Political-Violence at Washington DC "teen" club nights

A senseless act of violence:Girl, 17, killed by stray bullet from skirmish at a NW Washington DC club

It is really sad what happened to the teenager who was at a club in Washington DC. Its a club called Club 1919 that I had frequented a couple times back in the day.

Aside from the fact that this is another senseless murder done at an event where people just wanted to have a good time, this club will follow the same fate as other clubs in DC.

In DC, clubs that play go-go music just seem to be magnets for youngstas who just want to act like gangstas and shoot up anybody who "disrespects" them.

In the end, everybody will lost out because this will bring the scrutiny of the police and DC City Council. They hate the whole DC go-go scene and want it to be done away with.

Its sad that people just dont know how to act, and they just need drama to make their lives more "exciting".

Hip Hop - DJ's - Mixtapes and the RIAA Raids

Rascism, Power & Drama-What's Really Behind the RIAA Raids By Davey D

As stated earlier, many are starting to suspect that there are deeper implications to the RIAA Raid. DJ Drama's sister Aishah Shahidah Simmons who did the incredible documentary 'NO' lays out some compelling thoughts in the essay 'Thirty Strong And A Gun To His Head…Pay Attention?' following my remarks that all of us need to think about.

As I noted in my first reports on this incident- The raid on the offices of DJ Drama and the Aphilliates WAS NOT about mixtapes, this is about inserting power. Please bear in mind that over the past year, many deejays from all around the country have been quietly organizing and weighing their options while assessing their collective power. For example, last month several hundred deejays met at a highly publicized West Coast Summit. Already we have TJDJs, The pioneering DJs who are down with Tools of War, The Core DJs, The Heavy Hitters,The Big Dawgs, The Beat Junkies Nasty Nes and the RappattackDJs and The Bum Squad DJS all running profitable businesses and working in a collective fashion. Some of these DJ Collectives have been behind the scenes organizing to demand Health Care and other provisions from the industry. When folks got together in LA, it was to start demanding more work opportunities. In all these DJ collectives, they have been asserting that they 'run the industry' because the deejay has the ability to make or break records.

Read the rest on Thug Life Army!

The RIAA vs hip hop, and how a mix CD works

With the arrest of DJ Drama by the armed wing of the major record companies, the RIAA, I still cant believe that after all this time the RIAA just doesnt get it. So, if any of you people at the RIAA are reading, I need to just let you know what the purpose of a Mix CD is, and I want to address the problem that I know you have with them. I want to show you that Mix CDs are not such a bad thing.

First of all, the oddest thing is that DJ Drama's CDs are sold on the most legit music site on the net, EMUSIC, and in real music stores. So I just dont understand where you all are coming from, having the man jailed and taking his equipment; whats wrong with you all? His stuff is not sold by shady characters in the inner cities who get their stuff from illegal bootlegging operations. DJ Drama is not a bootlegger himself. So what is your problem with him?

Say if I download from EMUSIC one of his CD's, like Hood Music. I will hear something I like and I will go to ITunes and I will buy it. What you all are afraid of is that I will just download only what I hear on DJ Drama's CD and the artist won't get paid.

As it is, none of you really know the hip hop culture, so none of you truly understand that the DJ is the one who breaks new artists, introduces listeners to new rappers and MC's and the artist and this type of DJ have an understanding that the DJ can use their music and he wants to be promoted by him.

I guess another problem the RIAA has is that in this social circle, the record company executives are the outsiders. They want to suck the artists dry by calling all the shots in how an artist is to be promoted and pushed, because in the end it comes out of the artist royalties. Not only that, but the record companies are afraid that really the artists could just rebel against them and cut them out entirely; after all, if the artists can take care of their own distribution, promotion, and recording; why would they need any of the big record companies the RIAA supports?

The arrest of DJ Drama shows the lack of respect that the RIAA has for hip hop culture. When will the RIAA stop treating hip hop artists like they are the "dumb kids in the special ed class" and recognize them for the businessman and artists that they truly are?

Ol school-Book on MLK stabbing in Harlem

The book "When Harlem Killed King" is a book about a day in 1958 when Dr. Martin Luther King went to Harlem and was stabbed by a crazy woman who thought that MLK was a "communist". Believe it or not (but it doesnt suprise me!) the crazy woman was black.....

The book goes into every detail of that day; how MLK choose the site of Harlem department store as oppossed to a neighborhood book store called the National Memorial African Bookstore, which sold books with names like The Damn White Man (couldnt find that on Amazon, I tried). The reasoning was that a book like this pointed to the beliefs of the book seller, and Martin Luther King was about loving his neighbor, not hatred. However, Lewis Michaeaux, the owner of the bookstore felt snubbed. He voiced his discontent at the book signing. This conflict points to MLK's conflicting with the black radicals who were active in his day. However, though Lewis and his group voiced their dissatisfaction with being ignored by MLK, they didnt go so far as to plan to kill the man, like the right wing crazy Izola Curry.

Nobody in this book for me was as interesting as Izola Curry. This was the woman who stabbed MLK in the chest with a blade and were it not for a team of talented black doctors, MLK would not have made history. The interesting thing abut Izola was that she hated groups like the NAACP. She claimed they were communists and she thought that communists were after her and trying to ruin her life. She also hated white people as well, so she wasnt one of those weirdos like those black Republicans today who love white people and condemn black people for being lazy and "irresponsible". She simply hated everybody.

The book goes into detail about Izola Curry:

Like plenty of others in those days, Curry believed the NAACP was controlled by Communists. But in her increasingly deranged state of mind, unlike paranoids like J Edgar Hoover, she sought no evidence of such a connection. She simply assumed as much. She assumed that Communists were running things in every civil rights organization. pg. 49

How she felt about MLK and the black church I've heard expressed from the lunatic black republican fringe:

She expressed extreme bitterness about two things:Communism and the Negro Church.She detested Negro preachers. She felt they were flimflam artists who pimped the community. She believed that boycotts and protests led by Negro ministers were a sham and that rather than follow them into protests, Negroes should appeal directly to Congress to change racial laws. Thus in Curry's mind, MLK was a young minister pimping the community for the benefits of Communists.pg 52

I found this character to be the grandma of the all crazy right wing lunatics like Lashawn Barber,Frances Rice, the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, and some dude who calls himself "The Notorious GOP".

There is so much more to this great book and this one day, and all the history and circumstances that surrounded that day. It only made MLK stronger and he continued on his mission to change history. This great book can be brought on Amazon and Book Ladder.

Record review: Ras Kass "EAT OR DIE"











Ras Kass 2007 to me is different than Ras Kass 1996. Before, he was the MC I knew for deep thought provoking material like "Soul On Ice" and "Nature of the Threat". But,a brotha gotta eat(hence the name of the CD), so Ras Kass is a lil subtle, not really putting out that deep Chuck D type stuff. He's more about NWA (Niggas with Attitude), not really NWO (New World Order). This record he put out is kinda a mixtape, kinda a freestyle mix, but its all Ras Kass!

Review of each song: Intro: This has samples from various drug flicks, echos, and a british voice talking about drugs, and another voice talking about guns. Drugs and guns, the Ras Kass of 2007!

Mange ou Maurir: Ras is doing his bit of boasting and talking about crack, along with a sample of the movie American History X; this sets the tone that its all about money and murder on this CD!

Eat or Die: This song is a real banger here; talking about robbery, sex, hustlin' to get paid no matter what. HOT!

KOTW-Songs got a cool chorus, talking about being the hottest MC in the West Coast in some lines. I think this is the song that set off his beef with rapper THE GAME. It's alright.

She Choosin-Alright song that talks about being at the club.

It's A Beautiful Thing-Very NYC East Coast type beat; I like this because this song got the hottest lyrics!

Better feat Jay 211-Ok beat, wasn't really feeling it, rhymes are typical of Ras Kass, and another NYC beat. Alright.

Whip It-An alright song with a sample of Rick Ross. Not really feelin' it.

Brains In the Mud-Ras is talking about shootin' in the chorus; kinda tight.

Realness freestyle-Ras freestyles are off the hook! HOT!

The Perfect Woman-You can skip this one. Wasn't really feeling it.

Medusa (featuring Nas)-I expected this to be a duet with Nas, but it turns out to be a sample of Nas on the chorus. Chorus was funny, though.

Capital P (w/Mobb Deep)-Average. Mobb Deep just arent as good as they used to be.

Get It In (featuring Alchemist)-Finally, a really hot beat on this CD by Alchemist! This is a real pick up for this CD.

Transferred (featuring 40 Glocc and Spider Loc) This was the song that reminds me of Ras Kass 1996; where he is talking about the plight of the black male. Plus, I always wanted to hear 40 Glocc and Spider Loc, hearing about them so much around the net. Excellent track!

All Day (featuring TQ)-This is hot, had me nodding my head, and he's basically rhyming about being locked up and not having anything to do all day. Nice beat.

Playboy (featuring Lloyd Banks)-Why is Ras Kass not a member of G-Unit by now? With all the features by Aftermath and G-Unit soldiers, and the beef with THE GAME, I guess its a moment of time?

My Blog (featuring Whoo Kid, Coach PR)-Too funny; makes fun of Myspace gangstas and people (females especially)posting pics on sites that aren't them.

Homey, Lover, Friend- Talkin' about that ghetto luv!

Fed Up-Ras's final is just letting off steam about how both white folks and black folks are messing up his career, so who can he trust?

Staying on the IPOD: Eat or Die, Jungle Love, Its A Beautiful Thing, Transferred, All Day

Check out the CD on EMUSIC and AMAZON!

Ol school: Queens Reign Supreme

I am almost finished reading this excellent book "Queens Reign Supreme;Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip Hop Hustler" This is an awesome book which covers the whole history of the mid 80's drug kingpins and how their enterprising intertwined with the history of hip hop.

This is the untold story which surprised me; sometimes hip hop history books tend to sugar coat the realities of the cities from which hip hop came. For me this whole history was very revealing in that the early 80s hustlers were rubbing elbows with the likes of Kurtis Blow and Russell Simmons.

When you get this book, you get a very detailed history of how RUN DMC started and the birth of Def Jam records. All this leads up to the Irv Gotti and the beginning of Murder Inc. records. Throughout there is a very tangled web where the streets and the hip hop industry intertwine; and its laid out in such a way that puts it all together. You'll be thinking, "I remember reading about this event or hearing about when such and such happened" and this book shows what the ultimate end was. Once you read this book, you'll find out about major players on the NYC streets in the 80's (such as Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff'), why 50 Cent's song "Ghetto Quran" is so controversial, and what started the whole beef between Ja Rule and 50 Cent in the first place.

Without going into too much detail, Id have to say that if you pick this up on Amazon, it will prove to be a very welcome addition to any hip hop library.

Not only that, once you read this book, the recent drama surrounding Kenneth "Supreme" Mcgriff will make much more sense.