1 for the people, 2 for the globe, 3 for the people. Keep it Eco.

Ambessa Contave, one half of Oakland hip hop duo Fiyawata, organizer and green movement mobilizer  giving a shout in favor of climate change regulations.  This Saturday is the International Day of Climate Change Action and eco activists around the world are hosting over 1500 actions in over 125 countries, calling for climate justice at the Copenhagen climate talks from Dec. 7-18.

Filed under: Activism, Art, Media, Music, San Francisco

Why you should care about Net Neutrality

Think about it. Do you want AT&T, Comcast and Verizon controlling your access to the net? Which websites you can visit? How quickly you download porn?   That’s not the America I signed up for.

Do the right thing: support Net Neutrality. Sign the petition and leave a comment in favor of making Net Neutrality a law.

Filed under: Activism, Media, News , At&T, Comcast, justice, Media, Net Neutrality, Save the internet, verizon

The problem with the CNN Don Lemon & Nas interview

(Props to The Hood Nerd for his original post.)

CNN, we have a problem.

By now most people have heard of Derrion Albert, the 16 year old Chicago honor student killed in the middle of a gang brawl last week. The incident was caught on video and has sparked all the moral outrage, tears and calls to action such tragedies are known to inspire.

It’s a terrible situation any way you slice it and in situations like these there are always loads of valid questions, anger and finger pointing-merited or otherwise. People are hurt and looking for culprits, some unwavering boogie man to pin the issue on before burning them at the stake.  And it’s here that CNN steps in with the reporting equivalent of a sucker punch, landing a two piece right on the jaw of the hip hop community.

Over the weekend, CNN’s Don Lemon did a story package that included an emotional interview with Albert’s mother, a Q&A with a couple of Chi-town community activists and a sit down with the rapper Nas, who had penned a letter entitled “An Open Letter to Young Warriors” that addresses the violence and calls for young cats to rethink priorities, drop some of the stupid shit and and make more positive choices. All in all not a bad look, and so far it’s the most action taken by anyone from the mainstream urban entertainment community.

Filed under: Activism, Hip Hop, Media

Tehran poems, open sex and the freedom to move

A poem on Tehran’s streets:

This is one of the most moving things I’ve read in a minute.  It’s been making the internet rounds since last weekend went things in Iran went Ballistic.

While everyone I know has been stunned silent by the Neda video, to me this young woman’s words are just as moving.

In that respect, here are a few more pieces that take an unexpected sidedoor into the revolutionary ideology.  Nothing’s loud or obvious, just enough to challenge conceptions.

Read more. 

Filed under: Activism, Poetry

It’s Tricia. Dr. Rose If You’re Nasty

My god I think I love this woman.

I read Dr. Tricia Rose’s first book, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, a couple years out of high school and it was one of the first pieces of critical text to really make the hard connections between Hip Hop, black inner city culture, technology and social justice.

Judging from this video , recorded at the Columbia College a few months back, it looks like Dr. Rose is still dropping jewels on the sometimes staid halls of academia.  Here she discusses the idea of a post racial America in the time of President B-Rock.

Props to The Black Report for the link.

Filed under: Activism, Authors, Books, Hip Hop, Politics

A Prince in MC’s clothing

“You’ve seen the slogan, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution” alongside renderings of the late Emma Goldman plastered on the T-Shirts and bumper stickers of progressives and liberals from here to Cuba. And while it’s doubtful that the famous anarchist ever actually said the line, it’s still a brilliant metaphor for inclusionary resistance and the need to balance arts with a progressive ideology.

A lesser known, but no less insightful gem comes from the 1988 Blacksploitation spoof, I’m Gonna Get You Sucka. When asked about the band of musicians laying down heavy funk riffs behind him wherever he walked, the film’s hero and resident bad ass mofo John Spade calmly explains, “They’re my theme music. Every hero’s got to have some.”

Taken together, the quotes make an interesting point: an effective revolutionary movement should be in tune with the people — all of the people: the regular folks, the artists and the creatives just as much as the political activists and community organizers. It should be inclusive and open, with just a hint of sex appeal. And while the revolution may never be televised, at the very least it should come with a bangin’ bassline and some head nodding beats.

And that’s where Ise Lyfe comes in.”

For those that don’t know Ise Lyfe is an Oakland based MC/Spoken word artist/theater performer/community/teacher/a bunch of other shit too varied to keep slashing. Young cat is nice with the words on multiple levels and one of the few people I’ve come across who can blend social conscious with a hood sensibility and not come off corny or like they just got their hands on the Autobiography of Malcolm X for the 1st time.

Filed under: Activism, Features, Music , Ise Lyfe, Prince Cometh

B-Rock the Vote!

Alright we all love Obama, and rappers far and wide have been throwing their support behind the future Mr. President for the last year, but this video is officially the best Hip Hop for Obama video ever. Really. EVER.

Created by Keith From Up The Block, a comedian and actor out of Philly, the vid jacks George Kranz’s Din Daa Daa and flips the fuck out of it with B-Rock Obama, Illery Clinton and crew in an all out B-Boy battle with McPain and his folk. There are nods to Beat Street, Purple Rain and early Hip Hop culture all throughout this piece and dude’s BRRRAACK beat boxing is friggin’ genius.

And for all you newbies, here’s the original song and the clip that made it famous. From Breakin 2 Electric Boogalo:

Filed under: Activism, Hip Hop, Politics , Barack Obama, Hip Hop, Keith From Up The Block

NetRadio: The Day the Music Died, Maybe

The Day the Music Died, Maybe
By Kwan Booth
July 15 could mark the end of the web as we hear it. That is the day new royalty rates take effect for Internet radio stations based in the United States. Opponents say the new fees, which will increase the yearly amount paid by Internet broadcasters by 300 to 1200 percent over the next five years, will effectively wipe out the industry.

On March 2, alarms sounded throughout the music community when the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) ruled that Internet radio stations will now be charged based on the number of listeners. The CRB is the government organization charged with overseeing sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services. Previously, stations paid a percentage of their revenue.

Filed under: Activism, Media, Music, News, Technology

Turn Off Channel Zero

Turn Off Channel Zero

By Kwan Booth ( April 12, 2007-Whatchusay.com)

It’s no secret that mainstream media’s coverage of African Americans is severely one- sided. From the nightly news to “reality shows” like “Cops” and “Flavor of Love” to almost every music video on BET, MTV and VH1, the dominant image of black people these days is criminal, bitchy and more than slightly stupid. If you didn’t know better, you’d think the whole Black World is rocking grills, packing gats and sitting on 24-inch spinners.

Filed under: Activism, Film, Media, Reviews

WOME: The New Writing on the Walls

The New Writing on the Walls
Kwan Booth (March 14, 2007-Novometro.com)

The bay’s graffiti scene has long been one of the hottest in the country with artists like CUBA and TDK Crew laying paint in San Francisco and Oakland for well over a decade. And thanks to heavyweight transplants like Vulcan and ORKO, the area’s alleyways and train yards became major stopping points for traveling “writers” over the years. The scene has changed a little with the times. Some call it art; some call it vandalism, but it’s still hard to go far without seeing someone’s spray paint masterpiece.

Desi, who doesn’t like to use his given name, caught the itch at a young age, and it followed him from Chicago around the country, and finally into Oakland seven years ago. He’s a longtime graffiti artist and one of the better-known members of Weapons of Mass Expression (WOME), an “arts movement” dedicated to maintaining graffiti culture and hipping youth to the finer points of the aerosol arts.

Filed under: Activism, Art, Features , "Weapons of Mass Expression", "Weekend Wakeup"