Book Club: Matthew Berry & Prodigy

Book Club (September 2014)

Fantasy Life: The Outrageous, Uplifting, and Heartbreaking World of Fantasy Sports from the Guy Who's Lived It by Matthew Berry
I absolutely love fantasy football. Love it. I can't get enough of it. Ever since I started playing when I was 14 years old, I've truly enjoyed playing the game and being a part of a group of people that understood how great it was. At that point, there were all sorts of online options but Fantasy Football has undeniably exploded over the last nine years in terms of impact and popularity, and so much of that explosion can be attributed to Matthew Berry.
I don't remember what year I first saw Berry on TV, but it was on one of ESPN's flagship shows like Sportscenter or NFL Countdown. All I could think was, "Are you serious? A full time fantasy analyst? Is this really necessary? Like, that's his actual job?" I don't know where it came from, but I remember not really liking the guy. Not for any particular reason, and I was maybe too young to realize he was doing I'd love to do for a living. But, yeah, wasn't crazy about the guy. I never started paying to play Fantasy until my senior year of high school, but regardless, I was always very confident in my own opinions regarding my team. So, aside from weekly rankings, I didn't really read any columns from fantasy analysts.
Then I randomly read the column in which Berry talked about his past as TV writer, specifically for Married with Children. I was blown away at that. I had no idea. It's strange for me to not realize he could have had a life before his latest job, but TV writing is something I've always wanted to do. And, you know, generally it's pretty cool. I had a whole new outlook on Berry and was really excited to dive into his book.
He really has lived an interesting life. He wrote for TV, sold a couple movie scripts and finagled fantasy's presence into online print, radio and eventually primetime television. But it's more than that. There's his childhood and how after moving to several cities, it was difficult for him to fit in. There's his want to make fantasy sports bigger and the constant rejection. There's also a very touching chapter on his personal experience with bullying in the context of the Richie Incognito situation. It's stuff anyone can relate to.
Then of course, there's the fantasy aspect. The book is filled with fan's stories of crazy fantasy scenarios, unlikely draft parties, embarrassing loser stories and even ones involving cheating, death, firings and divorce. The stories get to be a bit much, but they're necessary. Because as much as it seems so ridiculous and unnecessary to those that don't play, it is special for all of us that do. (I remember when I discovered an early posting of the pilot episode of The League on Hulu before I even realized it was a real TV show on FX. Was this show made just for me?)

My Infamous Life by Prodigy (of Mobb Deep)
I'm a couple years late in reading this. I'm honestly a little young to really, really be a Mobb Deep fan. Such a big deal was made of the stories in this book in Breakfast Club interviews and the like that I really had to check it out.
The whole book is written like a series of journal entries. They're more or less in order, but not really once you get further in the book. For such a prolific rapper, it's unfortunate that the quality of the writing here is so subpar. Prodigy's family history is truly unbelievable. All the Queens street stories are remarkable, especially for someone like me that grew up in nice suburbs. Those dudes were wild. What's funny is that the N.O.R.E./Capone stories that got brought up so many times in the Breakfast Club are literally maybe two sentences in this book.
There isn't a single event that jumps out that makes the book worthy of reading, but there's a lot included that I'm glad I got to catch up on. Reasons for going label to label, meeting Alchemist, what it was like to be a successful musician in the 90s, the situation with Jay-Z, joining G-Unit, why he ended up going to prison.
There's an interesting story about 50 Cent calling a meeting to reprimand and essentially disband G-Unit as we knew it in 2006. Prodigy also talks about his dealings with members of the Supreme Team, and I had no idea that's where the 50 and Ja Rule Beef stems from. He obviously talks about dealing with sickle cell and how he keeps healthy. There's his issues with religion, conspiracy theories and the time he witnessed a UFO. There's also cool tidbits like how "I Love You Baby" was actually a Havoc beat that he accidentally left in Puff's studio.

Gotham - S1E1

The idea of Fox's Gotham as an origins story for the entire Batman universe in fully serialized television formed was intriguing at first. Most of us are still pretty fresh off the high that was the Nolan movies. Marvel gave S.H.I.E.L.D. a TV show. This didn't seem like a half bad idea in comparison. Now I enjoy comic book flicks. X2, Raimi's (first two) Spiderman films and of course Nolan's trilogy are literally some of my favorite movies. And I'm familiar with the different Batman villains generally. But as I started watching the first episode of Gotham, I realized I just don't care. 

The show at its core is the story of two detectives working in a crime-ridden city in a corrupt police force. That in itself should provide for solid episodes of network TV. You add the Batman characters, and things can get more interesting. The episode starts off with the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents, and obviously we've seen this before. You very quickly meet the Penguin, a young Poison Ivy and what I thought was the Riddler, but I may be mistaken. It's just not all that satisfying. Gordon is played by Mischa Barton's boyfriend from The O.C. He's fine. His partner, played by Donal Logue (who I think is great), is your typical good guy (or is he?) with problems – drinking, probably infidelity, etc. 

If you're running the show, are you trying to appeal to Batman fanatics or the people that watch dramas on Fox? I don't really fall into either of these categories. The pilot is a bit overstuffed with appearances of famous characters. While it sets up Gotham as a bad place, the police force as untrustworthy and Alfred as kind of a bitch, I don't see the show being all that entertaining. But I'll stick around for now.

Travis $cott - Days Before Rodeo

Travis Scott is culturally relevant because of how famous Kanye West is. Everything Kanye wears, everything he touches, everyone he meets, every musician whose music Kanye potentially, slightly enjoyed matters. Travis exists in this category. Once you remove this from the story, there isn't a lot left to get excited about.

Travis' history exists as follows: a Cruel Summer feature and a few Yeezus production credits. If his first mixtape Owl Pharoah solidified anything, it's that he really is an awful rapper. Take "Upper Echelon" for example, he raps like Shannon Sharpe does football highlights. His enunciation is muddled, his sentences are broken. Some words he used weren't even real words. You can legitimize his raps the same way you could trick yourself into thinking that Gudda Gudda's "got her nigga, grocery bag" line actually made sense, but ultimately nothing he says has much substance.

But hey, his beats are dope, right? Until you realize Owl Pharoah was almost entirely produced by other people, and his biggest production credit was someone else's beat. But the mixes are hot? It's safe to assume we can thank Anthony Kilhoffer and Mike Dean for that. Why were we supposed to like him again?

Days Before Rodeo is a step forward from the last project. Out of context, it honestly sounds good. Earlier this year, Travis helped out with A-Trak and Lex Luger's present day Atlanta-influenced Low Pros EP. Rodeo continues that Atlanta tradition. Featured heavily are some of the city's newest talents – Rich Homie Quan, Migos and Young Thug. Almost too obvious though is their influence on Travis' latest style. His autotuned delivery is literally an amalgamation of those three acts and also Chief Keef, Future and even Kanye. Not just stylistically but in terms of subject matter. There's all sorts of gun talk and drug talk here that we didn't hear on the last project.

The question becomes does the biting matter if the music is good enough? How do we judge something we're not supposed to like? Travis may have found his pocket vocally (the hook on "Don't Play" is great), but the mistakes are still there. Seriously, what the hell is he saying on "Skyfall?" His verse on "Sloppy Toppy" is like madlibs with phrases already heard on songs on the radio.

He's like Kirby, inhaling the talents of rappers that already made names for themselves but without it leading to any victories. Those other artists provide easy templates to trace, but he still has to fill in the rest of the picture and that's not something he's proven he can do. He's spent most of his career hiding his face, and maybe this is appropriate as the guy has no real identity.