Lebron James “The Greatest Ever” pt.4

 

96 minutes away. 96 minutes from sitting at the table of greatness. Two wins from the King getting to finally sit atop a throne and silence a lot of the critics who lean on the fact you don’t have a ring to try to ignore the all time great numbers you have put up all your career. You have been hear before, last year you exhaled after beating Dirk and the Mavs in-game three, and you paid dearly for it. Game four was the beginning of the end for Lebron James last season.  You need this game four. You need this game four because you needed game four last year and didn’t do it. You need game four because you needed game three against Indiana when you put 40 and 18 to save the Heat season to get you here. You remember putting Dallas into the same 2-1 hole last year you now have okc in just for them to beat you in six, finishing you out in Miami. Going up 3-1 is placing OKC into the proverbial coffin with game five in South Beach with a chance to erase that hideous image of Dirk partying in club Liv in your backyard. You remember the feeling you had in your stomach seeing Dirk Nowitzki drinking out of that ridiculous champagne bottle in celebration of beating you, leaving you with one feeling “I thought we had em”. But you’re not the same man you were last year, this isn’t the same Miami team as last year, and right now you can prove it. Last year you’re not making those free throws late in the fourth on the road in-game two with OKC on one of the biggest runs in a finals game we have ever seen, and you’re not even attempting that pull up bankshot to put your team up five with a little over a minute to play. Gone are the powder throwing and dancing before games, now replaced with a signature look of determination from a man who has matured into the player we all knew you could be. Nevermind the tweets of congratulations to everybody, that time is now being spent working on post moves and free throws which you have unleashed onto the NBA this playoffs making you the most unstoppable force in the league.You are putting up the best playoff run this generation has ever seen, including any from those other two guys people compare you to. You have put the Miami Heat on your back and pulled them to the place they are now and you’re 96 minutes from hoisting the Larry O’brien trophy above your head. The only thing you can do now is continue. Nevermind the haters who are going to ignorantly blame refs for your dominance or people who still will say you had to play with another superstar to win, let them say whatever. The fact is we are witnessing the maturation of one of the best players the NBA will ever see. Even the great Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant never won a ring without a superstar or two on his roster, but the critics won’t admit that simply because you’re Lebron James and that would mean they have to actually give you credit. Let them talk, keep attacking the basket and going at Kevin Durant forcing him to have a seat during critical points of the game. You will never silence the critics, and you have stopped trying to just keep giving them less to talk about and go get that same classic picture of the great 23 holding his first title and crying added to your collection.

#TheLionsDen presents: Tsu Surf Tsu’ner Than Later

 

 

If you have been reading this blog for a while than you know about Tsu Surf and if you are a fan of URL battle rap I’m positive that you know who Tsu Surf is. The Jersey native has been doing numbers for a while now in the battle world while ascending to the top-tier of URL faster than most others in memory, but the funny thing is battling is not Surf’s strength, unlike most other battle rappers Surf is a song maker. Where every other battle rapper’s weakness is the ability to talk about real situations rather than empty rhetoric about how well he raps, thats exactly where Tsu Surf is at his pinnacle. After dropping the critically acclaimed Surf’s up 1.5 a few months ago, Tsu’ner Than Later is the newest addition to a growing impressive career for Surf as he distances himself from the moniker of “battle rapper” and showing he is a talented artist in every aspect. Starting off the tape with “Action”, a song about Surf’s love for the ladies things quickly pick up with “BANG” which also is the first single and video from the tape. Bang shows Surf going flawless over an up tempo beat, delivering lines like “what about Treyvon momma how she supposed to feel- thats her son that died what she supposed to chill?” The tape’s highs are when Surf does what he is one of the best at doing which is explaining in detail not only his surroundings but the world as a whole. Surf packs songs with so much detail and feeling that anybody can relate to it. “Its a preacher somewhere saying Jesus is the way and you can get him in just five steps-and its some lil nigga thats been trapping his while life and he aint seen god yet” is how my favorite song on the tape “Can’t turn back” starts. A beautifully looped sample courtesy of Mista Raja serves as the backdrop for Surf to flex his strength of talking in detail about what a lot of artist fall short at, which is talking about something other than themselves. Full of all original beats and complete songs, this is more of an album than a mixtape which is why it won’t be found on datpiff but rather Itunes. My only complaint about the offering is the absence of two of Surf’s strongest songs to date “Heavens got a baby” and “Mista Story” which came out earlier this year. Of course a record deal is the target for any unsigned artist, and if this is any indication of the future music from the Jersey native, it will definitely happen Sooner than later.

LRG Documentary on Tsu Surf –

First single “Bang”

 

Here I am-9

Here come this motherfucker I was hoping I wasn’t going to see her today man. My old head’s mood immediately changed at the sight of the very slender woman walking out of the laundry mat to our direction. “You wouldn’t believe how fine that bitch used to be dog. She was the baddest bitch in the city years ago”. I didn’t believe when he told me that as I watched the woman he was speaking about walk up to us as we stood leaning against the building of a gas station. She walks as if she were fighting against her past pulling her back. Finally making her way to us, swaying her hips placing her hands on her hips showing her horribly kept hands covered in small cuts. You could tell she was once a good-looking woman, before her demons got a hold of her. Her skin was spotted and her hair was balding in places which she was attempting to cover up with an Atlanta Falcons baseball hat hanging loosely off of her head. Her big eyes seemed as if they could have been a beautiful color when they had a soul attached to them because they are a hollow black shade now. The story is that she was once the most beautiful woman in the city and could have any man she desired, gorgeous enough to stop traffic in any part of town regardless of what she had on. She had a boyfriend who flooded the street with drugs back in the day and could easily make the amount of money most made in a year in a week. She needed to make a trip to Wal-Mart and borrowed his truck and ended up getting pulled over by the police. Drugs were found in the car and she wasn’t about to do the time associated with that so she told on her then live in boyfriend and got him arrested and sent to jail for who knows how long. His brother revenged that by kidnapping her and beating her so bad that she lost two of her front teeth and he cut her face from her forehead to her cheek. The loss of her signature beauty sent her in a whirlwind of drugs and alcohol abuse until she is now standing in front of me, slightly twitching and smelling as if she hasn’t bathed in weeks or had a meal in the same amount of time. The thrill she once enjoyed from stopping traffic is now reduced to small moments of talks of the “good old days” from people who knew her then and can still stomach to be around her now, which from the excitement she had seeing my friend I could tell it wasn’t many. Her smile which was her signature is now a loosely tied together scene of black rotted teeth and missing gaps with a few still intact teeth. I couldn’t stand her personally, whenever she came around; she stayed too long talking about bullshit that didn’t concern me in the least. Every word she said she moved her hand which was holding on to a Colt 45 beer wrapped in a brown paper bag that she put to her mouth to symbolize whenever she was finished with a comment.The wind made her pull her jacket close and run in place to get her blood flowing. Rubbing the side of her nose and clearing her throat to chase the drip feeling in the back of her mouth, “I’ll have the money tomorrow I got to sell some of my daughter’s clothes first” was the reason today. It was always something, I never bothered dealing with her personally she only called people she knew from back then so that they can let her slide. “Come on baby you know I’m good for it I already got somebody that wants to buy the clothes I just got to go over there you can take me there tomorrow and I’ll give you the money right then”. This is what the game does, a once angelic looking beauty is now a frail of a person; looking to sell her child’s clothes for the ever important next high.

Lebron James “The Greatest Ever” pt.3

 

1964. That was 48 years ago. That was the last time the NBA fans have seen a performance like the 45 15 and 5 masterpiece you put on at the Garden facing elimination. You came out and dominated like no player I have ever seen with my two eyes before, including the best player of all-time Michael Jordan. Game six had everything on the line, every thing imaginable. Your career was dancing in the balance when you laced your shoes up in the locker room and you knew it. The headlines won’t read “Wade comes up short” or “injuries keep Miami out of the finals” or even that the Miami Heat failed to return for their second straight finals appearance, none of that will be seen thought or heard. Only headline we will see is “Lebron fails, again”, a fact you know very well.  9.5 million people tuned into an hour long interview to watch you say you were going to Miami to play basketball, and we all did it for this game. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, when you trotted through the smoke and fireworks at the American Airlines Arena a few years ago obnoxiously counting off championship rings, this wasn’t supposed to happen. No way you were supposed to be facing elimination in-game six against the Boston old men who are about to get blown up. Last season on a weaker team you made it to the finals, you will never live it down if you fail to even make the finals in 2012. So with all of that pressure on your broad shoulders you walk onto the court with the 17 championship banners swaying from the yells of the Celtics fans who can’t wait to send the NBA brat home for another disappointing summer. Game six could very well have been the last time you could call Dewayne Wade a teammate, with rumors swirling that if Miami doesn’t win this year somebody has to go only maximizing your pressure if you are the guy who came to Miami and kicked Wade out of the place he put a championship banner up at which is something you haven’t. First shot, clank and aggravated hand clap which you have become known for. It’s all over, the pressure is too much you don’t have the heart to live up to it. The spectators were right, you went to Miami so you can ride Wade’s coat tail even though you are far more talented you need him to show you how to win. This is Wade’s team and you’re just here to see where it can take you, since you couldn’t do it on your own in Cleveland. Kill the better than Kobe Bryant talk and dead the “Chosen one” bullshit, you can’t handle that. A high school player will never be on the cover of Sports Illustrated again. apparently you have to go to college to develop this “clutch gene” which you lack so terribly. Durant just beat the best team in the NBA and you can’t step up and take out the Boston Celtics, the term “over hyped” is now relevant. You will go down in the Patrick Ewing Charles Barkley category instead of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Michael Jordan would never have come out and played like this in an elimination game, no way no how he would allow it to happen. And neither did you, after you missed your first shot it was over from that point on. 73.1% from the field on a lot of pull up jumpers and something we’ve never seen and have begged for; post up moves. There was a stretch in-game six where Doc Rivers put four different defenders on you in one-quarter, and you scored easily on each one culminating in a jumper in Kevin Garnett’s face which he was completely defenseless to. It’s like you just realized what we as fans have been yelling since you were eighteen and already getting throwback jerseys for free; nobody can guard you. 48 years, countless players have jumped between the lines for a playoff game and gave their all to attain victory, yet you only have one person put up the numbers you did in-game six, and what is so scary is not only can you do it again you can top it. After each shot the camera honed into your face, which usually sports your trademark grin as if you’re only interested in having fun, but it was a different look that night. The unmistakable look of dominance and focus was the one you had that night, but it’s still not enough. The 30 10 and 7 you have put up in this year’s playoffs isn’t enough, it’s not fair but its the facts. To whom is given much is expected and we expect sometimes unattainable feats from the most talented and physically gifted player the NBA has ever seen. Game seven is here now, and we want game six either topped or at least matched tonight. American Airlines Arena will be rocking and you better make it happen. We got 45 we want 50 today, we’ve seen you do 15 rebounds well show me 20 tonight, just because we know you can do it. News of Wade being “injured” have surfaced again and Bosh is still not fully healthy, so you’ll be carrying the Heat tonight like you did in Cleveland. Game seven is when legends are made and careers are changed forever, undoubtedly one of those two will happen for you tonight in Miami. As strange as it seems to say a 27 year old’s life is going to change forever with one basketball game, it’s completely accurate in your case. If you come out and don’t live up to game six than game six never happened. 45 points didn’t happen, 15 boards was a typo. If you don’t come out and dominate in-game seven the only thing that happened was you failed when the spotlight was at its hottest. It’s not fair we know, but neither is the fact you’re 6’8 and 270 while being faster than most point guards in the NBA. To whom is given much is expected, and we expect you to play like; well like Lebron James can.

Lebron James “The Greatest ever” pt.2

 

And we are here. I admit I let doubt come into my mind on you last series, I thought you were going to let Indiana punk you out of a playoffs this year. Danny Granger was jumping in your face every quarter pleading to punk you to get you to swing on him so you can have to sit down for a game. He couldn’t guard you so he decided to try to bully you, and for a couple of games Lebron you have to admit, it worked. You had to see the dream slipping away while sitting in the locker room in Indianapolis down at halftime of game four. This couldn’t be happening.

You wouldn’t let that happen this year Lebron, not 2012. Not a season in which the most valuable player on the number one seed team in your conference went down injured in the first round. You can’t. Not the season that Dwight Howard is hurt for the playoffs, this is your year. You handle that situation and won game four then took Indiana out of the equation bloody and battered, but victorious. Philly falls to Boston, and the Celtics are the only thing in the way on your trip to the finals. Lets go.

ESPN had us fooled. Skip Bayless told us the Grandpa Celtics had a chance against you. All the old farts at ESPN told us that since Boston beat you 3-1 in the regular season that they could take four out of seven games. Just because of some nostalgic “one last time” nonsense, people told us Pierce could still stay in front of you and bother your shot like it’s still 2008. Of course Bosh won’t play against Kevin Garnett but that’s another story, so you play power forward.You can handle it right? After all, you are Lebron ”King” James.  32 and 13 later and Miami is up 1-0, and things are looking bad for Boston.  The best part of the game came with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter. You grabbed an offensive rebound up by fifteen and took a hard foul from Kevin Garnett. While waiting for the ref to come get the ball so you can shoot your free throws Garnett chatted in your ear to which you responded with a series of disregarding “yeah” chants not even bothering to look in his direction. The moment echoed the sentiment “I’m here now, you old news”. That moment was the basketball equivalent of Marlo saying “oh yea the price of the brick just went up” before leaving the meeting, proving once and for all he is the boss. No backing up like you usually do while looking towards the referee begging him to save you, not now. Now you’re laughing at who was once you, the High School senior on the cover of ESPN magazines announcing you were going to the NBA straight from high school. Fact of the matter is this isn’t 1995 when you were nine years old watching Garnett athletically dominate his competition as a skinny kid in a big man’s game. Its 2012, and Garnett can’t do anything about whatever you decide to do to him, and you know it. You still have some more to go, and you know that. But you’re definitely on the right path. And the only person that can stop that is Lebron “King” James.

Here I am-8

This is how it is. When you’re running with lions you can either prove that you’re a lion or you’re labeled as prey. Stay out in the street long enough and you’ll have ample opportunity to prove that you’re either the hunter or hunted, and once you are prey you’re that forever. This nigga owed me mine, and I’m not the prey type. “I’mma be real with you G, you can either handle that or you’re going to have to shoot bout ten people my nigga. Thats how it is out here”. The words fell on to the table we were playing dominos on as thick as the dust cloud of cocaine seen in the kitchen from people mixing the work to prepare to bag everything up before giving it to the consumers. I was already mad about the situation; I happened to find some cocaine at a location worth a couple of hundred dollars and let somebody hold the work because by then I was doing so well with pills I hadn’t even tried to sell powder in months. “When you get it off give me half and we good” I told Gold. Gold, a six-foot light skin flashy guy I knew from across the town met him through a close friend. Gold had been a cocaine dealer for a while and I knew he could get it off no problem regardless of the quality since I had no idea if it was any good. “I got you gangsta no problems, hell I’ll give you more than that I just want bout a hundred to get back right off it” Gold told me agreeing vigorously before I even finish my statement. I knew he was lying to me, no way in hell was he going to even give me half of the profit. Weeks later Gold told me “man that shit aint no good I done had to give most the money back to the j’s my nigga” it didn’t even sound believable over the cell phone to my drunken ears. It was obvious Gold was lying to me, my eyes went red immediately. “Aight. I’m on the way over there to get it back then” “I’m out-of-town right now I’ll call you when I get back though I’mma try to get the rest off out here”. Two choices now, if I let this slide thats it I’m over out here. You don’t go from prey to a hunter out here you’re either one or you’re the other. Here I am with a choice to make and its no turning back after I make that choice.

Lebron James “The Greatest Ever”

So here we are Lebron. This is the moment that every other moment has led up to. This is the time that will decide how you will be looked at for the rest of your already hall of fame career. What will you do now?

We all remember the infamous Sports Illustrated magazine cover stating that you, as a seventeen year old High School junior was already worthy of being mentioned in the same class with Michael Jordan. The machine that is ESPN pushed as hard as give you a nickname of “The Chosen One” which you loved so much you had it inked into your flesh. It was a lost cause for any college to recruit you, everybody knew you were going into the NBA fresh out of Saint Vincent-Saint Mary’s in Akron. You already had the one thing other High School seniors had to go to college to develop which was your NBA ready body of 6’7 and 225, you would have been a fool to step one foot onto a college campus. The story was so perfect it had to be planned, the Cleveland Cavaliers won the draft lottery (partially because they tanked a lot of games) and picked first. Even if your 2003 draft class was the strongest one in a lot of years with proven college talents like Carmelo Anthony fresh off a national title, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade you knew you had to be the first pick. You are from Cleveland and Cleveland is going to draft you. 90 million dollar Nike contract later and you’re in the league. Your first game in the league you put 25 9 6 and 4 steals and hit 60% from the field, you’re now “King James”. Throw in a couple of well-earned MVP titles, a scoring title (we know you can win this whenever you want to), and a few number one seeds on less than average talent Cavs teams and this is your league, and you’re headed to Miami to join Wade and Bosh in the biggest free agent move I’ve seen in my lifetime in any sport.

Fast forward to 2012, you’re known as “soft” and “the king with no rings” and tied 2-2 with the Indiana Pacers who were 32-50 last year. Chris Bosh is hurt, Dwayne Wade is unpredictable and nobody wants to hear those excuses. You’re Lebron James, you’re the MVP of the NBA: again. This is exactly what you signed up for when you went on ESPN and told the world Miami was the destination. You left Cleveland because you couldn’t get to situations like this. You are clearly the more talented team facing a team of hungry overachiever excited to take you out. We all remember last year Bron, when you stunk up the finals and took a backseat to Dirk Werner Nowitzki’s story and allowed a 38-year-old Jason Kidd and a barely six-foot Jason Terry to beat you. This is your moment because of that moment, because of the moment when you put 48 on the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals for one of the best playoff performances ever. Because of the video of you walking off the court and ripping your jersey off after the Orlando Magic showed you what a team looks like sending you home for another disappointing playoff lose. All of those past moments made you stop dancing and acting a buffoon; forcing you to focus and work on parts of your game this summer and coming out and dominating the NBA for 27 8 and 6 and another MVP award. All of the hype and disagreement about rather you’re really one of the greats or a product of the ESPN hype has all been deserved, and right now is when that argument gets put to rest one way or another.

Indiana Pacers aren’t saying they are better than you are, you have two USA dream team players on your roster. Indiana is saying they’re tougher than you are and you are afraid of them. The same strategy the 90′s Pistons took on Jordan is the one the Pacers are using against you and its working. Danny Granger jumped in your face in Miami and you miss two free throws that may have won the game, he jumps in your face again in Indiana and you immediately vanish afterwards; this is unacceptable. So game 4 comes around and Wade starts off terrible continuing the play he had in-game three, and the Pacers are playing inspired basketball. What does the chosen one do? The chosen one would probably go off for 40, 18, 9, 2 steals, and 2 blocks for the win. The chosen one will also know that this has to only be the beginning of a king’s reign.