Rick Ross. *sigh* Ricky, Ricky, Ricky... much like Lil Wayne, what can be said about the wonderful failure that this man has become? I'm not going to compare their paths, but let's look at both of their careers and how we, the adoring public, have been able to literally follow them from disc to disc since they first showed up. I can vividly recall Lil Wayne's first curse-free foray into the realm of hip hop music as much as I can recall Rick Ross' spot on Trina's Diamond Princess album and... I was mildly (emphasis on that word) impressed.  Compared to the beat heavy, lyrically substandard work that would follow in his debut album it was something to behold.

It's hard to not like Rick Ross at this point.  He successfully made us all fans with the repetitive Hustlin' way back when, proved himself to be a force to be reckoned with with his second album, Trilla, and finally did the impossible and made me a true, TRUE fan with Deeper Than Rap, and the brilliant production was the reasoning.  Rick Ross is special in that he knows how to choose perfect beats (I'm looking at YOU, Nas...) to compliment his style, and this is only amplified by the single most irresistible thing about this guy: he's still improving.  If someone would have told me years ago that Rick Ross, former correctional officer and Big, Black, and Ugly spokesman, would be a rapper I'd like to listen to when I was 21, my exact words would have been, "Rick Ross?  You mean that bitch that did Hustlin'?  Nigga please!"  Now I'm one of the first to advertise the greatness of Maybach Music 2.  Things change, eh?

I wasn't looking forward to Teflon Don when it was first brought up; I'm a Rick Ross fan but not a fanatic.  I'm still not doing cartwheels (and neither is he... ever) for this guy because a hip hop album is influenced by two factors: the rapper and the people that provide the backdrop for the rapper, aka the producers.  Ross has always known who to get to provide the background music; he's like a filmmaker in this respect, knowing just who to enlist to make his stuff that much better when it isn't.  That's been Rick Ross' style since Port of Miami and it hasn't changed here.  The album starts off with the mediocre I'm Not A Star.  Nothing spectacular about this track but, as stated before, he's improved with every album so far and you can hear how much he's grown lyrically in this opener as opposed to something like Mafia Music or Trilla.  We move right into Free Mason and we come to the first roadblock of this album.

Features on a solo album have a habit of hindering the product (unless it's a Wu Tang album).  John Legend assisting on the hook is something that most artists consider (and rightly so) a good move, but Jay-Z's inclusion on the track almost ASSURES being outshined.  However, considering the subject matter and the timeliness of the song Ross stands surprisingly strong with Hova's dismissal of any Freemasonry or Devil worship (a lot of hypocrisy with those two things together but this is neither the time or place).  Keeping in line with the singers on the hooks, Ross skillfully restricted the incomparable Cee-Lo Green to hook duty on Tears of Joy.  The song itself is fine, and No I.D.'s production is pretty good, but it's nothing we haven't heard before.

Next we have Maybach Music 3.  I LOVE the Maybach Music songs thus far, because the beats are epic.  This is no different.  However, while the lovely Ms. Erykah Badu is on the hook and T.I. and Jadakiss deliver acceptable verses (though Jada is a liar and he knows it, eh-heeeeehhhh) they severily make Rick Ross seem irrelevant on his own track, even if he does have a select part of the song to himself a la Notorious B.I.G. in All About the Benjamins.  There's a problem with the growing ego Ross has with minor comparisons between him and Biggie but that can be addressed later.  After the production of Maybach Music however, we're given the Kanye/No I.D. produced Live Fast, Die Young and, no surprise, Kanye (as with everybody) murders Rick Ross on his own track.  The song is long for no reason; it serves no purpose as the longest track on the already short album, but to its credit it has Rick Ross' most impressive lyrical attack in the album so far, better than that of the radio-killer Super High, featuring Ne-Yo.  It's a good track, sure, but that's like saying Nothin' On You is a good track for B.o.B.  In fact that song was okay but far below the skill level of B.o.B. (and Lupe Fiasco for that matter).

No. 1 plays like a spiritual sequel to collaborator Diddy's Hello Good Morning, taking away points for originality.  The rest of the points are lost for sounding generic and dull.  This is a common problem in many albums but when it's a rapper like Rick Ross, who oozes (quote me) "vastly improved mediocrity" then it's a MAJOR problem.  MC Hammer features everyone's favorite career jailbird and walking accident Gucci Mane (no, I DON'T like him lol) and it is the weakest lyrical track on the album.  It has Ross reverting to his pathetic skill level from Port of Miami and Gucci Mane's verse is as tolerable as lukewarm champagne or overexcited women, as Orson Welles would say.  Considering the same producer (Lex Luger) does Blowin' Money Fast and MC Hammer is should be no surprise that they sound surprisingly similar.  No, seriously, if Styles P wasn't on the track then I would have thought it was the same song.  Stand alone it serves it's purpose as a single but with the abysmal MC Hammer coming before it on the album AND the extended return of the Port of Miami flow, the album starts to go downhill.  WAY downhill.

Aston Martin Music is exceptionally smooth in it's production, another car-themed gem from the shining stars of Rick Ross' albums: the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League.  While Chrisette Michelle and hip hop's current golden boy Drake (singing, not rapping) make the track, Rick Ross carries his weight (I... will... not... make a joke... here...) and delivers on what might be the smoothest song on the album, showing his improved skill once again.  Granted, some of us are a bit disappointed that Drake isn't rapping on the album, but with his monotone voice and tendency to (a) end his lines with "yeah" and (b) use "I" in everything that could be a good thing.  Finally we come to the very end of the album, the horizon-looking All the Money in the World, featuring the legendary (yeah, I said it) Raphael Saadiq.  This song is, for lack of a better word, good.  As a closing track it does exactly what it should: properly bring the album to a classy conclusion with style, much like The Game's Why You Hate The Game? or Drake's Thank Me Now.  And that's the album in so many paragraphs.

So what's wrong with this album?  I could say it in short form and just give each issue a little line, but I'm the Infamous DiZ: I give you at least TWO lines for that shit.  Problem one lies with the number of collaborators.  I'm not referring to the singers or those that do the hooks, but the rappers.  Few great solo albums have featured a lot of outside help.  Jay-Z, for example, had only Eminem on Blueprint and it's a classic.  The goal is to not have the help outshine the main participant, and Rick Ross only "renegades" Gucci Mane; quote me: THAT IS NO ACCOMPLISHMENT!  Anyone that tells you it is is lying or trying to sell you something.

Another issue with the album is Rick Ross' own ego.  I loosely compared his career to that of Lil Wayne's at the beginning of this because they both have ever growing egos and massive heads that are only expanding.  While Lil Wayne is somewhat justified in his big headed state of mind Rick Ross isn't: to this day he hasn't actually released anything that would warrant him having such a cocky nature outside of maintaining street credibility after cop work and us seeing past his shades.  He's always improving, that's apparent, but not to this extent.  This ties into the hinted at Biggie comparisons.  Simply put: no.  Hell no.  No fucking way in hell.  FAIL.

Issue 3: production overtaking Ross.  This is the biggest one.  I fell in love with the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League after Maybach Music.  Outside of the similar works from Lex the production on Teflon Don is simply stellar.  Every beat (except for Lex's) is epic like something out of a summer blockbuster or a summer tear-jerking drama.  That's how a great beat is supposed to be, but the rapper has to stack up to the backdrop laid out for them.  Ross rarely does that; in some cases the track is only good because OF the others on the track.  If this album were nothing but instrumentals and the singers on the hooks, minus those from Lex, it would probably be a near-classic, but as it stands Rick Ross' ego and "vastly improved mediocrity" can't carry a full album on his own, not yet.  At this rate it's a matter of time, but even I have to admit that it's a considerable amount of time.  The album is okay, but nothing breathtaking.  Keep at it, Ross.

The DiZ score: 3 out of 5

Hello, people.  My name is C. Lamb and I've become enough of a person that people can rely on me for a few things.  They can rely on me for getting something done right, getting something done on my own time, intriguing conversation, all of that, but what they can really rely on me for, even more than unreliability, is outspoken opinions on music and games.  With these two things being my tangible passions, only under writing, I tend to establish shrines to them (i.e. - this blog) to voice my opinions. 

It's about noon right now, Sunday afternoon, me dreading tomorrow because of a lack of a path back home, sitting in my office with no pants, listening to John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman's rendition of the eternal classic "Lush Life", still glowing from my waffles this morning and the roast beef sandwich I made last night... and I'm going through the world wide internets and looking at stuff.  I'm a fan of Japanese games, sometimes going so far as to tweak and twerk and hack and translate them to English so I can play them.  Out of the dozens I've done this for the majority of them haven't been worth the effort I put into them. 

This whole series of actions has had about three rationals behind it, however.  The first has been research: the EXCERPT in the title is because I've been doing research on the Japanese gaming industry for years, literally, YEARS.  Sadly I lost all my data because I was cleaning off the computer and accidentally got rid of all that prior data.  So here I am, starting from square one again, though at this point I'm probably at square... seven or eight.  The second reason is for culture: games are arguably more influential and important in Japan than the United States, but that's something my research will afford me knowledge to.  Lastly we have the fun: yes, the fun.  Some games are never released outside of Japan and me, being a child of video games, can't enjoy it.  Unfortunately the stereotype is that these games never released outside of the Land of the Rising Sun are all dirty, controversial porno games.

That leads us to the infamous Rapelay.  For those of you that don't know about this game, it's a rape simulator.  The story is that a young chikan (loosely, train groper) is busted by a girl and sent to jail.  Out the next day because of political connects, he decides to get revenge by raping the girl, as well as her younger sister and mother, until they're broken to the point of sexual slavery.  That's the point of the game.  Truth be told, it's not MUCH of a game, and if you know what you're doing, you'll "finish" in a matter of hours.  The creators of this game weren't really going for a revolution in gameplay here; they were trying to give the gamer something to slap-box the one-eyed champ to.  To that respect: good job, Illusion.  The controversy for the game didn't come right away, however; it came when it was being sold on Amazon.com.

And then Bugs Bunny and Scrappy Doo and all our favorite liberal figureheads and conservative lawyers came out of their foxholes and started to condemn this genre of games, and by genre I mean "eroge", sex simulators and whatnot.  The "Fred Phelps" of Game Condemnation, Jack Thompson, was probably the most vocal (no surprise) about this, and in a rare admittance of defeat I can't really knock him.  Let's be honest: this is a rape simulator.  You can commit virtually every sexual atrocity to three women, one of whom may not even be 16 or 17 yet, and if they get pregnant then you have to abort the kid or else you get one of the "endings".  Spoiler alert: you die in both endings.  I suppose that that's good from a moral standpoint but for a game... you tend to want to live.

I admit though that this controversy had me playing both sides of the fence at first.  On one hand I think every rapist should be locked in jail for (a)life, (b)until he gets the death penalty, or (c)until he can't use his dick anymore (this is of course assuming the rapist is male).  On the other hand, the argument I can't support is that this kind of game encourages sexual violence and rape worthy behavior.  Yeah, I had to play through it once to get my opinions.  Finished it.  Tossed it and started writing my opinions on it, and what's my mind state now?  My exact words were: "Kinda got a thing for that schoolgirl outfit and MILFs, but rape is still a no-no".  Okay, those weren't my EXACT words, but I always liked the schoolgirl outfit and when we got MILFs like Halle Berry and Salma Hayek you damn right I love 'em.

It calls to attention the eternal debate of how powerful the pull of video games is; my last posted piece "Dear Caressa Cameron..." brought that up too.  We have to consider personal responsibility especially, and how some people aren't as strong minded as others and how some people take things to levels unnecessary.  Whereas someone like me can play a game about a rapist and not want to rape, someone else might not be stable enough to distinguish the virtual crime from an actual one. 

I think I mentioned this before but this game has the cold distinction of being the international benchmark for eroge games.  In my research I've had to breeze through a number of them, be they 2D or 3D, text based or visual based, and Rapelay is hardly the worst.  Hell, some of them are even entertaining, have some wonderful stories behind them, are even (Jesus forgive me) worthy of the five knuckle shuffle. 

But that's just one aspect of the world of Japan's sexual games.  I find the whole concept incredible; at one point that was the point of the entire research project but I expanded it when I saw how much crossover there was.  There's a man that "married" his computer girlfriend in Japan, a game that "tracks" your... lonely nights.  Something I saw today actually makes me a bit nervous.  According to a study done in Japan, more than half of the women in Japan think virtual girlfriends are superior to them in terms of attracting a guy.  Talk about self esteem issues.  I thought China had the worst perception of self after that Summer Olympics shit with the little girl that wasn't allowed to sing at the Opening Ceremonies because she didn't fit the "look" they wanted to portray. 

You may be asking what this has to do with sex games.  Directly we need look no further than another game from Illusion's camp, Real Kanojo, translation: Real Girlfriend.  At this point I don't need to say another word.  So I won't.  I'll let this trailer do the talking.  I'm the DiZ: I look at it so YOU don't have to.

First of all, allow me to say congratulations.  As a fellow Virginian and lover of broadcast journalism, I am proud to proclaim you Miss America.  I am pretty sure, no, I am very sure that your reign will be a year of great joy and good tidings.  Also, I express my respect of your opinion and strength of will, so please do not be too insulted at this letter if it reaches your eyes because all that is being said is strictly my opinion as well.  We both hail from Virginia so I am sure you know what this letter is to hold.

That is unless you come from a community vastly and utterly different from my own.  My minor research reveals that you hail from Virginia Commonwealth University and come from Fredericksburg, which I appreciate because we both know that people from Richmond, Virginia are the epitome of grimy.  I have no qualms with the college because I have many a friend that attended that college, but all of them decided to pursue higher education in other locations; they claimed the curriculum wasn't engaging enough.

Before I continue this post allow me to properly introduce myself.  My name is Christopher Lamb, a 20 year old Virginia-born (at least raised) college student attending Clark Atlanta University.  Before you ask me or berate me for not going to Morehouse allow me to say that I did attend Morehouse for two years before transferring; I found the curriculum wasn't engaging enough.

I joke; ultimately my reason for transfer was because of my ultimate goal of being a film maker.  That, Ms. Cameron, is why I expressed a love for broadcast journalism, but my heart is in the world of film.  And, as we both know, controversy is one of the most important elements to creating good media; this goes for both journalistic integrity and cinematography.  As such, here is the main point of this letter: "Fuck you!"

Yes, these words seem unnecessarily harsh but hear me out; I tend to curse rampantly in my letters and you should not feel insulted... yet.  Over the course of my life I've seen many things and experienced many events, and I've actually gotten the question, at the tender age of 20 years young, "Mr. Lamb, what do you want to be remembered by?  Would it be that you are a great writer?"  I say no.  "Would it be that you are a consistent and loving philanthropist?"  I say no.  "Would it be that you are the epitome of a loyal video gamer?"  Again, I say no.  What I'd really want them to remember is that I'm stern in my stance of defending what I love, and as you see in the above sentences I love writing, philanthropy (which I assume we share), and playing video games.  Therein lies my issue.

I don't claim to dislike you because you don't like video games; to each his or her own.  However, your argument against video games is puerile at best.  If I may quote your words, "Take away the TV, take away the video games, set some standards for our children!"  This is much more vast than just games, but I'd like to lightly present both sides of the argument; I am a student of the field of rhetoric (not my major, but I tend to go outside the box) so argument and persuasion (again, we're both Virginians so you should appreciate this) are easy to the man writing this somewhat mean spirited letter.

We'll deal with the bad first.  More than often video games are blamed for some of the most violent and infamous crimes in society and the world.  Let's look at the issues: Columbine, Virginia Tech, some future war thanks to Modern Warfare 2 perhaps, I can't say.  Did these, I wonder, have any basis in video games?  Perhaps; I'm not psychologist and usually the shooter takes his own life with the same gun he used to slaughter people.  If I had the opportunity to ask the Virginia Tech shooter what inspired his manifesto and massacre then I would, but I cannot.

Violent video games can affect a person's mind, yes, that is something we must all admit, but the effect isn't nearly as widespread as Jack Thompson and Australia make it out to be.  Ultimately video games are a form of media, just like broadcast journalism, and they all have pull.

For example, as a broadcast journalist, rather, as a possible future broadcast journalist, I am confidently aware that you vividly remember the Hurricane Katrina tragedy of 2005.  I am also very sure that you, a possible future broadcast journalist, remember vividly the images of the victims of this tragedy shown to us, the American public, on television sets around the nation.

However, I am not completely sure that you can recall the word refugee being used to describe these unfortunate victims.  As a possible future broadcast journalist surely you can understand how the word refugee used in a manner to describe victims can cause the public to feel removed from helping these victims in their plights.

According to the United Nations a refugee is a person owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country; and that's according to the United Nations.

Now, as you recall the images of the impoverished people standing on the roofs of their houses, waving desperately for help at the various news helicopters that flew by and offered no assistance, I wonder if you asked yourself this question: "Self... is dem niggas refugees?"

My point in bringing all of this up is to merely state that all types of media are capable of shaping the public's opinion about a given topic or is able to coerce them to act or behave in a certain manner.

What does this mean, you may be wondering?  By your logic, if video games are to blame for the downfall of our youth, then are our news outlets to blame for the lackadaisical and apathetic response to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina?  Should I mention the earthquake in Haiti for further elaboration on my thesis? 

If anything, journalism has a more powerful hold on the minds of people than video games because of the easier access of the news and the most popular content is usually the most dreadful.  Indeed, while the people must be informed they much also not be desensitized to the violence of the world, something both your area of interest and my area of passion manage to do.

However, you never made any particular claim, at least none I've seen (if I'm horribly mistaken please let me know) that explained why you are anti-video game, just that you are.  I believe your argument is that people become anti-social and cold hearted or mean spirited because they play video games more so than they go outside and play; I believe you say what you say because there are a number of overweight children going around and playing World of Warcraft as opposed to trying to cure cancer.  Perhaps, but at what point does personal responsibility become a factor in this equation as opposed to unjust resentment directed towards industries you have no true knowledge about?

I've been playing video games since the tender age of three; I have fond memories of defeating Blanka with the immortal Ryu in Street Fighter 2 with a flaming fireball and I still like to do that today.  I'm not saying video games are 100% beneficial to the player, but I can boast quicker reaction times, much better hand-eye coordination, even increased brain speed, all thanks to the quick thinking necessary with Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis (not the current generation one, that was awful).  Similar minded video gamers tend to congregate and become friends; they tend to engage in the video game universe first and go on to, more than often at least, seamlessly drift into more fulfilled friendships as time and controllers go on.  However, you probably don't know this, not being a gamer yourself and speaking from the outside looking in.

There lies the biggest issue with what you say: you're on the outside looking in. Can a man or woman that hasn't dabbled in politics be a good candidate for president? Can a farmer who spent his entire life picking crops immediately be thrown into the world of big business and expect to make the company very strong? Conventional wisdom says no, though I've been proven wrong before. After all, I did say the Miss America pageant was a load of crap, but what do I know? I'm not a Miss America contestant so I can't speak for it.
We must deal with the obvious: you come from a more rural area of Virginia where plantations and military battlefields are around every corner, so yes, your experience is different from mine.  I was raised in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Norfolk, the Tidewater area, so I was always around more urban environments.  Let me tell you: if I was out "playing imaginary games with sticks in the street" like you did when you were little, I'd of been hurt.  As a matter of fact, what the hell were you doing playing imaginary games in the street?  At the very least, couldn't you have used the stick for a purpose, like digging a hole in the safety of your front yard as opposed to in the middle of the street?  Granted, Fredericksburg isn't Portsmouth; you can sit in the middle of a rather lowly populated town and the odds of getting hit by a car are much lower than in my home of P-Town.  But still, imaginary games?  How do you play imaginary games?  That doesn't even make sense.  At the very least you aren't Carrie Prejean though.

The elements of what a person does is directly related to their environment, for the most part.  I played video games because of outside influence; I continue to play video games because its an outlet, a clever method of story telling, a way to go into another world without playing imaginary games with sticks and streets.  Video games, in and of themselves, have no influence whatsoever; the person playing them, the individual, does.  Not every video gamer is the stereotypical nerd with a 50 inch waist, 200 pounds of fat and no desire to see direct sunlight.  Take me for example: I'm 20, in good shape, have an active social life and still maintain a hefty love of video games, actually critiquing them in my spare time which I have a lot of because I do my homework.  In fact, one of my favorite things to do is debate on the whole issue of the positives of video games to the ignorant, i.e. you.  Remember, ignorant means you don't know.  If I called you stupid then I'd expect anger from you.  As such, I expect minimal anger at best, but there's something about Virginia women that causes them to take everything to the next level when there is none.  With that in mind, let me cut out the middle man and incite that anger.  This is where the truly angry part of me comes out.

Listen to me, Ms. Cameron.  If you really want to make it in the world of anything, journalism especially, you better learn to appreciate the realms of all digital and electronic media outside of your dying breed of television journalism.  Until you have sat down with a video game controller and played a video game like a true gamer you don't have the right to say a damn thing.  You can't claim to have such a better life when you yourself claim that you are a pianist but you couldn't get anything with it (one of my friends from Spelman is a pianist too; she's very successful), that you played varsity but couldn't get anything (again, that's a nothing special), and you had good grades but couldn't get anything.  You claim you went into the Miss American pageant for the scholarship, but I have my doubts.  Let's remember that your money from the competition comes from getting into a bikini and shaking your ass for Rush "I Hate Niggers" Limbaugh in the city of sin Las Vegas.  Now ponder on that for a minute, your majesty.

Let me first start out by saying you never know who you could fall in love with, watching Eskimo Tube... wait, that's the wrong context.  I'm in a good mood today, a perpetual good mood that hasn't left me yet.  This Saturday I got my new Xbox 360 and since then I've been playing it religiously.  To be perfectly honest I'm in class right now and I was late because of it, and I can't stop saying nice things and making wonderful accolades about it.

I'm trying to keep myself calm.  I'm initially excited about the system itself, finally having a system again.  Then I'm excited about the game which has it's logo above this paragraph.  Ever since it was first mentioned I've wanted Mass Effect 2, so imagine my joy in finally getting it AND playing it like I have been.  I haven't been this happy playing a video game since... Mass Effect 1 to be perfectly honest.  Heh, it's an experience I've always wanted: epic stories and flawless gameplay makes for a great game.  I love every character and creature and environment and all of that, and I'm nearly done unless I'm mistaken.  I've lost my crew and I'm flying into enemy territory; they don't expect me to survive.  I prove people wrong.

I'm not writing the entire review now because I finish the game before I review, and as such I'm a little hyped because I only have one class tomorrow and its at noon.  I can play all night.  Oh, I'm so excited!  Giggity!  Okay, I'm done, DiZ out.