I bet you all thought I had died and disappeared. Not so. I spent the holidays enjoying my break with my family, being an idiot on Twitter, and not doing anything too intellectually taxing.
2011 was a record year. There were moments of unparallelled hilarity, and moments of deep sadness. Among all of these events, quite a few things stood out to me, and made 2011 one of the most memorable years of my adult life. Hopefully this doesn't get too ratchet, but if it does y'all will forgive me, right?
Brehs and brehettes, I listen to a lot of Hip Hop and Rap music. Now, I don't claim to be a Hip Hop Scholar, but I know like anyone else who grew up surrounded by hip hop and rap music that the sound is about the struggle. Used to be, the struggle was about growing up poor, black and in a constant state of flux surrounded by a world that didn't care about us. The struggle is different now, but no less poignant.
Unfortunately, some rappers sound like struggle. Not THE struggle, but struggle. That "I was supposed to get my Food Stamps on February first and here it is February thirtieth" struggle. I make random allusions to rappers who sound like struggle all the time on Twitter, but now I'm noticing that there are a lot of rappers out here who sound like they've been living under the expressway to the fifth circle of hell.
What follows is a list of 5 of the most StruggleTastic™sounding rappers I've ever heard spit bars or flow on a hook. Some of it works for them, but most of it definitely does not.
5. Planet Asia
Look at this dude. Looks like he smokes a lot of Black & Milds, huh? Check out the struggle below.
Seriously though, Planet Asia's voice is more like difficult progress than struggle. Dude sounds like one of those NOI cats who sells bags of fruit and the Final Callon the corner of Airways and Lamar in my hometown. Nothing too struggletastic here, though he brings to mind times back in the day of sitting in front of old Cadillacs on hot summer nights with dudes who smell like MD 20/20 and cheap cigars. Struggle Rating: 2/10. We done almost overcome.
Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is not to condone rape, or to argue for exoneration an attempted rapist. Javon Cooper's crime was deplorable, he deserves to be punished, and I am happy that Ms. Damon has found the strength to continue on in life. Every victim of a sexual assault deserves the best treatment, psychological and physiological, that they can get. This is merely an examination of the situation from my own point of view.
So, Mrs. Breh and I watch the Today Show almost every morning. It's a quality news program that manages to be entertaining and informative without feeling like heavy news consumption. And a lot of the hired talent isn't bad either.
This morning, though, we came across a story that really bothered us. Some might accuse me of racism chasing or something similar, and you might be right, but that doesn't stop me from being just a tad infuriated at either the Today Show producers and media at large (but that's another post), or at Javon Cooper, or Heidi Damon, or everyone involved.
There are so many blogworthy things that happened this week, but let's look at something that makes me smile.
Tricia Messeroux (T. Mezz) is a black photographer, married to a black man (!), who shoots small, adorable children-like creatures dressed up as pop culture icons.
Aside from coming up with a novel idea and getting mad exposure because of it, she features a whole bunch of kiddies of color in her work.
Still deep in the midst of finals, but I had to break my self-imposed exile to comment on Herman Cain's totally unexpected announcement to suspend his bid for the 2012 presidency following allegations that he supported a whole 'nother side chick while he was married to Miss Gloria. (Don't you feel like you should call his wife 'Miss Gloria'? I do.)
Second, whyyyyyy did Cain decide to ruin my entire internet on Saturday telling us that he was stepping out of the race when I already knew he would when this lady's allegations surfaced?
Y'all knew as much as I did, no matter how much America rallied behind Cain, he stood absolutely zero chance of making it anywhere near the White House, much less out of the primaries. Aside from the fact that he's blacker than all hell but decided to run a "post racial" campaign that only led to his authenticity as a black person being compared to Obama's, his debate performances were atrocious, and he has a tenuous understanding of foreign policy or economic strategy.
Really, I'm just mad at all of these MF's for wasting my time.
I hope you all had a crack-tastic holiday. I went home (to Memphis, duh) and kicked it tough with my brehs, so I'm Gucci.
However, while I was tripping the light fantastic, I didn't get any work done, and I'm paying for it now. Thus, a filler blog post. What's on you all's minds right now? Here's what I'm looking at:
Sometimes, stupidity is really damaging to people, and cannot be condoned. But sometimes, stupidity breeds awesome. This Thanksgiving, a massive amount of stupidity bred what could turn out to be a tiny speck of awesome.
I can't think of anything more terrifying than being pepper sprayed or tear gassed. When I was a kid, my dad took me to a Ku Klux Klan rally on the steps of the city court in Memphis. It was a largely peaceful protest...until tempers flared. Amidst the tumult of acrid words and tense bodies, someone threw an orange...then a bottle of vodka...I remember that particular missile floating right over my head, even to this day.
Then, tear gas. My eyes felt like they were burning clean from my skull, my face felt like I had doused it in lava. I was blind. I was twelve. I ran, leaving my father behind in an attempt to escape the tear gas.
Some could question the parenting skills of my father for taking me to such a place at that tender age...but I don't. The experience taught me more about race relations and the trials that I would have to face as a person whose ideals and very existence were an affront to the American way of being than any class or symposium or group of talking heads ever has.
Did the group of protestors in Memphis deserve to be gassed? Perhaps. It was a group of disgruntled minorities, people who had been trod upon their entire lives, listening to a group of entitled members of society go on about why they were treated in such a terrible manner. Things were almost destined to go bad, the amount of animus between the KKK and blacks is legendary. The Occupy movement doesn't fit into those same paradigms. Or do they? I'm not entirely sure yet.
What do I know? I know that still, then as today, the use of chemical control agents on largely peaceful groups a deplorable act. These men should not be allowed to continue as "protectors" of the public, when they respond with this measure of force to a group of people who are doing them absolutely no harm.
I wonder though, is casual act of personal terrorism attributable to the attitudes of men, or police? Or men as police?
Most of America (including this breh's household) is getting their entertainment rocks off by laughing at Nicki's personal rendition of bitches be trippin'.
Other groups of us abhor pop culture with every fiber of our beings, and are turning to the internets to fulfill our urges. So, if looking at J-Hud's culturally deplorable lacefront has caused you to switch your TV off, check out:
As anyone who follows me on twitter or G+ knows, I've recently moved to Nashville, the city of the perpetual white presence. I've had a hard time acclimating, but Mrs. Breh has done a lot to help. One of the things that she's put me on to is Nashville's rather amazing coalition of black artists and filmmakers.
While I was doing my usual "ooh, there's something interesting on the internet" break at work, I came across this indiegogo campaign for Robert L. Poole's thesis film, Brother's Keeper.
"When an inner-city high school prodigy finds himself
ineligible for a vital college scholarship, his last resort is to hold
court with a secret group of the city's most influential men. While
approval from this exclusive club would no-doubt guarantee free
admission to any college of Tim's choosing, it will come at the cost of a
brutal initiation."
Check the campaign video:
Looks like a definite deviation from the norm, and with a nod to Ralph Ellison'sInvisible Man to boot.
I know that when I get a few extra ends, I'm definitely gonna support Mr. Poole's ambition, Because Hollywood isn't about that fair representation of POC in film life, it's up to us to tell our stories. I'm all for it.
Was having an impromptu early moring convo with one of my homeboys, and he reminded me that it's Marvin's Day today! Now, several reviews of the album already exist, because most people got the album sometime last week.
This isn't a review, though. Nor is it an attempt from me to slander Drake. Too easy.
Welp, pour some out on the curb for my social life.
I'm get outta here so fast I leave a Black Breh shaped cloud of smoke. But before that, what do y'all think happens when you get about 70 hyper, intelligent, excited, axe-body spray drenched man-children in a small space and make them wait up to an hour to leave the premises with their purchases?
That's right. You get quotables.
What follows here are the top quotes of the night from last night's Midnight Release, statements either so weird or funny that I couldn't help but to post them here. So, while I'm waiting on the game data to install, here you go:
The days of your friendly neighborhood race-troll claiming black friends as an infallible excuse for not being a racist are long gone. These days, when a white person makes an insesnitive, inflammatory, or otherwise stupid racial comment on the internet, they pull from a tried and true arsenal of passive aggressive 2520 debate tactics. I've seen many a fellow well-meaning negro get caught up in the web of internet racial debate, and it makes me sad, y'all. It really does.
Fortunately, I'm here to help. After extensive research, I've come up with what are perhaps the top 3 "Now why would you misconstrue my calling you a porch-monkey as racism?" arguments that white people (especially those really thoughtful, non-racist ones) use on the internet, and how to combat them. (I don't cover straw men and other hallmarks of bad debating, and you shouldn't either. Also, "I have a black friend/s" has been used to death, and I ain't talking about it no more.
Excuse me while my head and my desk make sweet, sweet love music. Ann Coulter, not one to really watch her mouth when talking about certain groups of people, went on the Joy Behar show to defend her "Our blacks are so much better than their Blacks" statement. After getting a little frazzled about punctuation, she goes on to say:
"The only racism you hear in America these days is against conservative blacks, and they are vicious."
There are so many *terrible* things I could say here, but I'll just pass on all of them. Instead, I'll leave you all with this:
I remember coming across the above video during my undergraduate studies. It changed the way I thought about personal finance, and cause me to seriously rethink my entire approach to money. This was in direct contrast to how my mother ran our household, which was by shuffling money and bill due dates until they could all be paid. Bills were sometimes deliquent, and other times they were paid in full, but the type of financial management system that my mother employed could be called a deficit spending model. When I developed an interest in public policy and government, I wondered often why the federal govenment couldn't just pay off our debt and put the country on a "lean times" economic plan until we were able to afford all of our pressing national expenditures. Now I know why we can't.
Some stuff just transcends history. Everybody in Akira had that dystopian swag that I find very alluring, and this jacket (and the bikes! Lawd!) were real standouts. Don't know what I'm talking about? Don't worry, the Esquire black book came out just a little while ago.
But if you dig anime fashion (and have about 70,000 yen handy), you can pre-order the Akira capsule jacket here.
and one of his (And, to be fair, President Obama's) leading platforms to gaining voters.
But it's Friday and nobody wants to think that hard (And I have a research project due this afternoon as well). So instead, I'll leave you with a political morsel of another sort:
It's Friday! Drink and be merry, N*ggas! (because if some people get their way, we won't be able to identify as anything but brown anymore.)
