Category: music

Current Events · History · Holiday Weekend · music

Looking For America On The Fourth Of July

8 years ago Author By cumeadi

This is was supposed to post on the 4th but I scheduled for the wrong time. 

One of my favorite songs ever. It encapsulates the journey of an individual and their loved one (Paul and Kathy) as they journey across the United States and also serves as an analogy for the search of the American dream and ideals.

Volkswagen released a great commercial that used the song in the background of a story about an Irish family taking a vacation throughout America to fulfill the last wishes of their grandfather. (side comment…. Volkswagen is always on their advertising A game when it comes to giving the audience all the feels in their commercials. Does anyone know which agency VW uses?)

https://youtu.be/rpq4NXtokNU

 

They had three generations of Americans in the new VW Atlas traveling across the US. Talk about an existential cake of thoughts, views, and experiences. The VW video and Paul’s song remind me we never may get a chance to see the best America has to offer but we owe it to those who came before us (mostly immigrants, slaves, and natives)  to continue the search and work toward a more perfect union for all.

Happy 4th of July!

music · Politics

Flying to Nigeria with my Woes

9 years ago Author By cumeadi

I’ve been getting a lot of emails, texts, tweets from my friends asking me to explain what’s going on in Nigeria. I don’t really have all the answers but I think I have an okay understanding. Here’s my response to one of my friends about the recent growth adjustment discussed here.

A couple of things…..
  1. It’s bad but it isn’t as bad as this guy makes it sound
  2. It’s a mix of history and current situations biting Nigeria in the butt
  3. This is probably the best situation Nigeria can be in.
It’s bad but it isn’t as bad as this guy makes it sound… A lot of things aren’t happening right now because of the currency restrictions the Nigerian government has put on commerce and consumers. The policy is in place as ant-corruption +  protection driven strategy to prevent rapid inflation. I need to find some articles to better explain it but that’s one major part of whats going on. There are things still happening but the industries that aren’t driven by import and currency arbitrage seem to be doing okay. Totally forgot to mention the fuel scarcity… maybe its pretty bad, but Nigerians always make the pretty bad seem bearable for some reason.
It’s a mix of history and current situations biting Nigeria in the butt.  The major challenge with the Nigerian economy was that it was so dependent on oil revenues as a government. As supply increased, the Nigerian government was over exposed to the decreased prices and it ruined the 2015 and 2016 budget. Now everyone internally is screaming diversification but its a tad late. If you look at Angola, Saudi Arabia, Libya….They all have ridiculous sovereign wealth funds that have been at work to invest oil profit in other industries and other areas of the world. Nigeria has been squandering its oil profits through corruption and living the high life.
This is probably the best situation Nigeria can be in.. I think this is forcing a lot of difficult conversations that should have been had 20 or 30 years ago. It could be severely worst…. Imagine a currency diving into a tail spin. That would suck. Nigeria still has a things going for it… a ton of natural resources, low labor costs, improving infrastructure…. There’s still a lot of work to do but  I think Nigeria is still in a decent position…
music

Cruel Summer Album Snippets

13 years ago Author By cumeadi

Cruel Summer

One thing you’ll learn about me by reading this blog is that I’m a huge Kanye West fan for many reasons (future blog post)  Here’s a preview of  G.O.O.D. music’s  new cd coming out 9/18.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/59513988″ iframe=”true” /]

 

Cruel Summer Tracklisting

1. “To the World” – Kanye West, R. Kelly
2. “Clique” – Kanye West, Jay-Z, Big Sean
3. “Mercy” – Kanye West, Big Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz
4. “New God Flow” – Kanye West, Pusha T, Ghostface Killah
5. “The Morning” – Raekwon, Pusha T, Common, 2 Chainz, CyHi Da Prynce, Kid Cudi, D’Banj
6. “Cold” – DJ Khaled, Kanye West
7. “Higher” – The-Dream, Pusha T, Ma$e
8. “Sin City” – John Legend, Travi$ Scott, Teyana Taylor, CyHi Da Prynce, Malik Yusef
9. “The One” – Kanye West, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Marsha Ambrosius
10. “Creepers” – Kid Cudi
11. “Bliss” – John Legend, Teyana Taylor
12. “Don’t Like” – Kanye West, Chief Keef, Pusha T, Big Sean, Jadakiss

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