Entries Tagged 'Hip-Hop' ↓

In this recent clip, above, Gabriel “Asheru” Benn, D.C.-based educator and founder of Educational Lyrics, talks about H.E.L.P.—Hip-Hop Educational Literacy Program. H.E.L.P. uses music to teach reading to schoolchildren, utilizing hip-hop’s currency to make ideas stick.

That’s an area in which Mr. Benn has some authority, by the way, as his mind-spinning flow on the theme from The Boondocks proves with each episode, below. Study hard, kids.

Bobby Van’s Steak House exudes power. This is not only due to its location in the Wall St. area, or because its 28-day, dry-aged filet mignon is $50, but because it’s literally built inside the 107-year-old bank vault of J.P. Morgan & Co. As you can see behind me, in the picture, above, the wine cellar occupies one of the small safes. (In another room, antique deposit boxes cover all four walls.)

It was the perfect place to meet rapper / mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, above right, whose salary in the previous year was estimated by Forbes at $20 million. Ironically, 50’s $75,000-plus-a-day income plots a dramatic fall from the year before, when his $100 million dollar take from the sale of Vitamin Water to Coca-Cola—he owned stock—pushed his annual grab to the astounding sum of $150 mil.

Obviously, Curtis could buy the place. But he was just there talk about Before I Self-Destruct, his new album, as part of BET’s continuing Food For Thought: Conversations With… series. (The first installment, talking to artist / entrepreneur Jay-Z, aired in September, and, like this one, also features Hot 97 NY on-air personality Angie Martinez and sportswriter Stephen A. Smith engaging the artist.)

The 30-minute special airs tonight, Thursday, November 19th, at 7:30 pm, and, yes, it’s true, I did ask him why, in hip-hop circles, he’s not considered the king of New York. Real talk!

Feast your eyes, folks, on the above test pattern. It’s from my personal collection, and was actually produced by yours truly: An embroidered reproduction of a compass-shattering piece by Phase II, writer, artist, musician (right), and historian in the trade of aerosol art.

After eyeing this immaculate conception in Phase and David Schmdlapp’s 1996 treatise, Style: Writing from the UnderGround, I strove to have it perfectly captured in thread, with the goal of licensing the design directly from the master. While those plans haven’t taken off yet, the image is so intricate and fetching that I use it as a desktop. But if you’re cogitatin’ about doin’ the same…don’t bite my style.

The recession is affecting all of us, for sure. Leave it to reduced baller Slim Thug and Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, though, to uncover the ways that rappers are, purportedly, most being affected: With fewer platinum front purchases, dinners at strip clubs, and a diminished quality in “video hos.”

You know how women with babies, or ones who really want them, go absolutely open-mouthed ga-ga anytime they even see a picture of a cute infant?

Know any ladies like that? Well, keep ’em away from Evian’s “Roller Babies” commercial, below. Better yet, just go get a mop, now, to wipe up their covetous drool. (Plus, when you’re done, take a look at the bottled water manufacturer’s brief “making of” doc, below bottom.)

After Anthony Williams’, aka D.J. Roc Raida’s, funeral today in Harlem, D.J. Premier gave out T-shirts with this balletic image, above, of the late, great master of steel wheels.

May he rest in peace.

The familiar, sky-blue font is there, but the usual, loud, hyperventilating, all-caps text is not.

Instead, last night on his blog, Kanye West gave the apology that, perhaps, fans and foes had wanted to hear all along.

Comparing himself to Gaylord “Greg” Focker, the luckless character played by Ben Stiller in the 2000 film, Meet the Parents, West admitted that, with his bum rush of the MTV Video Awards on Sunday, he’d “messed up everything.”

That was Taylor’s moment and I had no right in any way to take it from her. I am truly sorry.

Elegant and terse, where his original, much-derided “apology” was mouthy and glib, the remorseful statement may go a long way toward repairing West’s shattered image, particularly when coupled to his earlier, highly emotional appearance on the debut episode of The Jay Leno Show that same evening.

The same probably isn’t true, however, for the Twitterers who salted the artist with racist invective in the wake of his outburst. Perhaps the best we can hope for, in their case, is to never hear from their ilk again.

Not betting on it.

Will hip-hop vocalist / producer Kanye West, as one blogger has insightfully observed, become the next African-American male to live his public existence as a symbol of the race divide’s vitriol? Will he become a scapegoat for white obsessions over the threat Blackness purportedly represents?

The virtual flood of racist, expletive-laden tweets that followed the artist’s brief rant at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards suggest a strong “Yes.”

As many know, West interrupted singer Taylor Swift during her “Best Female Video” honor and acceptance speech, taking the mic to tell her, and all watching, that, “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all-time. One of the best videos of all-time!”, referring to Knowles “Single Ladies,” which had also been nominated.

West’s rude and abortive outburst drew loud, droning catcalls from the audience, while an embarrassed and stunned Swift stood, shocked and still, before being escorted gently from the stage.

As stated on MTV’s web site,

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[via digg.com]

Excellent NY Times pic by photog Christopher Polk, above top, documents Kanye West’s September 13, 2009 bogart of MTV’s Video Music Awards 2009 stage. The act led to his web site apology, above, that same night, but not before he was ejected from Radio City Music Hall.

Best part: Taylor Swift’s “Huh?” expression, and the fact that the hostess in the back doesn’t even know what’s happening yet, either.