February 2006 Archives

SOHH reports, activist/writer Kevin Powell is campaigning for a congressional seat so he can rep his Brooklyn district and I guess, the hip-hop generation. You may remember Powell as the first celebrity hip-hop journalist or as the castmate who started the "crazy Black guy" tradition on MTV's The Real World.

I went to Powell's "The State of the Black Men in America" forum that was held a few years ago, and I was honestly inspired by what I heard there, and especially by the people I met. It was refreshing to discuss Black issues in a frame that was hopeful and encouraging. Powell himself is a charismatic speaker who isn't afraid to take a hard line stance against the what's wrong in our culture, even if it's hip-hop culture he's targeting.

Do you blog, have lots of friends at your MySpace page, and love music?

If yes, then SONY wants to hire you to promote their artists online. All you have to do is lie to your blog readers and MySpace friends about how much you enjoy the Omorion and J.Lo records.

As Grand Good pointed out, it seems from the ad that SONY wants to use fake fans to create buzz for their artists. I wonder - what blogger who's savvy enough to build up their own following online is also stupid enough to sell out their credibility for an unpaid promo gig?

Chris Lighty, who runs Violator Management, the home of Busta Rhymes and 50 Cent has decided to speak up about the recent shooting that his clients were involved in that has sparked up the old but new conversation about violence in hip-hop.

Lighty blogs:

I want to back track for this blog and address the discussion of violence in our community of hip hop. I see alot of people saying "hey Lighty aren't you helping sell the same violence inducing music etc...". I want to make it crystal clear that I personally and my company doesn't condone these acts of violence and think that our community as a whole has to be responsible for its actions and not blame hip hop regardless of the idiots that might run amok in it.

Don't "the idiots" Lighty mentions include his G-Unit clients? From the Busta shooting, to the Vibe awards stabbing, to the Game shooting, 50 and his crew have carried around the air of violence and have shamelessly, with Lighty's help used it to market themselves.

Monday was a sad news day for Hip-Hop. A Las Vegas rapper killed a cop, bail was set for Trilville's Don P on rape charges, and more nonsense about Busta and his bodyguard. And word was still spreading about Jay Dee passing away. This is no way to lead into Valentine's Day.

What we need for the rest of this week is some good news from the rap world. I want to hear a slipped track from Nas over a Just Blaze beat. I want to read about how hip-hop activists are helping out the New Orleans even though everyone's forgot about Hurricane Katrina.

The word has come down the hip-hop media pipeline that Fuego Magazine is dead. At first I thought Fuego was a Latino music mag, but then I found it was more like King - only instead of KiToy, they featured Vida.

Was it lack of interest from advertisers that killed them? Or maybe they had the ads, but not the readers? Who knows?

This year's Grammy awards are packed with Black. I'm wondering if any White people made music this year.

Anyway, stick with me during the show, and keep hitting "refresh" as I continually update this post with Grammy goodness.

Two weeks ago it seemed like Cam'ron would rule the hip-hop headlines. He had that shooting in DC, the cover of XXL, the new movie, new album, and released multiple Jay-Z diss tracks that had SOHH literally betting on whether Jay would respond.

I'm reading Michael Eric Dyson's new book "Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina And the Color of Disaster". Now that the press has forgotten about all of the race and class issues brought out by last year's man made disaster in New Orleans this is a good time to release a book that ties eveything together.

Dyson puts the event in historical, political, social, and even religious perspective (stop blaming God, people!). What have I learned so far? The poor people are always the last ones to leave a city in a disaster. Google "slaves" and "Pompeii" to see what I mean, or just watch Titanic and peep who gets trapped at the bottom of the ship.

Dave Chappelle will be on Oprah today spilling his guts about what turned him crazy why he stepped away from his hit TV show and millions of dollars.

I will live blogging the show, so expect this post to be updated every other minute while the interview is happening.

What do you think Chappelle will talk about, anyway? Will he admit to drug use, put Charlie Murphy on blast, or announce his conversion to Islam? Will he talk about the Chappelle Theory or his old skits where he's getting Oprah pregnant?

Will he be funny, or serious and sad?

What do ya'll think will happen?