Yet Another Reason Why Rappers and Politics Don’t Mix

I found this on the Huffington Post. The originator of the “Vote or Die” campaign of 2004, Diddy, expressing his views about John McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin. There’s a point in there somewhere…I think…

Maybe he should think about returning to Howard University and completing that degree.

Ludacris, Take a Lesson from Big Boi

Hip-Hop with a message is not dead. Big Boi just released a video for his new song, “Sumthin’ Gotta to Give” featuring Mary J. Blige. This song is so relevant to the struggles the country is facing now — job losses, gas prices, economic recession, etc. The song is laid back, not angry, lameting the state of the country. But offering Hope, in the form a possible Barack Obama presidency. The video even begins with a quote from Obama. The backdrop for most of the video appears to be an Obama campaign headquarters. Hill Harper and John Legend (vocal Obama supporters make cameos).

I have always been a huge fan of Outkast. They were never the cookie-cutter rap group. Their lyrics and music always pushed the boundaries. I wish more rappers took more musical chances like Outkast. I definitely plan on picking up Big Boi’s album “Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” when it drops.

Now Luda this is how you support our boy Obama. Take a few lessons..

Ludacris, You’re Really Not Helping….

I haven’t posted much in the last couple of weeks due my 9-to-5. But now things at work have slowed down a bit and I can get back to the business of blogging. Where do I begin…….

Luda, Luda, Luda!! Bro you are really not helping the O-man’s race to the White House. They lyrics to your new song “Politics” calling Miss Hillary a bitch….wrong move. And now the Obama Campaign has had to publicly denounce you. There goes that invitation to the Inauguration. I understand your excitement at the prospect of having the first Black President and a President that counts you as one of his favorite rappers. But Obama is playing for keeps, this isn’t some manufactured, YouTube hip-hop beef. You can’t just talk *ish about the opponent and move on. There are some very narrow-minded, dim-witted people who don’t have the ability to distinguish between the candidate and his supporters. People like that will take these lyrics use them against Obama as if he wrote them.

Obama is trying to obtain the highest office in the land. And in order to get there he’s going to have assure a lot of white people that it is okay to have a black President and that they don’t have to fear a bunch of big Negroes in white tees and cornrows won’t come to their door and throw them out the country.

However, as a hip-hop fan and a fan of yours, the song is hot! When are you releasing it?

Old School Friday: Ice Cube "Check Yo Self"

This week’s Old School theme is old school hip-hop. In my previous post (more like rant) I used the Ice Cube song “Cave Bitch” to express my sentiments. So I decided to stick with my man Cube for my pick this week and select “Check Yo Self”. This is when Ice Cube was at his peak! The song featured Das Efx who had every rapper putting “iggity” in their lyrics. The video continues where “It Was a Good Day” left off. With the work drama I faced this week, some rhymes by O’Shea Jackson definitely fits the bill.

Check out other Old School Friday participants here.

BET Awards 2008: I’m Officially Old

Watching last night’s BET Awards made me realize just how middle-aged I’ve become. There were a number of performances (mainly the R&B artists) I enjoyed– Chris Brown, Usher, Ne-Yo, Rhianna, and Al Green (as any old person would). But some of the rappers……not so much. When Young Jeezy performed, I watched with confusion as everyone in the audience was standing up and reciting the words. Is “Put On” suppose to be a new hip-hop anthem? Maybe I’m watching too much Elmo, but I was not impressed. Even with Kanye performing. And I know that Lil Wayne is the hottest hip-hop artist out now, but I.do.not.get.it. Why is he selling a million albums in a week? Is ‘Lollipop’ the best thing hip-hop has to offer these days? The best performance of the night for me was Alicia Keys with TLC, SWV, and EnVogue. But of course those were groups I was rocking in college, so I guess that is to be expected. Sigh, what’s a old hip-hop head to do? Listen to jazz??? Check out Alicia’s performance from last night:

Akon is More Con Than Convict

It looks like Akon is more of a studio gangster than a real gangster. The Smoking Gun decided to investigate his claims that he was the leader of car theft ring and owned several chop shops that were “frequented by celebrities and drug dealers”. The Smoking Gun reports that Akon was merely busted in 1998 in suburban Atlanta for driving a stolen BMW and ended up being held in a DeKalb County jail for five months before prosecutors dropped all charges against him.

Although, this is interesting. Akon released his first album about 4 or 5 years ago and now someone decides to do a background check. At this point its like who cares!!! What I want to know about is his wives!!! I heard he has several. Why doesn’t The Smoking Gun check that out? Hip-hop is littered with studio gangstas. At this point its as common as brothas rockin’ white-tees.

Here’s the link if you are interested.

Have you seen this rapper? Ice Cube

Watching a trailer for “First Sunday”, a few weeks ago, it dawned on me how much I miss Ice Cube, Ice Cube the rapper. I miss the “Amerikka’s Most Wanted”, “Kill at Will”, “Lethal Injection” Ice Cube. When Bomb Squad was producing his albums and when he was scaring White folks (and some black folks). When he was “The Nigga You Love to Hate”. Cube wasn’t your typical gangsta rapper. It wasn’t all guns, drugs, and girls in his songs. Although there were elements of that, Cube was more of a storyteller to me and many of his songs addressed the social issues facing the inner city, in particular South Central Los Angeles. One of his biggest hits “It Was a Good Day” described what an ideal day would be for young black man growing up in the ghetto. However, the song doesn’t become all sappy and sunny. At the end of the song Cube stops the beat and says “Hey wait, wait a minute fool/Stop the shit/What the fuck am I thinking about?”. Cube the realist or the cynic comes back.
I don’t know how I feel about Ice Cube the ‘actor’. He’s done good work in the past with “Boyz n tha Hood”, “Friday”, and “Barbershop”. But his most recent movies (especially First Sunday, which I will only see as a bootleg), had me longing for the old Ice Cube.

So in honor of the artist formerly know as “The Nigga You Love to Hate”, here are two of his videos that are my favorites:

True to tha Game — I loved this video, this was when rappers considered crossing over to the pop charts a mortal sin. Even though many of them were getting mad play on MTV and going platinum. I love how DJ Pooh plays a MC Hammer look-a-like. I wonder if the movie “Drop Squad” with Eriq LaSalle (remember that one) was based on this video or if the video was based on the movie? I can’t remember.

Steady Mobbin — Favorite quote “Went to mom’s house and dropped a load in the bathroom/Jumped back in my low rider/Comin out feelin about ten pounds lighter.”

Kayne West "Flashing Lights"

Everybody is posting this but I am a huge Kanye fan and this video intrigues and disturbs me. It’s only a trailer for the video and I can’t wait to see the rest. I can’t imagine MTV or BET playing this before 9 p.m. I believe what we’re watching is actually the end of the video and the entire video will show what leads up to this scene. Personally, it looks like every scorned woman’s fantasy. I mean really, what woman hasn’t wanted to tie up her trifling, whoreish, man put him in the trunk, drive out to the desert in a mink and lingere (paid for with HIS credit card) and take a shovel and just……..or was that just me?

Rakim Should Smack You With His Mic

In the spring of 1994, I picked up a cassette of a promising new rapper. He was being labled as, “The next Rakim”. I was living in College Park, Maryland finishing up my first year in graduate school at the University of Maryland. It was Illmatic by Nas. It received 5 mics from the Source when that magazine was still relavent. Radio was blasting “It Ain’t Hard to Tell”. But my jam was “The World Is Yours”. I was 24 living more than an hour away from home for the first time in the “big city” (technically Washington, DC was 15 miles down the road), but this song made me feel powerful! I felt as there was so much promise for me living in the DC area. And Illmatic was my soundtrack. For the rest of 1994, I wore out that tape. I immediately became a huge fan. I loved his vivid lyricism and what I thought was intelligence. Nas talked about the gritty, harsh, streets of Queensbridge but he never glorified it. Along with Biggie Smalls, and the Wu Tang Clan, Nas brought hip-hop back to the East. I bought Nas next album It Was Written I loved “If I Ruled the World” and “Street Dreams”. However, later albums would not get my attention or my money. Nas became Nas Escobar and fell into that whole pimp thing. I was too through with “Oochie Wally”. I couldn’t believe this was the same dude who everyone was toting as the second coming of Rakim. He’s had sparks since then, “One Mic”, “I Can”, “Ether”, but for me nothing has captured my mind or ears like Illmatic.

Now comes this Nigger mess. This clown had the nerve to show up to the Grammy’s with a shirt on advertising it like its something to be proud of. And he brought a crew of folks (not all black) who were wearing the same shirt. I’m sorry, we have a man who has a real possibility of become the first black president of the united states and you are running around with Nigger on your shirt acting like you are making an important statement???? Nigga please! You are trying to sell records, not make a statement. Now I’m not gonna sit here and act all holier than thou when it comes to that word. I have used when I’m at home and amongst my people. And if a white person asks me if I have a problem with them using it, I’m gonna say hell yeah. I have a double standard when it comes to that word. Black people can use it, white folks can’t. I am too through with Nas. He was barely coherent when he was talking to CNN at the Grammy’s. He could not even justify his reason for naming his album that. I’d respect him more if he’d say, “I’m trying to sell records, its getting people talking and hopefully, I will sell over 500,000 my first week.” That I could respect, I wouldn’t like it, but I could respect it. But here he is on TV sounding like a complete idiot. Randall Kennedy and Dick Gregory have already written books using that title, the late, great Ol’ Dirty Bastard had an album called Nigga Please. You are not saying nothing new Nas, nor are you adding to the dissussion about the use of the word. And to quote Chris Rock “I love black people, but I hate Niggas”. And Nas, guess which one you are.

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by Bounce2dis