Name The Gimmick(s) Vol. 1

Gimmick- (noun) A trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or business. 

So what are we looking for?  Anything added to the product that doesn't improve the quality of the product, but is just there to make the product stand out, is a gimmick.  What is the product here?  Ostensibly the music, while one could rightly argue that having a video for a song is itself a gimmick, lets just assume the video is a part of the presentation of said music.  So everything else can be considered a gimmick.  The artist' image?  Gimmick.  A trademark fashion?  Gimmick.  Controversy surrounding the artist or song?  Gimmick.  In fact anything attached to the music/video that isn't about the quality of the music or the video is a gimmick.  Just for fun try naming the gimmicks before you read them.  If I missed anything feel free to point it out in the comments.

Did Eminem make any sense?! aka "Hi Rhianna"

I never watch the Nigger Network Hip Hop awards, as a dear friend of mine put it, I'm too much of an "Uppity High Class Negro" for that.  Shout out to Huey Freeman.  While I never watch the actual "award show"  I always check out the cyphers the next day, I am an Emcee after all, I gotta see what's what.  Without a doubt the Shady camp's cypher was the highlight of the night, Royce 5'9's verse being my personal favorite "Hi Rhianna..." At any rate a fellow Emcee made the claim that Em's verse was a bunch of nothing, while he is a known Em hater, I none the less wondered "what planet do you live on?!" and so I will undertake the task of breaking his verse down.

You Want To Cut Spending? Start Here

Around the World with Christiane Amanpour debuts as we approach a decade of war in Afghanistan, and the question on the lips of Americans and Afghans alike is "what's next?"
Ten years after the attack on World Trade Center, Osama Bin Laden is dead, but how will this chapter in the longest war in American history be written?
ABC News foreign correspondent Nick Schifrin joins Christiane Amanpour from Kabul, Afghanistan, taking the pulse of that country amidst an explosion of violence at the hands of the resurgent Taliban.
Then a revealing interview with Ahmed Rashid, the world's foremost authority on the Taliban, about the very real concerns over potential violence between the United States uneasy ally Pakistan.
The critical question must be asked: Is war with Pakistan a real possibility?

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Ten years, trillions of dollars and no real end in sight? Why are we even there?  Bin Laden is dead, Al Qaeda is in Pakistan and The Taliban is still running things.  "We" had a chance to establish a lasting peace there but W decided to start another war instead of finishing what he started.  That chance has been blown, and those cost are sunk, it's past time "we" admit that and cut our losses.

OccupyWallStreet Rant

It’s illustrative to look at how the media has covered the origin and growth of the tea party movement with the OccupyWallStreet protests. Even a handful of self-identified tea party activists, with tea bags stapled to their tricorn hats and misspelled signs, were covered breathlessly as the birth of this new populist movement, angry with the direction of the country, and rising influence.
That, of course, was all completely untrue. The tea party movement was an astroturfed movement from the beginning, funded and organized by conservative organizations under jingoistic and quasi-populist names like “Americans for Prosperity” and "FreedomWorks".
Compare that to the OccupyWallStreet protesters. Truly grassroots, the media—when they do pay attention—deride them for not having a clear, unified goal (as if the tea party could be more precise than “take our country back”), for being disorganized (which is what happens when Dick Armey isn’t ordering up the signs) and for their inability to effect change (because it’s completely reasonable to expect 10 days of protests to change the status quo of 30 years of Reaganomics on Wall St). Moreover, the truly populist concerns are largely ignored by the media, who are almost monolithically more interested in what’s happening to the privileged few inside the Washington Beltway than the 99% of people who live outside it.

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        I'll never forget something one of my more radical professors back in college said to me, "the reason people tolerate extreme wealth in this nation is because they all want their turn.  No matter how unlikely it is, they all believe they too can one day be one of those on top looking down on the rest of their countrymen."  Those words proved themselves to be true a million times over since he said them to me.  

People never see something as a problem until it effects them personally, and then when it does they wonder why no one did something about it sooner.  They look down on the people trying to address something they don't see as a problem.  Millions of people may be effected by something but until you become one of those millions chances are you don't care about it.  Right now you have a group of people trying to do something about a problem that effects the entire country.  You would think we all would be on board with this. 

It Could Happen To You.

"In 1977, small amounts of marijuana were decriminalized in the New York State Legislature," says Kassandra Frederique of the Drug Policy Alliance. "So you can have up to 25 grams, which is seven-eighths of an ounce, on your person, and that would be a violation similar to jaywalking or traffic tickets." It's something that could carry a $100 fine, she explains, and is only an "arrestable offense . . . if it's in plain view or if it's burning."*
And yet, try explaining that to the NYPD. Their boss might have admitted to having smoked weed himself, as did Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance (and nearly every candidate running for his job in 2009). But Mayor Bloomberg has not only forced New York City's finest to match his predecessor in marijuana arrests, he has also made Rudy "Broken Windows" Giuliani look like Dr. Timothy Leary by comparison.

"Protect Yourself At All Times aka Fair Is as Fair Does."

Turnabout is fair play.

So by now we all know what happened in the Mayweather vs. Ortiz match.  Floyd KO'd Oritz in controversial fashion.  Now before I get into this, lets get one thing out the way:  I am not one of these die hard Floyd Mayweather fans.  I'm a boxing fan.  As it pertains to Floyd I'm firmly in the "stop making excuses and fight Pacman" camp.

Negros Puhlease: Parkway Edition

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The NYPD is investigating a video that surfaced of some officers doing some dirty dancing at the West Indian American Day Parade.

The parade took place over Labor Day Weekend.
The video was posted online by worldstarhiphop.com.

 http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh119k832Gb7nAfp16

NYPD brass knows who the officers are and they have seen the video.
In most cases, it appears the women approach the officers, and none appear to object to the behavior of the officers, but it's clear the officers involved are acting inappropriately for men with guns who are on the job, and in some cases beyond a suggestive manner.
Of course it raises questions about how well were some officers doing their job during a parade that, remember, three people were shot in two separate incidents.
The officers in the video were just a couple of blocks from the shootings and it's not clear yet if they responded to the shootings or stayed at their posts along the route.
Three people were wounded that day and there was a fatal shooting that night nearby.
It's all just adding to the controversy surrounding the annual parade which has a history of shootings and arrests.
There are no departmental charges yet against the officers, but, again, police are investigating.
They have not said if they know yet what disciplinary actions they are considering.

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So every year in New York City on Labor Day weekend there is a West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway.   

This year the above video surfaced and I saw an explosion on my FB newsfeed with people acting outraged at this cop, at his post, having a little fun.   Over and over I kept seeing this same video and pic.  All you have to do is watch the video and see, he was standing at his post and she came to him.  Just like every other cop in that video.  The only difference was he had some fun with it.  And I say, why not?    "He was dancing while people were getting shot."