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Status:
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Entries: 2 (Private: )
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Comments: 5
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Start Date: 05-04-2010
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Last Update: 05-07-2010
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Views: 349
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Description: Essays, Rule Books, and Shit Talk
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| Marvel Vs DC |
Now Playing:  "Syndicate Party" -Saint Chris Feat. Megatron & DocT |
Date Posted: 05-07-2010 at 06:11 PM - Comments (0) |
MARVEL VS THE DC UNIVERSE
The barrier between the comic book realms has been ripped open at the seams and man’s modern cities are exhibiting the damage. Hulk smashes as Super Man uses his heat vision. Batman flips around with acrobatics and gadgets as Wolverine pops out his adamantium claws with that signature “SNKT” onomatopoeia. The greatest Green Lantern of all time Hal Jordan uses his very own will to control the power of the green light, while Tony Stark slips on an Iron Man suit and blasts away with a determination and a cockiness that has never been matched. Many more players join in this dangerous game of super powers versus super powers. As this war rages on through splash pages and movie screens, I propose a real world answer to the ancient fan boy dilemma: Marvel VS DC, who’s the victor? In world’s where characters are beyond natural abilities and save lives as well as destroy them, there isn’t any and never will be a clear-cut winner.
It all boils down to a personal taste that a fan will stand by. DC Comics is the original comic book juggernaut. DC stands for “Detective Comics” which was its first major “Super Hero” book released in 1937 with a familiar bat-like hero. They sky rocketed to worldwide fame when they established Action Comics in 1939 with a alien from the planet Krypton in blue and red spandex lifting a car on the cover. Warner Bros. now owns DC Comics as well as its branch companies such as Vertigo. DC has had a hand in many classic characters such as The Joker, and Wonder Woman. Many of the greatest literary pieces of all time are under the DC umbrella including Alan Moore’s The Watchmen, Brian K. Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man, and Frank Millar’s classic The Dark Knight Returns. Modern DC Comics have vast story lines that some times require multiple reads; I definitely spend 30 minutes on a DC book and only 15 on a Marvel. DC orchestrates fictional cities in a fictional universe and focuses more on story rather than characters. Their plots usually include some form of time travel or multiple universe theories that you would expect from Stephen Hawking and not a comic book. The main reason I prefer DC is because the authors are so passionate about their story lines that they really do not care if they loose the reader; their main mission is to make history with their books. In the film world, DC Comics made poor choices early on, but with the money and press The Dark Knight received, that feels like an issue of the past.
Marvel on the other hand, started its success in the sixties as the great Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby penned such fantastic books as The X-Men, Spiderman, and The Incredible Hulk. The dream team changed the face of comics as we know it by giving the characters a “real world” to live in. They used real cities, real issues such as segregation (X-Men), and real personalities like Peter Parker struggling to maintain his adolescence while embracing the new responsibilities trusted onto him as a hero. The pain, anguish, and the issues in these hero’s lives became immensely popular. Any comic book company, including DC, now embraces this mentality when it comes to approaching its characters, but Marvel was the originators of this concept. Stan Lee also turned comics into a billion dollar industry through franchise deals and a predominantly decent cross over into films. Modern Marvel comics usually consist of short reads. They retain emotional characters but it usually shines in it’s action packed splash pages, their colorful new characters, and it’s fantastic artists, while DC on the other hand, has decent artists but is more focused on the “Writer’s Perspective”.
The battle continues to rage as companies profit billions. The comic book medium now controls the film industry and even television. If you don’t believe me when I say it controls the film industry, need I recap the top grossing films of the past decade? At the end of the day people lie and number’s don’t. It would seem that Marvel probably wins the “numbers” game, but when it comes to longevity, DC Comics has been around and will be around for ages. Perception is reality, and only those who perceive the other as the victor can argue their opinion in stores around the globe. |
| The New Disco |
Now Playing: "Syndicate Rules" - Haz Feat. Megatron, Jay-Dub, & HonestE |
Date Posted: 05-04-2010 at 10:39 PM - Comments (0) |
The NEW Disco
The Decline of Message in Hip Hop
Hip Hop… These two words when paired together can make people laugh, cry, wince, oblivious, or even aware. There are many sub-genres of Hip Hop including mainstream or Hip “Pop”, underground, club, gangster, conscious, backpack, and horror core. There are many regional specific sub-genres such as Go-Go (Maryland/DC), Crunk (Southern Region), and Hyphy (Bay Area California). The question I ask is this: why would such a vast art form seem to be dying out in the eyes of so many? The answer and my thesis are simple; the message within its lyrics has been literally sold for a product that achieves a higher level of success.
When Hip Hop first began in the early 1980’s in Bronx, NY, the DJ or Disc Jockey primarily orchestrated the music. The DJ would bring an individual along with him to parties to help assist in the crowds enjoyment of this music. This individual would be given the title of the MC (Microphone Controller or Master of Ceremonies). The MC’s purpose was to get the crowd or the party more involved and to further increase the popularity of the DJ. Over time however, the MC began to rhyme the words he was using to involve the crowd. The crowd could relate to the skill of a wordsmith, thus the MC was born and placed in the forefront of this new type of music. As the lyrics began to come into focus, they were quite simple at first and usually still all about “the party”. Very soon new voices would approach the microphone, the “have-nots”. They felt a different side of the inner cities needed to be heard, a more REAL side. This new voice would take the industry to a more intricate and conscious style of “just rhyming words”. MCs would begin to use multiple syllable rhyming, metaphorical phrases or punch lines, and some would craft stories with their words, so vivid you’d swear you were there. Ah… Hip Hop, they called it the “New Disco”, but it’s longevity would prove anything but.
I personally see the ‘90s as the peek of rap music in general, but unfortunately it also led to its decline. I see it boiling down to “the greats” and the fans that mimic them. It began with Tupac, such a passionate artist with a vocal presence that still remains to this day untouched. He brought realism to his words; he had the ability to get evil, but then again the ability to preach positively. After all, contradiction is the way of man. The only problem is, realism was Tupac’s image. Many up and coming artists saw this as a “go ahead” to live out their lyrics. Do you see Martin Scorsese acting out Good Fellas any time soon? No, but Tupac achieved such a level of success that it resonated in young MC’s minds that this is the way I HAVE to be. I have to be “real” to what I say or else I will be seen as weak and deemed not worthy to clutch a microphone.
Then came along Jay Z, the MC that truly embodied the term “swagger”. This was a relatively new breed of emcee such as Notorious BIG that did not write their lyrics but instead free styled them, or just came off of the top of their minds with the rhymes. This is a very good method of rhyming because it relieves your words of the restraints they might have when you just read them. This method has the ability to make your flow seem crisper and your words almost seem fall out naturally! The only problem is it’s hard to get a message across when you aren’t putting too much thought into your lyrics. Sure, they have fly punch lines, and sure they have a nice vocal presence, but at the end of the day they are either talking about how nice they look or how nice they can rhyme. Every now and then a serious emotional song will come along, but for the most part they just talked about living life and live it they did. Fans ate this new type of rhyming up! I mean, who doesn’t want to live large? So now young MCS have to A) Be real to there words, and B) Live it up in their raps, just to please a more vast audience and achieve a higher number of sales.
These icons amongst many others set the blue print for the future. Eventually it got to where the John Q Public did not want to be serious any more. Consumer demand revealed them to be requesting “can we just party again?”
After the “Eminem Era” (whom I see as the last Platinum plus “lyrical” MC), many artists with relevance and lyrical content were phased out entirely or shelved due to lacking sales. The days of the Hip Hop Album were numbered. Ring Tones and Singles became the goal for many labels and they began to only look for artists that fit the bill, thus proving my thesis. Labels began recruiting modern “one hit wonders”, constricting their lyrical content to something even the simplest mind can relate to, pressing it into a shiny package, and injecting it freshly into the minds of our unfortunate youth. |
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