100 more days!

I'll be back tomorrow with more discussion of this Dre/Fiddy/Teh Ghey madness, but I figured today I should do something special to mark my 100th post on this site. If I had to guess, I'd say I've written somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 words on this bitch in the past six months or so. As Mel Gibson would say, that's a lot.

It would be cliche and also untrue to say that I couldn't have done it without the great team we have here at XXL, but I'll go ahead say it anyway: Without you guys, I'm not sure where I would be right now. As such, I'd like to take a little time out to thank each and every one of you individually.

In order of whiteness.

Tara Henley: Thank you for all of your enlightening stories on Canadian rap and how hard it is to be a female hip-hop journalist. I'm sure it's awful, and I doubt I've helped matters any by constantly referring to you as my baby's mother. The fact that you've been able to deal with this with such aplomb, rather than getting all upset for no reason and dropping sneak disses in every other one of your posts, is a true testament to your strength as a woman.

Noz: Despite the fact that I spend basically all of my time now drinking beers and listening to rap music, there's so much rap music that I never would have bothered listening to if it wasn't for Noz. For example, never would I have guessed that a Dogg Pound album released ten years after the fact would be worth listening to. In fact, I could care less about the first one. That's why you're my go-to guy.

Brendan Frederick: It's been said by people who've spoken to both of us that Brendan Frederick sounds blacker over the phone than I do, and it really is true. He must have gone to the same prep school as Damon Dash. Anyway, he gets a fat shout out for being nominally in charge, but basically letting me write whatever I want and only bothering giving me a call when Elliott Wilson forces him to.

DJ Drama: I think DJ Drama and I hit it off on the wrong note when I suggested that mixtapes are retarded and mocked TI's personal assistant for getting killed in Cincinatti. While I won't necessarily admit to being wrong on either account, I will apologize, and I'd be willing to forget that you called me a heartless bastard, if you're willing to let those things slide. In fact, I think we should forget than any of this ever happened and start all over. What do you say?

Elliott Wilson: XXL boss Elliott Wilson and I once spoke briefly when I was going to interview him for my own site last year. Contrary to the image he puts forth in his stunning editorials each month, he struck me as being surprisingly well-adjusted and not on cocaine. Being married must do that to a guy. Aww dang, I went there!

Sickamore: If there's one regret that I've had since I've been with this site, it's that I've been reading your blog for six months now and I've yet to determine what "a&r-ing" someone's album means. Still, I'm holding out hope for your 31 days of blogging in the month of August. Also, the next time you're in St. Louis, we should meet up for a little Midwestern/Carribbean American cultural exchange. No homo. I could introduce you to Natural Light, and you could introduce me to whatever it is that you're into.

kris ex: Speaking of which, I'd like to thank kris ex for sending me a video of some Asian broad (smokin') taking a shower, which I inadvertently managed to open while sitting at the kitchen table with my mom the other day, thinking it might have had something to do with hip-hop. Fortunately, her reflexes have never been that good, even before the aging process kicked in. It was a damn good video though.

Fresh: Fresh, I'm sure it's difficult being the only woman on a site full of angry, egotistical men and a woman from Canada, which I understand is different. And I'm sure it's only been made more so having to deal with harrassing emails from Hashim Warren. He hasn't ordered any pizzas to your house yet, has he? That said, I could use more posts out of you. Once every three days would be fantastic. Once every other day would be even better, but I don't want to push you too fast too soon.

And finally, The Transient: u a faggit ass nigga, transient