The Ownerz

Primo said that we should just lock it all down
See the bigger picture, so we can profit all around

I regularly hear the comment, "I need to have that song" (no humblebrag, RIP Harris).

My response is to share setlists. I have used a few methods: a list with purchase links, a YouTube playlist, a Spotify playlist, etc. The assumption is that the listener will use the information to purchase a physical or digital copy on their own.

Since I started posting the Spotify playlists, I realized that listeners are more than likely streaming the song or songs in question. And the vast majority are probably content. In this sense, 'having' a song is really just another way of saying, 'listening and checking off the list.' Access to consumption has become enough.

I know there's nothing revolutionary about this observation, but I mention it mostly because I occasionally feel it's not even worth mentioning a purchase link (unless there are no mainstream streaming options). Which seems irresponsible, because a number of musicians clearly value the purchase revenue (whether it makes any real business sense or not). It's an odd time where the perceived needs of the audience are being met in considerable disproportion to the needs of the artist.

I'll continue to push purchasing music from the artist, or at the very least from the artist's label, but fuck if this doesn't feel like swimming upstream.

Here, My Dear

Keys open doors

sintalentos - lady's firsts (mp3)

Yo-Yo: The I.B.W.C. National Anthem
Queen Latifah: U.N.I.T.Y.
Salt-N-Pepa: Shoop
MC Lyte: Cha Cha Cha
Roxanne with UTFO: Roxanne, Roxanne
Roxanne Shante: Roxanne's Revenge
UTFO with Roxanne Shante: The Real Roxanne
Salt-N-Pepa: Tramp
Sequence: Funk You Up
Erykah Badu w/ Angie Stone: Love of My Life Worldwide
MC Lyte: Paper Thin
Lil' Kim: Queen Bitch
Jean Grae: Hater's Anthem
Rah Digga: What They Call Me
Queen Latifah: Wrath of My Madness (DJ Premier Remix)
Da Brat: Funkdafied
Bahamadia: Uknowhowwedu
Digable Planets: Nickel Bags
Missy Elliott (w/ Mary J. Blige): My Struggles
Lauryn Hill: Doo Wop (That Thing)
Mary J. Blige: Real Love (Hip Hop Mix)
Richy Pitch (f/ Apani B. Fly MC): Day to Day
Eve: Satisfaction
Queen Pen: Party Ain't a Party
Mary J. Blige: Family Affair
Lauryn Hill: Lost Ones
Nas (f/ Lauryn Hill): If I Ruled the World (Instrumental)
Jay-Z (f/ Foxy Brown): Ain't No Nigga
Foxy Brown (f/ Method Man): Ill Na Na
Lil' Kim: The Jump Off
Lady Sovereign: Random
Jacki-O: Sugar Walls
Timbaland (f/ M.I.A.): Come Around
M.I.A.: China Girl (Diplo Mix)
Missy Elliott (f/ Ciara & Fatman Scoop): Lose Control
DJ Ayres: Broke Ass Home
Monie Love: Monie in the Middle
Queen Latifah (f/ Monie Love): Ladies First
MC Lyte: Lyte As a Rock

Hip-hop got took to town(-hall) -- no surprise. Hip-hop replied thoughtfully -- again, no surprise. But let's talk about Zen (and Zirin; I didn't forget about you!) for a moment.

In Chang and Zirin's concise piece/response, they touch on a couple important points in light of the latest anti-hip-hop hysteria: the good, as well as the bad, of hip-hop; and the lack of intergenerational dialog amidst these debates.

The first seems exceedingly obvious as it balances the bad. However, it is also essential for providing a complete picture. So often criticism favors flash-points and treats culture in extremes, black or white, in spite of our so-called po-mo world. The recent Virginia Tech shootings have received a similar treatment; in spite of its gross perversity and sheer horror, it was immediately vilified as another case of the other, an aberration from the American matrix that confirmed our need for anxiety, as opposed to an arguably preventable crash with inadequate intervention.

That last word, intervention, or perhaps better articulated as conversation, is the key to open the next door. Media frequently transmits this as conflict, or a not-so-subtle crossfire, as opposed to a meaningful conversation with tangible affect (besides raising one's arms in the universal I-Win! gesture, or slouching one's head in the proverbial loser's pose). Admittedly, Oprah's townhall format took the appearance of intergenerational/interracial/inter-gender/inter-categorical conversation. Young women from Spelman College, whom we assume to be members of the hip-hop generation, speak about their disaffection, shortly after octogenarian Maya Angelou calls out Rush Rush. Common, that emcee who has bridged the Gap in every sense, admitted complicity. But the show was more show, a spectacular opportunity to point and scapegoat more than an actual consideration of shared complicity in creating culture. C'mon, Oprah of all people -- a Black woman who has struggled against immense odds to achieve the success she has attained -- should know the greater power of the check-signer over the check-recipient; and I know she's had a chat with Chris before. Pardon me, John, but perhaps the saying should have been, "Ask not just what your culture can do for you, but also ask what you can do for your..." But do you hear me 'doe?

Obviously, this is a much larger topic, so I'll be covering some aspects here, some aspects at Popmatters, and others elsewhere. In the meantime, here's a blend to stew on (pardon the roughness; this was a first take with almost no prep), especially for my ladies: here, my dear.

PS - Title explanation. First verses from songs by or featuring ladies. Not the first verse they wrote or recorded, just the first verse from the song itself... fudged on occasion, of course.

PPS - Dig my new old friend, Lily Kane (no relation to Danity, thankfully). By the way, I know I missed Women's History Month, but, really, I am looking into the sore lack of female representation on my blahg-roll...

Momma, I'm So Sorry

Not just a trademarked segment of Le Show

The Easybeats - "Sorry"
(Purchase here)




YZ - "Thinking of a Master Plan"
(Purchase here)



Whoa. Reparations, I've heard of. Disambiguation, related but hardly the same ballgame. And though there is precedent for basic apologies, there are still enough unresolved ones to make Virginia's apology for its role in slavery notable. The public acknowledgment that government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history" is remarkable not so much as a resolution, but as a progression in the conversation about this country's history and present ramifications.

As the resolution notes, "the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding." Don't get it twisted, as the present is hardly peaches'n cream. Biochemical Slang pointed out this recent poll on American attitudes toward Black History month (unsurprisingly, most every non-Black person found the month to be a token gesture as opposed to raising awareness; although, in fairness, those two options seem rather vague, in spite of the bluntness), suggesting that we need a lil' more to keep the conversation on race rolling.

So, you ask, what did I do this past weekend?

A couple documentaries have been on my mind: Byron Hurt's Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes and Raquel Cepeda's Bling'd: Blood, Diamonds and Hip Hop. I'll save the full spiel as I go into greater detail in my upcoming Popmatters column. However, I'll say this: kinda meh on both efforts, but happy they're out there, token or not, to keep the convo going. And, most important, both make clear that hip hop/blackness is not the boogieman; the blood of commerce and social ills is on all of our hands.

So, as another Black History Month passes, I am thinking of a master plan for everybody, not just my brothers and sisters, man.

Ashy Wednesday

Courtesy Talya D.

Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song" (mp3)
(Purchase here)



Beastie Boys - "A Year and A Day" (mp3)
(Peep Oh Word's fantastic recap of my favorite MCA track; purchase here)



Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions - "Keep On Pushing"
(Purchase here)




"The sustainability of social change movements... is not a function of personalities; it's a function of process and organization. And when we understand that, that is when we will really begin to put our house in order."
~ Bruce Gordon, State of Black America 2007 (via Notes, via Prometheus6)

Coming down the mountain, one of eight children, I found myself reconsidering opinions, cashing out, and tuning in. See, this President's Day weekend I traded two Jacksons (thanks again, bee) for minus 13 degrees and a break from the rat race. See what a little subzero weather and reduction of priorities to basic necessities can do for the soul? And Clemens had the gall to call Annie Sullivan a "miracle worker" ~ just give me the freeze...

While driving back to thoughts of a Swedish massage shower, I put it together with a fellow hiker: the multiplicity of identity, the length of the average modern resume, and the unimportance of ego. Case in point? Urban Word, an organization that may actually be about its constituency: the keeeds. By enabling, coordinating, and promoting the teenager's creative process, the organization takes direction from its own students. In order to have a future, the group recognizes it must be mutable and know when to let go.

Granted, UW is a small organization experiencing growing pains and adjusting accordingly. In other words, its size almost permits flexibility. So, imagine my exhilaration to return home and watch Bruce Gordon, President and CEO of NAACP since August 2005, articulate the same thought at the State of Black America conference. As Prometheus6 says, regardless of one's opinions of the man or his organization, you can't step to what he's saying:

Friends, this is real talk that applies to all of us. Awareness of action. Release of the self/ego. Consciousness of being. The danger of the Fuck You, Pay Me ethos is, well, you're telling someone to shut the eff up and pay you. Compensation trumping conversation. No conversation means no relationship. And without relationships, how are we to build that coalition to save our funky azzes? Fortunately, this paradigm is available to all from the top to the bottom. So even when George and Trent stray from the path to the promise land, that doesn't mean we have to sulk and gasface. People get ready, there's a meeting out yonder...

A couple shouts for the weekend:

• The First M.E.E. (Media Expression Education) Festival runs from February 23 (tomorrow) to February 25. Lots of performance, including the annual slam at BAM on Saturday February 24, run by the aforementioned Urban Word folks. Also loads of workshops and panels, including "When the Gun Draws: Addressing the Epidemic of Gun Violence and the Propaganda Behind It." Simon says, "Attend!" because Pharaohe Monch will be on the panel (and dude has something to say on the topic):
  
  Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School (BCAM) Auditorium
  70 Tompkins Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206
  Friday, February 23
  2-3:30pm
  
  
• The Fourth Annual NYC Grassroots Media Conference:
  Media and Movements Beyond Borders is poppin' on Saturday, February 24 over at the New School. Of note, "BGirls, Battles, & Breakin' Barriers: Young Women's Hip Hop Activism in Brazil and Beyond" is a session being co-led by Leah King from 10-11:30am that will melt your face. For full schedule, peep at the jump.