FHM Magazine has an uncanny ability to inject controversy into the valueless task of ranking the “sexiness” of women. Earlier this year they conducted a photo shoot with cooking personality Rachel Ray, the shoot was pretty damn racy, and yet Rachel felt strongly about FHM’s integrity, and vehemently defended her choice on national news networks. Let’s take a quick look at Rachel with icing on top, before we move on to Cheryl Cole, who according to FHM, is the sexiest woman in the world.
I must say, Rachel’s legs in that shoot could rival any of her hand concocted appetizers if placed on the spectrum of palatability. Having said that, I find it pretty discouraging that a recent survey of FHM readers has placed Cheryl Cole of British Girl-Pop group Girl Aloud on the peak of Mt. Sexy. I have never comprehended the appeal of a white woman who happens to hit the gym and get facials. Honestly, there is nothing particularly interesting about Cheryl Cole, what is it that FHM readers have exposed themselves too? She even has a single currently ranked at #1 on the UK charts. What is Cheryl Cole’s secret? Shit, last year the #1 position was being held down by Megan Fox, the year before that, Jessica Alba!
I don’t know, seems sketchy, maybe some racialist motivations? She does fit the whole girl next door image, like Rachel Ray on steroids!
Scope the Cheryl Cole photo thread after the jump and tell me if I’m crazy to think that this matron shouldn’t even be in the Top 25.
When music people collaborate with fashion people, the product is often ghastly. The necessity to include the creative input of the musician on the aesthetics often leads to a confused, unpalatable appeal, one that is most likely too subjectively significant to the artist for most to truly appreciate. Thankfully, Ghostface Killah has always been an artist that keeps it real, fluidly connecting with his audience of real, live, genuine people. He has teamed up with Adidas Originals in putting out this shoe. The classic shell toe pops like a golden goose egg, like the man himself, Pretty Toney is decked out in three gold stripes on an all black exterior, and looking bad ass doing so. You can cop a myriad of Ghost X Adidas gear here.
For the majority of Americans, Ron Artest is a crazy fool with a propensity to put his foot in his mouth and his fist in your face. But they don’t know Ron Ron like we do! He’s a politically empathetic man with a platform to do something good for the world, and gosh darn it, he’s doing it. In all seriousness though, the plight of Afghani women is not a comical matter. The topic should be taken extremely seriously, like how Ron should consider a good Beverly Hills therapist, and perhaps a class in political science at UCLA. If you see him walking the streets of your local Los Angeles locale, do what we’d do, give him a good kick in the ass, or ask for a “loan” at gunpoint, or both.
When the IRS scopes this trailer from the forthcoming Method Man/Raekwon /Ghostface project, they’re going to be very upset. First of all, they’re going to be irked because the budget on this little preview looks to be on the steeper side and–as you may know–Method Man was recently indicted for owing a hefty chunk of back-taxes.
The second reason they’re going to be annoyed–and this reason also annoys me and should annoy you–is that this is three-plus wasted minutes all for a pointless and empty bite-off of Seven.
Nonetheless, I am looking forward to this project from the Wu-Tang “in-crowd.” Hey, that’s a good name for your trio. You guys should call yourselves that to mock RZA’s excessive-esoteric-ness, GZA’s age and U-God, Inspectah Deck & Masta Killa’s unpopularity. Just a thought.
These chains are fresh, clean, not-too-flamboyant, and rep NYC hard. They are as understated as the man who wears them.
Just as there are plenty of “over-actors” in Hollywood, there are plenty of “over-rappers” in the industry. Kanye is a perfect example—great producer, mediocre-at-best MC, tries way too hard on the mic. This phenomenon also extends to rappers crossing over into acting (DMX).
Lloyd Banks is at home in the rap game, and never over-raps. His flow is smooth, effortless, laid-back-as-shit, confident flow. He has always been/always will be my favorite in G-Unit (breathe, haters, breathe.) I have harbored a sneaking suspicion that Banks is the hardest dude in G-Unit because he was always so calm…the kind of control that only comes with a man who’s done some serious dirt. Like his chains here, his flow is not overly flashy, but classic, restrained and iconic. (How can I call these chains restrained?..…shit, I don’t know, just peep the other chains I have written about on ZIF). On the continuum of rap chains, Banks’ chains here are almost down-to-earth.
I believe the old adage to be true that it’s “Not what you say but how you say it.” Banks isn’t known for his wordplay and over-the-top flows, but his delivery is on point. His flow is just like his chains: simple, to-the-point, and smooth. These are almost chains one could wear to a sophisticated dinner party, chains that would go as well with a fine wine and some classical music as they would with sizzurp and blow.
And let’s not confuse “restrained and understated” with “bland”— Banks has been shot a couple times (G-Unit entrance requirement?), and his second album was leaked in true gangsta fashion : he left it behind after a fucking ménage-a-trois! His comment on the album leak,
“I was just lost in my ways, fucked two women at one time. It’s the little things you don’t pay attention to.”
Yes, Lloyd, it’s the little things…mind the details.
Remember, this is the VIDEO of the week, certainly not a track I recommend donating a dollar to Apple for. With T.I. in the big house for another six months or so, his label, Grand Hustle, has been trying to keep busy. Grand Hustle senior member Young Dro has certainly taken the leadership role to heart, as he should considering the median age of artists on this track is close to 15! I’m really not a fan of Yung L.A. at any level, his steez is so time stamped that I half expect him to start curdling like bad milk before my very eyes every time I watch a video of his. But as far as the video goes, I’m a fan, the grainy look of the video does a great job of prettying up what really is a shanty town of a label now in Grand Hustle. When B.O.B can rise to the top of your roster based on his artistic ingenuity and marketing clout, something has to give, I’m betting it’s going to be spankings once Clifford comes home.
Check out a behind the scenes look on set of the video shoot.
I’ve always had a fascination with rappers, porn stars and superheroes. Not really because of how they rap, fuck and fight but more of an interest in the nuances–what breakfast cereals they like, what they Tivo and such*. I like to see what these people do in there free time. Therefore, I’ve really enjoyed Amoeba Music’s What’s-In-My-Bag clips, where famous people are spotted in the independent juggernaut and are asked to share what they’re buying. DJ legend Q-Bert was recently spotted in the San Francisco location.
*the problem with starting this post with something like this is that this opens up another discussion that may potentially be far more interesting than the main-point of the post. So, if you’re bored from here on out, sorry.
People dig Ghostface for a number of reasons; some people think he’s simply the most lyrically-savvy member of the Wu-Tang, others dig his consistent flow of gastronomic metaphors and mafioso tales, while some listen to Ghost’s bizarre interpretations of the world with curiosity: Some Most of the time when Ghostface speaks, he’s always using lexicon which is way beyond my comprehension. And, on a logical level, I always feel like he’s beginning a story somewhere in the middle, and if I haven’t heard the beginning, I’m completely lost.
Nonetheless, Ghostface’s ghost-story from Jimmy Kimmel is enjoyable to scope.
Oh, puns and mixtape titles, horse and carriage stuff. Not much marketing happened for this latest Wiz mixtape, sort of came out of the cut like Nate Dogg in “Regulate”. Ironically it’s some of his better stuff he’s recorded this year. So roll a fatty, and do as your told, burn, baby, burn.
I’m going to try and keep this post as politically correct as I possibly can. Perhaps brevity will best serve that interest. Apparently there are at least two reasons to suspect that acclaimed R&B superstar Ne-Yo is homosexual. One being the picture which we harvested among a plethora of other choice examples. Second being the following track, which is apparently Ne-Yo singing a demo track he’s written for a prospective female singer.
Ne-Yo – When He Kissed Me (“female demo”)
There’s really nothing wrong per say with any part of this jolly story. Though one could argue that any singer to purchase and record this track would best fire their manager. Think about it, let’s say they record the track of their life, emotion manifested everywhere about some guy they kissed. And what happens when that song hits the airwaves? Radio DJ’s and fans alike clamor about the “that gay Ne-Yo song”. I’d imagine a profusion of downloads would proceed, but not a soul would be get caught dead buying this single at their local dinosaur compact disc establishment. Yeah, if I was managing the next Melania Fiona, I’d pass.
On the other hand if I was managing the next Clay Aiken or George Michael, that would be a totally different story. Hmm…
Still don’t have a costume for tonight? No idea really exciting your apathetic neurons? We at ZIF will make it easy on some of you, simply go dressed as a bloody zebra, cite our site in your costume, take a picture, send it to us, and we’ll send you twenty dollars. It’s a recession, we’re feeling socially responsible. Take advantage.
My shit is real rock guitars with my beats, not keyboard guitars with ghetto beats. It’s gonna be a little different from what you hear right now, but I think everyone will love it
I know there are a good chunk of my guitar picking homies who are puking their dinner all over their keyboard right now. Sorry about that! But what you have to keep in mind is that in hip hop, instruments, actual string instruments, are rarely played. If such instruments are used, they are almost always imported labor from other genre camps. That being said, for the majority of Lil Jon fans, Crunk Rock, which drops in early 2010, will very much sound like a “rock” album, or at least “rocky.” Yes, it’s sad how the mighty have fallen. The devolution of the definition of rock: Chuck Berry, Elvis, Bob Dylan, The Allman Brothers, Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, R Kelly?
Yeah, I know, no real point to be had there on the rock thing, apparently this is a Lil Jon attempt at a dubstep album anyways. Expect yawns across America on this one.
Lil’ Jon feat. R. Kelly & Claude Kelly – Hips and Ass
This cake–at its core level–is hilarious. What makes it even more hilarious, and odd, is that this birthday cake is for Alec Baldwin’s 14 year-old daughter. I wonder what the creative process was like for this cake. I wonder if Alec, Ireland(Alec’s daughter)* or the bakers had heard “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy” where Wayne says “It ain’t my birthday but I got my name on some cake” and decided to concoct a literal version of that play on words.
To some extent, I kind of hope that nobody down that chain of command had heard that song. I hope that little Ireland is just a Lil Wayne fan and this cake happens to be a perfect example of life imitating art.
Furthermore, props to the bakery. Licorice for dreads? genius!
*Honestly. Would it kill famous people to not name their kids ridiculous shit?
Ironically the release of this most recent Machine Gun Kelly track titled Leave Me Alone, comes after months of me “leaving him alone.” Machine Gun Kells has been busier than a Thai hooker on Makha Bucha Day. We were able to catch up with him not too long ago when he was filming his music video in Times Square whilst taking down a talent show at the infamous Apollo Theater in Harlem; MGK is the only rapper to have done that if I’m not mistaken. So if you haven’t yet peeped this artist on the come up, ignore the instruction and pester MGK on his website and/or any of his social networks. He’s worth the bother.
Machine Gun Kelly Ft. Rock City – Leave Me Alone
Be sure to check out our interviews with Machine Gun Kelly in our interview section.
PeD
Jake
tak4prez
Doogz
asugs
