Freedom: Short Stories

Writer Mohammed Naseehu Ali put me on to this great collection. Some real good writers in it.

My National Book Award Winner Prediction

Haven't read it yet, but I know it's about Hurricane Katrina and a poor family and a litter of prized pitbulls. You heard it here first.

Hip-Hop SAT Assimilation

assimilation (n.) - the process of receiving new facts or of responding to new situations in conformity with what is already available to consciousness 

"It's almost methodical, education is false assimilation..."
--Ras Kass, "Ordo Ab Chao" 1996

 

More Hip-Hop SAT

Rich People/Poor People

Poor People Question: What are you wearing?
Rich People Question: Who are you wearing?

I'm Introducing Mohammed Naseehu Ali

Hey Everybody,

This Friday, October 14th I'm introducing Ghanean writer Mohammed Naseehu Ali (The New Yorker, the New York Times, Essence) at KGB Bar in the village (85 E. 4th St). What am I gonna say?

Hip-Hop Thought of the Day #4

"It's absolutely silly and unproductive to have a funeral for the word 'nigga' when the actions continue"
-Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets on Nas's "Project Roach"



 

Hip-Hop Thought of the Day #3

"Yo check her, she the nectar the bee gets close to"
Mos Def from Black Star's "Brown Skin Lady"

 

Hip-Hop Thoughts of the Day 

Soul/Hip-Hop Thought of the Day #2

"No you won't naming no buildings after me to go down dilapidated."
Erykah Badu, "A.D. 2000"

Memory of Love...Aminatta Forna

Representing my Sierra Leonean people. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Check it out.

 

Sooo True...

In the words of Lindsay's cousin, Dr. Strachan..."Chuck E. Cheese's is a casino". Think about it. The tokens are chips, the games are slots...lol.

Hip-Hop Thought of the Day (#1)

They tryin to blame this rap shit for all of our ills
Like I can stick you up with a mic
Like I can rape you with a verse or use a verb as a knife
Like before Kool Herc, everything was alright
Like y'all wasn't callin black women hoes befo' "Rappers Delight"
Sheeeit~! That's just idiot talk, this whole shit is a farce
I refuse to be hip-hop's pallbearer
Had to tell my son cut that bullshit off
Them ain't videos nigga, that's psychological warfare
-Phonte, Little Brother

Gun Hill Road

You should see Gun Hill Road. I saw it. It was good.

Hip-Hop SAT Word #3 Synthesize

synthesize v. to combine (a number of things) into a coherent whole.

"Marley Marl synthesized it, I memorize it/ Eric B. made a cut, then advertised it."

--Rakim, "My Melody" 

Hip-Hop SAT 

Epiphany Reading

I'm reading my short story "Dangerous Deliveries" Tuesday evening at a cafe in the village!

Poets and Fiction Writers mix it up at the Writers Read Summer Reading on Tuesday August 9th , 2011

WHO :   ELINOR NAUEN (poet)  author of So Late into the Night, a book-length poem  from Rain Mountain Press (spring 2011) ,

Cars and Other Poems and American Guys as well as Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend: Women writers on baseball, Ladies, Start Your Engines: Women writers on cars and the road and the upcoming My Marriage A to Z: a big city romance (Dec. 2011)

         Stephanie Dickinson, (fiction) publisher and editor of SkidRow Penthouse  (with Rob Cook) and author of Half Girl, winner of the Hackney Prize for best unpublished novel - available in limited edition from Spuyten Duvyil.

            Gene Albertelli (fiction) docent at the Brooklyn Museum, avid marathon runner who is at work on a collection of short stories.

            Sidik Fofana (fiction) writes on Hip Hop and cultural politics for Source Magazine and okayplayer.com. His blog is www.cornerboyjazz.blogspot.com  and he is currently at work on a collection of short stories.

         Lizabeth Kingsley (poet) teaches poetry and fiction at NYC's Writers Studio, where she is also Administrative Director.   Her work has appeared in the William and Mary Review and New Jersey Family Magazine

WHAT:  A reading of original fiction and poetry

WHERE:  Downstairs at The Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, NYC   212-989-9319      $7 cover includes one drink

SUBWAYS :   WEST 4TH STREET STOP FOR B,D,V,F, C, E & A TRAINS

WHEN:       Tuesday, August 9th at 6pm

White Girl With Crazy Flow

Didn't know white girls could flow like this...

The Prep School Negro

What happens when a 14-year old boy from the ghettos of Philadelphia gets a scholarship to a prestigious private school? A documentary years later...

Always Wondered... Question #2

What language do the deaf think in?

Always Wondered...

The Deektionary Word #2 Thiefstorm

thiefstorm (n.) the immediate group of people one automatically accuses of stealing something. (Derived from the English thief and brainstorm).

Example Sentence: When the college girl lost her cell phone at the house party, the black guy with the hoody was the first person in her thiefstorm.

The Deektionary

Lauryn Hill Covers Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved"

Cannot deny this...

Always Wondered Question #1

What percent of insects die violently?

Michael Jordan vs. Kobe Bryant

Just how I'm feeling...

Barack Obama Roasts Donald Trump

Get at him, Barack!

Training for Gods

You are in the third day of the God Workshop and already The Almighty is giving the class a pop quiz. You kinda half-assed the first couple of days, nodding off during the Powerpoint and drawing nude
cartoons in your notebook. You never wanted to be a god. You just died six months ago. You just figured you’d tried something new, so you got a copy of the White Clouds, and saw the listing for divinity training. But now, you’re thinking to yourself, “I paid three hundred dollars for this seminar, they should be giving me content. I shouldn’t regurgitating information from the first two days.” You look at your test sheet. It is a quiz on prayers.  You know very little about this topic because that was
the point of the lecture when drool was dropping from your chin.

You read the first question: “If a seventeen year old earnestly prays to get laid, you answer that prayer…a) immediately b) never  c) in conjunction with a matching seventeen year girl who is wishing the same thing d) on a case by case basis.” You narrow it down between C and D, but then miraculously remember that you were actually semi-awake when The Almighty was breaking down the categories of prayers. But wait a minute, is praying for sex fall under a granted? Think…does this qualify as a prayer that will answer itself? Well, kinda. Most seventeen year olds pray for sex and for the majority of them, sex will happen for them regardless of prayer. Sex is the purpose of life as the Almighty demonstrated during the ice-breaker. So, it is a granted prayer, and you know never to answer those prayers because they will someday answer themselves.

Why do you humans do that? Pray for things that can happen on their own? You did the same thing as a human. Rosetta said she would come to your room at 2:00 am to help you “pack” for  your road trip and crash on your bed, next to you, and you still went into the bathroom and prayed that this would be the night.

Anyway, the first question jogs your memory. You remember that the opposite of granteds are zeros. Prayers that have absolutely no chance of happening. Like a grown ass corporate lawyer praying for his childhood days at Quinnipiac Lake to come back. Humans know the rules. They can’t go back in time to skinny dip in some random body of water that they visited in the 70’s. Zeros are like granteds; they never get answers. Which leaves the only coinies. Coinies are situations that can be arbitrarily decided…like with a coin toss. That helps you answer the question about someone praying to recover from a disease. That one’s easy: you use your discretion and choose whether or not you want to answer that or you just go heads, tails. 

You guess on the next couple of questions, then you get to number ten. It reads, “A vagabond goes to a food pantry and is given a bottle of Poland Spring water, but wishes that it was a bottle of Jack Daniels. How do you answer that prayer?” You are sweating because you don’t want to fail and waste your 300 smackaroos. So you have to think of something fast. There, you’ve thought of it. Humans cheat, so can gods. You ask the student to your right what the answer to number ten is. 

He huffs and puffs, but finally says, “That is a miracle prayer, dummy. The rule with miracle prayers is that if a god has performed the miracle before, it need not be done again because said god proved that it could happen and that’s all that matters. Water has been turned into wine before—a guy by the name of 'Jesus'. Ring a bell? Don’t ask me for any more answers.” He covers his paper with his elbow and shrinks away from you.

The Almighty signals every one to put their pencils down. The last question may have gotten you six out of ten. Although you are on the brink of failing, you turn your paper in, leave class early, and convince yourself that the greater lesson is that gods are not perfect anyway. 

-Sidik Fofana

Really Cute Short Film

Was at a screening for Rooftop Films in Park Slope, Brooklyn and saw this awesomely done film. It's called Bike Race directed Tom Shroeder and it's essentially about a debate to determine the greatest bicyclist of all time...and a love triangle. Check it out...

Hip-Hop SAT #2

purgatory n. (in Roman Catholic doctrine) A place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven.

"Method for all--suckers I maul, they fall and crawl/ Into a pit of purgatory" -- Guru, Words I Manifest (Remix)

Hip-Hop Sat 

Serena Williams Commercial

I think I know the marketing aim on this one.

Lupe Fiasco with Tavis Smiley

Enlightening to say the least.

Beat by Ev.

Simply hot.

  Sly Riddim by Ev.

Ev.

Uncle Tom Article by Jesse Washington

On point.


‘Uncle Tom’ remark exposes pain in black community
By JESSE WASHINGTON/AP National Writer

     Jalen Rose grew up poor in Detroit, the son of single mom and an NBA player he never met. He helped transform basketball culture as a member of Michigan's iconic Fab Five team, then earned more than $100 million as a pro baller.

     Grant Hill came up wealthy in the D.C. suburbs, the child of an NFL running back married to a corporate consultant. He helped establish Duke University as a paragon of success and virtue in college basketball, then overcame terrible injuries to enjoy a long NBA career.

     So which one is the "authentic" black man?

     The question may seem irrelevant. But when Rose said that he considered black Duke players like Hill "Uncle Toms" when he was a teenager, he exposed a sensitive and longstanding issue for many African-Americans: If blacks succeed in a white man's world, and do not conform to certain assumptions of how blacks should act, are they less black?

     Rose's comment — aired Tuesday in an ESPN documentary Rose produced on the five black Michigan freshmen who rode their wave of talent, hip-hop style and trash talk to the 1992 championship game — inspired to a response from Hill on The New York Times website. Hill's riposte spent several days atop the Times' most-emailed list, and more than 96,000 people shared it on Facebook, stoking a free-wheeling debate on the Web and in print over which basketball star had the better point.

     "I hated everything I felt Duke stood for," Rose said in the documentary, describing his feelings as a 17-year-old high schooler. "Schools like Duke didn't recruit players like me. I felt like they only recruited black players that were Uncle Toms."

     Hill responded that "Jalen seems to change the usual meaning of those very vitriolic words into his own meaning, i.e., blacks from two-parent, middle-class families. ... To hint that those who grew up in a household with a mother and father are somehow less black than those who did not is beyond ridiculous."

     Chandra Guinn, director of Duke's Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, said the argument went far beyond sniping between college hoops stars from decades ago.

     "There are bigger issues here," she said. Among them: the denigration of children from single-parent homes, and adults damaging the self-esteem of black boys. Guinn also senses "a moment of revelation about black men's hurt. There's often a feeling of being 'less than.' It seemed to me that both of these men, for different reasons, have felt that way."

     Duke junior Julius Jones resents suggestions that "success somehow challenges your blackness. That if you go to school, get good grades, matriculate to an elite institution, that somehow makes you less black."

     Jones grew up in Portland, the son of an electrician and an accountant, and attended a majority white elementary school. In middle school, black kids saw Jones with white friends and told him, "You're an Uncle Tom, you don't want to be black, you talk white, you act white," Jones remembers.

     When Michigan met Hill's Duke team for the 1992 championship, the Blue Devils were the clean-cut defending champs, and started three white players. Duke crushed the Fab Five by 20 points. ("I am proud of my family. I am proud of my Duke championships and all my Duke teammates. And, I am proud I never lost a game against the Fab Five," Hill concluded his blog post, with a gentlemanly flourish of trash talk.)

     Two decades later, Duke is still known as the rare school that mixes high academic standards and graduation rates — for both black and white players — and powerhouse basketball.

     "The bottom line is this: (Duke does) recruit a certain type of player ... a lot of players from private schools," Rose observed while explaining his comments in an ESPN interview.

     Kenny Osakwe, a black Duke student, did not disagree, but suggested Duke players should not be tarred merely because they are fortunate. "I'm friendly with a lot of the team, and it's true, most of them do come from relatively affluent families," he said. "That's the culture here at Duke. And you never hear of any recruiting scandals, everything is done the right way.

     "Duke didn't have their Final Fours reneged," Osakwe said — an allusion to the games Michigan forfeited after it was revealed that some players, including Fab Five center Chris Webber, had accepted money from a Michigan booster.

     But by operating in that fashion, the school is open to claims that it is elitist — and that the players it recruits are merely black genetically.

     "Why doesn't it seem like Duke ever takes a chance on a guy from a background like Jalen's, instead of giving an opportunity to someone who was born on third base?" asked Reginald C. Dennis, a black journalist and basketball fan.

     He remembers being angered by sports columns in the late '80s and early '90s, when hip-hop was merging with sports culture, that disparaged swashbuckling players like Rose.

     "Grant was the one they liked," said Dennis, who was raised by married parents in a New York City housing project. "They always want to separate the good negro from the bad negro. Grant was used as the example."

     Dennis once owned dozens of hats featuring the names of various college teams. "I didn't have a Duke hat," he said. "I never even saw a black person with Duke anything. I wore my Michigan hat until the M fell off."

     "Black people have been saying for 20 years what Jalen Rose said. This is just the first time it was done so publicly," said Dennis. "It shocked white people who didn't know the conversation was happening."

     "That's what this is all about," agrees Ron Miller, author of "SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom's Porch." "There's an ongoing discussion in the black community about what constitutes authentic blackness."

     Miller, a black conservative, describes the meaning of the term Uncle Tom as "a boot-licking apologist for white people, someone used by white people who is subservient to their whims and desires."

     He notes that although the term originated with Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the book's character was a heroic figure who refused to divulge the location of escaped slaves. White minstrel shows then changed him into a lackey often played by whites in blackface, Miller said.

     He said he does not know any real-life Uncle Toms. "Most of the people I know who have had that label cast upon them are simply trying to play by the rules," Miller said.

     "Rather than trying to force an entire race to conform to a single model, we should celebrate the variety and energy that comes from people across the spectrum."

The World's Fastest Band

I love this colorful commercial...

Racist Abortion Ad

A colleague put me on to this atrocity. Ever notice how right-wingers love building platforms with shock tactics? As if thatsabortion.com didn't know who they would offend. It's one thing to be pro life, it's another thing to be just plain racist.

Interview with Aloe Blacc

On a forum about the HBO TV show, How To Make It In America, an anonymous commenter wrote,  “The star of the show ain’t even a cast member. It’s Aloe Blacc, the theme-song singer.” Okay, so I was the commenter. But the sentiment belonged to many. Meanwhile, Good Things, the third album from this reinvented Stones Throw signee, has had time to officially unpack and, of course, OKP is on the welcoming committee.

OKP: Where did you learn to sing?

Aloe Blacc: I learned it writing songs and practicing. I had a vocal trainer for about a month, who helped me learn certain ways to sing and then from there it was finding the type of sound and style that fits my voice best.

OKP: How did you support yourself while doing music at first?

AB: Before I started doing it full time in 2003, I went to school for four years at USC. When I graduated, I was working at a business firm consulting for a couple of years. By that time, I had already developed a fan base.

OKP: At USC?

AB: I had the following since high school.

OKP: Really?

AB: Instead of doing sports or playing video games, I was making music. Mixed it, mastered, manufactured it. Then we just went to the stores and sold them. We got shows on consignment.

OKP: Remarkable. What made you quit your consulting job?

AB: I was caught up in a round of lay offs. I figured I could do music for a little bit before I didn’t have any money left. I shared a house with other musicians, went off and did music.

OKP: Where was this?

AB: This was close to Downtown LA. Close to University Park. Right near USC.

OKP: And all of a sudden there’s this show How To Make It In America and you have the hot new theme song to it. How did you land that?

AB: The songs were recorded and ready to go. They contacted Stones Throw and the label sent a bunch of different stuff. They ended up choosing my song. I was excited. I felt it was a good way to launch to an audience.

OKP: So, do you prefer singing to rapping now?

AB: I’m doing both actually. I have another [all rap] album coming out shortly. I prefer singing because of the songwriting. It’s much more musically evolved. There’s a lot more melody and harmony. It’s more attractive to a larger audience. As a musician and an entertainer, I want my music to be appreciated by as many as people as possible.

Erykah Badu's "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long"

You already know


Erykah Badu - Gone Baby, Don't be Long from beeple on Vimeo.

The Deekticionary Word #1 Fecsia

Another new column for me. It's basically words I make up. Ever notice that there are all these phenomena out there for which there are no words? So, every time I have a feeling, thought, idea which lacks an adequate vocabulary word, I put my thinking cap on and come up with a brand new term for it.

fecsia (n.) -- the moment after a bowel movement and urination when one forgets if he or she has flushed the toilet. (Derived from the English fesces and amnesia)


Example sentence
His boss went to use the stall right after him, and he had a brief moment of fescia before he left the bathroom.

Corinne Bailey Rae: Peaceful Renditions

My interview with the one and only...

In the video for her 2006 breakout hit “Put Your Records On” off her Grammy-nominated self-titled debut, Corinne Bailey Rae is bicycling through the woods on a sunny day. A red ribbon flails off one of the handles. Her tone is upbeat. Everything is irie. Fast-forward a few years to the video for “I’d Do It All Again,” the lead single to Rae’s follow-up album The Sea. All of a sudden, the British chanteuse is in all black. The bike is gone, replaced by a solemn gait, and her tone reduced to reserved optimism.

Corinne Bailey Rae is very familiar with triumph and tragedy. In 2008, She won two Grammys as a featured artist on Herbie Hancock’s River: Joni Letters and lost her husband to an accidental overdose weeks after. Although The Sea reflects that turmoil, her newest release The Love EP balances it with a batch of cheerful covers. Corinne sits with OKP and breaks down her inspiration for each track.

“I Wanna Be Your Lover” (1979) Prince.

“I never heard it the year it came out because that was the year I was born. I probably heard it sometime in the ’90s at a party. I remember thinking wow, this song is hype. It’s really thrilling. I like the playfulness of the lyrics, ‘I wanna be your father and your sister, too.’ Sexy Prince stuff. I remember hearing it out and getting into him when I went to see him play in London. I saw him play it at Abu Dhabi. It just reminds of the few times I’ve met him.”

About her own version, Corinne says “We wanted to make it a little bit trashy. We used a live drummer, where it’s not so tight. It’s a bit looser. I really wanted to bring in the live elements with that late 70’s, early 80’s production. I wanted it to be fun. I felt like my last album was really intense to record and really intense to sing night after night. This is kind of an escape from that. Sing the kind of thing I wouldn’t normally sing and be playful.”

“Low Red Moon” (1993) Belly 

“It reminds me of being in an indie band. I was the lead singer and played electric guitar. My two best friends played bass and guitar, and my boyfriend at the time played drums. It just reminds me of being a teenager, doing your own thing. Your music is really simple, but people get into it. You play these songs in the club and people keep coming back. You’re building a little reputation. It just really felt homemade, winning acceptance and growing a fan base. It’s that quiet-girl, family, do- it-yourself era.”

“Is This Love” (1978) Bob Marley

“My earliest memory of this song is when my mother was cleaning the house, maybe a Sunday, and you can see all the dust particles in the air because of the light going through the windows. I remember exactly how my front room used to be set up in my parent’s house. I just remember my mother cleaning to this song off of Bob Marley’s Legend. She loved listening to Bob Marley. Now what I wanted to do with it was just appreciate the song. A lot of people think of the righteous vibe and sweet voice, but it has really gorgeous and poignant lyrics. That’s how I felt about this song. Someone has got nothing to offer you but their single bed. It’s like you’re charming, young, teenage, early twenties and you got no money. It reminded me of that phase in my life so that’s why I wanted to cover it.”

“My Love” (1973) Paul McCartney

“So the first time I heard ‘My Love’ was this year. I was invited to play at this event for Paul McCartney. He was honored at the White House. He was winning the Gershwin Award. Stevie Wonder was there. I was playing with Herbie Hancock. Dave Grohl was there and Elvis Costello, all these famed musicians. The night before, we watched some classical performers play some McCartney songs. I heard this piece played by a string quartet and I was real blown away by it. It had this soft ascending melody. I listened to it, watched it on YouTube, and saw Paul and Linda sing it together. When I was covering it, I really wanted to bring in some other influences. Stevie Wonder gave a speech where he wished him love. When I was recording this song I was really thinking about Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, how long their relationship has lasted. I wanted to bring some Stevie elements into the song, those Stevie soulful harmonies.”

“Que Sera Sera” (1956) Doris Day

“The version of ‘Que Sera Sera’ I know is the one by Sly & The Family Stone. I love Sly Stone. He is one my favorite singers and one of my favorite performers. I just love his whole vibe and I love the fact that they were these black hippies and white soul musicians. It’s a nice mixture. That’s how I feel about my background. The band I play with is a mixture of men and women, black people and white people. That’s an important thing to us. We’re into rock music. We’re hippies who like soul music as well. Sly and the Family Stone are a massive influence to the whole band. I was playing this song in the break between the two albums when I wasn’t working. I was playing it off the radar. When we started playing live, I knew this was the song I wanted to bring into to the set. It wasn’t one of mine but I felt like it was really heavy.”

-Sidik Fofana

Hip-Hop SAT Word #1

New column for me.

mercenary n. one that serves merely for wages; especially : a soldier hired into foreign service 

"Lace em with lyrics that's legendary, musical mercenary/For money, I'll have these motherfuckers buried" -- Tupac, Ambitionz as a Ridah

 

Egypt Editorial

Interesting piece from the Boston Globe...

Obama should take steps now to help speed Egypt’s transition

PRESIDENT OBAMA delivered the right message Tuesday evening when he stressed that only the Egyptian people can choose their leaders, but also said he had just told President Hosni Mubarak that “an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.’’ Since Mubarak had just told Egyptians he intended to remain in office until presidential elections are held in September, Obama’s statement was a pointed rejection of Mubarak’s stubborn stand — and a gesture of support for Egyptians who have taken to the streets to demand an end to Mubarak’s regime.

Especially after yesterday’s attacks by pro-regime forces against protesters, Washington can no longer ignore the contradiction between its longstanding partnership with Mubarak and Obama’s pledge to “stand up for democracy and the universal rights that all human beings deserve, in Egypt and around the world.’’ To show he means what he says, Obama should appoint a special envoy — or perhaps a few — to open up channels of communication with the disparate groups and factions in the Egyptian opposition.

There is no shortage of veteran diplomats and others who have contacts among the various Egyptian opposition figures and groups. The Obama administration needs to engage with them all — including the Muslim Brotherhood. One consequence of Mubarak’s silencing of nearly all political opponents is that their precise values and aims are not widely understood. Without judging the groups itself, the United States can help identify the new players in Egyptian politics and what they want.

America will not be able to determine the outcome of the current upheaval in Egypt — nor should it try. But the administration retains influence with senior military figures in Egypt who are likely to be making the key decisions about a political transition. Obama could win a modicum of trust from the new players in Egyptian politics if he can persuade the military leaders who are currently in power to immediately implement reasonable demands for reform coming from the opposition.

Obama should be ready to back two demands in particular for constitutional changes. One would eliminate the requirement that presidential candidates be members of the council of parties deemed legal by the Mubarak government. This article of the constitution prohibits both Muslim Brotherhood members and the military brass from running. The other key revision would be removal of the article that allows a president to run for an unlimited number of terms.

It will not be easy to overcome Egyptians’ mistrust of Washington for having turned a blind eye for so long to Mubarak’s police-state repression, but Americans, Egyptians, and their neighbors all stand to benefit if Obama makes that effort.

Coon Bidness Literary Magazine

January 31st, 2011, 7pm
Coon Bidness Literary Magazine

Launch Party

The Kitchen

512 West 19th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues,

New York, NY 10011

Admission: FREE so ya'll can FREE your minds peoples

Deftly blending writing, art, and politics, Harlem-based literary publication Coon Bidness hosts an evening of readings, video, mash-ups, and performances by contributors to their inaugural CRITICAL ASS issue which features work by Wangechi Mutu, Michael A. Gonzales, Iona Rozeal Brown, Miles Marshall Lewis, Douglas Kearney, Marilyn Minter, L'Oreál Snell, Sanford Biggers, avery r. young, Krista Franklin and Siddhartha Mitter.

Founded and edited by writers and musicians Greg Tate and LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Coon Bidness—named after an album by the conceptual jazz composer Julius Hemphill—hangs out dirty laundry and celebrates a renegade African cosmopolite spirit in a well-woven series of surreal short stories, Facebook threads, poems and scintillating visuals.

The evening will feature readings and performances from Xaveria Simmons, Edwin Torres, Paloma McGregor, Ataa Papa, Urayoán Noel, Lucman Brown, Quincy Troupe, Paula Henderson, Iona Rozael Brown and others.

Admission: FREE so ya'll can FREE your minds peoples

The Kitchen

512 West 19th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues,

New York, NY 10011

For more info on the magazine, go to: http://blackadelicpop.blogspot.com/2010/09/coon-bidness.html

Musiq Soulchild feat. Swizz Beats "Anything"

Granted the beat of this Musiq Soulchild tune---produced by Swizz Beatz---sounds like it was sampled from either the studio ready-made accordion button or a soundtrack to some extinct Super Nintendo game, but by golly, it works. "You can ask me anything/ Who I'm with/ If it happens to be some other chick," Musiq sings. The notes are too melodious to call his bluff. But what say you? HIT or MISS?

Musiq Souldchild ft swizz Beats - 'Anything' by yaadsyndrome

The Jackson 5

Was this the American Dream?

Inna Modja

Me and the misses are always on the look out for cute natural people...

Life on Record by Nas

Nas brings it back to the old school and breaks down the ABC's of the TDK...

Night Catches Us Trailer (Score by The Roots)

They were working on a flick and asked could the clique do the score...

The quintessential Black Panther film.

The Art of S. Ross Browne

This brother is bad...

See for yourself

Alicia Keys feat. Eve "Speechless" Documentary and Audio Track

Fresh out of the newlywed vault, Alicia Keys' new hubbie-produced single teeters in that space where feelings go beyond words. While Alicia and Ms. E-V-E trade lulling testimonials about how love killed the poet in them, Swizz Beats gives Kanye a run for his money with his spin on this Smokey Robinson and the Miracles sample.

Also, check out this documentary video of the making of the track below:

Alicia Keys - Speechless ft. Eve by MusicAndWei

9th Wonder & David Banner "Silly" feat. Erykah Badu

9th Wonder is all bifocals and blazers in the halls of academia, but give him a chance to rock over his own spacey beat and watch the big time producer's Southern twang burst out of the seams. Erykah Badu's four-word hook keeps the cipher rolling while David Banner takes crunk to the nth power with abrasive rapping that suggests that his inner pop star might need one baseball bat to the head before he's completely dead.

9th Wonder & David Banner's album, Death of a Pop Star, is in stores now.

David Banner & 9th Wonder - Silly (feat. Erykah Badu) by EssuavemeediaOnWordpress

What say you: HIT OR MISS?

Hardest Interview Questions

Lifted this off a Huffington Post van...

Goldman Sachs - Analyst position
“If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?”

Aflac - Sales Associate position
“What is the philosophy of Martial Arts?”

Boston Consulting - Consultant position
“Explain [to] me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years.”

Capital One - Operations Analyst position
“Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are.”

Google - People Analyst position
“How many basketball[s] can you fit in this room[?]”

Bloomberg LP Financial - Software Developer position
“Out of 25 horses, pick the fastest 3 horses. In each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. What is the minimum number of races required?”

New York Life - Sales Agent position
“Why do you think only a small percentage of the population makes over $150K?” 

 

For the rest of them... 

 

 

Happy New Year from Corner Boy Jazz!

Happy turn of the planet, y'all! How ya feeling? You know what time it is. Time to see if Corner Boy stacked up to its resolutions from last year. When we last left, the blog had five challenging but doable goals for 2010. You can read last year's post here. Anyway, let's get down to business.

 

First let's see how we did with last year's goals:

1. 100, 000 hits by January 2011

(Shattered that. Corner boy clocked in 239,506 hits by the new year)

2. Syndication on a media website

(Was working on a deal with okayplayer.com. Didn't pan out)

3. 100 subscribers

(57...but growing)

4. Adding two more publications to my list of places my byline has appeared

(I added the Centric TV blog, which is a really cool gig. Check that out if you have some free time one of these days)

5. Having fun... 

(Oh yeah. Fa sho.)

Well, 2 out of 5 with progress on the others ain't bad. Now for 2011's goals. Yummy! Here are Corner Boy's resolutions for 2011.

1. One millions hits.

(Yep, it takes a set of brass ones, but hey the world might end soon, right?)

2. An average of 500 hits per day 

(Right now, we're hovering around 200-250. Let's put it in relative overdrive, right?)

3. 100 Subcribers 

(Let's keep that on there. I can't believe I didn't get that one last year. That's like bringing your prize German Shepherd to the national competition only to find out he can't even fetch a stick. Or maybe not.)

4. More stories and personal essays

(I'm a fiction writer, too for god's sake. Y'all don't wanna keep reading about famous musicians all day, do you? You want to read more about me and what I think, not about some magical celebrity with a gorgeous intriguing life.)

5. More Retweets and Comments

(That would be oh so lovely!)

But I digress. Real talk, it's been a great year. Corner Boy has been up and running for a year and a half now. I've gotten a 200 page blog book out of it and the site is listed on over 20 blog rolls and counting. Thank you to folks who visit my blog regularly. Thanks to those of you who read my ish on the down low and those of you who are always forwarding me stuff that I could blog about. It's been a wonderful 2010 and I think, if the world doesn't end, 2011 will be even greater.

Peace,

Sidik