HustleKnockin'

KNOCK THE HUSTLE BOOK REVIEW

A couple months ago, Mark Trueblood did a review of KNOCK THE HUSTLE. (Yeah, some people are still reading that damn book; go figure.) So here's his review, as-is, unedited. If you want to know more on Mark, visit Mark Trueblood here.:

KNOCK THE HUSTLE Review by Mark Trueblood

I first read Hadji Williams’ Knock The Hustle about three years ago, and enjoyed it. But after re-reading it recently, it's clear to me that Hadji was really ahead of the curve on some important concepts and trends when he wrote it. The following may not sound like a traditional book review. I’m just reacting to the themes in the book that really jumped out at me.

First, a little background. According to his book, Hadji grew up in a hardworking blue-collar family in some of Chicago's tougher neighborhoods. He ended up becoming a copywriter, and working at well known agencies in Chicago and elsewhere. Through his career, he eventually learned that the business world and the world he grew up in had something in common. They were all about the Hustle.

In the first part of the book, Hadji tells stories from his career that illustrates the hustle in the corporate world. If you've worked in advertising, you have worked with people exactly like he describes, and experienced the agency culture (or lack thereof.)

What I got out of this was that agencies, especially the bigger and badder ones, are set up to extract the most amount of money they can out of your brain, while compensating you as little as possible. And this hustle takes many forms. Sometimes they scare you and make you feel small. Other times they promote an indulgent and ego-driven culture. But in the end, they're trying to hustle you, both by limiting your opportunities for growth and by making you grateful for being treated as less than you're worth. This resonates with thoughts about Corporate America from Seth Godin’s recent masterwork Linchpin.

Personal comment: The advertising industry is peculiar in that the biggest and fastest-growing agencies are almost never the ones that consistently pump out the best ideas or get the best results. Often the most effective growth is focusing on being a creative wrist and a vendor for your clients most of the time, with thought leadership only happening in the upper end of projects.

The second thing that jumped out to me about Hadji's book is his convincing argument that Corporate America has managed to milk black and urban culture for all it's worth, without actually listening to black and urban persons. There is no doubt that Black culture has had the most impact on American culture in the last century, more than any other culture. It would seem to be a given that the advertising industry would be eagerly looking to immerse themselves in authentic Black culture, and recruit African American talent. Well clearly, this isn't happening. Not only are ad agencies and corporate marketing departments very homogenized, the authenticity of black culture is constantly overlooked in favor of the stuff that sells in suburbia and in corporate boardrooms.

Personal note: Despite that I've only worked in very small agencies, I've had the blessing of working with many talented folks from Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Diverse cultural perspectives = inspiring work environments and unique ideas. Give your agency this blessing.

Now for the happy stuff. The second part of the book is where Hadji really stands out, because he was way ahead of the crowd on some of his concepts. The first is the idea of Tribes. Tribes, as a way to understand disparate subcultures, are somewhat well-known now. But when Hadji first published Knock The Hustle, it was a pretty new idea.

 So, Hadji breaks down his thoughts on Tribes. As people get more ability to avoid mainstream trends and culture, and tune into their own thing, they will happily do so. And tribes, as we all know, are going to listen to their most influential members when they want to get informed and inspired. Therefore, the new way to market brands is going to be a lot less about blasting the lowest common denominator to millions and more about really trying to step in the shoes of a Tribe's perspective. Be humble, be open-minded, and above all respect the Tribe. If you can engage with the warlords or shamans of a particular tribe, all the better.

Lastly, Hadji gives advice to those of us who'd like to market more respectfully, build creative businesses, and prosper, all while being able to look ourselves in the mirror.

I read a lot of advertising and marketing books, and this is one of the best ones for sure. It’s available in print or in E-Book versions. In fact, the Kindle edition is only $1.99. That’s an easy decision.

African-American and Hispanic Twitter usage is really, really high!

This comes courtesy of Emarketer.com and Rick Calvert at BWE! It confirms what many of us already knew and further challenges the emerging practice of cutting ethnic budgets in favor of increasing digital budgets.

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Why Twitter Is a Ripe Target for Multicultural Marketers

MAY 5, 2010

Evidence from Edison Research’s “Twitter Usage in America: 2010” survey suggests that marketers targeting multicultural audiences would do well to note the service’s diverse ethnic makeup.

Edison found that African-Americans make up nearly one-quarter of the US Twitter population, twice their share of the total population of the country. eMarketer estimates non-Hispanic African-Americans make up just 11% of US Internet users. Hispanics were also overrepresented on Twitter, at 17% versus 13.4% of the US Internet population.

In contrast, whites make up more than 69% of Internet users but about one-half of Twitter users...

For more on the study and article, click here.

Dear Paradise Gray...

An Open Letter to Paradise Gray:

Mr. Gray,

Recently you took offense at my post of your brother-in-arms JasiriX’s latest music video “Dear Debra,” and expressed your displeasure by flooding Twitter, Hustleknockin.com and other sites with assorted slams against me. So now it’s my turn to respond:

First off, you called my post a “lame attempt at journalism”.

Well Paradise, you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m a professional writer, a published author and a long time op-ed columnist with national online readership. The one thing I am not is a journalist. I’ve never been a working journalist nor have I ever claimed to be a professional journalist.

Secondly, Hustleknockin.com is not a news site nor has it ever been positioned as a news site,;though it does feature discussions of news and current events. HK.com is first and foremost a promotional outlet for my book KNOCK THE HUSTLE. (The KTH book covers in the side columns, allude to as much.) HK.com is also an outlet for opinions, music reviews, and related topics that I and HK’s guest writers find interesting. Which brings me to Jasiri X:

I posted Jasiri X’s video as a favor to a friend—something I rarely do when it comes to musicians. Your response represents a big reason why I don't do it very often; but I’ll get to that in a sec.

Now when I was asked to post “Dear Debra” I wasn’t familiar with it. But I watched it, liked it and I thought my readers should see it. I qualified the video with my regret that Jasir X is not a nationally known artist, which was unfortunate because the song had a good message that would’ve benefited from a platform that a bigger artist could’ve provided.

Consider back when Nas said “hiphop is dead”: Was Nas the first artist to say this? Hardly.  He wasn't even the most recent figure to say it. But Nas was the most famous to say it; consequently hiphop's "death" became a cultural meme and a point of national discourse.  It’s not who starts a movement or who puts in the most work. It’s who can you get to join and champion a cause with you that makes the difference.

When I wrote, “If you want Debra Lee or anyone part of the hiphop music media establishment to hear this, you’ve gotta be part of the establishment." People have been criticizing BET for years yet the only folks BET listens to are major music outlets and advertisers. (Ask Aaron McGruder how his one-man war against BET was going until major outlets/figures joined in.)

Also, claiming that had I “googled Jasiri X I'd know more about him” only further cements my point: If people need to google you because they have no intuitive top-of-mind-awareness of you, then the lack of awareness is as much on you as them.

As for  sharing pics of Jasiri X with Obama, Russell Simmons, etc. as proof of his status:

So what?

I’ve taken pics with famous people and it doesn’t validate me as a writer. People don’t read my book or my blog because I’ve been photographed with Fortune 500 CEOs and famous athletes. They do so because they like what I write, which is why I don’t post those kinds of pics—I’ve got nothing to prove. I would imagine Jasiri X’s rep works the same—people like his music, not his photo-ops.

To that end, there’s no shame in not being famous or in being an underground artist as I called Jasiri X. It doesn’t make his work or his art any less artistic or of an inherently lower quality.  But you seem to think it does, hence your attacks.

And to your question: if Davey D or Jeff Chang had written KNOCK THE HUSTLE it would 've easily sold more books and gotten more press as those men have higher profiles than I; which again, you proved my point of how the messenger's status influences how the message spreads.

Mr. Gray, here’s a suggestion:

Instead of attacking bloggers who are actually interested helping spread Jasiri X’s music, try saying to those bloggers, “Thanx for posting Jasiri X’s work—here’s his latest project. Check it out. Also, we're available for interviews as we'd like to further engage your audience about Dear Debra and related subject matter."

You’d be amazed by the number of online outlets that would be willing to talk with both of you and share your work with their readership if you approach them without insulting them for no good reason at all.

Just a thought.

Meanwhile Mr Gray, despite your personal attacks,  I might post Jasiri X’s videos again—if I think they’re as good as “Dear Debra” because good music needs as many outlets as possible these days.

But make no mistake: your rants and attacks will do Jasiri's and your own message way more harm than good among the online music community.

Life After Print: URB Magazine 2.0

Over the past year or so, I've corresponded a lot with Raymond Roker, founder of URB magazine, the seminal music culture mag out of LA. We've talked about music, business, publishing, politics, etc. In every conversation, I've found Roker to be an articulate thoughtful and insightful dude. To that end I wanted to share this piece he wrote, courtesy of HuffPo. It's espcially prescent given that Roker will be a panelist at BlogWorld Expo in las Vegas where he be discussing publishing future in a social media age.

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Life After Print: URB Magazine 2.0
By: Raymond Leon Roker

If I had written a decade ago that my 19-year-old music and culture magazine URB was "taking a hiatus from print," it might have taken a few weeks for the news to spread. But my emailed notice about our 159th issue being distributed as a "digital magazine" was made last week. And word of our sudden break from paper and ink spread almost immediately. I was once again reminded of the unmatched and unmerciful power of the World Wide Web.

While many have quickly lamented URB's changes or reminisced about our long legacy, there is also an unfortunate feeding frenzy on even the hint of print's presumed, imminent demise. News of defunct magazines and newspapers seems to come as often as celebrity deaths this year. And admittedly, in the publishing game, a hiatus is as convincing as a Jay-Z retirement promise. Gawker simply ran the headline: "URB Suspends Print Edition," while at least one "shock blogger" seemed to be gleeful. Another magazine biting the proverbial dust was the translation, no matter how we tried to spin it.

But while the cynics will always have their blog time, this isn't the bad old days when a magazine was only worth the paper it was printed on. Call me crazy, but any brand worthy of its audience -- and able to find a sustainable financial model, which is not a simple task -- has a totally viable future these days as an online destination. But it does take some pretty radical retooling. Most in the magazine industry have, to put it mildly, been slow at figuring out how to succeed as digital brands. Our industry isn't just bleeding from a shift in media habits, our injuries are a good part self-inflicted. Play rochambeau with only paper and you eventually lose.

And while I still contend that print is not dead (it's dramatically right sizing to fit the new landscape), the medium is clearly an analog stowaway in increasingly digital waters. For some, that's a thin distinction. And there's little argument that the arcane act of using tons of paper as your primary source of disseminating information is dying. At this point, print should be seen as a complement to digital, not the other way around. Even people who say they love the the idea of print are themselves waning consumers of it. Ask them how many magazines they still read or subscribe to. Paper is sure to be around for a long time, but its hegemony over periodical communication has been over.

Friday, on Twitter, I quipped: "If every DJ I know can ditch vinyl and go MP3, we [URB] can go Web and just pull the print out for tribute sets." What I meant was that we no longer wanted to be tethered to legacy media while everybody else was all-digital, all the time. Print magazines, which may remain a great medium for special occasions, are becoming the vinyl DJs in an MP3 world: often admired, but definitely behind.

Most magazine publishers, if they were being honest, would tell you they wished their brands could be as nimble as their online competition. But there is no way for over-staffed, high-rent, advertiser-beholden, slow-moving print media to keep pace with svelte and free-thinking digital operators. More often than not, we in the beloved and bemoaned print brotherhood are losers online. Even the sure path to fame on our covers has been hot wired by acts of online promotion or a good review on Pitchfork.

Still, my reasons for pressing pause on the printed part of our business was almost as personal as it was pragmatic. And it was, by no means, an easy decision to come to. A more by-the-numbers owner might have transitioned long before this with the gulf between print and online media widening for several years now. But in recent months, my own passions and interests have boiled over and I became eager for creative outlets that weren't beholden to a 9"x11" sheet of paper.

As much as I love magazines (my house is a shrine to them), I've become absolutely fanatical about the wild west of the Interweb. In 2009, with the further maturing of social media, I started to feel like I did back in URB's halcyon days. The limitless potential of the social Web burns as brightly for me as the dawn of pixels and font design did years before. There is a definite continuum from URB's original mission, tools and tactics to where we find ourselves right now.

The world has reset, as if I needed to tell you. And with that giant rebooting comes incredible opportunity. Along with, of course, a big case of WTF. I find both are great conditions to explore in. History has taught me that knowing the answers -- or thinking you know -- is death. But having unlimited questions, that's life. I'm as curious today as I've ever been. And it's time to be inspired by new ground and new challenges. Leaving behind a chunk of our past success -- the printed page we knew all too well -- was essential.

Admittedly, any post-print brand trying to make a case for a paperless digital future has to convince a skeptical audience. We have grown up with publishers that did one thing really great: distributing entertainment and information on dead trees. How coveted print magazines become must-visit Web and mobile brands is a developing story with far more failures than successes as evidence. But even knowing this, I couldn't be more excited about what the leap beyond ink and paper means for URB. From viral video, to expanding our coveted Next 100 list, to live Webcast of music events, our plan is to step into our 20th anniversary next year with the same brashness and indie bravado we had on day one. And, yes, even back into print whenever it makes sense.

The real-time Web is technology I couldn't have remotely imagined when URB began. But looking back, we were shifting our own paradigms of the day. For our readers, we were a de facto blog long before the term would be born. Our pages were the first to spread the word about emerging bands, artists and DJs. The record reviews we printed shifted album sales much like a Pitchfork review moves the iTunes needle today. Our club and event pages were The Cobra Snake of their time. And we were a rowdy town hall, from our letters pages to our rant-ready voicemail number, where readers would spout off about last night's party. In southern California in the '90s, URB magazine was where the coolest of the cool kids spent their time. But that was then. And in the current fight for online audience, magazine brands need much more than nostalgia working for them.

If I think about it, URB might never have even been printed had the WWW been around in 1990. Our mission was and is to document progressive music movements, (re)present culture in a beautiful and deserving manner and incite conversations. But it was never solely about the medium. Back then, in a world dominated by immense cost barriers to publishing, we hijacked the best technology on the shelf just as it became affordable for the proletariat. At the time, it was a $3000 Apple II and a clunky laser printer. Today it's an iPhone and a Tumblr account. In the early days, our masthead read, "Exploit technology before it exploits you." So with that, here's to the next adventure.

I'd love to know what you think about media, what I wrote, and what's next. Leave a comment here and/or email me. You can follow me on Twitter @raymondroker and URB @urbmag. The all-new URB.COM is launching later this month so please sign up for updates.

Chillax Homseskillet! Racism + Liquor go good together

In the category of YouCan'tBeSeriousOhButYouAre…

The following campaign is a series of outdoor ads for Chicago-Lake Liquors, a liquor store in Minneapolis. (It’s on the corner of Lake and Chicago streets, hence the name.) The store is located in a "ghetto-fabolous" (as one blogger put it) area of Minneapolis. In other words, CL Liquors is in a lower-economic class black neighborhood.

So you've got a liquor store in a black neighborhood looking to up its profile in harsh economic times. What do you do to break thru and get the people talking and drinking? *Cue stereotypical racist liquor ads*:

I swear these are real ads. Not even St. Ides' work was this bad. I guess I'd be mad except I've been in the ad world for 17 years and once again, i tell you that this is nothing new. What passes for cultural insights, humor and irony is largely bottom of the barrel laziness and middle class white boy arrogance disguised as "creative" and "strategy". Agencies produce this crap, media outlets take money for running it, clients fund it and all consumers can do is like it or not.

But I gotta give 'em credit for one thing—carrying the concept thru from print to TV (not always an easy task.). Here's the TV blight on the community I mean, "spot":
 

Priceless. Just watching that makes me wanna drown my sorrows and brain cells in a few pints of Guiness.
Now while I couldn't find the agency responsible for any of this trash (maybe it was done in-house/freelanced out), I did manage to find this guy:

This is John Wolf—owner of Chicago-Lake Liquors. No by what few accounts I've found thru research, John's a nice guy, tries to give back to the community, etc. No evidence of him being a bigot or even sharing the beliefs portrayed in the ads of the company he's touted as owning.

But this kind of stupidity at least needs to be questioned. In fact I tried doing that on other blogs and it's amazing the number of self-identified whites and ad industry folks who found this work to be "no big deal".

You can reach John at:

Chicago-Lake Liquor Store
825 E Lake St
Minneapolis, MN 55407-1588
612.340.1110 or 612.825.4401

Give John a call. pay him a visit on your next beer run and ask him or the customers what they think of this sorta work.

Study Links Teacher Movement to Influx of Black Students

You're gonna love this one...

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Study Links Teacher Movement to Influx of Black Students
EducationWeek.com

The best teachers tend to leave when their schools experience an influx of African-American students, according to a study of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., school district published today.

C. Kirabo Jackson, an associate professor of labor economics at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., studied patterns of teacher movement in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools between 2002 and 2003, which was when the 137,000-student district ended its long-running policy of busing students to keep schools racially integrated. His results, published in the Journal of Labor Economics, show that, at all levels of schooling, high-quality teachers—both black and white—were more likely to switch schools as the policy change began to take effect and student populations shifted.

“I’m not showing that teachers don’t like black students,” Mr. Jackson said. “I’m showing that, when you substantially change the makeup of the student population, teachers react in this way.”

A growing body of research has found that students in schools with high concentrations of poor students and students from minority groups tend to have teachers who are considered, on average, to be of lower quality than teachers in better-off suburban schools. And a handful of studies also suggests that, in states such as New York and Texas, teachers have tended to move from those disadvantaged schools to more affluent ones.

According to Mr. Jackson, though, it’s been hard to home in on the reasons for those teacher-migration patterns. For instance, were teachers moving to schools out of convenience, so that they could be closer to their own suburban homes, or for higher salaries, or because they were drawn to certain types of students, such as high achievers or students from white or wealthy families?

Mr. Jackson said his study offers a better handle on those questions because he was able to track the changes that occurred before and after the busing policy ended and correlate teachers’ movement to changes in student demographics. When the policy changed, the racial makeup of some schools changed suddenly, yet the neighborhoods surrounding those schools essentially remained the same.

The researcher measured teacher quality in three ways: years of experience, scores on licensure exams, and teachers’ “value added” scores, showing how much their students’ achievement scores improved over the course of a school year.
Patterns More Nuanced

His findings don’t suggest that Charlotte-Mecklenburg teachers were flocking, across the board, to the whiter schools. Even though the best of them were leaving, African-American teachers, overall, were more likely to stay in the schools experiencing a large inflow of black students. Likewise, the average white teacher in those schools was no more or less likely to leave as black students migrated in.

“It’s just a difference in the type of teacher leaving,” Mr. Jackson said. “There are teachers who have preferences for low-income, ethnic-minority students and others who do not. They are simply kind of re-sorting themselves.”

He calculated that, for the average school with a student population that is 60 percent black, a 15 percent increase in the number of African-American students translates to a .3 standard-deviation drop in teacher quality. That effect is about the same size, he said, as the boost in achievement that students might get from reducing a class of 23 students by two to three students, or from having a more experienced teacher vs. a novice. He said it could also explain between 3.3 percent and 7.5 percent of the achievement gap between black students and their higher-performing white peers in the district.

“An important implication of these findings is that policymakers should be cautious when advocating policies such as vouchers, school choice, district consolidation, or school busing that require the reshuffling of students across schools,” the study concludes, because the resulting shifts in student population might also lead to shifts in the quality of teachers.

Whether the teacher-movement patterns in Charlotte-Mecklenburg would be typical of other large, urban school systems is unclear.

In a series of studies looking at teacher mobility in Texas, Eric Hanushek, a senior education fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, found that teachers tended to move to whiter, higher-achieving schools as their careers progressed, but that the teachers who moved were not necessarily the best in their schools, as measured by their value-added scores.

“How much is due to circumstances in one district or another is an open question right now,” Mr. Hanushek said. “We’re just starting to build the right kind of evidence now about what’s behind teacher labor markets, and that’s really important.”

AOL pays dumbass Ad Guy $3 million for 10 weeks work

So ad exec Gregory Coleman gets hired by AOL to run their advertising network division, aka "Platform A". The CEO who hires him gets canned about 3 months later. Coleman gets fired.

His compensation for 10 weeks of work?

$3 million. Cash. Plus health benefits. Swear to God. In fact here's a picture of Mr. Coleman telling COBRA to suck his AOL:

Couldn't make this crap up if i tried. Check the link for more. (click here)

Now keep in mind AOL is run by the same geniuses who co-orchestrated the worst merger in corporate history in AOL+TW back in 2000. Tho like Coleman, everyone's gone and walking off with fat severances for their pain and suffering.

In honor of more AOL incompetence, and the absolute balls of G. Money Coleman to take money he knows that he couldn't have possibly deserve to earn not even during the 10 most product weeks of his life, I leave you with the mighty, mighty O'Jays.

Meanwhile, AOL/TW customers are still stuck with crappy dial-up, overpriced cable service, dull content and irrelevant homepages.

Limited Edition 2010 Camaro Bumblebee announced by GM

Limited Edition 2010 Camaro Bumblebee announced by GM

GM has just announced to its dealers via live broadcast of the availability of a limited edition 2010 Camaro Bumblebee version.

Here are some details:
– Available for order starting June 1
– Production run will be June 24 through December.
– Color: Rally Yellow (no custom paint, bummer) with black bumblebee stripes
– Transformers badging on wheel centers, sill plates and embroidered console lid
– Available in LT or SS models will not actually transform ;)

Okay, this has been around for a couple weeks or so, but it stuns me every time I see it. Chevy Camaro is actually dropping a vehicle based on… a toy.

That’s right, kiddies—billions in record losses, mediocre marketing efforts, fleets of cars that nobody wants to buy and Chevy’s solution?

“Let’s do that Transformers thingy.”

Great… a car based on a car that turns into a robot.

Yeah, because when I need to spend my hard earned $25-$40K on my primary source of transportation that I expect to last 10 years the first thought that goes thru my head is talking robots.

Why not make a new Chevy truck based on Barbie or American Girl? Women drivers will love it! As for your overpriced Chevy Volt, why not call it “Magneto” and model it after the next X-Men Movie. I know millions of people are dying for a Wolverine SUV.

Good lord… How much money did Obama give these people again??

Now I rag on Chevy because I’m one of the few ad folks who’s worked on all three of the Big Three. At one point in my career, I grinded on Ford—helped launch the Ford Focus back in 98/98… I’ve Pitched Chevy, worked on GM as a freelancer… Also worked on Nissan and Mercedes Benz. I been around the car game for years. I know how these people work.

And lemme tell you something: It’s not the Unions or pension funds… it’s not the Chinese or unfair international trade practices… it’s not some grand liberal conspiracy that’s killed US automakers.

It’s “hey,-lets-make-a-car-based-on-a-toy-videogame-movie" thinking.

Folks, I’m gonna say this again: the US automotive sector is filled top-to-bottom with some of the most arrogant and clueless execs in the private corporate sector. And this latest stab at relevancy only confirms that the M.O.W. (or Morons On wheels as I’ve come to call them) still don’t get it.

I’d laugh, except my tax dollars are paying for this stupidity.

About The Author...

 

About the Author

A Chicago native, Hadji Williams is a 17-year veteran of Corporate America. He produced his first ad when he was 19—it was a billboard honoring MLK, Jr. for Chicago Tribune, which ran during Black History Month back in 1990. Since then, as a copywriter then as a brand consultant Hadji has helped shape some of America’s top brands including: Aleve, AT+T, Bank of America, Cingular Wireless, Coca-Cola, Ford Motors, Mercedes Benz, Nationwide Insurance, Radio Shack, SBC, and the William Wrigley Co., just to name a few. But his business career couldn’t have been more opposite from his upbringing.

Born to hardworking parents, Hadji was raised on the South and West sides of Chicago in what is commonly known as “the hood.” While his family was stable, his neighborhoods were anything but.

Typical inner-city pitfalls such as drugs, gangs, police, and random violence were common. But it was precisely this rich yet precarious environment tempered by his deep Christian faith that helped Hadji develop his unique business acumen, creativity, and powers of observation and problem solving.

Once he made it to Corporate America, Hadji began to recognize striking parallels between the streets and the suites. “I saw pimps and hustlers in the streets just about every day. Once I began working with Fortune 500 clients and blue-chip brands, it was more of the same—only at work the rules and the players were a little more sophisticated.” It was Hadji’s ability to balance urban and mainstream life plus his faith that gave birth to KNOCK THE HUSTLE.

Now, officially “out the game—this time for good,” Hadji is an author, poet, teacher, and contributing writer to a variety of urban publications and hip-hop websites. And as founder of (soon to be relaunched) ProdigalPen Publishing, Inc., he continues to dodge what he calls, “the long arm of The Hustle.” On occasion he shares his expertise and insights with select companies, professionals, and students looking to get out from under and live more prosperous, hustle-free lives.

You can reach him at: author [a] knockthehustle.com

Brands Got Back/Agencies Got Backwards

As I debate whether or not to continue detoxing from + 15 years of corporate life, I cam across additional motivation for getting clean and sober in the form of this soul-sucking butt-itch inducing piece of loveliness [Shouts to HighJive and TZ...]:

I'm not even sure where to start with this nightmare; but I'll try:

Russo is like a good 90% of the advertising, marketing, PR and online sectors—overwhelmingly white, culturally and strategically myopic, arrogant and navel- gazing...

And as this video painfully reminds me—filled with mediocre ideas.

Hell, I'll bet 10-1 odds the reason they went with the Sir Mix-a-lot spoof is because (1) Burger King just re-bastardized it and the Russo clan thinks this is cool and (2) This is probably the only "urban" song they could pull off with any degree of competence internally, given their limited talent.

Best part of this video is the accompanying column written by the shop's founder Jaci Russo, running over at TalentZoo. Give it a read, better yet don't—it's a waste of braincells. Instead lemme give you the highlights:

"The key to developing a culture that better represents who you want to be, you must first look closely at who you are, as well as the team you have in place to represent your brand. They are the voice of your company, and it is vital that they buy into what you are selling. If not, it will only be a matter of time before they move on to other opportunities."

You can't be serious,Jaci. From everything you've shown, your culture is boring white people who behave as if they're smarter than everyone they work with and have no concept of culture beyond retreads of thirtysomething. I saw more cultural flavor on Friends.

"For those of you seeking jobs and careers, I recommend looking past the surface, and dig deep beyond the rhetoric. Discover the culture of the companies you are looking at and make sure they provide an environment that you will not only thrive in, but also enjoy."

Yeah, right. If by culture you mean doing what everyone else is doing and hiring the status quo, then... yeah. "culture." what she said.

But there's hope, because I found, RUSSO GROUP's holiday party video from 2008:

When the nondescript, yet overly typical white lady with the coffee mug sings "the secret is all about connecting with folks like you and me" I can't help but wonder who's "you and who's "me."

But at least they did manage to have one non-white person in the video. (I won't guess as to his position in the firm.)

Why is the Gaming World so White?

Celestine Arnold a consultant with PSFK recently delivered a great presentation on the importance of diversity in the gaming industry. What's critical about this presentation is that she didn't take a moral "you guys should be more fair" route, but rather she took the business route and discussed opportunities for growth, increased revenue and fresh content.

Give this video a watch—it's one of the better marketing presentations you'll see this year and well-worth the 5 minutes.

You’re only a Customer…

You’re only a Customer…

One of the first rules in the marketing hustle is to remind the consumer that the products they buy are more than just purchases. We have to convince folks that they’re buying “an experience,” that they’re participants in a brand’s growth. We have to convince them that being a consumer entitles them to judge, shape, and even destroy that which they pay to consume. If we don’t they won’t buy as much stuff; and as marketers, we ain’t havin’ that.

This is a major reason why they’re so many fights at sporting events. Sports fans have been hustled into believing that their ticket entitles them to be more important to the game than they really are. Sports fans are just observers who pay to observe an event. Their $100 tickets don’t give them ownership over any player, team or venue. Truth is they’re just renting a view until the game clock hits zero. Period.

But for the last 25 years or so The Hustle has hooked fans into believing that their ticket/merchandise purchase entitles them to moon players, throw stuff at players, sling slurs and expletives at players, spread rumors about players, live out their dreams thru players, etc. And the players, who’ve long since been repackaged as entertainment product, should just shut up and take it. After all, it’s the tickets, merchandising and cable packages and media coverage that pay player salaries. Sports fans are really minority owners (pun intended); and as such they deserve to use their product purchases as they see fit. Right?

Again, if the game were just a game, throwbacks wouldn’t have gone for $300 and new shoes wouldn’t cost $150. If the game was just a game, advertisers wouldn’t sponsor it, and 45 year white men wouldn’t worship 22-year-old black boys with 40-inch verticals, .350 batting averages or 4.25 speed. If the game was just a game, it wouldn’t sell. And sports is a business and business is all about doing what sells, no matter what sells.

You see this in hiphop where people buy a CD, some Lugz or DJ equipment and suddenly decide that they’re co-owners of the culture. This is why we hawk Hollywood stars… After all, we bought their movies, watched their TV shows, etc. They owe us the autograph and intimate details of their lives. We’re consumers—we paid good money to star-worship; they owe us. And the luxury brand we just overpaid for makes us part of the upscale crowd, doesn’t it? I buy the symbol therefore I own what it symbolizes, right? Right.

In the end, it’s all just sugar water, it was probably made in Taiwan or Indonesia, and it will eventually end up in a dollar store or on one of those tired “What were we thinking?!” pop culture TV lists. The most revolutionary thing a consumer can do is to buy what you need first, question why you want what you want and always recognize when you’re being hustled.

You’re only a customer—
you’re walking in the presence of hustlers…
—LL Cool J

Ante Up! Consumerism as Civil Disobedience

 

Do You Want A Revolution?!
—Kirk Franklin & Nu Nation

So how thorough is the marketing hustle?

We have so equated humanity with consumerism that we now look down on those who can’t or won’t spend as much as we do. Think about it: What’s among the worst things a woman can call her boyfriend or husband? Cheap. Once again, we live in a society where “cheap” is an actual insult. (And what’s more embarrassing than being told your credit card is maxed out while trying to buy something in a crowded restaurant or store?) I tell you, folks, we’ve put entirely too much value on spending. Too much. It’s time to fight back.

It’s been said the world is divided into two groups: consumers and sellers. While I don’t know that I’d go quite that far but I will say this: In a capitalistic, free-market society such as ours, consumption is crucial to any evolution.

Politicians listen to businesses more than they listen to voters. Voters who shop definitely have more influence than voters who don’t. Voters who own have more power than those who rent or lease. Politics is business; business is hustling, and hustling is about being opportunistic and income agnostic. Politicians say and do whatever gets them power. Companies do what sells and ditch what doesn’t.

So if you want change, you have to show these entities that it’s profitable to do so and suicidal to do otherwise.

Buying is more “American” than thinking
and I’m as American as they come.
—Andy Warhol

Paid In Full

The thing I miss most about the early days of hiphop was not only its complexity but also the daily acts of simple evolution it inspired. The foundation of hiphop was people of color rebelling against repressive constructs that dictated what they couldn’t be and couldn’t have. Acquiring any symbol of individuality and success was a fist in the face of those who felt they didn’t deserve either.

A Black male driving a Benz, BM, or a Pathfinder was indeed crass consumerism, but it was also about being antagonistic towards a system that said nice cars were only for whites. A black female shunning couture for her own flavor was a middle finger to every designer, runway model, and magazine on the newsstand. Rocking fat gold chains back when gold was the hottest metal was like saying, “You disenfranchised me, but still I rise.” Dressing ridiculously fly on a shoestring budget was like telling the fashion industry, “You won’t make clothes for me so I’ll make my own.” Turning common turntables into musical instruments and Krylon onbrick walls into art challenged the NEA, the art world and anyone else who said minorities had no creative voice. And again, this was done mostly thru conscious consumerism.

It also reminded us that while class is indeed a major divider, what allows people to flow from one class to the next is access to capital, opportunity, education, and social acceptance—all of which are often facilitated by race. Mos Def’s 1999 classic, “Mr. Nigger” eloquently illustrates this. The song follows a young rich Black man trying to assimilate into the mainstream thru hard work and consumerism. He buys all the right clothes, buys the right house, gets the right car, travels first-class, has a great job, etc. He does everything he’s been taught will make him “American” but it’s never enough: “Who be riding up in the high-rise elevator/other tenants be prayin’ he ain’t the new neighbor? Mr. Nigger… Nigger, nigger…” It reminded us that while racism and classism may not be twins, they’re at least kin.

Unfortunately conscious consumerism has fallen off. Now we simply buy to be accepted and consume what’s acceptable. Today we’re trying harder keep up with the Joneses than we did when the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses” was fresh. Meanwhile, the prejudices and disenfranchisement remain, along with our unwillingness to challenge the roots of it all. And not surprisingly, the “it’s not race it’s class” excuse like all the rest flows on, today stronger than ever.

We survivalists turned consumers just to get by.
—Talib Kweli

Get Out More (reprise)

Get Out More (reprise)

Outsourcing and international partnerships and alliances have made most businesses and economies global. Plus, immigration, art and media have made culture so fluid that everyone is from everywhere now. It’s not about black or white or foreign and domestic anymore. It’s about people everywhere expanding their opportunities along with their sense of community.

Black Americans have to “get off the block.” We must realize that we are a global people and expand our sense of community to include folks of color in other states, countries, and industries. Worldwide, people of color are having similar struggles and fighting similar battles as us. And they’re making similar progress and innovations. Alliances are being formed. Companies are being built. Countries are being rebuilt. Cultures are being spread. Opportunities are being created, shared, and multiplied. Money is being made. Destinies are being fulfilled.

There is no reason why all Black Americans and Americans of color can’t be a part of this change. There’s no reason why we can’t lead this change. In fact, I believe that we must—our futures depend on it. No one is going to bring anything to us; we have to go get it ourselves. But in order to do so, we have to open our eyes and get out more so we can build, create, and accomplish.

Three Extra Keys to Building:

1. Humility.

There’s a definitive line between self-confidence and arrogance. No one wants to help or work with arrogant folks. Be humble in all your pursuits. (Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Peter 5:5)

2. Be open-minded.

The best relationships often start in unlikely places and situations. Don’t always settle for the obvious connections and traditional opportunities. Help doesn’t always “look like help.”

3. Follow-thru.

Stick to your word and fulfill your promises. Never stop working.

We grow from sea to tree…me and my people building!
—Blk Sonshine featuring Masauko Chipembre

Tribes, Warlords, and Merchantnaries

Welcome to the world we livin’ in.
You ain’t been here before? Well, come on in…
—Asheru & Blue Black

Tribes

Tribes—that’s the closest we’ll ever get to a consumer demo again. As America gets browner and more multi-ethnic, and more sexually and socially inclusive, people will get more tribal. There won’t be one dominant group; instead you’ll see a lot of little tribes of people who’ll bond and connect based on a whole combination of things—shared musical tastes, sexual orientation, social activities, slanguague, etc. But it’ll all be mixed up like never before.

These groups will be like little bowls of cultural gumbo. They’ll have some commonalities, but they won’t be obvious to anyone other than them. And for all their apparent bonds, theses tribes will be just independent enough and sophisticated enough that what works for reaching one group in one city or town or region, won’t work in another. Think of it as a type of social Darwinism. Also, most tribes will never grow past a certain size—they’re not meant to. Now you may see purchasing alliances—where tribes connect on certain brands and embrace them, but don’t confuse that with tribal consolidation. Tribes are like extended families: the members will work to keep that family small enough to feel like family, not unlike, say a street gang. And it’ll be that tangible sense of intimacy and familia more so than any hipness factor or status that will be a tribe’s biggest strength and its biggest asset.

And when it comes to marketing to them, all best are off; formulas will go out the door. There won’t be one celebrity that they’ll relate to; there won’t be one activity they all have in common; there won’t be one single media outlet that reaches them all or even most of them. No, you’re going to have to be specific, more focused and intimate than ever before. You’re going to have to build with them. (We’ll discuss “building” in the next chapter.) When it comes to reaching a tribe shotguns are out, darts are in.

The Target Audience is dead.

By the way, the Target Audience is dead.

Within 10 years or less, the traditional consumer base as is we’ve known it—the 18-34 year old male, the 45-54 year old female, the 13-17 year old, the 10-12 year old “tweener,” etc.—will be gone; in most cities they’re already being chopped and screwed like an old H-town mixtape. Of the roughly 315 million Americans, maybe half will remain homogenous enough, predictable enough and group-thinking enough to fill these old world categories. For them, the labels will still apply, along with the traditional strategies for reaching them.

But the other half (and growing) is quickly becoming a collective of liquid coalitions—fluid, elusive consumers that’re increasingly diverse, sophisticated, jaded and unpredictable. And the one thing these emerging consumers have in common is their evolving ability to dodge and flow thru just about all our traditional demographic and psychographic boxes and boundaries.

Consider:

As recent as 2003 “metrosexual” was an accurate and still trendy term for describing the then growing number of overly fashion/hygiene conscious, arguably effeminate straight males. But today, there are so many metrosexuals that they’ve become mainstream thus making the term obsolete. And of course, categories like “mainstream,” “alternative” and “underground” have 20 different definitions and examples depending on who you ask, where you ask, and what you’re asking about.

As we’ve seen with all things “urban,” cultural co-option and integration continues to blur styles, tastes and expressions to the point that it’s harder than ever to tell the original from the bootleg from the remix.

And with each passing year, ethnic labels are becoming at once more divisive and less divisive. An African-American from Detroit can no longer be grouped with the African-American born in Mozambique but now living in Atlanta. The Chinese kid in the ‘burbs that only knows Mandarin as a style of cooking can’t be marketed to the same way you would the Chinese kid in Chinatown for whom Mandarin is still spoken in the home. And when you say “Jewish,” are you talking about the kid with the “Jewish” sounding last name and lineage but whose also agnostic or the Ethiopian Jewish kid who speaks Hebrew and goes to Israel every year or the Jewish kid in Memphis, TN who believes in Christ? And when it comes to GLBTers, are you talking about white gays and lesbians, etc., Black ones, Latino ones, the “down low” ones, the liberal ones, or conservative ones?

Yup, the walls are tumbling down. And it’s precisely this kind of social mixing and shape-shifting that will ultimately kill the advertising hustle.

As I said upfront, a big part of the advertising hustle is based on convincing clients and consumers that ads and brands are the same thing. Most clients still believe in the shotgun blast of TV commercials, plus a little print and radio is the best and some cases only way to build a brand. And as long as consumers were boxed into broad, predictable categories, that hustle worked. But again, hiphop, immigration, post- modern sexual and religious revolutions, the internet, growing media outlets, changing geo-political dynamics, etc. have all scattered that homogenous, lock-step consumer base; and with it, every excuse agencies have ever had for pushing traditional advertising as their main branding tool. And as more clients figure this out, more will demand to know which half of their annual ad budget is being wasted again and why.

So what’s next? What are the solutions?

The Construct of Whiteness

The Construct of Whiteness

It’s impossible to discuss culture as product in America without looking at the impact it has white people. Business has taught me that the hardest thing to be in America is you and not even white people are immune to this struggle. The social cliques I mentioned upfront (Charmins, Potatoes, etc.) were folks who bought into the construct of whiteness. America’s full of ‘em. From birth they’re taught to chase, embrace, and perpetuate this weirdly romanticized, almost fetishized, ideal of Anglophile humanity.

Throughout my academic and corporate career I knew tons of people who bought into it. It’s like they were ashamed of being ethnically or culturally different. They did everything they could to “fit in”. I worked with folks who were Jewish or Irish, but never at the expense of being white. Others were Italian, Polish, or Greek, but never at the expense of being white. Others still were Arab, Chinese, Russian, French, Mexican, Korean, etc… No matter what their heritage, nationality or ancestry was, it always took a backseat to embracing this ever-softening soul-draining cocoon of homogenized whiteness. It was their standard for all things good and human; and they worshipped it like a god. It was some type of self-imposed post-modern eugenics experiment.

And as is with most constructs, I realized that with whiteness comes stereotypes, self-hatred, narcissism and neurosis, fear ‘n’ loathing, and most importantly, the near-endless consumption opportunities businesses live for: The endless hair and makeup products for achieving that idealized look of “white” beauty. The fashions tailored to accentuate the perfectly “white” body. The foods, music, media, and entertainment properties developed to feed and nurture those perfectly “white” cultural sensibilities. And on a grander scale, there are the politics, histories, religions, and laws designed to protect, reward, foster, and spread the perfectly “white” set of values, beliefs, social paradigms, etc. And may a semi-Judeo, very-Anglo-western-manifest-destiny-loving-God help you if you see things any differently.

The result has been generations of Americans constantly hustled into chasing this falsely constructed white reality. And since we’re all connected, everyone—Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, native, immigrant, indigenous, foreign, etc. is, to one degree or another, affected by it. Those who buy into whiteness reap the rewards of white skin privilege. But the rest, who are too dark, too ethnic, or simply too stubborn to accept it get criticized and marginalized. But for The Hustle, whiteness equals power, profit, opportunity, obedience and control. It has since day one.

(And as I noted in “gatekeepers,” this construct has to be an inside job. The folks best equipped to solve it are who can solve it are those who’ve benefited the most from it. At some point, all those who see themselves as “white” need to lead the charge for solutions.)

…There were no “white” people in Europe until 1492.
With the transatlantic slave trade—first Indian,
then African—Europeans increasingly saw “white”
as a race and race as an important human characteristic.
—Prof. James W. Loewen

One Love (multicultural marketing, pt. 2)

We also need to check the role social, economic, and political inequities play in multiculturalism. Over the years I’ve kicked it with many an athlete, dealer, club dancer, artist, etc. Most all of them had one thing in common: They believed that their current paths were their only way out. They believed that their bodies, their athleticism, their criminal enterprises, etc. were their only means of survival and escaping their environment.

Conversely, I’ve met thousands of mainstream folk who took more traditional routes. They were doctors, politicians, lawyers, factory workers, businesspeople, waitresses, etc. For all their varied struggles, the idea of taking seedier routes to survival never seemed “necessary” to them. Regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds they all had a sense of hope that comes being accepted as “American” without the added cultural barriers most minorities face in order to be accepted as such.

So much of culture gets exploited because the people of those cultures believe that doing so is their best, if not only, means of survival/success and/or acceptance. They sell their artistry, not out of love or opportunity but out of survival. They sell their expressions because traditional job opportunities aren’t available to them. They allow their histories and identities to be manipulated because it seems to be only way they’ll be accepted by the larger society. When people believe their options are limited, they will consider the inconsiderable. They will put a price on the priceless and sell the unsellable. They will sell their bodies. They will sell drugs. They will sell their cultures. They will sell their souls.

Culture in its purest form is a combination of birthright, heritage, and communal expression. On its own, culture is hustle-free; it’s in the blood of people and the people are in it and together they decide where it goes and what forms it takes. So in order for a culture to become a hustle it must be controlled and commoditized. And for that to happen the culture must either be extracted from the people or the people must marginalized until they are no longer accepted as the keepers/authorities of the culture. As those things occur, that culture can be co-opted and consumed. And that is what modern American multiculturalism is—cultures being sliced and diced and packaged into marketable, controllable commodities for mass consumption—at a healthy profit for industry.

True multiculturalism is art and we don’t paint pictures anymore; we just trace co-opted templates and fill in color-by-numbers imagery. And as long as America accepts the construct that culture doesn’t exist until America discovers it or defines it and culture has no value until America puts a price on it, the Culture as Product hustle, which modern American multiculturalism is a byproduct of, will continue.

A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent,
takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture,
affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.
—Malcolm X

Black Zombies

Black Zombies

The worst part is how this complex mess has impacted generations of Black Americans. It has us seeing ourselves as products and believing that our cultures and heritages should be products as well. Our children grow up embracing these ghettofied constructs as legit realities. Even our adults are buying into it.

We accept athletics and entertainment over education as primary escape routes. We see our neighborhoods as traps to escape from rather than as communities to build up and maintain. We accept assimilation as progress. We become the thugs that kids from Italy to Sweden to Toronto want to see. We live the hustler and pimp lifestyles so entertaining to the TRL crowd. We remain fetishized as postmodern Mandingo studs and roughneck sex-machines so many still fantasize about. We accept “drug dealer,” “stripper,” and “babymamma” as valid occupations. We call ourselves (and each other) “gangsta,” “nigga,” “nigger,” “bitch,” “ho,” “tip-drill,” “cut-up,” etc. for all sorts of reasons, mainly because it’s expected of us and we’ve embraced those expectations as much as those who’ve put them on us.

We accept the broken families and abandoned kids. We accept the continual degradation of Black women and marginalization of Black men. We see prison and gangs like Jews see bar mitzvahs—as legit coming-of-age rituals. We accept the lies and omissions from the history books, schools, and media. We accept failing schools and failing attitudes about school. We accept black-on-black crime and an unjust judicial system for the same reason most of America accepts the constructs hoisted upon us: Black people are more product than human; and it’s okay to miseducate, marginalize, co-opt, and disenfranchise product. After all, product is disposable and replaceable. Human beings are not.

You can also see the blackness-as-product mentality in the products we buy: Over-hyped rotgut liquors like Alizé. Hennessy. Hypnotiq. Courvoisier. Tanqueray. Crown Royal. Remy Martin. Belvedere. Cristal… We empty our wallets and stuff our closets with $200 button-ups, $150 sneakers and other overpriced fashions destined to be played-out within months. (Want to buy a used $300 throwback?) We push Escalades, Hummers, and luxury sedans like ghetto chariots while struggling to keep the tanks full. We cop the latest cellphone. We smoke weed (because as you know, ‘real niggas’ smoke weed). We get jewelry—first dookey gold chains, then silver, then platinum, then diamonds, then colored diamonds… Next it’ll be whatever Harry Winston, Jacob and The Iceman, De Beers, Kellwood Co., Condé Nast, Viacom, Allied Domecq, Clear Channel, and the other culture pimps want us chasing.

And guess what? We’ll buy it. No matter what it is or how much it costs, we’ll just pull up our pants, lean back, and buy it. Why? Because everyone knows that we won’t be “Black” until we do.

Career-wise, most black folks weigh career options in terms of what aspect of ourselves can we exploit along with our ability to live down to society’s expectations of us. We become social bridges, doing whatever gets us over. We cheerlead token hires and liberal lip service as progress, because deep down inside we believe that’s all we are worth. Consciously or subconsciously, we buy into the constructs, we name our price and we continually sell ourselves short.

Now to be sure some of us raise hell about this. We discuss the destructiveness. We decry the constructs and schemes and those who profit off of them at will. We fight—but only for a few days like it’s the National Guard & Reserves. Then we fall back in line and go back to our 24/7 grind of acceptance and indifference. In short, we accept our positions and embrace the constructs. We actively participate in our own destruction. Like the over-eater or the drug addict, black folks have become our own worst enemy.

I think most of us do so because as much as the constructs and stereotypes hurt, it still beats being ignored all together. Every human being craves acceptance. (Any who claim different are delusional, stuck in self-denial, or sociopaths.) And when blacks put on our gear, our attitudes and stand in our constructs we’re “accepted.” We are acknowledged and tolerated. As long as we continue self-destructing… As long as we remain willing footballs for politicians and businesses to kick around… As long as we keep giving away our soul, letting others define it, define us; control it, control us. As long as we don’t challenge The Hustle we are accepted.

Walkin’ talkin’ dead though we think we’re living (black zombies)…
We just copycats following the system (black zombies)…
—Nas

The Business of Blackness & Multiculturalism

Another problem with cultural extraction is the way in which devalues people....

Now I agree with scientists who note that skin color is inherently little more than a random genetic trait like eye color, hair color or height. However, for Black Americans, our culture and heritage and history were our skin color. We have no specific ancestral homeland, save for a continent that’s too big and too distant to claim, and any specific tribal affiliations and ancestral family trees we may have are so intertwined in slaveships and plantation lullabies that they’re long gone. Consequently Black skin remained part and parcel of our arts, style, music, language, history, and everything that made us whole.

But now that blackness, or at least the most marketable and desirable aspects of it have been extracted and co-opted worldwide leaving black skin as the only thing Black folks can truly claim as our own without dispute (along with certain race-specific stereotypes and slurs). For better or for worse black skin slowly going the way of the appendix—a once valuable but now-irrelevant appendage. And when you combine this with the continued inequities in our society it’s as if blacks are being stuffed and mounted like social taxidermy.

And for all the spreading of cultural art forms, the most dehumanizing marginalizing portraits of black Americans remain the most popular with mainstream America. We still love street flava and ghetto soul.

We love the loud, cursing, blacker-than-thou comic. We love the dawg/playa/why-must-I-chase-the-cat/sex-machine brothas. We love the thug. We love pimps. We love the athletic savant. We love “the magical negro” stereotype. We love the sistahs who talk out their necks and floss much attitude. We love the babymammas. And we still love our blaxploitation flicks. And before that we loved the coonish, foot-shuffling minstrel shows. And before that we loved the slave/”wild savage” stereotypes… And with the various stereotypes the various bits of discrimination and marginalization and disenfranchisement have, in one form or another, continued on.

They say after 500,000, you’re selling to a whole different realm.
Now you’re selling to young white boys.
I think once the corporations understood that,
that was their time to come in and take control of it.
Once the control was taken away, then came all of the nonsense.
—MC Lyte