I don't think it's hyperbole to say, "friends shouldn't let friends listen to shitty music." But it's funny to think about which friends' musical opinions we trust.

No one listens to the girl who says someone's album is good but still has Britney Spears' Circus still getting plays on her iPod. Yet that one friend who put you on an artist you like and didn't gloat, "I put you on that" every time you go to play it, is usually one of your favorites.

It's the friend with good musical taste who you don't mind taking a road trip with, because even if you argue and aren't talking for long stretches of highway, at least the music will be good.

If your birthday is in August or September like mine, you probably realized long ago that chances are you were a product of some Christmas or New Year's lovin' and since we're all fans of music, here are some hits that probably helped get you here.

If you were born in 2000, your 10th birthday is coming up this year. Should be great, right? I'll take a stab at your origin.

Everyone was on a holiday high. Y2K hadn't happened. The world still existed and most importantly, Dad checked his bank account to find the money from his part-time job at Footaction, still there. Everyone was celebrating. Your parents met and shared a laugh at the bar over the audacity of Sisqo's "The Thong Song," had a few more drinks, then hit the dance floor. Mom literally put it on Pops when Ghostface's "Cherchez La Ghost" came on and after a slow, sexy dance to Jagged Edge's "Let's Get Married" (and a few more drinks), let's just say they knew what time it was.

Old people are cute, aren't they?

I spent the bulk of the day chauffeuring various family members for their errands and because I was driving, they had to listen to my music, which of course, was rap.

That decision to skip the Steve Harvey & Tom Joyner and play my CDs led to a few interesting conversations.

My uncle, who's older than Kurtis Blow if that helps you paint the picture at all, tried to guess who I was listening to. It was Curren$y, who to my knowledge, hasn't had a song on the radio since "Where The Cash At?" with Lil Wayne back in 2006 but for some reason, he sounded "real familiar" to my mother's brother.

He couldn't come up with where he'd heard his voice but all I could think about was, what spot was his old ass at to hear "Where The Cash At?" and God I hope we don't frequent the same strip clubs!

Oh, 2010! It feels good to be in a new decade and more than anything else I'm happy to be in the midst of this music industry transition.

Artists embracing new media outlets to distribute music is always a good thing for fans and this year you'll see that the FreEP (free EP) will become the "it" thing to do.

Sure, it's essentially a mixtape, but what an EP allows an artist to do is put out a taste of free music that isn't just a freestyle over the hottest instrumental but actually new and original music content.

Since the ball dropped on 2010, a few artists have already kicked out FreEP's.

Mickey Factz, among others, dropped a FreEP,  thedarkphoenix: ALPHA, to lead up to his long awaited album. Mixtape fans don't fret, those track-heavy, hour-long, hit-or-miss musical journey's you know and love aren't going anywhere. Just don't be surprised if you start to see five- to eight-song EPs from your favorite artist, instead of the 20+ track monster with remixes of every recognizable beat from the radio.

In the end what would you rather have? The FreEP is the future (well now) and less is more.

Now that Christmas is over and the only holiday still going on was created in the 1960's (sorry Kwanzaa), I'm going to need the world to act like it's not Christmas day anymore.

Turning on the radio after a shitty Christmas Day only to hear more songs about Santa's fat ass jetsetting the world only adds insult to injury when you know he doesn't exist or imagine hearing Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" after celebrating another "big day" alone, nothing "special" about that.

Think about the kids. If you keep telling them that Santa Claus is coming to town after Christmas day and they're going to expect him to drop by three or four days in a row. That's not fair.

I kind of understand the logic of stores playing holiday music while you take back all those unwanted gifts you got but in that case, why are the Christians the only ones to get in the on the act? I mean, they're my people but I've never heard a Hanukkah or Kwanzza carol, especially in the mall.

Then you have you're perfectly PC holiday season anthems. "White Christmas?" Are you serious? We live in the South (and I'm going to ignore the racial undertones on that song)

My point? They start sooner and sooner with this stuff every year, I was hearing "Jingle Bell Rock" the day after Halloween. Let's just pack up the holiday albums for the year and bring them out on Black Friday 2010.

You know it's a slow weekend when the movie Airheads comes on HBO and you actually sit through the entire thing.

What's fascinating about watching this flick, which came out in the mid-'90s, in 2009 is the fact it's so dated that it could never be made again.

Just think about how much the music industry has changed since then.

Artists aren't dying to have their music played on their local stations anymore, if anything they want to distance themselves from how mainstream and generally whack those stations are.

Pushing cassettes directly to music executives or program directors? Sneaking into a station to try and get your demo in their hands?