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Looks like the month of April will be a busy one for Public Enemy's Chuck D. He'll be touching down in several spots to offer his keen insight into Hip Hop, activism and free speech. Most notable is his appearance on Friday April 14th in Madison Wi at their Hip Hop Generation Conference. There Chuck will be speaking on a topic he knows extremely well- Radio. For more info hit them up at mailto:grdalziel@hotmail.com The conference is free for those who wish to attend. The following day Chuck heads on over to Drexel University where he will speak at the We The Future Convention 2000. Here Chuck will speak to the issue of Free Speech. This is something that is extremely relevant especially when one takes into account the types of moves being made by the record industry to censor lyrics and limit the type of access one has to music. Unfortunately this event isn't free to the public, but for more info call 215-241-7980 or hit up their website at http://www.wethefuture.org.
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They said it couldn't be done but it's happening. Master P is about to receive an award for his contributions to film. That's right, come June 5-10 at the Acapulco Black Film Festival , Master P will receive the 'Film Entrepreneur' Award. Films like 'Foolish', 'Da Game of Life' , I'm Bout It', and 'I Got The Hook Up' apparently made some impact with this years festival. props to P. His films may not be all that in terms of acting and story line, but at least he's getting recognized for trying. And more importantly at least he's putting some money down to finance them..
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Right now everyone is excited about the Hip Hop For Respect Project which speaks to the issue of police brutality. Here more then 20 artists got together and dropped searing lyrics, and while many commercial stations have been fronting on the project, the video is getting constant rotation on many video outlets. Folks are also buzzing about the No More Prisons Hip Hop Compilation. This comes out of the Raptivism Records/Prison Moratorium Project. Here more then 70 artists grace 23 tracks about the growing prison industrial complex. No More Prisons project has launched a 40 city tour which will include lectures, free concerts and seminars to bring awareness to this issue.

Adding to all this is the Unbound Project Volume 1 which will drop on May 16th. This project is a counter attack from the members of the progressive hip-hop community against the oppression of our society's young people. The project will not only seek to raise dialogue through music and spoken word pieces, it will also seek to examine the root causes behind current trends within the US Criminal Justice System by providing the listener with a 30 page essay that outlines the system and its broad effect on the Hip-Hop Generation today. The compilation album includes original works from Reflection Eternal - Mike Ladd - Medina Green - Aceyalone - J-Rocc of the World Famous Beat Junkies - Blackalicious - Ursula Rucker - muMs the Schemer - Rakaa-Iriscience of Dilated Peoples - Jerry Quickley - Saul Williams - (cameos from Zack de la Rocha, Chuck D, Last Emperor, Black Thought, and more). Proceeds from this project will go to benefit the Mumia Defense Fund. For more info drop an email to Frank Sosa at mailto:sosa@realized.net. There is a planned conference sometime in June...
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Rakim is suing KRS-One for a whooping 200 million dollars. Yesterday at a news conference The R told reporters that he had ghost written much of KRS's lyrics over the past 12 years. 'He was never really a good writer, all he had was vocal skills', a solemn Rakim told reporters. "I sat him down and developed a concept for KRS-One, I created the persona of him being a 'teacher' and a 'philosopher'..Hip Hop needed a bigger then life figure to pull this off and Kris was it'. Rakim went on to explain that he had an agreement with KRS to keep their arrangement secret. He also explained that he was absent from Hip Hop for a while because he was doing a bunch of ghost writing. An angry KRS is counter suing Rakim claiming that every penny that was owed to the revered lyricist was paid back. When pressed as to whether or not Rakim had indeed written his lyrics, KRS stated that the matter is in litigation and he would speak no further. During the press conference Rakim started flawlessly freestyling lyrics from many of KRS's popular songs like 'My Philosophy and 'Sound of The Police'. 'This should prove I'm the original author', he said. 'What I wrote came from the heart'.

Joining Rakim in the lawsuit is Sean Puffy Combs and former 3rd Bass member MC Serch. Both claim that they too crafted rhymes for The Blastmasta. Puffy pulled out copyright papers to prove that he wrote the songs 'Step Into My World' and 'You Must Learn'. 'I spent at least two weeks researching the material that was later recited in that song. I'm still owed some money.', stated Combs. MC Serch told reporters that popular songs like 'The Bridge Is Over' and 'South Bronx' were tracks that he had written when he was trying to break into the business.. 'I was trying to be down and get noticed', Serch told reporters. 'So I wrote these songs as a way of breaking into the biz'. Serch also revealed that KRS is originally from Far Rockaway Queens and not the Boogie Down Bronx as he had always claimed. 'That man lived in the Red Fern Houses where no emcee would ever go..In fact that's where he did his very first show', Serch said.

When asked by reporters, a smiling KRS said he had indeed been to the Far Rockaway housing projects but stopped short of saying whether or not it was where he did his very first show. He also noted that Puff and Serch are long time friends of his but said he had paid them every cent owed. He walked away when asked whether or not he wrote the songs 'Bridge Is Over' and 'South Bronx'. A local news reporter kept pressing the issue, so a pissed off KRS-One grabbed him and lifted him off the ground. He looked him dead in the eye and said with a vicious smile 'You sucker... April Fool'!. You folks knew I had to get you a day early :) Pass the story along.. Peace to ya Davey D c 2000

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The FNV Newsletter
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