Stream of Consciousness: Namesake to Epiphany

My Stream of Consciousness. April 9, 2009

Just follow me, it'll be a good trip & I'll bring it all together.

by OG Najeeema

In Take Me Seriously News

Kal Penn, actor most famous for his role, as Kumar in the hilarious series Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and Harold and Kumar Go to Guantanamo (which really pushed the limits of political comedy - have you seen it?) announced that he is leaving his role on TV series House for an assistant director position in the White House public liaison office.

Penn has been taking on more serious roles since leaving the Van Wilder and H&K series behind. One can’t play a pot-smoking, foul mouth, highly astute medical impersonator forever. Penn parlayed roles in H&K to House, the medical drama where his H&K medical brilliance sparked even more. Penn’s character made an abrupt departure for the show. I’ll save the spoiler for those who have not seen the episode.

The Namesake to Drake (and a cool hustla in between)

Penn also had a chance to stare in a very different role as Gogol in Mira Nair’s The Namesake (2006) . Perhaps a self-discovery role for himself, Penn’s character is born in New York to Bengali Indian parents and finds himself caught between his parents' world, their traditions, and even American’s expectations of him. The title refers to a book from which Gogol is named. Only after a trip to India and his father’s death does Gogol fully embrace himself. (Oh, and throw in a cheating wife played by Zuleikha Robinson, currently on LOST.)

Well, I only bring this up because I connected with one of popular subculture’s finest, Fadia Kadar over The Namesake late one night on @twitter. By all accounts, @fadiakadar is amazing. She might want to protect her updates after readers pass along this blog post to all their friends (hint-hint to you). Founder of ComeUpKids.com, Broke & Boujee along with promoting artists and successful events in Atlanta, like the movie series featuring classic culture films like The Last Dragon. She and her crew of Atlanta tastemakers are bringing Drake to the ATL and from what her facebook page says, tickets are almost sold out.

Dude, your first name is Aubrey

Now, I’ve been living under a rock for the past few years. I’ve pretty much closed my ears to hip hop and I’ve been existing off of the gospel station to feed my soul. You can only hear ‘artist’ as they call themselves, scream about cash, hoes, whips, and clothes but for so long. But I got a personal recommendation from a friend or two about Drake. Lakeshow Management owner, Leighton Morrison gave the artist his stamp of approval from an industry insider. Leighton posted in his Facebook status “officially cosigning new interscope/young money artist Drake. first artist I have heard that has all the tools. singing, songwriting and can spit hard!!”

So I checked Drake out the only way I knew I could, on Twitter and YouTube, with a little Myspace thrown in for good measure. Okay, Rapper's have Wiki pages now? I mean, you aint official till Wiki gotcha. I tried and failed unsuccessfully in putting together a page. But that's another story.

Anyway, from my research, young Aubrey is a talented actor/rapper from Canada of all places, with a serious LA feel (almost typed swagger).

From Wiki:

As a rapper, Graham has three self-published mixtapes, Room for Improvement, Comeback Season and So Far Gone, under the stage name Drake. Room for Improvement was produced by DJ Smallz. He shot a video for his debut single "Replacement Girl" whic features R&B singer Trey Songz.He also made a cameo appearance in Trey Songz's "Wonder Woman" video. Graham also has an independent record label called October's Very Own, and refers to the collective of friends he works with All Things Fresh.

Check out the Trey Songz collabo.

Meanwhile, this video is a few years old. (like I said, living under a rock)
Also from Wiki:

It has been confirmed by Interscope & Columbia/Music World Records that Drake will collaborate with R&B and pop vocalist Michelle Williams on the song "Hungover", on the deluxe version of her album Unexpected, due for a spring 2009 release. He also worked on Dr. Dre's highly-anticipated Detox album, to be released in 2009.

Other Drake links include:

Official Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thisisdrake
Official Website: http://www.thisisdrake.com/
The crew: http://www.octobersveryown.blogspot.com/

While overall, Drake knocks it out of the park with his collabos, style, skill, and good looks. Thumbs down to Drake on the collabo with Michelle Williams. All I can say is that her projects do not always turn out for the best...Aida on Broadway; Color Purple in Chicago. Boo


But THUMBS UP on the cameo in Chrisette Michelle's new video Epiphany.

Allthatsfab.com reports on Chrisette Michelle: “It has been two years since sultry voiced singer Chrisette Michele released her stunning gold-certified debut I Am. Blessed with a gorgeous instrument and described as a “soulful songbird” by
Entertainment Weekly, the Long Island native proved to the world that she could
live up to the hype.”

Here is the video, enjoy!

Music Videos - Video Playlists - New Music



Shout out to Musicvideocast.com for the video


As always, your comments are appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the trip. Tell me where you wanna go, I'll research and take us there.
Spread Love
OG