Little Brother's Get Back In Stores 9/25

Yay!!! It's about time! Little Brother are coming back with their new release "Get Back" on 9/25/07. I've been bumping their last classic effort "The Minstrel Show" & their last mixtape "And Justice For All" for the longest.

The first single off the new album is "Good Clothes". I visited their MySpace page and they have their track listing up. The new single is also available for download but I'll post it here as well.

For all those who have never heard of them, Little Brother is one of the most conscious groups coming out of the south. They are from North Carolina (big ups to all my fam in North Cacalaky), which was shocking to me when I first heard them. You kind of expect the heavy southern drawl in their rhymes, like their other southern counterparts. Their last album "The Minstrel Show", was slept on by the mainstream, in my opinion mostly because of the way they poked fun at the mainstream rappers. They couldn't get BET (no surprise there) to play their video because the sell outs over at BET think that we are dummies.

It is very unfortunate that BET, MTV and mainstream radio feel like we can't appreciate good music that doesn't involve violence, drug selling, video hoe's parading around, making it rain in the strip clubs, and bling rap.

I can't express to you how tired I am of "Wipe Me Down" & "Ay Bay Bay"! All these so-called grown azz men calling themselves "Young" this & "Lil" that. Sick of it! So I will be visiting the music store on 9/25 to purchase real music. Hope that you will join me.

You can download their new single here:
Little Brother "Good Clothes"
http://www.mediafire.com/?0jgtcyjtrjs

Here is the video that you were too dumb to watch. It was "too intelligent" for you to view, lol.

Little Brother ~ Lovin' It



I threw this one in for good measure.
Little Brother ~ Speed

Schooling Dillema

I've been thinking of transferring my son to a new school. I am sooo fed up with my city's public school system. It really is the pits. I was blessed to have gone to a private school for the first half of my K-12 education and if I could afford to send my son I would have. So I spent this past school year narrowing down my choices of charter schools and picked a few. All my charter school choices have lotteries that they do and it's really the luck of the draw on who gets in. So I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Originally in my quest to find a good school I looked into both public and charter schools. In the Philadelphia School District, you are placed into schools usually based on your neighborhood. There are some that get to transfer out of their neighborhood school into better ones by applying for a transfer, but trust and believe all the "better" public schools have waiting list days long.

When Bush came out with this "No Child Left Behind" nonsense, and at first I thought it was a great idea. The school district had a list of schools that were failing based on nationwide testing. They presented the parents of these children who attend these failing schools a few options. One option was busing their children to other schools that weren't on the list. They could let their child stay at the present school and the district would pay for a tutor. There was also charter schools and cyberschool.

I'm from the hood, and all the schools in my vicinity are tore up, so I thought that this was a way out for my son. He could go out to another school and meet new people, and be exposed to a less distracting and safer environment, so that he can focus on learning. There just was a shooting near the school around that time that scared me shitless. So removed my son from the school around the corner from me and sent him to another school not too far away that was considered at that time to be a good school. It was in a neighborhood that was more racially diverse than mines. (My neighborhood USED to be like this, but that's another post.)

But along with this "No Child Left Behind" crap comes the drama. First off the curriculum sucks ass. No phonics anymore, they do memory based learning. WTF! So I went and got him phonics books so that I can teach him the way I learned. Also this new way they teach kids math is crazy too. How am I supposed to help him with his homework with all these dumb methods? I asked my son's teacher at every parent teacher meeting I ever had what was up this new way of teaching children. Almost all said the same thing. What they are doing is basically teaching the kids the nationwide test. Teaching the test. Marinate on that for a bit. Wow!

Then after about two years in this new school and now this school is on the shitty school list. So not only are they teaching kids the test, but now teaching the test isn't quite working. One of his former teachers said that the reason for the school poor performance on the test was that the neighborhood surrounding the school was starting to change. White people crack me up thinking that as long as they don't use slurs in their reference to us that it's all good. He said that now the school had so many English As Second Language (ESOL) students move in the neighborhood that it has messed up the schools average. (I case you missed it he was he was talking about my latino brothers & sisters.) This infuriated me to say the least.

So I'm going with the charter school system. I feel it's the safest choice with less kids in the classrooms and a better student/faculty ratio. The violence in Philadelphia's schools and in Philadelphia period has made me think about home schooling. Home schooling or Cyberschool isn't an option for me right now, maybe it would be if I worked from home or was a stay at home mother. Besides, he's an only child, and he likes being around others his age.

Your thoughts?

New music preview~ Kanye West ~ Bittersweet

"Bittersweet" featuring John Mayer, from the upcoming album Graduation. I'm feeling this one, and I'm sure we all can relate to this song. I know exactly how it feels to love and hate a person at the same time!

To preview new Kanye West "Bittersweet" ft/ John Mayer click on link below.

http://www.mediafire.com/?fxx5xywdt5n

Skillz - Don't Act Like You Don't Know ft/ Freeway

(I ain't Mad no more) Skillz and Philadelphia Freeway. This is a match up I didn't expect to see. I guess Skillz really is trying to shed the backpacker image, judging from this video. I'm am not feeling the leather blazer though. Nothing wrong with being a backpacker, as long as your not wearing a dirty one. As for Freeway... he should be grateful I don't talk ill of people on this blog. I leave that mess next door. So I'll be nice and just say, Philly...stand up?

A Rose Is Still A Rose (Preach!)

I was thinking today about Lauryn Hill and how truly gifted she is. She seems to be going through a rough patch in her life right now, and my prayers are with her. I ran across this video, and of course I immediately thought of Lauryn. Her words are so uplifting. I thought she could use a dose of her own healing medicine. So Ms. Hill, this one is for you. Hope you feel better! I don't know how long this video will be up so enjoy it before the record label disables it.
Oh, and why does she look like Oprah in this pic?

We Didn't Forget You Stepha Henry

I've been meaning to write something about this but it slipped my mind, even though I though about it everyday. I read something on the internet about a black woman missing in Florida that touched my soul, and I wondered if she was ever found. I forgot her name, but didn't forget her struggle.

I think it's a damned shame that the media hasn't really covered Stepha Henry, the missing John Jay graduate from New York. She is an aspiring Law student that has been missing since May 29th, and as you guessed there hasn't been a massive search like they did for that white woman, Jessie Davis. She was basically denied coverage all because poor Paris Hilton was on her way to jail, boo hoo, hoo. But eff the media, my REAL BEEF is with Al Sharpton and the local police.

Investigators said a male friend who was driving the car picked Henry up from her aunt's apartment in North Miami earlier that evening. But they said that at the end of the evening the friend left without the car and without Henry.

"The car is still missing. He tells us that he borrowed the car. So we're still trying to check the origin of the car, find out where it originally came from, who originally had the car, where the car is registered and, of course, we're still trying to find the car," said Linda O'Brien of the Miami-Dade Police Department.

See the whole article here. Also, click this posts' title for link to her profile at America's Most Wanted. They aired her profile on June 30th, 2007.

I'm not a genius by any means, but Boo Boo the Fool can see that the police are not doing a good job. How do you borrow a car from somebody, but now you don't know where it's at? Ok... so who did you borrow it from? That alone should have been enough to detain him. Until somebody can produce a car, a least. I hope that I'm wrong and these police know what they are doing, but really what are the chances?

Historically, we as a people have always had to "see after our own" (as my Na-Na would say). Sharpton and the rest of Black America made a big stink about about Don Imus, and it made headlines. Imus even got fired. His latest rants are about this "Roboho" thing that Beyonce' was called by the a member of the media. Again the media pounces. So hello, Rev.Sharpton, what's up? I mean you make a stink about sticks & stones (not saying that he shouldn't have), so lets "see after" Stepha Henry and jump on the medias' and the polices' asses, maybe we can see some progress in this case.
The latest article is here.

Please don't forget about Stepha Henry, and spread the word about her. Blog about her. I'm going to place her pic & description on my sidebar and will update as I hear new developments.

VH1 “HIP HOP HONORS TOUR” FEATURING THE ROOTS
WITH MC LYTE AND BIG DADDY KANE

9/13/07	San Francisco, CA	The Fillmore
9/14/07	Anaheim, CA	House of Blues
9/15/07	Los Angeles, CA	House of Blues
9/17/07	Denver, CO	Paramount Theater
9/19/07	Dallas, TX	House of Blues
9/20/07	New Orleans, LA	House of Blues
9/23/07	Chicago, IL	House of Blues
9/24/07	Cleveland, OH	House of Blues
9/27/07	Norfolk, VA	The Norva
9/29/07	Washington, DC	930 Club -11pm Start
9/30/07	Baltimore, MD	Rams Head Live!
10/2/07	Worcester, MA	Palladium
10/3/07	Philadelphia, PA	Electric Factory
10/5/07	New York, NY	Nokia Theater

Classic

I got flashback joints today. First up, I gotta rep the 2-1-5, and this was my jawn! I swear this song needs to be re-released for the youngbucks of today, because they are off the hook. I guess that's why I'm always reminiscing, we had some QUALITY music back in the days. Not all music had a message, but when they did have one we soaked it up like a sponge. Young ladies, this one is for you. Respect yourselves!

True Honey Buns ~ Bahamadia




This next joint is a classic. I think I was graduating high school around the time this came out. One of the best songs Kool Moe Dee ever made in my opinion. He had the help of "The Blastmaster" KRS-ONE & Chuck D on this one. Video has French captions, sorry only copy I could find.


Rise~N~Shine Kool Moe Dee, KRS-ONE, & Chuck D



Last but definitely not least is my favorite hip-hop group of all time, A Tribe Called Quest (well...they are a tie with Public Enemy!). I am soooooo embarrassed to say that I don't remember this video, being as I'm the biggest fan that I know. I am so in love with Q-Tip, have been since I first laid eyes on him. This is from the album "Midnight Marauders", one of my top ten favorite albums.

A Tribe Called Quest ft/ Busta Rhymes ~ Oh My God!



Enjoy!

Sad News

This post is dedicated to Tha Blastmaster KRS-ONE and his family. I am so sorry to hear about his lost. I can't even begin to imagine the pain he must be going through. Earlier at work I was listening to a Davy D podcast featuring KRS-ONE, and he was talking about his family life. I was planning on posting about his new project. Then I come home to hear this tragic news. That's really deep to me. I'll keep you and yours in my prayers, my brother.

Marco Polo ft/ Masta Ace - Nostalgia

Masta Ace has been one of my favs for a while. We talkin' about like 20 years in the game, and his flow is still tight! That Roxanne Shante sample is hot too.

The Police & Kanye West Live Earth Performance

"Message in a Bottle" remix. Oh, and I think I saw John Mayer in there too. Loved it, what a combo!

The Police & Kanye West Live Earth NYC 2007
Uploaded by kevinb1984

Keith Murray ft/ Tyrese & Junior - "Nobody Do It Better"

Keith Murray is back with his new album "Rap-Murr-Phobia (Fear of Real Hip Hop)", and it's due out July 31st if nothing pushes it back. Wow, the last time I remember him with a song it was "Phatty Girl" off of that FUBU album. Wow, remember FUBU? I'm getting old. Anyway I don't know about this song, maybe it'll grow on me. I sure the ladies understand why this video was posted. Tyrese...need I say more?

Strange Fruit Project ft/ Erykah Badu - "Get Live"

I miss you Erykah!!!

Polyrhythm Addicts ft/ Pharoahe Monch - "Reachin'"

This video was shot at the album release party for their new album "Break Glass". I officially have a new favorite female emcee now (well at least another one). Tiye Phoenix is the truth, please believe.

Pharoahe Monch - "Body Baby"

This song off Pharoahe Monch's new album "Desire" is my shit! Kind of reminds you a little of Andre 3000 & "Hey Ya". The whole album is a good buy, please go and purchase it, I promise you wont be disappointed.

Lauryn Explains

Lauryn Hill explaining where she's been all this time. I love this woman, and hope the Lauryn Hill we used to know comes back to bless us. I want her to explain this recent report.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. This blog is more about underground & conscious Hip Hop and "neo-soul". I felt a need to give props to the music I listen to the most. I'm still new at this blogging thing so please bear with me. I have no html skills, so if my blog appears to be ugly right now, just hold your horses, I'll get it together. Peace.