Keep yo love locked down, yo love lockdown

I don't know why I like rap. I can't place where it started. I think with DC Talk's Nu Thang that my parents had on a tape of the Top 10 Dove artists or something. If you remember Nu Thang, I tip my hat. My parents were worried and wouldn't let Molly and I listen to it, and they were pretty sure it was put on that worship tape by accident. They have since loosened their views on what inspired music looks like.

Anyway, that's a tangent, just to say that I like rap. One summer I had a job where I worked until 5 and supper at home wasn't ready until about 5:45. So in the post-work, pre-supper brain-dead zone, I would watch 106 & Park on BET pretty much everyday. It's the video countdown show for the rap videos on BET. I'm not going to pretend like I'm proud of that summer, it just happened. I wouldn't really endorse BET anymore, I dunno I haven't watched it in awhile.

Okay, so one day they had this guy named Kanye West on to talk about his new video. He was brand new on the scene, I think "All Falls Down" had just come out, his first video. No wait, "Thru the Wire" was his first... anyway, he was new. People just knew him as Jay-Z's beatmaker, some techie knob-turner who they unchained from the soundboard, let him make his own album since he keeps whining about it. Then, funny thing, it shot to the top. Whoa.

So he's on BET introducing this new video. Jesus Walks. And he's got like 2 or 3 different versions of the video available. One was kind of a standard, gospel choir, inner city church, Kanye pretending to be the pastor theme. It was good, moving song. Then there was the controversial one. Uh oh. They showed this one last, Kanye talked about how it was his favorite but people told him to make others because it was too heavy. Well, I'll describe it fast and maybe put a link, maybe not. I'll decide after this here description. Children 12 and under plus nursing mothers may exit the blog ... now...

The video has several different storylines running through it. Prisoners digging. Drug dealers getting caught by the border patrol. And this guy chopping wood and sanding stuff. You don't really know what the chopping wood guy is doing. Until like the climax of the song, when he puts on his white hood. KKK style. And the wood is in a cross, which he lights on fire. Then it falls over, he catches it and carries it, catching his whole robe on fire. Then as he's up in flames as this firey, almost demonic symbol of hate, he drops the cross, and the rain clouds that had been gather suddenly gush forth and wash this guy, as he's taking off his robes and soaking it in, having a "come to Jesus" moment. It's moving, I had tears in my eyes. Okay, I already described the controversial parts, so I'll go ahead and link to it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFKPd_TRVC8

So on that BET countdown show where this debuted, Kanye talked about the video afterward. He described the rain falling on the guy at the end as a baptism type of scene, washing the guy clean. Kanye said that was what the whole song was about, how none of us are too far away from mercy, Jesus can walk right into our mess. Whoa. And this comes right in the middle of 106 & Park? I was blown away. Jesus, look what you were doing! I went out and bought the album (edited version of course) from Wal*Mart later that night. I was blown away. JE SUS WALKS! Well, Jesus walked on water I guess walking on BET couldn't be that much harder. I was pretty sure that Kanye was going to start a revival and lead everyone who had ever listened to rap to Christ. Beautiful.

Then of course I gave the album a full listen. Jesus Walks, track 7. Get 'Em High, track 9. Yep that song was about you guessed it, drugs. I gradually fluttered back down to earth. I stayed a Kanye fan and tried to keep the faith, hey he was making some good music, better than other stuff out there. The first song release on his next album, Diamonds, has a reference to God in it. So did the songs Never Let You Down and Heard 'Em Say. But scouring his lyrics for a Holy visitation meant you had to push through a lot of references to girls and drugs and money and the usual rap fare. Nuts. Thought we had something, Big K. Thought we had something.

His popularity skyrocketed, though. He decided not to let Jesus walk in, but he went on the cover of Rolling Stone with a crown of thornes. Hmm. The next albums opened huge. I think mostly because of the void in the music scene. There was flat out no one else being creative. And Kanye was, if nothing else, creative. Hip hop violins? Bringing in the guy from Coldplay? Pretty cool. His ego got HUGE. But I think that might finally be getting leveled out. Exhibit A: 808s and Heartbreak. His new album.

That's what this post was supposed to be about from the beginning, sorry for my longwindedness. Kanye put out a new album last week. The last two that he made I rushed to the store and bought pretty soon after. This one, nah uh. As I said before he's creative, and yeah, that shows up on the new joint. He's got no qualms about flipping up his style. Problem is his, *ahem, talent.

Over break my dad and I were watching Conan O'Brian and saw Kanye come on and get interviewed and perform a song. My dad captured it well, that KWest seemed like a different duck. Kind of awkward. Add that with his new style, this slower, gritty computerized drum machine and a voice synthesizer, with Kanye trying to sing. Trying. He's not very good. He admitted it to Conan. He also admitted that the heart he was wearing on his breast pocket was made of legos. Hmm.

My dad mostly captured it. He's still the techie guy, a knob turner, that accidently wandered up to the mice. He's at his prime in the booth, but on stage? Not his gifting. I don't say it to be mean. All of us want to be rockstars, right? But it's not really in the cards.

Molly and I gave the Kanye album a listen, a free trial deal online. I seemed like something that one of your friends would make in his basement, and then you would listen to it all and look for good things to say to your friend, but really, it was a challenge to not hit "skip track" on most songs. It's really sad and contemplative, which I guess is still groundbreaking for a rap album. Just not something I'd like to listen to again.

Miss you, Kanye. Thought we could have had something when you did Jesus Walks. But I guess walking the straight and narrow wouldn't have taken you to the top. He's still waiting. He hasn't walked away just yet. Maybe, here, at this low point, you might be ready to find Him again.

Sea Admiral Cory Smith

So I got a text from Ma Boiiii Cory Smith the other day. It really blessed me, a little heartfelt message that you probably wouldn't get if I posted it. So just imagine a long time friend that you haven't seen in over 6 months saying something really heartfelt that just makes you praise God. Yeah, whatever you imagined, it was just about exactly like that.

The crazy thing is that Cory, friend of mine since first grade or so, has a girlfriend. Kind of a serious girlfriend. Now, that may seem like just a general comment on life, not newsworthy. But you are SO wrong if you think this is anything less than earth-shattering, the-apocalypse-is-on-us, "wait, is that a typo" type of news. Cory is an amazing guy and a great friend. But boyfriend material? Uh, well, let me tell some stories....

In High School Cory had this million candle-watt flashlight (is candle-watt the right unit? is a million even a big number for that? sorry, that's the engineer in me talking about an unfamiliar dimensional analysis). And he assembled a little crew, calling them the IACG. This was a random group, the members came and went, it was never official. But Cory was certainly the ring leader. Because of course, he is the only one who could come up with something like the
INVOLUNTARY
ABSTINENCE
CONTROL
GROUP

That's right, we would cruise around Muscatine to all the possible make-out spots with the million candle watt flashlight on high alert for any... loiterers? (for lack of a better term). In all my time riding with him, I don't think we ever found any cars with steamy windows. Probably for the better. I did hear about the time he caught a mutual friend parked with his girlfriend (nothing was actually happening [yet?]) and a car chase ensued, Cory narrowly evading the maroon Santa Fe driver that I won't name here. This car chase is second only to the famous Muscatine Mall "The Fast and the Gay" car chase of '04 instigated by Josiah Street. Epic. Both times, Cory and the nimble little Buick narrowly escaped with their lives. Seriously, this should probably be made into a movie...

Hopefully you're getting the picture of Cory a little bit here. A legend among those who know him. Just another guy with a size 8 head to those who don't. [Note: average head size is around 7.25] The saga continues:

During daytime hours, the IACG would morph into a different kind of Public Service: The Happy Smile Patrol. Again this involved Cory's Buick cruising the streets of Muscatine rocking Lil Jon and the Eastside Boys or Huey Lewis and the News. But this time we would have windows down to be able to assist any passers by, giving them encouragement and such. We would yell things like "HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE DAY" "NICE WEATHER ISN'T IT" and my personal favorite "I LIKE GOLF." The all-caps is hopefully conveying the urgency and power with which we proclaim the message. Loud and proud, possibly in a way that some might percieve it to be angry. But we at the Happy Smile Patrol take our job seriously, the message needs to get out there to the people. Oh, who am I kidding, we annoyed joggers and moms pushing strollers like no one before or since.

So this is the legacy of Cory Smith. Up to this point the loves of his life were the St. Louis Cardinals, ice hockey, and the poker game Guts--or more specifically, the hand Jack-Six and it's power to win every game of Guts.
Enter Sam.
The girl.
I hope she's a brave one.
She probably doesn't know about IACG. She would probably throw things at the Happy Smile Patrol. But for all the descriptions of Sam that I've heard so far, she seems like the PERFECT match for Cory. It's kind of unreal. I've yet to meet her, but she sounds amazing. I know that Cory has gone head over heels for her. It's pretty cool to see happen, even though I'm seeing it from quite the distance.

And now a twist of seriousness, of which the likes IACG and HSP have little capacity to combat. Sam is in amazing health, she's like a three-sport college athlete, or at least I know for sure that she's on the women's hockey team at her school. But in a routine physical a month or so ago, they caught the beginning stages of leukemia.

Lord, come. We need you God!

It's been cool to see how Cory's responding. This goofball is suddenly becoming, by the grace of God, a rock of refuge for this girl. He's there for her, even though he's got to be at his Navy base most of the time several miles away.

So please be praying for Sam. If she's as amazing as the rumors, I know she can beat this. Especially with the help of the Glorious One, Jesus Christ. He's been making this whole story glorious from the beginning.

The whole point of this post I guess was to say, I miss you Cory and I'm excited to see you and meet the lady here over the holidays. IACG 4eva, baby!

I think I'm really going to blog now

Yeah, blogs are kind of a cool idea. I made this one in August. It's the end of November. I think I'm going to start using it now. Nifty. Not a huge newsflash, just, well, yeah. Kind of a New Year's resolution, just coming a month early.