black music month video #6 - young mc!

happy juneteenth, everyone! if i were in texas, i'd be singing and dancing to some old school hits in someone's backyard right about now -- and this song would definitely be one of them.

remember this? bust a move by young mc -- still a summertime anthem in my neck of the woods. there's something that's still so infectiously catchy about this little ditty. and i love the look and feel of the video. it's so exuberant and fun and "up". was it the guitar riff that made it so playable on rock stations? who knows...

i especially like it that he wrote the lyrics in his dorm room at usc in 90 minutes. a first draft. boom, just like that. totally makes sense that he was at the songwriting helm for tone-loc's wild thing as well as funky cold medina. all three songs have the same vibe.

young mc was quite young then. he had just finished this song and video, and a ba from usc in economics. his parents made him promise that if nothing happened after a summer spent promoting his album, he'd go to graduate school. boy, did that go up in smoke with a quickness. he even got a grammy for best rap performance.

hm. i wonder if public enemy has a grammy? (makes you wonder what a grammy is worth, doesn't it.)

everyone still plays this song relentlessly. here's hoping young mc owns his publishing.

goodreads review: the 50th law

The 50th Law by 50 Cent


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
i don't like 50 cent. i never have and i probably never will, in spite of the way he's recently cleaned up his image and repackaged himself to mainstream/middle (white) america, readying all of us for his next incarnation. he's not stupid. he knows that his gangsta rap moment has played itself out and it's time to move onto the next -- probably acting (he's getting his tatoos removed for this purpose) and producing. there's an astonishing amount of money in film/tv, no matter which side of the camera you're on. truthfully, he's become more of a businessman and haberdasher, like most of his ilk who are successful -- with a line of clothing, vitamin water and whatever else makes him more money, all the while maintaining a menacing dangerous image to validate his brand.

and therein lies the problem.

it started out with its heart in the right place, as a way to report what the black urban underclass was experiencing, something that the rest of america was blissfully unaware of. but eventually, when hip/hop and rap saw the money, it branded and sold itself to the highest bidder in the name of multiculturalism and opportunity. now it's pretty much a black-faced caricature of itself. the thug posturing and posing that's supposed to represent all black american men of a certain age. the idea that bitch=(black) women. the casual/liberal use of the "n" word. and many more things that have fostered a climate in our culture that's perpetuated almost as many stereotypes about black people to the world as stepin fetchit, arguably. all for the sake of money, material things, and beef/"reputation" (whatever that is).

i hope it was worth it.

so i was thinking all of these things and more as i read this book. i read it because a friend suggested it and admittedly, i am a huge fan of Robert Greene. i've read pretty much all of his books and i think he gives an interesting and thought-provoking take on media, power and societial dynamics. this book is basically mr. greene taking on the idea of fear, the 50th law, and using 50 cent's life story and personal philosophy to augment and illustrate his intent. mr. greene didn't take this lightly. he followed 50 cent for years and was a fly on the wall in his life in and out of boardrooms, heady confrontations and power moves. he did his homework, and it shows.

it's a provocative premise. curtis "50 cent" jackson is probably the only gangsta rapper out here that was actually a gangster in real life and not a wangsta, someone that cultivated that image to make money. rick ross (the boss), for example, was a corrections officer in florida for years -- and in spite of him insisting that it's not true, there are pictures and paperwork to prove it.

we've all heard tell of what it takes to be a gangster. why not hear it from the source?

this is what makes the book a fascinating read. it delves into the details of mr. jackson's life as a drug dealer in queens and his rise as a gangsta rapper to pull up details that augment this idea: all of us have the capacity to live a fearless life, and to live life to the fullest, and to live to the fullest of our potential, we must find a way to eliminate that fear by any means necessary.

apparently, curtis has come a long way. it's no surprise that what he has observed by working for gangsters initially and usurping them to create his own power base has come in handy when doing business in the corporate world and the entertainment industry.

i don't want to get into too much detail. it's a very juicy read and in the end it didn't tell me anything that i didn't already know about fear and how it can undo you. but i must admit, mr. greene found a very interesting way to tell it.

View all my reviews >>

...and now, a few words from chuck d

While Bill O'Reilly at FOX News taunts hip-hop artists like Jay-Z, ridicules Cam'ron and Damon Dash on his show and ignores challenges from Nas to book an interview with Young Jeezy, Chuck D is in the UK and Europe, pontificating about the Obama effect and the state of things stateside on high brow chat shows and the like with political pundits and social/cultural theorists. I don't know what's more shocking for me -- the fact that this is an intelligent, thoughtful, opinionated, politically astute hip-hop artist in our midst, or that he is treated with such a high level of respect. Certainly his work as a seminal member of Public Enemy precedes him, especially in other parts of the world where they were wildly popular once upon a time -- and still are.

It should be duly noted that unlike most hip hop artists, Chuck D is a college graduate. He's also written a best-selling autobiography, has been tirelessly involved in political activism in the music industry and beyond since PE's inception (and received awards for it, by the way) and has remained popular on the college lecture circuit -- from Harvard to Howard -- for more than 20 years. One would think that if a tv show/news magazine would want to hear from an artist in the hip hop community, this guy would be on the short list. But he's not. At least, not in this country.

I know everyone in neoconservative America is raising a stink about the Jay-Z/Young Jeezy My President is Black remix but recently, Public Enemy made news when President Obama remarked that on his first date with his wife Michelle, he took her to see Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing which featured the song Fight the Power. The media kind of ignored this one. If you read any of Public Enemy's lyrics, you'll know why. They started cranking out the jams in the 80s and the stuff is still poppin' fresh like it came out last year. Especially the song Fight the Power.

It's time to play the lyrics. Everyone's lyrics. For now, here's what Barack and Michelle were listening to on their first date.

Fight the Power

1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hittin' your heart cause I know you got sould
(Brothers and sisters, hey)
Listen if you're missin' y'all
Swingin' while I'm singin'
Givin' whatcha gettin'
Knowin' what I know
While the Black bands sweatin'
And the rhythm rhymes rollin'
Got to give us what we want
Gotta give us what we need
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
We got to fight the powers that be

As the rhythm designed to bounce
What counts is that the rhymes
Designed to fill your mind
Now that you've realized the prides arrived
We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
from the heart
It's a start, a work of art
To revolutionize make a change nothin's strange
People, people we are the same
No we're not the same
Cause we don't know the game
What we need is awareness, we can't get careless
You say what is this?
My beloved lets get down to business
Mental self defensive fitness
(Yo) bum rush the show
You gotta go for what you know
Make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say...
Fight the Power
Fight the power
Fight the power
We got to fight the powers that b

Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check
Don't worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) lets get this party started right
Right on, c'mon
What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
To make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
Fight The Power
Fight the power
Fight the power
We got to fight the powers that be

gin n' juice, for real

don't wonder why snoop dog is making forays into country music, singing duets with willie nelson and such -- with this c&w cover of one of his most popular songs, he's garnered a devoted redneck audience that he could never have anticipated. and he's scrambling to figure out a way to cash in on it.

why? because you can have a career in country music, no matter how old you are as long as you and your songs are compelling. because evidently, people who buy country music -- all those red state folks -- are very loyal fans. and because country musicians consistently make money.

mark my words: black country music is the wave of the future. think about it. it's the only hybrid that hasn't exploded yet and that hasn't been truly explored. and when it does, it could very well be the thing that instigates real change and racial healing in this country. but that's just my opinion...

this version (recorded in february '08) of gin n' juice is by the gourds -- a grand 14 minutes long. enjoy!



part one



part two

hip-hop, translated.

i think i love nerdcore hip-hop, way more than i probably should. i've been convinced for quite some time now that information is sexy. this is a part of the reason why art geeks with smart mouths and easy dispositions are my kryptonite. nothing breaks me down like some guy that's dressed like it's 50 years ago and he's going on in this low brow way about high art. with calloused hands, no less. he's got a cool old car with suicide doors. and he prefers the butthole surfers to sonic youth. and yeah, he eats meat.

these guys are definitely right up my alley with this video. very clever stuff. nothing you haven't seen before -- the movie airplane with beaver cleaver's mom speaking "jive" fluently comes to mind -- but not exactly quite like this.

enjoy.

nerdcore hip-hop

my friend -- the ultimate star wars geek -- knows this song cold. (he used to play it at the slipper room all the time.) of course, i'd never heard it before last week. now i think i love it more than he does. i've definitely heard of nerdcore hip hop music, though. i much prefer the hybrids that have sprung out of hip-hop and rap. they tend to be much more interesting and inventive stateside (hick hop), and more political in the rest of the world than anyone in these parts would dare to consider. i'll level with you -- the last hip hop CD i laid out cash money to own was definitely public enemy. and i still listen to all their stuff all the time, because it's just that good -- and still valid. we really do have to fight the powers that be. so there.

now that 60 minutes is doing a story on mc chris and the nerdcore hip hop movement that's been up and running for the past 10 years or so, i suppose the genre really is dead. i admire him because he grew his audience as a voiceover artist/writer with adult swim, all 6 of his CDs are DIY self-released (like most if not all nerdcore hip-hop artists) and selling well, he's doing sold out shows on the warped tour '08.

someone told me once that if i got on tv, i'd have the success i want. i 'm beginning to think that they're right.

here for your listening pleasure is fett's vette, from the album life's a bitch and i'm her pimp. what an addictive whiny sissified little voice he has, and what an irresistably hooky little tune. i'll bet you a dollar and a twinkie you love it as much as i do.

hick hop, black country music and what's next

this happy moment in concert happened in amsterdam (where else?) this april on willie nelson's tour. note snoop's western wear look, complete with flowing locks and red bandana.



and this gleeful little tidbit called "my medicine" happened in amsterdam (of course it did!) on snoop dog's tour. when presenting himself to the hip-hop crowd, willie's got to represent with a gigantic cowboy hat. (heh.)

it's so obvious that they like each other and they're just messing around and having fun. my theory is that it was the gourds version of gin n' juice that sent snoop in this country direction, especially when he realized the vast audience potential and the money he could make. at this point, he can afford to experiment because he's as much of an icon as willie is.

delightful, isn't it -- this merging of country and hip-hop, what some are calling hick hop (or combining mountain music and hip-hop to make hill hop) as made popular by cowboy troy. all major label efforts made by snoop, willie and CT are fine, well and good, but it stands to reason that this sound came from somewhere. by following that twangy trail, we can explore everything that's wrong with this country right now. i think this sound speaks to an all-american class struggle that no one is willing to address. radio shows like holler 2 the hood are growing in popularity because today's urban and rural communities are waking up to the fact that they are the american underclass, irregardless of race. the american serf is real. this music is compelling people who wouldn't have anything to do with each other otherwise to stand together and connect. it will be more than interesting to see where this goes.

most people don't understand that black country music is not an oxymoron. to my ear, it's not about country and hip-hop as much as it's about country and black rock. but hey -- that's me. and i'm hardly the only one.

here's an interesting tidbit: no black rockers/bloggers that i know of are discussing any of this. they are going on and on 'til the break of dawn about what's popular, what's signed, what's got a major label deal with major label money behind it. they don't seem all too concerned about what's next, what's politically explosive, what speaks to class issues. most black rockers balk at the idea of country music melding with any black anything. heh.

we'll see what develops.

i love this song!

i have absolutely no idea why i love this song as much as i do. i think hip-hop is especially interesting when it starts bouncing around in other genres -- like country. (of course, the gourds version of snoop dog's gin n' juice comes to mind....)

does anyone know who recorded this particular song or where i can get a ringtone for it?

enough, already

when i read this, i thought, okay -- this really cuts it.

alicia keys' remarks are proof positive that pop stars, while exposed to so much information and culture in the world, are quite often clever on cue but as it turns out, aren't necessarily intelligent or even smart.

in all likelihood, a standard issue liberal arts BA from any state college could have fixed that, but oh well. now that she's read a few books and found her "political voice," we'll be subjected to more of these spontaneous outbursts of gut-churning "brilliance" from her. what's obvious is that she's a corporate tool with no room for political anything. why she doesn't see that is even more bizarre than what she said about tupac and biggie. the nanosecond she releases something political that doesn't sell, the label will make her release something else that does. when you're a corporate tool, that's the way it works.

what really cuts it for me is that every insipid little thing she says reverberates around the world a thousandfold, for anyone to edit and misinterpret as they please. that's why some artists don't do interviews. no one likes a pretty girl with a strong opinion but when what she says is this bent, everyone has a field day.

yes, there are a lot of artists who started their careers singing sappy love songs and matured to ultimately create political life-changing music. marvin gaye is a personal favorite. but that was the 70s, when the times made room for, and in many ways demanded such material. do you really think that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young could release ohio in this day and age? when the kent state campus shootings happened in ohio, those rich, famous, drug-addled rock stars were outraged enough to do something. in a matter of days, neil young wrote the song, they recorded it -- and it was flooding the airwaves within two weeks. (that's right: a protest song reached all the way up to #14 on the billboard hot 100. so there.)

nowadays, so-called artists are way more concerned with bling-bling and making money to write a real protest song. i know, i know -- everybody has their charities nowadays, their benevolent funds and organizations and whatnot. and i'm sure that those organizations do good things worldwide. but the upshot really is that their insipid yet danceable music is what's floating through everyone's consciousness. not information, not political awareness.

at this juncture, with our country in the state that it's in and now that she's filled our ears with audible well-produced fluffernutter, which would she rather have, as an artist: music that protests, teaches, inspires -- or songs that collectively numb us out? according to that pesky interview/article in blender magazine, apparently ms. keys would prefer the former.

hm. let's see what her next cd sounds like.

okay, so here's two sides of the same coin: the promo blip for the interview in blender and the clean up that ms. keys and her publicist attempted, to clear the air. interesting that she didn't correct any of that black panther stuff, or the tupac/biggie conspiracy theory. enjoy.

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Alicia Keys has theory on Tupac-Biggie feud

Thinks the government and media fueled fued between the slain rappers

updated 6:21 p.m. ET, Tues., April. 15, 2008

There’s another side to Alicia Keys: conspiracy theorist.

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter tells Blender magazine: “‘Gangsta rap’ was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. ‘Gangsta rap’ didn’t exist.”

Keys, 27, said she’s read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck “to symbolize strength, power and killing ’em dead,” according to an interview in the magazine’s May issue, on newsstands Tuesday.

Another of her theories: That the bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled “by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing.”

Keys’ AK-47 jewelry came as a surprise to her mother, who is quoted as telling Blender: “She wears what? That doesn’t sound like Alicia.” Keys’ publicist, Theola Borden, said Keys was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

Though she’s known for her romantic tunes, she told Blender that she wants to write more political songs. If black leaders such as the late Black Panther Huey Newton “had the outlets our musicians have today, it’d be global. I have to figure out a way to do it myself,” she said.

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Alicia Keys says comments to magazine were 'misrepresented'

3 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Alicia Keys says she's not a conspiracy theorist. In a statement issued Tuesday, Keys said she was clarifying "comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented."

According to an interview in the magazine's May issue, the 27-year-old singer says: "`Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. `Gangsta rap' didn't exist." She also is quoted as saying that she wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead."

"We stand by our story," Blender spokeswoman Kate Cafaro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"My comments about `gangsta rap' were in no way trying to suggest that the government is responsible for creating this genre of rap music," Keys said in a statement issued by J Records. "The point that I was trying to make was that the term was oversloganized by some of the media causing reactions that were not always positive. Many of the `gangsta rap' lyrics articulate the problems of the artists' experiences and I think all of us, including our leaders, could be doing more to address these problems including drugs, gang violence, crime, and other related social issues."

As for the AK-47 remark, Keys said Tuesday that AK-47 is a nickname given to her by friends "as an acronym for Alicia Keys and a metaphor for wowing people with my music and performances, `killing 'em dead' on stage. The reference was in no way meant to have a literal, political or negative connotation."

When AP attempted to reach Keys last week about the Blender interview, her publicist, Theola Borden, said the singer was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

The multiplatinum star behind the hits "Fallin'" and "No One" most recently had success with her latest CD, "As I Am," which has sold 3.4 million copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan.