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Posts Tagged ‘rap’

Everything in Black and White: Absolutes are the root of evil

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , on January 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »

abso

The reduction of absolutes in our daily thinking would improve our functioning in the world.  A new friend recently explained that she tries to limit “absolutes” because she isn’t judgmental.  Of course, she when on with biblical references and might have tossed in Tupac’s statement about God and judging.  Whatever, my big takeaway or teachable moment came from the absolute part.

The dictionary defines absolute as “free from imperfection, complete, perfect; free from restrictions or limitations.”  If you think about it, ignorant people like Donald Trump walk around all day talking about “all” this and “every” that.  For the record, Trump is brilliant…he just plays dumb on T.V. to build his brand.

As a Black southern kid, I knew I had to be mindful of absolutes because many southern Black minds are restricted by self-imposed limitations.  “Why you talkin’ White….we not supposed to play tennis…we play football and basketball…we ‘posed to struggle….you got to wear the latest style.”

Would someone please tell the ignorant that fashion comes and goes but style remains the same…furthermore, fashion is a cruel scheme created to separate you from your little money.  Often, people with sensible style use saved money to buy HOUSES…but you just keep on making Michael Jordan and Michael Korrs rich.

Speaking in absolutes indicates your mental limits and I can write that because people like that wouldn’t read 200 words down into an article or blog post.  (Smile)  Let’s talk about them.

Every and All Examples

All Black folks like chicken and basketball.  (I happen to love both)

All Jewish people have money.

Every Black person is looking for a handout.

All Blacks with nice cars are selling drugs.

All poor Whites drink Mountain Dew.

All Asians are good at math.

All Muslims are terrorists.

All Christians aren’t terrorists.

All women date for money.

All money is evil.

Everyone should worship like you.

Every White person is exactly like the few Whites you have met.

Everyone in the hood is up to no good.

Everyone in a fancy community got there from fair dealing.

All teachers really want to do another job.

Everyone must pay to play.

All hip hop is bad.

All hip hop is good.

Every man cheats…a man is going to be a man.

All politicians are shady.

All guns are bad.

Every southern White person wants to still own slaves.

All limitations on Blacks come from Whites.

Everyone in the world is out to get America.

Everything the U.S. government does in the world is good.

All Mexicans want to take my job.

All Frenchmen want to take my wife.

Nobody wants my wife…including me.

Everyone in the Pacific Northwest is a candles and sandals liberal.

All Republicans are evil.

Blacks are never conservatives.

No White southerners are Democrats and they couldn’t wait to get the hell out of a party with Negroes.

Everyone in a hoodie is a thug.

Everyone who loves NASCAR wants their country back.

All Indian store owners smell funny.  (Newsflash: you smell like what you eat and your pork eating –ss smells funny to them…but they thank you for getting them rich.)

All gay people are trying to recruit you because you are irresistible.

All lesbians had daddy issues.

All ugly White women can find some Black or Mexican guy to date them…. (I better stop here)

All successful Black women should consider dating the above mentioned White woman’s equally ugly brother because all Black men are in jail, gay, broke or cheaters.

All preachers are good men.  (Some are called…some just went.)

Every woman in high heels is a floozy.

Every woman in low heels isn’t a floozy.

All private schools are better than all public schools.

All social media is evil.

All wine is bad for you….read your Bible.

All pickup truck drivers are rednecks….must stop now, need to go wash my truck.

 

This humorous list could go on and on but the point is made.  We must think with more understanding and complexity.  “All” and “every” could be replaced with “most” or “most that I have met in my limited life.” You know the real deal is this: people with mental and cultural limits don’t realize how dumb they are and get used by manipulators time and time again.  Businessmen were at home when the Klansmen were doing their dirty work…well, some were right there in the mix.  Some rappers are negatively shaping our community’s culture while other folks reap the benefits.

Everyone should be mindful of what they say out loud.  The Trump supporters aren’t new…they just decided to say out loud what they had been thinking for years.  Malcolm X would have thanked them for their honesty because honesty is the starting point of most productive dialogs.

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Best Interests Initiative/ Hip Hop Music and Culture–Worst than the Klan?

Posted in politics, tagged , , on February 27, 2015| 1 Comment »

Hip Hop and Rap music are original American art forms and artists should be free to express themselves in any medium.  I am not for censorship of whatever music adults choose to enjoy.  This discussion is important on a political/governance blog because people make choices surrounding musical sub-cultures and the government is left to deal with the financial consequences.

In communities, we should be mindful that music can play a serious role in the development of young minds and establishment of value systems.  Since colonial days, older Americans have been concerned with the messages in music.  It seems that some current artists/entertainers inadvertently lead the youth down a negative path.  But, old people were once young people and our parents had issues with Prince, AC/DC, Rick James etc.

I contend that the situation is much worse today than 30 years ago because technology can pump all kinds of thoughts into Junior’s ears while all we had was Soul Train and Bandstand.

Proper Context: People can listen to any music in its proper context. It’s art; it’s entertainment. If you stand on a strong moral foundation, exposure to ideas from music wouldn’t dramatically change who you are.  We loved Prince and still love him but I never wore eyeliner or a Captain Crunch Pirate coat.  Early rap gave urban youth an opportunity to battle with words and dance.  Later, the gangsta rap of N.W.A. and Tupac explained the problems of some urban youth in a useful way.  Again, the proper context was kids speaking about their circumstances and that’s why the L.A. riots were foretold by N.W.A. and Ice Cube.

N.W.A. was art imitating life.  As middle-aged parents, the living members of N.W.A. (rest in peace Eazy-E) have their children and grandchildren in safe, comfortable environments—gated communities with cul-de-sacs.  They want better for their kids and prisoners generally want better for their families also.

When real money came into the rap culture, the whole game changed.  People would do or say anything to make more cash…with no regard for societal effects.  Kids from good families made hardcore changes to their vibes to get a record deal.  It was life imitating art to the point that many college students (black, white, brown and yellow) can’t be distinguished from common thugs and street walkers.  As Gil Scott Heron said about another matter “it’s the ultimate realization of the inmates running the asylum.”  But, in this case, the asylum is the whole community.  Senior citizens lock themselves inside their modest homes and dare say a word about the kids with no shirts across the street blasting filth that would make the devil blush.

School kids seek to emulate pimps and pushers rather than positive, law-abiding members of the community.  Rap videos actually have some youth ignoring education and training because the millions they plan to make in the hip hop culture will be much easier.  Of course, a person who develops expensive taste without money soon considers illegal money-making options.

Understand, hip hop is a culture—not just music.  It’s a way of life that involves dress and speech.  Lord have mercy on my community because too many kids are spending their formative years ignoring the foundations of a healthy family, career and home.  Instead, they are making themselves less employable if not unemployable—really, these fools are deployable.  Hey, we had wild phases in our youth but most activities didn’t have permanent consequences.  “NowhatI’msayin…Nowhati’msayin..naw meen.”

Of course, I am talking about the negative section of the hip hop culture and the positive section would be my selection if I was young today.  I recently listened to a Breakfast Club radio interview with Kanye West. When Charlemagne told West that he should go where he is “celebrated not tolerated,” I thought about my community and both major political parties but we aren’t going there.  When West said he listens to advice from Jay-Z and musical cues from new rappers, Charlemagne said that the Bible teaches “Old men for counsel; young men for war.”

1 Kings 12:8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him. 

I love thinking about King Rehoboam’s situation and the current hip hop culture. This guy was the son of Solomon and the people asked him to make their yoke lighter.  The old guys told him to speak good words to them and they would be his servants forever.  But, Rehoboam listened to the guys his age and made the yoke heavier.  When I was young, I would hang with the fellows but the real advice for living came from those older gentlemen and ladies.  In college, I was listening to seniors, grad students, professors and young professionals because listening to other young folks primarily would be like the blind leading the blind.

If people don’t have solid elders in their corners, they live aimlessly and take advise from hip hop music.

I have lived in the “hood” a few times in life but I was never ghetto enough to love the struggle.  Like the yoke in the Bible passage, the struggle can be one’s circumstance.  Blacks in the South were generally striving for a better life…what’s the plan….what’s the good news?  To be frank, those who loved being ignorant and those who loved struggling were avoided.

Today, music executives who are only interested in revenue promote ignorant entertainers (I won’t call them artists) who will do or say everything negative to get more money.  As a result, we have a generation of youth influenced by ignorant peers more so than parents, the church or school.  They love the struggle as a way of life and being incarcerated seems like a badge of courage.  We know old prisoners begged the youth not the make the mistakes they made.

At times, it seems that the worst element of hip hop has a more detrimental impact on the community than the Klan.  Chuck D and Public Enemy in 1991 had an interlude after the song “Shut em Down” in which “Bernie Crosshouse” of the Klan thanks negative Blacks for destroying the community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nskZM74NKkc  (at 4:30 mark)

I’d like to express our deepest gratitude at the destruction of the inferior n****r race, and I’m especially pleased to report that it’s destroying itself without our help. To all you gangs, hoodlums, drug pushers and users, and other worthless n-ggers killing each other, we’d like to thank y’all for saving us the time, trouble and legality for the final chapter of ridding y’all off the face of the earth. Your solution to our problem is greatly appreciated. So keep selling us your soul. Thank yuh

It turns out P.E. was correct in creating Crosshouse because certain elements of the community have us on self-destruct mode and hip hop music often glamorizes these elements.  That glamorization isn’t necessarily a problem for the strong, grounded and well-balanced. But, folks who are weaker, people with questionable home training and unfortunately people who raised themselves (the half-raised) will be influenced by the street from these lyrics and hypnotic beats.

Club friends: In homes where youth are trained with deliberation, kids learn the levels of friendship because some people allow kid’s exposure to explicit activities before middle school.  A young adult can kick it on the dance floor with wild friends but coming over to the table and hanging outside the club is a different matter.  To cut to the chase, some folks take sub-cultures created by music (gangster rap, heavy metal, goth) too far.  The artist themselves will admit that much of the image is pure fantasy but some people get wrapped up.

So, parents are teaching one thing and the hipsters on the corner are teaching something else.  Dam, the lyrics said this would happen.  Not a problem…just fire up a phat blunt and tune those haters out.

Solutions: We must have an honest and frank discussion about music and cultural decisions and possible impacts on individuals, the community and the nation. Paul from the Bible wrote a righteous second letter to the church at Thessalonica.  I should have been reading this in my youth rather than listening to the same rap cds over and over but that rap had a message.

2nd Thessalonians 3:10-15 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that any would not work, neither should he eat.  For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.

Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.  But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing.

And if any may obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. 

Yes, we still love our wayward brothers and sisters including those of other colors. But if you are recreationally wreaking the community, I don’t too much mess with you—the disorderly need to get on the right path.  When people in old age look back at their lives, they often find that they were their own worst enemy and some of the people they chose to be around brought drama and struggle into their world.  The soundtrack to that drama might have been questionable music.

Since I got a little too preachy, I would finish this writing by saying thank heaven for the positive cool rappers of my youth—Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Brand Nubian, Rakim. I shouldn’t leave out the educational messages from rougher rappers like Tupac, Biggie and N.W.A. because Ice Cube was a poet before he became America’s dad.  See, people grow up and the sooner that happens, the better you will be.  The following are examples of the rap that I loved in the past and you should notice that rap from the 80s and 90s often sampled 60s and 70s R&B music.  That’s called respect.

P.E.- Shut em Down        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wOcOBjB3uU

LL Cool J – The Breakthrough      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0mk_RgA8-0&list=RDN0mk_RgA8-0

See, I fought with the devil, made a promise to God
I have experience in goin’ all the way to the top
It’s harder harder than hard all the suckers are barred
You used to try to talk down now your ego is scarred

See the problem is you want what another man has
His car, his wife, or his razzamatazz
But that’s weak, you gotta do work on your own
‘Cuz when you’re rich you got friends but when you’re poor you’re alone
So get your own on your own, it’ll strengthen your soul
Stop livin’ off your parents like you’re three years old
Instead of walkin’ like you’re limp and talkin’ yang about me
Why don’t you take your monkey-ass and get a college degree?

Or write a rhyme and ride a bike and try to live carefree
Hope my message reaches you before you’re seventy-three
A old man, when people ask you what you did with your life
You’ll say “I hated L.L. and I carried a big knife”
Brand Nubian- Slow Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAvetlQbrA8

Public Enemy – Brothers Gonna Work It Out  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHxkPNx23Og

Eric B and Rakim – Move the Crowd     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyl_j0g9AwU

Gang Starr – Jazz Thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is5xMd1nT5o

Guru – No Time To Play         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09WzUhMZmFo

Brandy – I Wanna Be Down (Remix) (feat. Mc Lyte, YoYo & Queen Latifah  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LthQLQMilvo

2Pac – Keep Ya Head Up  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXwmDGJAB8

2pac – I Ain’t Mad At Cha       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt1XjVdyJ6o

The Notorious B.I.G. – “Juicy”                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JZom_gVfuw

3rd Bass “Pop Goes The Weasel”      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzXI_ApY4dY

MC Hammer – Pray   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xNSgBkum7o

MC Hammer – Turn This Mutha Out  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74OBaLLi3tY

Grandmaster Flash- The Message     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4o8TeqKhgY

Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force – Planet Rock  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lDCYjb8RHk

Afrika Bambaataa – Looking for the Perfect Beat  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RJlYzBhLg4

OutKast – Player’s Ball            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFofKGKlWo4

Ludacris ft Field Mob & Jamie Foxx-Georgia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZW_VgFXm_w

Master P “Make’em Say UGH” ‌‌https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ZvzIOO6aU

House Of Pain – “Jump Around”        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZaz7OqyTHQ

RUN DMC HARD TIMES      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO2cakSiqDQ

Self Destruction          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxyYP_bS_6s

NEWCLEUS – JAM ON IT     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEmg5GaAHbk

De La Soul – Me, Myself And I           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJEzEDMqXQQ

Pete Rock & CL Smooth – They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BONgL61snlM

A Tribe Called Quest – Bonita Applebum       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6oO-1iWc1c

De La Soul “Buddy” ‌‌   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69dt5clGPo

Black Sheep – The Choice Is Yours   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9F5xcpjDMU

Digable Planets – Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4kqL13jGM

Arrested Development – Tennessee  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VCdJyOAQYM

PM Dawn – Set A Drift On Memory Bliss      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5lByFc7HiM

Queen Latifah ft. Monie Love – Ladies First   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLB5bUNAesc

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Boondocks: Rejected Stone and Genetically Engineered Folks

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on June 17, 2014| 1 Comment »

keep-calm-and-love-boondocks

The Boondocks T.V. show theme song starts with a righteous Bible quote.  Who knew?  People who paid better attention in church knew. Psalm 118:22 says “The stone that the builder refused (rejected) has become the corner stone.”   In Matthew 21:42 “Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Of course, Jesus was referring to the world’s coming rejection of him.  The Boondocks rapper is referring to  Blacks treatment in America.  I love these verses because we all have people in our families who favor some and reject others.  I would be sitting in a glass corner office of an Atlanta law firm today if college money was divided fairly among kids in my family but why cry over spilled milk.

We still have family members who turn their noses up at blood…at kids mind you.  In Matthew 20:16, Christ said “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called but few chosen.”  Of course, you need to cut family and old friends off when they are bringing everyone around them down and they refuse to hear and act on wise counsel.  I want to live long enough to see which kids will be wildly successful.  It might be the ones whose characters was tempered by adversity like the “niggers’  of old and not like the modern day “niggas.”

I am 50 years old and the America of my youth isn’t the America of today.  The N-word is used constantly on Boondocks but liberals on MSNBC can’t tell me what to say and hear.  The lovely actress Regina King voices both kids on the show and if she is cool with the context I am too because she has a gold-plated hood pass from being on 227 and Boyz In the Hood.

Boondocks Theme Song – Asheru

I am the stone that builder refused

I am the visual

The inspiration

That made lady sing the blues

 

I’m the spark that makes your idea bright

The same spark

that lights the dark

So that you can know your left from your right

 

I am the ballot in your box

The bullet in your gun

The inner glow that lets you know

To call your brother son

The story that just begun

 

The promise of what’s to come

And I’m ‘a remain a soldier till the war is won

 

Wow, this educated lyricist hit hard with “I am the ballot in your box…the bullet in your gun.”  On some level, Black youth seem like the rejected stone that could be the cornerstone.  In politics and policy, leaders make decision with little consideration of large segments of the population.  We can’t grow as a nation if the troubled 20% continue to be a drain of resources and counterproductive.  In reality, everyone can’t be on top—someone has to lose.  But, the playing field must be fair so every kid has an equal shot.

The geniuses behind Boondocks design the show to provoke thoughts about the Black man in America.  The grandfather is a veteran of the civil rights movement who moved his grandsons to the Boondocks for a better quality of life.  Of course, suburbia has problems also.  It’s the same old story about Blacks struggling to get our slice of the American pie.

So, I am watching a documentary on corn on the History Channel and I couldn’t stop thinking about the development of this crop compared to the development of people.  Corn is genetically engineered to improve; it’s a hybrid.  Heterosis, hybrid vigor or outbreeding enhancement is the improved or increased function of any biological quality in a hybrid offspring.  An offspring exhibits heterosis if its traits are enhanced as a result of mixing the genetic contributions of its parents.

On Boondocks, Riley and Huey are brothers but they are heading in different life directions—one intellectual progressive and one thug.   Inside Black America, am I the only person concerned that we are breeding the worst elements with each other and therefore creating a hybrid screw-up?  How many Black professionals have only one child or none and how many troublemakers have a house full of future troublemakers.  In a free society, we can’t stop people from breeding with whomever they chose but still…dam.

Republicans can say this and Democrats can say that but improving Black America starts with listening to people like Colin Powell as he softy pushes the West Indian sensibility of his upbringing.  Yea, many of the Blacks from the Caribbean are more success than other Black Americans because they don’t play with education, family association and generational development. You just don’t come into their families and get teens pregnant with careless disregard.

On the documentary about corn, they state that heterosis creates hybrids that are better than they parents.  With people, I call that moving forward.  Are we looking at a generation of Black Americans who are inferior to their parents?    As the last line in the Boondocks theme says, I am going to remain a soldier until the war is won.  The question is where the battlefield is and who the real enemy is.

 

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Government: Schemes and Games

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

In the rap classic “Fight the Power,” Chuck D said, “Gotta give ‘em what they want…gotta give ‘em what they need.” In this country, what we want isn’t necessarily what we need e.g. slavery, Jim Crow, clear cutting forest, robbing of Indians, child labor, the defense industrial complex, lifetime public assistance, fast food.

It is time for my annual venting blog post about a hodgepodge of subject relating to me being right and the status quo being clearly wrong.

Liberals: Heaven knows the left means well and their general thinking seems rooted in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.  However, long-term assistance can create a segment of the public that is weak—always looking for help from others rather than developing the ability to provide for self.  President Reagan was right about that; government is the problem.  We need to create a climate where every kid has a fair shot at learning and growing in a career field.  Failure wouldn’t be tough luck; it would be the result of being out worked.

Conservatives: My biggest problem with my conservative friends is that their plans for all Americans generally don’t involve all Americans in the discussions.  I will admit that much of their core agenda is sound but they want to force feed corrective policies—as if the rest of America is their children.  They simply don’t listen to anyone unlike them and that is a big mistake.  If they did listen, they would discover that most Black southern voters are more conservative than liberal.  Most rural Blacks hate the welfare state created my government and if the leaders of the civil rights movement from the 1950s and 1960s could see us now, they would say this wasn’t the plan.

Conservatives vs. Black nationalists: Are you kidding me!  The idiots on right wing radio and Fox News who demonized Rev. Jeremiah Wright blew a great opportunity to improve America.  President Obama needs Wright in his corner because Wright and nationalists are throwbacks to those who hate governmental involvement in our daily lives.  Uncle Sam isn’t your daddy and surprisingly Clarence Thomas is the man who is most like Wright (pun intended.)  I loved the book Justice Thomas wrote about his grandfather’s life skills.  Once and for all—the conservative movement should create a relationship with the Black pride movement because these two groups’ messages of personal responsibility are the same.

Hip Hop Culture: While I respect artistic freedom, the current rap culture is detrimental to all youths.  For us, rap reflected urban life but those suffering wanted better for their families.  Today, “good kids” idolize thugs, pimps, bangers and dealers.  When I am on a college campus, I can’t tell the students (budding professionals) from common thugs and strippers.  In my day, we call those stupid high heels “come f me” pumps. When women ruin their feet, legs and backs from those shoes, Obamacare shouldn’t cover them because dumb is a preexisting condition.

President Obama’s Vision: While I love President Obama, I need to get Nixon-like for a second and make one thing perfectly clear.  Obama vision for what America should be isn’t the reality of what America is.  Is that the role of a president—to imagine what we should be and push toward that goal (FDR, Kennedy, Lincoln.)  I just feel puzzled sometimes when the president says “we are better than that…we are fair…we are pure hearted.” No brother Obama,  “you” are those things while most of us are a mess and a trip.  His family raised a wonderful person but some of the things at the top of his agenda have regular folks scratching our heads.  But, he is still my guy.

Schemes and Games: Theoretical people like me are often broke while hustlers stay paid with schemes and games.  We have hustlers on my street and hustlers on Wall Street.  It is now and has always been a dirty game and the simple rule of the game is to get and stay paid.  I think most of official Washington today is driven by the desire to stay paid rather than the hope of a better America.  Liberals don’t recognize that throwing taxpayers’ money at problems isn’t helping and ultra conservatives don’t realize that the tough boy approach isn’t working.

Silent Majority: I still believe that most Americans are good people who are put-off by drama coming out of Washington and the state houses. Jon Huntsman, Condi Rice and others seem as pure-hearted as me. When we get about the business of having a national effort to improve this great country from the bottom up, you should join us.

I will end this rambling blog post by highlighting the parts of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” that we loved in the pol sci department of my black college.  Those lyrics are timeless.

Fight the Power–Public Enemy

[Intro]
Yet our best trained, best educated, best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight. As a matter of fact, it’s safe to say that they would rather switch than fight.

[Verse 1]
1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hitting your heart cause I know you got soul
(Brothers and sisters, hey)
Listen if you’re missing y’all
Swinging while I’m singing
Giving whatcha getting
Knowing what I know
While the Black bands sweating
And the rhythm rhymes rolling
Got to give us what we want
Gotta give us what we need
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power

[Hook]
Fight the power
We’ve got to fight the powers that be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj9SeMZE_Yw

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Youth Exploratory Initiative: Skybox

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , on July 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

My June was spent in a small summer program called the Youth Exploratory Initiative.  We created this project because kids today seem to spend too much time on video games rather than playing outside like we did.  Let me tell you, those video games have given them an understanding of basketball, football and the military that is vastly superior to our old school childhoods.  They read defensives and select plays in football like N.F.L. coaches.  But, all the videos games in the world still can’t replace their excitement with hitting in the baseball batting cage, facing an opponent in chess, hitting a golf ball 100 yards or conquering the water by swimming or boating.  They went from Wii to “We.”

These young men, who all do well in school, get in their early years what some folks don’t get until high school or college: you gain knowledge to use it in life.  For example, grammar isn’t store in your mind to be use only in actual class or at work.  One should speak well 24/7.

 On this Fourth of July, no fireworks or backyard barbeque spark a young person’s appreciation for the blessing of being an American like the History Channel’s documentary “America: the Story of Us.”  Oh, whoever made this film came from the action movies genre because George Washington looked like Brad Pitt.  Commentary about grit and perseverance was offered by everyone from Rudy Giuliani to Colin Powell to P. Diddy—I got cool points with the Y.E.I. guys because I have a picture with Newt on my blog and the speaker was featured in the documentary.  Yes, moderate Democrats know some conservatives.

Of course, some might say that a summer program with good kids is like preaching to the choir but sometimes it seems like we spend too much time, energy and resources on “other” kids and that is not fair to those doing what they are supposed to do.  Remember in the original “Longest Yard” movie when Burt Reynolds’ character was looking for football players for his prison team and someone said that a guy played at Florida State—to which Reynolds replied, “Florida State University?”  “No, Florida State Penitentiary.”  The late Biggie Smalls rapped that he was more familiar with the state penn than Penn State.

Well, the boys in the Y.E.I. program are more interested in Duke for academic reasons than being gladiators of the gridiron.  Oh, don’t get it twisted; they would love balling in the NCAA, NBA or NFL.  But, their parents have them focused on books and character.  We visited FSU and FAMU and they walked into Doak Campbell Stadium.  I ask them where they wanted to be in this arena in the future: a benchwarmer for national power FSU; a football starter and honor student at visiting Duke; or eventually the guy eating pasta salad in his corporation’s skybox.  Of course, they said a former FSU national champion who was an honor grad and is now in the skybox because he went to grad school at Duke.  

We were lucky that it was orientation week at FSU and FAMU so the guys could imagine their parents walking the campuses with them in a few summers. 

To be honest, the Y.E.I. program was basically a reward for their hard work during the school year and we should do more of that.  You would be surprise by what these kids already know.  Coach A.J. and I played a You Tube video of the greatest music composers of all times and the guys knew most of the music from action movies and cartoons.  But hey, we to introducing them to the classics: jazz and Motown.  To our surprise, the know Motown and old school R&B because the rappers have sampled them to death— keep the legal and your money right.

They also know that rap is a medium of art and that art should imitates life rather than life imitating art.  In other words, thug rap is a corruption of real hip hop, which was mostly positive.  The hardest rappers of the past now have their kids in prep schools because no community should glorify a hard life.  Since parents work hard to give you a comfortable life, those parents are more heroes than some guy with “a condo on his wrist” who is proud of his police interrogation   (FYI “Cashin Out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GbolQtl17o&feature=related ).  Y.E.I. kids’ families are local law enforcement and military veterans and that is real “Call of Duty.”

The web-based information we cover is on a tab at the top of the Project Logic Ga page and pictures are can be found on the Project Logic Ga facebook group page.   Thanks to the sponsor of the project—who actually came up with the idea.  President Obama and Governor Romney would agree that real health care improvement starts with diet and exercise.  Some folks talk a good talk but the team at S.P.A.M. truly is about getting our youth of the path to better health.  (Come on now, The Y.E.I. guys ate four pizzas a day… but washed it down with bottle water rather than soda.)      

The billions of dollars that will be spent on political campaigns this year could be better utilized thanking good kids and the long-term benefits would be amazing.   As professor Aaron Johnson taught them during a brief visit to his econ class at Darton College, it’s all about cost benefit analysis and risk/reward.

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That S__ Crazy: Huntsman, Gingrich, Bishop, Romney

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , on January 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Kanye West saying ”That S__ Crazy” on that song with Jay Z is one cool rap lyric.  But, the line should apply to some political matters as well.

Jon Huntsman: The GOP had an opportunity to select this decent conservative as their nominee but he left the race while polling in the single digits.  Huntsman could have easily secured the large political center’s vote and walked into the White House if unemployment rates and gas prices remain high.  But, the red meat people on the far Right want a president who is mad, angry and pissed so they gave him their behinds to kiss.  “That S__ Crazy.”

Newt Gingrich: The homeboy Newt needs to stop tripping.  He is as smart as President Obama and would make improving America his historic legacy if he became president.  But, the food stamp stuff is too much.  In the debate last night, Newt said, “Obama PUT more people on food stamps than any American president. Put.  Put.  Put.  No political leader in this nation wants people on food stamps or in need.  The implication is that President Obama is a socialist and that’s not the case.  Speaker Gingrich knows better but it’s a dirt game.  Newt is crazy like a fox and he might steal South Carolina with this mess.  Democrats in S.C. should vote for Newt (since Huntsman is gone) so that Obama/Biden get a louder opponent.  “That S__ Crazy.”

Sanford Bishop: Why in the world does the far Right want Bishop’s seat so badly.  My friends in the conservative movement should know that agriculture is the backbone of rural Georgia and Bishop gets urban members of Congress to support Farm Bill programs that benefit every American who eats food and the producers who grow food.  Fiscal conservatives have crop support programs as one of their main targets.  So, removing Bishop is directly shooting yourself in your southern foot because my region would be a wasteland without USDA .  “That S__ Crazy.”  

Mitt Romney: While I am an Obama supporter, I must say that people should get off Romney’s case about his work at Bain.  Capitalism involves improving companies if you can and closing them if you must.  Mitt should say that he and Jay Z “ball so hard..these (blanks) want to fined me…but first they got to find me.”  “That S__ Crazy.”

Bottomline: As the song says, you got to crawl before you ball.  Young rap listeners should understand that fact and avoid the bling.  We need to hear that from moderate leaders. (Are they still saying bling?)

 N-ggas in Paris (language warning)

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Backwards Hip Hop: Make It Rain

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , on July 19, 2011| 3 Comments »

Is hip hop taking us backwards?  I loved this art form in my youth but it seems (correct me if I am wrong) that young people are emulating the worst elements of society.  Slaves wanted freedom and that freedom didn’t really come until the 1970s. 

At church Sunday, the pastor, a veteran of the struggle, started his sermon by saying that freedom doesn’t give you the right to do just anything. We are still ticked that someone broke the windows at church. Did he really refer to the culprits as “devils” in a prayer the morning we discovered the vandalism.  Yeap..I like the pastor…he has teeth. 

My definition of “teeth” in the public policy arena is policy that has bite or a consequence element.  For example, healthcare reform might have had a provision stating that if I cross the 50 pounds overweight mark, they aren’t spending money and effort  saving me from me. “We saw you at Golden Corral putting in work.”

Dr. Martin Luther King paraphrased the Biblical prophet Amos when he said, “We are determined here in Montgomery to fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”  A quick glance at hip hop history’s use of water/rain takes me from Oran Juice Jones’ “Standing in the Rain” to Boys To Men “Can You Stand the Rain.”  My brother-in-law in N.C. used that last song as his sermon title the first time I heard him preach. 

Today’s hip hop has a tune by Atlanta rapper Travis Porter called “Make It Rain” and the beat is bumping.  But (oh my goodness), a sista (the fruit that blossomed on the African tree) comes in stating, “You want to see some –ss, I want to see some cash.”  Making It Rain involves rich cats going into the night or strip club, standing in the D.J booth and making it rain money.  You Tube videos show rain events with six figures going in six seconds.  To be honest, we had the Too Live Crew back in the day but that was a novelty.  We were in college or the military to improve our families’ situation…to move forward.

If you walk down a college campus today, the dress and vibe of some of the students would alarm you.  Some college students are making a concerted effort to be as thug-like and stripper-like as possible—including my college classmates’ kids who grew up in nurturing environments.  We are moving backwards on some level and since hip hop involves Black, White, Red and Brown, the drama knows no boundaries.    

If you don’t believe me, you can get shocked on the webpage WorldStarhiphop.com.  Since I gave up on most new rap music a few years ago, I don’t watch the videos introduced on WorldStar but the homemade cellphone videos of people fighting in public are disturbing.  We are talking brawls in Pizza Hut and mothers fighting in the street.  Colin Powell said we need to reinstitute the concept of shame and I agree.   When the fights start, the camera person often says “Worldstarhiphop…this is going on Worldstarhiphop.”

We were radical in college but we could talk with political and community leaders when we broke out the khakis, ties and blazers .  If I were in college today, I would be listening to Oakland rapper KHARI because he has teeth.   He drop one called “Thickness” about curvy women that has the interest of my college classmates who are now in their 40s.  The guy is a poet like L.L. and Chuck D so listen with caution to his track “The Beast” which is about Black men in prison.  He makes some thought-provoking points but the Oakland police must be much worst that the okay rural police in my town.  KHARI is a conspiracy theorist who seems to think that prisons and the justice system are designed to make money locking up “just us.”

Hip hop is an original American art form and the current rappers are worrying my generation like our generations’ rappers must have worried our parents, preachers and professors. I swear art isn’t imitating life—life is imitating art and pulling us down.  Are they reversing past gains?   When I see the current pol sci majors at my HCBU, I am going to recommend that they checkout L.L. Cool J.’s “The Breakthrough.”  We knew that L.L. was different and that he would be having a positive impact on American culture for years.  LL is hard and has teeth but it was well-intended.  What’s the intention of today’s rapper$?

The Breakthrough: LL Cool J

Knuckleheads spreadin’ gossip all over town
Every time I drive by you’re just standin’ around
Hundred-bottles in your pocket, forty-dog in your hand
Don’t you know you’re just a worker and your boss is my man?
L.L. this, L.L. that, soon as I walk in the place
I wanna take my gun and shoot you in your muthaf-ckin’ face
You’re playin’ me too close with the schemin’ and games
I guess the beef and the bullsh-t is the price of fame
Movies, records, goin’ on tour
Twenty-thousand people hip-hoppin’ on the floor
Whole parties body-rockin’, and everything’s chill
Get back to New York, and the suckers act ill
See I fought with the devil, made a promise to God
I have experience in goin’ all the way to the top
It’s harder harder than hard
All the suckers are barred
You used to try to talk down now your ego is scarred
See the problem is you want what another man has
His car, his wife, or his razzamatazz
But that’s weak, you gotta do work on your own
cuz when you’re rich you got friends
but when you’re poor you’re alone
So get your own on your own, it’ll strengthen your soul
Stop livin’ off your parents like you’re three years old
Instead of walkin’ like you’re limp and talkin’ yang about me
why don’t you take your monkey-ass and get a college degree?
Or write a rhyme and ride a bike and try to live carefree
Hope my message reaches you before you’re seventy-three
A old man, when people ask you what you did with your life
you’ll say “I hated L.L. and I carried a big knife”
Every day is a chase, every day is a race
and every day you’re being overpowered by my bass
Too much juice to be a deuce, I had to be a ace
It’s like the fire’s in my eyes and the gun’s in my face
I’m stompin’ stupid knuckleheads until they bleed
I’m the leader of the show, so it’s up to me to lead
I’mma lead you away from drugs and petty crime
Lead you away from wack beats and rhyme
Lead you to that ticket line
so you can come in my show and watch the stars shine
Get busy, not dizzy, wanna teach the young
The last man who didn’t listen ended up gettin’ hung
Not that I killed him, it’s just
He didn’t wanna trust
the words of a master that’s why you must
Take heed to the speech, it’s gonna reach your ear
Don’t try to say you can’t hear cuz the words are clear
Throwin’ flurries, punks scurry and I bury the rest
You better hurry up and rock a rhyme and give it your best
Cuz tonight’s the night we gonna see the big fight
Twelve-gauge on the stage in case it don’t go right
E-Love drives a tank, he’s strong like a truck
If you’re cryin’ while you’re dyin’ we ain’t givin’ a f-ck
L.L. Cool J is on the microphone
tellin’ all you punk ducks “Leave me the hell alone”
Cuz I’m rated X, born to snap necks
Straight up and down, no special effects
I’m the professor, the teacher, the hip-hop dean
If Russia bombed the U.S., they’d be scared to touch Queens
Cuz that’s where I live, and this is what I give
Turnin’ top-notch crews into fugitives
They run, they frightened, they hide from King Titan
like a sniper when he’s shootin’ or a viper when he’s bitin’
Here I am, tellin’ the truth
and I’m spreadin’ the word to my fellow youth
It goes man-to-man and jam-to-jam
I got hip-hop, rock, and love song fans
All you petty MC’s in the state of New York
Gettin’ a thousand for a show but you still wanna squawk
Can’t get a decent contract, your beats ain’t workin’
Dogged-out Pumas plus you’re manager’s jerkin’
Your mic sounds weak, remember that skeezer
I’m badder than Napoleon, Hitler or Caesar
I’m a hitman, but I’m not for hire
Fly girl’s desire, the man you admire
Not only on the stage, I rock in the park
and I’m a killer in the daytime, and worse after dark
So don’t never ever mess with the king of the sound
L.L. Cool J, the baddest around.

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Black Beauty, Sagging Pants and Funny Names

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on August 28, 2009| 2 Comments »

Someone emailed me the link from a Black beauty pageant and basically said they knew that the day would come when “those names” would be everywhere.  Wait just a second Uppity Conservative: America is a complex and intricate tapestry woven from many different fibers; we have various subcultures.  While I am a moderate and wouldn’t wear sagging pants if I were in school today, I do remember wearing boxer shorts with gators on them as short pants (of course we wore briefs under them.) 

Excessive tattoos and sagging pants concern me but so does middle age women with too much cleavage.  What’s up with the women at church yard sales with short shorts so their leg can tan evenly.  Ultra short shorts on mothers and young daughters are as inappropriate as Ray Ray’s sag.  

Like Don Henley sang, “the more I know, the less I understand” and I have been trying to get to “the heart of the matter” but I give up.  I don’t understand the thug culture or “the confederacy was right” culture.  The R&B singer Jaheim helped me make peace with the new culture (I prefer agri—culture) with his hood anthem “Fabulous.”  The lyrics included the line “name our kids them funny names” but more important Jaheim sincerely said, “we got love for you’ll but you’ll not love us.”  When this song came out, I would have considered you nuts if you told me that a funny name person would be president in 2009.  Don’t sleep, it could have been our sister from the South….Condoleezza. 

Jaheim-Fabulous

http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x24jcd

Remember William Shakespeare’s Juliet saying, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” As we say in the South, “it’s not what they call you; it’s what you answer to.” 

Since this post started about a beauty pageant, may I say that the recent Miss. Universe pageant featured some of the most strikingly beautiful women of color I have ever seen.  While the other contestants were nice and I generally prefer the nerdy librarian type, my DNA double helix turns me toward ladies who look like me: Miss Ethiopia, Miss. Jamaica, Miss. Dominican Republic, Miss. Tanzania, Miss. Curacao and even Miss. India.  I could trip all day at a cookout with Jaheim and the guys over which sister got robbed of her crown at this pageant (but Miss. Venezuela is not exactly chopped liver.) 

“Check this out, Son. Miss. Ethiopia, Son..great day in the morning, Son. As we said back in school…she is the one who makes Black so beautiful.”  Those young guys need to pull up their pants and read that Steve Harvey book “Act like a Lady, Think Like a Man’ and they will be ready for that African or African American princess.  

http://www.missuniverse.com/members/contestants/sortBy:region

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Young Cons rapping on Huckabee Show

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , on June 15, 2009| 3 Comments »

Blog contributor HBA said she saw Young Cons on the Fox channel.  Megan Fox or Vivica Fox has her own channel and Huckabee has a show there.  Kidding aside, it’s is cool that rapping as a medium grown from the streets of New York to every corner of the nation and globe. 

I have been in the developing world and some lovely woman says in broken English that hip hop and the urban struggle is similar to their struggle with their oppressors.  While I am from the rural area, who am I to argue with a local.  I might as well claim to assisting with the creation of hip hop the same summer I helped Al Gore create the internet.

But, I still won’t turn my baseball cap to the side (that’s un-American and disrespectful to Jackie Roosevelt Robinson from Cairo, Georgia, and the Negro Leagues.)  And I only turn my cap backwards when I am nailing something in a confined place—HGTV that’s the channel. 

Back to the point, the Young Cons have their message down but should work on their mic skills—rent 8 Mile and watch M flow or better yet check Eric B and Rakim; 3rd Base and Wu Tang Clan.  I am still amazed my Wu Tang Clan’s extensive vocabulary and knowledge so pay attention in school budding rappers.    

Young Con are going to be okay and serve their purpose for them team- peace to them.  Ice-T was wrong to say that Will Smith can’t rap if he is not from ghetto; rap what you know and the children of Black professionals don’t know the struggle…thank heaven. 

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Rap, Hip Hop and Poetry

Posted in politics, tagged , , on March 14, 2009| 3 Comments »

When hop hip was born on the streets of New York, rhymes and dances drove the battles.  As the genre traveled to the left coast, the world learned from Ice Cube, Dre and N.W.A. that south central L.A. was a powder keg ready to blow.  Their music was real gangsters reflecting the unfortunate problems in their world through the medium of rap—in the footsteps of Pablo Picasso, Zora Neal Hurston and Salvador Dali.   

 

Art imitating life or life imitating art?  Of course, the hip hop culture includes positive elements who are real artists but some parts of the thug subdivision are recklessly affecting developing minds and our community as a whole suffers.  Weak-minded kids are so brainwashed that they become detrimental to other kids and everyone else.  When the moral code established by the teachings of family, church and school is ignored, we are in trouble.  From leather jackets to Afro to punk to preppy, every generation gets to define itself but these my classmates’ children are making a concerted effort to glorify easy money, hustling, crime, and incarceration.  And don’t get me started on the stripper style dancing from college students in regular clubs—maybe I am just getting old and grumpy but back in my day we saved that for the “hotel, motel, Holiday Inn.”

 

Lyrics are poetry set to music; Jill Scott should be Poet Laureate; Biggie and Tupac are our dead poets.  Anyone with a strong mind can listen to music in its proper artistic context but as a community we need our youth preparing from the competitive nature of the global economy; kids in the developing are developing fast.  The hip hop culture is big business with Black, White and Brown youth but under-prepared Black youth will struggle if the music adversely influences their mindsets.

 

The kids seem to us now how we must have seemed to our parents but Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5 a “The Message” and John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Rain on the Scarecrow” meant something in farmland.  When they reach 25 year old, they started with that “I wish I would have listened—I got caught up.”

 

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