Whole Lotta Love

Geez, I thought freelance work paid pretty well, and it is at first glance--the pay for one job is like, 20%--25% of my then-monthly salary. But as I've spent the last 5 hours working on this hip hop piece, I realized that this thing has consumed my life the past few weeks. Yes, I've worked on a Holga story on the side but I was always thinking about this 4000 word feature. I spent this afternoon reading Can't Stop Won't Stop at a bookstore. Didn't buy it cause I'm midway through five books right now and I can't decide the order to finish them in. CSWS is a book on the early days of hip hop culture, written by an Asian American who grew up in Hawaii.

After chasing clot PRs, record label execs, artist managers, and teachers I've finally done most of the interviews. Have all the facts. Will start cranking this thing out in the next few days as the deadline approaches.

I spent the last two hours crafting the opening. I've decided to scrap the Illmatic reference and instead go with yup, you guessed it--DO THE RIGHT THING.

I reckon to the black community in the early 90s, Spike must have been a revered dude. I mean DTRT was so oh-no-he-didn't at the time of release. So how bold/clutch/cold-blooded was Reggie Miller, murdering the Knicks (the roughest, most physical team in the league) on national TV in the world's most famous arena (MSG) and jawing at Spike Lee along the way. 25 points in the 4th quarter? Eight points in eight seconds? The infamous "choke" hand gesture?

Reggie with the dagger in the heart of New Yorkers. notice Spike on the side screaming obscenities

He even one upped MJ on this one. Sure, Jordan had his fair share of legendary lore in NYC--the mecca of basketbal--but even the GOAT never directed any trash talk Spike's way. Probably cause of their Nike connection. Or maybe cause Mars Blackmon is such a fan of MJ.

But then ain't that selling out? Spike is a true New Yorker with Knick blood running thru his veins. Yet he doesn't jaw at MJ even though he's murdering his Knicks? The Charles Smith game? The double nickel? And Jordan, the greatest competitor and athlete the world have ever seen, but he carefully rips the heart out of every New Yorker but Spike because of their Nike partnership? All for business?

Quite disappointing.

Reggie kept it real. Reggie kept it raw. UCLA style right there, just like my boy BIll Walton, the first and last hippie NBA player.

But of course, after all the years of battlin', after all the venom that came out of Spike's mouth, all the daggers Reggie shot into the hearts of New Yorkers. After all the hate. When it was all said and done, when Reggie played his last game at the Garden.

There was LOVE this is a story of right hand left hand, a story of love and hate

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7L1lruNCfk[Watch from the 4:58 mark on. The Reggie/Spike war heats up. Every time he shot, you could hear the New Yorkers gasp. After every swish, you see Reggie giving Spike the stinkeye. Who knew a skinny kid from Cali can be this bad ass in NYC? That swagger, that FU attitude. Damn.](/batch.download.php?aid=5433667)