| These double standards really chap my ass
Chamillionaire triumphs over cursing on 'Ultimate Victory'-
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Chamillionaire says watching white fans singing along on the N-word prompted him to eliminate it from the rhymes on his new album, Ultimate Victory.
The Houston rapper, whose platinum 2005 album The Sound of Revenge spawned the Grammy-winning hit Ridin', says he made that decision long before criticism of rap lyrics erupted over CBS Radio shock jock Don Imus' racially tinged insult of the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
"I never really cursed in my everyday speaking or music," says Chamillionaire (aka Hakeem Seriki), 27, whose profanity-free Ultimate Victory is being released Tuesday without the usual Parental Advisory sticker.
"When the Don Imus thing happened, people asked me what was I going to do now, and I was like, 'I don't have to worry about it because I'm not cursing.' "
His stance drew jeers from rival 50 Cent, who shrugs off complaints about hip-hop's violent and misogynistic content. "Let (Chamillionaire) go sell gospel records, if he's so (expletive) righteous," 50 told Spin magazine in July. But rather than getting into a beef with the rapper, Chamillionaire used the controversy as fodder for the album's first two singles, Hip-Hop Police and The Evening News.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Don Imus | Bill O'Reilly | Chamillionaire | Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
"It's really not about the police but the people who police hip-hop," Chamillionaire says. "It's like loving hip-hop is a crime these days, so I did a Murder Was the Case (the Snoop Dogg hit) type of record to paint the picture."
In the two-part, nine-minute video for the songs, Chamillionaire dons makeup to play hip-hop cop Al Sharpless, news anchor Bill O'Wildy (references to critic/activist Al Sharpton and Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly) and news reporter Cashus Burns. He also appears as himself. Hip-Hop Police portrays Sharpless arresting and interrogating Chamillionaire while O'Wildy's newscast details the arrests of other rap stars.
Then the video segues into The Evening News, with Chamillionaire struggling to get a word in during a debate with O'Wildy about everything from gas prices and Hurricane Katrina to the war in Iraq and President Bush.
"Whether you agree with the opinions (expressed in the track) or not, it's something that gets people talking," he says.
The album-opening The Morning News spews a litany of dreary headlines, while on The Bill Collecta,he's trying to stay one step ahead of the repo man.
The latter features a return appearance by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Krayzie Bone, who joined him on Ridin', which helped Revenge sell 1.5 million copies. Ridin' sold more than 4 million ringtones and sparked Weird Al Yankovic's White & Nerdy.
"That parody was the reason I won the Grammy, because it made the record so big it was undeniable," he says. "It was so big overseas that people were telling me they had heard my version of Weird Al's song."
He says the title of Ultimate Victory refers to learning to appreciate the important things in life.
"On my last run, I was so worried about getting revenge against people (who doubted him), I'd go to Hawaii and wouldn't even do the simpler things to enjoy it."
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(Pay attention to the last paragraph)
Foul language
Witness: Ex-Knicks VP spoke about Thomas' slurs -
NEW YORK (AP) -- Just months after berating her in expletive-filled tirades, New York Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas moved from cursing to courting a fellow executive now suing the basketball Hall of Famer for sexual harassment, a former team employee testified Tuesday.
Jeffrey Nix, a 15-year employee of the NBA team, took the stand in U.S. District Court to recount a series of conversations he had with his friend and co-worker, plaintiff Anucha Browne Sanders, throughout 2004.
Browne Sanders, in tones of disgust, detailed how Thomas initially treated her with contempt shortly after his December 2003 arrival in New York, Nix testified.
At one meeting meant to resolve any issues between Browne Sanders and Thomas, the two-time NBA champion guard lashed out at her by announcing, "Don't forget, you f------ bitch, I'm the president of this f------- team," Nix said his friend told him.
Browne Sanders also told Nix, he testified, that Thomas had asked her in March 2004, "What the f--- is your job? What are your job responsibilities, you f------- ho?"
By the end of the year, though, Nix testified that he saw Thomas embracing Browne Sanders in Madison Square Garden after a Knicks' victory -- and watched as his friend pushed the coach away.
"You're not going to believe what he just said," Nix quoted Browne Sanders as saying. "He just said, `I'm in love with you. It's like (the movie) `Love and Basketball.'"'
Browne Sanders is suing Thomas and Madison Square Garden for $10 million in a sexual harassment suit that also seeks reinstatement to the job that she held for five years with the once-storied franchise that won its last title in 1973.
Attorneys for Browne Sanders rested their case Tuesday afternoon after calling the plaintiff's sister, Ruth, and her ex-administrative assistant to buttress her claims. They also played a videotaped deposition from MSG Chairman James L. Dolan, who said the decision to fire Browne Sanders was his alone.
Asked if it was appropriate for MSG employees to refer to co-workers as a "black bitch," as star Knicks guard Stephon Marbury allegedly did to Browne Sanders, Dolan quickly said it was not.
"It is also not appropriate to murder anyone," Dolan continued. "I don't know that that has happened either."
Thomas, who has denied the allegations, sat with his hands folded in front of his face at the defense table, tilted his head slightly and listened intently as Nix testified. Nix, who held a variety of bench and front office jobs with the Knicks, was let go by the Thomas regime at the end of August.
The defense case, with Thomas expected to testify at some point, should begin Wednesday morning.
Nix said Browne Sanders was upset and confused by Thomas' switch from verbally abusive to amorous. When the two spoke in spring 2005, Nix recalled Browne Sanders telling him, "It went from last year bitch and ho to now he's in love with me."
Browne Sanders, a married mother of three and former Northwestern basketball star, joined the Knicks in late 2000. The vice president of marketing and business operations was fired in January 2006; she claimed the dismissal came after she complained to MSG management.
The Garden claims she was dismissed for a failure to "fulfill professional responsibilities."
Nix appeared one day after jurors watched a videotaped deposition where Thomas insisted that he had never cursed at the plaintiff. During the questioning, Thomas also said he would find it more offensive if a white male called a black female a "bitch," than if a black male made the same comment. |
