Grammy 2010: Let’s Get It – Predictions, Punchlines, and Pop Waxed Poetically

So, it’s that amazing time of year again… GRAMMY SEASON – let’s get it! I get excited during oddly specific times of year: my birthday, the first legit Spring day of the year, the first legit Fall day of the year, VMA night, any time when I get money and/or presents, the proper release of a music video/album that hasn’t leaked, and Grammy night. Yes, you’re thinking: “Well, that’s whack,” “Who watches that other than old people,” “Sunday is laundry night,” “Who is Grammy?” No, I don’t care.

This year is grrrrrreater than Tony the Tiger – yes, I say that about every year by and large because when it comes to this and the VMAs I can’t avoid the inner-Millenial child that gets brink-of-seizure status excited about any annual encapsulation of all things Pop… regardless of how terrible said year in Pop actually was. This year though, we’ve got: Lady GaGa opening. Assuming the Staples Center doesn’t spontaneously combust after said opening, they’ve also got: 3D Michael Jackson tribute (I knew saving 3D glasses from random childhood scenarios would come in handy… take that A&E’s Hoarders); Wheelchair Jimmy, Wayne, Eminem, and Travis Barker (yeah, Kanye’s absence downgrades that from win to “we’ll see”); “Andy Warhol” is large enough in the Grammy site tag cloud to make me pull out the silver hairspray; 11 of my 14 Dime A Dozen honorees are nominees; and… some other stuff.

Anyway, long story short here’s the rundown of my should win, will win, sayin’, and possibly a “doesn’t need the win anyway.”

Album of the Year
Beyoncé – I Am… Sasha Fierce
Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.
Lady GaGa – The Fame
Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King
Taylor Swift – Fearless

Should Win: Ummm so apparently there was some enigma that nuked the world with glitter this year? Seeing as Fearless loses by default given the audaciously false-not-in-an-ironic-way-either album title, that leaves Beyonce and B.E.P. realistically. Take the dance/electronic facade of The E.N.D., the technical strength and unparalleled mainstream impact of Sasha Fierce, throw in some Bowie lightning bolts, a dash of the American male population Googling “Is Lady GaGa a hermaphrodite?” just to make sure they’re still batting for the right side, and you’ve got what embodied the year – musically or otherwise – in album form: you’ve got The Fame.

Will Win: Sasha Fierce came out a lot of years ago, so that’d be a dated triumph; however, the album is a no-brainer classic Grammy winner. Beyonce is a staple; whereas you and I hang ornaments on our Christmas trees, Beyonce is a recession-friendly recycler and hangs awards like the aforementioned. The Grammys like B.E.P. … a lot. GaGa is a phenom, but that’s a double-edged sword: longevity means she could be here for awhile so what’s the rush, but she’s also not so much Grammy friendly as VMA friendly: the assumed brightly burning but quickly dimming star. Then again, there’s always shady-shifty-swifty… and you unfortunately can never underestimate the length or frequency of a pity party.

Sayin: The fleur-de-lis rose like a phoenix this year… so in line with the overall second coming of The South, DMB deserves some recognition.

Doesn’t Need the Win: …because she’s Sasha Fierce

Record of the Year
Beyoncé – “Halo”
Black Eyed Peas – “I Gotta Feeling”
Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”
Lady GaGa – “Poker Face”
Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”

Should Win: The year’s motto is “We’re All Fans” in a year when everybody and their mom covered “Poker Face.” My bias… has no poker face.

Will Win: “Halo” has a good shot at the win: it’s Bey, it’s a universally solid song, and it’s Bey … at the Grammys. Shifty swifty.

Sayin: “Use Somebody” is a nice song. It doesn’t speak to the joie de vivre of the year, but remember when Steely Dan won all those Grammys? The Grammys know they can’t get too across the board crazy – there’s a slight chance for this one. “I gotta feeling” tonight needs to be the last night I hear that song.

Doesn’t Need the Win: Check this hand – because it’s marvelous. No lie, just stunnin.

Song of the Year
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)”
Lady GaGa – “Poker Face”
Maxwell – “Pretty Wings”
Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”
Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”

Should Win: “Single Ladies” was a ridiculously well-produced song. The sheer layers and pin-pointedly precise cresendos, decrescendos, and intertwined rhythms set the foundation for – wait imma let you finish – one of the greatest songs of… 2008. I… still like “Poker Face.” As a song, the tongue-in-cheek lyrical wordplay is a bit silly, but given the amount of times people asked what the song was about, it’s not to be overlooked.

Will Win: I’m pretty sure “Single Ladies” is a shoe-in… put a ring on it already. Wait, this is Song of the Year, right? I just want to make sure it’s not Female Song of the Year because we all know “You Belong with Me” is the better feminine track…

Sayin: “Pretty Wings” is such a smooth song… I still like Maxwell.

Best New Artist
Zac Brown Band
Keri Hilson
MGMT
Silversun Pickups
The Ting Tings

Should Win: MGMT because Oracular Spectacular was just the tip of the iceberg and it alone is kind of like a bigger deal than a Kanye and Clipse track – that and I like them the best from the list. The Ting Tings are such a close second though… but “Best New Artist” that’s not their name… or is it?

Will Win: Keri Hilson has the mainstream appeal, but I’m not sure if the Grammys will go for her. She does have a depth and breadth of experience within the industry though so – it could happen like McWorld. We haven’t seen Urban Contemporary of Hilson’s ilk in awhile either.

Sayin: Past winners have been Adele, Amy Winehouse, Carrie Underwood, John Legend, and Maroon 5, given that portfolio Silversun could win with their sound – not so much mainstream name recognition though.

Best Rap Solo Performance
Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
Eminem – “Beautiful”
Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”
Kid Cudi – “Day ‘N’ Nite”
Mos Def – “Casa Bey”

Should Win: “Casa Bey” is infectiously beautiful in a funk way. “Beautiful” is a throwback to Em’s Marshall Mathers days with maturity in the place of anger. That, and Detroit has glimpses of a New Orleans without the flood – it needed this anthem.

Will Win: Taylor Swift – again. Hov completely took over the game with “D.O.A.” He singlehandedly lifted rap/hip-hop out of its auto-tunnel and placed it back on the block – on to the next one: it’s 2010 and “D.O.A.” was last year’s requiem. The track is sonically solid social commentary. Style: check. Substance: check. Statuette: check.

Sayin: I … still rock with Cudi.

Best Alternative Album
David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Death Cab for Cutie – The Open Door
Depeche Mode – Sounds of the Universe
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

Should Win: Phoenix?

Will Win: Depeche Mode?

Sayin: Karen O is quirky, I like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs?

Sidenote: I have an opinion on this, but I decided to make this the reader’s choice category – have at the comment box.

Best Pop Vocal Album
Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.
Colbie Caillat – Breakthrough
Kelly Clarkson – All I Ever Wanted
The Fray – The Fray
Pink – Funhouse

Should Win: Funhouse was a very solid album. Pink has a knack for putting together complete releases and I appreciate that. She is process oriented and doesn’t just drop something for the sake of staying relevant. It says a lot that “So What” came from the same album as “Sober” and, of course, “Funhouse.” Then to see the videos that expound on the music adds that much more depth to the project as a whole. Pink is what she is, but she puts together well decent Pop albums.

Will Win: The Grammys like B.E.P. … a lot. My should win could win though.

Sayin: This category was quite disappointing.

Best Dance Recording
Black Eyed Peas – “Boom Boom Pow”
David Guetta & Kelly Rowland – “When Love Takes Over”
Lady GaGa – “Poker Face”
Madonna – “Celebration”
Britney Spears – “Womanizer”

Should Win: Everyone – minus B.E.P. and David Guetta. I like Guetta it’s just… come on it’s Britney, Madge, and GaGa. It’s like the Grammys just woke you up and went “Gotcha America, it ain’t Pop; it’s Dance/Electronic and you love it – watch out, disco’s coming up next!” Seriously, I’m opting for the write in Girl Talk mash-up “Poke Her Womanizing Celebration Face.” It should win: totes mcgoats.

Will Win: “Celebration” is an electro-head’s fluid fantasy – but it was too euro for American mainstream. “Womanizer” is putting me in the same place as Sasha Fierce: it’s an undeniable frontrunner… just as it was when it came out… in 2008. That leaves… oh, would you look at that – seriously could you look at who’s left from the list because I can’t read my, can’t read mine.

Sayin: This category stomps on Pop Vocal like Wayne Rooney on a grounded Portuguese footballer.

So, that’s the long and short of my not-so-much-a-prediction-as-a-chance-to-wax-Pop-poetic-and-publish-punchlines-before-the-red-carpet-opens. Sidenote: I want “Make Her Say” to take something home tonight – whether it be a Grammy, or simply a ceremony program I don’t care – so long as it doesn’t go home empty handed. Honestly, I am quite excited about this year’s Grammys… at the end of the day just as the royal “we” are – I am all fan.

ALBUM REVIEW: Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea

 

We all missed Corinne Bailey Rae. Her 2006 eponymous debut awed and wowed audiences worldwide. The frail voiced and innocent British beauty was an instant superstar, songs like “Like a Star” and “Put Your Records On” showing a timeless voice that promised a long, profitable and exceptional career. But in an instant, she was gone. The cause, the sudden and unresolved death of husband Jason Rae which put her aspirations on immediate hiatus as she dealt with the harrowing nature of losing the one you love and putting the pieces back together. Still daunted but now unafraid, we get her sophomore release The Sea, an album which still shows Rae has her vocal chops and songwriting of great promise, but is flawed in the execution in such a manner that it drowns away the answers and hopes of a music public hoping for closure for the artist and wanting her return to 2006 form.

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Clocking in at under 43 minutes, the album is anything if expected. Much of the lyrical content here deals with the reconstruction of her life following her husband’s demise. Lead single “I’d Do It All Again” was written two months prior, but after an argument, the reflective nature of the lyrics here made even more bittersweet and harrowing by the fact that, well, she will not have the chance to “do it all again.” “So weary, someone to love is bigger than your prides worth/Is bigger than the pain you got for it hurts/And out runs all of the sadness/Its terrifying, life, through the darkness/And I’d do it all again, I’d do it all again/I’d do it all again, I’d do it all again” Spirit crushing material for sure. Tracks like “Diving for Hearts” and “The Sea” are highly indicative of the formula for success of the debut, minimal instrumentation allowing Rae’s paper thin vocals to wander aimlessly through time and space, finding your heartstrings and loosening them with expert mastery. Instead of her innocence from the debut, it’s the pain she’s allowing herself to share with you, the listener that makes the songs take immediate flight to your soul.

The album does have a flaw though. Much of the middle of the recording features the use of a session orchestra, which onstage during a concert tour is magnificent, her 2007 outdoor arena tour with John Legend making her a superstar as her beautiful vocals floating to the heavens with lush orchestration took the ephemeral to the ethereal. However, the same formula in a closed studio setting is nowhere near as enticing, as somewhere in the mixing and mastering of the album, the vocals are mixed low and the instruments high, which steals all of the power from Rae’s phrasing and lyrical mastery. “The Blackest Lily” and “Paris Nights/New York Mornings” are the two most egregious errors of production, mixing and mastering on the album. Rae herself was the producer of note on the record, and as a rookie producer made an absolute mistake in eschewing plaintive sounds to accentuate her simple elegance. There is success here, as “Feels Like The First Time” is clearly her most introspective and personal, as in saying that she’s “emotionally scarred and can’t think it away,” the dark drum pickups and lower register guitars doing much to accentuate the mood of the songstress. However, for the most part, the sessions musicians overpower and pulverize her, turning excellent songs of heartache and depression into pop radio muzak, taking #1 hits to the middle of the chart.

And that’s ultimately the problem here. If we were to believe Rae to be a cold, heartless and mean chanteuse, the fact that most of this album sounds like average pop filler with dark lyrical content, we’d be okay. But it’s near impossible for anyone, especially someone who made their early career on breezy sunshine love soul to still attempt to walk the line of acceptable mainstream pop and unload deep, strenuous emotional baggage. By comparison, Rihanna emptied a lyrical and production full clip. Alicia, well, she yearned and exhaled on record. Corinne Bailey Rae somehow it would seem deserved better than what she has here. It’s a noble effort, but again, a failed execution which is sad, because, in a soul pop market laden with talent, to expect more and hear less is unfortunate, but thus and so is the case of this album.

3.5 STARS OUT OF FIVE

THE HARD 10: #1 Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)

THE HARD 10: #2 Nas – Illmatic (1994)

THE HARD 10: #3 Iggy and the Stooges – Raw Power (1973)

The HARD 10 are ten of the most graphic albums ever released that all left an indelible mark upon the listener and the industry as a whole. Do enjoy these tales and songs, and carry their power into your life, finding their unrepentant aggression to be as emotionally valuable as tears.

The mark of a truly hard album is not just how unapologetically transgressive it is, but by how many imitators attempt to replicate its sound and fury. By that (and any other) measure, Iggy and the Stooges‘ seminal 1973 album Raw Power is one of the hardest records to ever grace vinyl.

Iggy Pop, nee James Newell Osterberg, Jr., may be on the Golden Years side of 60 now, but he was 26 years old when Raw Power was recorded and released. Under the wing of Ziggy-era David Bowie, Iggy and the Stooges (James Williamson and brothers Scott and Ron Asheton) were able to finish the album in under a month. Iggy will go down in history as a frontman without equal: he invented the stage dive, would alternately expose and cut himself, and was vicious with the audience.

In eight songs and little more than half an hour, the Stooges changed the course of rock music, with every punk, metal head, and alternative rocker paying tribute to Raw Power in some way. On it’s face, it meets the criteria for a hard album: Iggy’s lyrics are pure sex, drugs, and rock n roll – not the spandex-bound hair and makeup variety of the 80s – but the wake-up-with-a-needle-in-your-arm variety. Iggy’s drug use is so noted that it’s somewhere between cliche and myth, but one look at the glammed-out, pouting Godfather of Punk in his sinewy glory and you know there’s real darkness below the black eyeliner. And the music? Hard as it comes: riffs and solos that still sound vital, bass and drums that rumble like ominous clouds on the horizon.

Raw Power opens with one of the most memorable songs in rock music: Search and Destroy. Taking its name from one of the more brutal Vietnam War techniques, “Search and Destroy” starts strong and doesn’t stop. “I’m a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm / I’m a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb,” Iggy sneers. Wave after wave of fuzzed out guitars and squealing licks are the perfect soundtrack for mayhem (a point proven by Wes Anderson in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou).

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If “Search and Destroy” is the soundtrack for mayhem, songs like “Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell,” “Penetration,” and “Shake Appeal” are the soundtrack for a night of hatefucking. “A pretty face and a dirty love / I knew right away that i’d have to get my hooks in you.” “I’ll stick it out, babe, I’ll stick it out / I’ll be all fine, every time, penetrate.” “Shake appeal / baby fits so tight / shake appeal / baby with your fists so tight.” Obviously, lyrics have gotten more explicit over time, but sometimes implying something is more dangerous and sexual than just flat out saying it. The way Iggy groans and moans on “Penetration” would make Lil’ Kim blush. Raw Power was released once the shine of the Summer of Love had worn off. This isn’t love; it’s lust, down and dirty.

Even the record label-mandated ballads are dark: no quarter given or asked. “Gimme Danger” turns down the distortion but keeps chugging along, building to a crescendo as Iggy croons: “Gimme danger little stranger / And I feel your disease / There’s nothing in my dreams / Just some ugly memories.” The garage blues of “I Need Somebody” are the backdrop for Iggy’s gnarled, twisted plea for somebody, anybody, to roll around in the muck with. Wonder if Marilyn Manson listened to this record?

The timelessness of Raw Power is constantly surprising. I could listen to the opening riff of “Death Trip” on infinite repeat; it wouldn’t be out of place on hard rock records in any decade since it was originally captured. The same can be said of the stuttering guitar and finger-in-the-eye piano on the title track. Sonically and emotionally abrasive music doesn’t go out of style.

While the band would dissolve two years after releasing Raw Power, they helped define hard for everyone from the Clash to Kurt Cobain. Fittingly, their last show (until a reunion 25 years later) involved getting in a fight with an audience full of bikers; Iggy taunted the crowd with “you can suck my ass / You biker faggot sissies,” sung to the tune of “Louie Louie.” Now that’s hard.

THE HARD 10: #4 NWA – Straight Outta Compton (1988)

The HARD 10 are ten of the most graphic albums ever released that all left an indelible mark upon the listener and the industry as a whole. Do enjoy these tales and songs, and carry their power into your life, finding their unrepentant aggression to be as emotionally valuable as tears.


“You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.” – Eazy E



With such a simple statement, the Compton, CA sextet rhyme syndicate revolutionized the nature of evil, hatred and pure violence in music. Hard lyrics of hard times borne from a frustration with the nature of living (and dying) in the gang and crime ravaged area of South Central LA were their calling card, and by opening the eyes of the universe to just how difficult it is to succeed when the morose nature of life crushes you, they became one of the hardest groups of all time. Their national debut album Straight Outta Compton makes no apologies, tells no lies and presents facts as true, real and as hard as the individuals reciting them. The principal elements on this record, in many ways literally just by being on this record alone, became instantaneous legends and icons of the hardcore street mentality. Dr. Dre, Eazy E, Ice Cube, The D.O.C., Arabian Prince, DJ Yella and MC Ren are all in the pantheon of hip hop, all because of the anthem of virulent angst this album has become in antiquity.


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Clocking in at 60 minutes, it only takes the album 15 to literally offend pretty much any person who would consider themselves right wing, non violent, conservative, white, or racist. In “Straight Outta Compton,” “Gangsta Gangsta” and “Fuck tha Police,” the message is clear. Like Howard Beale’s character in the film Network, the group’s “mad as hell, and not gonna take it anymore!” When Ice Cube kicks off album opener “Straight Outta Compton” with “Straight outta Compton/ a crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube/From the gang called Niggaz With Attitudes/When I’m called off I got a sawed off/Squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off,” you know that this is going to be raw, real and unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. Ice Cube really is the standout lyricist of the group, and further sets himself ahead of the pack with his gritty, urban portrayals in “Fuck tha Police” when he says, “Fuck tha police comin straight from the underground/a young nigga got it bad ’cause I’m brown/I’m not the other color so police think/They have the authority to kill a minority.” The vitriolic rhyme spree doesn’t end there, as on “Gangsta Gangsta,” Cube strikes again with “Here’s a little somethin’ bout a nigga like me/never shoulda been let out the penitentiary/Ice Cube would like to say/That I’m a crazy mutha fucka from around the way/Since I was a youth I smoked weed out/Now I’m the mutha fucka that ya read about/Takin’ a life or two/that’s what the hell I do/you don’t like how I’m livin well fuck you!” 


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It’s as if Ice Cube opens a lyrical can of whoop ass on society and everyone else in the group follows suit. Dr. Dre and DJ Yella come through in spades on the production tip creating a wall of epic sound for the album to be displayed upon. Dre’s classic soul samples and deft scratches of  DJ Yella couch the ultra antagonistic threats, hyper masochistic misogyny, braggadocio and bravado on the album. Eazy E is literally the “nigga America loves to hate,” his staccato and extremely nasal flow making him a star by having him be the most annoying frontman of a gang ever, but the guy you in no way want to aggravate as he’s absolutely backed by enough muscle to lyrically wipe out an entire city block. The gun toting and gun waving and aggressive stance of the group offended many, which at the same time made them pop cultural icons. Tipper Gore’s Parents Media Research Council pounced on NWA’s content, finding it to be vile filth that would poison the minds of America’s youth, whereas NWA always advocated they were just presenting the truth of their existence.



This hotly debated and groundbreaking rap album hit #37 on the Billboard Album chart and #9 on the rap charts in an era where Heavy D and the Boyz’s house flavored tunes and hard, but not overtly violent East coast hip hop was the expectation. Somewhere between the earnestness of and hysteria caused by the content on the album, it opened doors for rap music in the cultural and political mainstream that were absolutely necessary. Sometimes to make a step forward, someone has to take a fall. Unfortunately, NWA took that fall. Due to contractual issues, Ice Cube, the man most responsible for ALL of the lyrical content of the album left NWA after the record. The drop off is obvious as the insightful precision and politicized nature of the group left with him, and in subsequent releases that definitely did hit #1 on both the mainstream and rap charts, the collective was arguably not as gifted or potent, but achieved success due to the expectations set by Straight Outta Compton.


In final, the unrepentant truth of the expression of NWA is what makes this album SO hard. Possibly never again in hip hop will grit, grime and retribution have such a real and important voice, unafraid of the consequences of honesty. As Dr. Dre says to open “Express Yourself,” “I’m expressin’ with my full capabilities/And now I’m livin’ in correctional facilities/Cause some don’t agree with how I do this/I get straight, meditate like a Buddhist/I’m droppin’ flava, my behaviour is hereditary/But my technique is very necessary/Blame it on Ice Cube… Because he says it gets funky/When you got a subject and a predicate.”

SHIT I’M DIGGING THIS WEEK

SmithBWare presents "THE UNINFORMED OPINION" on NICKI MINAJ

THE HARD 10: #5 Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury (2007)

The HARD 10 are ten of the most graphic albums ever released that all left an indelible mark upon the listener and the industry as a whole. Do enjoy these tales and songs, and carry their power into your life, finding their unrepentant aggression to be as emotionally valuable as tears.

Virginia isn’t for lovers, it’s for hustlers – Clipse is proof. Malice and Pusha T’s babyfaces mask two of the bluntest minds and model two of the most cold-blooded mouths in the game. Hell hath no fury like a kingpin’s scorn, and Hell Hath No Fury is these kingpins’ scorn.

The Neptunes trademark intergalactic beats are the soft Cavalli furs to the Thornton brother’s hard Pyrex stirred product. Steel drums, Moet chimes, handclaps, are as much a backdrop of the album as the grunts, off-beat bass, and requiem-esque strings. Tracks like Wamp, Wamp (What It Do) and Mr. Me Too lyrically play off the proverbial “sweet” life of a Coke king “We don’t chase a duck, we only raise the bucks. Peel money rolls until our thumbs get the papercuts. Children totto, South Beach Gallardo Teals started up, go brr like it’s Nardo,” over tropical Caribbean beats. As any dope boy knows though: it’s Cocaine in the sweets, but Crack in the streets and Clipse brings the South Beach suites to street status on the sophomore release too.


The Clipse let you know full well that they grip the Gallardo grain in the gutter as much as they do in South Beach. Hard is hustling Rock at an age where your peers are still sucking on Rock Candy: “I listen to the beat, and the rhyme is wrote. See, I was 16, eyes full of hope. Bagging up grams at the higher dough. The news called it crack, I called it Diet Coke (Oh!)” Again, The Neptunes back the banter with solid beats – macabre bass heavier than the weight Malice and T push across state lines, so deep it envelops whole tracks.

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Like White Pony dove into the darkest parts of “love” to twist perception, Clipse’s Hell Hath is as much a street anthem as it is a soundtrack for Virgina’s lovers slogan. The Thorntons can take or leave women: “Keys in the floor, mistress in Dior; Bitch tell me she love me, but I know she’s a whore,” because Kis will forever hold the keys to Clipse’s hearts: “Bitch never cook my coke! Why? Never trust a ho with your child.” Keys open doors. That’s real talk. Virginia is for lovers – and Clipse loves the hustle. Lil’ Wayne goes hard when he wants, but people get hooked on his clever wordplay. Most southern rappers are witty wordsmiths, whereas most east coast rappers are as blunt as a Philly wrap – classic style versus substance. Clipse has the best of both worlds settling in the Mid-Atlantic, for all of their quick witted lines about the high life, they have stark stances on the dark heat of a hellacious urban environment: “The judge is sayin’ life like it ain’t someone’s life.”


At the end of the day Hell Hath No Fury comes hardest as a package, as opposed to individual tracks – like a brick to a ball. The hardest part of the album is that nothing escapes the ominous overcast of a nightmare veiled as a dream – which is the story of their lives. What is success? What is failure? The penthouse ends are only as glorious as their gutter Pyrex means: “The cars is big, the cribs is bigger. The kids are happy, the perfect picture/ Gem Star razor, the fruit of my labor/ And I walk with a glow, it’s like the Lord’s shown favor/ These bitches fake like the hoes on Flavor/ But I don’t mind spending, all it is is paper! Yes!”


A diamond is only coal with decades worth of pressure; crack is just cocaine with water and baking soda. Value is dependent on perceived worth – Clipse comes hard with Hell Hath because from the corner to the crown the most valued entity hasn’t created anything but a crop of paper gangstas.

FASHION: Baltimore’s Stevie Boi Returns with new "Fallen Angel" Eyeware Line

 

 

We here at TGRIOnline are really feeling what Baltimore fashion and eyewear designer Stevie Boi is up to these days. Starting with last year’s very exciting and stunning glitter fabricated frames, the designer has expanded and deviated from all norms and expectations in his fashion eyewear line with grand results. The list of fashionistas and music superstars now wearing his frames on stage, screen and red carpet grows by the day with expectaions of names of even greater importance and renown growing seemingly every day.

His newest line, the “Fallen Angel” collection expands from his “military industrial” complex in designing to something a bit more avant garde, still with the flair of classic European designs he tends to stay very motivated by.

The line will be released on February 6th, which coincides with the designer being at NYC’s Fashion Week on February 13th with a show at Bryant Park with Nigerian haute couture dressmaker Deola Sagoe.

For more images from the collection visit THIS LINK, and for more information visit StevieBoi.com, Twitter link @sbshades or email info@stevieboi.com.

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