Put your hands together and set your soul free…
Peep the whole project here…
Archive for the ‘5000’ Category
Fela Soul FTW…
Sunday, September 18th, 2011Brother, Where Art Thou?
Monday, September 12th, 2011
I still miss seeing the two brothers together standing tall. I spent most of my day yesterday helping people who also share various degrees of loss with me. I think the exercise was cathartic for all of us.
Here’s a mini-album from my camera phone…
Reflection Eternal
Still We Rise
No One Man Should Have All That Tower
There Goes That Damn Newsvan
Staff’d Up [ll]
Hip-Hop Music’s OG Martyr…
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Scott LaRock has been on my mind a lot recently because of the anniversary of his passing (which I hate to be reminded of for anyone) and because I have been trying to corral D-Nice to appear on the Combat Jack Show.
As everyone brings to light how bad the 1980s were for people living in the center city we almost glamorize the drug business which was shredding any remnants of the Black comm-unity. The small achievements of the civil rights movements and the Black realization(power) were being voided and nullified because Black folks still needed the government to keep the new deals in place.
As a social worker Scott LaRock was at ground zero for the new depression and trust me that the 1980s were a depression for the inner city. Television was the invention that made people think poverty had a laugh track Good Times and Welcome Back Kotter made us desensitized to being disenfranchised and undeserved. Scott LaRock saw first hand the recidivism which routinely brought people back to the shelters.
Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac have a better narrative for a Vh-1 movie or better still a feature film because their murders perpetuate the trope that there is a fratricidal war amongst African Americans. Scott LaRock’s death is the bellwether that the American dream is really a nightmare for Blacks. An educated man and an active entrepreneur and community activist cannot escape the violence that a drug-fueled society creates.
Scott LaRock is Hip-Hop’s first martyr. His death made me see the path of self-destruction that I was on and I made an about face at that point. I let Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy be my guides to understanding the world outside of my New York City confines. As big as this city is it was incredibly insular to hiding the politricks that put crack in the community in the first place.
The 1980s was an incredible time for my enlightenment but it was also a turbulent time for many African Americans as the government systematically widened the chasm between the class with information and the masses being given disinformation. It was also a trying time for the people who would be the collateral damage of this undisclosed class warfare. If you want to remember the impact of Biggie and ‘Pac then you must also consider the man who had to be removed for Hip-Hop to easily go pop.
Rest In Power Scott LaRock
The BARTLES & JAYMES Engagement Report…
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
Damn, it’s been YEARS since we did a B & J report on this page. Back then I thought I cared about these two. Well I care, but I thought I gave a fux. I do not. However, this news of BeYonce’s pregnancy shut dddddown the internets. Why should I be immune?
Here’s a rapfan / conspiracy theorist opinion on what the seed of the two most prominent Blackinati entertainers shall yield the world…
BeYonce is like the virgin Mary, despite having aborted a child back in her Texas hoodrat days. Notwithstanding, BeYonce uses God to describe her daily experiences so much I thought she would go directly into pastoring when this last album bricked. What I didn’t give her credit for is all the pastoring she has been doing up to this point. You see the blonde lacefront weave explosion happening in the Black community? That’s all BeYonce right there.
Jay-Z is considered a god to his most ardent fans. The idea that he made his money from selling drugs to his own neighbors is accepted as necessary and proper even as we might see the deaths from a hurricane or tornado as the collateral damage from God’s grace. God gives, so God must also take away. The ethical issue I always had with the Jay-Z hustler character was that I come from the era where hustlers hung out on 3rd Ave in the East 50s. These clean shaven Black boys would hop in the whips of ad agency execs and get taken across the 59th Street Bridge to points east just to put baby powder on the nuttsachs of old white men [ll].
The progeny of these two people who have given every ounce of their souls to reach the pinnacle of the entertainment industry apparatus will be a revelation. The world as we know it ends in 2012.
No Bang From C4, Just Some Pop…
Friday, August 26th, 2011
I have to admit that I never understood the fascination most rap fans seem to have with Lil’ Wayne. Yeah, he was what’s next back in 2006 but that seems like an eternity ago. The dude’s rhymes never became more compelling to me than simple contemporary pop drivel. Lil’ Wayne isn’t spitting timeless lines or transcendent concepts. I hope he doesn’t name another record Carter. This record gets the same rating I gave Watch The Throne, but at least I’m still playing songs off WTT.
I gave WTT a 2.5 because the two(2) artists who made that album could have done better, not so much for the Carter4. I will rate this album 2.5/5 because this is the best that Lil’ Wayne can do for rap. I’d rather hear Wayne on a rock album at this point. I mean, when the two best songs on YOUR own album don’t have you on the tracks I’d say that it’s a wrap for Wayne’s rap career.
‘Interlude’ featuring Tech 9 and AnDre 3000
‘Outro’ feat. Bun B, Nas, Shyne, Busta Rhymes