You are here: Home / Archives for Hip Hop

Chilean Born Emcee Anita Tijoux Speaks on Student Strike Back Home & SB 1070 in Arizona

August 1, 2012 By

It’s always a pleasure to chat it up w/ Chilean born emcee Anita Tijoux who has been doing her thing for a minute outside the US and has now been making major headway here. Her album 1977 kicked down the doors and put folks on notice she was not one to be toyed with.. Her constant sold out shows is an indication that she’s here to stay. We sat down with Anita not too long ago after she rocked the Independent in SF. We talked about her new material and the political uprisings in her native Chile where hundreds of thousands of people have been taking to the streets protesting education tuition hikes..

Anita explained how everything in Chile has been privatized and averaged people have been economically squeezed to the point that there has been eruptions from the youth..Tijoux captured the raw emotions of what’s going down with a song called Shock.. She later did an accoustic version of the song after visiting the border in Arizona and witnessing first hand the trauma being inflicted on both documented and  undocumented folks thanks to to SB 1070

Below is the Hard Knock Radio interview click the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=177-s44MSVQ    Shock in Chile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkvgAXkd7yM Shock in Arizona

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

The 10 Frisk Commandments & Other Songs Fighting Against Police Brutality

July 18, 2012 By

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

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

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

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

The other song is from Bronx based Rebel Diaz who did a song and video called Stop! Stop and Frisk..which addresses the issue and shows folks in the Bronx demonstrating against out of control police..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-duTrV9hSg

The other is from Killer Mike who talks about the police and their No Knock warrants and what would happen if they tried that on him.. The name of the song is ‘Don’t Die‘

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze1_vkSyPDY

 

 

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

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

June 30, 2012 By

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

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

June 18, 2012 By

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 15, 2012 By

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

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

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

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

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

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

Club after the Chris brown-Drake Fight

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

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

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

Clive Davis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s Food for Thought..

Davey D

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

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

June 15, 2012 By

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

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

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

She also notes…

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

peep the entire article HERE

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

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

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

Ice T holding it down on the Jimmy Fallon Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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..

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

From Hardcore Journalist to Dope Emcee-Our Intv w/ SF’s Finest-Rocky Rivera

May 26, 2012 By

A while back we sat down and chopped it up with one of the Bay Area’s finest emcees.. We’re talking about Ms Rocky Rivera..For a long time she was known around the town as a skilled journalist and activist who hailed from SF State…She got so good at her craft that she wound being featured in an MTV Reality series called I’m From Rolling Stone‘ .  Here, she won a position as a contributing editor. She is also one of the few if not only journalist to interview all members of the Wu-Tang Clan at the same time.. Her keen knowledge of Hip Hop and her ability to flip the script lead to her winning.

This is important to note, because Rocky decided that she wanted to do more than write, hence she picked up a mic and brought that same scrappy attitude along with her.. The end result has been critical acclaim. In this interview  we cover everything from Rocky’s transition from journalist to emcee, what went into making her latest album, Pop Killer Mixtape, Her outlook on Bay Area Hip Hop  and a whole lot more.. Enjoy

Press the link below to listen to our HKR intv w/ Rocky Rivera

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News, Artist Interviews, Hard Knock Radio Intv Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »