The homie FRANZ DIEGO is back with another playful banger. Back in the day, I used to pop up to the Twin Cities and get it in with Franz and his crew. Franz was always the youngest dude in the mix. Glad to see that he is still having fun and coming into his own as an artist. Video after the jump. #dope

“Habits & Contradictions” now on iTunes.

On 1.11.12, New Orleans’ Dee 1 and 99problems.org hit the streets of Los Angeles. After getting up with the homie Nipsey Hussle, Dee 1 and the crew hit John Muir High School in Pasadena. Have #missionvision #yaheardme!?

Check the video after the jump.

In 2008, community activists struggled to be heard as the noise from the presidential race convinced voters that the fate of our nation lay in a battle between two juggernauts, and that non-partisan organizing, once the back-bone of our democracy, had become superfluous.

Fast forward four years, and everything has changed. Seeing our hijacked democracy hurtling towards a fiery crash, the American citizen wrestled itself into the driver’s seat, and is putting our country back on track. We see that our futures will be determined, not by blind hope that a politician will do right by us, but by our country’s most marginalized voices coming together to advocate, loudly and tirelessly, for each other.

And that’s the story of the League of Young Voters Education Fund. In 2011, despite an economic recession that hit us like a ton of bricks, we made a strategic decision to cut our national travel and expand our staff in key local battles that have set the stage for national policy change.

Facing voter ID legislation in nearly all our target states, we learned to fight smarter, not harder, and it paid off. We halted voter ID laws in Texas and Ohio, and are building a base, several thousand youth strong, to fight for voters in Wisconsin. We have harnessed groundbreaking technology that puts a communication power, once held exclusively by the mega-rich and mega-corporations, into the hands of 15-year-old high school organizers in the hoods of Milwaukee.

Just a few days ago, I stood in a room at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and described the League’s plan to protect thousands of young voters of color from disenfranchising legislation. Their response was as simple as it was profound: how can we help?

In short, 2011 was the year that America experienced an explosion of grassroots community activism. When I look at the League’s digital yearbook, Spotlight 2011, I see a universal dream realized: people of every race and region who believe that the future is not yet written, and that the answer to all of our challenges has been in our hands the whole time: it’s us. We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.

We are not the apathetic, disillusioned or disengaged young Americans that the mainstream media derides when it wants us all to forget its own cynicism. The new America believes in each other, believes that the past can be put behind us and the best lessons carried forward. Our new America is unafraid to shake down the institutions that have led us astray and in their place, build not a corporation, but a community. We know that, in our hearts, the future is local. Our activism must be local.

Check out Spotlight 2011:  The League Looks Back

Read more at Huffington Post.

The first time I traveled to Cincinnati, I thought it was the most effed up city I had ever seen.

For Cincinnati's youth, Elementz is a creative safespace

In 2005, my friend, Gavin Leonard, invited me and my colleagues at the League to conduct a civic engagement training at a fledgling youth arts center that he co-founded in Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine, one of the most economically deprived communities in the country. The premise of his project, Elementz Hip-Hop, was deceptively simple: if you provide urban youth with access to studio equipment, art teachers, and mentors, they can choose creative outlets over criminal ones, and ultimately live fuller, richer lives.

A simple premise, but as Gavin took us on a tour through his hood, I couldn’t see how it would work. 2005-era Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine neighborhood looked like the warped offspring of The Wire’s Amsterdam and Gangs of New York’s 5 Points. On every street corner we passed, I saw young African-American men in over-sized white T-shirts, pitching narcotics to drug addicts while posturing to protect their territory. The tension, the hopelessness was palpable.

But Elementz persevered, and for the last seven years, it has offered Cincinnati’s inner-city youth a safe space for dreaming big and putting plans into motion. Every day, talented young women and men step into its recording booths, hoping the next rhyme they recite will get them out of their neighborhoods and into a million dollar recording contract.

They don’t have to look far for inspiration. One Cincinnati resident who survived the streets to live out his dreams is the platinum-selling recording artist Hi-Tek. In a genre that is criticized for its shallowness and petty beefs, Hi-Tek has collaborated with everyone from Snoop Dogg and Common to 50 Cent, producing classics like Black Star’s “Respiration” and Talib Kweli’s “Beautiful Struggle.”

Hi-Tek’s music speaks of social awareness and the triumph of hope over despair. With a high-stakes election on November 8th, we feel that Ohio’s urban youth could use all the hope that they can get. That’s why the League of Young Voters Education Fund has teamed up with Hi-Tek and Elementz to host #HiTekTalk on YoungVoterLive.com, tomorrow, at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Hi-Tek made it out of Cincinnati’s mean streets, but the young musicians at Elementz face an uphill battle. Ohio’s elected officials have made drastic cuts to institutions like after-school programs and Boys and Girls Clubs. These community organizations perform the priceless function of Elementz: providing hope to the hungry, and possibility to those who, otherwise, could only dream.

The soul of hip-hop is born in the recording booths, but it lives in the streets. If we want to rewrite our futures, we must turn our dreams into actions and mobilize. As Ohio counts down to Election Day on November 8th, we hope that #HiTekTalk will provide a platform for young voters to think critically about their roles as advocates for their generation. Together, we can help our youth find their own voices, and use them to change all of our lives for the better.

RSVP for #HiTekTalk, Wednesday, 10/26 @ 4pm Eastern: on.fb.me/HiTekTalk

I had to find out what Adrienne Maree Brown had to say about #occupywallstreet, so I went to her blog. And yep, she wrote something amazing. Adrienne is an awesome writer, and this piece has a powerful rhythm. #ows

Check it out here.

http://adriennemareebrown.net/blog/?p=2052

 I just got home from the Take Back the American Dream Conference, and I have been pondering the role of meta-brands as vehicles of change for our movement, but specifically for young people and people of color.

I have been thinking about the examples laid out by Van at the conference, assessing our conversation about #occupywallstreet, analyzing our historical struggles in America, and even trying to refresh my memory about international movements for change.

I know that during the most recent progressive meta-movement that Van laid out, the 2008 Obama campaign, young people and people of color were often the ground troops and swing votes that put the campaign over the top, but will likely be the last groups to truly benefit from the fruits of this struggle. In fact, I was recently told by a White House staffer that no one in DC fears youth orgs or the black grassroots, even though the turnout numbers in 2008 indicate that these important constituencies are indomitable forces. Not surprisingly, these groups suffer from breathtaking unemployment and unprecedented debt.

I think there are a number of reasons that meta-brands might not allow youth groups and people of color to really win, win (substantive socioeconomic change and policy wins). For example, building a meta-brand on top of or behind the existing progressive infrastructures may unite an existing movement with talking points and branding materials, but it does very little to address the contradictions that exist inside of our campaigns, expand the tent or give new efforts a seat at the table. Although Van asked us not to critique him for his PowerPoint slide that laid out the current motive forces in the progressive movement, I was pretty perplexed that there wasn’t any recognition of youth groups in the presentation. (Although, there were a number of youth groups, including ours, that were invited to the stage.) Yet, the #occupywallstreet movement, which was often mentioned at this week’s conference, is clearly a youth-driven effort. Even our own current movement’s infrastructure and leadership was first developed during the Civil Rights era when many of today’s strongest progressive heroes and sheroes cut their teeth as youth organizers.

And during the Civil Rights movement, after years of being a leader of a meta-brand (although I am sure he wouldn’t have described it as such), Martin Luther King Jr. sought to take his organizing deeper and helped develop the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort to meet the specific needs of a certain constituency. While he enlisted the support of his many allies, he realized that the movement’s prior efforts to win for poor people were incomplete without a laser-focused effort to end poverty. A meta-brand may have set that movement up for a big victory, but he recognized that deeper organizing was the winning strategy.

At the end of the day, meta-brands and movements may allow us to do a lot of important things like building economies of scale, uniting us under common communication points and even reinvigorating our current campaigns. So I don’t think it is wise to throw the baby out with the bath water. But my first instinct is to think that they are best used during election cycles, and that they don’t go deep enough to bring about the deep-seated change that is necessary for people at the bottom. This doesn’t mean we should abandon the American Dream movement, or any meta-brand that percolates to the forefront, including the #occupy brand. But it does mean that as leaders we should intentionally tackle the obstacles head on, and acknowledge them as we build our movements. If we don’t, we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.

I appreciate any response and critique of my assessment. I am struggling with this, and don’t want to blow up our causes, only make them better…and I acknowledge my analysis could be off.

Peace and love,

biko

Our democracy is imperfect. No matter how hard the founding fathers fought, scraped and debated to perfect the political process, they still left room for future generations to continue to improve our legislative undertakings. Despite their contradictions and weak points, they understood that American citizens’ unalienable rights needed to be defended by consistently upgrading and improving our democracy. And while the ideological differences ran as deep, if not deeper, than they do today, the framers of the Constitution understood that the right of an individual to participate should be unimpeded and without obstacles.

Today, thanks to this imperfect process, groups of citizens who were once permanently relegated as second class citizens, have a voice in our democracy.

Read more after the jump!

Yet, many of these voices are being threatened to be silenced by Voter ID laws that prevent many of the nation’s most vulnerable constituencies from participating in the process. While champions of these laws say that they protect elections, the truth is that they suppress the vote by implementing unneeded barriers and obstacles. In my home state of Wisconsin, for example, the State Legislature enacted the most stringent Voter ID bill in the country, even though the Department of Justice found less than a dozen individuals who voted fraudulently in the 2008 elections. And the largest percentage of these folks were formerly incarcerated individuals who were unaware that their rights had been stripped from them. (http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/sen27/news/Press/2011/col2011-004.asp)

Unfortunately, these laws hit young people the hardest. At the very time young adults all across the country are being rocked by the tough realities of the recession, they are being asked to spend extra cash and time to participate in elections. And while proponents of Voter ID laws and individuals who are unfamiliar with the cultural realities of young people may ask, “What’s the big deal about getting an ID,” the statistics reveal that large segments of young people simply do not have the necessary identification to participate in the upcoming election. In fact, according to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Marc Levine, 78% of African Americans 18-24 in Milwaukee do not have drivers license. The transient nature of youth populations, combined with their growing economic hardships, simply prevents them from having the proper forms of identification. And even though the WI Voter ID bill pays for new state IDs, it does not pay for lost, stolen and or IDs of individuals who have recently moved.

Unfortunately the laws could impact voters in several of the League’s states including Texas, Ohio and Georgia. So we refuse to back down and let these laws weaken our voice.

While we should work hard to rid elections of fraud, we should not seek and implement a solution to a problem that does not exist. There are numerous ways that we can ensure that voters are participating in good faith, like sharing the last four digits of their Social Security number on their voter registration card, that have have worked for decades. These Voter ID laws not only prevent young people from voting, but they also prohibit large percentages of people from becoming stakeholders in the civic process. This is unacceptable. Because while the founding fathers may have restricted the right to vote to a certain class of people, future generations of law makers understood that this is right is to be enjoyed by all American citizens, not just those that have proper ID.

Cherub, Seven Roxx and Astro drop their new mixtape on Sept 3rd…you can get it here a couple days early!! I like this one!!

Read the entire story at GlobalGrind:

This past weekend a flash mob made up of dozens of Black youth attacked attendees leaving the Wisconsin State Fair. The violence was random, the punishment was swift and many of the victims were white.

While no one was hurt badly, the incident made national headlines during a busy news weekend that was dominated by the S&P downgrade of the federal government.

Locally, the event incited elected officials and conservative talking heads to rekindle old stereotypes and fan the flames of racial discontent that often permeate segregated communities.

But while the alarming homicide rates in places like Chicago and Philadelphia may shock us and the random acts of mob thuggery like the ones experienced last weekend may scare us, there are also thousands of youth out there trying to change the conversation using creativity, music, art and the Internet.

Read the rest at GlobalGrind.

Oh Boy!! Interesting how quickly the narrative changes. Who won this debate?

Kreayshawn’s sister V-Nasty defends her use of the n-word and talks about the White Girl Mob. This sista is mad hood, and is definitely using the controversy to promote herself. But is she wrong for her blatant use of the word? I’m not gonna lie, I know more than a couple of super hood “white girls” who use the word nigga freely, but I still feel a lil uncomfortable.

Check the video after the jump. via @spitmillk

Not all cops are bad!

Killer Mike drops a controversial track and it gets banned by BET. But I gotta be honest, I don’t agree with a lot of the messages in this video. Like stock piling guns because it might “go down.” Like Killer Mike’s fellow Atlien Andre 3000 once said, “while we ranting and raving bout gats, nigga they made them gats, they got some shit that’ll blow out our backs, from where they stay at.”

But the video is hecka creative and raises some very important questions about the way that black men are treated in America.

The homie Karl aka @spiltmillk just sent me this new artwork. Go here if you haven’t downloaded B*Right’s new song “Uncle Phil. B*Right will be performing at the 7th Annual Put The Guns Down Festival on September 4th, 2011.

On Wednesday, July 6th at 6 PM EST, TheLoop21.com’s Chloe Hilliard will be kicking off the League’s “YOUNG VOTER LIVE: Summer Chat Series.” The Former Managing Editor of Vibe Magazine and former writer at the Village Voice will be talking with a group of young leaders from the WI-LYVEF’s Summer Leadership Cohort via Ustream. A long time friend and ally of 99problems.org and LYVEF, Hilliard will share special insights on her own personal leadership style, the state of urban journalism and she will also share professional advice from a young person’s perspective.

Make sure you check in as Chloe Hillard, who moonlights as a comedian in New York’s comedy circuit, is sure to be edutaining.

The event will be broadcasted via Youngvoterlive.com and will be open to the public. Also, make sure you save the date for Wednesday, July 16th, when Jasiri X will be hosting the next YOUNG VOTER LIVE: Summer Chat Series

Several weeks back, I interviewed 19-year-old rapper/social entrepreneur Mac Miller. In less than four years, this Pittsburgh-based MC has seen his fan base explode. Without a radio single, or major label support, Mac Miller has gone from Facebook-famous to famous, and will undoubtedly become a self-made millionaire by the end of the summer. Although I’ve interviewed dozens of uber-influential people over the last decade, including Russell Simmons, Snoop and Howard Dean, I’ve pretty much retired from music journalism. However, I made a point to reach out to Mac Miller’s folks when they hit Milwaukee, because to be honest, I am a fan of his music, and I got a lot of love for his hometown.

I first started following Mac’s career last year when 99problems.org’s resident DJ, DJ Willie Shakes ran into him in “Steel City” while interviewing rappers and community members about the importance of the 2010 Census.  But it wasn’t until last summer, when his fun-loving, ode to youth, “Kool-Aid & Frozen Pizza,” hit my news stream that I became a fan of his music. Unlike the emo-esque rap stylings of Drake or the intellectual wordplay of J. Cole, Mac’s head-bobbing music is fun, filled with often humorous one-liners and his laid-back flow connects to music fans of all backgrounds. Oh, did I mention that he is white?

The Show

As I made my way through the sea of 6,000 sweating fans (there were a number of black fans, but the crowd was mostly white kids from throughout the Cheesehead state, most likely because the tickets were $20 and up) backstage, I was greeted by a young, light-skinned black man named Quentin who informed me that Mac Miller was winding down from rocking one of Milwaukee’s biggest music venues, the Rave Ballroom, and needed a second to get ready. After waiting in the hallway for a couple of minutes, Quentin cut the silence by saying, “Oh and by the way, I remember you from when you came to my youth program in Pittsburgh several years back.  You inspired me, keep doing what you do!” (The young leaders from the League who I brought with me to film the interview were more than impressed.)

Once I got backstage and started hanging out with the 19-year-old Internet sensation, I quickly noticed that nearly every person in his entourage was an African-American. Unlike nearly every other rapper I’ve interviewed in the past, whose business team and handlers are white, Mac Miller has surrounded himself with homeboys from his Pittsburgh, Point Breeze neighborhood, an integrated area of the ‘Burgh, that Mac Miller says allowed him to be cool with everybody. Unlike white rappers before him like Eminem, Haystack, Bubba Sparks, the Beastie Boys, for many hip-hop fans, especially younger ones, Mac Miller race is an after-thought. And while his skin color, undoubtedly, will open him up to a potentially larger fan base than his fellow Pittsburgher and homie, Wiz Khalifa, his humility, professionalism and laid-back swag will be the leadership traits that will allow him to eventually earn the superstar status that will come once the rest of the world catches on to his music.

What’s Next

Of course, without his crew’s creativity, hustle and Internet savvy (“Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza” has been seen by over 10,000,000 viewers and was produced for less than $10,000), Mac Miller would just be another MC hoping for a big label to sign him. But, unlike Soulja Boy, who also used YouTube as a stepping stone to stardom, Mac Miller is poised for longevity in a way that few independent artists have been before him. And he knows it.  His crew sold out the tour “merch” that they brought from Pittsburgh (they made the ride in an SUV that hauled a small trailer) before the show even started. Though his team is young, Quentin and his homies were interacting with the venue’s management with such professionalism that you can tell that they mean business. It also doesn’t hurt that they are connected to Rostrum Records, the braintrust behind Wiz Khalifa’s recent success.

Perhaps local elected officials and venture capitalists should be paying closer attention to the burgeoning business models that are developing as a result of young people’s entrepreneurialism and creativity. Not only will the profits from Mac’s tour build the tax base of his hometown, but he and his friends will likely continue to employ young men of color, who would mostly likely be unemployed and/or working in the informal economy to make ends meet. The Internet isn’t just about video games, Weiner shots, and Twitter updates; it’s also an international content distribution network that, if used properly, can create life-changing economic opportunities, even for blue-collar 19-year-olds from rusted out towns like. Pittsburgh.

B*Right dropped another video; this time they are kicking it with skateboarders and BMX’ers. Check it after the jump.

This video is sick. Beyonce runs the world.