VH1 reminds me of Barack Obama. I’ll lose hope for months on end but then it will deliver a special (or two) that reminds me why I messed with it in the first place. Such was Sunday night’s premieres of “40 Most Shocking Moments in Hip-Hop” and “Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and …
Ten Things VH1’s “Most Shocking Hip Hop Moments” Missed Read More »
I’ve had a number of elderly black people whom I have the utmost respect for ask me why I, or people like me, criticize Barack Obama. “This may be the only chance we get” or “Why don’t you support the guy you voted for?,” are common arguments I hear. With all due respect to the …
Even though I often don’t agree with President Obama, there was something comforting about him delivering an uninterrupted speech as John Boenher could only look on, glowing and angry. For a brief moment, the symbol of white (even though he looks more Oompa-Loompa orange) establishment interests was put on mute. If only we could do …
How do you sell products to a generation that doesn’t buy anything? As the Internet generation transitions into the workforce, we’re faced with the consequences of a rebellion many of us didn’t realize we were fighting. We grew up being able to get music, movies, news and other media for free, whenever we wanted. Despite …
As we get older we have a tendency to look at some of the things we read as kids, in my case AllHipHop.com and SLAM magazine, the same way we look at professional wrestling. Their rampant typos and strictly Q&A style interviews may not have been the marks of professional journalism but there was a …
I’ve figured out how black people can get some stimulus money. No red tape. No job training. Just pick up an AK-47, make a “Death to America” video and join your nearest international extremist organization. Scoff all you want but our military has given $360 million to the Taliban. That pales in comparison to the …
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfwwcpqqDcw&w=420&h=345] Just for fun, I Twitter searched “portland police” yesterday afternoon. People were buzzing over the police surrounding a man locked in a bathroom who allegedly had a gun. Mayor Sam Adams was even praising the Portland Police Department for their great service. When I looked up the story later in the night, it …
My white stand-up comic friend and I have a genuine, progressive black-white friendship. Not the “colorblind” joke you see on TV, but a brutally historical and color conscious one. This was on full display when he offered to steal a joke from me (For the sake of being a hater and not giving him any …
Progressive Black-White Friendships and White Swipe Read More »
According to Sigmund Freud, “The uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar.” In other words, when an event occurs that confirms an infantile fear, it is uncanny. For example, if you’re scared of plane crashes (despite the virtually nil chance of them happening) …
If you ever watch interviews with so-called mafioso rappers that were big in the 90s, there’s always a point where they mention “Iran-Contra” and the crowd (and sometimes the host) looks dumbfounded. I had one of these moments the other day. A friend asked me about some books I had just picked up from the …