Looks like the ball won't be the only thing dropping for New Years...

Okay, the title of my post might be a tad "insensitive" so I apologize to anyone who might be offended. But, according to many sources, Saddam Hussein's execution is immanent, and will possibly happen within the next few days. I know this has nothing to do with hip hop, but it is probably one of the most historically significant events of our lifetime, it's not every day that dictators are actually punished by trial for their crimes. And because many conscious artists rap about historically and culturally significant themes, I figured it would be appropriate to blog about it.

I'm assuming that everyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the past few months knows that Saddam was on trial for his crimes during his reign as dictator. Well, after a lengthy trial full of corruption and complications, he was found guilty and punished to death. In the past few days, the Iraqi government has readied all the necessary documents, including a "red card" - an execution order introduced BY SADDAM during his dictatorship. Can you say IRONIC? Saddam is being executed by protocol he put into place!

I often read drudgereport.com (a great site for political and social news coverage, although sometimes a bit too biased) and I found an article saying an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (the new prime minister of Iraq) said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m. Friday EST. Also to be hanged at that time were Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim.

The time was agreed upon during a meeting Friday between U.S. and Iraqi officials, the physical transfer of Saddam from U.S. to Iraqi authorities was believed to be one of the last steps before he is to be hanged. Saddam has been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December 2003.
I also saw a pole showing that Americans want Saddam to be hanged respectfully because we are afraid of retaliation. I guess that means if he is humiliated publicly or his corpse ill-treated that it could cause an uprising we would be blamed. We already have a poor reputation around the world; we don’t want to do anything to cause an uprising against us.
What do you guys think? Should we care about the way his body is treated? He is human after all, even if he committed horrible acts. Even the worst of criminals deserve to be treated with basic human decency.

At least he didn't bite someone's ear off...

In a shocking turn of events, the regularly even-headed and well-mannered (kidding!) Mike Tyson was arrested in Arizona for driving under the influence and possession of cocaine after police stopped him leaving a Scottsdale nightclub early Friday. Tyson was placed under arrest after "showing more signs of impairment" during the field sobriety tests. Police subsequently searched Tyson and found cocaine on him and in his car.

So, why is this important to hip hop? Well, technically it's not, it's really just plain sad, but after doing a little research, I found some interesting connections between "Iron" Mike and the world of hip hop, so I thought maybe you'd find them interesting too:

• Tyson was good friends with rapper Tupac Shakur, and often came out for a fight with a Tupac rap as his ringwalk music (most common song "Ambitionz Az A Ridah"). Shakur had been in attendance at a Tyson fight on the night he was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting.
• Rap artist 50 Cent purchased Mike Tyson's 48,000-square-foot mansion in Farmington Connecticut for $4.1 million.
• In 1989, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince scored a hit with "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson", in which the Fresh Prince envisages himself taking on the heavyweight champion (and taking a beating in the process). Tyson appears as himself in the song's music video.
• In 1998 Tyson featured on an underground rap hit, "Second Round K.O" by Canibus. Tyson gives the rapper advice over how to defeat his lyrical opponent (rapper LL Cool J).
• Tyson collaborates with R&B artist Ginuwine in his 2003 album "The Senior" in which he gives Ginuwine his "stamp of approval" in the introduction of the album.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Mike Tyson was the youngest man to win a heavyweight title belt, a HUGE accomplishment, and was rated in 1999 by Ring magazine as the fourteenth greatest heavyweight of all time. During his prime Tyson was considered unbeatable, but his once dominant career was undermined by personal problems (something he obviously still has trouble with...), lack of preparation, and periods of imprisonment.

Why couldn't he have done something positive with his career, like selling Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machines?

Now That's My Kind of Library...

As many of you probably don't know, not that you would have any real reason to, the Library of Congress anounced today 25 movies to be added to their national registry. Why is this interesting? I'm glad you asked. Normally, this news would have warranted a big "so what?" from me, until I found out that two of my personal favorites were among the movies chosen to be saved for posterity.

My favorite Bill Murray flick, Groundhog Day, along with Mel Brooks' 1974 comic opus, Blazing Saddles, were selected from more than 1,000 candidates nominated by the movie-loving public and ultimately voted on by the Library of Congress staff and advisers from the Preservation Board. Also chosen was "The T.A.M.I. Show," which featured James Brown, the Rolling Stones and other artists in what the Library calls "possibly the greatest rock and rhythm-and-blues concert on film." (news.yahoo.com)

So why Blazing Saddles? Well, I inhereted my father's sense of humor, and it's on his list of all time favorites, so I'm biased. But the real reason this movie is so iconic is because it's not just a typical "comedy". It was a groundbreaking film in regards to content with what was once considered "shock value" material. The crude, racist and sexist film with toilet humor and foul language includes the main elements of any western - a dance-hall girl, a gunslinger, a sheriff, a town full of pure folk, and more, but it twists them around. So they become a black sheriff, a racist town, a sex-obsessed Governor, and so forth. Aside from the constant fart jokes, Blazing Saddles works as a satire on the way that Hollywood fictionalized and whitewashed American history.

Props to the Library of Congress; I give it two thumbs, way up!

Defunked: Tower Records

Tower Records, at long last, is no more. The 46-year-old music retailer was sold to Los Angeles-based liquidator Great American Group for $134.3 million after a federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale in October. Today was the last day of business at the iconic Village location in NYC; the Upper West Side branch closed yesterday. In the weeks leading up to this, cost-conscious music buffs have streamed into both locations to pick through thousands of marked-down CDs and DVDs.

R.I.P.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Seeing as this is our last post until Christmas, I started wondering if there were any Christmas themed hip-hop albums out there. I know its a common thing for pop artists to come out with Christmas CD's doing remakes of all the holiday standards, but I really can't think of any hip-hop or rap artist making a CD like that.

So i decided to do a little investigating, and I came across this gem of a Christmas Rap artist. Has anyone heard of Afroman? Well, he's got a few merry little Christmas CD's, one of which is titled "A Colt 45 Christmas". His songs include classics such as "Deck My Balls", "Violent Night", and "O Chronic Tree". But wait, there's more!

I found another Christmas CD from him titled "Jobe Bells" featuring songs like "Nutscracker" and "Death to the World". Sounds like a wholesome album for the whole family!

I hope that you all travel safe to wherever you're heading for the holiday, I want to see everyone safe and sound back in class on Wednesday. And if you haven't figured out the perfect present to get your Grandma yet, don't forget about "A Colt 45 Christmas"!

I am woman...

Let's just get one thing straight. I have never, in my life, been called "promiscuous" or "slut" or "ho". Maybe that's because I just don't talk about sex. Maybe if I actually talked about it, people would look down on me and think of me as girl with questionable morals.

Now, why on earth would I be scared of being called a slut for just talking about sex? Because it seems like whenever a girl voices her opinion on sexuality, or even hints at her own sexuality, everyone gets all up in arms and thinks she must be a whore. If a girl is sexually comfortable, she must be loose.

Let's take Lil' Kim and Trina for example. They don't just rap about sex, they rap about feeling sexual powerful over men, and that concept is shocking to a lot of people. Why is it so shocking? In a way, I think the message of female sexuality is extremely empowering, and women haven't fully embraced our power yet. Yeah, women burned their bras in the 60's, we have the pill, but it's still some dirty little secret that we have our sexuality, or that we just plain love havin' sex.

That said, I just plain love havin' sex. You heard me right. Does that make me a slut? Absolutely not. Does that make me a bad person? No. But I bet you are SHOCKED to read it, right? You are shocked that some little white girl actually wrote that in her blog for school. You're shocked because the only place you thought you'd hear a girl saying that was in the rap videos. Well, this isn't a rap video, and I'm not Trina, but I can relate to what she's doing because she's just trying to show that women can be sexually powerful too, and that it's a good thing, not something to be ashamed of. We’ve come too far as women to be ashamed of who we are or what we have.

I think that if you respect yourself, respect your body, and RESPECT the power that sexuality can give you, NO ONE should be able to call you a slut.

Fashion 5-0

Hip hop and fashion

Okay, I know that one day we’ll look back on our fashion today and say what where we thinking?, but I don’t think our trends could ever compare to the absolute train wreck that was The 80’s.

Case-in-point: Shoulder pads. What genius woke up one day and decided that making women look like offensive linemen would be a good idea? Maybe it had something to do with women being new to the workforce, maybe they felt like they needed to look more powerful next to men, and the “broad shoulders” were a way to do that. I think it’s interesting how in the 80’s women tried to make themselves look bigger, but today everything is about looking as slim as possible. Although, I have to give praise to hip-hop culture today where “big” is still celebrated and “thick” is considered sexy and beautiful. That’s something you don’t see in the fashion magazines, where every model looks like she’s on the verge of starvation and hip-bones are the hottest accessory. Even though some people think the rap videos with women shaking their “junk” is degrading to females, I think it’s much better for girls self-esteem than Vogue magazine. But what do I know, I’m just a skinny white girl who only whishes she had junk to shake.

Anyway…I found some info on Wikipedia about certain trends, and there is no doubt that hip hop had a huge impact on fashion (it still does obviously). During the 80's, styles like large sunglasses, Kangol hats, multi-finger rings, oversized gold "doorknocker" earrings (popularized by female rappers), and sneakers (usually Adidas - brand shelltoes and often with oversized laces) were prominently worn by the big-name hip hop stars of the day, including Run-DMC and LL Cool J. Performers also helped popularize the wearing of gold necklaces and other such jewelry. Popular haircuts ranged from the early-1980s Jheri curl to the late-1980s hi-top fade.

Also, like we saw in the movie Breakin’, the 80’s were the Era of spandex. Remember Jazzersize? Well, it pretty much looked like everyone was either on there way to, or coming from, a Jazzersize class.

I could go on and on about 80's fashion, but i'll save those words for another post.

say what??!?

Let me start off by saying, I was shocked, SHOCKED!, by the video we watched in class today. For a person my age, I consider myself to have an above average awareness of current events, both national and global. let me rephrase. I consider(ed) *past tense* myself to have an above average awareness of current events.

HOW THE HELL HAVE I BEEN ALIVE FOR 21 YEARS AND HAVE NEVER HEARD ABOUT OUR GOVERNMENTS CONNECTION TO CRACK AND THE STREETS?!?

Apparently this is supposed to be common knowledge, where have i been? how did i miss this? THIS IS HUGE! THIS IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE! I cannot believe that the powers that be in the government have not been punished for this! I am embarrassed, no, ASHAMED, for not knowing about this. I know that minorities in this country have been dealt a bad hand by our government many times, but COME ON! How can they get away with this?

Here is a link to a wikipedia site that talks about the CIA and Contra's cocaine trafficking in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_and_Contra%27s_cocaine_trafficking_in_the_US

I still know very little about the subject, seeing as i was introduced to it today, so i am eager to do more research and hopefully i will be able to provide more links to sites with information (just in case any of you are as shocked, or just as interested, as i am)

Here is some information from streetdrugs.org about the explosion of crack abuse in the 80’s (thanks mr. oliver north): The crack epidemic dramatically increased the numbers of Americans addicted to cocaine. In 1985, the number of people who admitted using cocaine on a routine basis increased from 4.2 million to 5.8 million, according to the Department of Health and Human Service's National Household Survey. Likewise, cocaine-related hospital emergencies continued to increase nationwide during 1985 and 1986. According to DAWN statistics, in 1985, cocaine-related hospital emergencies rose by 12 percent, from 23,500 to 26,300; and in 1986, they increased 110 percent, from 26,300 to 55,200. Between 1984 and 1987, cocaine incidents increased fourfold.

THAT’S INSANE! Our government created an epidemic in the streets, and now they’re using it to persecute the victims. Talk about kicking someone when they’re down!

Maiden Voyage

Well, here goes nothing. I've actually made it a point to avoid the whole 'blogging' trend over the past few years, and I’ve been pretty successful, until now. But like the old saying goes, "ya gotta do what ya gotta do," and if it's on a syllabus, ya gotta do it.

Speaking of the syllabus, I’ll just go ahead and say that I’m probably a little too excited about doing the t-shirt. at first it seemed like it would be a waste of money, but I’d much rather spend 15 bucks designing a shirt than 50 bucks buying another textbook. I have absolutely no idea what direction to go in for the shirt, seeing as I'm probably the least "hip-hop" person you could ever imagine. But I do like anything that challenges my creativity and design skills, so we'll see what happens.

how long are these things supposed to be anyway? I enjoyed the speakers, DJ Eddie Brasko and Jasmyn, even though I wanted to hear what the Jasmyn had to say but they kept cutting her off. Everyone else had 30+ minutes of speaking time and she barely got in 5. I hope that doesn't happen to her all the time, maybe being a woman in radio is harder than I imagined.

they talked a lot about sampling and whether or not it was good/bad for hip-hop. I think it's a sorry excuse for lack of creativity. Granted, I know very little about the world of hip-hop, so maybe over the two weeks in class I’ll learn to appreciate sampling as a creative art form. again, we'll see.

out.