Genius continued....

As i promised geniueses 4-6 are up next, these are not listed in the order of their greatness or brilliance for those that are wondering.

4. Prince- an astonishing array of talents and capabilities. Prince can channel Hendrix like guitar, Art Blakey drum stylings, Beatleish songwriting and a kinky Eddie Kendricks falsetto effortlessly. Over a seven year span, ( creative peaks), he gave you Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, and Sign of the Times. These titles testify to the brilliance and breadth of this man's genius.

Has hip hop produced any geniuses the art form while the most challenging music style is not for it's acceptance and patience. Thereby making it difficult to establish one's genius. The nature of this beast called hip hop is what's fresh, what's hot right now, which makes it hard for an artist to find his lane or create one. With that being said it has produced two geniuses......

5. Jay-Z- Hip Hop's most consistently stunning artist. The fact that he gave you an every 9 months on average in his career is enough to applaud. However what magnifies his majestic talent is that he never wrote one lyric down. 12 albums in seven years, no for a peaks and valley debate his entire career was a creative peak, touching on love, jealousy, fear, loyalty and his mistakes. Rappers rarely let their guard down and he did it and never lost his cool.

6. Notorius B.I.G.- Hip Hop's Haley comet. Biggie Small's is the illest, he said it himself and never has a self proclamation been truer. Biggie had an ability to craft lyrical visuals like no one else. The rhymes transported to some awful Brooklyn alley and allowed to bare witness to the horrors and leave unscathed. His type of talent comes around so rarely that people are still picking over his lyrics, and regurgitating them 9 years after his demise. The most amazing thing about Big is that he started writing rhymes the traditional way, pad, pen and whatever studio stimuli necessary. After his first album, he grew tired of Puffy's insistence on proofreading his material, so he began storing his rhymes in his head. For an individual to do that between projects and get better, phenomenal.

There you have it 7-10, coming soon, until then can a filmmaker be a genius considering the fact that so many work on a movie. Discuss.

Genius?

"Stevie Wonder is a musical genius I have all his albums. Music on my Mind, Talking Book, Fullfina, Fullfinna , aw f&*% it, you know the good one. " This a portion of a joke told by Eddie Murphy, yet in it lies a truth about the perception of genius and how guarded we as individuals are concerning our geniuses.

Genius is defined as attendant spirit; an extraordinary aptitude or level of infulence. This definition is vague and not very definite. Leaving me to believe that genius like love is neary impossible to define. In other words there aren't a group of words that give a definite understanding of this one word. So I am here offering my own "definition" and a few individuals who fall into that category. (The real reason for this blog).


I believe a genius is one possesses a protuberant amount of talent, understanding, skill and potential. There is a thin line separating the genius and the gifted, but there is a line.

The genius is prolific in his or her field of brilliance. Whether it be music, painting, or stand up comedy, the individual has abundance of mind blowing material. There is a consistent level of excellence that is indisputable and usually comes during a season of magnificence.

How many people actually fit the category of genius? Very few. How many fit the category as I've defined it. Even fewer, ten to be exact.

These are from my lifetime, there will be no Einsteins, Beethovens or Mozarts.

1. Richard Pryor- the benchmark for comedic excellence and the greatest recording artists of all time. One of the few artists to mine his own existence and give life to so many classic routines. His anger, fear, joy, pain and love all became fodder for his performances.

2. Marvin Gaye- the musical equivalent to Pryor . Gaye could not salvage the wreckage he called relationships, yet he sang about it most beautifully. His life was the muse for the fantastic canvasses he created in the vocal booth.

3. Stevie Wonder- Wonder has created remarkable recordings for nearly forty years. That in and of itself is commendable but when you review the influence he has on those that came after him it is even more amazing. Over a five year stretch he gave you Music of my Mind, Talking Book, Innervision, Fullfingness, First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life. Hitting a creative a streak arguably unrivaled by anyone. Stay tuned for 4-6. Until then has hip hop produced any geniuses discuss.