“Remember, man, that thou art dust; and to dust thou shall return.”

Today is Fat Tuesday. I know that most of you don’t even know what I’m talking about because you aren’t Catholic or from the South. Maybe you’ve never been to New Orleans and had jambalaya, red beans, and shrimp etouffee? What about hot sausage? Does Mardi Gras ring a bell? Well that is exactly what Fat Tuesday means in French.

I celebrated last night by going to see Mos Def at the 9:30 club. I can’t say that the show was all that awesome because Mos Def got there all late and claimed that his flight was delayed. I don’t know about the rest of you, given this sucking economy, but I have a really good job and I’m not trying to lose it. Hanging out on a Monday night is not something that a prudent working man would normally do, but I channeled my inner New York City teacher days and powered through. I made it to work, too, just like old times.

The opening act, Hezekiah, wants you know that his new album “I Predict a Riot” will be in stores soon. Hezekiah sounded a lot like Mos Def, and he had a few songs that I must have heard somewhere on the radio. On a scale from one to  ten, I’m going to have to give the whole shebang a six. The doors opened at 6:30 and despite having a ticket, I had to wait in the bitter cold with my date before getting in. The line was stretched around the corner just to let you know how much I love Mos Def –but his rating still had to suffer. His new music didn’t sound all that great either, even though it started fast.

I happen to know Mos Def, personally, and I really should have taken the time to pull the necessary strings in order to not wait in that line with the rabble but I didn’t take the initiative. I was too busy playing it cool, literally, riding on a skateboard to meet a girl in a car to ask Lysa for his number. I was also trying to get an interview for a piece that I was working for that would have probably ended up on this site, but the show ran so late that I had to bounce. My real job requires me to be well-rested and energetic early in the morning so the shameless namedropping will have to suffice in lieu of the absence of substantive journalism. Don’t you love guys that are always like, “I know Dante, I know Dante?” Well, I make it happen, baby. I can claim bomb as much as I want.  (Thanks Joel & Maya for the new nomenclature.)  ((Oh, look more claim bombing!))

So yeah, back to the Fat Tuesday, while Obama is talking to Congress tonight I’ll be dining on fine Creole cuisine at Arcadiana. I’m so desperate for New Orleans right now. I know that the city, itself, will never be the same again and most of friends that are from there no longer live there. The utter devastation that hurricane Katrina caused to the city was far deeper than merely the cosmetic. Quietly, Obama need to rectify that. I know that they’re still holding Mardi Gras down there and eating King cake and such but without the history of the people down there you are bound to lose elements of flavor.

The oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the United States happens to be in Mobile, Alabama anyway. I love Southern cuisine just as much as the next country boy, but Alabama doesn’t have anything on Louisiana, you dig? Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should give up for Lent? As it stands now, I’m giving up being an asshole.  I guess I could give up claim bombing, but that might be too unrealistic. 

"Winning is fun and can cause you to bragga

But whatever you do -- please beat Gonzaga." -from TP

The DeMatha Stags have their work cut out for them this weekend. The basketball team has been rolling of late, and hasn’t lost in the month of February. They are fresh off a nationally televised double-digit road win over Bishop O’Connell and will play the remaining two games of the regular season at home. If the Stags can manage to win against the current WCAC first placed Gonzaga on Friday night then they will be a lock for a top seed in the playoffs next weekend. Saint Johns plays at DeMatha on Monday for the final home game of the season, but everybody knows that DeMatha is focused on knocking down the defending champion Purple Eagles rather than the Cadets who have been struggling.

So far the Saint Johns Cadets have been the latest victim in a top-heavy conference that has had five teams in the national rankings: DeMatha (currently #14), Gonzaga (currently #13), McNamara (ranked as high as #20 at one point in the season), Bishop O’Connell (ranked as high as #25 at the beginning of the season), and Paul VI (ranked as high as #17). Surprisingly, Good Counsel is the dark horse in the league and the Falcons managed to upset DeMatha at home earlier in the season despite not ever achieving a national ranking. Not so surprisingly Archbishop Carroll, Saint Mary’s Ryken and Bishop Ireton are all in the cellar of the league this year.

The pressure is mounting in the WCAC, and while DeMatha had the initiative early, Gonzaga effectively wrested control when they were able to take advantage of their home court on January 21^st. Of course, I’m going to be forced to go to the DeMatha home game early February 20^th to exact some birthday revenge while watching the freshman, junior varsity and varsity starting at 4PM. The DeMatha basketball teams aren’t the only ones about to have a showdown with the Purple Eagles, though. I’ll let our development director tell that story and explain a little more about our apparent rivalry. Peep the block quote below:

The varsity hockey team beat Gonzaga yesterday in the playoffs.  The varsity basketball team will host Gonzaga tomorrow night in a big WCAC game.  The swim team will compete against Gonzaga (and a host of other schools) in Saturday's Metros competition.

We bring this up in that it should be obvious to most that, while DeMatha has had many adversaries over the years, Gonzaga has become our biggest rival in virtually every sport.  Of course, we say this having endured the ignominy of The Purple Eagles being placed ahead of us in last year's Sports Illustrated rankings of athletic departments.  We understand how rankings are designed to sell copy and are folly, but Gonzaga? Ahead of us? The horror. The horror.  Say it ain't so Joe (Kozik).

The truth of the matter is that having rival schools, all in the proper context, can be fun.  "As long as things are not taken to extremes, rivalries can be wonderful for fans, players, and alums," said Dr. Daniel McMahon, principal.  "Rivalries affirm what you have in common.  Therefore, the game or contest is what then is used as a measure to distance one school from the other."

If anyone understood firsthand the Gonzaga-DeMatha rivalry and the ethos of both all-male institutions, it would be Dr. McMahon, as he and brother Tim (DM '78) are pitted against their two young brothers, Chris and Greg, who happen to be Gonzaga grads.  In fact, Chris McMahon is in the Gonzaga Hall of Fame.  A picture of Tim and Chris McMahon, wearing the football jerseys of their respective schools -- and sharing the same number -- can be viewed here.

It was also Dr. McMahon, who, in a meeting with Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley (a Gonzaga alum, we have to admit), presented the Governor with a DeMatha tie and reminded him that, as Governor of Maryland, he had no choice but to support the schools in his own state.  O'Malley, being the true politician, nodded, but we know where his loyalties lie.  In fact, when his band performed at DeMatha a few years ago, we just had to present then (Baltimore) Mayor O'Malley with a DeMatha t-shirt, which he promptly used to wipe the sweat off of his brow.  At the end of the night (10 pm), he then teased us for shutting down so soon saying that real Gonzaga men would never turn in so early. Of course, we would have had to pay him and his band mates more for overtime but that's another story.

Perhaps the most famous incident between the two schools took place in November 2003 when DeMatha and Gonzaga were to play for the football championship at Byrd Stadium.  It seems that a few Gonzaga students left a dead deer at the front door of DeMatha as (we can only guess) a sign of what was going to happen later that day. While that prank obviously was misguided, the DeMatha students used it to their advantage that night as a mock coffin was carried out on the field and the school's mascot, "Buck the Stag" (a student in a deer outfit), busted out of the coffin to the thunderous roar of the DeMatha faithful.

Of course, the hallmark of the rivalry is the give and take between the student sections at various games.  Again, while some of these chants can be off base, there have been some classic exchanges down through the years.  In the first year Mike Jones was the head coach of the DeMatha varsity basketball team, the Gonzaga student section began this cheer during a game:

"WHERE IS MORGAN? WHERE IS MORGAN? WHERE IS MORGAN?"

To which our students countered, "HALL OF FAME, HALL OF FAME, HALL OF FAME."

Of course, the Swampoodle partisans have also had to remind us that 'God is Purple' -- a popular sign at Gonzaga games down through the years.  The DeMatha response?  'So is Barney!'  And so it goes.

Without question, Gonzaga's greatest gift to DeMatha may have been Ray Smith, the Eye Street '54 grad, who worked at DeMatha for what could only be characterized as 35 semi-odd years.  "Raybo" or "The Little General" was known for his loud shirts, booming voice, and ability to throw unsuspecting miscreants out of the window of his first floor class.  Oh yeah, he taught Algebra and coached golf somewhere along the way too.

In all seriousness, we should point out that over the years the schools have worked together for greater purposes.  One year the two faculties came together for a one-day retreat; Gonzaga benefactors heavily supported the Tim Strachan/DeMatha Gala in 1994; recently, Matt Krimm '88 has held a huge DC benefit each year for a Scholarship Fund at Gonzaga in the memory of his friend Erik Kristenson, a Gonzaga grad and US Navy Seal who died in Afghanistan.  The benefit also supports a DeMatha Scholarship Fund in honor of Pat Krimm, Matt's father, a Vietnam Veteran who started our school's hockey program. Not surprisingly, both Strachan and Matt Krimm will be "in the house" for tomorrow night's Gonzaga game.

So we conclude with the story of a new book written by a Gonzaga alum, "In The Eyes of History:  Gonzaga College & The Lincoln Assassination": It seems the book finds a way to connect Gonzaga grads with virtually the dawn of Man as well as the invention of liquid soap.  However, specifically, the book traces several Gonzaga "people" to those who killed the man generally recognized as our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln.  So, I ask, tomorrow night, should our students chant --

"LINCOLN'S REVENGE! FOR HONEST ABE!"

Okay, probably not.  But I do think this new book's revelation does make me understand one thing quite clearly -- now we know why so many DeMatha grads are Secret Service Agents.

Go Stags!  Beat Gonzaga!

TP

I know that I've been rather lazy in posting about basketball this year and I didn't want you guys to think that I didn't care.  The reality is that with every team playing twice in the season, it is an arduous task to keep track of it every week.  I hope that you've been following along at DC Sports Fan because it would be like a full time gig to keep up with all the twists and turns.  I do know that DeMatha (23-3)has only three losses, two of which have come at the hands of a nationally ranked opponent.  The best I can do is put up the rankings before the conference tournament starts next weekend...  Yeah, so I can’t get any more in depth than Tom Ponton, right now. You heard the man: Don’t let your kids grow up to be people that would harbor the likes of John Wilkes Booth.

Pray for the quick recovery of DeMatha British Literature instructor Dr. Charles "Buck" Offutt who suffered a stroke last week after over 50 years of service.

Beat Gonzaga!

GO STAGS!

More about my friend, Coley.

Coleman Mellett – an accomplished jazz guitarist, Mellett was a touring member of trumpeter Chuck Mangione's band for the last several years. The group was scheduled to perform this past Friday night at the Kleinhans Music Hall with the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Mellett who friends referred to as "Coley", grew up near Washington, D.C. and graduated from DeMatha Catholic High School in 1992. He moved to New Jersey to study at William Paterson University. After graduating he moved to New York and earned a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1998. Mellett, 33, lived in East Brunswick, N.J., with his wife, singer Jeanie Bryson –the daughter of famed jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie.  DeMatha Catholic High School band director, John Mitchell tells 9 News Now, "he had a passion for what he was doing. He did all the right things. He took lessons. He practiced a lot, listened to all the great guitar players at the time and was just one of those people that was a joy to teach."

Speaking of our time with Mr. Mitchell, I happened across a video of the DeMatha Wind Ensemble performing a piece that Coley and I played together when we were students there.  It made me a little nostalgic and I remembered the time when Coley was the premier musician in that storied program.  Coleman won recognition for all of his achievements in music at DeMatha after he received the John Phillip Sousa award in our senior year.  Instead of using his award as a personal platform though, Coley urged five other section leaders in the band to deliver the addresses before the major performances.  Of course, I was one of those five other students, but I can't stress this enough as an example of the kind of person Coleman was.  Coleman Mellett was insatiably interested in spreading success.

For Coleman, it wasn't enough just to achieve greatness in music.  He was clearly destined for all of that at an early age.  His proficiency on the clarinet was equal to his business acumen and he set the wheels in motion to motivate the entire Wind Ensemble to be the absolute best that we could have been.  It was not really a surprise when DeMatha was voted the best concert band in the country for the 11th time in 13 years our senior year.  (The organizers of the national competition have since asked DeMatha to stop competing in order to give other schools a chance to win.)  What was a surprise was the fact that our best musician wasn't a self-serving, egotistical bastard.  I know musicians pretty well, and let's just say that the man was a rare breed of extraordinary talent and humility. 

Somewhere close to the end of our junior year in 1991 Coleman took the reigns from within the bourgeoning music program of DeMatha and subtly began to exert the influence of an heir apparent.  Slowly, Coleman assembled a core group of senior section leaders to maintain the focus and ultimately unite the band.  We called ourselves The Six of Us.  Bottom row: Sean Cawley, french horn section leader; Daniel Cooper, tuba section leader; Frank Pesci, tenor saxophone section leader.  Top row: Chad Bickel, trumpet section leader; Coleman Mellett, clarinet section leader; Joe Polowczuk, alto saxophone section leader.  Out of all of my musical selections, including being named to a first chair at All State or playing with the Prince Georges Philharmonic, I would still have to say that it was more important for me to have Coley's trust and confidence to be included in that elite of the elites group. 

With one decision made by one of my own peers, I enjoyed the buoyed self-esteem that has propelled me to this day.  (Contrary to popular belief, the DeMatha swagger that some mistake for arrogance can take a little while to set in.)  Before all of that, I believe I was holding myself back because I thought that my best wasn't good enough.  I think that each of The Six of Us toyed with the idea of making a career out of music if only because we were so thoroughly engrossed in upholding the DeMatha standard.  Coleman was the only one to actually follow through with that from our class, however, and that is not to say that music was his only option.  Coleman was a talented student, to the point where I would have many conversations with him about why he chose to take such hard courses.  I couldn't understand in my youth why someone so talented and so sure of his chosen profession would volunteer to take Calculus with Mr. Coughlin.  We suffered through it together, though.  That was Coley: his success was not only transferable, but it was commutative. 

The Mellett family is holding a memorial service for Coley on March 7, 2009 at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill located at 313 Second Street, SE Washington, DC 202.547.1430.  Service will begin at 11:00am EST and will be followed by a reception downstairs at the church.

The Mellett family has set up a Scholarship Fund at DeMatha in Coley's name for aspiring jazz musicians.  To give, make a check payable to DeMatha and mail to Mellett Scholarship Fund c/0 DeMatha HS  4313 Madison Street Hyattsville, MD  20781.

Pictured above is Coleman Mellett and his wife, Jeanie about ten years ago.  I went to high school with Coley, and we both graduated in the DeMatha class of 1992.  I called him Coleman "the soul-man" because he opened my eyes to the fact that it was indeed possible to be a superior jazz musician and be white.  Never mind that there were already tons of white jazz musicians that I could have been exposed to, and Coley mentioned them all.  The fact was, that Coley was there in the flesh for me, and he opened up his home when he could have easily dismissed my ignorance.  DeMatha was that kind of place, but Coley was still special.

Coleman Mellett died in a tragic plane crash that killed everyone aboard late last night when he was headed to Buffalo to play a gig.  Coleman was an outstanding guitarist that played with the Radio City Music Hall orchestra, and an equally accomplished clarinet player.  I'm going to miss Coleman for his honesty and for his humor.  You could always count on Coley to give an honest answer and also to cheer you up with a joke after breaking your heart.  My prayers are for his family right now, because I know that Coley is in a better place.  My guess is that he's jamming out with the best of the best and holding his own.  Rest in peace, good friend.  Never in a million years did I think that you would depart this world so soon or else I would have held you tighter.

Coleman is survived by his wife Jeanie, his brother Zebulon, and his sister Brady.

They say that Nero fiddled while Rome burned and George W. Bush read My Pet Goat to schoolchildren as the single most calamitous terrorist, or otherwise, event occurred on U.S. soil. Only the mad emperor Nero was likely playing a lute, and New York City and New Orleans could both certainly duke it out as the limits of presidential ineptitude. Otherwise I think that the analogy kind of works.

The fall of the World Trade Center and one wing of the Pentagon could all be disastrous in and of themselves. The fact that they both occurred on the same day among other attacks shows the cunning of a committed, organized enemy. Hurricane Katrina, or rather George W. Bush’s lack of response to it, revealed a slothful callous side to a man that was generally regarded as brash dullard. The 43^rd President proved impetuous after the events of September 11, 2001 and he literally wasted no time in squandering billions of dollars in resources in order to exact revenge by launching The War in Afghanistan and the subsequent Second Gulf War, and Occupation of Iraq, on October 7^th of the same year.

Those of us that knew the type of man George W. Bush was knew that he would lump them all together in one great mess. The election thief that he was, he also had a penchant for jumbling things up like the words and phrases he often mixed in official public speaking engagements. As a politician, however, he was unequalled in his almost innate ability to deceive people into believing that he actually stood for something, anything that they might share in common. What most people didn’t know was that George W. Bush really didn’t have much of a plan beyond holding on to power after his election. The sheep of America elected him again to make certain of his incompetence in 2003, and he didn’t disappoint.

By the time that Katrina made landfall in New Orleans on August 29, 2005 even the sheep were certain that they were witnessing new levels of uselessness in their shepherd. Up until this point, historically speaking, United States presidents would be most proud of acquiring territories and protecting citizens from harm and here was George W., the only man to lose a city and thousands of inhabitants. At long last the jig was finally up on George the younger and it became apparent that his lack of ability ran rampant in other areas as well. The economy began to unravel from his wanton deregulation after the housing bubble burst. Both parties refused to cooperate with Bush in his waning days, a special brand of bipartisan vitriol infected the government, and even a journalist threw two shoes at him at a press conference.

Enter a brand new day and President Barack Obama. With less than month in office he has quite a job on his hands, thanks to George W. Bush, who incidentally, believes that history will vindicate him. I, for one, don’t think that this could possibly be the case because I was really trying to look for any long lasting silver lining in the cloud over his presidency and I couldn’t find any. The only thing that he managed to do was to royally screw things up. Maybe it will turn out that Bush is that dark nadir before Obama’s light? Only time will tell the story, but if the newspapers write the first draft of history then blogs are the new outlines.

As for the U.S. economy, I don't think that there will be a quick fix for President Obama.  As it stands right now, there are too many new unemployment claims and even reputable companies are reporting significant losses.  President Obama has made terrific strides in his first week in office by chastising those banking companies that still paid record bonuses despite the fact that they received monies from a government bailout.

Such shameful behavior is something that Americans have become all too insensitive towards under the regime of George W. Bush.  Of course, after eight years of a dysfunctional regulation system for banks it will take a considerable amount of time to reverse these negative effects.  I hope that it will not take years, but rather months before we can truly be optimistic about our economy again. I have no idea how President Obama plans to go tinker with the minutia but his campaign did outline clues to his larger, overall plan.

One of the biggest boosts to the economy will take place after President Obama stops wastefully spending for combat troops in Iraq.  The war in Iraq was a major debacle created by George W. Bush and it has been a tremendous strain on our military as well as a drain to our financial standing.  George W. Bush previously, and incorrectly I might add, estimated that revenues could be generated from an invasion in Iraq through the sale of oil.  A reduction in force in that region will greatly impact our ability to become financially responsible again as well as rest our overworked combat troops currently stationed there.

When George W. Bush took office, he inherited a fiscally responsible government that was actually functioning at a surplus from the William Clinton administration, the 42^nd President of the United States.  Now, eight years later, President Obama has inherited a highly partisan government with the biggest deficit that the United States has ever seen.  Of course the details are all pretty complex and cannot be expressed to the fullest in this simple article but I believe that you can get the general idea that Obama isn’t exactly set up for “no crystal stair.” So far, though, President Barack seems to be suited for the task and I have every confidence in him to turn us around. The optimism is truly infectious, and I am told that not since Kennedy did the nation seem to rally around an individual in such a way in order to help change the perception of Americans around the world.

The beautiful irony of it all, of course, is that President Barack Obama is a black man. Should he succeed, once again, America will have to acknowledge the fact that this grand experiment in democracy and liberty would not have been possible were it not for the contribution of those that it had formerly cast aside as undesirable. George W. Bush, the favored son of the 41^st President, a man of great privilege will finally be exposed as a bright and shining lie. The underlying current of white supremacist racism may finally begin to be swept away from the world and King might realize the broadening of his dream as the tide turns in the favor of a more perfect humanity. And speaking of a more perfect humanity, I bring you a black man on United States legal tender. Above is the approved design of the District of Columbia issued quarter featuring legendary musician Duke Ellington.  Check it.

The following critique is based on “Ed-Ucation” On the album Chronic 2001, by Dr. Dre featuring Eddie Griffin, and block quoted below.  If you can't handle the language of this serious discussion, then now is the time to avert your eyes.

Aw, they say uh… a Black Man is a pimp. Well let me tell you the biggest pimp on planet motherfuckin’ Earth, is her momma. It's her momma that told her, "Get a man that got a good job girl! Make sure he got a good car girl! Make sure he can take you out and buy you somethin’ to eat, girl!" What happened to just fallin’ in love with a nigga with a bus pass –just cause you loved a nigga?

But I'm the pimp motherfucker! I gotta be the player!

Biggest hoes, on planet Earth are walkin’ through the motherfuckin’ neighborhood!

You knew when you got with the nigga he already had a woman. You knew he already had a family but you fucked him anyway!!! And then when you thought you was gon' lose the nigga, you went and got pregnant –didn’t you bitch, didn’t you?!

The ole’-keep-a-nigga-baby!

And then when the nigga ain't around, what do you tell the child? "Aww that nigga ain't shit, that's why yo' daddy ain't here; cause that nigga ain't shit."

How ‘bout being a woman, and tellin’ the kid the truth, that: yo' momma, you was a hoe?

Tell the kid! "Momma was a hoe, I was weekend pussy. I had you to keep the nigga, it didn't work out, that's why he ain't here –but he a good nigga ‘cause he take care of his REAL family. I was just a dumb bitch, tryin’ to keep, a nigga that I wanted."

 

Let us take the time to reflect on what comedian Eddie Griffin had to say about the current state of the dysfunctional Black family in his epic piece on the even more epic record, Chronic 2001 by Dr. Dre: Wow. Where do I begin?

Eddie begins his tirade by explaining that the complexity of the Black Family can be traced to the instructions that little girls get from their black mothers. While there is some inherent truth to the matter that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, I believe that Eddie Griffin also negates the instructions that little boys might be receiving. Surely, all little black boys can’t be orphans in this cycle of detrimental instruction?

The materialism that Eddie Griffin rails against is put in stark opposition to love, and also the construct of marriage for socio-economic gain. Such a wide-spread model would lend itself more readily to such criticisms if it were not for the fact that it is not somewhat rooted in natural law and Darwinian thought. I wonder if Eddie Griffin would agree that the stereotypical selection criteria for black males (fat ass, big breasts, and cute face) are somehow above the base characterization that he posits for black females.

Eddie Griffin doesn’t waste any time explaining that love, being the expressed ideal, is hardly a consideration if one were to affirm the stereotypes of either sex. Instead Griffin is willing to make the leap that black males have such a need to defend themselves from such a vicious mother-daughter conspiracy that the only solution is to embrace pandering. The degradation of the black female is complete when Eddie acknowledges that prostitution is rampant and that the associated loose moral code is responsible for high single parent birth rates.

Paradoxically, even Eddie Griffin purports that the black female moral code is so corrupt that it only allows for the prospective gain for the otherwise unwanted pregnancy. In his speech, only women that have realized that they are still unlikely to garner the favor of siring males for having their children are able to realize that errors were made. The root of these mixed emotions can be traced back to the times of chattel slavery in the United States where the emasculation of the black male was utterly complete as he was powerless to stop the capitulation of his family at the hands of a white master.

On the one hand, having a child should be the most significant moments of parents’ lives regardless of the potential for upward mobility as a result. On the other hand, Griffin reinforces the concept that such lofty ideals such as fidelity are often ignored in the black community in lieu of petty materialism. (In hip-hop terminology, this is the "jump-off," in recent vernacular the nomenclature groupie suffices.)  Perhaps the general idea that the construct of marriage was created to better provide for offspring due to the fact that it has the tendency to promote a cohesive family units is under attack?

Griffin boils it down in crass terms as “the-old-keep-a-nigga-baby” scheme in which loose women will have a child for anyone that they believe could be a gateway to a better life for themselves. While such craft and guile could apply to virtually any race and any point in time of history, it is most damaging right now in the black community given the astronomical single parent rates and given the trifling number of black males heading households. This stark reality is the biggest clue that Griffin is engaging in rhetorical satire. The suspension of disbelief must be applied and suddenly the double standard is blurred.

If only it were true that so many black males had enough to offer that would warrant their women the incentive to ensnare them, but this isn’t reflected in reality. In today’s society black women are outnumbering black males in the key, usually economically indicative, statistic of college admissions. Couple this with the fact that a black male as a “pimp” or “player” is decidedly undesirable for a myriad of reasons and that they often have little to do with financial gain for the females and you can see the losing battle black women are facing. Griffin reconciles this fact by assigning the blame back on women, tongue in cheek, by stating that most black men are likely to take care of their “real” families when this is obviously not the case. Such mythical families never seem to materialize in the lyrics of hip-hop or otherwise in the recent oral tradition of black diaspora. 

Now I know that this song came out in the year 2000 and here I am writing about it and discussing it a full nine years later, but you need to understand that this all comes from a place of great historical reference. Both the Chronic albums by Dr. Dre were explosive in the rap scene and influential to millions of black people, not to mention groundbreaking works. The problems of the black community cannot be solved overnight but some would argue that hip hop hasn't done enough to exonerate itself as a sole source evil in the corruption of our youth. This masterpiece is a recent shining example of uplift. Eddie Griffin did an outstanding job of drawing attention to the ills of the black community while also providing quality entertainment. To borrow a word from hip-hop icon and pioneer, KRS-One, this work is a very strong piece of edutainment. I don’t believe for a second that Griffin, a comedian, wants you to take his words seriously and as gospel.

I believe that Griffin’s genius is evident in the fact that he has it on one of the most classic hip-hop albums of all time, over beats that are deliciously funky, pumped right into the ears of the people that probably need to hear it the most. The Signifying Monkey is ever ready to draw attention to societal ills and personal deficiencies, and much like the old Negro fable, Griffin is safe in his tree of black pop culture and flinging shit. Some people may say that the whole entirety of Griffin’s exposure is airing dirty laundry but when you have even higher profile comedians accused of enacting similar or worse offenses in real life, who is to say that it wouldn’t be aired anyway?

President Barack Obama is going to be all over this topic, though.  I fully expect him to address it in the first year of his first term.  And to whoever said that learning and entertainment couldn't be married, isn't very smart.  Why else do you think that I have bombarded you with pictures of pretty women all over my web site?  (Don't get mad, but we're doing a mixed bag today.)  The racist folks used to say that if you wanted to hide something from a nigger, all you had to do was to put it in a book... 

Man, it's a damn shame but I laugh to keep from crying.  Would you like a thin mint?