Out with the new ...in with the old, PLEASE!

Okay, everyone knows that Janet is an incredible woman. For years, she has graced her fans with her beauty, enticed us with her fly style, amazed us with her dance moves, and held us close with her magnetic personality. However, what has undoubtedly made Janet a musical icon, and set her name apart from the rest of the musical artists over the great span of her career, has always been her lyrics. Those words embedded in songs like “Rhythm Nation,” “Love will Never Do,” “Together Again,” “Again,” “I get so Lonely,” “What About,” and “IF,” just to name of few, were songs that told a human story. They were sometimes rough, sometimes tender, but always real. They felt sincere and heartfelt because they were compiled with lyrics that mirrored many of our lives. Note after note, we’d find Janet singing our stories, encouraging us to get stronger, wiser, as we learn to love harder, sweeter, or simply learn to let go. Through her music, we were allowed to burn our diaries. But sadly no more.

After catching a preview of Janet’s latest single, "Make Me," I can’t help but wonder why in the world do some people seek to change what works. Lord knows, seeing Janet grace the small screen always excites me. However, no matter how many times I hear her sing her new tunes, it's never Janet I witness. I guess I'm still stuck on the hitmaker whose lyrics were once powerful doses of good sense and reason. Perhaps, I'm still searching for the woman who, before retiring Velvet Rope, reminded me that I ought to desire to be a better person, better lover, better friend, and all out better human being. But now I don't hear this from Janet. Whenever she graces a mic, all I hear now is static; muddy water drowning the airwaves. All I hear is that awful trendy music that lacks originality and sadly blends the essential Janet into the fest pool of mediocre artists, whose talent is far beneath hers. How did this happen? Why does someone that is so perfectly original work so hard to be common? Regardless if she springs back into her old self or fades into the new, I will continue to support Janet until the end. Why? Simply because she is who she is: Janet, or Ms. Jackson if your nasty.

             Click on this link below to watch the video of "Make Me"                    
                                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnSB5rp9DWA

Detroit-area Father ‘Executes’ Son By: Lyric Dysin

Picture this: It’s 2.pm on a sunny afternoon. You are sitting comfortably in a lounge chair on your porch, enjoying the peacefulness of the moment, as you watch the neighboring kids play in the streets. Everything appears perfect until, out of the corner of an eye, you see a neighbor pull his 15-year old son out onto his lawn and order him to strip naked, with a gun to the back of his head. The boy is screaming for help and begging for his life, and you are paralyzed with fear. Your head moves but an inch and catches a view of the little children who are also at a loss of words, as they stare at the father and son. You hear the naked child begging for his life, before the gun goes off. What do you do? What do you feel, as the little children scream and cry from the madness they just witnessed. You see the father leave his son on the ground bleeding to death, as he casually walks to his car that was parked nearby. The father drives away, as you and the little children watch the boy dying. Who do you do? How do you feel?

This terrifying image happens to be a reality to several people who witnessed a Detroit-area father, Jamar Pickney, execute his son in broad daylight in Highland Park Michigan, a small community that is adjacent to Detroit. The disturbing incident occurred early this week, shortly before Jamar was arrested. After gathering statements from neighboring witnesses, cops released their suspicions that targeted Mr. Pickney as the accused, who had allegedly drove to the home of Jamar Pickney Jr’s aunt and pulled Jamar Jr. out of the house, while ordering him to strip nude. According to a few witnesses’ statements, Jamar, 37, then took his son, Jamar Jr., to a nearby vacant lot and began yelling, “Lie down! Lie the f--- down!” The boy was said to have been begging for his life during the entire ordeal. But when he refused to lie down, his words were quickly silenced by a gunshot to the head. According to witness statements, the father then casually drove away from the scene.

Jamar Jr. later died at the hospital. Since then his father was taken into custody and talk has begun to fly around the Michigan area. It is so rumored that Jamar Jr.’s father reacted so irrationally because he had just been made aware that his son, 15 year-old Jamar Jr, had sexually assaulted his 4 year old sister. Now that statement has yet to be confirmed or acknowledge by the Pickney family, who is indeed suffering from their shocking loss. Whether it is simply talk or a bone-chilling truth, I pray that God be with that family.

Rihanna Takes A Step Forward while Chris Brown CRAWLs

 

After watching Diane Sawyer’s 20/2o interview with Rihanna this past Friday, and then reading an irate citizen’s response to the pop singer's answers, I feel the need to offer some clarity in hopes to, if feasible, enlighten the bull that unleashed his horns to pierce the character of the Roc Nation Princess. First and foremost, in response to him implying, as many have within their private groups (and you know who you are) that Rihanna is by no means innocent in the violent experience, and that she must have played a significant role that could excuse the mind-boggling violence that happened to her on that infamous Grammy Award Night by her convicted assailant, Chris Brown, I found myself holding my breath and waiting for some sense between the lines to rescue me. As the blogger went on by accusing Rihanna of somehow being "wrong" for claiming that she felt ashamed for loving Chris, and is now less of a woman for she, like every human, is a reflection of one’s love interest, the initial thing that came to my mind is… "uhmmmm. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

I wonder what significant role could an unarmed lady, barely weighing over a hundred pounds and confined to a passenger seat, play to excuse the madness that was plastered all over her face. Even if it was something she said, (something beyond the confession she gave Sawyer, which described her finding another woman’s message left in Chris' cell phone and then nagging him about it with every intention to confirm her suspicions of him being involved in an affair) could it have been worth this?
                                                  For those who may have missed the 20/20 interview, and only caught the recap of Rihanna’s emotional side of the tragic incident on the audio on this website, you may recall that Rihanna made a reference to feeling ashamed of whom she fell in love with. The irate blogger, to whom provoked this letter, obviously took that statement and ran a marathon with it. Later calling her “Wrong” for the way she felt.

Clarity: Dear Blogger,
              I doubt it seriously that when Rihanna made that comment she was stating that she felt ashamed of loving Chris, the full individual. It is my belief that she was simply labeling her shame on the "Domestic Abuser," or rather that part of the man that had hurt her so severely. In addition, when you stated, "Who you chose is a reflection of yourself," I got this eerie feeling that you are unaware that most individuals, like onions, have many layers. In a relationship, one initially sees the surface, which may pull them in. As one becomes infatuated with the other, more layers peel, which may make them attached. Finally, when you get to love, perhaps that last layer, a person may see something that burns their eyes. What are they to do then but cry? If love is present, real love, it isn't that easy to walk away from. So when you wrote that who a person chooses is a reflection of him/her, I immediately began wondering if you sincerely believe that all of a person is constantly revealed for one to see, let alone reflect. In addition, I'm curious to know if you are concrete in the notion that a domestic abuser, when he/she’s in perfect control of his/her emotions, cannot be the most loving or charming person? Are you convinced that an attacker, when he/she isn't at a boiling point, can’t be considerate and treat a love interest like an angel? If some part of you can recognize the frailty in your statements, maybe now you can invision how Rihanna fell in love Chris, and not the monster within him.

Music's "Fragile" Star Should Shine Forever!

“Fragile” is my undoubtedly my favorite song on Chrisette Michele’s latest album, “Epiphany.” Although this remix with Wale doesn’t excite me, the simple fact that a talent like Chrisette has arrived in the musical spotlight on her own terms, makes me eager to celebrate. And why shouldn’t I jump for joy for this singer, when so many nowadays disappoint me?

How often do musical artists rush out of their sound booths, anxious to flash their new songs on the small screen and radio stations, primarily in search of the glitz and glamour? And more often than not, their music is just that; nothing more than a temporary shine. Their luster usually comes in the form of a hot beat and a less than desirable lyric, or the other way around. Rarely is it anything original or of lasting value, but merely a musical arrangement designed to grasp our attention and may even blind us for a moment, until our good senses forces us to turn away. So you see, when a break from the norm appears, I must pay attention and give applause where it is due.

My hands incessantly clap for Chrisette Michele for she’s anything but the trend, which I would say is a very good thing. Her voice doesn’t blend in with others that grace our radio stations and her lyrics, which she writes, aren’t compiled with shallow stories and empty emotions. Instead, Chrisette belts out her heart. She allows her mind to get tangled in her words. Her lyrics are her thoughts. Her style is her own. Her gift is from God, which is why this star, fragile or not, has been blessed with an everlasting shine.
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An Off-Night Reality-by Lyric Dysin

They heard my inside was good so the vultures came.

I sought shelter, but in came the rain.

As smiles train a thousand miles to hollow,
I've got betrayl on the brain.

Swallowing tears that maggots follow
(like gold-diggers to a mine).
Being held high for the vultures to take aim
Riding the shoulders of a crowd that I think I've made proud,
So I wonder who's the blame?

The shooter or the bullseye,
reality don't lie.
as the breath of vultures speak,
"I'm the next to die."

One sniff and I hear the dead poets speak aloud

Saying the vulture's prey
until nothing's left behind

if ONE allows

So they instruct me to hide my good
and drape myself in rotten ways
Blend in with the world
and I'd live a gazillion days.

But dare to be above the craze
and the vultures will pick at my bones
until they brittle and break
before being buried beneath the tombstone

Mind blown, I fight to fly

as they tie my wings to their silly things

to scold me.

Emotions running high
as they grin, anxious to remind me
that I'm a woman in a world

that man has built to fold me

...in hopes to straighten me out!

I shout: "No resistence will hold me...
not even DOUBT!

Work then to drain my eyes and climb to soar

so sure that the sky is my final resting place,
for why else would God have left it for?

Beyond the rugged sea; that precious shore;
that place where sunrays forever dance on my face.

Somewhere I can relax on a cluster of stars

that will not harm me, but comfort me,

as they call me the precious Daughter of Mars

Someplace so far that the Vultures can't aim

and the crowd no longer tucks their deceptions

in my brain

And my shame of being a bullseye

will die with the pain...

of being all alone.

      Written By: Lyric Dysin/Dee Watts