P.O.S. "Never Better"

Here's the title track from Rhymesayers' emcee P.O.S.'s last album, "Never Better." Another creative video from the dude, though it's a little on the dark side. Video directed by Isaac Gayle.

Lil' Weezy's Halloween Treat: No Ceilings Mixtape

Hello ALL )>>>
We all kinda saw it coming over the last couple of weeks - there were a few hot leaks with references to "No Ceilings". Wayne is at it again. Today the entire mixtape was leaked (i like that word, but i don't know if it was really "leaked"...). Shot out to karencivil and 2dopeboyz for dropping it out there. My favorite track, as mentioned late last week on the iiiird world blog, is "Wasted" with the reference to the Catalina Wine Mixer from the movie Step Brothers. There are a bunch of hot tracks on this tape!

01 Swag Surfin’
02 Ice Cream Paint Job
03 D.O.A.
04 Interlude
05 Wasted
06 Watch My Shoes
07 Break Up f. Gudda Gudda & Short Dawg
08 Banned From TV
09 Throw It In The Bag (rmx)
10 I Think I Love Her f. Tyga & Shanell
11 Interlude 2
12 Wetter
13 I’m Good f. T-Streets
14 Make Her Say f. Jae Millz
15 Run This Town
16 I Gotta Feeling
17 Outro

DOWNLOAD Lil' Wayne - No Ceilings Mixtape here: | Usershare | Sendspace

Idle Warship – Party Robot (Mixtape)

Press release accompanying the mixtape release by Idle Warship, a group produced by Talib Kweli:

Idle Warship welcomes you to our first full length offering, Party Robot. This started out as a path to musical freedom. When we established Idle Warship, we did it for us. Now that we are giving you this music, Idle Warship no longer belongs to us, it belongs to the world. We don’t believe in labels for music. Labels make stop you from hearing something before you listen to it. We appreciate those who have taken this journey with us without judgment and enjoyed the ride. To everyone who purchased our music on iTunes and anyone who has bought a ticket to an Idle Warship show, this is for you. All my party robots stand up!

DOWNLOAD: Idle Warship – Party Robot (Mixtape)

DOWNLOAD: Idle Warship – Party Robot (Mixtape)

DJ Jazzy Jeff x Michael Jackson - He's The King, I'm The DJ [Mixtape]

Since Michael Jackson's untimely passing this past June, we've been hit with a ton of tribute mixes, but this one is another must download. DJ Jazzy Jeff teamed up with clothing line, UNDRCRWN, for He's The King , I'm The DJ. "The mix is a combination of popular favorites and rare gems from the King of Pop. It takes listeners on a musical journey by opening with slow grooves like "Lady in My Life", followed by a smooth transition into more uptempo favorites like "Off the Wall" and "Remember the Time." Jeff had even included remixes that he created especially for the project."


Download: He's The King, I'm The DJ

The Kickdrums "Things Work Out"

I'm coming around to the Kickdrums. Their most recent EP, Just A Game, has gotten play for a while now. Three/21 Media debuted some visuals for one of the standout tracks from the album, "Things Work Out," today. "The concept was inspired by the butterly effect scene from 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.' By definition, a butterfly effect involves random scenarios and 'what ifs' where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes. Fortunately for our story, 'Things Work Out.'" Video directed by Rik Cordero.

Daily Throwback - Citizen Cope: Sideways

NYtimes: Calculating Emissions Is Problematic

NYtimes:

An accounting problem in the way some greenhouse gas emissions are calculated could critically hobble efforts to reduce them in coming years as nations move to combat global warming, scientists warn in a new report.

The accounting irregularity even gives the impression that clearing the world’s forests, which absorb and thereby diminish heat-trapping carbon dioxide, is good for the climate, the scientists write in an article published Friday in the journal Science.

The problem boils down to this: In emission calculations, all fuel derived from plants and other organic sources — including ethanol — is generally treated as if it has no effect on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, even though though biofuels do emit carbon dioxide when burned.

This might make sense if the source of the fuel were, say, a crop of corn grown on barren land specifically for use as fuel, because the crop would have absorbed carbon dioxide as it grew, offsetting what it emits when ultimately burned.

But if an existing stand of forest land is cleared for fuel, its ability to absorb carbon dioxide is lost, and the net balance of the gas in the atmosphere goes up.

An energy and climate bill passed in June by the House of Representatives, the Kyoto Protocol, drafted in 1997, and the European Union’s cap-and-trade law, in which companies trade emissions allowances, all exempt emissions from biofuels, without taking the source of the fuel into account, said Timothy D. Searchinger, the study’s lead author and a research fellow at Princeton University.

"It literally means you can chip up the world’s forests and burn them” for fuel without noting the effect on the world’s greenhouse gases, Mr. Searchinger said.

The article traces the problem back to the 1990s, when international organizations worked to create a framework for emissions monitoring. In the mid-1990s the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognized that when forests were cleared or when plants were harvested for bioenergy, the resulting release of carbon dioxide should be counted either as land-use emissions or energy emissions, but not both.

To create an international standard and avoid double-counting, the I.P.C.C. chose to classify these emissions in the land-use category.

Mr. Searchinger said the problem arose in 1997, when nations hammered out the Kyoto Protocol, which was eventually ratified by 184 countries. (The United States refused to ratify the agreement.)

The protocol imposes no limits on land-use emissions in developing countries. So if a forest is cleared in Indonesia and ends up as biofuel in Europe, Asia does not count the land-use emissions and Europe does not report the tailpipe emissions.

The end result is that the carbon release from bioenergy use is not counted at all.

The Science paper is one of several recently published articles calling attention to the error. Dr. James A. Edmonds, a chief scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, arrived at similar findings in a paper published in Science several months ago.

His study found that under current accounting methods, a commonly cited global target of limiting carbon dioxide to 450 parts per million in the atmosphere could result in a vast expansion of bioenergy crops, displacing nearly all of the world’s natural forests by 2065.

"The basic point is that if humans set up systems that don’t share nature’s value system, we’re setting up the wrong incentives," Dr. Edmonds said.

The Catalina Wine Mixer

wuddup y'all -
thought i would share some new lil' wayne with everybody. i have bumping this new wayne song below ("Wasted aka No Ceilings") for like two days straight. it has one of my favorite lines of all time in it at the 3:40 mark. "It's going down like the Catalina Wine Mixer". now i thought lil' weezy was a genius before, but this simple line is a reference to the Will Farrell and John Riley movie "Step Brothers". thus, weezy has again completely blown my mind... SNAP'N NECKS and CASHIN' CHECKS... enjoy! SHOT OUT TO PETEY AND KIKI on this one...

Newark Mayor Corey Booker guest on Conan

Mayor Booker showed up on Conan to make amends... pretty funny, good sports.

RZA on Colbert talking about his new book

RZA's new book: The Tao of Wu

Check out Colbert's boots. bong bong



NPR link

AP: Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.

This is fucked up.

AP:

A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.

Beth Humphrey, 30, and 32-year-old Terence McKay, both of Hammond, say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.

Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, just returned to Louisiana. She is white and he is black. She plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.

"That was one thing that made this so unbelievable," she said. "It's not something you expect in this day and age."

Humphrey said she called Bardwell on Oct. 6 to inquire about getting a marriage license signed. She says Bardwell's wife told her that Bardwell will not sign marriage licenses for interracial couples. Bardwell suggested the couple go to another justice of the peace in the parish who agreed to marry them.

"We are looking forward to having children," Humphrey said. "And all our friends and co-workers have been very supportive. Except for this, we're typical happy newlyweds."

"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. She said the Supreme Court ruled in 1967 "that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry."

The ACLU sent a letter to the Louisiana Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and recommending "the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice."

"He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it," Schwartzmann said.

According to the clerk of court's office, application for a marriage license must be made three days before the ceremony because there is a 72-hour waiting period. The applicants are asked if they have previously been married. If so, they must show how the marriage ended, such as divorce.

Other than that, all they need is a birth certificate and Social Security card.

The license fee is $35, and the license must be signed by a Louisiana minister, justice of the peace or judge. The original is returned to the clerk's office.

"I've been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don't think I've mistreated anybody," Bardwell said. "I've made some mistakes, but you have too. I didn't tell this couple they couldn't get married. I just told them I wouldn't do it."

Friday Throwbizack: Nas - Halftime

You know you got the mad fat fluid when you rhyme, it's halftime...

Cap'n Kirk's Columbus Day Song

Columbus day was yesterday, a "holiday" that typically goes uncelebrated by the masses. However, Cap'n Kirk from The Roots decided to break down how he celebrates the day via song on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

BBC HipHop @ 30yrs: HIP-HOP COMES OF AGE

HIP-HOP COMES OF AGE

• Worldwide
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By Alexis Akwagyiram BBC News, New York

Thirty years after the first mainstream rap song, Rapper's Delight, hit the US charts, what effect has hip-hop had on New York and wider American society?

Joe Conzo gets misty eyed when he recalls his teenage years in the South Bronx.

In those days, taking pictures was his hobby - one which led to him photographing black and Latino youths dancing to a new type of music, with its own distinctive forms of dance and art. The scene would later be christened hip-hop.

Audio slideshow: Hip-hop fashion

More than 30 years on, this New York fire service paramedic is a celebrated photographer best known for his book Born in the Bronx.

Mr Conzo, who the New York Times dubbed "the man who took hip-hop's baby pictures", recalls MCs, DJs, graffiti artists and breakdancers forming a "collective body of different elements that created the culture" of youth in the Bronx in the late 70s.

"The energy during those park jams was unreal. I was dumfounded by the breakbeats - the collective sampling of different kinds of music," he says.

He was "kidnapped" by the nascent culture that germinated at sun-kissed parties in 1977 and 78, he explains.

'Burning buildings'

This youthful exuberance was a form of release - a reaction to the depressed nature of the Bronx at that time.

"We were just tired of the nonsense - the drugs and the gangs, the burning buildings.

"It was just our way of screaming out. This was just our way to say we're going to do what we want to do. We took our parents' influences of different types of music and made it our own."

THE BIRTH OF HIP-HOP Comprises different elements: Rap, DJing, breakdance, graffiti Sub-cultural expression grew out of the "disenfranchisement of the ghetto inner-city" in the late 70s Began in the Bronx in New York but found different styles on east and west coasts of US Although largely created by African-Americans, Puerto Ricans also very influential DJ Kool Herc is often credited as the first DJ to cut between records on the break Records rely on "samples" - audio collages of song snippets Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang hit US Billboard R&B and Disco charts on 13 October 1979

This organic process, he says, was the opposite of how the Sugarhill Gang's song Rapper's Delight became the first mainstream hip-hop song to hit the US Billboard R&B and Disco charts on 13 October 1979.

"The Sugarhill Gang had no respect in the streets because they were a nobody group put together by Sugarhill Records," Mr Conzo says, adding that people were, however, surprised that money could be made from their party music.

New Haven, Connecticut, is a two-hour train ride from New York. It's the home of Yale, one of America's most revered seats of learning. Many of its inhabitants occupy an entirely different world from the Bronx.

Inside an oak-panelled room, about 15 Ivy-League students sit around a large table debating the merits of Nas and Jay-Z.

The students are participating in an elective course titled Hip-Hop Music and Culture.

Civil rights

During the semester, they will discuss a range of subjects from the socio-economic reasons behind the genre's conception to the validity of graffiti as an art form and the nature of DJing.

The students become animated when they explain what they are learning and why they believe hip-hop is worth studying.

"It's a history class - that's the angle I'm coming at it from," says Ben Alter, 20, a history major from New York.

Joe Conzo saw the early emergence of MCs as stars at hip-hop events

"I'm interested in African-American history and I don't think I got enough about the post-civil rights era in my American history class. The first week we talked about the policy of abandonment in the 70s and 80s, which gave birth to this whole culture."

Lecturer Nicholas Conway says his students "learn to think critically about hip-hop culture by analysing the historical and political context in which it took shape and continues to evolve".

"Particular attention is paid to questions of race, gender, consumption and globalisation," he says.

"My hope is that the course engages a topic of interest in a way that fosters the development of a critical perspective, as well as a deeper awareness of the numerous distinct ethnic and cultural groups that contributed to this contemporary movement."

Tourists

If the study of hip-hop at Yale points to the culture's broadening influence in mainstream America, so does the success of Hush Tours.

Each week the company takes minibuses full of people on tours of the Bronx and Queens to gain an insight into a world immortalised on records.

Tourists visit the housing "projects" where famous rappers grew up, take pictures of graffiti and see hang-outs where early parties were held.

"We were going to go to the Guggenheim and read about these tours," says Lynette Dyball, 55, a financial planner from Sydney, Australia. "We thought this was more like us - we still like very modern music.

"We wanted to see Queens and the Bronx, so this was a great way to combine our love of music with seeing the community that created hip-hop and learning about the culture.

"We wouldn't have gone to Queens otherwise. It was good to get out and be shown around by someone who grew up in such as rough area."

Now that tourists visit inner city ghettos and Ivy-league students study street culture, what does Joe Conzo think of hip-hop's evolution?

"There are lots of parts of the culture I don't agree with," he says, citing lyrics and videos that promote violence and degrade women.

But he is quick to point out that this image is put forward by certain artists and is not a fair reflection on the modern state of the culture.

"Hip-hop connects with people all over the world because it's about people.

"I'm 46 years old and I still consider myself to be hip-hop. I may not walk around with the baggy jeans, but I'm still hip-hop."

The Nation: People, Let's Get Our Carbon Down

By Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. & Bill McKibben in The Nation:

Here's a question whose answer might surprise you: what American songwriter penned the most-listened-to piece of environmental protest music of all time? Somebody with an acoustic guitar? John Denver?

The answer, almost certainly, is Marvin Gaye. "Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)" appeared on What's Going On, the album he released in May 1971, which went straight to the top of the charts, even though Motown boss Berry Gordy thought it was too political to sell. "I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world," Gaye said later. The Vietnam War, protested in the album's title song, was part of that story, and so was drug abuse--and so was "oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas," and "radiation in the ground and in the sky," and "fish full of mercury."

Where did all the blue sky go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north, east, south and sea

For a brief moment after the first Earth Day, it made perfect sense for the civil rights and environmental movements to be singing the same tune. Tragically, those movements soon diverged--diverged so far that some people still find it odd that activists like ourselves are working side by side again on issues like global warming and poverty. But it makes perfect sense--there is no threat to social justice greater than the breakdown of our earth's physical systems, and no way to ease that threat without rearranging power, both in America and around the world.

Think for a minute about Hurricane Katrina: those high winds blew in a lot of truths. For one, we've amped up nature in a dangerous way: scientists now expect ever stronger storms to rake our shores. For another, poverty puts some people at far more risk than others. No one will ever forget those pictures of the Lower Ninth Ward when the levee broke, but in almost every city on earth the poorest people live in the equivalent of the Lower Ninth. It's not that everyone won't eventually be affected by climate change--plenty of middle-class white people lost their homes when the storm rampaged across Louisiana and Mississippi. But almost everywhere, rich people occupy higher ground, and the places that flood belong to those who can't afford better. As the oceans rise throughout this century, those are the places that will turn wet and swampy first--substandard housing in the twenty-first century still means lead paint and asthma, but now it means you better cut a hole in the attic so you can get on the roof and wait for the helicopter.

And of course there are whole nations built on low ground--places like Bangladesh, which may see a fifth of its land under water. In this decade we've watched diseases like dengue fever spread through the poorest parts of the poor world, driven by the mosquitoes that like the warm, wet world we're building. We've watched blocs of nations--low-lying islands, for instance--turn to the UN to demand action to ensure their very survival. Almost without exception, these endangered places are filled with people of color, and with poor people.

That's why the fight against climate change is a very basic fight for people in New Orleans, or in Oakland, or in DC--or in Dhaka, and Calcutta, and Lagos. These are the places that will drive the demographic future, here and abroad; the centuries to come belong to black and brown and yellow humans. But 200 years of burning coal and gas and oil, mostly by Americans and Europeans, threaten to make that future impossible. That's why, right now, we've got to take a united stand to slow it down--why 350.org will be holding demonstrations around the planet on October 24 to demand that our leaders pay attention to science and limit carbon concentrations to 350 parts per million. That's the most important number on the planet, though no one knew it eighteen months ago. NASA's Jim Hansen and his team reported recently that concentrations higher than 350 are not compatible with "the planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted." Since we're at 387 and rising right now, that's very bad news. It explains why the Arctic is melting, why Australia is drying up and why we watch the hurricane season with more trepidation with each passing year.

It also explains why more than a thousand actions are already planned for October 24, in every corner of the planet. The earth's immune system is finally kicking in, people are signing up to march in China and India, and churches across America are pledging to ring their bells 350 times that day. It may turn out to be the largest global environmental action of all time, and beyond any doubt the most beautiful and diverse. Some of those protests will be atop lofty mountains, or undersea off the Great Barrier Reef, or on the lovely organic farms of Vermont. And some will be in grittier places, where the battle is even more crucial.

That battle--which began when the Hip Hop Caucus and Green for All announced the Green the Block campaign on August 4 from the West Wing of the White House--is for many things. One of those is a stronger deal at the Copenhagen climate conference in December than the weak agreement currently under consideration. Yvo de Boer, the international diplomat who is chairing those talks, recently pointed out as diplomatically as possible that the numbers on the table are nowhere near what the science demands. "This is not enough to address climate change," he said. Later he told activists that it would help the process enormously if they would mobilize: "If you could get your members out on the street before Copenhagen, that would be incredibly valuable." So we will--and if Copenhagen is to succeed, we must move American policy too. The Waxman-Markey legislation on Capitol Hill goes further than any climate legislation in the past, but it's still riddled with loopholes and giveaways, because members of Congress still fear the coal industry more than they fear the effects of climate change (or climate-minded voters).

But this environmentalism can't just be about the dangers we'll face if we don't take action--Green the Block means embracing the changes we must make as a way to build inclusive, thriving local economies. We need to put people to work swinging hammers--not building luxury condos for people with easy credit but installing insulation in old homes and solar hot-water heaters on roofs. We need urban farming and strong local businesses standing up to the big boxes that suck the life and money from communities.

We believe we will be able to affect the decisions in Copenhagen and in Congress, because some of the leaders of this new movement are different from the environmental lobbyists of the past. The old school are still important, but their constituencies are also graying, their work too often confined to making cozy arrangements with the powers that be. The new environmentalism draws everyone from church people to business people. The world's greatest mountain climbers are busy recruiting their brethren for October 24, urging them to get up high with banners. Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver are rallying small farmers and food activists; people will rally at many a farmers' market that day. And b-boys and graffiti artists are busy recruiting their friends to create images of 350.

But most of all, the constituency is young people, who understand that they will bear the results of inaction for their whole lives--and who understand in a visceral way the hopeful possibilities that come from a newly connected world. Marvin Gaye and the soul era gave voice to the oppressed during the struggle for civil rights. Now young people are singing new freedom songs and identifying with one another under an umbrella known as hip-hop. The swagger and style that young people and their urban-influenced culture bring to the green movement bear little resemblance to the old tree-hugging brand of environmentalism. But as the conscious caretakers of a "block" on the brink of climate catastrophe, they are powerful partners in the green movement.

That's why the soul of modern environmentalism is right where Marvin Gaye left it in 1971, the spot we never should have walked away from:

Oh, things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land?
How much more abuse from man can she stand?

Economist: Cool heads or heated conflicts?

Economist:

A lesson from history on how to prevent climate-induced wars

THE starkest views of climate change paint war as a looming threat. The idea that violence will erupt as drought and rising sea levels displace people from their homes is, in part, why the Nobel prize for peace was awarded in 2007 to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore. Yet a newly published study analysing the historical connection between war and climate throws into question the assumption that rising temperatures and violence go hand in hand.

Aware that evidence for the link was lacking, Richard Tol of the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin, Ireland, and Sebastian Wagner of GKSS, a research institute near Hamburg, Germany, set out to collect data on climate and conflict in Europe over the past thousand years. Their results have just been published in Climatic Change.

The information they worked with came from a variety of sources. Thermometers and rain gauges have been used in Europe since 1500, and many of the records are now easily available on the internet. For earlier years, the two researchers relied on indirect data such as ice cores, tree rings and the growth patterns of corals that they culled from other people’s papers.

Measuring fighting proved more challenging, since the definition of “conflict” varies throughout history. Dr Tol and Dr Wagner decided to confine their efforts to those events which lasted for a year or more. They used www.warscholar.com to count the number of such contretemps that had been taking place during each year from 1000 to 2000.

The chart shows the correlation between the number of conflicts and the average temperature during most of the second half of the millennium, the period for which the data are best. Until the mid-18th century, this correlation is continuously and significantly negative (the line remains close to the 95% confidence level, suggesting there is only one chance in 20 that it is an accidental, random effect). In other words, lower temperatures mean more wars. Then, suddenly, the negative correlation vanishes. The line goes into positive territory, but not enough to be statistically meaningful. The inverted correlation between temperature and conflict has therefore disappeared.

Dr Tol and Dr Wagner suggest that in the more remote past the effects of cold weather on harvests led to supply shortages, and that these increased the likelihood of people fighting over food and the land needed to produce it. They argue that the reason the relationship between warfare and cold vanishes in the mid-18th century is that this is the moment when the industrial revolution began. Both agriculture and transport improved rapidly at this time. Systematic plant breeding, the introduction of new crops and new forms of crop rotation, and better irrigation increased the food supply. Improvements in roads and the large-scale construction of canals allowed food to be transported from areas of plenty to areas of scarcity.

These developments meant farmers could often produce reasonable yields during colder weather—and even when they could not, long-distance trade provided a buffer against crop failure. Meanwhile, the growth of cities and non-agricultural occupations meant there was money to buy such traded crops.

Just because cold, rather than heat, caused problems in Europe during the millennium that Dr Tol and Dr Wagner examined does not mean rising temperatures pose no threat. The lesson, rather, is that the way to minimise the likelihood of climate-induced conflict in the future is to continue the process of crop improvement (for example, by taking advantage of the potential of genetic engineering) so that heat- and drought-tolerant varieties are available; to make farmers aware of these new crops and encourage their use; and to promote free trade and non-agricultural economic development. That way people will have no cause to fight, and tyrants no excuse to stir them up.

Cool BBC article on hip-hop world!

Life on planet hip-hop

By Alexis Akwagyiram BBC News

Rapper Baay Bia says hip-hop in Senegal is a medium for change

Thirty years after the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight became the first mainstream rap song to hit the US charts, how and why has hip-hop spread to different parts of the world?

Public Enemy rapper Chuck D famously once said rap was "CNN for black people".

In the years following its emergence in 1970s New York, hip-hop culture has manifested itself around the world - most notably in the many rap acts that now exist across the globe.

Ben Herson is founder of the Nomadic Wax record label

Ben Herson is the founder of fair trade record label Nomadic Wax, which is committed to bringing acts from developing countries into the wider public consciousness by distributing music online, pressing records and making documentaries.

He argues that Africa is the true "birthplace of hip-hop".

"It travelled through the transatlantic slave trade to the US, via the Caribbean - that's what created this culture," he says.

"Hip-hop is the missing connection between the US and Africa. It's about a conversation within the African diaspora. There was Creole culture, the blues, jazz, rock'n'roll and it has become hip-hop."

Mr Herson is particularly interested in the "CNN" factor, whereby "music affects politics and affects social change", meaning that people from all around the world can relate to rap.

"Hip-hop, at its most basic form, reminds people across the world of a poetic culture. Most cultures have an oral poetic tradition."

But Mr Herson is right to point out that it has taken off across Africa in particular, in many styles.

Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal, for example, has risen to prominence in world music for work that draws on his experiences as a former child soldier.

In Ghana, hiplife - a blend of west African highlife and hip-hop - is ubiquitous in nightclubs and bars, while Senegal's rappers have a reputation for political commentary.

Rap has been used as a powerful political weapon by Senegalese youth - most notably in 2000 when politically charged songs that were highly critical of the government received regular airplay on a popular radio station.

These protest songs are thought to have played a part in the then ruling party losing that year's national election.

"In 2000, rappers spoke about how we could change the nation. People understood and we changed the government. Until we spoke people didn't believe this could happen," says Baay Bia, a 32-year-old award-winning rapper from Dakar.

The artist, who has had three albums and largely focuses on what he sees as the repeated failings of African governments, says he wants to "inspire" people.

"I chose hip-hop to express myself - it gives me more detail in my music and message. If I was just singing I wouldn't be able to share all I wanted to say."

It's one of the most important tools in music nowadays because it's the only type of music talking about reality and connected to the people Mahmoud Jreri Rapper

The rapper, whose real name is Birane Diouf, raps in Wolof and says this style of music is so popular in his country because it is "something familiar", since it chimes with the griot tradition of storytellers and praise-singers in the country.

Using rap to carry political and social messages is not a uniquely Senegalese, or even African, phenomenon.

DAM, a Palestinian hip-hop group consisting of three members, rap in Arabic, Hebrew and English and have been active since 1999. And they're just one group in the Middle East's burgeoning hip-hop scene.

Group member Mahmoud Jreri recalls there being no hip-hop scene in Israel when he was growing up.

He says he "felt connected" with American rappers like Tupac and Nas, who he saw in music videos of the late 90s, because "they were talking about social and political problems" and, like him, seemed to live in poverty.

Now the group says there's a big hip-hop scene in the West Bank and Gaza.

DAM's lyrics touch on issues from the Palestinian situation to women's rights in Arabic society.

The theme of rap as a medium for protest recurs again in France, where hip-hop is seen as one way that the immigrant population in the suburbs express discontent.

But, just as US rappers often court controversy, rap in France - has its critics.

Nineties rappers like Tupac Shakur influenced artists worldwide

In 2005, about 200 MPs urged the country's justice ministry to prosecute seven rap groups over allegedly provocative lyrics, following claims by some political figures that rap music fuelled suburban rioting in France.

In one particularly controversial song, entitled FranSSe, rapper Monsieur R called France a prostitute. The artist said it was a diatribe against French leaders who had neglected ethnic minorities, not an attack on France in general.

And earlier this year Orelsan, a 27-year-old rapper from Normandy, saw 10 of his concerts cancelled after former Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal and other politicians complained that his lyrics encouraged violence against women.

A political row over censorship ensued after Ms Royal threatened to withdraw the public subsidy from a prestigious festival, Les Francofolies in La Rochelle, in her capacity as head of Poitou-Charentes regional council.

But why has this style of music, and the culture it engenders, taken off all over the world?

"It's one of the most important tools in music nowadays because it's the only type of music talking about reality and connected to the people," says Jreri.

The Palestinian rapper thinks the music's appeal is that it gives a voice to outsiders.

"It has started to be one language of the minorities. One language of the people who wanted to express themselves and describe the situation that they are living in - talking about political, social and personal issues."

Meanwhile, Herson says rap's simplicity is the key.

"It's the most basic form of music. All you need is a beat and a voice.

"If you want rock and roll, you need money for instruments. With hip-hop you can bang on a table and rap. In its rawest form it's very easy to make."

Original article with interactive AUDIO MAP...

Wale "Fly Away"

Here is a new track off of Wale's twitter. Lenny Kravitz cover is an interesting choice.

Wale - FLY AWAY by treylord

Bill Maher: New Rule: Everyone Deserves Equal Rights

On Huffingtonpost:

New Rule: Everyone deserves equal rights. That's why they're called "equal" and "rights." Tomorrow night President Obama will speak before a gay rights group, and on Sunday there will be a massive gay rally in Washington, or as I call it, the Million Mo March. Which makes this weekend the perfect time for Obama to announce he's repealing "don't ask, don't tell" and committing to a full-throated endorsement of gay marriage. One, because it's the right thing to do and two, because it will throw the conservative base into such a frenzied, pants-shitting panic that they'll drop all that BS about death panels and socialism and let us all get some actual work done.

But of course that's not going to happen. I can tell you what the president is going to tell his audience tomorrow: How much he supports them. How much he agrees with them. And how he wishes he was President so he could help them out. But here's the thing about being president. There isn't a lot you can do without either Congress, Oprah or Goldman Sachs behind you. But there is one thing the president can do with the stroke of a pen: He can let gays serve openly in the military. It's called an executive order. Harry Truman wrote one in 1948 for blacks in the military, and that was that.

"Don't ask, don't tell" has always been bad policy that was made out of a bullshit political compromise. You know, like you're doing now with health care. It never made sense to begin with: "Here in the Army we're all about honor. And trusting the man next to you. Now lie to my face about your sexuality, Johnson, or I'll report you behind your back." But forget all the good arguments for repeal, like because it was promised to us in the campaign or because it gets lonely on a submarine. Do it because it'll make Rush Limbaugh explode like a bag full of meat dropped from a helicopter. Do it because it'll make Sarah Palin go rogue in her pants.

Because here's the thing about today's conservatives: they're not bright. They can't keep a lot of ideas in their head at once. And by "a lot" I mean "two." If we can get them all worked up about fighting the gay menace, it will siphon away all that crazy, right wing, town-hall energy from all the other big issues they've been fighting. The tea-baggers don't know what the word "socialism" means. But they do know what the word "gay" means, because their hairdresser explained it to them once, and they don't like it. They will be drawn to it like a moth to a flamer. Bush was practically re-elected on a promise to keep boys from kissing. Which is ridiculous, because if you want to stop gays from having sex, wouldn't you let them get married?

But seriously, the shear rage of the tea-baggers can be so easily redirected that some times I wonder if Rush doesn't just spin a giant wheel of hate every morning to come up with ACORN! William Ayers! Birth certificate! It's like faking throwing a stick for the dog. "War on Christmas." "Obama's talking to school children." And "gay" is the easiest stick to throw.

Health care and the environment are complicated, but it's not hard to keep track of the places that God allows you to put your pee-pee. I mean, you can count those places on one hand. And that hand isn't something you should be using either. A year ago, if you had asked your average wing-nut neighbor what he thought about health care reform, he would have shrugged his shoulders and gone right back to eating his Moon Pie. But he's pissed-off about it now, why? Because it's in their nature to be pissed-off. They have a pre-existing condition called the Conniption Fits. The tea-baggers have taught us all an important lesson in modern politics: If you want to be taken seriously, act like a fucking loony-tune.

In fact, let me explain how the right-wing mind works: wing-nuts get up in the morning, get their "news" from Fox or Drudge, and then spend all morning drinking coffee and getting all worked up about whatever Fox and Drudge tell them to get worked up about. "Mexicans - Grrr! Socialism - Grrr! Van Jones - I don't know who he is, but sure... Grrrrrr!" By the time Rush comes on at noon, they're ready to just start demanding we build a wall around Andy Dick. And when Glenn Beck shows up at five, they're seeing red - right through the blue from the Viagra.

But while Glenn is busy explaining to his viewers that when he cries it's a butch thing, Obama and the Democrats can sweep in under the gaydar and pass real health care and real climate change bills. This is how we fight fire with Fire Island. When Obama speaks tomorrow, he should not only revoke "don't ask, don't tell," but also change our military's slogan to "An Army of Buns." And starting next year, gay busing. Yes, if there aren't any gay families in your community, we'll bring them to you. Your field hockey team can thank us later.

And when they get out there on Sunday, Gay Nation also needs to do everything in their power to scare the hell out of right-wing homophobes. I want to see you guys rollerblading down the Mall in nothing but a speedo and a nun's habit, holding a sparkler in one hand and a penis popsicle in the other.

Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize

Say what you want about his recent struggles, but this is why I love the guy.

The Daily Show: Slim Thug Feels the Recession Part 2

Beef: Conan O'Brien vs. Newark Mayor Cory Booker

So... this beef started last week when Conan O'Brien mad a quip about the City of Newark, New Jersey. The feud has erupted into a series of back and forths between Newark Mayor Cory Booker posting youtube clips and Conan responding on his show...



Last night on the Late Show, a certain politico showed up to try and put an end to the beef.



Is the beef now squashed??? I don't know, but it would be awesome for Mayor Booker to show up on Conan's show sometime... hilarious.

Lupe Fiasco "Fire"

In response to being left off of the MTV Hottest MC list, Lupe made this song, "Fire." Says Lu of the track: "Not a diss of the list...knew I wasn't gonna make it ha!...but I'm using the fact that I wasn't on it as an excuse to just start wrecking shit on a frequent basis so by the time the next one comes out I'll be number 1,2,3,4 and 5..."

I'd say he is correct.
Lupe Fiasco - Fire by treylord

This song will not appear on his upcoming album, Lasers.


Download Lupe Fiasco "Fire"

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
i was bout as uncool as a nieces mothers biggest brother
but now its all butter
now i'm bout as uncool as some cover to a pool from a puddle
like a monsoon but subtler
slowly pull up my pants or sag it to a flooder
now u need a submarine the way im cuffin my jeans
like i'm arresting my dress code
the dress clothes and the dress toes
so lets roll
ghetto lambda lambda's how i address those
niggas might peep and think geek
but you need that when you knee deep goin on wayside
get up to your neck just like a great tie
i finally got the windsor, like on my eighth try
your shirts still soakin wet, your slacks ain't dry
and i have yet to even fall from the sky
i'm hotter than red with a head full of lye
better run and get spike, tell him i'm on fire

[Verse 2]
hell, i don't wanna see ya like a male stripper
as you picture yourself lookin at pictures of male strippers
thats how that i don't wanna go to hell nigga
wish ya well like a wishin well wisher wish itself
it fell at first so now i sail with ya
if it happen to sink, i pitch in with pales
and pitchers, bucket and cup it back to the river
then cover the leak with garbage pail kid stickers
{dynamite} and first aid the way ya saviors
now ya flow look like my bedroom door when i was four
no rockin that boat, or you be swimmin, fo sho
oh, i stay ship shape all aboard
thats just how i roll, when i try and keep the run afloat
hatins a disease and its deadly if you catch it
crabs in the bucket always tryna pull me backwards
position rarely change so they dont really matter
if not the same then similar like asher and mathers
bow

[Verse 3]
bully or i bogard, bodacious so i'm humphrey
i used to rubber band, but now i got a bungee
if you let me expand, that refers to the money
gucci's all good, chanel is all chummy
and that aint even for me, my honey and my mommy
i'd rather be bummy, nappy on top
{ ummmm....not sure about this } the fade is for the fans
not even for my fans, its more for like the brand
whether you hear the words, or just a show of hands
the sign language lady who be translatin my jams
you really like the beats or you barely understand
why i throw my set up wherever i am
man, its cuz i love my town
my mind was a sponge, but now its sham-wow
i never throw in the towel so just wipe me down
but don't you get to close they might have to put you out

The Daily Show: Slim Thug Feels the Recession

Craziest shit I have ever seen: CO2 is Green

How is this not a Daily Show skit or an Onion article.

The argument that CO2 emissions are beneficial for the environment requires a middle school education and some common sense to think your way out of.

Jesus Christ, maybe humanity isn't worth saving.

Live from the UK: Dub FX

BIG UPS THE UK!!! Dub FX is an awesome performer. Peep it:

Beatbox Dub FX 10/10/2008 'Love Someone'

LISTEN TO HIS ALBUM HERE

The Daily Show: Carbon Copout

The Daily Show takes on the many shortcomings of the Democrats with the bill, including the generous giveaways to polluting industries and the Dems' awful messaging. Of course, he leaves some time to make fun of the GOP too, and well, just see for yourself. It's hilarious.

The Daily Show: Playing the Race Card

Duck Down - Download The Right Thing

Duck Down has always set the bar high for indie hip-hop. To give y'all a full sampler of the last year's worth of their production, they are giving out this free product entitled, Download The Right Thing, a collection of music from various Duck Down emcees. It's 31 tracks from KRS-ONE & BUCKSHOT, Sean Price, Kidz In The Hall, Blue Scholars, DJ Revolution, Heltah Skeltah, Random Axe (comprised of Sean Price, Guilty Simpson and Black Milk), B-Real of Cypress Hill, Skyzoo, Team Facelift, Naledge, Smif N Wessun, Marco Polo & Torae, Ruste Juxx, General Steele and Boot Camp Clik.

DOWNLOAD Duck Down - Download The Right Thing

Tracklisting:

01. Go Around - Marco Polo ft. Buckshot
02. Start The Revolution - DJ Revolution ft. Boot Camp Clik
03. RuckDown - Sean Price
04. Interlude - Buckshot
05. Survival Skills - KRS-ONE & Buckshot ft. DJ Revolution
06. D.I.R.T. - Heltah Skeltah
07. Monster Babies - Random Axe
08. 6 Minutes - B Real
09. FreshFest - Skyzoo ft. Wale
10. Mixed Emotions - Team Facelift
11. Interlude - Kidz In The Hall
12. Back On The Map - Skyzoo ft. Maino
13. HI-808 - Blue Scholars
14. StarStruck - Naledge
15. Coo - Blue Scholars
16. Beautiful Decay - Skyzoo
17. New Love - Tek of Smif N Wessun
18. Smoke - Marco Polo & Torae ft. Rock & Lil Fame
19. Get Mines - Oh No ft. Buckshot
20. Interlude - Buckshot
21. Robot - KRS-ONE & Buckshot
22. Duck Down - Ruste Juxx
23. Critically Acclaimed - Statik Selecktah ft. Lil Fame, Saigon & Sean Price
24. Get It Done - Skyzoo & Torae ft. DJ Premier
25. The Matrix - Black Milk ft. Pharoahe Monch & Sean Price
26. Hold Up - Marco Polo & Torae ft. Masta Ace & Sean Price
27. Interlude - Naledge of Kidz In The Hall
28. No Love - Team Facelift
29. Toast To Bucktown - General Steele ft. Buckshot
30. Flickin - Kidz In The Hall
31. Duck Down (Bonus Track) - Sean Price ft. Torae & Skyzoo

Raphael Saadiq - Let's Take A Walk

Raphael Saadiq - Let's Take A Walk (Official Music Video) - The best bloopers are a click away

Wale "Bittersweet" feat. Colin Munroe

If you want new music from Wale, look no further than his twitter page. Yesterday, he let another unreleased track go. This one is called "Bittersweet" featuring Colin Munroe, and samples from the Verve. Attention: Deficit is still scheduled to drop November 3rd. We've been WAITING.

Wale - Bittersweet (f. Colin Munroe) by treylord

Download

Nickelus F: Go Time Mixtape

Had only heard of Nickelus F in passing before, but my boy J House mentioned that I should check him out. Here is his most recent mixtape. Give it a listen. I've gone about halfway through it, and he's got some solid rhymes, bumping beats. I'm adding him to my list of up and comers.

Nickelus F "Go Time Mixtape"

Economist: Seasonally adjusted - Farmland and Climate Change

Economist:

Global warming will make it harder to feed the world in 2050

SINCE time immemorial, farmers have planted their crops according to the seasons. “That is what my forefathers have been doing,” says Mohammad Ilisasuddin in Shibganj, in northern Bangladesh, but now “the weather does not seem right for what we have done traditionally.” Seasonal planting is “useless”, agrees Florence Madamu, a smallholder in Bulirehe, in western Uganda. “The sun is prolonged until the end of September and whenever it rains, it rains so heavily it destroys all our crops.” Oxfam, a British charity, has compiled a litany of laments by poor farmers. John Magrath, a researcher, says they all say similar things: “moderate, temperate seasons are shrinking…rainy seasons are shorter and more violent…making it more difficult to grow crops [and] difficult for them to know when best to plant.”

As the earth warms up, many have feared that farmers will pay a high price. But working out who will pay, how, and where is tricky. Higher temperatures might turn arid shrub lands into deserts while improving the growing season in colder steppes. Global warming could produce more evaporation from plants, and more rain, which would benefit some places, while hurting others. In theory extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere should help plants grow faster, though whether this actually happens may also depend on the amount of nitrogen in the soil.

In the most comprehensive effort* so far to think these questions through, the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC, has reached some sobering conclusions. In parts of the developing world some crop yields in 2050 could be only half of their 2000 levels. Irrigation may not help: climate change will hit irrigated systems harder than rain-fed ones. And the hope that gainers from climate change will outweigh losers looks vain: the damage from higher temperatures and erratic rainfall will be too big.

In its forecast IFPRI started with the “A2 scenario” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is the second-gloomiest of six IPCC scenarios (it assumes the world will be releasing roughly twice as much CO2 in 2050 as it does now) and says the oceans’ surface temperature will rise by around 1.6°C by 2050.

However, this says nothing about the temperature and rainfall patterns that would result on farmland. To forecast those, IFPRI fed the IPCC assumptions into two climate-change models, one run by America’s National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the other by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

These gave different descriptions of the world in 2050. NCAR thinks the climate would be hotter and wetter, with rainfall about 10% heavier than now. The CSIRO forecasts that there would be 2% more rain. There were big regional disparities, too: CSIRO forecast the sharpest increases in temperature in southern Africa; NCAR sees Russia and Canada heating up more. To take account of the differences IFPRI fed both forecasts into its own computer, which describes how every agricultural region and, in some places, practically every farm, responds to changes in temperature and rainfall.

The results varied less than the assumptions. In developing countries, IFPRI found, irrigated wheat in 2050 would yield 34% less than in 2000, using NCAR data; and 28% less going by CSIRO figures. For irrigated rice, the declines would be 19% and 14% (see chart). These falls are large but not unlikely: scientists in South Africa recently said the region could see a 50% fall in cereals productivity by 2080.

Bad though they are, the average declines hide even more disturbing variations. Latin America comes out of the exercise relatively well: the yields of its main crops are expected to fall by only a few percent. China’s farming may also be more resilient than it sometimes appears. But South Asia, the world’s most heavily populated region, looks vulnerable: IFPRI forecasts a possible 50% fall in its wheat yield in 2050 (one-sixth of all the world’s wheat grows on the north Indian plain). In the Middle East the institute predicts yield declines of 47% for maize and 30% for rice.

As patterns of production shift, argues Jerry Nelson, the report’s lead author, it becomes all the more important to liberalise farm trade, so that farming keeps pace with changing comparative advantage. But overall, he argues, the yield declines are so great that only another round of technological change—a new Green Revolution—would be enough to offset them. In principle, such a thing looks possible: the technology to double or triple many crop yields exists in laboratories. The problem is to get it into the fields. To that end, last week’s G20 meeting in Pittsburgh promised to put more taxpayer money into farm research and other help for agriculture.

The ups and downs of diplomacy used to be compared to the cycle of the seasons. But as poor smallholders are finding out, the seasons are not what they were.

Krugman: The Politics of Spite

Op-ed by Paul Krugman in the NYtimes:

There was what President Obama likes to call a teachable moment last week, when the International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago’s bid to be host of the 2016 Summer Games.

“Cheers erupted” at the headquarters of the conservative Weekly Standard, according to a blog post by a member of the magazine’s staff, with the headline “Obama loses! Obama loses!” Rush Limbaugh declared himself “gleeful.” “World Rejects Obama,” gloated the Drudge Report. And so on.

So what did we learn from this moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old.

But more important, the episode illustrated an essential truth about the state of American politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.

To be sure, while celebrating America’s rebuff by the Olympic Committee was puerile, it didn’t do any real harm. But the same principle of spite has determined Republican positions on more serious matters, with potentially serious consequences — in particular, in the debate over health care reform.

Now, it’s understandable that many Republicans oppose Democratic plans to extend insurance coverage — just as most Democrats opposed President Bush’s attempt to convert Social Security into a sort of giant 401(k). The two parties do, after all, have different philosophies about the appropriate role of government.

But the tactics of the two parties have been different. In 2005, when Democrats campaigned against Social Security privatization, their arguments were consistent with their underlying ideology: they argued that replacing guaranteed benefits with private accounts would expose retirees to too much risk.

The Republican campaign against health care reform, by contrast, has shown no such consistency. For the main G.O.P. line of attack is the claim — based mainly on lies about death panels and so on — that reform will undermine Medicare. And this line of attack is utterly at odds both with the party’s traditions and with what conservatives claim to believe.

Think about just how bizarre it is for Republicans to position themselves as the defenders of unrestricted Medicare spending. First of all, the modern G.O.P. considers itself the party of Ronald Reagan — and Reagan was a fierce opponent of Medicare’s creation, warning that it would destroy American freedom. (Honest.) In the 1990s, Newt Gingrich tried to force drastic cuts in Medicare financing. And in recent years, Republicans have repeatedly decried the growth in entitlement spending — growth that is largely driven by rising health care costs.

But the Obama administration’s plan to expand coverage relies in part on savings from Medicare. And since the G.O.P. opposes anything that might be good for Mr. Obama, it has become the passionate defender of ineffective medical procedures and overpayments to insurance companies.

How did one of our great political parties become so ruthless, so willing to embrace scorched-earth tactics even if so doing undermines the ability of any future administration to govern?

The key point is that ever since the Reagan years, the Republican Party has been dominated by radicals — ideologues and/or apparatchiks who, at a fundamental level, do not accept anyone else’s right to govern.

Anyone surprised by the venomous, over-the-top opposition to Mr. Obama must have forgotten the Clinton years. Remember when Rush Limbaugh suggested that Hillary Clinton was a party to murder? When Newt Gingrich shut down the federal government in an attempt to bully Bill Clinton into accepting those Medicare cuts? And let’s not even talk about the impeachment saga.

The only difference now is that the G.O.P. is in a weaker position, having lost control not just of Congress but, to a large extent, of the terms of debate. The public no longer buys conservative ideology the way it used to; the old attacks on Big Government and paeans to the magic of the marketplace have lost their resonance. Yet conservatives retain their belief that they, and only they, should govern.

The result has been a cynical, ends-justify-the-means approach. Hastening the day when the rightful governing party returns to power is all that matters, so the G.O.P. will seize any club at hand with which to beat the current administration.

It’s an ugly picture. But it’s the truth. And it’s a truth anyone trying to find solutions to America’s real problems has to understand.

Ghostdini: Wizard Of Poetry

Hip Hop Wired Music Review:

Ghostface Killah - "Ghostdini: Wizard Of Poetry"

REVIEWS

» by JUSTIN STEWART October 5, 2009, 11:48am

While his Wu Tang brethen Method Man and Raekwon returned to create sequels to their 90s albums Blackout! and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Ghost pushes the envelope forward and takes a sidestep to his usual formula.

Generally known for weaving intricate street tales, the Staten Island native has also shown his admiration for the opposite sex and his overall love for women. Maybe coming as a result of growing older, the rapper takes a mature approach in presenting his latest.

“Do Over” shows the rapper feeling the after effects of living a negative life and how it has affected his significant other. Finally returning to reality to what he has put her through, he only hopes that he can find a way to get her back and if not, he only wants her to find a man that will make her happy.

“I wrote this right here on the bus to Riker's/ Right next to the thieves, the cons, the lifers/ For mad years you held me down, I'm overwhelmed with pain/ In the worst time to leave you know/ I'm sorry, please forgive me, the streets caught me/ I appreciate your concern and support for me/ Most important, your honesty and trust, you're hearts incredible/ This the truth spilling out of my guts.”

The album could easily be about getting the girl or taking the girl from another, but Tony shows all sides of the fence. On “Lonely” the song gives off that exact feel as he reflects on the feelings of having another man under his roof now that karma has come around and his woman is now his old woman. Realizing that he messed up too many times when he was with her, now he is only left to walk around with his head hung low as his own son tells Ghost how much better the new man in her life treats her. Guess women aren't the only ones that feel the pain and go through it.

“As I got closer, something ain't kosher/ I heard a bunch of squeaky sounds from the house, I don't think I suppose tah/ Is this the end of the Starks regime?/Let me find out somebody on my ground….is pounding my Queen.”

Above all else, GFK is a storyteller, and he utilizes this album to showcase his abilities in the relationship realm. Being an album leaking out R&B from all sides, it would only make sense to bring Fabolous along for the ride as he is featured on the track “Guest House.” Almost like taking a page out of the R.Kelly and Ronald Isley chronicles, Loso and Ghost play opposing sides when Starks' paranoia of his woman's whereabouts leads him to his bedroom where Fab has her legs spread eagle. Playing the cable guy, the rapper was doing a lot more than hooking up DirectTV as he‘s caught in his birthday suit. Fans will have to sit back and listen to how the story unfolds after.

“You can put my dick in your mouth and play wit my nuts/But before I bus babe I think I'll cum in your butt/ I got my gun on the floor and I'm ready to fuck/ Like it's nothing, it's nothing.”

Accompanied by moans and sexual play coming from a heavily aroused woman, this is the start for the track “Stapleton Sex.” Comparable to “Strawberry” from his 2001 album Bulletproof Wallets in its content as he has clearly upped the ante. Listening to this track is like an ear full of porn as Starks holds nothing back in his sexcapade adventures. Aside from the intro, Ironman needs no chorus while painting a rather vivid picture of raunchy sex 101.

His latest project shows that Starks doesn't discriminate in who he enlists for the army behind him. Ranging from Shareefa to John Legend to Lloyd for R&B flavor, the rapper is trying to tie the album in a bow as he presents a body of work that should be able to touch numerous audiences.

Digging into the crates , he decides to revive the remix to “Back Like That” with Kanye West and Ne-Yo. Although it makes sense to include the cut as it was the commercial hit that catapulted the rapper into the realm of mixing his gritty sound with R&B, the record is three years old. It would have been better if the three could have linked up again to create an updated cut for this project.

Although the Auto-Tune was passable for Raheem DeVaughn for the record “Baby”, Ether Boy Ron Browz should have been left off the list of those invited to the party. Clearly “She's A Killah” serves as the up-tempo club track, but it was almost a breath of fresh air when “D.O.A” seemed to scorch the blaze that the “singer” was creating behind him with every song he jumped on.

Those that choose to compare this album to Raekwon's latest are sadly mistaken. Ghost should not be held against others, but should be placed against himself as he has already made it clear that he is trouble in the booth. This may not be considered his greatest album to date, but it does serve as a positive shift to show that Tony Starks is a man of many hats and can handle music on all ends.

Grist: ‘No compromise’ faction attacks climate bill

Grist:

Global warming activists endorsed by the preeminent climatologist James Hansen are working to defeat the climate and energy bill in Congress, and they’re using some provocative stunts to spread their message.

Briefly:

* Activists handed out fake $2 trillion bills at a rally for climate legislation in New York last week, criticizing the size of the global-warming emissions market they oppose. ($2 trillion is their estimate for the size of the emissions market they oppose.) The bills depict Al Gore holding a wrench and a compact-fluorescent light bulb and the words “Corporate Giveaways! Carbon Ponzi Schemes! FALSE SOLUTIONS!”
* Others hung a 14-foot banner of the same bill from the Manhattan headquarters of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
* “Cap’n Trade,” an actor in a pirate costume, unfurled a similar banner at a presentation by Connie Hedegaard, chairperson of the Dec. 2009 UN Climate Summit and Denmark’s minister for climate and energy.
* Still others blocked a motorcade of UN delegates to drop a banner with the message “Cap + Trade is a Dead End.”

At least three groups worked together on last week’s events—Climate SOS, Rising Tide North America, and “Greenwash Guerrillas,” which pied Thomas Friedman last year. They all hold a “no compromise” philosophy on climate-change action, opposing carbon markets that allow polluters to buy and sell pollution credits and arguing that larger environmental groups such as NRDC have compromised too much in working with businesses and Democratic lawmakers.

“It’s an awkward position to be environmentalists working on climate change but opposing a climate bill,” said Climate SOS organizer Rachel Smolker, a Vermont ecologist and author. “Especially with a new administration that we want to support. But we felt we need to take a really strong position because this [bill] is so inadequate.”

The campaign is awkward for “establishment” green groups too. They’ve been preparing to battle fossil-fuel interests over the energy bill introduced in the Senate this week. Now they must figure out if and how to respond to this attack from the far left.

“It’s troubling,” said Daniel J. Weiss, director for climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank with close ties to the Obama administration. “No one believes that the clean energy bill that will come out of Congress will address the threat of global warming in a single step. But we have to start.”

“The real enemies are Big Oil and Big Coal and the right wing attack machine,” he said. “For them to mock [Gore] in the way they did shows that they don’t understand you need to attack your enemies and not your allies.”

Hansen’s involvement is especially troublesome. The director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies wasn’t involved in the New York stunts, but he endorsed Climate SOS’s recent tour against a climate bill. The $2 trillion bill includes his statement that a cap-and-trade program “would be worse for the environment than doing nothing.”

The opposition by Hansen and Climate SOS is unlikely to influence Washington policymakers, in Weiss’s opinion, but it’s got the potential to make everyday Americans think the situation is hopeless.

“If they hear from such a respected scientist as James Hansen that what Congress is doing won’t matter, then why would they bother to call their senators to say ‘Act on this’?” he said.

Aside from the stunts last week, other moves by the “no-compromise” camp are downright perplexing. Last week Greenwash Guerrillas launched a website in response to Cleanenergyworks.us, a three-month-old diverse coalition supporting a comprehensive energy bill. The similar-sounding Cleanenergyworks.biz was a replica of the real Clean Energy Works site, with two notable changes: The phone number and email address for spokesperson Josh Dorner had been changed. His name was left the same. The site changed to a more innocuous version over the weekend and is currently down.

Dorner had no interest in speaking about the site that took his name. “I don’t send too much of my day worrying about a website,” he said Thursday. “There are considerably more important tasks before us to get this bill across the Senate floor.”

NRDC spokesperson Michael Oko shared Dorner’s reluctance to give attention to the stunts. “There are a lot of different groups out there,” he said in regard to the banner hung at NRDC’s office. “Everybody has the right to express themselves.”

About the replica website Oko said, “Frankly, I was a little confused about what their intention was.”

Smolker of Climate SOS said the idea was “to provide a spoof, to reveal the emptiness of the claims Clean Energy Works provides. For them, it’s green jobs and clean energy and everything’s a smiley-face, you know? Our goal is to tell people to look deeper and take the smiley faces off.”

She said she contributed ideas for the mock site, but individuals from Greenwash Guerrillas, who did not want to be identified, created the idea.

The 51-year-old Smolker has seen firsthand how environmental groups can evolve, professionalize, and grow in wealth and influence. Her father was one of the founders of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), another group targeted by Climate SOS last week. EDF met in her childhood home when it was still a “ragtag group,” as Climate SOS is now, she said. (Smolker, who works for Biofuel Watch, declined to give funding information for Climate SOS but said all members were volunteers.)

“We’ve played that compromise game for a long time,” she said. “There’s too much at stake right now.”
The old saw

The compromise question—whether to sacrifice what is ecologically necessary for what seems politically possible—has been around as long as the green movement itself. The naturalist-and-mystic John Muir and the politician-and-forester Gifford Pinchot clashed over the same tensions in the early 20th century.

As for Hansen’s “worse than nothing” remark, there has been plenty written about the failings of the House climate and energy bill—it gives away too much to dirty-energy backers, it even protects coal-plant pollution from further regulation. But there is historical precedent of legislation that is deeply flawed at first evolving into something effective and durable. The original Clean Air Act did not address the acid rain crisis, an omission not corrected until 1990. The original Social Security Act did not include domestic or agricultural workers, effectively excluding many Hispanic, black, and immigrant workers, as Democratic strategist Paul Begala notes.

“If that version of Social Security were introduced today, progressives like me would call it cramped, parsimonious, mean-spirited and even racist,” writes Begala. “Perhaps it was all those things. But it was also a start. And for 74 years we have built on that start.”

Most progressives, including many major green groups, would gladly embrace an imperfect climate bill as a start.

“Those who see the House clean energy bill as somehow tainted by deals, and therefore want a carbon tax, have to understand that no tax proposal would ever emerge from Congress as we know it without similar or worse deals being made,” said Weiss. “Unfortunately the moral high ground of ‘we must act for our children’ is necessary but not sufficient for our political process.”

Smolker said Climate SOS would continue on a different tack, insisting on an acceptable bill from the get-go. She expected the group would pause to take stock of the bill released in the Senate this week, then regroup.



Here’s Cap’n Trade delivering his message to Danish climate and energy minister Connie Hedegaard: