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Rapper Being Held on $1 Million Bail for Making a ‘Terrorist’ Themed Song

May 23, 2013 By
Cameron D’Ambrosio aka Cammy Dee

Cameron D’Ambrosio aka Cammy Dee

Just reading this story about a teenager being held in prison for 1 million dollars bail for posting up rap lyrics deemed offensive on Facebook.. Here’s whats in the NY Daily News..

A Massachusetts high schooler is facing federal terror charges for posting to Facebook rap lyrics mentioning the Boston Marathon bombing and the White House.

Cameron D’Ambrosio, 18, of Methune, was picked up by feds at around 1:40 p.m. Tuesday after a friend saw the lyrics and called the principal of Methuen High School, who called police, the Valley Patriot newspaper reported.

“Ya’ll want me to…kill somebody?” the lyrics said, according to the Boston Globe.

“A Boston bombing wait till you see the [expletive] I do. I’m a be famous rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me!” the message said….

The teen, who appeared in a handful of self-made YouTube clips rapping under the handle “CammyDee,” was charged with communication of terrorist threats and being held on $1 million bail.

According to posts on YouTube and Facebook, D’Ambrosio lived in “da hood” of Methuen and appeared to have a strong interest in “gangs, violence and a criminal lifestyle,” the Valley Patriot said.

His Facebook page contained satanic images and a picture of his face on a “Wanted Dead or Alive” poster.

Read the rest of the story HERE or you can check out another story HERE

Paris sonic jihadNow there’s a lot to unpack here..Over the past few years we’ve had militias and armed Tea Party folks show up to the White House lawn with guns talking reckless about President Obama and nothing happened except maybe the IRS looked at taxes and you see where that’s gotten us/
No matter what this kid has said we’ve heard and seen images that are far more ‘politically charged’. For example shortly after 9-11, with the Patriot Act on the books and the term enemy combatant defined, we had artist like Paris do an entire album called ‘Sonic Jihad’ smashing on President George Bush and his Post-9-11 policies.. Who could forget this infamous album cover of a plane flying into the white house..That’s just for starters.. Since Paris there’s been a slew of songs that have referenced the World Trade being blown up. Some have made the case that George Bush ‘knocked down the towers’… We seen an explosion in ‘terrorism’ shows ranging from 24 to The Cell to the recent movie ‘Olympus Has Fallen‘, where the white house is attacked and destroyed by terrorists.. If someone saw the scripts to those movies or caught wind of the dialogue, would they be carted off to jail and held with 1 million dollar bond?
Obama Being HungDuring the Democratic Convention some guy showed up and drove around Charlotte with a effigy of Obama being hung.. There was no arrests or anyone sent to jail, even though it was disturbing and highly offensive.If this is happening now, whats gonna be the rules everyone has to follow to avoid jail time? Don’t reference a recent bombing? Don’t talk greasy about the President unless you’re a deranged Senator or Congressman or Tea Party member? Will the net of jailable offenses be expanded to include forbidding one to talk about the military or police?? Will we start have folks define ‘terrorist threat’ any expression of anger toward authority figures and lawmakers?Meanwhile if you’re a rapper like Chief Keef sporting a 2 million dollar bill, you can talk about stabbing a woman for not given you head or be a rapper who’s actually shot and been accused of killing someone like Snoop Dogg and Gucci Mane and be not only handsomely rewarded but celebrated. Seems like with each passing day the Obama administration are pushing the envelope to see what liberties they can snatch away with.. This is especially scary when you consider that we’ve killed 4 Americans with drones without any sort of due process..To me that’s an act of terror, but thus far no one has been punished for that..Lets keep our eyes on this story..

After I posted this article some folks sent me a video of the cops in Salem harassing folks who went to the court to find out whats happening in this case.. This is the police being over the top..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5gpIWRMo3s&feature=youtu.be

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

Our Thoughts on Michele Obama & Fantasizing about Ballers and Rappers

May 22, 2013 By

MichelleObama-225Michelle Obama gave a speech over the weekend at Bowie State saying that too many Black kids fantasize about being ‘ballers and rappers’..Her exact quotes were as follows…

Today, more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 50 years after the end of ‘separate but equal,’ when it comes to getting an education, too many of our young people just can’t be bothered,”

“Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they’re sitting on couches for hours, playing video games, watching TV. Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they’re fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper,”

She concluded that many Black kids think getting an education is acting white… Her quote was “reject the slander that a black child with a book is trying to act white.”

Damn Michelle who the hell wrote your speech??

Lebron James and ObamaA few things to think about.. First lets just go on record and note, those ballers and rappers that many fantasize about, played a key role in getting Michelle and her husband into the White House, not once but twice..From Lebron James to Jay-Z to Will I am to Common to Beyonce who the First Lady famously asserted was role model for her daughters, were all up in the mix during their campaigns and subsequent inaugurations..These rappers and ballers went out and engaged their fans, by doing songs, concerts and special appearances  to go to the polls and vote in what we are now seeing to be record numbers..

If we really wanna keep it 100.. I saw Diddy and Jigga hanging out at the inaugurations in 08 and not prominent scholars like a Cornel West who actually went and campaigned in 60 + cities for the president. We’ve seen countless pictures of rappers all up in the white house..Why wouldn’t a kid fantasize about being a rapper or baller when its them hob nobbing with the Obamas not his teacher or preacher?

JayZ at White HouseSecond point.. For the love of God, lets dispel with this 25-year-old cliché first uttered by Spike Lee back in the late 80s at the height of the crack epidemic about Black kids not wanting to read because it would make them appear white.. People who are trying to do the tough love thing have been running with that quote for far too long and it has no bearing in reality.

In the age of Youtube, the Internet and other forms of technology we have all sorts of cross pollination taking place. You have some kids in the hood rocking skinny jeans and skateboard gear made popular by white kids and in the burbs you will see white kids rocking a hat to the side and sagging pants made popular by their Black counterparts. Slang and patterns of speech are damn near universal at this point in time. In short if we’re going by style of dress and surface mannerisms one can question about what does it mean to be Black or white?

If we wanna talk about Black kids reading books and stereotypical perceptions behind that, we have to couch that in the context of disparities in education and how that plays out on the ground.

President Obama and Common

President Obama and Common

The fact is many of the ballers and rappers who kids MAY fantasize about are actually moguls in their own right with lots of money and perceived power which many have come to understand is the result of them having hustle, a willingness to grind and intelligence to navigate the systems before them.. Whether its Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Common, Rick Ross, Kobe  or Beyonce, you name it all have made it abundantly clear their success was the result of them grinding ..

Its been made clear their mogulness has been the result of them soaking up game and learning the business aspect of the worlds they enter. As Jay-Z once famously rapped..I’m a businessman, I’m a Business, Man If that hasn’t been made clear, its up to people like Michelle Obama to highlight that aspect vs deriding one’s ‘fantasy’

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

Filed Under: 2013 Daily News Tagged With: , , , ,

Have We Sold Our Souls By Turning a Blind Eye to Obama’s Drones?

February 8, 2013 By

Davey-D-purple-frameThere’s a lot of talk about President Obama and his use of drones as well as him having a kill list which has asserts that he can kill American citizens that he deems to be working against America and somehow down with al-Qaeda.. This is indeed very scary and something all of us should seriously reflect on, because whatever steps Obama takes will not be limited to him.. Whoever sits in the Oval office will be able to pick up where Obama leaves off..

Seems like quite a few are giving the President a pass on his policies.. Would we be comfortable with those policies if we had President Romney as opposed to Obama? What if it was former President George Bush saying he has a kill list and has a right to use it on American citizens? Many of us took to the streets and raised a ruckus for far less.

Yesterday in Washington, there were confirmation hearings for John Brennan who is said to be the brains behind Obama’s insidious drone policy…Brennan is shooting to be director of the CIA.. Are people really comfortable with his policies? Are we comfortable with the US setting up drone bases in Niger, knowing that during the Bush administration Bush had Colin Powell lie before the United Nations about the African country providing uranium for terrorists? His testimony was briefly interrupted by folks upset with the drone policies he later defended..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEycDKgUwbw

Barack Obama rightAre we comfortable with Obama having a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia and mainstream news outlets like the Washington Post agreeing not to report this to the American people?

I want people to be aware of a tactic that is being used in support of White House policies around the discussion on drones.. There is a set of talking points and particular phrasing being used by stealth surrogates and ‘supporters’ of the President designed to frame the conversation in way that moves one away from talk about diplomacy and de-escalation and into the arena of ‘All  We must fight terrorism at e

Inevitably someone will make try to put the onus on you for objecting..Pay close attention when someone responds or inserts themselves in a conversation and ask questions or makes statements along these lines:

1-If we don’t use drones what better ideas do you have to eliminate top terror operatives? Instead of complaining about the President fighting the war on terror, perhaps you should help him..This is difficult work..

2-Troops on the ground are not as effective..Drones are the only way to fight back… Do you have another way for us to take out top terrorist without troops?

3-There are Bigger threats that you can’t see. Bush started something that Obama unfortunately must finish to protect us all.. It took us over a decade to find Bin Laden

4-Those so-called innocents who have been killed by drones hide or aid terrorists..The terrorists use kids to fight us and then claim innocence. We haven’t killed that many innocent people.. They killed innocent people during 9-11…Our drones are doing the job of fighting terror more effectively

5-The terrorist plan there and then come here or against our interests around the world. They started it-remember 9-11. Its better for us to fight them over there then at home..

6-We must use drones because we have no other options Our allies like Pakistan hid Osama for years and lied to us.

7-Diplomacy doesn’t work..They want to kill us. They have an advantage on their land..they know it better than anyone. I don’t condone killing innocent people but so we must use drones to level the playing field.. They must be stopped!

Drone ProtestsBasically the tactic used is to situate the discussion as if we have no other choice but to fight the war on terror. Its designed to make you forget that the War on terror was a manufactured war with the goal of keeping it open-ended, and perpetual.. so we could expand it as necessary.

Obama is depicted as a reluctant participant who would rather have peace, but is ‘forced to clean up the mess’ that George Bush has started..

We are also reminded that its better for us to fight the war on terror overseas then have it here at home..Innocent people being killed is justified as being a part of war which is ‘ugly’. We are also reminded that terrorists use kids to fight us and hence we shouldn’t be ‘fooled’ or overly sympathetic..

There are Black and Brown faces increasingly being used to push these arguments.. Some are literally paid pundits and operatives. Others in a misguided sense of Black pride and unity have sold their souls and turned a blind eye to actions and policies that they know are dead wrong.. Others who once upon a time have been excluded, have been made to feel ‘special’ because they were put on some sort of White House mailing list,  got a phone call from someone important asking for their help or been invited to informal White House briefings.. The end result is a misguided sense of loyalty at all costs.. As fellow journalist JR Valrey of the Block Report once famously noted, many are not interested in justice or preserving life, they just want their turn to hold and crack the whip..

Obama's drones are terrorismBottom line be wary of the attempts to get folks to buy into a concept that we once railed against called ‘preemptive strikes‘..When Bush kicked this off we hit the streets by the thousands.. Obama doesn’t use the that term, instead he invokes the image of us being in a life and death struggle against ‘evil terrorists‘. As a result many have checked their conscience at the door to pick up a sword to join in sable rattling while simultaneously bemoaning the fact that youth in our community have turned to violence as a solution to problems vs de-escalation and diplomacy..

Filed Under: 2013 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Obama’s Re-Elected What Next? Michael Skolnik of Global Grind & Hip Hop Activist Rosa Clemente Weigh In

November 11, 2012 By

With the re-election of President Barack Obama, we been having a series of discussions on Hard Knock Radio with key activists and organizers all over the country about the next steps we should be taking. This is an important conversation considering how concerned and dissatisfied many were feeling in the weeks and months leading up to the 2012 election.

Many felt President Obama had come up short on a number of issues and was dreadfully wrong on others. Many who felt things weren’t headed in the right direction were cautioned that we should give the President time to get his bearings. We were told he inherited a tremendous mess and that change would not come overnight.

We were also told that President Obama was under tremendous pressure from his political opponents who were determined to limit him to one term. The type of obstruction Obama was up against in Congress was unprecedented. he amount of racism directed at him was unprecedented. Hence activist and organizers were encouraged to fall back and rally around the president with the goal of shielding him and getting him a second term.

That has finally happened the other night. In the aftermath of his re-election there should now be strong pushes for him to address issues of poverty, the plight of labor, ending the war and other imperialistic foreign policies, deading mass deportations and eradicating the ramped up domestic spying and erosion of constitutional rights via NDAA.

As Boots Riley of the Coup famously pointed out not too long ago, our vibrant movement for social justice where many of these key issues were being addressed and fought for long before Obama was even a presidential candidate somehow became morphed into a movement to get him into office. That was good for Obama but not necessarily good for the movement. The momentum garnered over the past 8 years should not have dwindled  It left us short-changed.

This time around, many are re-thinking, re-tooling and laying out plans of action for the next 4 years and beyond. Many activists are determined not to make the same mistake of jettisoning their respective movements for the sake of an elections. Others are determined to keep themselves and the people around politically engaged beyond 2 and 4 year contest. Still others are finding that its time to build from the ground up, by establishing strong local basis that can withstand any sort of national political storms.

Michael Skolnik

One of the people we interviewed a day or so after the election is Michael Skolnik who is editor and chief of Global Grind, which is an online publication owned by Hip Hop mogul Russell Simmons. Skolnik was also a surrogate for the Obama campaign.

During our interview we covered a range of topics including how to hold this President accountable to why we didn’t see more young people who voted in overwhelming numbers having visible seats at the table.

We discussed some of the problems that many had with Obama on key issues and what would be the best ways to push him and not get be obstructed by supporters who were over defensive.

We also talked about long term strategies and what we should be striving for during Obama’s second term. Skolnik offered some great insight and suggestions Peep the Hard Knock Radio interview below. Let us know what you think…

We also spoke with long time Hip Hop activist and former Green Party vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente. Rosa has long been pushing that the Hip Hop  generation move away from constraints of the democratic party and adopt a more radical and uncompromised politic. She feels Hip Hop has become too much of a mouthpiece for the democrats and has lost a lot of its bite and overall integrity, especially when it remains silent and actually cheerleads a president who embraces policies that Hip Hop folks have long stood against.

She talked about the importance of us focusing on younger voices, creating space for many who have been locked out and highlighting the work of on the ground organizations like the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement who never stopped organizing and pushing even with Obama in the White House.

Clemente noted that there’s been a pressure to vote over organizing and its led to folks believing that’s the only thing needed to be politically changed. This has been too much of an oversimplification in addressing systemic and complex problems and that perspective needs to be changed. With the re-election of Barack Obama, Clemente sees opportunity for endless possibilities for great change. She notes, the focus can now return to us  resolving our issues vs getting someone re-elected.

Rosa concluded our Hard Knock Radio interview by sharing her personal vision for change during which includes stepping up and strengthening the Green Party. .. Click the link below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Police Terrorism: Looking at the Common Controversy Beyond His Lyrics

May 12, 2011 By

The ‘outrage’ over rap star Common‘s appearance at the White House for a Poetry event is one that all of us should  look at and take a long pause. It’s not so much that the Sean Hannitys and Fox News crowd went reaching for an old standby tactic-Demonize a Black person or some or some sort of cultural expression to get ratings, bring attention or distract from an issue. Thats been done for decades and with each deployment there are scores of willing participants who are eager to engage these clowns in a feeble attempt to go toe for toe…

What gets lost in the sauce is our collective attention to other issues that really impact our lives. As radio host Skyy Brewer from Skyyhook radio reminded us, ‘we stopped talking about Congressman Paul Ryan‘s proposed Draconian budget to go all out on this issue around Common’.

Baltimore artist/activist Labtekwon in a recent Facebook posting chided us for being gullible.He urged us to stop being so quick to drink the Kool Aid of propaganda. He raised the question: ‘Full grown adults are actually idignant over whether a rapper goes to the white house and when a RIGHT WING pundit is against it, then its an issue worthy of discussion?’ Translation: Why are we taking what Sarah palin has to say so seriously?

It might be a bit shortsighted that so many of us engaged this debate on terms favorable to the far right.. We reacted to Sarah Palin. We reacted to Sean Hannity.. We reacted to out of touch police officers.. We continued the troubling tendency of reacting to their words, their definitions and the angles they bring up.

What many of us have NOT done, is use this conversation to connect to larger more insidious dots that impact us all on a daily basis.. It’s easy to have a discussion about rap lyrics.. We’ve done that for the past 30 years and to be honest, that’s gotten old. It’s harder but needed now more than ever, to move that discussion to a point where it unearths the political and social agendas at hand.

For example, the other night one of the cable news channels dragged out a police officer who whined and cried about how Hip Hop was thug music. He asserted that Common was a thug and the whole world is falling apart at the seams because of Hip Hop..It was laughable.

Bottomline is officer, Dave Jones of the Fraternal Order of Police in New Jersey was upset that Common over his 20 year career, did a couple of songs/poems addressing police brutality…songs I should add, that most people if queried would be hard pressed to name…They were ‘Letters to the Law’ and ‘A Song for Assata’.

Ask a high school student or most college students if they heard either song or play them with any sort of regularity and the answer would be ‘No’.  In addition, most never even heard of Assata Shakur . The few that have, know her as the Godmother of the late 2Pac Shakur. Perhaps we need to be arming younger generations about the Black Liberation struggle so it extends beyond the words of a few artists. Perhaps we need to be having more high profile discussions about political prisoners and all the demonic things that were done to those fighting for equality and liberation in the 60s and 70s.

What’s happened around this Common controversy is too many of us fell into the trap explaining to an uninterested audience the virtues of Hip Hop. Too many of us tried to explain Common’s body of work and defend it.. Our collective response should’ve been a big ‘F$%k You to to Dave Jones and other critics of Common’s visit to the White House…

We should’ve responded by telling these folks to come hollar at us when their police brethren are willing to hold accountable the police ‘thugs’ who are rarely punished for their egregious transgressions. We should be up in arms insisting that those officers who went bursting in the home of 7 year old Aiyana Stanely Jones and killed her as they showed off for a reality TV show, be brought to justice. . We should be asking the FOP to tell us what’s being done about officerJoseph Weekly who is accused of shooting  and killing this precious child?

We should’ve been demanding to know what sort of accountability and steps were taken to insure more seven years old like Joshalyn Lawton don’t have guns drawn on them by thuggish officers because they are in the back seat of a car crying during a routine traffic stop..

This tragic incident happened a few years ago in Pittsburgh, PA and believe it or not, the mother Pamela Lawton, was charged with disorderly conduct when she screamed in horror and tried to protect her daughter. Nothing happened to officer Eric Tatusko threatened to shoot the 7 year old if she didnt stop crying.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Officer Dave Jones was beyond hypocritical when he called Common a ‘nitwit’ while ignoring the dimwitted and fatal behavior of his fellow officers. Last I checked Common hasn’t pulled guns on any officers nor anyone else for that matter… and even if he did a song suggesting such actions, so what? Its high time that such critics get over it…It’s not like Common was at the White House performing questionable material. Just like our former Governor Arnold Swarterznegger wasn’t sitting in the Capitol pulling out guns resurrecting his Terminator character.

Incidentally Arnold has killed cops in his movies and been accused of groping women in real life, but of course the FOP was nowhere to be seen when our former Governor was invited to the White House which was just 3 weeks ago..

Many were  quick to address the supposed outrage over Common. However, it was sad to see that so many while defending Common, ignored the cries of police accountability from fellow Hip Hop artists like Paradise Gray of the legendary group X-Clan and Jasiri X of One Hood, an artist/organizer who puts out weekly songs addressing pressing issues impacting the community. Both artists have been on the ground dealing with outlandish case around Jordan Miles.

Jordan Miles is a 18 year old violinist who played for First Lady Michele Obama

All of us should be up in arms over the horrific beating of unarmed Jordan Miles a 17 year old honor student who was invited to play violin for the our First Lady Michelle Obama and other First Ladies of the World. Last year, Miles was beaten to the point of being unrecognized by his own mother by a group of martial arts expert police officers known as the Jump Out Boys.

Miles a shy young man who formed a pact with his friends to achieve ‘As’ in all his classes class a task he’s thus far suceeded in,  was enroute to his grandmother’s house when undercover officers jumped out, didn’t identify themselves, but demanded he hand over his money, drugs and guns.. Jordan who lives in a gang plaqued neighborhood, fearing he was being robbed, ran only to be quickly subduded and viciously beaten.

While his head was being smashed on the ground, Jordan attempted to say the Lord’s Prayer. Officers hearing this, pummeled him harder and ripped out his dred locks..The picture we posted says it all…

The Feds recently declined to persecute the officers and Jordan was told by the Pittsburgh Chief of Police not run from officers in the future. Many feel the decision to not go after the officers on the federal level was to keep police unions at bay come the 2012 election.. Paradise of X-Clan recently gave an impassioned speech about this incident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJOLz1EYDYE

Where's the outrage from Fraternal Order of Police about the killing of 7 year old Aiyanna Jones?

We all need to be upset about that sort of miscarriage of justice. We need to be upset that we rarely see the Fraternal Order of Police speaking out condemning these sorts of activities amongst their own… There was no condemning or apology for what happened to Jordan Miles, Joshalyn Lawton, Aiyanna Jones, the murder of unarmed Oscar Grant or the recent scandal involving police in San Francisco beating, robbing innocent people and spying on non-profit groups.

The outpouring of support for Jordan has been far and wide throughout the city of Pittsburgh, but virtually ignored by many of us who quickly responded to the criticism launched at Common. That’s a big time failure on our part to not connect those dots.

This discussion goes way beyond some lyrics to a song. Trust me, whatever words Common has rapped, police have heard far worse.  In addition, as public officials they are paid to deal with it..It’s part of the job..Public official get criticized and lambasted everyday. We have sitting lawmakers and radio hosts who said some of the most vile racially charged things about our President ever heard and he seems to be able to deal,  so why are  peace officers being so thin skinned?  Dave Jones had no business being on TV crying about a rapper like Common of all people.

Moving on, here’s two things to consider.. First while it’s great Common got support from bloggers and writers, my question is where were his fellow A-List cohorts?

The police and Far Right are well oiled machines who have PR firms pushing their message.. Where were the Jay-Z‘s, P-Diddys and others Hip Hop moguls who seem to continuously remind us how they have long money?

Ideally it would’ve been great if they got their PR hacks to set up a press conference and addressed the issue as a unit so that it deaded future attacks or at the very least changed the tone of future debates once and for all?

It would've been great to see Diddy and other moguls collectively address the Common controversy in a way that deads future attacks

I only make this suggestion knowing that the far right is still upset that President Obama used Hip Hop and cultural icons skillfully to his victorious advantage in ’08. Their game plan is to marginalize and demonize that potential support in 2012.

By smashing hard on any and all artists who attempt to weigh in in 2012, the far right hope to suceed on two fronts.. One they hope to limit the impact and public interaction between artists and the politicians they support. They want candidaters running away from artists not too them..

Second,  they hope to get potential businesses to reconsider endorsing these artists for fear of right wing attacks because of a song no matter how obscure.

Its for these reasons that  A-List artists from Will I Am on down to Ludacris should’ve been using their firepower and resources to shut down this Common controversy immediately..

We should be looking at this incident and asking where was Common’s label-Interscope Records which is home to an estimated 70% of the rap stars from Black Eyed Peas to 50 Cent?  I been in this business long enough to know and have seen that if label head Jimmy Iovine wants a story killed he could make it happen at least in mainstream outlets.Where were they to kill the negative noise around Common? They have the resources and clout to make that happen.

As for the rest of us, it’s important that we continue staying the course, addressing issues of injustice and not getting sidetracked. In short if we were gonna address the Common controversy at least be sure to remind our respective audience of the day to day unresolved incidents of police brutality and terrorism visiting our communities far too often..

Something to Ponder…

Davey D

Filed Under: 2011 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,