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LA Rams; Best Show on Turf 2.0?
Before the 2021-2022 NFL season began, uncertainty loomed over the league for a lot of teams. The New York Jets decided that they wanted to move on from their young QB prospect Sam Darnold. Darnold proceeded to replace Teddy Bridgewater in Carolina, while Teddy received an invite to join the Denver Broncos.
Of course we all know that the Broncos have been desperately searching for the successor of Peyton Manning and in a very unlikely manner may have found it. Currently, Bridgewater has Denver 3-0 atop the AFC West.
We have a QB carousel in Chicago, former MVP's being waived in the preseason, and veteran quarterbacks who find themselves in the most unprecedented times for a QB. Veteran quarterbacks are finding themselves on short leashes due to the optimism of fans in regards to seeing rookie quarterbacks play. Along with the cloud of Deshaun Watson hanging over the NFL, there is so much happening at once.
However, the oddest move of the off-season at the time of its deal was the swapping of quarterbacks between the Detroit Lions and LA Rams, sending Matthew Stafford to LA and Jared Goff to Detroit. At the time it appeared as though Goff had become the visible scapegoat for the failures of the LA Rams to get back to the Super Bowl, but now it may actually be that Goff was the thing holding the Rams back.
Currently, the Detroit Lions are 0-3 which suggests that the Rams were right. In fairness, Detroit is a long way from constructing a football team like the Rams currently have, so there will be time allotted for Goff to prove his stature in the league. But Stafford has shown to be the match HC Sean McVay desired at the QB position. We know Stafford has all the physical gifts that make a great QB but the knock on him has always been his inability to be victorious in the playoffs.
Things as they stand seem to show that Stafford may have found the head coach that can put him in position to change that narrative. Stafford so far has thrown nine touchdowns to only one interception while completing 70.2% of his attempts. All while accumulating 942 passing yards. LA looks supremely efficient on offense and similarly mirrors the offensive power of the Kansas City Chiefs. The Rams are coming out the gate as potentially being the team you have to see. They are flashy, effective, fast and, electric on the field. This year the Rams may not be saying it, but they have unfinished business on their agenda in regards to winning the Super Bowl.
One thing for sure, now more than ever QB play is the number one factor to an organizations success!
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Indie Artists to Watch
Hip Hop's "Thriller"
Thriller by Michael Jackson is heralded as one of the greatest albums ever created, and rightfully so. That album solidified Michael Jackson's place as the King of Pop and potentially the greatest recording artist of the century. But does hip hop have its own thriller?
There are a multitude of albums we can choose from. Maybe Nas's "Illmatic". Jay-Z's "Blueprint". Tupac's "All Eyes on Me". Snoop Dogg's "Doggystyle". Notorious BIG's "Ready to Die". Lauryn Hill's "Miseducation of Lauryn Hill". Dr. Dre's "The Chronic". Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love below". 50 Cent's "Get Rich or Die Tryin". Wu Tang Clan's "Enter the Wu: 36 Chambers". Lil Wayne's "Carter III". Big L's "Lifestyle ov da Poor and Dangerous". The list can go on and on, but we have agreed that Hip Hop's Thriller goes to Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy".
The scene is 2010 for Mr. West coming off the heels of his infamous moment with Taylor Swift. Two years removed from his last effort "808's and Heartbreak" where many felt at the time was not one of West's best offerings. Overtime that album has aged very well! But what happens when you feel highly stressed and ridiculed by the public? You run away and find some place you can go and hide. And in that hiding you go to the one thing that helps you cope with the pain, the stress, the anxiety, and the pressure to be one of the greatest that ever did it. Mr. West left for Oahu, Hawaii, and boy was this one of the greatest work vacations in hip hop history!
The rollout for this album was something many of us had never seen in Hip Hop and still to this day has not been duplicated with the same results. Kanye started with the pictures of himself and his G.O.O.D Music artists and collaborators all in black and white suits displaying a sense of seriousness. It set the tone for how Kanye wanted to be perceived in the making of this album. He was focused and he was determined to silence the critics. Around this time the public had turned on Kanye because of his Taylor Swift incident and just believing that he was finished as an artist because 808's was not a fan favorite. People were beginning to speculate that the best of Kanye West was in the past and that the troublesome loud mouth star was at the end of his stage.
But they were wrong!
Kanye began 2010 with the G.O.O.D Fridays rollout where during that summer of 2010 starting in August, Kanye would release a new song every Friday to the public for free consumption. If you were heavy into hip hop when this was happening you would know that this period of time was like crack in the 80's. Teenagers and hip hop heads could not wait for Fridays to come for the next Kanye West banger. Music lovers were staying up late trying to find the free release, talking about it over their social media, and beginning the now trend of what we deem as things going viral. It was simply one of the craziest times in Hip Hop for fans. At the heights of his strength Kanye was giving free music away and it was beginning to be clear that you could no longer doubt or deny Ye's greatness.
That weekly run of dropping music every Friday produced some of the best verses in recent hip hop from Big Sean on "Don't Look Down" to J. Cole on "Looking For Trouble" to Pusha T on "Christian Dior Denim Flow". It was evident that Kanye wanted to get back to his production roots. Crates, MPC's and dope emcees. Nothing more, nothing less. And surely as the Friday releases began to come to an end we finally got our first single offering from Kanye for the album entitled "Power".
"No One Man Should Have All That Power"
We still wonder too this day if Kanye was speaking about himself in regards to all the public backlash he experiences whenever he feels he speaks his mind. Did he feel that the reception and the extent of hate he receives just for sharing his opinion is only because people look at him like a GOD? Or was this song a dedication to the on-going system of oppression that exists in America. The lyrics would suggest the latter but more and more we began to see it was exactly a two fold concept. There was no power. The power was an illusion because he was treated as a celebrity and idol by the people. But the system could punish a god at any moment and tear you down. So as he experienced the highs and lows of being famous Kanye examined that no one should be so powerful that they can ruin lives or be seen as something more than just another human. This struggle was further explored when Kanye offered his second single "All of the Lights".
Kanye was experiencing for another time in his life the possibility that he could lose everything. He could lose family, his children, his fame, his platform to create, just about everything he has. The life he longed for was becoming his ultimate demise. It created the false love that was around him. It gave him access to all the girls and drugs he could drown his sorrows in. It began to point out to him his insecurities with himself, being that he needed all these things to feel great. He was experiencing a battle with his ego and bravado. And he was finally understanding that he had to choose between being Kanye the Artist or Kanye the celebrity.
He chose the artist and what came out of that was My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. This album is universally recognized as Kanye's greatest work. Rolling Stone ranked it as the greatest album of the 2010 decade. The crazy thing is, the album was released November 22nd of 2010. Which means an entire decade was given for someone to top that album and no one came close!
This album broke open Nicki Minaj's career with her verse on "Monster". Re-established the greatness of Rick Ross and Jay-Z. Offered one of the most memorable skits in album history with Chris Rock on "Blame Game". It helped introduce CyHi The Prynce as one of the greatest writers of that decade! It was a classic! It was hip hop perfect! It was storytelling, club music, hip hop bravado, social consciousness and self reflection all over some of the most memorable production in hip hop history!
And to make sure it would be undisputed we were offered the "Runaway" short film prior to the album's release to showcase the creative space that Kanye was in!
Ultimately, the cultural impact of this album is that it helped to push the boundaries of creativity in hip hop. Without Kanye and this album we don't get Drake searching for his "Take Care". We don't receive Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly". We don't get J Cole's Any Given Sunday promo which followed the blueprint of Kanye's Good Fridays. We may not even receive the short film from Beyonce's "Lemonade" album, without Kanye. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy set the tone for what a great album has to be in hip hop. That's why it's "Thriller".
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