As soon as I saw the title, I knew the phone calls, texts, facebook inboxes, tweets, etc. were coming…and they did. See, I’m a Christian and all of my peoples know that. I’ve been called “the down to earth Christian” and “the cool Christian” so whenever ANYBODY body remotely close to the Christian faith does ANYTHING bad or starts some controversy (exp. pastors stealing, lying, cheating, molesting, etc.) I’m usually the first person folk hit. So what was the hoopla this time? Kanye West’s album title “Yeezus.” It feels just like yesterday that I posted how I felt about Game’s album cover for “Jesus Piece” and I kinda feel the same way about Ye this go 'round.

See, I feel like most folk in society believe that my religion and my savior are the ones to steal on cause this nonsense would not be going on with the Nation of Islam or the Muslims. It Game decided to name his album “Allah Piece” and had a picture of Allah on the cover with a red rag over his mouth…well ya’ll already know how that would’ve ended for Game. That idea would’ve been nixed before the album even hit shelves. And when it comes to Ye, I feel like Cedric…I wish a nigga would name his album “Allaheezy.” I TRULY do wish Ye would do that. Cause the Muslims would be all of that crazy right up outta Kanye. But us Christians, we’re like Beans, we don’t do much. Maybe one or two pastors will come out and wanna boycott (but we see how that went with the pastor from Philly who tried to get Meek’s “Amen” banned) the album but who’s gonna listen? At the end of the days, cats respect violence….and us Christians haven’t knocked nobody out since Sodom and Gomorrah. But I don’t care what planet you’re from, you know the Muslims and the nation don’t play that. But like I said earlier, we’re just the ones to steal on. You think Meek would’ve been barking like he was on that pastor if he was talking to a dude in a suit, bowtie with a bean pie? Hell no. Why? Cause niggaz respect violence. And again, us Christians, we’re just not violent. So why would Meek respect a pastor? Like Big Boi (and most black men) said “I’m more Malcolm, the Martin” meaning I wanna make a change and I’ll grab an AK (see, more violence) to make that happen. The Nation has ALWAYS been tied to violence (check out the book “Black Brothers Incoroporated” and that’s just talking about the Nation in Philly) so niggaz KNOW not to mess with them. Hell, I remember when the whole East Coast/West Coast beef was at an all time high and Puff (I ain’t calling that nigga Diddy) had the Nation of Islam as his security at Bad Boy Records! Now ask yourself, if the biggest gangsta in hip hop is gunning for you, are you gonna call your Pastor and your men’s ministry to come protect you? Naw...not at all. 

Now some cats will say “well Kil, they’re just paying homage to Jesus” and my reply to that would be “then we EASILY have two different definitions of homage.” If I take a picture of your dead loved one and put a gang rag around their mouth and make them look thugged out and then sell that album cover to the world, would that be homage to you or fighting words? I’ll vote for the latter. I’m one of the odd dudes who doesn’t feel like Jay is paying homage to BIG by quoting his lyrics…and then taking cheap shots at dude like “it’s no Biggie.” You wanna pay homage to dude, shout his name out from time to time. Maybe even write a rhyme about dude and ya’ll friendship. Cop his daughter a benz along with your newest signee to Roc Nation Sports. But quoting another dude’s lyrics so much that there are times I’m listening to Jay and I literally forget it came outta BIG’s mouth first, that’s not paying respect to me. So, naming your album with your spin on Jesus’ name or dressing up Jesus and his disciples as bloods at the last supper for your album cover doesn’t look, feel or sound like respect. 

And let’s be honest, most of the folk who don’t have a problem with Game or Ye’s actions, aren’t Christians. See, people only feel disrespected over things that THEY care about. One of my homeboys who used to always get picked on when we were growing up in Philly, did a 180 one summer and came to back to school the next year with this I don’t give a f-ck attitude. And dude told me, “I’m willing to die to get my respect.” See, to him, respect was something he cared so much about, he was willing to die for it. Well, more power to him cause respect don’t mean that much for me to be laid by six. Never did, never will but that’s what HE cared about. And as Christians, folk dissin’ our savior is something WE care about. 

Other cats will say “well, wasn’t Ye the first dude to get Jesus name being shouted out on the radio and in the clubs with ‘Jesus Walks?” Yup, you’re 100% right he did. Now the key word in that sentence was DID. I’ll always salute Ye for that but we’re talking about what he’s doing NOW. And what he’s doing now, isn’t paying homage to my savior. But just in case YE wanted to know how he could pay my savior some respect, here’s an easy answer…change the name of your album. 

BTW, does ANYBODY know what this cover is? Oh yeah, these new songs SUCK...but that's another topic for another day. Like I aid on Twitter the other day, payola will be in FULL effect for this Ye album. I worked in radio for 10+ years...trust me...I know ALL about payola.

I never liked Star Trek. I always felt like it was the old folk’s version of Star Wars. The VERY old folk’s version. Whenever I did try to watch it growing up it always seemed like it had MUCH more dialogue then action so it could never compete with Buck Rogers or Battlestar Galataca. And don’t think Star Trek The Next Generation or Star Trek Deep Space Nine got my attention either cause at the end of the day, I didn’t think there wasn’t anything that these cats could do to convince me to get into Star Trek. Which is why when I saw the trailer for the Star Trek movie that dropped a couple of years back I was shocked that I actually wanted to see it! It was like after 40 years it seemed like these dudes FINALLY got the bright idea to add some action to this snooze fest. And ya’ll could only imagine the shock I was in after I checked out the movie the first day it dropped (along with a RACK of “Trekies” in the theater) and I LOVED it! Now don’t get it twisted I’m not saying it was a 5 mic classic or nuthin’ like that (hell, casting Tyler Perry alone made it lose a half of mic) but it was finally the Star Trek that I’d been wanting to see since day one.

So it should come as no surprised that I was hype as hell when Star Trek Into Darkness dropped this past Friday. To be honest, outside of Django I can’t remember the last time I was this hype for a movie. So after copping my ticket for the first showing of the movie a couple of days in advance (cause I knew the jawn would be sold out) I found myself back in the same position I was in 3 years ago, checking out the very first movie of the day with a RACK of Trekies again…the only difference this time is my expectations were much higher then they were the first go ‘round. So, is “Into The Darkness” better then the original? Well, yes and no. “Into Darkness” has everything you’d expect from a summer blockbuster movie (even though it’s dropping 2 weeks before the “official” summer, but mark my words, this will be the best movie of the summer and yes…I know Superman is dropping) so it has much more action then the 1st Star Trek but to me the real greatness of the movie are the characters and the way they interact.

Since I started working on my first novel and just finished my first screenplay, I’ve started paying much more attention to characters in movies and I’m completely floored by the characters in Star Trek. And it’s not just that the characters are ill but the dynamics between the characters (Kirk & Spook, Kirk & Bones and Kirk & just about anybody for that matter) is just as sick. And to be honest the only real knock I have against “Darkness” it is at times it was so predictable that I felt like I already read the book before seeing the movie. But even with the predictability factor, you’d be damn near hating to not like this movie…that is if you gave the last movie a shot. So even if you were like me and never rocked with Star Trek because it was boring, dull and it seemed like it was written for our ancestors, trust me, if you want a dope action movie with some ill characters, “Darkness” is right up your alley. Plus, Madea doesn’t make the cut this go round so like Big Boi said ("I gotta hit the Source, I need my other half of mic, cause that Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was a classic") “Darkness” get the extra half of mic the lost last time for that alone.

3.5 outta 5

BTW, as much as I hated Star Trek growing up, for some odd ball reason…I always loved the Enterprise. In fact, it’s my 2nd fave spaceship only behind Star Blazer’s Argo. Hell, the Enterprise even comes before the Millennium Falcon…go figure.