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Today the Beat Junkies Celebrate 20 Years …Here’s Our Vintage Intv w/ DJ Mr Choc

June 30, 2012 By

Today (June 30th 2012, the Beat Junkies celebrate their 20th anniversary.. If you live in LA and know nothing about this legendary crew of deejays which includes names like Rhettmatic, Shortkut, Babu, founder JRocc, Symphony What?! Icey Ice..etc, then you been missing out.. From the radio to the streets, beat junkies have been everywhere and have yileded a tremendous amount of influence on West Coast Hip Hop..  below is a throwback interview we did w/ Mr Choc who at the time of this interview a few years back, was holding it down on Power 106… Enjoy and salute to the Beat Junkies

One of the most underrated but influential deejays here on the west coast is Mr Choc who hold’s it down every afternoon and Friday nights on Power 106 here in Los Angeles. He also holds it down in the nightclubs as a member of one of the world’s most influential deejay crews The Beat Junkies.

We sat down with Mr Choc and picked his brain about the current state of music, the history and contributions of west coast deejays and the challenge he has in terms of balancing mainstream demands with his underground passion.. We spoke to Choc about how he went from a b-boy and graf writer to joining the World Famous Beat Junkies.

He spoke on the type of proving ground the BJs made him go through. They wanted to make sure he was truly committed and had the skill level to hang…

Choc also talks about how he made the transition into commercial radio where he is now the mixshow co-ordinator for LA’s number one station Power 106.

We also chopped it up with Mr Choc about why he and other west coast deejays have not gotten their full props and recognition. he humbly replied that he prefers to focus on his love for the music and his day in the sun will eventually come.

We dug deep with Choc and we spoke about why we don’t see more African-American turntablist type deejays other than a small handful. We also asked him to break down the specific contributions that the west coast has made to deejaying. Choc noted that the West elevated scratching.

He talked about the legacy of the mixmasters including Joe Cooley, M-Walk, DJ Aladdin, Julio G and Tony G to name a few. Choc also talked about the divisiveness that exists within Hip Hop with regards to underground vs mainstream. He spoke about how he manages to balance the two worlds in his day-to-day work. he also spoke about how he keeps battle ready and stays competitive in a crowded field..

Listen to the interview w/ Mr. Choc by clicking the link…

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Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Few Thoughts on Today’s Supreme Court Ruling on Healthcare-We Need to Score Again!

June 28, 2012 By

As the dust settles around what many considered to be a surprise Supreme Court ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act, folks are gonna have to seriously refocus and start thinking outside the box.. If there’s one thing the last few years should’ve made clear,  is corporate tyrants, far right zealots and media lap dog pundits eager to make a name for themselves or score political points vs telling the truth, do not sleep.

Again let me repeat.. Those who are on the so-called ‘losing side‘ of this issue will not be taking this lying down.. They are already hard at work drawing up plans and contingency plans to not only knock healthcare reform permanently off the map, but also trying to see what laws they can put in place that will keep the majority forever hemmed up at the mercy of the Medical Industrial complex.

What was handed down today was a ruling that gave folks a bit of breathing room. Hopefully folks are gonna use that time to catch their breath and come up with bold new visions for tomorrow…

The Supreme Court decided the fate of over 30 million people today in their historic ruling on HCR

Let’s refocus on what has thus far taken place.. Key word REFOCUS.. The Affordable Care Act was big compromise from jump street. Many of the facets including the public option were wiped off the table.  At this point in time we should be pushing to have Universal Healthcare. We should be focusing our attention and efforts that are underway in states like Vermont and here in California to make sure Healthcare is truly universal..

We should refocus and remember what’s been the big obstacle for all of us having access to healthcare in the first place..Can you say INSURANCE COMPANIES.. It doesn’t matter what today’s ruling said. At the end of the day most of us are still gonna have to deal with an insidious insurance industry that has made record profits over the years and will spend endless time and resources finding ways to get out of giving us adequate Healthcare.

If they have to increase their lobbying efforts to win over lawmakers both in Washington or at home, they will do so.. If they need to spend a few dollars buttering up ‘community leaders’ to push their agenda, they will do so.. If they have to bombard the airwaves with commercial touting how dope they are.. they’ll do it.. If they have to run their own candidates they’ll do that as well. Rest assured they’ll be trying to find ways to raise rates like Bruce Bodaken CEO of Anthem Blue Cross did a couple of years ago here in Cali when they jumped them up 30-39%.. That should be a stress we should once and for all eradicate

With each step they take you should be asking yourself, why is this industry so hellbent on having their way versus making sure the flood gates are open so each and every one of us can get healthcare? What’s really going on with these companies should be what were asking? How can we remove them from the equation?, should be our second question.

All of us need to be about the business of refocusing our attention on healthcare Being a Human Right.  I’m gonna repeat that.. Healthcare is a Human Right not a Business. It should not be only for the rich and powerful…Common sense should tell us all that my untreated ailments can become tomorrow’s untreatable disease or plague impacting you whether you have health insurance or not.. There is sadly  a small 1% but vocal and wealthy creed among us who vehemently believe we should be thinning the herd. They believe it’s a good thing if those who are seriously sick, just die off.. Unless their name is God, Allah, Jehovah or Jesus Christ that should not be allowed to happen. Our fight for Healthcare should not end until anyone of us no matter what our station in life can get treated if sick…

And don’t get me wrong.. If there are free market types that have the money to boot and wanna go out and get some high-priced ‘Golden coverage’, I say let ’em.. Spend your hard-earned money as you see fit.. What gets me, why those same individuals are so determined to cripple and handcuff everyone else in the process. There’s seems to be a mean spirit embraced by some that says its only good if they can have while the rest can’t.. Again our mantra should be Healthcare is a Human Right.. It is not exclusive..

We should be thinking outside the box.. Business as usual has made our healthcare a system one big expensive mess. Treatment is expensive, going to med school is expensive..  How about we push to make medical schools free or seriously inexpensive? No one coming out of medical school should be owing 100-200 thousand dollars thus forcing them to work for a large conglomerate that can pay them a salary and those hefty loans. Wouldn’t it be great if folks who have genuine love and concern for the community and wanna give back via their knowledge and skill set be allowed to do so without a concern about paying back a school loan that’ll take a lifetime?

We should have an array of affordable medical schools with an agreement that folks graduating from there give some of their time and knowledge to the community..In short we should make a societal investment in doctors and medical researchers the same way these huge medical corporations are doing.. Historically some of the best medical care in our communities occurred when we had loving and committed individuals who worked alongside organizations like the Black Panther Party to provide Free Health Clinics. In many countries you find incredible Healthcare coming from institutions like the church where they work alongside doctors.. Let’s make medical school affordable and let’s make sure all of us at an early age start getting good information that will help us take care of ourselves for the long haul vs always being dependent on doctors and a medical industry that is in constant ‘sell’ mode, attempting to make us consummate pill consumers

Speaking of which, lets push to remove these huge profits and competition over patents for medicine and cures. Far too often we are finding ourselves being sold something versus getting educated or treatment that will heal us and make our visits to the doctor infrequent occurrences. Thanks to all this medical marketing, today we now have folks rolling up into doctors offices demanding to have the new pill they just saw being hawked while watching their favorite TV show. Many are insistent on having these pills even if they aren’t sick..

We should be expanding ways that we can all can start taking care of an aging baby boomer population who are our parents and grandparents from the 1960s..No one should have to face the daunting task of paying $2000 and 3000 to send an aging parent to a nursing home.. We should be making sure that substance abuse, mental illness, stress caused by poverty or living in a crime ridden neighborhood are all things we can be treated for readily..

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane” -MLK

I could go on and on with suggestions.. This is not a one size fits all scenario.. What I’m basically saying is that today’s Supreme Court ruling gives us all an opportunity to step up our game and become stakeholders in our collective Healthcare.. I’ve been to Washington many a days covering HCR including when they had the Supreme Court hearings. Everyone I spoke to who heard the concerns that people had in terms of it not going far enough, repeatedly said, that what passed two years ago was just the beginning.. They said over time it would get better and more things would be added. If that’s the case all of us should be pushing to be at the table and working to permanently remove any and all debates around whether we should have Healthcare reform. It was a sad state of affairs that we were even in that dreadful space. As Martin Luther King once famously said “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.

Today was not a touch down.. We gained some good yardage.. Somebody missed a block, perhaps it was Justice Roberts who shocked everyone by breaking with his conservative counterparts and issuing the decisive vote to uphold ACA.. In any case the end zone is still before us..When Healthcare is Seen as a Human Right for All, then and only then can we spike the ball and do a celebratory dance.

written by Davey D

We’ll leave you with this song on healthcare that was done by Bay Area rapper Paris. he recorded it during the height of the debates around passing the Affordable Care Act.. What was crazy was some of the footage shown was from a rally here in Danville which is in the Bay Area.. Some guy was chanting F– The Poor. The crowd shown there cheered along..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1R9IKKe0SE

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Rude or Polite, NY City’s Officers Leave Raw Feelings in Stops

June 27, 2012 By

Today’s NY Times has a good article on Stop-and Frisk that everyone should read… Here’s a brief excerpt..

The questions are probing, authoritative, but less accusatory. “What are you doing here?” “Do you live here?” “Can I see some identification, please?” During the pat-down, they ask, “Do you have anything on you?” They nudge further: “You don’t mind if I search you, do you?” They explain that someone of a matching description robbed a store a few days ago, or that the stop is a random one, part of a program in a high-crime area. Then they apologize for the stop and say the person is free to go.

In interviews with 100 people who said they had been stopped by the New York police in neighborhoods where the practice is most common, many said the experience left them feeling intruded upon and humiliated. And even when officers extended niceties, like “Have a nice night,” or called them “sir” and “ma’am,” people said they questioned whether the officer was being genuine.

You can peep rest of article HERE

LAPD Chief William H Parker

As your reading this keep in mind a few things about the history of police and controlling populations. During the 1950s in LA Police Chief William H Parker had a policy of suppression.  Under him, LAPD kept Black and Brown folks in sectioned off communities. Many African-Americans lived in what we now know as Watts.. Back in the days it was called the Duck Pond by police who would literally go hunting and make sure Black folks didn’t leave and enter other parts of the city..During that time LA had strict housing covenants that restricted Black and Brown folks from living in certain communities.

Aggressive harassment was routine and  was designed to ‘keep folks in their place’…Parker enhanced this harassment by recruiting officers from the deep south who had hostilities toward Blacks to be on the police force. These officers made it a point to humiliate adults in front  of their kids or on husbands in front of their wives…

Chief Parker who coined the term ‘Thin Blue line’ employed an even more sinister tactic..He made it a policy for officers to make sure they engaged as many young Black teens and pre-teens as possible. His philosophy was to establish a presence and dominance while they were still young and let them know who was boss.

There was study done in the 60s that showed that 90% of the juveniles arrested by LAPD were not charged. This was essentially Stop-N-Frisk decades before it showed up as police practice in NYC.

Parker’s harsh policies are what led to the explosion we now know as the Watts Riots.

Many were under the illusion that LAPD improved after those riots, but by the time the 1992 Rodney King uprisings took place, LAPD had replaced what they did under Parker with a new policy called Operation Hammer where they started keeping a gang data base. Chief Darryl Gates who replaced Parker used this resulting in 47% of Black males between the ages of 21-25 in Los Angles being deemed gang members thanks to the database.

Seems like Mayor Bloomberg & Police Commissioner Ray Kelly are heavily borrowing from the sordid legacies of LAPD Chiefs Chief William H Parker & Darryl Gates

With respect to NYC and the over 680 thousand people who have been stopped and frisk, things are headed off a cliff. It was just two weeks ago over 30 thousand people showed up and did a silent march down 5th avenue. One of the goals was to get a meeting with Mayor Bloomberg who has strongly supported Stop and Frisk. In spite of the dignified and solemn tone of the march, Bloomberg promptly refused to meet with organizers….Sounds like Chief Parker all over again both in terms of tactics being used and the dismissive response to complaints and concerns

I know one thing with all the police harassment going on in NY, visiting it does not seem too appealing anymore. Images of White shirted officers beating protestors or horrific stories of men cops randomly stopping  you is definitely not the lick. Maybe the goal for Bloomberg and police commissioner Raymond Kelly is to get Black and Brown folks who currently make up close to 90% of the stops, to ultimately leave the city.

Again we encourage everyone to peep today’s NY TImes article on Stop and Frisk

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/nyregion/new-york-police-leave-raw-feelings-in-stops.html?_r=1&smid=tw-share

Here’s a great song from Killer Mike that pretty much sums up whats going on in NY right about now..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_nVBo8T6yE

 

 

 

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A Dope Emcee & Singer w/ a Revolutionary Spirit; Meet Maimouna ‘Mumu Fresh’ Yousseff

June 22, 2012 By

Baltimore native Maimouna Youssef is a breath of fresh air at a time when far too many are stale with their desire to be good marketers and packagers, reality TV stars or an over-the-top controversial figure vs being a damn good artist.

Because Maimouna who is best known via her nickname Mumu Fresh, stays focused on exploring and highlighting her art as opposed to marketing herself, there are many who are reading this who will note they never heard of her.. That’s ok, its time to get familiar because the sista is no joke.

First you should know she’s a songwriter and producer. Yes, she gets busy behind the boards. Also, she’s a dope singer with a soulful angelic voice.

If that’s not enough she’s nice on the mic as an emcee and will definitely take your lunch money if you step to her wrong in a cipher.. She’s been nominated for a Grammy, Best Rap song for her contribution on the song Don’t feel Right by the Roots.. That’s her you hear flipping the hook.. We thought you knew

Over the years Mumu Fresh has performed and worked with everyone from Nas to Talib Kweli to Big Daddy Kane, Jill Scott, Mos Def, Eryka Badu, Zap Mama, dead prez, and Cody Chestnut to name a few..On top of all that Maimouna ghostwrites for quite a few folks..She’s definitely well respected and sought out by her peers.

Those are just few highlights.. What really shines about this sista is the fact that she comes hard on the cultural and political tip. She doesn’t preach or get all up in your grill telling you how you need to act or what and who you should believe or follow, but her presence is strongly rooted in the tradition of revolution and freedom fighting. You hear that in songs like title track featuring Zap Mama of the Blooming album..or in tracks like Wake Up which takes on Monsanto.

The fact that Maimouna has remained independent by choice speaks volumes about where her head is at. In our interview featured below, she talks about the importance of positioning oneself to have true artistic freedom..With respect to her music, it goes beyond way beyond cheap sloganeering. Its nurturing for both the mind and soul and defies all industry labeling limitation. On her new album the Blooming, you have songs that are rap, songs that are bluesy and others that funk oriented.. Mumu says at the end of the day, its all Black music and as an artist she goes deep and takes us on an incredible journey through all types musical genres connected to the African diaspora.

Listen to our Breakdown FM/ All Day Play interview below w/ Maimouna Youssef

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw5s0Klmu84

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News, Artist Interviews, Breakdown FM Interviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Adidas Cancels Their ‘Shackle Shoe’.. But When Will We Stop Being Slaves to Expensive Kicks?

June 19, 2012 By

A lot of folks were upset with the proposed ‘shackle’ sneaker designed by Jeremy Scott (JS Roundhouse) ..It was understandable, because the shackles look like a  throwback to slavery or modern-day prison bindings..The sneakers were set to be released in August and retail for $350.00. Because folks were so outraged, Adidas decided to cancel the release of those shoes..I’m not mad at that decision. Even though the designer claimed he was trying to be ‘quirky‘ and off beat, there’s nothing quirky or eccentric about slavery or prison..

With that being said, I gotta be honest and note the irony of folks being upset about this visible symbol of slavery but not too upset about it when its invisible. What do I mean?

Well over the years we’ve seen countless deaths over these and other expensive sneakers.. The outcry over these shackle shoes was the symbol and not the $350 price tag.. We have countless people hopelessly hooked on spending their last dollar on these and other shoes including the recently released kicks sporting rap superstar Kanye West‘s name.. Nike Air Yeezy II. They’re going for $285 a pair.. This wouldn’t be so bad except such über expensive items are marketed to poor people, many who’ve become mentally enslaved to the idea that they must own a pair at all costs. The end result as I mentioned earlier is more than a few deaths. If folks aren’t slaying and robbing each other, then we’re running around with our chest out and basing a lot of our inner self-worth on these shoes..We’ve become enslaved to blinging in the middle of a recession.

Kanye West has $285 dollar sneakers called Air Yeezys

Of course the shoe companies like to step back and take no blame.. They like to kick it back to the parents, churches and schools and hide behind the concept of ‘free market‘ and ‘supply and demand‘.  No one wants to talk about the mindset of kids that feel so compelled to own a pair of certain types of sneakers that they’ll kill or risk death over them.. No one wants to talk about the deep desire to own these shoes even if they are made in sweat shops with slave labor. They must own a pair at all costs.. That’s pretty powerful.

No one wants to talk about the millions they spend in marketing research which results in them honing sophisticated strategies designed to get inside the heads and psychologically hook particular demographics of people, most of them young. many of them poor.  No one wants to talk about how these expensive shoes folks are overly attached to are made for pennies on the dollar. It was this fear of sophisticated marketing and the concern of folks deemed vulnerable and easily influenced that we don’t have cigarette and certain types of alcohol ads on TV..

Yes, I’m glad Adidas got rid of this silly line of sneakers.. We have enough symbols of prison and slavery we don’t need to spend an extra $350 for more conditioning.. I’ll be even more happy when I can wake up and not see folks who can’t identify their mayor or congressperson or the political winds and policy adversely impacting them, who will spend the night in front of the local shoe store to get their hands on the latest $300 kicks that have been deliberately marketed so there are limited amounts.

Food for Thought..

written by Davey D

 

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A Few Thoughts on the Passing of Rodney King…He Symbolized Naive Belief in a Broken Justice System

June 18, 2012 By

The news of Rodney King being found dead in his swimming pool Sunday morning came as a shock. The man who became the face of the ’92 LA Uprisings was seen damn near everywhere over the past couple of months as many of us looked back at what progress we made or didn’t make on the 20th anniversary of LA exploding in the wake of 4 LA officers shown on film beating King being acquitted.

King seemed like a man who had turned a corner after years of a troubled past. He seemed like a man on a mission. Since early April of this year, we saw him doing interview after interview from coast to coast. In some he was seen and heard promoting his new book  ‘The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption ‘. In others he was discussing his prominent role in the MTV/VH1 documentary  Uprising: Hip Hop and the LA Riots. In still others he was weighing in on the recent slaying of Trayvon Martin and how that was impacting race relations in comparison to what he went through.

King appeared on national news shows, syndicated radio shows and local outlets..For the most part he seemed upbeat and centered. He seemed focus and on his way to doing some big things… It was good to see him in good spirits moving onward and upwards. Many like myself were rooting for him.. We wanted Rodney King to win.

We wanted King to win, because the system that he wound up challenging failed him and it failed us miserably on so many levels. It’s hard for people of younger generations to really understand what it meant when we saw the horrific footage of King being brutally beaten LA police officers after a traffic stop in ’91.

Despite its unsettling nature and the anger it conjured up, the video gave us all a sense of hope. At long last all those stories Black and Brown folks told of over the top police brutality which were routinely dismissed, said to be outright lies & exaggerations or somehow justifiable police actions was finally caught on tape. The whole world got to see the truth before their eyes. We felt vindicated and we knew those cops were gonna pay.

Rodney King and that tape of his beating had many of us buying into the belief that justice would be served. Those responsible would be punished and substantial changes would come within LAPD and police departments all over the country. On April 29 1992, the acquittal of those 4 officers moved Rodney King from a symbol of Hope to a symbol Naivety. Sadly he underscored that naivety when he stood before the world as LA was being burned down by folks angered by the verdict and asked in a halting voice.. Can We Get Along?

Him asking that famous question had many of us concluding that we can’t trust the system nor could we trust Rodney King to toe the line for the people when we needed it most… It disappointed and angered us  that King still was believing in the justice system when were all given a clear message it would not ever work for us.. It certainly didn’t work for him..

For those of us who lived in LA or the West Coast in general, seemingly not a year went by that we didn’t hear a news report about King getting arrested for driving drunk, crashing his car or getting shot at.. Many around the country became got wind of how deeply troubled King was when he showed up on a couple of reality TV shows including; Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. At first the incidents left us shaking our heads asking how could King be messing up after all he been through?  As we matured, we began to see King as a man who needed help.

Those who knew him, they say  Rodney King never truly got over the beating. He always seemed ill at ease as if he was in search of  something like he was under duress.  I recall the first time I met King. It was at a movie premier in Oakland.. I was struck at how large of man he was. At the time he was jovial and had a bright smile, but he seemed haunted. One can only wonder how much help he really got in the aftermath of that beatings.

In recent years I began to wonder if all the widespread media coverage of his transgressions was simply par for the course or payback for King exposing how sadistic LAPD could be.. At times it seems like the message being sent to the world at large with the highlighting of King’s brushes with the law was; he deserved that vicious beating. He’s a constant screw up and LAPD and the police in general did nothing wrong.

Last month 17-year-old Alan Bluford, 2 weeks from graduation, was killed by Oakland police who claimed he shot them. Investigation showed the police officer shot himself and lied. He’s still on the force with pay..This exemplifies the type of progress made since Rodney King

20 years after Rodney King we haven’t seen a whole lot of improvement with the police.  Since the King beating we’ve seen numerous video tapes of police beatings and even killings with no punishment at all.. The one exception might be the cops recently sent to jail for murdering two men on the Danzinger Bridge in New Orleans during the Katrina floods, but nowhere else.. and even then alot of that was the result of some serious investigative reporting by white journalist who would not let the coverup around that case go.

Everywhere else things have been ramped up.. Police killing Black & Brown people under questionable circumstances are all too common from Amadou Diallo to Sean Bell to Kenneth Walker, Nathaniel Sanders, Danroy “D.J.” Henry, Anette Garcia, Daniel Rocha to Oscar Grant.  More recently we’ve had the slaying of Rekia Boyd,  NFL star David Turner, Kenneth Chamberlain, Kendrac McDade and Alan Bluford to name a few, at the hands of police.. There’s a long list of names with little or no improvement within America’s police departments or her justice system in terms of prosecuting and bringing out of control cops to justice.

Even, in Los Angeles the place where Rodney King’s beating was supposed to spark improvement within LAPD we see that police killing civilians is up a whopping 70%. There was the revelation of a group of rogue LA cops recently suspended called the Jump Out Boys.. This is all on top of LA’s Rampart Scandal which was one of the largest police corruption cases in the country, leading to the disbanding of the departments CRASH Unit.

One would think after the King beating we would’ve witnessed a sea change of improvements within the police departments. sadly what we’ve seen is fast track to enhanced, new and improved forms brutality and harassment. Since the killing of Trayvon Martin we’ve had over 30 Black people alone killed by police. That speaks volumes.

Rodney King

Rodney King started off being a symbol of hope for better days to come.. In his death which ironically came on the same day we saw massive silent marches in New York City to protest their outlandish Stop-and Frisk program, King came to symbolize that even when atrocities by the police are committed in plain view for all to see there will be no justice.. As a fitting reminder to this assertion, yesterday’s large peaceful march ended with violent arrests. NYPD used the tactic of intimidation and force to break up the large groups of protestors.

Hopefully Rodney King is at peace for real..As for the rest of us the struggle continues in a very real way.. King should be reminder the systems of oppression never sleep and never forgets.

written by Davey D

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jasiri X Flips Biggie’s 10 Crack Commandments to an Anti-Police Brutality Anthem

June 18, 2012 By

I love when Hip Hop steps up and flips classic songs to fit a modern-day scenario.. In this case its Stop and Frisk… props to Pittsburgh artist Jasiri X and comedian/activist Elon James White for this joint called 10 Frisk Commandments.. It’s a play on Biggie’s infamous cut Ten Crack Commandments..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhHYN7uw3AM

On another tip..Here’s a couple of other songs addressing the issue of police violence and how and why we should stand up against it.. The first is a video to the song Do We Need to Start a Riot by Jasiri X It was filmed in several cities including LA where Henry Rollings one of the LA 4 from the 1992 Rodney King rebellions showed up and gave a few words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcSm6EX1coo

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Few Thoughts about the Chris Brown & Drake Fight… When Do We say Enough’s Enough?

June 15, 2012 By

By now all of us have heard about the nasty brawl that went down inside a Manhattan club the other night involving Chris Brown and Drake over Rihanna.  How could we not hear about it? It’s been the lead story on damn near every newscast from Entertainment Tonight to TMZ to Good Morning America.

We’ve all seen the pictures of the club littered with broken bottles along with people from their respective entourages including basketball star Tony Parker along with innocent club goers nursing nasty cuts and bruises. By now most of us have seen the picture taken by Chris Brown himself exposing a ghoulish looking gash under his chin.

News of this fight have not only been in the headlines, it’s completely overshadowed many of the positive things folks with Hip Hop are doing. For, example, this is opening weekend for Ice T‘s stellar documentary Art of Rap. Instead of celebrating its release and its shattering of long-held stereotypes,  all of us are being peppered with questions about Hip Hop beefs and violence. Thanks Chris, Thanks Drake for keeping such insidious thoughts alive and well. I wouldn’t put it past some who brought into misinformation who are now wondering if this movies, concert and other gatherings will incite more beefs resulting in similar drama as displayed the other night..

Chris Brown shows off the ghoulish  injury he got in his brawl with Drake the other night

The other day there was a historic march and protest in New York City to bring an end to New York City’s infamous Stop-N-Frisk policy. So far some major inroads have been made. Last year over 680k people were stopped on the streets and searched by NYPD. This year NYPD was on target to stop and frisk over 800k. Studies have shown 85-90% of those folks stopped by police are young Black and Brown males with less than 10% being in violation of any law, major or minor. These numbers have caused an outrage resulting in lawsuits and demonstrations like the one the other day.

New York City police along with Mayor Bloomberg who famously supports the policy, have not been shy about justifying this practice, along with its racial profiling aspect. Bloomberg and company have been crafty about keeping the climate of fear alive and well, using incidents like this Chris Brown/ Drake fight as prime examples of ‘how bad’ it really is out there.

Club after the Chris brown-Drake Fight

Ideally one would’ve hoped that these two superstars would’ve been amongst the masses who stepped out to help end this policy, after all it impacts them and definitely their fans. Their popularity could certainly helped heighten awareness. Instead whether intended or not, this incident and their juvenile violent behavior becomes the rationale as to why such a policy needs to exist in the first place.The Logical or illogical the thinking unfolds as follows; If celebrity millionaires can’t keep the drama and beefs at bay then how can we expect  cats on the block who have considerably less do the same?  Like it or not the Chris Brown/ Drake fight does not get limited to them.. It becomes a burden all of us wind up shouldering.

It’s obvious that Chris Brown who went from being this clean-cut squeaky clean personality who could sell you chewing gun, to being a brutish, quick-tempered women beater has not learned to stay out of trouble and keep his temper in check no matter how many chances given. Drake who is not known for violence, by most accounts him or folks in his entourage were initiators. In the latest update, Drake is now being sought by police to be arrested for throwing the bottle..

In either case it matters not..The question we all need to be asking is what’s gonna make this stop? How many more slaps on the wrists do they get? Why should a Chris Brown stay out of trouble, when its more than obvious his bad behavior keeps getting rewarded. Him and Drake will be on the next award show? They’ll be at the next Summer jam concert. They’ll be played 85 times a day on the radio..What message does this constant rewarding send to our youth when they see adults co-signing or ignoring bad behavior?

Clive Davis

These artists aren’t stupid. They know the lines within the industry of what they can cross or not cross. For example, do you think Chris Brown would ever been giving a second or third chance if he went and publicly dissed a major radio station playing his song? Instead of Rihanna, lets say he went up to MTV and lost his temper and beat on one of the VPs of Viacom which owns BET or MTV?  Better yet lets say this altercation between Drake and Chris took place at industry executive, Clive Davis‘ pre-Grammy party, what do you think would be going on then? They’d be banned. Records removed etc.. There’d be zero tolerance for this sort of bullshit behavior.

What penalty are we consciously extracting from them?  Does it mean boycott? Not buying their music or not allowing it in the home? Does it mean demanding that venues or deejay you hire not spin it? Many of us who work in professions especially one where we engage the public where would be suspended if not fired if we had some sort public transgression or altercation. I’m not for censorship or ruining people permanently, but at a date and time where we are struggling to keep youngsters from embracing destructive nihilistic behavior, it falls on def ears when the people they look up to and listen to and watch are pulling crap like this with impunity. The same way a Michael Bloomberg and NYPD go about their business of creating a climate of fear to justify more police and the implementation crazy police tactics, we’ve got to create a climate that makes it uncomfortable when you’re artist engaging our community and you act irresponsible.

Lastly what got me thinking about this was a an incident involving Cypress Hill some years back.. The group headlined a show at the Bill Graham Civic auditorium in San Francisco.. It was a packed house and everyone was hyped and eager to see B-Real, Sen Dogg and DJ Muggs catch wreck. As the show got underway the hype man from one of the opening acts got on stage and tried to get the crowd going.. Frustrated by the lukewarm response, the hype man yelled; What are y’all Fags or what?.. If ur a fag be quiet.. The audience erupted and yelled with enthusiasm to make sure they were heard..

I recalled thinking at the time, that was pretty bold to be yelling out something like that in San Francisco which has large gay population, but didn’t think much more about it afterwards.. Cypress Hill eventually took the stage later that night and tore the house down.. The next day when we got to the radio station KMEL.. we were informed under no circumstances were we or any other mixers would be allowed to play Cypress Hill.. All station drops were removed. All recordings were packed and taken out of the studio. We were told that Cypress made offensive remarks at the concert during their show and people complained. When it was relayed that it wasn’t Cypress, but in fact their opening act that uttered the offense, we were told it didn’t matter Cypress Hill brought the act to town and thus was gonna pay the price, end of story..We were told there would be zero tolerance.

Drake is set to be arrested for throwing the bottle at Chris Brown

For almost a year we could not play Cypress Hill and on the few occasions a song slipped through the person who programmed it was checked and steps were taken to ensure it not happen again. It wasn’t until the group wrote a letter of apology for something they did not do that we were allowed to lift the ban.

I reference this story to indicate that in an industry that claims that what it presents for the world to consume is based upon popularity, ‘requests’ and overall public demand, doesn’t really matter when the powers that be decide that for whatever reason they’re on a shit list.. I referenced Cypress Hill because at that time they were enormously popular.. Popularity be damned. Major label backing be damned. They weren’t being played.

Over the years I seen this happen with numerous artists from Buju Banton to Turbo B of to a host of acts who brought songs to competing stations, all be banned.  Over the years I’ve seen the powers that be including local police departments step to radio stations, concert promoters and venue owners and dictate who can and cannot appear on the stage.. It ranged from Run DMC to Tribe Called Quest, popularity didn’t matter. If it was deemed they were a problem for whatever reason, they weren’t allowed on.

We should keep this in mind, next time we start hearing about some of the craziness artists who we support.  After a certain point enough is enough.. We have to stop being enablers and co-signers for some of the things they are pulling. Time to start shunning some of this..

That’s Food for Thought..

Davey D

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Art of Rap Opens this Weekend… Reclaim Your Humanity & Go See It..

June 15, 2012 By

This weekend Something from Nothing The Art of Rap opens in theaters this weekend and as I noted in my earlier review it is absolutely deserving of an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary. It’s compelling, witty and much-needed in terms of refocusing us on what Hip Hop and rap in particular is really about. Ice T who made the film really did his thing..

Earlier this week Chuck D of Public Enemy who is featured in this documentary alerted us to an excellent article On Blackness, Humanity and the Art of Rap that his wife Dr Gaye Theresa Johnson had penned for the Huffington Post. She absolutely nails it and I urge everyone to read it.. She kicks things off:

Blackness — in style and sensibility — has been one of the most admired, most reviled, most circulated, and least credited set of characteristics in the history of commodification. And there can be no better example of this than hip hop. When rap music first gained mainstream traction in the late seventies, its artists were dismissed and disrespected by politicians, pundits, and the music business itself. But by the late eighties, the same corporate bodies who had previously shunned it were making millions of dollars selling it. By 1990, label executives had created a “gangsta formula,” a business hook that repackaged rap’s depictions of black urban realities into a titillating buffet of hypermasculinity and glorified violence, relegating women artists to the margins and creating a new outlet of expression for what became its largest consumer demographic: young white men.

She also notes…

The Art of Rap writes humanity back into rap music in a moment when black people are more popular than ever in mainstream society, but in some incredibly damaging ways. We’ve mistaken the proliferation of black images in the media for the notion that there is some kind of equality of positive representation of black humanity.

peep the entire article HERE

Dr Gaye Theresa Johnson connects Blackness & Humanity to the Art of Rap

In reading Dr Gaye’s article and reflecting on the film, it wasn’t lost on me how the this weekend’s box office  opening was downplayed as we were met with lots of noise about the opening of the movie Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise, Jay-Z opening his new 40/ 40 Club in the new Barclay Center and the ugly fight between singers Chris Brown and Drake. If you live in NYC the police killing of a young black women in Brooklyn who they say was in a stolen car has also dominated the headlines.

Don’t get me wrong, at this point in time, one shouldn’t expect the mainstream media to do right by us. The pedalling of corporate interests including sensationalized stories of Black pathology, death and violence, all big money-makers in America, will be highlighted before stories depicting our true selves. There will always be fierce resistance to acknowledging and embracing our humanity.

Ice T holding it down on the Jimmy Fallon Show

With that being said, the way to combat that is to take note and do as Ice T did, reaffirm who we truly our on our own terms and our own dime and do what Hip Hop momentarily forgot to do which is build its own institutions. In talking with Ice T the other day, he said it was important to uplift the culture and give something back. He also noted the importance of constantly hustling and not shying away from the grind. Hence even if this movie is not the main priority for some big wig media power broker, its gonna shine, because we make the moves to make it happen.

To help promote this film we seen Ice leverage his celebrity status to show up on outlets like Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show and Wendy Williams to name a few..

As for the rest of us, change comes when we revolutionize our thinking, readjust our values and take those first steps to shedding the dictates of out of control, consumerist corporate agendas. In other words ‘they’ are gonna stick to their game plan, will we stick to ours?

In supporting this movie we can stick to ‘our’ game plan by passing along the link below which lists the theaters where Art of Rap is showing in your city .http://bit.ly/NDe3XD

You can stick to the game plan by by talking this movie up the way we talk up beefs and petty gossip.  Lastly lwe can stick to our game plan by getting back in the habit of digging and seeking out new music and new artists vs waiting for them to show up via our radio or some other commercial outlet.. It used to be a time corporations chased the streets to try and discover what was new and hip. Today we chase the corporations who in turn sell us repackaged goods.. Let’s flip the script on that.. Enjoy the weekend and the Art of Rap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h46tzQ7cZV0

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , ,

HKR: Shock G of Digital Underground Speaks About 2Pac, The Black Panthers & Politic Prisoners

June 15, 2012 By

It’s always a pleasure chopping it up w/ the very talented and engaging Shock G of Digital Underground. When it comes to music Shock is a quadruple threat.. He’s a dope emcee.. an incredible producer… He’s off the chain as a musician especially keyboards and when all is said an done he’s nice with the hands when it comes to drawing and painting..

We sat down with Shock the other day to talk about the upcoming 2Pac birthday celebration that Digital Underground will be headlining at Yoshi’s in San Francisco…They are teaming up with members of the original Black Panthers to also do fund raiser and raise awareness for political prisoners.

During our interview, Shock recounted how Digital started off being a Black Panther type group. They formed under the name Spice Regime with a game plan of focusing on Black social issues.. They even started to sport black berets similar to the Panthers.. As Shock noted, many other groups at that time were moving in a militant direction including a lil ole group  from Hempstead, New York called Public Enemy.

Not wanting to be like the crowd, Shock said they switched focus and started highlighting their love for funk. They patterned themselves after Parliament/Funkadelic and emphasized humor. Shock explained that the addition of 2Pac to their ever-expanding crew provided the militant social awareness aspect which rounded out the group.

Shock G and Tupac

Shock talked at length and in great detail about his friendship with 2Pac. He noted that he has long been misunderstood. Many think Tupac was a wild, ride or die thug, when in reality he was well read and very committed to the struggle, Shock explained.

He said Pac took on a thug persona as a way to better connect with those he felt weren’t being reached.Shock G recounted how Pac once observed how many of the people who came to see groups like Public Enemy or KRS-One tended to be socially conscious. He felt that there were young Black males on the block not connecting to the message. Hence Pac positioned himself to be more aligned with them. He stated that the folks he wanted to reach wouldn’t respond unless they knew you were going through similar challenges.

Shock also explained how Pac was getting ready to move to Atlanta prior to joining Digital Underground to head an organization of youth Panthers.

Please click the link below to hear our entire Hard Knock Radio interview w/ Shock G

Listen to our HKR Intv w/ Shock G

 

 

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Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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