Homer Simpson proudly displays his Grammy Award for Outstanding Soul, Spoken Word or Barbershop Album.

​Adele could soon become a Grammy paper champion. Oh sure. 21 is a worthy entrant for the coveted Grammy for Album of the Year. "Rolling in the Deep," after all, topped the 2011 Pazz and Jop Poll by a pretty substantial margin. And in an era where physical releases don't sell particularly well, 21 is a remarkable outlier. The album -- which has spent an astounding nineteen non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart -- sold at least 17 million copies across the globe.

Those are impressive attributes for any contender for the Grammy's biggest award. And there's little question that Adele deserves praise if she ends up winning big during Sunday's award show. But there's just one problem: For some reason, the hoosiers who control the Grammys forgot to include Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in the Album of the Year category. Instead, Adele's masterwork got grouped in with Rihanna's Loud, Foo Fighters' Wasting Light, Bruno Mars' Doo-Woops & Hooligans and Lady Gaga's Born This Way.

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Wale, Gandmaster of the sports reference.

​Wale is Grandmaster of the sports reference. No musical artist brings as much wit, depth and knowledge to the craft. For instance, in the recently released ode to the former St. Louis baseball hero, "Albert Pujols," Wale slangs this gem:

"John Rocker, Atlanta Bravest knows that I'm awesome/ Better be like Fenway out in Boston, my green is a monster/ We don't speak to informants, they just look for a way out/ They just hating on the game, they just way too Canseco."

Of course, it's completely reasonable for a St. Louis hip-hop head to boycott this song, on the same grounds Alex Rodriguez probably avoids Super Bowl halftime shows starring Madonna. Too many memories, too much pain.

Not to worry. Wale, who played running back at Robert Morris University and Virginia State University, has produced plenty more fantastic sports references for the world to appreciate. He doesn't just drop names and lazy metaphors-- none of that "I'm the greatest like Jordan" shit. He weaves the references tightly around his lyrical narrative. Sometimes he builds an entire song around a sports reference. Sometimes he peppers them so subtly as to be nearly imperceptible.

To illustrate the depth of Wale's sack of sports references, here are names from lyrics that didn't make the cut: Tommy LaSorda, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, A-Rod, Jeff Gordon, Sean Taylor, Michael Strahan, Tony Romo, Joe Louis, David Carr, Ben Roethlisberger, Mars Blackmon, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Eric Mangini, Randy Moss, Adam "Pac Man" Jones, JaMarcus Russell, Troy Aikman, Bo Jackson, Dikimbe Mutumbo, Willie Beamon, Sacramento Kings, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Tony Dungy, and so on.

Here's the list of his 25 best, along with some honorable mentions:

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The Darkness saved Samsung's ad from spiraling down into forgettable territory.

​Let's be blunt. This year's Super Bowl was dismal for Midwesterners.

Sure, there were exceptions. Transplants from Boston, New York City or New Jersey may have enjoyed the game. Some may have had a rooting interest in Chad Ochocinco's David Carr's quest for a pity Super Bowl ring. And who knows? Maybe some people just watched to see the artist who made this video dress up in a cheerleader uniform and flick off America.

In any case, this year's slate of commercials attempted to fill a void. And like every year, many of the ads incorporated popular music to snag the attention of the masses.

Which spots succeeded? And which fell flatter than Rex Grossman's performance in Super Bowl XLI? Here's an unscientific take on some of Sunday's most memorable advertisements:

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theurbandaily.com

Soul Train creator and host Don Cornelius made an expansive impact on popular culture.

​Music fans are still reeling from the death of Don Cornelius, the unmistakable and irreplaceable host and creator of Soul Train.

Cornelius was found dead on Wednesday in Los Angeles of what police believe to be a self-inflicted wound. The Chicago native and Korean War veteran was 75.

With the sadness emanating from Cornelius' death is increased focus on his expansive legacy. He created and hosted a show that became a revolutionary outlet for black musicians and unrepresented genres. Soul Train was a venue that brought extremely talented artists -- from powerhouses like Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye to rap superheroes Run DMC -- to a wider audience.

Cornelius himself was an attraction, delivering an utterly smooth delivery and championing an array of outstanding catchphrases. No matter how turbulent the day, Cornelius would wish America nothing more than "peace, love and soul."

Given the Soul Train's longevity, it is not terribly surprising that a number of musicians closely associated with St. Louis made appearances on the show. In honor of Cornelius, here's a sampling of St. Louis natives that appeared on Soul Train:

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Ed Murawinski via Wikimedia Commons

Newt reacts to the call from Survivor's lawyers. Originally from a 1995 New York Daily News cover.

​It's a time-honored tradition: A candidate for political office starts walking out for stump speeches to the strains of a hit by a band that doesn't agree with his views. Cease-and-desist letters follow. This week's episode stars one Newt Leroy Gingrich, who has been using "Eye of the Tiger" dating back to 2009. Frank M. Sullivan III, who co-wrote the song for his band Survivor, has sued the most rotund playboy this side of Ron Jeremy, and now the latter will have to choose a new tune.

He might as well stick with 1982, the year "Eye of the Tiger" was released -- the GOP was riding high on Ronald Reagan's first term, and awesomely cheesy pop songs rained like wealth trickling down to the common folk. Here, then, are the ten most appropriate theme-tune replacements.

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Donnie Darko fans, rejoice! "Head over Heels" is coming to Rock Band 3 as DLC.

​Donnie Darko is one of those films with much more staying power than anybody expected, especially to folks who are constantly followed around by giant rabbits.

The movie isn't exactly everybody's cup of tea, but there's no question that the 2001 Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle managed to develop a cult following. The same could be said for the film's soundtrack, which features a raft of seminal tunes from the 1980s.

For the very special people that enjoyed the film's soundtrack and are obsessed with the Rock Band video game series, take heart. Today marks the release of "Head over Heels" by Tears for Fears as downloadable content for Rock Band 3.

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This FBI notice is all the content that remains on the now-shuttered Megaupload.com domain.

​SOPA and PIPA have been the talk of the internet for weeks, if not months now. Several major websites blacked out their content in opposition to the controversial bills this past Wednesday. On Thursday, a Federal raid took down the file-sharing giant Megaupload.com. In retaliation, the Guy-Fawkes-mask-wearing online "hactivist" collective known as "Anonymous" launched website-disabling attacks on the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America. Despite the overall weirdness of these facts in and of themselves, scratching past the surface a bit reveals even further oddities within this story. Without further ado, we bring you the top eight most eyebrow-raising elements of the Megaupload shutdown.

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​Wikipedia's decision to black out on Wednesday in support of the efforts against SOPA and PIPA hurt a lot of demographics--high schoolers looking for paraphrases to paraphrase, search engine optimizers who kind of hoped Wikipedia would be shut down, people who needed an episode guide for A Minute with Stan Hooper, fiftysomething polymaths who collect graphic sweatshirts from different labor parties in Western Europe and wear them to hear Richard Stallman speak--but the demo left most helpless by the day-long protest was people who know or want to know weirdly detailed facts about Disney and Nickelodeon stars and their recording careers. In that spirit, I offer five facts about Miranda Cosgrove that, in their specificity and their position on Wikipedia, might subtly unnerve you.

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​This weekend, two world leaders passed. One, North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, is remembered as an eccentric but dangerous dictator, a man who suppressed dissent and kept his people in a perpetual state of war and famine. The other, Vaclav Havel, played a key role in freeing Czechoslovakia from Communist rule, and ultimately became the first president of the nascent Czech Republic.

Both had a taste for culture, but in markedly different ways. Kim Jong-Il kidnapped directors to create movies for him; Havel came from an intellectual family, and ultimately used music and drama as a force for freedom. Havel is now remembered as a man of courage and leadership, while Kim's death has primarily inspired fear of a power vacuum within an unstable nuclear power.

On the sad occasion of Havel's passing, it's worth considering just how important a role music played in his life, and hence European and world history. Here are four of his reputed musical inspirations.

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​(KCNA) -- Pyongyang, DPRK. Magnificent leader Kim Jong Il of Independent Juche State Democratic People's Republic of Korea has succeeded single-handedly in killing most malevolent dictator of 21st century with great strength of will and people's blessing. Students of Pyongyang Musical And Veterinary College have created People's Search-Friendly Listicle in honor of the magnificent leader Kim Jong Il's victory and in celebration of coming centennial of Great Leader Eternal President Kim Il Sung's birth.

Top Five songs of Year of Kim Jong Il's Glorious Ascension to Presidency follow this transmission.

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