I made a pretty rad discovery some time ago. So sit back, this is gonna take a minute.

I would assume that no one knows who this group of kids is:


This group of dudes is called Imajin, as you've gathered. My cousin introduced me to them when I was around twelve or so, which would mean Wikipedia is right, I think. The first single dropped in '98, but my cousin was listening to them before the first single, "Shorty You Keep Playin' With My Mind", dropped on BET. The next single was entitled "No Doubt", and I distinctly remember watching this video on BET. I used to love that song.

I also used to have really crappy taste.

They didn't release any singles after that, but they did apparently come out with an album of unreleased songs in 2005, which I didn't know about, and I guess the picture above represents that album cover.

Imajin represents one of the worst boybands in history, and that's saying something, what with the advent of The Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees and the like coming onto the scene somewhere around that time. Then you need to factor in groups like B2K and O-town, and part of me thinks they might deserve a medal for making such spectacularly crappy music.



This is the video for their second single, No Doubt. Despite the general lack of talent, part of me still really enjoys this song, and another part of me is thinking Olamide Faison was really cute back then.

SPEAKING OF OLAMIDE FAISON.

This is him:Cute, no? He was really cute. The kind of cute twelve year old girls go crazy about. My cousin and I spent a lot of time arguing over which one of us he'd prefer, despite the fact that she was way more devoted to the group than I was (for instance, her bedroom walls were plastered with pictures of their faces and she even taped printouts of their likes, dislikes, ages, places of birth, their heights, etc on her walls). She had borderline fanatic tendencies when it came to boy bands and at times it could be a little unnerving.

But I digress!

His name is pronounced Oh-LA-meh-DAY. Olamide. He played Miles Robertson on Sesame street. Born July 21, 1983. July 21, which just HAPPENS to be the release date of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Sorry, I thought that was an amusing coincidence. He has an older brother named Donald Faison.

THIS IS DONALD FAISON:


This is the guy from Scrubs. He is Olamide Faison's older brother. The first time I saw this, I just sort of gaped at my computer screen, I was so surprised. You can learn a ton from reading Wikipedia, seriously. I mean, it's not like what you're learning is useful in any way, but it's sort of cool when you learn things like this about one of your first celebrity crushes.

What, now?

You might want to know that I like music. I really like music. If I hear and find a new song at any point time, I can mark that day a good day -- there is nothing better than a brand new song that you like, enjoy and can listen to a million times a day without getting tired of it.

Mims, the rapper responsible for the atrocity entitled, "This is Why I'm Hot", came out with a new song a few months ago -- quite a while ago actually, more than just a few months,though this particular video didn't appear on YouTube until February. Mims release Move (If You Wanna) in October 2008 as a single, while his second album, Guilt dropped in April 2008.

The best thing about this song is the fact that it is a vast improvement on "This is Why I'm Hot" -- the rhymes are better, the beat is catchier -- the style of the song is just the biggest improvement I've ever seen from someone who is essentially a one-hit-wonder. And he gets points for the video, too, there are no scantily clad women attempting to push large breasts out of my computer screen.

But of course, there's a problem. There is always a problem.

Gillie da Kid is from Philly. Actually, he is the King of Philly. Yes. He's a pretty good rapper, the kind who can stand on his own without help from anyone else. This is a good thing, yes? Well, sure. But this song was released as a single in 2007, which I found interesting in and of itself, but what's even more interesting is that Mims seems to be mimicking Gillie's style in a way that's vaguely obscene. Mims's version is catchier and slicker, and I guess if you're trying to run mainstream, that's the quality your music is going to have. It was disappointing, to say the least, to find out that Mims simply took Gillie's beats and put a little gloss over them instead of coming up with something original.

All artists sample each other, but when it's so blatantly obvious, you lose points. Make something that's original and yours, please! No wonder the single only hit #63 on the Billboards.

Still a good song though.

Speaking of rap music!

Maybe you're heard of The Lonely Island. I'm hoping you have. It's really hysterical, some of the funniest (READ: Vulgar :D ) stuff I've heard in a really long time, I guess. Maybe you've seen "Like a Boss", which I'm not going to post here, but I should say my favorite part of the song goes something like this:

"MICROMANAGE (like a boss).
PROMOTE SYNERGY(like a boss).
HIT ON DEBRA (like a boss).
GET REJECTED (like a boss).
SWALLOW SADNESS (like a boss).
SEND SOME FAXES (like a boss)."

- etc.

Well, if you don't know The Lonely Island, maybe you know Natalie Portman. She looks like this:


Born in Jerusalem, appeared in a bunch of movies (The Other Boleyn Girl, V for Vendetta, Garden State, etc), ridiculously pretty on obscene levels, can look good bald, etc. Well, if you don't know her, maybe you should stop reading this and go watch V for Vendetta. And maybe Garden State. Yeah, Garden State, too.

Anyway, Natalie Portman happens to be featured on The Lonely Island, which is great for a number of reasons: You wouldn't expect it from Natalie Portman of all people, and it's generally hysterical. Not to mention, well, she's not that bad at it. Anyway, here is the censored version for your viewing pleasure:

Natalie's Rap

AWESOME. When I first saw this, I was amazed. I don't watch SNL, so the first time I saw this was on a thread in a celebrity gossip forum. You can see the uncensored here.

LAUGH ALL NIGHT.

Today, I would like to discuss something of vast importance!

That's right! Movies! Movies starring Cate Blanchett! One of my favorite movies! The first time I watched it was my freshman year at the UI for a theater course. We had a choice between like four movies and no one seemed interested in this one, so I picked it.

WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE IT WAS. I even watched it again just to relive the awesomeness! Also: I like Cate Blanchett.

The combination of acting, actors and music was phenomenal! I have a thing for classical so it was a win-win situation! On a trip to Chicago a couple years ago, I bought this movie and watched it again. One of the best scenes in this film come at the end, when she has her Ladies in Waiting cut off all her hair and cover her skin in white paste. And she puts on this amazing sixteenth century dress and walks into this ballroom with all the subjects kneeling and says in this big, deep voice: "Observe. I am married to England."

The first time I saw this it was like, "HOLY CRAP THAT IS AWESOME." Then I watched it again.

Anyway, there is a point to this, so I'll get to it. The last time I watched it, I was still spazzing from the final scene and watching the end credits. And I was watching and minding my own business when bam, I see the name "Lily Allen."

What?

At first I thought maybe it was just someone else with the same name. But then I went scrolling back through the movie and I found her.


Did you know that? I bet you didn't.

She looks really young, maybe fourteen or fifteen. Her hair is chin length and in most scenes she looks as if she has no idea what she's doing wearing that annoying sixteenth century dress. One moment she isn't there, and the next she is, so it's a little...odd, I guess you could say. I suspect the scene simply wasn't age appropriate for Lily Allen for to be in it -- it's the one where the manwhore of England gets all up in the Ladies in Waitings's grills. In any case, I went on wikipedia (weeks ago) and found out her mother produced Elizabeth, so that's probably how she ended up as a Lady in Waiting.


I like Lily Allen. She's been called boring and contrived by many, but she's just so likable and when she first came out it was hard to resist that whole tennis shoes with the pretty dresses thing, and I couldn't help liking "LDN", mainly because I really like imitating her accent.

Speaking of music and accents, she did this collaboration with Mark Ronson. The best thing about the video for "Oh My God" would be Mark Ronson, but it actually turned out to be the fact that Lily Allen was animated, Fafi style, which I thought was awesome (and slightly random) because I love Fafi art.

Fafi is basically supersexy graffiti -- the image above is a general example of what the art looks like. The artist, Fafi, was born in Toulouse, France, and started drawing her girls in 1994. From the site: "Back then, as she was painting and hustling, her sexy, funny, and sometimes aggressive girl characters made the whole world look and help kick-start a whole new graphic language; by exploring feminity through stereotypes, and using it to her advantage, she drew enormous attention and thus started to travel the world with thousands of Fafinettes in her brushes and paint cans."

She tends to draw on walls and sidewalks all over the world. Go check it out, it's hawt.

The end

Hey ho!