HustleKnockin'

An ALL WHITE BASKETBALL LEAGUE? Sure, why not?!

A couple weeks ago, there's was some web outrage over the new WHITES ONLY Basketball League. 'Member that?  How bout now:


Taken from the AABA's Official Press Release:

The All-American Basketball Alliance announced in a news release Sunday evening that it intends to start its inaugural season in June and hopes Augusta will be one of 12 cities with a team.

"Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league," the AABA statement said.

Don "Moose" Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league's roster restrictions is not racism.

"There's nothing hatred about what we're doing," he said. "I don't hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."

Now, as you've noticed, I've refrained from getting all worked up over this story until now.

Why?

Well for starters, I wanted to take a few days and soake it all in before going for the obvious KKK jokes and speed-dialing Sharpton. In doing so, I realized a few things:

For starters I work in advertising (on occassion). As most of you know, advertising along with PR and marketing is a nearly 95% white male/white female run industry. Over the years, most folks in the advertsing world have been heard echoing Moose's sentiments as it relates to advertising and Black folks. (I've personally had white ad execs tell me to my face they didn't think Blacks werere competent enough ad-wise to excell in advertising.)

Point is, the concept of an intentionally all-white anything in 2010 pretty plausible and the want for it is way more present than most will ever admit.

Secondly, the more I thought about an all-white hoops league the more I remembered that at one point every major sports league in America from basketball to baseball to football to boxing was intentionally and legally "Whites Only". It took courageous black athletes enduring the worst types of bias to excel and dominate along with some changes in the law in order to break those barriers. So old Moose and his AABA aren't really that original in their idea.
 
But in today's society how could someone propose something like this? Well as Moose reminds us, a growing number of whites are feeling like minorities. Which is kinda funny given that whites are still over 60% of the country. I never heard of 60% being "a minority" of anything. But hey, I went to public school, so whaddoo I know?

But I get it, Moose "feels" like a minority. He wants an arena where white basketball players can dominate and bring back "fundamentals" and Bob Cousy length shorts or George Mikan-style shooting. (I doubt this is what Larry Bird had in mind when he said the NBA needs more White superstars. But who knows? I'm no mind-reader.) So be it.

But can this idea of basketball actually fly in 2010? Well if the ostate of ther sports leagues are any indication, the answer might be, "maybe".

Consider:

According to NHL.com the National Hockey League has about 947 players. Only 50 are self-identified as being non-white. In short, over 95% of the NHL is White.

According to the MLB, while its percentages of White, Hispanic and international players continues to rise, less than 4% of current major league baseball players are Black.

According to the PGA, there are no black or non-white US-born professional golfers currently on the PGA tour. (Way to go, Tiger!)

Now, if you move over to another popular sport—omen's professional tennis, there's Venus and Serena Williams and... um... Well, basically that's it far as Black American women tennis players go on the WTA tour. (Lord knows how them cursed Williams 'girls done screwed up tennis!)

As for Mens Tennis? Well, according to the USTA figures, there's Chicago teen prodigy Donald Young and.... Um... yeah.

Horse-racing? Well,believe it or not about 15 of the first 24 Kentucky Derby-winning jockeys were actually African Americans. But around 1910 or so, the sport banned black jockeys. You haven't seen a US-born black jockey since.

And how could we forget NASCAR? Well, there are no US-born Black drivers on the NASCAR circuit. ZERO. (So how's that 'Drive For Diversity' thing working, fellas?")

Figure Skating? Gymnastics? X-Games? Figures are hard to come by but based on what's shown on TV and the few events i've attended, you're liable to see more people of color working security at these competitions than actually participating in them.

All in all, most every major sport we see on TV the concept of a Whites Only Basketball league isn't as absurd as it sounds on first blush.

Obviously, I've saved the two most apt comparisons—the WNBA and the NBA—for last:

The NBA is fully integrated Obviously. But the league's doing all it can to "take the game global" which means more non-Black and more non-US born white players. And while it won't be fast enough for the AABA's tastes, sooner or later (or much later) US-born Blacks will be a minority in the NBA.

As for the WNBA? Assuming it's around 3 years from now, it too will proably have to go global in order to grow. But its growth problems have more to do with gender and sexual orientation acceptance than racial issues.

With that said, personally I think the AABA could work. I think there's a fanbase for it; not that they'll be loud and proud about it. But they'll support it if it can show a good product. Also I think there's enough sponsors willing to openly support such a thing. Again, look at NASCAR which makes 100s of millions in sponsorship deals from major brands despite being an exclusively white sport. And  trust me, there's not a single sponsor that's not fully aware that the absence of diversity in US auto racing  is all but intentional. But NASCAR and its sponsors smartly couch this as "south culture" & "middle america lifestyle" so they can dance around the white elephant on the track.

AABA's biggest problem will be talent. It's either gonna come in dorves or bunches or not at all. And  because of the money at steak and the AABA's lack of money, the big time white talent isn't going to the AABA over the NBA. Maybe in 5 or 10 years, but not in 2011.


So let's see what happens. Maybe this thing will work...

Long live the ghost of Larry Bird.

From my trip to San Francisco...

Shot this and edited it myself... 1st timer, so be gentle. Lemme know what you think:

THE DEATH OF ME IS COMING!!!

My guy Ahmad spits hard over those Drake, Cudi, and Jay beats! 'The Death of Me' coming soon. Now contrary to his rhymes, DEATH OF ME is dropping SUMMER 2010. Meanwhile, follow Ahmad on @ahmadWeClap on Twitter or check the links after the joint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eQSxp8Pi_0

Music Review: 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct

So Disrespectful:

An Early Review of 50 Cent’s
Before I Self Destruct

50 Cent is the Sylvester Stallone of rap. He’s that (older) dude who, once you hear his interviews and see how insightful and articulate he is about the process, the industry, and his personal interests and perspective about how to connect with audiences, you can’t help but wonder why the art he makes isn’t exponentially better.

Hey, I liked Rambo and Rocky but I didn’t need 19 of ‘em, with each worse than the first. I loved Power Of A Dollar and GRODT. But Curtis has been chasing that high since 1999 it seems. Which brings me to his latest joint:

Before I Self Destruct is the street album you wanted to hear right after Massacre and probably instead of the 5 mixtapes and albums he’s dropped since.

Obviously Fif’s never been the most nimble lyricist or the most floetic. But as BISD reminds, 50’s charisma is rooted in his bluntness. Fif doesn’t mince words; no fancy metaphors or symbolic allegories. He just muscles up and lays it out with aggression and indifference to feelings. And when the beat’s on point (as is the case with most of BISD), the results will make you more than a little nervous and fans excitable on principle—or possibility, if nothing else.

And that’s exactly what BISD does.

For 17 tracks, Curtis slings a flatbed’s worth of big cannon talk and big bully stomp over some of the most menacing sonic haze he’s been laced with in years. Lyrically, 50 remains the-survivor-turned-predator in a zero-sum ethos—take or get took. Hence every bar sounds like he’s picking a fight—industry execs, other artists (Game, Buck, Jigga…), bloggers, random haters, the streets… Fif’s at his best when he’s swinging.

Jay was probably right—no one’s afraid of 50 these days; but there’s still something problematic about a guy who recalls being molested in his youth with “My nanna said she raped me/I just smiled ear to ear saying “take me, baby!” That’s a guy who, $300 million in the bank or not, just might be serious when he tells you he’s pulling the guns out again, just for fun.

But 50 remains an observant fellow. Consider the Oran Juice Jones-esque tale of failed love, Do You Think About Me Ferrari laments: “It’s like Paul McCartney stuck in my head—he fell in love with a bitch/she walked away on one leg… She should have what she want/just not from me!”

As for the rest of BISD, expect to hear Get It Hot and Psyco (feat Em) all winter. (Em sounds like he’s warming up for another run.) Other BISD standouts include: So Disrespectful, Then Day Went By, Gangasta’s Delight, Crime Wave, Do You Think About Me, and Ok, You’re Right.

Overall Before I Self Destruct isn’t the end of 50—far from it. But it’s not his rebirth, either. It’s not the change of heart or even change of pace others hoped for. It’s Fif being Fif—ugly, blunt, street , hungry and swinging till he gets knocked out. Throughout, Fif maintains just enough charisma and talent to keep us coming back. Not in the numbers of his past successes, but BISD won’t crash—not without scorching a little more earth, first.

Before I Self Destruct drops Nov. 17th. For more, swing by ThisIs50.com

BlogWorld in Vegas: You Should Be Here...

Now granted, BWE probably won't be as sexy as a D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq joint, unless you're attracted to folks like Jermain Dupri, Anthony Edwards, big-time CEOs and social media movers and shakers--as we'll have a ton of those folks plus many more. Regardless, BWE will be a lotta fun. I hope to see y guys there!

Are you coming to BlogWorld in Vegas?

I know I've said this before but it's time for a daily reminder about BlogWorld + New Media Expo:

As a featured speaker at this year's Blog World + New Media Expo in Las Vegas! BlogWorld (www.blogworldexpo.com) features over 300 top social media and blogging-centric speakers from around the world!

We've got Don Lemon speaking from CNN. Mr. So-so Def himself, Jermaine Dupri. Guy Kawasaki... serious folks for sure. Then somehow they let me in... ugh!

Not only am I a featured speaker, I'm also a track coordinator. This year, I've set up 3 panels about my fave topic: Pop Culture/Entertainment+ Social Media! Specifically, here's what they're all about:

Silver Screen Optional: How Hollywood Connects thru Social Media

Content remains king online. Come see how major players in TV/movie studio business are using social media to launch shows, build audiences and deliver content to hungry audiences.

Reggie Miller, CEO ICED MEDIA


Big Music’s Second Life: How Social Media is Killing (and Saving) the Music Business.

Once seen as the enemy, major labels and artists are now embracing blogs and social media. Come see how social media is helping the music industry evolve and connect with audiences and consumers like never before.

Moderator: Theda Sandiford, CEO Miss Teda dot com LLC

Panelists:   Chief Xcel, co-founder Blackalicous, President Quannum Projects LLC
                        Jeremy Holley, Vice President digital media for Warner Bros.
                        Steve Koskie, co-founder/president DipDive, LLC
              
       
Turning The Page: How Social Media is Burning Up the Print Publishing industry.

In this session we go cover to cover with authors, book + magazine publishers to discuss the book + magazine publishing industries’ evolving relationship with bloggers and social media hitting such topics as Kindle + eBooks, content acquisition + aggregation the death of the Big Publishing paradigm and more!


Moderator:   Hadji Williams, author/publisher ProdigalPen Publishing

Panelists:     Matthew Donnelley, book consultant, Greenleaf Publishing
                          Raymond Roker, CEO/Publisher URB magazine/URB.com
                          Rich Antoniello, CEO/Publisher COMPLEX Magazine/Complex.com

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Will write more about blogworld in the coming days. meanwhile, visit www.blogworldexpo.com and follow them on twitter (@blogworld)!

How to Spot a Bad Mixtape Without Listening To It

How to Spot a Bad Mixtape Without Listening To It

By: Black Canseco                       

“Your tape sucks/find a new hobby to take up”—Xzibit

For about about 10 years now, I’ve been buying (and burning) mixtapes instead of listening to radio stations. They’re a nice way to keep track of what’s hot, who’s new and who’s putting in work in music. Now for the most part, it’s a crapshoot once you get past a couple core brand named-DJs and top artists; but still, mixtapes beat radio just about every time, in my book.

However, I can fill a refrigerator box and a 500G Harddrive with all the bad mixtapes I’ve owned. Looking back, the vast majority of the trash-worthy tapes I've owned all shared a handful of common attributes.  So I thought—just to help you out—I’d compile a list of what to avoid and to give DJs, labels, and artists some idea of what—for the love of God in heaven—to stop subjecting listeners to.

Enjoy:

1. More than Three Labels Are Involved in Its production.

These days it takes almost no money to drop a mixtape. Okay, it takes some; but if your label (or you and your boy) need more than one label/marketing partner just to get a mixtape out the door, then you haven't done enough to merit having a mixtape out yet. And trust me, all the music on these tapes accomplish is  to verify that you shouldn’t have made the tape in the first place.

2. Labels with Stupid Names are Involved.

Music should be fun, label names should be professional. When I see mixtapes from labels with names that have Z's where there should be S's, A’s where there should be ER’s, the N-word, names based on cartoon characters, old Scorsese flicks, etc. then you guys aren't serious and I know the tape’s gonna suck. Again, music is fun, but marketing your music is grown folks' biz. (I used a Z there, didn't I? I'll fix it b4 the album drops.)

3. People on the Cover that have nothing to do w/ the Music on the tape.

Covers are marketing. People need to know who you are/what your brand is about. For most, this is the first and only time they'll see your brand in person without seeing you live—assuming you don't get big off some corny dancing thingy you just shot for YouTube.

Meanwhile, I don't need your weed man, this affiliate, that guy... random crews... I don't even want to see the guy who fronted you the cash to finish the mixtape on the cover of the mixtape. (Because if that guy's smart he knows that you and not him is what ultimately has to sell the music. So if he still wants on the cover, tell him to keep his money.)

4. Strippers/booty chicks.

It's a mixtape not a BET video. Nobody and I mean nobody buys or downloads a mixtape because there's a naked chick on the cover. (Say what you will about Coco and Darlene, but Ice-T could actually rap—and those were albums, pretty good albums, at that. And they were 10 years ago.)

5. Bad Photoshop.

If you don't care enough to design a decent cover, then take some appropriate-sized notepaper and a sharpie and write "Judge The Music Not The Cover by MC Such-n-Such" and call it a day. Anything's better than these godawful, too-bootleg-for-datpiff coasters you’re floating out here.

6. Gold Lettering/Old English Caligraphy.

It's called "typography"— and it matters. A lot. Learn it, please.

7. Jewelry.

You're doing mixtapes. You don't have jewelry. You can't afford jewelry. I don't want to see jewelry anywhere on the mixtape cover. If you can afford the jewelry you're showing off on your mixtape cover, then you've got a budget for a real album.

8. Fancy Cars.

Again, if you can afford the car on the cover of your mixtape, then you should trade it in, take the money and use it to drop an album.

9. Bonus Cuts.

Bonus cuts are for albums—a little reward for thinking you only got 15 sonds when you really got 17 or 18. But on a mixtape? C’mon. There’s nothing “bonus” about the songs at the end of a mixtape tracklist.

10. Guns & Grills are on the cover.

The image of an angry black male holding high caliber weapon hasn’t scared a hiphop fan since about 1998; it’s a just a dull stereotype now. So put away the gun. And while you’re at it, see a dentist about those fronts. I don’t care if your tape is dropping on October 31st and has a cannibalizing werewolf theme and your mixtape release party is being held at a country-ghetto hood-Halloween party in ATL… No more grills. Got it?

Bonus Cuts—more reasons your tape sucks without listening to it.

• Your Mixtape has Skits?

That it’s 2009 and not 1999 aside—you're not funny. You can't act. You shouldn't have to set-up or explain a song. Stop talking and give me the music already.

• Over 30 Tracks.

Less isn't always more but more is almost always as too much. If you haven't sold me on you after 15 or 20 tracks, 35 more won't help. And on the outside shot you've got 75 songs laying around that are so indistinguishably next-level good, chop that batch up into 4-5 tapes  and drop 'em over the course of a year or and build a little extra buzz for yourself.

• It’s the Sequel of a Sequel of a Sequel of a…

I know you got a deal on the studio time. I know you can rock until the tape pops. I know you’ve got a library’s worth of rhymes. I get it. But seriously, after Volume number… I dunno… “22”—enough already In fact, if you haven’t sold folks by the third release in the series, you need to move on.

We Gonna Hunt Chris Brown Tonight? (Video)

This is hilarity times 10, courtesy of Mr. Affion Crockett, aka the new Arie Spears aka the Black Frank Caliendo...

Now what makes this thing priceless isn't just the shots at Chris Brown—which are genius. It's not the attack on domestic abuse—it's needed. But it's the early shot at Jay's hypocrisy—folks remember Jay took a public swing at a woman in his younger Backstage/Vol. 1 days. Shawn forgot; Affion didn't.

Enjoy the video.

Talib Kweli: Eat To Live

Getting Out the Game: Omar Tyree

Omar Tyree Retires from Urban Lit

For the record, I never called my work “street literature” and I never will. When I began to publish ground breaking contemporary novels with Flyy Girl in 1993, and Capital City in 1994, I called them “urban classics.”

They were “urban” because they dealt with people of color in the inner-city or “urban” population areas. They were “classics” because I considered myself one of the first to start the work of a new era. But now, after sixteen years and sixteen novels in the African-American adult urban fiction game, I feel like the man who created the monster Frankenstein. Things have gotten way out of hand. So it’s now time to put up my pen and move on to something new, until the readership is ready to develop a liking for fresh material on other subjects.

To a degree, it now seems hypocritical for the man who self-published the first gold digger book with Flyy Girl, and the first drug-dealer book with Capital City, to turn around and cry wolf about a readership who— fifteen years later—seem stuck on the subjects. However, I never intended to remain on those same topics. And I didn’t. I moved on to cover a dozen other community issues through my work.

Lawd. Have. Mercy. It's cold in the D!

Now this one came as a result of seeing the video originally over at TSS. Just thought I'd share with you guys. (Shouts to Gotty and the crew.)

Martha Cooper Rocks!

Martha Cooper, grafitti

Meet Martha Cooper, graffiti documentarian…

She’s one of a countless number of sisters that don’t get there due in hiphop circles. She should; so I’m putting in my two cents for her acknowledgment.

Slavery By Another Name

Because it's worse than you think and needs to be known.

WHAT ABOUT "WHITE ETHNIC" CONSUMERS?!

 WHAT ABOUT ETHNIC WHITE CONSUMERS?!
 MULTICULTURAL MARKETING’S MOST INVISIBLE TARGET AUDIENCE
                                            By: Hadji Williams

Along with my career as an ad creative, I’m also a 7-year adjunct advertising professor at my alma mater. One of my more memorable students was “Lena”—a second-generation Croatian American and devout Muslim. When I asked her what she wanted to be when she graduated she said she wanted to open up a multicultural advertising agency—focused on European Americans like her.

Multicultural marketing for European Americans? Almost sounds like a contradiction in terms, on some visceral level.

Music Review: Invincible, the MC

A while back the folks over at Smoking Section were talking about gentrification—a fave topic of mine,along with underrated emcees and such. Then up came a young lady out of Detroit--or Royal Oaks, depending on which bio of hers you believe—named Invincible.

She sorta reminds me of a friend of mine in Amsterdam who rhymes a little something fierce... Anyway here's a cool song from here covering Gentrification in Detroit. It's pretty nice.

MC Hammer—Turn This Mutha Out

AfroPik.com is Bootsy-licious, baby!

Power to the Funky People. My guy Jimmy Smith, a legend in the ad world has launched one of the more fun blogs out these days---AfroPik.com Bootsy Collins is his co-pilot and they talk about some really goofy out there stuff. here's a clip. Check 'em out when u can!

Nas Marches on Fox. Introduces Pot to Kettle.

"All you old n***! time is up. We heard your voice, we saw your marching, we heard your sermons. We don't wanna hear that ... no more." —Nas.

Well, it looks like Nas decided to listen to these old ass negroes after all.

=====

NAS MARCHES ON FOX TODAY: Controversial rapper joins protest against on-air racism at 'Fixed News.'

Today Nas joined activists from ColorOfChange.org and MoveOn.org as they marched on Fox News headquarters in Manhattan demanding that the conservative network end what many have called a "pattern of racist attacks against Black Americans including presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle."

Nas helped deliver a petition bearing 600,000 signatures to the Fox News offices around 2pm Tuesday.

Josh Childress Bounces to Greece

First, Brandon Jennings, the No. 1 high school point guard in the country blowing off U of Arizona for about $300K a year to ball in Europe. Now you've got Josh Childress running and gunning for Greece.

It's official. Atlanta Hawks wingman Josh Childress signed a three-year contract with the Greek club Olympiakos on Wednesday.

Karl Rove Bounces On Congress! Media does nothing about it.