A&E

Mekhi Granby

A&E Editor

Ermias Asghedom, better known by his stage name Nipsey Hussle is an American recording artist and entrepreneur born (August 15, 1985) and raised in Los Angeles, California.

He’s released several mixtapes throughout his career, most notably: three installments of his Bullets Ain’t Got No Name series, The Marathon, The Marathon Continues, and Crenshaw.

Hussle formed his own label “All Money In” in 2010 after suffering through to two rocky deals with other record companies. The enterprise was the home for his memorable 2013 album Crenshaw, which Hussle successfully sold 1,000 copies of for $100 each — Jay-Z famously bought 100 copies himself.

In late 2017, Hussle merged All Money In with Atlantic Records. Keeping up the marathon theme from his previous mixtapes, Hussle delivered his debut album Victory Lap through his imprint with Atlantic on February 16th of this year.

“I’m prolific, so gifted. I’m the type that’s gon’ go get it, no kiddin’” — these are the very first words you hear from Hussle on this project that set the tone for what’s to come. Sonically pleasing vocals from Stacy Barthe perfectly complimenting the track. Motivated, determined, empowered, and influenced is how I feel after listening to this intro, excited to dive head first into this album.

Appealing to his home turf, Hussle instills that West Coast feeling in the next few tracks that include features from YG, Puff Daddy, and Kendrick Lamar. These tracks aren’t my favorite, most likely because I never was into the West Coast sound, but that doesn’t make these tracks any less great than the opener. I assume that the intention was to appeal to his core audience and individuals that subscribe to that sound, which I can’t be mad at.

Smoothly transitioning back into that storytelling and growth rap, on Blue Laces 2 Hussle paints several pictures of his current success while swiftly taking us back to the gang and street culture he was raised in. Speaking on independence, entrepreneurial endeavors, taking risks, and a shout to Jay-Z on Hussle & Motivate.

“Always had the passion, N***a this a classic,” a claim from Hussle on Status Symbol 3 that I wouldn’t disagree with.

On Succa Proof Hussle speaks about the sudden abundance of gang affiliation in hip-hop, signing the deal with Atlantic, and differentiating the real from the fake. The repetitive chorus and instrumental makes this track a skippable one for me.

Hussle has tons of music to show for, this being his debut album makes it clear that Hussle isn’t making bold claims on Grinding All My Life. Definitely a motivational and energized track to say the least.

These next few songs are my favorite from the project and make the listening experience worthwhile. Million While You Young, Loaded Bases and Real Big serve as the perfect closing for this album. Features from The-Dream, CeeLo Green, and Marsha Ambrosius make me feel like Hussle saved the best for last. Across these three tracks Hussle raps about being under pressure, the story of his success, being self-made, putting himself in positions that aid his career, remaining hopeful, living in the moment, and much more.

As if fourteen amazing tracks wouldn’t satisfy the masses, Hussle provides two additional thoughtful bonus tracks that flow seamlessly with the outro. Double Up and Right Hand 2 God are easily two of the best bonus tracks I’ve ever heard. I’m happy with the positioning of these tracks and feel as though they fit best where they are.

Readers should give this album a listen because it lives up to the hype and, in my book, qualifies as one of the best projects released this year. More than half of the tracks are standouts to me — give it a listen.

Autumn Lor

Staff Writer

The Insidious series started in 2011. The first movie was about a little boy who falls off ladder and haunts people. In the fourth movie there is a little clip of that same little boy of what happened to him but he doesn’t really matter to this movie. Somehow when the little boy showed up, the whole setting of the movie changes. The movie is called The Last Key and I think it’s a great title because the monster, she’s looking for, holds all the keys to each door and this also has this power on locking people behind these door.

The Last Key isn’t the scariest movie out of the four, but it definitely still gave some heart to heart feelings with certain characters. The movies focus more on the main character from the series, Elise Rainier, finally reveals her story about where she’s from and how she got her power. Shockingly enough, there is someone else who shares the same abilities.  

The story takes place in the old house that Rainier lived in as a young child. She was not happy with going back to that house but she does anyways and discovers more things about herself that she didn’t know. She also comes to an understand of what happened to her parents and it wasn’t her fault. But if you haven’t seen the first three movies of Insidious, you don’t need to. Just watch the fourth movie and you just might think something is really wrong with this lady.

I’m not a fan of scary movies because I don’t like going to sleep knowing there’s a scary monster hiding in my closet or under the bed. In general, horror movies do not appeal to me, yet my friend still dragged me to the theatre. I was put on a double date with my cousin and for her it was a plus because she was able to become closer to her date. As for me, I wanted to leave due to the fact that he kept getting scared.

I expected to be frightened myself, but instead I just kept thinking:  when did scary movies get boring? This movie was not scary at all. If I ever jumped, it because they’re “jumpscares” where random things came up. I did like the red door — but I won’t tell you when it happens or what it means.

I enjoyed learning more about where Rainier came and this story helps me and other understand the other stories that were hidden in the other.

If you like quiet dates and just watching a movie, I suggest you go watch this movie with someone who talks too much so you don’t have to listen to their voice. But it’s also a good date if you want to pretend to be scared to be held.

If you really want to be scared, though, I recommend renting the second Insidious because they have more monsters that create more plot twists. I also prefer the Conjuring over Insidious.

Jayla Wright

Staff Writer

It’s been a little over a year since Vine was shut down by Twitter. Vine was an app where people could share and upload videos. What had made Vine stood out was that all of the uploaded videos looped and were six seconds long .

On December 6, 2017 the co-founder of Vine, Dom Hofmann, tweeted an image of the Vine 2 logo along with the caption “v2”. Hofmann has hinted at a possible successor to Vine in the past when he stated, “I’m going to work on a follow-up to Vine.”

Fans of the video sharing app were thrilled over the news and Hofmann’s tweet of the Vine 2 logo received over 190,000 retweets.

As proof of SLA students loving the app, Senior Wes Midgett has created Vine Jeopardy.

The game involves a Jeopardy template filled with Vine references. Midgett says the questions “start and end with a statement, usually the beginning and end of one whole statement from a vine.” For example, a question could be “Hurricane katrina more like…” with the answer being “Hurricane tortilla.”

According to Midgett, Vine Jeopardy was started because it was something fun that all students could enjoy. Vine’s relatability and its ability to easily be referenced also was a factor.

Unfortunately, Vine Jeopardy has not been receiving much of a response due to a low amount people showing up to meetings, differences in known vines, and conflicts in Midgett’s schedule. Midgett states the first meeting, “Was really fun.” So hopefully Vine Jeopardy will get better reception in possible meetings in the future.

Why the devotion to a defunct app?

Junior Deja Winfield says “It’s a distraction from the badness in the world. It’s a way to make myself laugh during the darkest and hardest of times.”

Vine was innovative because gave a platform to those who could be funny in a restricted time slot.

“A lot of us aren’t funny, but we have our quick worded things or just us trying to make somebody laugh for even the shortest periods of time.” stated Winfield. “To see a smile on somebody’s face does change a person’s aspect on life.”

Vine has created a culture where people bond over their shared knowledge of the six second videos.

Junior Taylor Green said, “People have made a bunch of vine threads on Twitter. They’re like ‘Here’s some of my favorite Vines’ and it’s 50 posts about all these vines that they used to watch.”

Green is referring to the compilations of vines that appeared Twitter and YouTube.

“It’s referenced in everyday life. You could literally look at something and be reminded of a Vine that you watched.” continued Green.

“It impacted our humor. It’s like stupid humor but it’s hilarious for dumb reasons.” Junior Lauren Nicolella stated.

“Certain stuff you just have to know it’s from vine or else it just doesn’t make sense. And I feel like that’s a really big impact on our generation. It’s not even like you sit there and memorize them it’s just like you’ve seen them so much and you’ve also just like been able to remember it because it’s just so iconic that it just sticks in your mind.”

The reincarnation of Vine will hopefully ignite its culture that has united its viewers in the past. SLA students are definitely ready for its return.  

Lauren Nicolella

Staff Writer 

Who likes to live in a cute town and take care of cute animals? I do! So I was very excited when Nintendo released their newest version of Animal Crossing on November 22nd, especially because they moved it from gaming consoles to an app.

 

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp has you be a manager of a camp, and you can design and place furniture that invites certain characters into your site. You complete their requests and gain bells (the currency) as well as supplies that are needed to craft what you want. You level up by gaining hearts through getting the daily tasks being completed that fill up the bar. That process is also shown in the photo of gameplay, on the top left corner.

 

The original Animal Crossing games allow you to be a part of the town as the mayor, and the objective is to cater to the people and have everyone be happy, which equals a successful town. Pocket Camp was switched to have a slightly different story, how you are placed in a campground instead of a random area with homes. You get to name your character and design the way you look, but the animal characters are specific and made for the game. Previous characters (cats, dogs, birds, etc) from other games are set in the game randomly and there is no way to select one to come to your town.  

 

The first one was on the GameCube, and the other was on the 3DS. I was lucky enough to have the chance to play both of the games throughout my life. They all have had the same plot, in the sense that you’re helping out citizens and making your town more beautiful. The original animation and design have stuck throughout all of the games, and in the app, it shows the highest quality of graphics than ever before.

 

I really enjoyed this reboot of Animal Crossing, because Pocket Camp lets you add your friends, and visit their camps and get inspiration for how to setup your site. The only other way you can interact with friends is by being able to sell and buy items they put up in their mini-market.

 

I’ve always thought that the animals and characters were cute, so I’m really glad that Nintendo decided to keep it the same throughout the years without making any drastic changes. So far, I don’t have any complaints or complications involving the gameplay, I thought it would have crashed due to the number of people logging on but it has been handled pretty well.

 

When writing this review, I was surprised how many people had never heard of Animal Crossing at all. I recommend the game to you if you like to have constant movement and a constant list of things to do in a game because there is so much to do while playing Animal Crossing.

If you want to add me, here’s my friend code: 7100 9202 769