The greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th” ~Canibus
We all remember that line from Canibus on the anniversary of the day that the Notorious B.I.G. died. Maybe we should take this as a good time to remember Canibus too. He’s still making music that you don’t seem to care about.
Anyway, it’s not his day, it’s Biggie’s, but I take issue with a few things here. (more…)
Photo Credit: Gale Library
Ordinarily I enjoy the plethora of Black History Month programming, but this year I haven’t seen much around, even on PBS. Is our new president somehow to blame for this?
Anyway, I used to get upset wen I would see programs about all kinds of other folks during February and I’ve done my best to balance the lack of Black programming out this year. Here we are on the tail end of this month but I’m going to go ahead an interrupt it for these 5 white folks that I think are worth listening to anytime of year in no particular order. (more…)
Far as I know here you’re in trouble. Where it says about 30% are unemployed. That’s why I’m working hard to get this surplus food here.
Some of you say to me ‘Well I’m not like you. I’m not a congressman. Uhhh I haven’t had education. Uhhh I haven’t got work…Uhhh…’ But you’re a human being.
And do you know what you’ve got?
You’ve got in your hand the power to use your vote and to use even those few cents you get from welfare to spend them only where you want to spend them. ~Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was the congressman who represented Harlem between 1945 and 1971. He was also the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.
While in congress Powell headed the powerful Education and Labor Committee which managed to pass a record number of bills including public school desegregation bills and bills that made lynching a federal crime.
At a time when congress can’t seem to get anything progressive passed it is that much more of an impressive feat that Powell was able to accomplish what he did while the country was still so racially polarized. (more…)
Photo Credit: “The Garvey Marchers” by Madam Toussaint
To be learned in all that is worth while knowing.
Not to be crammed with the subject matter of the book or the philosophy of the class room, but to store away in your head such facts as you need for the daily application of life, so that you may the better in all things understand your fellowmen, and interpret your relationship to your Creator.
You can be educated in soul, vision and feeling, as well as in mind.
To see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of man; to spiritually regulate one’s self is another form of the higher education that fits man for a nobler place in life, and still, to approach your brother by the feeling of your own humanity, is an education that softens the ills of the world and makes us kind indeed. ~Marcus Garvey on education
One day in Harlem I walked into this march to commemorate Mr. Garvey on his birthday in August last year. These people all seemed really proud and committed. Here’s why… (more…)
Photo Credit: “A Mutual Endorsement? by Madam Toussaint
Recent assessments of President Obama’s first year in office have left the right still harshly critical and pretending they’re being thrown off a cliff every time they see him on TV. While the left is pissed because of some of the moves he could have made but didn’t. Some supporters are still waiting to exhale and giving the new president more time.
How come none of us took the time to rate ourselves for President Obama’s first year in office? Can we take time to acknowledge the things we did right? Aren’t there things we could have handled better? (more…)
I didn’t start out as an environmentalist.
I started out helping urban kids in trouble and I burned out, going to way too many funerals and court cases that turned out badly.
I was just trying to get my own health back.
I went to these retreat Centers in Marin County, and it was a different world.
They had all this organic food and solar panels and hybrid cars, and I was like — why don’t they have this in my neighborhood?
I thought, if we had these kind of jobs and services in Oakland, we’d probably have less violence. (more…)
Still, as a lifelong representative of hip-hop, I really am bothered whenever the drum gets treated like melody’s stepchild.
My major beef is that when this anti-drum bigotry rears its ugly head…it usually stems from an assumption that melody is the prime determinant of musicality, the core element of music to which rhythm is always secondary.
And it’s largely due to this perception of rhythm as subordinate to melody that hip-hop has so often faced an uphill battle to earn respect as a legitimate musical form.
I’m sure you can all recite the hater’s anthem by heart: “How is that music? It’s all just drum beats and talking, they don’t even sing!”
And this bias infects heads inside the culture too, as reflected by (more…)
Photo Credit: Madam Toussaint
It’s like when I was a kid, I once bought 50 caramels from the store and tried to eat all of them at once.
At first it seemed like a dream come true, but when I got halfway through they started to taste like peanut butter and I didn’t want to see another caramel for a week.
For some reason that’s what Jay has always been like for me, tasty in small doses but a whole album tastes like peanut butter.
Jay-Z has always tried to play both sides of the “conscious” fence. (more…)
