As 2009 comes to a close we at LIVEAGL  took some time to reminisce on the  Good and Bad moments of the year. I have compiled a list of what I believe to be the most memorable moments of 2009. Feel free to comment with your most memorable moments as well.

The Good is listed first followed by the Bad.

The list is in no particular order

Drakes Rise To Fame

This summer I took it upon myself to dub the summer of 2009 as The Summer of Toronto. One of my main reasons for making this statement was because of a fellow named Aubrey “Drake” Graham.  You may have heard of him by now, if not you are probably living under a rock.  February 2009 marked the month where Drake would re-invent the mixtape wit his official release of So Far Gone. By July 4^th 2009 he would hold two spots on the Billboard 100 with “Best I ever Had” and “Every Girl” a feat only conquered once before by fellow Canadian Nelly Fertado making him the second artist to ever do so. He finally signed a distribution deal with Universal Motown and kept his loyalty with Young Money. The rest history before the years end Drake was on a track with most the big name artists in the industry. From Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige to Jay-Z, Fabolous, Eminem, Kanye West. It seems as though there is no stopping Drake in his mission to be the best. He has even earned two Grammy nods without even releasing an album. His Album set to be released in March 2010 is probably the most hyped album release to date. The Album will be titled “Thank Me Later”.

Pilot lands plane in Hudson River

January 15^th 2009 a pilot named Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger would land an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River. Flight 1549 was supposed to fly from New York City to North Carolina but it hit a flock of Canada Geese which completely shut down both thrusters in both engines. The pilot was forced to make a decision and ditched the aircraft safely in the Hudson River saving all 155 passengers. The crew was awarded “The keys to the city” by Mayor Bloomberg and they were also given a Master’s Medal from The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. Talk about modern day heroes.

Obama becomes 44th president (1st black)

January 20^th 2010 would mark a very important day in History. Barack Obama would be the 44^th President of the United States of America. More than that he would also be the very first black president to ever be elected into office. Obama would run the smartest Campaign to date and solidify his position as President. He would have a big mess to clean up left by former President Bush. Obama had the War in Iraq, a failing economy, the War in Afghanistan and The Health Reform resting in his hands. Within the first 8 months people were questioning whether Obama would bring the change he promised to America.  Obama has recently won the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. Obama has continued to work towards change and has recently gained some ground with the Health Reform.

Jay-Z Drops BP3

On September 11^th 2009 Jay-Z released BP3(Blueprint 3) which was probably this year’s most anticipated album drop, reminiscing his eighth year anniversary of his Blue Print album and the devastating attack on the twin towers. The album received great reviews and contained amazing collaborations. Drake, Alicia Keys, J.cole, Rihanna, and Kanye West were all featured on the album. To date the album has sold over 1,350,000 units. Keep an eye for Jay-Z to be focusing on his Roc Nation label with the first official signee J.Cole in 2010.

T.I Goes To Jail

Mr. King of the south also known as T.I checks into jail on the 29^th of May facing weapon charges. With those charges he was suppose to be behind bars for four years and nine months, but with his legal team they worked out that he would stay under house arrest, pay a fine of $100,000, and also to serve 1000 hours of community service.  With that granted he was also sentenced with a year and a day in jail. In a dramatic turn of event s T.I was released on December 22^nd 2009 into an Atlanta based halfway house ahead of schedule.

Shyne Is Released

Do you remember S.H.Y.N.E? He was that rapper that used to role with Puff Daddy back when Diddy was dating J-Lo. In December of 1999 Shyne and Puff Daddy found themselves facing serious charges after a shooting at a Manhattan night club. Shyne was sentenced to ten years in prison for the incident but somehow Puff Daddy got off scotch free. Ten years later in the year 2009 Shyne Po was finally released from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

Twitter Explosion

2009 saw the rise of a media outlet called Twitter. The early beginnings of Twitter were riddled with Downtime and glitches but Twitter found a balance and the number of users took exploded. In February of 2008 twitter only had about 475,000 unique visitors. By February 2009 a year later the amount of unique visitors reached approximately 7 million. From students to Political advisors in the Government everyone has jumped onto the band wagon. The most fascinating this is that twitter only gives you 140 characters to express or let your “followers” know what you’re up to. A lot of big and small news outlets also use twitter as a means of getting news to the masses. Perfect example being CNN which currently has 811,798 “followers”.

Toronto Wins Bid For Pan Am Games 2015

Toronto won the Bid for the Pan Am games in 2015 on November 6^th 2009. Toronto put forth a 2.4 billion dollar bid which included 1 billion dollars for the athlete’s village that will be converted into affordable housing after the games. The Pan Am games will provide needed infrastructure to Toronto’s Athletes. Toronto will be building a new aquatics centre and Hamilton will be receiving a new track and field complex complete with a new indoor Velodrome. The TTC will be getting the greatest benefit as traffic may triple during the games and this will also give them a chance to show off their new and improved subway cars. The Pan Am games will be a proud moment for Torontonians.

Jaycee Duggard Returns Home

In August of 2009 the world learned that a crime case is never really cold. Jaycee Duggard was kidnapped from her home in 1991.  Eighteen years later she was discovered by police officers who were suspicious of Phillip Garrado (A Sex Offender) and his interactions with two young females aged 11 and 15. Phillip had fathered two girls with Jaycee and used her as his sex slave. Both Phillip Garrado and his wife Nancy Garrado where charged with kidnapping on top of a slew of other charges.

Avatar

James Cameron had a huge movie release in 2009. After being behind hit films like Terminators 1(1984) and 2(1991), and the box office Smash Titanic (1997) followed up by Alien (1986), rumors swirled around in June of 2005 about “Project 880” and people were excited. Project 880 would be later known as Avatar (2009). The movie would boast a budget close to 500 million dollars and people were skeptical about the amount of profit the movie would pull in. Avatar ended up being the ninth largest opening weekend gross of all time earning $232,180,000 dollars.

Celebrity Deaths

Death was hard at work in the year 2009. The world lost a lot of names withing the movie and music industry. Some of which being ; David Carradine , Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, John Hughes, Brittanny Murphy, Patrick Swayze, Dj Roc Raida, Baati and finally Mr. Magic. To everyone on this list and the people not included on this list LiveAgl hopes you may rest in peace for your contributions to society will never be forgotten.

Chris Brown and Rhianna

One of the most shocking stories of 2009 would have to be the physical alternation between Chris Brown and then girlfriend Rhianna. After Rhianna had seen an alleged “sext” message from an old girlfriend of Brown’s a heated argument ensued. A picture was then leaked of Rhianna after the altercation and major bruising and contusions were very visible. Chris Brown would then attempt to make his case through a couple viral videos that showed him apologizing for his actions. The presence of a teleprompter was obvious and pictures of him enjoying himself as if nothing happened did not help his case. He was sentenced to do community service and stay a certain distance away from Rhianna at all times.

Swine Flue Epidemic (H1N1)

In April 2009 the world was faced with a Flu Pandemic. The Swine Flu began in Mexico and the City was shut down in an attempt to contain the spread. This did not work because the virus began to spread globally and before anyone could do anything clinics all over the world were full of infected individuals.  The Outbreak was officially declared a pandemic in June of 2009. To date there are 12,121 deaths attributed to H1N1.

Cheating Tiger

Tiger Woods was a target to many Media outlets when rumors leaked of his many mistresses. The Car Crash would prove to be the catalyst. A half a day later after a rumor of Tiger and Rachel Uchitel have an affair surfaced he was involved in car crash not too  far from his home. The car was found smashed into a Fire Hydrant with the back window smashed open. Tiger had been involved with many different women while married to his wife. This may have been the reason why his back window was broken even though his wife claimed she broke it to rescue him from his vehicle. His fate was sealed after a voice mail was released by Jaimee Grubbs that had Tiger asking her to change the name I.D of her phone. Since the incident Tiger has been dropped by many of his sponsors.

Shyne Is Deported

Imagine being held in prison for ten years only to be deported when you are finally released. This was the reality for Shyne Po.  After being held for ten years in a Correctional facility he was denied a citizenship to the United States and deported back to his home country of Belize.

Economic Bailouts

Main street and Wall street where not on good terms this yea mainly because of the Economic Bailout. In 2009 many major car dealerships received enormous bailouts. General Motors, Chrysler and Ford all pleaded bankruptcy. This called for a chapter 11 in which a judge would decide the fate of the company.  The reason for this bailout was greatly credited to the recession which caused car sales to fall to an all time low. “The Big Three” were not the only ones who received bailout money. 700 million dollars in total was distributed between hundreds of banks and insurers.

Iran invades twitter

Twitter was the subject of poitical use when Iranians took to the web to reach out to the world. In June 2009 during the presidential elections in Iran protesters spoke about their dissapointement with the re-election of  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The service was supposed to be blocked in Iran but users found a way to take to the net and speak to the world. CNN was critized for their lack of coverage on the election.

Kanye Interrupts Taylor Swift

Kanye West is known for his crazy antics but this one took the cake. During this years VMA’s Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift during her acceptence speech proclaiming “….Beyonce had the best video of all time”. Kanye received a huge backlash and was kicked off his tour with Lady Gaga. The VMA’s also had another interruption when Lil Mama decided to jump on stage with Jay-z and Alicia Keys during the last performance of the night.

U.S Still at War(Now using Drones, 46 Drone attacks)

The war against Terroism contiues but the U.S has now made the use of Drones more common during their missions. The “Drone War” is escalating in Afghanistan and is looking to make its way to Pakistan. 46 deaths can be attributed to the used of Drones by the U.S to date. The Drones allow American Soldiers to stay far away while piloting an unmanned aircraft equipt with missiles with a remote control. The total amount of Drone attacks up to July of 2009 had already surpassed the total amount for 2008

Joe Budden Vs. Wu-Tang

Internet Hip-Hop beef was big in 2009. Joe Budden who carried around a camera this whole year fell subject to irony. After being confronted by Raekwon and his crew about comments made by Budden towards Wu-Tang Joe Budden was punched and this was all caught on camera. Joe was seen holding an ice pack to his face and later on the Beef was squashed. Wu-tang clan did once say “If you want beef then bring the rukus”.

*Finish*

Popularity: 20% [?]

Related Posts

• Shyne’s Release Held Up Due to Immigration Status
• Kanye West Gives His Opinion Of Twitter In Caplocks
• MTV Top Ten Rappers In The Game
• Question Of The Week: Does Drake Deserve Grammy Nominations?
• Video: Diddy Talks About Shyne Getting Out Of Prison