Money, Gaza & Death.

Oh yeah that Time has come again....

The Time when I look at my tv and wonder what is going to happen to it now that the NBA is over....No more basketball on tv till it's cold again......

San Antonio are the testament to the Tortoise Way to Run Things. Phoenix and Dallas, the high flying (aka sunguch) teams in the West ran out of steam before the post season, while the Spurs had been easily choo-chooing at a steady clip only seeming to up the ante in the playoffs. The scary thing? The Big Three (Duncan, Ginobili and brand new Finals MVP, Parker) remain unchanged in the line-up until 2011. I wish that was exciting news. By the way, who's keeping count of how many rings Robert Horry has amassed? Look for trades to happen quickly in Cleveland.


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On Madaraka Dizzay, Tony Thompson passed. Not to be confused with the late drummer from funk outfit Chic, this Thompson was the lead vocalist in the young boy group Hi Five.

The Gems: 1990, I Like the Way (Kissing Game) had smooch rookies in boarding school seeking out cute, willing guinea pigs for lip lock behind the girls bathroom at supper time on Sundays, while the rest of us hungry bastards were trying to miraculously acquire an extra piece of meat (incidentally, the resulting blackmail would guarantee some of us extra nyaks for weeks). FFWD>> 1992 She's Playing Hard To Get and Quality Time, the former being a quality New Jack Swing effort that lit up many a venue with masses united in the execution of the that dance they called the Pyrate, while I assume the lyrics from Quality Time found perfect use on a high school love letter or two. Or for simply yumming up the baby making....

Then came Sexsational, the solo LP in 1995 with a first single I Wanna Love Like That that stayed booming in matts for months, as well as in Bubbles and Visions; John Karani and crew hyped it up on the English Service drive time show (before the wide wonderful world of FM babies), and it definitely had my vote for one of the better R&B jams of that year, as if we were starving for good crack then.

Tony Thompson, dead at 31. Initial reports speculate it may have been a drug related death but the official word hasn't been released yet. In any case, for all the good flavas, my simple tribute. R.I.P. Thanks for the tunes and memories.

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This is also blowing under the radar, but the East Cost Rap Fraternity is mourning Monday's shooting death of Stack Bundles. Most recently affiliated with Dipset's Byrd Gang Crew, he initially stormed on the scene with other Desert Storm alums Joe Budden and Ransom under that banner. Bundles had a unique slick, thugged out oh-so-New York flow. Gutter and outspoken, his fodder was the streets and all the non-fluffy things in them unless, of course, it was a spanking new Lexus LS 460h or similar artifacts of couture and grace. His immersion into Dipset along with Jim Jones brethren Max B is directly related to Jim Jones stylistic upgrade, which led to Jones making some mainstream noise in 2006. Bundles' debut Dipset mixtape appearance was in 2006, on the same mixtape Jones' banger We Fly High debuted on. Outside of Dipset, he was involved with his own crew Riot Squad (Bynoe, thanks for everything, we're with y'all). Stack Bundles has been a mixtape favorite since 2004, it's a suprise Papoose, Saigon, Joell Ortiz, Tru Life, Maino, Uncle Murder and Red Cafe were all toting major label deals before him.

Never heard spitting some sappy mess for the ladies, always spitting crack tales, gunfights or styling on them retardedly, this is definitely one rapper I was checking for in NY...he never took a day off in his rhymes. He will be missed. No street mixtape of mine was complete without a Stack Bundles contribution. Definitely, his passing is an alert for all rappers with one foot in the game, other foot in the streets.

Rayquon Elliott, dead at 24. Before his time in the sun.

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It's not a movie, not 28 Days or Weeks Later. 5 Days later, Gaza Strip is owned by Hamas. In the same week, an anti Syrian Lebanese MP is assassinated and a suspected terrorist bomb goes off in the Green City in the Sun. A freaking cowinkidink?


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The US Immigration Bill dead and buried? Coming soon....The Remix...like next week soon.


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Holla at Half n Half. Good thing you kicked them cigarette thangs to the curb, as the Jamhuri Budget attacks smokes and beer for the umpteenth time (Brand new entry at number 3... Free High School!!). Better roads, more teachers and coffee farmers get debt relief.

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Morale.

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