|
Straight Outta Compton (Priority, 1988)
/
Ghetto
Music: The Blueprint Of Hip Hop (Jive, 1989) /
Get Rich Or Die Tryin’
– Soundtrack (2005)
*
* * * *
50 Cent CDs
Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
/
The Massacre /
Guess Who's Back /
Power of the Dollar
* * * * * Books on Rap &
Hip Hop
Todd Boyd,
The
New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop
(2003) /
Sharif Responds to Todd
Boyd /
Is Hip
Hop Really Dead?
Brian Cross,
It's Not About a Salary... Rap, Race and Resistance in Los
Angeles: Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles (1993)
Tricia Rose,
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America
(1994)
Russell A. Porter, Spectacular
Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism
(1995)
Bakari Kitwana,
The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the
Crisis in African American Culture
(2003)
Imani
Perry,
Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (2004)
*
* * * * 50 Cent: A Metaphor for Change
By Intel
In the
eyes of Rap music superstar, 50 Cent, I see the sorrowful
exploitation of one of many countless faces marginalized in
ghettos across America. Born into a life cycle of poverty,
uncertainty, hunger and misery, and educated in substandard
institutions, a myopic, even selfish and self-destructive,
survival-of-the-fittest mentality dominates. What then would you
expect from someone who lives day to day wearing a bullet-proof
vest, cynically anticipating death with a smile?
Adverse to its initial call for justice as a movement of social
consciousness, mainstream Rap music has come to embody the
promotion of a perpetual life cycle of discursive negativity.
Children deteriorate and die as a corporate machine without soul
capitalizes ruthlessly on the brutal and oppressive plague of
inner city poverty and pain. Recording industry star, 50 Cent,
validates the truth of this reality; sardonically boasting of a
childhood spent selling crack-cocaine, and nearly being shot to
death in front of his grandparents' house, only to bounce back a
more vicious hustler.
Elevated with grandeur to positions of leadership,
multi-platinum rap stars vow to
Get Rich Or Die Tryin',
as 50 Cent has demonstrated through his latest album's title,
which sold over 872,000 units in the first four days of its
February, 2002 release. The record industry cares not that they
are outright sponsors of the notion that crime pays. Children
coming from similar circumstances see this madness and continue
in the cycle in hopes of cashing out in the same way. Those on
the outside enjoy the entertainment.
 |
Self-proclaimed industry kingpins like 50 Cent glamorize a
fictitious street life of prestige and glory through demented
songs with no honor. . . . Leading their people to self
destruction, the materialistic machine of shallow thought that
they ignorantly sell to the youth as success bears no fruit but
imprisonment and dysfunction, societal “problems [which are
often] veiled by being conveniently grouped by the automatic
attribution of criminal behavior to people of color,” as
Angela Davis, prison industrial-complex activist, ascertains.
Unfortunately, myopic thought abounds, and this crisis goes on
virtually unacknowledged while the multi-billion dollar
recording industry continues on in its exploitation of the
societal ills that plague inner-city communities nationwide. |
Looking into the eyes of 50 Cent, I feel torn. I feel a sense of
brotherhood with this man, for, historically, he and I both
share a common and agonizing past in which our ancestors were
chattel, stolen from Africa, and brought to the West. Both our
families fled the persecution of the Deep South in the same way,
heading north in search of work and freedoms denied, only to be
banished into overcrowded inner city slums of poverty and crime.
As my brother's keeper, I can't help but love and pity 50 Cent.
I understand that he is a product of over 400 years of
conditioning, turmoil, and exploitation. Only time will show him
the truth of how he has poisoned his people, selling them the
Oppressor's deadly cocaine and lies.
With his undeniably innate appeal to masses of ghetto youth, I
know that 50 Cent has the potential to become a great
revolutionary and leader of men. However, given the crooked path
he walks today, he may not live to see tomorrow.
Thursday., December. 18, 2003
/
www.nuai.org
Moses
Soweto-Tsali AKA Intel of
the Tribe of Nuai is an 18-year-old writer, musician and
activist. As an honors student, Moses is the first African
American class President in the near one- hundred-year history
of his parochial high school, where he recently led a formal
campus inquiry into allegations of racism and discrimination. Moses
is a founding member of the Nuai Tribe, an Afro-Chicano youth
arts organization based out of LA and San Jose. INTEL | intel@nuai.org
]Nuai.Org Staff Writer Los Angeles, Calif.
www.nuai.org
* * *
* *
Marketing Ghana as a Mecca for the African-American Tourist—The
Afro-American tourist market constitutes an important niche
market. At the moment, the U.S.A. is Ghana's second highest
tourist generating market with the U.K being the first. In 2003,
some 27,000 tourists arrived in Ghana from the Americas.
Approximately 10,000 were African-Americans. Also, about a
thousand are living and working in Accra. The African-American
tourist market is Ghana's niche market because it has the
greatest growth potential in terms of arrivals and receipts.
This is because the African-American tourist of today is more
interested in exploring his/her cultural and historical
heritage; the very products that Ghana offers. Also, they have a
$300 billion spending power and spend 98% of their household
income. The total income of this segment of the American
population is the largest of all the ethnic groups at $485 and
projected to reach $1.01 trillion by 2010. In a 2000 Gallup poll
commissioned by the National Summit on Africa, 73% of
African-Americans were interested in learning more about Africa.— ModernGhana
*
* * * *
Strange Fruit Lynching Report
/
Anniversary of a Lynching
Willie
McGhee Lynching /
My Grandfather's Execution
Dr. Robert Lee Interview /
African American dentist in Ghana
*
* * * *
Bob Marley—
Exodus
Bob Marley was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was
the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the ska,
rocksteady and reggae bands The Wailers (19641974) and Bob
Marley & the Wailers (19741981). Marley remains the most widely
known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for
helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement
(of which he was a committed member), to a worldwide audience.
|
Exodus
Exodus:
movement of jah people! oh-oh-oh, yea-eah!
Men and people will fight ya down (tell me why!)
When ya see jah light. (ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
Let me tell you if youre not wrong; (then, why? )
Everything is all right.
So we gonna walk - all right! - through de roads of
creation:
We the generation (tell me why!)
(trod through great tribulation) trod through great
tribulation.
Exodus, all right! movement of jah people!
Oh, yeah! o-oo, yeah! all right!
Exodus: movement of jah people! oh, yeah!
Yeah-yeah-yeah, well!
Uh! open your eyes and look within:
Are you satisfied (with the life youre living)? uh!
We know where were going, uh!
We know where were from.
Were leaving babylon,
Were going to our father land.
2, 3, 4: exodus: movement of jah people! oh, yeah!
(movement of jah people!) send us another brother
moses!
(movement of jah people!) from across the red sea!
(movement of jah people!) send us another brother
moses!
(movement of jah people!) from across the red sea!
Movement of jah people!
Exodus, all right! oo-oo-ooh! oo-ooh!
Movement of jah people! oh, yeah!
Exodus!
Exodus! all right!
Exodus! now, now, now, now!
Exodus!
Exodus! oh, yea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-eah!
Exodus!
Exodus! all right!
Exodus! uh-uh-uh-uh!
Move! move! move! move! move! move!
Open your eyes and look within:
Are you satisfied with the life youre living?
We know where were going;
We know where were from.
Were leaving babylon, yall!
Were going to our fathers land.
Exodus, all right! movement of jah people!
Exodus: movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Move! move! move! move! move! move! move!
Jah come to break downpression,
Rule equality,
Wipe away transgression,
Set the captives free.
Exodus, all right, all right!
Movement of jah people! oh, yeah!
Exodus: movement of jah people! oh, now, now, now,
now!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Move! move! move! move! move! move! uh-uh-uh-uh!
Move(ment of jah people)!
Move(ment of jah people)!
Move(ment of jah people)!
Move(ment of jah people)! movement of jah people!
Move(ment of jah people)!
Move(ment of jah people)!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
Movement of jah people!
|
*
* * * *
Relations
Between Africans and African Americans: Misconceptions, Myths
and Realities
By
Godfrey Mwakikagile
(Grand
Rapids, Michigan: National Academic Press, 2005) 302 pages
Chapter Four: The Attitude of Africans Towards African Americans
Chapter Six: Misconceptions About Each Other
Basil Davidson's "Africa Series"
Different
But Equal /
Mastering A Continent /
Caravans
of Gold /
The King and the City /
The Bible and The Gun
West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A
History to 1850
By
Basil Davidson
* * *
* *
* *
* * *
|
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
|
 |
* *
* * *
 |
Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
* * * *
*
update 1 July 2008
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