The Swagnificent Speaks...

!!!!!! THIS BLOG IS NO MORE. HEAD TO GY312.COM

2011-05-11T12:09:00.001-07:00

Remember that updated website I was telling you guys about last year? Well I have one. Go peep--> http://www.GY312.com

New blog coming soon....

2010-09-02T11:21:00.000-07:00

You gotta be patient with all things dope... *shrugs*

In the meantime follow me here:
twitter.com/GY312
facebook.com/gyanney

Peace...

The Swagnificent

Homeboy-sapien-africanis

2009-06-18T03:01:00.000-07:00

Up! Swagnificent throwback. Occasionally I will blog about another one of my guilty pleasures--youtubing. I youtube everything from Mike Tyson interviews(they'll brighten up you day),MK clips, rap videos, and comedic sketch clips. Anyway, check this old joint featuring Tommy Davison. Whatever happened to scud? He seemingly fell off after the movie Strictly Business.
LOL...but yeah, you gotta love classic In Living Color. Check out this old school classic skit

Shoo fly don't bother me.....

2009-06-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

Hey...

Did you guys catch President Obama's CNBC interview yesterday? Well if you missed it then you learned a little bit more about Obama's kung-fu style. North Korea, Iran, and whoever in Congress not on his job should be very afraid.
P.S: Any of yall hear about a remake of the Last Dragon? Its coming. :)

The Swagnificent

Big ups to the homie GLC

2009-06-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

So... rememember GLC's classic verse on Kanye West's classic song Spaceship? Well portions of the lost video have been released from the vaults.. Head to GLC's blog to see it for yourself. Stop teasing us bro!!!

Swagnificent Thoughts...

2008-03-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

People get played real fast these days. At cheetah-like speed, the corporate rape must stop. Who knew Deborah Gregory,the author of The Cheetah Girls, was not getting her paper. Check out this LA Times story that chronicles many other accomplished writers who don't receive adequate compensation for their genius. My thoughts on the situation is don't just sign on the dotted line. Be fully cognizant with your dealings in any endeavor.

On another thought...

Anybody happen to check out that R.Kelly diss record called "I'm a Beast?" Well, rumor has it that he supposedly is beefing with Def Jam recording artist Ne-Yo. I don't know about the validity of those findings, but I do know I would put all my money(including my R.Kelly discography)up against any battle pitting the Pied Piper with any up and coming R&B singer. I'm sorry, but Kells is a legend in the game. The Swagnificent thinks Chicago holds music down in general.

Let me think of a quick list. We have..R.Kelly, Donell Jones, David Hollister, and Carl Thomas. The soul is just in the air like that. I think they get it from fellow Chi-town natives Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, and Nat King Cole. Let me not get on the Chicago hip-hop scene. The underground scene is killing too. Just listen to the music, year by year. Point blank, period, R.Kelly is the undisputed king of R&B.
I could also provide extensive argumentation against P.Diddy's claim on inventing the remix. If the music version of remix was in Merriam Webster's catalog you would probably find a mug of R.Kelly. Lol, you just going to ride the bat mobile through the hood like that huh...
I couldn't find the embedded version of this video, so copy and paste the link below yourself.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TVYSo1Zatlo

...Say what you want about dude's personal life. He's still a beast. Omit that last sentence. My guy is a mongrel. An ogre!

P.S: While I'm on the R&B topic...If you want to,go give Kenna a gander. Scratch that, go check out my homie Mark's blog asaptual and download the lp from site.

Here are a couple of other swagnificent listening pieces.
I hope you are given these artists good spins: Van Hunt(he kind of reminds me of Curtis Mayfield), Raheem Devaugn, The Dream, Brandon Hines(What up young frat?), Trey Songz, Lloyd, Estelle, Janelle Monae, Kenna(his sound is r&b meets ol girl off Misery--Crazy! Last but not least, one of my favorites, Dwele( Check out Rize.
Big ups to Black Moses at "Somewhere I never traveled." for the Dwele link. I don't know about your L.A Laker title prediction just yet, my dude.
I love this game.
The Swagnificent.

Never No Time To Play

2008-02-26T03:06:00.000-08:00

Low Key. Lightweight. Quiet as kept. There is never no time to play.Never.(Ok, perhaps the weekends!) It is currently 5:12AM. I woke up early today. It's rumored that the president of the United States is normally up working at this time. If that is true, I don't know what the hell that loser is doing. Barack in "08" people. Yeah, I'm talking to you Ohio, Texas, and the remaining caucus states. I've already fulfilled my civic duties. And yes, Barack is lapping Hillary in this year's most anticipated horse race. Don't play! i think i'm heading to Ohio this weekend to help the Obama camp. Time to stop talking about how we want change. Let's help create it. Let's work. Jazzmatazz, how poignant(and relevant)your sound still is...

Peace!

The Swagnificent

Good advice: High Level, Not Eye Level!

2008-02-22T13:37:00.000-08:00

Did you miss me?

So yeah, I know its been awhile. If you must know, I've been very busy grinding like an 8th grade graduation party. Not any ol party either. I'm talking, grinding like a DJ Chip basement party with the lights out--uber hard! Outside of that, I'm a very happy man. The reason being because not only did I obtain some great advice, but I heard some great news. Rewinding the clock back 48 hours, I sipped a full glass of merlot, hobnobbing with affluent benefactors of the 8th ward alderman in the Metropolitan club. The fundraising soiree, located on the 67th floor of the Sears Tower, was palatial. The aesthetics of the room from the table set up to the attire of all the patrons in attendance was Lucullan.

Y'all know I entered the room with my patented swagnificence! In fact, I had begun speaking to an Alpha brother in the same room about swagger in great detail. He was telling me a story about how he closed a $3.5 million dollar deal in three days. He told me that was due to him always making sure he takes ownership of his surroundings. "You gotta own the room." He exclaimed. It made a lot of sense to me too. I guess, thats something I've been doing for a long time, albeit little cognizance of the state of mind one must employ for you to pull it off. The state of mind he explained to me was his confidence. Not cockiness, but confidence. The type of confidence where you're free to be yourself.

He told me that philosophy allowed him to cordially introduce himself to the opulent future business partner on a elevator. Further elaborating, while on the elevator, he shook the successful stranger's hand and conversed unbeknownst that the icebreaker had actually been to his benefit(He had a scheduled conference to meet with the man on the elevator anyway.) After hearing his lucrative story, I pondered on what he meant by "owning the room."

Hmmmmmmm.

The observations that I drew from the wealthy Chicago black male is that you have to come into every situation having faith that you will win in it. There has to be a thought process that no one else in the room can hold you down. Think MJ's poise, dribbling the basketball(He sized him up like a Men's Wearhouse jacket) against Byron Russel with the shot clock winding down. Or the 49'ers legendary QB Joe Montana orchestrating a 92 yard game-winning drive. Not being cocky, they just knew they were the best out there period. Now that I think about it, that was the best advice i've heard in "08." You too can benefit from this way of thinking. Just don't go being a jerk about it...

The Swagnificent.

P.S: I'll leave you guys with a cool quote I read from the former Democratic National Convention Chairman David Wilhelm.

"When I was younger, the Don Quixote types easily impressed me. But effectiveness comes with the realization that there is no moral superiority in constantly losing."

"That Kind Of Dude."

2008-02-14T11:21:00.000-08:00

Devean stay in your place... I wonder who told the former Laker and current Mavs forward he had the right to toss salt on the whole team. Mr. George, you are a hater! And I really mean that. Who does he think he is? I mean, sure he's a reserve for one of the best teams, playing in the best professional basketball league in the world. Still, he has no right to veto anything. (The Swagnificent thinks he should veto that dry jumper of his; 0-11 last night.) Also, let me not fail to mention the obvious--He hardly ever plays! On average, he only gets off the bench roughly 14 minutes in a 12 minute, four quarter game. His scoring average is a dismal 3.6 points per game. Kill yourself! With those type of statistics one should want to be traded!

You are a role player!!!!! Role players are supposed to play their role. Thats like hearing Bulls bench warmer/sharpshooter Jud Buechler cursing out Mike after the game for not finding him open in the corner--it's unheard off!!! Role players stay in their lane. But who would not want to OK a trade that puts Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki,Josh Howard, and Jason Terry together? Survey says Devean George. The Swagnificent wasn't surprised, though. There is a reason for all of this. It's not that Devean George is a bad guy. The conclusion i've come to is he's just that "kind of dude."

Devean George is that kind of dude at the party who knowingly sticks around when its already a solid ratio. Three guys. Three girls. Oh, and there's that hating ass Devean George simpleton. With the skit already firmly in place, a real cat would understand it's not his place, then proceed to dip(and I mean swiftly.) Sure, if it was Dwyane Wade(Chi-town), Allen Iverson, or Gilbert Arenas they could stay. Why, because these are my kind of dudes. You hear that Devean?

More so than that, if they came to the set, they probably would be adding to the equation. Females love Melo and AI anyway. Chicks dig D-Wade's humble demeanor. I would even keep Agent Zero around because he's well-known since his Arizona days to josh around. Jokes, laughter, and playful banter always help females get comfortable. There's always a need for a dude like that on the squadron. There's never room on a team for selfish Deveanism. Devean should go check out that lame Shane Battier party. He might be the man over there. Now, if Jason Kidd came to the same party and wanted to linger around then that would be cool too. It's a known fact, he's a team player who wants to make that assist rather than score anyway. Every good team needs a point man. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban already knew it. So did Coach Avery Johnson, a former starting point guard himself. *Avery accent included* ("I passed the ball to David!")
Everyone knew except for Devean. Stop being that kind of dude, dude! Stop hating in general. Playing on a Nets team with Vinsanity and Reggie Jefferson won't be that bad. At least you'll score more. And you know Devean can dig that because he's that kind of dude....

The Swagnificent

A Swagnificent Introduction.

2008-02-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

A lot of people tell me I am a true character. Hmmph, probably so--i'm me. Well, my government name is Grant Yanney. I go by many different aliases. Some people call me Grant. That's really rare, actually. However, the only people who call me that are usually females. . . that and Mr. Yanney :). Others just call me Yanney(Pronounciation key: Yah-Knee). My fraternity brothers call me GY(Big ups to the ice cold,06 familia.)I've been called various nicknames such as: G-Money, G-Yans,Yandough, G.Yandough, Sir Yanney, G-Dollar, Nana, Nana-Kofi(My pops is Ghanian), and several other surnames i'm sure you'll familiarize yourself with during the course of this blog called THE SWAGNIFICENT SPEAKS.

So why did I decide to start up the blog you might be wondering? Well, I've always been into writing ever since I could remember. Growing up on the south-side of Chicago, 35th...the "Low-End" to be exact, I was a huge sports fan. Every hooping enthusiast/gamer can attest to the days when the video game "Live 95." was popular. Arguably,the coldest version was the first one to me. We all could agree the current rendition out today is huff. That's now though. The "NBA LIVE" editions of old were most definitely not garbage. I mean literally, cats were breaking controllers, and subsequently getting they ass beat over that game...You know young adolescent youth let their emotions get the best of them. Digressingly enough, the interesting thing about NBA Live wasn't the beatings(Fellas remember the "Dub rule?)" What actually piqued my interest into writing was the constant hassle of having to update the rosters even before you played the game. This was well before the years people were able to upload the rosters off the internet. Back in the day, Live would come out every year around October. This basically meant, any trades, drafts(create-a-player anyone?),free agent signings made after the release date wouldn't be on the game. When I was coming up, you had to sit your monkey ass down for hours to manually trade all those players.

For real, for real, it was a very tedious process, but who wanted to play against someone in 96' who picked a team like the Dallas Mavericks? The beginning of that year, Mav players Jason Kidd, Jamal Mashburn, and Jim Jackson got traded. Why would I even entertain that game? I could faintly remember playing a game once against my cousin Quentin and subsequently pausing the game immediately. "Where's Sam Cassell, A.C Green, and Michael Finley?" I asked. "Update your rosters fool!" You know I did that. But amongst the gamers you could always find a few who were "on dummy." It wasn't that they didn't feel the need to make the trades. Often times, it was laziness and nostalgic feelings towards a traded favorite. I, for one, definitely didn't appreciate it when the "Three J's" split up either or even when Larry Johnson a.k.a Mr. Grandmama left Charlotte for that matter. In the words of Grammy-award winning emcee Common, "Players are getting traded..." If my favorite rapper and fellow Chi-town native can understand that the nature of the business, so should a 14 year-old. I know I did.

The Swagnificent feels no need to boast or brag, but LOW KEY, I was that dude in the hood you came to if you didn't want to play with fraudulent rosters. My memory card stayed recently updated! I knew better. Hence my love for journalism. I would survey the back sports sections of the Chicago Sun-Times every day to find out what new trade acquisitions there were. My logic, even then, was one can't stay sleep when there KNOWINGLY is an update needed. Everybody should know when you don't know something you're ignorant. Morpheus warned us about this. Its millions upon millions of people who know zero percent about whats going on around them in this world.

Understandable. Of course... Not the end of the world, in some settings, but in others that could be the cause of your demise. You see it was more than sports for me. That's why I'm still smitten with what we all call the news. I went from being curious searching the back ends of the sports section, to being curious, perusing the front pages, finding out what was going on in the world around me. You see newspapers, writers, and journalists keep you updated in life. Sometimes its a bit biased, but what isn't? CHICAGO IS THE GREATEST CITY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Didn't I tell you? Baby girl, this is my blog! I can do anything I want to do with my blog.

Oh, big ups to Accra, Ghana and those Blackstars! Even though they didn't win it all, they had a hell of a run in the Africa Cup.(Not to mention, they bullied Nigeria.) You see, not only do I enjoy watching basketball(I'll actually dunk you), football, tennis, and boxing, but another form of The Swagnificent kicking it (pun intended)would probably involve soccer. Don't sleep, scuds are serious about their futbol. Now back to the extraodinarily scheduled program! I ended up taking some creative writing classes in high school(Word to Mr. Blair) and later picked up journalism and wrote for the school newspaper in college. You guys might have heard of Southern Illinois University. The home of the Salukis! Noooo...not to be confused with the Edwardsville campus. The institution i'm talking about is in Carbondale. This university, which was established as a teacher's college(they called them all "normal" schools), is more well-known for once being rated as the number one party school in the country by Playboy magazine.(Really good articles in the mag I tell you.) Southern Illinois doesn't really crack like that anymore.

Outside of the print medium, I also worked at the local television station where I was kind of a big deal. Case in point, I was on business. Still am. Today, I do all my newspaper reading online. Actually, I don't read actual newspapers these days. As a shorty, I read the Sun Times because of the style. The layout was simple. It reminded you of a magazine almost. You could easily ride the "L" and read on a packed train. Not so much with the Tribs. Your fold game has to be proper. As for mine, you might ask. Not so much. Mediocre at best. That's why i read the Tribune stories online through my Blackberry. The Tribune paper is noticeable superior to the Suntimes, much like a true emcee battling a snap rap artist. Its just more content. Better stories. Last I checked, I was 23. I can't front, I've bettered myself.
G. Yandough the Swagnificent 4.0!!!
Touche. I'm glad you've come along for the ride. Check this blog like you would your gmail, facebook(stay off mine, haha), or Myspace. Complacency kills. Familiarize yourself weekly and expect the blog to get better. Expect the unexpected.
Hey! I told you I stay recently updated...

G.Yandough=The Swagnificent!!!