Free Prodigy!!!!!!!!
Friday, July 31, 2009
President Obama shares beer with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Sgt. James Crowley & VP Biden
The NYDaily News reports:
The Audacity of Hops meeting at the White House demonstrated something most of us knew: Presidential power and charm can temporarily smooth the still-rough edges of race in America.
That's especially true when you have three men - Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Sgt. James Crowley and President Obama - who all radiate dignity, duty and fierce love of our country and its possibilities.
All three, burned by the same misunderstanding, were determined not to compound the error with ill-chosen words.
One teachable moment I'm waiting for is the day some inspired playwright scripts the confusion of that odd Cambridge afternoon using the technique pioneered by the late Japanese filmmaker, Akiro Kurasawa, in the 1950 classic movie, "Rashomon."
The film tells and re-tells a crime story through the eyes of four witnesses who see incompatible versions of the same event.
Some writer - I nominate Pulitzer-Prize winner Lynn Nottage of Brooklyn - could have a ball demonstrating how Gates, Crowley and Lucia Whelan, the woman who called the cops about a suspected break-in, all turned out to be right, wrong and mistaken at the same time.
Outside the scripted bonhomie of the White House, it's unclear if race relations have changed for the better.
A Boston cop and National Guardsman named Justin Barrett has been suspended from the force and the Guard after e-mailing a rambling note to a Boston Globe columnist.
"If I was the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with [pepper spray]," he wrote.
Barrett was promptly stripped of his gun and badge; a hearing to dismiss him from the force is pending.
"These racist opinions and feelings have no place in this department or in our society and will not be tolerated," Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said. Good for him.
Now that is what I call a teachable moment.
Some senior official at Fox News ought to say the same about right-wing talking head Glenn Beck, who went on national TV to throw reckless verbal slime.
"This President has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people," Beck said. "This guy is, I believe, a racist."
The outburst has earned Beck a national campaign demanding that companies advertising on his show cancel their sponsorship.
Another teachable moment.
This isn't the polite, scholarly national conversation on race that some hoped for - but it's way better than nothing at all.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Young Jeezy Takes Shots at DJ Drama in new XXL ["I'll Slap the Sh*T out of Drama"]
For months there has been speculation behind the beef between the two men who saw their popularity skyrocket with their 2005 mixtape, “Trap Or Die.” In the newest issue of XXL, which touts Jeezy on the cover, the self proclaimed “trapper of the year” spoke on his current feelings towards “Mr. Thanksgiving.” Here’s an excerpt:
“Drama just started acting like a bitch. Drama wanted to be Khaled, but he didn’t want to help nobody. He just changed, period. Look at his crew. The same niggas ain’t around him. You ain’t never been in no streets. I could never have no beef with a nigga like that. He’s a cornball. You made millions off my mixtapes, to the point where the fuckin’ feds scooped you up for bootlegging. I never even made the money he made off of Trap or Die or Tha Streets Iz Watchin, because they were selling and distributing them and making money.
I’m not hating. But we will never do a mixtape together. I didn’t charge that nigga for [contributing a verse to the song “5000 Ones,” on Drama’s official Atlantic Records debut]. But then when I need [a tape for one of my artists], and you want to charge me $20,000?… I’ll slap the shit out of Drama. He knows that. He wasn’t loyal. But me putting my hands on that man ain’t gonna make him respect what I’m saying. I’m just not gonna fuck with him anymore. ”
On newsstands next week!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
" CHRIS TUCKER " OWES MILLIONS IN BACK TAXES -
Chris Tucker is the latest celebrity that Uncle Sam says owes him money ... upwards of $3.5 million worth.
According to The Detroit News, the actor/comedian doesn't exactly have his taxes in line, and owes back taxes for the years 2001-02 and 2004-07 to the State of California.
California reported filed a $3,594,409 lien against Tucker on June 24 in Sacramento County Court.
The 37-year-old Atlanta native has appear in such films as Ice Cube's "Friday," 1995's "Dead Presidents," and had a starring role in the 1997 film "Money Talks."
However, his biggest box office hits to date came from the "Rush Hour" triolgy alongside Jackie Chan.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tupac - Breaking The Oath (The Real Reason Tupac Was Killed?) [20 Minute Documentary]
This is Real Deep!!! I peep this the other day I wanted to share it with yall
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
BOXING CHAMPION VERNON FOREST MURDERED IN ATLANTA … SHOT WHILE TRYING TO CHASE DOWN CAR JACKERS!!!
July 26, 2009. MediaTakeOut.com is sad to report another senseless killing of an athlete. Last night former welterweight boxing champion Vernon Forrest was murdered by carjackers in Atlanta.
Here’s what happened. Vernon pulled his Jaguar into a gas station to put air in the tires around 11 p.m. last night. That’s when two goons pulled up in a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo and tried to carjack him.
Luckily, Vernon had his gun with him, so he pulled it out – and started running after the suspects. But that’s when things went terribly wrong!!! MediaTakeOut.com learned that after a brief foot chase, the goons exchanged fire with Vernon and Vernon was struck once in the head. He died almost immediately.
Such a SAD story. If anyone knows ANYTHING about this senseless killing, please contact the local authorities. Or if you’re scared of talking to the police, send in what you know to us at tips@mediatakeout.com – we’ll pass it onto the police WITHOUT disclosing your name.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Sa-Ra Creative Partners interview on Rhapsody Blog
The sound of L.A. group Sa-Ra Creative Partners is hard to pin down. Their brand of psych urban music straddles the line between funk, soul and hip-hop. It references Funkadelic, Prince, Sly & the Family Stone and J Dilla, but ultimately the music manages to sound like nothing you've ever heard. It's jerky electro, ethereal hip-hop and secular gospel. It's beautiful music that is, at times, difficult to listen to. Consisting of (from left, in photo at left) Om'Mas Keith, Taz Arnold, and Shafiq Husayn, the group became darlings of the underground in 2005 with a series of 12-inches and remixes. They released their debut album, The Hollywood Recordings, in 2007, and followed up this year with Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love. In that time, an entire echo-system of psychedelic soul acts sprang up, but Sa-Ra remain at the forefront. Even if you haven't heard of the group, it's likely that your favorite artist has. The trio has worked with Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Dr. Dre and John Legend, among many others. In fact, Keith is currently serving as Diddy's musical director.
We recently caught up with Om'Mas Keith. By chance, we spoke with him on the afternoon of June 25, just when the news of Michael Jackson's death was reported. We discussed Jackson's influence on the group, as well as a wide range of subjects including Thelonious Monk's funeral, Keith's father, the group's future, and the influence of Sly and the Family Stone.
Keith: Michael Jackson dead at 50, breaking news. It's officially 3:24 Pacific Standard Time. Wow. I just don't even understand -- I just left a meeting with a power player over at Paradigm Agency in Beverly Hills, and was just informed that Michael Jackson is looking for tracks. I'm looking at a piece of paper written by a f*cking mega agent at an agency right now. Two days ago she wrote Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson is looking for music, and the go-to is Peter Lopez. It's like … wow!
Rhapsody: I don't think anybody saw this coming. Maybe his family did or something, but I don't think anyone in the music industry saw this coming.
Well, we all know what cardiac arrest means for people in their 50s. It means an unhealthy lifestyle -- or whatever it means, there was something going on that Michael wasn't telling nobody about. Whatever; we're gonna find out. But all I know is that his work with Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton changed the entire world.
Yeah, yeah it did.
Three of my heroes. Three of the Sa-Ra's heroes: Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton. Three people that are all visionary. Those are the people we follow. We follow in the line of our ancestors who know about process, procedure, strategy, politics, manipulation, war, pact.
As far as process, as far as actually building music, what can you say about what you took from the people you mentioned?
What you learn from the masters is that there is really no way to go about making music other than the path of least resistance. So what that typically has meant for people who are really successful is they just do it without anyone bothering them or without anyone getting in the way -- unresisted creative flow. For some people, that may mean not allowing people into your cipher when you create, so that you can work as efficiently as you may need to. For other people, that may require allowing many, many people around you, so that you may work as efficiently as you may need to. And then of course you have everything in between, which also includes having no one around and then having someone around within the same day. Knowing when to pull the trigger, knowing when you need to be alone, and knowing when you gotta call m*th*r f*ck*rs in to get the sh*t done. That's what Quincy knew. Quincy knew how to sit there, at his piano with a cigarette, maybe a shot of Jack Daniels, and score the damn film. And then take a break, and make the phone call and call in Hubert Laws and call in Ron Carter and call in Eddie Van Halen and cut the record, and get it popping. It's stages, so that's process, procedure. You have to know the task at hand. Ok, we're gonna make a record, what do we have to do? Whatever we have to do we know in the end we have to have vocals, we have to have instruments, we have to have songs, chords and ideas.
You come from a musical pedigree; your parents are jazz musicians, right?
Yeah, absolutely -- not only my parents, but my grandparents. My great-grandfather was f*ckin' George Gershwin's copyist.
Were you introduced to jazz when you were a kid? Was that always the atmosphere?
Oh yeah; well, my parents were traditional jazz musicians in every sense of the word. In the womb … Thelonious was playing in the womb. I was at Thelonious' funeral. I was there with my father. I was in Straight, No Chaser. I was born in 1976. Thelonious died in the '80s. I have a very fond memory -- I have a very unusual memory, a kind of macabre. That was my first experience of death! It was seeing Thelonious lying in St. Peter's church in Manhattan.
How old were you? Did you appreciate what you were seeing?
I was probably five. All I know is that I was a drummer, and Max Roach was in the house band at the funeral. So I remember specifically Max being my hero at that very young age; because I was a drummer by the time I was three, I remember Max Roach! Sitting in the pews, man. I was very conscious. I remember I was a little weirded out, even now I'm recalling the feeling -- it was weird. Because my dad was so a part of the New York jazz scne. My dad was one of Miles [Davis'] great friends, my dad was one of Thelonious Jr.'s greatest friends. My dad knew f*ckin' John Coltrane. My father made his career as an avant-gardist. Playing with cats like Lester Bowie and Sun Ra. My father was in Sun Ra's band.
Who was your father?
His name was Michael Keith. You can do some research. You know he was just one of those cats that was on the scene. He was savvy. Truth be told my dad was a dope dealer, too; don't get it twisted. That was the order of the day.
Yeah, avant-garde jazz musicians probably don't make that much money.
I mean come on, man. Especially avant-garde ones who are playing f*cking sh*t that no one gets anyway, in that era. So my parents were hippies, man. They got it. They knew it was about peace, love and having fun.
Do you carry over those sensibilities into your life and music?
Hell yeah. All of us do. As the Sa-Ra we are channelers of truth and channelers of the majesty of our ancestors. We channel the majesty of our ancestors. That's one of our main goals of life is to do that.
You can hear that. You can hear so many different threads of modern music within your music.
It's part of the repertoire; I was just talking about that today. Listen, people don't even use the word anymore, because they're so far detached from what that encompasses. For us, it's a nonstop quest to upload information.
I love that you guys did that "Just Like A Baby" on the new album.
Oh!
It was funny -- when I got this promo and put it in I didn't really look at the track listing, and I was kinda listening through it and I was like, I can hear some Sly & the Family Stone here, definitely.
And there it was, right there. That's so funny that you mention that because Questlove hit me and he was like, "Man, I know y'all got the original masters to do that." And it was like, "Nah. We just went in and did that." See, "Just Like a Baby" was a science experiment. "Just Like a Baby" could be parallel to a college-level master project, so to speak. We said we are going to go here and use what we know, to have then the technology embodied on the original recording, and go ahead here and do a cover of it. Do a rendition. But in our rendition we're going to try and go verbatim, sonically. And I think we achieved that because our approach was probably just like Sly, and because our equipment was probably just what he had.
But were y'all driving around L.A. in an ice cream truck with a bunch of cocaine? Isn't that how Sly recorded "There's a Riot Goin' On"?
He had the truck outside. He would often just have the truck parked outside the mansion and would rather be in the truck recording than be up in the house. Yes. We wasn't in an ice cream truck, but we're students of music, man. We speak to people, we know cats that were around, we saw the pictures. We know, "Oh, he's using this? Oh this was the mike placement? Oh you mean to tell me it was an Omni microphone, there was only one overhead? Oh!" I mean you know what I mean? All that type of sh*t. "You mean they didn't use 16 microphones on the f*cking drums like they do now? And make that sh*t sound so crisp that you can't even take it?" No, it's just one. Get back to basics. Don't make it so hard on yourself.
You guys working on any new music?
We're making new music every day. I'm working on a solo record. I have a joint-venture deal with a company called Plug Research. Shafiq has a joint-venture deal with a company called Plug Research. Taz is currently working on his solo album, and we're finishing his solo album up. So before the end of the year, you will see the release of yet another Sa-Ra record and three individual and unique solo records for the members of the group. So five releases in one year, if we can even pull out four -- but I'm gonna make sure that we deliver five releases by the end of the year.
What label are they all gonna be on?
Well right now this one's on Babygrande, both mine and Shafiq's are gonna be on Plug Research, Taz is closing his deal so we can't speak on that right now, that's private information. And the Black Fuzz album, which is probably what we're going to release at the end of the year, is in negotiation right now with all the major labels in the game. So right now we're in a position where all the four majors are bidding on us, and it's gonna be funny because the very same label that we severed our ties with is in fact indirectly the same label that may in fact put this album back out again -- after they paid for it and let it go, they 'bout to pay for it again! Ain't that a b*tch?
Are you guys working on the new Erykah Badu album?
Yeah. In fact I just received my first bit of paperwork from the label today; that's funny you mentioned that, because right before I got on the phone with you I got on the phone with my lawyer confirming the producer declarations and all the agreements coming in for the work on the new record.
Yeah, I know your work on that album blew a lot of people's minds. Is your work on the new one going to be a continuation of that?
I would like to hope so. For anyone who doesn't know, the Associated Press listed her album as one of the best f*cking albums of last year.
This Nigga Need PC LoL!!!!! O.J Cant Take his Bid !!!
carcerated O.J. Simpson is living in fear behind bars because he's convinced his cellmate is plotting to kill him. The former football star was sentenced to serve at least 15 years in a Nevada prison last December (08) after his conviction for armed robbery relating to a September 2007 sports memorabilia heist.
He is serving his time at Lovelock Correctional Center as he awaits progress on his appeal, but according to the National Enquirer, Simpson is terrified his cellmate is plotting to take revenge on him for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson-Brown.
The retired sportsman was cleared of killing his ex and her friend Ron Goldman in 1995, but the shamed star is allegedly fearful he will become the target of a revenge attack.
According to the tabloid, Simpson has told pals, "My cellmate is nuts. He's a killer, and he hates me. He told me that he is in prison for murder and rape, and he hates my guts because I got away with murdering my ex-wife.
"He's told me he is going to strangle me in my sleep the first chance he gets."
Friends of Simpson are worried The Naked Gun star is gradually being driven to insanity and are concerned he will not survive his prison stint.
An insider says, "I think O.J. is finally losing it. If he has to stay in prison for a long time, he won't make it."
Simpson is due back in court on 3 August (09) when a judge will decide whether to grant him bail pending his appeal
Friday, July 24, 2009
Scarface 4 Life (Incarcerated Scarfaces) [Full 42 Min Documentary] So U Think U tough!!! U wanna Go to Jail see this shit!!
This Is Old by the way but i thought u should see it!!!!
Gully: Thug Pulls Out A Gun & Still Gets Jumped By Group Of Skaters!
If u Pull Out Bust That Shittt!!!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: Judge Orders Nas to pay $55,000 a month to Kelis Damn!! Esco
TMZ reports:
Kelis just hit the jackpot in court today -- a judge awarded her a ton of money in her bitter divorce battle with estranged hubby Nas.
A judge decided Nas has to pay Kelis $55,000 a month in combined spousal and child support -- plus the mortgage on their L.A. residence.
Nas also has to pay Kelis -- who gave birth last night to the couple's only child -- for the baby nurse, prenatal expenses and medical insurance.
The rapper also has to pay $35,000 to his worst nightmare -- Kelis' lawyer, disso-queen Laura Wasser
Alfamega Sends A Letter To T.I. Asking For Forgiveness! [Photo Slideshow Of The 2 Page Letter]
This is some real shit!!!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
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