J. Cole is my new favorite rapper. And no, it’s not because he is the first artist signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. It’s because the dude can actually SPIT. Check out his mixtape “The Warm Up” if you don’t believe me. At first, I thought Charles Hamilton was going to be the next superstar but he self destructed, so now, J. Cole is up next.
Check the video for his song “Simba”, after the jump!!!
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Did your parents ever yell at you for wasting electricity? You know, for keeping the TV and the radio on at the same time? Or not turning your light off when you leave a room? Mine did. I was the child of a thrifty family.
So, naturally, this would drive my mother to drink: apparently, there is so much energy being generated by wind and nuclear power, that electricity has become ‘cheaper to use than free’ for certain people. Check this:
Energy companies are experimenting with ways to store this excess energy, such as with compressed air. Pacific Gas and Energy can be done by “pumping compressed air into an underground reservoir, using mainly wind energy produced during non-peak hours, and then release it to generate electricity during periods of peak demand”. However, it’s going to take 5 years to develop this technology. As of now, there’s no technology in place, so all of this energy is going to waste. Is this drastically unsustainable? What do you think?
I’m currently chillin’ in Madison, Wisconsin for an event and watching Jay-Z and Alicia Keys perform before the start of Game 2 of the World Series last night, filled me with such pride – both as a born-and-raised New Yorker, and for hip-hop. Yeah, I’m a longtime Yankee fan since the Reggie Jackson candy bars in 1978, but it was the fact here this dude Sean Carter, from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn (Bedford-Stuyvesant stand up!!), who went to high school with some of my homies from back-in-the-day, has the whole world’s attention (again. smile) in this forum, was a really, really dope event to witness!
I’m 36 and I don’t have the same passion for rap music like I used to (enter anyone of your criticisms here_______________ ). I get more hyped watching Countdown with Keith Olberman these days or NBC’s “The Office”. I’m older, I have a beautiful wife and son, so what goes in the world on a spiritual/social/political level has much more of effect on me these days than your favorite hip-hop blog. However, last night I could not help in reveling in all things, Jay, Brooklyn, Alicia (oooooh : ) ) New York…hip-hop.
Go Yankees!!!
When it comes to smart, funny television, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart run neck and neck in the race for the lead. In a brilliant piece of satire and biting television, last night’s Colbert Report took on Insurance Companies. Absolutely genius:
I’m gonna digress for a second. Instead of simply asking what you think and sending this piece out to pasture, I’ll present you with some commentary that a “for-serious” pundit actually spit onto the airwaves.
When you’re going to have to make a decision because we can’t afford good healthcare for everybody, somebody’s not going to get a kidney transplant. Somebody’s not going to get heart surgery. Somebody’s not going to get kidney dialysis. Somebody’s not going to get that surgery. Who’s it going to be? Is it going to be the Millennial that doesn’t give a flying crap about anybody else but themselves because they’re special, look at all the trophies they won?
That was an actual recent quote from your favorite pundit and mine: Glenn Beck.
I find it ironic that Beck can go spout this sort of nonsense when youth are so engaged in the health care debate, as activists for a hundred different youth driven organizations or in more passive roles, as a segment of the American citizenry facing some of the highest rates of unemployment and lack of healthcare coverage.
Think about it this way: many young people are voting their confidence in progressive health care reform by consistently watching programs, such as The Daily Show and Colbert Report, which are lately discussing health reform every other night. These young people keep coming back: Jon Stewart isn’t the most trusted man in news for nothin’.
Alas, I’m taking a long road to a short conclusion: as much as the ‘RAWR I’M LOUD’ pundits like to say young people aren’t engaged, you and I – the engaged young people – know we are. We’re living with the health care crisis some like to think only exists in “REAL America” – the America where everyone has two-and-a-half kids, a picket fence, a dog and a yard – which is insulting and degrading to the diverse ranks of our society. But hey, you knew that.
Once again, Jasiri X drops a heat bomb.
This time the Pittsburgh based MC goes after BET and its CEO Debra Lee. At this point, I think Jasiri is prolly the most consistent MC in the game. Come on, who else has dropped so many “good” viral videos on such a regular basis? Check the video after the jump.
Yesterday, in an act of protest, students living in Chicago’s Gardens neighborhood who attend Fenger High (the high school that slain teenager Darrion Alberts atteneded) stayed home from school. With the support of their parents, the teenagers are protesting conditions by staying home and boycotting the violence they have to face to get an education. More after the jump.
The homie Toki Wright hits the web with a powerful new video entitled “Devil’s Advocate. The song is from his current Rhymesayers’ release a Different Mirror. Minneapolis stand up!!! This organizer/MC is fosho using his art for a purpose.
My art is a medicine for the community. You can’t heal the land until you heal the minds of the people.
-Tyree Guyton
Despite classifications of Detroit as an ‘urban wasteland’, I can’t help but disagree.
Maybe it’s blindness, optimism or stupidity but the concept of a city becoming a wasteland while people live there confounds me.
Nevertheless, countless articles refer to Detroit as a shadow of it’s former self. A dead zone. This past week, over 9,000 properties were auctioned off by the city – with many not even being picked up.
However, a wasteland is dead. Detroit is not. Against the odds, there remains an energy in the city. The picture above is from The Heidelberg Project: a street filled with vacant houses that were decorated into a large art project by those in the neighborhood. Tyree Guyton and his family, seeing the city ravaged by the Detroit riots in 1986, Guyton transformed the ravaged street into a giant art installation: one that is just as important almost 25 years later.
Check it below:
Tyree Guyton and The Heidelberg Project remain an incredible inspiration for our hard hit times. By transforming the landscape, Guyton has pushed the greater public to get involved and invest their time and effort in neighborhoods that are the hardest hit. But I can let the folks at the Heidelberg Project tell you about that in their own words:
“The Heidelberg Project offers a forum for ideas, a seed of hope, and a bright vision for the future. It’s about taking a stand to save forgotten neighborhoods. It’s about helping people think outside the box and it’s about offering solutions. It’s about healing communities through art – and it’s working!”
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