Hey ladies,

1. I graduated from Penn State with a film degree and still live in Central PA. When I met Julianne in NYC at the big Matos party, I had to take a Greyhound for 9 hours. But then hey, if we're going to talk about everything but the review in question, I guess we can talk about everything but the reviewer in question.

2. I guess if you don't bring up all the revolting shit that happens in society when describing a song, you are ignoring it. When you don't mention James Brown's criminal record when discussing Live At The Apollo, you're being negligent. If I don't mention that Kathleen Hanna once equated eating meat with beating wives when reviewing This Island, I'm letting shit slide.

3. I never said the Ying Yang Twins don't deserve a slap in the face for coming on strong. I simply said that fans of "Wait" (something I never said I was or wasn't) aren't scum for enjoying it, the track was defensible and that a lot of folks (who, as I noted, are more than welcome to dislike the track) are being melodramatic about it. I see no reason to take back any of this. I wanted to see a review where someone wrote about the track without either saying "best of the year! so funny!" or "GOD, WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?" I did my best to deal with it at face value without making associations based on my privilege or others' lack thereof. No regrets.

4. What's with hyperactive bloggers calling out ILMers as internerd shut-ins with few friends? That's totes some presumptuous pot-kettle bullshit.

5. From the ILM (I mean, if we're bringing it up) "Wait" thread:

I don't think "Wait" is nearly as bad as the tracks referred to in this xgau review, but I think this is some worthwhile food for thought when you think about where your sympathies lie.

This Is the Shack [Def Jam/RAL, 1995]
Lazing around in Warren G's groove without making a pass at his tragic sense of life, these arrogant hangers-on would be yawns if they weren't the ugliest sexists to make a three week splash all year. Although the hatred is everywhere, it's most painful on an early "skit"-song-"skit" triptych: "The Train" (a backslapper about gang rape in the dark),"Fuck Ya Mouth" ("To all our hookers and hoes"), and "Slap a Hoe" (a device invented for punks too yellow to do the job themselves). Heaven forfend the rappers actually doing any of these things, except maybe buy a Slap-a-Hoe--this isn't advocacy, it's constitutionally protected representation, harrumph. What I don't understand is why anyone who doesn't hate women is outraged when C. Delores Tucker goes just as far overboard in response. If they understand when self-serving black men express themselves in these, harrumph, metaphors, why don't they understand when self-serving black women counterattack by any means necessary? C+

-- miccio (anthonyisright@GEEmail.com), May 12th, 2005.

So yeah, play on. I understand. I'd still love a copy of that Pitbull mixtape, too.