Week in Review


Hustle and Flow opening this week.Check out the trailer.

This week was an interesting one, what with the Terror attacks and the media response to them. I am a firm believer that the media is corporate driven; its not slanted towards any one particular view, it for them is all about money. Thing is, what their power is the ability to prioritize stories and issues. Now, most Americans know about and are concerned about the London terror bombings. A co-worker of mine who doesn't follow politics knew about this, and it was mentioned in the church service I went to this weekend. However, how many people know about this train bombing which happened in Turkey before July 4th?

You may say, well, CNN covered it! However, it seemed that this story didn't get any play, whereas with the London train bombing it was round the clock news, increased security, and just more public awareness. Needless to say, my co-worker was suprised that the Turkish train bombing happened. Another thing about that incident was that it was done by Kurdish rebels, an ally of America in Iraq! Whereas the bombers in London were part of something more sinister. Equally telling is the neglect over a story of Iraqi police shooting into a crowd of protestors. Doing a Google Search of this story which happened on the same day as the London bombings, you find out that most of the sources are foreign! Check it out!

But, aside from that, I found a cool site where they have a focus on all the latest hip hop beefs,the Splashcru Beef Radar. The good thing about this site is that it is so hard to catch up with all these beefs, so this will help you keep track.

Check out: Site Institute

One thing I am torn on is the whole radical Islamic groups using the net. I really think that it is high time for them to just tell the American people what it is they want. As it is, the American public is already hostile to them. I really think when it comes to "claiming responsibility for this or that", they need to stop. I am getting tired of news reports of this or that group "claiming responsibility" on an "Islamic website", its ridiculous. The media hypes up the use of these websites, but I've seen instances where the most trifling ones are shut down; the ones which advocate straight up violence have been shut down. Has the media reported the shutdown of radical jihadist websites? Never!

I think that the internet hostile media hypes these websites just to portray the internet as a chaotic, out of control medium. The net is competition for the media, and so they hype up the "claims of responsibility" on internet websites, and though it is real, it works to their advantage. Plus, it makes for a targeting of political dissension in all its forms, and puts the net in a bad light. Maybe websites which are critical of the U.S. are being shut down because they are being lumped in with these jihadist sites. I have a real issue with that, because I don't want to see the internet be made into something under strict control.

Check out:Black Electorate Hip Hop Fridays:The Sins of the God MC By Hadji Williams

Check out:The three part series:Rhythmn and BS

These two articles are good because they are critical of hip hop and the music industry. I remember when I was younger the whole advent of "smooth R&B", and how it was played in between hip hop on the station back in Connecticut. In the mid 80s, when R&B was on its way down (like for example, Kool and the Gang; the 80s version of the band was far different from the 70s version), hip hop was on its way up. As for the whole concept of the "God MC", I am more or less perplexed by five realities in hip hop today: hip hop is being controlled by the major record companies, it is brought by a mostly white suburban audience, it still only represents one aspect of the black experience in AmeriKKKa, nobody buys political rap, and nobody buys Christian rap. I accept it, but when people criticize it, it comes right back to those points for me.

I was kinda interested in checking out "Confessions of a Video Vixen" by Karrine Steffans AKA "Superhead". I read her article in XXL, and it was an eye opener how Kool G Rap (her ex-boyfriend who allegedly beat her) treated her. I was suprised that XXL did the article, considering how much respect G Rap has in the hip hop world. Im not really a big 50 Cent fan, but I have to admit his video game looks pretty cool.

Thanks to Tracy for correcting me on the producer of Rize. It was actually David LaChappelle, not David Chappelle. My bad.