Blind I | The Boutique Music Blog | Quality Over Quantity.

HIP-HOP GETS POLITICAL: POWELL FOR CONGRESS

Most of us are old enough to recall Kevin Powell as a cast member of the first season of MTV’s The Real World (back when it was provocative, ground breaking documentary television and before it descended into “OMG! Everyone is, like, drunk and hot and totally gonna make out!”). What some of you may not know is that Powell has a 25 year career as an activist and writer based in Brooklyn. He is the author of some 11 books and was an integral part of Vibe’s original editorial line-up.

Powell is currently making his second run for Congress in Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional District, which includes the iconic Bed Stuy, Fort Greene and East New York neighborhoods (home to a lot of Hip-Hop history and some of your favorite artists, indluding Jay, B.I.G., Jeru, the GZA, ODB,  etc). My interest in Powell’s campaign is twofold: I’m not only a huge fan of his writing and activist work, but I’m also a resident of the central Brooklyn area he wants to represent. And I definitely think the brother represents a change we need around these parts.

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Tags: Brooklyn, kevin powell, politics, Sister Toldja

CEASE AND DESIST: FLO RIDA

Hip-Hop is most certainly not dead. There is irrefutable proof of both it’s life and it’s growth posted every single day on this very site. However, there are still some very credible threats to it’s existence. I understand that the term “Hip-Hop” is very broad and that the things that fall under that umbrella are so varied and multi-faceted.  Even the most serious purist can’t really police what is or isn’t part of the culture these days and I accept that a lot of what is Hip-Hop is not a reflection of myself or my generation or those before me. Fine. I get that.

But some shit just ain’t okay.

THIS MF RIGHT HERE: NOT OKAY.

I rebuke Flo Rida. I regret the day his parents met. I resent his lungs for continuing to draw breath, with which his mouth is able to make sounds.  I hate his dog. I HATE HIS DOG.

More after the jump

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Tags: cease and desist, fail, flo rida, Sister Toldja, wack music

DON’T CALL IT A REDEMPTION SONG

Folks all across Negronia and beyond tuned into last night’s BET Awards in anticipation of the network’s second attempt at a Michael Jackson tribute. I didn’t watch live because, well, I ain’t got cable. I am convinced that having access to so much television would make me lazy. And also, I’m poor. In anticipation of the key performances making their way to YouTube, I was able to garner the public’s reaction via Twitter. Interesting to say the least.

Chris Brown, who was unable to partake last year in the wake of beating his girlfriend’s ass, was given clearance to do the sort of MJ tribute all of us had been waiting for (not to shortchange the dope tribute at last year’s VMA’s, which was overshadowed by the Kanye/Taylor and Jay+Alicia+Lil’ Mama incidents):

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Tags: BET Awards, Chris Brown, MICHAEL JACKSON, Sister Toldja

A “PAUSE” FOR THE CAUSE: MCGRUDER VS. PERRY

This week’s episode of The Boondocks is what you call “must see TV”, my friends. In “Pause” (CLICK HERE TO WATCH). McGruder takes on both Tyler Perry and the “pause”/”no homo” phenomenon in one fell swoop. Brilliant. Hilarious. And, most of all, courageous. The writer isn’t hardly the first one to criticize Mr. Perry’s work publicly; Spike Lee has done it and lesser known writers go at him all the time. But McGruder goes in quite differently than anything I’ve seen or read thus far.

The plot: Granddad decides to audition for a “Winston Jerome” play. We learn through Huey’s narration that Jerome’s plays typically feature an educated, successful and virtuous Black woman trapped in an unhappy marriage to an abusive dark complexioned man, until she is saved by Jesus and the love of a light-skinned blue collar man.  Granddad is chosen as the “light-skinned, good haired” leading man in “Ma’ Finds Herself A Man” because he’s Jerome’s type. He then finds himself forced to join the playwright’s “homo-erotic Christian theatre cult” (I TOLD YOU HE WENT IN!) and temporarily abandons his family for the chance at stardom.

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Tags: Sister Toldja, THE BOONDOCKS

OH HAPPY DAY!

Yesterday, Lil’ Wayne started his 1 year sentence on Rikers Island (NEW YORK STAND UP….wait, bad time?) after being convicted on gun charges stemming from an arrest here on July 22, 2007. That’s my birthday! It was like a gift from the NYPD, whodathunkit?

Wayne has had one of the more interesting careers in Hip-Hop, as far as the genre’s megastars go. Two years older than myself, he’s arguably the most significant rapper of our generation (before you choke on the letters ‘J’ and ‘Z’, please be reminded that being born in 1969 qualifies one for a different generation), a fact I personally find depressing. Wayne’s been on Hip-Hop’s radar since 1997 when he was a marginal member of the marginal Hot Boyz. Somehow, to the complete shock of many (well, me at least), Wayne released some mixtapes that forced people to view him as a credible rapper. In the past five years, we’ve watched dude take a drug addled ride to the top of the charts, bringing along motley crew of scallywags and awkwardly cast clique members (Wheelchair Jimmy, stand the fuck up). He’s done more guest appearances in the past two years than some rappers will in an entire career. He’s been both a hipster darling and a hood staple. He had enough sons in one year to start an R&B group.

And now he’s going to jail. And I can’t help but to be a little glad.

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Tags: Lil Wayne, Sister Toldja, THANK GOD!

THE ROAD TO HELL…

I'm not posting the video either. You're welcome.

I noticed that no one else had posted  the new “We Are The World” on here. Probably because Blind-I prides itself on posting the best and the freshest music out there, not really terrible songs that make you  feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Not one but TWO rap blogs have “shut down” as a result of the most atrocious group effort that found Justin Beiber (who?), T-Pain (what?) and an auto-tuned Lil’ Wayne (WHY?) singing the 1985 classic. It was bad, real bad. Poor Michael Jackson. Way to shame him, guys.

Now, while I got a good giggle at how Rappers I Know and IllDoctrine took WATW25, it made me think about something that has been on my mind for a while. My generation is now in it’s mid 20′s-30′s. We were rather young  during the “Golden Era” of Hip-Hop,  the youngest group of people who actually remember when groups like A Tribe Called Quest and the Pharcyde got mainstream airplay. A lot of the current emcees who seem to have embraced the more “roots” Hip-Hop sound are from my peer group.  But despite our best efforts, Hip-Hop has become something very…diluted? Something very distant from the original rawness that galvanized a nation. How could it not change? It was once social commentary that happened to interest White suburban youth. Enter capitalism and market research and now much of what is today’s Hip Hop cultural product that is specifically designed for the tastes of White suburban youth. Black/hood life and expression molded to what consumers think it should look like. Modern minstrelsy. Not all of it, but a whole lot of it. › Continue reading

Tags: Sister Toldja