By: Twitter Buttons

Sunday 26 April 2009

Bitchassness kills your game, my brothers...


Hey hey, back from Miami people, got my skin an upgrade and I'm ready to get back on it...well I was, until my train was cancelled and the rain was coming at me sideways this morning.

Anywho, while in Miami, I caught the whole of the most recent series of Making the Band...man are they a bunch of sissies!! Drama, crying, making up and breaking up, it was just too much! Now, I'm all for men showing their sensitive side but when they are squaring off to each other with their hands on their hips and doing the chicken neck, I think things just got a little bit too emotional. Willie, Que, Robert, Brian and Mike - I don't find any of them attractive...and their antics on the show don't help either. So my question is.... are reality TV programmes sometimes too real?

With anti-publicity hungry film stars like Matt Damon and even artists like Beyonce, the mystery of what they are like in real life adds to the intrigue and interest in them. As much as I get on Beyonce's back about being a closed book, in some ways it's a great marketing tool - being a mystery keeps people talking about her and buying into what she sells just so that they can maybe get a glimpse of what she is really like. It's like a girl giving it all up on the first date...are guys still interested afterwards?

While shows like MTB, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and Living with the Lohans aim to give 'fans' an insight into the lives of these stars in the hope that it creates an emotional tie to them so that they keep buying into them as brands, the other end is that it shows you way too much of a person, flaws and all. While it seems like the process works, (Day 26 and Danity Kane have achieved success), how long does it last for, will the bubble eventually burst, are they deemed credible enough for me to spend my dollars on (still in Miami mode)? In the end, you realise that these beautiful people who you thought were attractive, the best thing since sliced bread and were people you would scream your lungs out for, are actually like any other person on the street, a brat, or an annoying diva with way too much bitchassness. Still want to buy into that?

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Sunday 12 April 2009

Move Over Sex, Swagger Sells Now!


Hey guys,

I'm off to Miami in a couple of days so thought I would leave you with a parting gift...so ta da, here it is...
I guess most of you have seen Kanye get "murdered" by South Park last week. If not and you're in need of some deep belly laughs click here.


It got me thinking about the point where confidence turns into arrogance. Kanye is well known for thinking that he is the best thing since Adidas Shell Toes, but as a rapper and part of hip hop culture, isn't arrogance part of the criteria? From the days of LL Cool J and Run DMC and even earlier, lyrical content was focused on how great the rapper was in comparison to the "wack" competition. But has Kanye taken it too far? Is he just a unique example of someone who has taken their 'rap' persona and allowed it to transcend into normal life, leaving all humility behind.
Another question I have is with the word 'swagger'. What is it exactly? Is it confidence, the way a person carries themselves and does it require an ounce or two of arrogance to hit the right spot? Can you have swagger without being arrogant? Nowadays, Swagger Sells, swagger makes the ladies swoon, swagger is the essence of cool masculinity, swagger makes hit records, swagger makes blockbuster films. Moving away from the entertainment industry for a sec, I've been trying to set a girlfriend of mine up for the longest and every nice guy I suggest, I'm hit with the same response: "hmm...he's nice...he's good looking...but he ain't got swagger". This swagger search is gonna leave my friend old, lonely and childless with cats if she doesn't get over it.
Is there such a thing as 'natural swagger'? Can a person just have it. Some people go as far as trying to manufacture it....



But is swagger ever natural in the first place. Isn't it a bravado, a false exterior presented to the public as part of an image? Inside, the person might be a shy, crumbling wreck, who watches Dr Phil with a box of tissues on his lap.

I just wonder how the three - swagger, confidence and arrogance interact and why some do it successfully e.g. TI, Denzel Washington, Jay Z, Rihanna (this is my list) and others get their heart ripped out on shows like South Park.

What are your thoughts...who makes your top 10?
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