Target

Lets be honest, we see the red bullseye or the Target dog pretty regularly.  I am semi-proud to be a part of the establishment, rather than with its foul competitors, Wal-Mart or K-Mart.  I could probably talk about Target all day but that is not the point of this blog.  Working at Target, I deal with the public.  Lets just start off by saying, the common man, Joe Shmo if you will, tends to be lazy, not the brightest bulb in the chandelier and rude. 

Now when I say lazy, I mean apathetic.  Half of the people who come into Target ask me a question about where something is, which I can understand because they may have never been there or they were mislead.  The other half do not bother looking.  They are three steps from what they want and they continue to ask me where it is.  The best example is when someone asks where a price scanner is and they can litterally touch it if they turn around.  So after I direct someone to an aisle, they usually walk right by it.  People are very oblivious to the aisle numbers.  Then, if they go to the right aisle, it is my fault when they cannot even find it in the aisle.  People are very rude.  I get some of the worst attitude from helping people find something then some people ever get in their lives.  Now I am not going to call the public dumb.  I think I will retract that comment but some people really get to you with the questions people ask.  "Whats duck-tape? I've only ever used duct-tape," or "If I drop this fishing rod in the ocean, will it float?" or the best question ever "Can you use this soccer ball for basketball?"  To which I tell them whatever sells the product.

Do not get me wrong, I deal with a lot of intellectual people who one-up me on products, correct me on locations -which does not happen frequently- or tell me I am lazy for not walking them to a product.  I do like my job and I like helping people, however it would be nice if people were not so snarky.

PMRC

So to roll with the topic of freedom of speech and such, there is no better example of a violation of this amendment then the Parents Music Resource Center.  This group, founded by Tipper Gore, seeks out to take control over the music we listen to, and stop all the songs the PMRC think are too inappropriate, specifically sexual and violence references, for younger listeners.  Tipper's main thought is that rock or any kind of music is infecting children with messages they do not understand.  This all lead to the infamous 'Tipper Sticker' or the Parental Advisory sticker.

Many artists went to court to refute the sticker to be put on albums.  I think it is obvious that Tipper wanted to benefit children but i think that should be left up for the parents decision.  This also drastically lowered record sales because people who are not kids, teenagers, could not and still cannot purchase albums with such a sticker on them.  Music is meant for a different interpretation for all different listeners.  Along with this, many songs are misinterpreted because what a song might say is not supposed to be taken to heart.  Many artists have a persona for which they right their songs and that also effects the content of the song.  Most notable of that are David Bowie and his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, and even arguably bigger, Eminem and his violent person of Slim Shady.  At the beginning of Eminem's best Cd, in my opinion, The Slim Shady LP, he talks about the persona and how it should not be taken literally.  In yet many people accused him of being a psycho that beats woman and hates homosexuals.  None of which is the case.

Even with the obvious signs of censorship and a clear violation of the first amendment the Parental Advisory sticker remains and has become very common.  What i have noticed on the other hand, is the lack of editing done on albums with the sticker on them.  I have come across a few Cd's that the only word really edited is the F-Word.  There does not to seem like there will ever be a time where what we say can truly be free.  You cannot even say something about the president being killed without being investigated by the Secret Service.

The Wu

The Wu-Tang Clan is the most vicious and lyrically profound hip-hop crew in history.  People tend to mistakenly say that hip-hop is dead, "How can hip-hop be dead if Wu-Tang is forever," asks the producer and fellow lyricist the Abbott, or RZA.  Wu-Tang Clan is a nine man rap group originating from Queens, New York.  Method 'Tical' Man, GZA (the Genius), RZA (Abbott), Inspectah Deck (Rebel INS), Masta Killa, Raekwon the Chef, the late Ol' Dirty Bastard, U-God, and Ghostface Killa make up this group.  All of them have also become succesful as solo artists along with attaing much praise and recognition for shaping hip-hop. 

RZA has been thought of as one of the pioneers for hip-hop production.  He uses an MPC (http://bit.ly/byeHkc) in which he takes samples from other songs and makes the samples his own.  Once he has all his sounds he starts the beat.  RZA has produced a majority of the other members solo albums.  His mind has been set to hip-hop since a very young age.  He was an avid freestyler among his friends as a child and qui8ckly grew for the genre.  His laid back flow and complex vocabulary and rhyming schemes make it very easy to pick out his verses in the songs. 

Inspectah Deck, however, foils RZA.  He has a very 'in-your-face' kind of flow and his multiple syllable rhymes are very complicated and interesting to hear.  He is very fast when he raps and commonly freestyles a lot of his material.  The INS came from a musical family so his passion and drive is fueled by his mother.  He is the only artist from the group who when he went solo, had another producer other than RZA, this being the Alchemist.