MC Hammer Reinvents Himself in Silicon Valley

 

Is it possible for the music industry to learn something from an artist who hasn’t had a hit song since the mid-’90s?

In the case of MC Hammer, it just might.

To many in the music industry, Hammer is a has-been rapper who squandered a fortune and eventually faded into musical irrelevancy. But in Silicon Valley, he’s a respected entrepreneur, investor and adviser with a reputation as a savvy early adopter of new technology.

That’s quite an achievement in a region that views most celebrities with suspicion.

Your Black Hip-Hop: Jasiri X Weekly Newscast — Hip-Hop Style!

YourBlackWorld.com

Hip-Hop Emcee/Newscaster, Jasiri X returns with his weekly Hip-Hop newscasts. For this week, current events include the Iraq-shoe incident, Gov. Blagojevich’s pay-to-play endeavors, mass-media tying Obama to the Illinois scandal, Chicago Police carrying M4s, and the failing economy:

Your Black Brothers: Would Sojourner Truth Appreciate Lil’ Wayne’s Music?

Would Sojourner Truth Want To ‘Lick The Rapper?’

By: Zekita

One morning while riding in my car I decided to venture away from my regular News programming on the radio and turned to one of our local Hip Hop and R&B stations. It wasn’t long before the commercial for some debt creating pay-day loan went off and my ears, mind, and soul was being violated by rapper lil’ Wayne’s song ‘Lollipop.’ As I listened in disgust to the monotony of his lyrics (similar to many I had heard in some contemporary rap songs today) about how some women wanted to ‘lick the rapper’ amongst other things, my eyes began to tear up from those degrading and humiliating lyrics. [...]

And then I thought back to the glorious African American women like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Nzingha, Yaa Asante, and Mary McLeod Bethune. I turned my thoughts to these women and I wonder. [...]

I wonder if Harriet Tubman feels like all 19 of her potentially deadly trips were traveled completely in vain. I wonder if Sojourner Truth still feels like a ‘woman’ [...]

More At Your Black Brothers

Your Black Hip-Hop: Jasiri X Weekly Newscast — Hip-Hop Style!

Hip-Hop Emcee/Newscaster, Jasiri X, returns with his weekly Hip-Hop newscasts. For this week, current events include  the failing economy, George Bush’s confessions, the ongoing Plaxico Burress fiasco, the Detroit 3 Auto-Bailout, Chicago workers sit-in, Clarence “Tom Us” questioning President-Elect Obama’s citizenship, and more:

Your Black Hip-Hop: Jasiri X Weekly Newscast — Hip-Hop Style!

Hip-Hop Emcee/Journalist, Jasiri X, returns for a second season, with his weekly Hip-Hop newscasts. This week’s current events include, O.J. Simpson, Plaxico Burress , the Mumbai attack, Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and more:

[For the week of November 23 - November 29]:

Your Black Hip-Hop: Rev. Wright Reflects On Hip-Hop

New York-based Hip-Hop artist, NYOIL, pays a visit to the 2nd annual State of the Black World Conference, and engages Rev. Dr. Jeremiah E. Wright Jr. in dialogue about the present state of Hip-Hop. Featured are also, veteran Hip-Hop journalist,  DaveyD, X-Clan member, Paradise Gray, and Hip-Hop artist/news-anchor, Jasiri X:

Your Black Brothers: Hip-Hop Star VIGALANTEE: More Than A Rapper…

VIGALANTEE: Hunting for Souls
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com

Vigalantee (born Roger Suggs) is no stranger to the underground Hip-Hop scene. Born in Chicago, Vigalantee has always been a fan of Hip-Hop – though a critic, when necessary. In addition to his musical career, Vigalantee is also an arduous community-organizer and activist, whose youth program is touching many young lives across the city of Kansas. As the name suggests, Vigalantee is hunting for more than nice beats or dope rhymes. As a young man, trapped in between the perils of inter-racial animosity and intra-racial hostility, Vigalantee knows how critical it is for young Black kids to find worthy role-models in the communities that shape their destinies.

Vigalantee grew up in Chicago, and experienced, firsthand, the much-referenced tales of gang warfare. Concerned with the emotional toll this reality wreaks on a child, his mother sent him to a relative’s home in Georgia. Vigalantee describes this as the unraveling of another “extreme” living condition [...]

More At Your Black Brothers

Hip Hop Commercialized? Buffoonery or something more complicated?

By Dr. Boyce Watkins

www.BoyceWatkins.com

I am not a huge fan of Lil Wayne.  I don’t hate him, I just don’t love him.  His music doesn’t make me move, but it doesn’t make me sick.  The thing that challenges my ability to love Lil Wayne is the environment within which he is operating.

Lil Wayne can be considered, by some, to be a modern day minstrel show:  gold chains, diamond grills, 10,000 tattoos on parts of his body that have no business being tattooed, you name it.  He engages in the stereotypical rock’n roll/hip hop lifestyle: guns, drugs, alcohol and random women.  I fear for Lil Wayne, because at this pace, he might be dead before he turns 35.  Lil Wayne makes Tupac Shakur  and Eazy E look like conservative school kids.

Lil Wayne impacts the world in which he lives, sells records by the boat load and impacts far more young men than he probably should.  It’s not that he chooses to be a role model, he just is one. But when we see Lil Wayne and express justifiable disdain for his behavior and persona, there is certainly more to be said.

You see, Lil Wayne is a product.   The corporate executives pulling the strings and making the decision to sign deals with Lil Wayne also see him as a product [...]

More At Your Black Hip-Hop

Your Black Hip-Hop: Kanye West & Ludacris Receive Harsh Reviews

Ludacris “Theater of the Mind” (Island Def Jam)

For some odd reason, Ludacris feels the need to prove himself on his latest studio CD.

“Theater of the Mind,” the rapper’s sixth album, is full of trash talk as to why he is rap’s “MVP.” But talk is cheap.

Ludacris is not only a platinum rapper, he’s also a major success in film, TV, on the Web and even in the food industry (the rapper opened a Thai restaurant in Atlanta). He’s also known as one of the game’s best lyricists.

But he disappoints on “Theater of the Mind” by trying constantly to prove it with boasts that are boring and empty, devoid of the cleverness we’ve come to expect from Luda [...]

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The concept isn’t difficult to grasp. Kanye West’s mother died suddenly one year ago, and a few months later, the superstar rapper and producer broke things off with his fiancé. West spent two weeks in Hawaii recording what he calls a “pop” album.

The production is minimal and chilly in a way that recalls Junior Boys or early Depeche Mode. The basic beats were created using the old school Roland TR-808 drum machine.

The vocals — overwhelmingly sung, not rapped — have almost uniformly been processed by the pitch-correction software AutoTune. All this is intended to create a sombre soundscape that reflects West’s emotional state, and on paper, the math is simple and appealing. In actual practice, however, things go horribly wrong [...]

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Your Black Brothers: H.E.L.P. Seeks To Fight Illiteracy With Hip-Hop

Schools, out-of-school programs, tutors, mentors and juvenile detention educators are discovering a “sound” approach to reading instruction. H.E.L.P. (Hip-Hop Educational Literacy Program) is a line of supplemental instructional materials for language arts intervention and enrichment.

Co-founded by Hip-Hop artist, professional educator, and arts advocate Gabriel “Asheru” Benn, this innovative approach allows teachers, educators, mentors and caregivers to tune in the pervasive popularity of the Hip-Hop genre. H.E.L.P. uses high-interest reading and real-world relevance to improve literacy while bridging demographic, cultural, language, and achievement gaps:

[Princeton Professor Dr. Cornel West Endorses The Program]:

Teacher-created, student-tested and standard-correlated workbooks integrate the five essential components of effective reading instruction as identified by the National Reading Panel. Resource guides and professional development training facilitate effective use of the materials to engage reluctant readers, promote cultural responsive topics, address multiple learning styles and accommodate differentiated instruction.

Carefully-selected, clean song lyrics from well-known Hip-Hop recording artists are the sound foundation for H.E.L.P.’s creative reading and writing activities. Positive character-building messages, poignant social issues, literary devices, historical references, metaphors, rhymes, and broad vocabulary within the songs all provide cross-curricular opportunities during powerful language arts instruction in one-on-one, small group and classroom environments [...]

Read More

Visit The Official H.E.L.P. Website

Watch The H.E.L.P. Infomercial

Dr. Boyce Watkins Smacks Soulja Boy For Slavery Comments

Technorati Tags: soulja boy,hip hop,rap,rappers,slavery,slave masters

Your Black Hip-Hop: Soulja Boy Praises Slave-Masters

They say ignorance comes in all shapes and sizes. No truer words have ever been uttered. For anyone still in doubt over the role Commercial Hip-Hop plays in desecrating the minds of the young, read this immediately!:

Then came Soulja Boy Tell Em. I [Toure from BET] asked him, “What historical figure do you most hate?” He was stumped. I said, “Others have said Hitler, bin Laden, the slave masters…” He said, “Oh wait! Hold up! Shout out to the slave masters! Without them we’d still be in Africa.”

My jaw, at this point, was on the ground.”We wouldn’t be here,” he continued, having no idea how far in it he’d stepped, “to get this ice and tattoos.”

Wow. Never mind that diamonds come from Africa. Never mind that there were many generations of pain in between leaving Africa and getting diamonds. Never mind that the long-term cataclysmic effects of subtracting about tens of millions of young, strong people from Africa over the course of a couple of centuries is a large part of the reason why Africa now appears so distasteful to you. Never mind all that, Soulja Boy. You put country first.

Source

Poor thing… If only he was aborted.

Your Black Hip-Hop: Jasiri X Weekly Newscast — Hip-Hop Style!

Hip-Hop Emcee/Journalist, Jasiri X, returns with his weekly Hip-Hop newscasts. This week’s current events include: Gov. Palin’s incompetence, the “Ashley Todd hoax,” Robocalls, Jennifer Hudson’s tragedy, Black-on-Black violence,” lynching in Texas and more:

For the week of October 19 – October 25:

Your Black Hip-Hop: Jasiri X Weekly Newscast — Hip-Hop Style!

The fire-breathing Hip-Hop Emcee, Jasiri X, returns with his weekly Hip-Hop newscasts. This week’s current events include, the financial meltdown, Sarah Palin’s abuse of power, John McCain’s “erratic” behavior, and much more.

For the week of October 5 – October 12:

Your Black Hip-Hop: Jasiri X Gives Weekly Round Up — Hip-Hop Style!

Hip-Hop artist, Jasiri X, ‘raps up’ the September 28 – October 4 week — Hip-Hop Style!:

Reposted From Your Black Hip-Hop

Your Black Hip-Hop: Vh1 Hip-Hop Honors: A Farce & A Scam

By: Tolu Olorunda

Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com

The corporate hacks at Vh1 are at it again. Yesterday, as I’m told, Vh1 aired its annual Hip-Hop ceremony, Vh1 Hip-Hop Honors. For those unaware, “Hip-Honors” is described as a yearly celebration of Hip-Hop pioneers and its many Godfathers/Godmothers. If Vh1 had its way – as it seem to do – Snoop Dogg, Eazy E, Ice Cube, Missy Elliot, Russell Simmons and the Wu Tang clan would fit that mold. It would come as a shock if Lil’ Wayne is not honored next year. This annual exercise of miseducation is a farce at best. The categorization of “New Schoolers” as Hip-Hop pioneers notwithstanding, more insulting is the level of mistreatment rendered to actual Hip-Hop pioneers, at such events. In 2006, following that year’s “Honors,” a group of venerated Hip-Hop scholars and historians broke their silence in calling out the bosses at Vh1 who, through the help of their subsidiaries, have conducted a whitewash of Hip-Hop history and denigrated its true inventors.

In a report published on the Hip-Hop online magazine, HipHopGame.com, DJs Jazzy Jay, Tony Tone and Disco Wiz described inexplicable instances where Vh1, in favor of granting VIP passes to the most prominent rappers at the time, treated Hip-Hop heavy weights such as Kurtis Blow and Tracy 168 like “bums and party crashers.” The report furthermore noted that Vh1 had the unimpeachable gull to limit the number of guests Afrika Bambaataa (Hip-Hop’s Grandfather) could invite. If this is true, as I believe it to be, it should come as no surprise that Vh1 executives have attempted to attribute the ’90s to be the “Golden Age” of Hip-Hop, and ultimately, the age of its inception.

This year, the irony couldn’t be starker. Whilst Vh1 was busy expressing great delight in “honoring” their distorted version of Hip-Hop’s pioneers, the landmark of Hip-Hop creation, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, was being auctioned to a real estate developer for $ 7 million. Neither Vh1 nor its uncertified group of Hip-Hop advisors displayed the most minuscule amount of regret over it.

As a true Hip-Hop pioneer once noted, “The moral of the story is that these people don’t know sh–.”

Reposted From Your Black Hip-Hop

Your Black Hip-Hop: Kanye West Arrested At Airport On Felony Charges

Kanye West was arrested Thursday morning at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of vandalism.

Apparently the Chicago-based hip-hop superstar mixed it up with a still photographer, and a $10,000-plus camera wound up in pieces.

For Kanye, the news gets worse because a TMZ.com cameraman named Erik says he videotaped this whole exchange, prompting the rapper’s bodyguard to grab his camera, tear off its microphone and viewfinder and smash them on the ground.

Source

UPDATE:

Kanye West and his road manager Don C. were arrested Thursday morning at L.A.X airport. Both men were charged with felony vandalism in an incident involving paparazzi.

The rapper and his friend were waiting at security for a flight to Hawaii when an altercation with a photographer and videographer ensued. West and Don C. have since been released from police custody on $20,000 bail.

Reposted From Your Black Hip-Hop