The Politics of Rap: Jay-Z > The Rest

08.11.09 // By Slav Kandyba // , , ,
There are several ways to resolve conflicts, with fighting an all-out-war being the final option when all other methods have been exhausted (At least that's what common sense would tell you). So, if we take a quick survey in hip-hop, what we have as far as active beefs is this pesky and quite pointless one between Joe Budden/Slaughterhouse and Raekwon/Icewater that has escalated into violence at last weekend's Rock the Bells stop in San Bernardino, CA, and the more nuanced cold war between The Game and Jay-Z. 

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If there's anything I've learned so far from these beefs, it's that Jay-Z is smarter. It's quite ironic that on the same day that Raekwon's homies knuckle-sandwiched Budden, some 60 miles west Jay-Z didn't have anything to say about Game during the Powerhouse concert. Outside of the line from Blueprint 3 intro where Jay says, "I ain't even talking about Game," there was no mention of the Compton-bred rapper who has been hurling endless insults in Jay-Z's direction at his overseas concerts. 

Apparently, Jay has bigger fish to try and in fact has taken the high-road, as advised in a quite interesting commentary at ForeignPolicy.com from George Washington University political scientist Marc Lynch, who admits to being a hip-hop fan and has a pretty credible perspective. In the piece, Lynch writes that Jay should "sit back and let the Game self-destruct, something of which he's quite capable." 

 
Lynch's essay succeeds at making bland international relations concepts more hip by comparing Jay-Z to a hegemonic power (United States) and Game as a less powerful challenger (Iran). If Lynch's aim was to be perceived "cool," then he has succeeded. If his desire was to drive up popularity of international relations as an academic subject within the hip-hop set - uhh, good luck with that. International relations isn't very sexy, as anyone who has ever picked up a scholarly journal will attest. There's a lot reading and writing involved, and shoot, what was the last time you tried watching a Congressional hearing on C-SPAN? 

 
So back to this Jay-Z guy. Twitter was abuzz this week when news got out that Oprah and Jay were dilly-dallying in Brooklyn's Marcy neighborhood, the 'jects where Jay-Z spent his formative years. One L.A. music producer even quipped on Twitter, "how long until Jay throws hanging with Oprah into a verse?" 

I wouldn't blame Jay for doing that. Oprah is good company to have - just ask Barack! Choosing to ignore a beef with a rapper who has managed to burn bridges with Dr. Dre because of a beef with another war-mongering rapper was only the smartest thing to do when entering the company of billionaires. Jay-Z understands that being in with Oprah is his ticket to the billionaire club (no Pharrell Williams). In other words, today he's chopping it up with Oprah, tomorrow she introduces him to that Russian billionaire who's dating Naomi Campbell and they go into business. 


In the meantime, the Joe Budden-Raekwon affair is an example of a primitive beef that grabs headlines only to ultimately take away from both artists' actual albums. It will hurt the bottom line in the long run. It's my opinion that violence should be the last resort and is generally unproductive. I'm sure Marc Lynch would concur. 

-Slav Kandyba

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Lee and Ling: Free at Last!!!

08.05.09 // By matthew // , ,

Kudos for Bill Clinton, Al Gore and President Obama for working as a team in order to secure the release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two US journalists who had been held in captivity for 147 days. The reason, or at least the reason that North Koreans gave, for the journalists' imprisonment was that they were 'spying' after the pair had accidentally crossed the border while filming North Korean refugees crossing the border into China. 


When the pair was arrested there was the usual international outcry, especially from the company the two work for, Current TV (which is partially owned by Al Gore) for their immediate release; but alas the North Koreans, namely Kim Jong Il relented. Well that was that, at least that's what everyone thought. 


Well fast forward to yesterday, when the world started hearing murmurs that former President Bill Clinton was being sent as a special envoy to North Korea to secure the release of the pair. A little while later we learned that the former president was successful, when Kim Jong Il pardoned both women. And now their home, where they belong.....


Here's a video of their emotional homecoming:

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Happy Birthday Mr. President

08.04.09 // By matthew // ,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. PRESIDENT.


It's been a hellish six months, but don't worry, I, and many more like me still believe in you. But can we please stop the whole pragmatism thing when it comes to healthcare. As a young American living without adequate health care, I'm anxiously awaiting a viable public option.


You won a mandate with voters in November and I'm pretty sure most of us want a public option; so could you stop trying to work with the Republicans, many of whom don't care about the public anyways, and actually get the thing done. Then perhaps we won't have to wait so long for the economy to come back....yes I heard that months and months comment.


All and all you're doing a great job (I'm kinda partial as I did vote for you and you're hosting the G-20 in Pittsburgh, which I'm totally stoked for), but we need health care in America. I heard the other day that we spend twice as much on health care as the rest of the industrialized world and get half of the results. I also heard that more than 18,000 people die every year from inadequate health care. How can that be? 


Please Mr. President, have a wonderful birthday, eat lots of cake, and please fix health care, then maybe 18,000 of us will be able to celebrate another one.

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Birthers 'Strike' Again

08.04.09 // By matthew // , ,

The birthers, led Dr. Orly Taitz, a dentist, lawyer, and apparent fiction author, have found a new document that proves that the President was born, not in Honolulu, but in Kenya. That's right that have proof. Well except their proof is a poorly forged document that even Karl Rove calls a forgery. The 'Kenyan' document basically it reads like a badly written novel. One, the city that it alleges Obama was born in wasn't even a part of Kenya at the time. Also, the document notes that Kenya was a republic in 1964, which sadly it was not. Also there's no Coast Provience or E.F. Lavender. Actually there is an E.F. Lavender, but I doubt a laundry soap would actually officiate a birth, even in Kenya, and even in 1961. But the most telling thing about the forgery is the fact that it looks surprisingly like another birth certificate, but this time from Australia. Could these be one in the same, albeit with some grossly overlooked errors on the forgery.


So this begs one more question. Who the hell is Orly Taitz and why should a foreigner care where the President was born? I mean really, it least be born in the country and know the laws before spouting out racist hatred. Oh and one last thing....according to United States v. Wong Kim Ark (yeah I found it), even though Obama's father was Kenyan, because his father and his mother lived in America and his father was on a student visa AND because Obama was born in the US, he's a citizen, like it or not. And if you don't like it, just field a better candidate in 2012, the we can return to the good ole White Ruled America.


Also, here's a video of Orly breaking down on MSNBC....

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Obama's Birthplace Rumors....

07.23.09 // By matthew // , ,

So okay, a lot of crazy whackjob Republicans have continually stated that President Obama was not born in the United States. This statement has been refuted too many times to count. Let me spell it out to anyone who doesn't believe he was born in the United States:  Hawaii, although the 50th state, is in fact in the United States.


The governor of Hawaii, a Republican, and most of the country and government, at least the normal part, have said this. He has a birth certificate and it says he was born in the United States. In fact there was an announcement in a Hawaiian newspaper when he was born. (oh, but that's right, local papers print birth announcements for countries around the world.)
But what's even weirder is that this charge has started to make the rounds around the halls of congress. That's right, congress. In fact certain GOP members of congress have sponsored a bill that requires all future presidential candidates to provide a birth certificate to prove that they were indeed born here. Really? Can we say bigots, I just knew you could.


Anyways, my main question on this, besides the obvious (does the party even want to try and win in 2012 or are they hedging all their bets on 2016) is why is no one in the party is questioning Sen. McCain's birth status. You see, John McCain was not born in the lower 48 or even Alaska or Hawaii, he was born in Panama, which last time I checked is not part of the US. He was however born on a military base, which makes him a citizen by default. But the right-wing wackos carefully avoid this point.


Anyways there's some videos below that show how stupid this movement really is......enjoy

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Born Identity
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		Political HumorJoke of the Day

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MyCypher.com officially launches the online Cypher

07.22.09 // By SIlentOne // , , ,

MyCypher.com has launched the online Cypher! The site allows users from all over the world to battle in real time online. Kick your freestyle or favorite bars into the interface and your rhyme is posted instantly to the Cypher where the whole world can listen, rate and respond.  It's an easy way to get your music out there and find, battle or collaborate with MCs around the world.


You can even spit your verse from your phone after you register it with the application.  Check out the tutorial below, along with Jin doing his thing in Cantonese. Register for and use the application here.


Tutorial:



Jin in Cantonese:
 
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Obama's Ghana Song

07.15.09 // By matthew // , ,

So did you see this.....
The people of Ghana...well the hip-hop and R&B artists of the country all got together before Obama's visit to record a welcome song. The song basically welcomes the President to their country and is actually pretty catchy. It's on youtube, but I originally heard about it when I was on the Huffpost.....
Anyways here it is in its entirety.....

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Sotomayor Hearings

07.15.09 // By matthew // , ,

So as you should be aware by now, that Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court, will be confirmed and will be on the court in September. That said, it's still pretty interesting to watch the hearings (well what I have watched of them). For example, today the show Perry Mason factored into the hearings, when Sotomayor was questioned by Sen. Al Franken. See the exchange below.


Also at the hearings the Republican members of the committee have tended to try to attack Sotoamayor as a racist and someone who rules out of empathy for the defendants rather than upholding the law. In fact her most controversial statement to date, that she believes that because of her experiences in life, which have made her a 'wise Latina woman', that she would be a better judge than some of her white, male colleagues. Although she may have felt this way in the past, she has since corrected herself. That said, the Republicans are still hammering away at the statement.


Another point of contention is her ruling against the firefighters in New Haven, CT. Basically what happened in this case was that the city of New Haven gave potential firefighters a standardized test before they could be hired by the city. When a group of mostly white applicants passed, but no African Americans did so, the city threw out the results and hired the African Americans because they were afraid they would be sued. Well they were....by the white firefighters. They case made it all the way to the US Supreme Court and by an odd twist of fate passed through Sotomayor's court. Sotomayor agreed with the lower court and ruled in the city's favor; the Supreme Court did not. In fact they ruled 8 to 1 that the city discriminated against the white firefighters when it threw out the test. 


All in all I believe that Sotomayor will be confirmed. Nuff said. She's articulate, funny, and she knows the law, which is more than I can say about Scalia.


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Enough- Michael Jackson

07.07.09 // By matthew //
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Ok I was purposely trying to avoid this topic, but enough is enough. Yes Michael Jackson was a breakthrough artist and yes he was the self-proclaimed 'king of pop' and yes he died at a young age, but you know what life goes on.

People die every day and we're not doing this much for them. In the time since Michael Jackson died here's who also died, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, Karl Malden, Robert McNamara, 156 Chinese Muslims, countless Iranian protesters, and at least six American soldiers in Iraq. So you're going to tell me that Michael Jackson's life was more important than all those people? Really? We're treating him as if he was a president or the pope. He didn't cure cancer, he didn't bring peace to the world, he couldn't even bring peace to himself.

Yes he was the most successful musical artist in the world, but all those things are meant to be broken. All those records that he set will be broken, so its time to say enough. Michael Jackson was not a god, he was not God, he was man. He should not be idolized because I believe, and this is only my opinion, what he did was great yes, but his life was also a tragedy; and you can't deny that. Those that deny that are no better than people who deny the holocaust or those that deny the effects of global warning.

For all the 'great things' that he did for African Americans in order to advance our culture, he tried pretty hard not to be black. For all those people who say he is a great black icon, why then did he bleach his skin? Why did he have massive amounts of plastic surgery to make himself appear more white? Why did he have white kids? And I'm not even going to touch the two trials. It's one thing for it to happen once, but twice....come on.

I'm sorry, but he made some very bad decisions, both financially and legally and when you make bad decisions you have to live with the consequences. Again, I'm not saying that we should not mourn the loss of a pop icon. But remember that life goes on. Do you know where the president is right now? He's in Russia trying to restart relations with them after eight years of going the other way. He also signed a major deal to start getting rid of nuclear weapons. That's more than what Michael Jackson did for world peace. So perhaps we should put his life in perspective before we sanctify him. He's not an MLK, he's no Malcom X, he's no Langston Hughes, he's no Madame CJ Walker, he's no Rosa Parks, he's no Barack Obama, he's no Jesse Jackson, he's no Elvis, he's no John Lennon, he's no JFK or FDR, he's no Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson or George Washington, he was Michael Jackson, a tragic figure who made millions, but lost it all and is no more a man than me. He was not a great man, he was a man. As I said life moves on. Life changes and evolves and continues. That's life. All I'm saying is that we need to worry about more important stories than some pop singer. So a note to CNN, MSNBC, HLN, and Fox News, let's go back to covering the issues that matter to all Americans and leave this stuff to Access Hollywood. Just so you know...before you crucify me. I do like Michael Jackson; my favorite songs of his are Off The Wall, Billie Jean, Got To Be There, and Never Can Say Goodbye. That said, I just believe that perhaps we should move on to other things that are more important.
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Breaking News: Sarah Palin Resigns

07.03.09 // By matthew // , ,

Yes....you read that right; Alaska governor Sarah Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska. So why you ask? Is it a scandal like Mark Sanford....no. Is it to run for another post.....no. Is it because she's irrational and crazy....yes. In fact, the best political minds have no idea what she's doing. Most think that she's making a huge mistake by resigning two and a half years into her FIRST term. Although Pat Buchanan said that what she is doing is a brilliant move a la Richard Nixon after his defeat as Governor of California, most people have concluded that she is through politically. 


I have to say that this is pretty odd, even as far as Sarah Palin goes. I mean yes, she has made some huge mistakes in politics, but the learning curve is not that hard for a presidential run. To just quit in the middle of her term, that's just weird. It's actually pretty telling when top Republicans are saying that she is through as a politician. Now that's funny. In fact we might have to take the craziest governor award from Mark Sanford (who was trying so hard to win) and give it Palin. 


One last thing about this move. There's something else going on here. There's going to be another shoe to drop and I feel like its going to be either a personal bombshell or some kind of state scandal. Remember, nothing ever really dies in politics......


Oh and here's her announcement, I swear SNL couldn't write a better skit....

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