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FNV NEWSLETTER #109
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November 22 2002
In This Week's Issue
*Hip Hop News Updates
*Crash Crew Celebrates 25th Anniversary
*Mr. Complex Set to Launch Hip Hop TV Game Show.
*MC Lyte Making Moves
*Souled Out: A Play About West Coast Hip Hop
*LAPD Launches Ghost Squad To Go After Graf Writers
*Did Kool Keith and His Crew Rob a SF Nite Club?
*Self Destruction2 Updates
*Hip Hop Writer Calls Out Russ Parr Morning Show
*Rally Against Destructive Images of Women in Rap Music.
The FNV Newsletter c 2002
Send comments to
misterdaveyd@earthlink.net
peep the websites
www.daveyd.com
www.rapstation.com
=============================
HIP HOP NEWS UPDATES
A Phat Award goes out to DMX who is set to spend this upcoming
Thanksgiving in his old Yonkers neighborhood doing a charity dinner.
Joining DMX will be Mary J Blige...
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A Phat Award goes out to Jay-Z who just released a double LP
'Blueprint2 The Gift and the Curse' which is not bad. Some folks were
tripping on the range of music he embraced, but I was glad to see him
try and stretch musically when he hooked up with folks like Lenny
Kravitz to do a song like Guns & Roses. Jigga also gets props for his
appearance on 60 Minutes II. I didn't get a chance to peep it.. so
y'all will have to let me know how he did. He was the first rapper to
be featured on the show. One would've thought that after 25 years
with all that Hip Hop accomplished 60 Minutes would've touched down
sooner..Here's a link to see some clips from the show:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/18/60II/main529811.shtml
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Props go out to Nas for stepping up and burying the hatchet with all
his rap rivals. He was recently on Angie Martinez's Hot 97 radio show
where he offered an olive branch to all the cats he took shots at..
Now of course Nas has a soon to be released album [God's Son] to
promote so that may have been an incentive.. but peace is peace. I'm
glad he stepped up. Hopefully we can all move on and he'll let the
disses that Jay-Z hands out on Blueprint2 slide.
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Looks like Cam'ron and Mariah Carey are teaming up. She fell in love
with his hit song 'Oh Boy' and hence got Cam'ron to help her redo it
for her upcoming album 'Charmbracelet'. She also did collabs with
Jay-Z and Freeway for a song called 'You Got Me'. If that's not
enough Mariah has hooked up with Busta Rhymes to do a song for his new
album It Ain't Safe No More.
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Ice Cube is coming underfire for the trailers to his new movie 'Friday
After Next' which opens today [Friday Nov22 2002]. Quite a few people
were not happy with the ads that showed three sistas and the word 'Ho'
being stamped over the faces. Cube says the trailers were shown out
of context and he blamed the marketing people for the offensive
potrayals. Unfortunately the ads are still running on TV stations.
Other women are also upset with the Hot Sauce promo item that has been
sent around to promote the movie. On it it says 'So hot that you will
slap your grandmother' or something to that effect. Folks aren't
feeling the the on going disrespect to women and rightly so . Remarks
about slapping women is nothing to joke about. Activist like Minister
Paul Scott out of North Carolina are encouraging people to stay home
and boycott the movie as a way to countercat the negative images.
--------------------
Bad news for Queen Latifah who was arrested the other morning in
Hollywood for DUI. It was about 3am when police spotted her making an
unsafe lane change. Once they talked to her, they ascertained that
she was under the influence. A sobriety check confirmed that. We'll
keep you posted as to what comes out of this..
=============================
CRASH CREW CELEBRATES 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Congratulations are in order to Hip Hop Pioneers The Crash Crew. This
Sunday they will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary at S.O.B's in
NYC. On the 1's and 2's D.J EZ Rock, D.J Supreme, D.J Afrika
Bambaataa. Also a special performance by Grand Wizzard Theodore.
There will also be some surprise performances on this star studded
night! All capped off by a performance by The Legendary Crash Crew
doing all their smash hits including High Powered Rap and Breaking
Bells. This will be a night to remember!!
For those who don't know, The Crash Crew was formed in 1977, as a 15
man crew that consisted of DJ's, MC's, a promotional crew and
security. Back in the days they performed out in the parks, community
centers and in local clubs in New York City. The crew had a
reputation for giving parties with the best production, which featured
the 10,000-watt Mace Monster sound system. In 1980, the crew released
"High Powered Rap" which was put out on their own label "Mike & Dave
Records".
The crew recorded, produced, promoted and sold the records themselves.
Once 1981 came around, a lot of labels wanted to sign the Crash Crew,
they finally signed with Sugarhill Records out of Englewood, NJ. The
first two singles on Sugarhill Records the crew released were "We
Wanna Rock" and "Breaking Bells". Those records were big for the crew
they joined Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, Sequence, The
Funky Four Plus 1 More, and the Sugarhill Gang on a nation-wide tour.
At this point, the crew had national popularity. Then in 1982, the
crew released "We Are Known As MC's and the crews biggest record to
date "On The Radio" which earned the crew a RIAA certified gold
record. "Here We Are" was the follow-up to "On The Radio".
The Crash Crew also has history in Street Basketball as well. The
Crash Crew played against the Disco 4 in the first Entertainers
Tournament game MT Morris Park in Manhattan. The Crash Crew brought
their system to the park and played music while the games was going
on. The game was so successful that all the other groups in New York
City wanted to get involved and every Sunday afternoon there would be
a game between all the most popular Rap groups of that time.
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MR. COMPLEX SET TO LAUNCH HIP HOP TV GAME SHOW
First things first, I gotta give major props to Mr. Complex. In
addition to being a dope emcee who is more than capable of wrecking
microphones and keeping wannabe rhymesayers at bay, he has set forth
to produce his own TV Hip Hop Trivia Game Show. When I was in LA this
past weekend I caught up with Mr. Complex over at Stacks Records in
Cerritos where he was doing a few tapings. The game consists of 3
contestants who have to race against each other to answer a question.
A deejay scratches in funny remarks and sayings if you get a right or
wrong answer. The questions themselves are a mixture of trivia
questions, name that tune/song identification, song analysis and
lyrical trivia. Almost all the questions asked had you sitting there
squirming 'cause the answer was on the tip of your tongue but was just
somehow out of reach.
For example, when they did the lyrical trivia portion of the game,
Complex asked the contestants; 'In the song ' Do It Again [Put Your
Hands Up]' by Jay-Z , 'What time did he go to the waffle house'? As
many times as we've heard that record none of the contestants and no
one in the audience knew. Everybody starting hitting themselves in
the head when Complex gave up the answer which is 4am.. Here's the
lyrics..
1 AM DJ made it erupt (uh-huh)
2 AM now I'm gettin with her (what up?)
3 AM now I'm splittin with her (splittin with who?)
4 AM at the waffle house (waffle house)
5 AM now we at my house (uh)
6 AM I be diggin her out (who?)
In the song analysis portion of the show Complex would play portions
from three different songs and folks would have to figure out what
they all had in common. Again it wasn't as easy as it sounded.
During the song identification portion, Mr. Complex would read off
some commonly heard lyrics and folks would have to identify the song
and artist. He would read the lyrics in a monotone off beat type of
way so that even often heard easy to figure out song lyrics suddenly
got real hard to figure out. There were quite a few headz in the
audience that night, and almost all of us were left baffled by a good
portion of the questions.
Currently Mr. Complex is hooking up with some major TV players to back
the show. There's no date as to when it will officially launch, but
trust me when it does its gonna be a big hit. It's definitely
entertaining and is the type of thing that can be done in between acts
at a concert. The way the game is set up it can be the type of thing
where there are serious tournaments that travel from city to city.
I'm hoping Mr. Complex can come to the Bay Area and unveil this game
show.
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MC LYTE MAKING MOVES
by - Davey D
MC Lyte is making moves in a major way. First, she has just released
a new album titled 'MC Lyte is Lytro Da Underground Heat Vol 1'. The
album is pretty cool and a welcome return to this long time wordsmith.
Her current single 'Ride Wit Me' is a club banger. If you wanna see
her video head on over to her website MC-Lyte.com.
If that's not enough MC Lyte has been making moves in Hollywood. She
now lives in LA as opposed to her native Brooklyn. In recent months
she's appeared on TV shows like CBS's The District'. She is featured
in a brand new movie called 'Civil Brand' which also stars Da Brat,
Mos Def, and actresses N'Bushe Wright, Tichina Arnold, Monica Calhoun
and Lisa Rayes.
The movie is described as a hip-hop tale of young Black women behind
bars who are forced to unite against a corrupt prison system.
Together they form the family unit they never had, but a cruel captain
and power hungry warden have other plans. They force the women to
work under slave conditions manipulated by corporate greed. When the
abuse becomes overwhelming, the girls decide to strike back. But the
odds are stacked against them. After all, who ever heard of women
taking over a prison?
I spoke with Lyte the other day and she explained that the movie is
designed to show folks just how the prison industrial complex works.
She spoke about how many prisons are private owned corporations that
use prison labor to make obscene profits and that there's now an
economic incentive to keep people on lock down. Civil Brand has thus
far won several awards including The Urbanworld and Blockbuster Film
Festivals.
===========================
SOULED OUT : A PLAY ABOUT WEST COAST HIP HOP
Props go out Oakland rapper/spoken word artist Safahri Ra. He
recently relocated to the Big Apple where he's putting on the
finishing touches to a Hip Hop theater play called 'Souled Out'. The
play is about Hip Hop from a West Coast/Cali perspective. Thus far
they have done some test showings of this project which features Toni
Blackman of Freestyle Union, DJ Funklore who is down with Michael
Franti and Spearhead, Ms Little who is a well known B-girl, DJ Wiz and
Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets.
If everything goes according to plan, Souled Out should be out here in
Cali for the Hip Hop Theater Fest early next summer. In the meantime
Safahri Ra has been putting in work with the Last Poets as they gear
up to kick off their new company [Poets in the Schools]. He also is
working on his new album which features, Casual, Del, Zion I and Omega
from Blackalicious. We'll keep you posted as the dates for Souled Out
draw closer.
===============================
LAPD LAUNCHES GHOST SQUAD TO GO AFTER GRAF WRITERS
by - Davey D
Graf artist in LA best beware as new LA Police Chief William Bratton
gears up to clamp down on their activities. For those who don't know
Bratton was police chief under former NY Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. He
is credited with lowering NY's crime rate by going after what he
considers 'Quality of Life' crimes. In his opinion, LA is the
graffiti capital of the world and that needs to be immediately
eradicated. LA is noted to have painted over more graf on its walls
and freeway signs last year than all of NYC over a 3 year period.
Bratton notes that by allowing graffiti to go unchecked will
eventually lead to more serious crimes. He also pointed out the gang
connection to many of LA taggers who escalate tensions by painting
over graf done by rival gangs. A recent LA Times article talks about
a graf war between rival 'krews' who are out to paint over city
sanctioned murals. Thus far 5 people have been arrested and charged
with causing more than a million dollars worth of damage.
The end result to Bratton's assessment is the formation of LAPD Ghost
Squad. Armed with night scopes, unmarked cars and a dossier full of
information about LA graf writers, the new police unit is on a serious
mission. From a law enforcement perspective they will be aided by a
provision that was included in the Prop 21 initiative which was voted
into law back in March of 2000. It is now a felony to do more than
400 dollars worth of damage. 400 bucks worth of graf damage is merely
marking on a wall.
While many of LA Hip Hop graf writers see this as par for the course
and one of the hazards of doing what they do, LAPD is going all out to
smash on them. They are also meeting with other Southern Cal police
agencies to share information. We'll keep you posted on what happens.
On another note; LA is been hot with the madness. Last weekend police
had 5 different shooting incidents where 3or 4 people were killed.
Over a 4 day period 16 cats were killed.. Folks are pointing to an
escalating gang war..
=============================
DID KOOL KEITH AND HIS CREW ROB A SF NITE CLUB?
by - Billy Jam of Hip Hop Slam New Service
Last night, Weds. November 20, at Slims Nightclub in San Francisco
Kool Keith not only never showed up onstage to perform but his crew
(inc. Mark Live, Jacky Jasper, and Tim Dog) who had been onstage
warming up the Bay Area crowd that were eagerly anticipating Kool
Keith's arrival, stopped performing after saying something about "Kool
Keith just got arrested.....on Mission Street" and (literally) ran off
with the club's receipts, hopped into their tour bus parked outside on
11th Street and zoomed off into the night! Afterwards a semi-stunned
crowd stood around as the house sound system and lights slowly came up
and wondered what the hell was exactly happening. After all they had
forked over $20 for tickets.
A Slims' doorman told me that they "strong armed the club" from Slims'
small box-office up front and "ran off with the money." A few minutes
later a Slims spokesperson took the stage in this unprecedented
situation explained that yes indeed Kool Keith would not be performing
and confirmed what the doorman had said, saying that he had robbed not
just the club but the fans too. She then offered everyone in the club
a complimentary ticket to any future show at Slims.
Apparently sometime after members of Kool Keith's crew started
performing onstage (Zion I had been the earlier act) one or more Kool
Keith representatives went to the Slims' box office and demanded that
they get paid...in full. Normally it is written into an artist's
contract that they can get paid either after the performance finishes
or immediately after the concert has just started. In this case the
artists were technically onstage performing all right (including a
poorly received rendition of "Fuck Compton" by Tim Dog) but the main
artist that people had paid $18 or $20 to see (Kool Keith) was not
onstage and nowhere to be seen in the building. Meanwhile onstage the
show continued as Jacky Jasper teased the audience of Keith's
arrival..."The man they call Dr. Dooom, Dr. Octagon, Black
Elvis....".
At this stage (11:30PM) the packed house were more than ready to see
the mainman but still no sign of Kool Keith. That was when they
announced that "Kool Keith was arrested"......"on Mission Street."
Around this same time a member of the entourage had quietly retrieved
all of the Kool Keith merchandise from the Slims booth. The members
of Kool Keith's crew then announced on mic that they were going to "go
see what was happening". They asked for the house system to come on.
Then they all quickly departed stage left heading towards the back
alley exit. Meanwhile everyone stood scratching their heads,
wondering what kind of stunt was that wacky Kool Keith pulling this
time? Or was he really arrested on Mission Street and for what?
About sixty seconds later I glanced to the left through the big glass
main door of Slims where I witnessed the group's tour bus, which had
been parked there outside all evening, zoom off on Eleventh Street
towards Folsom into the San Francisco night....with the cash.
======================================
SELF DESTRUCTION 2 UPDATES.
As you all know in the wake of the tragic slaying of Jam Master Jay,
Daddy O of Stetsasonic has been on a mission to launch a campaign to
get us to seriously think about our responsibilities and to end all
senseless violence. Right now in the City of Oakland we're faced with
100 murders. Over the past 4 days in LA 16 people have been killed.
Its been crazy all over and what happened with JMJ exemplifies the
ridiculous path we've been on.... There's still an open call for
folks to step up and be down.. This is not about just recording a
record, but also connecting community groups and organizations and
using the song as a platform to get us to turn things around.. .
Thus far a website has been launched selfdestruction2.com and there's
a growing list of artist who have committed themselves.. Thus far
here's who is down:
PRODUCTION:
Rockwilder : Evil Dee
ARTISTS/RAPPER TRACK:
Binary Star : Boots Riley (The Coup) : Bounty Killer : Busta Rhymes :
Common : Cormega : Dana Dane : dead prez : D-Nice : Doug E Fresh : El
Da Sensei (formerly of Artifacts) : EPMD : Evil Dee : Freddie Foxxx :
Gift Of Gab (Blackalicious) : Heather B : Ishmael Butler (Cherrywine)
: J-Live : Jermaine Dupri : Jurassic 5 (based on avail. during tour)
: Kool Moe Dee : KRS-One : Lifesavas (same management as The Coup,
signed to Chief Xcel's label) : Ludacris : MC Lyte : Mecca (aka
Ladybug, formerly of Digable Planets) : Method Man : Missy Elliott :
Motion Man (bay area) : Mystic : Nocturnal Rage : Paris : Planet Asia
: Public Enemy : Queen Latifah : Redman : Shaggy : Stetsasonic : Uncle
Luke : WC : Whodini : Wordsayer (Source Of Labor) : Wordsworth
TURNTABLISTS TRACK:
Afrika Bambaataa : Chief Xcel (Blackalicious) : DP One (Heavy Hitters)
: E-Swift (Tha Liks) : Evil Dee : Grand Wizzard Theodore : Jazzy Jay :
Jazzy Joyce : Kuttin Kandi : Kutmasta Kurt : DJ Lord (Public Enemy) :
NuMark & Cut Chemist(based on avail. during tour) : Pam The
Funkstress (The Coup) : Red Alert : Tony Touch : Triple Threat (Vin
Roc, Apollo & Shortkut) : The X-ecutioners (Rob Swift, Roc Raida,
Total Eclipse)
HUMAN BEATBOX TRACK
Doug E. Fresh : Kenny Muhammed : Wise (Stetsasonic)
...and the list is growing.
If you wanna be down drop an email to info@selfdestruction2.com
Calls have been put out to E-40, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, The Wake Up
Show, Ja Rule, DMX, and a host of others..Tell them to get at Daddy O
for this project..
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HIP HOP WRITER CHALLENGES RUSS PARR MORNING SHOW...
In the wake of all the drama that's been impacting Hip Hop, DC based
writer Alan Page took serious issue with the Russ Parr morning show
the other day when they attempted to instigate Ja Rule and get him to
scream on DMX. As was reported several weeks ago, a meeting between
the pair at the Def Jam offices was not pretty. Security had to be
beefed up. Fortunately, the two rivals have attempted to not let
things esaclate. I guess the Russ Parr Morning show didn't get the
memo because they went all out on their show which prompted an open
letter response from Alan C Page.
Dear Russ Parr Morning Show...
Why are you all promoting more conflict between black men? Why don't
you ask Ja Rule what he can do WITH DMX to improve the conditions of
the BLACK neighborhoods they both come from? Why don't you all take
that time and try to set up some benefit concerts with Ja Rule where
the money can go to the community? Or better yet, why not just focus
on the artistic achievements of Ja himself and ask him about his new
album, his new film, and so on?
This is just more of the same media hype that got the whole Bad
Boy/Death Row beef up to outrageous proportions. Now, if the
situation gets critical, will YOU ALL be the ones to carry Ja Rule or
DMX's coffin, to pay to take care of Ja's children, to console their
parents, and so on? This is the most ridiculous thing ever, you guys
sitting egging out a black man to disrespect another black man when we
have all these issues in the community that could be discussed. This
isn't entertaining radio, it's an insult to the intelligence of the
black people in Washington DC and you all should be ASHAMED that you
are promoting this NONSENSE.
DO SOMETHING TO SAVE THE CHILDREN.
LEAVE THE NONSENSE OFF THE AIR WHERE IT BELONGS.
Alan C Page
The offensive interview was apparently sent around for listeners to
hear with the subject heading JA RULE CLOWNS DMX...The link to the
interview is being included at the request of Alan so folks can hear
what he was responding to and why he found Russ and his crew to be out
of line. http://www.LazeeSwayze.com/jarule.mp3
Alan notes that the MP3 was the height of ignorance...they were
literally BEGGING Ja Rule to say something bad about DMX. How
ridiculous is that? Why not plead with him to comment on Bush's lack
of a plan to address the problems in black America?..mmmm thats
something to think about..
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RALLY AGAINST DESTRUCTIVE IMAGES OF WOMEN IN RAP MUSIC
Courtesy Tools of War Newsletter
The Muslim Student Association of Sarah Lawrence college has gathered
a distinct group of activists, artists, and performers together to
rally in response to the degrading images of women in mainstream rap
music and popular culture. The rally is free and open to the public.
The purpose of the rally is to spark conscious awareness and
questioning of the daily images of women in popular entertainment, and
to decontextualize the role and effects of these images on individuals
and society as a whole. Its being presented by the MSA of Sarah
Lawrence College
Date: Saturday, November 23rd Place:Sarah Lawrence College 1 Mead Way,
Bronxville NY ;Reisinger Auditorium Time: 2 pm - 7 pm Cost: FREE to
the Public Video Cameras Welcome!
Featured Speakers and Performers:
The Hammer Bros. (Mustaphysical and Omasik/Queens-based Palestinian
emcees) Tha Iron Triangle (BulletProof Soul, Sunnah:4, and T.O.L.
from Cleveland) Akil (Jurassic 5) Carmen Asshurst-Woodard (former
President of Def Jam Recordings) Maspyke (DJ Roddy Rod, Hanif
"H-Bomb", Jamiyl and Tableek) Jorge "Fabel" Pabon (Tools of War/Senior
V.P. of the Rock Steady Crew) Christie Z-Pabon (Tools of War:
Publicist & Event Coordinator Mahdi Bray (Executive Director, MAS
Freedom Foundation) Hakim Sabree (New Africa Intelligencia) Rev.
Graylan Hagler (United Plymouth Congregational Church) Meqqa (Spoken
Word Artist) Demetria Royals (Filmmaker) Aisha Al-Adawiya (Women In
Islam) Jamila Jihad-Wahhaj (Activist & wife of Imam Siraj Wahhaj)
Tauheeda Yasin, chair of the Muslim Student Association and event
coordinator, expressed that she thought that it was important for the
Muslim Student Association to speak up about this. "As Muslims, we
are against injustice anywhere, and we can't turn our backs to the
fact that popular culture has an effect on everyone. Muslims are
seeing their children being influenced by hip-hop and other popular
culture, and they are becoming more aware that it isn't enough to just
turn off the TV. We have to speak up about these images and become
aware of the effect that images like these play into public policy and
popular opinion."
After the rally, attendees will be able to ask the speakers and
performers questions and engage in dialogue about solutions to the
problem, and individual ways students, teachers, parents, and
consumers can act to counter the effects.
"When policy makers go into rooms to make policy, popular culture is
floating around in their heads. The bias button isn't somehow
turned-off. The vast majority of the images we see in hip-hop portray
African-Americans and Latinos, as brutish, materialistic, ignorant,
and over-sexed. These images further a historical stereotyping of
African-Americans in particular and now, also Latinos. These images
and attitudes in reference to women become internalized by
African-American, Latino, and Asian youth, and increasingly suburban
White-American youth as well. They internalize these attitudes in
reference to women, which justifies calling women by derogatory names,
and committing physical or psychological abuse. It is important we
address this, and the rally is one of the best ways to start the
conversation," said Yasin.
Co-Sponsored by: Student Senate, the SLC Programming Board,
Multicultural Affairs, Harambe, & Student Affairs
For more information contact: ConsciousPeople@aol.com
For directions www.slc.edu or www.mapquest.com or call 914-395-2209
=============================================
The FNV Newsletter c 2002
Send comments to
mrdaveyd@earthlink.net
peep the websites
www.daveyd.com
www.rapstation.com
