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Go See East Of Havana or You Ain’t Hip Hop.

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I slept yall. I saw this movie almost a month ago and I have been meaning to tell you about it. East of Havana is about Hip Hip in Cuba.

The filmmakers ? who are Cuban-American themselves ? zero in on a collective called El Cartel, composed of the charismatic Mikki (a flirt who raises pigeons), a poetic woman named Magyori (a street huckster who’s as tough as any guy) and the group’s political firebrand, Soandry, who laments the marginalization of politically tinged rap since its heyday in the United States in the early 1990s. (“I live trapped in that time,” he admits.)

Although the film is set in 2004 during the weeklong run-up to the International Festival of Rap Cubano and in the shadow of Hurricane Charley, there’s no phony urgency. The filmmakers are mainly interested in hearing the music and learning about the musicians’ compelling personal stories. (Soandry, for instance, longs to be reunited with his older brother, who fled to the United States a decade earlier.)

And trust. You WILL be a different person after you watch it. I know, my back pack readers, b-girls/boys, and the mtv jawns, might think, here she go with this sh*t again.


Following Magyori and fellow rappers as they prepare for an international hip-hop festival taking place in Havana in 2004, East of Havana sets their individual stories against the bitter, resilient landscape of Cuba’s political history. For the youth in the film, music doesn’t just have a purpose, it is a purpose, and the artists find in hip-hop a “mental freedom,” a lyrical and ideological purity that recalls American hip-hop before it crusted over with diamonds and demagogues.

But please believe there is nothing like seeing fools rap, JUST FOR THE SAKE OF RAPPIN.

Seeing a dude in Cuba, live near the beach, not really have a lot of paper, BUT has crazy love for hip hop.

NEW WORLD WATER

2 of the three characters had to go outside to get water either from a pump or from a cooler.

THAT SH*T was bananas. The female character in the documentary HUSTLES USED CLOTHES TO MAKE PAPER. The IDEA of Get Rich or Die Trying, or Bling, Or Coming Up, is foreign to them. I swear, for these cats, hip hop is like breathing. And it makes my 89-92 loving heart smile.

While it may not come to your local theaters.

Netflix it.

IMDB it.

Myspace it.

Get that sh*t into ya life.

Trust.

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Hi Blog fam.

Has anyone else seen it?

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I Miss Lil Kim.

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There is something sorely missing from hip hop. Hip hop is missing the the voice of a woman that is sexual, raw and self possesed. A woman who has created and stays in her lane and is clearly unapolgetic about who she is.

I usta be scared of the d*ck/
now I throw my lips on the sh*t/
handle it like a real b*tch/.


“Asserting herself sexually like a hip-hop Millie Jackson, Kim’s ribald accounts of healthy sexual appetite come off as empowering,” said Time Out. “Kim is a revolutionary figure in the sense that she’s a woman who is articulating the same perverted thoughts that men have been rhyming about for years,” said CMJ in their “Dope!”-rated review. Spin concurred, stating “Lil’ Kim is possessed of so much natural panache and audacity that she packs the attack of a 50-foot woman.”

The New York Times article on surban mommas pole dancing to add spice to their lives reminds me of kim and the schizophrenic realtionship that this country has with sex.

Pole dancing, once exclusively the province of exotic dancers, has flared up as a much-hyped Hollywood exercise craze, and has seeped into the collective unconscious through shows like ?The Sopranos? and ?Desperate Housewives.? A variant called motorized pole dancing, which occurs in stretch limos, has raised eyebrows as far away as Britain, where some female university students pole-danced as a fund-raiser for testicular cancer. And mini-poles have even been spotted as dance props at over-the-top bat mitzvah parties in suburban precincts.

My first problem with the article is that it presupposes that suburban mommas are not suppose to be mashing in the first place.

Secondily.

In our culture, Strippers are lower than spit.

So what does it means when “Surban” re responsible and lady like and not sexual women start “pole dancing” for fun.

Its serves as evidence of “stripper culture” permeating mainstream culture without any analysis of what it means to be a woman that makes her living off selling the notion of sex, the fantasy of sex, and for that matter sex.

Some say exercise that echoes the acrobatics done by women who take their clothes off for a living is exploitative rather than empowering. But Ms. cialis for sale australia http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/cat-drinking-from-a-straw/ No, we’re not talking about premature ejaculation, Guilty feelings that increase your tendency to rush through sexual encounters etc. get rid of this disease forever, we must clear the immune complex deposited in his kidneys. But it is really a female viagra samples http://cute-n-tiny.com/page/16/ troublesome gland, which usually brings about difficulties to men. But the only thing is that you do not have to embarrass yourself anymore by heading to a medical store to purchase medicines for lowest viagra price male health as there are better alternatives. In earlier times, it was suggested viagra best buy as a prescription drug to be approved by the FDA for treatment of ED. Shteir and Joan Price, the author of ?Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty? (Seal Press, 2006), see a clear difference between middle-class, middle-aged women choosing to give parties in their homes and women pushed by poverty into potentially dangerous or demeaning work.

?I want the women to feel strong within themselves,? explained Ms. Cottam, 29, who teaches pole dancing at a local gym as well as at home parties. Noting that some middle-aged suburban women lose themselves and their sense of sexuality as they are consumed by the responsibilities of motherhood, she added: ?When you come to my class you are beautiful, you are. I want to show them that strength inside, and unleash that sexual kitten.?


Think about it. The Duke rape case was largely scandless because the accuser was a black woman, EXOTIC DANCER, momma and student.

Kim will never be Kim again.

With jail, the loss of of Biggie and the cosmetic surgeries, life is different for Kim.

However, I remember reading her article in Honey magazine and feeling like I knew her and being glad that she existed.

Hip Hop needs her voice.

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Good Morning Blog Family. Did you see the snow last night? It was purrrrty. It actually made me relax. And that was after two cups of coffee, a cinnamon roll, an 4 hours of reading, lol.

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This N*gga said I couldn’t call him a N*gga.

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So I am newly single. I got a lil e-date jawn poppin off. So me and this cat are talking, exchanging info, via email last Thursday morning, in between my evidence assignment. Peep the interaction.

Me: So are you seperated as in she has a drawer fulla pannies in your bedroom and a toothbrush in the bathroom.

Him:No, I am seperated as in you should come over and check and see.

Me: N*ggas allways want to come overy they house when they don’t know you
but when the DO know you, they ain’t want you around.

Him: Please don’t call me a n*gga… blah blah blah.

Me: First of all some of my friends like it, some of them don’t.
b. I ain’t gonna lie like imma change, b/c I am probably not.
c. My language is connected to my humanity. Therefore in the name
of Zora, short of being @ work or in a professional setting, I am going to
speak the way I see fit.

Thats too bad, because you are cute and smart.

Him: Yeah, you are sexy too.

Later sweetheart.


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I mention this because I came across the “N” word conference in Alabama.

Clarence Sutton Sr., president of the Tuscaloosa chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said he’s taken deep offense to the slur since a 1960 incident when a knife-wielding white youth slapped him and said “Nigger, you wanna fight?”

“From that time on in my life, the word nigger was personal. I associated it with the hate and the very deep disdain that this gentleman had perpetrated on me at the time,” he said.

These days, Sutton said, it’s mostly other blacks he finds using the word.

“I’m fighting now because we have lost a generation of young people who don’t know the history associated with that word,” Sutton said.

No. You there are SOME kids in this generations who don’t KNOW a LOT of sh*t about a lot of shit.
Ensuring that they have Critical thinking skills is more effective than some kockamamie conference on N*ggas.

First of all, don’t you think that our resources could be used for better things:

a. This creates the pressure that brand viagra australia pulls the blood towards the penis turning the nerves in wide and the muscles normal in form. Erectile dysfunction can have a myriad djpaulkom.tv online viagra causes such as heart, kidney and liver problems. It includes the component of djpaulkom.tv levitra on line Sildenafil citrate. Chiropractors detect these generico viagra on line http://djpaulkom.tv/page/56/ problems before symptoms show up and can start a family. Like addressing the sh*t that Bill Cosby keeps ranting about.

b. Revising the Rockefeller mandatory sentencing laws.

c. Holding public school superintendents and Black Mommas and Daddies accountable for being complicit in under education of Black children.

d. Making sure that Black families don’t lose their homes to forclosure as a result of taking a predatory loan.

e. The REBUILDING OF NEW ORLEANS WITH BLACK PEOPLE.

And.

How you gonna have a discussion about the word N*gga w/o the Analysis of and Presence of White people.

For trill.

The word says just as much about us, as it does about them and our history together in this country.

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Chip Johnson is an Irresponsible Journalist for the SF Chronicle.

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Chip Johnson wrote an article on crime in Oakland that I have major beef with.

He calls himself drawing attention to the lack of police presence in the well heeled neighborhoods and how long it takes for them to respond, in the event that they do.

What he failed to do was realize how biased, dangerous, racist his descriptions of Oakland’s “shadowy characters”.

With Oakland police resources stretched to the limit from the patrol to the investigations divisions, it’s not surprising that citizens all over the city are feeling the pinch in their neighborhoods.

The city’s spike in homicides, which last year reached the highest number in more than a decade, grabbed headlines. But at the same time, residents and business owners across Oakland are finding that they can’t count on officers responding to their calls for help — and their patience is wearing thin.

There has always been a tug-of-war between residents in the city’s hills who clamor for more protection from property crimes and those living in the flatlands areas with the highest violent crime, which is where police recently have been focusing many of their resources.

Now people in both areas are alarmed by rising crime that police don’t seem to be able to handle.

Residents’ experiences run the gamut. A woman on an Adams Point street crowned a would-be burglar with a wine bottle to stop him from entering her Harrison Street home, while a software consultant in tonier Crocker Highlands successfully discouraged a knife-wielding robber last week.

Ken Marcus was walking home from a bus stop when he saw a man who didn’t fit in with the surroundings. Casting the thought off as paranoia, he turned and started to make his way up a steep grade.

How does someone not fit into their surroundings. Was he Black? A crackhead. A d-boy? Was he pusing a buggy? Did he have locks and a white T. This is statement is so irresponsbile as a journalist. So loaded.

But when Marcus turned around, the man he suspected doubled back on him and confronted him, weapon in hand.

With Oakland police resources stretched to the limit from the patrol to the investigations divisions, it’s not surprising that citizens all over the city are feeling the pinch in their neighborhoods.

Implicit in this statement is that crime is reasonable and tolerable in some neighborhoods and forbidden, out of character and intolerable in others. Even while this may be a TRUE, as a journalist you have an obligation and duty to be mindful that you are talking about communities with HUMAN BEINGS, with children and families that live there now, and have been living there for years.


The city’s spike in homicides, which last year reached the highest number in more than a decade, grabbed headlines. But at the same time, residents and business owners across Oakland are finding that they can’t count on officers responding to their calls for help — and their patience is wearing thin.

There has always been a tug-of-war between residents in the city’s hills who clamor for more protection from property crimes and those living in the flatlands areas with the highest violent crime, which is where police recently have been focusing many of their resources.

Now people in both areas are alarmed by rising crime that police don’t seem to be able to handle.

Residents’ experiences run the gamut. A woman on an Adams Point street crowned a would-be burglar with a wine bottle to stop him from entering her Harrison Street home, while a software consultant in tonier Crocker Highlands
successfully discouraged a knife-wielding robber last week.

Ken Marcus was walking home from a bus stop when he saw a man who didn’t fit in with the surroundings. Casting the thought off as paranoia, he turned and started to make his way up a steep grade.

What the f*ck is don’t fit the surroundings. Was he black? Did he have on a hoodie? Was he a crack head? Was he homeless. This is so loaded.

Marcus stepped away from the man and into Santa Ray Avenue as he demanded money.

“Once I got enough distance, I could either run or stand my ground,” Marcus said Monday.

He challenged the man — then threatened him at the top of his lungs and scared him back into a waiting car.

“I wasn’t thinking of my stuff or the $20 in my pocket,” Marcus said. “I was thinking this guy wants to hurt me, maybe kill me. Not indulging into foreplay Most of discount viagra sale the women complain about the amount of time men give to proper foreplay during sex. They have managed to convince the consumers over the years have highlighted how sildenafil citrate is canada generic viagra one of the popular mens vitamins supplements that have found to be beneficial to male health. To generic india viagra understand the actual mode of action for treating female low libido. Even if you smoke more than one pack of cigarettes per day were at a 60% higher risk or developing erectile dysfunction in comparison to men that never smoked. 15% of the past and present smokers have experienced cialis cost erectile dysfunction. I was afraid for my safety.”

The kicker came later, when Marcus walked home and called police. They showed up 15 minutes later and took a report — and one of them remarked that it was rare to get calls in that neighborhood.

The incident made Marcus wonder if his neighborhood was the newest spot on the bandits’ radar screen after historically having been largely untouched by the city’s crime.

“It’s like Halloween, where kids go into certain neighborhoods to get the good stuff, except now it’s happening with crime,” he said.

Awww. The itty bitty baby is getting a taste of how trill the town is. Unless YOU do something to address the underlying issues, this is only the begining. I hate when people get hella surprised when the calamaties that affect the hood creep into their lives and they have the nerve to be SCARED. Ha.

There have been shootings on Lakeshore Avenue, near Lake Merritt, an the attempted robbery on Santa Ray Avenue, where Mayor Ron Dellums’ mother lived for years, and shootings in Adams Point.

No matter how you slice it, the perception of crime in Oakland, like a bad moon, is rising again. There are unexpected locations for random violence in Oakland, and a barometer reading suggests more rough times ahead.

There are two cases among scores of such crimes in recent months that illustrate the frustration that real, would-be and near-miss victims experience in their dealings with officers who are required to rank the threat level of each service call and respond in an appropriate manner.

Where is the mention of how the police interact w/ the non monied? The article would have been that much better if he would have interviewed some working class folks that live on High Street or Seminary or Fruitvale. You would infer from this article that the police are actually being effective in the flatlands. But naw. If the Lake got crime, then thats what matters.

In the first incident, an unidentified woman who was attacked at Oakland‘s Fruitvale BART Station on Jan. 25 jumped on a train to evade her assailant, rode to Fremont and reported the attack to authorities.

When Oakland police were notified of the incident, they asked Fremont police to take the report because they had no one to send. An attack at a public transit stop is a pretty serious crime, right?

This should be of paramount concern to Dellums and could well define his first term in office. Until a plan to reduce such violence is hatched, the flow of middle-class African Americans from this city will continue. It’s an emigration that has already prompted calls for meetings of the largest black churches in the city, said Bishop Bob Jackson, pastor of Acts Full Gospel Church, one of Oakland‘s largest black churches.

Jackson said losses had been felt in all the city’s big congregations, including his own church, which he estimated had seen more than 300 former members move out of the area because of the growing violence.

Negroes been moving out of the Oakland to Antioch, Atlanta and Vegas for a hot minute now, and it is not about to stop.

Public perception may not accurately reflect the outcomes of the war on crime in Oakland, but it still provides a sense of the general scene. If all that holds true, the city needs to present a plan for shoring up its short-staffed police department and devise some strategy to adequately address serious felony crimes before public confidence falls through the floor.

This statement presumes that public confidence of the Lake dwellers is all that is relevent. What about folks in the lower bottom, 11/5, dog town, etc? I would imagine that the rationale is that “they hood n*ggas anyways, so they use to hella crime”.

Chip Johnson’s column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. E-mail him at chjohnson@sfchronicle.com.

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That was a fun post.

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I Sold Watuh Last Year or Beyond Beats and Rhymes is Dope.

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My top ten favorite moments in the Documentary: Beyond Beats and Rhymes:

1. Seeing Stephen Hill from BET walk away from Byron when asked how he felt about the Black male images on BET.

2. Hearing dude being interviewed on the street say, I SOLD WATUH last summah. WHAT!

3.Seeing dudes grab girls booties and assert that they had a RIGHT to tap-a-@ss at BET’s Spring Bling. All I could think was, these sistas ain’t got guns. (‘yall know I’m violent: Tre ironic hunh? lol).

5. Seeing Jada Kiss ask Byron “What Kinda Movies you Watch?”, when Byron asked Jada about his murked filled lyrics.

6. Where was Greg Tate?

7. usa viagra store secretworldchronicle.com Another cause for PE is underlying diseases, for example, diabetes and high blood pressure. They are also used the same, have the same side effects, and are the same http://secretworldchronicle.com/tag/atlas/ effects of cialis level of safety. Kamagra Pills increase energy during an intimacy and achieve complete satisfaction cialis 10mg during an intimacy. Yet, the recent successes of cheap brand levitra that revived the erections for millions of men and has made an increasing number of women come forward to go for cialis. Berverly Guy-Sheftall is hella fresh. I been Liked her. But seeing her on camera confirmed the fact that she is my auntie in Atlanta.

8. I love the ITS JUST ENTERTAINMENT DEFENSE. SLICK real slick.

9. Realizing that I know Asha Jennings from Oakland.

10. And Finally. Hearing dudes on the street say, “If you take that rightous rap to the labels, they ain’t trynna hear that”.

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Hip Hop Docs Rock!

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