The Art Of Battling

Did you know I could rap? Me either...but guess what...anyone who doesn't believe me needs to check out your boy in action

The first set of videos is from an Official ApolloKidz mixtape where fellow aK memeber (Fluff Daddy) and I had our epic battle. After a clean win (via fan voting on the internet) he was waiting for my arrival back to NY with open arms (pause) and bars for a rematch....peep the result after the jump

Battle #2

"Do What You Do" --blackhercules21

Apollo Kidz With a Z...

So some of you know and some of you don't but it's about time you got familiar with http://apollokidz.com/

It's basically your "all you need" everyday site for urban topics. The best news source out there for anything you need to know about.

The quick history...basically a group of NYU alums started an email chain to stay in touch...that chain turned into a name...that name needed a logo...after designing a logo that name needed an idea and here we are over a year later with a full fledged plan to be your number one source for ANY and EVERY thing "present."

You should look at it like this...rather than go to Media Take Out or Worldstar Hip Hop or Rap Radar to find out what's going on in Hip-Hop...go to ApolloKidz.com. If you want to be the first for links to the New Movies or New Music...go to ApolloKidz.com Rather than go to ESPN or Sports Illustrated to find out what's going on in Sports...go to ApolloKidz.com. And rather than go to Wall Street Journal or Yahoo for Finance...go to ApolloKidz.com. And rather than go to The Huffington Post or The New Yorker for Culture...go to ApolloKidz.com And rather than go to CNN or the New York Times for Everything Else...just go to ApolloKidz.com.

You get the point?

We take what we feel are the most relative, popular and interesting stories and bring them to you, with some funny commentary to keep you engaged. If you are in the mood for a laugh check out our topics on "The Ten Most Ridiculous [something] from Oddee.com or the latest faux news story from theOnion.com. We've got that too...ApolloKidz.com is your one-stop-shop to get you through your workday...or your leisure day...or your everyday. With 8 representatives scattered on two different continents the news stories and LOL'ers (as we call them) are constantly being discussed and updated. And all you have to do is click Follow or Friend...so what are you waiting for? I know you have Facebook and I know you have Twitter...so go ahead and stay current...it only takes a second

Friend Us On Facebook

Follow Us On Twitter

We've also just began our Podcast...Check Out The First One Down Here

 http://blog.apollokidz.com/2010/10/11/circle-of-bosses-episode-1/

And Feel Free to Email Us at Holla@ApolloKidz.com

and tell us what you like, what you don't like and how we can improve...it's a process

"Do What You Do" --blackhercules21

Due To The Circumstances

Starting today I'm banning all social media sites for the rest of 2009. Allow me to explain the reason for this...

Every trending topic on twitter is "Merry Xmas" or "itschristmaseve." Every facebook status update is "happy holidays" or "frohe weinachten" and myspace...well myspace still sucks the big one.  But this year, since I'm going to be away from my family and loved ones I'm deciding to skip the holidays all together.

There are 3 major reasons for this...

Number 1- I have always been a spring and fall guy, don't like it too hot and don't like it too cold. Well out in Germany it's been cold and as of the past 3 years, my favorite Christmas day activity was putting on an ugly sweater, sitting in front of my parents' fireplace and watching It's A Wonderful Life with my family. Since I'm not going to be around this year, they said f*ck it, it shouldn't feel like Christmas and took a trip to "Sunny and 75" Florida.

Number 2- The best part of Christmas was always the presents, it always will be. As a child you look forward to getting them, ripping the paper off and playing with them for the next two weeks non-stop. As a young adult you find the perfect gift for someone you love and it's the best feeling in the world. Concert tickets you stuffed in the stocking, jewelry you spent your entire salary on, or whatever that one thing they needed was. As an old-timer, it's the excitement of watching your children/grandchildren enjoy their gifts, being responsible for buying those gifts, or hoping that you'll be surprised with something special. I agreed not to exchange gifts with anyone here and there is no surprise as to what anyone in my family is getting...
(The Incredible Boone Tee from k1x)

Number 3- I'm too busy for the holidays this year. I feel like it happens in movies sometimes where the dad has to work on the road and is trying to make it home in time for the holidays. As cliche as it sounds, I was always lucky enough to have both parents around during the special moments in my life. I would like to think I will be able to do the same for the kids I hope to have one day, but at this moment in my life, especially with some of the biggest games of the year coming up, I think it's okay to redirect my focuses from "the Christmas I won't have" to the "wins we need to get."

So there it is in a nutshell, the circumstances that will lead to Jason Boone not having a holiday season this year. This is not a cry for attention or a call for sympathy, but rather a realization that every choice in life (to play pro basketball), even though it seems perfect, can come with some consequences (being away from loved ones on the holidays) but I'm okay with it, and I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas...seriously


Real talk though...in an attempt to avoid being the 3rd, 5th, 7th and/or 9th wheel for the next week and a half I'm going to devote a substantial amount of time on making sure my blog is on point...so for the rest of 2009 make sure you check back in for daily posts...Happy Holidays

Do What You Do      Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...

Joe Buddens

It's been awhile since my last series but it's about that time again. This one is not a competition, but a challenge for you guys to find a better rapper out than Joe Buddens. A teammate of mine argues that Lil' Wayne is the best in the game right now, and although I agree his swagger is on Mars, I don't consider him the best. You can say he is the best at what he does, (finding new ways to say the same basic metaphors or relating past topics that make people appreciate where his mind can go) but his rhymes are too basic for me. He doesn't tell a story and I don't FEEL his rap. Plus, with his new Rebirth album, it's obvious he's trying to venture off into other forms of music, and hey if he call pull it off, all the power to him.

But growing up in the Bronx, Hip-Hop was always a culture thing. Between the graffiti writing and the breakdancing, it was all about FEEL and there aren't too many rappers who I FEEL anymore. I still think Eminem is the best at making words rhyme, as well as winning a crowd over in a battle. Nas is the best at telling a story and lyrically no one can touch the pioneers of Tupac and Notorious BIG but the guy atop my favorite rappers list is definitely Joe Buddens.

After his Hip-Hop weekly series Crooked I has stayed a close second and when they came together to form Slaughterhouse, I started to listen to Joell Ortiz and Royce Da 5'9 a lot more and what do you know...they are now 3 and 4 on my list. But back to Buddens. A friend of mine, Mark Williams (who runs TEAM FOOTPRINTZ basketball training) and I were having a discussion of the top 15 Buddens songs of all-time. I put together a little list for him and thought I'd share a couple of my favorite Buddens songs with you over the next few weeks (randomly) to see if you can FEEL Hip-Hop music again.

Do What You Do      Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...

Post Basketball Plans

2010 is almost here and as we all know, there are a lot of players whose contracts either run out or can be opted out in 2010. A few are @dwadeofficial, @chrisbosh, @the_real_nash, LeBron James oh yeah and me. I've been in talks with the @thenyknicks about landing LeBron and I but just incase those plans don't pan out, I need to have something on the back-burner.



So here are the three things I'm doing to pad my "real life" resume for when my "real life" begins even though I still want my "real life" to wait...for "real."

...The Bank Job...

I've been in Germany for three years and my level of German is still Intermediate...there is no excuse for this besides the fact that I hang around lazy people and all the Germans want to work on their English...but I've put myself in a position (5hours a week of lessons) to hold my head high and say "I'm Fluent In German" by the time the season is over. The pressure is on me, like a last second free throw, because I recently started a job in the Sparkasse Bank's marketing department. Demands aren't too crazy, I was assured that a basic knowledge of advertising and marketing strategies coupled with an outgoing personality for the PR Events would suffice, but one key requirement is being able to commuincate. My thinking is that I can actually kill two birds (marketing experience and new language) with this one stone

How is this for the next event?? Ben Jacobson and Jason Boone...Powered By Sparkasse...nice huh?

...Webcodes Galore...

The fact that you are reading this blog right now from your computer or phone proves that the wave of technology is rapidly changing. Well your boy Boone is trying to bank on knowing a lot about these changes. I learned a little bit about Hyper Text Transfer Protocol http and Hyper Text Markup Language html last year(thanks to @holldoll2), but now I'm trying to master this online terminology. I'm diving in head first deep into the world of embedding codes, video editing and uploading procedures. That being said, with the German I learned for the Bank Job and the blog being at an all time high in popularity...look out for the German Video Blog hitting the internet soon.

...where crEDIT is due...

My man Björn Lars Blank aka @real_blb over in the MEG office is the exact reason why my "real life" can wait. Although quiet, like myself, the work he does speaks volumes. The latest task on the agenda of Blankman was to start publishing English press releases on our Team's Website. This was the first one. Eurochallenge Home Opener. I'm going to start editing these releases, as a way to contribute and make sure I don't forget English. So for all of you people out there that are tired of translating every article I post on here, bookmark the website and see how we do...


This is going to be more "real life" work than I'm used to...but hey, I guess in the end, my "real life" is still waiting.

Do What You Do       Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...

Tweet Me?

Twitter me doesn't sound correct, I think it's tweet me. Whatever it is, it's all new to me and if I'm going to stay motivated to retweet or twitpic or whatever, I'm going to need some followers...if you have Twitter hit me up @blackhercules21

I'm trying to stay consistent with the blog and twitter and the facebook etc...because let's face it, my life is a lot more interesting than yours and you want to know what I'm doing the majority of the time. Stop fooling yourself.

I'm also trying to make a more concerted effort to stay in touch with a lot of you, therefore if you have a blackberry, I need your pin...we can BBM...so do what you do and hallelujah hollaback at your boy

Do What You Do      Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...