I’m almost always thinking about money in one form or another.
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Month: February 2016
Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time.
This week: Mobb Deep’s Blood Money (2006)
Hip-Hop was experiencing another golden age in the mid-1990s. Classic albums were coming from all over the map. The south had Scarface, UGK, Goodie Mob, and Outkast. The west had Death Row, Ras Kass, and DJ Quik. And in New York, there was The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, and Mobb Deep.
Excluding the Theodore Boone series for children and a few Kindle singles, John Grisham has released thirty-six books — thirty-four novels, one collection of short stories and one work of non-fiction. Since I have loved his work (to varying degrees) for years — flaws and all — I decided to rank them.
Deadpool is a monster hit. It has shattered records and proven that an R-rated superhero film can not only work, but be a massive success. In everything I’ve read and heard, it keeps getting repeated that Deadpool is a Marvel film.
And that’s true…but it’s also false.
Huh?
Heimo Korth lives alone among 19 million acres of Alaskan wilderness.
“This was a murdered movie.“
So begins Roger Ebert’s home video review of Once Upon a Time in America, the final film from legendary director Sergio Leone.
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Week in Review (February 12, 2016)
I had originally written an 800 word rant about Valentine’s Day that transitioned into a minor thinkpiece on weddings and marriage that was supposed to go here, but when I read it a second time, it was so preachy and defensive and just plain awful. I couldn’t delete it fast enough.
Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time.
This week: Slaughterhouse’s Welcome to: Our House (2012)
I’m a Slaughterhouse fanatic. I really, really like Joe Budden, Royce Da 5’9″, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I as individual artists, but I love them as a group. Unfortunately, their aggressive, super lyrical content would be more at home in the late ’80s or early ’90s, so I’m one of about 29 people that went out and purchased their debut self-titled album in 2009.
I put together a collection of photos of Magic Johnson & Larry Bird since 1978. Head on over to Tumblr to check it out.
Christopher Pierznik is the author of eight books, all of which can be purchased in paperback and Kindle. His work has appeared on XXL, Cuepoint, Business Insider, The Cauldron, and many more. Subscribe to his monthly reading review newsletter or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
The NBA has a complicated history with hip-hop, but the sooner it embraces the fact that the two are forever entwined, the better it will be. My latest for The Musical Outcast.
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Christopher Pierznik is the author of eight books, all of which can be purchased in paperback and Kindle. His work has appeared on XXL, Cuepoint, Business Insider, The Cauldron, and many more. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
