2009-Daily Hip Hop News | Hip-Hop and Politics

Rosa Clemente Gives keynote at Hip Hop Congress Convention in Detroit

June 28, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Rosa Clemente at Hip Hop Congress Convention

Rosa Clemente gave the keynote address this evening (June 26, 2010) at the national conference of the Hip-Hop Congress in Detroit, MI. Taking place adjacent to the U.S. Social Forum this gathering of what Clemente described as, “the only real national hip-hop political organization,” happens at yet another moment of crisis in what is the permanent moment of crisis for oppressed and exploited communities. And that which also goes by “the hip-hop community” is indeed among them.

Rosa Clemente is among only a few who are able to, with a severe relatively, speak so often and so publicly of the many issues confronted by the hip-hop community. Those issues are, of course, the issues which face us all and include political prisoners and mass incarceration. They are the struggles over poverty, police brutality, as well as, rampant and violent misogyny – to the point, as Clemente made clear tonight, that death at the hands of spouse or loved one is the third leading cause of death for women in this country. These issues include capitalism, colonialism, zionism, pan-Africanism, Puerto Rican nationalism and sound responses to the simple ridiculous claims of hip-hop’s electoral power shown in its ability to elect Obama. Clemente addressed all these and more issues in a way that young people too often are kept from and too often at the hands of the cultural expression or the loudest hip-hop spokespeople, authors and academics. Who is to define our struggle and the avenues we take to develop a future world that itself is defined by us? This was the fundamental question asked and it is a question that demands a strong and collective answer.

Hear the entire speech at: http://www.voxunion.com/?p=2776

by Jared Ball

An Open Letter, A Call to Action to Our Hip-Hop Community: Put us Women on that Line-Up & Stop the Disrespect!

June 28, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Big shout out to DJ Kuttin Kandi for always speaking up and reminding all of us our responsibility. What makes this letter so important is that as much as we in Hip Hop like to smash on the troubling aspects of mainstream and corporate backed Hip Hop,our so called progressiveness and ‘us keeping it real’ stop at the front door when it comes to women. Something is seriously amiss, we can turn on the BET awards as much as we like to criticize, and see MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Nicki Minaj and others hosting and performing and not see a cadre of women artists on the line up for a popular ‘alternative’ outlet like Rock the Bells we all have to take a pause and ask ourselves some hard questions. Why and how is this happening?

And for the record, RTB is not the only one, its just the most visible, but we can take a look at dozens of so called underground spots all over the country and see a lack of women rocking the house. The offerings get even more sparse when you listen to an underground mix show or club spot and ‘hardly hear any women in a nice 2 hour set. How are we allowing this to happen? We pride ourselves on crate digging and can’t find some women spitting nice flows?

People like to say women don’t draw. Well someone didn’t give that memo to artists like Invincible who put together an all woman showcase during SxSW this past spring. She had everyone from Psalm One to Tiye Phoenix. It was held a good mile away from the other showcases and yet people found their way to the venue and it was packed to the hilt..

Again shout out to Kuttin Kandi for this article…

-Davey D-

AN OPEN LETTER, A CALL-TO-ACTION TO OUR HIP-HOP COMMUNITY: PUT US, WOMEN ON THAT LINE-UP & STOP THE DISRESPECT!

A BIG THANK YOU TO MY SISTER IN THE MOVEMENT – ROSA CLEMENTE WHO IS MY INSPIRATION TO WRITE THIS PIECE… I LOVE YOU SISTER!

Dear Hip-Hop Community

I come to you openly as a long-time Hip-Hop DJ, Hip-Hop Poet, Hip-Hop lover, fan and etc… I come to you as someone who appreciates all of you whole-heartedly, for all that you do for Hip-Hop, for all that you do for keeping Hip-Hop going, living and breathing. I come to you for giving so much to Hip-Hop, for providing all of us with such dope Hip-Hop beats, rhythm’s and dance. I come to you for all that we have been through with Hip-Hop. I come to you because I know Hip-Hop is a space for me to be honest, a space for me to challenge others and myself.

But I also come to you as a woman in Hip-Hop, a community organizer, a Hip-Hop feminist and activist who is tired; tired of the industry that can be so cold in leaving women out of the picture all of the time. And sadly, when we are in the picture, we’re often pictured in misogynistic, sexist videos and pictures. I am tired of seeing these images over and over again. I am also tired of not having enough alternatives of these sexist music. And even when there are these so-called “alternative” spaces, it’s just as sexist too. That’s right, I’m not just talking about “mainstream” Hip-Hop, I’m also talking about that “alternative” what has often been labeled “underground Hip-Hop”, “real Hip-Hop” too. However, let me be clear that I also say “industry” because it is not Hip-Hop culture that treats women this way. Sadly, it is our own people in this industry that is doing this to our women, and each other.

So, if these alternative spaces are created to give us other kinds of outlets for other kinds of Hip-Hop we prefer which is supposingly more ethical, more “moral”, more conscious and more “Hip-Hop”; and if these supposed more ethical, more “conscious” Hip-Hop are also just as sexist and misogynistic, then where do we go from here?

During the USSF forum in Detroit, Invincible managed to bring an all-star line up of dope female artists who are in point including Miz Korona and Monica Blair

I am specifically tired of seeing this 1 year after year show, one that will remain nameless (ahem, few coming up this August), where there is an all-star-line-up and all of them are men with 1 solo female act. This show is widely considered the “real Hip-Hop” deal. I mean really, a huge line-up of about 20 something men and maybe 1 or 2 women on the bill!? And maybe a few other women who some of the artists bring along as a surprise guest but don’t even make it on the flier or even heard or seen unless you were there? Seriously? HIP-HOP, IS THIS WHERE WE’RE AT? I can name tons of female artists, and not just “developing artists”, but dope long-time women veterans who can spit dope game and cut it up on the tablez who need to be in that supposed “all-star-line-up.” They have paid their dues by paving the way, setting their own mark, making their own records, winning battles… do they not deserve to be on that bill?

For nearly 15 years, in the industry, I have witnessed women being treated unfairly and unjustly. Whether it be through watching the way music videos depicted women as only sex objects or whether it was behind the scenes with record labels giving horrible deals and men back stages overstepping boundaries, I’ve witnessed it all. If you know me well enough, you would know that this is not the first time I’ve spoken about this. And this is not the first time that I’m tired of it all. However, I decided to make a “I AM TIRED OF HOW WOMEN ARE BEING TREATED IN HIP-HOP LIST” that I hope all of you can help add and pass on:

So, here is just a few of what I am tired of: (this is a growing list – women and allies, pls feel free to add to this list)

• I am tired of going to a show where a sound engineer would not value my expertise because they didn’t deem me as “expert” enough to know what I am talking about.

• I am tired of being the only woman headline on a bill.

• I am tired of not seeing myself or other women headline on a bill.

• I am tired of feeling uncomfortable and intimidated because I’m the only woman backstage.

• I am tired of seeing music videos of women being objectified.

• I am tired of seeing men groping women backstage.

• I am tired of seeing men grope women on stage.

• I am tired of men calling women a “b*tch” or a “h*e” when they feel threatened by her ability to know what she is doing and doing it good.

• I am tired of women being pigeonholed into stereotyped categories within Hip-Hop.

• I am tired of seeing “female battles” within Hip-Hop when women can compete and win against men.

• I am tired of women being seen as a “rarity” in the field that they tokenize a “female” artist and put any woman on doesn’t matter if she has no skill as long as she looks “good”.

• I am tired of women getting offered only “collabos” on songs but not getting offered deals.

• I am tired of the deals women are offered and how it’s often less than what a male artist would receive.

• I am tired of the “token female DJ night”. Come on now, give a woman a regular night spinning with other men too!

• I am tired of being bumped to either first or last or at a really horrible time slot last minute because someone with more “credibility” (more than likely a male) needed to go on because he has a last minute conflict on his schedule.

• I am tired of how male artists are typically offered more money then women artists and then how others use an excuse like “because he is more known”, but ideally a woman would be “more known” had female artists were given the same equal treatments of publicity, marketing and deals. DUH!

• I’m tired of women getting pushed off a bill or a track when someone with more “credibility” (more than likely a male) comes along.

• I am tired of not feeling safe enough to talk about my own gender identity, my sexual orientation and being free to be who I truly am.

• I am tired of seeing how Asian women, Black Women, Latina Women, Queer Women, and women of color as a whole are treated and perceived in Hip-Hop because of their race, class and gender.

• I am tired that people think it’s just mainstream Hip-Hop, when “underground” Hip-Hop disrespect women and LGBTQ folks too.

• I am tired that this music industry is also a size/ist and lookism industry that as a woman I have to have a certain sex appeal and size to get offers, deals and etc..

• I am tired when none of our supposed male allies within Hip-Hop don’t check other men on their privileges.

• I am tired of men not recognizing that they are the only ones on the line-up and not sayin or doing anything about it.

• I am tired of not feeling safe enough to check anyone.

• I’m tired of the women who are buying into the patriarchal thinking and get competitive with other women and enjoy being the “only female”.

• I am tired of being one of those women who once bought into the patriarchal thinking and being competitive with other women for that 1 gig or spot in the bill.

• I am tired of people not knowing that there are dope women Hip-Hop artists and Hip-Hop activists all over the world.

• I am tired of being scared right now, as we speak, writing this open letter, knowing that at any show I could be and more than likely will be threatened and/or attacked if I call out anyone on this article.

Eternia just did a nice remake of 'Live at the Barbeque' featuring all women including Rah Digga, Jean Grae, Tiye Phoenix and Lady of Rage

I am tired of being the token female artist in a Hip-Hop male lineup. This music industry has led me to behave in such a way where I would buy into the “only female-in-the-click” syndrome. While I respect the crews I have been part of in my past, it is today, and now more than ever that I recognize how important it is that we make room for more women to be included. This music industry makes no room for more women to enter the doors, that it creates a dynamic for women to compete against each other, for that 1 gig, that 1 offer, that 1 deal, that 1 spotlight. Because it only comes so often, because the chance is only once in a lifetime, us women, jump for it… because it is our only opportunity. We’re all jumping for the scraps they are offering us… and I am tired of falling for it.

I am so tired of hearing other women complaining and still it is the same. This is the not the first letter or article that has been written. Other women have been writing this for years. This is nothing new. I’ve just been lucky that within these past 15 years, I’ve been able to create my own alternatives to help keep my own sanity amongst a music industry that can make anyone lose their mind. I’ve been able to join female crews and build my own network of friends who would support me and other women. I’ve been able to find folks who have helped me out over the years during the most challenging times by providing me outlets and spaces to speak my peace and express my art. These spaces were safe that gave me a place to be real with myself, to know that I can be whoever I am. I am thankful for these spaces within Hip-Hop. I am thankful for these Hip-Hop folks that help make these spaces happen. These Hip-Hop folks are women, male allies and other allies in our communities.

However, there comes a time, where we need to stand up to the spaces and the people that don’t make help create these spaces either. There comes a time to stand up to the people that create elitist spaces, not making room for others to speak, share and be part of it. Especially, when these spaces claim to be Hip-Hop and make no room for women to be part of it. There comes a time where we as women have a right to claim these spaces, because women have been part of Hip-Hop since day one.

It would be great to see the VH1 Hip Hop Honors pay tribute to the pioneering women of this culture, like the all female crew Mercedes Ladies who have long been overlooked...

But like I am in other times that I speak up against something I am not right with, I am in fear of the repercussions. I am in fear of being attacked. I am fear of the literal physical attack that can happen when speaking out. I am also in fear that people will think that I am trying to be about me. Because it’s not about me. This isn’t about me trying to get a gig. Sorry, that’s not on my agenda. I’m not someone bitter that I didn’t get an opportunity to get my shine on. This is about my sisters, this is about us having a voice, about us having talent too. This is about the shine for all of us. This is for all my sisters out there who are practicing everyday. This is for the movement that Barbara, Eve, Lady Pink, Mercedes Ladies, Lady B, Sweet Tee, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Sista Souljah, Wanda Dee, Jazzy Joyce, Roxanne Shante, Pebblee Poo, started long before me, so that we can be put on too. This for all of them who are still doing it today. And this is about women today, who are doing their thing. I have witnessed Queen Godis, Mystic, Medusa, Anomolies, Abeer, Maria Isa, Eternia, Jean Grae, Bahamadia, Miki Vale, Apani B Fly, Bless Roxwell, Sara Kana, DJ Killa Jewel, Tyra from Saigon, DJ Shortee, DJ Chela, Pam the Funktress to the La Femme Deadly Venoms… and this list goes on and on and on and on and on. Too many to name. And I’m sad that I can’t list them all. Because we are out there and we exist. And it is for this reason that I must speak. I have learned from Audre Lorde – “your silence will not save you.”

So, come on, male promoters – you know who you are. I highly suggest to all the men within Hip-Hop to read male privilege check-list and etc. I suggest if you don’t know, you google it and educate yourself. I also suggest our male allies in Hip-Hop to stand up with us. It is not enough that you acknowledge that this goes on within Hip-Hop. If you know it does, then let a promoter know they should even out the line-up. Refer other women artists. Invite female artists on your showset to get some shine. BUT don’t tokenize us either! Also, check your male friends backstage who mistreat women. Invite us to your practice sessions, but don’t make us feel uncomfortable by making us look like rare creatures or putting us up on some pedastal or treating us like trophies or prized possessions. Don’t intimidate us by your male chauvinisms, machoisms and egotisms. But don’t think we’re gentle and demure either. Don’t victimize us or romanticize some notion that you’re going to save us. Because at the end of the day, we been always fighting our own battles. With or Without you, we have done it, made it, claimed it and taken it. We’re strong, we got a mind of our own and we got skillz. We don’t fit into any label or category because we are all shapes and sizes. We are like Hip-Hop, fluid in what what say, think, do, feel, wear, and etc… We are anything and everything we imagine ourselves to be, so don’t package us into what you envision us to be. We have our own visions and dreams.

As far as for us, women, I don’t think I really need to tell you much. You already know what we are coming into because you feel it and you are experiencing it. However, I will just say for the sake of saying – We, women, we need to just continue to come together. I say continue, because we are a movement been happening. We have been coming together long before my crew Anomolies and long before Mercedes Ladies. We have been standing together, rising up together, teaching each other, learning from one another and we need to continue to do so because we are standing at a time where we are at the crossroads. The world is going chaotic and the earth is speaking to us to stay united. And if we women hold up half the sky, we’re going to have to continue keeping it balanced by staying at peace amongst each other, loving one another and being in unity with one another. We need to acknowledge our differences, value them, and talk about our intersections. We need to talk about the things that are complexed and come out with our own plan of actions. We need to support those who are speaking out for us, voicing themselves at the risk of losing everything. We need to help each other in our crafts to progress, we need to create spaces for more women, transgender and non-conforming genders to be included, we need to check each other in our perpetuation of patriarchal-thinkings and check the men that do it to us.

So, as I close this open letter…. I close it with saying in the words of my friend’s Dead Prez’s words “It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop…”, because we all know that this is all bigger than Hip-Hop. And I’m not just talking about the genre of music, for we all know that sexism exists everywhere. However, I am saying that this is bigger than Hip-Hop, because this is not just about women being in the picture. It’s about respect. And like Hip-Hop, being about gaining respect, we too, be it a woman Hip-Hop head or not, that’s all we want too. Respect.

with love, peace and respect
DJ Kuttin Kandi

p.s. also a big shout out to DJ MarkLuv for your allyship in writing this piece as well!

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: A Call to Action to Our Hip-Hop Community: Put us Women on that Line-Up & Stop the Disrespect!, An Open Letter, DJ kuttin kandi, Eternia, Kuttin Kandi, Tiye Phoenix, Women in Hip Hop

Senator Robert Byrd Dies-How Should We Remember Him?

June 28, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Just got word about Senator Robert Byrd dying and not too sure what to make of it. The first thoughts that came to mind are, he’s been serving my entire life and damn near my parents entire lives. Dude has sat in the Senate for almost 60 years. That’s a long time. I keep asking myself, why do we have so many Senators who get to sit up in office till they are that old? The late Strom Thurman, Jesse Helms and Ted Kennedy are a few long time fixtures that come to mind…If you serve in office for that long, the question that comes to mind is was Byrd and his long serving colleagues effective? Did they do what was needed for their states? If you’re a Democrat or left leaning was he and others strong advocates or obstacle?

All I knew about Byrd, was he was good at rocking all the rules that govern the Senate and hence could flip a debate and stop or move legislation based upon technicalities. The other thing I remember was he was he started out being a member of the Ku Klux Klan. People always like to point out that he changed, renounced his membership and was a Democrat, failing to realize that Democrats back in Byrd’s days were the most vile and most racist in the both the political arena and in real life especially if you lived in the South.

I grew up knowing that Byrd was a member of the KKK at a time when Black folks were getting lynched, killed and beat down as they tried to get rid of this country’s harsh Jim Crow laws. Sadly, Byrd was one of those law makers who was serving in both Congress and later the Senate where he called for the KKK to start chapters in every state and kept ties to the Klan leaders. While Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King were pushing for Civil Rights legislation in 1964, Byrd was the one standing up as a Democrat and filibustering it. He also voted against Thurgood Marshall becoming a Supreme Court Justice and for Washington DC a majority Black city to become a state and having congressional and Senate reps.He did this as recently as last year.

I know that Byrd has apologized, and renounced his past actions, but do you ever really redeem yourself from that? People forget the KKK was a formidable terrorist organization that as far as Black folks in this country are concerned were far worse then Al Qaeda is today. Tens of thousands were lynched, tortured and ran out of towns by the Klan and quite a bit of this went down during his tenure as a Klan leader back in the 1940s and while many of us will look back at Robert Byrd and give him accolades for his longevity in the Senate, many of us will remember the stories of horror told by our grandparents while they grew up in the south and fell prey to his former group.

Forgive and forget? Perhaps, if I wasn’t constantly being reminded that we still have folks rotting in our prisons after 30 and 40 years who diligently fought against the Klan loving Robert Byrds of their days as members of a variety of organizations including the Black Panthers and SNCC Many are in jail under highly suspect and questionable circumstances. Did Byrd when renouncing his KKK affiliation look out for those who got jailed under the harsh racially charged climate he helped ferment? When we still have 70 and 80 year old men being hunted down by overzealous lawmakers trying to secure political points as was the case around the SF8, how can one in good conscious move on from Byrd’s KKK past?

In the meantime it will be interesting to see how quickly folks rush to fill the political void Byrd leaves behind. In all likelihood a Democrat will be appointed by West Virginia’s governor to serve out his remaining term so the balance of power won’t switch.

-Davey D-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FIBJt-c2o0

Robert Byrd DEAD: West Virginia Democrat Was Longest Serving Senator In History

by Ann taylor

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/28/robert-byrd-dead-west-vir_n_627392.html

WASHINGTON — Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week.

At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years.

Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate’s majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow West Virginian in the Senate, said it was his “greatest privilege” to serve with Byrd.

“I looked up to him, I fought next to him, and I am deeply saddened that he is gone,” Rockefeller said.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Byrd “combined a devotion to the U.S. Constitution with a deep learning of history to defend the interests of his state and the traditions of the Senate.”

“We will remember him for his fighter’s spirit, his abiding faith, and for the many times he recalled the Senate to its purposes,” McConnell said.

Byrd’s death followed less than a year after the passing of venerable Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a nationally recognizable figure who had been a most vociferous spokesman for liberal causes for years.

In comportment and style, Byrd often seemed a Senate throwback to a courtlier 19th century. He could recite poetry, quote the Bible, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail the Peloponnesian Wars – and frequently did in Senate debates.

Yet there was nothing particularly courtly about Byrd’s pursuit or exercise of power.

Byrd was a master of the Senate’s bewildering rules and longtime chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls a third of the $3 trillion federal budget. He was willing to use both to reward friends and punish those he viewed as having slighted him.

“Bob is a living encyclopedia, and legislative graveyards are filled with the bones of those who underestimated him,” former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, once said in remarks Byrd later displayed in his office.

In 1971, Byrd ousted Kennedy, the Massachusetts senator, as the Democrats’ second in command. He was elected majority leader in 1976 and held the post until Democrats lost control of the Senate four years later. He remained his party’s leader through six years in the minority, then spent another two years as majority leader.

“I have tangled with him. He usually wins,” former Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., once recalled.

DeConcini supported Byrd’s bid for majority leader. “He reciprocated by helping me get on the Appropriations Committee,” DeConcini said. Years later, DeConcini said, he displeased Byrd on another issue. “I didn’t get on the Intelligence Committee when I thought I was up to get on it.”

Byrd stepped aside as majority leader in 1989 when Democrats sought a more contemporary television spokesman. “I ran the Senate like a stern parent,” Byrd wrote in his memoir, “Child of the Appalachian Coalfields.” His consolation price was the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee, with control over almost limitless federal spending.

Within two years, he surpassed his announced five-year goal of making sure more than $1 billion in federal funds was sent back to West Virginia, money used to build highways, bridges, buildings and other facilities, some named after him.

In 2006 and with 64 percent of the vote, Byrd won an unprecedented ninth term in the Senate just months after surpassing South Carolinian Strom Thurmond’s record as its longest-serving member. His more than 18,500 roll call votes were another record.

But Byrd also seemed to slow after the death of Erma, his wife of almost 69 years, in 2006. Frail and at times wistful, he used two canes to walk haltingly and needed help from aides to make his way about the Senate. He often hesitated at unscripted moments. By 2009, aides were bringing him to and from the Senate floor in a wheelchair.

Though his hands trembled in later years, Byrd only recently lost his grip on power. Last November he surrendered his chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee.

Byrd’s lodestar was protecting the Constitution. He frequently pulled out a dog-eared copy of it from a pocket in one of his trademark three-piece suits. He also defended the Senate in its age-old rivalry with the executive branch, no matter which party held the White House.

Unlike other prominent Senate Democrats such as 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry of Massachusetts, who voted to authorize the war in Iraq, Byrd stood firm in opposition – and felt gratified when public opinion swung behind him.

“The people are becoming more and more aware that we were hoodwinked, that the leaders of this country misrepresented or exaggerated the necessity for invading Iraq,” Byrd said.

He cited Iraq when he endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in May 2008, calling Obama “a shining young statesman, who possesses the personal temperament and courage necessary to extricate our country from this costly misadventure.”

Byrd’s accomplishments followed a childhood of poverty in West Virginia, and his success on the national stage came despite a complicated history on racial matters. As a young man, we was a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a brief period, and he joined Southern Democrats in an unsuccessful filibuster against the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.

He later apologized for both actions, saying intolerance has no place in America. While supporting later civil rights bills, he opposed busing to integrate schools.

Byrd briefly sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and later told associates he had once been approached by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, about accepting an appointment to the Supreme Court.

But he was a creature – and defender – of Congress across a career that began in 1952 with his election to the House. He served three terms there before winning his Senate seat in 1958, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House.

He clashed with presidents in both parties and was implacably against proposed balanced budget amendments to the Constitution.

“He is a fierce defender of the Senate and its prerogatives in ways that I think the founding fathers really intended the Senate to be,” said one-time rival Kennedy.

In a measure of his tenacity, Byrd took a decade of night courses to earn a law degree in 1963, and completed his long-delayed bachelor’s degree at West Virginia’s Marshall University in 1994 with correspondence classes.

Byrd was a near-deity in economically struggling West Virginia, to which he delivered countless federally financed projects. Entire government bureaus opened there, including the FBI’s repository for computerized fingerprint records. Even the Coast Guard had a facility in the landlocked state. Critics portrayed him as the personification of Congress’ thirst for wasteful “pork” spending projects.

Robert Carlyle Byrd was born Nov. 20, 1917, in North Wilkesboro, N.C., as Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr., the youngest of five children.

Before he was 1, his mother died and his father sent him to live with an aunt and uncle, Vlurma and Titus Byrd, who renamed him and moved to the coal-mining town of Stotesbury, W.Va. He didn’t learn his original name until he was 16 and his real birthday until he was 54.

Byrd’s foster father was a miner who frequently changed jobs, and Byrd recalled that the family’s house was “without electricity, … no running water, no telephone, a little wooden outhouse.”

He graduated from high school but could not afford college. Married in 1936 to high school sweetheart Erma Ora James – with whom he had two daughters – he pumped gas, cut meat and during World War II was a shipyard welder.

Returning to meat cutting in West Virginia, he became popular for his fundamentalist Bible lectures. A grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan suggested he run for office.

He won his first race – for the state’s House of Delegates – in 1946, distinguishing himself from 12 rivals by singing and fiddling mountain tunes. His fiddle became a fixture; he later played it on the television show “Hee Haw” and recorded an album. He abandoned it only after a grandson’s traumatic death in 1982 and when his shaky hands left him unable to play.

At his 90th birthday party in 2007, however, Byrd joined bluegrass band Lonesome Highway in singing a few tunes and topped off the night with a rendition of “Old Joe Clark.”

After six years in the West Virginia legislature, Byrd was elected to the U.S. House in 1952 in a race in which his brief Klan membership became an issue. He said he joined because of its anti-communism.

Byrd entered Congress as one of its most conservative Democrats. He was an early supporter of the Vietnam War, and his 14-hour, 13-minute filibuster against the 1964 civil rights bill remains one of the longest ever. His views gradually moderated, particularly on economic issues, but he always sided with his state’s coal interests in confrontations with environmentalists.

His love of Senate traditions inspired him to write a four-volume history of the chamber. It also led him to oppose laptops on the Senate floor and to object when a blind aide tried bringing her seeing-eye dog into the chamber.

In 2004, Byrd got Congress to require schools and colleges to teach about the Constitution every Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: Civil rights, Davey D news-Robert Byrd, Ku Klux Klan, Robert Byrd, Senator Robert Byrd dies, Senator Robert Byrd Dies-How Should We Remember Him?

The Whole Truth Behind Trae and his Lawsuit w/ KBXX in Houston

June 24, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Out of the Box

Banned from KBXX 97.9, Trae tha Truth takes his case courtside.
By Shea Serrano

July 22, 2009 was the second annual Trae Day, a day devoted to honoring Trae tha Truth, one of Houston’s own rappers, known as much for his philanthropic efforts as for the menace in his lyrics.

It was started the year before by then Mayor Bill White and the City of Houston — Trae became the first rapper in the city’s history to earn his own day. A full-on family festival was organized by Trae’s camp to crown the occasion, more than 10,000 people showed up to pat him on the back. It was a complete, unexpected success.

2009’s Trae Day was to follow suit. And it mostly did. Mostly.

The second Trae Day was held in a TSU parking lot, this time with the attendance reaching up past 15,000. There were free pony rides, school supplies, moonwalks, HIV testing, immunizations and more. Trae financed a bulk of the event. Acclaimed rappers Rick Ross and Shawty Lo showed up to lend their support. So did Bun B, Slim Thug and a whole host of others.

2009’s Trae Day was to follow suit. And it mostly did. Mostly.

Trae was both heartbroken and irate.

“I really hurt the most when I found out what happened,” says Trae. “To see them kids’ faces before, to know what it meant for them and to know what that meant for the city to have that day, for that to get overshadowed…I knew that’s what was gonna be put out. I was pissed, but hurt more.”

Trae spent the evening and following days conducting a hailstorm of interviews regarding the unfortunate ending to what was an otherwise fortunate day of communal merriment and pride.

He inevitably made his way in front of the DJs at the Madd Hatta Morning Show, the weekday morning team on KBXX (a.k.a. The Box), 97.9 FM, a Radio One-owned company operating as the only hip-hop and R&B station in Houston. The interview quickly grew cantankerous when on-air personality Nnete Inyangumia implied that Trae was at fault for the shootings, contending that acts of violence were inherent in his music.

Now, this isn’t exactly an altogether off-the-mark observation.

Trae’s music is significant for any number of reasons, but mainly this: It makes accessible not only the worst parts of the guts of a major American city, but also the psyche of a man intelligent enough to thrive there. To listen to it is to live on the 8900 block of Braeswood, except you don’t have to worry about getting your shit took.

There is no better long-form example of this than Restless, his third official LP. There is an ambient feeling of depression throughout the album (though it’s not driven by it). Even the songs that aren’t explicitly about something awful happening to someone Trae loves — the Jim Jones-aided “Coming Around The Corner,” “Pop Trunk Wave” and “Cadillac” — are tinged with just enough desolation that they seem to serve only as stopgaps between bouts of depression and suffering.

And if this were the only thing you knew about the album, or Trae for that matter, you’d be forgiven for assuming it would be good for nothing more than serving as the soundtrack to blowing your brains out. But Trae presents that despondency in an artful and willfully expressive manner.

Where many Houston MCs get lost in either the trappings of the city’s caricatured regional culture or hard-life talk, Trae can talk about both worlds. He possesses the authority to talk about street life that Paul Wall doesn’t have, as well as the unreserved cockiness to talk about fancy cars and jewelry, things street-talk legend Scarface has always avoided.

Trae is a hardened man, with the vast potential to be bulldozing when he chooses. That seems inarguable. He was caught in a minor controversy when he punched rapper Mike Jones in the nose at the Ozone Awards in 2007, a situation he later publicly apologized for. And violence, or any other aspect of inner-city life for that matter, is a natural subject of his music. But it’s not a natural extension of it.

The remainder of that morning’s interview played out in the same tense manner in which it began. Trae called back afterwards off the air to express his displeasure with the route the interview took. Still, three months afterwards, no one on either side appeared outwardly concerned with anything.

Enter The Incredible Truth.

The Incredible Truth is a mixtape Trae released in October of 2009. One minute and 24 seconds into the tape’s sixth song, Trae lobbed a grenade at Nnete, rapping about her weight, “Look at you with your bad built ass, you’re trash, so far gone you ain’t even in the past. It’s understood when I’m rolling on glass and the world hating on me like Nnete’s fat ass.”

continue reading at..http://www.houstonpress.com/2010-06-24/music/out-of-the-box

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: Nnete', Out of the Box, The Whole Truth Behind Trae and his Lawsuit w/ KBXX in Houston, Trae, Trae Day

USSF 2010: Legendary Actor /Activist Danny Glover Speaks the Freedom Struggle

June 24, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Danny Glover

Long time actor/ activist Danny Glover is here in Detroit at the US Social Forum making the rounds and showing support. We sat down with him along with our radio colleague Nora Barrows Friedman and got his perspectives on the city of Detroit and it’s important history in the Freedom and Labor Struggles.

Glover talked about many of the ways in which Detroit has been innovative.

We also spoke with Glover about the intersection he sees between what is going on in Haiti and what’s as well as his take on how we should be connecting the dots with Haiti, Palestine movements both here at home and abroad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGPnuDx3WdU

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: Danny Glover, Detroit History, Human Rights, USSF 2010: Legendary Actor /Activist Danny Glover Speaks the Freedom Struggle

USSF 2010: Why and How Do Corporations Get to Hire Cops to do their Bidding?

June 24, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Here at the US Social Forum in Detroit we caught up with longtime Austin based activist Debbie Russell and spoke to her about the growing trend of corporations using cops as a private army or law enforcement wing. Our good friends at Alternet just published a Mother Jones article called Louisiana Off-Duty Cops Working for BP? Corporate Police State Watch

Here this article highlights this disturbing practice with BP Oil being a recent partaker. In the article they detail how BP Oil is using Lousiana cops to enforce BP rules on public property and p[reventing reporters from filming dead oil stained animals.

Last week, Drew Wheelan, the conservation coordinator for the American Birding Association, was filming himself across the street from the BP building/Deepwater Horizon response command in Houma, Louisiana. As he explained to me, he was standing in a field that did not belong to the oil company when a police officer approached him and asked him for ID and “strongly suggest[ed]” that he get lost since “BP doesn’t want people filming”:

Here’s the key exchange:

Wheelan: ”Am I violating any laws or anything like that?”

Officer: ”Um…not particularly. BP doesn’t want people filming.”

Wheelan: ”Well, I’m not on their property so BP doesn’t have anything to say about what I do right now.”

Officer: ”Let me explain: BP doesn’t want any filming. So all I can really do is strongly suggest that you not film anything right now. If that makes any sense.”

Not really! Shortly thereafter, Wheelan got in his car and drove away but was soon was pulled over.

It was the same cop, but this time he had company: Kenneth Thomas, whose badge, Wheelan told me, read “Chief BP Security.” The cop stood by as Thomas interrogated Wheelan for 20 minutes, asking him who he worked with, who he answered to, what he was doing, why he was down here in Louisiana. He phoned Wheelan’s information in to someone. Wheelan says Thomas confiscated his Audubon volunteer badge (he’d recently attended an official Audubon/BP bird-helper volunteer training) and then wouldn’t give it back, which sounds like something only a bully in a bad movie would do. Eventually, Thomas let Wheelan go.

This footage and story should be frightening to everyone who loves their freedom watching it…We should all be asking ourselves, ‘How did things dissolve to this point where corporations own the police who enforce rules put forth by the company?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=344em_5hwcQ&feature=player_embedded

Debbie Russell

Russell who rolls with the ACLU explained this is totally illegal and went into lots of detail explaining why. During our convo, it was pointed out that in recent times we saw police and corporations merge when the employees of the RIAA (Record Industry of America Association) were photographed wearing windbreakers similar to law enforment and physically joining them on raids to arrest deejays selling home made mixtapes.

Unfortunately the practice was ignored by many because it was music industry / Hip Hop thing..However, when word leaked out that Steve Jobs of Apple chaired a board that oversaw a special task force of local Bay Area police officers which were seen kicking in the door at the wee hours of the morning confiscating the computer of a reporter who took pictures of Jobs ‘lost iphone.

I asked Debbie with companies yeileding this much power, how does the average person counter? Do we get to hire our own cops?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO06FJXVGyk&feature=channel

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: ACLU, BP Oil, Debbie Russell, Police brutality, RIAA, US Social Forum, USSF 2010, USSF 2010: Why and How Do Corporations Get to Hire Cops to do their Bidding?

Adrienne Maree Brown Speaks on USSF 2010-Why Detroit?

June 22, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Long time organizer Adrienne Maree Brown speaks about what to expect at this week’s USSF here in Detroit. She talks about why Detroit is a such a significant city in terms of movement building and being solution oriented. Much of Detroit’s resilience has come as a result of having to endure economic hardship for the past 30 years.

Adrienne also talks about the misperceptions many have when looking at Detroit, in particular those from the coastal cities who act and feel like Detroit’s problems can be solved by them and not from residents of the city. This is truly a bottom up led city in terms of movement building where consensus building is the name of the game and not charismatic personality.

For more info check out USSF.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qidy1a6qM0w

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News

Live From Detroit:The USSF-An Intv w/ Adrienne Maree Brown-Why Detroit?

June 22, 2010 By mrDaveyd

For more info check out USSF.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qidy1a6qM0w

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Essential videos to peep, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: activism, Adrienne Maree Brown, detroit, Live From Detroit: The USSF-An Intv w/ Adrienne Maree Brown-Why Detroit?, movement building, Southern Shift TV

Live From Detroit-AMC Bringing Back Fanzines through E-Books

June 21, 2010 By mrDaveyd

One of the most interesting panels I came across during this years Allied Media Conference in Detroit was called ‘Electronic Books: Creating Your Own and Preparing for a Paperless Society‘. It was put together by Detroit author Sylvia Hubbard of the Motown Writers Network and the AA Electronic Literary Network.

I hadn’t intended to go to her session but was strongly encouraged and I’m so glad I did. What she laid out about the ease of entry into the E-Book world and the fact that one can make money if they have a nice following was eye-opening. Many of us think that E-Books are limited to established authors who secured book deals with their publishers going the E-Book route to create new opportunities.

Sylvia Hubbard was presenter at Allied Media Conference where she explained the importance of E-Books

Hubbard who is the author of a number of books, explained that anyone with a good idea and compelling story to tell can get their E-Books up on-line and sold by Amazon. In fact she even gave us a ‘back door website’ URL to upload our E-Books DTP.AMAZON.COM along with specs on how to format, what types of dpi to use for pictures, pricing etc. She explained how when she is doing lectures, audience members will often purchase and download her books while she is still speaking. Imagine the potential for artists who have a nice fan base.

As Hubbard was speaking I couldn’t help but think how in today’s hi-tech world its easy to forget about some of the simple things we did within music to make ourselves known. Many of us figure with Ipads and Itouches that things we once cherished have been forever tossed away. Fret not.. Some of those goodies are with us with a hi-tech twist. Case in point the Fanzine. Today’s fanzine is the E-book.

Y’all remember those little 10-12 page booklets indy bands and rappers would create and give out at concerts as ‘special limited editions’? Many of them were handmade, the editing wasn’t all that tight and the content ranged from strange musings of the artist on a particular topic to highly politicized calls to action. All of them no matter how crude or well put together were ‘keep sakes’.

I still have the early pamphlets from Digital Underground talking about a secret project NASA was working on which would be a pill that allows you to experience sex. It was called ‘Sex Packets’ and the ‘homemade fanzines’ were cleverly done to help bring attention to the group’s highly anticipated album of the same name.

Paris included a well written thorough history of the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam with his debut album

Another one that stands out were the two put out by Bay Area rapper Paris. In the early 90s he put out a history guide about the Black Panthers and Nation of Islam, the two groups that influenced him. The information was thorough and rich with facts that I still reference to this day. The booklet accompanied his album ‘The Devil made Me Do It‘.

15 years later in the aftermath of 9-11 Paris released a controversial song called ‘What Would You Do’, which pretty much explained why then President George Bush was responsible for the mishap that hit this country. Paris released an 11 page booklet that outlined the what he felt were major flaws in a foreign policy that helped spawn the type of anger behind the terrorist attacks. Paris then later released a full fledge documentary around the topic.

As I noted the list of bands who did fanzines and pamphlets is endless, but seemingly all but forgotten in the hi-tech world. Many groups have enhanced their presence by blogging, but as Sylvia Hubbard pointed out in our session, why not do an E-Book? The topics could range from autobiographies to lengthy explanations about a controversy. For example, imagine if 50 Cent had released an E Book given the full background stories surrounding his various beefs with fellow artists? Imagine if we had an E-Book from the members of Rage Against the Machine giving us their political musings leading up to the 08 elections? Imagine if there was an E-Book from a local band touching upon the richer meanings behind an album? It’s food for thought and in a world where fans want to be closer to artists this is a perfect way to 3 Dimensionalize the experience.

Along these lines we caught up with longtime Seattle-based journalist Jonathan Cunningham who was a presenter at the panel ‘How to Create a New Music Based Economy‘ . He talked about the role journalist should play and how artist can better engage them. He insisted that all music journalist no matter how should create space to cover local and indie acts. He also said that journalist need to humble themselves and not try to create a hierarchy where they are on top. The economy and fate of publications are pretty precarious and forging good relationships with artists will be key so all can thrive together. Cunningham also explained that artists should own and control media by doing everything from writing about themselves to filming themselves.. He loans some insight as to how publications and editors think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1RuACf0I0

Finally since we are still on the DIY tip I had to include some sound advice from Afro-Punk superstar Tamar Kali. She lit up the stage at the opening party for AMC where she headline and made all of us true believers. As you know the punk community has long been about creating and doing for self so we had to ask Ms Kali what advice would she give to people to maintain in this economy. She said the number one thing artists need to do is plan.

Here’s an excerpt from a much longer interview we did where she addresses the issue. Please excuse sound quality, I couldn’t figure out how to get the good audio from my recorder onto the audio track for this new camera set up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbTWR9-0dl0

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: Allied media Conference, allied media conference 2010, Digital Underground, http://Live From Detroit-AMC Bringing Back Fanzines through E-Bookswww.youtube.com/watch?v=IbTWR9-0dl0, Live From Detroit-AMC Bringing Back Fanzines through E-Books, media justice, Media reform, Paris, Sylvia Hubbard, Tamar Kali

Categories

Robert Byrd DEAD: West Virginia Democrat Was Longest Serving Senator In History

Out of the Box