tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339384432024-02-07T06:32:18.384-06:00Que Revolu.....My Thoughts... News, Politics, Culture, Life, Music, Video, & LaughTitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-88203046110171424532009-01-04T13:44:00.001-06:002009-01-04T13:44:14.296-06:00DJ Earworm - United State of Pop 2008 (Viva La Pop) - Mashup<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/XLaZ-8IMtt0' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/XLaZ-8IMtt0'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-85162103946111880422008-12-17T14:28:00.001-06:002008-12-17T14:28:17.105-06:00A Message from the Brooklyn Tourism Board<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/Aw75TU83IZI' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/Aw75TU83IZI'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-12808760001758566632008-11-26T15:09:00.000-06:002008-11-26T15:10:08.277-06:00Race....<object width="448" height="374"><param name="movie" value="http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/e/16711680/wshhu4klb3i378896oQ1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/e/16711680/wshhu4klb3i378896oQ1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" width="448" height="374"></embed></object><br /><br />Black does not equal African American. Spanish does not equal Latin@. yes, Black Latin@s do exist. Nationality, Ethnicity, & Race are different things.....Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-59281364750506867482008-11-18T22:43:00.001-06:002008-11-18T22:43:39.450-06:00What did the 5 fingers say to the face?<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IYP_MgWF8hw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IYP_MgWF8hw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-41488887998917645812008-11-18T08:11:00.000-06:002008-11-18T08:13:16.735-06:00<object width="400" height="302"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2184757&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2184757&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="302"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/2184757">Heartless</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user369505">kwest</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-23463873311709024652008-10-24T03:17:00.001-05:002008-10-24T03:17:59.777-05:00<object width="464" height="392"><param name="movie" value="http://embed.break.com/NTkyNjQ4"></param><embed src="http://embed.break.com/NTkyNjQ4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="464" height="392"></embed></object><br><font size=1><a href="http://view.break.com/592648">http://view.break.com/592648</a> - Watch more <a href="http://www.break.com/">free videos</a></font>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-16170876444609121972008-10-22T00:35:00.001-05:002008-10-22T00:35:42.912-05:00Bernard Hopkins vs Monse<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/zwwYkDJnuWQ' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/zwwYkDJnuWQ'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-54113229128833593512008-10-22T00:32:00.001-05:002008-10-22T00:32:02.521-05:00Obamania in Brazil elections - 04 Oct 08<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/_Y1_wkLBNlY' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/_Y1_wkLBNlY'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-11956193572931527652008-10-22T00:28:00.001-05:002008-10-22T00:28:07.108-05:00Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/Z2rpvj9NSXM' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/Z2rpvj9NSXM'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-56411358164038863902008-10-21T03:15:00.001-05:002008-10-21T03:15:41.027-05:00Misconceptions of Obama fuel Republican campaign - 13 Oct 08<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/zRqcfqiXCX0' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/zRqcfqiXCX0'/></object></p><p>This is the country we live in......</p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-89216657288183442122008-10-20T00:47:00.002-05:002008-10-20T00:50:54.533-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.pocketpicks.co.uk/latest/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/myspace.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://www.pocketpicks.co.uk/latest/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/myspace.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />OCTOBER 9, 2008<br /><br />What Do You Get For Two Million MySpace Friends and 26 Million Streams?<br /><br />Atlantic rapper T.I. has passed two million MySpace friends, his MySpace page has over 82.6 million views and his hit single "Whatever You Like" has over 27 million streams at MySpace. Right now all of the songs at his MySpace page are collectively getting well over one million streams per day and to date have streamed over 138 million times.<br /><br />How does all that translate into cash?<br /><br />First-week sales of the album Paper Trail were 568,000. The album will have a big second-week drop but should top one million units within a few weeks. First week sales of the song "Whatever You Like" totaled almost 335,000 units. That's 0.13 song purchases per MySpace stream, or $0.09 of download revenue per song stream. (I'm comparing U.S. sales to global MySpace statistics. Comparing numbers across territories like that isn't the best way to compare artist statistics, but it's the only way I can do it.)<br /><br />Having a #1 song will influence traffic at an artist's MySpace page. At a penny per stream, T.I.'s MySpace page can bring in $15,000 per day if visitors listen to 1.5 million streams (which T.I. will easily exceed today). Those streams would generate even more revenue if the songs had an Amazon.com buy button (which they do not yet have). That's $105,000 in ad revenue for one week. Album sales, assuming a 15/85 digital/physical split, brought in (roughly) $5.42 million. First-week sales of "Whatever You Like" brought in $235,000 (I don't know a la carte sales from other tracks on the album, so I am ignoring them as well as ringtones). The total of the three is $5.76 million. That's $3.75 per MySpace friend (again, not including ringtones).<br /><br />Robin Thicke released an album last week as well. Something Else sold 137,000 units. His MySpace page has 8.52 million visits to date and he has 279,000 friends. Even though Thicke's MySpace page has streamed 17 million songs, he doesn't currently have a #1 single as does T.I. Thicke's MySpace page has streamed his latest single only 130,000 times. The page is getting about 30,000 streams per day. That's only $300 per day at a penny per stream and $2,100 per week. Just to get in revenue from a single, let's say Thicke sold 50,000 units last week. That's $35,000 in revenue. With a 15/85 split on the album, that's revenue of $1.31 million. The total for the three is about $1.35 million. That's $4.82 per MySpace friend.<br /><br />Let's compare to another debut last week, The Glass Passenger by emo band Jack's Mannequin. The album debuted with sales of 49,000 units. Relative to the band's number of MySpace friends, that's the same as T.I. but worse than Thicke. If friends of Jack's Mannequin had purchased the album at the same rate Robin Thicke friends bought his record, they would have sold about 104,000 units. The band's MySpace page had streamed over 14 million songs to date and is currently doing less than 100,000 streams per day. That's $1,000 per day at a penny per stream. With a 20/80 split on the album (a bit higher because it's rock) that's first-week revenue of about $467,600 without taking into account a la carte track purchases and ringtones. That's only $2.21 per MySpace friend.<br /><br />• T.I.: 0.263 albums per MySpace friend, 0.026 MySpace friends/profile views<br />• Thicke: 0.491 albums per MySpace friend, 0.0327 MySpace friends/profile views<br />• Jack's Mannequin: 0.23 albums per MySpace friend<br /><br />Peep the original article from Coolfer <a href="http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2008/10/what_do_you_get.php">Here</aTitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-27443777166630417152008-10-13T15:52:00.001-05:002008-10-13T15:52:40.808-05:00New McCain Attack Ad<embed src="http://blip.tv/play/gaEW04IvgpNs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="300" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-33788067816051903912008-10-08T18:19:00.001-05:002008-10-08T18:19:55.645-05:00Special Comment - Palin's Terrorist Tie's 10-6-08<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/C3-WTy8cNNk' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/C3-WTy8cNNk'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-32449249542640155802008-10-08T11:21:00.001-05:002008-10-08T11:21:29.469-05:00Rebel Diaz "A Trillion"- NO BAILOUT FOR WALL ST. CROOKS!!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/6QQbRXaGsjM' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/6QQbRXaGsjM'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-59268915952385114492008-10-02T11:47:00.001-05:002008-10-02T11:47:34.815-05:00Don't Vote<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/0vtHwWReGU0' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/0vtHwWReGU0'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-47201576542607115862008-10-02T11:15:00.009-05:002008-10-02T11:44:51.642-05:00Pimp my PiraguaThe NY Times has a niece <a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/its-the-cart-thats-art-as-cold-as-ice/">piece</a
<br />(w/video) on Puerto Rican artist Miguel Luciano's new project "Pimp My Piragua." Miguel is one of my favorite artists. His work addresses the "playful and painful exchanges between Puerto Rico and the United States, questioning the efficacy of a colonial relationship that continues to exist today." If you haven't seen his other work, you must. His Pure Plantainum project is one of my favorites.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwPlyPu_3oofR_oCUxORxXy0wPYgQUgibaXa-JWJ-RN2RcebCYSpB6nZwbIx9wmZiekDb9Iz35C1BUOVEWKxWqfrXw0Eo2qLpp5_O96xsV46QlNR-gSSDwLuGPKfPsdeIZPfUtXQ/s1600-h/Pira-front1-luciano.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwPlyPu_3oofR_oCUxORxXy0wPYgQUgibaXa-JWJ-RN2RcebCYSpB6nZwbIx9wmZiekDb9Iz35C1BUOVEWKxWqfrXw0Eo2qLpp5_O96xsV46QlNR-gSSDwLuGPKfPsdeIZPfUtXQ/s400/Pira-front1-luciano.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252594660291942210" /></a
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<br />Luciano's "Pimp my Piragua" project is currently being exhibited in the <a href="http://www.queensmuseum.org/index.htm">Queens Museum of Art</a
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<br />Here is some more of Miguel's other work:
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8TDy2Pd8T_XEYwKzOiDreN1TZDtqXiDJGIdOyPyBctMVYnzreoXs5B_56QqXeE-KobE9emYlCxoqYCpQ8NZOiwHmQcXYRHZbrupeWpMeONA_i9463aSr7qCLfWZ7699643yO_g/s1600-h/4cm510.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8TDy2Pd8T_XEYwKzOiDreN1TZDtqXiDJGIdOyPyBctMVYnzreoXs5B_56QqXeE-KobE9emYlCxoqYCpQ8NZOiwHmQcXYRHZbrupeWpMeONA_i9463aSr7qCLfWZ7699643yO_g/s400/4cm510.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252597755614757954" /></a>
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinLe2X7L8kXiA2QLOvAS9TFMF9g6kByY5fBkaHwP1ueRVYhzPT_d3O1vSDSmVHfDjde34CfK35-9WEODvW6OJbcwx-_U8hj5IM1Rv-RhEpgojncJst3eLzgI2ocl0EDC9l5F9IWQ/s1600-h/mcworld_luciano.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinLe2X7L8kXiA2QLOvAS9TFMF9g6kByY5fBkaHwP1ueRVYhzPT_d3O1vSDSmVHfDjde34CfK35-9WEODvW6OJbcwx-_U8hj5IM1Rv-RhEpgojncJst3eLzgI2ocl0EDC9l5F9IWQ/s400/mcworld_luciano.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252597955048801826" /></a>
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<br />"Luciano critically reconstructs, subverts and establishes
<br />new hierarchies, meanings and allegories that redefine
<br />the Puerto Rican paradigm."
<br /> -Juan Sánchez
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ4QvJrQ-ZT2PLjXlHn09_zsrG4gqtKwO_XpfCZz9kljLjUrkacwz_SsGXXNIzVwt4oZAtj3cGQoW89zRfc7h9KncUiRhB7GeUMwbL_prec3JjHD7TAc1unZXHf1qee_T-yzoDrQ/s1600-h/filiberto_sneaker2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ4QvJrQ-ZT2PLjXlHn09_zsrG4gqtKwO_XpfCZz9kljLjUrkacwz_SsGXXNIzVwt4oZAtj3cGQoW89zRfc7h9KncUiRhB7GeUMwbL_prec3JjHD7TAc1unZXHf1qee_T-yzoDrQ/s400/filiberto_sneaker2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252598140771768258" /></a>
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_5QJfzjqlHeh0wFGPOErm9CMBiBIWX7SIzpbQVS5GPXzj3pUL4DeUV5E9lbOO58Xm9FHSQP9Qiz4vUMtjrAuJAnVBdFtEXF5bExmKgAf_Xo5jyLeryAeyCiWxf0F7cJccdGVKmA/s1600-h/filiberto_sneaker3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_5QJfzjqlHeh0wFGPOErm9CMBiBIWX7SIzpbQVS5GPXzj3pUL4DeUV5E9lbOO58Xm9FHSQP9Qiz4vUMtjrAuJAnVBdFtEXF5bExmKgAf_Xo5jyLeryAeyCiWxf0F7cJccdGVKmA/s400/filiberto_sneaker3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252598314795224674" /></a>
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<br />For more info on Miguel click <a href="http://www.cueartfoundation.org/miguel-luciano.html">Here</aTitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-10610150071996745292008-10-02T00:04:00.001-05:002008-10-02T00:07:09.398-05:00Kanye West - Love Lockdown (Mysto & Pizzi Electro House Remix)Dope Remix...Props to Kanye for releasing the stems<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rGD1sEM0pNo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rGD1sEM0pNo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-60930772779511055122008-09-29T23:48:00.001-05:002008-09-29T23:50:08.199-05:00Hipster RapBeen meaning to post this for a while.....Jay Smooth gives us his take on "Hipster Rap."<br /><br /><br /><embed src="http://blip.tv/play/gaEWzZoGgpNs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="300" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-48878764910768498452008-09-29T23:09:00.001-05:002008-09-29T23:09:06.024-05:00Lil Wayne, A Tribe Called Quest - A Milli (The Sample)<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/3DMWVxVWeos' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/3DMWVxVWeos'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-88747738768533935472008-09-29T22:59:00.003-05:002008-09-29T23:06:16.265-05:00Pew/Internet: African Americans and the Internet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.inch.com/images/yel_cables.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.inch.com/images/yel_cables.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">African Americans and the Internet</span><br /><br />Tom Spooner <br />Lee Rainie<br /><br />While there has been strong growth, African-American adults still lag far behind their peers in other ethnic groups. This growth has been primarily driven by women, creating a notable gender gap that isn’t found in other ethnic user populations. Also, the African-American Internet population is younger, has more modest incomes and a higher proportion of users without college diplomas. When African-Americans go online, looking for information that is beneficial to their lives, like searching for a new job or place to live, is especially popular. Entertainment features online are also popular, which is most likely a result of the relative youthfulness of the African-American Internet population. Because of the relative inexperience of the average African-American user, the Web has not been fully integrated into his or her daily life. African-Americans are less likely to use the Internet on a daily basis and also spend less time online than their peers.<br /><br />View the full report <a href="http://http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_African_Americans_Report.pdf5">Here</aTitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-14599939791575347032008-09-29T22:51:00.002-05:002008-09-29T22:57:16.221-05:00More to ComeHaven't been posting regularly because I've been out of the country most of the summer, more posts to come soon. Here are a few of my pics from Puerto Rico....<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH-GlGKVFGVtTvnvaH1r8kkCe7UqSR0X9aG7KcTmuLfMGVKhEoPtDGCjLpvKm-kDDwYW-SjLTUeb7zuk7AqIvFILQfq7QvyWiUCjLXV0YxDHAKJxTcsrC0uQXWOrvFWGche3OVLw/s1600-h/DSC01089.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH-GlGKVFGVtTvnvaH1r8kkCe7UqSR0X9aG7KcTmuLfMGVKhEoPtDGCjLpvKm-kDDwYW-SjLTUeb7zuk7AqIvFILQfq7QvyWiUCjLXV0YxDHAKJxTcsrC0uQXWOrvFWGche3OVLw/s200/DSC01089.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251658149327258786" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRoHDrDSkUiorY9bGqf1qZd9w1eQVZnlp1b-FV7ntjiiw6SZXyq1BJNdth6_8U31c-mDsjalbVDxO__9OXo9NmoVGPECqDxd93LRTF-tQgU07gUGXhTtflQOlKakCqtqTpGi3SdA/s1600-h/DSC00975.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRoHDrDSkUiorY9bGqf1qZd9w1eQVZnlp1b-FV7ntjiiw6SZXyq1BJNdth6_8U31c-mDsjalbVDxO__9OXo9NmoVGPECqDxd93LRTF-tQgU07gUGXhTtflQOlKakCqtqTpGi3SdA/s200/DSC00975.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251658154971826434" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi__VFFt2WKKwo3aWYY-QcHgv-nlQLNEcbBgF9zoLzWVx5zOo0MFu-oFF_YdferINvKJYUgdRWAr9e-YlD_x88wwNlYS-t25QDzE-NhyNUnpoqb9jY-O9hn7RelTj8u8AUvUoxuBw/s1600-h/DSC01032.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi__VFFt2WKKwo3aWYY-QcHgv-nlQLNEcbBgF9zoLzWVx5zOo0MFu-oFF_YdferINvKJYUgdRWAr9e-YlD_x88wwNlYS-t25QDzE-NhyNUnpoqb9jY-O9hn7RelTj8u8AUvUoxuBw/s200/DSC01032.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251658157530077906" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbiVbJUaykU2H1UU9GHJxiCINMJrVxY1JF_e1oicQ1xC56vRzI8Z0QE4SHs4cSQiWRSZ0oYUC11PVqF7TGdir7GRXYH8ylR5Z5UA_ZQamUblpHNB4YOY4ufS0z9FpuVaBHMfm5QQ/s1600-h/DSC01066.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbiVbJUaykU2H1UU9GHJxiCINMJrVxY1JF_e1oicQ1xC56vRzI8Z0QE4SHs4cSQiWRSZ0oYUC11PVqF7TGdir7GRXYH8ylR5Z5UA_ZQamUblpHNB4YOY4ufS0z9FpuVaBHMfm5QQ/s200/DSC01066.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251658160125645330" /></a>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-41311006856157534242008-09-27T03:05:00.001-05:002008-09-27T03:05:40.929-05:00Kitundu PhonoKora Demonstration<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/LLCb8TzNNt0' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/LLCb8TzNNt0'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-32643610759245745552008-07-02T23:04:00.001-05:002008-07-02T23:04:09.959-05:00Tim Wise: On White Privilege (Clip)<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/J3Xe1kX7Wsc' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/J3Xe1kX7Wsc'/></object></p></div>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-22691108873071720612008-06-29T23:38:00.002-05:002008-06-29T23:42:23.324-05:00Runnin' Scared From Brooklyn, a Rap Campaign Against Tight ClothesRunnin' Scared<br />From Brooklyn, a Rap Campaign Against Tight Clothes<br />You can call their rhymes tight, just not their jeans<br />by Arcynta Ali Childs<br />June 24th, 2008 12:00 AM<br /><br />If clothes make the man, do tight clothes make the man a homosexual? A Brooklyn-based rap group thinks the current trend in hip-hop—medium tees and sagging jeans cinched tightly below the hips—is causing some confusion. And they are not alone.<br /><br />Members of the rap group Thug Slaughter Force—three brothers and two friends calling themselves Drama, Filthy, Tempa, Rebel, and Blanco the Don—walk the streets of Brooklyn in XL T-shirts with the words "Tight Clothes" slashed through with a red stripe: their message of protest against what they see as the move away from traditional baggy clothing and toward tighter-fitting outfits in today's hip-hop. The "No Tight Clothes" campaign is their latest idea in a decade of trying to make it in the rap game.<br /><br />"Where'd you get that shirt from?" yells Elijah Bilal, sitting outside Lalove Uniform on Fulton Street. "Bring me one!" the 40-year-old adds, and then offers a reporter his own observation about the direction of hip-hop attire: "The tight clothes—what, the boys is gay now? Boys walking around thinking they girls, girls walking around thinking they boys . . . No wonder all the girls are dating girls—because the boys are gay!"<br /><br />And Bilal isn't alone in his analysis. "I like that shirt," says a 28-year-old NYPD officer on foot who didn't want to be named. "This movement of everyone wearing tight-fitting clothes—it's not nice."<br /><br />"That's a beautiful thing," says 26-year-old Thug Slaughter Force member Tempa. "You walk through the street and don't have to say nothing—the product sells itself."<br /><br />Besides the shirts for sale, TSF are also promoting themselves with (no surprise) a YouTube video, which shows scores of young people wearing their own shirts and leaping to the lyrics of TSF's anthem, "No Tight Clothes."<br /><br />The video opens with an over-the-top "Slaughter General's Warning": "Wearing tight clothes by men may result in feminine tendencies, homosexuality, possible yeast infection, severe hemorrhoids, permanent wedgies, and genetically inherited transsexual characteristics in your son."<br /><br />And then come the lyrics:<br /><br />Take them tight-ass fuckin' clothes off<br /><br />That shit ain't gangsta, nigga<br /><br />We don't wear tight clothes . . . we let it hang!<br /><br />. . . Shirt extra-small and you six feet tall<br /><br />Lookin' like you got your pants off a Ken doll<br /><br />Silk speedo cheetah-print Superman drawers . . .<br /><br />. . . And what the fuck is this shit?<br /><br />Rude boy rockin' Prada<br /><br />Rhinestones on his collar<br /><br />Cowboy belt buckle with a chain like a rocker<br /><br />You forgot you was Rasta<br /><br />You need to puff on the ganja. . . .<br /><br />Are these rappers for real? "It basically boils down to: You are in a homosexual attire, and you are claiming to be something else," says 28-year-old TSF member Blanco the Don. "That's what I have a problem with—not the homosexualism. You're a front artist, and you're promoting homosexuality with your actions and dress code, but you're promoting gangster lifestyle with your lyrics. The two don't match up."<br /><br />To be clear, the "you" he's referring to are the artists who set trends—the ones who wear rhinestones, big belt buckles, tight shirts, and small jackets, and carry "man bags."<br /><br />"It's a string of rappers with the man bag . . . calling it a 'man bag,' but you're wearing a purse," says Tempa. Blanco and Tempa both say that the language of the "Warning" is meant in jest, but not everyone is convinced.<br /><br />"I think it's offensive," says Park Slope resident Jenny Brauer. "It's homophobic, inflammatory, and highly prejudicial." Although, she added, "there is a humorous aspect to this; it's not lost on me."<br /><br />Blanco, for his part, insists that "it's not a gay-bashing movement." On the other hand, he added, "if you are homosexual, you are not gangsta. There's nothing gangster about being homosexual."<br /><br />Homophobia in rap is nothing new, of course. And there's a growing awareness of homosexuality in hip-hop.<br /><br />"You walk in urban communities [like] Harlem, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and you see these young people walking around with pants sagging way down below their ass cheeks and underwear showing—what are you selling? That's much more homoerotic than fitted jeans," says Terrance Dean, author of Hiding in Hip Hop: On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry—from Music to Hollywood, a book that electrified the music industry when it was published last month and hinted at the homosexuality of numerous unnamed music figures.<br /><br />"It just so happens that heterosexual people are always emulating gay style," Dean says. "Most stylists are gay," and, he points out, those styles then make their way from international runways to inner- city neighborhoods. "I don't think it necessarily correlates with people being gay or feminine," he adds. "I think it's just fashion and hip-hop go hand in hand."<br /><br />But he doesn't share TSF's fashion sense: "It's about time that people started wearing clothes that fit."<br /><br />Among some residents of Brooklyn, however, this is a minority view. One such young man, emerging from the Brooklyn Courthouse in a Boston Celtics jersey stopped briefly to talk with Blanco and Tempa and, upon hearing they were rappers, even kicked a little rhyme: "As I reminisce/with two of my bros/tell them niggas/don't wear no tight clothes!"<br /><br />Here's the video for TSF's "NO TIGHT CLOTHES"<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pABR7CoM5uA&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pABR7CoM5uA&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33938443.post-16372411014797821822008-06-24T10:50:00.002-05:002008-06-24T10:52:29.269-05:00Lil Wayne and the Afronaut Invasion<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.socialfiction.org/img/astronaut2.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.socialfiction.org/img/astronaut2.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Lil Wayne and the Afronaut Invasion<br />Why have so many black musicians been obsessed with outer space?<br /><br />By Jonah Weiner<br />Posted Friday, June 20, 2008, at 1:50 PM ET<br />In 1927, the Rev. A.W. Nix, a preacher from Birmingham, Ala., entered a recording studio to commit several of his sermons to wax. He intended to release them commercially on the burgeoning gospel-music circuit. A Southern Baptist, Nix had an ear for the musical possibilities of oratory and a taste for fire and brimstone. His sermons, delivered in the rich, ravaged singsong of a Delta bluesman, bore darkly chastening titles like "Death Might Be Your Christmas Gift" and "The Prayer Meeting in Hell." Tucked into this catalog of apocalyptic warnings, though, was "The White Flyer to Heaven," a rapturous, six-minute homily about riding a spaceship piloted by Jesus up to the pearly gates: "Higher and higher! And higher! We'll pass on to the Second Heaven, the starry big Heaven, and view the flying stars and dashing meteors and then pass on by Mars and Mercury, and Jupiter and Venus and Saturn and Uranus, and Neptune with her four glittering moons."<br /><br />"White Flyer to Heaven" is probably the earliest recorded evidence of a phenomenon that's persevered in black music ever since: Call it the Afronaut tradition. Last Tuesday, rapper Lil Wayne put this tradition atop the pop charts with his No. 1-debuting album Tha Carter III, which sold a stunning 1,005,545 copies in its first week. Lil Wayne starts from a hardened gangsta-rap template, but outer space has figured into his increasingly loopy songs for more than a year now: During the 2006 freestyle "Dough Is What I Got," he claimed Martian provenance in a boast about his otherworldly skills; on the woozy 2007 drug track "I Feel Like Dying," he imagined playing "basketball with the moon," adding, "I can mingle with the stars and throw a party on Mars." On Tha Carter III, Wayne devotes an entire song, "Phone Home," to the subject of his alien origins: "We are not the same, I am a Martian," he announces in an E.T.-inflected croak.<br /><br />The last rapper to post comparable first-week sales was Kanye West (957,000), who is currently traveling the world with a space-themed tour titled Glow in the Dark; West's set features a rocket ship named Jane, animatronic shooting stars, and a stage designed to resemble rocky, lunar terrain. The Afronaut has been a hip-hop trope since Afrika Bambaataa recorded "Planet Rock" in 1982, but this is the first time it's occupied such a significant spot in the pop mainstream.<br /><br />Many white rockers—Pink Floyd and David Bowie, most prominently—have taken to the cosmos for inspiration, but space has played a particularly vital role in the articulation of African-American musical identity. As a worldview, Afronautics began to take form in the late 1930s with a Birmingham-born college student named Herman Poole Blount. While meditating one afternoon, Blount said, he was beamed to Saturn by friendly aliens, who explained that his purpose in life was to speak truths of the universe through music. By the late 1950s—around the same time that Sputnik went into orbit—Blount had renamed himself Sun Ra, claimed Saturn as his true birthplace, and formed an elaborately costumed jazz collective called the Arkestra, specializing in noisy jams full of chants about space ways, satellites, and, in one of Ra's most-quoted formulations, "other planes of there." In songs, poems, and interviews, Sun Ra mapped out the fuzzy contours of his philosophy, which combined mystical futurism with an interest in ancient Egyptian civilization, and found sympathetic ears among avant-gardists, psychedelia heads, and hippies.<br /><br />Ra grew up an outsider twice over: once for his refusal to participate in military service during World War II, which earned him brief imprisonment and ostracism from his family, and again for the simple fact of being black in the American South. We can glimpse the psychological framework of his space obsession through the lens of his alienation. His 1972 poem "Tomorrow's Realm" mixes images of solitude, slavery, and cosmic escape:<br /><br />I'll build a world of otherness …<br />Other-abstract-natural design<br />And wait for you.<br />In tomorrow's realm<br />We'll take the helm<br />of a new ship<br />Like the lash of a whip, we'll be suddenly<br />on the way.<br /><br />The whip's appearance in this fantasy brings to mind a compelling formulation from "Black to the Future," a 1993 essay on black sci-fi by cultural critic Mark Dery: "African Americans are, in a very real sense, the descendants of alien abductees." In Ra's mythology, the future is inextricable from the past: His spaceship carries the specter of the slave ship within itself.<br /><br />Another likely influence on Sun Ra—and a considerable influence on many hip-hop stars of the late '80s and early '90s—was the Nation of Islam, whose pamphleteers the jazzman associated with in '50s Chicago. Sun Ra never claimed membership in the Nation of Islam, and he disagreed with many of its teachings; still, his encounters with the group are interesting, since a racialized cosmology is central to both his and the NOI's beliefs. In Elijah Muhammad's 1965 tract Message to the Blackman in America, Muhammad writes of a massive "mother plane"—built by ancient black scientists and containing inside its metal hull "fifteen hundred bombing planes with most deadliest explosives"—that hovers above Earth, poised to rain damnation upon "the white man's evil world."<br /><br />Echoes of Sun Ra and NOI are audible in the music of George Clinton, who must have had both in mind when he transformed Parliament from a doo-wop group into a mother-ship-worshipping acid-funk congregation in the 1970s. Clinton's mother ship, of course, was likelier to drop megatons of booty and cocaine than warheads, but hedonism wasn't the only goal. In the opening bars of "Mother Ship Connection," Clinton announces, "We have returned to claim the pyramids"—a nod to paleocontact theories, which hypothesize that ancient astronauts shared technological secrets with North Africans. Perceptible in this ripple of the Afronaut impulse is the yearning for and fantastical reclamation of an ennobling African history: A trip to space doubles as a return to roots.<br /><br />The Afronaut universe, of course, comprises more performers than those mentioned here and extends beyond music, from the hero of Brother From Another Planet to Astronaut Jones, Tracy Morgan's ridiculous SNL creation. Where hip-hop is concerned, though, the first Afronaut to speak of is Afrika Bambaataa. A gang leader turned community activist and DJ, Bambaataa spun Parliament-Funkadelic records alongside reggae, techno, and rock vinyl and wore elaborate African-Samurai-Cherokee-cyborg costumes doubtless inspired by the Arkestra. In the burnt-out South Bronx of the early '80s, Bambaataa's Afronaut mythology—championing Zulu valor and an interstellar utopianism—offered both racial pride and an escapist-hatch out of the bleak, inner-city quotidian.<br /><br />Ironically, a George Clinton fan named Dr. Dre helped push space to hip-hop's margins for the better part of a decade. In 1988, Dre co-produced Straight Outta Compton, the epochal album by ur-gangsta-rap posse N.W.A, which made the group's stone-faced "reality rap" hip-hop's dominant perspective. Cosmic journeys became fanciful departures from hip-hop's so-called "true" locus, the flesh-and-blood, asphalt-and-concrete street. In the mid-to-late-'90s, bling-era hip-hop supplanted gangsta rap, trading an exaggerated narrative of urban despair for an exaggerated narrative of upward mobility—but not the sort you get from a shuttle blastoff.<br /><br />Rappers continued to construct Afronaut fantasies, of course. Underground New York MC Kool Keith fashioned himself a star-humping Marquis de Sade; Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott filled music videos with cyberpunk imagery and goofy zero-gravity effects. But Atlanta duo OutKast did more than anyone else to put the Afronaut back on the hip-hop radar. OutKast's 1996 album, ATLiens, came packaged with a comic book in which rappers Big Boi and Andre 3000, armed with holographic lions and purity of spirit, battle an alien warlord named Nosamilli. When OutKast announced that they were "extraterrestrials" in their songs, their purpose was twofold. As Southerners, they'd been excluded from hip-hop's dominant East/West axis, and they sought to turn that outsider status into a weapon. But just as important, these students of Funkadelic and Prince, bored by the conservatism of steely thugs and dollar-eyed hustlers, were arguing for the rightful place in hip-hop of that crucial figure in black postwar pop, the boa-sporting, id-unleashing, out-of-this-world freak.<br /><br />So, what does space mean to Lil Wayne, the biggest Afronaut in the world right now? When he says he was born on Mars, it's a brag: He means it takes an alien system of thought to conduct his chaotic assault on sound, rhythm, and meaning. But Wayne's Afronautic vision goes beyond this. He redefines what it means to be a gun-toting gangsta, importing the anarchic values of a black spaceman: For him, space seems to signify the excesses of emotion, imagination, and appetite banging around his body and brain, dark matter the gangsta-realist idiom typically excludes. Whereas Jay-Z and 50 Cent boast about focus and composure, Wayne allows himself to sound genuinely unhinged—sobbing, spewing gibberish, breaking into fits of laughter. And whereas many rappers talk about destroying their competition, Wayne is certainly the first to fantasize so extensively about munching on his.* On "Phone Home," he raps, "I just eat them for supper, get in my spaceship, and hover." Any gangsta can level a Glock at his enemies. It takes a Martian to whip out the cutlery.<br /><br />Correction, June 23, 2008: The article originally stated that Lil Wayne was the first hip-hop artist to fantasize about munching on his competition. In fact, other rappers have contemplated consuming their rivals. (Return to the corrected sentence.)<br /><br />Jonah Weiner is a senior editor at Blender and has written about music for the Village Voice and the New York Times. <br />Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2193871/Titohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02198748909743700244noreply@blogger.com1