Thank Goodness I'm Not A Nats Fan: The DC Sports Curse!??

Although I want to devote most of my time on this blog to music-related stuff, from time-to-time I will post about other things that are on my mind, and today that is the DC Sports curse.  This is a topic that I've talked about with my friends many times over the years and one that was recently re-ignited by a conversation with a co-worker the other day.  

You may or may not be familiar with the DC Sports curse, but it exists.  As a fan of every DC sports team except the Nats (Thanks Grandpa for raising me to be a Braves fan!), I've been subject to sports misery ever since the age of 10 despite many, many talented teams.  Follow me here.  Ever since the Redskins Super Bowl victory back in '92, things just seem to go wrong with every sports team in DC no matter how talented the players.  For whatever reason, it seems like whenever a DC team like the Redskins or Wizards get good players they suddenly get lazy and become bad, even if they have all the talent in the world (for a current example see: Andray Blatche).

The Redskins have pretty much sucked ever since that Super Bowl victory save for a few decent years here and there and have been basically god-awful for the last ten years.  This, I know, is due mostly to Dan Synder and his tendency to shell out ridiculous contracts to players just as they get past their prime, but still.  The Skins have had many a group of very, very talented players during this span and had one of the top-ranked defenses in the NFL for several years prior to this one yet still can't put it together for a solid season and run into the playoffs.  

The Bullets/Wizards have been bad really ever since the late 70's even though they've had several talented groups of players come through during that span.  Yes, some of this has to do with just having bad players (such as they do now), but even when they have had good players they still can't put it together.  The Chris Webber/Juwan Howard/Rod Strickland Bullets of the late 90's weren't able to do any better than the #8 seed in the playoffs.  The Gilbert Arenas/Antwan Jamison/Caron Butler-led Wizards of the mid 00's made the playoffs several times and even won a first-round series in what was a very weak Eastern Conference during that span, but were unable to realize their true talents and make a run deep into the playoffs.  Now, they just plain suck.  

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know-the Caps are good.  But how good are they really?  Even they should have done better in the playoffs the past couple of years (including last years' first round loss as the number one seed) and are under-achieving so far this season.

And the Nats, well they can't get anyone decent to take their money unless they ridiculously overpay.  Tell me they're not gonna be kicking themselves over that Jayson Werth deal in a couple of years.

So, tell me fellow DC sports fans: what do you think is the cause of the DC Sports curse?  Is it bad ownership, bad coaching/management, poor work ethic, the DC nightlife making players lazy, etc?  I have tried for years to come up with some kind of a solution to this and in the end I think it's really a combination of all of the above.  Let me know your thoughts...

Top 20 Albums and Top 30 Songs of 2010!

What's up everybody?  It's that time again where I name my top 20 albums and top 30 songs of the previous year (in this case 2010).  I know I'm a little late, but there was some very worthy music released in the last couple of weeks of the year and I had to take my time to evaluate those and where they fit in with the rest of the music released earlier in the year.  All in all, 2010 was definitely a decent year for music.  A lot of this stuff isn't exact but these are basically lists of the albums and songs that I listened to the most this past year in some kind of reasonable order.  Also, I won't include but will mention Killah Priest-The Three Day Theory and/or Empuls-The Very Best of Empuls on my list just because they are projects that I was personally connected to in a way and I don't want to show favoritism here.  Still they are very deserving and go check those out if you haven't already.  Now, with no further ado, here are my top 20 albums and top 30 songs of 2010:

My Top 20 Albums of 2010 (In Order):

20) Guilty Simpson & Madlib-OJ Simpson
19) Vinnie Paz-Season Of The Assassin
18) Skyzoo & Illmind-Live From The Tape Deck
17) Gangrene-Gutter Water
16) Black Milk-Album Of The Year
15) Roc Marciano-Marcberg
14) Murs & 9th Wonder-Fornever
13) Copywrite-The Life & Times of Peter Nelson
12) Method Man, Ghostface Killah & Raekwon-Wu-Massacre
11) Cee-Lo Green-The Lady Killer
10) DJ Premier Presents....Year Round Records-Get Used To Us
9) Reflection Eternal-Revolutions Per Minute
8) Ghostface Killah-Apollo Kids
7) Madlib-Madlib Medicine Show #5: History Of The Loop Digga
6) Statik Selektah & Termanology-1982
5) The Roots-How I Got Over
4) KRS-ONE & True Master-Meta-Historical
3) Strong Arm Steady & Madlib-In Search of Stoney Jackson...
2) Nas & Damian Marley-Distant Relatives
1) Celph Titled & Buckwild-Nineteen Ninety Now

Honorable Mentions: Nottz-You Need This Music, David Banner & 9th Wonder-Death Of A Pop Star, Marco Polo & Rustee Juxx-The Exxecution, Eternia & Moss-At Last, Rah Digga-Classic, Hell Razah-Heaven Razah

My Top 30 Songs of 2010 (In Order):

30) Kanye West featuring Jay-Z & Charlie Wilson-The Joy (Produced by Pete Rock)
29) Reflection Eternal featuring Bilal-Ends (Produced by Hi-Tek)
28) Skyzoo & Illmind featuring Heltah Skeltah-The Burn Notice (Produced by Illmind)
27) Mayer Hawthorne-I Need You (Produced by Nottz)
26) Ghostface Killah featuring Raekwon, Redman & Method Man-Troublemakers (Produced by Jake One)
25) Roc Marciano-Pop (Produced by Roc Marciano)
24) Celph Titled & Buckwild featuring Apathy & Chino XL-Styles Ain't Raw (Produced by Buckwild)
23) Murs & 9th Wonder featuring Suga Free-Let Me Talk (Produced by 9th Wonder)
22) Reflection Eternal-Ballad Of The Black Gold (Produced by Hi-Tek)
21) Nas & Damian Marley-As We Enter (Produced by Damian & Stephen Marley)
20) Wu-Massacre-Our Dreams (Produced by RZA)
19) Vinnie Paz-Aristotle's Dilemma (Produced by Madlib)
18) Wu-Massacre-Miranda (Produced by Mathematics)
17) Reflection Eternal-In This World (Produced by Hi-Tek)
16) David Banner & 9th Wonder-Something's Wrong (Produced by 9th Wonder)
15) Black Milk featuring Mr. Porter-Closed Chapter (Produced by Black Milk)
14) Celph Titled & Buckwild-Step Correctly (Produced by Buckwild)
13) The Roots-Dear God 2.0 (Produced by The Roots)
12) Raekwon featuring Inspectah Deck & Gza-Rockstars (Produced by RZA)
11) KRS-ONE featuring Grand Puba-5% (Produced by DJ Premier)
10) Ghostface Killah featuring Gza & Killah Priest-Purified Thoughts (Produced by Frank Dukes)
9) Celph Titled & Buckwild featuring Rise-Nothing To Say (Produced by Buckwild)
8) Strong Arm Steady & Madlib featuring Chace Infinite-New Love (Produced by Madlib)
7) Bun B-Let Em' Know (Produced by DJ Premier)
6) 1982-Still Waiting (Produced by Statik Selektah)
5) Cee-Lo Green featuring Phillip Bailey-Fool For You (Produced by Jack Splash)
4) The Roots featuring John Legend-The Fire (Produced by The Roots)
3) KRS-ONE & True Master-Meta-Historical (Produced by True Master)
2) Nas & Damian Marley-Patience (Produced by Damian & Stephen Marley)
1) Black Milk featuring Royce Da 5'9" & Elzhi-Deadly Medley (Produced by Black Milk)

Happy 2011 everybody.  Peace.

Welcome to Hoodspot! It's a new year and I've got a blog now!!

What's up everybody?  Happy 2011!!  As many of you have suggested over the years, I've finally created a blog to talk about music and occasionally sports or whatever else is on my mind.  But mostly music :)  I will post reviews of albums and songs, opinions on goings-on in music, and whatever else I deem to be worthy of talking about.  My goal for this blog is to just create good discussion about music, period.  Regardless of whether you agree with me or not, all opinions are welcome at all times so feel free to let me know when you like what I have to say or when you think I'm completely off my rocker. Everything is very basic right now and I'm still trying to figure out this whole blog thing, so bear with me over the next few weeks as I work to get this thing looking more professional.  I will be posting my top 20 albums and top 30 songs of 2010 very soon so be on the lookout for that.  Until then, I hope everyone has a safe and happy beginning to the new year.  See you soon!