While Al Sharpton was busy burying the N-word, six teenagers in Louisiana were facing various murder charges over a school fight.
Six African-American kids at Jena High School, Louisiana were arrested last year after an altercation between white students and black students. A white student suffered a concussion and multiple bruises from the fight. According tovarioussources, the six black kids were consequently charged with second-degree attempted murder. Kinda harsh for a school fight, in my non-lawyerly opinion. Here's the ridiculous part though: one of them has already been convicted and will probably face up to 22 years in prison.
The whole saga stemmed from a tree in the schoolyard where only white students sat. Next thing you know, three nooses are hanging from that tree on some prank sh*t. A couple days after the nooses were hung, I gather, the entire black student community held an impromptu protest, crowding underneath the tree during lunch hour. The DA dismissed the nooses as "youthful stunt."
It's "prank" when white students are involved, but it's "crime" when black kids are involved?
I don't care what race you are, this issue deserves attention from the hip-hop community. Too bad, Russell is busy with yoga lessons. And Al has his perm and Beyonce to worry about.
Imagine if Malcolm and Martin had blogs back then...
Although I think it's going to be all bark and no bite with the hip-hop vote drive in the '08 election, this documentary looks super-official. "Deliverance" never sounded so fresh in years.
Apparently, CNN contacted Wise Intelligent and asked him to sit in on a discussion with leaders of St.Sabina, the south-side Chicago church responsible for the Clear Channel-sponsored "TRASH Rappers" billboards that have been raising eyebrows lately. Wise Intelligent respectfully declined the offer to appear on CNN. He explained his reasoning in this detailed email sent to me from Wise's camp yesterday:
---------------------------------------------------- "My reasoning is that, the Euro-American mass media is NOT and has NEVER been the appropriate forum to discuss let alone resolve matters concerning the African-American community! I am more than well-aware of the fact that CNN or any other mainstream American media outlet, for the most part, does not offer a solution oriented platform for black issues, but on the contrary, the platform offered is extremely conflict oriented. As a matter of fact one of the things that the whole Don Imus situation revealed was that these “reporters” and “journalists” are contractually encouraged to be argumentative and controversial. What the network wanted was for Wise Intelligent and the members of St.Sabina to get on national television, attack each other, create further divisions, and exacerbate the problem without addressing some mutual and realistic solutions.
On a 30 minute show with 15 minutes of commercials and 15 minutes of edited dialogue, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY any real understanding or solutions could have been discussed. Knowing that it would have played out like Wise Intelligent and Hip Hop is against the Black Church and the Black Church against Hip Hop; I refused to appear. It was more than obvious to me that CNN could not and does not have the Black community’s best interest at heart! The plan was to supply both of us with weapons and watch us attack each other in classic tribal fashion!
No disrespect but, I am NOT Cam'ron, and I refuse to be used in that way. As I said in the song "UNDA FIRE" from the Blessed Be the Poor album "I don't do this for lack of attention!"
So, being who we are and what we stand for at INTELLIGENTNEWZNET, INTELLIGENT MUZIK, etc. we called St.Sabina and spoke with Rev.Micheal L. Pfleger directly and informed him of what we felt CNN was up to, and that we were not going to allow aliens of the Black Community to sow the seeds of separation and discourse between comrades in the same struggle. Our article/blog was NOT an attack against the Church and their right to post billboards, our intention was to expand the dialogue to include the deeper issues that create and shape the environments in which we live.
When we discuss this or any other issues concerning OUR community, we will do it in the basement of the Church, or in the Intelligent Muzik conference room, NOT on CNN. Their eyes (cameras) should be banned from all discussions, meetings, and gatherings designed to solve our problems and address our concerns with each other! Do they EVER call us up and ask us to appear on CNN to discuss white kids "huffing", pedophilia in the Catholic Church, White on White crime, drug and alcohol abuse amongst the youth in hollywood, and where in the hell are those Weapons of Mass Destruction? Of course not, so why should they be offered a set at the table when we are dealing with our issues???" ----------------------------------------------------
Anyone who's ever listened to Wise Intelligent knows that he's at the opposite end of the so-called trash rappers. Wouldn't that suggest that he'd be in a position to cosign St Sabina's stance, rather than engage in a flame-throwing match with them?
According to a poll conducted by MTV, CBS, and the New York Times, youth support in the next presidential election is split almost evenly between Barack Obama (18%) and Hillary Clinton(17%).
If the election were held today, a majority of 17 to 29-year-olds (54 percent) say they'd vote for the Democratic candidate, while 32 percent would vote Republican. (Source)
Not so fast. What liberal pundits forget to tell you is that, young Americans are not as interested in politics as they make it seem. How else do you explain the 45% of the polled who said they were uninterested in any of the candidates? That's higher than all the people who indicated support for Clinton, Obama, Giuliani, Thompson, and Romney combined.
Understandably, young people don't trust the political landscape, and it'll take more than some exciting statistics to win over their trust and solidarity.
President Carter will be featured on 2 of the 20 covers in the upcoming July issue of Vanity Fair. Shot by Annie Liebovitz, the famed photographer who captured a pose with John Lennon and Yoko Ono mere hours before he was shot and killed, as well as the stirring photo of Tupac in Suge's car in Vegas (okay, fine, maybe that wasn't her), the covers feature Hov's homies, actor George Clooney and R&B songstress Alicia Keys. Also featured are presidential hopeful Barack Obama, presidential nopeful George Bush, and many others. Who reads Vanity Fair? Nobody! But if you'd like to get educated on matters concerning the state of affairs in Africa, this issue may be the one for you.
I started this list as an idea for The Rap Up but decided there's no fun in tackling it alone. Besides, with more folks on board, you're guaranteed a variety of ideas and suggestions. That said, thanks to all the bloggers and writers who took the time to make this a worthwhile effort.
Building and nurturing relationships with the press can be time-consuming. If you're a publicist or an artist, I'll recommend that you bookmark these 10 PR Commandments.
1. Now that the last 5 issues of XXL have been covered by T.I., Lil Wayne, Young Buck, and Young Jeezy, is it safe to reiterate that hip-hop has permanently relocated to the south?
2. Whatever happened to that Firm reunion?
3. Who's likely to get the hip-hop vote in the 08 presidential elections? Kim Kardashian or Coach Stringer?
4. Is Little Wayne the most overrated rapper ever? Or does that title still belong to Biggie?
5. If T-Pain were an animal, what would it be?
6. So, who won that so-called battle between Timbaland and Scott Storch?
7. With Diddy listed as the only NY "rapper" on the bill for Summer Jam '07 (we all know Mims is from Miami), what does that say about Hot 97?
8. What comes to mind when you hear the name "Lil' Mama"?
Rush went on O'Reilly Factor and apologized to the sourpuss for saying (in a previous interview) that he doesn't care about poor black kids. He also defending his spineless statement that calls for the broadcast industry to bleep out three words, and somehow managed to win O'Reilly's adulation. Let me find out Rush is a closeted Republican.
(Major shoutout to SmashTube for keeping up with all these clips.)
I don't know exactly how we can blame this spineless "no snitching" campaign on "the white man," but I'm sure someone's already working on it. Cam raised one good point though--no major label will EVER be stupid enough to discourage a trend that earns them millions of dollars and further degrades the Black community.
Parts 1, 3, & 4. I see we're gradually becoming a race of response; Don Imus says something stupid and folks start calling for hip-hop censorship without looking at the real hole in our soul.
Part 3 is the best part--it's where Kevin Liles calls himself God and nearly stabs a heckler with his collar bone.
Diddy: Can I have that Unbelievable CD? Mick: Take that, take that. Diddy: Shut up! Mick: I can't stop cause I won't stop
Mick Boogie won't be saying "ho" on his mixtapes anytime soon. On the other hand, rappers who insist on using such verbal weapon of mass destruction, will continue to drink from the firehose of fair and progressive media outlets like FOX News for inventing the slang and forcing Don Imus to say it at gun point.
While at the barbershop two days ago, I couldn't help noticing that two fellas had spent about 15 to 20 minutes engaging in a mentally enriching discussion about Lil' Wayne and how he made it rain at a famous H-town strip club. Pause.
"Man, that boy Wayne made it rain at HK the other night. That boy must of blew like $30,000."
It sort of reminded me of my own conversation with a friend three weeks ago. My boy had almost bought the idea (sold to him by another Wayne loyalist) that Weezy was literally sitting on real dollar bills in the "Make It Rain" video. My response? "No one's that stupid." The same Weezy enthusiast maintained that his favorite rapper was well ahead of the rest because he rhymed about big money. "Other rappers ain't talking 'bout nothin'," he stressed.
So, here's a question for you: What would you rather hear your favorite rhyme-slingers rap about?
a) Fame and fortune b) Knowledge of self c) Sexual escapades d) Guns and drugs e) Social commentary f) Other (specify)
Scapegoating hip-hop for every social ailment in America is nothing new, if you've been paying attention lately. But to blatantly blame rap music for Don Imus' racist and reprehensible remarks on the Rutgers women's basketball team is outrageous, especially when there's no evidence that said Imus even listens to rap. We're talking about a man with a history of ad hominem slurs, who's described African-Americans with despicable terms like "cleaning lady" and "quota hire" in the past.
Worse still, Imus contradicted his previous sorryloquies on NBC's Today Show yesterday with a classic cop out:
"I may be a white man, but I know that young black women all through that society are demeaned and disparaged and disrespected by their own black men and that they are called that name. I didn't invent the phrase...the phrase was invented in the black community."
No sh*t, Sherlock!
Who's this guy's publicist anyway? Will someone please tell him to shut up and face the fact that what's wrong is wrong irrespective of who's perpetuating it? Treat others as you expect them to treat you, period.
Honestly, I don't know what's more disturbing about this whole saga: the media's superficial obsession with the issue amidst a slow-news cycle or the lip-service (not to mention double standards) approach from the black folks on the other end of the spectrum. Or the fact that hip-hop gets blamed for everything from misogyny to Osama's disappearance.
Blame hip-hop for the Iraq war. Blame hip-hop for global warming. Blame hip-hop for Anna Nicole Smith's death. Hell, if you look at the world trade center long enough, you might catch hip-hop staring right back at you.
If rap music has only been around for about 3 decades, how then is it acceptable to continually blame it for societal ills that existed prior to to the culture's origins?
I hope Erik Rush, the Double-Stuffed Oreo race-traitor (his own words) who attacked Obama on Faux News, enjoyed his own 10 seconds of fame on Hannity & Colmes because no one outside of Faux News loyalists thinks highly of him.
With all the ridiculous accusations being leveled against Obama, I find it astonishing that the same detractors fail to acknowledge the fact that America's in a changing era. Look at all the early Presidential front-runners: Rudy Giuliani (first Italian-American president?), Hilary Clinton (first woman President?) , Mitt Romney (first Mormon President?), and Barack Obama (first Black President?). They all represent the face of a changing America. So, how come Obama has caught way more flack for his race than his fellow Presidential hopefuls? I rarely hear anyone saying Clinton doesn't stand a chance because she's a woman, or that Giuliani is not white enough.
No.
Pundits are quick to make references to Hilary's pro-war vote, Giuliani's support for civil unions, Romney's support for "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military. But no one's making an argument about Obama's position (or lack thereof) on social issues.
Oh, never mind. That's not important. Who cares? He's not black enough. He's too black. That's the bottom line.
With the exception of his troop pull-out proposal, Obama has been remarkably non-committal to most issues. (A political tactic, perhaps.) Many of his supporters don't even know why they're so drawn to him. They don't know much beyond his palpable charisma and Bill Clinton-esque eloquence. Unfortunately, his detractors don't know much about him either. So they resort to bigger issues like...
*drumroll* "He's a cigarette smoker!"
*drumroll* "He's avoiding Louis Farrakhan!"
*drumroll* "He's articulate!!"
Next time conservative talking-head Erik Rush decides to rail against Obama for being a "separatist," he needs to look in the mirror and ask himself whether his own views might, in fact, polarize an already-isolated Black community.
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