Nothing says awesome like mashup parody videos, right?  Luckily, the Internet is full of a bunch of people who have nothing to do with the excessive amount of time on their hands.  Check out PopLemon‘s mashup mix below, featuring appearances by the entire cast of G.I. Joe and Sesame Street, with music by Mobb Deep, Snoop Dogg, and Lil Kim.

Enjoy.

Lil Kim feat. Notorious BIG (and G.I. Joe) :: Get Money

Mobb Deep (and Bert & Ernie) :: Ante Up

… and the version with Yip Yip Martians

Snoop Dogg, Warren G., Kurupt (and Kermit & Big Bird) :: Ain’t No Fun

As a society, have we not moved passed the hatred towards rap music that was so apparent within the early 1990s?  My assumption was that we have moved past the time of smashing jewel cases on the capital steps screaming about Tupac lyrics, and I must have been quite ignorant to assume that hip hop culture has become more accepted on a national level.  At what point do educators and politicians realize that excluding a certain presence within the learning environment will inhibit knowledge and compassion to the kids who graduate into the real world?

Not to mention, a laundry list of well-educated rappers, writers, artists, djs, dancers, poets, and business men and women live in this world – in fact, they have driven change to the idea of what someone who listens to hip hop.  I’m a firm believer that people don’t chose their culture – they ARE their culture.  What the Texas Board of Education has done is eliminate the educational foundation of what hip hop culture has always aimed to create:  unity, comradery, style, and a voice which may be left unheard at times.  Wouldn’t a proper place for hip hop that promotes its true essence within the educational system remove the boundaries which have convinced Texan educators to remove the program?

I call bullshit.

A preview of the artwork for The Drought is Overpast 7 was released a few days ago.  Let’s see who may find this offensive:

1. Anyone who loves Jesus.  This is currently 2.1 billion people worldwide.
2. Anyone who was in New York on 9/11/2001.  I’m pretty sure they may find offense of another fallen NYC monument surrounded by fire, war helicopters and human skulls.  Causalities are estimated at close to 3k people.
3. The NYPD, as indicated by the diagonal crucifix support stamped with ‘NYPD.’  There are currently 35k NYPD officers.

We’re looking at around 2.1 billion people offended overall.

Nice work, Weezy.  Somehow, Janet‘s nipple slip during the Super Bowl in 2004 isn’t looking so offensive, right?

You can imagine my utter dismay when I found out he is slated to star in his own reality television series called The Russell Simmons Project.  The worst part?  The salt in the wound?  The straw that broke the camels back?….

…. It’s on Oxygen.  Yes, the television network that airs reruns of Roseanne and Xena: Warrior Princess.  I’d rather watch ShamWow infomercials then this bullshit.  The show will priomarily be related to the women who work in the indutry with and arounnd Simmons.

Simmons states:

Throughout my career I have surrounded myself with people smarter than me.  This show will let them shine and provide insight into how we build our empire from the inside out.

It’s only right, in honor of Halloween… I present to my poplemons, ghost stories with Ghostface via Jimmy Kimmel Live.  Classic shit, truly.  I think it would have been 90x better if he was wearing a robe and sipping on something.

“Def Jam is the dopest label in hip-hop, in the culture of hip-hop. There really would be no hip-hop as we know it today if it wasn’t for Def Jam. But you don’t get that respect without also being the label that single-handedly destroyed hip-hop.”

Note to self: Probably not a good idea to talk a bunch of shit about a label who is being honored by the biggest music television conglomerates in the country at the award show they invited your crazy ass to.  Also, flooding the culture with 90 different hip hop elements probably doesn’t help either.

She just pops up everywhere, doesn't she?

I’m sorry but… this is absolutely terrible.  In response to her unexpected b-girl pose on stage after Jay-Z and Alicia Keys rocked the MTV VMAs last week, Lil Mama released this freestyle video to the internet world in order to explain her side of the story.  Considered by many as a poor publicity stunt, it can only be confirmed by the fact that she drops a half-asses freestyle over ‘Empire State of Mind,’ which Jay & Alicia performed at the VMAs.  I side with Alicia on this one, who had the following comment about the ordeal:

“I would rather not speak about [it] because the performance was so phenomenal it doesn’t even matter about anything else,” Keys explained in an interview last week. “Jay-Z and I are native New Yorkers, it’s kind of a classic New York song like new Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli…I can appreciate her being overwhelmed and inspired but we would have preferred she did it from her seat…”

You can watch her freestyle response below.  It’s so fantastic that I have totally forgotten about the entire VMA incident and now want to get Lil Mama’s portrait tattooed on my forehead.  Really though, don’t say that I didn’t warn you about the wackness that follows.

And also, just because I don’t want my poplemons to end on a bad note, check out the full VMA performance by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys (and also one of my favorite tracks from Blueprint 3):

Grabbin mics...

I’m sure the Internet (as well as traditional media) is on fire right now in regards to Kanye West‘s unpredicted outburst during the Best Female Video award, knocking sweet little Taylor Swift on her ass and expressing his belief that Beyonce should have won the award (both videos and songs, in my opinion, are lackluster and boring… but that’s just me).  Although he apologized on his blog, many people remain unconvinced.

... and getting kicked out. PS - Amber Rose, what the fuck are you wearing?

Note to self:  do not drink half of a bottle of Hennessy before you’re about to be on national television.

Like many, I was providing my commentary on Twitter, and suddenly, the realization of what was actually happening hit me like a sack of bricks to the face.  During the pre-show, some Internet superhero girl expressed that the #VMA tweet string would be monitored by MTV exclusively, who would then report on-air as to what people were tweeting about.  No big deal, right?  Is this the new marketing in 2009?  Shock television via social media outlets?  Personally, I find this fascinating and rather effective.

If you were sitting at home, reading a book, shopping online, whatever and you happened to check your tweets, wouldn’t most people stop whatever they were doing and flip on MTV?  Perhaps, during all of this, Kanye is really the puppet here – providing MTV with the kind of controversial traffic it was so used to in the early days.  Perhaps the Madonna and Janet Jackson tribute to Michael wasn’t enough to pull those ratings in.

Kanye is no stranger to throwing a fit at MTV award shows – he did so last in 2006 during Europe’s Music awards.  Closer to home, Kanye had another crazy outburst after his performance was moved from the main stage to a private suite and also losing five awards that he was nominated for, claiming, “I’m never coming back to MTV, find Britney!”

Video of his backstage meltdown in 2007 is below.

A few other non-Kanye highlights from the evening:

Tribute to Michael Jackson feauting an intro by Madonna & performance by Janet Jackson

Eminem winning Hip Hop Video of the Year with a nice dedication to Proof

Beyonce saving the day

Lady Gaga & her weird ass. Seriously, what the fuck...?

Jay-Z & Alicia Keys. A little rough at the beginning, but I do love it when a plan comes together.

“When I found out, I was like wow.  This is really cool, that the U.S. government is actually endorsing a hip-hop video!

I try to just find a clever way to present the topic to make it interesting.  The beauty of rap is it allows you to relate a lot of information in a short time.”

Dude has my vote, for sure.

KRS took it upon himself to start adding elements into hip hop – gone are the days when hip hop culture was found through break dancing, emceeing, graffiti art, djing, and beatboxing – KRS took it upon hinmself to also add street fashion, street language, street knowledge, and street entrepreneurialism.  What the fuck is this shit?  Street language?  One of the most limiting aspects of any culture is a language barrier, and furthermore, shouldn’t we be trying to teach the younger generation knowledge, business skills, and proper language OFF the damn streets?

It comes as no surprise that KRS, in the midst of losing his damn mind and struggling to find the pieces of his career has decided to publish a 600-page hip hop bible titled The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument.  Are you fucking kidding me?

As he told AllHipHop.com earlier this week:

“Well, I think I have the authority to approach God directly, I don’t have to go through any religion [or] train of thought. I can approach God directly myself and so I wrote a book called The Gospel of Hip Hop to free from all this nonsense garbage right now. I respect the Christianity, the Islam, the Judaism but their time is up.”

WHAT.THE.FUCK, over?

I will leave you with KRS in better times:

BDP – Duck Down