I Am Phella

Gilbert Arenas is one of my favorite bloggers, he just says what he wants to say and doesn’t care about the media or the NBA’s reaction.

This is his take on the election courtesty of his blog.

The Election
I’m not into politics, but I see what’s going on in the presidential race and I’m seeing rappers make songs for Obama and Mr. McCain doing all his stuff and I’m thinking, this is getting out of control, people. Whatever happened to Democrats and Republicans? You vote for who’s who.

It’s hard for me to vote, because since I’ve been in the NBA I’ve been in the upper class so I’ve been a Republican. If you have any type of money, you’re a Republican, period. So, it’s hard because you see a better looking president in Obama – I don’t even want to say because he’s black, but he just looks the part – and then you have McCain who is Republican and I’m like, man. I know Obama is going to raise taxes on the upper class from 20-60 percent, that’s what I’m looking at. To be honest, I stopped paying attention a long time ago when it was Bush and Gore when Gore won the popular vote, but Bush was the president.

Basically, what that told me was that everybody in America voted for Gore, but somehow, Bush became president. I am confused. Obviously, our vote doesn’t really mean anything. Then you have this thing called the delegate, then you got the super delegate and then you got the hidden delegate that nobody knows about. If you’ve never heard of the hidden delegate, that’s like when you’re buying a car and they say the taxes on the car are 20 percent, and then when you look at your statement, they charge you an extra three, that’s the same thing. It’s the hidden fee delegate that nobody knows about who has all this power. They actually get to pick who they want for president. So when I start looking at it like that, that’s when I stop paying attention because at the end of the day, our votes really don’t matter. I don’t mean to be rude about it, but it seems like it doesn’t matter. If Gore wins by thousands of votes and Bush is president eight years later … come on.

There’s another reason I don’t vote – I don’t want jury duty. If you’re not registered to vote, you can’t get jury duty. I know that campaign Diddy had a couple years ago, “Vote or Die,” yeah if the alternative is jury duty, I’m going to die. I’m not going to get in one of these cases where they blow the jury members’ houses up to get out of the trial, I’m cool. I’ve seen too many movies.

For whatever president that wins, what can I tell you? Do a good job. Change the world. I remember when we were voting for class president in high school, the guy who won was the guy who said he’s going to put the vending machines in the school cafeteria. That’s who I voted for. So until I hear vending machines or lower gas prices, I’m not voting. As soon as I hear, “Yeah, I’m going to lower gas prices,” then you got me, I’ll sit in jury duty.

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That was one of the standout quotes from one of my favorite movies ever. “A Bronx Tale”. The movie had so many life lessons but what happened to one of the actors, Lillo Brancato Jr is pretty much what I Am Phella is all about. His first role, his biggest role, pretty much set him up for failure. It’s eerily similar to what happens to a lot of one hit wonder musicians and artists that try to live out their fabricated music. This is pretty old news but I’m here waiting for 3AM so I can watch Kobe play (USA Basketball) so I decided to put ya’ll on in case you didnt already know about this.

Here is what happened:
(CBS) NEW YORK Lillo Brancato Jr., whose resume includes roles in “Sopranos” and “A Bronx Tale,” has fallen from stardom to just about as low as a man can go. He said his devil was cocaine. It led him to a cell on Rikers Island, awaiting trial for the murder of a police officer. “There’s a saying in Italian, I’ll say it in English: ‘When the devil caresses you he wants your soul,’” Brancato said. “I’m not the monster that they portray me as in newspapers, a cold-blooded killer and all of that. I’m not that person at all.”

Brancato agreed to an exclusive interview with CBS 2 News with one restriction imposed by his lawyer: We couldn’t ask about the night he was with a friend, who allegedly shot and killed off-duty NYPD Officer Daniel Enchautegui.”I know in my heart I was in no way responsible for the death of that police officer,” Brancato said.Brancato is a self-confessed drug addict who got his first movie role at age 16 and starred in “A Bronx Tale,” opposite Hollywood heavyweights Robert De Niro and Chazz Palminteri. “The first time I ever got high smoking pot, really it was the first drug I ever did, it was on film,” said Brancato. Brancato remembers being so high during a scene in “A Bronx Tale” that he could hardly speak.

A year later he was using cocaine and battled addiction for the next 12 years.”There was times I was sober, one and a half or two months, worked so hard to get to that point and just out of nowhere something comes over you,” Brancato said. Brancato said drugs would have killed him had he not landed in jail, and he’s thought a lot about the night the cop was killed.”There is a god and he knows what was in my mind and in my heart that night,” Brancato said.

There are many out there who believe Brancato has put out some of his best acting during this entire ordeal, but he said that’s hardly the case.
“I’ve been through so much this is definitely not an act,” Brancato said. “This is my life and it’s not in the best place right now.”He waits, now clean and sober, to clear his name. Courtesy of CBS News.

Wasted talent indeed. What stood out to me most in this article was that the first time he used any kind of drug was during a scene in A Bronx Tale. Eventually he got hooked and that led to more drugs and that led to whatever happened in that apartment that day. Now he’s in jail and he’s resorted to using his “talent” to acting innocent when he clearly was involved in the cop’s killing. No matter what anyone says, the movie that was supposed to be this kids launching pad ended up being the reason he crashed so hard.

You can find out more on the case from his myspace: Lillo’s Myspace

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2 Famous Firm Vids For The Price of 1:
The First is what I can show you of our photoshoot in the Asylum office. There was a lot of Smack DVD like antics that will never see the light of day.

The Second is Sterling, my good friend holding me and Sakwe captive in New York City. We just wanted to go home but she insisted on walking 25 miles through the city…it was fun though.

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Just got back in from NYC this morning. Another great trip in the bag. Video blog coming soon.

Went to an area called DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass???)I’m pretty
sure thats wrong but it’s close…I hope. Very artsy make you wanna take a million pics type of area. Waterside, great view of the bridge, rooftops etc.

The amount of Maybachs and Bentleys I see in NY never gets old. Not even on some super materialistic stuff but New York just epitomizes grind and hustle to me. To see so many people thriving is always an inspiration. Vending Machines that take credit cards??? Owwwww.

After a brief meeting in the lobby between “Young Scratch Mag” and a group called Command Radio, the Famous Firm photoshoot at Asylum was underway. 90% of the team was there. Got some video footage that if released will officially turn us into Death Row Records in it’s prime. As for the shoot itself it went great.

Everyone just tried to avoid taking pics like this:

The bauce in 05 Scratch Magazine…….props to Sakwe for cleaning out his closet and finding this timeless spread.

The shoot ended and I kicked it in the city for a bit with Sakwe, Sean, Capital C, Nisarg and Sterling. Fun times minus the 3 hours it took us to decide on where to eat…I’m not exaggerating.

I was held hostage for 4 hours by the Keyshia Cole killer (Coming to BET this fall)..more on that in the video blog.

Slept at a rest stop for 30 minutes to avoid swerving on the road.

Ran outta gas in the projects in Baltimore.

Somehow made it home alive around 6am.

Peace and Firm

Phella

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