Keepingitreal

Army History Finds Early Missteps in Afghanistan

In the fall of 2003, the new commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, decided on a new strategy. Known as counterinsurgency, the approach required coalition forces to work closely with Afghan leaders to stabilize entire regions, rather than simply attacking insurgent cells. But there was a major drawback, a new unpublished Army history of the war concludes. Because the Pentagon insisted on maintaining a “small footprint” in Afghanistan and because Iraq was drawing away resources, General Barno commanded fewer than 20,000 troops. As a result, battalions with 800 soldiers were trying to secure provinces the size of Vermont. “Coalition forces remained thinly spread across Afghanistan,” the historians write. “Much of the country remained vulnerable to enemy forces increasingly willing to reassert their power.”That early and undermanned effort to use counterinsurgency is one of several examples of how American forces, hamstrung by inadequate resources, missed opportunities to stabilize Afghanistan during the early years of the war, according to the history, “A Different Kind of War.”This year, a resurgent Taliban prompted the current American commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, to warn that the war would be lost without an infusion of additional troops and a more aggressive approach to counterinsurgency. President Obama agreed, ordering the deployment of 30,000 more troops, which will bring the total American force to 100,000.But as early as late 2003, the Army historians assert, “it should have become increasingly clear to officials at Centcom and D.O.D. that the coalition presence in Afghanistan did not provide enough resources” for proper counterinsurgency, the historians write, referring to the United States Central Command and the Department of Defense.“A Different Kind of War,” which covers the period from October 2001 until September 2005, represents the first installment of the Army’s official history of the conflict. Written by a team of seven historians at the Army’s Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and based on open source material, it is scheduled to be published by spring. CONTINUE READING...

What You Need to Know for New Year’s Eve in Times Square

A single switch sets a ball made of 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs and covered in 2,688 Waterford crystals on a one-minute, 77-foot-long journey to mark the beginning of 2010. But long before the ball is hoisted to the top of the pole at 10 minutes to midnight on Thursday, hundreds of thousands of revelers will have gathered in Times Square, spilling out the sides, up Seventh Avenue and Broadway all the way up to Central Park. And thanks to Wednesday’s excitement over a suspicious van filled with clothing, there will be additional security measures all around them.Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said that hundreds of police officers would be deployed and that revelers would notice an increased presence of men and women in uniform.“It’s the most policed area in the city and probably in the world, in terms of concentration of police officers,” he said. “It’s probably one of the safest pieces of real estate in the country.”As Al Baker reported in The New York Times on Thursday, police officers will be outfitted with devices to detect radiation or the crude makings of a dirty bomb. Similar technology will be deployed on trucks, police boats patrolling the East and Hudson Rivers and on helicopters. Staff members with the city’s Department of Environmental Protection will be in place to sniff the air for chemical or biological contaminants. There will be decontamination facilities available, including areas for people to bag their clothes and shower if necessary. Plainclothes officers will be checking for routine nuisances, like pickpockets and the overserved.All of this security means that the hundreds of people at Countdown Entertainment and the Times Square Alliance, the co-producers of the show, can carry out their yearlong efforts to bring in live acts to distract revelers from possible frostbite and the wintry mix that is predicted. Alicia Keys and Daughtry will be there, as will the Broadway cast of “Hair,” who will perform “Let the Sunshine In,” wearing clothes (to the dismay of some). Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will be on hand, with his family, to flip the switch on that glittery ball, proving that this is a safe, family-friendly event.For weeks, wishers have been writing down their new year’s dreams in more than 22 languages on one-inch squares of multicolor paper, for things like “a cure for diabetes” or “I wish to stay employed” or “I wish Miley Cyrus will heart me” and eternal searches for love and soul mates. These will be cast from the sky, along with two tons of confetti, over the square at midnight.If you’re not ready to brave the crowds, there are several ways to dial in remotely. For the first time, you’ll be able to watch a live Webcast, with more chatter than Dick Clark can provide, and a look at what’s going on behind the scenes starting at 5:50 and running until 12:20 a.m. Shh, don’t tell AT&T, but iPhones will be able to stream the event at iphone.livestream.com/2010.  CONTINUE READING...

AT&T is latest to end Tiger Woods sponsorship

AT&T Inc. said Thursday it would no longer sponsor Tiger Woods, joining Accenture in dropping support for the world's top golfer, who's taking a break from the sport to focus on his marriage after his admitted infidelity.The phone company hasn't used Woods' image extensively in advertising, but its logo appeared on his golf bag. That deal had been billed as a "multiyear" agreement when it was signed early in 2009, after Buick ended its endorsement one year early because of its financial woes. Woods has also been the host of the AT&T National PGA Tour event since it started in 2007. Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said that since Woods is on indefinite leave from professional golf, he will not serve as host for the 2010 event. However, his Tiger Woods Foundation will continue to be the beneficiary of the AT&T National, under a contract that runs through 2014, Votaw said. AT&T said it would continue to sponsor the event. Woods won the 2009 AT&T National in July at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. The AT&T National is moving to Aronimink Country Club outside Philadelphia the next two years as Congressional prepares to host the 2011 U.S. Open. AT&T has also been the presenting sponsor of the annual Tiger Jam concert event in Las Vegas, but that contract has expired, according to AT&T spokesman Michael Coe. AT&T, which is based in Dallas, did not comment on its reasons for dropping Woods, or how much the relationship was worth.Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, had no comment on AT&T's decision. Woods' image has taken a beating since a Thanksgiving holiday car accident at the golfer's Florida home was followed by an admission of extramarital "transgressions." Most of Woods' $100 million in annual earnings has come not from tournament winnings but from companies that wanted to be associated with his persona.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/31/financial/f072115S98.DTL#ixzz0bIXy2MSS

Violence dominates 2009 headlines

It's a particularly violent list compared with past years: the killing of an unarmed BART passenger, a gang rape outside a high school dance and a rampage that killed four Oakland police officers.The list of the top local news stories of the year also has familiar themes, like problems with the state budget, debates over California's water supply, economic strife and the battle over same-sex marriage. Many of these stories will continue to make news in 2010. Others will become lessons and prompt changes so that such tragedies are not repeated. As in every year, Chronicle reporters and editors selected the top local news stories of the year - news that changed the region and shook the lives of Bay Area residents.

BART officer shoots, kills Oscar Grant: In the first hours of 2009, an unarmed BART passenger named Oscar Grant was fatally shot in the back by Officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale Station. Mehserle's lawyer has claimed the officer thought he was reaching for a Taser. Grainy images from riders' mobile phones captured the shooting, triggering days of both violent and peaceful protests in Oakland. The incident and fallout was also viewed through a racial lens: Mehserle is white and Grant was black, leading some people to see the case as representative of a pattern of police abuse of young men of color. Mehserle was charged with murder, a rarity for officers, and his criminal trial was moved to Los Angeles, where it is scheduled to begin in six months to a year. "I think I can get justice for Oscar in Los Angeles," said Cephus Johnson, Grant's uncle. On Wednesday, Grant's family and the BART Board of Directors issued a joint statement, saying the anniversary of the shooting was a chance to peacefully remember the 22-year-old victim. BART officials expressed their condolences, and Board President James Fang called the shooting "one of the most gut-wrenching episodes in BART's history."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/31/MN0R1B9H0T.DTL#ixzz0bITVhPSI

Timeline highlights key events of 2009

Timeline highlights key events of 2009 - CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/16/year.ti...
From the "Miracle on the Hudson" and the swearing in of the first African-American U.S. president to a global flu pandemic, Iran election protests and Michael Jackson's death, trace the key events of 2009.

FULL STORY

2009 Year in Review: News

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  2009 Year in Review: News

  Remember when President Barack Obama got sworn in? How about when pirates took a U.S. cargo ship captain captive? See these and more top moments that made headlines in 2009.

  

  2009 Notable Deaths Photos

  Look back at the most notable and memorable individuals we won't want to forget. more

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  Top 10 most-popular searches of 2009 Photos

  Google, Yahoo and Bing have released the top 10 most-popular searches of 2009. Only one search... more

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  Health Care Town Hall Meetings Photos

  Across the country, health care reform has been the hot-button issue in local town hall meetings. more

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  The Baltimore Sun's year in pictures Photos

  A year of highs and lows, 2009 started with the historic inauguration of the first African-... more

Happy Kwanzaa 2009

 
The Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba) of Kwanzaa are:

• Umoja (oo-MOH-jah): Unity

  Success starts with Unity. Unity of family, community, nation and race.

• Kujichagulia (koo-jee-chah-goo-LEE-ah): Self-Determination

  To be responsible for ourselves. To create your own destiny.

• Ujima (oo-JEE-mah): Collective work and responsibility

  To build and maintain your community together. To work together to help one another within your community.

• Ujamaa (oo-jah-MAH): Collective economics

  To build, maintain, and support our own stores, establishments, and businesses.

• Nia (NEE-ah): Purpose

  To restore African American people to their traditional greatness. To be responsible to Those Who Came Before (our ancestors) and to Those Who Will Follow (our descendants).

• Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah): Creativity

  Using creativity and imagination to make your communities better than what you inherited.

• Imani (ee-MAH-nee): Faith

Believing in our people, our families, our educators, our leaders, and the righteousness of the African American struggle.

Robin Thicke on Vibe TV

Ledisi's New Year's Celebration: Dec 29-Jan 2, 2010

Ledisi wanted to make a few bold artistic changes this time out. But just before she started work on her sophomore Verve release, Turn Me Loose, she hit a wall. The singer-songwriter had a bad case of writer's block that stretched for six months. Ledisi was petrified as she tried to figure out how to follow up her 2007 Verve debut, Lost & Found. The album garnered strong reviews and two Grammy® nominations, including one for best new artist. "It was the pressure of coming back after all the success with Lost & Found and trying to figure out, 'Who am I? Who is Ledisi now?'" says the New Orleans native. "Before, I wondered do people get me. Now it's like, 'Ok, we know you. What are you gonna do now?'" A friend gave Ledisi an album to check out, hoping the music would start the creative juices flowing again. It was Buddy Miles' 1970 soul-rock classic, Them Changes. "I had never heard it before," Ledisi says. "Once I heard it, I wanted to be able to be free on the new album. On my previous album, I was contained a little bit. But I said on my next project that I was going to be off the chain vocally. I promised to be more honest and talk about stuff that people don't like to talk about. I've always done that. But on this album, I went for everything. "Inspired by the freewheeling music of Buddy Miles, Ledisi now had a direction. But she decided to push herself even further by reaching out to different collaborators, something she hadn't done before.

"Usually, I just come in, like 'I want this. Take that out,'" Ledisi says. "This time, I laid back a little more and that was new for me. I wanted to go for the ride. It was frustrating, because everybody had different energies and I had to adjust. They weren't crazy. I felt crazy," she says, laughing. "But I made myself go through the different changes." Acclaim from Lost & Found boosted Ledisi's profile in the industry. So she was able to secure some of urban music's most respected producers, including Grammy® winners Raphael Saadiq and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

Tuesday and Wednesday
8pm & 10pm shows $26

NEW YEARS EVE
Thursday 9pm show $100

Friday and Saturday
8pm & 10pm shows $30

Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul Bill

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to reinvent the nation’s health care system, passing a bill to guarantee access to health insurance for tens of millions of Americans and to rein in health costs as proposed by President Obama. The 60-to-39 party-line vote, on the 25th straight day of debate on the legislation, brings Democrats a step closer to a goal they have pursued for decades. It clears the way for negotiations with the House, which passed a broadly similar bill last month by a vote of 220 to 215. If the two chambers can strike a deal, as seems likely, the resulting product would vastly expand the role and responsibilities of the federal government. It would, as lawmakers said repeatedly in the debate, touch the lives of nearly all Americans. The bill would require most Americans to have health insurance, would add 15 million people to the Medicaid rolls and would subsidize private coverage for low- and middle-income people, at a cost to the government of $871 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. President Obama said after the vote that the health care bill was “the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act” was adopted and that it represented “the toughest measure ever taken to hold the insurance companies accountable.” The budget office estimates that the bill would provide coverage to 31 million uninsured people, but still leave 23 million uninsured in 2019. One-third of those remaining uninsured would be illegal immigrants. If the bill becomes law, it would be a milestone in social policy, comparable with the creation of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965. But unlike those programs, the new initiative lacks bipartisan support. Only one Republican voted for the House bill last month, and no Republicans voted for the Senate version. Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, a moderate Republican who has spent years working with Democrats on health care and other issues, expressed despair. “I was extremely disappointed,” Ms. Snowe said. After Senate Democrats locked up 60 votes within their caucus, she said, “there was zero opportunity to amend the bill or modify it, and Democrats had no incentive to reach across the aisle.”CONTINUE READING...

Naomi Sims: Cover Girl 1948-2009

On the same day she graduated from Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh, Naomi Sims set out for Manhattan, leaving behind a city where she never felt as if she belonged. She was like many New York aspirants — creative, ambitious, an escapee from somewhere too small and stifling. Except that her sense of isolation, in the place she left, was extreme. What Naomi Sims would soon experience was a newly arrived New Yorker’s fairy tale: extraordinary and nearly instant success.

Living with an older sister in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and attending the Fashion Institute of Technology, she found herself short on money and decided to try modeling. Without an agency to represent her, she cannily cultivated relationships with photographers and other figures in the fashion industry and, at 19, graced the cover of the August 1967 issue of Fashions of the Times, a supplement to The New York Times Magazine. The next year, she appeared on the cover of Ladies Home Journal — the first black model to be featured on the front of a mainstream women’s magazine.

Nearly six feet tall, with ebony skin and African features, Sims was regal in carriage and intuitive in her sense of style. She projected the rare and alluring combination of sultriness and rectitude. She walked everywhere in Manhattan, and her leggy strides once were described as “enough to sizzle the sidewalks on a cold day.” In 1973, she married the art dealer Michael Findlay and lived in an apartment filled with classical music and fresh flowers. Findlay told me about first meeting her at a party where Timothy Leary was wooing her. “She dissuaded him in a charming but definitive way,” he said. “With such aplomb.”

Such outward self-assurance gave no hint of Sims’s painful upbringing. Her mother, separated from Naomi’s father shortly after her birth, gave her up when she was about 10. Naomi spent time in a group home and then was raised as a foster child by a working-class black couple in Pittsburgh’s Homewood section. She would later recall that a younger foster daughter in the house, lighter in skin tone, was treated “like a daughter” while she felt more like a helper. Naomi’s mother lived about a mile away, where she raised Naomi’s two older sisters. (Why her mother gave her up remains unclear.)

Sims landed in New York at a cultural moment when the city’s aesthetic arbiters were ready to embrace her alongside the doe-eyed frailness of blondes like Twiggy, who came to New York at about the same time. Andy Warhol befriended her, and she was among the crowd at the Factory and Studio 54, but not every night. Sims was known within her industry as someone who showed up on time and prepared, usually having already done her own hair and makeup because few stylists knew how to work with a black woman. CONTINUE READING...

US set for Senate vote on healthcare reform

US senators are preparing to vote on the final Senate version of a historic healthcare reform bill.
The legislation aims to cover 31 million uninsured Americans and could lead to the biggest change in US healthcare in decades.President Barack Obama said the process had been "difficult" but that the final bill was "greatly worthy of support".If approved, it would still have to be reconciled with a more expansive bill passed by the House of Representatives.Opposition Republicans say the Senate bill is expensive, authoritarian and a threat to civil liberties.Senators are due to vote on the bill at 0700 Washington time (1200GMT) on Thursday and correspondents say it is almost certain to be passed.Healthcare reform has been the key domestic policy of Mr Obama's administration but finalising the details of the proposed bills has been a lengthy and complex process.On Wednesday, the bill passed the last of three procedural votes in the Senate, with Democrats collecting the 60 votes needed to bring an end to Republican delaying tactics.Mr Obama said he was determined to "close the deal" soon."Right now there are families who don't have health insurance and as a consequence of somebody getting sick in their family have been bankrupt," he told PBS's Newshour programme.

Democrat Senate leader Harry Reid said the debate over the bill had been "a long, hard road"."We stand a few short steps from the most significant finish line we've had in Congress for many decades," he said.Republican senators have refused to back the bill and Senator Orin Hatch described it as " horrendous" and a vote-winning tactic."It has over $500bn [£313bn] in new taxes. It gives subsidies to people who make $88,000. I mean my gosh when does it stop?" he said."It doesn't take much to figure out that they are not as interested in healthcare as they are in maintaining control of the United States Congress."CONTINUE READING...

Sherlock Holmes: Trailer

Sprite Step Off challenge is BACK!

As you know, this past fall, Sprite held competitions in 6 cities across the country to find the best step teams in the U.S.   The teams are competing for a share of the biggest combined stepping prize pool in history – $1.5 million in scholarships up for grabs! I’m writing to let you know that the Sprite Step Off challenge is BACK!  Winning fraternity and sorority teams from the qualifier competitions are moving on to the Regional Semi-Finals – there are over 60 teams from 50 colleges and universities across the country participating.  The next round of competitions takes place in the following cities:   

•January 16th – Baton Rouge, LA
Southern University (F.G. Clark Activity Center)  
•January 23rd – Charlotte, NC
Grady Cole Center  
•January 23rd – Chicago, IL
The Regal Theater  
•January 30th – New York, NY
Roseland Ballroom  
•January 30th – Houston, TX
Texas Southern University (HP&E Center)
•February 6th – San Francisco, CA
The Warfield Theater  

Visit our updated site (www.spritestepoff.com) to see the full list of teams that will be competing in the semi-regional finals.  You can experience the Sprite Step Off for yourself!  To purchase tickets to the competitions in advance, visit: http://bit.ly/sotix.  There is a special discount code for people that will get them $5.00 off the price of admission when they purchase tickets online!  Use this code when checking out: 36E2450AL

Over the course of the competition, participating teams will also contribute to the 1.5 million hours of community service pledged in the national Sprite Step Off Service Challenge.  The SSOSC (http://bit.ly/SSOSRV) is a collaboration between the National Pan-Hellenic Council and several non-profit organizations, including the Boys & Girls Club of America and Ronald McDonald House Charities ®, to help spark community service amongst youth across the country.  Greeks are leaders on campus and in their communities, so Sprite Step Off can be a vehicle to inspire young people to positively impact their community and pursue higher education.  

Keep up with us on Facebook and follow Sprite Step Off on Twitter for live updates from the events!  Last but not least, check out our step videos on the Sprite Step Off YouTube channel as well –  http://www.youtube.com/spritestepoff. 

According to today’s Billboard.Biz Bulletin the Alicia Keys/Stephen Colbert duet performance of "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down"

The Colbert Report this past Tuesday

tops the Web Trends charts as the one of the most viewed clips on the web for the day!

 

The clip has received amazing coverage from nearly every major online outlet with such writer comments as  

 “Hilarious clip (made even funnier by a super-professional Alicia somehow managing to not crack up)”  

 to “a memorable rendition.”

   

Alicia’s performance on The Colbert Report was one of many television performances made by the 12-time Grammy winner in support of her newly released CD The Element of Freedom (MBK Ent/J Records).

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Bengals WR Henry dies from injuries sustained in domestic dispute

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry died Thursday, one day after falling out of the back of a pickup truck during what police said was a domestic dispute with his fiancee.Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Henry died at 6:36 a.m. He was 26."We knew him in a different way than his public persona," Bengals owner Mike Brown said of the player who was suspended five times during his five-year NFL career. "He had worked through the troubles in his life and had finally seemingly reached the point where everything was going to blossom. And he was going to have the future we all wanted for him. It's painful to us. We feel it in our hearts, and we will miss him."Police spokeswoman Rosalyn Harrington said homicide detectives have been assigned to the case but had no further information.Later Thursday, police released two 911 tapes. The first was from an unidentified woman who said she was following a yellow pickup truck."It's got a black man on it with no shirt on, and he's got his arm in a cast and black pants on," she told a dispatcher. "He's beating on the back of this truck window. ... I don't know if he's trying to break in or something. It just looks crazy. It's a girl driving it."Just over a minute later, an unidentified man called 911 and said he saw a man "laying in the road" and "definitely unconscious."Henry was rushed to the hospital Wednesday after being found on a curvy section of a residential road. Police said the dispute began at a home about a half-mile away, and Henry jumped into the bed of the pickup truck as his fiancee drove away from the residence.Police said at some point when she was driving, Henry "came out of the back of the vehicle." Harrington wouldn't say if the woman, whom police wouldn't identify, was present at the scene when police arrived.Two women from separate homes nearby said Thursday that they saw the woman and the pickup at the scene when police arrived. Cheryl Hoffman said she came out with a blanket when she saw Henry wasn't wearing a shirt."When I got to where he was laying on the ground out there, he was very unresponsive, laying flat on the ground," Hoffman said. "He was foaming at the mouth, and I was very worried what was happening then."Henry is engaged to Loleini Tonga, and the couple has been raising three children. Tonga's MySpace page identifies herself as "Mrs. C. Henry" and has a picture of her next to a person who appears to be Henry. She also has a post from Tuesday talking about buying wedding rings. A neighbor said Wednesday that the Tonga family owns the home where police say the incident began. Charlotte is home to his fiancee's parents.No one answered the door at that home, where there were deep tire tracks on the front lawn. CONTINUE READING...

Movie Review: A New Eden, Both Cosmic and Cinematic Avatar (Fox) (2009)

By MANOHLA DARGIS ~ With “Avatar” James Cameron has turned one man’s dream of the movies into a trippy joy ride about the end of life — our moviegoing life included — as we know it. Several decades in the dreaming and more than four years in the actual making, the movie is a song to the natural world that was largely produced with software, an Emersonian exploration of the invisible world of the spirit filled with Cameronian rock ’em, sock ’em pulpy action. Created to conquer hearts, minds, history books and box-office records, the movie — one of the most expensive in history, the jungle drums thump — is glorious and goofy and blissfully deranged.The story behind the story, including a production budget estimated to top $230 million, and Mr. Cameron’s future-shock ambitions for the medium have already begun to settle into myth (a process partly driven by the publicity, certainly). Every filmmaker is something of a visionary, just by virtue of the medium. But Mr. Cameron, who directed the megamelodrama “Titanic” and, more notably, several of the most influential science-fiction films of the past few decades (“The Terminator,” “Aliens” and “The Abyss”), is a filmmaker whose ambitions transcend a single movie or mere stories to embrace cinema as an art, as a social experience and a shamanistic ritual, one still capable of producing the big WOW. CONTINUE READING...

Alicia Keys on TODAY

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The year rap got drunk: 2009's best hip-hop songs about booze

The last 12 months are likely to be remembered for their eclectic cultural sweep -- as the year Tiger Woods was sucked into a vortex of groupie hell, Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme came tumbling down and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” became a legitimate dinner party talking point. But at street level, ’09 will go down in the annals for something else entirely. It was the year hip-hop finally plunged face-first into full-blown alcoholism.

We’re not talking about “You can find me in the club / bottles full of bubb” -- or any of that namby-pamby, bling-era conspicuous consumption (Jay-Z, as well as every other MC to rhyme “Cristal” with “pistol,” please pay your waitress and leave). Mainstream rap went giddy, downright hiccuping drunk, glorifying alcohol consumption. This year, the pop charts were awash with MCs and R&B crooners extolling the virtues of chasing a buzz and winding up wasted -- hopefully with some kind of sexual conquest to offset the bar bill.

Somewhere, Charles Bukowski and Dylan Thomas are probably tuning in to Power 106 FM. Meanwhile,  auto-tune savant T-Pain and Crunk’s capo di tutti capos, Lil Jon, emerged as this year’s preeminent champions of booze-sozzled hip-hop. So herewith, the top 9 (as in '09) most alcoholic-enabling hip-hop songs of the year.

“Shots” – LMFAO featuring Lil Jon

Jägerbombs, lemon drops, Jello shots and kamikazes as well as premium liquors such as Ciroc Vodka and the rappers’ de facto favorite (judging by its ubiquity in hip-hop songs since 2006) Patrón tequila all get a shout-out on this Crunk-inflected club-banger. Even if the song’s “we came to party” ethos is hardly groundbreaking, its hook remains unforgettable: Lil Jon hoarsely screaming the word “shots!” 16 times in a row.

“Blame It” – Jamie Foxx featuring  T-Pain

“Blame it on the Goose, got ya feelin’ loose / Blame it on the 'trón, catch me in a zone / Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol,” Foxx sings with no small amount of added Auto-tune attitude in this boudoir jam that was all but inescapable on Top 40 radio earlier this year. Yes, he is talking about Grey Goose and Patrón. But later in the song, he lays bare his reasoning: by continuing to fill a potential love interest’s cup, she’s more likely to lose her inhibitions – “Fill another cup up / Feelin’ on your butt what?”

“Crack a Bottle” – Eminem featuring Dr. Dre and 50 Cent

“So crack a bottle / Let your body waddle / Don’t act like a snobby model / You just hit the Lotto,” Em sing-raps on the chorus of this party track. The operative thinking here conflates sobriety with snootiness and getting wasted with winning a lottery jackpot.

“Crazy Night” – R. Kelly featuring  R. City

“This Hennessy got me,” R. Kelly croons on the lead cut from his latest album, “Untitled.” Then he gets to the chorus: “If you’re drinkin’ what I’m drinkin’, put your hands up in the sky / If you’re thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’, you’ll say, 'What a crazy night!' ” But R’s consumption hardly stops there. In the song, he also brags of a “thousand dollar” bar tab, concluding, “I need another shot of that Bacardi” -- recklessly ignoring the inevitability of a hangover such booze mixing will provoke.

“Maldito Alcohol” – Pitbull

Reggaeton was no stranger to hip-hop’s reigning dipsomania. Exhibit A: Boriquan rapper Pitbull spitting lyrics (in Spanish) such as “I don’t want water / I want a drink”. . . “Damn alcohol, sweet torment / Give me a drink on the rocks.”

“Wasted” – Gucci Mane

“Party, party, party, let’s all get wasted,” the rapper exhorts on this hit single. “Shake it for me baby girl, do it butt naked / I’m so wasted, she so wasted / Tell the bartender send me 20 more cases.” The discrete charms of this hit single don’t end with the incontrovertible logic of its chorus, however. Mane also presumes the intoxication of certain notorious pop divas, mentioning that the booze has got him “geeking like Whitney and Britney.” CONTINUE READING...