"Music kind of sucks. Nobody's into being a musician. Everybody's getting their mogul on. You've been so infiltrated by this corporate mentality that all the time you'd spend getting great songs together, you're busy doing nine other things that have nothing to do with art. You know how shitty Stevie Wonder's songs would have been if he had to run a fuckin' clothing company and a cologne line?" says Chris Rock In a wonderful new interview in Rolling Stone  (Nov 15, 2007 issue 1039) in which the magazine accurately notes that in this age of hip-hop it is more than common for most rappers to utter those words that we have heard a zillion times already: "I'm not a rapper, I'm a businessman." And Chris Rock responds, "That's why rap sucks, for the most part. Not all rap, but as an art form it's just not at its best moment."

The always articulate, observant and funny comedian/social satirist Rock has built a career on consistently poking fun at rap music in particular, from his SNL impersonations (including one of MC Hammer) to his hilarious lead role in the excellent 1993 obviously NWA inspired, faux-gangsta rap group comedy CB4 as the fictional emcee Gusto, to such things as the cover art of his 1999 comedy album Bigger and Blacker which mocked the (at the time) predominant No Limit/Cash Money record labels' styled rap album cover art. Rock never misses a beat in taking shots at rap music and at the music scene, um business, in general.

Released in theaters a little earlier this year, Eddie Murphy's movie Norbit -- in which, once again, he plays way too many different characters, somehow mistakenly thinking that this feat will make up for another not-so-funny comedy -- is already out on DVD and I watched it last night. At least, I watched as much of it as I could bear to sit through before hitting the eject button. Like other comedians and/or actors who have similarly gotten increasingly lamer onscreen over the years (think Ice Cube or Rob Schneider), Eddie Murphy has lost that certain edge that he once possessed long, long ago in his immediate post SNL years. In fact, so lame was Norbit that it forced me to go back twenty years to seek out a clip from Murhpy's 1987 Robert Townsend directed live concert film Raw -- included below.

And speaking of Ice Cube, who has morphed from homeboy in Boyz In The Hood to cuddly family-man in Are We Done Yet? over his 17 onscreen years, the former NWA member has just announced that he will be starring in the forthcoming movie Comeback, to be directed by Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst for Dimension Films.   Scheduled for a mid 2008 release, Comeback will begin shooting sometime in November.
 

I also can't believe she chose to do some of the very songs that have held me close in safety these past few years: "Gimme Shelter." "Perfect Day." "Helpless." That's weird and beautiful, scary too ... thank you, Patti Smith.

I thought after meeting Tina Turner, I could just die. Hey, life doesn't get any better than that! Climax! Then Joan Baez did an instore at Leopold Records in Berkeley, and I got to meet her as well. Of course I thought: now I can die. Zenith! (I am aware that this is not healthy thinking, okay?)

Those were the records that I listened to as a child -- these were the women who saved my life. How many chances do you get to look someone in the eye who stormed the world and demanded change, and damn well GOT THE CHANGE? How many chances does a person get to thank them -- in person?