Tuesday, May 24th, 2005

Crowning The City of Quartz

Here’s one development that downtown L.A, communities of color and graf writers at the Belmont Tunnel have been seeing coming for a long time now. (Thank you to Ben Higa and Dave Stovall for being my personal prophets.) Gentrification and a “new” urbanism continues, from Chicago to San Francisco to Brooklyn to Tacoma to L.A.

posted by @ 6:57 am | 0 Comments

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

Catching Up

Just returned from a week in the Big Apple, trying to get my legs back under me today, and absorb everything that happened: curating two mind-blowing panels sponsored by the Ford Foundation, hanging with the divine Ms. Sanders and Ms. Patterson and the sleepless Mr. Lee, the incredible Peter Janssen and the Holtzbrinck Academic crew, and Josh and the fam at Picador; getting down to Doug E. Fresh, James Brown, First Choice’s “Let No Man Put Asunder”, and lots of Chaka Khan for Ms. Joan Morgan’s bday (yes, we already been hit the oldies stage!); digging the amazing Basquiat exhibition; talking aesthetics with Eisa, B+, Joy, James, Martha, Danny, Mari, Teo, Sylvia, Vanessa, Christine, and the Future Aesthetics fam; soaking up the brilliance of folks like Mark Anthony Neal, Greg Tate, and Vijay Prashad; and working hard with the League of Young Voters Education Fund. So please give me a few days to catch up, OK?

In the meantime, here’s a great blog entry by the great Ron Kavanaugh on what I was doing with a bunch of brilliant folks last week. Ron’s blog is excellent reading, and the BXMA has certainly become one of my favorite places on earth. Well worth checking.

To dooz: Cop Mark Anthony Neal’s new book. Mow the lawn. Relax!

posted by @ 7:31 am | 0 Comments

Tuesday, May 17th, 2005

Lefty Comedy…

Is often not funny. In fact, sometimes it’s a piece of horse shit. Douglas Valentine in Counterpunch. (This one thanks to Thatcher Collins at KPFK.)

Meanwhile, can fools let Dave Chappelle alone?

posted by @ 1:25 am | 4 Comments

Thursday, May 12th, 2005

Are Asians and Latinos Just A Different Kind of White?

Tamara Nopper reviews George Yancey’s sure-to-be-controversial new book. Much more on this to come…

UPDATE: Check comments below for more links and discussion.

posted by @ 9:20 am | 109 Comments

Wednesday, May 11th, 2005

Hip-Hop Appreciation Week

Next week is Hip-Hop Appreciation Week. Check here for events jumping off around the country.

I’ll be up in New York doing some Hip-Hop Aesthetics Panels. Check here for the public event in the Bronx.

For my money though, Chicago will be the hotspot next week. Herc, Bam, Theodore, Immortal Technique, not to mention the amazing local people: University of Hip-Hop, Kevin Coval, Cashus D, Casper, the list is just getting started. Peep the events, courtesy UAAM:

||Pre HHAW event||:

Kuumba Lynx presents
El Barrio Clocks, Our Beatz, N Rhymez: Phase III
an interdisciplinary arts production
Thursday, May 12 – 10am
Friday, May 13 – 10am and 7pm
Saturday, May 14 – 1pm and 6pm

Truman College
1145 W. Wilson
Novar Hall Theater, Rm. 3426
$12/$5 school matinees
kuumbalynx@yahoo.com
Special Discount with HHAW flyer!

||SUNDAY MAY 15th, 2005||

Hip Hop Appreciation Week Kick Off
@ University of Hip Hop
6400 S. Kedzie
FREE and ALL AGES
3pm – 7pm

||MONDAY May 16th, 2005||

Freedom Workshop
@ University of Hip Hop
6400 S. Kedzie
FREE and ALL AGES
4:30pm – 7pm

Mental Graffiti
(open mic)
@ Funky Buddah Lounge
728 W. Grand
21+, $5
7:30pm doors, 8pm show

||TUESDAY May 17th, 2005||

Connect Force Breakin Session
@ Alternatives – 4730 N Sheridan
FREE and ALL AGES
4pm – 7pm

Young Chicago Authors
Workshop and Open Mic
FREE and ALL AGES
Workshop – 6pm, Open Mic – 7pm

HIP HOP PRESERVATION NIGHT
featuring HIP HOP HONORS
@ HOT HOUSE
31 E. Balbo
9pm SHARP, $5, 21+
featuring – Griot Baba Biko, 500 Nations,
Bad News Jones, Kevin Coval, and more
LIVE ART… OPEN FLOOR for B-Boys and B-Girls

||WEDNESDAY May 18th, 2005||

Soul Expansion Lounge
Youth Workshop w/ Sensei of Soul
@ New Approach Health Foods
641 E. 47th
FREE and ALL AGES
4pm – 6pm

Soul Expansion Lounge
(Open Mic)
Hosted by Transend and Sensei of Soul
w/ Spoken
@ New Approach Health Foods
641 E. 47th
FREE and ALL AGES
7pm – 10pm

The Chicago Drop
(Live Hip Hop Bands)
@ The Note
1565 N. Milwaukee
21+, $5
10pm – 4am

||THURSDAY MAY 19th, 2005||

Connect Force and Kuumba Lynx present
Elemental Workshops
@ Alternatives – 4730 N. Sheridan
FREE and ALL AGES
4pm – 7pm

Youth Summit
Feat. Lord Cahsus D (Universal Zulu Nation),
and Casper (Chicago Graffiti Artist)
@ Jones College Prep HS
606 S. State St.
$4, ALL AGES
6pm – 8:30pm

Cypher Sessions
(poetry)
@ Borders (Hyde Park)
1539 E. 53rd
FREE and ALL AGES
7:30pm – 10:30pm

Universal Zulu Nation presents
Cosmic Slop feat.
GRAND WIZARD THEODORE
“Father of the Scratch”
@ Hot House – 31 E. Balbo
$15, 21+
10pm – 2am

||Friday May 20th, 2005||

Unsigned Coop Youth Program
Featuring Soul Selectas, Power 92
@7915 S. Exchange
FREE and ALL AGES
4pm – 6pm

Conscious Music Summit
@ Betty Shabazz School
7823 S Ellis
FREE and ALL AGES
7pm – 10pm

||Saturday, May 21st, 2005||

Sneaker Skills
Outdoor B-Boy Battle
@ Logan Square Eagle
(Blue Line stop @ Logan Square)
FREE and ALL AGES
judged by audience reaction
12pm – 4pm

All City Writers Meeting
@ The Writers Bench
Logan Square Eagle
2pm

Conscious Music Summit
@ Betty Shabazz School
Featuring workshops
AND Meeting of the Minds
(w/ KOOL HERC
AFRIKA BAMBAATAA
IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE)
7823 S Ellis
FREE and ALL AGES
1pm – 5pm: Workshops
5pm – 8pm: Meeting of the Minds

We will provide transportation for some who want to go from Sneaker Skills to the Conscious Music Summit

ONE LUV Productions
After Set @ Lava Lounge
859 N Damen
Feat. Intel, Genghis Won, Lar1, Maker
KID CUT UP and WHY B
FREE, 21+, 10pm

||Sunday, May 22, 2005||

Magic Seven
7 Lessons, 7 Generations, 7 Continents
A Family Hip Hop Event
@ University of Chicago Reynold’s Club
5700 S. University (SW Corner)
Workshops, performances, and more
Featuring: Snyergy, Brickheadz and more
FREE and ALL AGES
2pm – 6pm

Conscious Music Summit
@ Betty Shabazz School
7823 S Ellis
FREE and ALL AGES
1pm

Hip Hop Appreciation Week Wrap Up Jam
Featuring:
Immortal Technique
and special guest artists!
@ Subterranean – 2011 W. North Ave.
$15 and 21+
9pm – doors
(limited capacity)

Organized and/or Supported by:
Apollo Project, Hip Hop Congress, Urban Art in Action Movement, Fly Paper, Universal Zulu Nation, Temple of Hip Hop, University of Hip Hop, Synergy, Hip Hop Political Convention, Connect Force, Young Chicago Authors, Kuumba Lynx and the general Hip Hop CommUNITY of Chicago

posted by @ 4:11 pm | 0 Comments

Tuesday, May 10th, 2005

The Huffington Post Is Up

Arianna’s new experiment in lefty meta-blogging is up. I’m rooting for it. Alternatives are always good if they are alternatives.

But a BIG warning: it is white, white, white, white, white and male and well over 40-something.

I expected a lot more content than a retread of the tired old Farrakhan debate. In brief: Russell Simmons takes on the ADL’s Abe Foxman over the Millions More Movement and somebody named Seth Greenland takes Foxman’s side. It’s all very 80s.

Arianna, please. Right now, the Post is just looking like the same old story.

posted by @ 7:40 am | 3 Comments

Monday, May 9th, 2005

Jay Smooth Talks To Kim Osorio

Mad late to the game on this, but some of you may not have yet peeped this. Once again, Jay Smooth is on the story.

posted by @ 7:45 pm | 6 Comments

Monday, May 9th, 2005

Vlad’s Volga


“But Mr. President, it is left only in Russia.”
“Not while I’m behind the wheel. I’m turning yall right, and yall gon like it. Now who’s your daddy? Say my name, Vladdy, say it!”

(This is yet another installation in our ongoing Whips and Dips series.)

posted by @ 2:18 pm | 0 Comments

Thursday, May 5th, 2005

Hip-Hop Aesthetics

Just got back from Santa Barbara and Oxnard. A big shoutout to the fam at UCSB, especially Jonathan Kim at KCSB, Luniya Msuku at the MCC, DJ Soulspeak, Kofi, Jim, Professor Flacks, Elizabeth and Maricela. Much love, much appreciation.

Strength and power to the youths of South Oxnard, who are dealing with a lockdown by police and administrators at Channel Islands High this week, and to all those fighting the Oxnard gang injunction personally and collectively. (More info here.) Big shout to the folks at the KEYS program, and to Mr. Terrazas at CI High, but especially Michael Shuman and Tomas Hernandez. Can’t stop won’t stop.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be hosting discussions around hip-hop and aesthetics. Come check out the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, including an illuminating discussion on Hip-Hop in Theater and Performance on Saturday with Traci Bartlow, Javier Reyes, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and Kamilah Forbes.

(Also, the same day…a Berkeley tradition: the ninth annual Hip-Hop In The Park, this year featuring the Procussions and The Frontline, whose new version of Who R U–entitled Now U Know–is out Tuesday!)

And on May 18, at the Bronx Museum, the topic will be Hip-Hop In Post-Millennial Visual Arts, and the moderator will be BXMA Senior Curator Lydia Yee.

Fall through!

posted by @ 4:14 pm | 0 Comments

Friday, April 29th, 2005

Dave Mays: Allegations Against The Source "A Form Of Racial Profiling"

Dave Mays goes to AllHipHop.com to lash out at Reginald Dennis’ recent article in HipHopDX and Kim Osorio’s lawsuit. He compares the pressure on the magazine to a COINTELPRO operation, tries to link such pressure to recent cases against Lil’ Kim and Irv Gotti, and implies that it’s all part of a federal government conspiracy:

I don’t know if you guys report on these things but if you read The Source magazine, we report on real issues, serious issues within our community and within our industry. And one of those serious issues if you know if you were to look into it is the issue of the federal governments targeting of the Hip-Hop music industry and the Hip-Hop community. It’s a profiling of Rap artists, it’s a form of racial profiling that’s taking place within our industry, the investigation of Lil’ Kim as supposedly as an organized crime figure. This is again led to things like Irv Gotti being indicted. Irv Gotti is somebody who has done more to help people save lives, bring crime down in communities, empower communities but yet he’s the target of a federal investigation and not the people that are really criminals in the industry, the real criminals. It’s just also you can read about in this month’s Source magazine where we discuss these kinds of issues in depth.

There’s a whole lot more. He reiterates that his 1994 action of inserting an article on Almighty RSO into the magazine, which resulted in the first Source staff walkout–there have now been at least three more similar mass exoduses in the history of the magazine–was entirely justified. “These guys didn’t want to listen even though they were paid a lot of money by me to do a job for my company,” he says.

He then takes new shots at Reginald Dennis, James Bernard, and Kim Osorio. He again makes specific mention of Osorio’s alleged sex life in reference to her sexual harassment lawsuit. He calls Dennis and Bernard “closet weirdos”. Then he refers to himself and Benzino in third person–a lot–and says they are the best of friends. Of his friendship with Benzino, he says, “I mean first of all Benzino is a widely respected figure across the globe. In any city, any country around the world Benzino is widely known and widely respected.”

And he claims in the extended portion of the interview, that the Rev. Al Sharpton “is very happy to have Benzino on as a leader that’s willing to come on board and step out and be a part of promoting non-violence in the Hip-Hop community.”

But interestingly enough, Rev. Sharpton seems to have been distancing himself from Mays and Scott in recent days. He has stated that he has been working with Black Enterprise officials to investigate the claims of sexual harassment at the magazine, while refraining from referring to Mays and Scott.

Mays says the magazine is “not for sale. Ray and Dave own and run The Source along with our partners at Black Enterprise.”

When Benzino resigned from The Source on April 8, he lashed out at executives from Black Enterprise, who invested $17.1 million in the magazine in the spring of 2002. But on April 11, Benzino returned to the magazine, stating that executives from Black Enterprise and the Reverend Sharpton had asked him to return.

Officials from Black Enterprise have not yet spoken to the press.

For longtime watchers of hip-hop journalism, this might be the most interesting part of the interview:

Dave Mays: We’ve criticized a lot of the journalists out there because we feel that they’re not professional. We feel that they don’t know how to separate their personal feelings from their job. We feel that they don’t exercise responsibility. We feel that many of them don’t really respect nor understand the culture and that it makes it very hard to report on the culture when you don’t really respect it and you’re not really a part of it and you don’t understand it. There’s a lot of people that pose and act and pretend like they know these things because they want a job or because they have some other agenda. They’re an artist; they’re a rapper who hasn’t been able to get a deal so they decide to go into writing because they think they might be able to get a record deal that way. I mean these are the types of people that we’ve talked about and that there’s been a lot of these type of people in the Hip-Hop journalist industry or community. And we’ve been critical of those people and we try to keep those type of people out of our company and recruit and develop the type of executives and editors that can sort of follow the, what I said earlier, the guideline and design for how to run a hip hop magazine.

AllHipHop.com: Do you think this same argument can be made of Benzino? That he’s in a magazine because he wants to become a rapper?

Dave Mays: Nope.

AllHipHop.com: Do you think that’s too closely together though? His music and the magazine? Certainly with the like advertising his albums within The Source?

Dave Mays: Nope. What would be the problem with advertising his albums? I mean we have ad space he has products or we have products, we promote The Source Awards in our magazine; we run ads for that. That’s another product we have that’s not The Source Magazine and we run ads for that.

AllHipHop.com: Right.

Dave Mays: That’s what advertisements are for.

AllHipHop.com: Right but he gets very prominent ads.

Dave Mays: It’s his magazine. So does The Source Awards get very prominent ads, so does The Source ring tone business and so does The Source hip hop albums get great placement, a lot of placement. Have you noticed that? We’re in the business of tooling. We have advertising pages that are used to promote product. Some are what we are paid for by companies to promote those products on those pages; some of those pages we use to promote our own products. That’s the business.

AllHipHop.com: Do you understand how people see it as a conflict of interest?

Dave Mays: I understand that people are confused and people are being misled to have a misperception of things which we talked about earlier about people who want to continue to try and just bring up the same thing over and over again for years as this big thing as the big problem and the big criticism of The Source or Ray and Dave. It’s the same thing. Reggie Dennis and his buddies said these things in 1994 and they keep getting said by everyone from Kim Osorio in 2005 on down. It’s the same thing.

AllHipHop.com: And so you don’t see that as a problem? Coming from different people over a different span of time?

Dave Mays: All disgruntled people that have gone on and done nothing. Again I let the people decide, I let the facts speak for themselves on that.

posted by @ 6:03 pm | 8 Comments



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