file this one under

SEX AND MONEY

I was thinking a couple of weeks ago about how sex and money are so pervasive in our lives, especially in the lives of women. However, I could not think of any place where the two issues were analized together. Bada boom bada bing. The sex and money post is born. Tell me what you think blog family.

• Rapid HIV test,is giving some false positives. When it is finally up and running it WILL change how we date. Read here.

• Wouldn't be dope if you get your potential smash buddy to take the rapid HIV test when slip a lil' but of "truth serum" into his taco?......talk about a perfect date. All truth, no lies.

Money

• Swiss dudes are angry. They are going to have to share some of that corporate cream with the sista's. Its about time! (Swiped from Bomani.) Read Here.

• Pension removal countdown. So. You thought you were gonna retire and live cool. Sike. So far, IBM has got the ball rolling in '06 interms of making sure, employees understand that it is not about them, but the bottom line allways. Read Here.
  

Now everyone, including executives, will have their IBM pension plans frozen in January 2008. IBM will thereafter only contribute to their own private 401(K) pension plans.

Cross town beef be like cross town traffic...

file this one under
Why White Kids love/don't love Hip Hop

The love hip hop the same reason America loves negros, its reflexive. Knowwhusayin nahmean, know whamean?

They got this ignant ass article inna Villagevoice about what wp's on facebook listen to. I don't give a flying f*ck about what them nigg*s lissen' to. Somebody did make a valid point about how w collge kids do not "CONNECT" w/ hip hop the way they do with -er, Dave Matthews Band. On one level...it was kinda racist ( you connect to WHAT you connect to), but then again I felt them. It is what it is.

But even to take it one step further, I think that WK's are able to feel some of that ignorant as HH because by and large, it ain't they communities being affected. And before you try and lobb one of them back pack head wrap allegations lissen'!

I peep how when negros come w/ the critical arguments some people who write about hip hop try silence 'em, and undermine 'em, deride 'em with allegations of being a backpacker....But I tell you a$$ quick...being a back packer changed my life fam...and I put that on 83rd and A street. Town business. RIP to Darcell Lewis.

Think about the people who whine about the old heads complainin' about the state of HH. Yeah we mad, man. Looking at HH hurts. Looking at the hood hurts. Of course we are going to complain. We are the first generation to simultaneously benefit from and lose (many of) the sacrifices that the old heads maintained for us in jthe 50's & 60's.

The Privileges of Being a White Hip Hop Fan

I would even argue that one of the privileges of being a w hh fan is that you can love the music but not trip off how destructive it is.

It has NEVER been just music for us. Never. Sam Cooke. James Brown. Dude. Marvin. NWA. . We might have laughed at Pharcyde or the Beatnuts. But trust...we allways knew which side our bread was butter on, which side of the tree we could swing from.

But it was never *just* music because our ability to speak was *never* just speaking. It was our language. One of the only things that could never be taken from us. Show me a nigg@ who been through some sh*t and I will show you someone with some fascinating language.

For the record. I personally believe that the MUSIC should not change. I think that the young bucks abilities analytical faculties should be cultivated. But that is another story.

But then again. Some white kid's in the country just as f*cked off in the game as ours. They are being under or uneducated also, so we are all going to h*ll in a handbasket (as my momma say).


On that Go Ignant Mix type that I bought for ONLY $6...there is a joint w/ Casual...and E-40..when I was lissenin' to it this morning I was like...who as THAT nigg@ rappin'....



Why did one of my finals get postponed 'till January...you know imma have to knuckle up in the next couple of days.... Ohhh wee...New Idea Blog Family...Immm start doing some posts under Sex and Money...'cuz you know sex and money are so pervasive in the lives of WOMEN especially...but if you trip....ain't nobody writin' about that 'ish though....so I introduce to you...

Honey check it you got me mesmirized with your

black hair and ya fat @ss thighs...

This post is dedicated to the brotha's puttin' it down on screen....er---so the fact that Christmas is down the street AND the subways are running got me feelin' friskay...

She Hate Me

Dude...when Anthony Mackie hoisted Kerry up against that walll I did know if I wanted to run out the theater or...lets just say or...That evening...to be Anthony Mackied became a VERB.

Love Jones

I am not gonna front...I do not know how their scene jumped off...but I vaguely remember being moved by that is....

Baby Boy

You ever see the mash going down on the screen and you swallow, and hold your breath at the same time...well when Tyrese got his magnificent self all up in Taraji...post fight...I was like daaaaaaamn ginnaaaaaah!. His Mash is magnificent......


I hear crickets chirpin' blog family...leave a sis' a message...it helps to keep me motivated..that means you Santana...you stay reading but never post up...show me some of that New Years love...-MM

Thinkin of a master plan

...cuz ain't nuthin but sweat inside my hand. -The R.

The post is dedicated to Donnell Alexander and his essay:

"Are Black People Cooler than White People?"

I'm cool like this:

I read fashion magazines like they're warning labels telling me what not to do.
When I was a kid, Arthur Fonzarelli seemed a garden-variety dork.
I got my own speed limit.
I come when I want to.
I maintain like an ice cube in the remote part of the freezer.
Cooler than a polar bear's toenails.
Cooler than the other side of the pillow.
Cool like me.
Know this while understanding that I am in essence a humble guy.

I'm the kinda nigga who's so cool that my neighbor bursts into hysterical tears whenever I ring her doorbell after dark. She is a new immigrant who has chosen to live with her two roomates in our majority-black Los Angeles neighborhood so that, I'm told, she can "learn about all American cultures." But her real experience of us is limited to the space between her Honda and her front gate; thus, much of what she has to go on is the vibe of the surroundings and the images emanating from the television set that gives her living room a minty cathode glow. As such, I'm a cop-show menace and a shoe commercial demi-god--one of the rough boys from our 'hood and the living, breathing embodiment of hip hop flava. And if I can't fulfill the prevailing stereotype, the kids en route to the nearby high school can. The woman is scared in a cool world. She smiles as I pass her way in the light of day, unloading my groceries or shlepping my infant son up the stairs. But at night, when my face is visible through the window of her door lit only by the bulb that brightens the vestibule, I, at once familiar and threatening, am just too much.

Thus being cool has its drawbacks. With cool come assumptions and fears, expectations and intrigue. My neighbor wants to live near cool, but she's not sure about cool walking past her door after dark. During the day, she sees a black man; at night what she sees in the shadow gliding across her patio is a nigga.....

-read the rest here

Imho *he* really needs to have a blog...

Here comes trouble... 

Allways thinkin'.. 

From the womb to the tomb...

People die everyday. You are never prepared for when someone is murdered. I found out this morning that my brothers friend and play brother, Darcel Lewis, was murdered in Oakland on Monday.

Ironically, I called my brother this morning to talk about how fun it is to walk everywhere because of the NYC transit strike...and he tells me that Darcell "got killed".
The next thing he said was that it happened in Broad Daylight.

I INSTANTLY KNEW that it had to do with a woman.

Nigg@'s don't kill other nigg@'s in Broad daylight to settle the score. At least not typically.

And with 17 bullets.

From my limited understanding of only have one semester of Criminal law....17 bullets sounds like depraved heart murder....
Darcell is special to me because he is special to MY brother. Darcell was also helpful in providing me with information two years ago when the Oakland Police CHAINED my brother to a fence and broke a flashlight over his head....That being said...rest in peace family...you are in a better place.

When the slugs penetrate you feel a burning sensation

getting closer to god in a tight situation....

Year End Bloggy Style Round Up

• Fat @ss Americans......you wanna see why negro's be dying..look what they eat...wonder why they so fat....take the hamburger out of your fat ass mouth. Finally somone is going to sue the soda companies for fattening up the kids. If you know like I know....you would be investing your money in companies that make type 2 diabetes related medicines, prostectic arms small caskets....

• There wasn't slavery in New York Right? So Northerner's don't want to aknowledge slavery. Dude. Who would want to? You have slaves. Rape. Little MOO-LATTO babies...

• You know snitches wind up in ditches, right. But my family over at the Start Snitching has successfully taken the idea and ran with it. This fool got post on how W an 'nem gonna use Your cell phone to 1984 that ass....anyone wanna get off the grid with me????

• Girl Genius be cussin', gossping and straight clowin'. Most recently she discussed "men who take care of they kids", and how "negros stay in school" but "they really be at community colleges for 5 and ten years". So make sure your khaki's are creased and pleates are pleated, fam.
  

• Speaking of snitching....Black people are some of the MOST anti-accountability negros on the planet. I could understand not wanted to SNITCH to the PoPo. But if you bring likker to the hood. Thas cool. Allow f*ucked up ass school system, thas' cool. Young bucks grinding like a slave on your block who YOU remember useta be so cute in preschool. Thas cool. As long as you got some twennies thas' spinnin'. Nigg@, they spinnin', they spinnnan nigg@.

• Anybody that can poast about somone calling them a nigg*er cunt is allright in my book. Plus. Imagine one of them hood books, but smarter and w/ the racial awareness of Paul Mooney. That is how the Dragon do the race relations w. We gon' have race relations, relations, relations.

• Some cracka towns in North Carolina are rediscovering their strong tradition of racial harmony.
• Only scant mention is made, however, of the bloody rioting more than a century ago during which black residents were killed and survivors banished by white supremacists, who seized control of the city government in what historians say is the only successful overthrow of a local government in United States history.....
• -John Desantis New York Times

• Reading Trula's blog is like sneaking a peek into the note book of a sista' who is a writer, ...you know nice and sweet....but please believe it, you could tell she will get the @ss wuoppin crackin' on that @ss. The fact that she talks about struggling with being a writer is dope too.

• Sophisticated negros tawkin' about news and making moves. Prometheus is like a Black Anderson Cooper. He/she ain't scared of the tough stories, and he keeps the content coming. A news junkies dream blog.

• Humanity critic does it again with a 6 months to live poast. Why can't I think of topics like that?

• If wasn't allready 'bout to marry and or shack up with 4 other cats....He would be my main squeeze. How you 'gon be introspective, compassionate and a Basquiat fan that prides him self on laying in the cut?

• Why inna' f-ck ain't no body started a blog analyzing nigg@'s lyrics. Yall' think I'm puttin' too much on it? People POST lyrics all the time. I might have to start one dedicated to Doom, Nas and Rae/Ghost. That outta' keep me busy through '06.

• My fam over at the B-Side Wins is hella fresh for posting just that, B-sides. He/she has some treats like a Jungle Bro-Q-Tip promo, (a song with the beat from Cubes, Giving Up the Nappy Dugout). I must say it felt good to listen to some 'ol darkies rappin' happy. They also bumpin' JB's On the Road Again, one of top 10 favorite songs. Peep the french translation. Straight international hip hop blog gullies.
  

No wonder where we live is called the projects....

Peace blog family, I have two finals down and two to go....pray for me ....I need it.....Leave messages...Holler at me....tell me whachu think....

• Lou Rawls is fightin LUNG and brain cancer....damnnnn gina....I hope he has good healthcare....Yall' know I love Lou...sings to my self, "You'll never find...another love like mine...someone that loves you..the way that I do......"
• "Jay-Z can move the cultural needle because they believe his honesty"
  -Steve Stoute in January 2006 Rollingstone
  

• He has allways been panic averse. His personal, in life and on record he is cool and in control- the same even authoritative tone whether the subject is sex, survival, weather or vengance.- Toure on Jay Z in January 2006 Rollingstone
  If Jay is so layed back....then perhaps he should share the benifits of acting that wat with the young buck....cuz from the way they act on the train and what not...they got some anger managment issues...
  

• If I could only get Jay to publicly endorse my READIN' AIN'T WHITE campaign *****puts on evil thinking cap.....
  

Some Hip Hop Collaborations that I would like to see:

• Rakim and Pharrell

• Ghostface and Andre Nickatina

• Keak da Sneak and The Lox

• Missy and E-40

• Outkast and Mc Eight

• Doom and Kanye

Why oh, why did I need cappuccino?

Daily Posts

• So according to an article in a recent New York magazine....Coffee is a half a billion dollar industry in NYC. Half a billion. No wonder I almost be having fights with people on the train all the time. They haven't had their daily crack---er coffee. The article is deep in that it delves into the annals of Dunkin Donuts, whose primary product is ironically is coffee not donuts.
  

• Post thanksgiving/taking I have been on a 2 cap and a tea a day diet and my kidneys can tell you, it is the truth....nothing like a good cappuccino right before a four hour studying period.

• Dave Chappelle is being sued by one of his former managers. Why don't negros understand that you have to keep the Wu money all up in the family? Pay your people.

• Dude. The Hip Hop show of 2006 is coming and I will BE THERE. DOOM. Big Daddy Kane. Little Brother and Pete Rock. Whats good?
  

• Rakim is going to be at BB Kings on Tuesday the 30th of January. That, will depend on how much the tickets cost.
  

Keep still boy, no need for static.......

So In a nod to Hashim and Bol I am going to try posting more frequent news updates in addition to my normal rants. ((((My first final went okay....as soon as I walked out I realized that I was not analyzing the problems in the most effective way....but I did not freeze up and I feel more relaxed going into the next two weeks of exams.)))))

Daily News Links

• There are Race riots in Sydney Australia.....looks like they received some mob-fight-training from the klan.
• Y'all need to rent/view this Sundance award winning movie writen and directed by Brooklyn young bucks about youth gun culture.
• San Francisco police apparently has so much time on their hands that they can create videos mocking women, brown people and the poor. Dude, their noose is showing.
• PSK, what does it mean? Pat Riley is back with the Heat and Artest wants to be traded. Well, we new that Artest was going to want to be out. THAT makes sense. Do you htink Pat and Shaq will mesh?
  
• She just needs to get popped in her face. Whap....Whap....why are going to sky dive while you are pregnant in the first place?
• Fiona performed last night at the Nokia theater....I didn't go but...I was there in spirit.
• Kanye, Kanye Kanye....while I do love your fervor, and your emotion...I don't know spongebob..with your antics as of late...I feel like you are asking your white critics come- music award distributors to humble you. Get at me Ye...we can put some of that energy to good use...ie a Hip Hop Museum in Chicago.....some a national franchise of music studios, a Negro home schooling movement...the sky's is the limit Ye, the sky is the limit.
  

I am I be....I am I be....I am .......

Gon' Till' November sorta...I be back in a week or so..... I am busy trying to be like this guy^^^^^.

Visit these sites in the mean time.

• http://crunktastical.blogspot.com/
• http://jeromebaker.blogspot.com/
• http://sherealcool.blogspot.com/
• http://nappydiatribe.blogspot.com/
• http://www.hiphop-blogs.com/
• http://pacificstandard.typepad.com/why_fuck_around_pacific_s/
• http://emia6.blogspot.com/
• http://theassimilatednegro.blogspot.com/
  

Be easy.

She said, I betcha A$$ is darker than a Mobb Deep Rap....

There once were a people who were Black
Their neighborhoods were ruined by crack
they still rapped and danced
there kids never had a chance
There once were a people who were black.

-MM
(guess I should leave the poetry to the poets ***hunches shoulders****)

You ever have ones of those days that are mad serendipitous????? Errie things happen and other things happen real smooth..... Earlier this morning...I was trying to remember the name of the Black economist who writes papers that examine the ECONOMIC IMPACT of crack on the hood and an Economic Analysis of Acting White. His name is Roland Tyler. Later in the afternoon Santana V. put me on to a quote by Jeffrey Wright on THE BENEFITS OF BEING A BLACK ACTOR in this months Esquire. Then tonight I was at Barnes and Noble looking for Jeffrey Wright quote (posted below) in Esquire, and there was an article on the economist in THERE.. Weird hunh?

ESQ: The difficulties of being a black actor are well chronicled. But are there any advantages?

Jeffrey Wright: No. There are no advantages to being black in America. None. Hollywood is much more resistant to supporting the work of a black actor, particularly now. The types of people that Hollywood has responded to are rappers and others who've made a name doing anything BUT acting. The public couldn't name a black actor under 30 who's not a rapper or a comedian. They're out there, but they wont be supported in the way that folks who lean toward MINSTRELSY will be supported. Its not getting any better. Actors like DON CHEADLE have laid out really impressive careers but i guarantee you that Don didn't get one twentieth of the support that COLIN FARRELL got at the beginning of his career. Its insulting.

In honor of my READING AIN'T WHITE CAMPAIGN I AM GOING TO LINK UP TO THE FOUNDERS OF THE KIPP SCHOOLS. These dudes are DOING truth to power in demonstrating to the YOUNG BUCKS that READIN' AINT WHITE.

The cats who wrote at FREAKANOMICS have a blog too.....When I read their blog, work I can feel my brain expand....I GUESS that is a good thing.

I find myself listening to TICAL lately. I guess it is the proper grimey NYC winter head pod music.

And if you tired.....go take a nap.....

Good Evening Blog Family..... I could not resist posting even though....I know that I need to be working on my Con Law outline....I cannot wait for this semester to be over so that I can reflect on the significance, the pressure and irony of Being A Hip Hop Loving, Oakland Loving,Smack Talking, Model Minority in Law School.....it is one of those situations where I do not even think I can appreciate the significance of this past semester.....in its entirety....until the semester is over..... Blog Highlights....

• Somehow Hashim has managed to find an interview where RAKIM talks about Eminmen's role in Hip Hop....
• Sacha Jennkins, of Ego Trip fame, is coordinating a graffiti art show that just opened. Peep eyjammie.com for more information.
• Jeff Chang posted more information on the status of the investigation of the BURNED LIQUOR STORES in Oakland. Adisa also contributed to the discussion. I find it interesting the no one has raised the parallel to the burning neighborhoods in France.

Until later this week....bundle up BK...its suppose to be a cold one....and Oakland...be easy....I know how 'yall like to do street justice....yet EVERYTHING has long term and short term consequences...Be Good.

Katrina governor Sets the Record Straight

"I believe my biggest mistake was believing FEMA officials who told me that the necessary federal resources would be available in a timely fashion," Blanco wrote in one memo.
---- Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanc

• Read the full article here. Article is excerpted below .
  

Late Friday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco released 100,000 pages of memos, handwritten notes, e-mails, phone logs and other documents requested by congressional committees that are investigating what happened behind the scenes in the frantic days surrounding the deadly Aug. 29 storm.

"I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments and that supplementary federal assistance will be necessary," Blanco wrote.

Three days after the storm, Blanco complained to the White House that FEMA had still failed to fulfill its promises of aid. While cloaked in customary political courtesies, Blanco noted that she had already requested 40,000 more troops; ice, water and food; buses, base camps, staging areas, amphibious vehicles, mobile morgues, rescue teams, housing, airlift and communications systems, according to a press office e-mail of the text of her letter to Bush.

"Even if these initial requests had been fully honored, these assets would not be sufficient," Blanco said. She also asked for the return of the Louisiana Army National Guard's 256th Brigade Combat Team, then deployed to Iraq.

• 
  

• Finally some real talk on WHY all of those BLACK people DIED in New Orleans.

• What did Kanye Say?

• I saw Tom Piazza's new book, Why New Orleans Matters,on display at Barnes and Noble last night and thought, what a wonderful book title. I want to write the same thing FOR Oakland. It is the only book that I have seen that offers a critical analysis of what happened in New Orleans and why it is significant to the rest of the world.
  

Soul sista' music round up......

Where inna hot potatoe is ZZ Packer????? She does not need to be writing novels per se...but I do miss her voice and would like to hear from her....interviewing other writers....essays in the Times......the Village Voice...her own Blog!?!?!?!?!?!
On to the soul singa's.........
1. Lizz Wright......I listened to some of her music at Virgin....she has a pretty voice....the songs were melancholy though...which can be dope....but generally I like to be cheered up...unless I am listening to Illmatic;o The other Lizz...I am not sure if I heard her joints before....and I went to amazon to see if I could peep...but Ledisi is officialy Town business....her range....the rhythms....ALL TO THE GOOD! I picked up her album a few years ago....the dopest joint IMHO is the title track...feeling Orange Again...makes me wanna breakdance and SALSA all at once. I learned about Julie around the same time that I learned about Ledisi....In fact I saw her perfom...in 'Frisco a couple summers ago and it was such a pleasant surprise...her music is rich. warm and sultry...