Rakim

Originally Ooh Papi was going to do a newsletter for today but yesterday his fiancee forced him to watch American Idol with her and that threw off his schedule. He said he would start compiling the newsletter after he saw a heterosexual black male contestant and that explains why you don’t have a newsletter today. 🙂

RAKIM INJURED IN CAR CRASH

Anyway the greatest rapper of all time was injured in a car accident yesterday leaving my great state. Yes, Rakim was injured in a car accident leaving Connecticut for New York but he is expected to fully recover although he is still hospitalized.

In addition one of the greatest singers ever (imho) also had a sad day yesterday Arne Naess Jr., the Norwegian shipping magnate & former husband of Diana Ross who fell to his death on January 13th while climbing in the mountains near Cape Town, South Africa, was laid to rest at a private memorial service in Norway on Wednesday (January 21st). Only close friends and family attended the service, which was performed in English out of respect to Naess’ foreign family members, including his ex-wives Diana Ross and Filippa Kumlin; his partner at the time of his death.Mr. Naess was climbing in the Groot Drakenstein mountains, about 44 miles outside of Cape Town, when he apparently slipped and fell more than 300 feet to his death. Mr. Naess did not have much protective gear, just ropes and a harness. Mr. Naess was an experienced mountaineer who led a team of Norwegian climbers to the summit of Mount Everest in April 1985. He and Ross had two sons before their divorce in 1999.

It seems like I have so much bad news these days, so let me tell you something lighter. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) found Bush’s speech laughable in its own right. Viewers spotted her snickering when Bush called for a curb on athletes’ use of performance-enhancing drugs.
“Now if he had mentioned testosterone, that would have been funny,” Clinton told colleagues after the speech. She perfected her line later when she told reporters Bush’s address was “partisanship on steroids.”I thought that bit about steroids in baseball was the most misplaced rhetoric ever in a State of the Union Address. We all have ‘beaten-wife syndrome,’ where we’ve been lied to so often,” “George Bush is like a drunken, unfaithful spouse who’s gone out and cheated on us so many times that at this point we just “accept it”….He looks like the belligerent guy in the bar who tries to pick a fight with you .

The Latin sensation from D.C. did about 18 newsletter rants last year but on his special day, let’s take a look at what is listed under the Boricuan sensation’s columns, although it isn’t all his.This Washington, D.C. family man has had 10 excerpted items from his column highlighted on his day. I bet you don’t know why Playahata.com has made this Ooh Papi day ? -Charlie the Moderator

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1.It’s Getting Sweaty In Here -“Meanwhile, Rocawear never addresses the sweatshop issue but Ironically, Latin America’s greatest martyred freedom fighter Che Guvera has become a symbol of Rockafella’s co-founder and greatest artist Jay-Z A.K.A., Sean Carter. Nobody cares that Che Guvera was anti-Rockefeller (the man that the label was partially named after). In the end I think Che summed it up best some years ago, when he said “The amount of poverty and suffering required for the emergence of a Rockefeller, and the amount of depravity that the accumulation of a fortune of such magnitude entails, are left out of the picture, and it is not always possible to make the people in general see this. ”

2.An Open Letter to the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network(HSAN) -“Benzino is shady, he himself was once affiliated with a white emcee, and that white emcee used the N word on the track they made together. In fact, it appears that Benzino told his white emcee to use the N word.The emcee in question is named Bawston Strangla, and his connection to Benzino is detailed on artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Ban…Strangla/, where you can also download the song he and Benzino worked on together in 2000, “Shamrocks and Glocks”. About 35 seconds into the song you will hear Strangla drop the proverbial “N” bomb, in a passage that sounds very random and out of place alongside his other lyrics.The website hiphopmusic.com contacted the white emcee and he said Benzino told him to use the N word.(yes you read right) This does nothing to minimize the offensiveness of Eminem’s track and lack of response by Em but “it does places Benzino’s righteous indignation in a different light. Just in case anyone was starting to take him seriously they should rethink that and the same goes for HSAN and their political posturing.

3.Real Playboy Pimps ride The Hip Hop Hummer to Bank -“The Hip-hop generation is mislead because many of the high profile rap artist who get media attention are uninformed or make associations based solely on their personal interest. Hollywood has many of them caught up in its surreal Matrix and since rap (the biggest component of hip hop) is totally crossover now the business ties and interests of people like Donald Trump and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the same as those of people like P-Diddy or Russell Simmons. That is a conflict of interest for the African-American community as well as any working class community, black, white or other. Donald Trump once considered running for political office and could win just as Arnold did. While both Trump and Arnold have a history of indifference or outright prejudice to communities of color it won’t make a difference at the ballot box to communities of color. Unfortunately, the rich playboy image is being swallowed by too many voters. It makes no difference to voters that the rich elite ONLY see them as a market waiting to be exploited.”

4.Rush Limbaugh Finally Skinned by Tabloid Media – Listen people (something the partially deaf Limbaugh can’t always do). Limbaugh got the job because he committed those zany and intolerant acts. The real issue is that it is part of the norm for unqualified whites like Limbaugh to get high paying, high profile jobs even if the resume does not support such a hire. The dismissal of the Redskin name change lawsuit by the judge and the hire of Limbaugh the bigot are proof that racial bias and neglect are not real concerns in the NFL.

5.’Making Da Band’ was Making The Exploitation of Us.- MTV showed what probably added up to a whole season of ‘Making Da Band 2’ this weekend. I saw about 10 episodes and all I can say is that somebody should call the department of Child Welfare on both MTV and P-Diddy. That was the most exploitive “reality show” I ever saw. Come to think of it those were young adults not children, so don’t call Child Welfare. I guess, I am thinking child because the one named Frederick still sucks his thumb like an infant.

6.Tommy Hillfigger Vs Beanie Sigel -A Look at the Urban Hoax – Joel J. Horowitz, Tommy Hillfigger’s chief executive says that the denim business is now dominated by urban brands who have become successful in using their own logos. He says Tommy, “needs to be more fashion-right with the denim details that we put forth through fabric or sophisticated washes, and compete more on the product side versus the logo side.” So Tommy took Horowitz’s advice, his new approach. A billboard above the West Side Highway in Manhattan featuring what a competitor described as “Pacific Sunwear meets Ralph Lauren meets `From Here to Eternity’,'” Analysts and others in the retail industry have wondered why he has switched his game so dramatically. It’s simple the hood got no more love for Tommy and his cash register is hurting.

7.Deadly Makeovers -I was amazed at all the positive coverage mobster John Gotti received when he died. A lot of it was untrue. The press for the most part did this makeover of him as a good man. He was a mobster for Christ sake, you know what they do.

8.The Real Murder Inc. …. Don’t Laugh- “So, when Bush is envisioning “a foreign-handed foreign policy,” or observes on some point that “it’s not the way that America is all about,” Miller contends it’s because he can’t keep his focus on things that mean nothing to him. “When he tries to talk about what this country stands for, or about democracy, he can’t do it,” he said. This, then, is why he’s so closely watched by his handlers, Miller says – not because he’ll say something stupid, but because he’ll overindulge in language of violence and punishment at which he excels. “He’s a very angry guy, a hostile guy. He’s much like Nixon. So they’re very, very careful to choreograph every move he makes. They don’t want him anywhere near protestors, because he would lose his temper.”

9.Artists Don’t Make Money From Record Deals -“So the artists actually receive $19,333 each for their gold album, and in two years when the reserves are liquidated, IF they’ve recouped, they will each receive another $63,000. IF they’ve recouped. Guess who keeps track of all of this accounting? The label. Most contracts are “cross-collateralized,” which means if the artist does not recoup on the first album, the money will be paid back out of the second album. Also, if the money is not recouped on the second album, repayment can come out of the “in reserve” funds from the first album, if the funds have not already been liquidated”

9.I am not down with this war @#%$! (Will the real Slim Cheyney please stand up) – Moreover, documents uncovered by the Center for Public Integrity show that Halliburton received $1.5 billion in government loans and loan guarantees during the five years Cheney was CEO. That compares with just $100 million during the previous five years…….”He’s receiving money from the government and money from a private-sector company with government contracts,” said Allison. “Whose payroll is he on?” The answer: Both of them. And that couldn’t be right.