If the title is a reference to my rating system, Tinashe’s got it right. Almost every song here is a 3. This might be her most musically cohesive album since Nightride; her best; but the quality of that one leaves this one in the dust.
Not that 333 won’t have the girls Bouncin to its bassy summer beats. X, featuring Jeremih, is fun, but the album’s best song is Last Call; a breakup ballad on which the tipsy songstress manages to stumble upon some lovely melodies.
my rating : 3 of 5
2021
Eminem may have the best verse; Sticky Fingaz is a close second; but him being on this song sort of goes against the concept of it. Sticky and RBX introduced themselves to the world in 1992. Eminem’s only been famous for just over a year, so his Remember Me quotes seem silly compared to what came before them.
The “can of gas” line is classic though. I also like the “trenchcoats” and “out shooting” bits. Sticky Fingaz offers some funny lines of his own. “I get more pussy than them dyke bitches Total,” he boasts. RBX’s sole standout has him threatening to “hit your ass like the train hit that bitch that got Banned From TV.”
my rating : 4 of 5
2000
The best thing about Killing Season is the two legends that star in it. Robert De Niro and John Travolta, who play Bosnian War veterans, are alone (together) in the woods for most of it with nothing, besides a somewhat endearing scene involving an elk, to distract from their beaming star power. It’s a shame their rivalry couldn’t play out in a more fitting movie.
Though it gets better than the cliché battle flick the flashback prelude suggests it’s going to be, the plot is too contrived for its own good. There are solemn undertones dealing with death and life; the final scene hammers that latter message home; but the story, with all its unlikely happenstances, plays out more like a cartoon than something to be taken seriously.
my rating : 3 of 5
2013
One good thing about music, especially lyrical music like rap, is that it allows you to escape from reality. LL Cool J does just that via a series of fanciful story Rhymes that start with God raising Michelangelo from the “dead”, at the request of the pope, in order to make a painting of the rapper’s “head”. By the time he’s in his TV, meeting The Honeymooners, you’re lost in the groove of the beat.
my rating : 4 of 5
1987
![audio review : Bad [ Bigger And Deffer ] ( album ) ... LL Cool J](https://marcellee.com/posts/108464.jpg "audio review : Bad [ Bigger And Deffer ] ( album ) ... LL Cool J")
There’s a party going on and I wasn’t invited. The scene; people having crazy fun at what looks like a lavish rooftop hotel suite in or near Los Angeles; is awesome. I especially dig the part where host Madonna prances her way up a red-lit graffiti-laced staircase and tongue-kisses a random girl. It’s nice to see she’s still being a slut in her 50s.
What the video would do better without are the cringey cameos from celebrities who obviously aren’t at the party. Having Beyoncé in your video, lip-syncing to your song, makes for ultimate bragging rights, even for a VIP like Madonna, but it also makes for an awkward edit. The one exception is Nicki Minaj, who at least raps on the song.
my rating : 4 of 5
2015
Daniel Cormier makes it seem like this wasn’t close. His objections after the fight suggest there’s something wrong with the judges, but, while I think Miranda Maverick won it, I would’ve been okay with the decision either way. Her pressure gives her the first round, but she can’t keep it up. By round three, she seems to be nearly exhausted as Maycee Barber puts it on her.
“I definitely had a good fight with her,” Barber says in her interview; Daniel Cormier is all smiles in her face; and I agree, though the ending seems a bit anticlimactic. I’ve been anticipating this bout since UFC 260 and I wanted two more rounds dammit. If it were a five-rounder, perhaps Barber would’ve finished her. Perhaps not. Miranda Maverick is a tough girl.
my rating : 4 of 5
2021
Paige VanZant is the winner in looks; Rachael Ostovich looks like a tranny with all that fakeup on; but looks don’t win bare-knuckle boxing matches. VanZant is simply outstruck here; she gets jawed audibly hard in the fourth round; despite giving her opponent an extra coating of red lipstick by fight’s end.
The most notable part happens after the fight. VanZant’s smile flips to sulk as Ostovich is announced; Jeff Houston is a lot less annoying here than during the introductions; the winner. She (VanZant) walks off and out, leaving her team behind, perhaps to cry as her boxing career takes another hit.
my rating : 3 of 5
2021
This is a party anthem for sugar daddies. The club is packed with “sexy people”, but it’s the young ladies Morris Day is after, “as long as you’re 21”. What he means is 21 years old, no younger and not much older, and who could blame him? The best meat is fresh meat. There are no girls in jail though, so Jerome is posted at the door, checking state IDs and driver’s licenses.
Pedophilic undertones and all, the song is a banger. A louder beat (drums/bass), less cluttered production and more melodic ad-libs; the one at 3:08 is the best part of the song for me; could push it up to classic status, but it’s still the jam as is, mostly because of a set of hooks catchy enough to go fishing. “Calling on the sexy ones,” it goes, “Girls are sure nough fine.”
my rating : 4 of 5
2021
![audio review : Jam And Lewis [ Volume One ] ( album ) ... Jimmy Jam And Terry Lewis](https://marcellee.com/posts/108253.jpg "audio review : Jam And Lewis [ Volume One ] ( album ) ... Jimmy Jam And Terry Lewis")
The title suggests a compilation of songs from the past, but this is a new album; the duo’s first ever after four decades of making music for other people’s. Some of those singers are featured here. Every song is by a different artist or group, in fact, with one flagrant exception.
That Janet Jackson isn’t included, and starting the whole damn set, is about as disheartening as recent rumors Jam And Lewis aren’t involved in her upcoming Black Diamond project. Unbreakable was underwhelming, yes, but they should never stop making music together.
Maybe if they had a new Janet song, they wouldn’t need to restore a 2005 Toni Braxton album reject, the inclusion of which makes me wonder how much of this set is actually new. Babylove; the best song and one true jam; sure is. It’s Time for another Morris Day solo album.
my rating : 3 of 5
2021
This movie starts off interestingly enough and stays that way for a while, but soon the plot heads Hellward. There are some awesome disaster scenes scattered about, all of which happen to include people running around on fire or being smashed to death by man-made vehicles gone awry, but they don’t even begin to make-up for all the numerical nonsense happening elsewhere in this two-hour yawner.
Part of the problem isn’t that it tries to cover several sci-fi subgenres at once, but that it does so clumsily, going from paranormal thriller to disaster flick to religious allegory only when it’s convenient to the plot. Marco Beltrami’s over-the-top score isn’t appreciated until the end, during a muted scene in which the jovial orchestration doesn’t at all fit with what’s happening on screen but sounds terrific nonetheless.
my rating : 2 of 5
2009
Casual listeners probably thought this was a typical Christian praise song; the chorus sure sounds like it; but the video makes the message crystal clear. It’s a parody in which frontman Phil Collins plays the role of a television evangelist; the Robert Tilton type who, the band suggests, are mostly in it for the money.
The video, their best yet, is thoroughly entertaining in all the funny/clever ways it plays with the concept. My favorite bit is the paparazzi photos of Mike Rutherford cheating on his wife. It’s also a damn good song, though the most endearing part is an organ prelude you won’t hear on the regular audio version.
my rating : 5 of 5
1992
Ever since this fight, the third and hopefully final in the Dustin Poirier versus Conor McGregor trilogy, was announced, I thought it was a bad idea. McGregor, who’s “won exactly one fight since Barack Obama was president”, didn’t deserve an immediate rematch with the number one title contender. I also figured it would end like the previous one with McGregor getting finished early.
To his credit, he sort of finishes himself by breaking his own leg or ankle after probably fracturing it during the barrage of outside leg kicks he starts the fight with. Still, though I was actually rooting for the fallen Irishman to win this bout and reclaim his former UFC glory, it’s hilariously ironic to see him being rolled out on a stretcher after he predicted that exact scenario for Poirier.
The most poignant moment happens several minutes before when the Notorious one, in terrible pain and grasping onto what’s left of his pride, yells to the officials to make sure this loss comes with the asterisk of being a “doctor stoppage!” He then goes on, in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, to throw angry jabs at Poirier and his “little ho” wife like the villain in a superhero comic.
my rating : 4 of 5
2021