The Coolest Thing Ever for the Next 11 Minutes

At a glance, I can't really argue with the seven stages of the pop culture phenomenon life-cycle. There's almost always that time when said phenomenon has not yet become so and is only acknowledge by a handful of people. Once mainstream grabs a hold of it, it blows up and unless it has any natural staying power, it will probably crash and burn as quickly as it was picked up.

I think the media can create sensations, but because so many of them don't have any staying power, they fade away not just from overkill, but from the lack of many redeeming qualities. When it comes to celebrities of any kind that refuse to fade away, we usally get things like tell-all books, degrading "reality" TV shows, or attention-grabbing antics.

We covered quite a few of the biggest offenders of the life-cycle in class. Boy bands as a whole fit the bill for this series of phases. Although it's been around in various incarnations, most of us are probably best familiar with the last round, which encompassed the mid-to-late '90s.

Since I try to avoid the flavor of the month actors, musicians and entertainers, I want to focus on a few trends and fads that I recall from my childhood slash teenage years. Most of these fit all of the stages, with the possible exception of the final one:

- Beanie Babies: I hated these damn things. Before I was fully clear on what one was, they had already blown up and become such a hit amongst collectors that people were shelling out hundreds of their presumably hard-earned dollars for a stupid limited edition moose. I don't think they went through much a maturation process. They had a few different lines before the majority of the collectors realized how stupid the whole idea was and abandoned them for something of substance. Like Furbies. Last I recall, there was another attempt at making Beanie Babies popular, but since I haven't heard anyone talk about them in a while, I'll assume it didn't go well.

- Pogs: One of the shining examples of stupid fads for my generation. I was in the fourth grade when these things took off. Before they become the obsession of dumb kids across the collective playground of America, there were a few kids carrying around these cardboard discs no bigger than a half-dollar. They had various images on them ranging from generic patterns to TV and cartoon characters. Before we knew what hit us, we all came to the conclusion that life would not be worth living without a pocket full of these cardboard discs.

Within weeks, almost every kid had at least a few of these things. Their inexpensive nature made it possible for even the free lunch kids to get in on the stupidity. Apparently there was actually an organized game complete with rules for using these discs for purposes other than looking like a tool. No one I knew ever played it. I actually gave it a shot one night, but quickly realize why no one I knew ever played it. I think that's when I realized I had made my mom waste countless dollars on a lot of colorful pieces of cardboard. Anyway, in a series of shocking events, the bottom fell out of the Pog craze and just as quickly as they had hit us, only the losers were still walking around showing off their Pogs.

- Virtual Pets: One trend I was lucky enough to see through from the outset. The first couple weeks of middle school, I saw a few of my classmates focused on these electronic gadgets, no bigger than a keychain. Actually, I think it double as a keychain, not that anyone stupid enough to own and operate one of these things should have been allowed to operate anything that required a key.

I was informed that these keychains were virtual pets. They had a more technical, Japanese-sounding name, which I believed translated into "waste of money." The whole idea behind these things was to feed and care for the "pet" that appeared on the LCD screen. By Halloween, it seemed like I was the only kid in the seventh grade without the responsibility of caring for an electronic life. We 12 and 13-year-olds had terrible attention spans, though. So as per the usual, the craze died down and with it, a lot of virtual pets did, too, thus proving why middle schoolers shouldn't be in charge of any sort of life.

The Tale of Two Returns

If going by street dates, the last seven days have seen two big releases in the hip-hop world: Jay-Z’s return from alleged retirement, Kingdom Come, and Clipse’s re-emergence from record label purgatory in the form of Hell Hath No Fury. Considering his icon status and positioning in the industry, Jay’s album got considerably more press in the weeks leading up to its release. Clipse, meanwhile, had to rely on word of mouth and ‘net locations like MySpace to generate buzz for an album that was four years in the making.

As is the norm with music today, both of these leaked weeks ahead of their street dates. In fact, Clipse’s album isn’t technically up for grabs until this Tuesday. The extra time has allowed me to digest two return albums from a pair of acts that are on opposite ends of the spectrum. By all means, Jay has accomplished everything a rapper could aspire to and a little bit more. He can coast on name recognition alone. This has benefited his bank account and desire to branch out with various business endeavors, but it has left his current music flaccid and lacking of that all-important hunger. Bringing in a myriad of the game’s biggest producers and attempting to cover more mature topics, Kingdom Come is more a reminder that some people can’t let go and leave while they’re on top; not a follow-up to what could be viewed as a near-perfect sendoff with his 2003 Black Album.

Clipse, on the other hand, were on the cusp of mainstream fame in 2002 with their debut Lord Willin’ that featured club-friendly singles like “Grindin’” and “When’s the Last Time?” Unfortunately for the emcee brothers Malice and Pusha T, most of the momentum created by their debut was erased when their label, Arista, was eaten up by Jive Records. This set the stage for the continuous delay of their sophomore effort, Hell Hath No Fury. While they dropped a pair of mixtapes during the wait, the poor treatment they experienced at the hands of Jive has made them angrier and more determined.

As the old saying goes, “The proof is in the pudding.” Hell Hath plays like a continuation of their debut album with the majority of the tracks dedicated to a trade they fondly remind everyone is their primary vocation: pushing drugs. And yet, something’s different. There weren’t many indications of them being wet behind the ears on their debut, but their follow-up album suggests they’ve grown from the adversity put before them in the last four years.

The duo continues their relationship with super-producers The Neptunes. I’ve given these men behind the music a lot of flak in recent times for falling into a creative rut. Hell Hath suggests they are either out of said rut or were just holding off the good production for Clipse. Any way you slice it, The Neptunes and Clipse remain a match made in heaven. Their chemistry is undeniable and this album only reinforces expectations for a classic when these four get together.

Uncharacteristically, their typically eccentric style has been mellowed on this album, which benefits Malice and Pusha’s usually slow, but authoritative flow. The first single, “Mr. Me Too” exemplifies this with a laid-back bassline coupled with a basic synth pattern. Tracks like “Ride Around Shining,” “Hello New World” and “We Got it for Cheap” among others fall into this category, offering a barebones sound that clearly has little concern for radio appeal.

The second single “Wamp Wamp (What it Do)” is one of the few tracks that boasts a complex, unorthodox beat. Aside from the useless inclusion of Slim Thug, the track is a winner and arguably one of the album’s strongest.

Kingdom Come and Hell Hath No Fury were three and four years in the making, respectively. Both had their own forms of hype backing them, but the self-proclaimed savior of hip-hop failed to deliver, while the Virginia duo has concocting a 12-track classic. Let’s just hope the industry realizes it and Clipse can carve a spot as impact players in the game.

Guess Who's Back?

This poor weblog has become my neglected cyber child in recent weeks and damn near months. But like real weekend dads, I'm going to attempt to make right within a two-day span. I was perusing the suggested topics and found that there were ones from the end of September I hadn't responded to. With that said, this post's in reference to the 9/25 list of suggestions. I'm going with: Visual images and propaganda--what if anything is wrong with propaganda? Does it matter if it's for (what you see as) a good cause?

Because propaganda can be filtered through virtually any medium, it's something that surrounds our lives. You can't watch TV, flip through a magazine or even attend a live sporting event without having some sort of constructed message being ingrained in your mind. Personally, I think propaganda has gotten a bad rap. Because it's so widespread and versatile in functions, it's historically been tied to negative things. It's encouraged hatred, discrimination, and war, among other things.

Propaganda's main purpose is to sell something. Whether it's a product or state of mind, it's trying to alter something, anything, in your life. For reasons mentioned above, this isn't always a positive. But when it comes to something like peddling a brand of clothing or new product your life would be worthless without, I can't help but tip my non-existent cap to them. They may be reinforcing a shallow existence driven by material goods, but they're doing a damn fine job of it.

It's ultimately up to the people to accept or reject the given message. The fact that so many people are sway by slick advertising doesn't say much for them, but at the same time, it's a credit to how well the advertisers have done their job. As someone who relies on others buying into a message or product (I sell on eBay), I'm aware that this isn't always a simple task. So when it's done well, I have to give credit where it's due.