Kanye West = Super Passionate

This is an old interview that Kanye West did back in 2007 with Tim Westwood. At the time, Kanye was explaining his reaction for losing an award to Justice's video "We Are Your Friends" (which I happened to have remixed).  At about 4:56 into the interview, he goes into this tanget and I believe that this is the epitome of who he is as an artist and a person.  I feel that this is the type of interview where if anyone were to ask who Kanye West is, they would play this clip.  I feel its hilarious and inspiring to watch because he was so serious and so animated about his craft and pop culture. So many quotables.  Okay, I'll stop bigging it up and let you decide:


Watch this at 4:56


Kanye West on Radio 1 with Westwood part 3
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Arsenio Hall Goes Off!

Spotted over at Aziz Ansari's blog. 


Back in the 1990s, Arsenio Hall was the shit! This was recorded around 1994 when Arsenio had some protesters from a gay rights organization.  They were disrupting the show because they felt that Arsenio Hall refused to have guests on his show because of their sexual preference.  This was at the height of his popularity when there were rumors of his relationship with his best friend Eddie Murphy. 

I'm Not a Bad Person

Basically, the last few months have been quite an interesting turn in my life.  Because of these situations, I've looked at life slightly different and my attitude has been affected in my interactions with friends, family, and business partners.  I would like to take the time to apologize as I get myself together and iron everything out.  Let me explain what's going on briefly...


I have (or what I used to have) what I would like to call a "Kinda-Sorta". She's a woman who's not your girlfriend, but damn sure acts and very well could be, but we have not figured out if we would pursue being friends or otherwise.  This is a woman that I've known for years since my time in college. She's shy, enthusiastic, pretty, and interesting. Everytime I come into the city, I'm greeted with open arms by her. I take her out to dinner, she feeds me my own food in her mouth, she sits on my lap at times, we play around, etc. I show a lot of interest, but we're just Kinda-Sortas. There is no definite title.  So, about a week or so ago, I leave out to go to the bar with a few of my friends to get twisted and do ridiculously hilarious things (as always the plan on a weekend).  I reach there and I see my Kinda-Sorta, drunk and giggly at the bar.  I find this strange, simply because she's a homebody that never goes out to do something like get drunk....not to mention, she was with another dude.  I chose to talk with her the next day about it, and she basically said that she didn't even know that we were "talking" to begin with.  This is where the Kinda-Sorta title turns into bullshit.  I feel that once you put food in my mouth on a one-on-one dinner date, it pretty much says everything.  But then again, how can I be mad? There's no title!! She's still a good friend, but it made me learn something:


I have to be more direct with people, or I will get played. 


Pretty simple to remember, right? So I thought...


Earlier this week, I had to travel over to New York to pick up my bags of clothes from my aunt's house while riding with my dad.  Through a LONG story, I had to pick up the clothes because I was being "subliminally" kicked out of the apartment due to a situation where I brought a friend over to the place for a business meeting while she was out of town. She subliminally and constantly told her sister that there's "so many bags in the room" and the idea that her granddaughter was going to move into the room for her next semester at college.  Turns out, the granddaughter's not even GOING to move in to the room! Surprise, surprise.  Picking up the clothes from her apartment is not the thing that got me upset; I mean c'mon, it's not MY apartment. But I thought it was funny that she had not once told me to pack up my shit out of the apartment at all, or even told me about the bags being a hazard. Due to the situation from beforehand, I'm looked at by the majority of my aunts and uncles as the irresponsible nephew who betrays trust and hangs with potential drug dealers and criminals (where did that come from??). 


So, on top of my uncle being seriously diagnosed with cancer and my home studio equipment being reduced to a piece of shit on tinfoil, my attitude had drastically changed to being a more assertive person.  I've sat down at this very laptop every day writing new music, emailing songs to officials, doing any & every show that I can get a slot in, texting & emailing my constituents in regards to getting my music into lucrative deals, and also trying to use the stupid equipment to send rough drafts of new ideas I've developed that makes me sound like I lived in Osama Bin Ladin's cave for 6 years. 


However, I do understand that all of these unfortunate things happen for a reason, and it's all just a phase as a part of life that I have to continue to make myself a better person, and even better "hustler".  I don't like to use the term "hustle" because what I do is perfectly legal and my product is not given away aimlessly. I take pride in my work and I owe it to everyone who reads this blog to be entertained with quality.  In this current industry, I feel that you deserve that much.  Please bare with me to everyone that I may have made upset, annoyed, or frustrated due to my behavior. 


I'm not a bad person. 

TOO MANY PEOPLE KNOW ME....

This past weekend was so interesting, and somewhat explains my life and how I get down.  Usually, I would go on a drinking binge out in the streets of Washington DC and just meet up with some nice lady friends for the win.   This past weekend was no exception. I took my homegirl out for a date at a cool Italian restaurant where we basically talked about the Lakers being the 2010 NBA Finals (Shouts to Ron Artest, the REAL MVP of Game 7), how we were the only black people in the place and can't even pronounce the food on the menu, and her hilariously high pitched voice that makes her standout as well as her beauty. After respectively dropping her off at her place, I went down to have a few more drinks in the city.  Around this part of town, a lot of people that I knew in college continue to work in the bars and restaurants as waitresses or bartenders.  This tells you what a Bachelors degree can get you in 2010 post-recession.  I ran into a spot that I never been before and noticed that I knew one of the waitresses, and invited her to hang with me after her shift at midnight. 

Now this is where it gets awkward...

As we're walking over to my favorite spot, she gets bombarded by a group of dudes that she knows and one dude in particular decides to strike a conversation with me.  You ever get caught in a situation where someone's talking to you like you're the best of friends and you have NO clue who he is?  As he was talking about everything random under the son like scholarships, Puerto Rico, and margaritas, I could only reply with "Yeah", "Right", and "That's whats up".  This conversation lasts for over 10 minutes and I'm internally calling for ol' girl to let us get the hell outta there.

Afterwards, I linked up with the homie "Marcus" and my homegirl "Nicole" (the names have been changed to protect the intoxicated).  These 2 are experienced bartenders on their own right, so when you're in a weekend situation with these two, expect to be twisted like nobody's business. We ended up in a hotel party on Pennsylvania Ave (a couple blocks away from the White House) where it was more of a kickback (meaning, I ain't paying no damn $20 to your spot? Niiiiice).  We were the only ones around in a $2000 rented hotel rooftop, stacked with every single type of liquor and mix you can imagine, flowers all over the floor, blue and red tinted lights, and a jacuzzi filled with rose petals. 

 This was like "Coming To America" on crack.  THERE WAS A PHONE IN THE BATHROOM, SON!! As we were enjoying ourselves, more guests came to arrive and what have we here? ANOTHER person that I vaguely know that knows me; a young woman that I met while doing a show.  She takes the time to talk to me about how she loved my work and wanted to do a drinking contest with me.  Much respect for the appreciation of my work, but I'm the designated driver, and I'm not gonna jump off the roof anytime soon.

After dropping everyone off, I came home after 5am, only to sleep for another 5 hours and wake up to head into Northeast DC for the "New Voices Talent Search" which features judges such as Antonio and Aaron Reid (LA Reid's sons) and the Simmons sisters (Angela & Vanessa).  The purpose was to search for new talent for a possible deal with Def Jam.   I didn't participate in this event (and probably wouldn't with a 20% hangover from last night), but I came to introduce myself to everyone since I knew the press rep. Shouts to Byrd for hooking me up! Everyone was real cool and laid back, and most of the performers were hot, and others were.....uhh....interesting.

Shouts to everyone that came out to the event and held it down.  It was a great experience to watch and see how industry professionals critique upcoming artists and their craft.  I can't wait till the world sees what I have in store! 

***P.S. Check out the new episode of "The Boondocks".  I'm at a LOSS FOR WORDS at this one.  A certain film director and producer is going to be really upset at this.

Boondocks - Episode 8 - "Pause"

Just saw "Nightmare On Elm Street" 2010...

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay on the posts, been quite busy around these times.  I've managed to see the new Nightmare On Elm Street flick with my date for the night, completely crowded theater. Mind you, this is in Washington, DC.  I avoided taking her to my usual spot in MD, which is the Magic Johnson Theater, because it's a pretty ghetto, loud atmosophere full of obnoxious teenagers running around.  But over where we were in the "nicer" area of the city, we've experienced some of the same obnoxious talking, "Ooooh Freddy gonna cut you up, bitch!"  But they, the scissor-handed child molester does bring out the worst in people.


My opinion about this flick? I'm a big fan of the original. I have the DVD in my possession, but I'm not a huge movie geek where it has to appeal to my standards in order for it to be a good film.  But not only was this 2010 version just "okay" to me, they really took all of the cool shit from the movie out! I mean c'mon, this is Nightmare On Elm Street.  You mean to tell me you're gonna cut out Johnny Depp's death scene? You're gonna half-cut the famous Bathtub scene? You're not gonna make the mother as an alcoholic, but a damn flight attendant?


That's some of the things you should know about this without spoiling it for you. They did added some pretty cool elements within this new one, but you can tell that this is the age of depressed teenagers that slice their wrists while watching Twilight Part 39 and needed to accommodate that crowd. *Sigh*  The scares and suspense was a good balance, but I wanted to see more action and less plot development.  They really explored the "child molestation" aspect of Freddy, which was lightly touched on in the original but went deeper into the second. The new actor who plays Freddy did an impressive job with the little resources he was given, so I applaud that.


Over all, I give this movie a solid 3/5.   Here's Complex Magazine's index of all of Freddy's exploits, including his famous one liners throughout the films.

R.I.P. Keith Elam aka Guru 1966-2010...now this Solar guy?

I'm sure that you have all heard the story of the medical conditions that Gangstarr frontman Guru has been in the past few months.  If you've heard about that, you have also heard about the controversy surrounding his "friend" Solar, a producer who has been working with him in the years where most hiphop fans didn't care too much about since DJ Premier wasn't around to put his signature sound to it.  Not to discredit the effort, but it's pretty much mutual understanding.  For those that don't know, Solar became the mystical Gatekeeper to anything involving Guru and blocked his entire family and friends from being in any contact with him to ask about his condition.  Guru's nephew also tried to reach out online for an answer, but to no avail.  On August 19th, 2010, Guru passed away due to cancer.  Not long after, Solar released a death letter that he claims that Guru wrote for the fans and family.


What makes this letter extremely interesting is the idea that Guru keeps referring to Solar as the greatest thing since Pizza Hotpockets and that DJ Premier (or as stated "ex-DJ") is the alleged scumbag that can't be involved in any tributes, presentations, etc. that involve him.  Dude can't even stand within 6 feet of a picture of Guru, according to this letter.  These points, among other things, leave others within the music world (especially The Elams) questioning the authenticity of this, and strengthens the belief that it was Solar who wrote this himself.  After all, Guru was reportedly in a coma since February 2010, and has never regained consciousness.  Some even questioned just how close Solar was to Guru and why he's been so protective of him...





I believe that we can all look at this and come with our own opinions and thoughts on this one.


But alas, Rest In Peace to Guru.  You will be missed and GANGSTARR will continue to live in our memory. 

If you think this Geek/Nerd thing is a joke....

Then you obviously think that bullying is just a joke, too...



Everyday, thousands of students in school get harassed and ridiculed by classmates for being considered different and strange.  At a time where its an institution in modern society where we are developing our sense of pride within ourselves, as well as an understanding of the world around us, it's imperative that we become more encouraging of that instead of discouraging. When I was in high school, I was a pretty quiet kid.  I did my work and was on the Honor Roll for about 3 years, except the last year because I was basically hanging out and doing other things which had me lose focus. But as time went on, I was getting jumped by classmates for whatever reason, as well as joked on constantly.  I was popular as a person, had a couple of female admirers, but still had to go through these instances of disrespect. It really kind of messed with my emotions and had me think twice about my life and where I intended to go from that point. My parents weren't exactly the ones to help me for better understanding of myself in this case; they had their own problems around those times as well.  If it wasn't for my penchant for videogames, animation, and music, then I probably would've ended up lost, confused, and end up just like this girl in the video.  I thought that all I wanted was acceptance from others, when in reality, I needed acceptance from myself.


That's why I do the things that I do now.  There's many people who go through this type of turmoil on a regular basis, who don't have the same outlets of self-expression and confidence that I had in my possession. Some just need guidance in order to gain the strength to continue to live their lives throughout the nonsense.  Everybody has had humble beginnings throughout their time until they reached something extraordinary when they were capable of reaching that status.  It's up to us to help each other, because as we know, the so-called geeks and nerds that have been looked down upon for years in society and the media are the ones that make a lot of money and became ridiculously successful with a lifestyle that they can pass on to their families for generations, while others who were considered the "class clown" or "bully" were out working at Kinney's Shoes and JC Penny just trying to figure out their own lives. I mean, can you blame them? They were busy with disrupting yours instead of developing theirs. 


This is essentially what my "Steady Building" phrase is about.  I encourage you all that if someone asks you how were you doing today, you would reply "steady building".  It's ambiguous; you could be saying you're having a good time and nothing is going to stop you, or that you're not having the best of days but you're striving to make them better. We're all essentially a work in progress. Plus its a good way keep your business to yourself away from your stalkers, haha.  


Please be respectful to each other.  You have the power to inspire, so don't perspire.  Steady Building.

REVENGE of The REDHEAD

Welcome to my very first blog entry on the WHOISREDHEAD? website, conveniently brought to you by blogspot.com until I decide to get fancy and make it into a dot com or something in the future. Whatever the case may be, I’m planning to make this more interactive and interestingly enough, a LOT entertaining.

To actually start this off, maybe I should actually speak on who the hell I am and why would you even care about coming to this blog in the amidst of 10,000 other blogs online.

Well, for starters, my name is Redhead. Seriously, it’s Redhead. My government name is Stephen Redhead. I come from an area thats known as Capitol Heights in the ward 9 section of Maryland, which is called PG County. It’s about 5 minutes away from Washington DC. I was born in the northwest section of DC and raised in CH for the majority of my existence. To explain what it actually is like, it’s a quiet suburb with hood tendencies and really dirty people. The type of people that’ll wash your car for a quarter before washing their ass for free. That meaaaan dirty. You know what that’s like. If a dude in DC ever committed a crime and was on a hide speed chase from the police, they’d come to my area to hide. Our area is quiet but not the brightest of people show up. Once this burglar came into my kitchen one morning while I was home and that dude told me, “Ayo man, I came in here ’cause somebody was trying to break into MY house…so I came into YOURS to escape! *runs out the back door*”. NOT EVEN JOKING!

I graduated from the Mecca of HBCUs, Howard University with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science. I’ve been working in a law firms since I was 19 years old. But I’m also a hiphop artist. Yes I rap but I play instruments as well (snare and bass drums, kinda dabbled with a saxophone but that ain’t work out). I can’t get used to blowing things for long periods of time (PAAAAUSE!!). I used to work for CBS once upon a time and even got to appear in the internet versions of one of their television shows for like 5 episodes. Musically I’ve been on MTV, BET, mtvU and had records played overseas….oh wait, did I mention that I never got any type of radio play in my hometown? Couple battles here and there, but ya’ll know how that goes.

I come from a family of Jamaicans and Grenadians. I remember having a poster on my wall of Bob Marley placed there by my parents and not having a clue who that was. I figured it’d be a smoking Santa Claus or some shit. I’m a pretty crazed fan of old movies from the early 80s and 90s, cool things with technology, and just plain old stupid behavior that I have no problem putting on BLAST. And you will see a lot of that on this blog. I promise you that much.

Say what’s up to me in the comments, let’s have some fun on this thing.

Of course, there’s links to my stuff around the page so you can check things out for yourselves. I know it’s a little wild, but damnit it’s good.