I can remember back in the day when homework consisted  of a few pages out of a workbook. I would get so excited when one of those assignments was a word search. How delightfully simple! I could find the words super quickly and be done with plenty of time to run outside and play. Well the feeling came back just a little bit tonight when the interwebz alerted me to a one Jennifer McMillen and her opposition to a hip hop club called Prime6 in her family-oriented Brooklyn neighborhood.
I won’t …

Earlier this month, US District Court Judge Jacqueline Nguyen dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit (without prejudice) against the City of Los Angeles filed by Voletta Wallace, mother of Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. In the lawsuit, Ms. Wallace blamed Los Angeles and the LAPD for her son’s death. The case contained allegations against police officers Rafael Perez and David Mack, claiming that they were in cahoots with Suge Knight to have Biggie murdered (allhiphop). This is the latest verdict in a string of similar suits brought by …

I believe the children are our future. I believe that it’s important to meet people where they are when trying to reach them. I believe we should educate young people about real topics like sex, economics, politics, race and health. So it follows that I should like Dr. Clarke’s “Health Hop Music.” Uh, no.
Dr. John D. Clarke has a series of albums he’s written, produced and performed focusing on educating young people about their health. Relying on studies with conclusions like “the average teen listens to 40 hours of music …

I see now that it might be a couple of days before I can really get back into blogging. I started a new job on Monday so I’ve been getting acclimated there, as well as getting back into a 9-5 schedule. Do you know that I haven’t had to be at a 9-5/5 days a week job since last summer? Even that was an internship! My law classes didn’t even have that type of schedule. In Tokyo, we admittedly did more partying than studying or spending time in class so …

Ten years later, my reaction to this video is the same as when I first saw it in my dorm room freshman year (holla 404 E-haus, UNC’s South Campus!) with my roomie and my bestie. We three were jaw jacking about something when the video came on my roomie’s 13in television. All conversation ceased. I was sitting cross-legged on the top bunk, roomie was sitting on her bed, and bestie stood in the middle of the room. All three, mesmerized and silent. All three, breathing in sync with him. We …

I’m not going to rehash the whole story here because it’s all over the webz, but when I heard how the feel good/made it out the hood story about former teen rapper, Roxanne Shanté, getting her record company to pay for her education (including an Ivy League Ph.D. in Psychology) turned out to be false, I wasn’t surprised. Not in the least. Oh, not that I thought a rapper from Queens couldn’t have accomplished such things…
I BEEN knew something was wrong because the Daily News article on this unique record …

Sorry yall. If you were looking for this week’s recap/commentary of Making His Band you’re out of luck. I watched Monday’s ep and I had started to blog about it. Mid-way through, I lost interest. The show is simply not that interesting anymore. I don’t know if it ever was. Not even Jaila’s fabulosity can save it. I’m completely uninspired to force myself to watch every Monday and even more uninspired to write about it. No worries, plenty of other places on the web to get your Diddy fix. In …

[Contains Spoilers]
Back on the scene after last week’s back to basics catastrophe. To be honest, I’m not as committed to this show as I am to others but I’m watching it so you don’t have to (or so that you know you’re not the only one!). Anyway, let’s get to this week’s recap.
Where last week was about the individual, the musicians were put into groups tonight to focus on programming, playing as a team and sonically reproducing the feel of Last Train to Paris. While it’s apparent that many of …

Last week’s premier was the massive weeding out of less than stellar talent and our first intro to the musicians who made it into the house. This week, we get a closer look and more Didtastic shenanigans, of course.
The house is not a home. It’s a freaking mansion. That place is huge and fits 30 people, son! Amenities include a pool worthy of ___ and a mini theather with stadium seating.
Lynnette and Brockett (who violated by wearing sunglasses indoors) have a connection to Berklee and a formal music education. Most …

By now you’ve probably heard about Soulja Boy’s newest indulgence: a black diamond encrusted Lamborghini chain… with a remote control. Yeah. This cat basically has a toy car bedazzled with my undergrad and law school education (times 10).
Folks who hate Soulja Boy are loving this. They can point to this excess and say he’s ignorant, he’s killing hip hop, kids are crazy, etc etc. Blogs are buzzing with the video where he shows just how his shiny piece works. If it’s possible, he’s mad T-Pain’s Big Ass Chain look sort …