X-Clan Reunion Set to Highlight Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards

The Prophecy of Hip-Hop

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The Prophecy of Hip-hop
by DJ Paradise Gray of X-Clan
original article-21 2006

paradisexclansit“Government Intelligence” is a misnomer. With at least a 30 some odd Billion dollar budget, the pre 911 “Intelligence” Agencies didn’t have a clue about what was going on. In spite of the reports of Arab men at flight schools asking to learn how to fly but not how to land. That was a clue that I would expect the lowest level security guard to alert on. How did they miss that? To borrow a line from Keith Sweat “Something Just Aint’ Right”. What I do know is that I’m very uncomfortable with the people who have their fingers on the red buttons. I’m no conspiracy theorist but Bush is looking more and more like Senator Palpatine to me by the day.

Some people may think that rappers are no rocket scientists, but either someone’s lying about what they knew or rappers are clairvoyant, because they sure did a heck of alot better job than the government, understanding the danger and possibilities for terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center.

Eric B & Rakim’s song “Casualties Of War“, released in 1992 on the “Don’t Sweat the Technique” album, Rakim says:

“So now I wait for terrorists to attack,
when a truck back fires, I fire back,
I DUCK FOR SHELTER WHEN A PLANE FLYS OVER ME,
REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR? NEW YORK WILL BE OVER G”,
Kamikaze, strapped with bombs,
No peace in the East, they want revenge for Saddam”.

Equally prophetic and kinda weird is this next one from Busta Rhymes who seems to stay in the news lately.
(Hip-hop Cointel Pro is on you Busta! Be very carefull, you are probably being set up for a big fall).

Busta rhymes song “Against All Odds” from the 1998 album: “Extinction Level Event (The Final World Front)”

Busta’s prophecy is two-fold here, a combination of both of the other examples.

First Busta’s E.L.E. cd cover features lower Manhattan (the area where the World Trade Center was located) going up in a large blaze of fire, then at 1.19 of the track (911 backwards) – Busta Says:

“DESTROY ANY ARCH RIVAL, OR ANY CHALLENGER,
MAKE YOU REMEMBER THIS DAY NIGGA, MARK IT ON YA CALENDER,
I’m showin’ you somethin’, you ain’t sayin’ nothin’,
My niggaz make noise like a bunch of volcanoes errupting,
NONE OF Y’ALL NIGGAZ REALLY WANNA WAR,
THE TYPE OF NIGGA TO CRASH MY PLANE IN YOUR BUILDING IN THE NAME OF ALLAH”

No wonder they keep hunting him down like his name was Osama Bin Busta!

And last (but not least), The Coup, their CD cover never got released to the public, however it is still pretty easy to find on the internet:

The planned cover art created in June 2001 for The Coup’s “Party Music” album depicts The Coup with an exploding World Trade Center in the background, Coup DJ Pam the Funktress conducts the proceedings with 2 batons as “Boots” Riley handles what looks like a detonator but is actually a guitar tuner. The Cd was released in November 2001 with a different cover after the actual attacks on the World Trade Center.

Could this all just be a coincidence?


Paradise Gray
Honorary Chairman, Pittsburgh LOC
National Political Hip-hop Convention
Grand Arkitech Of The BlackWatch Movement
Minister Of Arts And Sciences Millions More Movement
Director Of Almost Home Youth Ministries
One Hood
www.myspace.com/paradisegray

Wave of tragedy devastates the hip-hop community

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Wave of tragedy devastates the hip-hop community

By Davey D

original article-may 19, 2006

Davey DThe hip-hop community has been hit with devastating losses over the past few months.

Fans around the world were saddened when producer J-Dilla of Detroit’s Slum Village suddenly took a turn for the worse and died in February of complications from lupus. His death was especially painful because it occurred just days before his critically acclaimed album “Donuts” came out. The previous week, an album-release party was held in Los Angeles, where numerous artists for whom Dilla had made beats, including De La Soul, were on hand.

The sudden death in March of Professor X (Lumumba Carson), leader of the Afrocentric political rap group X-Clan, sent shock waves throughout the community. His death was especially hard to accept because many had seen him at a media reform demonstration just three days earlier, where he had spoken about his determination to step up his activism and resurrect the Blackwatch organization founded by his father, Sonny Carson.

In addition, the members of X-Clan had patched up differences that had kept them apart for more than 10 years. They were set for a surprise reunion. The week Professor X died, he was supposed to visit California to shoot a video with group members Brother J and Paradise. This coast, particularly the Bay Area, had special meaning for the group because it was the first to embrace and champion the music of X-Clan, originally based in Brooklyn.

The fact that Professor X died of spinal meningitis made headlines in New York. The Professor X case underscored the music industry’s dirty little secret: Despite the billions of dollars the industry generates annually, most musicians do not have health insurance.

Weeks after these deaths, the hip-hop community was shocked to hear about the shooting death of Eminem’s best friend, Proof, leader of the group D-12. The charismatic Proof (who played the man who gave Eminem his start in the movie “8 Mile”) had announced that he was working with other artists on a tribute album for Detroit’s J-Dilla. Sadly, people are now doing a tribute album for Proof.

Over the past two weeks, California has lost three hip-hop legends, two of them on the same day. One was DJ Dusk, who spun frequently at Bay Area functions. Dusk was also a political activist in the area of education. He died two weeks ago, when he was hit by a drunken driver in Southern California as he walked a girlfriend to her car. According to witnesses, Dusk pushed the woman out of the way but was struck himself and dragged 80 yards. His selfless act speaks volumes about the kind of man he was.

His death was widely mourned in tributes around the country. He was so well loved that hip-hop pioneers Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc and Jazzy Jay made rare joint appearances in New York, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, where Dusk had his biggest followings. They visited San Francisco last weekend to do a tribute and raise money for Dusk’s family.

On the day that DJ Dusk was killed, Michael “Mixin’ ” Moore, a pioneer in hip-hop radio in L.A., died at age 46 from heart failure. Best known for his Militant Mix, fusing speeches and news clips over popular instrumentals, he also is credited with inventing the 5 o’clock Traffic Jam, a mainstay on commercial radio around the country.

While the hip-hop icons were paying tribute to DJ Dusk last weekend, rap legend Skeeter Rabbit of the pioneering dance group the Electric Boogaloos died. He was an innovator in “strutting” and “popping” and was no stranger to the Bay Area, where he participated in numerous competitions.

On Saturday may 20th there will be two seperate tributes and funerals for Skeeter Rabbit and Michael Mixxing Moore

With all the deaths, many in the hip-hop community have taken time to reflect. Since no one is promised tomorrow, we must learn to appreciate what we have today. Digital Underground’s “Heartbeat Props,” which encourages us to honor the living, rings especially true these days.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Breakdown FM-Professor X was Vanglorious

In Remembrance of Professor X

original article-March 18 2006
Check out this special Tribute Mix we did in Memory of the Late Professor X .
Special Shout out to Paradise the Architect of X-Clan

odeo.com/audio/904888/view

By now folks may have heard the news about the sudden passing of Professor X of X-Clan.. I got off the phone with Brother J who was the lead rapper of this legendary group who delivered the sad news. We believe he died from spinal menegitas.. Tonight there will be a special tribute to Professor X on Divine Forces Radio 90.7 KPFK starting at 10pm if you are in Los Angeles. Brother J will be on as well as Paris..

 The passing of Professor X is sad indeed.. For those who are unfamiliar with Professor X please read the statement released by Afrika Bambaataa… X was the guy who coined the phrase “Van Glorious This is Protected by the Red, The Black and The Green“…What’s so sad and crazy is that nowadays when you talk about Professor X to today’s younger Hip Hop audience, they immediately think of the guy from the comic X-men..

Professor X aka Lumumba Carson was a good cat..who will be missed…

Davey D

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Professor X Was Vanglorious
by Wendy Day

I received an email from Afrika Bambaataa and Yoda today saying that Professor X had passed. I rushed over to allhiphop.com to see what happened to him. They confirmed Lumumba Carson passed from Meningitis. I am devastated.

In 1992, I started Rap Coalition out of pure disgust after seeing how my favorite rappers were treated– specifically, Eric B and Rakim, and X-Clan. In the late 80s and early 90s, these were my favorite rappers.

Lamumba Carson was great because he stood for something. He had something to say and he said it. He was the son of New York based (now deceased) activist Sonny Carson (how difficult it must be to be the son of someone so driven, focused, and important to humanity). Lumumba always rose to the occasion.

I always avoided meeting Professor X and Brother J (who, together, comprised X-Clan and heavily promoted the organization Black Watch), out of fear that they may not be what their image portrayed. At that point, I had met so many of my rap heroes and been disappointed in the past because of the diachotomy between image and reality (a painful lesson for someone devoting a career and life to helping her heroes for free).

I found that J and Lumumba were serious about what they were accomplishing. And while I found Professor X to be human with all the human frailties (thank God!), over the years I have found both of them to be exactly who they portrayed themselves to be–strong Black men, loving and caring for a race of people often too tired to fight for themselves. They were not hypocrites like soooo many others.

Like most rappers, and certainly like the majority of rappers from their generation, they did not make much money from their art form. In fact, they had the further degradation of watching others become wealthy on what they built, and on their art form (a BIG @#%$ you to Lou Maglia and 4th and Broadway).

I just spoke with Lumumba for the first time last year. I had received an email that was making fun of him because he listed himself on eBay, and was auctioning off “a day with Professor X” to the highest bidder. How he must be struggling financially to do something like that, I thought to myself. I became the highest bidder. The fact that I could barely afford to pay my rent at the time did not enter my mind. I was determined to buy a day with Professor X.

He ended the auction before the final deadline (doesn’t matter, I would have won regardless) because of the hateful emails circulating on the web about him putting himself up for auction. I was disgusted by the reaction. It was a f*cking lunch date with Professor X. Had it been Justin Timberlake for a charity, no one would have said @#%$. But a hungry man was not supposed to eat this way, I guess.

Somehow others who have made a career from (read: pimped) Hip Hop had the right to say what was acceptable or not for one of the Legends. All of a sudden, people making money critiquing what others create had the power to say what was the proper way for Professor X to make income. It pissed me off beyond words. I received disrespectful, opinionated emails from self-appointed authorities asking me why I supported such a gimmick. I got emails from fake-ass Hip Hop “journalists” spewing negativity and condescention without having all of the facts. I was disgusted with our community for not supporting Professor X and everyone else like him who needed our support and got jeers instead.

Lumumba called me. He knew who I was. He was excited that I had been bidding on his post. I had the opportunity to tell him what he meant to me. I told him how he influenced me to go down the path I am on without ever having met me. Now THAT’S power. He shared with me some of his industry expereinces and his hopes and dreams.

The price for Lumumba was high on eBay. Not high financially, but high in negative reaction, high in lack of support, and high in the realization that this unforgiving industry has no love for those who have come before when the @#%$ VH-1 cameras aren’t running. I think my last bid was under $100. I would have bid $1,000.

We quietly disrespect our artists for not being Billionaires, and then we disrespect them if we perceive them to “sell out” (read: earn a living). They can’t win. We bemoan artists today for selling misogyny, crime, violence, and materialism, but we didn’t support the ones who had a positive message once they were no longer perceived to be “hot!”

And God forbid they try to earn a buck on eBay selling the opportunity to spend time with them before they pass.

I wanted to spend a day with Lumumba. He would not take my money. We spoke at length about the industry and Afrocentricity. We discussed his father and his legacy. We discussed a lot. It was the first, and last, time we spoke.

I never got my day with Professor X. But what I did get was far more priceless. I got the real Professor X, and he is and was what he always said he was. He was REAL. And he loved people. Especially Black people. He will sorely be missed!

Please understand if the next time you see me I am stomping in my big black boots.

http://www.wendyday.com

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