The 15 Most Annoying Trends of 2015

2015 was a year full of internet sensations, dance crazes, and innumerable trends. I saw countless swarms of people overuse some creepy and downright disgusting snapchat effects, and I saw people drop water-filled condoms on their heads. These trends and movements got old fast, but many just unfortunately refused to die. Here is my list (in no particular order) of the 15 most annoying trends of 2015.

1)The whip

This was cool for about a week until the entire universe started doing it. Or should I say, attempting to do it.

2)The Nae-Nae

I always thought this dance looked stupid. NFL and NBA players certainly would disagree with me, though. I still have no idea how this dance got its name.

 

 

 

3)”Watch Me” (whip and nae nae)

As if they weren’t each annoying enough on their own, somebody made the decision to combine both dances into an annoying song, with an annoying instrumental and an even more annoying melody. Of course, the whole world started doing this dance. I think this song even made onto a couple of commercials. But you know it’s time for the song and both dances to retire when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders start doing it.

 

4)Ripped jeans
Who’s responsible for bringing this back? Maybe it’s just me, but jeans with holes in them just look weird, especially if the holes are way above knee-level.

 

5)Profile Picture Filters

From the equality filters, to the rainbow filters, to the Nigerian filters, to the Paris filters, Facebook tried to give users a way to express their views by changing their profile pictures. It became overwhelming and less unique when the entire Facebook community started doing it.

 

6)Don’t Judge Me “Challenge”

This isn’t just the dumbest thing I saw in 2015, it’s one of the dumbest and most self-contradicting “trends” I’ve ever seen in my life. Basically, you make yourself look as unattractive as possible trough the means of thick glasses, fake crooked teeth, fake pimples, drawn-on unibrows, etc. Then, in the middle of the video, you cover the camera lens and remove all of the fake crap and reveal your “natural” face and appearance. The problem is that the “don’t judge” trend did the very opposite; judged people with glasses, crooked teeth, bushy eyebrows etc. as if they are less attractive or important than people without classes or acne or crooked teeth. Also, this isn’t a challenge at all. A challenge is when you put yourself through some type of risk, pain, discomfort,or humiliation (like the Ice Bucket Challenge or the Cinnamon Challenge). But all the don’t judge challenge does is glorify the participants’ physical “beauty”. This was started mainly by a bunch of millennial, conceited social media zombies that crave popularity and trendiness, so it’s no surprise this insensitive and judgmental trend took off.

 

7)Hover Boards

They looked kind of cool and futuristic at first, but after a while, they got annoying. This is just my personal opinion, but when I see somebody roll by on one of these, I get a sense of arrogance and laziness. A small part of me rejoices on the inside when I see people wipe out on these things.
Hover boards seem like more of a hassle than just walking like a normal human being. Not to mention they have a reputation for spontaneous combustion, so there’s that. Also, can we stop calling them “hover” boards? If it has wheels, it doesn’t hover.

 

8)That Stupid Rainbow Tongue SnapChat filter thingy 

SnapChat added a new feature where you could add effects to your pictures/videos. As a result, what seemed like every snapchat user in America spent about a week doing this:

 

 

9)Bandwagon Fans

I don’t know who’s worse, the cavalier-turned heat-turned cavalier again-turned warriors fans, or the seahawks-turned panthers fans, who will jump ship to which ever team wins the Super Bowl this year.

 

 

10)Binge-Watching

We are on the brink of WWIII, in the heat of another Cold War with Russia, and on the receiving end of corruption and abusive of power from our government. Nothing is more frustrating than when I try to hold a intelligent conversation about societal issues and none of my peers have a clue what I’m talking about, yet they can go on for hours about Empire, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead.

 

 

11)Hashtag Activism

From serious social media movements like #standwithisrael and #prayforcharleston to less important ones like #dezcaughtit, hashtags may help raise awareness about a certain event, but rarely ever do anything to actually change the outcome of the event.

 

 

12)Meme-Sharing

The amount of people that legitimately try to make political, religious, and social arguments using memes on Facebook is disturbing. I guess researching and fact-checking are things of the past.

 

 

 

13)Celebrity-Worshipping

Equally disturbing is the number of people that literally get into fights when someone criticizes their favorite athletes or musicians. Sorry to break it to you, but your favorite celebrity doesn’t even know you exist.

 

 

14)The Dab

Thanks to Cam Newton, the whole world is doing this “dance”. Men and Women. Old and Young. Needless to say, most attempts at the dab are ridiculously entertaining.

 

 

15)Uptown Funk

Bruno Mars is one of the most talented artists of our era. And to be fair, Uptown Funk is actually a decent song. But if I hear those trumpets one more time.

Can’t wait to see what 2016 has in store.

NFL too soft on Ray Rice?

For the past several months, Baltimore Ravens’ running back, Ray Rice, has been the center of attention in the sports world. On February 15th, a surveillance camera captured him carrying his unconscious fiancee out of an elevator at a casino. It was later revealed that the two had a physical altercation in which Ray struck his fiancee, knocking her unconscious. Reports still conflict as to what/who started the altercation. Regardless, however, Ray punched Janay Palmer, who is now his wife, in the face and knocked her out cold. The NFL community knew that Rice would eventually get suspended for part of the upcoming season. The uncertainty remained as to how long of a suspension he would be given. Rodger Goodell finally ended the waiting game and officially issued the length of Ray Rice’s suspension; 2 games.

There were opposing reactions to the Ray Rice’s punishment. Some people feel that the punishment was nowhere near as long as it should have been. Others feel that the suspension was fair, especially since Ray Rice has never been (to my knowledge) in any off-field trouble in his football career. I frankly have mixed emotions about his suspension.

I have always liked Ray Rice. He’s one of the smaller guys in the league, yet he plays with as much heart as anybody else. Despite his height disadvantage, he’s a tough guy to bring down (just look at his biceps). At one point, many people considered him the best running back in the league not named Adrian Petereson, though LeSean McCoy is better than both of them (I’m an eagles fan). Aside from his physical skills, he seems like a respectable, kind-hearted individual based on the interviews and news stories I’ve seen him featured in. I am not condoning domestic violence in any matter. One thing I despise more than anything is a male who is willing to hit a female (unless his life is endangered). But we don’t know the full extent as to what happened that night. Some reports claim that Janay struck him first repeatedly and then spit in his face. To those of you who’ve never had your face spat in, it’s not the easiest thing peacefully walk away from. Also, it’s not as if Rice is a repeat offender. If this were a trouble-plagued player like Pacman Jones, Chad Ochocinco, or Josh Gordon, then of course I’d expect a much longer suspension. But since this is seemingly one of the only times Rice has gotten in any off-field trouble, I can understand why some people are satisfied with the two-game suspension.

On the other hand, I can sympathize with the mass of people who feel that the two-game suspension sends the wrong message to the public and seems like a mere slap on the wrist to another millionaire athlete. Several celebs took to social media and blasted Rodger Goodell for what many call hypocrisy and bias. If the NFL calls itself trying to clean up its public image by holding all athletes to a higher and more professional standard, Goodell has to make sure that the severity of his disciplinary actions fits the players’ offense (no pun intended). Richie Incognito was suspended for basically an entire season for the “verbal bullying” of his teammate, Jonathan Martin. Numerous players have been suspended within just the past few months for substance abuse (such as marijuna and performance-enhancing drugs) which carries a minimum 4-game suspension policy. It looks bad when players such as Lane Johnson (whom my eagles will definitely miss for the first four weeks of the season) humbly make the mistake of overlooking a certain supplement on the quite lengthy list of Substances banned by the NFL, yet Rice hits his lover in the face with a haymaker and only serves half the suspension these players have to serve.

I honestly believe that Roger Goodell was stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to this decision. He knew that Ray Rice had to be punished for what happened that night , but he also knew that the details of the incident that took place that night are still unclear. Had there been clear and complete footage of what happened from start to finish, I believe Rice would have been dealt a longer suspension. Once again, I am NOT saying that a man sucker-punching a woman is okay. All I’m saying is that I believe Rice’s clean track record and unclear evidence as to what truly happened that night are what led Rodger Goodell to suspend Ray Rice for only 2 games.

 

3 Reasons why I’d have no problem with LeBron & Melo teaming up.

We are currently experiencing one of the most anxious moments in recent NBA history. Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, arguably the two most dominant offensive forces in the league, are now both unrestricted free agents. Why the anxiety? Because for the first time since being taken at the top of the 2003 NBA draft, a draft class that many call one of the most talented ever, Melo and LeBron have the opportunity to play alongside each other. Ever since high school, the two have always been paired in comparison to each other, similar to the way Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were. Despite the fact that they attended different high schools, the two eventually became good friends. In 2002, LeBron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary high school took on Melo’s Oak Hill Academy in a highly-anticipated matchup that was nationally televised. Melo, who’s team was victorious, finished the game with 34 points while LeBron ended with 36. After this marquee game, the basketball world was convinced that Carmelo and LeBron had the capability to go on and dominate at the professional level. To no one’s surprise, they both became instant superstars during their rookie seasons. In fact, LeBron was awarded Eastern Conference Rookie of the month for every month during that season, just as Carmelo was awarded Western Conference Rookie of the Month for every month of the 2003-2004 season. LeBron barely beat out Carmelo for Rookie of the Year, which speaks to how dynamic the two stars are. It was at this point in time that basketball fanatics began lusting over the fantasy of how unstoppable the two would be if they played on the same team. However, that fantasy could very possibly become a reality in the coming weeks.

During the 2014 NBA finals, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reported that there is a strong possibility that Carmelo and LeBron could end up being teammates if the two ever happened to become free agents at the same time, as they both have expressed desire to play on the same team together. Less than two weeks later, Carmelo opted out of the final year of his contract with the New York Knicks. Surely enough, LeBron opted out of his contract with the Miami Heat shortly after. So here we are. Free agency officially begun on July 1st, and both Carmelo and LeBron are unrestricted free agents. Will they actually decide to team up? Who knows. At this point, one can only speculate. However, there has been much criticism and scrutiny at the idea of them playing together. Many have argued that the League should not allow LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony to join the same team. Some claim that they would stop watching the NBA all together if the two are allowed to join forces. These critics hold the belief that LeBron and Carmelo on the same team would be “unfair” talent-wise. Arguments like these are presumptuous. I’m going to give you three reasons why I have no problem with Carmelo and LeBron teaming up.

 

1: There’s no guarantee that the two will be successful as teammates.

So many basketball fans make the faulty assumption that a LeBron and Carmelo-led team would instantly become favorites to win the NBA title. This is simply not true. Just because a team has star power does not mean the team will win a championship. Just look at the rosters for the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Los Angeles Clippers. Both teams are loaded with young and exciting marquee players. Contrarily, let’s take a look at this year’s champion San Antonio Spurs. None of the players on their roster are as popular or glamorous as Carmelo and LeBron, yet they were the best team in basketball this year by far. A talented roster on paper does not always translate into success. Ask the 2013 Lakers. Steve Nash is one of the best point guards to ever play the game. Kobe Bryant is one of the best players period to ever step on the court. Dwight Howard (when physically and emotionally healthy) is easily the most physically gifted center in the league. So when these three became teammates, many people thought they were instantly favorites to win the championship. Boy were they wrong. The Lakers have been a laughing stock ever since Nash, Bryant, and Howard initially teamed up. Even the Miami Heat have not reached the level of success the world expected. They’ve gone 2-2 in NBA finals since the “big three” assembled. They actually would be 1-3 if it weren’t for Ray Allen. So even if LeBron and Melo decided to join the same team, there is no telling if they would be able to complement each other successfully, especially considering the fact that they both have been crowned the go-to-guy from the moment they entered the league.

2: They’re free agents. They can sign wherever they want

Many people have animosity towards “super teams” assembling through free agency as opposed to teams built through the draft. At the end of the day, however, an NBA player has the right to take his talents where he desires after his contract is up. For the first time in his career, Carmelo has total control as to where he wants to play basketball. He put up with a mediocre Denver Nuggets team for the first eight years of his career before being traded to an even more disappointing and mediocre team in the New York Knicks. An argument many fans make when their favorite player loses in the playoffs is that he didn’t have any “help”. This is likely the same mindset that Melo has had throughout his career. It’s the reason he demanded a trade from the nuggets in 2010. It’s also the reason why he opted out of the final year of his contract with the Knicks. He feels (and I agree) that he has not been surrounded by adequate talent to help him succeed in the postseason. Free agency allows Carmelo to evaluate all thirty teams in the league and decide which players he wants to play alongside. If one of those players happens to be LeBron, so be it. Plus, after Melo signs, he will no longer be able to use underachieving teammates as an excuse for why he isn’t successful in the playoffs. The decision is solely his. This is the blessing and curse of a player choosing to sign with a new team in free agency.

3: Melo needs a shot at a ring.

This reason is personal. Carmelo is my favorite player. He has been ever since he was drafted. Initially, the pressing question in the NBA was who would be the first to win a ring out of Melo and LeBron. Unfortunately, Carmelo hasn’t had anywhere near the amount of postseason success as LeBron. For this reason, Melo has been lost in the shuffle behind Kobe, LeBron, Kevin Durant, Dwayne Wade whenever the question is asked, “Who is the best player in the league”? Melo seems to lack the hunger and drive that other superstars in NBA have. However, though he may not be in the discussion for best all-around player, I believe (and always have believed) that he is the best pure scorer in the game. His ability to put the ball through the hoop at will on a consistent basis is unmatched in my opinion. Melo is a scoring machine. I mean come on. He scored 33 points in one quarter. With that being said, I would hate for his career to end with him falling into the category of talented athletes that never could win a ring. Adding insult to injury, Melo hasn’t even come close to winning a ring. As a matter of fact, he’s only made it past the first round one time in his entire eleven-year career. Such a despicable postseason record will only cloud the sheer talent that Carmelo has. If it takes joining forces with another star (King James) to make his playoff record more reputable, then I’m all for it. After all, that’s exactly what Shaq, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and countless other players throughout the NBA have done to finally win a ring.

In the end, I find it unlikely that Carmelo and LeBron will join the same team in free agency. I feel as if Melo and LeBron have too much pride to play with each other. I would imagine that they both want to be “the man” on their own respective teams, so I don’t think Melo will want to join the heat (who I think LeBron will resign with). I think the best fit for Carmelo is Chicago. Derrick Rose will be back and healthy. The Bulls already play great defense. The one thing the Bulls lack is the one thing Melo can offer; scoring. However, if LeBron and Carmelo do somehow end up playing together next year, for the sake of Melo’s legacy, I’m perfectly okay with that.

But those are my thoughts, what are yours?

Most fail at sampling, Kanye West excels

Though there are skills to be learned about tasting samples of new food items in your local grocery store, that’s not the type of sampling I’m talking about here. The sampling I’m referring to is the technique used by music producers, predominantly of the hip-hop genre, in which an original song is taken and edited (usually tuned either higher or lower than its original pitch) to be used in an entirely new song, often as the chorus. This is a technique that countless numbers of music producers have attempted to hone over the years. However, in my humble opinion, only very few have had success in doing so.

The individual that stands out to me as the best at sampling in the music industry is Kanye West, who despite his recent tirades and tantrums, is one of the greatest lyricists and overall artists of this era. So many people are oblivious to the that Kanye West is also a producer. In fact, he was a producer before he became a rapper. There are many, including myself, who believe that West is a better producer than he is rapper (not to overlook his lyrical talent). Kanye West’s sampling skills are unmatched. With that being said, many people demean the art of sampling, claiming that it is far more easy to do than producing an instrumental from scratch. Many listeners (typically those who grew up before the 90’s) often criticize samplers such as Kanye West for “stealing” someone else’s song and making money from it, arguing that samplers owe their success to the original artist of the sampled song. However, such criticism is unfair and misguided, not just because of the fact that producers must obtain legal permission to sample another person’s work, but simply because sampling successfully is a much more difficult task than people realize.

I produce hip-hop instrumentals as a hobby and therefore realize how challenging it is to sample. What makes sampling such a challenge is that fact that the producer essentially has to take a song of one genre and turn it into a completely different genre. For instance, hip-hop producers usually sample a R&B or Soul song from the previous decades and then attempt to make it into a rap/hip-hop song. They are faced with the task of taking two genres of music that are essentially “opposites” of each other and attempting to reconcile them into a new musical concoction. That’s just the first step, and many fail to achieve it. The second obstacle is to somehow make this new musical concoction sound appeasing to the public ear. It’s hard enough to make your own original song sound popular. It’s even more of a challenge to take someone else’s original song, edit it, combine it with your own musical ideas, and make it all blend together without sounding like an audial catastrophe.

Now, Let’s look at some of Kanye West’s productions and see why his sampling skills are should be revered by all.

As mentioned earlier, hip-hop producers mainly attempt (and often fail) to sample soul and R&B songs and convert them into hip-hop hits. Kanye West’s debut album, “College Dropout” was released in 2004. It won “Best Rap Album” at the 2005 Grammy Awards and was even nominated for album of the year. One of the songs from the album titled “Jesus Walks” (one of my all-time favorite songs) won the award for “Rap song of the year” at those same Grammy’s. College Dropout went 3x Platinum. It was crowned the number one rap album by US Billboard. In the face of all of the accolades this album received, the most impressive aspect of this album is the fact that all twenty one songs were produced by Kanye West himself, and most of the productions used samples. “Jesus Walks” samples the song “Walk With Me“, sang by The Arc Choir. Nine times out of ten, the thought of combining gospel music with rap music is scolded and frowned upon (for obvious reasons). Yet Kanye not only showed creativity, but guts and bravery by risking his public image so early on in his career by fusing hip-hop and gospel together in such a potentially controversial way. This is an enormous risk to take, especially on one’s debut album. But if you even remotely know anything about Kanye West, you know he is not afraid to push the boundaries in his music. So why did this particular fusion of gospel and rap work so successfully? Because the message of the sampled song directly corresponded with the message of Kanye’s lyrics in his verses of the song. This is a necessity many aspiring samplers fail to realize. Sampled music should, in some way, reflect the lyrical theme of an artist’s particular song, otherwise, listeners (especially critical hip-hop heads) will be able to hear the finished product and detect that there is no continuity between the sample and the rapper’s lyrics.

Another song from Kanye’s “College Dropout” album that demonstrated his textbook sampling skills is “Through The Wire“. The chorus of this song was sampled from Chaka Khan’s “Through The Fire”. For those who don’t know, Kanye was involved in a car accident in late 2002. How serious was the car wreck, you ask? Well, here’s a picture of Kanye after the accident (yes that’s actually Kanye) with basically a broken face. The damage was so severe that he had to have his jaw wired shut for several weeks. It was during these several weeks, however, that he recorded the song despite the fact that his mouth was wired closed. He literally had to enunciate the words of his song through the wire that was holding his mouth together, hence the song title (genius, right?). “Through The Wire” went on to be one of the most successful and recognizable songs ever released by Kanye West, as it epitomizes the bravery and resilience that makes him such a distinguished individual. The song is yet another great example of how a sampled song should match the lyrical content of the rapper or singer. Chaka Khan’s lyrics express how she was committed to not letting anything stop her from being with the love of her life. This is the exact same message that Kanye West sends the song’s verses; he refused to let anything, including a wired mouth, stop him from being with his true love, that is, rapping.

Kanye West was also responsible for producing one of the most successful rap songs of 2004 which was “Twista’s Overnight Celebrity”. The song sampled Lenny William’s “Cause I love You“. What makes this instance of sampling unique to me is the fact that Kanye used a non-chorus part of “Cause I love You” as the chorus. A majority of the time, producers take the chorus from the sample song and use as their new chorus. However, it takes patience, passion, and a skilled ear to be able to listen to a determine if a non-chorus part on an older song has potential to be somehow turned into a hit. Kanye west, as a producer, does this seemingly effortlessly.

Kanye West demonstrates how sampling isn’t just simply using an old and publicly familiar song in your chorus as a desperate attempt to attract to both old and young audiences. It isn’t (if done effectively) stealing a previous artist’s song and taking credit for it. It’s a technique many producers dream of perfecting and adding to their crafts. It’s a technique that is far more challenging than the average listener understands. For this reason, if not appreciated or applauded, it should at least be respected.

But those are my thoughts, what are yours?

My thoughts on Desean Jackson

The following rant is long overdue, but it’s something that has been on my mind for a while now. As my first blog post, I figured I should talk about something that I’m passionate about. For those of you who do not know me, there aren’t too many things I’m more passionate about than my Philadelphia Eagles (despite being born and raised in Dallas, TX). I remember one Sunday afternoon as a child witnessing some guy named Donovan McNabb making the Cowboys defense look completely incapable of playing the game of football, all while wearing a beautiful, unique, midnight-green jersey. I’ve been a die-hard Eagles fan ever since. With that being said, I have a list of my all-time favorite Eagles players. First-place is a tie between Duce Staley and Brian Dawkins. The order of this list rarely ever changes. In fact, it has not changed since 2009 (I mean come on. Will there ever be a more beloved Eagle than Brian Dawkins?). However, in the past few years, I  became entirely convinced that the top three names on my all-time favorite players list was about to be disrupted and rearranged for the first time, all because of some undersized wide receiver named Desean Jackson.

In all honesty, I had not even heard of Jackson until the 49th pick of the 2008 NFL Draft, so I figured that he would just end up being an inconsistent slot receiver or at best, a role player. I don’t think I’ve ever been more wrong in my life. He quickly established himself as not just a speedster or a deep threat, but as one of the most dangerous all-around players the NFL has seen in a long time. He instantly became my favorite Eagles player by doing this to the cowgirls just minutes after injuring his ankle. For the entirety of his six years in the league, Desean consistently produced exceptional numbers by burning entire secondaries and flying through special team arm-tackles during his many electrifying punt returns. Though many viewed him as “big-headed” and as a “diva”, he rarely ever failed to put his money where his mouth was, always playing with a chip on his shoulder.

However, following the 2014 season, a year in which first-year coach Chip Kelly surprised many around the league by leading the Eagles to the playoffs, rumors began to swirl around about Desean’s future with the team. Some articles even went as far to predict that Desean and the Eagles were expected to soon part ways due to his demand for higher pay. Considering the fact that this was his most productive season statistically, I dismissed the internet rumors. I somewhat expected there to be tension between Desean and the front office. I expected there to be long, drawn out contract negotiations and perhaps even a training camp holdout, but I deeply felt that Desean would still be an Eagle at the start of the 2014-2015 season. Unfortunately, we’ll still get to see Desean torch a secondary at Lincoln Financial Field this season, only this year, it’ll be our suspect secondary that he torches, and he’ll do so as a member of the consistently horrible Washington Redskins (these guys will finally have something to be excited about).

All jokes aside, I, just like many other Eagles fans, am still trying to put the pieces together as to why Desean Jackson was released. We’re talking about a guy who is probably the fastest player in the NFL, one of the most dangerous and feared players in the league, and a rare talent that professional football has not seen in ages, who just had the best season of his young career, yet the Eagles let him walk away, receiving absolutely nothing in return. Some claims arose alleging that he was a locker room cancer, others alleged that he had gang affiliations. While it is understandable as to why a team would release a player accused of such things, neither of these claims have been proven true to the knowledge of the public. However, I have my reasons to speculate that perhaps Desean Jackson actually was unpopular in the locker room and perhaps he did have some off-field issues. According to reports, the Eagles received no trade offers for Desean. Now there are numerous teams in the NFL with money to spend that are just awful and are in desperate need of a star playmaker (did I already mention the Redskins?). You would think if teams around the league knew that he could potentially be available, somebody would have at least offered a late round draft pick. But not a single trade offer was given for the all-pro, three-time pro bowl receiver? I find it hard to believe that he was asking for so much of a raise (which I believe he rightfully deserved) that nobody wanted to pick up his contract. Though I am pleased that the Eagles’ offense has made nice additions in Darren Sproles and rookies Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff, I am displeased with the fact that we let our star wide receiver walk out the door to join our division rivals. I believe the Eagles organization is possibly covering up a more negative side of Desean Jackson that the public has not seen. Why else would you let your most dangerous player walk away and sign with a team that you have to face twice each season?

But those are just my thoughts. What are yours?