The NFL Drafts

April 29th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

This past weekend was an intense one while we all waited to finally hear who the NFL draft picks would be. The first pick of the draft was Matt Stafford by the Detroit Lions. They were the worse team on the list and gravely needed to pick the top players on the draft list. Word has it that they were leaning towards him from the get go, so there wasn’t too much element of surprise there. But what was surprising was the amount they offered, $41.75 million — this is more than any player ever. Guess they wanted to ensure that he would sign well in advance of the draft picks. Although he is one of the top picks this year of the NFL drafts (some even think he is fantasy worthy), the Lions will still need another draft to fill in the pot holes they left on their team — especially on the offense and defense lines.

The Raiders, on the other end, picked Darius Heyward-Bey as their number 7 pick. DHB is a slim guy, but boy is he fast. Owner Al Davis loves fast runners and would likely take his chances on any guy with a quick sprint. Then the New York Jets made bold moves by trading up to 12 spots and picked USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. The Raiders are really banking on Sanchez to bring them up in the leagues.

The last pick of the drafts, winner of Mr. Irrelevant title and prior South Carolina kicker, was Ryan Succop, who was selected by Kansas City.

Are You Watching the NBA Playoffs?

April 29th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

Well…aren’t we all? Okay, maybe not all, but most of us are. In case you haven’t been following along, here is a quick overview of what’s been happening:

So far, Cleveland destroyed Detroit, which is a bit odd since Detroit made the conference finals six years in a row. This year, they were sent home during the first round of the series. Now, we just have to sit and wonder if this city will ever re-establish their winning ways…

Atlanta vs. Miami, this is a tie with each winning 2 games in the series so far. Superstar D. Wade was injured last season, but now he is shining ever so brightly with his notable defense skills. He’s runner up for MVP and personally, I think he should win — not only because I’m a Floridian, but because he really deserves it. If you compare D Wade to Lebron James, you’ll take notice that Wade carries his team. Without Wade, the Heat wouldn’t have made it to the playoffs. Cleveland on the other hand can make it to the play offs without Lebron James.

On the other end, you find the Bulls giving the Celtics a run for their money and I don’t blame them! Last year the Celtics was last year’s champions at the playoffs. The bulls had a great advantage because of the Celtics’ star player, Kevin Garnett, being out on injury. Since Jordan left the scene, Chicago hasn’t really had any home name stars, but there is potential in Derrick Rose. He’s young and he’s hip…but will he live up to the hype?

Chris Brown’s New Flame

April 15th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

Well, it looks like Chris Brown has moved on fairly quickly from his ex-girlfriend Rihanna. The new flame isn’t a model, singer or even a star, but she has definitely had Chris’s attention these past few weeks (guess jewelry gifts didn’t work out as we previously thought). So who is this new chic? New may not be the right word — it’s an ex from Virginia. They dated back before he became a star and have recently reconnected and began to talk and have gotten quite close. Easing his pain she is! I wonder what Rihanna has to say about this. The case pending against Brown is still in motion and she is dedicated to helping the law enforcers to the fullest against Chris. You can only imagine how much her dedication will strengthen after she gets wind of this.

The new/old woman in Chris’ life is Erica Jackson, a student at University of Mary Washington. She is a bit of a “plain Jane” sources say, but “she is good for Chris”. They say she is a solid girl and has a good head on her shoulders, so maybe she can help Chris get through this and back on track. There has been word that Chris Borwn, Rihanna and Kanye West have secured fragrance deals with none other than Jay-Z. I wonder how that’ll work out.

Close sources of Brown said that he was “mad in love with that girl” Rihanna and that he is in pain. Can we really show sympathy for this guy? He pleaded non-guilty to felony assault and criminal threats earlier this week.

Trick Daddy vs. Rick Ross

April 15th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

Yet, another hip hop beef in the industry. Seems like a new trend indeed, but this time it’s between Trick Daddy and Rick Ross. It all began when Trick Daddy tried to call out Rick Ross as a snitch — claiming that he worked as a guard in the prison system. Rick Ross denied ever working with the police and then had a few — well , a lot of words for the Trickster. Not only did he try to say Trick Daddy was broke — or not as ballin’ as he was, but he also called him out as a hater. Rick pointed out his ice and jewelry pieces, showing that he was a multi-millionaire — he must be doing something right to be as popular and well-liked as he is. Maybe the beef is about turf — they are both from south Florida and lately Rick Ross has been making a lot of noise, possibly a little bit too much for the likes of Trick Daddy.

Back in the 90s and early Millennial years, Trick Daddy was the Miami King, throwing out hot tracks that echoed in clubs all over the nation. He fell out for a while and now maybe he’s trying to make a comeback by downing the newly crowned South Florida King. Who knows? Now, we’ll just have to wait and see who will come out on top. We’ll keep an eye and ear out for news about the beef between the two — so make sure to check back and stay tuned.

Keri Hilson: A Rising Star?

April 2nd, 2009 | By Safiyyah

Yeah, you’ve heard of her. The new hip-hop sensation Keri Hilson is hitting the radio and video channels by storm. But many are already criticizing her ways of accomplishing this. Some even think that her fame will fizzle before it can even truly shine. A “lazy” album they call it. If you take a listen to her debut album, “In a Perfect World”, you will hear a lot of generic songs that were “over-produced” and actually hides her personality. Ms. Hilson claims the album is supposed to send a message for women empowerment, but is that what you hear? What you do hear is a lot of Timberland and a lot of reworked beats; you will notice that the song “How Does it Feel”, is a recycling of the Timberland production, “4 Minutes”. Then there is “Return the Favor”, which sounds similar to “The Way I Are”.

Keri Hilson’s top producers on this album are Timberland, of course, and Polow da Don — maker of “In this Club” by Usher and “Forever”. A lot of cliches were found in songs like “Make Love” and “Get Your Money Up”, but you can find some reasonable tracks like “Turnin’ Me On”, featuring Lil Wayne, “Change Me”, produced by Akon and “Slow Dance”, which was co-written with Justin Timberlake. The latter two are pretty decent songs — maybe because they didn’t feature the usual Timberland, who happens to have his voice in all or most of the songs, and Polow. She let a few others produce some of the other songs, as mentioned above, and they turned out to be more original and had a lot of personality.