HustleKnockin'

Hiphoppin' to the oldies?!

If Richard Simmons were willing to do a little blackface, he might be able to flip this into a DVD series...
Hmmm....

YOU DOWN WITH "O.L.D."?
Rap fans basking in bygone era ain't too cool for old-school acts
Chicago Sun-Times
BY NATALIE Y. MOORE

What's a rapper to do when he is nearing 40 years old? Go on tour with his greatest hits. Jay-Z, 37, has a new CD that has received lukewarm reviews, but he is also president of the Def Jam record label. Rap mogul P. Diddy, 37, balances the idea of a 401(k) with performing. Then there are rappers who hail from the golden era of hip-hop, appealing to an audience hungry for songs not incessantly rotated on commercial radio.

Hip-hop is maturing into its third decade, and many old-school rappers are hitting the road even if they have nary a new album to download. MCs are aging, with children who are hip-hop fans, too. They are performers in transition in a genre that has always centered on youth culture since its Bronx, N.Y., beginnings.

Afrika Bambaataa, often called the godfather of hip-hop, comes to town Thursday. The "Rap History Tour" comes to the Congress Theatre (in a to-be-announced date postponed from December) with Naughty by Nature, Digital Underground -- Tupac Shakur was once a member -- and Black Sheep. These groups saw their heyday about 15 years ago. The tag line for the concert is "hip-hop as it should be."

Go DJ!

As much as I side with Dj Cannon and Drama, I think they just don't get it. it's not about "hey i (the DJ/Artist) do this great stuff for you (radio station, A&R, etc.)!" it's about who owns what... Still i gotta pull for 'em. they're grinding and they got snatched up.

No wonder the industry is going to crap in a toilet paper roll.

anyway, this is taken from The MixUnit.com site--one of the better mixtape sites online today.

A Message To The Mix Unit Community:

In light of the recent developments in the mixtape community, The Mix Unit would like to address some important points for our supporters, our DJs and the fans of mixtapes world wide.

First and foremost, we want to pledge our unwavering support for DJ Drama and DJ Cannon, as well as the rest of the DJs involved in the mixtape culture. For several years we have supported and contributed to this culture that we love, and have always been committed to preserving the DJ and promoting their unique talents and abilities.

Genocide in Canada?! Uh-huh!

Looks like our peaceful neighbors to the north have their issues with race and landgrabs, too. Hmmmm....

Genocide in Canada: The Untold Story
by Rev. Kevin D. Annett, M.A., M.Div.
hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca

An overview of the history and continued practice of Genocide in Canada.


Secretary, The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, “I believe the conditions are being deliberately created in our Indian boarding schools to spread infectious disease. The death rate often exceeds fifty percent. This is a national crime.”

HONOR AMONG THIEVES, Part 6

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Like the drug game, fast food’s also a commodity hustle—quality goes out the window when it comes to commodities. It’s about value meals, over a bazillion served, and convenience. If you want cheap food for the masses it’ll be made cheap, sold cheap, and probably taste cheap. When you consider Pizza Hut, Outback, TGI Fridays, KFC, Taco Bell, BK, Wendy’s, and the rest, you’re talking about thousands of outlets serving hundreds of millions of customers worldwide each day. The price-points, competition, and barriers of entry alone force them to use cheaper (and consequently less healthy) ingredients just to compete and grow.

Music Biz is Crumblin'!

Here's a few more signs that the music industry is about to collaspe on its big, fan, bloated, corrupted butt.

EMI Ousts Top Music Executives, Forecasts Lower Sales
By Aisha Phoenix
Bloomberg.com

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- EMI Group Plc, the U.K. record company that signed the Beatles, ousted two top music executives and forecast lower revenue after disappointing holiday sales.

Alain Levy will leave after five years as chief executive officer of the recorded music division. David Munns, the unit's vice chairman, will also step down. Chairman Eric Nicoli will become CEO of EMI, the world's third-largest music company, and take charge of the record unit, EMI said in a statement today.

Truth in Advertising

My guy HighJive over at MULTICULTCLASSICS has been on quite a tear this past few weeks. MultCultClassics is dedicated to building honest discussions regarding race, culture and overall intelligence in the advertising, marketing and PR worlds, affectionately known as Madison Avenue.

Anyway, one way HJ has been going about getting folks attention has been to hijack some old school ads and give them a fresh satiral spin. They're some of the funniest and most insightful things that I've seen in a while and I've been at this since Bush I was just taking office. (That's Before Clinton, yungin's.)

Anway, here you go--had to share 'em with you. For more, get to multicultclassics.blogspot.com

This one's a riff on Bill bernbach's classic VW campaign from like '67 or so. Changed the game for VW, by the way. Gave all creatives the opportunity to prove that Testimonials weren't the only valid approach in selling stuff.

Is the Rap Industry ready to sink?

I’d be curious to see a follow-up article on this one from folks across the pond. They’re claimin’ Ra and Hiphop are tanking. I know Lady Sov is hot—or at least the powers that be are trying to push her as hot much the same way they did with The Streets… (How many covers did Dizzy Rascal or Miss Dynamite get here?)

Anyone know or care to weigh in?

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Rap Music on Way Out
2007-01-07
Sunday Mercury; Birmingham (UK)

RAP music, blamed for rising inner city crime, is on the way out, latest music business sales figures revealed yesterday.

100 Bucks 4 a Laptop? Gimme 5 of 'em!

Can you imagine a laptop that doesn’t cost much more than a pair of gym shoes? Well there’s one coming. Not from Apple—though Jobs has made just about everything else… Not Microsoft, but Gates needs something soon ‘cuz that Zune joint kinda sucks. Sorry but it’s true.

Anyway, all the so-called third world countries are about to get hooked up within the next 18-months. See below.

Black Sheep are still in the flock

This is part of Washinton Post's popular GROWING UP TO BE A BLACK MAN series where various writers reporters and columnists try to frankly discuss issues concerning Black folks in an honest way.

Give it a read---it's similar to something i've bee working on for a few years, but perhaps they beat me to it. It's good stuff.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010501936.html">Growing Up To Be a Black Man
By Sufiya Abdur-Rahman
WashingtonPost.com
1/5/2007

My family has outcasts and favorites, cliques and loners, stories we regurgitate at every gathering and events we'd rather not mention twice. The black family -- that community of nearly 40 million individual Americans, with their mythical public cohesiveness -- is no different. We often don't all get together, sometimes won't talk to one another, and we disagree about politics, religion and even the responsibilities that come with being black.

But we're still family.

CGM? What consumer-generated media?!

In hilariously bogus ad industry folks fashion, here's yet another self-absorbed fraud being passed off as innovation. The NFL should stand for NOT FRIGGIN' LEGAL for this little hustle. Check it out:

BILLS AN AD WINS SUPEBOWL SLOT
Gino Bona's concept for a humorous Super Bowl ad will be made into a TV commercial.

By Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY

A fan has made it into the Super Bowl lineup — of commercials, that is — with his idea for an ad promoting the National Football League.

Gino Bona, 33, was one of 1,700 fans who auditioned concepts at stadiums this fall. Today, the NFL will announce that his is the idea it will make into a 30-second commercial to air during the Feb. 4 Super Bowl telecast.

Bona, director of business development for a Portland, Maine, marketing firm, says he tapped into his own "pathetic emotions" for the idea: a tongue-in-cheek take on the heavy heart fans have when the NFL season ends.

"I think NFL fans are like me," says Bona, a Buffalo native and Bills fan. "We get depressed when we think about what Sundays are going to be like for the next six months."

His ideas for ad images include a foam No. 1 finger slowly being stowed in a closet, a New England Patriots' fan sadly washing off his face paint and a group of game-watchers getting a season-long bar tab of $6,000. He proposed the Boyz II Men song It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday as the soundtrack.

The NFL held ad auditions during the season at the stadiums of the New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos. A jury of NFL executives and players, plus ad professors, picked 12 finalists.

Fans were then invited to view finalists' pitches online and pick a favorite.

"We wanted the fans to be engaged throughout the entire process," says NFL marketing head Lisa Baird.

Ghostriding Gone Wild

(but isn't that redundant these days?)

E-40 is either laughing his way to the bank or shaking his head in shame and guilt.... Ghostriding--part of the Bay (Yay)'s reknowned Hyphy movement has finally gotten out of hand. People are now dying, not because of cellphones or reading while driving, but because of DWD--dancing while driving--specifically ghostriding.

Ghostriding, which is a car/dance stunt, which has caused numerous minor injuries, not to mention more than a few car wrecks, was an underground phenom until early 2006 when joints like E-40’s “Tell Me When to Go” and Mistah F.A.B.'s "Ghostride It," and a few highly addicitive Traxamillion cuts took it mainstream.

Just check YouTube for videos of kids jumping out of their vehicles at about 5-15 MPH and "steering" or guiding their cars so that it looks like no one's driving.

MISTAH FAB's recent hit offers a step-by-step guide for ghostriding afficianados: "Pull up. Hop out, all in one motion. Dancing on the hood, while the car still rollin'."

GOOD TIMES comes home

Until recently, the pioneering creative mind behind Good Times, The Jeffersons and Cooley High was homeless. In L.A. of all places. And where was  Norman Lear when Eric Monte needed him? Apparently stealing Monte's career.

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Turning page on a life story

Eric Monte was a successful scriptwriter before falling victim to illness and drugs. Now, a new chapter begins.

By John L. Mitchell, Times Staff Writer
December 19, 2006

As he prepared to catch a flight to Chicago on Monday, Eric Monte savored a moment of anticipation: What would it feel like to be back at home and not living in a homeless shelter?

"I'm excited about the possibilities," said Monte, 62, a couple of hours before boarding his flight at LAX. "I want to see my old neighborhood, my old street. I want to start rejuvenating my life."

Nearly 40 years ago, Monte abandoned Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project and hitchhiked to Los Angeles, chasing a childhood dream to create black heroes for the small screen. He became one of a handful of young African American writers and directors who sparked an explosion in black culture in Hollywood in the early 1970s.

Monte wrote an episode of the groundbreaking TV show "All in the Family," moved on to co-create "Good Times" and wrote the 1975 film "Cooley High," which inspired the hit 1976 TV series "What's Happening!!"

Then came the downward spiral when life stopped going according to script.

Merry (mature) Christmas

Sometimes, crass commercialization isn't Christmas' biggest problem:

i'm thru teachin'!!!

I'm done with school! done teachin'. cant take it anymore. turnin' grades in and bouncin' out like a scout on a new route!
time to get packin' and get it crackin'.... SoCal baby! here i come!

sorry... just had to get that out of my system.

(clears throat)

i have informally resigned my adjunct post at my College--all that's left is to type up the resignation for Monday morning then i'll be free to pursue other opportunities.

the school has been reasonably supportive of this move and undertand that my writing and other business opportunities must now take precedent in my life. Furthermore...

these &^@%# kids don' lost the *#&$& minds. $1400 a credit hour and you can't bring yo' triflin' behind to class?!

"Mr. Canseco, do we hafta come next week?"

You damn skippy you do it's on the syllabus. And if you would read instead 2ways and textin' and worryin' about what's comin' up on Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy all the damn time you'd know this!

"Mr. Williams, sorry i missed class last week but the train wasn't running properly. Please don't hold it against me."

Wuz you on it?

"What?"

The train, were you on it?

"Oh... no."

NEEEEXXXXXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now On Sale: Twenty Dollar Niggers!

Twenty Dollar Niggas/ers. Get 'Em At the Laugh Factory!
By: Hadji Williams

Okay, so now Damon Wayans been banned from The Laugh Factory for saying the N-Word 16 times during his 20 minute set; this on the heels of Michael Richards’ racist rant in the same club.

Personally, I’m not sure what’s sadder: Wayans getting banned—for 3 months for using, the fact that he was fined $320—$20 for each use of the 16 times he used the word on stage, or the fact that the owner of the club was proud enough to announce such pettiness as if it were significant activism.

C’mon, Twenty dollars? Is that what “nigga/er” is worth to White Liberals these days? Twenty Dollars? You get fined more for parking violations. You get fined more for spitting on sidewalks or J-walking. Public intoxication is at least $75 in most jurisdictions. But Wayans got hit with a Jackson per for saying the n-word.

Way to stick it to the man for trying to stick it to THE MAN, sparky.

NIGGA Scholarships are back!

In honor of Michael Richards, I'm re-running one of my fave pieces from last year. This one got me in some trouble. Also got me on several radio stations and in a couple mags for interviews on the word.

I wrote it out of frustration with the word mostly... but i figure these days, it's just not worth the energy. so i came up with a slightly better alternative. lemme know what you think.

KTH @ ALPHA II OMEGA TOMORROW!

Guess what: I got a book signing/speaking gig THIS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2nd @

ALPHA II OMEGA
1838 West 95th
Chicago, IL 60643
(773) 445-9044

It's a hip bookstore in Chicago's Evergreen Pk community. Fairly upscale, educated crowd--lost of execs, MBA and college grads... This ought to be fun--especially when they listen to me tee off on all manner of Corporate shennigans.

We'll see if Street Knowledge beats Corporate Know-How. (LOL!) Actually, i think it'll be cool.

once again, I go on in the lounge area at 2pm. So stop by. Get a promo copy, ask goofy questions, etc. It should be fun!

ALPHA II OMEGA's Store Hours: Tues. thru Fri. 11:00am to 7:00pm, Sat. 10:00am to 6:00pm

Sacha Cohen sucks. Still!

Okay, I've been asked to repost this by a couple folks because they liked it. Want it to be current... so here's a re-post of my Sacha Cohen take.

Sacha Cohen sucks. Not the most clever of phrasing, but it makes the point. I'm sorry, but I just don't dig this kid's program. His whole "ethnicculture as comedic device"? it's arrogant. it's biased. it's bigoted. (at least be funny, dude.) Even peeped his Borat movie... you know the one--everybody loves it. Gee, I wonder why?

We've gone too far!Hey S(F)ONY

this is embarassing... haven't seen anything this stupid since beenie babies got hot and people were throwing away happy meals to get the free doll.

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Red China is taking over!!!

Sounds so 1980s--neo con of me don't it? Well my theory is that the big 3 are stuck in the 1980s and the 1970s and they've convinced themselves that communism and geopolitics have something to do Toyota and Honda's rise.

Listen up fools: Your cars suck! Your marketing campaigns suck almost as bad, too. If I see another "Heartlander" or a "Girl/Boy Next Door" or an American Flag in a Chevy, Ford, or Cadillac or GM commerical i'm gonna slit my wrists with a box cutter.

Don't you guys get it yet?! "American" is a stupid, make that STOOPID marketing strategy. You think Toyota is beating people over the head with "Buy Japanese"? Think Volvo is doing "BUY EURO"?! No only here do we think "buy american" is gonna work for a $30,000 price point. People are guillable, even sheep, sometimes both. but they don't like being boring or irrelevant. And "buy american" is both!

You deserve to get your heads handed to you. And if you didn't have them wedged so far up your anal-we-know-everything butts, they'd have handed them to you on a bamboo tray years, ago!