Slam is a 1998 independent film starring Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn. It tells the story of a young African-American man whose talent for poetry is hampered by his social background. It won the Grand Jury Prize for a Dramatic Film at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.
Raymond Joshua (played by Saul Williams) is a young man growing up in the fictional Southeast, Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Dodge City. Despite his innate gift for poetry and his aspiration to be a rapper, he finds it difficult to escape the pressures of his surroundings: violence and drug dealing.
While participating in a drug deal gone bad, Ray's close friend, Big Mike, is shot, and Ray is caught by the police and sent to the District of Columbia Department of Corrections' central detention facility. He is arraigned for possession of a controlled substance at the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse and bail is set at $10,000. When his public defender explains the his 'options' ("cop out" (plead guilty), "rock" (stand trial), or cooperate (serve as an informant)) Ray despairs, particularly as he is being pressured to participate in a drug culture "inside" very similar to what he was a part of "outside." Ray is unwilling to take a "side", unwilling to believe that his options are limited to the choices he's being presented with.
Slam is the third and final full-length album from Boston band Big Dipper. The album was released in 1990 on Epic Records.
"Slam" was the second single released from Onyx's debut album, Bacdafucup. Released on May 11, 1993, "Slam" was Onyx's breakthrough single, making it to number 4 on the US Billboard 100 and was the group's second straight single to make it to number 1 on the Rap charts.
The main chant of the song's chorus is a variation of the vocal and organ intro to the much-sampled instrumental "The Champ" by The Mohawks.
The official remix, entitled "Slam (Bionyx remix)" was a collaboration with heavy metal band, Biohazard. It was first released on a maxi-single entitled Slam: The Alternatives and later appeared on Biohazard's Tales from the B-Side. Music videos for both the original and the Bionyx remix were released
The single was first certified gold on July 7, 1993, before being certified platinum on August 10, 1993. It sold over 900,000 copies.
The song has been used in movies such as How High and TV shows such as The Cleveland Show and Tosh.0 as well as numerous commercials, including SoBe and Gatorade.
Onyx is a banded variety of the oxide mineral chalcedony. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The colors of its bands range from white to almost every color (save some shades, such as purple or blue). Commonly, specimens of onyx contain bands of black and/or white.
Onyx comes through Latin (of the same spelling), from the Greek ὄνυξ, meaning "claw" or "fingernail". With its fleshtone color, onyx can be said to resemble a fingernail. The English word "nail" is cognate with the Greek word.
Onyx is formed of bands of chalcedony in alternating colors. It is cryptocrystalline, consisting of fine intergrowths of the silica minerals quartz and moganite. Its bands are parallel to one another, as opposed to the more chaotic banding that often occurs in agates.
Sardonyx is a variant in which the colored bands are sard (shades of red) rather than black. Black onyx is perhaps the most famous variety, but is not as common as onyx with colored bands. Artificial treatments have been used since ancient times to produce both the black color in "black onyx" and the reds and yellows in sardonyx. Most "black onyx" on the market is artificially colored.
Onyx is a rock opera and the fourth studio album by Pop Evil. It was released on May 14, 2013. The first single, "Trenches", was released February 28, 2013. The album was available for streaming a day before its official release date. It was produced by Johnny K, mixed by Jay Ruston, and mastered by Paul Logus. Additional vocal production was performed by Dave Bassett. Additional programming was done by Bassett and Matt Doughtery.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 39, No. 9 on the Independent Albums chart, with 10,000 copies sold in its first week. It has sold 122,000 copies in the United States as of July 2015.
USS Onyx (PYc-5), was a diesel coastal patrol yacht of the United States Navy during World War II.
The ship was built in 1924 as Janey III by Consolidated Shipbuilding Corp. of Morris Heights, New York, and was subsequently renamed Rene and Pegasus.
Purchased by the Navy on 3 December 1940 from Clifford C. Hemphill, of New York City, converted to Navy use and named Onyx, she was classified as a coastal yacht on 13 December 1940, and commissioned on 27 February 1941.
After conversion she departed New York for Norfolk, arriving on 22 March. Sailing again, she reached New Orleans on 5 April to report for duty to Commandant 8th Naval District. Onyx performed services for ComEight as a coastal patrol vessel around the Gulf area until January 1942. On 22 January she departed Key West, Florida to return to New York and arrived there on 31 January.
Onyx was again ordered to report to the 8th Naval District at New Orleans and was underway by 13 March, arriving on 27 March. She resumed services and continued in this capacity until February 1944 when she was extensively damaged in a collision. Beyond economic repair, her ordnance was removed and she was placed out of commission, in service, retaining her name and designation, on 15 May 1944. She was designated a target vessel on 31 May, the same year, and made available for disposition on 31 October.