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https://www.blackenterprise.com/hip-hop-collectible-metro-cards/
Universal Music continues a monumental celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) has collaborated with The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City to launch “Hip Hop At 50 – Honoring 50 Years of Hip Hop: A Legacy of Rhythm, Revolution, and Soul.”
There are 80,000 Metro Cards available for customers of the transit system and fans alike to purchase collectible limited editions of who they consider four generational East Coast hip-hop icons.
Harlem’s Dipset member, Cam’Ron; Queens’ LL COOL J, Wyandanch, Long Island, representative, Rakim; and Brooklyn’s own Pop Smoke.
In a written statement, Rakim said, “From standing on top of the Empire State Building to grabbing a slice at the corner pizza shop, NYC creates iconic moments that are recognized around the world. But it doesn’t get closer to real city life than swiping a metro card and standing clear of the closing doors. It’s an honor to be celebrating the 50th Anniversary on the streets… and now below them… of the city where hip-hop was born.”
The metro cards celebrate what UMe states are four watershed moments in New York hip-hop. They represent the ever-changing bedrock of the culture. This past weekend, the LL COOL J cards were released just in time for the second annual Rock The Bells festival in Forest Hills, Queens.
“When I first started in hip-hop, we were using tokens, and then in the 90s, the MetroCard came out. And through the pandemic, I remember riding the subway anonymously by myself. Now in 2023, I have my own limited-edition MetroCard in celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. This is a beautiful full-circle moment. Hip-Hop is amazing!” LL COOL J commented.
The cards are being distributed all over New York City. The LL COOL J cards can be purchased in Forest Hills at the 71st Ave metro stop. The Shoot For The Stars Foundation is helping distribute the Pop Smoke cards that appear at the Canarsie-Rockaway Pkwy stop, and the New Lots Ave stop.
Upcoming metro cards featuring Cam’Ron and Rakim will be revealed soon. Keep looking in various subway stations if you are in the New York City area.
RELATED CONTENT: Lincoln Center Announces Hip Hop Week In Honor of Hip Hop’s 50th Birthday
The “hallway fight” has become a staple of action films ever since The Matrix knocked it out of the park in 1999. Since then, movies like The Raid and others have done their version of the hallway fight scene, taking it all up a notch. And Marvel films and television series are no different. Here are some of the all-time Marvel hallway fights. Whether or not these all count as MCU is debatable. After all, we still don’t know officially if the Marvel Netflix series are MCU canon. But we can make still an argument they are. So for the purposes of this ranking, we are counting Daredevil and the other Defenders shows as MCU.
8. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Spider-Man vs. the Lizard
Ok, this first entry is an “MCU” adjacent fight. But we say it counts, simply because Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker is now officially part of the MCU multiverse thanks to Spider-Man: No Way Home. In the first Amazing Spider-Man film back in 2012, the Lizard emerges from the sewers and attacks Peter Parker in Midtown High. The two tussle in a hallway between rows of lockers. Eventually, this Peter puts on his Spidey outfit, and the two wreck the school halls in an all-CG scene. They then take the fight to an overpass, also kind of a hallway, where Gwen Stacy gets involved. Granted, some of the effects are dodgy, but the fighting acrobatics themselves are pretty cool still.
7. The Defenders (2017) Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist vs. The Hand
When the Netflix Marvel shows did their crossover, The Defenders, it wasn’t quite the Avengers-level event we hoped for. Nevertheless, it gave us a pretty cool hallway fight between Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist as they take on the Hand. This scene was good enough to make even Finn Jones’ Iron Fist look cool. Everyone fights in their traditional forms. Matt Murdock and Danny Rand use Martial arts, Luke Cage uses sheer strength, and Jessica Jones tosses dudes aside like paper. One of the best parts of the entire Defenders experience is these four emerging from a high-rise elevator and kicking ass.
6. Iron Man 2 (2010) Black Widow vs. Justin Hammer’s Guards
Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) made her MCU debut in Iron Man 2. While not a terrible movie, it is one of the least-loved entries in the Infinity Saga. Without a doubt, Natasha Romanoff had a lot more to do character-wise in future MCU films. However, we cannot deny that her big action scene in Iron Man 2 is one of the greatest Marvel fights ever. Towards the end of the film, Nat and Happy Hogan are looking for villain Ivan Vanko, who is hiding out in the Hammer Industries complex. Nat easily makes mincemeat of every guard that comes at her. She uses every trick both SHIELD and the Red Room taught her. After she’s cleaned all their clocks in the cramped office corridors, she pepper sprays one last guard as if to say “This wasn’t even that hard.” Nat, you were the best.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 (2023) The Guardians vs. the High Evolutionary’s Creatures
The most recent hallway fight on this list is more of a corridor on a spaceship, but it counts. When the full OG Guardians roster busts out to free the kids on the High Evolutionary’s ship in this two-and-a-half-minute action scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, to the perfect James Gunn needle drop of the Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” audiences wanted to stand up and cheer. Unlike many of the other entries here, particularly the ones involving the Defenders cast, this one is very CGI-reliant. However, the folks at Weta Digital knocked it out of the park. It may look like one take, but it’s actually 18 separate shots stitched together. We can watch this one on a loop and never tire of it. Just for Rocket’s glee at all the carnage.
4. Daredevil (2016) Punisher vs. Prisoners
In terms of sheer gore and brutality, nothing tops the Punisher’s prison fight in season two of Daredevil. After Wilson Fisk has set him up, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) takes on a metric ton of inmates in the prison corridors. And he murders everyone who gets in his way. The Punisher is not Daredevil. He doesn’t go for the injury, he goes for the kill, and you see it in all its bloody gory. This one is brutal folks, and not for the squeamish. But no single fight scene shows the difference between how Daredevil and the Punisher approach a brawl than this one.
3. Daredevil (2015) Daredevil vs. Russian Traffickers
The first season of Daredevil had everyone talking, when in the second episode, vigilante Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) takes on a group of Russian human traffickers to save one kidnapped boy from their warehouse. The whole thing remains impressive for several reasons. First, it’s a three-minute sequence all shot in one take. Daredevil takes on a good ten Russian thugs inside his little cramped hall, bathed in a sickly green light. And unlike so many fight scenes in superhero media, this one looked like it actually hurt. Not just for the bad guys, but for Matt too. You could feel every punch landed, and every punch Matt landed on the bad guys. There have been other great, more grandiose hallway fights, but this one will probably remain talked about as a game changer for a long time.
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Cap vs. HYDRA Agents
If we’re extending “hallway fight” to include any cramped indoor space, then what’s a smaller cramped indoor space than an elevator? And that’s where this entry comes in. When Steve Rogers, realizing he’s in an elevator surrounded by Hydra agents in SHIELD gear looking for a fight, asks if anyone wants to get out before the beat-down begins? You just knew it was going to be a brawl for the ages. Steve proves why he’s freakin’ Captain America in this scene. He takes on all these guys who should have beat him ten to one…and he still hands their butts to them. And then jumps through the glass several stories below. This scene will never not be impressive. If it was in an actual hallway, it would be our number one pick.
1. Daredevil (2016) Daredevil vs. Bikers
After all the accolades season one of Daredevil got, especially that hallway fight, the creators clearly felt the need to top themselves. And we argue they did. This fight showed the Punisher trying to show the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen that his nonlethal ways are ineffective. This scene takes place after Daredevil escaped capture by the Punisher. Matt discovers the gun he taped to his hand doesn’t have bullets in it. Subsequently, Matt fights a plethora of bikers, starting in an apartment complex hallway, later extending into the stairwell. And all without full use of his hands! It is one amazing fight, as Daredevil mows through his attackers. This fight scene somehow topped the first hallway fight from season one. And it’s our favorite Marvel hallway fight of all time.
The post The Best Marvel Hallway Fights, Ranked appeared first on Nerdist.
You may know her as Hilary Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but Karyn Parsons has also made a name for herself as a filmmaker, producer, and author. The Los Angeles native founded Sweet Blackberry, a collection of award winning children’s animation films. She used the platform to celebrate the more unknown Black heroes who were nearly lost to history.
To supplement these stories, Parsons has written books about figures like Bessie Coleman and Garrett Morgan. However, her writing doesn’t just stop at historical figures, it also includes narrative fiction with relatable characters and lessons of self-acceptance.
Through it all, Parsons seeks to quench the thirst for knowledge in young Black children. Her latest offering is Clouds over California, where we follow a young girl named Stevie as she navigates life changes. She’s a biracial girl who has recently moved, which means a new school and new classmates. Also her older cousin is traveling across the country to stay with her family. At the same time, her mom is carrying a secret. Stevie finds herself having to keep other secrets, not just her own.
Clouds over California is a lovely coming-of-age book that shows life against the backdrop of the groundbreaking 1970s. I had the pleasure of corresponding with Parsons and asking her questions about the work.
How High the Moon and now Clouds over California are both semi-autobiographical works that use a lot of details from your childhood and family. What’s something new that you’ve learned about yourself with these projects?
It’s been so interesting for me to enter the worlds of these children and journey with them, processing so much of my own childhood, reflecting, realizing things, and facing truths. A lot of people push a lot of things aside as a kid — for survival’s sake and in order to fit in. Revisiting events or similar situations to the ones I experienced, I see how much I didn’t allow myself to take up much space with my discomfort or hurt. I’d write most things off as “no big deal.”
Were there any revelations about your mother and father that surfaced while putting together these projects?
In an early draft of Clouds, I received a note that the father came across as unlikeable. My editors couldn’t understand this man at all or his relationship with his daughter, Stevie. To address the note, I had to try to make my own father — who Coop is based on — a little more understandable, if not relatable. I didn’t expect anyone to agree with his views; I didn’t agree with many of my father’s views. But since I always loved him in spite of him being difficult, I think I forgot how he might come off to others.
I went deeper into all aspects of my life as a kid with him and uncovered many memories of him as a loving and jovial man. He was fun and funny, and he did care for his family. Remembering these things vividly and feeling them fully came to me as my dad was — in real life — in rapid cognitive decline. It was truly a gift to have these memories restored before he passed. I was able to look into his eyes and remember him as a young father who was a great — if difficult — man in my life.
I found the narrative on the Black Panthers to be particularly interesting. Currently we see them as unsung heroes, but at the time they were sometimes seen as thugs. Tell me about the decision to include the different perspectives of the Black Panthers. Do you see any parallels with civil rights groups of today?
When I was growing up, I knew little to nothing about the Panthers. All I saw was the image of defiant Black men carrying large guns. All I heard was that they were trouble, “angry,” “militant”; they were vilified. As I got older I learned so much more about the truth of their mission and their contributions to the community. Public schools to this day use the Free Breakfast Program.
I wanted to share that perspective. As for parallels, I definitely see people doing their best to vilify the Black Lives Matter movement and twist their intentions, very much like what was done with the Panthers. And in a time of catchy sound bites and quick news, most of us ingest what our algorithms feed us and don’t ask a lot of questions, only causing a greater divide.
I’d love to know more about the microaggressions that Stevie faces — everyone touching her hair, her well-meaning teacher insisting she has a “boy’s” name, etc. They were sad in their relatability. Can you speak to sprinkling these situations in and how they affect Stevie’s point of view?
As I wrote the story, I touched on many incidents from my childhood. I also found myself unpacking a lot of hurts I still hadn’t dealt with directly, like having people play in my hair and talk about how “weird” it was. It was something I kind of excused away. For Stevie, I think it helped set the stage for Naomi’s entrance into her life and for being introduced to new ideas of beauty and acceptance — for being able to see how beautiful and cool she was just by being herself.
Stevie talks about never seeing her mother without her “face” and wig. This affects her ability to see herself in her mother. Had you experienced this as a child?
Growing up, I thought my mom was the sun and the moon. She was the most beautiful woman there was, and she was often made up. But even through that, I fought to see myself in her. Any little resemblance, I held onto like gold.
Aunt Florence tells Stevie that some people just aren’t good with change. Stevie thinks this is about her dad, but it can also apply to her. Tell us about her journey from resistance to being ultimately accepting.
Change can be hard for everyone, but it’s constant. How do we accept change? Do we move with it, do we resist it, fight it? Coop [Stevie’s dad] is stuck. He likes things just the way they are and sees no need for change. But resisting it doesn’t make it stop or go away. As long as he fights against it, he will be miserable. Kitty [Stevie’s mom] approaches change a little like diving into the deep end of the pool. It’s terrifying, but exhilarating, and she finds she can swim.
Stevie has been so happy in her life as it’s been, but she really has been taking most of her cues from her mom — what she likes, finds beautiful, what she sees as the “proper” way to behave. Naomi [Stevie’s cousin] shows up and ushers in the change that was just outside their door. The country — especially for women and Black people — was shifting incredibly in the ’70s. Kitty’s change forces Stevie to face change. But as she finally begins to accept her new world, she starts to recognize her own value, beauty and strength in it.
Clouds over California is currently available at your favorite book store.