Several years ago I had a discussion with my homey Tahir about how you could definitively determine that rap music was in decline as an American art. We talked for hours about the use of language as a socializing culture tool and the complexity of the spoken word in music. I took those discussions and framed them into weblog drops. Tahir took those discussions and developed the Hip-Hop Word Count. Think of the HHWC as a sort of rap music Wikipedia containing all kinds of cross-referenced information on rap songs from 1979 to the present.
Tahir needs our support to help him complete this project. If I can be big enough to allow him to take full credit for this project I figure you can be big enough to pitch in a $5 spot to move this endeavor forward. My dad always told me that if I ever had a good idea to make sure that I had a second one and then a third one. The Hip-Hop Word Count is a good idea. Let’s see this thing thru.
Watching the Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network always gives me insight into the geo-political scene we are experiencing here in real-time America. The Banking Clan provided funding to the Republic as well as the Sepratists during the battle for the Old Republic.
I also wonder if the Banking Clan weren’t the ones who held the secrets to the Sith history that Chancellor Palpatine was so desperate to secure? I know that members of the Banking Clan ended up being part of the Emperor’s advisory board. How else do you think he raised the galactic credits to build that second Death Star? Even for bad guys shit cost money.
The Banking Clan stayed paid in full by coercing the Old Republic to take out loans to bolster their military industrial complex. The plan was to stage an attack on Coruscant from the Sepratisits that would frighten the Republic senators into voting for deregulation of the banking system. Deregulation meant that the banks could charge any rate of interest they wanted on emergency loans they issued.
How hardbody was the Banking Clan’s scheme? Our Fed Reserve should take notes on how they deal with our banking industry. That Star Wars plan is way more sexier, and straightforward ruthless than Quantitative Easing.
Even tho’ Eric B ran with a mob of dudes from Walt Whitman Houses (Fort Greene projects) including the O.G. Fifty Cent his style of fly apparel was that of a Harlem paper chaser. Polo, Bally and Fila was how the Brooklyn cats got dipped. The above pictured Dapper Dan Gucci ensemble was the shit you saw on the backs of the drug dealers from Uptown.
You see, the pushers were the only dudes who could afford these tailormade outfits. Gucci, MCM, YSL and Louis Vuitton (actually back then LV wasn’t even the shit) were expensive enough in the flagship 5th Avenue stores but you couldn’t find any XL or XXL pieces. So Dapper Dan started his customizing business and it became synonymous with Harlem’s swagger.
Years later Gucci’s lead designer Tom Ford would swagger jack the streets when he designed the all-over monogram jackets that would bring the company back into prominence. It’s a curious tradeoff that the streets give to high end designers. The streets believe these rags ascribe affluence. The rag dealers also want the credibility and the desire of the streets.
Somewhere in Hollywood there is a place for a great story where Blacks are the lead characters. I don’t mean the Madea archteypes either. I mean the Henry Fonda everyday American types who persevere thru strength of character as opposed to sight gags and off color slanguage.
Anthony Mackie (who stays needing a hairline) and Kerry Washington (who called me a fat sweaty dude on the Hip-Hop Honors red carpet) combine to deliver a heart wrenching performance about a family in south Philadelphia in the mid-1970s. After the Black power movement had been disbanded and discredited what and who was left for the people to believe in? That is the backstory. This movie is really about a family finding its way in life.
‘Night Catches Us’ will open this Friday in the Magic Johnson multiplex in Harlem. I implore you to keep your eyes open for your opportunity to go see this movie. The stories I want to deliver to the big screen don’t stray too far from this theme. There has to be more films of all people which don’t play to the widely held stereotypes of those people. As long as the story is beautiful, and true. ‘Night Catches Us’ is that movie. Support independent films my people.
