ProHipHop Adds Barack Obama Category
Since I've posted quite a bit about the election, I've decided to gather up all related posts in a Barack Obama category, including those that were formerly included in the Politics category.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
twitter/prohiphop subscribe: feedblitz |
ProHipHop: Business Hip Hop Press Business Matters Mix Sneakers & Fashion Urban Gossip/Rumors News & Search: World Cypher |
Headlines to Your Site or Blog: Widgetbox ProHipHop Network |
Hip-Hop News Plus Tupac Shakur Info |
Since I've posted quite a bit about the election, I've decided to gather up all related posts in a Barack Obama category, including those that were formerly included in the Politics category.
Remixing the Art of Social Change: A Hip-Hop Approach
The folks at WORDS BEATS & LIFE Inc. are organizing Remixing the Art of Social Change, a "teach-in":
"dedicated to capacity building for hip-hop non-profits, non profits using hip-hop and non profits that self identify as working with the hip-hop generation. Organizations from throughout California have been invited with the express intention of "Remixing the Art of Social Change" by outlining the tools and resources necessary to build sustainable field of organization..."
"Remixing the Art of Social Change" is...designed not just to look at hip-hop as an esthetic, but at the organizations that develop, track, measure and deliver curriculum, information, develop campaigns, organize rallies etc. This teach-in is for organizations ready to move to the next stage of their development."
The hip hop nonprofit and community activism sphere is developing all over the country, often in informal settings, so building sustainable organizations is key to taking care of the business as well as the art of social change.
Remixing the Art of Social Change: A Hip-Hop Approach takes place at San Francisco State on October 4th.
Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews have been replaced as coanchors at MSNBC by David Gregory and demoted to analysts for upcoming election coverage.
I'm really going to miss Keith Olbermann wilding out so brilliantly but I'm sure he'll get plenty of moments in the spotlight in the days ahead.
Anti-M.I.A. sp@m has been hitting blogs and websites that write about M.I.A. as I realized this week from my posts about the Paper Planes single and the Pineapple Express soundtrack.
In the Pineapple Express post, the first commenter acts like she's turning people on to a new M.I.A.video mix:
Yeah, I love this song!I also want to check the movie, it seems pretty cool.
Found this video in a new version:
http://srilankantube.com/item/72YJRHBK94YN1B8C
It seems that she's got power($$)
Posted by: sharon | August 03, 2008 at 09:18 PM
Then another expresses concern:
That new version is worrying. I liked M.I.A before but now I'm not so sure. Is this true?
Posted by: Kim | August 05, 2008 at 05:11 AM
These comments and similar comments on the other post are followed by a rather traditional political attack on M.I.A. based on the belief that her father was a terrorist and/or a freedom fighter [that always seems to depend on which side you're on], that some of her lyrics and imagery appear to support such activities and that she has not distanced herself from terrorism in an acceptable manner.
You, dear reader, are going to have to make up your mind on that part.
Idolator points out that one of the fake messages of concern showed up in an E! Online blog post that's now circulating as a news piece so they've gamed the mass media with this one. Guess that's why sp@mmers keep sp@mming!
But let's assume that these folks who are doing this sp@mming and who presumably are part of the forces that Sri Lankan rapper DeLon is mobilizing against M.I.A. are sincere in their struggle.
If that's the case, they've chosen to deceitfully introduce their concerns to the American public in a manner that suggests that, in their minds, the means justify the ends that they want, which I thought was part of the problem they were fighting against.
But let's not equate this rather transparent sp@m campaign with terrorist tactics. That's too heavy handed even for me.
And let's not imagine that Delon has any similarity to American rappers who would typically use such promotional devices to further their own careers.
Let's set cynicism aside for a moment and just say, sp@m sucks. I don't want it on my site cause I don't like liars. This conversation is over. Your issues are not going to be on my frontburner.
Bottom line: people are dying and suffering everywhere. Bringing tired tactics to a new environment is just not going to work in the long run and, in the end, your own people will suffer for your deception.
Sounds overly dramatic?
People die everyday cause they can't get the attention of somebody who'll help them. Only the delusional can't recognize that fact.
If you're serious about saving lives, don't be blasting out deception in the hope of catching attention cause then you're just another propaganda machine refusing to participate in the real conversations of the people you hope to reach.
Nas Speaks at Fox New Protest in New York
Nice focused speech by Nas at the protest against Fox News nonsense organized by ColorOfChange.org and MoveOn.org.
Nas Talks Briefly About MySpace at Fox News Protest
Nas seems to feel that MySpace is a good thing and that providing MySpace contrasts with the poison emitted by Fox News. That's a smart separation of News Corps brands in this battle.
I hope Nas keeps doing projects with well-organized groups attacking specific struggles. I'd be happy to help market his albums in response.
I'm very glad to hear that Nas is adding his voice to tomorrow's delivery of a petition to FOX News demanding that FOX end its "pattern of racist attacks against black Americans."
Nas joins representatives of ColorOfChange.org and MoveOn.org who have collected over 620,000 names.
Nice to see Nas extending his marketing energies to directly support actual grassroots efforts.
In the NY Times:
To get a sense of how nasty Fox operatives can be to non-Fox journalists check this article by David Carr, When Fox News Is the Story.
Over at Hip Hop Logic:
Nas - Sly Fox
Though I've moved most political coverage over to Hip Hop Logic, which was down for a few weeks due to Google/Blogger shenanigans, I feel compelled to post this here:
Rev. Jackson Wants Secret Service Files On Himself
"Rev. Jackson's dealings with the Secret Service date back to his two campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s. He actually asked for and was assigned protective details before other candidates back then."
"The Secret Service e-mail, CBS 2 obtained from a court filing in Washington, was titled 'The Righteous Reverend,' and jokes about the deaths of Jackson and his wife when a missile strikes their plane. The e-mail ends with, it 'certainly wouldn't be a great loss and probably wouldn't be an accident either.'"
Via Gabriel who got it from Paradise Gray.
In more bad news:
Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause
Let's flip the script on this racist inbred nonsense and put Barack Obama in the White House where he belongs!
Gabriel just shared more bad news:
T-shirts with Obama as Curious George
It's a good thing that it's a beautiful day in Raleigh and that it's time for me to go do some yardwork for my folks cause I can't be saying what I'm thinking right now. Let's just say I'm about to enact some serious violence on some English Ivy.
Finally found the online copy of the Blender interview with Alicia Keys after reading all sorts of sites' one or two line quotes, often without even mentioning Blender.
I actually wasn't even going to track it down but I was contacted by someone from Curtis Sliwa's WABC radio show so I checked it out. Turns out they needed someone who agreed with Alicia's beliefs that gangsta rap was a government "ploy to convince black people to kill each other" and that Biggie and Tupac were assassinated "to stop another great black leader from existing".
Unfortunately I don't believe those things so my New York media debut has been delayed yet again.
But my love for Alicia Keys was deepened by all the radical talk. She's read Assata Shakur's bio and, in response to being lumped in with anarchists by the NYPD, said:
"Hell...Someone's gotta be an anarchist."
My heart goes boom!
On a side note, I've been getting this weird desire to move to New York.
I'll update you if my Alicia Keys fascination or my emergent interest in NYC goes anywhere.
But don't hold your breath for Alicia news!
Yeah, Eminem has grown up a bit and has taken some liberal stands here and there but performing for Nelson Mandela's birthday concert?
Is Slim Shady invited too?
[Note to self: drop Slim Shady Vs. T.I.P. mixtape featuring samples from Nelson Mandela speeches! Do it now!!!]
[Update: I have reason to believe that this is a wack marketing attack and will be posting on the topic in the next couple of days. I will be including a statement from a VH1 rep and will post that along with the reasons that this attack may be leveraging valid concerns with VH1 programming to push what is looking like a Web myth regarding statements attributed to Ackerman.]
Original Post:
I'm not up on the details of this situation but folks are starting to call for the ouster of VH1 Senior VP Jim Ackerman for comments such as:
"viewers are more interested in seeing black people in a ghetto role, black women are looked at as being ghetto and not educated."
Given shows like Flavor of Love that comment fits the mentality behind such programming so it comes as no surprise. It's one of the reasons I don't watch much tv.
But making sense and being right are two separate things so I'm passing this along for folks who feel that focusing on execs is a useful lever for making change in mass media.
Of course, if it becomes a marketing disaster, you'll be hearing more at ProHipHop.
An Act of State by William F. Pepper
A newly updated edition of An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King by William F. Pepper is due April 7th from Verso.
A hardback edition is in print however I'm not sure if a paperback edition was also previously released.
Pepper wrote an influential expose in 1967 on the effects of the Vietnam War on Vietnamese children for Ramparts, among other publications, that included intense images of children burned by napalm that led to Dr. King turning a great deal of attention to Vietnam in his final year.
Author William F. Pepper spoke at Modern Times Bookstore in February 2003 as part of a book tour following the hardback release.
In his talk he discusses a lot of heavy stuff that went down the last year of King's life as King began to take a radical turn that was much scarier to the powers that be on an international level than anything he'd accomplished in the South, which is saying quite a bit.
For example, Pepper discusses the role of Chicago's Blackstone Rangers in undermining the National Conference for New Politics in 1967 that was intended to create an "umbrella coalition that would effectively coordinate a massive third-party political campaign against the Johnson Administration and Johnson's re-election; but at the same time develop grassroots organizing capabilities in the communities across America."
Pepper went into illuminating detail about the role of these American Gangsters in disrupting social change:
"We never appreciated the extent to which government would go to undermine and undercut that kind of movement. They were responsible for the formation of a first black caucus. That black caucus was largely led by agente provocateurs who came from the Blackstone Rangers, organizations of that sort in Chicago. And they corraled each black delegate who came in and brought them into a room and formed this unity of all-black delegates and this commitment to vote as a block and introduce resolutions as a block."
"We thought, many of us, that this was a good thing because this was typical and representative of a growing black awareness, particularly urban awareness. Although in the caucus they of course brought in rural black leaders as well. We felt this was healthy and there would be then this block that would vote and introduce the concerns of the black community across America. We didn't know that it was government-induced and government-sponsored and government-paid for and that the leaders were gangsters. Blackstone Rangers would surface again and again in the course of the movement as capable of disrupting and causing havoc on behalf of their employers."
"Martin delivered the keynote address at the convention. I introduced him and he delivered this address and the importance of this movement. As he was speaking a note was passed over my shoulder to me and I read it and it said, `Get him out of here after he finishes his speech or we will take him hostage and humiliate him before the world.' They were so afraid that if this man stayed on for the substantive part of the convention that he, as a unifier, might bridge the differences and might overcome the provocation that was designed to disrupt the convention."
I wonder if BET included that little bit of history in their Making Money off the American Gangster series episode on Blackstone Rangers leader Jeff Fort who appears to have monetized his politics quite nicely.
Remember Jay-Z stating to a Fortune reporter that "rap music has done more for racial equality than any other personality or element has done"?
It's hard for me not to feel, though he clearly has not a clue and I hope would not say this, that Jay-Z's ultimately stating that his side won, the side of the American Gangster.
Pepper and King spoke soon after King's Beyond Vietnam speech given at Riverside Church on April 4th, 1967.
During his talk Pepper said King discussed the impact this speech would have on fund raising for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference:
"We spoke very early in the morning following that Riverside address and he said, `Now you know they're all going to turn against me. We're going to lose money. SCLC...will lose all of its corporate contributions. All the major civil rights leaders are going to turn their back on me and all the major media will start to tarnish and to taint and to attack me. I will be called everything even up to and including a traitor.' So he said, `We must persevere and build a new coalition that can be effective in this course of peace and justice.'"
That coalition was intended to emerge from the National Conference for New Politics previously discussed and undermined by some of those American Gangsters so many like to worship.
Reading this, I couldn't help but think of Russell Simmons, the man who will never have to worry about losing corporate contributions because he is Poverty Pimp 2.0.
Hey, that don't mean pimpin' is easy. Russell Simmons is always on the grind and that makes it not only ok but something to emulate! Right?
Come on, you've got to give Simmons credit for being able to transfer money between operations and get hip hop media cred for his "donation". [Note: I know Contact Music isn't hip hop media but hip hop media parrots will be spouting Contact's misreading of the news for weeks to come.]
But I don't want to end this long post with easy jabs at people who should know better.
Let's close with William F. Pepper's take on the man Martin Luther King Jr. had become in the final days of his life and leave it at that:
"He is depicted on King Day as a civil rights leader. And that's the way you're going to see him probably forever. But he was much more than a civil rights leader and that's what no one in official capacity wants you to know."
"He had moved well beyond the civil rights movement by 1964-65 and he had become effectively a world-figure in terms of human rights people and particularly the poor of this earth. That's where he was going."
"That's the area you don't really get into safely when you start talking about wealth, redistributing wealth. Taking, diverting huge sums of money into social welfare programs and health programs and educational programs at the grass roots. When you start going into that you begin to tread on toes in this country, in the United Kingdom, and in most of the western world."
Related Coverage:
Popular view of King ignores complexity:
"At the time of his death, King was working on anti-poverty and anti-war issues...King had come a long way from the crowds who cheered him at the 1963 March on Washington, when he was introduced as "the moral leader of our nation" — and when he pronounced "I have a dream" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial."
"By taking on issues outside segregation, he had lost the support of many newspapers and magazines, and his relationship with the White House had suffered, said Harvard Sitkoff, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire who has written a recently published book on King."
""He was considered by many to be a pariah," Sitkoff said. But he took on issues of poverty and militarism because he considered them vital "to make equality something real and not just racial brotherhood but equality in fact"..."
""We're living increasingly in a culture of top 10 lists, of celebrity biopics which simplify the past as entertainment or mythology," he [Richard Greenwald] said. "We lose a view on what real leadership is by compressing him down to one window.""
"That does a disservice to both King and society, said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University."
"By freezing him at that point, by putting him on a pedestal of perfection that doesn't acknowledge his complex views, "it makes it impossible both for us to find...new leaders and for us to aspire to leadership," Harris-Lacewell said."
"She believes it's important for Americans in 2008 to remember how disliked King was in 1968."
""If we forget that, then it seems like the only people we can get behind must be popular," Harris-Lacewell said. "Following King meant following the unpopular road, not the popular one.""
Rev. Al Sharpton and performer Kevin L are teaming up to take the H13 Project on tour.
Initiatives of the H13 Youth Outreach Project:
Initiative 1: "Make Peace Popular"
Initiative 2: "School and Community Peace Rallies"
Initiative 3: "Empowering Youth with Tools of the Trade"
Least interesting is the press release headline claim that this is about the "politics of hip-hop".
Most interesting is the plan to:
furnish students with the media tools required to develop individuality, interests, and positive roles in their community (music, films, television program, etc). The H13 Project will provide the hardware (computers, video cameras, lighting equipment, etc) and software products that will teach students the necessary skills for media creation. This donation will be accompanied by tutorials led by entertainment industry professionals (record producers, film directors, screenwriters, songwriters, etc).
Free The Jena 6 - "A@#holes With Money"
I'm going through a bunch of videos for a series of posts at Hip Hop Logic but I feel the above video from stick187 is a good fit for ProHipHop. stick187 calls out most rappers for not yet supporting the Jena 6, expresses his loss of interest in pop news like Kanye vs. Curtis, big ups David Banner for speaking out and generally demands that the people whose music we've been supporting show they're something more than "A@#holes With Money".
Update:
Rafi Kam points to a related post by NYOil in the comments. NYOil basically talks about what he's doing as a hip hop artist and his take on recent remarks by Al Sharpton apparently criticizing lack of rapper involvment in this struggle.
For my part, I'm not really calling anybody out at this stage because I think awareness of this struggle is just now moving from the Innovator stage of the Innovation Adoption Curve to the Early Adopters stage. For most famous people this stage is probably the earliest they can catch on because they're surrounded by so much noise. But awareness is building to the point that we need them to come in soon to help continue the move towards the Early Majority stage which could still be a long ways off.
Al Sharpton will be a part of that process as well but I'm not that interested in digging into criticisms of hip hop from outside in this particular struggle. The best way to defend hip hop in relationship to the Jena 6 is for people who claim to be a part of hip hop to do the work of supporting the Jena 6.
To be honest I'm more interested in the Innovators on the ground right now and once you get a look I'm sure you'll see why I'm mostly going to be posting at Hip Hop Logic. Besides, I'm going to do some additional posts later today or tomorrow on hip hop marketing and I just can't stomach getting serious about this and then having to follow it with Kanye vs. Curtis or whatever the latest is at the moment.
Innovators in Action in Jena, Louisiana, July 31st
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Know Any Rappers Who Will Support the Jena 6?
Jena 6: September 20th March Info & Additional Resources
I have no ties to well-known artists and no real intentions of developing them but if you do, please get them to support the Jena 6. If you've got the connects this is a good time to use them.
If you can't make it to Jena for the September 20th march please organize locally and wear black on the 20th.
If you are organizing an event, please consider organizing it for the weekend before the 20th. Though the day of sentencing of one of the defendants is the focus of the march, the problem is that sentencing will have already been decided before that day and the judge's position will likely harden in response to the uproar that he will most likely perceive as outsider agitators who have no business in Jena.
I understand the symbolic value and the ability to move people by being there as sentencing happens but the event is unlikely to affect sentencing though news that lots of people are paying attention and heading down will help. However local events all across the nation the weekend before with the promise of the march and media attention to come should amplify the effects of the march itself so please consider that possibility.
If you have additional resources I'll be posting them at Hip Hop Logic. Please send Jena 6 related links, etc. to:
clyde(at)netweed(dot)com
Here are some resources regarding the Jena 6 who are in the process of having their lives ruined by a racist system full of racist individuals down in Jena, Louisiana. I'll be updating and doing more over at Hip Hop Logic but I want to take advantage of the ProHipHop platform as needed for this one.
March on Jena, LA September 20th:
Basic march details plus additional links
Resources:
Basic Story & Additional Links
Info from ACLU Staffer in Louisiana
Discussion Forum at Minglecity.com
Coverage of the July 31st Rally in Jena:
Photos from the July 31st rally and march in Jena, LA
Jena 6: Voices from the July 31 Rally
Hundreds March in Jena, Louisiana in Support of the Jena Six
If you have additional resources I'll be posting them at Hip Hop Logic. Please send Jena 6 related links, etc. to:
clyde(at)netweed(dot)com
The NAACP buries the N-word, ignoring the opportunity to freely distribute photos and video across the web, thus turning what could have been a great opportunity to package and spread their message worldwide in a form sympathetic to their cause rather than relying on mainstream media to package it for them.
What a weird situation. A widely hated word that was gradually being driven out of the white community is revived by black youth and artists.
For example, despite having come up with plenty of stupid reasons that it was ok to keep using it, my last close relative stopped using the N-word years ago cause his wife drew the line. I personally do not associate with white people that use the N-word in my presence and that's quite viable at this point in time.
I can't draw that line with black people because I would have to get out of hip hop. To be honest, it wasn't a term I heard regularly since my childhood until rap brought it back.
Yet, if you're going to mount a campaign against the N-word and you're not going to bother with intelligent usage of new forms of media, I have little sympathy for your efforts.
Here's the thing, many bloggers wrote about this event, often dismissing its relevance, who might have been happy to run a photo or video if it was readily available. When someone runs a photo that you've produced, your message often trumps their message, even when they're being critical.
Where are the YouTube clips? Where are the shots of Kurtis Blow? Where are the other rappers like Master P and Chamillionaire who've been making public statements about such issues?
If the NAACP had quickly posted footage from the event along with videotaped messages from folks like Master P and Cham, those clips would be everywhere by now, even on sites that were making fun. And that would not only promote the campaign but promote the NAACP at a time when its very relevance is being widely called into question.
Nah Right has video and a bit of commentary on Russell Simmons and some other folks on Oprah.
I haven't been keeping up with the details of Tony Yayo's alleged assault of a 14 year old but apparently it's moved past the "alleged" stage for Russell Simmons and Al Sharpton who have a press conference and rally planned for Monday. At least, that's how I'm reading the press release.
I'm very curious about what Simmons will actually say because it doesn't seem like he'd move on something like this unless he had pretty strong insider knowledge of what happened, so how he phrases his statements Monday will possibly speak to that knowledge.
Update:
Guess I'll remain curious about Russell Simmons because now he says he's not involved with the event. Russell Simmons is reported to have said:
We are not involved and we have no interest in the public debate over this issue...While we condemn violence in all its forms we see our role as peace makers.
However, a publicist at 5W PR confirmed that Simmons and HSAN were originally involved and decided to pull out. That's interesting. Wonder why?
Paul Wall, Johnny Dang and Kids in Kono [Credit: Irena Mihova]
VH1's Rock Doc Bling'd: Blood, Diamonds and Hip Hop is coming Thursday, February 22nd with Paul Wall, Johnny "the Jeweler" Dang, Raekwon and Tego Calderon offering a record of their trip to Sierra Leone. Included are lots of interviews with folks Stateside such as Kanye West on the topic of conflict diamonds and hip hop.
To some degree this documentary can be looked at as an update of the flick Blood Diamond in the context of rap music's worship of diamonds. But it also represents a much different approach for Paul Wall and Johnny as businessmen in the jewelry biz than that taken by Russell Simmons.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
2006's Unfinished Agenda: Truth, Justice & Diamonds
Technically off-topic but I don't care. If you want a connection, know that libraries have been a liberatory force in my life since childhood, I recently completed my MLS, and I was considering applying for a job at UCLA just a few days ago.
Now that I've made the connection, let the pigs know what you think:
UCLA Police Department Contact Info
Bling is Dead T-Shirt
I'm certainly sympathetic to the Bling is Dead/Demand Details campaign by Annansi Clothing Co. and Chosan and its concern with ending the trade in blood diamonds. But I think there's an inherent mismatch between the goal of eliminating the "bling culture which helps fund bloody wars in Africa" and to "encourage consumers to stop the illicit diamond trade" by shopping for diamonds responsibily.
The combination works if you view "bling culture" as a materialistic perspective that only values flashy displays of wealth and excessive consumption and also feel that all uses of the term "bling" imply the embrace of bling culture. The problem is, the term bling generally refers to both flashy and high quality products separate from one's class status, including jewelry bought for special occasions by folks that may have saved all year for their special gift for a loved one.
Saying "Bling is Dead!" will, of course, delight all those that wish it were true. For those not automatically appalled by the idea of bling culture, whether or not they support it, the idea that bling is dead won't be so appealing, especially since it's not dead.
Debut of Demand Details[?] T-Shirt at H2O Film Festival w/Designer Kofi Annan (center)
ProHipHop's Suggestion:
Pick a message and stick to it.
If you're going to back "Bling is Dead", then don't ask people to responsibly buy items associated with bling. I'd say go the punk route and start encouraging people to "Kill Bling Dead". That way, rather than simply puzzling over the counter-intuitive message that Bling is Dead, folks will be encouraged to take action of whatever sort seems appropriate, from buying handcrafted wooden beads for those special occasions to organizing physical assaults on rich people wearing expensive jewelry, a la the antifur crowd.
If you're going to encourage "consumers to demand details about the origin of the gems they are buying and force diamond distributors to change their business practices", then focus on a "Bling Responsibly" type message and go the conscious consumer route. Then you can emphasize the educational aspects and become an important source for those who want to bling without supporting bad things.
Personally, I'd suggest the second route since it's clear that both Annansi Clothing Co. and Chosan want to do good and make money. That route combines the possibility of having positive effects on long-standing institutions while tapping into the flow of consumer dollars. It's a niche that can reach the masses. And, to be honest, it's the route that most people who express concerns about materialism in hip hop really want to take, even though they'll rock a Bling is Dead t-shirt in a heartbeat. So focus on the Demand Details campaign while offering Bling is Dead merchandise on the side and stack those dollars!
Official site:
Demand Details!
Update:
There was actually a photo of a Demand Details! t-shirt with the other pr photos but it wasn't loading.
Colette Washington - About Time for 89
The California Nurses Association has produced a rap video and released a radio spot featuring Colette Washington to encourage support for Proposition 89.
Official Site:
Yes On 89
Since I mentioned the Greensboro Massacre in a recent post, I'll have to say I was startled to find the video available on YouTube. Miscategorized as a shootout by the Mainstream Media, since the Communist Workers Party had sticks and one handgun while the Ku Klux Klan was organized with numerous hunting rifles, the American public got hoodwinked yet again.
Unfortunately, though the Massacre was an international incident, the American public was manipulated using their fears of Communism [of which I'm no fan but I'm not scurred either], by the fact that the KKK shot only white members of the CWP [they knew exactly who was who, how did they know?] and by the fact that the CWP used the slogan "Death to the Klan."
And you still wonder why I'm angry about rap fools boasting about selling crack, f*cking hoes and the size of their guns?
Update:
Please note the comments for a clarification regarding Sandi Smith, the first casualty who was, in fact, an African-American woman. If you're interested in this topic, please also visit Greensboro's Child.
I've gone back and looked at the line or two that we've seen of Roederer's response to Jay-Z's Cristal boycott as mentioned briefly by the AFP [alternate link] and as claimed by AllHipHop.com as a "statement to AllHipHop.com" (it was obviously a press release or a generic statement so I wish someone would just run the whole damn thing). You know, this is a very weak issue and I don't have any more time for it.
Thankfully, Adisa Banjoko takes a strong stance in two audioposts in which he points out that Jay-Z is simply trading the chains of one brand for another. Adisa finds it rather horrific that Jay-Z's rare (and only?) political act is being squandered on a high priced product that most black people cannot afford. Word.
In audiopost 2, Adisa tears Jay-Z a new one on behalf of the people, pointing out the needs of kids in Oakland don't include Cristal, among other examples of why Jay-Z is not truly down with the streets, though the streets are down with him. Now THAT's real talk!
Previously, Adisa linked to YouTube clips of Malcolm X, Huey Newton and MLK Jr. in a post entitled:
“Hip hop has done more for racism than any activist ever.”- Jay-Z
As usual, the Bishop of Hip Hop is on point and right on time. Peace.
The Complete Account:
ProHipHop Coverage & Analysis of Jay-Z's Cristal Boycott
But I'm just speechless over the Department of Homeland Insecurity's finding that "New York has no national monuments or icons."
I've been checking out the n*ggaz With Guns mixtape about which I've previously expressed my concerns. I'll have to say it's a more complex mix of ideas via song selection than I expected. Unfortunately, the political program seems to be to encourage black people to stop shooting each other, to buy Ice Cube's next album, to turn the guns on the oppressors, to hookup with Urban World Wireless and what? Use your mobile devices to coordinate armed revolution?
I get the buy stuff part. But if you believe you can pull off a black armed revolution at this point in time, keep dreaming, yo. Picking up the gun in self defense when people are threatening you with guns is an understandable choice that has worked more often in the South than has been told, at least when black people have responded to localized violence from an enemy they know well.
Picking up the gun and starting armed revolution in the States? That's a fantasy if what you're after is peace, the end of poverty, etc. Such a program faces overpowering force (police, military, incredibly well armed rednecks and conservatives), a sophisticated economic and political system that requires poor people in the mix for rich people to exist and a whole lot of people that would simply take advantage of chaos for personal gain.
I won't say that Listen N Learn mixtape producer Mike Johns is a cynical opportunist because I don't know the man. But if I take this project at face value, I would have to say it's trafficking in revolutionary fantasies in order to move units and that offends me deeply, whatever the intent of the creators.
On a related note, let me say that SOHH's Most Violent Rap Videos series is a deeply cynical piece of work. I just hope their inability to create proper site navigation keeps them from making much money off it.
Which war? The war against American soldiers by the American government.
But Kung Fu Monkey says it all better than me.
Don't let the blog title fool you, this guy's done the best job I've seen to date on the deadly nonsense of, among others, people who use "Support Our Troops" as a rallying cry for sending people into war without actually supporting them.
One of my current favorite artists is M.I.A. I play Arular every other day at the very least. I was just checking her MySpace page and she's got a blog entry claiming that she's been denied entry to the U.S.
Supposedly she was going to work with Timbaland but couldn't get in. However, I can't find anything else about it online (yes, I could look harder but M.I.A. is a poor choice for a name when it comes to search engines) and her official site has absolutely no information.
I'm wondering why her publicist or whatever pr people represent her have dropped the ball on this and I'm also wondering why the only support I've seen are a bunch of silly and/or supportive MySpace comments by people who are clearly politically useless.
I sent an email but you know how likely it is that I'll hear back. I checked MTV (whose own search engine is total sh*te but you can use Google to specify the domain and it's much better) but they don't seem to have anything, even though this seems like the kind of political item they'd pick up.
I don't see anything on the prominent hip hop news sites and I can't remember the names of any of those indie rock sites with all the know it all critics.
Anybody know anything?
Update: Checked Pop Matters and Pitchfork. Useless as ever.
Further News: M.I.A.'s Visa Problems Resurface Online
AJ Calloway, former cohost of 106 and Park with Free, reveals that he hated what he did for five years.
Speaking on a panel at South Carolina State University, AJ stated that after his own experiences of racism, he had told himself that he would never do anything to harm his race but that during his five year stint at 106 and Park, he felt like he was hurting black people.
As an awareness exercise he suggested:
Pick your five favorite songs . . . Write down every word that's in your favorite songs. Read it back to yourself and think about what that has put into your head.
Talk about job dissatisfaction! I mean, I can appreciate what he's saying but, if it's true, he must have really needed the dough. I hope he's not getting paid now for showing up at college campuses and talking about what bad things he did against his own people to pay the bills. But why not? That's what a lot of rappers do!
What should have been another great event for hip hop in the wake of the Smithsonian's embrace was marred Saturday. The Stanford Hip Hop Archives held an event in which my friend Adisa Banjoko participated.
I don't have official news, though I hope to have a statement from Adisa before too long, but my understanding is that during a panel appearance KRS-One freaked out and started accusing Adisa of various things including being an FBI agent. A variety of things were said and it looks like an ugly scene ensued, though there was no violence at the event.
Obviously, given my longstanding relationship with Adisa, I won't be covering this from anything like an objective position. However, beyond individual positions, this doesn't seem to be a good look for hip hop or for Kris. More when I have it.
Update:
Since it looks like I won't get anything substantial for awhile, let me fill in some background from what I already know about some prior issues between Adisa and Kris.
Adisa Banjoko has had a long standing challenge to debate KRS-One over what Adisa terms philosophical differences. It goes back so far he even wrote about Kris ducking him in his first blog post.
Apparently that didn't go over well with some folks and oddness ensued.
Although he generally speaks of KRS-One with respect, perhaps Adisa's recent comments got things stirred up again:
KRS-ONE is a good brother. I love him but he ducked me. But I know why. . . [KRS-ONE] has too much to lose. He would get broke by me on the podium.
Of course, Adisa has also always been clear that his aim is a fair debate rather than a bout of mudslinging. Hopefully Kris will recognize that fact as well.
I generally don't write about politics unless it's really tied in to hip hop and almost always in relationship to business. But this article about a possible "permanent memorial to the hundreds of slaves who helped build the Capitol from the late 1700s until the mid-1800s" caught my attention.
Not only is it the right thing to do but I've always been interested in the history that's been covered up. And, for some reason, this particular story captured me emotionally as well.
The statue crowning the U.S. Capitol is called "Freedom." Yet it was a black slave who figured out how to coax apart the 191⁄2-foot, 15,000-pound plaster statue so it could be cast in bronze and rejoined atop the dome. . . [Philip] Reid was about 42, small in stature and respected for his work . . . While working on the statue from 1860 to 1862, he figured out that by hooking a rope into an iron eye on its crown and instructing men to gently pull on it, the statue would come apart in its original sections.
Apparently there's a question of doing either an annual ceremony or a physical memorial of some sort. While I think annual ceremonies are great, the bottom line is that there should be a permanent, physical memorial so that schoolkids and tourists can see it no matter when they visit DC.
Crips Gang Co-Founder [& Noble Prize Nominee] Executed in Calif.
At the moment, a punk rock rather than a rap lyric strikes me as most appropriate:
"Eye for an eye justifies murder by the State."
Written by Mike Dean, an anarchist friend of mine and member of C.O.C., a hardcore band gone speed metal.
Breakdown FM: An Interview w/ Snoop Dogg & Stan Tookie Williams
I originally closed with an angry statement and then decided not to post it. Let me just state the obvious. If you want the killing to end, you have to stop killing.
The NY Times's David Carr looks at U2 as a "multimillion-dollar, multinational media company" in order to understand their longevity as a chart topping musical act. He organizes his discussion via a series of tips that are best when they consider U2's embrace of new technologies and approaches to marketing, like developing a website that includes a subscription option for unique content and early access to tickets or collaborating with Apple on a U2 branded iPod preloaded with an extensive catalog of U2's music.
Carr's take on U2's political activities is a bit mixed. It's true that Bono can mobilize audiences to text message a website and make them "think they are part of something bigger", which seems like a no-brainer in a stadium concert setting featuring rock anthems and tens of thousands of rabid fans with mobile devices. But describing Bono's interactions with conservative politicians, in which he uses star power and what is apparently a reasonable depth of knowledge to engage them in conversation in exchange for photo opps, as an example of embracing politicans rather than politics seems rather bizarre. Let's just say that intelligently playing the media game to promote one's agenda is a necessary prerequisite for a musician that desires to top the charts and have a generally polite impact on career politicians.
This letter to a San Jose Mercury News writer that asks if Bono puts his money where his media is raises some interesting questions and seems more politically astute, even if it also seems motivated by annoyance at US funds going to help folks in Africa. But then, I was talking to an intelligent woman just the other day whose strongest argument for the death penalty was that she thought it was cheaper than life imprisonment. I guess deciding who lives, who dies and who politicians will talk to is still all about the Benjamins!
I was talking to Adisa Banjoko about today's elections and he explained why his wife registers Republican and votes Democrat. The idea is to bypass electoral fraud and ensure that one's vote is counted. Although I think the very clear examples of electoral fraud in recent elections present other ways that Democratic candidates are undermined, it's a thought provoking and even twisted idea that makes me want to take another look at what's been happening and how we might work to ensure democratic elections for all candidates.
You know, I love the idea of democracy. I hope to see it in action someday!
Adisa is also close to putting out his second book entitled Lyrical Swords Vol. 2: Westside Rebellion. You'll be hearing more about that here at ProHipHop because Adisa and I are working together in a variety of ways and I provided some of the editing services for this book. It's been delayed till mid-December but you can check out some sample chapters.
You can also keep up with Adisa's activities via his blog Holla at a Scholar!! and his book-centered website Lyrical Swords.
The concept of the "streets" is a funny one. For most people in hip hop that means some kind of commitment to the hood, to thug life and, sometimes, to the notion that the unruliness of hip hop has revolutionary potential. Actually it's simultaneously more complicated and yet simpler than that, but I raise the idea because, for me, a commitment to the streets is more about marches and demonstrations and rioting.
That may sound strange coming from someone who covers business news, but I've never claimed to not be strange. Though I haven't been following the details of the rioting in France, I do think it's a phenomenon that will be mostly misrepresented in the mainstream press and mostly misunderstood by the American people.
I believe that if I was following French hip hop, some of which is created by members of the communities that are currently rioting, I would have many references to the conditions that are sparking current unrest, because this stuff has been building for years. Suffice it to say that many of the rioters are kids whose immigrant families have been treated as outsiders and housed in projects. You know the drill, even if you've only seen it on tv.
As described in the NY Times:
"Discrimination has flourished behind the oft-stated ideals [of French society], leaving immigrants and their French-born offspring increasingly isolated in government-subsidized apartment blocks to face high unemployment and dwindling hope for the future."
Just as hip hop music has sometimes served as the CNN of the hood, so too does some of French hip hop play that role. However, hip hop movies have also helped educate folks, even the bad flicks. So if you're trying to understand the situation in France, you could get a lot from the film La Haine which translates as Hate. La Haine was released in 1995 and focuses on conditions in the communities that we now see in flames, though they seem to have taken the step that American rioters rarely do. They've left the ghetto and headed for the centers of power.
Here's one plot summary
"Injured by a police inspector during an interrogation, Abdel is at a hospital, almost dead. In the suburbs where he lives, some riots happened during the night, and one policeman lost his gun. One of Abdel's friends, Vinz, finds it. Vinz and his two pals, Said and Hubert, have nothing to do so they try to kill time. Vinz swears that if Abdel dies, he will shoot a policeman."
In addition to being a great movie, I found La Haine to be educational in similar ways to Boyz n the Hood. And, guess what? The La Haine soundtrack features French hip hop.
Update: I was just updating the Amazon info and noticed that the VHS version (there doesn't seem to be a U.S. dvd release) was listed in videos at no. 100 today, a huge jump from yesterday's no. 3,157. I haven't done a search but I'm betting some major media outlet is making the obvious connections that I'm making.
Though it wouldn't have affected US video sales (I don't think), the UK's Independent mentions the film:
La Haine: Schools, synagogues and hundreds of cars burn. It's Paris 2005
Available from Amazon:
Video/VHS - Hate aka La Haine
DVD/Import - La Haine
Soundtrack/Import - La Haine
Jay-Z makes the cover of Fortune and Oliver Wang finds this "crazy" (but in a good way). I know what he's saying but I'm not sure anything can top Kanye West on the cover of Time magazine. Of course, I wasn't following Jay-Z as he worked his way up from the streets.
As Fortune's Nadira A. Hira points out, Jay-Z "is not a traditional CEO—many financial functions are handled by Def Jam’s corporate parent, while day-to-day details are delegated to seven division heads who work beneath him." This arrangement frees Jay-Z up to work with artists, entice them to Def Jam and help make hits happen. And, really, it's not like he'd take an A&R or VP position, now is it?
But as the piece reveals as it profiles Jay-Z's life as an executive, it's a real job and, though he may have more flexibility than most employees,
Recent Comments