill, sunroof, and one of my favorite features: a digital input for my iPod. See below for the pics.

I would be remiss if I didn't pay tribute to my car for the past 3 years, the 2001 Jeep Cherokee, also known as "The Silver Bullet." What a great car! Although it guzzled gas similar to an elephant at a waterhole in the middle of Kenya, I had some really great times with that car. It was my mom's car when I was in high school. She took me to get my wisdom teeth out in that car. My parents used that car to help me move in and out of my dorm at UNC my freshman year. My parents picked me up from the airport when I came home from my mission in that car. I drove it to Greensboro countless times to hang out with my best friend, Greg and see him play basketball for UNCG. I took Ashley on our first date in that car. I also drove from Raleigh to Greenville and back to go see Ashley so many times it's unfathomable (half the time, I was probably half asleep and the Silver Bullet drove me itself). The best gift Ashley ever gave me was a sports rack for the top of the Cherokee. It brought home our first Christmas Tree. It's gotten me to and from the beach and the mountains. As a courier at my dad's law firm, it took me all over the Triangle for work. It never complained about the music I played, the jokes I made, or the prayers I've uttered while inside. For that, I'm forever in debt to you, Silver Bullet. I hope you find your new (well old actually, my dad took it back and plans to keep using it until it's last breath) home just as comforting, adventurous, and enjoyable as our past 3 years together have been.

Good NIght Sweet Prince!

Leprechaun Video

My boss showed me this video today at work. I can't stop laughing...

My favorite parts:

-"Say YEAH!!!"

-The "Say YEAH!!!" Guy's teeth

-"Could be some crack head!"

-The amateur sketch

-Lookin for the gold

-The guy with the flute passed down from his "Irish great, great grandfather."

Classic.

New Mr. Bentley, Andre 3000, & Kanye West Video

I saw this on Okayplayer. It's hilarious but I think I actually like the song.

N*E*R*D Video - SPAZ

This video is soooooo awesome!!! This is my favorite song from their new album and it might be one of my favorite songs all time. The live performance aspect is sick!

Enjoy:

Can't Get Enough of This!

Another vid from the Jay-Z Glastonbury show. This one features him performing one of my favorite songs, "Heart of the City" over U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday". This is some classic Jay right here.

Jay-Z Live @ Glastonbury

So this past weekend most of Europe's attention was on the Euro 2008 Soccer Final between Spain & Germany. For those of you who are less informed, Spain won 1-0. The European Cup only happens every 4 years and it's second only to the World Cup in importance to the soccer world. This year there was one country that failed to qualify that shocked everyone... England. England is known for being home to the best professional soccer leagues in the world and it was a huge disappointment for them to miss out on participating in Euro 2008. For some reason, though, I don't think they missed it that much.

You see, each year in a small town in South West England, there's a huge concert called the Glastonbury Festival. It's basically like the English version of Woodstock or Bonnaroo. We're talking hundreds of thousands of people for 3 days watching the best live entertainers the world has to offer. Well this year, the headlining guest was none other than this blogger's favorite artist, Jay-Z. Some other hip-hop acts like Lupe Fiasco, Dizzee Rascal, and soul singer Estelle were also invited to perform. This caused a little bit of controversy. Noel Gallagher of Oasis fame (great name by the way!!) came out and said that he didn't feel hip-hop had a place at Glasto. He said specifically that he felt that Jay-Z being the headlining performer ruins the tradition of the festival.

Now I can understand that everyone has a right to their opinions, but dude, you can't clown Jay-Z like that. Didn't y'all see what happened to Nas, Mobb Deep, Jaz-O, and countless others? This following video contains the highlights of Jay's performance. It is incredible!!! He even starts out by giving Mr. Gallagher (we'll no longer refer to him by his really cool first name so as not to taint it) a little jab, because that's all he's really worth to Jay. Jay opens the concert by performing Wonderwall. It's great! Also peep the freestyle over Estelle's American Boy! Just when I think Jay-Z has done all he can do, he performs a show like this! I mean just watch how he commands the crowd! You think Oasis could rock 200,000 people like that?!?!?!?! Even in their own country? No way!

Anyway, here's the video courtesy BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/2008/artists/jayz/

It's long (38 mins) so only watch if you have time for lots of awesome Jay-Z performing!