QÜNE: The Report

Hail the New Mary

The folk at The Report are, reluctantly, still making the transition from cassette to CD. As such, we can easily lose ourselves in yesteryear's rotations. Of course, we feel that our complacency is justified. Popular songs like My Humps do little to encourage us to finish the last mile on the treadmill. Still, every now and then, we stumble across a contemporary album that moves us to give our beloved Troop tape a rest.        

Right now, The Breakthrough by Mary J. Blige is that album. Mary’s been around for a while. But never before has she created an album where her genius outshined her internal discord. The Breakthrough does that and more. Granted, visceral conflict often gives artists necessary provocation to compose (see Marvin Gaye). However, when 'the drama' becomes too grandiose, an artist’s craft can become an afterthought, necessary only to ensure that payments to their Star Island beach house are made on time.   

Whitney Houston now exemplifies this notion. She began her career with an angelic voice, a slue of hit singles, and a public image that could’ve anchored even the most sanctimonious of fairytales. Today, her music and once mesmerizing voice are afterthoughts (can you name one song from her last 3 albums? - the Shut Up song from Being Bobby Brown doesn’t count). Her talents  have been lost amongst her public and private battles with family, friends, and drugs. In effect, her troubled persona has become larger than her music.   

While Mary’s been down this road, it’s clear that she’s found a new direction for her music and life.  With songs like Enough Cryin' and Can't Hide From Luv, she keeps the rugged framework that her fans have always loved (and too many others have tried to copy). But the subtle addtion of positive spirit makes her voice and message remarkably refreshing- especially in a time when only the most angry black artists seem to get air time.  

Ten years ago, mentioning Mary J. Blige in the same breath as Whitney Houston would’ve never crossed our minds.  Today, because of their drastic reversals of fortune, the thought still makes us cringe- albeit for completly opposite reasons. Whitney has a lot to learn from The New Mary.

Make sure you pay for this album, Mrs. Blige deserves every penny.

Doubting Cosby

With all the controversy surrounding Michael Eric Dyson's new book, you'd think the fate of the black community hinges on whether Cosby is Right or Wrong.

Well, the folk at The Report are agnostic. We have no more faith in the respectability politics of the black elite than we do in the dutiful aptitude of Shaquisha and Ki Ki. Ignorance abounds in all spaces. Hence, like Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, our charge is to illuminate all counter-productive behavior in our community and beyond.

We are watching.

We Spend Too Much

USA Today 
Full Story Tough Choices in Tough Times.

It seems that some of us did not recieve the email about the current recession. Even more puzzling, however, is the fact that many of us missed the thousands of books, articles, reports, and research concerning our struggle to achieve economic stability in the face of continued structural and social opposition. Bottom Line: To be so broke- we spend way too much. Read why Cars and Liquor are not good investments in the article "Tough Choices in Tough Times" by Yolanda Young.

Common Support

Every now and then we like to offer some good news at The Report. On these rare occasions, we like to spread the positivity in the hopes that it will diminish incidents of hypertension in our community (although not eating so much bacon could also help). Today, we’re all smiles because we bought the new Common album. Entitled Be, it tastefully stretches the artistic boundaries of modern hip hop, by offering a rhythmic ride for the mature and thoughtful. For those fed up with the state of rap, Common’s work offers a reason to believe that the quiet revolution against “ganagsta rap” may, indeed, have real legs.

Don’t download this one.  Buy it.  Common deserves every penny.

Black Mail

Why do some folk find it necessary to spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to prove that they’re “still down” in their emails. Don’t get it twisted. At Qune  we love to keep it real. We snap after each handshake and even buy fruit-flavored liquors from time to time. But we don’t believe that it’s necessary to end every word with ‘in . Honestly, should cyber inboxes really be the new proving grounds for of black authenticity?

The use of linguistic short cuts is perfectly fine. However, there’s really no need to use cyber slang that’s more complicated than Basic English.

Make a statement the next time someone with a master’s degree sends you “gangster email”.
Send them this link.