Maintaining Relationships

In life relationships with people are often your backbone. You'll come across people in your life whether family or friends, that you have certain relationships or bonds with. Sometimes throughout life we often forget to maintain those relationships and keep in touch.

About a month ago I lost my stepfather, just a little backstory him and my mother were no longer together but we maintained a relationship and kept in touch over the years. A couple days before he passed I randomly thought to myself I hadn't talked to him in a while and needed to hit him up. After I thought about it I went on and did something else and kept saying "I'm going to call him." Well I didn't and never got the chance to before he unexpectedly passed. 

Since then it really has been bothering me that I did not call him. Why didn't I call him? The day to day nuances of living life and kicking it down the road. 

Everyday we as people get up go to work, take care of any responsibilities we may have, take care of our families and do it all over again. Often times that interferes with checking on people.

I'm here to suggest stop doing that. If you have friends you grew up with but life as adults have caused you to not keep in touch as much hit them up. Have a buddy that has a common hobby with you, hit them up when something occurs that reminds of you them. Come across a old picture of you and your friends looking crazy when y'all thought y'all looked cool. Hit them up with "look what I found". Realized you haven't talked to so and so in a while? Call them or send them a text saying "Thought about you hope all is well" or something to that effect. 

Adulting is a busy lifestyle and keeping in touch with everyone you have or have maintained a relationship with in life can be difficult. I believe we as a society especially in this social media age sees a person make a post and assume they're doing fine or know their in a good place in their life. Other times we know so and so talks to them more often so I'll just ask them how they're doing. We have to stop doing that.  Especially with the different lines of communication phone calls, text, instant messages, emails, facetime etc.

In life some people just naturally gravitate from one another sometimes for a reason, other times just the way life goes. That's OK situations like that it is what it is, but take it from me when you think of someone send them a text right then and there, can't do it at that exact time? Make a note in your phone to do it within the next half hour to a hour, just make a conscious effort to keep in touch as much as you can as soon as you can.

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WWE Honorable mentions

    I previously wrote an article covering surefire WWE hall of fame omissions, that need to be rectified very soon in the near future. In this article I will cover members of professional wrestling history who deserve an honorable mention, in regards to be inducted into the hall of fame.
  First up Miss Elizabeth, the “Macho Man” Randy Savages valet. While she never wrestled during her career, she was an integral part of storylines involving Macho Man. Her most notable storyline was playing a part in the “rift” between Macho Man and Hulk Hogan. She was also the first “pretty” face in WWF and sole job was to stand by Macho Man and look attractive. She should be inducted solely off being the first true valet, and the first “diva” before WWF started using that term. Sadly the circumstances of her unfortunate death are what I believe are keeping her from being inducted.
   If Miss Elizabeth was the first diva, Sable was the first superstar diva. At the height of the Attitude era Sable was what came to mind, when people thought of WWF Divas. She was attractive, had sex and crossover appeal, and had enough wrestling training to do what was asked of her. She was also the first WWF diva to make the cover of Playboy. She had some mainstream crossover appeal and surely contributed to the popularity of the WWF during the attitude era. It could be debated who was the first diva her or Sunny, but Sunny has been inducted and so should Sable.
   Lex Luger deserves a honorable mention to be in the hall of fame. While never the most technical wrestler, he displayed power moves in his arsenal which made him exciting. He may have failed when WWF gave him the honor of being the “top guy” but that was not his strength.  His strengths were his look, his power moves, longevity, and the ability to be a good bit player in some good moments in wrestling history. He was a Horseman, a WWF and WCW champion, bodyslammed Yokozuna, was a front line player in WCW battle against NWO, and was a member of NWO Wolfpack. He even managed to stay somewhat relevant in WCW dying days, by rebranding as the Total Package. I believe his role in Miss Elizabeth’s death, and his lifestyle before turning it around is holding him back.
    Big Van Vader as he was known in WCW, or simply Vader in WWF is next on the list. He may never be in the conversation as a true legend, but he was just as damn good to be on the next tier. When he was “the mastodon” in WCW, his size made him scary enough when he walked to the ring, throw in the mastodon helmet that breathed smoke he was damn near terrifying. Once he was in the ring he was even scarier, very agile for his size, vicious, and a devasting powerbomb he was unstoppable. He didn’t make much of an impact in WWF, truthfully because they probably didn’t understand him but he deserves consideration based on his body of work in WCW and in Japan.
   WWE has started acknowledging the guys who made ECW what it was by inducting the Dudley Boyz this year, and with that Tommy Dreamer deserves a spot in the hall. Plain and simple he was ECW and what it stood for. His feud with Raven is a classic, and not just the matches but the whole backstory of their history as youths. Their story included childhood bullying, acceptance, and love triangles pretty much one of the greatest and relatable storylines in wrestling history. A bland persona, and ok skill set didn’t stop his determination. He was very loyal to ECW and lived and breathed it, he was also a great teacher of younger wrestlers. To this day there are so many people who give credit to Tommy Dreamer for teaching them so much about the business. With a great mind for the business, and being the epitome of ECW he should be inducted.
   While we’re on ECW you can’t leave out “Mr. Monday Night”, “The Whole F’N show” Rob Van Dam. He had a laid back Mr. Cool demeanor about him, and a Arsenal that had you on your feet, he produced hundreds of exciting bouts in ECW. His five star frog splash, rolling thunder, spilt legged moonsault were just some of his signature moves that had folks anticipating when it would come. Just like Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam was ECW even if people never saw a ECW show they knew Rob Van Dam wrestled for ECW. When you talk about ECW, his name is one of the first that come up. During his heyday he was the personification of a human highlight reel. For that he deserves to be in the hall.

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Top 5 Hip Hop Movies

   This past weekend we celebrated 44 years since the birth of hip hop. A culture that wasn't given a chance when it was invented, is now a worldwide phenomenon that dominates the music landscape. While we all love hip hop I wanted to touch on a overlooked part of hip hop...Movies.

  We’ve all seen the biopics and the Musician focused B-movie level films (State Property, Baller Blockin, Cool as Ice, Tougher than leather, Get Rich or Die Tryin etc.) I want to give my opinion on the top 5 films that I feel embody hip hop.

  # 5 Brown Sugar starring Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, and Mos Def. The movie is at it’s core a love letter to hip hop. It’s about two people meeting because of hip hop and falling in love throughout the years because of hip hop. If you’ve never seen it and can tolerate romantic comedies but love old school hip hop check it out.

  # 4 Krush Groove is one of the first mainstream films that bought hip hop to the world. Loosely based on the beginnings of Def Jam, it contains a who’s who at that time. Run Dmc, Sheila E, Kurtis Blow, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, The Fat Boys and more. It has the classic tropes of following your dreams and being hungry but connecting with the wrong people when things go wrong, pay for the consequences in the meantime. It also shows how new found fame and money can tear apart long lasting friendships and family.

  # 3 is CB4, one of my personal favorites it’s a satire of gangsta rap of it’s time. Written and starring Chris Rock it displays his comedic genius at it’s best. Playing a aspiring rapper along with his two best friends, they live boring middle class lifes. Crafting a “gangsta” image and persona they find success, at the same time finding out how hard it is to maintain that image. Also how being yourself is usually your best bet, the parody of N.W.A.s “Straight Outta Compton”, “Straight outta Locash” is a hilarious catchy song that would have you wishing it was real.

  # 2 on my list is 8 Mile starring Eminem. Also loosely based on his life before he hit it big, Em plays Rabbit. All Rabbit wants to do is go to work, and hone his craft hoping to catch his big break. Along with his friends and fellow rappers 313rd they battle rival crews trying to make a name in the Detroit rap scene. Em’s acting is top notch here probably because he lived it. It has classic mid-90s hip hop songs, sick freestyles due to Em’s masterful delivery and lyricism and battle rapping.. Which  free styling and battle rapping are often overlooked as pillars of hip hop. The movie also contains an ambiguous ending. Definitely one of the better musician focused films, maybe even surpassing Purple Rain.

   #1 on my list is Beat Street, it gets this honor not because of it’s story, but because of it’s cultural influence. Along with Wild Style these two films helped bring hip hop to the masses nationally and internationally. Beat Street is about a group of friends in the bronx (Home of hip hop) who all are involved in hip hop, each taking a particular interest in one of the five elements of hip hop. Djing, graffiti, breakdancing, mcing, beatboxing all are shown love and appreciation in this film. Also featuring cameos by Afrika Bambaataa, Doug E fresh, Kool Herc, Treacherous Three, Grandmaster Melle and the Furious Five and more. If you love hip hop you can’t go wrong with this one. Check out this originator if you’ve never seen it.

   These are the top 5 films I feel convey hip hop and what it stands for.  There are honorable mentions such as Breakin', House Party, Fear of a Black Hat, and Hustle and Flow. Each of the films listed above show just how influential hip hop can be. Some more than others but they all do a great job. If you’ve never seen any of them I strongly encourage tracking them down and watching them. In the meantime I feel we are overdue on a new film in our current age that’s a ode to hip hop and its culture.

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