Ghostface is going to prove to us that his favorite rapper award for 2006 was no hipster fluke. Tony Starks is dropping a new album this quarter along with a book!?!
Wu-Tang needs to dress up in ninja suits and storm the Aftermath offices to cut Raekwon free from whatever deal is tying up the release of Only Built For Cuban Links II. While they’re at it maybe they could change the name of that album too. There will only be one purple tape.
I’m gonna keep the Iron Man love flowing with this clip of the trailer from next years’ most hardbody superhero flick (not including The Dark Knight, because you already know)
I love subways and I always wanted to go to Japan if only to ride on their metro rail system before Godzilla crushes all the buildings.
And just when I was getting my bleeding heart liberal rant on and popping, PERSUEDE sends me a New York Times article detailing the shocking story of how the Japanese treat their citizens on the public assistance rolls. This shit would make RUDY GIULIANI look like someone’s fairy godmother, and that isn’t too much of a stretch either considering his history of dressing in drag.
I hope you read that piece after you fucks with DP Dot Com.
I thought that the United States had issues with dealing with their disenfranchised citizens by using the prison system as a defacto dormitory, but in Japan the government will gladly tell you to just kill yourself before they ever think of hitting you off with some food stamps.
What is profound to me is how a hyper-capitalist state regards the individual. If you are not actively contributing to the GDP/GNP of the country you are of no use to the system. How does China manage their social infrastructure with their massive population? I’m sure they have a daunting amount of public assistance recipients. How does China manage to feed these people and still manufacture the best electronics and athletic footwear products on the planet?
So maybe I need to rethink my position of providing the homeless in NYC with shelter in light of the news that poor motherfuckers in Tokyo are being starved to death on the regulack.
When the i.C.’s win, the internets wins. That is our motto. We try to take you in with us whether we win or lose. We won last week when Vh-1 granted us press credentials for their annual Hip-Hop Honors awards show.
Rafi and I both manage respectively popular websites that show the utmost love to Hip-Hop as a cultural artform. We are both Hip-Hop representatives in our own rights. How could we NOT be invited to attend this celebration? Very easily. While I had been invited to access the red carpet and press events at last years awards show I had not been extended an invite to this years’ jumpoff. Could it be that the t.I.’s at Viacom had finally gotten around to reading my scathing diatribes on their programming?
Since I promised Rafi that we would be up in this event I had to scramble to get us some kind of access to the party. I reached out to my last connect at Viacom and she directed me to complete a last minute credential request. The i.C.’s were approved, but only for a three man crew. Back in the days of Ghetto Big Mac and Bodega this would have been acceptable, but ever since the Sundance Film Festival we have grown into a filmmaking production house collective. Basically, I needed another pass for our stalwart editor and occasional cameraman T-Bone [ll].
Up until the day of the event I had not been confirmed for all of us to have access. No matter, we still went ahead and met up on the corner of 34th Street and Eighth Avenue. Caz and T-Bone had conferred on which equipment to bring and they were definitely on point. Rafi came through and brought the energy and the swagger in a sharp pinstriped suit. I rocked a tight-fitting sportsjacket and one of my Oh Word J-Dilla tribute tees. For good luck Rafi and I both sported the iNTERNETS CELEBRITIES Nike Dunks.
After a few minutes of deliberation we were issued press credentials for the entire crew. Raf, Cas, T and me immediately ran down to the red carpet to see what work was left for us to put in. The scene was mad hectic and tons of people were already firmly entrenched on the carpet’s press platform. Shouts go out to Agent B for providing us with the logo for the i.C. microphone flag. i.C. is so wonderfully bootlegg and maybe that is why we are so Hip-Hop. Nobody in the press area had ever heard of the i.C. before then. They will definitely remember us after that day. Kerri Washington will remember that I called her Megan Goode and I will remember that she called me a sweaty, fat man. That was one of the greatest moments of my life. She and Eve might be the single prettiest women that I have ever been within five feet of.
Another adventure of ours for that evening was trying to find the press room that had been set up inside of the venue. After walking through several stairwells and labyrinths we arrived at what we thought was media Nirvana. The press room was stocked with all kinds of free food and beverages. All the free Red Bull drinks you could want. Rafi and I then found the crafts services zone with hot food. Collard greens were dripping from my chin. I was a beast. This right here could have been the end of the line for us but I didn’t want to leave anything on the table, literally or figuratively. If Rafi came all the way down to the city to party, and T was carrying around this gotdamn big ass camera, and Cas was text messaging his lady there was no way I wasn’t gonna try to get us as close to the stage as possible.
We descended into the stairwells again and this time we actually found heaven in the form of the Vh-1 V.I.P. lounge. Free booze and premium hors d’oeurves were set before us. This was where we finally gave ourselves the Team Chea toast. This moment was what I had bathed for earlier that day. I suppose we could have stayed in the VIP lounge and enjoyed the unlimited drinks, but there was still more to see and more to do. We took our final descent onto the floor of the Hammerstein ballroom for the Tribe Called Quest tribute. The performance was one of my favorite all time Hip-Hop moments.
When the i.C.’s win, the internets wins.
You guys won.
Peep the i.C.’s video diary of the 2007 Vh-1 Hip-Hop Honors awards before Viacom does that Illuminati bullshit and makes YouTube disable the video link.
Do you know how rich you have to be to just be poor in New York City?!? I bust my ass to keep the lights on in Long Island and the prosecco pouring in Prospect Heights. So for those folks in New York City on the bottom rung shit just got a little more fucked the fuck up.
The BLOOMBERG administration has decided to stop their policy of extending temporary shelter to homeless families because they claim that people are abusing the system. WTF!?! I have to LOL at the idea of poor people abusing the shelter system. Picture the hen kicking the coyotes’ ass. The idea that people who would put themselves through that process night in and night out are somehow taking advantage of the system is incredulous and ass backwards.
You have to be careful with the BLOOMBERG administration like you have to keep your eyes on the liberal elite at all times. They always take far more than they give. This is the same administration that called the working class mass transit operators “thugs” when they demanded their rights and fair wages. Peep the criminalization of the homeless…
The idea that people would come to the shelter system on a daily basis is what requires examination and resolution. Not a condemnation of these people for being duplicitous. It’s the administration that is trying to fool the public. City officials want to play a numbers game and start denying people their housing rights because they may have a relative or a FRIEND with an apartment. Why should a homeless family burden their relatives or their FRIENDS in order for the city to congratulate itself and say that it has somehow decreased the number of homeless people in its system!?!? Even BEN FRANKLIN, the lovable supremacist, stated “fish and visitors smell in three days.”
That’s that bullshit Mayor BLOOMBERG!
MICHEAL BLOOMBERG was talking about running for president and I was talking about running Black people to his campaign, but not if he is going to be throwing poor people and their plastic bags of shit onto the rain splashed, pidgeon pooped sidewalks. I was old enough to remember my own mother’s travails on public assistance and I know that no one wants their kids to live that type of sheltered lifestyle.
While everyone was punchdrunk from the out of control condominum development that has bolstered New York City realty no one bothered to think about the people sleeping in the cardboard boxes at the foundations of the skyscrapers. You will never acheive the dream of a great society if you continue to ignore those of us on the bottom.
