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A Special Tupac Bday Mixdown feat Ray Luv, DJ Sloepoke & a Rare 1991 intv w/ 2Pac

June 14, 2012 By

Saturday June 16th we’ll be celebrating what would’ve been Tupac Amaru Shakur‘s 41 st birthday..In order to bring attention to his life and accomplishments, we put together a few good interviews and a dope Tribute mix featuring DJ Sloepoke from LA..

One of the interviews we have is a rare 1991 exchange with 2Pac right after he finished shooting the then unreleased movie Juice.. Here Tupac who had was a part of Digital Underground noted that he considered himself to be the ‘Rebel of the Underground’ and for good reason. He explained that he liked to stir things up and do the unexpected. His goal was to generate excitement and have impact on both the people and situations around them.

2Pac promised to have major impact in the world of hip hop. He’s talked about his acting debut and his character Roland Bishop in the Juice.  He also spoke about his album ‘2Pacalypse Now‘.. The most compelling part of this interview is Pac predicting that regional beefs would tear Hip Hop apart.. Who knew years later he would be embroiled in a bi-coastal East vs West conflict that many feel cost him his life…

Tupac Intv pt1

Tupac Intv pt2

Tupac Intv pt3

The other interview we put together is a recent exchange with 2Pac‘s first rhyme partner Ray Luv..Here Ray talks about the early days of Bay Area Hip Hop and how him and 2Pac started out as rivals…Interestingly enough, Ray and Pac lived outside of the Bay Area’s main centers for Hip Hop, Oakland, San Francisco  and Vallejo..

Ray lived in Santa Rosa, where he sported the name  MC ROC.  Pac lived in Marin City which was 40 miles away under the name MC New York. They knew about each other thru tapes in which each would take shots at each other as they battled for top honors in the Marin County, Sonoma County corridor.

Ray explained how a woman named Leila Steinberg who would eventually become 2Pac’s first manager linked the pair. On their first meeting they hung out for more than 5 hours and recorded several songs.. Later with Steinberg they would form a writing a group which led to the formation of the 2Pac’s original group Strictly Dope.

Ray Luv, 2Pac and DJ Capitol B of Strictly Dope

In our interview Ray talks about how Pac insisted that they drop their emcee handles and use their real names. he felt it made them more authentic to the community. He also talks at length about the intense writing process him and Pac had.. They pushed each other to write long and often. They were also pushed to open up and show a certain type of vulnerability in terms of sharing their inner thoughts, experiences and struggles. It was through this writing that we see such honesty and bold frankness in many of Pac’s songs. Ray also noted how they would often write rhymes for each other..

Lastly Ray talks about the strong friendship and relationship they had with each other up to Pac’s death. They are currently finishing up a documentary that will feature many of Pac’s friends who up till now have not spoken too much.. Ray says even after all these years, people still feel the pain of Pac’s absence. Below is our Breakdown FM/ All Day Play intv w/ Ray Luv

We also have a super dope All Day Play Breakdown FM Tupac Tribute Mix from LA’s DJ Sloepoke.. This brother is at the top of his game as he brings serious heat in what we call 2Pac vs DJ Sloepoke  In this mix Sloepoke pulls out some of the original songs that were sampled in some of Pac’s biggest songs.. We preceed Sloepoke’s mix with a collage of short intv and commentary on Pac… Enjoy..

Click the Link below to listen to DJ Sloepoke’s mix

http://www.alldayplay.fm/episodes/special-tupac-mix-with-special-ray-luv-interview

There’s huge birthday celebration tonight Wed June 13th at the Mezzanine in SF where many of 2Pac’s friends, family and crew including Mac Mall, Rapping 4Tay, Selassie and Ray Luv will be on hand, performing and offering words of praise and insight.

This Saturday, Digital Underground and members of the Black Panther Party will be doing a special show and fund-raiser in celebration of Tupac.. at Yoshi’s Niteclub in SF..

We

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

20 Years Ago the Infamous Sister Souljah Moment Occured -We Look Back

June 13, 2012 By

I was just reminded via tweet by Dr Goddess out Pittsburgh and Gwen Ifill of PBS that today is the 20th Anniversary of the infamous Sister Souljah Moment. For those unfamiliar with the term.. It’s a political strategy in which a politician makes public repudiation of an ‘extremist’ person or group, statement, or position perceived to have some association with the politician or the politician’s party. It’s designed to show that the politician is not beholden to anyone, is unafraid and willing to stand up to so-called special interest groups.

The Sister Souljah Moment finds it origins in 1992 when former President Bill Clinton was campaigning and decided he wanted to appeal to blue color voters, independents and soccer moms who seemed to be apprehensive about Clinton’s connection to Black folks, in particular Reverend Jesse Jackson. He figured the best way to reach those voters was to show up at Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition convention and publicly smash on him and create some distance.

Clinton’s people were looking for a good excuse and found it in the form of Sista Souljah who was invited to speak at the same convention.. Souljah in an interview about the Rodney King/ LA Uprisings that occurred earlier that year was quoted as saying ‘If Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?’.. her remarks were connected to a much longer response and in full context makes sense, but isolated subjected her to criticism.

Souljah also had a song out called The Final Solution: Slavery’s back in Effect where she said ‘If there are any good white people, I haven’t met them’…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcWgPEUT_x0

Bill Clinton

The Clinton team used those two situations to basically embarrass Jackson at his own convention. During his speech Clinton remarked; “If you took the words ‘white’ and ‘black,’ and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech,” referring to Sista Souljah..

This set off a fire storm and angered Jesse who tried to come back at Clinton by explaining that  Souljah was misquoted and her overall sentiments represent the feeling of an entire generation of people, many who feel alienated, but damage was already done. Jackson was rebuffed and Clinton sent a strong message to his centrist voters that he was capable and more than willing to put Black folks in their place.. This soon became known as the Sista Souljah moment and political pundits look for those opportunities where a politicians takes a bold stance against his party..

Clinton was able to maintain this facade of being unafraid, because the media went out of their way to ignore Sista Souljah who had no problem speaking her mind and putting folks in check.. She put out a statement to bashed back on Clinton and let folks know that in spite of folks fondly calling him the first Black president,  he wasn’t all that friendly and was more than willing to throw Black folks under the bus to appeal to skittish white voters..

Lastly one can’t look at the Sister Souljah moment without noting the long history of this country resurrecting Black boogeymen to scare white voters or appease them..During the Presidential campaign prior to Bill Clinton in 1988, George Bush sr brought to life Willie Horton, which led to him defeating Gov Dukakis   During Clinton’s presidency, the spectre of the Black welfare queen help him push through welfare reform..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9j6Wfdq3o

Last week during the Recall election in Wisconsin, we saw lots of white voters go against their interest after Gov Scott Walker suggested that him being recalled would lead to all of Wisconsin becoming like Milwaukee, meaning Black folks would be everywhere. We can take this all the way back to the turn of the 20th century where we had the movie Birth of a Nation which depicted stereotypical images of Blacks played by whites in Blackface ruining the government. and chasing white women.. This led to the popularity o and rise of the Ku Klux Klan who were shown as heroes in this land mark film..

Below is Sister Souljah’s statement

SISTER SOULJAH STATEMENT

Sister Souljah

Peace. I stand before you today feeling very confident, steadfast and powerful; at the same time, I am surprised, that I as a young African woman, have impacted and effected the development of not only national politics, but international politics as well. It is very shocking to me that in a time of American economic recession, and inner city urban chaos, Democratic presidential contender Bill Clinton has chosen to attack not the issues, but a young African woman who is very well educated, alcohol free, drug free and a successful self employed businesswoman, and community servant.

Considerable time has been spent debating whether America should take seriously the words of a rap artist, or so called entertainers. Let me clarify for the press who I am – I am Sister Souljah; rapper, activist, organizer, and lecturer. I was born in the Bronx, New York, spent the earlier part of my life there, was raised by my mother, was on and off the welfare system for approximately 15 years, lived in government subsidized housing and was classified by sociologists as being in the under class-meaning living below the poverty line in a vicious cycle of poverty that America says one can not break out of. I supplemented my education in the White American school system by reading African history, which was intentionally left out of the curriculum of American students. By doing so, I was able to become the well-balanced, reassured woman that I am now. While in high school, I was a Legislative intern at the House of Representatives for the Republican party. I was a winner of the American Legion’s Constitutional Oratory Contest, attended Cornell University’s Advanced Placement Summer Session, and entered Rutgers University. I attended the University of Salamanca’s Study Abroad program in Salamance, Spain, worked at a medical center in Zimbabwe, visited Mozambiquan refugee camps and traveled throughout the Southern African region. I have also visited and lectured in the former Soviet Union, England, France, Portugal, Finland and Holland.

Moreover, at Rutgers I was a well known writer and political commentator for the university newspaper. I attended church in the Bronx in New York City, where my great grandmother was the pastor. She died this year at age 92. While finishing at Rutgers University, I was offered a job by Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, which is a church sponsored civil rights firm. I developed, organized and financed, through hip-hop music, a sleep away summer camp called the African Youth Survival Camp for children of homeless families and ran it successfully for 3 years, thus leaving Rutgers one semester prior to graduation. I have spoken on the same platform with Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakkan, Rev. Ben Chavis, Rev. Calvin Butts and Nelson Mandela.

As you can see I am no newcomer to the world of politics. I am mentally, spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually and academically developed and acutely aware of the condition of African people throughout the entire world.

My album “360 Degrees of Power” is an amalgamation of all of my thoughts, personal, and professional experiences here in America. My album was produced by Eric Sadler, one of the producers who created the music for Public Enemy, Ice-Cube and others. Any person who purchases my album will have a full understanding of what I think and believe, although it was designed specifically with the African community in mind. I was certain that Bill Clinton was unfamiliar with me, my development and work, musical and otherwise. He chose to comment without any investigation whatsoever based on an interview in an ultra conservative newspaper, The Washington Post, which is about as familiar with the experiences of Africans in America, inner city youth, and hip-hop, as Bill Clinton is. I however, did not fail to do my research and my research reveals the following indictment of Bill Clinton’s integrity:

1) Bill Clinton is a draft-dodger who wrote in a letter “Thank you…for saving me from the draft” and then asserts regularly that he supports military force when necessary, especially against Communism. He, therefore, feels it’s alright to send your son to fight wars when he himself would not fight for the principals he SAYS he believes in.

2) Bill Clinton talks of morality but admits that he was a reefer smoker who does not inhale. Sister Soujah has never smoked reefer or any other drug.

3) Bill Clinton says he believes in a strong family unit but could never quite get his own personal and social behavior together. His treatment and dismissal of Jennifer Flowers is indicative of how he relieves himself from his personal responsibility and created an emotionally abusive environment to Jennifer Flowers. He seems to feel comfortable attacking and alienating women for his own shortcomings.

4) Bill Clinton says that Sister Souljah is a racist like David Duke, a well known ex-Klan member and White supremist, but was a member in an all White segregated club up until this year.

5) Bill Clinton portrays himself as compassionate, yet he supports giving prisoners lobotomies, removing sections of the brain.

6) Bill Clinton takes shots at Dan Quayle’s intellectual feasibility yet he has not presented America with any substantive, comprehensive agenda around economic development, foreign policy, budget containment or social policy.

7) Bill Clinton says he is not a racist but he tries to distance himself from Jesse Jackson – a candidate who has registered more voters, served the interest of poor Blacks, poor Whites, poor Latinos, unions, laborers and farmers and by experience, intellect, and charisma, is far more qualified for the job.

Therefore, we can conclude that Bill Clinton lacks integrity at painting himself as a staunch patriot, a people’s servant, a compassionate liberal, a family man, a pro-woman candidate and a coherent scholar. Sister Souljah, on the other hand, was used as a vehicle, like Willie Horton, and various other Black victims. A poor excuse for an AGENDA-LESS candidate.

Sister Souljah does not own a gun, has not shot or killed anyone, did not invade Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Kuwait or Angola. Sister Souljah has never ordered the National Guard into anyone’s community and has not made drug deals with Noriega. Sister Souljah has never been a member of a terrorist organization, has no history of crime, has not burned crosses on anybody’s lawn or lynched or hanged White people from trees. Sister Souljah has not systematically denied people the right to study and enjoy their culture in the so-called public education system. Sister Souljah did not send Haitians back to Haiti as though they were sub-human. Sister Souljah did not kill the native Indians under the guise of friendship. Sister Souljah did not cause or inspire police brutality, did not beat Rodney King, or shoot Phillip Panell and never shot and killed a little White girl in the head for stealing orange juice and let her murderer go free. Sister Souljah did not vote on the Simi Valley jury and let criminal cops free. Sister Souljah did not create the economic conditions of South Central L.A. or any other urban area for that matter, and did not create an environment of insecurity that forced people into gangs.

Therefore, we can conclude that Sister Souljah is not a racist. Neither Sister Souljah nor any other African leader in this world has the power to collectively and systematically beat down and destroy European people, White people deny it all, refuse to discuss it, silence, intimidate and harass those that take a stand and fight back. Yes, I am angry, which means that I am sane. Only an undereducated and misguided African person would not be angry at the racist White transgressions of this society.

The context in which my statements were made in the Washington Post was this, and I paraphrase speaking in the mind-set and in the mind of a gang member: Were you surprised at what happened in L.A.? No, I was not, White people should not have been surprised either; they knew that Black people were dying everyday in the streets of Los Angeles to gang violence created by poverty and social chaos, but they did not care. If young Black men in L.A. would kill their own kind, their own Brothers and Sisters, what would make White people think they wouldn’t kill them too? Do White people think they’re better, or is it that White death means so much more than Black death?

Breaking it down, this means injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. As Sister Souljah, I reserve the right to fight against White racism–I have not ordered anyone to kill anyone. My album creates pressure on White America–a lot of pressure, and pressure is what America needs, deserves, and inherited–no justice, no peace.

http://www.theroc.org/roc-mag/textarch/roc-09/roc09-07.htm

 

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

A Few Thoughts on Nas Defending Gwyneth-Who He Calls a Real N–

June 12, 2012 By

My good friend and author Adam Mansbach often lectures about white privilege and the types of transgressions he sees white kids making within Hip Hop. He recounts the days, not so long ago when he was coming up and what it was like being part of the majority culture but being a distinct minority within Hip Hop. This positioning forced him to deal with certain types of realities he would in most cases have overlooked, including the ways he engaged a culture he was drawn to, but knew wasn’t tied to his immediate roots.

There was a certain type of respect one had and lines one didn’t cross, even as a participant, (Mansbach was an emcee before a writer). Mansbach points out today there are many white kids who have grown overly comfortable, to the point that they show up in your living room and put their dirty feet upon the coffee table with no concern as to how that looks, who it offends and what folks have to do to clean the table that they just soiled.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Seeing how this saga with actress Gwyneth Paltrow is playing  out, definitely makes me think of Mansbach words. Here’s an actress who obviously loves Hip Hop. From what we gathered she’s fond of hanging out with some of Hip Hop’s biggest stars, Jay-Z, Kanye, The Dream and Nas to name a few and with that has come that comfortably Mansbach noted of putting one’s dirty feet upon on the living room table..

This is not so much about Paltrow tweeting the title of a song ‘Niggas In Paris‘ and pointing out her friends Jay-Z and Kanye were those ‘Niggas for Real‘, it’s about her being dismissive to the concerns people had of her using the word.. This was  eloquently pointed out by Q-Tip in his response to all this in a series of tweets…

Adding insult to injury are all the passes Hip Hop’s elite have been giving her.. Initially we had The Dream rushing to her defense, saying he was the one who tweeted the offensive words via Paltrow’s account.. After he caught a lot of flack, he recanted his story..Now we have Nas of all people riding hard for Paltrow saying he’ll ‘slap the shyt out of anyone on her behalf.’.

In his defense of Paltrow Nas also adds:  “She’s the homie, she’s cool. Gwyneth gets a pass. Real people get a pass..” He goes on to refer to Paltrow as a ‘real nigga‘..

When I first heard this I thought to myself is this the same Nas who did the song Coon Picnic (These are Our Heroes) where he goes in on Kobe Bryant, Cuba Gooding Jr and Taye Diggs accusing them of ‘cooning’..

Nas accused Tiger Woods of cooning for defending a racist white women reporter

When asked about that song and why he went after Tiger Woods, Nas explained that Tiger was ‘flawed‘ for not checking a white female sportscaster named Kelly Tilghman who made a lynching joke.. Basically Nas was upset Tiger gave this woman a pass so to speak.. You can peep that interview HERE

Its ironic knowing that Nas has seriously gone after Black folks for allowing racially insensitive remarks and behavior to go unchecked and here he is going above-board to defend Paltrow. Was he doing that because that’s really the homie or did she ask him to step up on her behalf?  I only ask because there are lots of folks who are friends of Nas who get dissed for a variety of reasons and you don’t see such an impassioned defense coming from him.. Why Paltrow?  It certainly appears to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black…I like Nas.. I like his a lot. I think the recent projects he’s undertaken have been incredible, but this stuff here with him defending Paltrow is pure ignorance..

In any case it’ll be interesting to see if Paltrow steps to folks defense when and if they start catching heat for crossing any of the various fault lines in Hollywood. ..Will Paltrow who is part Jewish offer passes for any of her rap friends if they say something that is perceived as anti-Semitic?  Will she ride hard for folks the way they did for her if they say something that is offensive to women?

As far as giving out passes, I gotta wonder if Nas is green-lighting Paltrow to use the N word who else is giving out passes? Are Black cops saying its ok for their white counterparts to use the word? Y’all may recall just minutes before an unarmed Oscar Grant was killed by a police officer here in Oakland, he was called a bitch ass nigga by that officer’s partner..

Are there Black Tea Party members green-lighting the N word for their white members? We’ve seen all the racially charged signs and heard the racially insensitive rhetoric…Did these people get passes?  That’s just a thought for us to consider..

Is Ms Paltrow real enough to help out someone like Marissa Alexander and the injustice she’s recieving?

As I noted earlier, Nas said Paltrow is a ‘real nigga‘ .. Not sure what that means,  but I assume it’s someone who endures the day-to-day struggles and challenges heaped on folks because of their darker hue. Some of those challenges may including racial profiling resulting in police practices like Stop-N-Frisk, to mass incarceration as a result of disparaging sentencing guidelines that have disproportionately targeted African Americans..We all know the case of Marissa Alexander a Black woman given the outrageous sentence of 20 years for defending herself against an abusive husband..

This year we as Black folks have been challenged with a rash of outright racially motivated vigilante killings such as what took place in Sanford, Florida with Trayvon Martin or in Tulsa, Oklahoma  where white men hunting down Blacks in a killing spree. It was just last week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin we had an 75 year old racist white man gun down an innocent 13 year old named Darius Simmons in front of his mother…How is Ms Paltrow being a ‘real nigga‘ in these struggles?

Is Paltrow a real nigga in the sense that’s she’s down in the trenches fighting the good fight to end these incidents and practices or is she in the hood making a change which is what Nas demanded that real niggas do in his Coon Picnic song?  So called Real Niggas I know are under the gun full time 24/7. One out of 4 so called real niggas is living below the poverty line. Is Ms Paltrow rolling with the community to help address that?  Only time will tell if Paltrow is part-time with this thing..  You can listen to Nas’ full remarks on thisthing by clicking the link below..

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

A Few Thoughts on Creflo Dollar and Black Parents Spanking Their Kids

June 12, 2012 By

Creflo Dollar represent the new breed of Conservative thinking Prosperity Gospel Preachers within the Black Church

A few thoughts on this situation with Atlanta-based Mega Church prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar and him being accused of choking and beating his 15-year-old daughter with a shoe because she wanted to go to a party.. Far too much of the conversation has been around romanticized days when we came up and were spanked by our parents for doing wrong and getting sassy..

Almost all of us, including myself have some sort of tale we tell our friends to animated laughter about the some memorable whupping of whuppings we got with a storyline about how we were made to 1-Get our own switch, shoe or belt 2-How our next door neighbors would beat our butts for getting out of line and then our parents would follow suit  3-How our parents didn’t believe in time out..The only time out we got was when our parents took ‘time out‘ in the middle of whupping our butts..

We’ve heard all these stories and many more via Black comedy routines, where Black parents spanking their kids is staple fodder. The underlying implication is that Black parents whupping their kids is a far superior method to white parents who do the time out routine and allow their kids to talk back..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is-4q1W_WW8

While such ‘tough love’ stories and comedy routines may be good for a few laughs the fact remains that we have jail cells filled with young men and women who got spankings.. We have many in our community who have been victims of some sort of horrific crime by those who had more than their fair share of parents administering butt whuppings..Obviously something is not working. Spankings in lieu of other crucial aspects of parenting is just plain lazy.. Eventually kids learn how to take beatings and may wind up being detached and totally unfeeling when administering them or putting forth other forms of abuse.

Sadly a good ole fashion whupping especially when they are made public can have unintended consequences.. Y’all recall the saga of 16-year-old New Orleans teen Michael Taylor? A year or so ago he was shown on video  being spanked by his enraged Uncle who wanted to keep him out of gangs.. Many said what the Uncle did was right, however it didn’t stop the young brother from glorifying the gang lifestyle.. He was tragically killed a year after that infamous spanking..  In the clip below the Uncle sums up what he feels was really needed at the end of the day.. Time, not Whuppings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8bKRE-r4mI

In thinking about the Creflo Dollar situation, from what we’re told he didn’t just whup her butt which is problematic in itself, but he’s accused of choking his daughter and beating her with a shoe. That sounds like some serious domestic violence, not a loving parent trying to guide his daughter..

The folks over at one of my favorite sites Crunk Feminist provide an excellent breakdown of this Creflo Dollar scenario where they note the large amount of female support amongst his parishioners. They describe it as Chris Brown and Ri Ri 2.0...  Please check out this insightful article: 7 Truths We Need to Tell About Creflo Dollar, Black Daughters and Violence.. Here’s 2 of them:

4.)  Domestic violence is not discipline. And this was domestic violence. And I find it hard to believe that a man who will beat the shit out of his own daughter, who feels biblically justified in doing so, wouldn’t beat the shit out of her mother, too. Not levying any accusations here, but I think it’s a question worth raising. Read this Black girl’s testimony and see how true it rings.

5.)   Just because your parents whooped you, and you “turned out fine,” doesn’t mean the whoopings are the cause of it. Black folks are overcomers by copious circumstance. But that doesn’t mean we have to keep recreating negative circumstances for our children and calling them right and good. I had a racist sixth grade teacher who made me cry every day. I still made excellent grades and remained undeterred. If I have children, I will not seek out a racist teacher for them, celebrate their ability to excel despite it, and then claim that they excelled because of it. That is pathological.

 

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

Should Diddy’s Son Give Back His 54k Scholarship? I Wanna Know Why School Cost So Much!

June 1, 2012 By

Ya gotta love America and the constant mind tricks she plays on an increasingly uninformed, 30 second sound bite, dumbed down, non-critical thinking society.. We see our collective lack of awareness playing out around the son of Sean P-Diddy Combs and his son Justin Combs who was just awarded a an athletic scholarship worth 54 thousand dollars.

When the story first surfaced it was framed simplistically, Justin, the son of a rich rap mogul worth half a billion dollars has just accepted a scholarship to a school that is ‘struggling financially‘. The narrative points out that in recent years tuition has damn near tripled with more fee hikes on the way…On top of that, Governor Jerry Brown is pushing for more massive educations cuts.

Justin Combs who was famously given an expensive 300k Maybach car on his 16th birthday from his dad is now being depicted as the poster child for rich kids stealing from the poor…He’s being criticized for taking a scholarship he earned.

Diddy who has never been shy at flaunting his wealth is also seen as an evil villan who should ante up and ‘pay his fair share’..The popular narrative has led to headlines reading; Taxpayers Want Justin to Give Back His Scholarship..juxtaposed with images of students marching demanding lower tuition..

Justin and his dad Diddy shouldn’t be the poster child for tax payer angst

Understandably many have jumped on this story in reaction to Diddy and Justin. Some have framed this as an attack on Hip Hop or an attack on rich Black men and there’s no doubt there’s some of that going on. Others have viewed this as an attack on student athletes.. I’m sure there’s some of that as well..

But really at the end of the day all this is just a smoke screen to distract everyone from the real problems at hand, which is the systemic attacks and massive defunding over the past 5 years of what was once deemed one of the best and most efficient higher public education systems in the world..

Many have focused on Justin’s scholarship instead of asking how and why did we have a tripling of tuition in the past 5 years? What was behind that?Why does it cost 54 thousand dollars to go to school? Many saw that figure and didn’t bat an eye, that’s how far gone we are….

When I went to school, I was paying 200-500 per semester, 15-20 years later tuition easily eclipse 12k, not including housing or other expenses. This doesn’t include the 6% fee hike coming down the pipe, which may double mid-semester if the Millionaires Tax doesn’t pass in the November elections

Is Diddy and his son the cause of the UC system being financial unstable  or some rich banker types sitting on the UC Board of Regents looking to gut and privatize the UC system? Let’s talk about that..

A bit of background.. 40 years ago Cali came up with what was known as the Master Plan for Education with the goal of making education accessible to what they anticipated would be a surging population caused by baby boomers having kids. Under this plan came three major university / college systems including; the University of California, UC system,which is home to UCLA where Justin received his scholarship. UC has 10 campuses throughout the state..Next we have Cal State University system.. CSU which has 23 campuses including San Francisco State where I teach..And lastly we have the California Community College system CCCS which has over 100 campuses around the state..

Combined these 3 systems serve more than 3 million students and for decades set the standard for public higher education.This Master Plan for Education was crafted so that all Cali residents no matter their income could attend college, hence these schools were either free or very low-cost to attend. How and why did that change is the question at hand?

It’s interesting to note that some of the rich banker/CEO types who sit on the Board of Regents have been pushing to gut the UC system and raise tuition even though they went to UC for free.. How ironic is that?  Forget Justin Combs, let’s talk about some of them. For example, take real estate baron and UC Regent, Richard Blum, whose company Blum Capital Partners is worth 7-8 billion dollars. What Diddy has is pennies compared to him.

Blum who is the husband to US Senator Diane Feinstein, is one of those regents who attended UC for free, but now is leading the charge to raise tuition and privatize the UC system. If thats not bad enough he’s come under fire because of all the money he and his firm have made by investments he has had UC make to companies he and his firm own or have a controlling interest..You can get a quick summary of that HERE .

You can also peep the in depth investigative reports about how Blum and his companies have profited off of UC pensions HERE ….

Conflict of interest doesn’t even began to describe what Blum’s about, but that’s been all but ignored by many of the same folks who wanna go on and on about Diddy’s son. One might suggest that if Justin Combs should give back scholarship because his father has more than enough money to pay, then perhaps Richard Blum should refrain from making any more investments that have ties to UC, because with a company worth 7 billion, he has more than enough money.. How much more does he need to make?

There would be no outcry over Justin’s scholarship if folks doing the crying looked at the half a billion dollars spent on renovating Cal’s football stadium. It’s the most expensive renovation in college history and sadly that stadium still sits on a major earthquake faultline..We all should be asking, who in the UC system or on the Board of Regents benefited from that? Certainly not the students who marched, protested and even sat in trees for almost a year to try and stop the rebuilding of that stadium..

While this stadium was still being built and struggling to raise additional money for its completion,  the Board of Regents proposed to raise tuition almost a whooping 80% over the next 2-3 years.. This outraged students and led to huge protests throughout the UC system..Where thousands of students led walkouts, teach-ins and marches etc.. The first glimpse many around the country got of these protests was last fall when they saw disturbing footage of peaceful students being peppered sprayed at UC Davis and police beating peaceful students at Cal…

Sadly as these students were getting peppered sprayed and beaten up you heard some of the pundits who are now attacking Combs, implying the students who were protesting were lazy bums who needed to get a job.

Is Justin Combs and his father Diddy the culprit here? Not by a long shot..That young man earned an athletic scholarship. I’d rather have the medias focus on guys like Richard Blum and his Board of Regent 1% cohorts.. Yeah I know it’s not sexy and easily packaged, but that’s where the money really is..

I’d rather we focus on the Millionaires Tax of 2012 which will help turn back some of the budget shortfall impacting the UC system. Let’s talk about all the big banks that have lined up to oppose it. Perhaps they’re upset about losing out on some of the trillion plus dollars students wind owing in school tuition loans..

Should Justin give back the money? Only if Richard Blum and his fellow Regents give back the obscene money they made off of UC and they resign from the regents.. At that point we can call it even Steven.

written by Davey D

 

 

 

 

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

HKR Intv w/ Invincible… Holding it Down in Detroit & Being Part of a Queendom

May 31, 2012 By

It’s always a pleasure to chop it up with one of our favorite emcees who hails from the Motorcity, Detroit, Michigan.. Invincible is not only someone who will hurt your feelings on the mic, with her wicked flows and willingness to speak truth to power, but she’ll hurt you on the activism tip..

Invincible is more likely to be found at a youth center or on the block working with youth throughout Detroit, make sense of an increasing repressive world.. Her solution is figure out ways to be self-sufficient. While she and others clearly understand the importance of holding folks in power accountable, she’s also crystal clear that those with means and resources, don’t particularly care about the folks they oppress, hence, folks have got to make sure they find ways to survive, with or without their help..

In our interview Invincible breaks down a lot of the innovative ways folks in her city are problem solving systemic issues. She talks about Michigan’s policy of having emergency corporate managers, appointed by the Governor who usurp the power of elected officials and how folks are making things happen in spite of the limitations. She talks about the response youth in her city had when they got suspended for walking out of school to protest sub par education. They started freedom schools and held classes outside the school.. She talked about the media work and new curriculum folks are embracing as well as the Food Justice Movement which in full steam in Detroit..

Lastly we talked about her music, and true to form, Invincible is on some next level ‘ish , as she’s building a Music Box and redefining how music and art is to be distributed..

Invincible will be in town this Saturday for an annual event called Queendom which will also include local female emcees and deejays like DJ Zita, Aima The Dreamer, Persia and a host of others..

http://vivalahiphop.com/2012/05/13/queendom-fly-ladies-reppin-the-4-elements-of-hip-hop/

You can peep our interview w/ Invincible below

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ6qMU7JbBY

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Filed Under: 2012 Daily News, Artist Interviews, Hard Knock Radio Intv Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

If You Luv Hip Hop, Ice T’s New Movie ‘The Art of Rap’ is a Must See

May 31, 2012 By

One of the dopest films out or soon to be out at a theater near you is the Something from Nothing the Art of Rap, put together by Ice-T... Yes, there have been a number of documentaries put out over the years that have focused on emceeing, but this one really hits home for a few reasons..

First, the stories are being told by those who do it..This is important, because far too often the nuanced  and subtle perspectives by the practitioners are often left out or overshadowed by everyone else when documentaries are made. We get to really see how folks are thinking and feel where they’re coming from. There’s no middle-man, expert, punditry interpretation.. You walk away really understanding how and why Hip Hop and in particular rap is an American art form given to the world..

The second thing, is we got to hear from many of the pioneers and see them execute their craft without the feeling like they were being rushed off or their interviews cut short to make room for artists or big names who are well-known today in 2012.

Common holds it down in the film ‘Art of Rap’

It was good to hear good solid interviews with pioneering and iconic figures who still have it like Grandmaster Caz, Mele-Mel, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Nas, Chuck D, Q-Tip and Doug E Fresh to name a few.  They were nicely balanced out with folks like Kanye West who got busy in this film, along with artists like  Immortal Technique, Eminem, Bun B and Common to name a few..

On a side note the Grandmaster Caz spit the illest rhyme out of everyone in the entire film..I had to get that in , because a couple of my buddies thought Kanye took the cake. A couple thought Eminem came hard while others felt WC made his presence felt.. That’s the good thing about this film.. we’re all gonna come out debating who repped.. So I’m just gonna keep it real with ya since its my blog.. Grandmaster Caz killed it.. case closed!..

It was good seeing Ice T do the interviews because he pulls things out of his peers that many film makers probably couldn’t.. It was good to see him in the role of journalist, fan and participant as he ripped a few flows to remind cats, he still has flavor. It was good to see the camaraderie and mutual respect and admiration which often led humorous exchanges..

The only shortcomings to this movie is it should’ve been longer.. I think 4 or 5 hours would’ve been great.. LOL Seriously Ice will have to make additional parts to this, because as dope as this flick is, there are many angles that weren’t fully covered.. There’s no way to fit everyone and everything into a film like that..especially since Ice allows folks to talk and show off their skillz.. He wasn’t cutting and editing just to fit everyone in..

Other critiques?? Pick a city, any city around the country, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Oakland, Cleveland, Boston.. Pick a city and I guarantee at every showing, there will be someone pointing out that the Art of Rap didn’t include their favorite rapper or the person they perceive to be the sharpest spitter from their part of town..There’s gonna be cats saying there wasn’t enough midwest, not enough South, no Bay Area etc etc.. That’s gonna happen and even with that critique the film is still dope..It might drop down to a 9.5 as opposed to a 10..

There will be folks from different generations who feel like more could’ve been added. Yes there will be a few who say the film should’ve included more pioneers, more cats from the 80s, more cats from the 90s and millennium cats. Some will want more underground, others will want it to be more mainstream.. That’s gonna happen… and even with that, as I noted earlier still this is a Must See film

It was good to see Salt in the Art of Rap

Personally I think Ice could’ve added a few more sistas in the mix.. It was good to see Salt, It was great to see Lyte.. I wanted to see Yo Yo, Medusa, Invincible and Jean Grae.. and while they weren’t in the film, it’s still dope.

The good news is Ice filmed hours upon hours of material and I’m almost certain we’ll see additional parts where our personal favorites are included.. As I said this is not a forced documentary. It flowed really well and had a very authentic feel and is an important, essential addition in the Story of Hip Hop..

Major Props to Ice T.. I fully expect this documentary to be nominated for an Oscar.. It’s that damn good.

-Davey D-

Below is the official video for the Art of Rap.. Smooth tha Hustla brings heat..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rykWQSWrWL0

 

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News, Hip Hop History, Video New Music Tagged With: , , , ,

Mitt, Meg & Trump The New Age Firing Squad

May 30, 2012 By

So today Mitt Romney is coming to the Bay Area to meet w/ Meg Whitman..Y’all remember Meg? In 2010 she  ran for governor and promised to fire 40k state workers.. She’s now the CEO of HP where she is now firing 27k…This is what she does best…

Her buddy Mitt is on record saying he likes to fire people and his company Bain Capital has proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt..Ask the folks who work at Clear Channel, one of Bain’s companies..

Lastly Mitt is hanging out with Donald ‘Klansman’ Trump... What does Trump do every week? He has a TV show where he fires people..

So where’s all the job creation? Perhaps its overseas or perhaps its amongthe low wage/ minimum wage crowd

Mitt, Meg & Trump.. They’re the new age Firing Squad..

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: , , , ,

HKR Intv w/ Prof Jelani Cobb on Cory Booker, Black Voters & Safe Negro Politicians

May 30, 2012 By

Hard Knock Radio 94.1 FM: Just had an insightful conversation with author, professor and political analyst Jelani Cobb about his recent article in the New Yorker Magazine titled: Cory Booker the Dilemma of the Black Politician..In his article Cobb focuses on the recent controversy that Booker found himself embroiled in when he defended Bain Capital, Mitt Romney’s company, while his good friend Barack Obama was dissing it..

Booker’s defense caught many by surprise, not just because he’s surrogate for Obama, but because it seemed so antithetical to what we expect from Black politicians especially one like Booker who is Mayor of Newark which is a staunch Blue Collar city.

During the 2008 election season, Barack Obama was hailed as the most visible of this new class of politicians, which included Booker; Artur Davis, a congressman from Alabama; Adrian Fenty, the mayor of Washington, D.C.; and Harold Ford, a former congressman from Tennessee. Here was a group of men—and they’re all men—who would not be found bullhorning rhymes about police brutality in front of the local precinct house.

 

In our discussion Cobb talks at length about the oversimplifying labels that are placed on Black politicians and voters. It’s not a one size fits all scenario.. At the same time Cobb both in his article and in our interview how politicians like Booker, Fenty and Davis lost the Black vote in second term elections when it became clear to voters that they were courting other demographics while going out of their way to shun Black constituents.

In our convo Cobb sheds light on some of the myths we have around Black voters and politicians.. We encourage folks to read the article and also listen to our interview as we go in…

Professor Jelani Cobb

 

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Filed Under: 2012 Daily News, Hard Knock Radio Intv Tagged With: , , ,

Our Hard Knock Radio Tribute Mix to Chuck Brown

May 30, 2012 By

The viewing of Washington DC legend, Chuck Brown the Godfather of GoGo drew thousands and a wide cross-section of who’s who in the DC/ DMV area..His funeral is scheduled for Thursday.. In honor of this musical legend we put together a Tribute Mix.. It features audio excerpts from National Visionary Leadership Project We encourage folks to peep that site as it’s a treasure chest of great info..

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Filed Under: 2012 Daily News, Artist Interviews, Hard Knock Radio Intv Tagged With: , , , ,
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