Suffer Boulevard

Hip-Hop quotable

2008-06-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

Nas goes hard on this third verse from Hero, the Polow Da Don produced first single from ~~Nigger~~ Untitled.

This universal apartheid
I'm hog-tied, the corporate side
Blocking y'all from going to stores and buying it
First L.A. and Doug Morris was riding wit it
But Newsweek article startled big wigs
They said, Nas, why is he trying it?
My lawyers only see the Billboard charts as winning
Forgetting - Nas the only true rebel since the beginning
Still in musical prison, in jail for the flow
Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel
They can't sing what's in their soul
So untitled it is
I never change nothin'
But people remember this
If Nas can't say it, think about these talented kids
With new ideas being told what they can and can't spit
I can't sit and watch it
So, sh! t, I'ma drop it
Like it or not
You ain't gotta cop it
I'm a hustler in the studio
Cups of Don Julio
No matter what the CD called
I'm unbeatable, y'all

No N-word? No big deal

2008-05-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

So the news dropped this week that Nas new album will not be titled N-Word. It will either be self-titled or untitled, depending on whom you ask. The release date being floated around is still July 1, which is, coincidentally, my birthday.

In part because of my day job and in part because I feel like I've been devoting entirely too much ink to Nas, I refrained from weighing in on the latest news. I'm still trying to sort out thoughts and have been doing a lot of reading and following what others are writing. Nas has been making the rounds at Web sites and radio talking about the new album, so I decided to just fall back.

I'm not surprised the album's title will be changed, although I'm disappointed, if only from the standpoint that a Harvard Law professor is able to release a book titled Nigger, while a rapper is not. Above all, I think Nas has achieved his goals in many ways, that being able to show that censorship exists still an that there are double standards for rap as a media.

One day - when we're old and gray - I'm sure the back story about why the album was changed will come out.

You know it's summer in L.A. when ...

2008-05-19T11:25:00.001-07:00

1. It's 80 degrees at 9 a.m. in the San Fernando Valley.

2. The Do-Over at Crane's Tavern in Hollywood is poppin' off again.

3. Homies are talking about going to Venice.

4. The freaks are out and so is the cottage cheese.

5. Everybody's talking about how hot it is.

6. Allergies

7. The steering wheel's so hot it can burn your hand you're not careful.

...

Nas speaks on N*gger album

2008-05-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

Spotted at Nah Right

50 Cent in Tanzania

2008-05-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

Curtis, Banks and Yayo - collectively known as G-Unit or G-Unot, depending on who you ask - just popped over in Dar es Salaam last weekend. For my people in Bongo, it's the equivalent of a visit from a head of state.

I spotted these pics over here.

Straight Outta Kyiv / Hip-Hop Saved My Life

2008-05-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

I've had a little writing block for the past week as I made a transition to a new
8-5 and did a little soul-searching following the LAT Beatbox fiasco.

It's nothing that a little MTV Jams couldn't fix. Catching Lupe's "Hip-Hop Saved My Life" alone did it for me.

It goes well with this little personal piece I scribed called "Straight Outta Kyiv" that the good folks at The Root just ran. It delves into my reasons for writing about Hip-Hop, touches on race, death and the album that started it all for me, It Was Written.

It's the album that Lupe often cites as an inspiration:

Sean Bell is no Winston Hayes

2008-04-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here's something to think about.

NYPD's finest pumped 50 bullets into Sean Bell's car last year outside a Queens strip club, killing him. Last Friday, a judge decided that the cops didn't do anything wrong and let them go without so much as a slap on the wrist.

In 2005, L.A. County Sheriff's deputies pumped 120 shots at an SUV driven by a Compton man named Winston Hayes. He survived, and last month a civil court jury awarded him $1.3 million in damages, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Although no amount of money is going to bring Sean Bell back, I hope Bell's widow receives a much larger award from civil litigation.

LMAO

2008-04-26T12:25:00.002-07:00

This needs to be shared.

The Grouch - Artsy

2008-04-25T02:33:00.001-07:00

Meet the best white rapper not named Eminem or Copywrite.

David Banter and friends

2008-04-25T00:49:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy or AR PR Marketing

Banter, the Maloofs and Mr. Steroids.

Say hello to the bad guys

Hip-Hop bloggers are a bunch of idiots

2008-04-25T00:41:00.001-07:00

And I am an idiot for blogging my way into association with them.

Guess I am human, after all. Dang.

Anyway, watch me blog my way out and into more important topics than Hip-Hop and some silly 'would-be' L.A. Times hip-hop blog that never came to fruition and has a bunch of Hip-Hop blogging white boys' panties up in a bunch.

And one "person of color" at the L.A. Times who no longer wants to be associated with me.

Barack "Brush 'Em Off" Obama

2008-04-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Barack is Hip-Hop. That much is clear. And we can all thank Shawn Corey Carter. Perhaps he'll get a position in the Obama administration, hmm.

Get ... that ... dirt off your shoulder

You can be Nasir too

2008-04-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

Nas - Be A Nigger Too

Long-awaited new Nas joint from the forthcoming Nigger, the release date for which has been pushed back to my birthday. Go figure.

Previously:
Give it up to Nas, Hip-Hop's Randall Kennedy

Break-fast Monday

2008-04-21T03:38:00.000-07:00

Starting this morning, "Break-fast" will deliver the hottest, most important stories from mainstream media and blogs ... hopefully, before or during your breakfast. PST, of course.

* This NY Times article is all the evidence you need to turn off CNN and turn to newspapers to get your news. (Spotted at Talking Points Memo)

more to come

Suffer Boulevard's identity crisis

2008-04-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

Suffer Boulevard is having an identity crisis in the wake of being rubbed the wrong way at Oh Word, then having that post show up at Nah Right Lite.

For the record, this is not the kind of fame or notoriety that I was looking for when I started this blog in November 2007. The blog's name came to me when I was driving back to Morgan Hill, a semi-rural city nestled south of San Jose, the capital of California's Silicon Valley, from San Jose, where I had just sat through another boring government meeting.

I was up there for work. I left SoCal to join the staff of the Morgan Hill Times as a reporter covering city and county government. I lasted about three months before I quit - on the account of one of the most incompetent and unprofessional editors to ever work in journalism. (I've been through a lot of hell working for a wire service, but this one takes the cake). Besides, the job wasn't a good fit. Why would a street sign for "Sutter Boulevard" read "Suffer Boulevard" otherwise? I had become accustomed to baby mama drama and the weekend trips from the Bay to L.A. by car, which didn't just drain my financial resources but also endangered my life as I tried driving on no sleep Monday mornings out of L.A. while trying to make it to work by 9 a.m.

I'm glad Suffer Boulevard is getting some attention, although it's been a pretty unfocused brew of my opinion, music drops and links to, it seems like, whatever comes to mind. Having no editor sometimes is not a good thing (Right, Cam?) In the wake of the Oh Word debacle and as I continue to figure out whether blogging is reputable for a journalist - SufferBoulevard.com was just registered, so I'm sticking with it - I want to focus the blog a bit.

What that means is I am going to expand the politics coverage and hopefully connect it to the Hip-Hop community. That means you can expect stuff that Talking Points Memo offers in a format that makes Nah Right so popular. At least in theory.

The Game feat. Keyshia Cole - Pain

2008-04-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

Listen: The Game feat. Keyshia Cole - Pain

The raspy voice, clever lyrics, a beat perfectly suited for the summer in Harlem or Compton ... you see where this is going?

Straight to the runway, lol. The Game's gonna LAX 'em come June 24th.

My favorite R&B singer - I thought it was Alicia, but was corrected - soups it up to make it official like David Geffen* allegedly trying to buy the L.A. Times.

*David Geffen as in Geffen Records, The Game's record label.

This dude is why I write for The Source

2008-04-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

I was on the list for this party and was supposed to be on that red carpet.

Unfortunately, while my Southwest flight from San Jose to Ontario was on time, my friend dragged her feet and we couldn't make it on time and we weren't trying to pay $40 to get in Rise at Hollywood & Highland.

Oh well.

Still, when I came across this vid I had to post it.

Peep Ryan Ford's wisdom.

I do.

And back to Hip-Hop, 412 style ...

2008-04-18T09:52:00.001-07:00

Don't sleep on Wiz Khalifa unless you want to meet death's cousin.

Here's my DXNext on the kid out of Pitt.

(Shout out to Jake Paine, the editor at DX who made the Wiz interview happen and who penned the Snoop cover story in The Source).

Politics or Hip-Hop?

2008-04-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

I just applied for a job at an East Coast-based blog that made the mainstream media - newspapers, not TV, TV gets their news from the newspapers anyway - drool with envy earlier this year when the blog won the George Polk award for its reporting on the politically motivated firings of U.S. attorneys.

My D.C. investment banker homie has been telling me about this blog - it's at the top of the "blogs" links to the right - for at least two years.

Newspapers are definitely becoming irrevelant, no matter how hard I try to tell people that's where the news they need is, STILL. Not these corny, rumor- and cute-language filled blogs that most Americans waste their productive time consuming.

Focus, people.

I enjoy my fun as much as the next man, but don't get it twisted: I'll leave the vanity of covering rappers and producers for the vanity of covering politicians and their misdoings in D.C. any day.

Unless it's "Politics of Hip-Hop," as in the title of the course taught by Dr. Karin Stanford at my alma mater Cal State Northridge, it's all "ignorant Sh-t" a la Jay-Z.

Nahmean?

Take this 'smoking gun' and shove it

2008-04-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

A bunch of middle-aged white men - even if they have melanin in their skin, Hispanic last names or slanted eyes - that run The Smoking Gun and detest Hip-Hop in the name of pseudo-investigative journalism can take a hike.

A friend of mine at a major urban music magazine shot over the link to a TSG article that strives to debunk Akon's street cred because, as the story claims, he "contrived" some aspects of his criminal past.

Yawn.

So what if Akon made up his background? It's called being an artist, and he's a good one.

You mad because he can sing better than you and your kids listen to him?

TSG, you're up shit's creek with this one. And trust, if you come after me, I'll go after each and everyone on your staff for all your porn-viewing habits at work and other indiscretions.

As a former wire service reporter who has worked at mainstream media and has the highest regard for investigative reporting, I think TSG is wrong for this one.

In fact, if I was Akon, I'd sue. Make some lawyers money.

It'll be in the name of Hip-Hop.

Oh, and by the way, in related news, I now believe that Akon does have Tanzanian ancestry, as someone in my baby mama's circle pointed out.

I have my reasons.

Ali Vegas + Lamar Odom + Quinn Rhone = good look

2008-04-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling the movement that is Lamar Odom's Rich Soil Entertainment.

You can say real Queens dudes are always welcome in L.A., and add that Lamar's is more than a vanity label.

I said it.

Although Ali Vegas, the vastly underrated, smooth-voiced spitter out of Jamaica, Queens - Odom's home - is the first and only artist signed to Rich Soil, don't bet your money they won't succeed.

Not when Quinn Rhone, Sylvia's daughter, comes over from the Magic Johnson camp to run the label. (Don't know who Sylvia is, Wikipedia will school you; I took flicks with Gwen, will post shortly hopefully). Certainly not when Ali and Odom exhibit loyalty and endurance in the face of setbacks that come with being in the music biz and the NBA, respectively.

Ali's lesson learnt?

“Don't take business personal,” he says.

Overall, choppin' it up with Ali was enjoyable. Sitting in a speakeasy-style booth in the back of the Cabana, dude was dressed dapper - think Brooks Brothers - and spoke with weighed, sincere answers.

So, when he says he recently had hours-long conversations with Doug E. Fresh after a show in Jamaica, I believe him.

Carry on tradition, homie.

"I was the youngin with the OGs," he says.

On Lamar, he adds a little flavor to his speech.

"We know each other from the sandbox. It's a family business.”

A video was just shot for Ali's single “That's Nothing,” and it sounds like classic Premo on the beat. Hearing that the legend produces on the Generation Gap, Ali's full-length Rich Soil debut, does impress even more.

With the music industry in flux, I'm not sure how the stars align for Rich Soil, but to hear Ali explain the concept behind the label's name, I wish 'em well.

"Every seed needs rich soil to grow.”

You can't spell L.A. without Lamar

2008-04-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

This post might be premature in many ways and even seen as pandering.

I never worry about that, though.

Let's chop it about Lamar. As in Lamar Odom, the Lakers power forward, the former student-athlete at the University of Rhode Island and the product of Jamaica, Queens.

It may not be Queensbridge - I mean, what other place in the world is? - but Jamaica produced some cool folks. Curtis Jackson, Troy Jamerson and Lamar Odom are three you may be familiar with (if you don't know who Troy Jamerson is, read up).

The stories of Curt, Troy and Lamar are urban folklore at this point, so I won't inundate you with nonsense about their hardships. If you read this blog, you've got them already.

Instead, check out the clever branding behind Lamar's Rich Soil brand, which has a clothing line - t-shirts only, as far as I can tell - and a record label that is the recording home of Ali Vegas, who some New York hip-hop lovers may remember from his unproductive stint with Columbia Records some years ago.

Ali Vegas is out of Jamaica and I'm not mad at Lamar for looking out for one of his own.

That's how we do it in L.A.

L.A. Times: Retain Chuck Philips, Build Around Him

2008-04-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to revisit this issue, because I've already posted about it once or twice.

But, reading the post at LAObserved.com headlined "Stanton: Philips' future in flux" demands a response and an official position from Suffer Boulevard. (Russ Stanton is the editor of the Los Angeles Times and Chuck Philips is the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter on the music industry beat).

Chuck Philips must stay at the L.A. Times and the paper - the print edition and the Web site - should siphon off his energy and build around it.

It's as simple as that.

The reason the L.A. Times has suffered - yes, suffered as in the theme of this blog -is because it has failed to write for the general public in Los Angeles. The "general public," safe to say, is the Hip-Hop generation.

Simple as that.

Chuck Philips - with whom I've corresponded via e-mail but never met - is the kind of journalist who should be elevated, not brought down.

I would compare his work on the Tupac stories at the L.A. Times to what Barack Hussein Obama is doing for this country at this moment: improving its image.

The rest wish they could be him so they want to see him fail.

Ask Nas how that works.

Cheapskates and S-Mak and Remy Renthoven: L.A.'s next greatest rappers?

2008-04-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

These songs bang just like that magazine Bang! I write for out in Bongo (Tanzanians call their land "bongo," which translates to "brain" in Swahili)

Play them on the IMEEM player to the right then download here.

S-Mak and Remy Renthoven - "Lavish Life" (prod. THX)

Cheapskates - "On the Bus"

Vid: Colby O'D feat. Akon "What You Got"

2008-04-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

Laugh all you want, but I'm giving this dude a shot for the second time via this vid (thanks to an "Anonymous" comment with the link).

Here at Suffer Boulevard, we believe suffering comes in different forms. Imagine the clowning this kid's going to have to deal with due to ... well ... being white (or Persian, you call it) and named Colby O'Donis.

Good music > bigotry.

Poetry Without Borders in S.D. this Friday

2008-04-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

If you're into spoken word with a touch of Hip-Hop swagger and happen to be in the San Diego area this Friday, April 18, shoot up to Cal State San Marcos and catch the homie Phil and his crew Elevated at 7:30 p.m.

The event is called Poetry Without Borders.

You can't hate on that without looking like a fool.

Save the date

2008-04-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

Alicia Keys needs a shrink got blendered

2008-04-14T09:02:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: After reading a report at AllHipHop, I change my opinion of Alicia and place blame square on Blender until further notice.

I hope Alicia Keys was grossly misquoted, because otherwise, she has put her size 12s in her mouth something horrible.

Before I could wipe crust from my eyes this morning, I come across a news story on HipHopDX.com that picks up an Alicia Keys interview with Blender.

It's a doozy because it has Alicia spilling nonsense with the gullible masses. She actually tells Blender , according to DX, possibly the most ignorant statement about gangsta rap - that it didn't really exist and was a government concoction to turn African-Americans on each other. She proceeds to top that one by saying that Pac and Biggie's deaths were the result of covert government action.

Get the f--k outta here, Alicia. Play your piano. Blender, you are trippin'. DX, you're trippin' twice for giving this space on your site. I think I'll take this post down shortly because it doesn't deserve space on this blog.

Alicia needs a shrink and an expanded information diet.

The truth is, for anybody that wants it the way newspapers report it - objectively - is that Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace were mortals who made entertaining music that was influenced by their ideologies. They were poets and inspired people to the point where they seemed like leaders. Seemed is the key word. Just like Alicia seems like she knows what she's talking about.

There was no conspiracy. Pac was murked by the Southside Crips when he stomped out one of their own. I've posted about this before. Chalk it up to his naivete towards L.A. gang culture. B.I.G. was killed as retribution, because he became a cash cow that needed to go, since Pac was gone. Contract killing, and I'm sure he knew his time was up.

We've seen this in movies too many times. Life imitates art, and vice versa.

Fork in the Road - Outlawz

2008-04-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

This is a bit old now, but it's from a decent collabo album from the Outlawz and dead prez called "Can't Sell Dope Forever."

I guess I'm a sucka for revolutionary guitars.

Barack Obama's family story

2008-04-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Via HipHop4Prez

Who is Colby O'Donis? (Hint: Akon)

2008-04-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Nobody except some ~~white~~ Puerto Rican kid Akon's signed to KonLive and who is burning up it "What You Got" featuring a verse from the Konster himself.

You heard this song and you love it. Peep the Imeem player to the right, it's on there.

Don't front unless it's upfront.

Pacific Division added to the Pete Rock/DJ Premier battle April 18

2008-04-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

Pac Div's career, already hot, is heating up even further.

It ain't hard to tell.

Music from Idle Warship (Talib+Res)

2008-04-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

USC GradFest 2008

2008-04-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

It's a sizable crowd of several thousand students and community on McCarthy Courtyard on USC campus and Del just went on. It's a mixed crowd racially but they are too young to remember his material and really, Del's material really too abstract and doesn't catch on.

They did rock to Clint Eastwood joint by the Gorillaz when Del went into it.

Then he exited the stage.

Some group of white co-eds then went up and make a fool of themselves. They looked like one of those variety shows my babushka and dedushka watch on their Russian satellite TV at their room in West Hollywood.

All quiet now as the great messiah called Lupe fiascoes to the stage ....

De La Soul is filling in the time before Lupe goes on and the crowd is 'eh' for the most part except when they go into the Dilla-produced cut that recycles the "Love Ballad," which K-Ci and JoJo did to perfection on "Love Always."

Trying to slide in backstage is proving a problem when the security guard laughs me off when I tell him I write for The Source.

But things get better when I run into the homie Ramsey from Trey Q. Its a clothing line - tees, hoodies - that manifests Palestinian suffrage.

Ramsey just told me he's "liberal Muslim."

I can dig it, which is why I plugged Trey Q in my review of Rock the Bells in 2006.

Lauryn was a special guest at that show.

She's weird.

Back to De La .... Ooh, ooh.

USC has Lupe Fiasco @ Noon today

2008-04-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is for SpringFest 2008.

My future alma mater - or the place where I spend a lot of time these days rummaging - has a Hip-Hop festival today at noon headlined by Lupe and featuring cats I like to see like Acey.

I learned about it from Pacific Division's manager last night at the Temple Bar, so I'm just passing on the word.

The event is free and it will be at the McCarthy Courtyard on campus.

For more blogger coverage of SpringFest:
Daily Trojan
LAist post
Last.fm

BlackBerry Tidbits: Its not about shoes anymore

2008-04-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

Or maybe it is.

Chopping it up over here with Steve, my homie from Da Poetry Lounge, I'm grasping that this Santa Monica Foot Locker is where it is.

He put me up on the science of shoes today.

MURS in The Source (May 2008)

2008-04-11T12:56:00.001-07:00

Willie Northpole: DTP's Arizona gangsta rap

2008-04-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

First of all, no homo, but it's rather hard to appeal to the masses when your is Willie Northpole, but I still like this dude. At least for the fact that his rhymes seem to based on real life.

I call it Arizona gangsta rap, and I'm actually checking for him.

No bull.

Obama, Israel+Palestine

2008-04-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Sometime back in 2006, one year after I read "Dreams From My Father" in Ohio the previous year, I was at the baby mama's house and was thinking who wouldn't want to see Obama as president.

Mossad came to mind. So did Israel.

I mean, I went to the Holy Land in December 2002 just as the intifada against Israel was picking up steam yet again. Myself and 14 other college newspaper editors from all over the U.S. got flown out there and put up in nice digs by the American Jewish Committee's Project Interchange, which routinely finances these trips for American leaders (or those showing propensity to lead one day).

Anyway, back in May 2006, I figured Obama's candidacy posed a threat to Israel because he would make nice with the Palestinians. A woman sitting next to Parag Khanna at USC's Africom conference in February expressed this very concern, but was rebuffed by the New America Foundation fellow and writer of an important book called The Second World. Sitting next to him was Dr. Ernest Wilson III, one of my favorite people in the world that is about change.

So today the L.A. Times leads with a story about Obama's standing with Palestinians and how Israel hate-mongers are becoming pacified.

I'll add more on this later, gotta fly out the door now.

This is good news, though. Better than the post below.

Pulling the lid off U.S. foreign policy in Africa?!

2008-04-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

Don't believe all you read online, but this is interesting nevertheless and it seems legit.

Call it the Pentagon playing rough.

In any case, following a link at Crossed Crocodiles, I found this story about what may possibly be AFRICOM's HQ in West Africa.

And you wonder why I'm trying to get The Game and 'em to East Africa for the West Coast 2 Bongo Concert Series 2008 between June 24-July 1?

It's not hard to figure out, is it?

You won't read about this in the L.A. Times, although I think you should.

Suffer Boulevard previous posts on this subject:
Freelance writer Slav Kandyba video commentary on Africom
USC Africom conference news story
Africom op/ed: Is Africom America's Ticket to Africa and China's prom? (now, throw India and Europe in good measure)

Update: I just read this Washington Post report from Feb. 21 and it raises some flags. Is Bush a hypocrite or there is purposeful misinformation going on?

This is the headline:

No Bases Planned for Africa, Bush Says

Frankly, this is something that is fixable with one word: Obama.

Urban Network music conf in San Daygo, 4/19, free. GO!!!!!

2008-04-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

From an e-mail I received today:

Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in what many will call one of the most informative and captivating panels and sessions available for the thriving San Diego music scene. There will be different panel discussions about how to take your career seriously in order to progress to the next level.

WHEN:
April 19th, 2008
Where:
Malcolm X Library and Performing Arts Center
5148 Market Street San Diego, CA. 92114
(619) 527-3405
Time: 9:30am – 4:30pm

Cost: FREE (Request small Donation $1-$10 of which a portion of the
proceeds will be donated to the Library’s Matching Book Fund)

Capacity: only 150 seats available

Panelists representing various segments of the entertainment industry
For more information and pre-registration:

Contact: Don (858) 344-5400 or send email with name & phone # to info@mybuddhafrog.com

Conference is open to all genres of musicians/artists/and aspiring music moguls…

3255 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 815, Los Angeles, CA 90010
WWW.URBANNETWORK.COM

Darfur Now Tour

2008-04-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

As I sit here in the science library of the esteemed University of California Riverside, I figured why not blog about Darfur. There's some science behind it too, namely the fact that I received a press release about a special screening of a documentary called Darfur Now. It comes out on DVD May 27th.

To me personally, Darfur's problems are more complicated than Israel-Palestine and are meaningless in terms of world politics. But it is cause celebre, and who am I not to oblige.

Also, it looks like a nice little line-up of artists will be traveling along for this tour, which is being brought to you by Participant Media and STAND. I have no idea who these companies are, but certainly would like to know.

Cool Kids, Goapele, Zion 1, Janelle Monae, Anthony David, Wale, Asheru and DJ Drama are tapped for the cause.

TOUR DETAILS
Boulder, CO April 12, 2008
University of Colorado at Boulder

Boston April 13, 2008
Northeastern University

Berkeley April 24, 2008
University of California Berkeley
ft. Zion I, DJ Fuse, Goapele

Atlanta April 25, 2008
Emory University
ft. Janelle Monae, Anthony David, Novel, DJ Drama

St. Paul, MN April 27, 2008
William Mitchell College of Law

Minneapolis April 28, 2008
University of Minnesota Law School

Washington D.C. April 28, 2008
Georgetown University
ft. Wale, Asheru, DJ Yzo, Mastamind DJ

Chicago May 21, 2008
University of Chicago

Los Angeles May 29, 2008
University of California Los Angeles

Hey fool, "True Skool" ...

2008-04-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

New R&B cat outta Gardena ... Armel

2008-04-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

Anyone from Gardena that does music is good with me. (Ask me about Eric Grant and how the soul survives, and I'll let you in.)

From his bio

Hailing from Gardena, CA, Armél is the hot new R&B singing (and producing) sensation ... At 22 years young ... Versatile in his talents, Armél holds many titles ranging from pianist to songwriter to producer. However, he has most recently focused on the vocal aspect of his budding career. His voice inhabits a combination of the soulful Donny Hathaway, commercial appeal of Usher Raymond, and remnants of the Black church, the most important foundation for some of the most successful black R&B artists to date.

MP3 Play/download: "I took it down" - Armel feat. Juelz Santana

UrSession 100K beat battle YouTube promo

2008-04-08T01:27:00.001-07:00

Living Legends in L.A.Tuesday and it's free!!!

2008-04-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Be there at 7 p.m. or miss out.

Peep the May issue of THE SOURCE for my feature on Murs on page 60.

At your local WaWa and 7-11s.

View Larger Map

King Tech wakes me up to the newest music invention

2008-04-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

So I chopped it up with King Tech of Wake Up Show today for about 20 minutes.

And what I heard in those 20 minutes can be summed up best by this: revolution for the good.

In a nutshell, Sway and Tech hit up their producer homies and solicited $100,000 worth of beats from them to put on this new social networking site called URsession.com.

It's fresher than ____. You fill in the blank. That fresh.

Anywho, my favorite beat just happens to this one from the homie THX, who I last saw outside the U-N-I show last weekend at the Knitting Factory.

As I sit here watching Bill Self cutting down the nets you should be listening to beats.

Shai - "If I Ever Fall in Love"

2008-04-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is good for the soul.

Nasir Jones for Obama

2008-04-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

Photo: MTV/Soul Brother

This is my 100th post.

So, it's only right that it's about Nasir bin Olu Dara telling MTV that Obama's his guy.

Ironically, G. Malone, the underrated Watts spitter, also gets a look from MTV in the same article.

Balance, people.

That's what you call that.

Talking to The Game's judge

2008-04-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

After droppin' off my girl at LAX this morning, I paid a visit to the Honorable Judge Frederick N. Wapner at L.A. Superior Court's criminal courts building.

I slid over there right after a quick stop over at the civil courts around the corner. I went there to see what was up with this eminent domain case that Prof. Johnnie Scott over at the Pan-African Studies department at CSUN e-mailed me about. It wasn't on the docket, and perhaps because it was settled, so perhaps I'll revisit it at some point later.

It's interesting because it has to do with a house in Watts that a poet wanted to preserve and the city wanted to take away.

In any case, after talking to the deputy and watching as two older African-American male inmates had their situation decided by Judge Wapner, the judge called out to see who was asking about Jayceon Taylor and East Africa.

Although he fumbled the name a bit, I raised my hand, but before I could say anything, he spoke first.

In a succinct statement that would've made Frederick Douglass proud, Judge Wapner said he couldn't talk until Jayceon, his management, attorneys and a rep from the D.A. were in the courtroom.

I said, I appreciate your time Your Honor - or something to that effect, I'm paraphrasing - and walked out into the hall of the 11th floor and into the street.

to be continued ...

How badly does the L.A. Times misunderstand Los Angeles perspective on Hip-Hop?

2008-04-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Pretty badly.

So badly, in fact, that an experiment I think was doomed to begin with was allowed to proceed by the blogger boss at the Times.

After this post at LAObserved.com, the Times killed the LAT Beatbox, a blog that had been regularly updated for about two weeks by myself and four other reputable blogger/writer/journalists.

I don't know what exactly happened but I do have some questions.

I do know that the Times is bleeding a slow death and it shall die without a Hip-Hop blog.

That's as real as the fact that L.A. is where Hip-Hop lives - or at least comes to thrive.

And that's my word.

*Update 4/6: This story stinks all around, and the Times' mea culpa doesn't smell right either, although I stand by Chuck Philips. "Streetwise reporter" is definitely a good tag for him, but again, why doesn't The Times have a bunch of such reporters - I told Kevin Roderick "reckless individuals" lol - doing the job of covering Hip-Hop.

Somebody needs to reassess. Mr. Zell, I've covered commercial real estate, I know what time it is. C'mon.

Talib Kweli + Res + KRS1 + more ... eh, decent show

2008-04-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, I joke.

Of course, the Blastmaster KRS did his thing, although he lost me about emcees doing it 10,000 years ago. I think he may have just watched "10,000 B.C." - but it's still all Queensbridge with me.

In any case, I was impressed with Talib Kweli and Res (see post below for her video from back in the day), who've apparently formed a group called Idle Worship. While the fans in L.A. - mostly a Hispanic/Latino crowd - who were in attendance at the Shrine Auditorium, right by USC campus, weren't really swayed, I think Idle Worship wasn't bad. It ain't the same Res, though, that's for sure, but for Talib, that might be good. The two have an interesting N.Y. rapper-"that chick" from Philly vibe.

The night was definitely a Blacksmith creation, what with Talib Kweli's movement on stage that included Strong Arm Steady - who did about three songs with the utmost Southern Cali g-swag. The trio of Mitchy Slick, who's out of Say Daygo and L.A. cats Phil the Agony and Krondon was on point just as much as Evidence, who performed a few sets earlier and brought out Chace Infinite, the rapping half of Self-Scientific (DJ Khalil, the producer, is putting in major work at Aftermath, although I hear an album is coming soon).

M.O.P. stomped out onto the stage and did their thing to the tune of "Ante Up", which moshed the crowd of several thousand fans.

As far as I saw it, Psycho Realm with the most anticipated group of the night and they didn't disappoint.

Although the two dudes who gave me and my homegirl VIP passes for 10 bucks each were.

One of them was being summoned by his wife and so he had to miss one of his favorite groups, although he thought they would go at 1 p.m. and they went on much earlier.

Next time, homie.

Wiz Khalifa says "Say Yeah" ... what you gonna say?

2008-04-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

When you've been writing since 9, this is what you get.

Listen to wisdom out of Pittsburgh that's hitting the L.A. radio.

First single of Wiz's Warner Bros. debut:

"Say Yeah"

Big Dreams become reality ... right?

2008-04-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: WestCoastRydaz

This is a remix of The Game's "Big Dreams" street single off LAX album (due June 24), and it features solid verses from cats puttin' in work.

Comes to you via HipHopDX - where, yes, I gets my right, uh, I mean, write on.

The Game f. 211, Ko-Kaine Shane, Tha Crow, Quiz, Calico, Juice, Pr1me, Young Rook, Young Capo, Papa Locc, Lil' Tuff, Crooked I, Horseshoe Gang, Skrilla Skwad, Shade Shiest, Eddie Kane Jr., Ya Boy, One-2, Fresh & Residue Riggins - Big Dreams (Cali Untouchable Remix) | Hip Hop Songs > HipHopDX.com

Free Barry Bearak

2008-04-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

First up, Barry is no Bonds, he's a New York Times writer.

BUT he should nevertheless not be sitting in a Harare jail for "practicing without accreditation." That'd be practicing journalism in Zimbabwe, as Kevin Roderick over at LA media blog LAObserved writes, linking to a New York Times piece.

This is what happens when old men run a country (Mugabe is 84, I believe).

He just didn't plan and let his hate reproduce.

Let it be a lesson for US this year.

There's a war in the streets tonight ...

2008-04-04T01:25:00.000-07:00

Mixtape from Pacific Division's DJ Sean G

2008-04-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

Download

MySpace Jewel: Father Jah - Jungle Walk

2008-04-03T15:00:00.001-07:00

This dude hit me up on MySpace and while I rarely deal with people out of the blue - what up to Blu, no E - but this song was too right to describe what path I'm on right now.

MP3 Listen/download: Father Jah - Jungle Walk feat. M-1 (of dead prez) and Native (prod. Father Jah)

U-N-I will DunkXchange on you

2008-04-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

UNI TV: Blog 001

The homies U-N-I just got back from the East Coast and are rockin' at the Knitting Factory on Friday, my baby mama's b-day.

It's indeed a "Beatiful Day" for someone, as in the name of U-N-I's recent video.

HipHopDX interviews The Knux

2008-04-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

I ain't mad at the homie Omar Burgess for this at all.

And that's speaking real words a la Nasir.

say mambo (hello) to the homie Edwin O'Kongo

2008-04-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

This dude is a journalist but he's also got the funnies as you can see right here.

Now that's talent.

Find Ya Wealth

2008-04-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

Find the "educated hood rat"

2008-03-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

I did over at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach yesterday.

Don't sleep on Scipio

2008-03-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

I first got a hold of this dude a few years back when I went to DJ Warrior mixtape release party at a spot in Beverly Hills. The CD was about 40 tracks featuring The Game and Scipio going back-to-back, and this cat out of Altadena more than held his own, showing why Ras Kass put him on some years back and why he was tapped to write for Trina.

I also caught Scip on an installment of Blockstar DVD magazine, but haven't heard much since until going up to ML After a few weeks back and catching him open for a rare West Coast Fat Joe show.

Reminded me then that Scipio has a single that's been getting some radio play on Power 106. It's called "Way I Move." Here it over at Imeem for free, then MySpace him if you like what you hear.

LAT retracts Tupac story ... woah

2008-03-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

This is a bit looney, but the mighty Los Angeles Times - no sarcasm here whatsoever, that paper still holds respect from yours truly - has got itself in major poo-poo over a story that tried explaining how Pac was ambushed in the Quad Studios in New York in the 90s.

Following a piece on The Smoking Gun that discredits what appear to be forged FBI documents that the story was based on, the paper has issued an apology and launched an internal investigation.

Read the coverage on the Web:
SOHH
NahRight
HipHopDX
Editor and Publisher
New York Times
LA Observed

My personal take on this is probably a bit different than most people's. Because I have the utmost respect for the profession of journalism, and the L.A. Times as an institution - there's individuals there I really don't care too much for, still - I stand by Chuck Philips, the reporter who wrote the Pac story and the two stories some years back that connected the Southside Crips and Biggie to the Pac murder.

As I've said in a previous entry, a close friend of mine at L.A.'s Downtown Business Magnet High School, where I was a student in 1996, implicated the Southside Crips in the Pac murder, which Philips presented in the stories.

My friend was murdered in 2000, so he's not here to vouch for these words, so you'll have to take them for what they are or eat shit, as my baby mama would say.

Back to the point, though. I don't think riding Chuck Philips too hard over this is a good idea. This man dared to do what no other mainstream journalist has tried, much less succeeded: shed light into one of Hip-Hop's darkest corners, L.A. gangsta rap scene.

No journalist has done what Philips has done, period.

If it does turn out that the documents were forged by a con man, Philips shouldn't get the Tom Brokaw treatment and get fired. Instead The Times should keep Philips and either reassign him to a different beat or perhaps consider this:

START COVERING HIP-HOP IN LOS ANGELES, THE HOTBED OF TALENT THAT DRAWS THE WORLD, WITH MORE THAN ONE MIDDLE-AGED WHITE REPORTER WITH BALLS, AND INSTEAD HELP HIM BUILD A TEAM OF STREET-SAVVY, JOURNALISTIC ETHICS-ABIDING REPORTERS TO DO THE JOB RIGHT.

The Knux a-rockin' for the hipster ... ya heard?

2008-03-27T00:57:00.001-07:00

This was originally posted at the LAT Beatbox, which you - yes, YOU - should be reading.

One of them wears tight red pants and the other mascara, but don't get it twisted: The Knux are Hip-Hop. After their set tonight at The Echo, I'm convinced. Now, I was a sceptic when the duo of brothers from the N.O. took to Cinespace stage some months ago, and thought they were corny, and although they are signed to Interscope, wasn't about to believe the hype.

But when they take the mics, the homies rock it. Their sound is catered to the hipsters - a subculture they name drop about on their breakout single, "Cappucino" - but their sound is also reminiscent of Outkast with an East Coast, boom-bap feel. And that's real, fam, these dudes got it.

Of course it doesn't hurt that their manager, I understand, is none other than Paul Rosenberg, who helped usher in the Eminem era at Interscope. But that's besides the point that these dudes are talented and deserve a shot to be heard (I gotta give a shout out to Eskay of NahRight here, because he posted the Cappucino remix that I bumped earlier in the day to get a sample what The Knux has to offer).

Before The Knux did their thing, Clean Guns, a pretty good little group out of Philly - in L.A. for the first time, I hear - did their thing. An L.A. underground head, I was quite impressed and think they can fit in this circuit just right. Their beats bang hard, and their lyrics are well-crafted and polished. The group's comprised of Nico the Beast and Zilla Rocca. Apparently, Nico the Beast drops a verse on "Crush Rock," a song that's been getting heavy play at HipHopDX.com.

-Slav Kandyba

Some good music at The Echo tonight

2008-03-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

Now, most of you know know I ain't about nonsense when it comes to music. When it comes to new Hip-Hop, I like Murs, The Game, Blu, Pacific Division, U-N-I. If you're wondering, yes, there is a West Coast bias, and there's a good explanation. I was reared out here in L.A. and got my rap out with a crew called Infinit P'tenchul, formed out in the 818 (big bad porn capital of the world, San Fernando Valley) back in 2000. They went on to big things such as rockin' the hell out of the Knitting Factory before disbanding last year. Meanwhile, I let rap go in lieu of journalism, my true passion to this day - and probably to the grave and beyond.

With that said, my first job out of Cal State Northridge was at the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, as a staff reporter covering media/tech/manufacturing companies. I just happened to beat one Jeff Weiss, a quite dashing fella who went to Occidental College and plays hoop and baseball. To this day, we don't speak much, but we are homies who respect each other's work. Jeff's a much better writer than me - at least when it comes to volume, hilarity and imagination.

Mr Weiss has went on to quite a succesful run as a blogger, which he parlayed into writing opportunities for the L.A. Times and L.A. Weekly. Mainstream-cum-alternative, umm, that's what I'm talkin' about!!!

In other words, like the Pac song goes, I ain't mad at cha, J.

Naturally, Jeff's onto other things that are realer than writing: live music. He's co-promoting a show tonight featuring The Knux and Clean Guns. The Knux I've actually seen live at Cinespace before and the brothers out of New Orleans that have a deal of some sort with Interscope Records aren't half bad. They're not all the way great, though, either: they're practitioners of neo-Golden Era hip-hop, which at times can come off rather ... well ... corny. Nevertheless, I guess not everybody can appreciate the swag of say, Jayceon Taylor, or even Murs.

Well, let me get off this blogging pulpit and just come out and say it:

There's a show tonight at The Echo featuring The Knux and the Clean Guns, a group out of Philly that raps well, according to Jeff. The cost is under 10 bucks and Clean Guns go on around 9-ish.

I'll be there. So should you.

And speaking of Barack ...

2008-03-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite professors at Cal State Northridge, Johnnie Scott of the Pan-African Studies department - one of the nation's oldest such departments - forwarded me a letter from a 78-year-old Helen Burleson. The letter, which was circulated from one of Obama's grassroots groups, defends Obama against those who criticize him for backing Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The letter is sincere all the way through, but a few quotes are particularly worth noting.
... and this country needs him, more than he needs us.

... He is the only person at this time in history who can restore respect for America with the worlds' people ...:

... the influence of his absent father who vicariously inspired a son to go to Harvard as the father had done ...

And this is a quote I will make sure to include when I write what I hope will be the next essay for TheRoot.com, one about what Barack's candidacy means to AFRICOM, the U.S. military strategy realignment in Africa that is Bush's last and probably most critical foreign policy decision.
... He is of the world because the world is in him; and this is what America needs to bring us out of the abyss to which we have sunk in the eyes of the world.

When Barry Became Barack

2008-03-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Newsweek has what quite possibly could be the best-written, most comprehensive and accurate story on Barack Obama. It's the cover of this week's magazine, available on your local newstands, but you can catch it online here.

Props to the writers: Richard Wolffe, Jessica Ramirez and Jeffrey Bartholet.

"It's clear that he was trying to fit in somehow ... He wanted to be taken seriously, perhaps to rebel against the compromises blacks and others were expected to make in a white-dominated society ... The identity quest, which began before he became Barack and continued after, put him on a trajectory into a black America he had never really known as a child in Hawaii and abroad. In the end, he would come to see and accept that he was in an almost unique position as an American—someone who had been part of both the white and the black American "families," able to view the secret doubts and fears and dreams of both, and to understand them."

Mark Ecko's wisdoms

2008-03-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

I couldn't put this better myself.

This is what Mr. Ecko told the New York Times for an "as told to." (Via ProHipHop)

"I have A.D.D., and rather than take drugs to curb it, I just build my world to adapt around it."

I don't know the man personally, but the time I was introduced to him at Complex Mag's 5th anniversary party, his A.D.D. was jet-lagged out of him.

I'm sayin ...

Pete Rock in L.A.

2008-03-24T03:05:00.000-07:00

Nas and Randall Kennedy Comparison

2008-03-24T02:13:00.000-07:00

You may recall I posted an essay a few weeks back comparing Nas, who is working on an album to be titled Nigger and Randall Kennedy, the Harvard Law School prof who wrote a book with that same title a few years back.

Well, that essay is now up at TheRoot.com, a news site whose editor-in-chief is none other than Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, the esteemed African-American studies professor at Harvard. The site itself is a subsidiary of the Washington Post-Newsweek Interactive.

Let me state this: I am truly humbled that this platform is publishing something I wrote.

Especially when it's the same platform where writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates - he scribes for ~~The New Yorker~~ the Village Voiceand has a book coming out in May - gets down on the same topic.

Peep how he concludes his essay:

Everything around us is profane. Measured against that reality, forgive if I don't rage and fume, if I don't try to tie the entire future of a people to a healthy sense of irony, to a word.

As the big homie at The Source would say ... church.

Meet Diz Gibran, he's running for L.A.'s (Hip-Hop) mayor

2008-03-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

Diz Gibran is my dude.

And not just because his pops is one of the most low-key power brokers in Los Angeles - who happens to be African-American - but because Diz is as cool as, well, for lack of better analogy, Dizzie Gillespie.

A good portion of my half-hour long interview with Diz in the back of
View Larger Map skate shop on L.A.'s Fairfax Ave. is posted up at HipHopDX.com.

To make things perfectly clear, I'm championing Diz's cause because I met him through Pacific Division, another L.A. rap crew that represents the City of Angels right. Or, should I say, the side of the city most people don't get to see because there are no journalists writing about it.

Real spit, as my Hip-Hop mentor Excellus would say.

Catching up a bit

2008-03-19T12:34:00.000-07:00

Excuse the lapse in posts, dear reader. I've been attending to this thing called real life. Since Suffer Boulevard is a euphemism for my and many of my friends' journey, you know how it is.

But anyway, while I haven't been on the ball, my homie Camilo Smith has been doing just that with his blog game for the LATimes.com.

Camilo went to SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas (Southwest by Southwest) and caught a Bun B and Dizzee Rascal (dang, these guys just won't go away, lol) performance.

Here's Camilo's rundown on Bun and Dizzee.

In this post, post, Don C taps into his Latino heritage to put you up oon Mala out of Spain. She's rapper, people, and I think I'm about to get a song or two from her on my iTunes.

Read more from Camilo over at his fledgling blog, I Know Huh

LA Times continues diggin' for Pac

2008-03-16T11:38:00.003-07:00

Chuck Philips, my hometown paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning Tupac beat reporer (I rib, take it easy), has new and probably explosive information that is sure to ruffle some feathers in the Hip-Hop community. It concerns about Tupac's run in with some goons at Quad studio in New York that left him riddled with bullets and provoked a littany of diss records and his - and Biggie's - eventual demise.

I don't know how in the world, but AllHipHop.com gets the scoop on a story that LAT itself has yet to run, and it looks like Philips spoke to AHH, which means he and his bosses are looking to get traffic to the Tupac multimedia package.

I've made it no secret that I admire Chuck Philips' work and I've communicated with him a few times over e-mail. He's the real deal as far as investigative reporting goes, youngins take heed.

Via NahRight

Pacific Division has the coast on lock

2008-03-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

Sitting here at the Matador Bookstore on the campus of the great Cal State Northridge - my alma mater - I can't help it but feel extremely jolly that a group I helped discover (as far The Source is concerned at least, and personally) is getting its due elsewhere in the new media universe.

I was over at the Pac mansion the other day and can attest the cats are putting in work. Let's see the product, boys II men.

Peep this shrewdly observed and executed narrative at The Smoking Section.

Luda, you ain't seen pimpin like this since you went to South Africa. Pac Div is coming like a bullet train to Shanghai.

The meaning of March 11: Why Ego Trippin' is Bloody

2008-03-08T08:03:00.000-08:00

On March 11, 2000, while I was probably running around Cal State Northridge trying to get the most education one could get get at a Cal State campus, the corpse of my best friend at L.A. Downtown Business Magnet High School, Eric Justin Grant, was being buried at Rose Hills Cemetery.

It's eight years later and I've never visited the grave site, although this time I shall. Eight years has infinite significance, but that's not the only reason. I was supposed to be in Phoenix today and tomorrow for the One Stop Conference so I could meet with Juice and get at least a verbal commitment that once his big homie gets out we could get on an Emirates or British Airways (even Virgin will do) flight to Dar Es Salaam. I've already got his commitment on MySpace and his booking manager reached out.

The stage is set for Bang! Presents West Coast 2 Bongo Hip-Hop Show in Dar Es Salaam sometime in June. The flesh shall rise.

I want to make it pristinely clear this show is dedicated to Eric Grant, who was the first person to introduce me to Hip-Hop and rap, by giving me a copy of "It Was Written." Eric was also the dude with whom I recited the lyrics to "I Gave You Power" in Ms. Hise's English class, while he would recite Tupac's "Dear Mama" lyrics. We both earned A's for the assignments, which were simply to perform our favorite poetry. We substituted verses and came out on top.

I wasn't up on this at the time I was in high school, but Eric, who lived in Gardena, was either in or running around with Southside Crips. After Pac stomped out Orlando, another Crip murked Pac, ending his story. The day after the best-selling rapper was shot, Eric told me in Ms. Hise's class that he knew who did it and said it was the Southside Crips. He didn't identify the shooter. Apparently, he heard through his network of friends that it was a gangbanger, and Chuck Philips from the L.A. Times has corroborated this a few years ago as well.

I'm not sure how Eric died - he was a womanizer, so he could've got caught up - but what is clear to me is that the Crips are having their day on March 11, purposely or ironically, because Snoop's releasing "Ego Trippin" on that day and it is destined to go platinum on the strength of "Sensual Seduction" alone. I really like that song and the Doggfather. Shoot, he's on Murs' new album, and I just wrapped a feature on Murs for The Source.

I wish things were as easy as writing a story. Choices at the music store are hard enough. I'm not sure whether I'll buy, download or bootleg Snoop's disc, because I might just go with Fat Joe's "Elephant in the Room" as a purchase. While I love the West, Bronx is more important (Geddy, I see you, even if Joe doesn't). My favorite song right now is "I Won't Tell" feat. J. Holiday, which baby mama's brother threw on a mixtape that's on constant rotation in my car. Intriguingly enough, Joe opens the song by uttering "Tazmania," which makes me wonder whether he's ready to go to Tanzania. (Mr. Cartagena, holla at me).

But anyway, I'm rambling here. Take away what you will from this but understand that, as my editor at The Source, Ryan Ford, says, "God works in mysterious ways."

Which is why I want to end this by saying that when Jayceon Taylor is released from Los Angeles Men's Central Jail on May 2, and a federal judge hopefully gives him permission to travel to Tanzania for a week, he will headline Bang! Presents West Coast 2 Bongo.

I've said it, written e-mails and told friends.

Now you can see it was written.

Obama 2008

Skolar > Kandyd > Justice

El Prez - Uaintuponthis! feat. U-N-I

2008-03-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

I make it no secret that I espouse good Hip-Hop. It's even better when it's El Prez, who I went to school with, and U-N-I, which Jodeci even had a song about.

Now, watch.

My interview with Felli Fel

2008-03-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

You may think you know the guy, but you will know how he hustles after you read my interview with him for NobodySmiling.com

Preview

He's a well-known radio DJ in Los Angeles and beyond whose name rings bells throughout the industry. Needless to say, he's probably eating healthy and can afford to stay in his lane. But that's not in him, and definitely not how he got to the top. In a space where the next man would rest on his laurels, Felli Fel is doing the exact opposite. With a desire to get to the next level by producing his own songs, he may have finally struck gold with the posse cut model that DJ Khaled has perfected right before Felli's eyes.

read more

Liars make the NY Times too

2008-03-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

This is insanity. And it's only right it happens now since Mr. Blood himself, The Game, is serving a bit of time.

Author Admits Acclaimed Memoir Is Fantasy

By MOTOKO RICH
Published: March 4, 2008
In “Love and Consequences,” a critically acclaimed memoir published last week, Margaret B. Jones wrote about her life as a half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South-Central Los Angeles as a foster child among gang-bangers, running drugs for the Bloods.

The problem is that none of it is true.

Read the full story

Rap with Donny Goines

2008-03-03T20:39:00.001-08:00

Okay, so you think you can rap with the best of 'em? Well, the homie out of NYC Donny Goines -- peep how he's paying homage to Iceberg Slim -- wants to work with you.

Here's how.

Sheek Louch "Good Love" (This is for my baby mama and for yours, too)

2008-03-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

Feel this song or don't, I'm just posting 'cause the title sounds fine and 'cause I heard it on the radio a few times. And finally, because I had the chance to speak with Sheek for The Source a few months back. He's the business.

From Silverback Gorilla.

MP3: "Good Love"

Nas - Hip-Hop's Randall Kennedy - Deserves a Release Date for Nigger LP

2008-03-03T16:13:00.001-08:00

Browsing books at a Barnes & Noble in south San Francisco before dinner at the Olive Garden the other night, I saw a book called “Sellout” between the aisles, obviously positioned to be noticed. I saw the title of the hardcover, but it was the author's name that drew my attention. He is Randall Kennedy, a Harvard Law professor and most likely one of the teachers of the front runner for president when he went there.

Kennedy also authored a book a few years ago called “Nigger,” which wasn't exactly received warmly but nevertheless it saw the light of day in the publishing world.
Whether “Nigger” sold or not, Kennedy apparently still has a job and an untarnished reputation. Nasir Jones is a different story. Nas, a revered rapper, called by many the “prophet” of Hip-Hop, chose to follow his last album, Hip-Hop is Dead, with a work called “Nigger.” Apparently, Harvard does influence rappers, and it's only right, since The Source Magazine, to this day Hip-Hop's “bible,” was started by a Harvard student. (Full disclosure: The writer is a contributor to The Source.)

Nas and Kennedy are more similar than they are different, and very simply, both deserve to be heard and that means their product must be distributed. Yes, Kennedy's scholar status is the reason he is able to get book deals and get his message across, and yes, Nas is a product of the projects in Queensbridge area in New York. Fact is, Nas is more of a bridge to pop culture and has, does and will yield more influence than Kennedy has or ever will. It's clear the two are aware of each other, and it's important to understand the irony and contrast between the two and how their particular art is different and the same.

The latest indication coming from Nas' employer, Def Jam Records, a division of the Universal Music Group, is that Antonio “L.A. Reid, chairman, is not sure whether Nigger will be released. It should be, despite people like Hakeem Jeffries, a New York state assemblyman representing Brookyn and a Georgetown Law School alumnus. In my eyes, this man is the sole reason that Nigger will not see a release date, as he was the one who told MTV News that he would work in the legislature to divest $80 million of the New York pension fund from Universal Music Group if the album is released.

It's clear Nasir and Hakeem – both of the Arabic names, ironically – are on a collision course. That course should never be, really, because if this country is still about the First Amendment, than both Randall Kennedy and Nasir Jones would have the same opportunity to have their works of art released.

Sprint bill is past due ...

2008-03-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

so hit me up on MySpace, Gmail or if you run into me.

Peace.

-Slav

Suffer Boulevard Presents ... K.C.

2008-02-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to hear some tracks from K.C. who hails out of south central L.A. This track, called "New York," really impressed. The beat alone is gonna impress your girl.

Download mp3 "new york"

Is AFRICOM America's ticket to Africa and China's prom?

2008-02-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

Africa might be the world's hottest continent but when it comes to the relationship with the U.S., the continent as a whole has been icy. U.S. involvement in Somalia was disastrous, matched only by the not-so-obvious U.S. intelligence failure that led up to the twin bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

According a person with inside knowledge, the reason the embassies were bombed was that the U.S. asked the Tanzanian government to interfere with Al Qaeda's alleged profit from mining the East African country's natural resources. When Tanzania's government found itself in a tough place, pressured by both U.S. And Al Qaeda interests, the source said, Tanzania simply sat back and let Al Qaeda and U.S. interests collide. Of course the competition was bloody and sent shock waves through the Clinton Administration in 1998.

A new is upon us come November, or so it appears. Americans have spoken at the primaries and caucuses: they are ready to embrace a multicultural Black man – an Afro-Kansan – as their next president. In the meantime, the lame duck in the White House isn't so lame. President George W. Bush in February 2007 acted on advice of his advisors and green-lighted the formation of AFRICOM, a realignment of U.S. military's strategic planning to focus on Africa. AFRICOM, which was largely ignored in mainstream media, is being built out in Stuttgart, Germany. It will be operational this October, just in time for the election of the next American president. Whoever that president is, he – or she – will have AFRICOM on their doorstep come January. And, it will be one of the key pieces of foreign policy, one of President Bush's last foreign policy decision and probably the most important. AFRICOM is so important that an investment banker friend of mine, formerly with Intelligence Capital, points out, its success is one of “life and death.”

The reasons are astoundingly simple. U.S. is late to the ball at which China has countries such as Tanzania. Cultural and educational exchange is taking place, in addition to business. Meanwhile, as the headline of a recent column by Washington Post's David Ignatius points out, AFRICOM is going “Into Africa Without a Map.” He is absolutely right.

That's something that can be fixed. Whether its President Obama, President Clinton or President McCain, the next American leader can and should create the map. Obama has the unique edge to be the best candidate because he has Kenyan blood. Who the candidate becomes critical to repair strained or severed ties with African countries, and although AFRICOM conferences such as the Feb. 8 affair at University of Southern California, hosted by the Annenberg School for Communication, have diplomats, military leaders and academics discuss soft power and hard power, they aren't quite getting it. Family power, or familial ties, become the key route to get through to leaders in many African countries. When it comes to East Africa, family power is unequivocally supreme to all the rest.

As the discussion takes place about where AFRICOM should be based, it appears Liberia is the one of the few nations willing to host it. In Tanzania, foreign minister Bernard Membe waived off any possibility of hosting U.S. military on his country's soil. It might be in U.S. interest to sweeten the deal offered to Membe and give a clearer example of humanitarian side of AFRICOM, but short of that, it's not hard to tell why Membe is snuffing the U.S. As Ignatius points out in another op/ed, anti-American sentiments run deep outside our country. The next president will have to implement a policy to turn that around. Although U.S. is dependent on Middle East oil, and it's apparent it has its eyes set on Africa's oil and other resources, for which it faces stiff competition from China. Chinese have bilateral relationships with African nations because China remains the world's largest semi-Communist state and many Sub-Saharan African governments were born out of the Soviet Union's influence on the U.S. and Great Britain's hegemonic power over Africa, which were replaced by the independent sovereign states in Africa in the 1960s. To put it quite simply, Mao Zedong and Julius Nyerere were quite the complimentary leaders to their respective people. With a stroke of President Bush's plan in February 2007, Africa – and U.S. - future has changed course.

How this policy surrounding AFRICOM plays out will be determined largely by who is in power, and which African leaders – current and future – they plan to sell AFRICOM.

Online chat with Washington Post columnist David S. Broder

2008-02-24T23:12:00.000-08:00

The chat's taking place Wednesday at noon EST (that's 9 a.m., an ungodly hour for most of us West Coasters).

Check it out here.

My experience with him - one of the deans of political opinion writing in the United States - was first hand. I was a student in Covering the American Presidency seminar he taught at the Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, back in fall 2002.

During one class - they were two-hour classes every Wednesday night - he brought out WashPost's White House reporter Dana Milbank to talk to us. Milbank was very candid about Bush in a not-so-kind way, which was interesting given the fact that Milbank and Bush are both pedigreed Yale heads.

Rap Sessions is coming ...

2008-02-24T01:15:00.000-08:00

and I'm a bit indifferent about it, but any sort of engagement like this beats smashing windshields any day.

According to HipHopDX.com advance coverage, Rap Sessions is a "political dialog group" on its third annual national tour.

It's the brainchild of Bakari Kitwana, quite an interesting fellow from what I gather of him. He's written a book called "Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop" and occupied the top of The Source masthead once.

He's too academic for my taste, and too friendly with with the CNN crowd, but hey, I can't hate too hard.

As a I said, academic sessions that will probably lead nowhere beat smashing windshields any day.

Check out Al Aswany, my second favorite author next to Barack Obama

2008-02-23T11:14:00.001-08:00

Time has an interesting piece online about Alaa Al Aswany, an Egyptian dentist - yes, dentist - who's written one of my favorite books of the past decade, the "Yacoubian Building." Aswany has a new book, Chicago, which I'm going to be reading as soon as it comes out.

Aswany's a big deal abroad, look:

Al Aswany's rich tableaux of everyday lives and devastating social commentary have made him a wildly popular novelist in his native Egypt and the best-selling Arab writer both in the Middle East and abroad. A tale about the lives of various Egyptians living in Chicago, the book is already in its 12th Arabic print run, having sold 100,000 copies since its publication a year ago. Post 9/11, readers outside the Middle East are more interested than ever in understanding Arab societies, and many of them are becoming devotees of Al Aswany's writing. Last fall, a translation of Chicago became an immediate best seller in France, where Al Aswany was paid front-page homage by Le Monde. The English translation, published by the American University of Cairo Press, will hit international bookshelves this month, and editions in nine other languages are in the works.

Village Voice interviews Chinua Achebe

2008-02-22T09:13:00.000-08:00

Things Fall Apart is a classic. If you haven't read it, it's a crime. Props to Carol Cooper, the author of this great piece.

This part in particular resonates with me and is relevant to this blog.

Nothing of great worth comes easily? That's right. The lessons we learn, the wisdom we acquire, all come from this recognition. The nature of experience is heavy. So we shouldn't spend all our energy running away from the truth. This is why you cannot explain why there is suffering. It's there—you must recognize it, and engage it.

When taking the Lucky Star from Beantown to Big Apple

2008-02-22T06:09:00.000-08:00

On my way to New York via Lucky Star bus from Boston's Chinatown, I am a little edgy and restless. After I get off at Canal Street I gotta make my way to 1115 Broadway, where the offfices of XXL Magazine are. I used to loathe XXL and refused to pick it up, much less read it, because its' editor in chief - now former EIC, he got fired I suspect because he couldn't get Nas on the cover first, and The Source beat him to it - seemed from a distance to be a bitch-ass coward who wrote scathing editorials and yielded zero street rep.

Whoever said cowards die a 1,000 deaths, while men only die once was all too real. Here I come. I need to visit XXL to drop off some clips and tell Managing Editor Taiia Smart Young that I screwed up. Spelling her name, that is, on my cover letter applying for a factchecker job. Oops.

For the record, I put Talia on the CV, because that's what I saw on the ad on Mediabistro. Oops. I could chalk it up my subconsicous, perhaps, too, since I don't really want to know another person who shares the name - albeit diffferent spelling -with my baby mama. (Taya, I run on your hate; it's my fuel).

Now, back to this bus. I'm near the back of it, and two rows behind me - all the way in the back - is some dude whose headphones were turned up to the max blasting about five songs in repeat. What were they? Let me recount: Tupac, ""Hit 'Em Up," Nas "Street Dreams," Nas, "The Essence," Nas, "Doo Rags." My dude.

I was thinkiing about letting him know who I am and perhaps having him be my ear to the streets out here, but nah, I'll let it go. I can tell he uses Hip-Hop as therapy, nothing more and nothing less. I use Nas and Pac much in the same fashion, and add Jodeci in the mix. Intense shit white people don't get, especially if they attend Harvard these days.

The song I've been bumping the shit out of from Nasir's catalogue is "Surviving the Times." It resonates with me because, well, I just quit a job at the Morgan Hill Times and I'm hoping to survive long enough to join the Los Angeles Times, my hometown newspaper. I definitely don't want to have to start the San Quentin Times, because lately things seemed to be heading in that direction.

I don't know what the future immediately up ahead holds. All I know is that I've got some unemployment checks hopefully due in the mail soon, and a lot of anger and frustration that I need to release in writing. Plus, I've got another assignment from Ryan Ford at The Source and I shall execute it to perfection, even if the copy is edited so scrupulously that it puts the Ivy Leaguers at the Chronicle of Higher Education to shame.

I'm on my way to D.C., where I ultimately hope to set up my nest. Doing what, I don't know. I'll leave you with a few clues, though: Obama, Africa, war and peace. And let me add Islam for good measure because the old man in front of the bus is reading Foreign Policy and has opened a page that spells that religion in bold letters.

*UPDATE. I made it to XXL office and dropped off some writing of mine. Everyone was out at photo shoots, according to the front-desk angel who let me store my luggage while I ran out to the FedEx Kinko's to make some copies. She said her name is Syreta, and Syretas are all good with me (what's up, Ms. Oglesby, I hope you read this blog). Hopped on Chinatowner at 11pmer and was out here in D.C. by 3 in the morn. A lost cabbie later -- I felt like Fresh Prince, shit -- I was at homie's spot in Beltsville getting ready to stick it to the Beltway. Here I am now just outside the FBI building, getting ready to go to the Press Club later. My AirTran leaves for LAX out of B-more on Monday. Hey, maybe I'll stomp around that city ... that'll make the cyph complete. Ain't hard to tell.

I'm off to Boston, NYC and DC ...

2008-02-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

I'm Logan International bound tonight out of LAX, ~~attending a Hip-Hop symposium at Berklee College of Music tomorrow (where Andreas Hale is a panelist). Look out for posts on that tomorrow or Thursday.~~

Never mind about the symposium.

Looks like I got my dates screwed up, so I'm on my way to Boston to rummage around the city and perhaps stop at Harvard, then resume my itinerary.

In the meantime, I leave ya with my song of the moment. It's called "Lavish Life" and it's by L.A. rappers S-Mak and Remy Renthoven.

THX, good lookin' for this one.

Download: S-Mak and Remy Renthoven - "Lavish Life"

In the lab with Snoop Dogg et al producer THX

2008-02-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

Be on the look out for this guy. The alias is ThX, but the name is Chris Goodman. He did "Don't Stop" for Snoop's Blue Carpet Treatment, and is cooking up heat -- excuse me, HEAT -- for the Clipse and U-N-I.

Here's the link if the screen below doesn't work.

Fat Joe rockin' in Hollywood

2008-02-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

Word has it that Fat Joe hasn't been in these parts in two years. Hmm, excuse me for not believing that. Anyway, here he's rockin' ML After in Hollywood on the Valentine's Day eve.

MAGIC fashion show in Vegas: Chace Infinite

2008-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

I kid you not that this is one of my favorite emcees.

Black History Month lecture at Cal State Northridge on King Drew Medical Center issues

2008-02-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

View Larger Map

There are no coincidences.

How else can one explain the fact that I'm currently talking to a woman who is an English and drama teacher at the King-Drew Medical Magnet High and lives in Watts, while also being in the middle of following Cal State Northridge Pan African Studies Prof. Johnie Scott's lecture leading up to a book on the closure of the trauma center at King/Drew hospital, which dates back to 2003 when the L.A. Times unleashed its "crack reporters" - Scott's words, not mine - on the case. This is the series in question. I've already explained my sentiment about liking it less than a mainstream journalist should.

Here's the Wikipedia entry.

Read and decide.

It's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?

Anyway, let me run through real quick what Prof. Scott talked about today during PAS Faculty Lecture Series "Code Yellow: The Crisis at King Drew Medical Center".

Soon as I walked in, Scott said the media had a role in "destroying" the King Drew Medical Center. It was 12:11 p.m. He went on to give the back story about the post-1965 riots era, and quote Malcolm X, who once said "Harlem is any place where you have dissatisfied Black people." Images were skewed back then in the media, he argued, because the well-off thought riots couldn't occur where there were "too many palm trees."

"L.A. is one of the most segregated cities in the country even today," Scott said.
He added that Watts unemployment was at 72 percent currently, quoting a source.

Scott went on to point out that Killer King had an 85 percent success of saving lives, including gang members dropped off after being shot "18 or 19 shots."

He challenged the gathered dozen students to think and yielded to questions.

Prof. Tom Spencer-Walter said insurance companies were at fault and lobbyists were at work, so the system needed to be changed from inside. "It's important to be part of the political process."

Also in attendance was Dr. William Watkins, vice president and dean of students at CSUN. When it came to his turn to speak, he said he was a student at Washington High when King Drew opened its doors. He felt "a sense of despair" about the closure of the trauma unit there. A student spoke to say her mother had seizures and had to go to a hospital further away to get treatment.

Dreaded silence and tension was omnipresent in the room as brains clearly tried to do comprehend and understand what needs to happen to create a solution.
One thing was clear: it's not going to be easy, and it has to start at the highest levels.

"It won't be easily solvable because there's profit attached to the health care system," Watkins said.

Suffer Boulevard Presents: Streetz

2008-02-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

Streetz comes to you by way of Bermuda and Miami. Give him a chance on this one. It's got redeeming value despite the raunchy title.

Audio link: F'ing an industry chick

(This is off The Supply: Street Certified Edition mixtape, which you can download here.)

The woes at King/Drew

2008-02-13T04:03:00.000-08:00

As you know, this blog at the core is about suffering, a recurring theme in every human life. One of the places where recurring suffering - from all sides - has taken place is at the King/Drew Medical Center in south Los Angeles. For those not familiar with this hospital, basically, it used to be the last stop before the morgue for many unfortunate members of humanity that lives in South L.A., who just so happen to be African-American and Latino.

This afternoon I'll be at Cal State Northridge covering a lecture on the topic by Prof. Johnnie Scott of the Pan-African Studies Department, who just happens to be my favorite prof since I took a class on John Coltrane with him in 2001. I'll post about it here, so check for an update.

This is a story that I've been following peripherally, but it's one that involves the intersection of journalism and the concept of health care for the poor and the suffering. It's like HBO's The Wire in that sense, and depicts what Israeli journalist Yossi Klein Halevi would probably describe as "pathological reality." In other words, the problem is known. The solution is not.

What do I mean by that?

Well, it's like this. The Los Angeles Times' 2004 series about "Killer King" - as it is not-so-affectionately known in the 'hood - was exhaustive and thorough. It was misguided, as well, for one very simple reason: it afflicted those that have been suffering. When the Times decided to do the story and followed up, and followed up some more, it was digging a grave for as many as people as it was trying to save.

I've met Charles Ornstein, one of the Times' writers who covers health care, back in 2003 when I was a student at CSUN and got into the Times' program for college journalists. He was a nice enough guy, just like other staffers from the venerable paper who I met over the course of two Saturdays. But he wasn't from the 'hood. He was from the Ivy League, he was from Dallas ... he couldn't -- and shouldn't be expected -- to relate to the plight of the mothers, the brothers, the sisters, the children who deal with loss following drive-by shootings and other madness that happens around King/Drew.

This isn't a knock at the Times as much as simply a lesson to be learned. Think carefully about what repercussions your actions can have, in particular how they are guided by your point of view, which is guided by your experience.

Experience. It's everything.

Suffer Boulevard Presents ... Kumi Hues

2008-02-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

I like the lyricism on this one. Kumi Hues is from Tallahassee, Fla. and this is one of my personal favorites from their debut LP "The Take Off 747-365." Out now.

Dishwasher

Suffer Boulevard: The Rite of Passage, First Draft

2008-02-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

Is coming.

Be ready.

O-BA-MA.

Kandyd8